Laura and Austin's Visit to NH

April 20th-23rd

Our friend Laura (from Syracuse) asked her son, Austin, what he wanted to do for his spring break - he wanted to come to New Hampshire to visit us and collect rocks!!!

We had a great time hanging out, collecting rocks on a hike (though the bugs were BAD), playing dominoes, shopping at the mall and Ikea and having dinner in Faneuil Hall in Boston.

Laura and I enjoying sangrias

Aaron and Austin with their "normal" faces

Austin and Charlie dancing to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse - (look at her, haha!)

We don't get to see them enough anymore.

House Updates

We've come along with the house and have finally gotten to some of the bigger projects with the help of Uncle Pete and our neighbor, Ken -- those being the fireplace and Charlotte's trim. The only "bigger" things left to do are to paint the closet/laundry folding doors white and get them hung back upstairs. And then just a few more pieces of furniture and some remaining decor (curtains, wall decor, etc.).

Here are some of the before and afters of the rooms and things that have been "done":

Kitchen -

Dining Room -

Fireplace -

Breakfast Area looking into Living Room -

Living Room -

Charlotte's Room -

Guest Room -

Master (the "now" pic is a bit old ... her cradle is no longer at the foot of our bed. We now have a bench and cushion there) -

And this is my finished master headboard project - I love it!!

We invite any family and friends to visit ... we always enjoy company, especially now that we are able to give guests their own space.

Moms Club

When we moved into our house, I was very excited when a woman from our circle on our door knocked to let me know that she is the President of our town's Moms Club. I was so very excited to join and start attending the play groups with Charlotte ... and then the Swine Flu hit. Since she was so little and too young for the vaccine, her and I hibernated through the winter and we were both close to losing our sanity until spring hit.

About a month and a half ago, I asked to finally join and we were welcomed by all. We have attended a handful of play groups at the other's homes, went to a spring party at the public library, went on an educational tour of the Stonyfield Yogurt plant down the road and are looking forward to a Cinco De Mayo party this Wednesday along with many more play groups and events this month!

Charlotte has definitely enjoyed meeting and playing with the other kids - we even think she has a little baby crush on a 11-month-old, Aamir, and vice-versa. I am also happy to have a few girls around my age to talk to! We are hosting our first play group on May 17th, which should be fun!!

Girls Trip to Vermont

April 14th-18th 2010

Charlotte and I headed up to Vermont on our first girls-only trip last Wednesday. I was hoping she would sleep most of the 2.5 hours to Burlington and she was indeed asleep within 5 minutes of leaving the house. We stopped at McDonalds in Randolph for a stretch and a diaper change and were on our way again. We made it to Shelley's where we got to hang out a bit alone (and I slid down a few stairs with Charlotte - SHE was okay!)

We spent a few days at Shelley's since Tyler was away for a couple of weeks - we hung out and played with Tori and Trey; got to shop with Selena, Matthew and Luke; Charlotte had a photo session with Beltrami Burlington (they take AMAZING photos); and we ended up staying over night at Nanny & Papa's house on Saturday. We had a great time seeing everyone, including Shawn and Spuds and were glad we spent that extra day up there.

While we were gone, Aaron, Uncle Pete and our neighbor Ken worked on finishing our fireplace project and getting the trim up in Charlie's room. It was awesome to come home and see the progress (a new post with before/after pics to come).

Shelley and Charlotte at Tori's softball practice - it was c-c-cold!

Goofballs

Fun in the tub

Group hug

QT with Papa

Easter Weekend 2010

April 1st - 4th 2010

We were heading up to Vermont on Thursday evening for Easter weekend this year. We had some Easter goodies for her, so gave them to her here before leaving.


Of all the gifts in the basket, she loved her new rubber ducky the most - I think she knows it's for her bath and we all know she LOVES her baths.


We drove up to Vermont and Charlie slept the whole way since we didn't get on the road until 9pm! She did wake up to visit with Nanny and Pap when we got there at midnight - but after everyone else went to bed, Mommy was up with her until 2am!

On Easter Sunday, we got Charlie in her pretty dress and had a little photo shoot - such a ham, she is!



The whole family was there and Charlotte had fun with all of her cousins. She didn't understand why she was walking around looking for eggs, but she enjoyed them once they were in her hands.



Selena, Shelley and I got our annual Easter photo taken - drinks for all this year!! (No pregnancies this year)


We attempted to get a photo of all the cousins - this is always tough with the little ones. This is the best shot:
Still cute!!!

And we didn't want Shawn and Spuds to be left out of any photos since they love them SO much, so here's a picture of the 5 of us kids.

Another great weekend - we got to see friends and family and had wonderful weather too.