Napless Nora and her new brother!

Field Trip!

2011-08-09T09:11:00.015-04:00

This weekend we took a trip to the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. The annual Fairy House Festival was taking place and we arranged to meet Tara, Josh and the boys for the afternoon. After encountering some horrendous traffic, we finally made it down to Boothbay. It was a drizzly, gray afternoon, but we embraced the weather and made the most of our day.

The fairy house portion of our day was wonderful, but the garden itself was even better. There were so many beautiful plants, flowers, structures and more.
Here Nora is with a statue of the bear cub from Blueberries for Sal.

Eli spent most of the time napping in the sling. It was much more comfortable carrying him around in this weather than it had been in the ninety-plus degree weather previously.

Soon the boys arrived!

This was a super cool rope bridge, though pretty high up. You'll see in the next picture.

A little scary!

The kids smile up to Shane in the bear cave.

We eventually made it over to the Fairy Village. The kids enjoyed working on a few of the fairy houses, but then it was back to the garden for more exploring and fun. We will definitely be putting the gardens on our list of great places to bring the family!

Eli- still asleep!

Smile, Wylie!

Pumping some water- this might have been a little more fun if it hadn't been raining all day. Everything was already soaked, but the kids had a great time watering everything anyway. (Please ignore how unprepared for the weather my child is. I completely forgot we were going to the gardens from my Mom's house and didn't even check the weather ahead of time. We borrowed that sweatshirt from Tara. Oops!)

For dinner we headed down to Boothbay Harbor which is just a few minutes down the road. I think we'll have to come back to the harbor when we have a full day to explore it. There are plenty of shops and restaurants tucked into this small space and it would be fun to check it out. We highly recommend this as a summer day trip for the family!

These last few weeks

2011-07-18T21:39:00.009-04:00

Recently we took a trip down to New Hampshire to visit Hayley and Evan at their new place. It was a hot, hot day, but we spent part of it in the air conditioned comfort of Dover Saddlery. Mom was in horse heaven. Before we left that evening, we visited outside a bit and Nora had an impromptu music lesson. (Well, she actually just played around. I don't think Evan knows how to play the trumpet.) Hayley and Eli.

The next big event of our summer was the fourth of July. We enjoyed visiting and eating good food. We also played plenty of Crazy Taxi, our favorite old school video game that has become an annual tradition.

I don't have any shots of Kalen, but my guess is that when I got out the camera he was probably inside working on his Crazy Taxi skills.

We've stayed quite busy this summer, with plenty of visiting family and friends. I'll leave you with a few shots of the kids on those rare days we find ourselves at home. Hope everyone is having a wonderful, relaxing summer. Enjoy this weather and remember it when February rolls around!

Summer

2011-06-26T09:49:00.012-04:00

Even though you can't really tell based on the weather, it is summer here. To celebrate, last night we went to a summer festival sponsored by the company I work for. Usually I'm consumed with a million things on the day of the festival, but this year, since I'm on maternity leave I wasn't involved in the planning/executing of the festival, so I got to enjoy it.
Nora visits the petting zoo.

Last year there wasn't a petting zoo, so it was great to see the kids enjoying one this year.

There was also a bouncy house- an instant hit, of course!

Nora made a cool sand art bottle to keep in her room. She was very proud of it.

Eli was great for a good portion of the day. He did throw quite a fit in the evening, but I think he was uncomfortable, because he proceeded to poop all over Shane right after.

Nora's super healthy dinner- a hot dog!

There was also a sock hop that evening, and Nora and Shane had a great time dancing. Thank goodness for Eli- he was my excuse to stay out of the dance tent.

Nora seemed to be having fun...

Until she decided her Dad was dancing a little too crazily.

By the end of the night both kids were totally exhausted and asleep within two minutes of leaving the festival. That's what I like to see!

2011-06-22T10:37:00.002-04:00

Just a little tummy-time photo to brighten your day. Enjoy!

Birthday Girl!

2011-06-21T09:45:00.010-04:00

This past weekend we celebrated Nora's fourth birthday. Initially we had planned to have the party at the beach, but with a 40% chance of thunderstorms, I moved the party to my aunt's house. Of course, Murphy's Law took effect and the day was absolutely beautiful- not a cloud in the sky until the evening. Once everyone had left the single thunderstorm moved in. Oh well, Nora had a great time and we loved getting to see all our close family and friends.

Shane picked up a pinata for the kids to take a whack at. They had a great time, but thank goodness my cousin's older twins were there, otherwise they never would have broken into it!

Once the candy dropped, it was a free for all.

Next we moved inside for the cake portion of the party. Nora had picked out a butterfly cake and I supplemented it with cupcakes.

I snapped a quick picture of Eli and I towards the end of the party.

These next pictures are from just last night. Shane is on summer vacation now and has started p90x again. Nora decided, as she usually does, to join him.

Eli took notes from the swing. It won't be long before he joins them!

A Graduation Celebration

2011-06-14T14:26:00.006-04:00

Last week Nora's preschool had a graduation ceremony for those kids entering kindergarten in the fall. All the kids in the class participated and sang songs. Nora was quite excited to dress up in her 'special occasion' dress from Grampa John Gary and couldn't sit still through the entire thing. On the way to the school she said, 'I just can't believe I'm in a graduation!' It was too cute.

The weather has really warmed up (well, some days) which has allowed us to get out on the deck and enjoy the spring.

Eli was born in this tub (which has since been disinfected!) and it has become our summer swimming pool on the deck. Nora is a big fan.

Finally, a quick shot I grabbed of Eli in the swing the other day. He was just waking up and making lots of faces- I just happened to catch this one. Enjoy!

We're back- kind of!

2011-06-10T15:33:00.010-04:00

I realize there is a very slim chance that anyone will read this after not posting for over a year, but I've recently discovered blog2print.com and realized it would be an easy way for me to document our lives without having to go buy a new baby book. Yes, there's a new little one in our lives, as anyone who reads this knows by now.Little Eli William Theodore Barker joined us on May 19, 2011. Big sister Nora baked cookies with her Aunt Tara while I labored away in the next room.

This pic was during a contraction. I was still able to speak between them at this point and just wanted to hide in a cave while they were going on. At one point Shane brought me his ear plugs and that helped a bit- I would just pop them in when I felt a contraction starting.
After an afternoon of increasing contractions followed by a couple hours of active labor, I got into the tub that we had set up in the front office. The water felt wonderful for about four seconds, then I immediately felt like pushing. Actually, I had already started feeling pushy a few contractions before that and likely should have gotten into the tub a lot earlier, but I had a serious fear of getting in too early and stalling my labor. That was not an issue- about twenty minutes later, sixteen of those minutes being pushing- Eli was born underwater, just like his big sister. We got out of the tub and woke Nora up (eventually- she didn't really want to get up!) and the two were introduced.

She was very excited to meet him!

Eli started nursing almost immediately which would imply that he is great at it. Unfortunately, that's not the case. It has taken us three weeks to get nursing, and we're still facing some challenges, but really hoping that they're on their way out!

The next morning the cousins came to visit. Here is Kalen holding Eli for the first time. What a great older cousin!

And a sweet pic of the little guy...

So far, things are going well. Eli just hit three weeks and I feel like we're just starting to hit a nice rhythm. Nora is an awesome big sister, always willing to help and always wanting to kiss or hug her little brother. She isn't so impressed with how much attention I have to give him, but overall is really enjoying her new role. Let's hope it continues for awhile before he reaches that special age and starts stealing all her toys!

Returning

2010-04-01T20:58:00.008-04:00

There has been plenty of action in our lives lately, though most of it has been of the 'hurry up and wait' variety. For those not in the loop, we put an offer in on a house and were accepted. For the past month we have been gathering files and signing papers, all the while keeping our fingers crossed that everything comes together before the April 30th deadline we've placed for ourselves in order to meet the tax credit eligibility requirements. Nora had just got the news that our loan as approved in the following picture:

Okay, just kidding. I'm not sure what she was so excited about when her dad took this picture, but it doesn't really matter. Quite adorable, don't you think? I recently had a revelation in the diapering department. Nora has been daytime potty-trained for quite some time, and for the last several weeks has woken up in the morning completely dry. We've been using disposables for months because (and this may be tmi for some readers) our cloth diapers were causing her to develop a rash everytime they got wet. (For those in-the-know moms out there- I tried stripping them a few times and finally gave up. I think I may need to use bleach...) However, since she wasn't actually getting the disposables wet, I felt like a huge polluter using them every night. So, after using a few of the old dipes for cleaning I realized that they were the perfect solution to my nighttime conundrum- how to not waste diapers but not leave the mattress unprotected. She's pretty excited about these thick cloth 'underwear'. (Yes, I am totally tricking my child into wearing a diaper. A step backwards? Maybe. At least she stays dry all night and is still diaper free during the day!)
And remember dear, sweet little Barkley? Well he had a little fun of his own on St. Patrick's Day after going through the trash. I had been making some St. Patty's Day treats for my book club and Bark found the remnants in the trash, then spread them all over the kitchen floor. He has little lovely themed 'beard' to prove it.
I'm sorry for such a random post, but I figured if someone was still reading this a month later you wouldn't mind! Seeing as there's a real holiday coming up, I might be convinced to bring out the camera and take more than one picture of the festivities. Maybe it will even be as lovely as last year's post. (Look at her cute little bum!) Happy Easter!

Fun With Nora

2010-03-02T08:10:00.003-05:00

Going Away

2010-02-23T20:29:00.009-05:00

This past weekend Shane and I took a trip to New Hampshire and... We didn't bring Nora. Crazy, right? We went to help celebrate our good friend Ben's thirtieth birthday. Rachael (finishing off her triple sow cow double lutz turny-thingy in the above photo) planned a fantastic birthday weeekend in North Conway as a surprise for him and it really was great. It was nice to feel like a young couple again, though I'm not gonna lie, we both missed Nora and kind of wished she had come along. (But only kind of.)

It helped to have this cutie around to focus our attention on. Gavin is eighteen months now and SO cute. I'm not sure how I managed to snap this photo as he's always on the move, but I'm glad I did.

