Seeley Happenings

Favorite Photo for a Chance to Win a Free Class

2009-02-19T11:18:00.003-05:00

Read this post for all the details.

So the question is "What is one of your very FAVORITE photos of a person that you’ve ever taken? Describe it, or better yet, post it and add the link here, and then tell me what it is about the pic that makes your heart sing."

So here is one of my very favorite photos of Ben that I've taken.

It was taken in 9/29/07. And I just love this photo! It does make my heart sing! I love the angle. I love the reflection of his hand in the puddle. I love the colors. I love that I got right down laying on the ground on my belly to get the shot. I love the lighting and the way his hair is blowing in the breeze! So thanks Jessica for giving me the excuse to share it!

Getting some Digital Scrapbooking Done

2009-02-13T22:43:00.007-05:00

I've finally taken some time the last few days to get back into the digital scrapbooking again. Here is the first one I did. It uses a free template from Jessica Sprague. If you are interested you can find if here.

I used Jessica Sprague's free Template+, Title is from Michelle Coleman's Winter Wonderland Kit and all the papers are from Jen Wilson's New Attitude Kit.

The second one I did is from the Type+Writer Class I signed up for last year at Jessica Sprague.com and then didn't have time to do. This is the first layout. It is also a template and then I used the paper from the kit that came with the class. You can read the details about this class or sign up here.

I'm pretty happy with the way both of them turned out. I'm also really loving digital scrapbooking with templates. They make it so easy and I don't have to fret about the design which is a weak area for me. I always spend way too much time worrying about it and second guessing myself. I'll have to start collecting templates now too!

I also figured out today with the help of this blog post how to get larger pictures on blogger. Pretty cool huh?

Photos and Textures

2009-02-03T14:37:00.002-05:00

Rather than work today, I've spent some time time playing with my photos and textures. Shame! I know, I know I really need to get the accountant all of our tax information! Anyway it was fun and I've learned alot. Check these out!

Original Photo (no adjustments at all)

Altered Photo with Textures

Interesting stuff to play with! Not sure what I think yet. I think the technique might work better with landscapes rather than portraits but it was fun to play with anyway!

FREE Stampin! Up Catalog & Sale-a-bration

2009-02-02T15:18:00.002-05:00

Starting Feb. 1st, if you place your first online order with Stampin' Up, they will send you a FREE Stampin' Up 2009 Spring/Summer Catalog with your order! (So those of you who aren't local but are interesting in Stampin' Up products or supporting my business, you can take advantage of this great offer too!) In additon, it's Sale-a-bration time at Stampin' Up! For every $50 in product you order, you earn a free item from the Sale-a-bration catalog! It's a great time to place your first online order!

Also, if you are interested, if you host a workshop you can also earn more free product for workshop sales over $300!! If you want to host a workshop but don't have the space, contact me, my house might be an option for you! There's even some great deals right now if you are interesting in becoming a demostrator. (If you are interested, let me know and I'll tell you more!)

Here are some helpful links.

To start shopping right now go here and click on the shop now button under my name and contact information in the upper right hand corner of your screen:

If you would like to download a copy of the current catalog (DON'T TRY THIS WITH DIALUP!) Go here and click on the link on the right hand side of the screen.

All of these links are also located on right hand side of my blog page.

If you have any questions for help, please let me know. Also, please feel free to share this information with anyone you think might be interested!

And don't delay if you are really interested! There are a limited number of free catalogs available!

Happy Crafting!

Ben pooped on the BIG potty tonight (twice) for the 1st time

2009-01-31T20:09:00.002-05:00

I'm so proud and happy and excited! I can't believe he did it and it was all his own idea and everything. Here's how it went..
I was busy preparing dinner and so he told John he wanted to take off his pants and use the potty. So John help him get undressed and helped he set up the big potty with the insert/adapter/trainer thing and set him up on there. John came out and left him alone and a few minutes later, we hear "Mommy! Daddy! come see what I made in the big potty!" It was so cute! He was so proud of himself! Anyway, I got him cleaned up and we washed hands and the whole time he keeps saying "That was nice of me to poop on the potty" So then I called Gramme of course to share the great news and she said he deserved a cookie. All I had in the house was a box of the 100 calorie packs so I gave him one and when he was done he wanted another package. So Daddy said tomorrow if you go poop on the potty again you can have some more. So he comes out to me and says "I want to take my pants off and go poopie on the potty". So I say ok thinking he already went so he won't actually go more. Silly me! He went back in there and did it again!! Not quite so much as the first but still! So he had to have another package of cookies! We are finally I think officially on the way to getting potty trained! (He has also gone pee on the little potty chair three times in the last week) Whoohoo! But in a way it is bittersweet! My little baby is truly turning into a big boy! I'm so proud of him! Unfortunately he has also started a cold today and went to bed early but has been up crying once already. It will be a long night but I'm still so excited about his potty training progress that it's all good!

I've got to run for now. I just had to record this momentous occasion before I forgot! I just wanted to remember the moment and date so I had to write it down! Hopefully I'll get back into posting again real soon. I've also got lots of photos to share.

Sneak Peak for Mary

2008-11-23T17:26:00.004-05:00

Photo shoot with George, Megan and Ansley Cairns

Original

Altered

Black & White

I hope you like them Mary!

Meet Milo

2008-11-12T14:39:00.002-05:00

We picked him up at the Humane Society on Saturday afternoon (the 8th of Nov.) for a one week trial. Milo is a stray that was brought in after someone witnessed him being dumped. So we don't know much about him. We had gone to visit him several times and we were back and forth and back and forth about adopting him. Then I asked about an at home trial which obviously they do so we brought him home. Things are going ok. On the plus side he is very good with Ben and he is about 95% house broken. On the negative side he is very high energy (more so than a normal dog that's 9-12 months I think) and he doesn't have much manners (he pulls hard on leash, jumps up when excited and bites/chews on your arm (or other part of your body) when he wants to play/attention.) alot of which is typical of a dog his age. Unfortunately we are very spoiled after 14.5 years with Peter and now 1.5 with no dog. On the plus side, he seems very smart, he seems willing to learn and he's definitely a people dog, loves to be with you every minute. But he will require some formal obedience training and lots of time and work. Is it worth it? I'm still debating. He thinks our bed is his already and he really is a nice dog most of the time. So I just thought I'd share some photos while we are in the deliberation phase. Let us know what you think and we'll let you know what we decide.

