A Little Bit of Fall

So, here we are, a month into fall and there has already been snow! It has seemed nearly impossible to get good fall shots of the kids with the camera since the season has flown by.

Cooper is playing soccer with MCAA. While Dean and I freeze on the sidelines Cooper is having the time of his life.

We helped pick pumpkins this year for the pumpkin festival. the kids seemed to enjoy themselves and I use the term "helped" loosely as I'm not sure how much help we really were!

Molly and Shilo

The Young Crew

Cooper and BrodyArianna - workin hard!
Cooper and his pumpkin
Natalie
Dean and Nads
Cooper and Andrea

Natalie is into and onto just about everything in sight. Her personality has really started to show itself the last month or two. I'm still not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing!

Dean and I, as always, are enjoying each other as well as being in the new house together. We are still working a lot on the house. I am refinishing a dining room table (the first coat of paint is drying as I type) and Dean always has a project going, from wainscoting to making a bench for the mudroom!!

We found out in August that I am expecting another baby, sometime in April. We, right now, are about 13 weeks along. We are beyond excited to have a new baby and a new member of the family. Cooper seems thrilled. Natalie probably won't be when the baby comes! In a few months our project will be getting the upstairs bedroom ready for a new little one!!

First Day of 2nd Grade and few others!

Here are a few pictures of Cooper's first day of school. This first one is before he put in his hair gel. I don't have many of him post-hair gel but I think Sally got one - so I will try to find that.

This is down at the bus stop. This year there are two other kids at his stop so he won't have to wait alone. Natalie was happy to chat away while we waited for the bus.

She also spent some time up in a tree while waiting for the bus. With Daddy's help of course!

This is last week when Dean was outside working with Cooper on shooting his bow.

Natalie's new hobby in the bathtub is eating bubbles and drinking water. It makes bathtime very short in our house.

I Can't Belive My Baby is 1!!!!

August 12th was Natalie's 1st birthday! We are all amazed at how fast the year went by. We have a little girl who laughs and walks and points and says a few words. It's just amazing. We had a small birthday party and all enjoyed cupcakes. Natalie got some great gifts including a four wheeler (toy), a handmade quilt, bath toys, books and clothes. She wasn't as impressed with being sung to and her party hat as she was by the cupcake itself, but she had a great birthday and party nonetheless.

Mom and Natalie

Not too impressed with the singing!

Loved the cupcakes!

Nonee holding baby Arianna

Oh Jeez!

Ok - so I missed a few months.

We are doing great in the new house. We love living so close to Grety and Pappas and have enjoyed our new home and yard as much as we can. Cooper has spent a lot of time fishing and catching stuff in the pond by our house. Natalie likes to fish with Dean while in the front carrier pack.

Cooper finished off his school year in June and then we didn't do too much because of all the rain. Natalie and I spent the 4th of July in North Conway with my family and as a nice addition, Mamie, Jobe and the Kids joined us. Dean was in Florida fishing and Cooper was with his Dad. Natalie also took that time to take her first steps - which is mostly boring for everyone else but pretty exciting for us. She also got a front tooth -which seems to be changing the entire look of her face.

Dean and I decided to participate in the Fresh Air Fund this year and we volunteered to host a little boy from NYC to experience the country. So on July 7th - Salomon came to visit us for 2 weeks. He is a sweet and helpful little boy (when he wants to be). We were able to take a nice trip to the beach and up to camp. he and Cooper fight one minute and play for a few hours together then next. Who knows if they even like each other or not - but Salomon says he would like to come back next year!

All the rest!

This is just a mish mash of pictures of the last month or so. Some just around the house. We have also done the fishing derby as well as Cooper's spring show at the elementary school.

Natalie - Happy in the Morning!

Not the best picture of Cooper - but we were towards the back of the gym!

Natalie on the swings at Cooper's MCAA baseball game (more pictures of that to come)
Cooper and the Miles kids enjoying the outdoors!
surfing down a loam pile!

