Coming Along Nicely

I finished school last Monday. Travis got out on Tuesday. And it has done nothing but rain ever since! The men working on our house have still been here every day trying to work between the raindrops. We are still seeing progress, which makes me happy!

Chelsea and I spent the day together on Tuesday...Just the girls. Travis was still in school so she and I got to hang out a lot. Very rarely do I get just time with her. I try to grab the opportunities when they arise. On Tuesday it poured. I decided to try a recipe I had found for Monkey Bread. Chelsea could actually help me make this. Usually she can't help with baking because she can't handle raw eggs. This didn't have any in it so it was perfect for her. She had a great time.
Chelsea poses for a picture.
Chelsea shakes the bread dough in a cinnamon-sugar mixture. This is her favorite part.
Chelsea shows Mom the final product before we put it into the oven to bake.


The entire addition (upstairs and downstairs) has been framed. The roofers will be there sometime next week. The siding will also go up soon. The windows are on order and we have made some decisions about the doors we will have. It is moving along. John and I have had a lot of fun talking about how we plan to decorate our new bedroom. We took sidewalk chalk and marked out where we would like things to go (the floors aren't done yet).
Here is the doghouse dormer we will have in our bedroom. It should let in a ton of light.
Here is my beanpole of a son posing inside the window. Can you count his ribs????

Welcome Isabel!

The Great News:

John and I have a new niece. My brother's wife (Tita) had another little girl. Here is the email I got from my brother:
With the Red Sox set to play their first game ever in Washington DC tonight, our little baby, Isabel Grace, decided to join us this morning, two weeks early but just in time for the game.

At 6 lbs, 15 oz, and 20 inches, she is welcomed with special excitement by big sister Caroline.

Both Christine and our little baby Isa are doing great.

All the best...

Scott, Christine, Caroline, and Isabel


We are thrilled for them.
Here is Sweet Caroline welcoming her new little sister.
Here is one of the family. Doesn't Christine look great considering she just had a baby a few hours ago? Hooray! Welcome Isabel! Auntie Amy, Uncle John, Travis and Chelsea can't wait to meet you.

The Bad News:
They live in Washington, D.C. so it might be a while.

Happy Father's Day!!!

I am lucky to have a wonderful husband. Not only is he an amazing husband, he is the best father I know. I hope he knows how fortunate Travis, Chelsea, and I feel that he is ours! Here are some pictures that show how special he is....

This is my husband John and his brother Jeff when they were kids. This is one of my all time favorite pictures! My husband is the older, darker one.

This is us on our wedding day in 2001. (Just as an aside...WE WERE SO MUCH THINNER THAN WE ARE NOW!) We were so happy when this day finally arrived. It was the hottest day of summer that year. We had a blast!

This is John during his first few days as "DAD". It is hard for us to look at our big almost-first grader and remember Travis was ever this small. John was kind-of uncomfortable around babies when we first started dating. All feelings of uncertainty left the minute he saw our boy.

This is Travis's first smile. He did this while I was out with friends. He was putting on quite a display for Daddy. Travis still makes this face when John is with him.

Here is John and Jeff again. Jeff is holding Travis and his youngest child Ethan.

John walks the beach with Travis.

After being in school for...well, forever, John gets pinned as a nurse. My aunt Andrea (also an RN) pinned him. He worked so hard to provide a better life for his family.

Daddy and his little girl. Chelsea is John's little girl all over. She lights up like Christmas when he comes into the room.

Another picture of John and Chelsea.

This is John spending quality time reading to the kids.
Happy Father's Day, John! We love you!

Another week gone by....

Congratulations to Grammy Linda on the birth of her first grandchild... a little girl named Liliana!

It has been another dreary week here at our house. Things with the house are moving along when they can. It is hard to do much of anything when it has been raining off and on for days! Of course with rain comes more leaks. This time it was in the attic on some of our Christmas stuff! I think we managed to salvage things but I guess time will tell. The good news is that after a small miss-step, the new upstairs bedroom is framed. I came home Tuesday and thought I would throw-up. The upstairs was framed and it was nothing like I thought it was going to be. I misunderstood our contractors plans. He was so nice about it. He called the framers back and they did it again the way we though it was supposed to be. I was much more relaxed when I saw it on Wednesday.

Travis had a busy week. He had Spree Day at school on Tuesday.

After that he and daddy headed into Boston for the Sox game. It was Travis's first time at Fenway Park. He has seen the Red Sox one other time in Baltimore, but this was special... It was at Fenway. Travis's favorite part of the experience...riding the T (did you really expect anything less from my little train-o-phile?)






On Wednesday he had his last soccer practice. They handed out medals because the forcast said that the next week would have continuous rain. We thought the last game would be washed out.


Well wouldn't you know it! Today is Saturday and the sun is out! Time to log off and head out for Travis's last soccer game! I will have to add the pics later! Have a great weekend!
On Friday I had a retirement party for a colleague of mine. My neighbors picked Travis up at the after school program for me. Then Travis got to go to their house to play with their kids. He was thrilled. My aunt kept Chelsea for dinner. It was so funny when I showed up to get her. Chelsea was sitting at her little table and my cousin Erica (an official SENIOR in high school now) was sitting at the big table. Chelsea had pushed her chair very close to Erica's. She just loves Erica! They were happily eating mac 'n' cheese.

