the hunt is on

we got pre-approved for our mortgage, met with our realtor, and started a budget. 

we are officially entering the homeowner's world. 

we are hoping to find a house and move in to our "dream house" in 60 days....

pray hard...

PETA--where do i sign up?

i am so glad that you guys checked out CAKEWRECKS. i think it's the funniest thing i've seen in a long time. i laughed til i cried...that being said...i have a cried-til-chris-made-fun-of-me youtube video that i found today. i cry each time i watch this...hormones, maybe....

some background info....these two guys raised this lion from birth til he became to big to live in their home. they introduced him to the wild and went back to visit a year later. they were told that he had acclimated to the wild very well and that he would not remember them. just watch this....

clicky here please

for the full story click here

fun times with an old friend

my friend denise was in town last week and we got together with her and her sons. max is about 3 months older than her twins, silas and donovan. (don't be angry, fellow pittsburghians but he is named after donovan mcnabb.) also, her older son brady was also along for the ride. anyway, we went to kennywood on thursday and then to the pool on friday. the robl's (her parents) have some hot connections at kennywood so the day was free and free. you can't beat that with a stick so i thought i'd return the "free" favor with a free day at the pittsburgh public pools which we have passes for. i like to go all out for old friends....

this is silas. he's very cute but not too happy on this ride. 

this is donovan and brady...

boys are all the same

max loves running so it was great having a pal to run with at "down time"

my water baby at schenley park

little family shot...hope bufe doesn't mind the twins playing with barbies...yikes.

cuuute...

apparently silas loves karate.

is he bufe's twin or what???

i have noticed my beloveds that we all are not posting very often. for some of us it's been MONTHS, some two weeks. i have become addicted to reading about your lives...even for those folks i talk with regularly. i miss your updates.  please find time...i miss your blogs...

i don't know if it's just because i'm tired....

i have tears of laughter POURING down my face right now. i have the shoulder-shaking, eyes soaked, snot running, quiet laughter of my college days. you know that laughter. the kind that you can't explain but something that was said hit a spot inside you like nothing you've ever experienced before. i have had so many experiences like that. mostly in college and beyond. (why do we take ourselves so seriously in highschool...seriously there are so many things to be laughed at during that time)

anyways, i woke up at five o'clock this morning (better than four) when i heard the pitter patter of small feet in my room. i had forgotten to put up max's gate. anyways, i heard them and then he didn't come over to my side of the bed or anything like that so i thought i would check on him. he was sleeping soundly on the floor (not uncommon).  i laughed in spite of myself thinking, "wow, i made that up." i turned around and he stood up and walked over to me. i held him for a few minutes and the laid with him on the floor and he knocked back out. incidentally that was enough to wake me up. so i went downstairs and cleaned up the house from a wild playing spree the night before.  

then the best thing in the world happened. i opened the computer, went to carly's website and found this link....i just stopped laughing about 10 seconds ago. please, if you have any sense of humor clicky here....

max wellington zane bovard

well, i know that everyone has a personal bias towards their own child but honestly, without any at all....i can tell you that i have the funniest child ever. 

he has been amazing us with his communication these days. he started talking when he was 18 months old, he said NOTHING until he uttered the word "wall" one lovely day last summer and really has not stopped talking a day since. he wakes up and instead of yawning or acting groggy, he proceeds to tell me about what his plans for the day are or what he "dream-ed" about last morning (we're still working on timelines). he is hilarious.  

tonite, stacy called and said that she had surprised us by stopping over to see us after vacation and waited a half an hour on our porch. we unfortunately had been at chili's with chris' family and had missed her.  i told max and he was bummed out. he said " i really wanna see stace."

so we had him call her.  naturally we only heard one side of the conversation....

"stace. i want you to come to my house. nooo, we can't come over there. you have to come to our house. what? is your phone broken? are you talking? i can't hear you. i think we need to get you a new phone. stace. are you coming over? i wanna see you stacy because i love you. are you laughing? you are laughing. you are funny. ok all done, it's for you daddy." 

i took the phone and stacy was laughing and tearful. he is so sweet. 

chris was walking down my parent's stairs today and was carrying really heavy bags trying to persuade us to hurry and max, in true toddler form, was lolly gagging down the stairs. now, in my experience, trying to rush a toddler only causes the adverse to occur. they become slower....so without pressure, judgement, or criticism i ask max "do you want me to holdya?" he turns around looks at chris who is redfaced at this point and says "daddy. cool it. i need to get my shoes on!" we all cracked up because often times his little toddler fits are dealt with by us telling him to "cool it". ahhh, the statements that are thrown back in our face....

this sparked a story from chris' dad this evening....chris was about four when his family uprooted to new mexico for a job for his mom. his dad started pharmacy school when they were out there and was studying around the clock when he wasn't working at one of his two jobs. so chris' interaction with his was limited due to time constraints but chris being who he is, never misses anything.  apparently, chris told him mom one afternoon that he was going to study. he then proceeded to sit down at the kitchen table and yell "dammit, dammit" while pounding both fists on the table. 

in closing, i would like to say that i have some amazing pictures to put up of my family but i don't have that much energy at 407 am. why am i awake right now you may be wondering??? this is typical second trimester behavior for me. i don't sleep well. i wake up bright eyed and bushy tailed at about 330 most nights. so i thought i'd post something here. you'll probably see this time on my blog a lot now....

hope you are all having sweet dreams....

back to the beach

the last time we were at the beach with my family, i was pregnant with max. we used to come every year but since i had grad school for three years and bekah was in school last year...this was our first family vacation for a few years. max has been a little sheepish with the ocean but he is L-O-V-I-N-G the sand. we are having a great time. nina and sasha can't get enough of the ocean. sasha just runs into it. the babies are hilarious. so much fun. yesterday was beautiful. it was overcast today but we got LOONNGGG naps. we needed it because we woke up so early on saturday and stayed up so late. so it was fabulous to have free time. we are having fun and hoping this week lasts forever....

bekah got her staples out today and she bought a really cute wig. i'll post pictures soon. 

the beach

we are headed to dewey beach, de on saturday morning. this is our first family vacation with babies...it should be interesting. all three are at good ages for the sand and water. we are really excited. christian, christopher, and my dad are especially excited for the pizza. we have vacationed at this spot for many years. we stayed in the same place (we mostly stayed in the second villa from the left) for many years and now we are moving to a bigger house type place. i'm not sure exactly what it looks like but i trust my parents.

not too much to report with us. bekah is doing well and we are all raring to go.

of course, everyone is bringing their laptops so i'm sure i can share some pictures while we're there...

here's the surprise

BRACE YOURSELVES....

SHE HAD ENOUGH OF PATCHES BEING SHAVED...

THIS JUST HAPPENED YESTERDAY

THIS WAS THE FIRST SCAR...OPENED TWICE...

fun summer pictures

sweet sassy molassy

my saucy sister corrected me....SHUNT....not shut....

at last....

bekah had her final shut put in this afternoon. she is going home tomorrow. praise the Lord. i can't wait to spend time with her outside of that "sterile"/dirty environment. today was a beautiful day in pittsburgh....we had such a great day!! we went swimming (my most favorite activity in the whole world) with all the kids and olya. i got some great pictures!!! also, i'm hoping to have a surprise picture tomorrow to share....hold on to your hats....