hello, little one!

On December 8, 2010 we welcomed our little boy into the world.

He decided to make his entrance a little early :) This was fine by me for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, he came at 38 weeks on the dot. This means that he was considered a full term baby which was great news! Secondly, I am so pleased that he will not have to deal with a Christmas birthday for his entire life!



As you can imagine, we are overjoyed and totally enamored with the little guy. We all seem to be coping with the sleep deprivation fairly well although I am definitely looking forward to a time when I can sleep more than 2 hours at a time! And the thought of sleeping through the night? Well, that is too much for me to even fathom right now! The excitement would be too much!

Amusement

While in the mountains... we went to a little amusement park- to be discussed further at some random time in the future when I finally get around to it.



The boys (well, most of them) decided to hop on a ride or two.



This one was called "The Tornado" and it was basically a cross between the teacup ride and the giant swing ride you see at amusement parks.



You hop inside this little round pod which has a wheel in the middle. That wheel controls how fast your specific pod will spin. Meanwhile, the entire pod is swung around in a circle along the perimeter of the ride.



Did I explain that well? No? Sorry, I haven't had much sleep and, ummm, also I don't know how to explain it.



The boys loved it...



And it looked pretty fun too! As long as you don't think about whether or not the maintenance on a machine like this is up to date, whether your pod will unhinge itself and go flying over the edge of the mountain, etc. You know, things like that.



I'm pretty sure they weren't thinking about that.



They probably weren't either

Madeline

It's been a while since I've bombarded you with animals... so, there is no time like the present!



And before some of you start freaking out... she is not our dog!!



But she is quite precious, and she allowed me to snap a few photos of her before running off to find something better to do.



Not that I can blame her! I'm really not very interesting at all...



So, if you're having a bad day at work, take a look at Miss Madeline and hopefully her precious face will cheer you up!



Or eat an Oreo. Whatever works for you.

Roaring Gap :: Kiddos

I tried to grab some shots of the niece/nephews... but seriously, how am I supposed to work with this mangy group of whippersnappers??



This is probably my favorite of the boys.





And this one? Well, it was sweet that they were sitting like that. I'm not so sure about that facial expression though :)

Backyard Football

Backyard football.... is actually inaccurate because it took place in the front yard. Speaking of which, why is "backyard" capable of being one word while "front yard" must be two? Someone please explain this to me. Thank you.



My eldest nephew, F , is quite the little athlete so he and DM tossed the ol' pigskin around for a little bit.



And see that garden in the background? The one with the deer fence surround? I'm pretty sure DM only had to lift the little guy in there once to retrieve a stray pass. Let's count that as a win, shall we?





Meanwhile, I'm pretty sure DM had to retrieve the ball from the "woods" a few extra times...



Eventually, little H decided he wanted to play. Unfortunately for him he ended up playing Monkey in the Middle for the first several minutes.



He's running!




He's ready!



And?




Yeah, ummm, no dice.




But look at that determination!!



Finally it is his time to shine.



It is possible...



... that he might need a little help on his technique.



But he still gets an A+ for cuteness.

Roaring Gap :: Two

While in Roaring Gap, I tried to snag a few pictures my youngest niece Miss L. But, she pretty much wanted nothing to do with that idea. We were able to coax her to stand and look towards the camera but our attempts at making her smile were futile :)



But as you can see, she is super cute! The entire thing only lasted a couple of minutes, if that, and while she did not smile once for the camera... she definitely did entertain us!






At one point Mama asked her to "show us your teeth"... meaning smile. Well, she opened wide and literally did show us her teeth!







And then she was finished indulging our fantasies of smiling little girls dressed in pink... On to more important things. Blowing up balloons!