Shane with Santa!

I know it's terrible, but I just couldn't stop laughing when I saw this picture.....

Side note: The employee (young teenager complaining that she's been on her feet all day and is 'sooooo tired'..... LOL..... yeah, felt like saying, wait til REAL life gets ya sweety, stop your bitching) ... anyway, the employee said to me as I'm paying for our photo "this isn't our regular Santa, so if you want to come back tomorrow, the good Santa will be here. THIS Santa is definitely a Creepy Santa."

Nice holiday attitude!, and what if the poor guy heard her saying this? Now, true that he isn't the BEST, most warm looking Santa around... I agree....possibly Shane agreed, too... but cripes... calling the guy creepy? Anyway.... lol... here's the shot. LOVE it! One day, Shane will get a kick out of it, I'm sure. :)

Shane's 1st Visit to PA!

We went to PA to visit my family for Thanksgiving. We had SO much fun, and it went too fast, as always. Shane did great on the plane going there, even with a 3.5 hour delay, we couldn't believe what a little trooper he was! Everyone was commenting that he was a great lil traveler. When we were at baggage claim, he was still smiling at people, waving to them as they walked by. At 1 o'clock in the morning, no less. (He's a nightowl like his mama....) :) We got to my bro's at 2:30am, and Shane was still amped up. Coming back was a different ballgame altogether. Shane and I both had head colds and all 3 of us hadn't slept well in 3 nights. So, you can imagine how thrilling that plane ride was home.... At one point, we were "those people" with the screaming baby, hysterically crying for 20 minutes straight. I couldn't get him to calm down, people looking at us, both of our noses dripping like faucets.... and I'm pregnant with dizzy spells and horrible heartburn.... and hormonal.. AND bummed that I just left my family back east... GOOD grief, I just wanted to curl up somewhere underneath the plane and cry. Oh well! What can ya do, right?! We survived, it was an experience, WELL worth it, and we learned a lot.

Shane loved my bro's new 11 week old boxer puppy Bailey! It was awesome seeing them run around, chasing each other. I think Shane was thrilled to be bigger then a dog, for once. Shane met his Great-Grandparents!, and many aunts, uncles, and cousins. We had a fun playdate with 4 of my close friends, their kids, my sis, and my niece. It was very fun seeing the kids sit and play together! My friends and I all go back 20+ years, when we were just kids playing out at recess, so its trippy seeing our kids hang out. Shane spent a lot of quality time with his Uncle Colson, watched him play the drums, & watched some cartoons together. Colson probably still has the stupid Hot Dog song from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse running through his head. lol. Shane LOVES his cousin Savanna & Aunt Jan and enjoyed being around them. Aunt Jan got him lots of yummy treats! Shane REALLY loves his Mom-Mom (my Mom) she plays silly for him and makes lots of funny faces, which he totally digs. She has this Gopher that dances & plays the theme song from Caddyshack. He must have hit the play button on that 20 times. We also met up with extended family (Kendall and family, Deb and Doug!) for a nice fun playdate! Kendall and I used to skip school together back in jr. high, so its quite comical hearing ourselves 'correct' and guide our children. lol. My long-time friend Amy was visiting PA from WV with her family (!) so we squeezed in some time the morning of Thanksgiving for bagels, juice, and a short but wonderful visit. We met her new hub Steve and new adorable baby girl Josie (3 months old) and of course enjoyed seeing Jessie again (Amy's 7 yr old daughter). We spent some time with my Aunt Pam and cousins Rachel and Frankee, & had great pizza from one of my fave places back east. (Shane loved the pizza too!) We had a yummy mini-Thanksgiving at my Mom's on Wednesday with my Grandmother and Aunt Linda and a big Derby family Thanksgiving the next day at my Aunt Bonnie's house. (my Dad's only sister) It was the first time the whole family was together in about TEN years (minus my cousin Lisa, who is probably still hearing it from her parents! she was the only blood relative missing), it was all truly a blessing to me.... My Pop would light up everytime Shane was near him; we watched a family slideshow that my aunt made my g-parents for their anniversary; we snapped a family pic - the first one in a LONG time; and we watched my aunt and uncle's awesome Christmas light/music show outside. Great stuff... :) We were busy, as you can see, but not TOO busy. One week isn't enough, but then again, its never enough time when you are with loved ones who know you best...

My heart took many, many snapshots.

But, here are some pictures you can actually see. :)

It's a GIRL!

We had another ultrasound tonight and confirmed its a girl! She is 4.3 inches long and weighs about 6 ounces. She is tiny, but can really kick those little legs and feet! It was so great to see her again. I wish I had an ultrasound machine, lol. :) So, we finally know that Shane is going to have a baby sister. I can't wait to see all the differences and similarities between her and Shane. Now..... Eric and I start the 'battle of the names!' It's a good battle to have. I'm not complaining.
Thanks for reading. :)

Lots of love,
Starlet-

We had the ultrasound today!... IT'S A......

??? ..... We have NO idea! The cord was in the way! Damnit! The tech "guessed" that its a girl, but really since the cord was right in between the legs, it could have been hiding a lil penis. SO.... we don't know what this baby is YET. (there was one pic where the lil hand was up to the side of the head, like a talking on the phone gesture - so it could be a girl LOL) I'll have to wait to see if my Dr. orders another u/s, but if not, we are going to just pay out of pocket for one ourselves. The most important thing is that we saw the lil peanut moving around, A LOT, this kid is REALLY active already. All the organs are formed and look good, the heartbeat is strong, all lil fingers and toes are present - so we are very happy. :) Here are a couple pics. Like I said, the baby was moving a lot, so getting a clear shot was hard. Looks cute to me! :)

Happy Halloween from the Little Pirate!

collecting his bootie....

The cutest little pirate :)

A Puppy Party!

Who knew there was a such thing.... but there is. We went to our friend's kid's 8th bday party and a company brought puppies for the kids to play with. Shane seemed to enjoy the puppies, at this age its hard to tell. I think he is so used to Ayda (our 85 lb. german shepherd), that these pups looked almost fake to him, he didn't know what to do with them, but he was very interested watching the older kids do their thing. He LOVED swinging on the swing and the balloon artist made a giraffe for him. :) Shane ALMOST got his face painted after watching me do it, he pointed at my nose and giggled, but once she started on him, he wiggled everywhere and wanted nothing to do with it (which we figured). So, I walked around with a black nose and whiskers like a cat. (No, I'm not posting a pic of that. thankyouverymuch) But here are some pics of our sweet boy. ;)

Lombardi Ranch Pumpkin Patch!

We took Shane to Lombardi's last weekend to pick out a pumpkin. It was SUCH a windy day so we didn't stay long. But while we were there, Shane loved looking at the pumpkins, trying to climb on them. There was this beautiful sunflower field that caught our attention for a bit. Hayrides, pony rides (which totally depress me, I always feel so bad for the ponies) live music, food, the whole shabang. We picked out our pumpkin and went to lunch. :)