Happy Veterans Day

2008-11-11T13:19:00.003-05:00

To all the men and women who are serving, have served and will serve our country, a big big thank you from the Seeley Family.

Thank you for your sacrifices to protect our country.

Thank you for providing us the freedom we enjoy everyday and thank you for continuing to protect those freedoms.

We appreciate you, we appreciate what you do for our country.

Thank you.

Major Milestone

2008-10-05T20:59:00.003-04:00

Tonight for the very first time Ben peed ON THE POTTY!! He has been spending a little time lately sitting on the potty but all he has ever done has passed gas (well one night I caught him pooping in the tub and swung him over to the big toliet and a little bit made it in the toliet but I don't really count that time). Tonight he wanted to sit on the little potty chair before he got in the bath and he spent alot of time there but nothing came of it. Then after bath he asked to sit on the potty again and a few minutes later he got up and said to me "I did it Mom" I thought he meant passed gas again. I look down and there is PEE IN THE POTTY! I am so proud! We are finally making a little progress in the long process of potty training. WOOO HOO! I'm so excited and proud of him! Anyway, I just couldn't wait to post about it. Had to make sure I remembered the exact date and time and circumstances. And just because, here are some cute photos from bath the night before last. John took these because he thought the mohawk I gave Ben while washing his hair was really cute.

Riding with Krysta

2008-10-02T14:39:00.005-04:00

Well, I did it! 6 posts for the month of Sept. I had hoped to make it seven by posting on Monday or Tuesday but I didn't quite make it. But now I can aim for 7 in October!

Anyway, back on Sept. 20th Ben and I drove up to New Haven to watch Krysta ride in a gymkhana. For the first time, Ben was very into riding with Krysta and I got some great photos. Here they are!

Krysta & Eric watching the events
This would be a great photo if the fence wasn't in the way! These next two were taken during the Simon Says class.
Ben is telling Krysta he wants to go ride in the "shop" (the indoor riding ring).

This one is my favorite!
He even rode a little while all by himself! Krysta led Abby and I walked next to him holding onto the back of his pants (just in case!)
All that riding makes a boy hungry for some "hambbaburger"!

We got to watch Krysta ride in Simon Says (she got 2nd place) and Keyhole (another 2nd place finish) and also Sit a Buck (no place in that one). Ben had a great time and it was fun to see Krysta ride at such a fun and relaxed event. So Krysta is talking about Leadline class for next summer! So I guess we'll see! That afternoon we also drove down to Castleton to watch the women's soccer team play. I don't have any photos because Katie wasn't playing. Her foot is still sore but we got to see her after the game. I also got to watch a little bit of the game (it's hard to watch with Ben running around everywhere) and they won 6-0. It was a fun day and beautiful weather. But Ben was very tired from all that activity and no nap.

Next time I'll have to post about Avery's 2nd birthday party and our August trip to Echo with Gramme. Til then...

That's my boy!

2008-09-22T23:23:00.003-04:00

A couple of things to add, very late at night, because I just don't want to forget.

First, Ben has figured out that he can take his tiny little A&W mug and push the water dispenser on the refrig and fill it up. So now I'm just wanting for when he figures out how to push the ice dispenser and dispenses ice all over the floor! (I'll be sure to keep the camera handy the next couple of days!)

Second, Ben opened the refrig all by himself tonight. He took out his quart of 2% milk, unscrewed the cap and proceeded to lift it up to his mouth and drink out of it ALL BY HIMSELF. IT WAS HILARIOUS! John and I couldn't stop laughing! (Unfortunately no picture, I was in the middle of doing dinner stuff with messy hands and the camera was not close by. Bummer!) This provides certain proof that this pure male trait is not learned but ingrained in their genes! All smiles aside though, I think I'm gonna have to find a lock for the refrig door!

Third, we affectionately call our cat Nerwin "Tard" (short for r*t*rd) because he really is lacking in the brain department. Anyway, John, Ben and I were outside this afternoon playing ball together. Nerwin was hanging around us looking for loving while we were running around after the ball, throwing and kicking it. Out of the blue, Ben picks up the ball, aims for Nerwin and says "throw to Tard". It took him saying it 3 times for us to understand exactly what he was staying and then John and I just burst out laughing. Like roll on the ground, laughing out loud! He really hears and picks up on EVERYTHING we say! It was just hysterical!

I wish I had a video of us playing together this afternoon. It was such a priceless half an hour spent together. Ben would run so fast and laugh so hard while I pretended to chase him that he could barely breathe. It was just such a great time together. I just never want to forget it!

Never a dull moment when Ben's around! Oh and that's just stuff that happened today!

Maine was Great!!

2008-09-21T15:46:00.018-04:00

Maine was great! Too short and of course not nearly enough time to fit in all we wanted to do but none the less, Great! We managed to leave about 12:45 on Friday afternoon in the rain. Ben was too excited to eat lunch before we left but fell asleep anyway in the truck about 40 minutes into the ride. But then only slept about 30 minutes and woke up starving. So we stopped at the Purmort exit on I-89 in NH and got sandwiches at the Subway in the truck stop. Ben ate almost an entire 6" sub by himself! We headed out again but by the time we got onto Route 4 headed East Ben was antsy. Traffic was bad and slow. I think partly being a Friday afternoon and partly a Loudon race weekend. Thankfully we made it to Kittery and stopped at the Kittery Trading post. Ben and I did a little walking around while John spent the entire time in the gun section. After about an hour or so we headed out again and went straight to the hotel. We stayed here. I was very impressed! I love having a separate bedroom, a full kitchen and a small living room. We didn't spend much time there but it was still comfortable! It rained all afternoon and evening Friday. We did go down to the beach and take a short walk in the dark and rain after we checked in and as expected Ben didn't think much of it. After that we headed to the Maineiacs for a late dinner. It was ok. John had prime rib, I had the seafood bake and Ben had (of course) a "hambbaburger". Saturday morning we woke up to beautiful sunshine! I was so excited! So we ate a quick breakfast and headed right down to the beach.

Beautiful Wells Beach (looking to the South)
We even got a parking place right down by the beach. Ben was very unsure about the beach at first (as he is with anything new). He didn't want to take off his sandals. He didn't want to walk in the water. But after a little while of John and I walking barefoot on the sand and in the water he gave it a try. We took hundreds of photos! Here are some of my favorites!

