Fall Days

We had a really nice fall day recently where Kirk got to tackle raking the leaves - well actually thanks to the new lawn sweeper he swept the leaves up instead. Dominic is still terrified of the tractor so he watched "dada" drive around and collect the leaves from a safe distance (in the house looking out the front door.) We took him out to play in the leaves but he was sure that terrible tractor was going to come back for him soon.

Dominic is keeping watch for that terrifying tractor...

Dominic in the leaves - against his wishes :)


How Natalie spent this fall afternoon

Dominic did eventually recover from his experience, but he doesn't want to play in the leaves any more.

Nic's First Hair Cut

Dominic's hair style was getting a bit out of control so he finally got his first hair cut at 16 months. To my surprise he didn't freak out :) He was scared to have the stylist put the smock on him, but after that it was smooth sailing - my baby boy now officially looks like a toddler! Check out the before and after...

WELCOME NATALIE!

Natalie Elizabeth was born 9/24/08 at 3:50 pm. She weighed 6 lbs and 14 ounces - a pound smaller than her big brother. She was 21 inches long according to the nurse at the hospital but the doctor measured her at 20 inches a week later at her check up.

The delivery went very well with no complications and the recovery was so much easier than with Dominic - what a blessing for mom!

We are all adjusting well to no sleep and trying to teach Dominic to be "nice" and "soft" - he sure loves his sister!

Summer Fun

I guess I am not very good at posting enough to keep everyone updated - but here are some fun pics from this summer :)

Playing outside is always fun....

But it's even better when you get to chew on rocks from the driveway!

Here is Dominic and Ah-Ah. (As in oo-oo ah-ah for a monkey sound) He loves this stuffed monkey and kisses him every chance he gets. I have to say its pretty cute :)

Daddy and Dominic at the 4th of July parade - Dominic really liked the marching bands and the dance groups - I will definately have to try and capture his dancing on video so I can post it, but whenever he sees a camera he stops what he's doing to try and grab it.

Dominc mowing the lawn with dad (right in front of our neighbor's beautiful car lot). Nic used to love to watch dad mow the lawn, but he took this one ride on the tractor and has been terrified of it since then. He won't let me put him down whenever the tractor is in sight!

After a lot of hard work from Kirk and I, Matt and Kirk's friends we were able to get the weeds out and the water in our pool! The water is always a little cold for Dominic at first, but he loves to ride around in his car float!

More swimming....

Dominic and I went to his buddy Braxton's first birthday party where we saw a magician and met Elmo!
Dominic and his supper preggo mommy with Elmo - Dominic was pretty scared of the giant red monster...

Finally, The Birthday Pictures...

I have been on vacation for almost two weeks now so I am really out of excuses for not getting these pictures posted :) Here are some more pictures of our birthday boy at the party and eating his cake!

We also took Dominic to get his professional 1 year pics this week - that whole experience did not go so well. But we did get some cute pictures though. I'll post some as soon as I get them in my email.

Dominic with cousin Eliza

The Birthday Boy

It is unbelievable how fast this past year went. Dominic is a whole year old and officially a toddler even though he'll still be the baby until his sister gets here :). We celebrated the happy occasion at Grandma and Grandpa T's. We had a BBQ with the family and then opened presents - it was quiet and simple - and a good thing because Dominic was exhausted. He took a horrible nap that morning since we are still working on siding the house and poor Nic was spent by the time his party started. But, as always, he was happy to see his aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and even Grandma and Grandpa Great (My grandparents) were able to come to the party.

Dominic loved his BBQ lunch but was a mess by the time we opened presents. He did not care one bit about trying to open anything and was crying due to being exhausted and the center of attention which he normally loves. Thankfully his Lee cousins were more than happy to help with the unwrapping. We managed to sing happy birthday and then cousin Eliza blew out the candle for him :)


Dominic didn't get to eat his cake until after his nap - but I think it still tasted pretty good. Thanks to everyone who came and celebrated the special day!




Nic with Uncle Matt

Home Improvement

Well we (actually I) had big hopes for this past holiday weekend - we wanted to reside our house. We got a great start but I was a little naive about how long the project would take. Friday Kirk spent all day ripping off the old siding and Tom was over to install new windows in Nic's room.

Before -->

Saturday was great - the inlaws willing came over to help with clean-up, tacking up new insulation, and starting the siding. We even got to have our Memorial Day BBQ thanks to Gretchen.

Dominic did really well through the whole process. We had to ship him off to Aunt Ali's for his afternoon nap due to all the pounding on the house, but at least he wasn't scared of the noise. Just a few months ago he paniced everytime he heard daddy pounding away working to finish off the basement.

For all our hard work we have a beautiful new front to our home and a huge pile of garbage in the driveway :) It is going to be slow going for the next couple weeks with Kirk and Tom out of town, but I am sure it is going to be well worth the work and the wait when its done!

<--- Our work in progress...

Now its off the the next big project for this weekend -Dominic's first birthday party!