Sneak Peek!

Last Sunday we had Sam's one year pictures taken!  A friend of a friend had an opening for a mini-session at a local park.  This park was a former amusement park, so it has so many fun possibilities for photographs. My in-laws actually have many fond memories of visiting there as kids, which made this location even more special for us.  I checked my e-mail a few minutes after we got home from the shoot and we already had a sneak peek!  

Here's our birthday boy during the "cake smash" portion of the session!

Thanks so much to Dottie Millwater Photography!  I can't wait to see the rest!

Spring Break!

via

We're on Spring Break this week!  We aren't traveling, but it will be great to just be home getting caught up and spending time with my little love bug.  
On deck for this week:

- Lunch with a friend

- Dinner with some friends

- Playdate

- Trip to "Bunnyland" at a local orchard

- Possibly some outlet shopping one day

- Celebrating Easter with both families

Have a wonderful week!

Green with Envy!

We hope you all had a wonderful St. Patrick's Day!

Our day was very low-key, but that's exactly what we needed.  Kurt's been in Vegas all weekend, so it was just Sam and I at home.  We started out with swim lessons in the morning.  Since Kurt's away, I had to get in the pool with Sam.  This was my first time and WOW!  He's a mover in the water!  There were several times that I thought for sure that I was going to drop him because he's so wiggly.

After swimming, we came home, had lunch, and then Sam took a three-hour nap.  I admit that I actually took a nap, too.  Apparently I needed it because I was out!  

After naptime, we went to a really nice playground nearby.  It was packed, so we only stayed for about 20 minutes.  Sam got some swinging and rides down the slide in.  

Then, we went to the mall for a while.  Gymboree is having a good sale now, plus I had an additional 20% off coupon, so I stocked up on some summer clothes for Sam.  I don't know if you can see on his shirt in the pictures above, but it has Kermit the frog on it and says, "It's Easy being Green!"  We walked through Build-A-Bear and saw they had an adorable Kermit puppet.  I decided Sam needed it as a St. Patrick's Day present and he loves! He loves puppets!  After some Chick-fil-a for dinner, we headed home for a bath.

Gone are the days of all-day drinking and partying (who am I kidding...those were gone a long time ago!) on St. Patrick's Day!  Oh well, we had fun anyways!

Cousins

I recently saw someone post something on Facebook about cousins being your first friends.  I truly believe that!  My cousin Kourtney, who is about 17 months older than me, was my first friend.  There are pictures from nearly thirty-two years ago of her holding me when I was just a few weeks old, and most recently, there are pictures of the two of us on her wedding day in November.  

I'm so glad that Sam has cousins whom he can grow up with.  His cousins, Jack and Will, are almost five and three, so that makes all three boys two years apart. Last night, we went over to Kurt's parents' house to celebrate Jack's early birthday (he's a St. Patty's Day baby!).  Now that Sam is active and mobile, it's neat to see them interact.  The older boys love "Baby Sam" and I can tell Sam already admires his cousins.  He loves to sit and watch them.  They live about 3 hours from us, so we don't see them as often as we'd like, but I've learned from my relationships with my cousins that distance doesn't matter.

Here are some pictures of the cousins from our impromptu get-together last night.  

 The three boys: Will, Sam, and Jack (Will was sad that the presents were for his brother and not him!)

Sam wanted to help his cousin open his birthday presents!

 Having a cupcake...and making a mess!

Rub-a-dub-dub, Three boys in a tub!

These are the days to remember!

Playground Fun!

Like a lot of the country, we've been experiencing unseasonably warm temperatures this winter.  If you add up all the snow we've gotten from each of the quick storms that have passed through, we've gotten maybe 1-2 inches.  This is no good for a teacher who is itching for a snow day!  I'm pulling for a big storm in March!  Fingers crossed.

This weekend, temperatures in the upper 50s had us wanting to do something outside.  We have quite a few regional parks in our area, so we ventured to one close to our house.  The last time I had been to this park was for the end of the year picnic when I taught fifth grade, so that had been almost eight years.  They've done a lot of work on the playground, updating the equipment and making a newer "kiddie area." I love that we have such a nice park facility so close to our house!  We will definitely be spending more time there this spring!

 Somebody fell asleep on our way to the park!

