Our exciting news....

Okay, I'm sure most of you know what the news is by now, but I'm sorry to keep the rest of you waiting. So here it is....










We have our house!!!

We still haven't paid for it, thanks to our wonderful appraiser who is taking her time and of course under appraised us...but that's another story. Mark and I are absolutely in love with it and it already feels like home for us. We can't wait to move in...but that will take quite a few more weeks...again, another long story.

I do have more pictures though...and more to come as the rest of the house gets completed!

The crane lifting our house...

There goes the front half...My dad holding the house up with just a hammer....

Our front door....Jack in the window running away (he thought I was going to leave him when he saw me outside)

The spare bathroom...
Our AWESOME kitchen...
Dining room...Our walk-in closet....

So there you have it...our brand new house! Very exciting stuff!!

Wedding!

I realize I'm a few days late....but I have over 430 pictures of the wedding to go through that I haven't even scratched the surface of them!! Anyway, if you were not aware, Mark's mom got married on Saturday!! I was so graciously asked to be their photographer so of course I have lots of them to share with you! I, however, was very nervous about being their photographer...I didn't want to mess up my mother-in-laws pictures...so I asked Barbie to help. She, being the absolutely amazing person she is, offered to help and provide the cameras!! So, without further adieu, here are just SOME of the pictures taken of that beautiful day....

(the first few are edited but the rest are not...excuse the bad color in some of them...)

Coming down the aisle...
Vows...
Rings...

Newly married....
Obviously edited....I think this one is so cute =)

The wedding party...
Showing Jack where to run...
Jack and Kerrigan
Yummy...cake...
My dad, mom and Jack...Barbie made him laugh really hard!
First dance sung by Aunt Missy...
Justin...
Jack and daddy waving...
Jack and Grammy...
Locomotion...
Jack, my little dancing fool!
Getting ready for the garter toss...
Mark and I....(insert "awwwww" here)
Singing at the end of the day..
I know it's not much, so I'll try to post more another night. Oh...and I'll also try to post pictures of our other exciting news!! (I'm sure most of you know what it is....but I'll put the pictures up tomorrow night for everyone to see...and no, I'm not pregnant =) he he)

Hmmm....I guess a title would be good

First things first....progress on the house. We now have part of our walls in the basement and maybe a floor? It was supposed to be poured today, but with the weather, I don't think it happened. Anyway, here's our driveway with a beautiful golf cart in it and the NYSEG guys across the road. We will soon have power!

Our walls....
We had quite the surprise on Friday. I woke up to see Jack not in his bed at 7 in the morning...very odd. Turns out he was with Grammy in her bed because he woke up a few times in the middle of the night crying...and I never heard him. Strike one on the day for Mommy. Next, I walk downstairs to see the couch open and someone sleeping on it. I assumed it was one of Cliff's girls, but as I looked closer I noticed it was the person who drives this truck....
Yep...Uncle Justin came home! Jack was SO excited to see him. He came up to surprise a couple of his friends and the only person who knew about it was Grammy. Mark was pretty excited to see him too, of course. Turns out Justin doesn't have to be back to work until after Grammy's wedding, so he'll be around all week. Jack is pretty happy about that.

Jack also got the chance to check out Justin's truck up close....he thoroughly enjoyed it.

What a big boy...
"Honk Honk"
Since Grammy's wedding is coming up on Saturday, I've been busy practicing taking all different kinds of pictures, just so I can be prepared. Barbie so graciously let me borrow her Canon 10D (SOOOOOOO much cooler than my camera! Thanks, Barbie!!) with a few of her lenses so I can be ready for the wedding and another wedding we have coming up at the end of August. So, here are a few of the pictures I've been busy taking:

Homemade playdough....I love making a mess!!



Playing outside with Kerrigan....
Yes, I of course photoshopped this one....I thought it looked pretty cool.

Check out the next blog....it'll have pictures from Grammy and Gramp's wedding!! Enjoy the beautiful weather this week!! (at least that's what we're supposed to have!)

More summer happenings....

Lots happening and not much battery life left on the computer to explain everything, so of course I have lots of pictures for you to see what we have been doing.

Potty training is actually going well. We've had a few days now with no accidents, and Jack is getting much better at telling us when he has to go and holding it until he sits on the potty. He's very proud of himself every time he goes, and that seems to be the reward for him...just the excitement everyone shows when he uses the potty. We are still working on number 2, but we've had two success with that...so we'll take it.

