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I’ve been really busy lately with work, travel, being a dad, husband, etc and haven’t really posted anything significant in a while. So what have I been up to?
Last month, I took a long weekend trip and flew to Seattle to visit Sean and Tim and Bridgette’s family, and go to a Mighty Mighty Bosstone’s concert (YAH!). While in Seattle, Sean and I visited one of my co-workers, Debbie, at her parent’s cafe – Chelan Cafe. Its a great place with AWESOME food. On our way out to the cafe, we drove by an import dealership and saw this parked on the street:

Its a VERY rare BMW M1 and it was in awesome shape. In the sun, you could see the carbon fiber reflecting back under the pearlescent paint.
So after our brunch at Chelan Cafe, Sean and I got on the road for our drive to Portland, OR, to visit Corey, Aija, and their newborn daughter Zora. I haven’t seen Corey and Aija since Stephen’s wedding, and have never been to Portland. on the way up, we passed this weird sculpture:

Its a very pretty city. We had some good meals there (especially lunch the next day!) and hanging out with old friends made the weekend worthwhile.

While in Seattle, I got to hang out with Tim, Bridgette, Rylee and Tyler. Turns out Rylee and Brig are big fans of So You Think You Can Dance, which is my anti-masculine guilty pleasure TV Show that Emily got me addicted to. Rylee LOVES the show. She knows every name, dance style, choreographer, etc of every person on the show. The three of us watch the show while Sean and Tim played some PS3 game
I got to swim in the Snohomish (?) river. The river was VERY high and the curretn was so strong that sean and I couldn’t get more than 10 or 15 feet from the bank without getting a chance of us getting swept away. A great public park..things you just don’t see in this area. Another thing that was great? I actually got to see the sun shine in the Pac NW. The three or four times I’ve been up there, its always rained (surprise!).
So the last night there, Sean, Tim, and I went to see my all time favorite band, The Might Mighty Bosstones. They got back together and this was the main purpose of my trip – to see them again. Of all the concerts I have been to, I”ve seen them the most. I think this was my 5th or 6th time seeing them. This show did not let me down. I’ll post some video and photos (ala cell phone so not great…) at a later time.

So fast forward to a week or so ago. For Father’s day, Emily got me a gift cert for Boi na Braza (sp?), a Brazillian steakhouse in Cincinnati. For those not familiar, these places charge a flat rate and you get a pretty decent salad bar. Also, they have waiters walking around with 15 different cuts of meat – sirloin, lamb chops, chicken breasts, filet mignon, and plenty of others. It was amazing. While NOT cheap, one of the things Emily and I enjoyed the most was the personal time. The wait staff doesn’t bother you. Because you let them know when you want more food, they basically stay away from your table unless you need a refill on your beverage. We had a great time talking all night without some person interrupting us to see if we wanted to buy something else. And MANY thanks to Aunt SheShe for watching Sean so we could have some time out. Oh..and the deserts are freaking great too! I love a perfectly cooked flan. Their wine list is pretty decent also. We had a nice pinot grigio.

Coming soon – my twin brother Sean is flying in from Seattle for a visit over Labor Day weekend. When he is here, my mom, Megan, and Megan’s boyfriend Matt, plan on coming down and we are hoping to see Stephen and Amy as well. (Little) Sean is going to have a BLAST!

Tonight, I gave Sean one of my die-cast cars. Its a Porsche that I got when I was in the 8th or 9th grade as a Christmas present from (I think) my grandmother’s brother, my Uncle Jack McNaughton (the Scottish side!). Sean LOVED it. Its bright orange. When Emily picked him up to take him to bed he cried. He wanted his car! So she gave it to him and carried him upstairs. Up in his room, she tried to get him to put it down on his dresser so they could get ready for bed. He wanted nothing to do with that. He was hugging and snuggling her…while hugging and snuggling his new car!! I knew I loved this kid for a reason!!

Can’t wait to see what happens when he finds out I have 20 or 30 diecast cars in storage He likes that orange Porsche 959 so much he may go into overdrive if sees the others!

Last night Uncle Phillip and Gramma got back from their trip to the Cabin and NYC and Phillip brought Sean back a present! Sean is now the proud owner of some Air Jordans!