 Mommy and her boy on the giant climbing hill

 Before we went down the big slide

 This guy loves the swings

 Trying out the kiddie slide (with help from Daddy!)

 He loved the slides, too!

Riding a whale

Play Ball!

Kurt grew up playing baseball from a young age.  There is a picture of one of his first baseball teams in his room at his parents' house.  He's probably five or six years old, with raggedy hair and a wide grin.  He continued playing throughout high school and even college.  When we found out our little baby would be a boy, I think Kurt was secretly super excited to have a pal to practice throwing and hitting a ball with in our backyard.  Another thing, which he was more open about, was his excitement about taking his son to his first baseball game.  We didn't waste much time to make that happen, though Sam will never remember his first game!

Last Saturday, I suggested we head down to see our Baltimore Orioles take on the Washington Nationals.  I think Kurt was surprised at my suggestion, as Sam was only five weeks old!  I'm not one to stay put, so I've been excited to take him to do things.  I had the plan all worked out in my head:  we'd drive down so Sam wouldn't be exposed to who-knows-what on the metro, we'd get seats in the shade so Sam wouldn't overheat or get sunburned, we'd take a bottle so we could feed him when he got fussy.  And wouldn't you know, it all worked out just as I had planned.  

We bought tickets from a scalper (we won't talk about how Kurt and I worked him to get the price lower!) and arrived into the stadium in the second inning.  We didn't go to our own seats, but instead sat a few rows up in some empty seats.  Sam slept through the entire game, except to wake up to eat his bottle.  It was perfect.  I, at one point, asked Kurt if he was having fun and noticed that he had gotten a little emotional.  His first game with his son...something that he'll always remember, even though Sam won't!  Can't wait for many more!

 Outside of the stadium

 Daddy and Sam

 Our family at the game

 Mommy and her boy

Sam was a little sad that the Orioles lost!

Dave Takes a Hike

Hiking the Appalachian Trail has been an item on my dad's "Bucket List" for quite some time.  Until recently, he never had the opportunity to take six months off of work to fulfill this dream.  So, when he retired last June, he decided that he would now have the time to make his dream a reality.  

On Saturday, my mom and brother will be driving my dad and all of his gear down to Amicalola Falls State Park in Georgia for the start of his adventure.  He'll officially begin his hike on Sunday.  According to a website that he follows, there are more than 90 people slated to start their hikes this week, as well, so he should meet up with a lot of people along the way.

The weirdest thing, in my opinion, is knowing that we won't see him for a long time.  When the baby is born in May, my mom is going to go pick him up (he should be reasonably close to where we live at that point) for a few days to come and visit.  He'll get resupplied and then head back out to finish his hike in Maine, hopefully by the end of August.  

My dad is not the most tech-saavy guy, but he's working on it.  He has a blog that he'll be updating along the way.  My mom will probably do most of the updating, after she talks to him on the phone, as gaining access to a computer may be tough.  Check him out at: Dave Takes a Hike.

Good luck, Dad!!  See you in May!

Thanksgiving Recap...A little late

Again...an unintentional blog break.  Not sure why, but I just haven't really felt like being on the computer much after I get home from work.


So, over a week later, I've decided to recap our Thanksgiving.  Kurt's family, including grandparents, and my family all came to our house for Thanksgiving.  There were fifteen of us, and all-in-all things went pretty well!  Here are some pics from our day:

Our little family

(Christmas card pic!)

Kristen and Jack

Mr. Will (aka Wilbur/Willy-bean)

The other B-shaws

My dad fell asleep, so my sis and Jack posed with him!

Jack loved Penny, my sister's dog, because he was her size!

"Uncle Kurty....it's 8, 1, 4. Time to wake up!"

Yes, that's how we were awoken yesterday morning!  A cute little voice whispering into our sleeping ears, "Uncle Kurty, it's 8, 1, 4.  Time to wake up!"


Kurt and I had a little nephew time this weekend.  Our nephews, Jack (3 1/2) and Will (1 1/2) came to stay with us while their parents attended a wedding.  We always have a great time when they come to stay with us, but I must say, I'm exhausted!  We were so busy yesterday, that I don't think Jack and Will had even a moment to realize that their parents weren't there.  


