some new photos

Karis in the swing after first snow. She wasn't a fan of the snow.

Getting ready to go outside.

Happy Halloween!

Apologies

We have to apologize. Our digital camera is broken and we haven't been able to take any pictures for a few weeks. Hopefully we'll get a new camera soon and get some pictures back onto the blog. For now, we'll just have to post without them.

Just a quick update...

Last weekend Shannon's grandparents were here visiting from WI. They arrived on Friday afternoon and stayed until Monday morning. I think that they enjoyed themselves. ( I know we did) Karis behaved herself and was genuinely a good girl for the whole weekend. I wasn't sure how she was going to be, especially after our dinner on Friday night, when she had a little trouble staying in her chair.

On Saturday we went to the Common Ground fair in Unity. The Common Ground Fair is always a great time. I got to scope out the chicken coop that I want. You click on the link below to see it.
http://www.rootscoopsandmore.com/Roots,_Coops,_%26_More/Coops.html#4

I think that Dan and Shirley had a good time at the fair. It's a great place to people-watch and to get information on sustainable agriculture.

Dinner on Saturday night was interesting. We ended up driving to Rockport to go to Cody's. Shan and I are usually put in the back room of Cody's where the small children typically go so we knew that there would be kids back there. But there was a women with a small boy sitting a few tables away that annoyed many people in the restaurant. Her son just screamed and yelled for what had to be a half an hour. You could tell that the people in the room were getting very angry with his mother. She didn't really do anything about his behavior and it eventually forced some people to leave without eating. Luckily for us, Karis didn't get caught up in the boys bad behavior. She was great the whole time.

On Sunday the weather wasn't the greatest so we had to find things to do indoors. Sunday was a perfect day for bargain shopping so we took a trip to Waterville to go to Marden's. Then to Belfast to Reny's and Ocean State Job Lots. Shannon and I finally bought our wool braided rug at Marden's. They were having a sale on rugs--20% off. Now, we had looked and looked at braided rugs all over the place. Most were made very cheaply with weird plasticky material or were waaay too expensive. We got lucky and found a good wool one that was in our price range. I put it under my kitchen table and it makes my kitchen look great. We also bought some good Halloween decorations at Marden's.

Sunday night was pretty quiet. I made dinner at home. Stuffed shells with garlic bread seemed to be the perfect final dinner for their time with us. I also think that we got them hooked on the History Channel show Pawn Stars.

I had to go back to work on Monday but Shannon was home with the baby. Dan and Shirley left before me in the morning.

Overall, a terrific busy weekend.

Yesterday was one of the very first hot days. We set up Karis' baby pool and let her play in it for a while. Then we stuck it under her slide to see if she would like splashing into the water. We helped her down the first time, but then she was hooked. She started throwing herself down the slide. She must have gone down twenty times. What a dare devil!

A Present from Auntie Jenn.

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This is video of Karis opening her present from Jenn.

Happy Birthday Karis!!

I can't believe that Karis is one! This year has gone by so quickly. She has learned and grown so much. It seems like everyday she is figuring out a new word or discovering something she never noticed before- like, unfortunately her diaper pail- but that's another story.

Karis had a party at Day Care today. She got a Cinderella tea set, books, and a toy car. She also came home with two balloons.


All week she has been getting gifts and cards. Thank you everyone. She enjoys all of them. She even likes playing with the cards.

After day care today, Karis and BJ came home. I took a couple hours off of work, and came home early. Before dinner Karis played with some of her new toys, and opened a couple more cards and a gift from her great grandma and grandpa.

Her birthday dinner was homemade Mac and Cheese, and I let her have a little juice. Then came the cupcake. She had a yellow cupcake with chocolate frosting. She dug right in and thoroughly enjoyed it. She was very generous and shared some with her favorite dog, Duncan. He was more than happy to lick some of that frosting off her fingers. In fact, mealtime is the only time Duncan is willing to spend time with Karis.

Well, to cap off a very messy cupcake feast, Karis decided to climb out of her high chair and stand on her chocolate covered tray. If either BJ or I had any doubts whether Karis would need a bath, they were definately gone!