The whole weekend was a surprise for Ben, but the big night out was Saturday, when we all headed over to the local Flatbread Company of North Conway. It was good. Really good. Like, five pieces of pizza good. I even ate two slices with mushrooms and loved it. Two thumbs way up for the Flatbread Company. We have seriously been missing out on a local resource seeing as there's a Flatbread Company in Portland, only thirty minutes from us!

After the night out, we all went back to the rental house and spent the next three hours in a hilarious game of Guesstures pitting the girls against the boys. We won (of course) and poor Chris (Gavin's Dad) will never live down the performance he gave in that last round that clinched the game for the girls!
The next morning Shane and I headed out early to pick up Nora three and a half hours away. I pulled out the gazeteer and tried to find alternate routes home...

And Shane took the wheel. I love weekends away.

How was your weekend?

We're still here!

2010-02-15T18:59:00.013-05:00

Believe it or not, I do still post things here on this blog now and then. I know, crazy, right? Even though it's the dead of winter around here, we've kept ourselves quite busy. The weeks pass by in a blur, full of work (and school for Nora) and weekends packed with fun. Last weekend we brought home Nora's first real bed (borrowed from my parents.) The transition has been amazing. She has spent every single night in it since Shane set it up. Granted, I have had to go in to soothe her on a couple of occasions, and have definitely fallen asleep there, but what can I say? The new mattress is WAY more comfortable than our ancient one.

We also took a hike up Bradbury Mountain this past weekend, and though it isn't much of a hike, it was great to catch up with family and friends. Barkley especially enjoyed getting outside and playing in the woods.

Shane and I took our token arm's reach photo. (Scroll down.)

Wylie was very intrigued with Hayley and Evan's new puppy, Ollie.

"Ooh!"

Ollie looks very serious here, don't you think?

The next picture warrants a bit of explaining. My Dad and Diana, a family friend, both have joint issues. Dad has two fake hips, with a replacement being scheduled to do yet another one, and Diana recently had ankle surgery and is just getting back into the swing of things. We weren't sure they would make it to the top, not because it was too strenuous a hike, but because the trail was quite slick, and even those of us on two sturdy feet didn't escape without a fall. (Me? No....) So you can see how surprised we all were when the two arrived at the top, no more so than Kalen and Nora, who promptly screamed a welcome their way.

Nora, of course, passed right out about two minutes into the car ride after the hike. She actually hiked up the mountain on her own, and hitched a ride on my back on the way down. What a sweetie!

And speaking of sweeties, here are my Valentine's roses from Shane. This is actually one of the first times he has gotten me roses- usually it is a wide variety of exotic flowers, or a cool potted plant, but this year he went the more traditional route. I don't mind! I've told him before that he doesn't need to get me flowers, because I usually forget about the poor things and they quickly die on me. In all honesty, I really don't mind that he ignores me!

For your viewing pleasure...

2010-01-27T21:59:00.003-05:00

Just a couple videos of Nora doing her workout. These were taken before Christmas, but I just found them and thought you might enjoy. The noise in the background is the dvd I bought to work out at home with. Now and then Nora asks if she can watch it and I have to search for it. Obviously I use it a lot.

I warned you!

2010-01-05T21:48:00.016-05:00

Well, I warned you all that a big Christmas post was coming, and amazingly enough I've finished it before Valentine's Day!

Christmas morning dawned bright and early, and we were even able to wake Hayley up in time to come downstairs with us. Usually it takes a little more effort to get her going, though from her expression in this photo, I wouldn't say she was completely awake.

When the kids finally were allowed to come downstairs and see what Santa had delivered, they were blown away.
A cat! A real cat!
Well, not a real cat, a Fur-real cat. My favorite kind of cat, actually. No claws, no shedding, no staring at a spot on the wall for long periods of time until you're totally freaked out and think the house is haunted. It's my kind of cat. (Can you tell I'm more of a dog person??)

And of course, shoes. Two new pairs, actually!

Here Nora tries out a sweet new drum she found on the floor.

Can you tell who it actually belongs to?

Shane made this awesome kitchen for Kalen at Tara's request. Nora enjoyed showing Wylie how to do some cooking.

Wylie showed Nora the 'downward facing Sylvia Plath'. Very impressive form, Wylie!

Obviously I didn't take many of these pictures, seeing as I'm in quite a few of them. Aunt Debbie was the photographer, thank goodness. I was much too busy hoarding my gifts and hoping to draw out Christmas until the new year. She caught a great shot of Shane opening his gift from me. I wasn't sure he would be that excited about it. Luckily I was wrong.

I bought him this print along with a gift certificate to get it matted and framed. If you're a Cosby show fan, you might recognize it as the painting hanging in their living room.

Nora also received a sweet keyboard. She's been rocking out quite a bit since Christmas. Drums next year?

Here I was showing Tara the necklace Mom and Dad had bought for me. Very fancy!

This was what the living room looked like for about four hours on Christmas morning. It was chaos, mostly controlled, and absolutely wonderful. I loved it.

As the tradition goes, Shane wrote me a scavenger hunt to find my present from him. Usually I search for it on Christmas Eve, but this year I convinced him to let me do it on Christmas Day, where I would have time and daylight on my side. I had just found one of the many clues hidden outside in this next picture. Unfortunately, this was not the farthest clue. I had to get in the car and drive for one, but it was better than last year, when I had to go and visit a friend down the road to get one of my clues!

My new snowshoes and poles are absolutely worth it, though. Thank you, Shane!

There you have it! Our Christmas in a nutshell.It was a wonderful few days spent with family, and though I'm always a bit let down when the season ends, I know it will be back again, sooner than I expect!

The first post of Christmas

2010-01-02T21:01:00.008-05:00

Well, it only took five weeks or so, but here you go, another post. I've got plenty of pictures from Christmas to share, too, but I'll stretch them out over a couple posts. We made lots of Christmas cookies this year, and this is just one of those baking sessions.

Something's missing here. I just can't put my finger on it.

Nora received a big package of Christmas presents from Jenny and Toby in the mail and there was a special, unwrapped treat for her.
Obviously she loved it!

We also decorated cookies over at Kalen and Wylie 's house. We set these two up and they went frosting crazy.

Nora and Kalen were very focused. This was just a teaser post, I promise.

We have plenty of Christmas day pictures to post next, so stay tuned!

A Lovely Thursday

2009-11-29T17:59:00.007-05:00

We celebrated Thanksgiving in Camden again this year at the restaurant. We made sure to arrive early enough so that there was plenty of time before dinner for games (notice the chess game being played above), movies and walks. The kids really enjoyed the snacks and movies, especially the delicious nuts my Dad made (I think, or did Mom?), and the crab hush puppies Tara whipped up. I don't even like crab and these were delicious!

Here Hayley scopes out the main meal. Of course, this was before the centerpiece turkey was brought out.

I only took one group photo, and of course Shane wasn't smiling. (His excuse? 'I don't smile in pictures.' Oh, please!)

After our bellies were full it was dance party time. Nora and Kalen got right into it. No, Nora isn't wearing pants. No, she didn't arrive that way.

Finally it was time to calm down a little. We would, after all, be consuming massive amounts of sugar, chocolate, cream and delicious pie goodness shortly, so the kids needed a little rest. Overall it was a wonderful Thanksgiving and I wish I had taken more pictures of everyone who was there, but believe me, we were all well fed and had a great time visiting with each other, playing games, and even sending off a few sky lanterns! (Once again, something I should have taken pictures of.) Happy Thanksgiving, and welcome to the Christmas season!

A Few More Details

2009-11-06T19:12:00.009-05:00

I thought you all might like to see a few actual pictures taken on Halloween. Nora dressed up as a sweet dragon, compliments of the awesome Aunt Ashleigh. She probably would have worn her costume much more often before Halloween, but we stowed it away so it was more special.

On the way home from a family Halloween party in the afternoon we drove up route one, and on the way through Freeport we noticed all the trick or treating happening along Main St., so we decided to stop and join in for a bit.

Once we got home we had a quick dinner, then headed out for more trick or treating in our neighborhood. We met up with our friends Noah and Lillian and had a great time checking out all the decorated houses. We finally made it home after a quick stop at Lilee's to show off her costume and visit Aunt Cindy and Aunt Debbie, who were eating there.

Nora wanted to help hand out candy, but unfortunately we only had three trick or treaters, hence the giant bowl of candy sitting on top of our refrigerator staring at me.

Tonight, after dinner we let Nora pick a treat out of her pumpkin for dessert. She chose the green lollipop over the glorious chocolate bars. Whose kid is this anyway?

Have a great weekend everyone!

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-02T07:47:00.002-05:00

A trip to the Fair

2009-10-10T09:37:00.013-04:00

Well, it's only taken me a few weeks (oops!) to get this blog up, but the nagging has finally gotten to me, so here you go! We went to the Common Ground Fair a few weeks ago, as we always do, and had a great time. My main goal was to sample as much food as possible, and luckily I was successful. Here are Shane, Nora, Hayley and Evan enjoying some of the offerings.One of our favorite treats- potato chip fries. Yum!

The day gradually turned cooler as it wore on, and we enjoyed one of our favorite drinks- warm cider!

We also ran into some of our favorite people- Camella, Marcia and Anna! We watched a puppet show together and then visited a little.

Two more of our favorite people- Hayley and Evan posing for a sweet shot. We like them.

There are always plenty of animals to be seen, and lucky for me, Nanny loves to take the kids to see them; then I get the chance to visit the craft tents.

Kalen and Nora made their own fun in a dusty field. Nora gets ready wrestle-

But in the end it was Kalen who brought her down!

That was a good one!

Wylie referees the match.

Not to worry, the two were best friends again in the next moment.

Our day at the fair was wonderful, full of good food, good music, great crafts and fun people. And now, to finish up the post, a quick little video of our girl. Enjoy!

Beautiful Vermont

2009-09-23T19:10:00.021-04:00

This is a long over due post, but here you go- pictures from our trip out to visit Meg, Chris and Gavin. It was a beautiful weekend and Rachael and Ben joined the fun. Chris found a recipe for bean hole beans, so our excitement for the weekend was waiting to see how they would come out.

A couple shots of the outdoor shower Chris built. When I retire, I'm packing up and moving into it. I want to live in it. So does Nora.