And by the time we left about 2.5 to 3 hours later he was running and splashing and screaming and laughing. It was so much fun! He was soaked and covered from head to toe with sand! We ate lunch at the little take out place right on the beach and then we headed back to get changed and cleaned up. Then we headed up the interstate about 20 minutes to Scarborough where the new Cabela's Store is. John really wanted to go (I wanted to stay on the beach in the sun). But it ended up being worth the trip! The store had a huge display of stuff animals in the center of the store. They also had smaller ones around the store.

They had a big fish tank and one of those laser target shooting galleries.

You point the gun at the target and if you hit it the object moves and/or makes noise or shoots water at you. And Ben absolutely loved it! That's all he wanted to do is "push the guns Mom, push the guns!" Thankfully the salesman John was buying a rangefinder from gave us a handful of tokens for free. Anyway, by the time we got out of the store it was all foggy along the coast and looked like rain. Ben needed a nap so we took our time and drove the slow coastal route back to Wells. This photo was taken in Kennebunkport I think at Pier 77.

We arrive back at dinner time and stopped to eat at the Bull and Claw. I had a twin lobster dinner and John had steak and lobster. Ben had spaghetti and meatballs and I even got him to try a couple of small pieces of lobster. He wasn't crazy about it but he tried it! On Sunday morning, it was pouring rain again. I mean absolutely pouring. John had to pack the truck in the pouring rain. After we packed and checked out, we headed to the Hayloft for breakfast and then drove down to Perkins Cove. We were able to park right down in the Cove because of the rain. We walked across the bridge and around a couple of shops with our raincoats and umbrellas.

Then we headed south. I tried to find Nubble Light but missed the turn (I always have trouble finding it) and by the time I realized it, we were too far south to head back. It probably would have been hard to see it in the rain and fog anyway. On the way back home we stopped to see the Oberheim Family in Hopkinton, NH for a couple of hours. We also stopped briefly at Colby-Sawyer College to see Mom and Katie who were there for a soccer game. Then we stopped in West Lebanon to see my favorite big pet store and have dinner and then we finally headed home. I think we finally made it home about 8 pm. So it was fast and furious but a lot of fun and great to get away for a few days.

Photos: Katie Playing Soccer, Ben at the game & Rainbow at the Kaufmann's

2008-09-11T22:40:00.004-04:00

I should be in bed but just finished emailing my sister Holly and got the urge to post and share these photos. These were all taken on Saturday Aug 30. Ben and I went down to Castleton to see Katie play in her first home soccer game. I got a couple of good ones of Katie playing but I know she won't like them!

I also got a couple of cute ones of Ben running around.

After the game we headed to Patty's and Larry's house in Shoreham for dinner and while we were there a pretty intense thunderstorm went through. Then this....

Awesome!! The pictures definitely don't do it justice.
Off to bed for me and onto Wells, ME tomorrow for a litte weekend getaway!

Remembering 9/11/01, Unusual Animal Sightings, Ben @ 28 months & 10 years

2008-09-11T11:37:00.007-04:00

I hope everybody has a chance to take a moment today and remember all the innocent lives lost on 9/11/01. I can't believe it's been 7 years already. In a lot of ways it seems as if it were only yesterday. Please take a moment to remember the lives that were lost and their families. Also please take a moment to say a big "THANK YOU" and remember to support our troops serving our country and protecting the wonderful freedom we take for granted everyday.

A correction for my sister Holly. She is in the northern Indian Ocean, close to the Arabian Sea supporting our troops on the ground in Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Freedom. She is amazing and I'm so proud of her! I love her and miss her so much! THANK YOU Holly! And to the whole crew and fleet of the USS Ronald Reagen, thanks for taking care of my precious sister and the wonderful freedom I enjoy everyday!

I have had the unique pleasure of seeming some really unusual animal sightings lately. Not uncommon but definitely not every day or every year for that matter! A few weeks ago after dropping Ben off at Tammy's I saw a fairly good size bear cross the road (Upper Plains Rd) and head into the woods just north of Kampersville. Yesterday morning on the way home at the intersection of Halladay and Three Mile Bridge Roads, I saw a weasel run across the road and then yesterday afternoon saw a bobcat on the steep part of the house driveway. He headed off into the woods toward the shop and then when I got home, I ran into Phil heading out down the driveway and he said they saw it when they came home laying on the dirt pile! Awesome! I just wish I had my camera handy in the car and right by my eye (yeah right!) all those times! I'll have to put it in the car with me for now on but then of course I won't see anything anymore!

Just a quick note for my new Stampin' Up! Business. (I'm now officially a demonstrator, I have all my stuff!) Online ordering is now available. I put a link to the right for both my Stampin' Up! website and direct link to my online ordering page. You now can order anytime without hosting a workshop! But I'd still love to do a workshop in your home so give me a call or email me!

So Ben is officially 28 months now (as of the 9th) and he is communicating with us so well now. And his memory is just amazing! He just blows me away with what he remembers. Tuesday we were checking on the chickens and discovered another one died by getting caught by the neck in the space between the front of the laying boxes and the side. So John was up to help we figure out what we could do to fix it. Ben was helping by holding the tape measure (one of his favorite things to play with) and he started talking about going down and driving the excavator with the tape measure in it. So two days previously we had been down at the shop "driving" the big excavator and he discovered a tape measure down by the seat and now he remembers it and wants to go "drive" it again because it has a take measure in it. Ever time we drive by Rosie's he points it out and says he want to get dressed and go have "hambbaburgers, fries and applesauce" at Rosie's. One day several weeks ago, we stopped at the East Middlebury General Store and got popcorn and a Gatorade after dropping some mail off at the Post Office and now every time we go to the Post Office he asks me if we can go to the store and get a Gatorade. He just blows me away with how awesome his memory is! And of course mine is soooo terrible! He also has been saying some really cute things lately. He'll be searching for something and I'll say "Whatcha looking for?" and he'll say "Somesing" and I'll "Where is the something?" and he'll say "Somewhere". It's so cute! Another thing that he has been saying alot is "Oh Yeah" I'll say look at (fill in the blank)" and he'll say "Oh Yeah" with the last syllable really drawn out and in a very surprised drawn out sound. It is so cute and it really makes me smile! I got these cute pictures just the other morning. He thought it was hilarious that Nerwin was laying in his Bob the Builder puzzle box.

So tomorrow John and I will have been married 10 years! Happy Anniversary John! I love you more today then I could every express in words! To celebrate, we are all heading to Maine for the weekend. We hope to leave around midday tomorrow and we'll be back on Sunday night. I'll looking forward to a little time away with my boys! I'm excited to show Ben the ocean and the beach. I can't wait to see what he thinks. The weather forecast looks dismal but what else is new! Speaking of that, I can't wait for the first freeze! What! You say, Why? So the MOSQUITOES will go away!!! I'm so tired of feeding them!