We've been trying to keep busy, but with this horrible weather we've been having we haven't had the chance to do too much except play in the house or do some shopping or visiting with family.

We were able to head to the fair when it was in PLattsburgh, but of course it rained the whole time. Jack still had fun.
Trying to pet the goats...

One big happy family.... lol
On one of the nicest days of the summer, we had a Jack and Jill party for Aimee and Jaramy at the beach...talk about lucking out with the weather!

The happy couple with the boys...Erika and I were so proud...we decorated the cake ourselves!
My little boy being a ham...
Playing frisbee...
Awww....this doesn't happen that often, that's why I needed a picture of it!
We also had a chance to do some blueberry "picking". I say that because Jack did more eating than picking, but we still had a great time!
Not too sure what he's doing here....
Handfulls at a time....
Enjoying his apple from Grammy. I know the picture is a little blurry, but I still love his face!
Oh yeah...and the big thing that has been going on is the construction of our new house! Very exciting stuff! The road to our house and Katy's house was started last week and they are now in the process of pouring our walls for our foundation. I don't have too many pictures because every time Mark goes down he forgets to take some. It's been hard getting down there with Jack's sleeping schedule and my work schedule, but Mark helps the guys out whenever he doesn't have to watch Jack. Anyway, he's just a few pictures of our hole in the ground....


We are hoping to be in by mid September, so I'll keep everyone posted. It's just exciting to finally see things happen...the banks were taking too long for our liking! Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

Potty Training!

I know, it's been a while...but I've got two words...potty training. Yes, for the past two and a half weeks we have been devoted to potty training Jack. The first couple days were rough...accident after accident, but now things are getting much better. We decided to go for it and get rid of the diapers completely, which has turned out to be the best way to do it. I like pull-ups for sleeping times, but as far as during the day, they are no different than diapers, cost more and end up leaking a lot more...if I have to clean up pee all day, I would rather just do it right away and be thankful that none got on me. So anyway, long story short, Jack is now able to tell us at least a few times a day when he has to pee and it gets better day by day.

So what else have we been doing the past two weeks?? Take a look....

Kasey at the 4th of July parade...
Some guy handed this to Jack...maybe he thought Jack pays the garbage bill...
Watching the fireworks...Newton is doing just fine in the new house...
Mark had a four day conference in Saratoga so Jack and I took a trip down for a little 'mini' vacation. On the first evening down we went to Saratoga State Park to see some geysers, go for a walk and play on the playground...
Walking to the geysers....yes, we let him go without pants....easier for the potty training
Yeah, his leg goes up when he throws...
The next day we went to the Saratoga Children's Museum. It was two floors full of things children can play with. Jack had a ball!

On the phone...
Pulling a bubble over himself...
Driving the fire truck...
Showing mommy where the circle is...
Making a 'pa-cake'

Then that night we headed out to Broadalbin to visit with baby Lucas, Danielle and Ray. Jack did very well with baby Lucas, tickining him and bringing him toys. There was only one incident where I had to put him in time out for being a little too rough, but Lucas didn't seem to mind. I think we'll wait a little while longer to have another baby.
Jack was so happy to see Dylan and Trystan too...he loves the two of them!
Seeing as the summer hasn't been the nicest, we haven't had a chance to get out too much. Jack is having fun playing with his new toys from his birthday and getting all the one on one attention while he's on the potty. And since that is going well, we'll hopefully be out doing more and sitting in the bathroom less....we'll see. For now, I leave you with a wonderful picture of my husband the one time we were able to get on the slip and slide....ha ha...enjoy!

Birthday weekend

It's official....my little boy is now 2. People are asking more and more now when the second one is coming....ha ha...with my little monster, it won't be for a few more years, I'd like to enjoy more time with him first, it's gone by waaaayy too fast.

For his birthday party, Auntie Kim got him a sprinkler, which he got to use on Thursday night because it was so nice out. Needless to say...he LOVED it. He also got a chance to play in his new pool, after Grammy's kitties at his other one.

For his actual birthday on Friday, we decided to bring him strawberry picking, since he loves fruit so much and we really wanted some strawberries. Unfortunately it was the first day of picking, and the strawberries were still pretty small. He still had a great time and it was a beautiful day.


We then went out to lunch and Jack got to buy a birthday present with some money he got from his party. He decided he wanted a train, and since I didn't want to spend an arm and a leg on Thomas stuff, we got the Fisher Price train set....which he approved of and has played with quite a bit since we got it.

