Happy Thanksgiving!

Today I am reminded of the many things I am thankful for - most notably my husband and best friend, my son, my family and my friends.

We celebrated Thanksgiving by eating too much, probably like many of our readers. First we went to Grandpa Randy's - turkey, stuffing, oyester stuffing, broccoli casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy, dinner rolls, fruit salad, deviled eggs and pumpkin pie...and then to Grandma Nikki's for a repeat and second helping and a few new items (eg: sweet potatoes and pecan pie). Edwin ate like a champ all day - LOVED the potatoes (mashed and sweet). He also loved the fruit salad...and of course he loves all of the desserts! He is my child after all! He fell asleep on our way home, but woke up long enough to read his 3 favorite books before going to bed.

We are sure going to miss Dave tomorrow - since we stayed in town this year, he is going to work. I might brave the crowds and take Edwin shopping after breakfast...MIGHT...but probably won't.

We hope all of our readers had a wonderful Thanksgiving...surrounded by the ones you love and the ones who love you - whether in thought or in-person. God Bless!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This picture is actually from several months ago...but I couldn't resist posting it for today. Here is one from this morning.


TEETH COUNTER UPDATE: Edwin's 3rd tooth popped through on Saturday morning! Now he has 2 on the bottom and a point on the top!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Another Great Weekend Trip

We spent the weekend in Canfield visiting Grandma Ross, Aunt Melinda, Uncle Matt, and Cousins Madeline and Meredith. It was another great weekend trip. We always have so much fun and Edwin LOVES seeing everyone! We celebrated Valentine's Day and my birthday - I know I've been celebrating the longest birthday ever...but what's wrong with that? Special thanks to Melinda for my special birthday dessert!


Here are some pics:

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day from Edwin...as you can see, he has no self-confidence problems!

We had an interesting Valentine's Day...

3:00am:
Edwin crying...he's been sick so isn't sleeping well, I sleep the rest of the night with Edwin in the guest bed

7:00am:

Dave's alarm goes off...I hear him go downstairs

8:00am:

Edwin wakes up, Dave feeds him and I get another 45 mins of sleep

9:20am:

I head to the eye dr and edwin goes down for a nap

9:30am:

eye appointment (my new glasses come in about a week! YAHOO!!!)

10:15am:

Grandpa Randy arrives to help with house stuff

10:45am:

I return from the eye dr and dave/grandpa Randy chop up the tree that fell during our recent ice storm

11:15am:

dave/grandpa Randy run electric to our upstairs hallway

11:45am:

edwin wakes up - happy to see grandpa Randy

12:00:

dave goes to pick up lunch, i feed edwin

12:30pm:

eat lunch - Habanero - YUMMY!!!

1:00pm:

finish electricity project

2:00pm: edwin cranky so i lay with him in my bed and he falls asleep...dave and i decide to join him and take a nap too

3:45pm:

we wake up

4:00pm:

edwin wakes up and eats again

4:45pm:

we leave to go shopping - looking for a tv armoire and desk

5:00pm-6:30pm

shopping is a bust - NOTHING! Homegoods, TJMaxx, Target, and Sams - NOTHING...

6:30pm

ihop for valentines day dinner - our server may have been on drugs...thought everything was hilarious! service was awful. i ate my pancakes dry, so did dave...we never got syrup. dave ordered all you can eat pancakes and ordered a second batch out of principle. bacon was gross. but, the high chair was great and edwin had fun banging on the table. edwin ate at ihop too. he was done with his bottle before our server even took our order...this dinner date will go in the record books!!!

7:45pm

decide to check one more store - OfficeMax...dave runs into Lowes to get light switch covers and meets me in the store. We had all but given up, and then dave found a great table that i will be using as a desk - $80!!! bargain!!!

8:50pm

heading home...bridge back to KY is closed due to an accident so we take the downtown scenic detour...

9:15pm

home sweet home...wake edwin up and feed him for the last time...

9:45pm

edwin in bed...dave and i relaxing...HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

Edwin's 1st Christmas

WOW - What a difference Christmas is with a baby...so much happened over this holiday weekend...so this might end up being a VERY LONG post. SORRY!

12/24: Christmas Eve

Edwin had his first veggies today - squash...although he didn't seem to enjoy it, it was fun trying something new and we will continue to try...



