Wow! Summer is over. I can't believe it. Tyler started first grade today, and Anna's first day back at Shelburne Nursery School is Friday. Time sure flies by. We've been busy has heck these past few weeks around the house and getting ready for school and working and all that good stuff. I haven't been able to update this lately because our computer has been under a drop cloth in a heap for a few weeks. We did a fairly major renovation of our downstairs over the past few weeks...Since we bought the house we wanted to put wood floor down in the living room, and we never cared much for the tile (style, or amount of it)...so we finally bit the bullet...new floor, baseboards, hearth, door casings, window casings, counter top and appliances. I took a few days off, and worked a handful of half days, and Katie was a machine all the while. We included the kids where safety permitted, but a lot of it was too noisy for their liking. Fortunately, they get along good and had fun together while we did a lot. They were awesome actually. We also had some help from friends and relatives, which was invaluable. I can not thank Al, Jacob, Paul and Greg enough for their time, help and tools I borrowed :-) The demolition took one week to get the old tile/oak/carpet out of the downstairs, and then a week to get the wood floor down, then another week for the trim and hooking up new appliances and whatnot. Having no kitchen for nearly three weeks was tough, but we're really happy with how it all came out.

2012-08-29

2012-07-20

2012-07-12

This is a big post... we've been super busy the past month, wrapping up school, t-ball, and kicking off summer with some great adventures. The weather has been awesome, and work is getting back to "normal" for me, so things are starting to settle down for a nice summer "break". Enjoy the pictures and a few videos thrown in here to see what we've been up to with the kids. I hope everyone is well! We are. -Chris

2012-07-01

Cousin William Has Arrived!

2012-06-04

Congratulations Beth and Jacob!

2012-05-23

2012-05-04

2012-04-17

2012-03-03

2012-03-07

2012-02-07

Christmas, Birthday, Skiing

Merry Christmas! It's been a fun season so far...

2011_12_23

2011_12_07

2011_11_08

2011_09_20

I accidentally added new photos to the previous album... there's new one's here, but also the last batch in the beginning...so if you feel like you've seen them before... you have!

It's hard to believe Summer is over, time definitely flies when you're busy! The kids are still enjoying school, although Tyler no longer loves the bus (thanks to some punk-a$$ fourth grader squirting juice boxes in kids faces...not Tyler's but he wants nothing to do with the bus anymore) so we're not pushing him to take it, but trying to encourage him to get back on. I know he will eventually. He is playing recreation soccer and really loves that... he played goalie the first game and scored a goal from his own net, and last week he was out there and scored 3 more goals. I know I'm bragging, but hey, that's what this is for right? :-)
Anna is also having fun at school, but has the separation anxiety when Katie first leaves her. She will get in the groove in no time I'm sure...it's only been three days so far. She goes M-T-Th for the morning, so she's not quite used to the routine yet. She also started ballet classes on Monday afternoons. LOVES that.
We don't tend to take many pictures these days, but I have a couple here...

2011_09_20

2011_09_08

Well today was Tyler's first day of kindergarten. Full day, 5 days a week. He was super excited to ride the bus, and he had a great day. The phone rang at lunch and was Tyler's teacher, Mrs. Read. This was of course our worst fear with his nut allergy, but she just wanted to know if he could buy a "hot lunch". Apparently he ate his entire lunch during morning snack, and wanted to buy himself lunch! We're proud of him for taking care of himself and not just sitting there with no food. It was great to hear that he was AT school period, since we had been worrying about him all morning (hey, it's hard to send a 5 year old off to a full day of school on a bus at 7:30 for the first time). He likes his teacher, talked about new friends, and had fun. So far, so good!
Anna starts preschool on Thursday (she has "open house" on Tuesday, again, to meet the teachers and stuff, who she already knows because it's where Tyler went for two years). She is very anxious to get started, and SO excited.

In other news, we are totally unscathed by "tropical storm Irene"...we had some flooding in the backyard, but it was gone in 24 hours. Didn't reach the fish pond. The power went out for a few hours, but came back on before morning. Vermont got it pretty bad down south of us, but we basically just got some heavy rain. Hope you all are doing well also!

2011_09_02