Old photos

I moved a bunch of old photos from my old geocities website over to the photobucket account. It's just easier to have everything in one place. I put them all into the "other photos" section with no rhyme or reason. Maybe I'll get around to adding captions, but till then it will be a true "other" file of stuff. The one above is of me and my sister Elizabeth with Santa at the North Pole. My it was warm at the North Pole that day!

We're still waiting for Nicky's teeth to start coming in. He's teething like crazy so it seems like they'll be here anytime but still no sign of toothbuds in there. But that's not stopping him from eating fingerfoods when we let him! He's had soft bits of bread, the gerber fruit puffs, mashed potatoes, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, orange bits and banana. We might try some overcooked pasta soon. I'm afraid to give him anything that really requires more chewing than mashing like beans or peas yet. But I'm sure he'll have those too before the year is out.

Thought I'd put in a plug for JM's website. It's at: www.jmmott.com and if you go to the 'custom artwork' page you'll see a cute painting of Nicky from Thanksgiving. You also might recognize a few of the pet portraits on there. ;)

The Christmas tree is UP

And it looks great! Needs more ornaments though. Right now we only have Tom's mom's ornaments on it. Tom hasn't found our Christmas stuff in the storage unit yet. But hopefully they'll turn up before too long. I'm so excited to decorate for Christmas! We used to really decorate the place up years ago, but we haven't done any decorating since 1999. That was our first Christmas with dogs, and it was just too hard with the pups. Cats just knocked over the tree and played with the ornaments till they went under the sofa. Dogs eat the tree and the ornaments and then puke them all over the place. But now the pups are locked away in the kitchen/dining area and we just got another gate to keep Nicky safely in the den (because he's mastered the two steps up to the living room!) and we're safe to decorate! YAY!

I think I posted before that I left the battery charger for the camera at my Mom's place. They'll be mailing it to me soon, but till then I've been using Tom's cellphone to take some pics. I have a few from last night up now. They are of him and the tree and at dinner. He's just starting to wave hi and bye occasionally. It's so cute! I promise to get up photos of the tree and Nicky as soon as I get the charger. AND I'll make a new tour video so you can see what the place looks like now.

Hope Everyone is planning to come to visit on Christmas Day! We're having it here at our house!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well we've had our first Thanksgiving in our new house with our new baby. :) I never thought I'd see the day!

Nicky had lots of fun playing with everyone. I think Maryellen and Scot both had a nice Nicky-fix while they were here. Hopefully they're now addicted and we'll be seeing them a lot. It might be true- they are coming back in 3 weeks!

I have lots of photos thanks to JM. I was silly and left the battery charger for my camera at Liz's house! Can you believe it? So JM brought her camera and took some fabulous pictures for us. They're already linked up on the November page. Click the "Nicky's Photos" link on the right to see them.

The one above is one of my favorites!

I hope everyone else had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and I hope to see you all at Christmas & Hannukah!

Thanksgiving

It's tomorrow! Can you believe it's finally here? I'm so excited to have Nicky's first Thanksgiving!

Last weekend I took Friday and Monday off to give me a 4 day weekend. Nicky and I drove to mom, Liz and Jodi's house for a visit. ALL BY OURSELVES! Whew! That's the longest I've ever been anywhere with just me and Nicky. AND I've only driven with him in the car about 2x before this. Usually Tom's driving and I'm in the backseat so I was a little nervous about driving with him back there all alone. We made it though. Each way took us about 5 hours. I had to stop midway to give him a bottle both times too. But we made it safe and sound.

We had a great visit with everyone. Jodi was really great with Nicky! He just loved playing with her. Liz was just so happy to have him around to cuddle with, and she really enjoyed showing him off to everyone at her work. Mom was just in Nicky-heaven and got lots of cuddle time with the boy. I think she really enjoyed watching him play and reading to him, and showing him off to all the people at her church on Sunday.

I tried to take lots of pictures. I put several in the November folder (click Nicky's Photos on the right) for everyone to enjoy. I have lots more, but mostly we were in our PJs so I think those will just have to stay with me. ;)

Yesterday after work Nicky was dressed so cute in his little courderoy outfit. I tried to get Tom to take a picture of Nicky and I in front of the house but Nicky was hungry and distracted and Tom was having camera issues. Aw well. At least you can see the pretty shawl and scarf I crocheted for myself last winter. I made it extra big to cover my pg tummy last year, but it's a great shawl!