That night we went up to camp to visit with some family and celebrate more of his birthday. He was such a well behaved little man. He got to play with another little boy named Dylan and he got to ride on Noah's John Deere tractor...

After some dinner, cake and singing of songs, Jack wanted to walk around a little bit and then asked to watch tv before bed. So I brought him into Aunt Debbie's camper to see if someone was on so we could cuddle and relax before bed. Well, don't you know it but he walks away and runs right for the camper door to look out at everyone and the door wasn't latched. Needless to say, my kid fell about three feet down, face first onto a wooden deck. Did I ever feel like the worst mom in the world. I was two seconds behind him but obviously not close enough to stop him. This is what he now looks like....
Besides the obvious bumps and bruises on his head and nose, he came out of the fall with no other issues. We are very lucky. We of course called the doctor, motitored him over night (he even got to sleep in our bed, which we never do, because I was so worried about his breathing) but he woke up the next morning as happy as could be. What a trooper.

Being the bad mother I am, the next day I left early to go to Shannon's bridal shower with Erika and then spend the night at Aimee's house for a girls night. A much needed girls night at that. I had an absolutely wonderful time at Aimee's and even got to meet her geese....
And then got to watch Erika chase them off....
ha ha! What a great night, thanks girls!

The next day I was an even worse mother and didn't see my little boy until about 5 at night. Mark and I played softball in the morning and then went to watch Transformers with Keith and Erika. Don't listen to the bad reviews....that was an awesome movie! After the movie we made our way up to Norma and Larry's camp to pick up Jack and to see everyone at camp. Jack was again a wonderful little boy (mainly because he was outside all day) and he even played well with Ryan. Which if you know my child, you know he can be a little rough with other kid, but this time he was awesome. It helps that he and Ryan are only a few months apart and at the same energy level. At one point on the boat, Ryan took Jack to the ground and then hip checked him...so he kinda got a taste of his own medicine. Not that I want my kid to be taken down, but he can be so rough sometimes that it's okay if another child does the same thing back to him....anyway, I digress.

So here are some pictures from a beautiful evening on the boat with Ryan and his family.



All in all it was a very memorable weekend for us. Hope everyone else had a great weekend!

Relay and Birthday party...

As I'm sure most of you knew, the Relay for Life was this past weekend, so needless to say, I am still recovering. Setup this year started on Wednesday, so Grammy and Gramps were at the Fairgrounds from Wednesday night to Saturday morning. They had an even longer weekend than we did. Mark was pretty busy himself, helping each night of the week and dedicating himself all day Friday and until cleanup was done on Saturday. I don't know how any of them do it without sleep. I took two little 'naps' that night because I knew I wouldn't make it to Saturday afternoon to drive Mark and myself home.

It was of course, an awesome night. Hundreds of people showed up and it was probably the most memorable Relay to date in my opinion. The committee did an awesome job showcasing survivors this year and really making the event all about them.

Beginning of the survivor lap with the releasing of the doves....
Oh yeah, and my goofball sister....ha ha!

I am happy to say that Meme Brown was there once again as a three time survivor, and my wonderful friend Aimee's father also came. I'm so glad they were both able to make it.

Meme in the trolly during the Survivor lap:
Mr. Baker and his balloon....he looked so happy =)
It was such a great night, and although I'm exhausted, it was all worth it. To see more beautiful pictures of the Relay, check out Jason and Vanessa's blog at GreerCicarelli. They took some amazingly beautiful pictures....as always.

So after a crazy Friday night and sleepless Saturday, we had Jack's second birthday party on Sunday. I know, it was a crazy idea seeing as it was just after the Relay and it was Father's Day, but Justin was also up for the weekend and he missed Jack's first birthday, so we had to have the party on that day for him. We didn't want anything crazy for his second birthday though, just some close friends and family to help us celebrate. We got just that. Some wonderful people joined us for his party and we couldn't have asked for a nicer day.

Jack's birthday cake....made by Mel of course!
Mark being attacked by Kerrigan, Kasey and Jack
Jack and Kasey going after the glove and baseball from James and Avis....
CAKE!!

Of course I have more pictures, but blogger is being a pain in the butt, so check out my facebook account later in the week for the rest of the pictures.

Also a big CONGRATS to Danielle and Ray! Baby Taylor was born on Thursday June 18th around 6pm. It is a beautiful baby boy who they named Lucas (which was one of my name choices so of course I LOVE the name!) He is healthy, as is mom and from what I hear everyone is doing well. Congrats you guys!!

Isn't he adorable?!?!?!