Here's Rachael, scoping out the garden as we figure out what to eat along with the fifty million pounds of beans Chris cooked.

Chris and Meg's house has come SUCH a long way! It is gorgeous now, but it didn't always look this good, especially when they first bought the mouse-infested camp with no electricity, septic system, heat, etc. Did it even have running water? I'm not sure. Probably not.

Brussel sprouts for dinner!

Chris digs up the beans.

Yup, there they are.

They actually ended up needing to be cooked a little more, so we threw them on the stove.

Rachael and I decided we needed something light for dessert, and decided to make this angel food cake we found in the cupboard. Rachael thought there was a little too much batter, but threw it in anyway. Yum! When Meg came home later that night and saw what we had done, she let us know that the cake mix was about three years expired. Oops.

Cutest boy in VT- the Gavster!

Contrary to appearances, we were only drinking tea and cider that night. We did play an awesome game of hearts, and then some cribbage before we all quit for the night. I have about five pictures in this series, and in every one Rachael looks, um, intoxicated.

Earlier in the night, before the crazy card games started, Nora and Gavin did a little bike riding. Safety first!

Sunday morning we went blueberry picking at a (kind of) nearby farm. Nora sang to Rachael on the way.

We picked two boxes this size (it was just over eleven pounds) and I think I paid $25. The deal of the year!

Notice the lack of a car seat cover hear? Nora is pretty much potty trained right now, but during this trip she had a little accident that required a cover being washed before we headed back to Maine.

And what VT post would be complete without a little mention of the animals? Here is Kadin, Rachael and Ben's new puppy. She had an awesome time trying to herd the sheep until one jumped the fence and the horse started getting antsy.

Jersey, the sweet little OCD rescue dog who Chris has become just slightly attached to.

And Kermit, Megan's favorite dog who likes to runaway, spread trash all over the house and howl like the hound dog he is.

Of course, there are many more animals, but I figured I had bored you enough. A final parting shot of our horse-loving girl (notice the shirt). I know she needs a haircut, but darn it, if we just wait a little longer she'll be able to tuck that hair behind her ears and won't be plagued with a lifetime of awful bangs and photos to match. Not that I would know anything about that.

Summer's End

2009-09-10T21:34:00.017-04:00

Even though it's still officially Summer according to the calendar, we have already jumped into Fall here. The days are already feeling cooler and the nights are downright cold. (Although I know in a few months I'll be wishing they were this 'cold'!)
As usual, we have been busy, busy, busy. Occasionally Nora and I have an evening that isn't filled with the scrambling of dinner time, pick up, tantrums and bath, and on those nights we really seem to enjoy ourselves. (This evening, for example, was wonderful. I came home to a clean house thanks to my wonderful spouse, had dinner with my wonderful daughter, and managed to get a few things done thanks to my wonderful latte!)

Nora and I have been enjoying some of the local produce, and this corn was picked up at a farm stand on our way home from school. Nora had a great time husking the corn until I started taking pictures; then she wanted in on the action.

(Photos above courtesy of Nora.)

This past weekend we were able to spend some time together as a family thanks to Labor Day. We headed over to a good friend's apple orchard to do some picking.

'How do I look?'

One of the benefits of living in Maine: you get your own lumberjack.

Can someone please send an emergency hair stylist over to my house some evening and take care of the awfulness that's happening on my head? Thank you.Of course, the two of them had to have their picture taken. I love it.

After the orchard we headed down to Rockland to help celebrate Wylie's first birthday. Unfortunately, I was working and had to miss the birthday party on Saturday (though Nora made it) but we stopped by on his actual birthday, so we felt okay about it.

Oh my dear Lord, can he get any cuter?

While Wylie gets a snack, Nora and Tara share a laugh.

And finally, on the way home we spotted this gorgeous view. Shane convinced me to turn around and go back to get a few pictures. I'm glad. Enjoy your weekend, everyone!

From Our Week

2009-08-31T08:13:00.008-04:00

Last week quite a few crafting projects were finished, mostly by Shane. I came home from work one day to find the sewing area that I had been dreaming about for the past couple months come to life, complete with a new (lovingly used) sewing table!

The custom thread holder made by Shane for me.Tara got this for me months ago, and I finally found a great place for it!This skirt was my practice project. It has since been thrown in the rag bag, but it was a good project to remind me of all the ins and outs of the sewing machine.

And finally, the piece de resistance! Shane found this great bureau at the local Salvation Army. He brought it home and painted it to match Nora's room. It works perfectly, and Nora really loves putting things away.

Finally, a parting shot of a messy-faced girl. She had just eaten about seven cherry tomatoes from the local farm stand, and the aftermath is all over her face. Have a great week, everyone, and happy September tomorrow!

Glimpses from our weekend.

2009-08-23T18:12:00.008-04:00

Aka: I'm too tired to think about writing anything real.

Yes, those are underwear! No, she is definitely not potty trained!

Just before heading out to the beach for my company picnic:

and striking a pose.

The real excitement of our weekend was a trip to Target Saturday night where we bought appliques for Nora's walls and a rug for her floor. She is very excited about her 'new' room. I know at some point it will take more than a trip to Target to get Nora excited, but for now, I'm really enjoying it!

A little taste of our morning.

2009-08-20T23:36:00.004-04:00

This video was taken this morning, just before Nora and I left for school. It's a little deceiving, because it implies that in the morning we have time to stand around and take videos. We don't. Usually I'm rushing around getting breakfast, getting her dressed, making sure lunch is packed, Barkley is fed, and taking care of the giant rat's nest on the back of her head. Of course, as some of you know, that doesn't always make it to the top of my list of priorities. Oh well. Enjoy the video!

Beach Weekend

2009-08-17T08:27:00.011-04:00

Well, we're back from our annual trek to the beach with friends and family. As usual, I'm about to run out the door to work, but figured something was better than nothing. I was able to snap this picture of Nora enjoying the benefits of camping- popsicles and glow sticks- and then I handed the camera over to the seven year olds.

This is what I found on the camera today:

I just love that last one of Nora playing with the big kids. Such a cutie. I honestly have two minutes before I need to leave and Nora is running around shoe-less, so I'll leave the rest of the pictures untitled, but you get the idea. Beautiful weather, wonderful people, and too much fun to bother lugging the camera with me everywhere. As usual, I failed to properly document the weekend, but oh well, it was a great time!

A Lovely Evening

2009-08-01T08:52:00.007-04:00

Thursday night we decided to take a trip down to Este's Lobster House in Harpswell. We had been feeling a little bogged down with work and felt like we needed a little break and a chance to reconnect as a family. Nora had only slept for twenty minutes at school that day and was exhausted, so she promptly fell asleep on the drive down.

We decided to wake her up when we got there, which wasn't the best choice because she was very cranky and very hungry, and those of you who know Nora know that cranky+hungry= a lethal combination. Thankfully, the waitress was right on top of things and brought a chocolate milk right out. Nora was back to her cheerful, sweet self in no time. We breathed a sigh of relief, as I'm sure all the diners around us did as well.

Contrary to what the following photo implies, Nora ate chicken fingers and french fries for dinner. Shane ordered a lobster, and Nora had a great time playing with it, but when it came to eating it, she was not interested after taking a little taste.

As we often do when on 'vacation', Shane and I took our usual arms-length photo. We were outside, right on Casco Bay watching the sun set as we relaxed. It was marvelous.

Nora loved being right next to water and watching sea gulls, ducks and sea weed in the water. They also had some old lobster traps that she had a great time playing with and explaining to us how the lobsters crawled in and got stuck. It was definitely a splurge on our part seeing as we rarely go out to eat, but we really needed some time for us, so I'm just going to keep rationalizing it to myself. After all, the summer is flying by and it's a rare night that's warm and dry around these parts. Hope everyone is enjoying their summer and not too busy!

Summer Nights

2009-07-30T17:02:00.005-04:00

It's hard to believe that so much of summer has already passed us by. Of course, for those of you who live here, you know it hasn't exactly felt very summer-like in weeks past. Luckily it has finally arrived, and although it's very muggy, I won't complain. As long as it's not pouring I'm a happy camper.
Nora is really starting to enjoy school. She still fights the nap big time, and has yet to sleep longer than forty minutes, and usually only twenty. Oh well, at least she's actually falling asleep! This picture was taken yesterday when Shane came to pick her up after his program had ended for the day. The two of them waited around for me to be done and in the mean time Nora decided to do a little riding.
Last night we took a trip over to Nick and Ally's house in Bath for dinner. I felt like grilling and Shane made fun of me for wanting to use our camping grill, so we headed over to their house and their real grill.
Nora loved hanging out with them. After an initial warm-up period, she was off, first 'helping' Ally with the dishes, then playing outside while the chicken and vegetables grilled.
Their tomatoes aren't ripe yet, but it won't be long. I also sampled a fresh snap pea- delicious!

Nick and Ally couldn't get enough of this munchkin. I can't imagine why. She played until she was totally and completely exhausted (which wasn't too late since she had taken a twenty minute nap at school) and then passed out on my lap while we told ghost stories. It was a great night- thanks guys!

Three Pictures

2009-07-29T07:25:00.003-04:00

Over the past month our lives have been slightly hectic. This morning, while waiting to jump in the shower, and with literally minutes left before I have to leave for work (did I mention Nora isn't even awake yet?) I thought I'd pop on to upload pictures to the site. I found three. How pathetic is that? There's no lack of cameras around here, or of cuteness, and yet when looking through my pictures, these are what I came up with. Oh well, it's more than nothing, which is what I've been posting lately. Gotta go!

We're (kind of) back!

2009-07-12T08:33:00.013-04:00

Whew! It's been awhile, hasn't it? I know some of you have been waiting (and waiting) for a new post, and alas! One has finally arrived. We're mostly settled in at our new place and I've started working full time. Nora has also started day care, which is a very new and different experience for her. I'm only in the next room over from her, but it's a big enough distance to cause a little stress. This past week was our first, though, so we're really hoping things settle down soon. On to the pictures, though! We took a trip to Boston a couple weeks ago and met up with Aunt Ashleigh, who was visiting the East coast. The aquarium was our first stop, though it was so dark in their that I only snapped a couple pictures.