So anyway, we're getting all ready for Thanksgiving. Hopefully we'll soon be setting up a Christmas tree too! It's been so long since I've decorated for Christmas! I'll have to try to find all my decorations! And I've got to make Nicky a stocking! Looks like it's going to be a busy few weeks coming up!

Happy Holidays!

Thanksgiving is right around the corner

Thanksgiving is coming up fast! Tom is home with his mom getting ready for the holiday. I'm in Lake Placid visiting with my mom, Liz and Jodi. Nicky is with me, and man is Tom having withdrawls! Well, he hasn't really admitted it yet, but I KNOW he must be! I drove here with Nicky (4 hours in the car!) on Friday and I'm staying until Monday. Nicky is really enjoying himself, but misses his daddy. I have a little movie I'll put up when I get home of him kissing a picture in a book that we think he found to look like his daddy. Then we had daddy talk to him on the phone and you should see his sad little face!

Anyway, we have some modifications to the Thanksgiving menu and guestlist. Looks like my mom, Liz and Jodi won't be able to come. Jessie, my dad and Gwen can't come either. So we're now down to 8 people including Nicky. Tom is going to scale down the menu accordingly.

So anyway, movies and photos will be forthcoming as soon as I get home. I can't get them off the camera until I'm home. Bummer! That also means I can't empty out the memory card and take more movies! It's only Saturday and I've already filled up the big card.

We have a tub again

Finally. The plumbers fixed the drain and we once again have both hot water and a tub/shower to use it in. Thank goodness!

Update on Thanksgiving: It sounds like my Mom, Liz and Jodi won't be able to make it over here. I'm heading down there this Friday, so maybe we'll just have to be thankful a week early. Hopefully everyone else can make it though! Below is the guestlist along with a menu:

Tom: turkey, beef tenderloin, 2 kinds of stuffing, mashed potatoes, butternut squash, sweetpotato casserole, brocolli with a cheese sauce, crudites with hot asiago & artichoke dip

Donna: sugar free fruit trifle, chocolate cheesecake, 3 kinds of cranberry sause/relishes, molded jello & fruit salad

Angela: green bean casserole

Nicky: entertainment

Dad & JM: pumpkin pie

Dad & Gwen (Jessie?): bread/rolls

Maryellen & Scot: Spinach dip bread bowl

Whew! Did I forget something or someone? If so, please call me or Tom and we'll adjust the menu & list accordingly! The more the merrier!

The plumber is coming! The plumber is coming!

Well, the water heater IS working, so at least we have hot water. Unfortunately the bathtub drain is NOT working, and so we can't actually use the tub or shower. It's been a long few days of spit baths and washing my hair in the kitchen sink. You know, I remember that was a big fun thing when I was a kid. It's not really all that fun anymore. And I figure in order for us to be able to lure anyone to come for Thanksgiving I'd better have a shower available for them. So Tom's called the plumber to come fix the drain and hopefully we'll have a working tub this week. Now if everything else can just STAY fixed and working for a while! Sheesh!

Now Abbey's been in some kind of hip/back pain over the long weekend that has her screaming sometimes and fine sometimes. We can't afford to take her to the vet. She's had this before (not quite so acute though) and we took her to the emergency vet (because of COURSE it was a weekend evening) for 250$ to be told it wasn't anything they could find, and then the regular vet the next day to be told they couldn't find anything either. *sigh* She's in obvious pain and it seems to be her hips or her back near her hips. She absolutely screams sometimes when we have to get her up and walking. But then after moving around a bit outside she starts running around like there is nothing wrong. It's very frustrating. We actually took her with us to see Tom's mom this weekend so that we could keep an eye on her. It seems to be worse when she's on slippery floors, like linoleum or parkay and somewhat better on carpet, so we've got her in the carpeted section of the house now, while Benjamin and Sampson are in the kitchen/dining area. We'll just have to see how it goes.

So anyway, if bad things come in threes then we're due for some good luck. Between the water heater, the drain, and Abbey's pain that should be 3 and now everything should go smoothly for a while. Right?

Anyway, for the fun stuff see the photos and movies links. We went to visit Nana and then stopped by for a little visit with Gayle's crew. Nicky and Colin had a cute time together. And Nicky really took to Jerry! You'll just have to see the pics. I also put up two new movies. One of Nicky being quite vocal at Nana's house and one of him having a little fit in his crib. You can tell he's trying to test me and fake crying. He can't help but laugh at the raspberries I blew at him. He did finally take a nap after fussing a bit. But man, that night he had a full blown tantrum when it was bedtime. Tom and I managed to organize the closet in our bedroom during that one. :)

So who's coming for Thanksgiving?? I'm counting on the following folks:
Mom, Liz, Jodi (I hope!)
Dad & Gwen (and maybe Jessie?)
Dad & JM
Maryellen & Scot
Nana
Me, Tom & Nicky

Can anyone else make it?? Tom's got QUITE the menu worked up and Nana is coming on Monday night to help him with all the cooking and stuff. I'm making a green bean thingy and watching the baby. :) I get all the good jobs.
Email us to let us know if you can come!