He thought they were so cool. He is wearing them to “school” today. Phillip has a matching pair so we’ll have to get a photo of them wearing them together. He is in size sixes now, and when he gets to size sevens he gets to wear his Chucks that Megan and Matt got him

Links for the various galleries related to the posts above:

Seattle Trip:

Sean’s new car:

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I really need to update on the cute new stuff Sean is doing more often. Here’s what he’s been doing in the last few days/weeks:
-Sean got a new tooth this past weekend, his 5th, it’s the top left one next to the front teeth.
-Sean is clearly saying Hi (eyeee) and Bye (BuhBuh) while waving to people. He’s always waved, but now has put together saying hi or bye at the appropriate time.
-He’s starting to put an “S” on the end of his yes. He used to say “ayah” for yes, now he says “ayah…..s” so cute.
-He’s really like cars now, he’ll drive them all over the floor going “MmmmMMmmm” His daddy loves this one
-Whenever he passes by a picture of me or paul he points to us and says “Mama” or “Dada” He is so proud that he knows who people are
-Sean is eating really well with a fork/spoon now. He can get food on them and most of the time make it to his mouth.
-Sean’s legs are finally long enough to propel himself on his ride-on toys!
-Sean’s Oma and Opa got him a puzzle for 2 year olds and up. It’s a wooden one with animal pieces. He’s mastered it and can complete it in about 2 minutes.
-Sean’s current obsessions are books and dancing. Loves both. Today we danced for about 10 minutes in the kitchen; he loves to hold my hand while he turns underneath it in a circle. We also read about 10 books about 4 times each when he got home. He likes to read every book he has downstairs, every day.
-My mom got Sean one of those old fashioned “popper” toys that you pull/push along. He will go around and around the rooms of the downstairs running with that thing. He loves it.
-Last but not least, Sean has taken after his “UmBye” with his adoration of ketchup. Sean will eat just about anything if it has ketchup on it. He goes nuts when he sees it in the fridge. So cute.

That’s about all the new stuff I can think of for now. I’ll try to update more often, as I know that everyone who doesn’t see him on a daily basis loves to know how he’s doing.

Also…I cant’ forget to wish Um-Bye (Brian) and SheShe (Ashley) a happy 2nd anniversary, and Philip (fi) a big congratulations on graduating high school last night!

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I’m a big fan of Asian food – I love sticky white rice. Emily bought me a rice cooker a few years ago as a present. We used it often, but got tired of the recipes we used that it kind of fell by the way side.
Emily and I were at one of our local grocery stores and came across a powder mix for General Tso’s chicken. It was produced by a subsidary company of Williams Foods, called Sunbird. We tried it and loved it. After that we tried the Honey Sesame Chicken and Mongolian Beef packets.
Basically, these packets are the spices and flavoring – you still add soy sauce, beef/chicken, veggies (GASP – yes paul adds veggies like green onions, spinach, and been sprouts!), rice and any other favorites you like in your Asian cuisine.
They are an inexpensive way to make your dinner night interesting – its a great home cooked meal but tastes just like (or better!) something you could get from your favorite Chinese restaurant.
For any of the single guys out there, these could give you the edge for an “exotic” dinner prepared at home!

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Emily and I decided to not let this be a typical lazy weekend. The weather was great – nice and cool with the sun shining. With all the wind storms over the last few months we had a yard scattered with broken branches – some so large, they even looked like little trees! Then we trimmed a ton of dead branches from the trees. I made a pile in the driveway about 7 feet tall and 5 feet wide. Going to take a while to get that scrapped and into trash cans.
Emily cleaned out the gardens – weeds, dried leaves, dead plants, and straightened up the boarder rocks. She filled two trash cans with crud. While she did that I gave the yard its first mow and spread some leftover mulch in our side garden. Mowing this yard is not a quick task. Very thankful for the in-laws riding mower. If I had to push mow this yard, I’d probably invest in a whole lot of ivy!
This morning I got out and put down some Scott’s weed and feed fertilizer. With all the work the previous owners put into the house, I don’t think they did much with the grass. I’ve never seen so many dandelions and “bad” grass. Probably going to take a couple feedings to take them all out.
Emily and I also started on our first project for the backyard. With the advice from my mom, we decided to start on a small project fist to get us motivated. The back yard needs TONS of work, but we picked a small 10×10 area just behind the house next to our stairs that come into the yard. It was a bit of an eye sore because the previous owners dogs used it as a sleeping area and it has a large cement slab that covers an old cistern. We are building a retaining wall there with 8 inch lodestone blocks and will fill that area with Irish Moss. Behind that, we plan to maybe put in some hostas, and a vine to grow on the trellis covering the stairs. We may also do another trellis against the wall for the vine.
So we laid down part of that this evening – at least the test run. Then we will need to back fill.
Glad we got that done this weekend as the weather is now predicting snow and rain Monday and Tuesday and low 40s-50s with rain the rest of the week.
That will sure make going to Florida Thurs – Sunday more worthwhile

