Halloween 2008

At the last minute, Connor changed his mind and no longer wanted to be Batman as he said for a week straight, he wanted to be Iron Man instead.... I hate this cheesy plastic costume, but he liked it. :)




I planned on Maleah being a princess but when I came across this Witch costume, I couldn't pass it up. She looked so cute...



Here are both of the kids hamming it up for the camera...

Crash

Countless times we've said NO RUNNING, but sometimes kids have to learn the hard way...the really hard way. Maleah is always roughing up herself and if she doesn't manage, her brother is more than happy to help.

Maleah came running back the hallway and as soon as she rounded the corner into my bedroom, off balance she went face first into the frame rail of my bed. I thought for sure she would have a huge black and blue eye out of this but she didn't. She just abraded the skin from the bed skirt. By this past Saturday her scab came off and you can faintly see where her scab was. I'm happy that she won't have a scar to remember this accident.

A Sister's Weekend...

What a fantastic weekend with my 3 sisters - Arleen, Justine and Brenda. This is the first time that the 4 of us have taken a trip alone together. When this was brought to my attention, I couldn't believe it, but it's true. Usually the kids or a husband or our Mom, an aunt or a cousin is along. It was a real pleasure being alone with my sisters for the first time! We hope to make this an annual outing.

A few months back we decided we would visit a nice little spa village located in Berkeley Springs, WV We left on Friday evening and arrived at our hotel around 10:30pm. Berkeley Springs has no nightlife, so we settled into our hotel with a six pack and a deck of cards.

Saturday morning, we visited the Berkeley Springs State Park and took some pictures of the unique waters pools that flow at a constant 74°F from the base of Warm Springs Ridge.







Berkeley Springs has great speciality shops lined up and down the streets. We spent 5 or 6 hours browsing the unique gift shops. We took some time to enjoy a cup of coffee at the Fairfax Coffee House




I could spend hours just looking at the speciality stores, but today I had one item in mind to purchase and that was a piece of stained glass. This is what I found and I think it's beautiful. We have bets as to how long it will be before it's broke. I hope to have it for a very long time and I'll definitely enjoy it while it lasts.



After our day of shopping, we headed over to the Atasia Spa and had our Therapeutic Massages. Everyone really enjoyed their treatment, we all agreed, they were too short. I've decided, I need to treat myself to a massage on a regular basis. Life with kids is choas (at best) and my shoulders really hold the stress. Following our treatments, we went out to dinner and had steaks. Everything about the whole day was enjoyable, we had great weather for walking around the little town and tons of laughs.

Saturday evening at the hotel ended very late and the longer the night went on, the sillier and louder we became in our room. The laughs were nonstop after 11:30pm. There were a few things that we were unaware of each other and laughter played upon that pretty much all night. At one point, the couple rooming beside us pounded on the wall for us to quiet down. Saturday Night Live didn't help our giggles any... Oh well it was a fun time in our room, it's too bad they weren't having as much fun in theirs. ;-)

We packed it up Sunday morning and headed for home. On our way home we decided we need to make this a yearly event. We are already talking about going to Arleen's house and visit the Blue Knob Ski Resort where we will go Snow Tubing and possibly try snow skiing for the first time for all of us.

Thanks girls for a wonderful time and for your suggestions. Brian loves the new me...

Happy 3rd Birthday

Happy Birthday Maleah!! I can't believe you're 3 now sweety....

Wow, how can my baby be three already? It's gone by so fast. Wow, you've hit so many milestones, I can hardly call you my baby anymore. It's been such a joy watching you grow and flurish this past year. My baby is potty trained, and sleeping in a bed and completely dressing herself. I look back just a year ago and can't believe how tall you've gotten and how long your hair has grown. And finally, you are speaking in phrases now. We still have to get you to learn your colors and shapes, but it will all come when you are ready.

Last evening Maleah found her presents in my room, so there was no need to wrap them. I asked her to put them back (she did) and that she could have them on her birthday. When she woke up this morning, I wished her happy birthday and she push those covers off her and went running into my bedroom to grap up her gifts. Is there anything beyond princesses and babydolls that exist for little girls? She LOVES her princess bedding and the princess wall coverings that we got her. She also got a little princess compact with makeup in it. She's been having a ball with that!

We had a birthday cake with just us 4 tonight and on Sunday we will have the Grandparents and Aunts over for a visit. This weekend is suppose to be beautiful, so maybe we'll have a cookout for her birthday celebration to wrap up the season.

Mommy and Maleah

To my surprise, our picture is on a brochure the has all the classes that Clarion Hospital has to offer throughout the year. I was approached at a breastfeeding support group around 4 weeks after Maleah was born to have pictures taken for various promotions of the Hospital. I guess we made the "Living Well" brochure.

Featuring Diesel

Diesel was enjoying the sun, so I couldn't resist taking a picture of him. He's really looking like a mastiff in this picture. He's close to 90lbs. thank God he's not the 150lb beast that he could be. Diesel is our gentle giant!

Happy Anniversary!

Today Brian and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary! In addition to our anniversary, Hilton and Donna celebrated their 29th wedding anniversary. When Brian and I picked our date, we had no idea that we would be married on their wedding day. We've celebrated our anniversaries may times together and today was no different. We went to Max's in Pittsburgh for our lunch. Thank you Aunt Justine and Aunt Brenda for playing with the kids for a few hours while the adults celebrated.

Favorite Photos of the Week

These are my favorite photos of the week. I've been playing with my camera settings and wanted to share.

Mountain Pies

Call us redneck or maybe even "going green", but we had a fun time eating mountain pies that were made in our living room. When Brian came home on Wednesday, we choose to get the firplace running since the weather is getting cooler. Mountain pies sounded and tasted really good. :)