After the aquarium we walked over to the North End for lunch and a special dessert of delicious cannolis, then found this cool little park that Nora had fun running around at while we digested.

Here Nora shows off the after effects of the chocolate-dipped cannoli.

Our final stop was at an old-fashioned carousel. Nora was very excited that she was allowed to ride the horse.

The week after we went to Boston Nora was scheduled for an upper endoscopy to find out whether or not she has celiac. This was taken the morning of the procedure. The poor thing wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything for hours before. Somehow she was in a good mood, though. I know I wouldn't have been.

This first video was taken while we waited for the doctor. Nora wasn't at all nervous, mostly because she had no idea what was going on. Shane, Mom and I, on the other hand, were a bit nervous. Everything went just fine, though and now we know that she doesn't have celiac! Woohoo! She still may have a food allergy, because they found some abnormal results in her upper intestines, but hopefully it's nothing too serious. We'll know soon enough.

This second video was taken during strawberry season (another reason I haven't been online at all). Kalen, Wylie and Tara (along with Hayley) lived with us for a little over a week while we all picked and sold berries. This was a little song Kalen and Nora sang for Dad and Evan, whose birthdays happen to fall on the same day.

The Birthday Celebration

2009-06-21T18:17:00.017-04:00

Last weekend, amidst the chaos of moving, we celebrated Nora's birthday. Thankfully, she's only two, so the amount of planning was minimal. Seriously, I was planning it the night before. It was fine, though, because Nora had a great time. She had the requisite two friends, as she was turning two, although siblings did come along. The weather was beautiful, so we spent the afternoon playing around outside at Mom and Dad's house. (Our half-moved miniscule apartment was no place for partying.)

Kalen was very excited to see Nora open her presents. This is the great raincoat that Aunt Debbie gave to Nora. We have been utilizing it a lot lately.

Nora got a few great books for her birthday. This one is a book of poems about horses from Kalen and his family- absolutely perfect for our little cowgirl.

Flash a little bright, Kalen?

Nanny and Grampy bought Nora a great giraffe and accompanying book from the Philadelphia Zoo. Nora now sleeps with both this giraffe and a nice, soft horse from Kalen.

The big surprise of the party for Nora was the tricycle that was mentioned in the previous post. She loves it. We've brought it to Topsham where we're living now and she rides it everyday, both outside, and inside when I'll allow it. Cause I'm the boss. Right?

Don't you love this little t-shirt? Our friend Kristin bought it for Nora and I think it is so adorable.

And here we have the cake I labored over for hours and hours the night before. It was a labor of love, though. I do what I have to do. Especially if it involves cake mix and canned frosting.

Yes, it's a horse. Do you really think I could do anything else for this horse-crazy kid? And that carrot she's biting into? She thought it was real until she tasted the marzipan. We had to promptly take it away before she devoured it. Too much sugar. We gave her a big hunk of frosted cake with ice cream, instead. We're responsible parents.

Overall it was a nice, laid back day, just what we needed before the big move the next day. We're without internet now at our new place until we have it hooked up, so I may be a little more sporadic than I already am. I'm sorry, but I promise to try to get on here soon!

Frantically trying-

2009-06-17T11:46:00.003-04:00

To get something posted on this blog before Nora's patience runs out at the internet cafe! We're deep in the unpacking process but really needed to get out of the house for a bit. Unfortunately, Nora has an attention span of about five minutes. I've been bribing her with bagels and muffins, but my time is running short. So, for now, a video of her recent birthday (two on Monday!) and the bike her dad fixed up for her. Enjoy!

Back home-

2009-06-10T14:48:00.004-04:00

And guess what? It's raining again. Nora and I had to use our imagination today to stay occupied. We took a camping trip to the living room floor and as I type this Nora and Barkley are still under there. I know someday this kind of entertainment won't work, but for now we're enjoying it!

What to do on a rainy day?

2009-06-05T22:13:00.014-04:00

First, we headed up to the hotel pool. They have a children's wading pool that's only a foot deep and quite warm. Nora jumped right in and really seemed to love it. Unfortunately, I didn't pack any swim diapers, so she's wearing a disposable. Notice the large bulge? This is a few minutes before I brought her to our room to be changed and noticed the diaper was exploding underneath her bathing suit.

Next we packed ourselves up and took a trip to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, famous not only for the amazing pieces it holds, but also the stairs featured in the 'Rocky' movie series.

There were quite a few pieces that I really loved, specifically this portrait of Madame Renoir by her husband, Pierre-Auguste Renoir. It's a lovely painting all on it's own, but the really sweet part is that Renoir kept it for himself all his life.

Also, this piece, 'Mother and Child', by Mary Cassatt. Too sweet.

It was just amazing to me that lots of this:

could become this:

Nora especially liked this painting. Why, you might ask?

Because of the nursing baby, of course.

She also really loved the sculptures. She was particularly interested in what the grape leaves were hiding.

We were able to find a few things to do on this rainy day, and as you can see in the following video, Nora can really find some fun in any setting!

Fun in the City

2009-06-05T08:51:00.003-04:00

Despite a little rain, we managed to find a few treats for Nora to enjoy. Believe it or not, this is the first lollipop she's ever had. It took her a little while to figure out how to eat it without biting, but she caught on.

It's raining today, but hopefully we'll still find something fun to do. We spent the day walking around yesterday and visiting South Street, which was supposedly a shopping mecca. We were less than impressed as it was basically a glorified Old Orchard Beach, but on the way back we found a great pub near our hotel and brought Mom there for dinner. More pictures of our adventures to follow!

An abundance of pictures!

2009-06-03T16:02:00.017-04:00

The night before we were scheduled to take off, we spent the night at Nanny's house, so we could ride in to the airport together. Hayley had some last minute packing to do, and we figured we might as well try to make the flight a little easier, so we tried to fit Nora into Hayley's carry-on. It didn't work.

The next morning Nora packed up her own kid-sized backpack with snacks and toys. Doesn't she look as if she's ready to go to kindergarten? Not quite, Nora!
This isn't Nora's first time on a plane, but it's the first time she's really noticed what was going on. She really seemed to love it, and did a great job, but we were very grateful that the flight was only an hour and a half and that the seat next to Nanny was empty.

That evening we spent some time relaxing in one of the numerous parks and green spaces Philly has to offer after eating a very filling dinner at a local Italian restaurant. Even though I know I'll never permanently live in a big city, it's nice to have to walk everywhere, especially after you've eaten a big meal.

Nora loved the 'bumpy' streets.

On the way back to the hotel, we found a very impressive looking building with large columns to pose in front of. Maybe tomorrow we'll figure out just what that building is.

This morning Hayley, Nora and I set out to explore while Mom began her conference (the real reason for this trip!) We headed first over to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. I would have liked to explore it a bit more and read a little about it, but Nora wasn't interested, not even in the fire!

She was, however, interested in the fountain.

Our next stop was Christ Church, where Benjamin Franklin, Betsy Ross and George Washington all worshipped. This gentleman was just outside the church playing a dulcimer. Nora was entranced.

The interior of the church.

After a good dose of history, we were ready for some food! We found a nice deli and all got sandwiches, and then found a tiny bakery with some delicious treats in the window.

We got a carrot cake cupcake, and all shared it.

I'm pretty sure Nora enjoyed it.

Before we fly...

2009-06-01T20:25:00.007-04:00

I thought you all might want to see a few pictures of the twins before we take off for Philadelphia tomorrow. We went down to Brunswick Saturday to see the new additions to our family.
Let me introduce you to
Cayden Robert...

and Zahara Rose!

These sweet little babies are SO tiny. I felt like I was holding a little weighted doll.

Little Cayden apparently already has a personality he'd like to express!

I just couldn't get over how tiny they felt. They're both each a little over 5 1/2 pounds, or so, on their way to 6. Just look how enormous that pacifier looks!

We all huddled around the two of them for a while, oohing and ahhing, touching, kissing, cuddling. We already love them so much!

Video Fun

2009-05-27T20:14:00.005-04:00

The first video is from our Vermont visit and the late night fireworks. These were actually the third set of fireworks Nora has seen or been near, but seeing as she was two weeks old at the first set and asleep at the second, we'll count these as her first.

This second video is really only a little glimpse, but it was too cute not to post. I put Nora to bed tonight, but instead of turning out the light, I read for a little while. She turned over and went right to sleep, and she was too adorable for me to resist taking a video.

2009-05-26T10:05:00.014-04:00

This past weekend Nora and I went on quite adventure. Shane was headed up north with his Uncle to work on his camp, so Nora and I decided to take a road trip. We were up and packing Friday morning, and somehow managed to leave before noon, but just barely. We drove for about four hours until we came upon this:

I'm embarassed to say it, but this was my first moose sighting. I was super excited, and hanging out the window trying to get a good picture, while locals drove by rolling their eyes at me. Fortunately, I'm not too scared of looking like an idiot.

We drove about an hour more and then arrived at our destination. We were so excited to see Gavin (and Meg and Chris, of course). We were only there for a day and a half, but we crammed plenty into that time. We visited a neighbor's house whose animals Meg and Chris were taking care of. Gavin and Nora had a great time playing in their barn.

They have this amazing play house built in their barn. I had to take a picture of it so Shane could build us one someday. This isn't the best picture of it, but you can see the play area under it and the stairs on the side that lead up to a cool little landing.

Outside the goats were waiting for us. There were new babies that were so adorable. They're being raised for meat, but they might be just a little too cute for that purpose.

This is one of the guys who was separated from the moms and babies. He was a little scary looking with that big set of horns.

Back at Chris and Megan's farm, the animals were waiting. I brought the camera over and they lined up for a photo shoot, with one of the sheep even giving Morgan the horse a little kiss.

At the bottom of the hill is the garden. Meg and Chris worked all afternoon while Nora and I took a nap. I was totally planning on helping out, but Nora took the nap of a lifetime, and by the time we got out there they were just about finished. In between all the raised up beds is old wool to keep weeds down. I couldn't begin to tell you everything they've planted, but I know it's a lot of delicious things. I think we'll be planning a trip around harvest time. I'm sure they'll need our 'help' again...

That night Chris and I took Nora into town while Meg put Gavin to bed. We happened to be visiting on the day of the Spring Fair in their town, and after seeing a parade in the morning, we went back to watch fireworks that night.