We hosted Christmas Eve in Newport this year...Grandpa Randy, Grandma Nikki, Mike, Joyce, Aunt Jessica, Brian, Chad, and Great Grandma Shirley came to help celebrate Edwin's 1st Christmas. Edwin got so many nice gifts - Pizza Elmo, Books, Blanket (handmade by AJ), and most exciting for Dave and I - a family membership to the zoo!!!! We can't wait to take Edwin and teach him all about the animals, especially the monkeys! (obviously)

Edwin's 1st Christmas gift...

12/25: Christmas

Edwin woke up around 8:30am on Christmas morning and Dave brought him downstairs to open his gifts from Santa Claus. Santa Claus didn't have to do much this year and opted for simple plastic alphabet blocks!

Afterward, we finished packing up the car and headed to Pittsburgh. Muellerville was as busy as ever with Christmas festivities. Once again, Edwin raked in the gifts - including new shoes from Great Grandma Mueller...everyone couldn't stop talking about the Edwin Claus and New Year Edwin pictures that we sent out - they were a hit!

We headed to Grandma Ross's house for the rest of the holiday weekend...

12/26: Christmas #2

Uncle Matt, Aunt Melinda and cousins Madeline and Meredith all came over to Grandma Ross's house to open Christmas gifts. Edwin was the big winner again - obviously spoiled!!!



In the middle of opening gifts, I noticed my pants felt wet - I looked down and sure enough, Edwin had spit up all over me, himself and Grandma's carpet - sooooo gross! So, we paused gift opening for an outfit change. We came back downstairs to resume gift opening and when Dave handed Edwin to me - he did it again...all over me...so, another outfit change - this time into pajamas...

Don't know what that was all about, but Dave took over gift opening duties after that...

There were too many gifts to mention. I didn't think we'd be able to get everything in our car for the trip home, but somehow we managed...

12/27: Canfield Mini-Reunion & Meredith's 2-Year Birthday Party

I got up and decided to go to Macy's and take advantage of some after Christmas sales...when I returned, Grandma Ross told me to feel in Edwin's mouth - yep! His first tooth popped through....so exciting!!!


That afternoon, Leanna and Dave Kemble hosted a get together for some of Dave's high school friends. Edwin had a great time because he got to see Jack (Dave and Leanna's son) and meet Ava (Jen & Jim's daughter).

Afterward we headed to Matt & Melinda's for Meredith's birthday party. I can't believe she is 2 already - geez...where did 2 years go???? The birthday party was a lot of fun...Meredith loved showing Dave all of her gifts...she gets extremely frustrated when she can't find Dave - and it is really cute watching her look for him.

12/28: Visit to Hudson (Twinsburg) and Steelers Game

We got up on Sunday morning and drove to Hudson to visit the Reeds. This was our first time meeting Carmen and Holden (Justin & Gia's children).





They are beautiful and Edwin had fun watching them play with all of their new toys. Holden was nice enough to share his dump truck and bus with Edwin...after a great visit and a yummy Chipotle lunch we headed back to Grandma Ross's for the Steelers game. Edwin wore his Steelers outfit and fit right in with the rest of the Ross family - I was the odd man out...

12/29: Back to NOKY

We left Canfield early so that we could get to the boarder and pick up Sedona before 2:00pm...we got there around 1:30pm. We finally made it back home and now I'm starting the process of finding a place to put all of this new stuff.

I'm sure I've forgotten things...it was a busy weekend and I'm still trying to take it all in. I feel so blessed to have Edwin, a wonderful family, awesome friends, and most importantly - my best friend/husband to experience this journey with...

What a Great Holiday!

We left Newport around 10:00am on Thanksgiving Day. We stopped by Lebanon to drop off Sedona at Grandpa's house and feed Edwin before making the 4-hr drive to Pittsburgh for our Thankgiving feast. This was Edwin's first trip to Pittsburgh and he loved spending time with Great Grandma!

We then went to Grandma's house in Canfield for the remainder of the holiday weekend. Edwin was great all weekend...with one exception. Grandma arranged to get photos of Edwin, Madeline, and Meredith and of course, he was cranky and cried during the photo shoot...

Other than that, he was a great traveler. He has now been to six states and is looking forward to his next big trip - TUCSON, AZ to meet more great grandparents...we fly out on Friday, Dec 12th for a long weekend...should be interesting!!!

Here are some of my favorite pics from the weekend: