HONK!!!!

If you've spent ten minutes with Matthew you know he loves the movie Cars. For Christmas he got a set of tractors and of course he has all of the Cars characters so we spent the day re-enacting the scene from the movie where Mater and McQueen scare the tractors and they fall over. Everytime the tractors would fall down he would squeal "do it again! do it again!"

He took them to nap with him and had them lay next to him on the pillow.

Lining up the tractors...they have no idea what's coming...poor innocent tractors, just workin' the fields and doing their jobs.


HONK!!!


Poor tractors...


In other news. One great thing about our development is that we can walk into town to the park, the ice cream store, the library, the ice cream store, a walking trail...the ice cream store.



Spoons are just in the way.


Ice cream cheese!

Jingle All The Way

Matthew has taken a liking to Christmas songs. In fact he sings them all day long. As the season closes and we return to regular music I thought I better catch him singing on video before he forgets.

Enjoy!

The Year in Review

The days are long but the years are short. I've read that somewhere before although I'm not sure where. They are words that resonate with me. As I sit here mourning the passing of the holidays and anxiously awaiting the next big fun event in our lives I force myself to stop and remember that life is made up of more than the holidays, birthdays and trips that pass us by. Life is the day to day. The breakfasts and dinners, the errands we run and the seemingly endless playing and story reading. It's in the fine details of daily life that memories are made.

This last year was a good one. We started off with a blizzard (or two) and Matthew had fun in the snow.



In March we went out to Pittsburgh and visited Matt's old family home. His parents moved away from their a few years ago and going back brought back a lot of memories. We took Matthew to his first hockey game and one of the last ones in the old Mellon Arena.



April brought us the first of one of our many trips to the beach. Fortunately for all of us Matthew was more enthused as the beach season went on. The first one didn't go so well.



As a surprise for daddy for Father's Day we went to a Lehigh Valley Ironpigs game! Matthew had a blast and loved to watch baseball, even if it was a super hot day.



Fourth of July found us in Ocean City, NJ with Sarah and Wayne which is our yearly tradition. Weather was beautiful and the beach and boardwalk was packed! It took us forever to get home but it was still a great day!



July 9th came, as it does every year, and this year our little baby turned two and became less and less like a baby. I busied myself with his party and all the celebration to keep my mind off the fact that like I said earlier, those years go by so fast.



Following Matthew's birthday was our third year of life without the twins. They're always in our hearts and never far from our minds and to celebrate them we released balloons at Matthew's party. We also let Matthew make an animal at Build a Bear.

In August came an always anticipated time of year, our annual trip to the Outer Banks. This year was an amazing time with friends and we are looking forward to next year's trip. One of the biggest highlights from last vacation is that Matthew learned to swim! He was so proud of himself and was a little fishy.



This place...this place heals my soul.



This kid? Yeah, he heals my soul too...



Summer was full of all sorts of fun. Beach trips, strawberry picking, going to the zoo and playing with Pop-pop.





The fall was a lot of fun too. We visited State College, PA where Matthew informed us not only was he going to school there, he was taking the bus. We got to meet Matthew's great-great Aunt's, which was a real treat!



In November we went to the airport and picked up our beloved cousin Andy along with Uncle Jim and Aunt Charla. Matthew loved having Andy here and still talks about him a lot. We had a lot of fun. We visited DC, went to a lights festival, celebrated Grammy and Pop-pop's 50th Wedding Anniversary as well as Pop-pop's birthday! We also went to see the Liberty Bell and just spent some good time together. It was sad dropping them off at the airport and we miss them.



The holidays were busy as holidays tend to be. We went to Kozair's Christmas Village and our annual trip out to Hershey park. We spent time with family and friends and were blessed by the life that we live. Matthew had an awesome Christmas. He was slightly overwhelmed but had a blast opening all of his gifts.



It's been a wonderful year. I hope and pray this next year is just as fulfilling. And fun. And I hope all of you have a wonderful year as well.

Goodbye 2010!

2010 was a great year for our family full of lots of fun an adventures. I wish I had been better at blogging about them all but that does not good because as the old saying goes, you can't turn back time.

It is part of my new year's goals to be better with blogging in the next year. One day soon I'll catch you all up on what's been going on here. We had a great holiday and have spent a fun week together. Matt's company closes between Christmas and New Year's so he's getting lots of good quality time with us. He even said the other night after putting Matthew to bed that he has a new respect for me after dealing with an energetic two year old all day. Not that Matthew is a bad kid but he is two which seems to be a constant battle between need need need and "I do it yaself!" (which is how Matthew says he would prefer to do things on his own.

Well that's all the time I have for now. We are having a little party tonight, just the three of us. We're going to make party foods and play some games and celebrate all the good that came this year while looking forward to all the blessings our way in the new year! This year our family has a wedding and someone (no, not me) is expecting a baby!! But that's not my news to share.

In closing I'll leave you with this saying from Edith Lovejoy Pierce: "We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day."

God bless you all and I hope you all have an amazing 2011!

Portrait of a Birthday Party

Okay so if you thought the Halloween post was late, wait until you read this one! Yep, I'm posting pictures from his Birthday party, teehee. It was a wonderful day and I just wanted to share.

We woke up that morning and the rain that was a threat was delivering as promised. Oh boy, it was a torrential down pour. Not good for the birthday party that was being set up outside! Fortunately at noon the clouds parted and the rain stopped! About that time Sarah and Wayne, David and Jessica and Mary got there and I pretty much shut down. Through all the work and worry I was just done. They all stepped in and got the rest of it pulled together along with Christi who showed up not too long afterwards.

So the year of one is gone, along with the party and we are well in to the year of being two (and yeah, maybe thinking of next year's party), but here are the pictures anyway! Enjoy!!

Happy Halloween!

Yeah, yeah, I'm about a month late on this, but I come bearing a few cute pictures if that helps. Life has just gotten busy and I really regret not being better about blogging. I love reading back over this blog and seeing how much we've all grown as a family.

So to catch you up on all the happenings in our home...

We went to the zoo...


and squeezed the last drops of warmth out of the summer...


We went to Hershey Park with Sarah and Wayne and had a lot of fun!


One weekend we went out to Altoona and Matthew finally got to meet his great great Aunts Betty and Marie!


On the way home from there we stopped at Penn State...Matthew told us he was going to take the bus there.


We did the obligatory pumpkin patch where Matthew surprised us by going on this giant slide.


He loved helping to pick out the pumpkins this year.


Halloween was touch and go since any previous attempt at wearing his costume resulted in a monkey meltdown.


All the time I spent telling him that if he wanted candy he had to wear his costume must have made an impression because as Halloween arrived and I asked him if he was ready to wear his costume he shocked us all by saying, "yes."


Pay no attention to the lollipop in his hand. Hey, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

So there you have it, our fall. Next week is sure to bring lots of fun and adventures as we go to the airport tomorrow to pick up Matt's brother and his family! We're so excited and can't wait to have some good family time together!

If I don't get back here before (which lets face it I won't) from our family to yours...Happy Thanksgiving!

Ugh, I Did It Again

We've been busy enjoying life and haven't been posting here. I really need to be better about it. To make up for it here's a video of Matthew playing with his train set. It's a long one but worth it if you wait until the end!