They started so late that Nora wasn't exactly excited to see them, but she did alright.

The next morning we got ready to leave a little early with the intention of visiting Rachael's clan at their summer camp. We got on the road around 10:30am, but with Memorial Day traffic, we didn't arrive until past 1:30pm. Nora settled right in with the dogs in a nice dirt pile.

Rachael moves in for a little tickle.

Tim manned the grill and cooked up some delicious assorted meat-full and meat-free items.

We had a wonderful time visiting our friends in Vermont and Maine. Thanks for hosting us, everyone! Stay tuned, because the word on the street is that my cousin will be bringing her newborn twins to Maine this week and if that's the case, there will absolutely be an abundance of pictures here for you to see!

It's that time of year!

2009-05-21T08:39:00.004-04:00

Once again Shane is participating in the Trek Across Maine. He tried really hard to convince me to join him, but I just wouldn't budge. I figured one triathlon was enough of a goal for this summer. Lucky for you, though, it means that only one of us is in need of fund raising help!

Click here to help Shane raise funds for the Trek Across Maine, and maybe, if you're lucky, I'll keep posting some cute Nora clips. Have a wonderful day, everyone, and if you're in Maine, enjoy this amazing weather!

I always come back!

2009-05-15T09:46:00.007-04:00

Even though some days it seems as though I'll never get back to this blog, I always manage. We've had a relatively rough week, and each day I've reminded myself that I really need to find some time to post a few pictures. Well, finally, that time has come. Of course, this morning when I went to upload pictures off one of our cameras, I realized Shane had brought it with him to school. Oh well. I still had a few on the other camera, so I'll post those for the time being. The first are a couple of Camella's sister, Anna, who grows sweeter every day. Last weekend (or was it the weekend before?) we spent some time with Nanny and Grampy. Tara brought the boys, too, and all the kids had a good time splashing in the hot tub. It was a blustery day, kind of cool, which made the warm water feel all the better.

Wylie's eyes, which are already a bright, bright blue, were reflecting the light off of the hot tub. This picture doesn't even do them justice; they were so light!

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

A few videos for now-

2009-05-07T09:25:00.004-04:00

A Beautiful Weekend

2009-05-04T12:50:00.012-04:00

As summer gets closer and closer, I realize just how busy we're going to be. Both Shane and I will be working full time along with a few nights on Shane's part. Nora will be going with me to work full time as well. On top of that, most weekends are booked or will become booked as the season gets closer. I'm trying to savor the empty spaces we have on our calendar now because I know I'll miss them in the coming months. This weekend was one of those- just a big empty space. Of course, we easily filled it up, but it was with activities we could do as a family. A trip to the beach on Saturday was first on our list.

On Sunday we took a hike in Camden with friends. The cliffs we visited were beautiful, but definitely not child friendly. Nora stayed in the backpack until we were on safer ground.

Later that evening we headed over to the house of our hiking buddies for our first cook out of the year. We grilled, listened to music, explored the woods, played ball and toasted tofu dogs and marshmallows over the fire. (Okay, Nora, Kalen and I were the only ones eating the tofu dogs, but we loved them.)Can you tell that the flash was a little too bright for Nora? Thankfully, she can still see.

Towards the end of the night I decided to play with the camera a little. I had see something similar to this on another photographer's website and really wanted to try it out.

Next time I try it I'll hopefully have a less cranky little girl so that I can spend more time playing, but for the first time, it was pretty fun! Enjoy your week, everyone!

2009-04-30T10:00:00.003-04:00

I know, two posts in the same day?? It's a miracle! But really, I just couldn't resist. You'll see why.

Vacation: Part Deux

2009-04-30T08:36:00.010-04:00

Towards the end of our vacation, we decided to have a little fun and bought a kite. The winds on the beach were pretty intense, so we assumed we would have no problem flying the kite. Here Chris, with Gavin on his back, prepares to send it up. If only it were that easy.

Meg and I look a little ridiculous here but only because we were both laughing so hard we couldn't really stand up straight. Seriously, look at me. I was probably trying not to pee my pants in this picture.

Looks like we got it up, huh? Too bad it only lasted about seven seconds.

On the way back we perched Nora on the boardwalk. See, see how windy it is?!? Anyone could fly a kite in this weather, right? Nope.

"Hey Nora, make your weird face."

She's got this down pat.

A couple family shots before heading back to Maine.

Who's the geek who wore the Outer Banks sweatshirt in the Outer Banks?Shane woke up early and trekked over to this beach for the shot. Just gorgeous. Hopefully someday we can make it back there again. Thanks for a great trip Meg and Chris!

Rewind

2009-04-28T23:26:00.015-04:00

I was going through the hundreds of pictures I've accumulated over the past month (ridiculous, I know, time to start deleting) when I noticed a few Easter pictures that I hadn't posted. Or, rather, Easter preparation pictures. Nora and I made a special Easter treat this year to share with everyone and I forgot to tell you all about it. It starts with a crumbled chocolate cake; gluten-free in our case, but any basic chocolate cake recipe will do.

Throw in a can of delicious, fake, grocery store frosting. Here you can tell Nora thinks all her dreams have come true.

Mix the frosting and cake crumbs together until they're an even consistency. Observe said combination. Wonder if Mom will notice if you stick your finger in it one more time. (She will.)

Roll about two tablespoons of the mixture into a ball and place on a lined baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining cake/frosting combo.

Now forget to take pictures of yourself melting white chocolate, dipping lollipop sticks in it and sticking one in each cake ball. Also forget to photograph the chilling of the pops for ten to fifteen minutes. Dip the chilled cake pops in melted white chocolate, colored white chocolate, or really any chocolate of choice. Follow the directions of the true master, Bakerella, by clicking on the link. Then marvel at the cuteness that follows.

This poor pop had a crack. A mortal crack.

I took care of it. We won't be seeing any cracked pops around here anymore.

Nora loved these pops so much she decided to give one a hug. Of course, she had no problem eating it after. Like mother, like daughter.

Here is the final product- and there were a lot of them! I only made one 9x13 cake and used one can of frosting, but it still made almost three dozen pops.

We packaged them up and headed to Nanny and Grampy's house to begin the Easter celebrations. Egg dyeing was the first order of business.

I think I pretty much covered Easter day in an earlier post, so you get the gist of what happened the next day. I'll be sure to finish up the vacation photos I have to post. I'm so on track, right?

Just a couple vacation videos-

2009-04-22T23:05:00.003-04:00

At the beach

2009-04-21T21:02:00.010-04:00

Well, here we are at the beach, and we're absolutely loving it. The weather has really been amazing and we've been able to spend lots of time outside every day. Nora, though initially pretty freaked out about the ocean and it's giant waves, has now become comfortable enough to play on the beach, though she still has no interest in doing any wading. I don't blame her, though, because the waves are pretty huge, plus the water is mind numbingly cold. Or foot numbingly. You get the picture; it's really cold. She does enjoy walking along looking for shells (in the drier parts of the beach) and of course, watching the beach acrobatics that go on.This is the end of the path that leads from the house to the beach. And that's Meg, Chris and Gavin making their way ahead of us as we all went for a walk.Gavin and his favorite guy.

Sweet little Gavin wasn't very excited about the ocean at first; in fact he was pretty terrified. However, after a little cajoling and playing with his parents he was used to it enough to hang out with us on the beach.

Okay, I will admit that Shane might be riding a bike in this picture with Nora on his back in the ergo; however, I will say that he was riding around in circles on the driveway in front of me and I wouldn't let him go faster than, oh, 2 mph. Nora loved it, of course.

Here are Nora and I at the beach this afternoon. See how relaxed and productive I am while on vacation? I get pictures up on the blog the day I take them! Maybe I should go on vacation much, much more often.

And finally, our little girl who we can't get enough of. Can you see why?

Easter

2009-04-19T23:21:00.011-04:00

And only a week late! I've finally managed (I think) to figure out what's going on with my computer, and as a result, I finally can get some pictures up here. We had a great Easter weekend spent at my parent's house. We went up the night before and visited with the Dunton's, who came out for a mini duel birthday celebration. My birthday is the 13th and Rachael's is the 16th. After a nice visit and lots of good food, there was important work to be done. I had been buying things here and there for this basket for weeks, so when it was finally all assembled, it looked like I went a little overboard. (I did.)

The next morning the kids were up bright and early to come downstairs and see if the Easter Bunny had visited. Nora immediately gravitated to the presents the Easter Nanny (I mean Bunny) had left.

A chocolate egg; what more could you ask for?

Dad hung out with Wylie for a while; he hasn't yet reached the candy-obsessed age.

Here Nora takes her first bite of chocolate of the morning. Many, many more followed.

We can't get enough of this little boy!

I was kind of tentative about posting this picture because I thought Tara might be less than impressed. (Are you?) But then I realized if it had been about half an hour before anyone could have snapped the same shot of me dancing and clapping my way around the table with the kids. It's just what we do.

Here Evan, our new babysitter, reads to Kalen. No, seriously, I'm thinking about hiring him to be my new 'manny'.

"Hmm. I don't see anything yet."

Nora was such a good sport to put on this dress. Or, rather, to let me put this dress on her. It was mine when I was a kid and also worn at Easter. (I think- at least that's what it looks like in the pictures.) I really love this dress; Nora and Shane, not so much.)

And because this all happened over a week ago, I thought I'd throw in a picture of what we're doing now. This was actually taken today. Miraculous, I know. We're down in North Carolina visiting the Outer Banks with our friends Meg and Chris and their son Gavin. Many, many more photos will come from this trip, but here's little Nora enjoying the sun and sand. (And yes, she has plenty of sunscreen on.) Enjoy!

Issues

2009-04-13T21:03:00.003-04:00

I'm still having issues; I couldn't upload more than one video yesterday without my computer threatening me. So, for now, here is the first of two videos of Nora receiving her Easter presents from Grandma Jenny and Grandpa Toby. More to come, if I can figure it out!

Another exciting day with Nora:

2009-04-07T20:29:00.003-04:00

Although this has happened before, never has she done both of these in the same day on two separate occasions. Woohoo!

Well, it was going to be great.

2009-04-06T21:25:00.003-04:00

A great post, that is. I had plans for numerous photos to be posted with well-written descriptions for each, occasionally resulting in a deep belly laugh or at least a smile from the reader. It was going to be wonderful, really. Until I started putting my pictures on the computer. Apparently, the 'cleaning' our computer was supposed to get wasn't that thorough, because I still don't have enough memory to edit more than these two pictures. As soon as I start to work I get a message about my 'scratch disks', which sounds kind of sketchy, in my opinion.

I'm still going to post these two photos, though, because I have been meaning to for the past month. These are from our trip to Vermont. We had a wonderful time visiting Meg, Chris, and Gavin, and were joined by Nick, Alli and Ken. (These are all great friends from college.) This first shot gives you an idea of what our trip revolved around- eating! Meg and I love to cook, and really enjoy cooking a big meal together. We usually spend a lot more time in the kitchen when we visit, but while the kids are young, it's a little harder. We'll have plenty of opportunities soon as we are going on vacation together! (And we'll have husbands around to pawn the children off on. That's what they're there for, right?)

I'm so glad I chose this as my second picture to edit before the stupid memory gave out. (Remind me again what the heck we're paying the computer guy for??) This is little Gavin Gordon; he is such a sweet boy! I was sick when we visited, and had to hold back from kissing him for fear of passing on whatever I had. (Watch out for me next weekend, Gavster!)

I figured you might want to see a little Nora action, but as I can't really do much photo editing, I guess I'll have to post a video. Poor you.

2009-04-05T18:39:00.003-04:00

Today we took a nice hike up Bald Mountain in Camden with our (new) friends Stephen and Molly. We met them through Josh's restaurant, Brevetto, where Stephen and Shane work. The hike was really fun; the weather was beautiful, not too cool, and the views were great the whole way up. Once we got to the top it was a bit windier and cold, so we broke out Nora's winter hat and mittens, and didn't hang out too long. Overall, though, it was really nice to spend some time outside in the warmish weather. We took a few videos during the hike, but none worthy of the blog. Shane did (accidentally) take one that was forty-two minutes long from his coat pocket. I deleted that one. Here's Nora on the ride home discussing, among other things, our dinner plans. Enjoy!

2009-04-03T22:18:00.004-04:00

Well, we can't get enough, so we're assuming you can't, either. Right?
Hello?
Tap, tap.
Is this thing on?

I told you-

2009-04-02T20:32:00.002-04:00

I just want to say that I warned you all. We have a new obsession...

A Little Test

2009-04-02T20:12:00.003-04:00

As an early birthday present, Shane bought me a sweet little hand held video camera called The Flip. I love it. We've never gotten around to buying a video camera of our own, and after my sister let us borrow hers, we never got around to buying the tapes for it. This little camcorder is SO easy, and so handy. We'll be posting plenty of videos of Nora for everyone to see. Be prepared!

(Don't worry if it doesn't work right away; I'm figuring it out as I go!)

Good Bye March-

2009-03-31T19:38:00.005-04:00

And hello April! I am so excited to welcome this month, not only because it's my birthday month (hint, hint) but because it means Spring is officially here. (Okay, I know officially it was in March, but now it really feels Spring-y.) Granted, it's not that unusual to have a little flurry or even a snowstorm at some point in April, but still, things are greening up, it smells like dirt, and I don't (usually) have to bundle Nora up to within an inch of her life to go outside. In fact, we took a nice walk with Barkley tonight and I made a delicious lasagna that I pretended was Spring-like by adding zucchini. Yes, I'm original.
Speaking of original, a couple nights ago while I was relaxing at the laundromat (yes, I really do love going there) Shane and Nora were at home having a bit of fun.

Apparently Nora really wanted to wear her baby in a backpack like Shane and I wear her in our Ergo, so Shane fashioned a little carrier for her.

And yes, that's one of Barkley's leashes. Ingenious, I say.

I thought I might throw in this picture to finish up this little post. Yet another example of what a special, special girl we have.

A Sweet Treat

2009-03-29T22:06:00.010-04:00

Last weekend Shane and I took Nora out to a local farm for Maine Maple Sunday. Each year, maple sugar houses around the state open their doors to the public so that everyone can see how they go about making maple syrup. We met Tara, Josh, Kalen and Wylie at a local farm to test out their syrup and have a little fun.

Unfortunately, unlike the farm we visited last year, this year's farm only had one activity- watching sap being boiled. While interesting to a newcomer, this is kind of boring for anyone who has already seen it. Also, the kids weren't all that interested, because, let's face it, it was basically just a vat of boiling liquid.

We were hoping there would be some trails to walk or animals to pet like last year, but there wasn't. No big deal, though, we could make our own fun. We did some running! So exciting! At least it was until Nora started getting a little cold. Notice her huddling in the bottom right of the next picture.

And a close-up of the poor freezing girl.

So we headed inside, where the real excitement was- free coloring books and ice cream samples!

The kids definitely enjoyed this portion of the day.

Nora couldn't seem to figure out why her foot had ice cream on it.

Here Nora and Shane relaxed and ate their ice cream. I can just imagine him singing to her: "My buddy! My buddy! Wherever she goes, I go, too. My buddy, my buddy! My buddy and me!" (If you don't know the commercial it came from, just ignore me.)

Finally, a nice little image to leave you with for now. She's just gorgeous, isn't she. A real special little girl.

Over the last few days

2009-03-21T11:12:00.007-04:00

We recently got to go over to Camella's house to play for the afternoon. It's finally warm enough to really start some work on the farm, so Camella's parents have plenty of work to do, never mind the fact that they also have a new baby! Nora, Camella and I spent the morning digging and playing in the greenhouse, which was a balmy 60 degrees or so. Lovely!

The two girls have been getting along so great lately. There have been no instances of biting or hitting as of late, and they even hug and hold hands on their own occasionally.

We got a little fancy this morning after heading over to the dollar store for some elastics. Nora calls these her 'pony hair'.

I know I said I would post pictures from our VT trip, and I will, as soon as we get our computer back from the 'cleaners'. Have a great weekend, everyone!

The Wedding: A Quick Post

2009-03-14T11:10:00.012-04:00

I know how crazy it must seem for me to be posting twice in less than a month, but it's a bit easier when all the photos are already on my computer and edited. The following is just a smattering of photos from the wedding that I thought you might all like to see. Enjoy!

(Special thanks to Hayley for being my photography partner!)

2009-03-12T11:55:00.011-04:00

After being nagged by my husband repeatedly, I figured it wouldn't hurt to throw a few pictures up here. I finished editing the wedding pictures and sent them on their way on Wednesday. I feel great about finishing them, but now need to find a new photography project. I have nothing on my schedule until June! Enough of my babbling, though, and on to the real reason you all read this- Nora! Here she is modeling the mitts and hat that Kate, a friend and the first bride I 'officially' photographed, knitted for us.

The morning after the wedding Nora rooted around in my bag, found these and spent the next twenty minutes or so playing dress up.

A few days later, (who knows what day, it was so long ago!) Nora and I decided to do some baking for Shane, who had missed out on his yearly birthday cake since his actual birthday had fallen so close to Thanksgiving and at that point we were stuffed full of junk.

We made a delicious, gluten-free chocolate cake drizzled with homemade caramel sauce and filled with vanilla buttercream.

We had to stop for a tea break halfway through, using our favorite tea cup, of course.

Later in the week, we drove to Camella's house for some visiting and playtime.

Nora found this homemade crown hanging around and wore it for the afternoon. I think we're going to have to make Camella another one, though, because it didn't fare very well in the end.

Here we have my favorite part of that afternoon- the new baby! Camella has a new baby sister, with a sweet name: Anna!

The girls had a great time 'playing' with Anna. Camella is already a fabulous big sister, often giving her new sister kisses and worrying about her. Nora was a big fan, too, and was surprisingly very gentle and sweet with her. (And no, it didn't make me want another one now, as sweet as she was.)

Most recently (well, about a week ago) Melissa, who I went to high school with, brought her son Wes over for a visit. It was great to catch up, seeing as neither of us could remember the last time we had seen each other. Wes is so sweet, and though Nora is a little taller, Wes has almost got her beat in the weight category. There's a reason we call her our munchkin!

Well, stay tuned everyone. I've got more pictures to post in the next few days from our recent weekend in Vermont and of course, the wedding!

I'm feeling guilty-

2009-03-04T08:38:00.004-05:00

As well I should be! I haven't been a very good blogger lately, but I promise I have a good excuse. A little less than two weeks ago I photographed my first wedding. It was both exciting and nerve-wracking, but I was lucky enough to have Hayley as my sidekick. Between the two of us we took a little over twelve hundred pictures. It was a beautiful, perfect day, and everything went so smoothly. I found by the end of the day that I wasn't a bit nervous and had really enjoyed myself. I went home and fell into a deep, satisfied sleep. Then I woke up. To twelve hundred pictures. I quickly realized that the work of a wedding photographer has just barely started when the wedding ends. I have to go through every single picture, critique it to decide if it makes the cut, and if it does, begin the editing process. This seemed absolutely overwhelming at first, but I've quickly found a rhythm, and actually find myself nearing the end of the editing process and enjoying it! The pictures will be done just after the two week mark (and only because we're going away for the weekend.) So tell me, everyone, is two and a half weeks too long to wait for wedding pictures? Obviously I can't help it this time, but for future weddings, I would love your input.As a result of all this wedding business, photos of Nora have kind of fallen to the wayside. Well, actually I do have a few I would love to share with you, but they're still on the camera because I have no more room. My computer is full! I have a lot of off loading (is that a word?) of pictures to do before I can upload any more. By the way, any techies (again, is that a word?) want to stop by my house and clean out my hard drive? I'd be very much obliged. Until that happens, or I figure out how to do it myself, this blog will be sadly lacking in photos of Nora. Try not to cry. They'll come, eventually, and when they do they'll be glorious.

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo...

2009-02-23T10:05:00.017-05:00

Well, believe it or not, I'm finally going to write a blog post! It's been a long time coming, I know, and I'm sorry. We made it back to Maine Thursday night, and Friday was my day to prepare for the wedding I was photographing on Saturday. The day went quite smoothly and it was a beautiful setting with many lovely details to photograph. I'll be sure to post highlights here and there as I edit the hundreds of pictures Hayley and I took.