They came to our house on Friday night.  Keith and Molly stayed at our house Friday night, too, but Jack must have thought they left while he was sleeping because when he woke up on Saturday morning, he came right into our room.  He's in pre-school and he's been learning his numbers, so that's why he looked at the clock to tell us the time.  Except, that we never set that clock back an hour last week and we have that clock set 15 minutes fast (don't ask...Kurt's always had his alarm clock set 15 minutes fast!), so it was really only 7:00 AM.  So, Jack climbed into our bed and we put on Blue's Clues for him for a little while.  Then Keith got up and brought Will in.  Macey was so jealous that these two little guys were in our bed that she jumped right up along with them.  Let me just say that Macey has NEVER been in our bed before!  We've tried and she would fight us to stay on the floor!   I guess jealousy got the best of her!  She has another thing coming in May!


I made cinnamon muffins for breakfast and Molly headed out to get her hair cut and highlighted by Kurt and Keith's cousin.  In the mean time, we got a call that my MIL was on her way over (not with an invitation, mind you!).  Once she arrived, Kurt, his mom, Jack, Will, and I headed out to start our day.  We first went to a construction site nearby to watch the dump trucks, rock crushers, and other big trucks (Jack could name them all!) do their work.  That kept their attention for a good 30 minutes!  Pretty good for these boys!  


Next, we headed to a nearby church for their Christmas bazaar.  We walked around, bought some baked goods, did some kids crafts, Jack talked to Santa (which was a shock as last year he screamed when he went to see Santa!), and Kurt bought the boys some toys (which are staying at our house!) from a little flea market.  At that point, my MIL headed home (yeah, she drove 45 minutes to our house, spent an hour, and drive 45 minutes home) and we headed to good old Mickey D's for lunch.  Kurt was so proud that we fed all four of us for $10!


After lunch, we went to our mall for an event for the new Disney movie, Tangled.  They had all kinds of things for the kids to do and free train rides around the mall.  By the time we finished all of that, it was time to head home for nap time.  For all of us!  I was beat by that time!


The boys woke up around 3:30, and we let them play with their new toys that Uncle Kurty bought them for a little while.  Then, we headed to a local playground to wear them out a little.  We then headed home and got cleaned up.  We then went to Fuddrucker's for dinner.  Again, Kurt was proud that we all ate dinner for $20!  We made the boys a deal that if they took a bath when we got home (6:30) they could stay up and watch a movie.  So, that's what we did!   We ended up watching Alvin and the Chipmunks:  The Squeakel, which was cute! Jack and Will both had some popcorn for a snack (and let me just state...Will only has 3 teeth, but he eats like a champ!  They boy can chow down!).  We put Will down to sleep at about 7:45 and then Jack stayed up for about 30 minutes longer.  I think I fell asleep on the couch about 5 minutes after Jack went to bed!  


This morning, Will woke up at about 6:00 AM, so I went and got him and brought him to our bed, where he fell back to sleep.  Jack then came in at about 7:30 and hopped into our bed to watch some more Blues Clues.  We ended up going to a diner for breakfast (and Kurt was made that breakfast was our most expensive meal!) and then headed home to play.  Keith and Molly arrived back at about 11:00 and they headed out about an hour later.  Apparently both boys were asleep within 15 minutes of being on the road!


It was a very busy, very tiring, but very memorable weekend for us!  We love those little boys like they are our own!  It made me realize that we really are ready for this parenting thing.  Kurt and I made a really good team this weekend!  I can't wait to see Kurt as a dad; he's going to be great! The best part was Jack saying, "Kurty and Kate....I love you guys!"  So cute!

Celebrating Dad!

This weekend was a very special one for my family.  Yes, it was Father's Day weekend, but it was also a time to celebrate and honor my dad and his accomplishments as a police officer over the past 35 years.  My dad is retiring this week and we had a luncheon to celebrate this occasion on Saturday. 

(My mom, brother, and dad)

My mom did a fantastic job organizing the luncheon at a local Italian restaurant.  It wasn't a huge group of us (probably 30 people or so) but it was very nice.  My family was there, of course, and the rest of the guests were my dad's coworkers.  That's what he wanted.  He didn't want to invite our extended family (we'll celebrate with them at different points during the summer) or family friends (my parents are having a BBQ this summer with all of them), he just wanted the people he works with daily to be there, so that's who was there.