Dean and Natalie getting ready to enjoy Cooper's Show

Dean and Cooper at the Fishing Derby. (They didn't catch anything)

Natalie at the fishing Derby

We also ran into Jim Young, his son Quinn and a friend of his so we took a spot near them. It was a very "manly" day. Natalie and I hung back!!

We Are In The House!!!

Dean, Cooper, Natalie, and I moved into the new house the last weekend in March. We had a ton of help which made it all go so fast and smooth! I am still unpacking some and decorating some but as I keep saying, I have plenty of time to get it done! We are so happy here. Dean has been out working in the yard constantly and Cooper has been having a ball playing out in the fields. Even the cats have been enjoying themselves with all of the critters out here! Natalie has her playroom and enjoys being able to move around pretty freely. She started crawling the day after we moved in!! She really loved the carpet! I will post some pictures - some of them aren't great because of the sun and the camera flash - but should be enough!!

The Master Bedroom (bad lighting)

My...oops....I mean OUR Closet

Cooper's Room

Natalie's Room (with her sleeping the the crib!)

The Entryway (from below)

From Above

Dean's Office

The Mudroom

(My mom got us a great sign to go in our new house)

The Living Room/Kitchen/Dining Area

Natalie's Play Room

Ooops - again!

I know - It has been over a month! I shall update soon.

Almost!!

Dean and I are almost ready to move into the new house! We are hoping the weekend of the 28th we will be moving. The carpet has been ordered and the trim and baseboards are almost all in! It seems the really hard work is about to come to a close but not without a lot of help and/or babysitting from Nana, Papa, Grety, Pappas, Nonee and Ike and many others. Dean and I lay in bed every night and talk about how excited we are to finally be living there.

Cooper started Archery Lessons in town with Brody last week. Dean took Cooper and took a few nice pictures. Cooper seems to be enjoying and looking forward to it this week.

Natalie is just as happy as ever. She is back to sleeping and eating well after her sickness. She is on all fours when you put her down. She rocks back and forth like she is ready to start moving at the speed of sound!! She is just about ready to crawl! Needless to say, she must take after her father!

We Are Still Here!

I haven't been posting much lately. Sorry!

Dean and I have been busy with both houses. We are still not in the new house but are as hopeful as ever. We are still working hard over there and hope to be in soon. We (cross your fingers) finally have an agreement on the house and are waiting on an inspection and some formalities and then hopefully the house on Crosby Street will be just a nice reminder of our beginnings together and as a family.

The kids have both been sick back and forth. Natalie has had a hacking cough for a few weeks while Cooper had an ear infection and then got the stomach bug that has been going around - even Dean had it.

Between it all we did make it up to camp for a bit of February vacation. My camera stayed forgotten in my room but mayby I can rustle up some pictures from Mamie!

Thats all for now.

Sad News

As I'm sure most of you know Dean and I found out that I had a missed miscarriage and we lost the baby. We are pretty sad about it but are trying to be optimistic about the great things we do have in our life. We certainly loved that little baby and wished all would have turned out differently. We want to thank everyone for their support and help during our hard times. It was and is much appreciated!

As I said, we have been trying to make up for the sad news by spending some time together and with the kids to help put our lives into perspective!

Ooops!

Well, I certainly never promised to be great about updating my blog! Thought I would take a quick minute while Natalie is napping.

Things here have been busy, as always, but great. Still picking away at the new house and getting to the point where we might be able to move in soon. Still working on flooring and getting the power out to the house. Dean works just about all of his extra time over there right now. But we are still excited and can't wait to be over there. Our cabinets are all installed and the whole house is painted - well, except for the NEW baby's room!

Dean and I found out in the beginning of December that we were going to have another baby. this one will be a 1st birthday present for Natalie. She doesn't seem to care but Cooper is really excited! Things have been going great. Not feeling super but still here!

Cooper is still hating going to school but is happy when he gets off the bus. As any kid he loves snow days and always wants to know when the next storm is coming.

Natalie has been taking some baths in the big girl bath and loving it, even though she slides around like crazy! Cooper joined her last night and they had a ball. She also got a new jail, I mean crib, to go in our bedroom. We didn't want to move her entire bedroom upstairs so we are just leaving her in our room until we get to the new house