Living the Dream House

Somewhere between raising our Little Baby Pigeon, working and trying to spend some time in the woods, we lost our minds and decided life wasn't complicated enough, we'd build a house.

Actually, it was an idea hatched over dinner last winter with our dear friends, mothers of the Tiny Sri Lankan. We thought it'd be neat to build houses side by side so the kids would grow up together and we could grow a big garden, keep chickens (maybe a goat), plant some apple trees and keep a hive or two of bees. ..Cause life's not busy enough already.

Fast forward to now, we're well underway with construction, our neighbors are about a month ahead of us and a stone's throw away, and we're shaking our heads not believing that this is actually happening. What's that Journey song? Anyway, here are a few overdue photos of the construction's progress over at our dream house.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RORY!!!!!!!

Our LBP is no longer "little". He's officially a big guy now. Today, Rory turns 1!! Thank you to everyone who was able to brave the traffic and make the trek up to Maine to celebrate with us last weekend. Here are a few photos (okay, a bunch really) of his first birthday party. He had a great time and managed an entire fun filled afternoon without a nap and without a major meltdown. And, although there are only photos him playing with a few of his new toys, I can assure everyone that he has loved and played with all of them in the past week.

Rory opening his first present, dropped off by little elves the night before his party.

He wasn't quite sure about the balloons at first, but he's grown to love them. He still has the mylar one and asks to play with it all the time.

Matchy-matchy...who's ready for fall?!

Why is everybody singing and looking at me??

I'm 1 year old and I can count my age on my finger.

Need a little help blowing out the candle?

Frosting? I've never heard of such a thing.

Rory sharing his George monkey from the cake.

Oh...I think I like frosting!

Its stuck to my hand...get it off!!

Well, maybe I'll just put more on my hand. That was fun the first time.

Ahmmmm@!!

While we set up his new truck, he had fun playing with the box.

Riding his new truck with Gramma.

Fun with Firetrucks!!

One year ago today...

I was in the middle of 42 hours of labor and still thinking that our baby was going to be sharing a birthday with Bev. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMA B!!! Alas, he decided to wait another day before he came out, so he gets his own birthday tomorrow. Its crazy to think about how much has happened in a year. We've gone from a happy couple to a family of 3, we're officially engaged, and we're building our dream house next to 2 of our closest friends and building a neighborhood community for our kids to grow up in. All in all, I'd say its been a pretty good year. :)

We're so lucky to have such a happy boy. I can't even believe that he'll be 1 tomorrow.

Engagement Day!!

Rory's Mamas are going to get married...

I made her a ring made of wood.

I brought her to the top of my favorite mountain.

I asked her to marry me. She said "yes, of course".

What a beautiful hiking day!!

That's the ideal short version anyway...all the little things that didn't quite go as planned only made the day more amusing and more like our real lives...not quite perfect, but always wonderful and full of happiness and laughter.

First, she didn't want to do the hike I wanted. It took several tries before I could convince her that there were reasons that I really wanted to do Tumbledown. She finally gave in last minute. Not that another hike wouldn't have been wonderful too, but I've always had this one in mind since I started thinking about my plan. Of course, after all the effort I put into making sure it was this mountain that we were at, we got to the top and there were quite honestly probably 50 people up there. So much for a nice private moment. I was counting on some people up there, but never expected this kind of crowd. So we chose a spot a little away from the crowd to sit and eat, and just as I was thinking it would be a good time to ask the question, a group of about 5 very conservative and very talkative people came and sat down about 2 feet from us and talked nonstop from the point they sat down until the time they left. Had I known they were ever going to leave, I would have waited, but thinking I was stuck with them in the background of my perfect moment, I went ahead and asked her anyway, despite the background chatter. I wanted to capture the moment, but since self timer won't take several photos in a row on my camera, I decided to just put it on video and pull still images from it later. In this first picture, you can see Bev is still looking at the camera, thinking we're waiting for the timer to take a family photo. It took a few seconds for her to realize I was saying something important rather than posing for the picture. I finally got out what I wanted to say and it was time to give her the ring. With Rory eating lunch on her lap, when I grabbed her hand to put the ring on it, I had to first empty her hand of the Cheerios and raisins she was holding for him. Of course, as soon as our moment was over, the entire mountain top cleared out and there was only us and 2 other couples hanging out. I guess I should've had a bit of patience, but I was just too excited.




And, the ring:


Some other photos from the hike:
Rory being a goofball in the backpack
Family photo
Human only family photo (Coops is hiding)

Rory checking out the guest book.

"George"

Last week I spent my first night away from Rory ever. I went to my puzzle conference and stayed at a hotel for the night. As nice as it was to get away, I missed him terribly. I'm sure it was harder on me than it was on him because he was home having fun with Mama B. When he woke up in the morning, she gave him a bottle and hung out for a bit in bed reading books, which is usually what we do (only I'm usually there to nurse him). Some of his favorite books lately have been the Curious George series. Apparently he likes them so much that it became one of his first words. Mama B handed him the book and he looked at it and said "George" and pointed and smiled that oh-so-proud smile he has when he knows he's just done something cool.

He's also been saying and signing "All done" at appropriate times; when he's done eating; when he's done nursing; when we get to the end of a book. Its really so cute. I've got a video of it, but I'll have to add that in later. My computer doesn't upload videos well these days. He says it in a really long, drawn out voice that is very sweet and soft. Its beyond adorable.

Below are a few photos of him loving his new monkey. Pete and Laurene came up for a visit to Maine and got him a monkey to love. He gives it a hug and then hands it to us for everyone to hug and then he wants it back for more hugs. He loves his monkeys. Not sure where he gets that from. :) Of course, we've decided to name this one George, since its on his mind these days.