So I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and post about our weekend next week. But for now, I'm off to get work done and get ready for the weekend. The most blog entries I've ever posted in a month is 4 since I've started so I'm aiming for 5 this month! I'm on my way!

On other last quick thing to leave you with. My first card of completely all Stampin' Up stuff to share with you.

That's it for now! More next week! I hope :)!

2008-09-09T15:29:00.002-04:00

It's been a long time again... and I feel the worst about it for my sister Holly. She is some where out in the Pacific Ocean right now on the aircraft carrier the USS Ronald Reagen. She is probably my most frequent blog reader and one of the biggest reasons I started this adventure and I can't even get it done for her. Sorry Hol! I miss ya and love ya lots!

Anyway, I love reading other people blogs and just discovered the Google reader. It checks for updates on the blogs you read regularly and lets you know if there is a new post. So I only have to log into one page now to read my favorite blogs! And I know instantly which ones have an update! It is awesome and saving me a little time. Now if I could spend as much time on my own blog...

So I have a ton of pictures to share and a jillion (is that a word?) stories to tell but the one popping in my brain right now is of a mama deer and her fawn eating apples under the apple tree by the lawn. I happened to look out the kitchen window on the morning of Friday Aug. 29 and saw the two of them heading down to the apple tree at the edge of the driveway. So I grabbed my camera (of course) and headed out on the deck to capture some photos. Here a few of my favorites.

So that's it for now. Hopefully more really really soon!

New Look!

2008-09-07T16:37:00.001-04:00

So the time I should have been spending updating my blog over the last few days I've spent giving it a new look and creating a custom blog header! Wooohoo! I like it! Leave me comment and let me know what you think! More soon. I hope :)!

Ben at almost 26 months

2008-08-15T15:22:00.003-04:00

I was looking for something else yesterday and came across this word document. I remember wanting to write on the blog but having no internet connection so I typed it up in Word and forgot about it. I wrote it back on June 30, 2008.

Ben at almost 26 months

• His favorite color is orange and he can pick it out anywhere. He knows the words for his other colors but can’t always match them up to the right color.
• He counts things but always skips five and there is always six of whatever he is counting. “One, two, three, four, six!” Clap Clap
• He is still using a “wubie” at nap and night time and his favorite one is an orange one and he calls it his “orange ooie”. He goes to bed with 3 – 5 wubies.
• He is lately also into taking his toy trucks to bed with him. 1st it was a four wheel he got from Avery for his birthday and then it was his John Deere dump truck and backhoe I used to decorate his cake. This weekend he found in the basement the bag of Bob the Builder toys I won for him on Ebay and he is just in love with them and is now taking them to bed.
• He still loves books and often takes them to bed and to Tammy’s with him. His favorite one at the moment is Smash Crash and Bob’s Birthday. He also really like the Little Critter books. I just won a set of 52 of them for him on Ebay. He likes Just for You.
• He is still going to daycare full time and seems to like it.
• His favorite food right now is “hambbaburgers”. He likes to go to Rosie’s and every time we drive by he talks about it. He also loves pasta, animal crackers, apple sauce and fruit.
• He is starting to watch a little bit more TV but only Bob the Builder. He can sing part of the song that starts the show. (I can too and the other day I had it stuck in my head!)
• He can sing some and parts of Ring Around the Rosie, Old McDonald, Isty Bitsy Spider, ABCs and Happy Birthday.
• He loves to swing on his swing set and swings on a regular swing now. He likes to switch back and forth between the two swings.
• He loves his new sand box and loves to blow bubbles.
• He’s not too crazy about having his picture taken or being video taped but he loves to watch himself on the video camera! It’s hard to video tape him because all he wants to do is “watch Ben, watch Ben”
• He loves to be outside. He loves puddles and mud and loves to have his dirty feet washed off with the hose.
• He’s wearing a size 5 diaper and still hasn’t shown much interest in trying the potty. But he is starting to tell me when he wants a diaper change.
• He’s wearing size 2T shirts and 24 months or 2T shorts and a 6-7 size sandals. His sneakers are a size 6 but he hasn’t worn them in about a month so they may be getting small.
• One of his favorite toys is still his “Scootie” and he still likes to ride around wearing his two sets of beads.

All of the pictures on this post I took on June 30, 2008, the same day I wrote this.

Things you don't say to your wife...

2008-08-04T15:37:00.002-04:00

Blog hoppin' again and found this! Hilarious!

Hope it made you smile!

The "ROCKET MAN" Sir Elton John

2008-07-22T11:33:00.002-04:00

It was....AWESOME! It was...AMAZING! I'm so glad I got tickets and got to go. I debated on whether to go earlier in the day. I took Ben to a hair cut at 10 in the morning and it was a disaster. Petri bird at Mary's had past away so there was nothing for him to sit and look at like last time. I had to hold his hands and head and he screamed the whole time. So his hair looks better but it's not very even! Anyway, I then drove to Tammy's and about half way there he started to stay "I want to go my house" over and over. I got him out of the truck and he felt warm and then Tammy took his temperature and it was 101.5 (that explained some the haircut fiasco) and he obviously did not want to be there, so we came home. Had some motrin and lunch but he won't go down for a nap. I tried for 3 hours. The motrin brought his temperature down but it didn't really take it away. But he was actually in pretty good spirits, despite a fever and no nap, so I decide to go. Sarah Kaufmann was watching him and she has lots of experience. Unfortunately she had wanted to sleep till we got home and he didn't go to bed or sleep really well. Anyway, it all worked out. Ben was fine, the concert was great. The weather held and it was an absolutely beautiful night. Perfect temperature, no rain (thank goodness). Our seats were OK, thanks in part to being right below one of the giant screens. We were up close in the front but way off to the right side so we couldn't see about a third of the stage. But the screen made up for it and it was just awesome. I had seen Elton when he and Billy Joel toured together. I can't remember who I saw him with but it was in Montreal in the big stadium up there and we were really far away. So it was so great to be so close to such a legend. I have loved his music forever and still do. But now I need to get back to work since I didn't get anything done yesterday. I just wanted to write down a few things while it was fresh in my mind. Go here for the online article about the concert on the Burlington Free Press website. Patty took some pictures with her camera phone but she wasn't sure how to get them to me. We took pictures of ourselves with the big screen and Elton behind us. If she figures it out, I'll be sure to post them on the blog! By the way, Ben is better today. His fever broke sometime after 3am because we both finally got some sleep from 3:30 am to 8:30 am. He still has the running nose and cold that he developed over the weekend but I can deal with that!