First, though, I thought I'd better post a few pictures from our trip to Ohio. As I looked through all of the images I had taken, I realized I didn't really bring my camera out very often on this trip. Obviously I was having too much time relaxing to think about photo ops. I did bring it along when we visited the Cleveland Zoo, so you'll get plenty of animal shots!Nora found a friend in this little gibbon pretty quickly.

This is Jenny and Toby's new cat.
(They like big animals.)
No, but seriously, I don't remember what kind of cat this is.

This might be one of the saddest pictures I've taken. This poor orangutan was slumped over in the corner of the room, looking very depressed. Or drugged. Or both.

Nora shows Grandma the cool animals.

I had to ask Shane what these were (ring-tailed lemurs from Madagascar, by the way). I waited and waited (for over a whole minute!) but they never all looked at me at the same time. I'll never have the patience to be a real nature photographer.

It was pretty cold outside, but in the greenhouse it was humid and hot. I would have loved to have stayed longer to check out all the tropical species, but Nora was sweating big time in her snowsuit (as were we all) so we headed back outside to the cooler weather.

We found a cool little playground near the exhibits and Nora and Ashleigh had to try out one of the slides. You can't really tell, but Nora was cracking up.

Nearby, a Siberian tiger prowled, just waiting to pounce if we threatened it's young. Or not.

It was very cool to see giraffes so close, but we all felt bad that their winter housing was really just a giant warehouse with only a couple of windows and chain link fencing. It was very drab and pretty depressing.

Towards the end of our tour we found the bears, including this handsome (pretty?) polar bear. Is it true that their fur is clear and not really white? Did I make that up?

Finally, two of my very favorite people. Nora was so great all through the day, especially given that she didn't take a nap. On the way home around 4pm she did crash, but during the day she was great and very interested in all of the animals. The pictures here don't even begin to include all we saw; there were tons of other animals I didn't even mention. Thanks, Jenny, for treating us, and thanks to the whole family for having us for a visit!

The Long Journey Home

2009-02-18T23:36:00.004-05:00

Eventually a great post will make it's way to this site. We've just spent a wonderful few days with the Ohio portion of the family and are on our way home. We had the greatest intentions of driving through the night as we did Saturday night. It had worked out perfectly the first time, and we were sure she would sleep right through the night. Unfortunately, after a few hours of her waking and crying every twenty minutes or so, we decided to find a place to crash. So, here were are in Farmington, New York, not quite halfway home, but happy to not be driving through the night. Once home, I'll be sure to update the blog and let everyone know the fun we've had with our family. See you soon!

Oh thank goodness-

2009-02-10T10:20:00.011-05:00

We're finally functioning at a semi-normal level! After four long days of sickness all around, a day of recovery, and another sick night, Nora finally seems to be feeling significantly better. She and Shane had a pretty awful weekend extending through Monday. Yesterday Nora seemed much better and I brought her into town while I had class. Unfortunately, I think I may have overwhelmed her a bit, because last night she threw up again. By six am this morning she was up and starving, so I think she's feeling better.
This past Saturday, while Shane and Nora were sick at home, I took Tara and Wylie on a little trip to celebrate Tara's birthday. First we drove to Brunswick to check out the new gluten-free bakery we had heard about.

There were plenty of packaged products and frozen goods, but the really exciting part was the bakery case. If you're gluten-free, you know you rarely, if ever, can go into a bakery in Maine and choose from a variety of fresh baked goods. Tara and I sampled three things, including a raspberry coconut muffin, a bagel, and a chocolate-peanut butter treat.

After checking out the bakery, we went to a thrift store we had noticed on the way through town It's called Estilo, and is fantastic! This dress hanging outside was what caught our eye, and things just got better inside.

Tara actually purchased one of these dresses among other things, and I found pants, shirts and a coat for only $34! I love a good deal!

After leaving the store, we realized we were running a bit late, so we headed right to lunch in Newcastle, at the Publick House. It was affordable, delicious, and fun to go out together without two other kids running around and throwing things.

It was also nice just to spend time with little Wylie. He doesn't get a ton of one on one time when he has his brother and cousin always hanging around! Of course, when he gets a little older, I don't think Tara will mind of just the two of us go out sometime!

Back at home Nora was content to lay around and watch Snoopy (aka A Charlie Brown Christmas), which is an obvious sign to me that she's sick. That girl never just lays around.

She's up and around again and even though I'm sure she'll take an extra nap today, I'm just happy she's interested in playing again!

Update

2009-02-08T11:40:00.003-05:00

Well, she's still sick. I thought yesterday that she was getting better, but last night was more of the same. When she got up this morning we went into the Emergency Room, thinking they would want to hook her up to an IV in case of dehydration, but they were so busy that they said it would be a long wait, and maybe I should also call her pediatrician. (Duh! I was thinking since it's Sunday that wouldn't work, but there is an answering service.)
I called her doctor and she said that since she has finally nursed and not thrown up since then (about four hours ago) I should give her some Tylenol and bring her home for a few hours. If things don't improve, we're headed back to the ER this afternoon. (Fingers crossed we don't!)
In other fun news, Shane came home last night and almost immediately went into the bathroom, where he spent the rest of the night and most of today. Poor guy hates throwing up, so the last twelve hours have been his own personal nightmare.
Well, that's our weekend! I did get to sneak away yesterday for a fun birthday trip with Tara, and I'll be sure to post all about our day later.
When no one is throwing up.

Fun times! (And not so fun times)

2009-02-06T20:35:00.009-05:00

Yesterday before Nora and I left for class we had a bit of fun playing around the living room. Nora has a new water bottle but when it's full of a cold drink her little hands freeze, so I pull one of her socks over it. Works like a charm!

I had started some whole milk yogurt the day before and yesterday morning it was ready for sampling. Nora wasn't a huge fan until we drizzled some honey and vanilla into it.

Later, after breakfast, a dance party ensued. There wasn't actually any music playing, but Nora has a new song that she likes to sing and dance to. It goes something like this:

Rock-a-baby! Rock-a-baby!

Unfortunately, last night and this morning were not as fun. Nora woke up around 4 am complaining her 'belly hurt!' Within a few minutes she was throwing up, and since then has thrown up nine or ten times. She's gone through five outfits today; I've gone through three. I'm hoping tonight goes a little smoother and the poor thing recovers soon.

She's in great spirits when not about to throw up, but just can't seem to keep anything down. Throughout the day she's tried water, juice, oranges, and crackers, and all have come up.
Again and again.

Sometimes (usually) she doesn't make it anywhere near the bowl; then we get the opportunity to take a nice photo.

I'm definitely underpaid.

2009-02-04T15:09:00.009-05:00

I was a bit surprised when I opened up this blog and realized that I hadn't posted for a week. It seems as if I've been away for a lot longer than that. Things have been steady around here. We have a weekly schedule now that involves two days a week in Bangor for my class and three days a week at the YMCA, where Nora gets to spend an hour with the babysitters while I get to work out. It was a bit of a rocky start for her, and while I'm sure we'll still have bad days, for now she is doing great. This morning she didn't even notice when I left, just headed right over to her favorite toys and started playing. Both babysitters mentioned that they felt like she had taken a 180 degree turn and was a different child. I'm not sure about that but it sure beats the screaming she was doing last week and the week before!

This past weekend we got to visit with Tara and her boys when they came up to Nanny and Grampy's house for a visit. It seems like little by little Kalen and Nora are able to play with each other a bit more. Of course, there's still yelling/biting/grabbing going on between the two of them, but at least in between their fights they're able to hold 'real' conversations and occasionally even play. I'll take any steps forward, even if they're baby steps!

Ah, and here's Wylie. He was my subject this weekend. I came home with numerous pictures of this little guy. I just can't help it; when the light is right and I have a model like this, I can't resist.

And because he's my nephew, and I really can't resist, I have to post this one.

On Sunday, before going to a Super Bowl party with friends, I went to a bridal shower for Kate, a friend from book club. She's getting married in a few weeks (!) and I will be photographing her wedding. I thought the shower might be a good place to test out my new camera and get a few shots for Kate to include in her wedding album.

There are many more, but I'll save those for Kate. I have a lot more to post, including a dance party Nora held here in the living room this morning and a special treat we made last night, but I'll save those for later. For now, a little shot to keep all the grandparents satisfied. Enjoy!

A visit to the archives

2009-01-28T13:56:00.015-05:00

Alternatively titled: I'm sorry, I have no new pictures for you.

You read right, folks. Believe it or not I don't have a single new picture to post here, unless you're interested in a dozen or so shots of the stop light down the street. I've been taking a photography class and part of my homework was to play with aperture and shutter speed, which did not involve Nora.
(Not because she isn't a willing subject, but because sometimes I like to try a little harder in my work, push myself a little farther. Like down the street. To the stoplight.)
So, because it's snowing hard outside at the moment and I'm feeling all warm and cozy here in our tiny apartment, today you'll be treated to a little walk down memory lane. Or, in this case, a stroll through the archives of my photo library. Shall we begin?
To start, a candid from our wedding.It was a totally dry affair. Not a drop of that repulsive wine or beer to be seen. And look how prim and proper I was as a result!

This next shot is from a trip I took to Seattle with my Mom and two sisters for a good friend's wedding. We brought along Kalen because, well, he was only two months old.
In all likelihood I was probably pretending to nurse him inside my sick little mind. Little did I know of the torturous nursing experience I would endure in the next year.

Speaking of the coming year- this picture was taken a few weeks before Nora made her arrival. Can you tell which one is me? (Hint: I had recently swallowed a beach ball.)
I'm not sure what to say about the next picture.
Take from it what you will.
While Shane was away letting the good times roll and attaching clothes pins to his face, I was laboring away to deliver this bundle of goodness.I'm just kidding, you know.
Shane was there the whole time, never once fainting.
I was very impressed. That last photo represents the bane of my existence. If any of you have listened to Shane describe, in all it's glory, his 'chair' then you know what I'm talking about.
For everyone else, I'll just say that Shane and I are a bit divided on whether this chair will ever make it inside our future house.
We love Hermione.
With that said, I can't really explain how this photo came to be in my photo archive. I'm definitely blaming Shane.
Well, you've reached the end of this exciting photo tour, and to thank you for reading this entire post, I've decided to let my guilt-ridden self off the hook and snap a picture of Nora. I had just let her eat two (gluten-free) cookies. Once I had taken the picture, I let her have a look at it. She immediately said, 'Nora. Cookie. Face.' Then ran off to grab the washcloth.
That side of her comes from her Nanny, I just know it.