Home Coming and the Season's End

The Week in Construction
Building keeps going. It seems like each day when I arrived home something was different. Here is a rundown of last week...
Monday... They put the decking down for the new mudroom floor.
Tuesday... They ripped the ceiling off the kitchen. It was tarped over at night.
Wednesday... The new mudroom was framed.
Thursday... They put the base walls to the mudroom in. On Friday we woke up to a leaky ceiling in the kitchen. There was one little spot that the tarp wasn't secure on and it let in lots of water. The builders were great... They came over and fixed as much as they could. I am happy as long as I keep seeing progress.
Friday
On Friday morning my friend Leslie called. She and her kids are home from Abu Dhabi. They have been gone since November. I tried to return her call throughout my day at work but we never got in touch. I thought maybe she would just pass out from Jet Lag. Then around 4:00 she pulled into my driveway with her mom! I was so happy to see her. Later our other friend showed up and we all hung around for a while. They will be here for two months. My kids were so thrilled to see their little friends again. I think Travis thought that Aidan had forgotten him while he was in UAE.


Here are our daughters trying to pose for a picture.
Take 2
Here are our six kids. We each had a son first and followed it up with a daughter!
Here is my friend Michele's daughter serading us. She was singing the Black-Eyed Peas song that is out now. Chelsea is just along for the ride on this one.


Saturday
On Saturday Trav had his last baseball game. He had quite a cheering section. He had our little family, Mimi, Grandma BJ and Malcolm, Bumpa, Auntie Michelle, Katie, William, Ethan, and Nick. They played on the big field and got announced each time they were up at bat. It was so cute.
Here is the team watching the other team get called to the field. They stood for the Star Spangled Banner.
Travis up at bat. He got out but I was told he got an RBI (I think it has something to do with ice cream! Just kidding!)
Here is Travis with his buddy and neighbor Ty. Ty's dad was the coach. He helped improve Travis's skills tremendously.
Travis and his baseball trophy. All of the kids also got a game ball. Travis had gotten a gameball for hitting on Monday. That means he got three this season. He is very pleased with that fact!
This is Trav with his friend Philip from school.
Travis and his fans....
Travis poses with Coach Sean after he got his trophy.
Travis and his cousin Ethan. Travis loved that his cousins were there to see him. Ethan and Travis were twins... They both had navy blue shirts on with the number 10 on the back.
This is the baseball card of Travis that we ordered. They finally came in for the last game. Those eyes and eyelashes are killers... And as usual, they are on a boy who could care less about them!!! Not fair!

While everyone watched the game, everyone all took turns amusing Chelsea. Nick took her to the play ground for a long time (Bless his heart). Then she played with the grandmothers a little. She chatted with Katie and Auntie Michelle. Then she hung out with Bumpa on the top riser of the bleachers (what kid doesn't love it up there?).

After the game we went to a birthday party for the little girl and boy who go to daycare with Chelsea. Here is Auntie sitting with her little girls on the swing.
Another busy day today. Another birthday party. But I forgot my camera. Then I thought I would treat the kids to dinner (actually it was a plan so I would not have to cook) at a local restaurant. It was NASTY! I hate when that happens. One more week of school left! Happy summer everyone!

Home Opener for Tornadoes

It was a fun night out for the family on Thursday night. Travis's school was invited to sing the National Anthem at the home opener of the Worcester Tornadoes (the independent baseball team in the city) so off we went to the ball field for some fun.
Travis and Dad wore their matching school shirts. John actually is an alum of Travis's elementary school so I thought this was appropriate. Travis was so excited to learn that he and John would match. I told John to enjoy it while it lasts because soon he will want to look like anyone BUT his parents!
The color guards marched out for the Star Spangled Banner. I always find this so impressive. I was just glad that they didn't do a 21 gun salute! That always startles the heck out of me.
Here are the kids from Nelson Place all ready to sing behind home plate. Travis is in the front row.


Travis and the Tornadoes mascot Twister! Twister signed Travis's shirt as we were walking into the ball field. Then Travis took off for a few seconds and came back with the name "Alyssa" written across the chest of his shirt. Apparently she is an older girl from school that Trav knows from the after-school program. That was all the info I could get about the "mystery woman" in question. Apparently she ranks high enough in Travis's book to monopolize the front of his shirt!
Here is Travis with some kids from school. The three little girls are triplets that are in his class. They are so cute!
Travis poses with his friend from school Colby.
Chelsea hugs the stuffed Twister doll that Travis bought for her.
Pink skies at night... baseball delight!
On the way out of the stadium Travis and Chelsea posed behind the progam podium.
CONSTRUCTION UPDATE
Things continue to move on the house. The foundation was finished early this week and they started to fill in the crawl space and the hole in the back yard.
This is the new set of wheels parked in the yard when I got home from work on Wednesday! Cruisin' anyone???
When the excavator came to work on the backhoe, Travis and Chelsea sat in the doorway and watched the action. The minute the backhoe left they started to argue! But for one small moment there was peace!
On Saturday Trav played soccer. He hasn't played in a while. We were in charge of bringing the oranges (Yes I am turning into my mother). Travis played against his friend Brandon's team from his preschool. They don't get to see each other that often. Travis was so excited to see him.