Oy, Jersey

Ranking #49 on the happiness scale in this study. Bah. A little grumbling is good, now and again... Besides, we all do it.

Producing towns where crazies such as these (note, they are NOT actually FROM Jersey) can find their 5 minutes of fame... Luckily, we were only in Seaside twice last year, and I don't think we saw the t-shirt shop they were working in (or the cameras) around...

I thank my lucky stars that I don't have to worry about raising a girl, although I do admit to letting my kids interact with more technology and screen-time than I'd like. Ollie can wiggle the mouse just as well as the next one-year-old, I'm sure... he is INSISTENT that he holds it whenever he is on my lap.

The next few days will be a blur, with Christmas Eve with the Lacinas, Christmas Day here and with the Wilsons/Konopacks, then further celebrations with the Konopacks, high-school friends of Jim, my college friends, and a trip to VA to see my oldest friends, Shairna and Cathy, and their families for New Year's. I'll post when I can! For now, you may enjoy watching this mindless, grainy video of what happens when Ollie wakes up from his nap early and Mommy is still finishing a blog post:

Waking Up from Sheryl Konopack on Vimeo.

T's School Christmas Party

Much like the Halloween party, T was NOT HAPPY to have to perform in front of the classroom and dozens of parents. Although he knew all the songs, he didn't want to leave my side, and only did so under threat of having to go home (bad Mommy, but it worked--- kinda).

Anyway, he sure perked up once the Big Guy in Red came in. See him sitting up front? Waited patiently until his present was pulled from the bag, too.

Afterward, we all ate waaaay too much junkfood for ten o'clock in the morning. ;)

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Dinner at Len and Tiff's

Tiffanie and Len invited up the family for dinner Sunday night. We dug the car out and made our way to Jersey City. I've never been to their place before and it was really nice and relaxing to spend time with them and our parents.
Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of Tiff. But somehow, I got a lot of the dogs, Mabel and Tyrone. They kept the boys busy all night long.

Tiff: YOU ARE A GREAT COOK! We totally enjoyed the lasagna. And mom, thanks for the cookies. I have to work doubly hard today to burn those calories, somehow ;)



Trenton decided that the fish needed a name. So he called it Grub. Ha!

See you again on Christmas Eve, Uncle Len and Aunt Tiff!

Day Two of De BLiZzArD

Ahhh... so it snows all night long, after snowing all day long... didn't stop until about 8:30 on Sunday...
Here are some pictures taken when I got up. Around 5AM. Which is when we all get up now, thanks to Oliver.

Christmas lights were left on overnight.
All night long, all I kept hearing was the dang BEEP BEEP BEEP of some snow-moving-vehicle backing up. Actually, I'm still hearing it now, and we are a day removed from all of this.
The local kids had off of school today. Monmouth ran on a delayed start. Finals have to be rescheduled. Joy!
A view out the back window.
I had to fight back the snow as I opened the sliding door to take these, as it was crawling up the window thanks to all the wind.


Again, why wait to get out of pajamas?

Staying in, for now. You see, there was so much snow, it was significantly higher than Oliver. And I didn't want to lose him in it!
I'd say we got about 24 inches? Three feet? Hard to measure with the drifts...

Happy kid.

Face Full of Snow from Sheryl Konopack on Vimeo.

We kept piling up the snow from the cars and sidewalk onto the same spot. Therefore, it was about five feet high. T LOVED climbing up onto it.


Insisted we dig out the Santa Stars. And so we did.

As of now, it is 40 degrees and melting slightly. Thank god for 4 wheel drive. The roads are still a mess. Two lanes have become one. Slush has turned brown with salt. Kids are sledding down the big hill around the corner. And machines are still beeping...

Day One of De BLiZzArD

Yay! It's 9:30 in the morning, and we've awoken to snow!
Still in our pajamas, let's get out there! No matter that the snow is still coming down! And hitting us in our faces! It's the first snowfall of the season!
Yay!

Found the sled in the attic. So cute that they both fit on it, right? ;)
Momma doing all the work...