Pass gas on the potty and "Nope, I'm good"

2008-07-16T21:37:00.003-04:00

It's late and I really should be going to bed because I'm exhausted and Ben did not sleep well last night. He is cutting is two year molars! Yippee! Poor guy! But the funniest and cutest thing happened tonight and I just wanted to write it down before I forgot, which would be by morning I'm sure. After bath tonight, I asked him if he wanted to go to the bathroom on the potty, he was willing to sit on the big potty with the insert in and sit on the little potty. (But he didn't do anything) He loves to have a little square of toilet paper and he pretends to wipe then throws it in the big potty and wants to flush it. So I let him have a piece and when he asked for a second, I said he had to go in the potty first, so he scrunches all up and passes a little gas and then asks for some paper. So give it to him, thinking just a coincidence. Well he does it again! and again! At least four times! By the third time it's getting hard for him to squeeze out some gas, so his face is getting all scrunched up and working hard and I just couldn't help laughing out loud. It was so funny! And I'm sure a complete "you had to be there moment" but it was one I didn't want to forget so I'm typing away at the computer with my tired eyes all blurry just so I can record it and never forget it! Priceless!

On another note, today he started coming out with the phrase "nope, I'm good."

Me "Do you want to use the potty?"
Ben "Nope, I'm good"

Me "Do you want some more dinner?"
Ben "Nope, I'm good"

Me "Do you want to read another story?"
Ben "Nope, I'm good"

Me "Do you want to go to bed?"
Ben "Nope, I'm good."

:) It's the little moments that mean so much!

Hopefully an update of the last few month and weekends coming soon!

Not getting much work done and cruisin' blogs

2008-07-15T12:41:00.004-04:00

So I'm in the office but not getting much done (it's been a crazy couple of weeks..mostly self inflicted...more later) I'm cruisin' some of my favorite blogs because I haven't done that in forever. (Mostly because of internet outages over the last week. You don't realize how much you use it and need it until it's gone!) Anyway, I came across Jessica Spraque blog and she did a Photoshop Friday last week about photos editing. So I went up and got the camera and downloaded all of my photos off of it (255 in about a week and a half) and started viewing them and playing with them with the Photoshop Friday Photo Editing Tutorial. ShaZAM! is right. Take a look.

Before (This one is by far my favorite!)
After
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After

Pretty Awesome! Anyway, I do have to go get some work done. More on our activities over the last couple of weeks soon!

A must see

2008-07-15T11:14:00.003-04:00

If you haven't already heard about this or seen it, you really really must! Will definitely put a smile on your face!

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

I found the link on Ali Edwards. I love her blog! Anyway, in case the embed does work. Go here Dancing Matt 2008. More later!

Mini Seeley Family Reunion in NJ

2008-06-22T21:13:00.000-04:00

On Thursday April 24th, we rented a mini van from Enterprise in town got packed up and loaded, including Dick, and picked up Ben at daycare at about 12 noon and headed for Oxford, NJ were John's step-mom Trudy lives. Ben did an amazing job riding in the car! I was so amazed and pleased! He only slept in the car about 30 minutes on the way down and we only made one stop at a rest area off the NY Thruway right before heading into NJ. We arrived down in NJ about 6:30 pm, not great time but not too bad either considering we hit some slow spots were traffic was just crawling. John's sister Anna, her husband Jason and their daughter Kate were already there from San Diego, CA. They cooked dinner for us that night and we just hung around talking. Yonik (John's brother) came and picked up Dick after dinner. Dick stayed with Yonik and Margaret in Branchburg, NJ about 30 minutes from Trudy's house. Here are some on my favorite pictures from that 1st night in NJ

Ben and his cousin Kate playing
John pushing Kate and Ben on the "tire" swing (so cool! a horse cut from a single whole tire!)
Pretty Kate in the chair
Me reading stories to Kate and BenThe three of us slept in Theo room. John and I in Theo's very bounce bed and Ben in the pack n' play. Ben didn't do so great sleeping but I think alot of that had to do with being over tired and over stimulated. But it wasn't too bad. I just hated waking everybody else up.

On Saturday the 25th we hung out at Trudy's house and everybody came over. We had a nice party to celebrate Trudy's 60th birthday. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day.

Ben and Kate drawing together

Grandma Trudy making the puppet dance for Ben & Kate

One of Ben's favorite part of the whole trip was feeding Trudy's ducks. He thought it was the greatest thing ever. Everytime we went inside, he would immediately start saying "Outside", "Outside", over and over until somebody took him back outside. Thankfully the weather was great the whole time we were there and we could spend a lot of time outside!

Trudy's dog's name (the one in the picture) was Chinook (sp?) and by the end of the weekend Ben was saying his name and calling me Chininnook. Chinook loved to chase sticks and balls and whatever so Ben had a great time throwing for him.

Cute picture!

Trudy had this great motorcycle. I can't remember what it was called. I was like an off road one with big fat tires. John got it running and it was a great hit with everybody. 1st row, John's sister Theo, brother Yonik giving nephew Jason a ride and brother-in-law Jason (Anna husband)

Second Row: John and brother Yonik gives Kayla a ride (I love the motion in this photo!)

This is great group photo of the day. I think the only people missing are Anna (inside cooking) and myself (behind the camera). From left to right, Kayla, Margaret's Mom (can't remember her name right at the moment), Margaret (Yonik's wife), Dick, Trudy, Theo, Jason, John and Yonik and Jason on the bike.

Ben and his Uncles Jason & Yonik checking out the ducks

Kayla and Kate helping Grandma Trudy blow out her candles

Woohoo! A picture of me and Ben from the weekend! I got out from behind the camera!

These next two have got to be my all time favorites from the weekend! I think they are so funny and cute! Future biker in the making!

Kayla and Kate riding Obie and Trudy on Obie

Cass and his friend made it up late Friday night so we all sat around and had a snack once they got there.

On Saturday, Kayla had her first Communion. Everybody attended except Jason, Kate, Ben and myself. We stayed at Trudy's to get the kids naps and then joined everybody later at Yonik and Margaret's house (after driving by the turn and getting a little lost!)

