Earrings

Wes wants to do or wear what his sister does.

Vitals

Wes had his 15 month appointment today. Here are his stats:

25lbs 6oz
32 inches tall
19.5 inch head circumference

Oh... And his first ear infection.

Snow

Time for some more photos of the kids.

 Wes loves to stand at the door between the kitchen and mudroom and make faces.

 Molly has started to really get into "helping" make dinner or do anything else we're doing in the kitchen. A few weeks ago she worked on this new skill with Grammie by making a Rice Krispy train.

It has been a bit of a weird winter weather wise over the last few weeks. After having snow cover since about Christmas, we had a two days or so of 50+ degree weather and rain which pretty much took care of all the snow.

  Then this happened.

I'm not sure how much snow we actually got, but Portland (about 10 minutes to the south) had 30+ (a record) and we easily had over two feet. While snow-blowing the driveway there were multiple spots where the snow was a few inches taller than the snow blower. Thankfully the snow was extremely light and fluffy so moving it wasn't too much of a hassle. I'm still looking forward to when the kids can do that for us though...

Resolve

re·solve

 [ri-zolv]  Show IPA verb, re·solved, re·solv·ing, noun.

verb (used with object)

1.

to come to a definite or earnest decision about; determine (to do something): I have resolved that Ishall live to the full.

*definition from dictionary.com

At this time of year many people make resolutions to better themselves. They resolve to lose weight or be nicer to other people or a whole host of other things. This year, I resolve to help save a life.

As many of you know my father-in-law was diagnosed with multiple myeloma a little over a year ago.

This August Katie and I will be doing the Traverse City Triathlon in Traverse City, MI to raise money for the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF). MMRF is the largest charity devoted specifically to finding a cure for multiple myeloma. Additionally it is one of the best run charities, giving about 90% of all money directly to research and related programs.

Over the coming months we will provide updates on our training and any warm-up races we do in addition to turning to you for donations. If you are interested in joining us we are always looking for fellow fundraisers (and for other people to share the umm, pleasure, of doing a triathlon). The race allows for teams as well as individual participants so you can still participate even if you don't want to do a full triathlon.

Thank you for your support. And as you're making New Year's resolutions, please resolve to save a life.

Donations can be made here.

Chaos, I mean Christmas

As all people with little kids know, Christmas a) isn't about you anymore and b) is pretty much total chaos. This year was no exception. In all the kids have been really good so far. Somehow we managed to hold off the present-opening festivities until about 8am (having Grammie and Gramp here plus Rudolph on TV helped). The kids also helped by sleeping in until about 6:45am.

Most of the best photos were likely taken by Grammie, but here are some from our camera.

Christmas Eve, just after Santa left. He must have been really quiet because none of us heard him.

Christmas morning Harry was on guard ensuring nothing bad happened to the presents.

Santa was even able to put together a train table and train set for the kids.

Moments before the little rug-rats came to the basement to see if Santa left them anything down there too.

1st one in.

 2nd one.

This is about 20 seconds into the kids playing with the train set.

...and this is about 2 minutes into them playing with the train set.

 Thankfully we were able to rearrange some things so the big kids could play with it during Molly and Wes' nap time.

The day started out with bare ground and not a snow-flake in sight. But, like Santa, the snow arrived just in time.

The kids are ready to ride off on an adventure. Merry Christmas!

Bittersweet

The move to Maine is officially complete and we are no longer homeowners in the Commonwealth of Virginia. While we are extremely happy and excited to be moving on to our next chapter in life, it is bittersweet to leave that home behind.

What's the purchase of your first house without a little bubbly?

 As soon as we bought the place we started work. First thing to go was the tree outback that was in danger of crashing down on our house or our neighbors. With the violent rain storms, hurricanes, earthquakes, and freakishly large snowstorms over the ensuing five years, we're glad the tree was gone.

 Not too long after buying we added Harry to the family. Athena was more than happy to mock him at first.

One of the reasons we bought the house was because of the historic nature of it. Most of the windows had original glass - not the best for energy efficiency, but really cool looking in the winter.

 The energy efficiency was helped by having the windows restored. The one downside to this was while the windows were being restored some neighbors thought our house was condemned.

 ...and then the remodel. There's nothing quite like living in your master bedroom with two cats, a 70 lb dog, and your (in the grand scheme of things) relatively new spouse all while having your house become a construction zone. Thankfully we survived.

 One neat thing about the remodel was to fine the original siding on the house. Here you can see at least two or three layers of siding on top of the original. Not sure why anyone would every put up fake brick...

Remodel complete. It only took six months.

And then it started to snow.

 Among many memories of the house and our time there, the additions to our family will definitely stick out as some of the best. Here Molly hangs our in her new kitchen with her new best friend Harry.

 And really, when you have a newborn why not turn your patio into a construction site?

After Molly was born Katie started to get into baby wearing. While some in her immediate family (not me of course) may poke fun at her a little, the ability to carry the kids around without using a stroller or your hands has been amazing. It is hard to see how some people survive without it sometimes.

The final addition to our family was Wes. He may have not spent all that much time in the house, but he should know it was a good one. It was a great place to start and raise a family. Hopefully it will bring the new owners as much joy and happiness (and the stresses of owning a 150 year old house) as it did for us.

And then we moved to Maine

Giving Thanks

This past week or so has been a one of firsts for us. Some of these took way too long to accomplish, while others had to wait until the appropriate day on the calendar.

Right before Thanksgiving I was able to take a trip with the kids to see my grandmother in Keene, NH. Between my back issues earlier in the year and the move (and all that went with it) this was the first we were able to get out there. More importantly though, this is the first time my grandmother was able to meet her newest great-grandchild: Wesley.

Not surprisingly, Wes was all smiles the whole time.

 I really wanted this shot to come out. Wes had the best time showing off his ability to walk for his great-grandmother.

My parents were there too so they kids also got some more Grandma and Grandpa time which is always a good thing.

 

 We had the portrait lens on so it was difficult to get everyone in the frame for a good picture.

We (the kids especially) had a great time in Keene. Hopefully now that we're closer we'll be able to get out there more often.

And then came Thanksgiving. This was our first major holiday in the new house and the first time we'd made Thanksgiving dinner for a large number of guests (okay, so we had a lot of help this time too and only really made a few dishes - everyone else made the rest).

 Molly wasn't too sure about the turkey at first.

Wes, on the other hand was ready to eat.

...and what would a holiday be without a sink backing up (and backing up so much that a plumber was needed eventually). Thankfully (sorry) the previous owners put a sink in the mudroom which is right off the kitchen, thus preventing a complete disaster.

Not surprisingly, this was the best picture we could get of the whole group. Molly was up to her usual tricks of making interesting faces for nice, group photos.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we finally had Wes's 1st birthday party. Pushing the party back a week or two allowed more family to be there.

Yup, he's 1.

 At first Wes wasn't too sure of the cake and all of the people standing around starring at him.

He got the hang of it eventually.

This was Molly's 2nd 1st birthday party (as in, the second one she has been to, including her own). She did a much better job with the whole eating-cake-while-keeping-clean thing than she did for hers.

 After cake we decided it would be good to try and have a nice, orderly time of opening presents. Right. You can see the hoard of cousins that have descended on Wesley and his toys. Note to self: sugar + little kids does not = calm behavior.

Wesley got some great gifts, including some cool hats. Now it he would only let us put them on his head...

I would like to say the water mark on half of Wes's shirt is from a cup of water slipping. But that's not true. He drools like a madman. Hopefully he's just teething and isn't actually a madman.