Love » The Fintons

Don't let it go away

No Responses » Tagged with: Family, Love, Pictures

Jul 192010

My confession for the day is that, honestly, I’m exhausted. I’ve been up since 6 a.m. my dear friends, and this old gal doesn’t function as well on little sleep as I used to. Granted I regularly don’t get a whole lot of sleep, but this morning I was required to get up and actually do something. So alas, I am a tired girl.

I do have some more pictures to share, but I must point out that I have a very hard time editing pictures on Brandon’s iMac. I have been putting the pictures on here to give my MacBook’s harddrive a bit of a break (heck it’s about to break), but the screen on here is so different that I don’t really know if I’m editing right. I promise you, my screen looks 1000 times different than most everyone else’s. This Mac has the ability to make everything look…prettier (which is good for my crappy ego). So here is my apology to anyone whose picture may be up on here and the colors or off or whatnot. I try not to edit them too much – especially the pictures that are taken outside. I’m all about the natural light, the more the better, so those pictures usually don’t get touched much.

I have been giving my girl a break (my girl = my camera). I haven’t been taking pictures everyday like I was for awhile. Partly because as I pointed out in my last post, we are mad busy, and partly because as I pointed out in the previous paragraph, harddrives are getting full. I have been taking about 300 shots a month. Ouch. We all know I won’t give it up though.

Without further ado, here are some shots from Kristin and Dave’s wedding that was on Saturday.

This first set are pictures that Brandon and I took ourselves before the wedding. Hence why the hair still looks pristine (it succumbs to flatness in subsequent pictures).

I suppose I could have played with the colors and made some black and white, but sorry, our colors are too fab (thanks Adri) to do something like that. And we totally match.

Okay here are some from the actual wedding.

It was a beautiful wedding. Brandon definitely does have a beautiful family (my in-laws) as well, which helps.

And speaking of beautiful, my husband tops ‘em all.

Enjoy your Monday. I know I am.

Erik and his dad

No Responses » Tagged with: Family, Happy, Love

Jul 012010

When I was working I was pretty much heartbroken everyday. I would come home and Erik didn’t want me if he got hurt or upset. He only wanted his daddy. It was a lot of my motivation to stay home and go back to school. Now, it’s pretty much just Erik and me, everyday. Except for the fact now that we got blessed with Brandon’s job, and he gets to work from home two days a week. So after works days, like last Tuesday, this is what happens.

Now I know I’ve gone on about my two boys, but, their beauty is unsurpassable. You always hear that cheesy line that you never knew what love really meant – but it’s true. Whole heartedly and completely true. Our marriage isn’t always perfect, neither are our parenting styles, but we have all grown. As a family. And we find ourselves becoming happier and more comfortable in our lives everyday. And man, you can’t beat that.

Now Erik loves his baths. Like I’m going to stay in there for 3 hours and you’re still going to have to pull me out since I’ve asked for more hot water 30 times. Tonight, during his bath, he started yelling to Brandon that he wanted to get out of the tubby now. Brandon was diligently reading a history book for class (you know, that one I get a synopsis for every paragraph), so he got up after he finished reading his page. Apparently, that was too long for Erik.

Is he sleeping? I do not know.

We see flashes of him hurtling towards the floor after slipping when getting out of the bathtub, so we generally always make him wait until someone can get him out.

Then he runs around like a banshee, naked, but with a towel.

Erik very stealthy tricked Brandon into coloring with him tonight while he avoided bed time. A good 20 minutes after this I reminded Brandon that Erik might need to go to bed now.

Moms always ruin the fun.

I’m off to go live on the greener side of life. I like looking through my rose colored glasses every now and then. Because you know what? Happy is fun. Happy is life. And happy is a hell of a lot better than feeling bad for yourself when you are surrounded by this much love.

And times when Brandon and I share that glance, and wonder how we got to lucky to have such an amazing boy, I know my life is complete. I hope Erik grows up to love his own family the way our family loves each other. If that is true, baby I can promise you, he will never feel alone.

Oh My God - I love it here

No Responses » Tagged with: Family, Fun, Happy, Love, Summer, Travel

May 312010

So, well, it has been amazing here. We have had such a wonderful time with everyone… We had to say goodbye to Sonny and Angel tonight because they had to go to their dad’s tomorrow until after we leave. It was pretty horrible. Angel was so upset she couldn’t stop crying. In fact she is still awake right now crying …it breaks my heart. : (

Okay, we will be happy for the moment. For it has been some of the happiest days in the history of happy days.

We had a pretty good flight down – we ended up flying from Rochester to Orlando because it was so much cheaper. We were able to get a rental car because of the money saved on the flight.

On the tram at the airport in Orlando.

So we drove the two hours from Orlando to get here. We ended up finally getting to my mom’s house around 9 p.m. So we just unpacked and were lazy for a little while before bed.

Saturday was wonderful – of course. After getting up in the a.m. we got ready and headed over to my sister Chris’s house. After some heartfelt reunions we finally got around to getting to the beach. We ended up going to Howard Beach in Tarpon Springs. A smaller beach but still great. Erik and Brandon’s first time swimming in the Gulf of Mexico. Very cool for them.