A quick post

2009-01-22T21:58:00.004-05:00

I just wanted to stop in here for a minute and post some adorable pictures of baby Jonas, who stopped by our apartment with his mom, Emily, yesterday.

I managed to snap these in between Nora's attempts to bite the poor baby.

Sure, she's cute, but those little chompers are razor sharp!

Did I ever tell you...

2009-01-21T21:13:00.012-05:00

About the great little dinner party we had last week with our friends Jay and Kristin? While house sitting for Shane's aunt and uncle, we used their awesome raclette set-up. Raclette is kind of an alternative version of fondue. A tabletop grill is set up for vegetables and meat, and underneath is a broiler with individual 'shovels' for each guest. You place a piece of the special cheese in the shovel and broil it until it's melted to your liking, then pour it over your finished meat and vegetables that you've grilled and moved to your plate. Viola! A delicious meal!

I went a little overboard with the vegetables, and we ended up having two full platters of summer squash, peppers, asparagus, mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower and red potatoes. We also had shrimp and marinated chicken. What can I say; I really love veggies.

Nora wasn't as big a fan of everything as we were. She ended up eating a yogurt instead.

We always have a great time visiting with these two, but I'm pretty sure
it's Nora they come to see. She turns up the charm for them.

The morning after the party Nora decided Elmo needed a little nurse.
She's so thoughtful.A few days later we were back at our apartment.
Nora had Camella over for a little visit and I had some fun with my camera.

Yesterday we went into town for the class I'm taking and got to visit with Nanny. Nora had some work to do on Nanny's "puter", as Nora would say.
Of course, she needed her glasses to see.

My, she really does look distinguished, doesn't she?

Finally, a nice parting shot I took on the way out of town. This is why I like to always have my camera with me. That way, when I see a nice sunset, I can try to find a place to pull over, scramble around in the back seat trying to find my camera bag, find my camera, find my zoom lens, switch lenses, jump out of the car without getting hit by another car and look like an idiot standing on the side of the road staring at the sun as cars drive by. Ah, good times.

Visiting The Boys

2009-01-19T21:09:00.011-05:00

A little while ago Nora and I got to visit with our friends Emily and Meg- and their sweet little guys Jonas and Gavin. The two of them are about three months apart and believe it or not, Gavin (in the stripes) is younger.

He might have a few pounds on Jonas...

Nora was the big kid in the group this time, and had fun playing with all of their toys, eating lots of snacks, and chasing Megan's cat. Oh, and playing with a giant bouquet of fake flowers. I'm not really sure where that came from.

I can't get enough of these two boys- they're both so sweet- and adorable!Don't you just want to reach out and give 'em a little pinch?

On a completely different note, Nora had a little run-in with a dog this past week- she's fine, though, and recovering like a champ. Actually, she doesn't even notice the bite except to pick at the scab every now and then. We did bring her to the doctor's the day it happened and she's had a nice little dose of antibiotics just in case, but she really doesn't seem traumatized and is not scared of dogs at all. We were lucky that the incident was as minor as it was and thankful that everything is healing so well. Whew!

And on another completely different note, I'm debuting my website! It's pretty close to finished, although I'm sure I'll be tinkering with it on and off for a while. So go explore it, play around, and let me know what you like/don't like about it. I look forward to your comments!

Caitlyn Barker Photography

Oops...

2009-01-19T09:49:00.006-05:00

Sorry about that last (deleted) post everyone. Apparently I can't trust my husband for any amount of time when the blog is open. There's a reason I keep the password a secret from him...

An Afternoon in January

2009-01-13T20:00:00.009-05:00

As I mentioned in the last post, we spent a recent afternoon skiing and snowshoeing with Hayley and her boyfriend Evan. It was quite cold out(though not as cold as it is supposed to get tomorrow and the next day!) but Nora was well bundled in her pink, down snowsuit.

We took all of the dogs out on the trails, though you can't see any of them. As soon as we headed out they were off, running all through the woods, but (almost) always keeping within sight of us.

Barkley has his winter coat on now and tends to collect clumps of snow when he's out running in the winter. It takes a little longer for him to defrost once we come inside, but he doesn't seem too concerned about it.

The weather was just beautiful- crisp air, a deep blue sky, and as we came out of the woods and into the field the sun had just set and the sky was a beautiful deep peach color.

Nora's nose and cheeks were a bit red for quite awhile after the walk, but her hands and feet were fine. (Don't worry, Nanny!) We'll definitely be heading out again soon, though maybe for not as long. The promise of single-digit temperatures in the coming days will certainly make for quick trips! Stay warm, everyone!

The big three!

2009-01-12T21:17:00.013-05:00

Kalen turned three this weekend, so we all headed down to his house to celebrate and have a nice visit. There were plenty of goodies to eat (and awesome paninis- both gluten-full and gluten-free!) There were also lots of presents to be opened. I was a little surprised at how jealous Nora was, but I think she may have been remembering Christmas and all the gifts she got to open.Luckily, there were plenty of relatives and toys to distract her.

Tara made an amazingly delicious (and also gluten-free) strawberry shortcake per Kalen's request. He requested it last year as well, and I expect next year we may have the same; nothing wrong with strawberry shortcake!

Nora loved the strawberry shortcake. She ate her entire piece, then most of mine, then a few more bites later of the strawberries Kalen had left behind on his plate.

Wylie was so great during the party. Every now and then you would hear someone yell, 'Who wants him next?' and off he would be to the next set of arms. By the end of the night he was ready for a little alone time and went right to bed.

Before the end of the party we got to watch a puppet show put on by Tara. We set the kids down in the 'theater' and the show began!

It really was an academy award-worthy performance.

Unfortunately, the audience didn't realize that it wasn't an interactive show. Nora had to be distracted for part of the show so she wouldn't pull it all down.

The kids (and adults) had a great time helping Kalen ring in his third birthday. Later we headed home to our dog/house sitting job where we're staying for the week. Yesterday we went for a nice ski/snowshoe, so be sure to check back tomorrow for those pictures!

A scary night...

2009-01-09T13:12:00.004-05:00

Last night was particularly disturbing for me. Nora stayed up late, as usual, and Shane eventually put her to bed, falling asleep himself in the process, of course. It was past midnight and the wind was whipping around outside, howling at the windows and sounding more than a little intimidating. I was huddled up on the couch, trying to ignore the ominous creaking sounds coming from the basement as I did my work, when suddenly, it was time. With trembling fingers, I reached forward and pressed the one button on the computer that could change my life: DELETE. I had just deleted off of my computer over seven thousand pictures. You read that correctly folks, seven thousand, the majority of which were Nora! Thankfully, all I did was transfer them to an external hard drive, but still, the what-ifs linger in my head, even today. What if I lose the hard drive? Drop it in the sink? Drop it in the toilet? Accidentally throw it away?? (This isn't as impossible for me as you might think.) I know, I know, I probably won't be carrying it with me while I go to the bathroom (you hope) or holding it while I do dishes, but all the same it's a little scary to think about the possibilities, so I won't. I think I'll just welcome the weekend, get excited about an upcoming party for a special boy, and enjoy my little peanut. Oh, and take plenty of pictures of everyone. Just in case. A big thank you to Ashleigh for the adorable skirt (one of many)
and to Tara, for the sweet knit hat.
Happy weekend!

Back to the old grindstone...

2009-01-05T21:10:00.016-05:00

Well, Shane's vacation has come to an end all too quickly. We all enjoyed having him home to visit and spend time with. It's nice, though, to return to the rhythm of our days as the school year continues. And as Shane pointed out, there are only six more weeks until his next break! We really do love the public school schedule!

While Shane was home we decided to embark on an ambitious venture- bathing Barkley! The poor dog hasn't received nearly enough attention since Nora's birth, um, eighteen months ago, so we decided to give him a luxurious spa day. Unfortunately, I don't think dogs always understand that you're trying to pamper them when bath time rolls around.It doesn't really show in the pictures, but I think he might have actually liked it. Or, at least he didn't hate it. He stood still the entire time and let me towel him dry. Of course, as soon as we opened the bathroom door he bounded out to go sulk and lick his paws.

Once Barkley was brushed and trimmed we headed outside for a walk. The sun was just setting over the horizon and looked gorgeous with the trees silhouetted against it.

We returned home and spent the evening playing with our new Christmas toys- Nora with her doll, monkey, stroller and bed, me with my new flash and Shane with his copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard.

It only took Nora a few minutes to realize she could use the bed, too.

Of course, once that novelty had worn off, she decided to test out her muscles.
I was impressed.

Here's a random picture of the stir-fry I made for dinner.
Looks lovely and delicious, doesn't it?

A few days later we took Nora on a trip to Bangor where we met up with some friends and their daughter and all visited The Discovery Museum. The museum is geared towards kids of all ages; in fact, I think I might have had almost as much fun as Nora.

We spent a good amount of time in the 'cafe', where Nora and her friend cooked us up some lovely treats, including soup, tiramisu and lobster.

Nora was too short for the kitchen, so we let her work on the counter.
Hey, equality for all, right?

After the visit to the musuem we made a quick stop to visit Nanny at her work, then headed over to our friend's house to continue our visit, have dinner and play a trivia game about The Office. We all had a great time, but I got my butt seriously kicked. I obviously don't watch enough television.
The next night was New Year's Eve, and believe it or not, I only have one picture from the whole night. When Kalen and Nora get together, things get just a bit chaotic, and more often than not I don't get around to taking any pictures. Actually, you're lucky there's even a kid in this picture, but we just couldn't resist when Wylie fell asleep nursing- on my chin! What a cutie.

It was so nice to welcome in the new year with both my sisters (that hasn't happened in a long time!) and all the kids. Happy 2009, everyone!