Holiday Photos

We had a great first Christmas in Maine with the Lennons visiting from North Carolina.














Some other great photos to share...

Holiday Fun!

Our lawn has been snow covered for ten days or so, helping us to be in the holiday spirit. The weather has also been temperate and generally very sunny, which hasn't hurt matters either...We've had a frenzy of holiday activities to share.

Tree Adventure

A trip to the tree farm was an adventure. We walked through snowy mud on a chilly, but sunny day and looked for the "perfect" tree. Alexia asked how we'd know when we found it and Patrick replied "we would just know."What ensued after was Lex and Finn asking if every tree was "the" tree and insisting that some awfully cute, but horribly small and sparse trees were "the" one.

Baking

Snow Day - School Canceled

An afternoon adventure with Jess, enjoying the fresh snow and taking advantage of the snow day and no school.















































Santa

Yarmouth is the town next to ours. It's a quaint little town with an old town feel, where downtown has historical buildings with family owned businesses. On Saturday, we decided to make a visit to Santa in Yarmouth. It seemed like the perfect, non-mall-like place for our kids to meet Santa this year.

We had been talking to the kids for awhile about Santa and how he gets into our house and how he knows what to bring everyone. Lex and Finn were tickled about the idea of actually seeing him. We arrived early and as we were getting out of the car we heard a big, "ho, ho, ho". Santa was just coming out of the police station. The look of amazement on Finn and Lex's faces was priceless. There was a bit of terror and a lot of excitement too. Santa crossed the snow-covered lawn and stepped into his red hut. We hurried carefully over the iced sidewalk to wait our turn to see him. Second in line, it didn't take long for the doors to open and for the Lennons to pile into Santa's little hut.

Lex told Santa (and anyone else who will ask) that she wants an Ariel nightgown with sparkles. Finn, well, guess what he told Santa he wanted? Yup, cars...


We decorated our tree the day after seeing Santa and the count down to presents has begun.

Happy Holidays to all!

Random Notes: Finny does Yoga sometimes at school and he just showed me (on his own) downward dog. Very cute.

Wild Turkey

We live in a salt box house, which means most rooms are corner rooms and have lots of windows. My office (I work from home now) has three windows, two of which look out on our front lawn. I left for minutes to clear my lunch today. When I came back there were 23, yes 23, wild turkeys out my window. I sort of felt like they were flaunting the fact that they made it past Thanksgiving. Curious to find out what their deal was, I googled them and learned that turkeys have 5,000-6,000 feathers! I also learned that the record-sized adult male wild turkey, according to the National Wildlife Turkey Federation, was 38 lb. Not sure I want any of those 38 lb turkeys on my front lawn.

Some other interesting facts I learned...Male turkeys are polygamous, so they form territories that may have as many as 5 hens within them. Male Wild Turkeys display for females by puffing out their feathers, spreading out their tails and dragging their wings. This behavior is most commonly referred to as strutting.

Working from home definitely adds a twist to life....

DIY - A Glimpse

When it comes to husbands, I hit the jackpot. Patrick has been working overtime between work at home and work at work. Here are a couple pics to show the progress on the house. Keep in mind, we've owned the house for less than 3 weeks.

Master before (previous owner's stuff)

Master newly painted with no floors (or carpet) and no overhead lights

Hooray! Lights! (Yes, that's snow you see outside the windows...)

Master with floors in progress

Lexi's room before...

Lexi's room in progress. No overhead light, no floor (thankfully - old blue carpet - gone)

Lexi's room - Painted (with the "Lennon stripes," with light (which you can't see here) and floors in progress.

Floors complete and here's the new lighting. Who builds a home without overhead lights anyway?

Finny's room...

Stay tuned. More to come...And Thank You Patrick!

Nine and counting...

Heath turned nine months old just days ago. He still just likes to sit. Too big to crawl. He's the happiest baby, always has a toothless grin. For those who track things his stats at 9 months:

23lbs

31 3/4 inches (way off the charts and fits into clothes for an 18 month old)

He also still has a big noggin'

Still has blue eyes and blond hair.

Check him out!

I started this post over a month ago and just have not had the time to get it live until now. Since, two of Heath's teeth have broken through. Jess, one of our nannys, calls him "scoots migoots". You'll see why...

We imagine he will never truly crawl since he gets around just fine like this.

Hemlock Ridge

After seeing over 70 houses, we finally have purchased a new home and closed on Friday. We had no idea that it would take 4+ months to purchase a house here in Maine. We closed Friday morning and we have already embarked on renovations. We are replacing carpet with floor in 2 of the bedrooms, painting everywhere we can and we will soon begin basement renovations for a guest suite (including a full bath) and family/play room. We need to make sure we can house you all when you come visit, right?

The house sits on just under 2 acres, which we've learned is actually a smaller plot of land here in Maine. It's a nice jump from our little piece of yard (that we loved) in Evanston. We'll have a nice lawn to care for, gardens and then some forest for the kids to explore. The neighbors have already started showing up to introduce themselves, many with kids. Hooray! The two girls next door wanted to know when Lexi could come over and play.

So lots to do still, but at least it's in motion. We'll provide some snapshots along the way. Until then, here's a photo of the front. We're looking forward to having some visitors once we actually move in (Nov 15th) and get settled.

Did I mentioned that all of our external doors to the house (including the garage doors) are eggplant purple? Lexi is in heaven!

Nana and Pop-Pop also came to visit and to help over the weekend. They were able to trick-or-treat with us and spend time with the kids while Patrick and I worked on the house. Here Nana (witch), Finn (lion), and Lexi (Ariel) trick-or-treat together. Heath stars as a dragon below.

Gretchen - if you are reading this - we miss having your photos! These just don't compare.

Paci Tales

Many of you may know that weaning a paci is not easy.  Finn started to get a rash or some sort of irritation around his mouth, so we decided to take his paci away. Since we took away his only way to soothe himself (it's like we've fed the paci addiction). Finn didn't know how to put himself to sleep.  First he started by asking us to snuggle with him.  That was cute, but we couldn't stay with him for the whole nap/night.  Then, the following ensued:

Finn gets out of bed and runs to the top of the stairs.  "Hey mommy. Hey mommy," he says.
"Yes Finny."
"Mommy, it stinks up here."
"It stinks up there?"
"Yes, it stinks.... Someone pooped in my bed."
Hmmmm. I'm laughing as I run upstairs wondering what could possibly be in his bed.
There's no poop in his bed.  Nothing. 
This repeats 3-4 more times, encouraging either Patrick or I to come up stairs each time. I'm crying I'm laughing so hard by the 4th time.  Each time he says it completely seriously.
More funny stories later. 
Oh and BTW - we gave him his paci back after the emergency room visit.  We decided it was too much to do at once. Suckers!