While we had everybody together, I set up my tripod and we took some group shots. Then at home I used Photoshop Elements to Photomerge the best of the 3 into one good one. Here it is. Back row: Me, Dick, John & Ben, Cass. Next Row Standing : Yonik & Kayla in front, Trudy, Theo & Jason. Sitting on the bench: Margaret, Kate, Anna and little Jason standing next to Anna

Ben absolutely LOVED his cousin's swingset. He couldn't get enough of going down the slide and climbing the wall with Dad's help.

Kayla and her cake

I so wanted to get a good photo of the three generations while everybody was clean and all dressed up but Ben won't cooperate and this is the best I could get!

Ben and Uncle Yonik playing with his cousin's awesome train table.

Ben and cousin Kayla swinging

Ben also loved his cousin's chocolate brown bunny rabbit. It was so soft to pet!

On Sunday, we all had breakfast together and started packing up for the ride home. We did manage to get a picture of Trudy with all of her grandkids.
We also made sure to feed the ducks one more time before we left.

One last group shot group shot of us loading up the van and everybody standing around. Yonik and Margaret gave us a ton of hand me downs and we had that van packed on the way home. We brought more stuff home than we took down. I was certainly glad we rented the van. (It was also so much better on gas mileage than my truck would have been!)

Last picture, a cute shot of the Dads and their kids!

It was so great to see everybody and get a chance to get away for a weekend. We left about 2 pm on Sunday and Ben slept for about an hour and a half in the car this time. We stopped in Glens Falls and had dinner and he wasn't too excited about getting back in the car but he did great! I was just so impressed with how well he traveled considering it was his first real road trip for such an extended period of time. I'm so glad I was able to capture such great photos of the trip, especially of everybody together. So it's posted a little late and a lot long. But I got it down, that's what's important!

It's been a LONG while....

2008-06-22T13:59:00.000-04:00

In some ways it amazes me that it's been two and half months since I've made the time to post but when I sat down and tried to make a list of all that's gone on in the time, I'm not so amazed! It's just been crazy but good. Anyway, what better thing to do on a crummy raining Sunday than sit down and get this blog up to date! I don't know if I'll make it through the whole list because the post might get really long especially since I've taken hundreds of photos too. But here it goes anyway and I'll see how far I get!

April

Sugaring wrapped up with a good year for us. We made about 365 gallons which is very close to the 4:1 average for a good year.
I took another online digital scrapbooking class with Jessica Sprague. It was her advanced class called Digi In Deep. I didn't get all 8 layouts done but I did complete 4. Here they are

I have the 1st and 2nd framed together for my dad for Father's day. If you are interested in checking out Jessica's website and her classes go here's the link.
We celebrated Sarah Kaufmann's 18th birthday with her on the 12th of April.

Some where in there we spent a weekend washing tubing. On Saturday, John and Tim washed tubing and on Sunday it was Evan, Shane, Larry, Doug, John and myself (with Ben in the backpack) It was good to get it all done and clean up on time this year. Here is a picture of all of our syrup samples for the year (4/13)
Another cute picture from 4/13
These are from 4/14, spaghetti face singing itsy bitsy spider
Self portrait taken with the timer on the deck (I haven't edited any of these photos. These are all as taken Agh!) 1st one taken 4/16 2nd one taken 4/18
Full Moon Photo taken on 4/18
On 4/24 we traveled to NJ for a mini family reunion with John's immediate family. It was a great weekend and deserves a whole posts all by it's self. But here are a couple group photos.
I picked up ten new baby chickens the day before we left for NJ and took them out to Patty house so she could take care of them while we were gone. 4 for me and 6 for patty. Here a picture of them on the 3oth when I got them home.

The apple blossoms started budding the end of April (4/30) and some cute photos of Ben and John.
Well that pretty much sums up April. I'm going to publish this post and then do another about our weekend in NJ.

Happy Birthday to Me!

2008-04-05T12:03:00.001-04:00

Today is my 35th birthday! Hard to believe! Anyway, to celebrate I am blowing off doing all the things that I'm so far behind on right now (sweeping up the mud in the mud room, laundry and dishes) and I getting my blog up to date. I was hoping to have time this past week but it obviously didn't happen. We have run out of wood for sugaring so we have been buying it from a customer who has some all cut and split. So we have to go to Brandon, load it onto Doug's dump trailer a cord at a time, come back to the sugarhouse and unload it on pallets. And gather and boil on top all that! But it's been a good year so far, we've made about 340 gallons which is more than we've made in a long time. So that's good. Anyway, lots of pictures to share with you.

This is just a super cute one of Ben playing in one of his bins after he took all the balls out.

Last Friday was my Dad's birthday and we celebrated it on Sunday at our house. Dad came over early and spent some time with Ben and I while we were eating lunch. Afterward, Ben went and got a book and brought it to Granddaddy and climbed right up in his lap. This is the first time he's done that and of course my dad was thrilled! And of course, I had to take some pictures. This once came out the best and is my favorite!

After that, we went over to the sugar house and did some walking in the woods checking the tubing and such. Ben loves to walk in the woods. And of course I had to take some more pictures.

Walking in the sugar woods with Granddaddy

And Ben's second favorite love is water so to find a puddle in the woods is great excitement!

These next pictures are for my sister Holly who is in the Navy and on a ship at sea right now. Here is Dad opening up his presents!

After a great dinner of steak, potato salad (made by Krysta) and asparagus. We had birthday apple pie that I made for my Dad at his request.

Auntie Krysta and Ben holding Granddaddy's birthday pie

Granddaddy and Ben blowing out the birthday pie candles

Here is Gramme and Ben playing and providing some entertainment after dinner.

It was so much fun having everybody here for dinner. I love having the space to have everybody over to our house.

Finally finished!

2008-03-28T15:35:00.000-04:00

I finally finished my week 4 digital scrapbook page for the J. Spraque Now we're rockin' with Photoshop class. Just in time for the Digi in Deep class to start on Monday. Here's a look at my page.

By the way, we've made about 205 gallons of syrup so far! Pretty good and the weather is looking good so far for next week!

Happy Easter!

2008-03-24T11:46:00.000-04:00

Some pictures of Ben and I coloring eggs on Saturday nights

Easter Morning at our House

Hunting Eggs and Hanging out at Gramme and Grandpa's

It was a fun day and Ben really seemed to get into "hunting eggs" for a little while, until we got to the barn and he got distracted by the horses, playhouse and the swing. And I think it was the coldest, snowiest easter I can remember. Gramme and Grandpa have way more snow than we do in Middlebury. But believe it or not, the tulips and crocuses have pushed up through the ground! Spring is on the way!!

