Buffalo, Christmas Eve

The tradition in Buffalo every year is for Mary Ellen to host Christmas Eve at her home for the entire family. She puts so much work into the cleaning, the decorating, the food, and everything else, so I just want to thank her for putting on such a wonderful event each year! I don't know how much help Zach, Dan, and I were, but we did make sure that we got out of her way for most of the day. We took Dan swimming at the Embassy Suites with the Tom Doerr family, which tired him out (even more than the koi pond):

While Dan was sleeping, I went out and bought my own Christmas present--a Nikon D3000 camera! I'm still learning how to use all the features, but I'm already loving it. So much better than a camera phone....

When Dan woke up from his nap, he was hungry and ready to see all of his cousins and aunts and uncles! I dressed him up in a Cosby sweater (which didn't stay on for too long because he got a little overheated) and he looked so cute. He ate a little bit of noodle kugel, a little bit of beef on wick (a Buffalo specialty), and a lot of candy and cookies. (Note to self: high sugar intake leads to a miserable night of sleeping and waking for a 16-month-old). Lesson learned!

Lian and Daniel:

With Daddy and Uncle Tom:

Being held by Andrew:

My favorite pal:

Hanging out at the cheese tray:

Playing cars with Davis:

Who gave him that cookie?

As always, the best part of the holiday is hanging out with family. Usually, just the kids get presents, but this year we did a white elephant exchange for the adults. I walked away with a sweet wolf head toilet paper holder which would go really well in an outhouse, if we had one. I'm still upset that someone else got the leopard-print Snuggie. I still love you, Rashman/Doerr/
Kaplan/Keenan/Tomassi/Abels/Schoellkopf/Ziegler family!

Cassandra, Lee, Deirdre, and John:

Beautiful Anna:

Eva, Joshua, and Xander, destroying the attic:

Zach and Lian (with Maddie's hands, texting of course):

Gus, Maggie, Tom, Deirdre:

Deirdre and Maggie:

Mary Beth and Tom Keenan:

A bath to end a fun day:

Buffalo, Day 3

On Wednesday morning, we headed to the Erie County Botanical Gardens for some professional pictures with the little cousins. Zach's cousin Sally set it up for her son Jack, Daniel, Corinne, Davis, and Xander (Zach's cousin Emily's son). The Gardens were indoors (duh--it is Buffalo!) and gorgeous.


The shoot started out well, with the photographer getting some cute pictures of all the kids splashing their hands in the water:
www.petrizzophotography.com. (Click on Clients, then log in, password bird959pink)

Then, when we were waiting to be told where the next shots would be, Dan decided to fall into a koi pond.

Yes, you read that correctly. My perfect little angel decided to take a swim with the fishies. With all of the adults standing there, I'm not quite sure how he did it, but it's safe to say that Zach and I will not be in the running for Parents of the Year this year. The water was very shallow, but Dan was totally submerged for a few seconds before Zach jumped in and fished him out. He was a little dazed and confused but he didn't even cry. We stripped him down, wrapped him in Zach's fleece, and got the heck out of there because of course I didn't have a change of clothes for him. Too bad because everyone else's pictures turned out great!

After a great afternoon nap (falling into the koi pond really tuckered Dan out), we headed over to Jean, Bob, and John's for Davis' 1st birthday party. Nothing like celebrating the big Numero Uno with 40 of your favorite relatives! Everyone had a great time, eating delicious lasagna and salad and cake, of course. Davis was a great sport, right up to the point where he pulled his cake into his lap and everyone screamed in surprise and scared him to death. But he made a quick recovery and was back to his happy self in no time! Dan loved meeting and playing with second cousins and great aunts and uncles.








This was the last day of pictures taken with my phone, so stand by for better images!

Buffalo, Day 2

Tuesday morning started out just fine, which should have been my first clue that something bad was about to happen. (: Dan was taking a great nap, so Tom and I headed off to the mall to do a little last-minute shopping. On the way back, the Explorer shuddered to a stop and AAA had to come and rescue us. Turns out that we were out of gas! Ooooops. In my defense, the gas light was not on, the digital display said that we had 90 miles until empty, and the other display showed about 1/8 of a tank left. But I wasn't going to question the repair shop--a tank of gas is much cheaper than any other kind of repair!

After that adventure, we headed to lunch with Aunt Marcie, Uncle Marvin, Janet, and George. That's where we met up with Lee, Cassandra, and the cousins for the first time (they'd arrived late the night before). I was too busy wrangling Dan to take any pictures, but it was nice to catch up with everyone.

Tuesday night was a low-key pizza night at Mary Ellen's with the Missouri Rashmans. Dan had a great time getting reacquainted with Corinne and Davis. They played pretty well together until they all wanted to play with the exact same toy at the exact same time. Which was often, as you can imagine.



Who's the most mature? Tough to say...

And the adventure continues....

Let's start from the very beginning....

A very good place to start! And since it's been so long since I've posted, I don't have much choice. But I have good reasons for being absent, dear reader, so please bear with me.

On Sunday, December 20th, we packed up the Explorer for a short drive to Raleigh where we were supposed to catch our flight to Buffalo. If you can remember back that far, the East Coast had been hit by a major snowstorm the day before, which impacted our travel plans since we were supposed to lay over at Dulles. After checking in at the desk in Raleigh, I received a text from United that our flight was cancelled. After talking to an agent on the phone, we learned we wouldn't be able to fly out until Tuesday evening, so we decided to have ourselves a little road trip adventure!


After an overnight stop in Frederick MD, we arrived in Buffalo late Monday afternoon. Dan was excited to meet his Uncle Tom for the first time and he was very ready to be out of the car! Sorry for the quality of the pictures, but I hadn't bought my new camera at this point, so I was still making do with my phone.

Reading with Granny Rash:

Much, much, MUCH more to come...

Best. Picture. Ever.

Daniel and I were playing in the backyard yesterday, running up and down this little hill that we have. I actually managed to get a non-blurry shot of my man in motion. I love the expression on his face--carefree, mischievous, oh so Dan!

Riding in style

My grandma wanted to get Dan a wagon for Christmas, but we figured that a Radio Flyer might be a little bit too big to bring back on the plane from Oklahoma, so we ordered one from Amazon and I put it together last weekend. Yes, I know I put the handle on backwards, but I fixed it after I took this video. Believe me, Dan did not mind if the handle was on incorrectly. He loves his new wagon! He loves pushing it, pulling it, riding in it forwards, riding in it backwards, you name it. He especially loves the big, off-road-capable tires. This is not just a regular wagon--it's an ATW (all-terrain wagon)! Perfect for my rough-and-tumble little boy.

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Digger Dan

Digger Man is the title of Daniel's favorite book. Well, co-favorite, along with B is for Bulldozer. Luckily, we live in a new development so construction is ongoing. Dan gets to see dump trucks, bulldozers, cement mixers, loaders, and diggers up close and personal every day. And on the weekends, when the equipment is idle, Dan can climb up on them (with a little help)!



Today was a big day across the street--driveway-pouring day! I took these pictures a few days ago when the workers were prepping the dirt for the driveway. It's going to be a sad (but quiet) day when all the houses on our street are done.