Karis covered the bathroom in chocolate while waiting for her tubby. She got a quick wipe down and was off to find more presents- this time from Mommy and Daddy. She really liked the dump truck and little tykes "video camera." We even let her stay up an extra twenty minutes.

Just another day

There have been a few requests for us to post more blogs more often, so we're going to try to be more vigilant about it.

Today was the second of the State Employees shut down day so Shan was home with me all day. I'm usually home on Fridays anyway, but it because Shan was going to be home, we actually made plans. Karis went to daycare to keep her routine (we're trying a new sleeping schedule) so we decided to catch a movie, which we haven't been able to do since we visited my parents over a month ago.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince was pretty good. We practically had the whole theater to ourselves for the 12:15 matinee. Picked Karis up around 3:30 and headed home.

Last week Karis's birthday present from her Grandma and Grandpa came in the mail. Shan and I put the slide together and put sand in the new sandbox and Karis hopped right in.

Before dinner tonight we played outside for a bit on the new slide and sandbox. When Karis was ready, we went to our favorite take-out stand, Country Cupboard. Karis and I shared some french fries and cole slaw, as Shan ate her crab salad sandwich with no lettuce.

Next week is Karis's first birthday. No doubt we'll have more pictures up.

Open Farm Day

Sunday the 27th was Open Farm Day. Farms all over Maine opened their doors to the public. Even though it was rainy, foggy, and cool we decided to check out some of our local farms. Union is a farming town, and we had plenty of options all within a couple miles of the house.

The first farm we went to was Ells Sheep Farm. We saw their dairy flock and toured their barns. They also had stands from Appleton Creamery, an ice cream stand, maple syrup stand, a stand selling meat.

From there we went to Agricola Farm, another sheep farm. They have a regular farm store where they sell veggies, yarn, sheep skin, meat, and crafts. I bought some wool/alpaca yarn. The high school had a display of their heirloom seed project and a spinning demonstration . They also had the rabbit that Karis liked looking at.

We then went to our neighbors farm, Brae Maple Farm. Their organic farm backs up to our property. They have Scottish Highland cattle, sheep, and donkeys. They are also avid gardeners. There were many gardens to walk through, and master gardeners from the University of Maine Cooperative Extension were giving lectures and walking around to answer any questions people may have. They had a lot of interesting foods made from their gardens. Karis really liked the Earl Grey shortbread cookies. A golden retriever decided that he liked Karis and gave her slobbery wet kisses a few times while she was being pushed in her stroller. Another interesting thing we learned was that the house, built around 1789, was originally supposed to be an Inn, but the road between Rockland and Augusta was not run in the place it was supposed to be so it was turned into a farm. Its really amazing that its been a farm for over 200 years. I wonder if our land was originally part of that farm.

Finally, we went to Linita Farm, a dairy farm. They have 80 Holstein and Jersey cows. We saw a calf that had been born at 4:30 that morning. Karis wasn't a huge fan of the cows. The cows were very interested in BJ. One practically wrapped its tongue around his wrist. They seemed to have a taste for his clothes. Every time he tried to show Karis the cows one of them would end up chewing his shoe or shirt or arm. Mr. Hawes, the farmer, thought it was really funny that the only cow Karis showed any real interest in was the wood display cow. We enjoyed free ice cream. By the end of that farm tour Karis could barely keep her eyes open. We decided to scrap the rest of the farm tours, and go home. We spent three hours out and about and never went further than three miles from our house.

video from our trip

This was Karis' first time in a swimming pool. That's her cousin Haley in the background. I'll post more video later.

Trip to PA

Shannon and her great great grandmother

So since I put that ad on here about BJ, I thought it was only fair to post an old photo of me. I have a feeling that in a few months Karis will have the same hair.

BJ was famous

BJ's Nan gave him a bunch of pictures a few months back. He didn't remember any stories about this ad, and many people he asked about it didn't either so I thought I would post it for all to see.

Finally Get to Relax

So, it's been a few weeks since we've had the opportunity to sit down and catch up on the blogging. With company visiting for two weekends straight, and then working last Saturday and Sunday, there hasn't been much time to just relax.

