I am totally and utterly in need of a lot of chocolate. Don’t ask me why.
We had a great Thanksgiving (s). When we don’t blog for a few days that generally means we are enjoying ourselves and keeping busy. Or we are arguing non stop and hate the world and don’t want to talk to anyone. Okay, well that has never happened, but I imagine if that does happen, that will be the case.
Erik decided he doesn’t like turkey dinner. Not the first time, or the second time, and not even the third. What a butt. All three were amazingly good, he missed out on a lot. He ate some fruit. And some bread. And, that’s it. What a loser kid. Heh. He got to go watch Aunt Ashley and Matt play soccer tonight, which I heard though the grape vine he liked a lot. I hear it was a good arena to show off his new shoes, which if I were him, I would do the exact same thing.
So I impressively…get this…didn’t take pictures this year. I purposely left my camera at home. I think I’m driving everyone nuts with the 900 pictures I have of them and their kids (or just Suzie’s kids…since they’re the only “kids”). Or I am driving me nuts. I have over 7000 pictures in iPhoto. A bit much, we say? Yes, we definitely say. Alas, Christmas is coming soon. I’m sure I’ll make up for it.
Off to do so much more homework. I didn’t have a lot, and now I have WAYTOOMUCH. Hate it.
Tags: Family, Fun, Holidays, School, Stress
Happy day-before Thanksgiving!
This year the three of us will be heartily enjoying three different Thanksgivings. Tomorrow we will be at Brandon’s mother’s house. Friday we will be here, trying to get our stomachs ready for the weekend. Saturday we will be with my Aunt and Uncle, and Sunday we will be at Brandon’s dad. Yay for lots of family.
Christmas shouldn’t be as…filling. My lovely cousin Suzie doesn’t have to work so we will be having dinner on Christmas Day, and that should be it. I’m excited for it all, anyway.
It does help that I don’t have class!
Tags: Family, Holidays
Posted in Patti by Patti 3 months, 2 weeks ago at 8:23 pm. Add a comment
What a wonderful birthday I had this year! It all started Tuesday when Patti dragged herself out of bed to bake cinnamon rolls for breakfast before I went to work. She also surprised me with a lunch pail that you could barely zipper closed that was filled with a nice thick sandwich and lots of snacks! After work, Erik and I got home to find that Patti had decorated the house and had ingredients to make manicotti ready to go for when she got home from school.
We enjoyed the wonderful meal and ice cream and Patti and Erik got me very nice LL Bean slippers and chocolates for me to enjoy at work. It was a wonderful day and very much unexpected!
Yesterday, we “finished” celebrating my birthday (as if Tuesday wasn’t 3 times more than I expected) by going to a Binghamton Senator’s hockey game and Texas Roadhouse for dinner. We realized that the Vestal Texas Roadhouse is half the size and half the quality of the Syracuse restaurant that we’ve grown to love. But, the food was still very good and we walked away stuffed.
The hockey game started off well with an early Senators goal, but soon the visiting team had gained a 4 goal lead to bring the score to 1-4. After that, the Senators seemed to be frustrated and had a greater interest in taking off their gloves and turning the ice rink into a boxing ring. Much the rest of the game was boring and we expected the Senators would loose. Late in the third period however, the Senators finally scored bringing the crowd to its feet. Then another, and another, and a fifth goal to tie the game with less than a minute to go! After 5 minutes of overtime and no goals, the game went into a best out of 5 shootout where the Sens lost 2 goals to 1 to bring the final score to 5-6. Even though the Sens lost, it was definitely the best game that Patti and I had been to yet and we had a blast!
So, my birthday this year was awesome and I couldn’t have asked for anything different. I had a wonderful time Tuesday with Patti and Erik, and had an amazing time with Patti on Saturday. It will definitely be a birthday to remember! Thank you Patti for everything you did! I certainly didn’t deserve half of what you did and I love you so much for it!
Tags: Family, Holidays, Love, Senators
Well, it’s finally here. Brandon is getting old. He is 26 today! Wow… 
So I want to wish him a Happy Birthday for the millionth time. But, he deserves lots of smiles, so it’s okay.
Our favorite picture...we've barely changed!
Tags: Happy, Holidays, Love
On a lighter note, Husband’s birthday is tomorrow. *yayforhim!*
Tags: Holidays, Love
We hope everyone had an awesome Halloween. We had a great one. We spent much of the morning moving Brandon’s dad with Ashley. Erik and I came home and took naps when we were done.
In the evening we had some more pulled pork and had Brandon’s mom, Ashley and Matt over. I tried to paint Erik’s nose black with the paint brush but he wasn’t so interested. So I ended up using my thumb, so it turned out pretty horrible. Oh well.
Then we went down to Homer to meet Brandon’s dad and Valerie. Erik wasn’t so interested in keeping his costume on or putting his Pooh hat on. Brandon’s mom finally talked him into it and we started trick or treating. He of course would only whisper trick or treat sometimes and every now and then say thank you.
After awhile he kept saying “next house,” and “next street.” He actually loved it and said he had fun. He was really sweet and still excited when we got home. He didn’t bug for too much candy. Well, not too much.
Tags: Family, Fun, Holidays, Love
Posted in Patti by Patti 4 months, 1 week ago at 10:10 am. Add a comment
A couple of weeks ago we trekked out on the coldest day of the season to pick out pumpkins at Anderson’s. Erik, of course, wanted the pumpkins at the absolute back of the pumpkin patch, on top of a hill forcing Patti and I to drag the pumpkins back down to the car. Tonight we finally carved the pumpkins into masterpieces (well, Patti did 95% of the carving, Erik and I were responsible for the mess making)
As you can see, Erik got quite involved this year and made a nice mess with the guts from the pumpkins. At first, he said it was gross and only wanted to scoop the guts out with “the shovel” until I shoved his hand deep into the pile of muck. After that, we made a “pumpkin pie” as Erik called it by squishing the goo between our fingers and patting it down flat.