(The cake!  We're sending him on a trip to Vegas as his retirement gift.)

(The scrapbook/guest book I made and cookie favors my mom made)

I think it takes a very special person to be in law enforcement, especially for that long, in the most difficult neighborhoods of Baltimore City surrounding counties.  My dad is very good at what he does, as was evident by the nice things people said to him/us at the luncheon.  Many of my dad's coworkers are the same age or younger than my brother, sister, and me, so my dad has been a real role model and father figure to many of these guys and girls. 

My mom welcomed everyone at the beginning of the luncheon and spoke a little about my dad.  After we ate, my brother, sister, and I all also spoke, each letting our own personalities come out in our speeches.  All three of us are SO different, as was evident in our speeches!

My dad also spoke and got a bit choked up as he was doing so.  Those guys are like family to him.  He sees them more than he sees us, his own kids.  I think that is going to be the most difficult thing for my dad (and I think that's the most difficult part for many people who retire).  You are so used to the routine, seeing the same people, going to the same office every day for so long.  And now, all of the sudden, that's not happening any more.  It's a shock to your system, a shock to your comfort level. 

(My dad speaking to the crowd)

So tonight, when he calls over the radio at the end of his shift for the very last time, he'll say something very meaningful (and I'm sure very witty) as is the tradition for your last call.  Tomorrow he turns in his equipment and his police car, and is officially retired as a police officer.  I'm getting a little choked up just thinking about it!

So, as I said in my speech on Saturday: Here's to many fish to be caught, golf rounds to be played, trips to be made, and cocktails to be sipped in your retirement, Dad! 

(Dad showing us a couple of his presents...all sorrounding the "You're going to Vegas" theme!)

CONGRATULATIONS, DAD!! 

WE LOVE YOU AND ARE SO PROUD OF YOU!

Weekend Wrap-up

On Saturday, I flew to Columbus, Ohio for two family events.  Everyone who knows me well knows that I am not one to miss a family party...and that's something I pride myself on!  We've never lived close to my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, but the distance has never affected my relationships with them.  I feel very close to my cousins, even though I only see them four or five times a year.

When I arrived in Columbus (Kurt stayed home with Miss Macey), my parents were already there, so they picked me up from the airport and we headed to High Street to visit the Ohio State campus.  My family is huge Buckeye fans, so it was awesome to be in the middle of things during the spring football game!

Saturday night was a surprise birthday party for my mom's cousin, Sue, at a restaurant in Columbus's German Village. It was so nice to see so many members of my extended family from my mom's side. She had no idea that this party was happening!  I love seeing people completely surprised!

When she arrived!  In shock!

My mom and some of her cousins

My mom and her sisters and brother

My crazy cousins, Will and Erin, and me!

(They were our ring bearer and flower girl!)

My cousin's daughter, Grace.  She loved the cream puffs!

Another party girl, Sarah!

Grace and her mom, Laura!  I love how happy they both look here!

After the party, I rode back to my aunt and uncle's house with them so I could attend my cousin Erin's First Communion on Sunday.  They live almost two hours from Columbus, so it was kind of a late night. 

I'm so happy that I was able to be there with Erin on her special day! 

Receiving communion for the first time

Erin and her mom (my cousin Amanda)

Don't let that angelic look fool you!

She was a crazy lady at the after party!

The First Communion girl and me!

I'm so glad that I was able to attend both of these special events this weekend!

Easter in Pictures!

Easter was a little different this year for two reasons: 1.) My parents traveled to Michigan to spend Easter with my mom's sisters and 2.) Kurt's grandparents didn't have their annual "Bunny Bash" Easter party. We ended up going to church with Kurt's family down at the National Cathedral and then went to his grandparents' house for a late lunch.

Here are some pictures of our day!

Memom and Grandad have a ton of Easter decorations! 

Here is Kristen, Kurt's sister, with one.

The National Cathedral

Memom (aka Kurt's grandma)

Grandad (aka Kurt's grandpa)

Kurt and his mom, Terry

Kurt's dad, Steve, and two aunts, Vicky and Sandy, were also there, along with me, but I don't have any pictures of the rest of us for some reason!  That's sad...I need to remember to take at least one picture of each person at small events like this!