That's why this weekend I decided to just hang at the house and do practically nothing. Yesterday we ran some errands (Walmart, yard sales, farm stand, etc.) and then came home. I made some yummy chicken salad for lunch and we sat outside enjoying the sunshine. You wouldn't believe how beautiful the weather was. Sunny, 70, with the slightest of breezes. While Shan and I ate our sandwiches, Karis fed herself strawberries.


The evening was just as great. I grilled some pork chops and chopped some wood for the fireplace and we had dinner al fresco. Toasted marshmallows and strawberry shortcake for desert and some good music just topped it all off.

Overall, it was a long, relaxing day. I wish every day could be like that.


As I sit on my Lazyboy on Sunday, the rain is falling and the baby is playing on the floor with her toys. I'm glad we spend the day outside yesterday-when you live in Maine, you never know when the weather will be nice again.

Look out world she can walk!

Updates

It's been a few weeks since we've updated the blog page, so it was about time. We've been having a good time traveling and working around the house during the weekends. I started building my second chicken coop, which should house a half dozen or so hens. I've mainly been using scrap wood from the demo pile. So far, so good.

Karis surprises us everyday with how much she's learning and growing. She's all over the house now crawling and walking along the furniture. Our house is a mess. She has toys all over the place.

My birthday went well. Shannon made me dinner and a great cake. She made my favorite cake of all time. Growing up in Easton, I would always get a canoli filled yellow cake with whipped cream frosting from Easton Baking, Co. Shannon remember that it was my favorite and made it at home. Cindy and Mike got me a chainsaw so that I could get the downed branches out of my lilac bushes. An ice storm this past winter did some real damage to my trees. They also got me a Nintendo DS, which Shannon and I play everyday. (Current BrainAge=26); not bad for a 30 year-old.

We took a day trip up north last weekend. Shan and I have lived in Maine for going on 8 years now and have never been up to Moosehead Lake. On a whim, we decided to hop in the car and go for a drive. It was a long drive, but worth it.

Other than that, things have been pretty quite. We've been taking it easy and enjoying each other's company.

Spring is here

Its April!!! Karis is getting SO big. She is crawling and pulling herself up. She is starting to cruise around the furniture. She is also starting to make a BIG MESS!





She is becoming quite the little stinker.

This is what our living room looks like by the end of everyday.



This morning I went outside and found about twenty turkeys in the field behind the house. There were several toms strutting their stuff. It was also rainy and foggy, and looks like it will be that way for the foreseeable future. Yep- it is April.

Karis making noise

Karis standing up

Dogs do gross, gross things!

Snow, Pictures, and the Doctor

The past week has been quite interesting. March in Maine has come in like a lion. On Monday another 7 inches of snow fell. This time, though, the snow was light and fluffy, so the shoveling wasn't so bad. It wasn't like the last storm. Before the storm we drove to Augusta to get Karis' 6 month pictures done. We went back to Sears because they did a great job the last time. Shannon and I decided to get some family portraits done because we hadn't gotten our picture taken together since my mom's wedding a couple of years ago.


Karis also had a doctor's appointment last week. She weighs only 15 pounds, which is in the 5th percentile. What can I say, she's just a peanut. She is 25.75 inches and her head width is 17 inches. Even though, she's a little girl, she's developing perfectly and is even a little advanced. The one thing that he did say is that we need to take her to a pediatric opthalmologist in Portland. It's just a precautionary measure since there is a history of eye issues in Shan's family. You can notice that in some of Karis' pictures her eyes look a little crossed. Hopefully we can get things straightened out.

I hope you like some of the pictures that we got taken.

It's Still Winter :(

Ok.. By request I've decided to post a few pictures of the recent snow storm that we had. Much of state got more than 2 feet of heavy wet snow. We were lucky enough to only get 12 inches. This snow just stuck to everything. Last week was a school vacation week in Maine and this storm added another day. Last night 135,000 people still didn't have power, and this morning Karis's daycare still didn't have any. So, I'm home again today with her. Enjoy the pics.