Happy Birthday, Penelope Jean!

I wasn't kidding when I said this was Birthday week for us!! :)

Today, is my darling princess' birthday. Our sweet Penelope Jean entered the world only 365 short days ago and we are proud of everyone of those days with her thus far. Her personality is one of quiet beauty and a quirky smile. She may not laugh as much as our previous baby did, but she is very much her own little person with likes and dislikes.

She loves to hang out with mommy and watch what mommy is up to. She loves to sit back and watch the room and those in it, rather than join in and play. But she is also a fan of anything that involves her big brother. She loves to be where he is and if he's not there, she wants to find him. She sticks up for herself, when he's being mean (in her "baby" sort of way) and yet adores him at the same time. She has a quiet way about her that brings solace to my heart and to our home. We (mommy and daddy) pray that she continues to cultivate a kind and gentle spirit that will be filled with the Spirit of Christ and draw others to Him. She was a simple beauty from the beginning!!

Happy Birthday, Finnegan!!

(Birth photo -- taken in recovery)

Three years ago, we brought this little bundle into the world. Although he'd been apart of our lives for some time, this was the first day we met him. September 19, 2007. We were awe struck by this little guy and amazed at how there really is such a thing as love at first sight! And to say that the last 3 years has been easy would be lying. But on the day of his third birthday, I am proud to say that he is mine, still! He is the kindest little boy that I know, and it is a pure joy to watch other little ones flock to his gentle and kind presence. We pray that this kind spirit will continue to radiate through him as he grows and that it will be a sign of his love for Jesus and others. We pray that his sincere heart will draw others to the creator. What a blessing he is, even on the toughest day. We pray that he will one day have a saving knowledge of Jesus and that he would desire to follow where ever the Lord leads. We love you, Finnegan James!!

Birthday - 2007

1st Birthday - 2008

2nd Birthday - 2009

August 2010 -- one month before his 3rd birthday.

Happy Birthday, Hubby!!

Today, is my hubby's 30th Birthday. Oh, I just love birthdays! And it is just my luck, that since I love birthday's so much, all three of my family members have their birthday's in one week! We have "birthday week" this week. Ken's is today, Finn's is tomorrow and Penny's is Thursday!

I've been planning the kids birthday parties for weeks. I am really excited about it and think that it will be fun... although I wish that more little friends were coming. But all the prep has gone into the kids parties. I was so stumped with what to get my husband for his birthday celebration, that I simply didn't put much thought into anything else about his birthday! He'd chosen his birthday dinner and dessert, but that was about it. So last night, I started a new plan. Here is a photo of some cookies I made for him. They are derived from the ones done by annies-eat.com. She shows how to do it with royal icing and all. So I followed her instructions and it was fairly easy. I would actually LOVE to do it again. I don't have very good script, but outlining and flooding the space with icing is pretty fun, especially when they come out so pretty!!

I'll post more photo of the birthday's later... but here are a few to tide you over until then (Most of the elements of the party are hand made, in order to try to save some $$ and use the supplies I already had...

Our Invitation to our Double Party

Our Gift Bags... Filled with little airplane toys, and other fun things. "Hope you had a Hoot!"

Primetime Erin

Hello... My name is Erin and I'm addicted to PrimeTime Television!!

Yes, it's true. I am addicted to primetime tv. However, the small disclaimer is that except for a couple of shows, I'm not a huge fan of all the shows that most of the population likes... Case in point... I don't watch American Idol, America's Got Talent, Minute to Win it, 24 (I know it's not on anymore - but just never got into it), or CSI. And I have to say, I'm a recent convert for all NBC programming. I've widened my horizons and enjoy things like the Amazing Race and Castle. And yes, I do subject myself to Glee and Grey's Anatomy. And I've also broadened my horizon's even more with all the cable channels, and watch Horders, Chopped , and 24 Hr Restaurant Battle. But I love September for all of the new prime time programing that is on schedule. Three years ago, I got REALLY excited about it because I knew with a new baby, I'd be able to see most of these new shows because it was nap time during prime time TV time. I even sat down with my calendar and marked all the new shows and when they premiered, so I could plan my "new show" programming. :) I know, completely obsessed. Luckily, I only find one or two per season that I enjoy.

This summer I was turned onto Glee, after all the excitement people had for it. And since having new cable channels here in MD, I'm a HUGE fan of Boarder Wars (on the NatGeo Channel).

So, needless to say, I have the lineup prepared for this week... And what am I excited for this week? Obviously Biggest Loser on Tuesday, Grey's Anatomy on Thursday and Castle on Monday. I'm also looking forward too seeing the new program OutSourced on NBC. What do you like to watch in your downtime??

What's up, Dude??

What's up with us?? This is what's up with us...