Sugaring Pictures

2008-03-20T13:52:00.000-04:00

Just thought I'd share some cute pictures from sugaring the other day.

Krysta's boyfriend Eric firing

Yummy Syrup!

My Dad firing

Ben has been such a great little helper. On Tuesday, we were tapping at Horn's and Ben was helping tap by using the hammer to set the inserts with a little help from Daddy. Of course, I forgot my camera so I don't have any pictures. But he was excited because it involved using a hammer and banging! He loves puddles and playing in the water. He brings his bucket into the tub every night to play. I hope to have more pictures as the season goes on.

Happy spring to all! Mother nature didn't get the memo here in VT though. The highs this weekend are 30 and 31 and teens at night. Brrrr! I'm definitely looking forward to some warmer weather!

Sugaring Time!

2008-03-16T16:35:00.000-04:00

And that's a sign that spring is on the way...FINALLY! John boiled last night for the first time for 2008. He thought he made about 8 gallons but only boiled about half of the sap we had. He's over at the sugarhouse right now boiling again to clean up what's left from yesterday and what little has run today. We tapped all last weekend and had quite a crew on Sunday to help. Big thanks to my Dad, Larry, Peter and his son Gus.

So I looked before I started this post to see when the last time I posted was and it was the 17th of Feb.! Where has the last month gone! WOW! I know we've been busy but didn't realize that much time had gone by! I suppose the next month will be just as bad now that sugaring has started. Plus we have a super busy month coming up anyway. Can you believe Easter is a week away? Then Yonik, Margaret, Kayla and Jason are coming to VT for a visit the 28-30th. My dad's b-day on the 28th hen my 35th b-day and at the end of April we'll be hopefully heading to NJ for sort of a reunion with John's family. All of this on top of sugaring and getting geared up for excavating. I'd better hold on to my pants because we'll be flying!!

But I have thought about blogging a lot. I even started a list of things to write about. It has 10 things on it so far. I even started a post one day but haven't yet had a chance to finish it. Once sugaring is over maybe I can get back to my goal of a weekly post, even if it's a short one!

Anyway, I have got to go work on the painting upstairs in the master bedroom while Ben's sleeping plus the house is a mess and laundry needs to be done. So stop by and see us boiling if you're local!

Here are a couple of cute photos from this morning and yesterday to leave you with.

Oh and if you want to see some cute photos of Ben with his friend Gavin, check this blog out. (You may have to scroll down some)

McNulty Family

Later!

Pretty Girl

2008-02-18T02:19:00.000-05:00

This story is the reason I started this blog. I want to get this story down in a scrapbook page to remember forever, but I don't have time right now so I'm hoping writing it down here will help me remember it. Then I hopefully I'll get a chance to scrapbook about it later.

So the other day we got a new Hanna Andersson catalog in the mail.

It was on the table in our "dining room" (ie common area) and Ben discovered it. He became infatuated with it. He would continually ask me to read it to him like a book.

Although we just skimmed through the pages looking at the pictures. Anyway, I started calling it the "pretty girl" book and soon he started saying "pretty girl" then he started trying to tickle her feet and laughing. Then after prompts he would try to kiss her and laugh. Like this

He would ask for the "pretty girl" book and "pretty girl book ah bed" translation read the pretty girl book on the bed. John started teasing him a little bit about having a girl friend and now when Ben says "pretty girl" he gets all giggly and silly. Just like he has a crush on the girl on the cover! It is absolutely the funniest and cutest thing I have ever seen! I tried to capture it with pictures the other day but I don't think they quite do it justice. It's kinda like the "had to be there" saying. This is the best I could get.

But regardless, isn't 21 months just a little too young for a girlfriend? I thought this afternoon it might be wearing off a little bit but then after we read stories at bedtime he insisted on bringing that catalog to bed with him. (He doesn't bring blankets or stuff animals to bed, he brings books! And other than trucks, I think they are his favorite things. I can't sit down without him bringing me a book he wants me to read. Which reminds me, next time I have to post about the doctor visit today and the nurse's comment to me about "his skills") I hope before it wears off completely and he forgets about the pretty girl, I can get it on video tape. But I won't get my hopes up. It seems every time I get the video camera out to record, he stops doing whatever it was that was so cute. But I will try because it would be so priceless! Here's one last shot of him all serious, studying the back of the catalog. I couldn't resist including it too.

So that's it for now. I have to get myself to bed. I just wanted to get this down on "paper" before I forgot. Lots to do this week. I'm planning on taking pictures of the before, during and after of my tiling project to post about on the blog. Lots to do and never enough hours in the day! The story of my life! See ya soon!

Lesson 3 Scrapbook Page & Basketball Photos

2008-02-12T13:37:00.000-05:00

Another couple of weeks have gone by and it's hard to believe it's the 12th of February 2008 already. I finally managed to wrap up SEI year end files and mail them to the accountant yesterday. Whoohooo! I can cross something off by list! And the tile for the bathroom is ordered and should be here by Friday. I'm hoping to start tiling the Master Bath next week. So things are moving along...ever so slowly!

Ben has had pink eye twice and now is sporting a rash on the right side of his chest and under his arm. So we visited the doctor yesterday. We have no idea what's causing it and it doesn't seem to bother him. We are all about 99% over our cold ailments (although my left ear is still blocked!) so it's about time for it to start all over again!

Ben had his third haircut this morning and he did a really great job sitting for Mary. We all get our hair cut by Mary Paquette at Mary's Place in Middlebury. Mary has a little bird in her salon named Petri and Ben thinks he is just the neatest thing! Petri's cage sits on the floor and so Petri is right at Ben's eye level. I wish I had brought the camera with me this morning to get some photos of him staring at Petri! Next time. Anyway, his hair was getting pretty shaggy looking and John was calling Ben "Daddy's little Hippy" again. It's not too short but definitely looks much neater. I have to take some pictures when he gets up from nap and post them next time.

I finished up my week three digital scrapbooking layout for the class I'm taking last night. It took me awhile to finish it with everything that been going on. But I'm happy with how it turned out.

I love the photos in this layout. These are some of my all time favorite photos of John and Ben. I'm glad this class has given my an opportunity to scrap them. I start the fourth and final week this week. It's kinda of a bummer. It has been forcing me to take the time to do some scrapbooking. Maybe after I get the upstairs of the house done, I can make some more time to do it again. I also hope to take here next level class that start the end of March. It's called "digi in deep"

The weekend before last I made it to Katie's Saturday game at Castleton. They are having a great year this year so far. Krysta watched Ben and I was able to get a few good pictures of her. Here are a few of the best.