Simone had a pretty good time too. The water was a little seaweed filled – but we survived anyway.

After our beach excursion we decided to wash off not in the shower like normal people – but in another body of water! This time in Chris’s mother-in-laws pool.

After spending most of the day in some type of water, and in the sun, we decided to go back home and be completely lazy and get already made dinner from the grocery store. We were all way too tired. Hey, it was still great. : )

Since I am camera obsessed, I already have over 200 shots. My lovely niece Simone is almost as camera obsessed as me, so when we were going crazy Saturday night taking pictures, there are amazingly enough some pictures of myself. Woohoo!

Caitlyn’s shirt says love. Sums up my feelings perfectly.

Beautiful girls – God I’m so proud to be their aunt.

We get a little silly sometimes. It’s a sister thing.

Sunday was….well guess what…amazing. It was the day of our family/friends BBQ. It was the first time since Erik’s baptism that ALL of the kids were together. And of course I took advantage of that….

Haha love the last picture – Marijane has her fingers in her nose. GREAT!

So I had this amazing idea of getting the kids to stand in height order.

Okay yea, it actually turned out to be one of the hardest thing in the history of photography – but well, they’re cute anyway. Even if not in a single one are they all looking.

I’m sure the ultra mega cool huge slide they were standing in doesn’t help with the attention span thing.

Okay there were a few more but they weren’t any better. : ( I still love them – and they will be printed. I can oh so fully promise you that.

There are more from the BBQ, and they will be in the next post, promise. You just wait….total picture overload.

You called me beautiful

No Responses » Tagged with: Family, Friends, Kitty, Love, Summer

May 232010

I have a confession to make.

I’m a pretty happy person, but I am also pretty cynical. I use this blog to – hmmm – try and not be so cynical. To write out that I am happy and love life. Then maybe I will believe it.

No honestly it’s not that bad. I’m just, cynical.

I haven’t written in awhile because I have devoted my time to painting the garage here. Also planting and other random endeavors. My painting is done with the garage…it looks great… Brandon’s grandfather kept complimenting us and was very grateful. I will get the pictures up as soon as I take them. : )

We were kind of …crazy… in the way we painted the garage. It was done in the manner that we did it because of time constraints – I was only able to paint the lower parts so I did it during the day. I think I put – hmmm – 50 plus hours into it? Maybe more with the time from last year. It’s okay, we are happy we did it. We totally worked our tushes off on it, so be grateful people, be grateful. A little humility goes a long way.

I have also sadly ignored my homework as well (yes, summer session hath started for me).

Okay, so on with the happy and loving life. Last Thursday we were able to go to my very best friend Amy’s parents house for dinner. It was absolutely wonderful. They have a beautiful piece of land and an amazing house. Erik absolutely loves visiting there. Oh and I have to add in here that Dadsie (Amy’s dad) built the house all..by…himself. Amazing I tell you.

That last photo is from when Brandon was trying to teach Erik how to paint his arm with a dandelion. Remember doing that when you were a kid? It’s great being able to teach your own children your childhood craziness. : )

We also learned how to pop the heads off.

Oh and Erik’s shirt is in honor of Momsie (Amy’s mom). That is her favorite part from the Toy Story movie, so when I saw it I had to get it. I wouldn’t let Erik wear it until Momsie saw it, so he was happy he finally got to wear it.

Oh and did everyone notice he is actually not in play clothes?!! I know, I am the best Mom ever.

See even Erik thinks so.

I have no idea what he is doing here.

This weekend has been fairly good thus far for us. It has been lovely and sunny (okay not so much today). Erik’s favorite thing to do outside when it’s warm is blow bubbles. Such a cool kid. I loved blowing bubbles, too.

So sweaty and a dirty face. Ah I love this boy.

Daddy decided to come out and blow some bubbles for Erik. He was running around in them and squealing with delight. I’m sure you can just picture it in your head. Well here’s even better, actual images of it.

Sorry I can’t choose just one, I love them all. But oh believe you me, there were many, many, many more.

Closing thoughts – I hope I’m a cat in the next life. No worries, and can lay in clean laundry that is freshly folded after being hung out on the line.

Ah Emma, you are beautiful.

I promise to post more often, and maybe you won’t be bogged down with so many pictures at once.

Oh c’mon, you know you love it. ; )

We like to paint

No Responses » Tagged with: Fun, Love, Work

May 182010

Yesterday we had a fun filled day of…can you guess….

Man the title gave it away. I continued to paint the garage (my 3rd 9 hour day of painting – you would think I would have painted the garage and the house by now with how much work I’m putting into it) and Erik, well my poor dear sweet boy was, well, completely bored out of his mind and sick of watching paint dry. Quite literally.