These three photos are taken a year apart from the last. Erik on the right was less than one year old, the one in the middle one year and 8 months, and the picture to the left was taken tonight. Each of Erik’s three Halloween’s Patti has carved an Erik pumpkin and two of the three years we have pictures of Erik holding his pumpkin. (Unfortunately we don’t have one from last year for some reason-just of him when he was carving the pumpkin).
Tags: Family, Fun, Holidays, Love
Posted in Erik by Brandon 4 months, 1 week ago at 10:20 pm. Add a comment
Erik had a great 2nd birthday party. He had a really good time and was in a really good mood the entire day. His favorite new toy is his ride on disney airplane. It’s cute. He picked it out.
He got a lot of new movies, which is great for me! Helps keep my sanity!
Erik goes to the Dr. on Thursday for his 2 year check up with his new Dr. I’m excited to see what percentile he falls into now. He seems a bit bigger than other kids.
Erik is talking more and more as well. He can talk in sentences now. He will say things like “I closed the door.” We’re still working on our colors and potty training. Hopefully soon.
Tags: Erik Dr., Erik Vocab, Holidays
Posted in Erik by Patti 1 year, 1 month ago at 12:59 pm. Add a comment
So Erik really liked this Christmas. He was on sensory overload at certain points though. When he was opening his gifts, he was having a hard time moving on to the next. He wanted to play and open the one he just opened. He finally got the hang of it and was ripping one after the next open. It turned out that his favorite gift from Santa was his Handy Manny toolbox. It has all of Handy Manny’s tools, and the front row of the tools jump up and down and it plays a song. He thinks it’s the greatest thing ever. He also liked all of the play tools we got him.
Grandpa came over and had brought Erik a new sled and wagon. Erik loved both. He really liked to sit in the wagon and just be pushed back and forth. Can’t wait until the summer when we can take him outside with it. Grandpa also got Erik a large stuffed Shrek doll. He thought that was great too.
Erik absolutely did not want to nap. He kept getting up, over and over. He finally fell asleep after much deliberation, but he only got around an hour’s worth of sleep. When we woke him up he was not the happiest camper. When we got to my Aunt and Uncle’s, he got a hold of a candy cane, and once that sugar hit he was quite hyper. My side of the family got Erik some clothes, and a few dvd’s. I was grateful for the dvd’s. We have been watching the same 3 over and over and over again. The more dvd’s the better!!! Erik never watches t.v., just the dvd’s, so, great gifts. Erik liked Christmas dinner, but put too much turkey in his mouth at once and it kind of all came back up at once. Not good. He ate good after that though.
Erik didn’t want to go to sleep that night again either. Too much excitement. All in all, he really enjoyed his day, and got tons of new toys. The next day I had to go through his toybox and took a box of old toys that he never played with anymore out to make room for all of his new toys. He needed new toys though, so it’s good.
Tags: Family, Holidays, Love
Posted in Erik by Patti 1 year, 2 months ago at 10:24 am. Add a comment
So our Christmas morning was…good. Erik didn’t wake up till around 9:30 (and we actually kind of woke him up…) He actually liked opening his presents. I’ll write more about it in his blog. Brandon got me a new bench for my keyboard, which I was excited about. It’s perfect. Brandon said his favorite gift was the mug warmer I got him. Haha. What a dork. Brandon’s dad got me a new easel, so yay. I haven’t put it together yet because I have no idea where to put it!!
So yeah after we did out gift giving’s and having a very short breakfast, didn’t really finish…Brandon’s dad came over. We then exchanged gifts. Brandon got some great tools he really wanted and I got painting stuff and a gift card to the carousel. How fun.
After Brandon’s dad left we sat around with Erik and took all of his new toys out of the box. This was a daunting task, I hate having to get children’s toys out of the box. They situate them as such so that they are on display and you can play with them, but are harder than harvard law to get in to. While we were doing this Brandon’s grandfather came home. We had him over so we could give him his gift, and he stayed for around an hour. It was nice. He told us some stories and Erik handed Grandpa every new toy he got. Funny kid.
After Grandpa left we *tried* to put Erik down for a nap. Didn’t so much happen, well did a little, but not nearly long enough. Brandon and I went upstairs and rested a little and took showers. Then we headed up to my Aunt’s and Uncle’s. When we got there, they were still in the midst of their gift opening. It was crazy!! But absolutely great. Brandon and I were laughing at the madness the whole time. Suzie and Steve got a 42” widescreen T.V. from my Aunt and Uncle. When Brandon and I saw the box we immediately knew what it was and were trying to find a blank label so we could put our names on it instead. Haha.
After we went into the kitchen and my Aunt and Uncle continued on dinner. Brandon popped our wine from Chateau Dusseau and we really loved it. When we sat down for dinner, Brandon and both stuffed ourselves to the brim. We were both excited about getting a big turkey dinner, as we weren’t quite expecting to have a christmas dinner at all (long story…) The food was “exceptionally good” (inside joke) and we ate far too much. After dinner we plopped ourselves in front of the t.v. and tried not to sleep. Aunt Pinky of course gave us dessert anyway. After we were done we decided it was time to head home, as it was getting late.
So, after all, the day turned out wonderfully. We were sure that the day was going to be a flop, but my aunt, uncle, cousin, and her family made it a really great day. So we are very blessed to have them in our lives.
Tags: Family, Holidays, Love
Posted in Patti by Patti 1 year, 2 months ago at 10:12 am. Add a comment