Ollie found that sitting on the sled was a lot nicer than sitting in the snow. We had to keep him at an angle so that he didn't get the windy-snow in his eyes. Both boys enjoyed a few trips down the (little) hill in the backyard on this sled. A real Flexible Flyer! How do they bend that wood around? Anyone know?
Below, I think T is winning the snowball fight with St. Nick.



He's so happy that he can use his shovel for digging. I don't let him do that with it in the dirt, as it has a tendency to encourage the neighborhood cats to come around and take a dump.
But in snow-- hey! Go ahead!

Ollie and I wait on the inside.

The rest of the day was pretty much spent bumming around inside. I'm trying to fully wean Ollie this week, and it is hard. He's been a grouch each morning. That and teething... But it was nice to have him fall asleep on my chest while we rocked and watched the snow fall outside the window. Then I did the same thing again an hour later with T. So sweet.

Below, I HAD to share all of these. I call it our "Oreo Interlude".
Yes, Ollie only had ONE cookie.

Blizzzzzard of '09

Holyfreakingcow.
We NEVER get the big snow. It almost always comes north or west of us, due to the fact that we get the shore rains rather than the big snow.
But this one was different.
It was a nor'easter.
Holyfreakingcow.
This article attempts to capture it all. Insane.
I'll blog pics soon ;)

Babies That Are NOT Mine

Ahhh.... loveies!!! The one above is Cathy and Zak's daughter, Nora. She's getting so big! We'll be spending New Years Eve with them so I'll be able to get my babyfix in then ;) My GIRL babyfix, that is. Ah! And I can announce that I'm proud to say I've been asked to be her godmother! I love it! It's like getting to have a girl (read: buy for a girl) even though I don't have one! Very honored to hold that title ;)

Below, congratulations to Mike and Mary! Little Graham Burton was born on Saturday, December 12th at 5:24pm. He weighed 8 pounds, 6 ounces and was 21 inches long - which was WAY off from the doc's calculations - not to mention his due date of Dec. 26th! We've passed along bags and bags of boy clothes to them. It will be nice to see some other little guy wearing them proudly!
Last class is Thursday; after that, here come the holidays! And the Puerto Rico trip! Does anyone know if it is true that you don't need a passport to visit there? Jim and I assumed we did, and went through the hassle of renewing ours... Maybe we'll have to really travel out of the country again soon!

Woah, Santa!

I am totally not the mom who would put her baby in Santa's lap and force a picture. The Big Guy was at Chick Fil A today and it was my intention to get a (free) shot of the kids with him one way or another this holiday season. Trenton was not keen on going up to Santa; he walked up, quickly said, "I want a superhero cape" and ran away ;) I got him to come back and stand and then handed over Ollie. That is when he began the "WHOTHEHELLISTHISGUY???" cry. So we took two pictures and then left.

That's T in a Buzz Lightyear costume at a friend's house. He regularly tells us he's going to be an astronaut when he grows up. Then a superhero. And some days, a builder.

I thought I had a good thing going with this new foot-pedal garbage can. But, as you can see, he's got it all figured out.

Xmas Card, 2009

Many thanks to Jay for taking our Christmas picture this year... Most of you will be getting some variation of the above photo in the mail later this week ;)

Thanksgiving '09

The morning began with preparations. I whipped up some cornbread and Jim helped me make a turnip and potato mash using the rest of the CSA vegetables. Cute Turnip Man, eh?

Dinner at the Lacina's included turkey and all the fixings. They kept the turkey warm out on the grill while the oven was used to heat up other things. Below, T and Grandma make homemade cranberry sauce. It was fantastic!

Unusually small Thanksgiving crowd this year, with just two of my uncles, one cousin, and an aunt. But we had a very nice time talking and spending time with each other. Swapping fish stories, napping, and making googly eyes below...































Then it was off to the Konopacks' to do it again that weekend!
Oliver just loves looking out the back window at the deer.
I think those few whispy hairs in his eyes might require a first hair-cut soon...

Trenton is always able to find good toys to entertain himself with.


My MOMS Club had a new member social the other day at Panera. I had to put in this picture of Harrison and Trenton, as they look TOO CUTE.
And below is my attempt at getting a picture of them together in matching shirts. Haha to that!