I figured it was high time he had something to do himself while I painted. I went and found an old piece of sheet rock that was from when we remodeled his bathroom – and then I cracked out the paints. Some his finger paints, the rest old acrylic paints that I didn’t like/want anymore (bad idea…..I knew it then but figured what the heck). I handed him a brush, and the kid went to town. We have a new Picasso on our hands, people.

Maybe he’ll take after Aunt Chris.

Of course I had to shoot some cute pictures of Erik, which he actually let me. I think it was his compromise for me letting him keep himself painted. Oh, kids.

Yes, he had it on his lips.

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer days as much as Erik and I are. But please, don’t work as hard as we are. : )

Sometimes the good guys finish first

No Responses » Tagged with: Family, Happy, Love

Apr 292010

Tonight was a good night. Talk about being grateful for the little things. Like when this little angel reads “Green Eggs and Ham” to us.

And then of course teeth brushing time. He honestly isn’t horribly fond of brushing his teeth, but he was in such a good mood tonight, even that made him smile.

I haven’t had much time to take pictures the past couple of days. Today was my last full day of classes this semester! I only have 1 class left, then 2 finals, and 1 paper. YES! I think this has been the longest 4 months in my life, ever. Okay maybe I’m exaggerating, but man, it was not something I would ever want to do over.

But, for the lack of anything better to really say, we’ll just let this pictures speak for themselves.

Drake, so cute. I put him out on the porch…apparently he thinks he is a cat and tries to scratch his way back in.

I wanted to get this pic of Logan, and also so you can see the lake, and get the idea of just how crazy windy it was today.

Erik done brushing his teeth. Gotta love the George bathroom.

Yes, we got a little camera/mirror happy. We’re dorks, we know.

I hope everyone remembers to take a minute and enjoy all the things in your life that are wonderful. The things that make you feel great and make you love life so completely your heart feels full.

Then, jump on the bed because you just have to.

Enjoy your almost weekend. It’s the weekend here for the little and me. So soon for Brandon though too. And oh, are we looking forward to it.

Rockstar

No Responses » Tagged with: Life, Love

Apr 222010

Life has been strange for me lately. I can’t put my finger on it, but I’m overly stressed, and at the same time not caring a whole bunch. I basically wish I could feel like this.

Erik is good at showing me to just take a minute and enjoy life. Because there is nothing better than putting a lunch box on your head. He has also shown me that taking pictures of the beautiful things in life can make your heart feel better. At least it does with mine. And without further ado, the beautiful things in our life:

Yes, that’s our beautiful Emma-doodle, and apparently she isn’t very good at posing for the camera. I have this strange thing with nicknames, and Emma has been bestowed with being a doodle. It fits her, and Erik is so darn cute when he says it. I’ve lately been calling Drake Drake-a-potomus. Yes I know I need to get out more.

We have this stool in the kitchen that I use for pretty much everything since I’m uber short. Erik thinks it’s the greatest thing in the world actually. He will do anything to be able to stand on it, even if that includes watching me painstakingly make mashed potatoes. Oh, and washing our hands.

I’ve never been one of those cry-at-movies type people (sorry I’m bad at transitions…ask my professor). In fact, I never really cried much at all. I was always the one to be able to put on the mask…the stone face, and hide my feelings.

That was until my father passed away. As not too many people read our blog I don’t find opening up about these things to be too intimate, just in case you were wondering.

Ever since my dad passed away, the smallest things make me cry. And it’s not that I think about him in the moment and I am so overcome with emotion that I start to cry. I literally cry for no good reason. I never realized that losing someone in your life, like a parent, can literally change parts of your personality. I can’t control it, and for the life of me I can’t understand it.

So like I said, life has been rough for me lately. Everything seems to be a sappy movie that makes me cry. But, in true Erik fashion, the anthem of our house lately has been So What by P!nk. Because your house always has to have an anthem.

He likes to run back and forth whilst the song is playing just saying over and over again “Guess what, I’m a rockstar.” Not wearing pants of course. Because, well, we are rockstars.

Love the life you live

No Responses » Tagged with: Love

Apr 172010

There is nothing better about being a Mom than tucking your already sleeping child in. God has graced me with this horrible insomnia, but it has given me a gift. I get to be awake when the rest of my family is sleeping. I get to hear Brandon breathing softly and I get to steal snuggles when he doesn’t know.

The best part is going down at midnight and discovering the position that Erik has fallen asleep in. 99 times out of 100 he is not in the position you left him in, but rather in some awkward upside down position. Tonight he was laying on his hard hat and using Pooh for his pillow. After I roped all of these uncomfortable things out from underneath him I re-tucked him in, and he looked like an angel. Giving him lots of kisses and trying to commit to memory the way he smells and looks in that exact moment is priceless. I don’t want to look back 20 years from now and forget what it felt like to be a Mom to a 3-year-old. Especially when it feels so good.

Proud

No Responses » Tagged with: Love

Nov 162009

I think I have the most handsome husband ever. This is Brandon at the hockey game on Saturday. It’s now the background on my iPhone. Awwww.

Wonderful Birthday

No Responses » Tagged with: Family, Holidays, Love, Senators

Nov 152009

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!

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