Welcome Summer!

We have REALLY come a long way!
March 2007
May 2009

As summer approaches we have so much to look forward to. Tommorrow is the first day of June and we are starting out by getting a new front porch put on our house. The construction starts at 12:00 pm. It's funny because when we bought this house 6 years ago my main goal and first thing on my list was to have the front porch done over. Now 6 years later it is one of the last things we are doing. Oh well. Its finally time and I can't wait until it's finished. All it will need is 2 rocking chairs and it will be complete. Stay tuned for the finished product. We also have several weekend get togethers this summer. We are doing our annual NY weekend with James's college buddies and families. We are going to New Hampshire(Lake Sunapee) to see our family. I am in one of my best friend's weddings in August, which means bridal shower this weekend and a bachelorette party.Yeah! Beach, parks, picnics, swimming- just to name a few.

For those of you reading our blog and don't know our story, Olivia was born with a unilateral cleft lip and palate. She has undergone 3 surgeries and this summer with be encountering her 4th. Hopefully after this one we will be done until she is 8 years old. She is doing great and continues to amaze us everyday. We have come a long way in 2 years and we owe it all to the strength and courage of this little girl. We also owe our thanks to Connecticut Childrens Medical Center. We have become more involved parents and James is now sitting in on the parent board of CCMC. I have decided to volunteer some of my time up there and hopefully give back to the people who give children a second chance.

The Zoo

To celebrate the nice weather and welcome summer, we took a trip to the zoo with Willis, Megan, and Logan. The kids were so good and had so much fun. They did a lot of walking and saw tons of animals. We finished up with some lunch and we didn't even make it to the highway and Olivia was sound asleep in her carseat. Now thats a good day!

Smores

Memorial Day we decided to have a little picnic. Just the family and it was great. Despite the rain. It did manage to stop raining so we could get in some SMORE time with our new firepit. Yum!!! I think everyone enjoyed themselves by the look and "gook" on their faces. The only one who didn't really enjoy their day was Olivia. We later discoverd she had a slight fever and was sick for the rest of the week. Poor thing. All is well now and she is back to her 2 year old ways.

Happy Mother's Day

We celebrated my third Mothers Day and enjoyed the weekend with my husband and daughter.
I really wanted to go to the Tulip Festival in Albany but we were a little skeptical of the weather.
We decided to do a little shopping, church, breakfast and dinner that evening. It was perfect! I celebrated with my two favorite people. What's better then that? To make it even better, James and Olivia gave me the zoom lens for my camera. That truly makes up for missing the Tulip Festival. I guess I am going to have to take more pictures for the blog.
Tulip Festival or bust next year!

P.S. We did spend time with each of our mothers also. Can't forget them! Happy Mother's Day
to all the mothers out there.

Look How Big Banner Is!

Does everyone remember us taking care of Banner my nephew's Christmas present? Well he is now twice the size and just as big as our 3 1/2 year old chocolate lab. Check out the first picture
in comparison to the last 2 pictures. Can you believe it? CUTE!

Dec 2008
May 2009

The New Playscape

Finally after James put most of this together in the fall(with the help of some friends) the winter came to quickly and they couldn't finish the slide. This weekend he finally put the finishing touches on Olivia's backyard wonderland and she LOVES it! Thanks Willis for helping James with this much overdue project.

Swim Lessons

Olivia and Logan are finishing up 5 weeks of swim lessons tomorrow. At first they both were not to sure of the water but now love their Saturday morning pool time. Livi will be happy because I signed her up for 7 more weeks.