I can hear Ben stirring so that's it for this time around. Hopefully I'll be back to posting once a week again. Happy Valentine's Day everybody!

Sick & Digital Scrapbooking

2008-01-29T15:11:00.000-05:00

Well, so much for posting every week! But I had a good excuse for last week, everybody here was sick with a nasty cold. Last Tuesday, I felt miserable and I'm sure Ben was feeling the same. So we didn't do much. We are all better now, thankfully, with only mild runny noses left. Although, Ben woke up yesterday morning with pink eye. So he was home with me and of course no work done!

Last week, I also started something I've been wanting to do for a while and that is take one of Jessica Spraque's digital scrapbooking classes. You can check out her website and classes here if you are interested. I'm taking the "Now we're rockin'" intermediate class right now and just finished up my second assignment. It's a four week class with one assignment per week with challenges and daily emails. It is awesome! I love it. I just wish I had more time! The story of my life! Here are my first two assignments:

We had a fun weekend. Heather, Dave, Max, Mareta and Michael Oberheim came up for a short but sweet visit. It was loud and rambunctious but so fun to have everybody here and sleeping in one house. I am just so happy and excited to have space and room to do things like this finally. I love my new house! I got some great pictures of everybody sledding down the driveway on Sunday but haven't uploaded them to my computer so I'll have to post those on a later day. Ben was just thrilled with the "big" kids. He couldn't take his eyes off of them. He loved watching Max and Michael play with his trucks. I can't believe Michael is almost 5 and Max and Mareta are 7. Where does the time go! They have gotten so tall and are such little people now. I can remember seeing them as babies at Lake George their first summer.

I can hear Ben stirring from his nap so I have to get going. I'm sure there is more to say but it will have to wait until next time!

Sticks, rocks and mud

2008-01-15T12:57:00.001-05:00

Has it really been a week already since I posted last! Where has the time gone? Although I think posting once a week will be my goal. I think that's a reasonable goal so we'll see how it goes.

So much to talk about...where should I begin? Ben officially turned 20 months last Wednesday. He is growing up so fast. He is talking so much better in the last couple of weeks. It just amazes me. Even Tammy commented on it yesterday. Here are some of my favorite versions of his words right now.

* fafall = waffles
* serser = ceral
* dump digger = daddy's dump truck
* oooeee = wubie (our word for his pacifier)
* self = by myself
* baff = bath
* yogeet = yogurt
* ire = fire truck
* wessel = go into Mon & Dad's room and "wrestle" on the bed

He is doing so well feeding himself right now and has really started to show an interest in doing it all by himself.

He does a great job considering and thankfully has started wearing a bib again. He loves to zoom around on his radio flyer scooter. He absolutely loves books. His favorite thing right now is to go lay on Mommy and Daddy's bed to read stories and when he's home he wants to do this several times a day. He is starting to identify pictures in books and tell we what they are and also tell me which book he wants to read. (ie ire weeooo weeoo = fire truck book and the fire truck says wheeooo wheeoo) He still loves to be outside and really really enjoyed the 60 degree weather we had last week.

He doesn't seem to mind the cold and likes the snow but has a hard time walking in it. He really enjoyed playing in the mud and puddles last week when it was so warm.

His favorite thing outside right now other than going to see Daddy's "dump" in the "shop" is throwing "ocks" in the puddles outside. Sticks and puddles are also fun too!

Last Friday night we celebrated Papa's (John's dad) birthday. We had him over for a ham dinner and it was the first time Ben went over to him on his own and asked to get up in his lap! That's a big milestone! Also, yesterday (1/15/07), Ben didn't take a nap but spent 1 1/2 hours playing in his crib and when I went in to get him he had taken off his duck slippers, his socks and his pants and thrown them all on the floor. That's the first time he's taken off his pants by himself! Thankfully the diaper stayed on!

I've been keeping busy trying to get all of our year end stuff done. Hoping to get our Christmas cards out in the mail finally today! Needing to get back to the finishing the upstairs of the house. John's been fortunate enough to get a new house project in January. It's nice to have some income this time of year! So he has been busy at that. We finally moved the big chest freezer from the shop to the basement of the new house!! Yeah! It's funny how the little things like that, which make your life so convenient are so nice to get done! It really is so nice to have a house finally and have some space. Even if it's not done and there's a ton of boxes and stuff in the basement that needs to be dealt with.

So that's about it for us for now. I've got to get back to getting some work done. See ya next week!

A start

2008-01-08T11:12:00.000-05:00

Well I've done it. I've jumped on the blogging band wagon. Why you might ask? First, I really want to document and remember our everyday lives. I want to get those memories in scrapbooks for myself because I love looking at them. But I don't have much time to scrapbook. So I thought, if I recorded a few memories here with photos and printed it out it would allow me to remember the things to scrapbook when I do have the time. Why not just keep a journal? Well, I do sort of and that leads to the second reason, sharing our photos and events with family and friends. We have some many contacts spread all over the country that want to know how we are doing and how Ben is growing but to keep up by email is very time consuming. I'm also terrible about sharing the photos I take. So that leads to this blog. I'll jot down some memories for me to remember and post some photos and thoughts to share with family and friends and hopefully spend less time and feel better about it than I do know.

I've been an avidly reading the blogs of some of my favorite scrapbook celebritys for at least a year now and that has really inspired me to keep track of our everyday daily routine lives more. For no special reason other than I just want to be able to look back in 10, 20 years and remember those little things that I know I'll forget. Plus I wanted a place I could share photos with friends and family easier.

So here it goes! I hope I can keep up with it. Not take too much time but still record some moments and photos that I want to remember forever.

On that note, last weekend John was able to move Ben swing into the basement. He was able to attach it to holes that already existed in the short metal beam. Here's what it looks like
(Look at all that stuff to deal with in the background!)Ben absolutely loves it! He has always loved to swing of course but now (especially with the winter weather) he can't get enough of it! I timed him yesterday and he swang for 22 minutes before he was even remotely interested in getting out! He calls it "winging". He gets this pleading look on his face and says to me "winging?" It is sooo cute! My heart just melts. He trys to squeeze under the gate and to go downstairs and gets so excited when I say ok..lets go winging!

Is that a happy face or what!

So that is it for today. My first blog entry and hopefully the first of many more. If you take the time to read it, be sure to leave a comment and let me know!

Ta Ta for now!
Heather