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Steph Carson’s pictures arrived today! I know everyone’s dying to see them, so I’ll just stop typing and attach them

Click the picture below to see the rest.

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While i did not let Emily edit them yet, i knew people were waiting for them. Emily has a couple of videos to edit and upload as well. Click the pic below to go to the 13 Month gallery with the pics!

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Created by Train Horn

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I’ve always admired Chris’s Goals postings and reviews and wondered if I could do them myself. Emily and I had some discussion on things that we would like to do. So here they are, in no particular order:

1) Except for our mortgage, we want to be debt free. This means student loans, credit cards, car payments, etc. in 2009. This is very possible and I think we can do this easily. Update: just paid off the credit cards.

2) start using that gym membership I paid for. I know its a very cliche but it needs to be done. I’ll set my goal to three days a week for 30 – 45 minutes. Doesn’t sound like much.

3) Paint the two guest rooms in the house and move the office to the 3rd floor.

4) Sell the motorcycle and find a safer toy After a coworker was hit on his scooter checking his mail, I think I’ll put 2 wheel hobbies at a rest and maybe, eventually, get back into something fun with four wheels.

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Ok ok ok Uncle Sean!!!

I finally got some time to edit pictures and videos of Sean from December and a little bit of this month so far. Here are three videos:

First, Christmas with Sean. Kind of a boring video, but may be nice for those who couldn’t be with the little one on Christmas day. Notice the cute red PJ’s from Stephen and Allison!

Next, his new fascination with blowing bubbles with his spit…didn’t learn this one from me…

And of course, his attempts at walking. Here are 4 attempts. I’m sure he’ll be running around the house within a few weeks. Our boy is getting way too big. Better turn down the volume or you’ll hear my “ecstatic mommy screams of encouragement” hehe.

Then, our Christmas pictures that we had taken at a local photographer. If you got a Christmas card (sorry if we missed you…I had a 3 year old address list…) you’ll recognize two of the pictures. When I was trying to order some of the pictures for family, Paul surprised me with pictures that he secretly had taken in November by Steph Carson (did Sean’s 1 month pictures and tons for Brian and Ashley). They are amazing and of course, I bawled my eyes out.

First Light:

Steph Carson:

And here are some pictures of Sean and Opa doing manly things in the yard:

And a couple from January (in the 11th month folder):

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We can’t believe that 10 months ago today we met our little boy for the first time! He’s growing up so fast and is looking more and more like a little boy every day, instead of a baby. He’s really close to walking; he actually took 2 steps the other day toward the cat. He’ll do 1 step and then fall forward going from person to person as well. He’s also really into doing “so big,” waving, saying “bye bye” clapping his hands, and playing with his toys. Santa was really wonderful to him this year, he got some awesome toys and very cute clothes

Sean is having a great time with his Oma, Opa and Aunt Cate here in New York. It’s funny, he slept really horribly the first few nights that we were here, and my Dad and Colleen offered to take him in his room for the night to let us get some sleep. He ended up sleeping perfectly. He slept in their room again last night and slept perfectly again. I guess he’s just tired of his mommy and daddy and wants to be with Oma and Opa! They just love it

Here are some pictures of Sean from our vacation so far, along with Christmas pictures. Notice his Christmas outfit with his name embroidered on it from Stephen and Ally (Thank you!). What a cute gift. We got it for a baby shower gift and it fit him absolutly perfectly on Christmas morning. He wore it all day

Here are some more pictures of our time here, mostly of the birds and snow. We havae about 3 feet right now, although it’s packed down on itself some over the past few days. Still…a lot more than we get in KY and it made for a wonderful white Christmas.

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