• Penelope is starting to walk. She has great balance and can stand on her two feet and not fall over for several minutes. Except when it comes to walking. The video above, you'll hear Ken counting. She took a total of 8 steps. This is the most she's take so far. But she is getting better. Today, I caught her 2 stairs lower than the landing on our stair case. So, she'd crawled up 4 stairs! And their wooden stairs... so pretty painful if she fell!! UGH! But she's getting it!
• I've been busy painting the house this week. A rebate at Lowe's inspired me last week to get the rest of the painting done. So I purchased paint for 4 rooms, and have gotten 3 of them done in a week. The last is Penny's room to be painted, which seems to be the hardest to get into. So, I'll probably wait until the weekend before venturing into move furniture and begin the project. I painted the playroom, master bath and the master bedroom
• We're getting the foundation laid for the kids birthday party on the 25th. We're having a combined party for the kids. I'm looking forward to having friends here at the house. We have about 5 little friends coming, plus our two. Do we'll have a full house!! I'm busy working on favors, games, and cake ideas. Should be pretty fun!
• Ken has been busy dealing with the car. He had the windshield fixed for $250 and two tires replaced, for another $200. The only only piece to fix is the window... this is all after a second inspection. The window could cost at least $400 to fix. But this $800 total is much cheaper than the "couple of thousand" dollars they said it would initially cost to have it fixed. So I am very pleased with my husband and his research and patience in the situation. We are definitely are made for each other and balance each other out :)

I hope you faithful readers are well... thanks for keeping up with us!!

xo

Car Situation...**UPDATE**

Well, since my recent post on FB, a couple of you have asked about the situation with the car and what is going on. So, here's the deal.

Here in the great state of Maryland, your car has to be inspected before it can be registered by the state. So, within the first 60 days that you move here, you have to go to the DMV (or MVA as they call it here) and get temporary plates. You then have 30 days to have your car inspected and return to get your permanent plates. Well, we went a couple weeks ago and started the process, so our inspection was due. We took the cars earlier this week for an inspection and oil change. The Vibe (my car) passed after the front windshield had a bit of a repair (at no charge, thank you very much). However, my darling husbands car, the 1998 Saturn, did not pass. This car was given to us as a wedding gift from his parents in 2002. It was "our" first car. It moved with us from MI-VA-WA-MD. It has had just about every system repaired it seemed. In Seattle, Ken was driving it more than 50 miles in a day. It has been a great car and we were excited to keep it around a little longer now that Ken works less than 15 minutes from work! We thought we'd get upwards of 200K miles on it!! But the state of Maryland has other plans.

They say that if we fix everything, they will pass the car. We've also heard that once it passes, it won't have to be fixed again. And the more you look at cars around, you very rarely see "older" cars around in the area. Any who, we're trying to decide what is best for us. We would prefer not to fix the car and purchase a car with cash. But unfortunately, we used our "car cash" fund to buy a house a few months ago (remember that?) And as Ken reminded me today... "If only we didn't own two houses - this wouldn't be such a hard decision!" And boy, is that the truth!!

There is the possibility that we could live with one car for a while, but we would have to apply for a temporary driving pass for me to be on the Navy base, as I'm a civilian and don't currently have access to the base (so i could take Ken to work).

We've decided that we'll probably need to buy a bigger car for me to drive rather than buying a smaller car for Ken to drive, as we will most likely be adding to our family (NO - I'm not pregnant. But we are always talking about it). And it doesn't make sense to drop money into a smaller car when we'll have to turn around in a year or so and buy a bigger car anyway.

So... As of yet, as you can tell, no decisions have been made. If we buy a car, we're leaning towards a mini-van. Although GM doesn't make one, so we'll probably go with a Honda or Toyota. And unfortunately, from what we can tell, the stock isn't that great around here so we'll have to buy new rather than used, as they are pretty much the same price! But, when and if we add to the family car fleet - I'll keep you posted. :)

**UPDATE**

As it usually goes with my assumptions of my husband and his thought pattern, I was wrong. My darling husband has been busy this weekend researching Maryland State law and the paperwork given by the mechanic. Basically, the Maryland Car inspection process is riddled with fraud, and Ken seemed to think that this guy was ripping us off. Basically, if he saw something that might not be up to code, he was not passing the car. For example, the mechanic failed our tires and said that all four tires needed to be replaced. But when you look at them, only two are in need of being replaced. Anyway -- Ken has decided to have the car repaired instead of purchasing a new one. And I support him in this decision. We just don't have the money to take on another $30K debt. So we're planning to continue saving as we have been for a new car and hopefully in a year or so, we'll be able to put half down or so for this new car that we'll definitely need by then! In the mean time, Ken has been on the phone with the mechanic and the state police discussing the case and the work that the mechanic did on our car to clarify what the law says. Basically, the state trooper he spoke with did side with Ken until he spoke with the mechanic. So, not sure what will happen there. Nonetheless, we'll end up fixing the car in the next few days and all will be back to normal... well, all but our pocketbooks :)

Reading...

So, I am not a teacher by any means. I've never been one to explain something very well or sysincly, but for some reason (and probably with emence help from the hubby), Finnegan knows all of his letters and the sounds that they all make (and he has known this for 6 months or more). But within the past month or so, he's been sounding out words and "reading" them. I thought I'd blogged about the day he sounded out the letters for the word "truck" and then put them all together. I was so proud (but can't seem to find the post -- perhaps it was a picture and comment on FB). Anywho -- Finnegan's a HUGE fan of Super Why, although we only watch it on Netflix. I can't follow the TV schedule and just prefer to have him watch it when he's been a good boy, or I need to get a quick chore done. He loves to sing the songs and talks about letters ALL day long. He's LOVES it when we're at Target and he see the big "G" on the screen right before checkout.

Tonight, I was very impressed when he spelled out the letters of the word "ambulance" (seeing it in a book of course) and then sounded out the letters and repeated what the word said. He kept spelling and saying the words in the pictures. Then he began to spell the next word "flying". He said the letters and the sounds each letter makes. We asked him to put the sounds together to make the word. He burst out the word "Airplane!!" Ken said, "Close, buddy!" I just laughed inside. He's getting it, sort of!

Now, if only he could get the hang of potty training!! ;)