Little Cindy Lou

I've been woefully neglect in getting things posted to my blog, but I didn't want to miss posting on my sister Lori's shower. Lori is due to have a little girl at the end of July. This is her first baby, and I lovingly refer to her as "Cindy Lou" - named after her future favorite aunt, and her daddy!

this would be the perfect time to have a little shower for Lori. Her "official" shower was beingBack at the end of May, everyone came here to celebrate my dad's retirement. I decided that held the following weekend, and since none of us live near her (at least not yet!), we weren't going to be able to make it. So, with my sister-in-law Jennifer, we planned a mini-surprise shower for Lori the afternoon of the retirement party. My mom brought Lori over under the pretext of just having the girls eating lunch together since the men were out hunting for food,playing golf. Daniella and David came over as well.

Needless to say, Lori was surprised, and touched (especially since she didn't get pink - Lori hates pink).

It was nice to spend these precious moments with my little sister, getting ready to welcome her new little girl into this world. I love you Wadi-Bet!

Club McDonald Opens for the 2007 Season

My parents' philosophy since most of their children have flown the nest is that, "if you build it, they will come". They are referring of course, to their home.

We have jokingly referred to their home as "Club McDonald" for the past few years. They have an amazing extended deck, good meals every Sunday, a hot tub and of course, the pool. Initially the pool was for Kellie, but as grandchildren have come on the scene, the purpose of said pool has morphed. We call it "Grampa's pool", because my dad, just like his dad, loves the water - whether it is his pool or "his" ocean.

This pool season opened like normal with Brian and Sean hanging out on the steps, but this year we added Mr. Colin to the mix.

Brian jumped into the water with gusto. Sean was reticent and mostly hung out on the steps. Colin really seemed to love the water - a big bathtub, what's not to love?

We're sad that the era of "Club McDonald" is coming to an end. Well, not an end, it's just being relocated. We've had a wonderful run and will continue to enjoy spending time with Grampa, Gramma and Aunt Kellie as long as we can.

Colin Eats!

So I'm about a month late in posting this new and exciting adventure for this little guy. May 20th, Colin had his first experience with "real" food. He's a pro! We started with the old standard, rice cereal, and have moved on through peas, green beans and are working on carrots. He is having a grand time eating like his big brothers, and they are loving "helping" feed Colin!

Hey, is that what I think it is?

Not so sure about this stuff...

Ah, the good life - I'm feeding myself already.

Okay, it was yummy!

How many brothers does it take to feed a baby?

I love my big brother, Sean!

What 2 Looks Like...

Just another day in the life of a 2 year old!

Happy Father's Day, Dad

This may be cheating, but to hear how great I think my dad is, go here. Happy Father's Day, Dad! I love you.

CP

Father's Day 2007

A little over 7 years ago (7 years and 5 days to be exact), I met the man who would become the father of my children. Did I know it on the day? No, but something about this man drew me in. I could tell by the way he talked about his brothers and sister, that he was dedicated to family. This was such an important factor to me given the close knit family that I grew up in.

While I didn't know on June 12, 2000 that Chris would become my husband and the father of 3 (so far) phenomenal boys, it didn't take me a real long time to figure it out. By about August, I was pretty sure that this was the guy for me. A couple of months later, he figured the same thing out as well - women tend to get these things quicker, don't we?

Chris and I were only married a year before we decided to start a family. He was the greatest daddy right from the start. He went to every single OB appointment with me - even the staff in the doctor's office was impressed. He read books on fatherhood. He went to the birthing classes with me even though they were all the way at Georgetown because I wanted to go to the class that my former nurse practitioner was teaching. And of course he was there for the birth of our first child, Brian. It was a pretty scary time in the L&D room. Brian's heart rate dropped, they were doing all kinds of manipulations to get him to a safe level, and through it all, there was Chris, praying that our child and I were going to be fine. When Brian was born, Chris cried; tears of joy at becoming a dad. You see, Chris wasn't so sure he would ever get to be a dad. He had almost given up on finding the right person (me) and getting married. And being the good Catholic man that he is, if he wasn't married, he wasn't having a child.

Chris has continued to amaze me at the kind of father he is to our boys. He's not afraid of getting in there and changing a poopy diaper. He's also been the one in charge of umbilical cord stumps and circumcision care (yuck!). He will sit with a baby on his lap and read him a story, and he will rock a child for an hour trying to get him to go to sleep. He wants to be the first one to give a baby "real" food, and will always choose doing holding a child over anything else. He will swing the boys in the air, and let them have a "daddy - take - down" - his own special game with them. He loves to play with the boys and be silly with them. When he walks in the door at the end of his work day, he gets down to their level so they can run and give him hugs. He cherishes the time he gets to spend with his boys, and I am so proud to call him the father of my children, and wouldn't want it any other way.

Scattergories

I was stopping by Dawn's blog, and saw this meme of sorts and decided since I haven't posted in awhile that I would get back into the game with this one. Thanks Dawn!

Rules: Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following...They MUST be real places, names, things...NOTHING made up! If you can't think of anything, skip it. Try to use different answers if the Person before you had the same 1st initial. You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question. Once you're done, forward on to friends and back to the person who sent it to you. Now Go!

Your Name: Cindy

1. Famous singer/band: Chicago

2. 4 letter word: Card

3. Street name: Canterberry Road

4. Color: Cerulean

5. Gifts/presents: China

6. Vehicle: Camry

7. Items on a menu: Cake

8. Boy Name: Chris

9. Girl Name: Cathy

10. Movie Title: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (and Cars for my kids)

11. Drink: Coke

12. Occupation: Chef

13. Flower: Calla Lily

15. Magazine: Catholic Men's Quarterly

16. US City: Chattanooga, TN

17. Pro Sports Team: Cowboys

18. Reason for Being Late for Work: Car accident

19. Something U Throw Away: Crumbs

20. Things you shout: Come here, now!

21. Cartoon Character: Captain Underpants (never seen this, but was at a total loss)

If you read this and want to play, consider yourself tagged. Let me know so I can check you out!