Tom is awesome

Of course you probably already knew that, but this time he's really awesome! Tuesday when I got home I had to take a COLD shower because there was no hot water pressure. Cold was fine though. (Lucky me)

So Tom tried Wednesday to flush out the pipes in case it was blocked or full of sediment. No luck. We ended up going to Lowe's to buy a new waterheater. We went ahead and got the 40 gallon instead of 30 gallon (so it was taller than the old one). Now the waterheater was 209.00. Installation was 199.00 and delivery was another 59.00. AND even though their website says same or next day installation, the guy that "helped" us said there was no way it would be that soon. (I say "helped" because he walked off to get us someone to help us get the heavy thing and never returned. I watched him helping others and talking to other employees for about 30 minutes before Tom came with his own dolly and got it by himself.)

So we decided to take it home ourselves and Tom would try to install it himself. A perfect stranger helped Tom heave it up into the SUV while I held Nicky. And then Tom was able to use his Dad's dolly (which we had borrowed for the move) to get the waterheater into the house. Then he figured out the sizes and types of pipes he'd need and headed back to Lowe's. And guess what...

We have hot water!

He totally installed a new water heater all by himself! AND it fixed the problem too! He just saved us 200 bucks! YAY! AND I took a HOT shower too! I'm pretty excited about the whole thing if you couldn't tell. :) Now if the rest of the house and appliances will just stay working for a while so I can pay off the Lowe's card...


Other fun stuff:
Nicky learned to use a sippy cup Wednesday too! He'd been only chewing on the cup spout and wouldn't suck on it. So his brilliant mommy (that's me!) put some pears on the spout and when he was slurping the pears off he figured out that water came out too! He loved it! I was able to go grab the camera and tape some of it too. Check Nicky's movies link to the right.

The other thing Nicky's learning is that he can pull up to standing on the sofa or on mommy's legs. So while I'm sitting on the sofa with my legs out he walks between my legs up to the sofa, turns around and walks back to my feet, etc. That's all he wants to do lately too- pull up to stand and try to walk. None of this crawling business, although he is pretty much scooting around so much you can pretty much call it crawling. I didn't get movies of the walking thing, but I snapped a few pictures in sequence.

I think that's about it. Nicky's Nana is coming to visit this weekend and hopefully I'll get a LOT of organizing and unpacking done. You can see exactly what a mess the house is on the tour video I took yesterday. I'll have to do another one when the house is clean!

All moved in in time for Halloween!

We did it! With a lot of help from Liz, Jodi, Ian and my mom we finally moved into the new house! I have a few pictures up of Nicky that show the house, but I'll have to take some OF the house to really show what it looks like. Maybe later today. :)

The time change went pretty smoothly for Nicky. He's up a little early every day, but that's ok. Being so close to work now is AWESOME! I've been EARLY to work every day this week! YAY! AND that means I get to come home early too! EVEN BIGGER YAY!

We went to a pumpkin carving party on Sunday night after moving. It was fun, but it didn't take long for Nicky to poop out. He had a big weekend. Photos are up in the October section. (click "Nicky's Photos" link on the right)

He also had some fun Sunday afternoon meeting the baby in the mirror. We have my dresser mirror on the floor and we sat down to see what that baby was doing. We had a lot of this going on:


On Halloween itself we went to Boo at the Zoo at SFCC's teaching zoo. It was fairly campy and low budget. A lot of cardboard. But it will be so fun for him when he gets older. We took pics, but you can see that Nicky wasn't that into it this year. We got home around 7-7:30 and I was all ready for Trick or Treaters! I was sooo excited to finally be in a place where we would get them! We ordered pizza too, which was just AWESOME! We haven't lived where we could get delivery for 8 years! But in the end, we only got 2 carloads of kids. About 6 total. AND they weren't even dressed up. I was so disappointed. Maybe we just have to be home earlier in the evening next year. Well I'll have LOTS of candy to share with my co-workers this week!

Happy Halloween! Can you BELIEVE it is NOVEMBER already??