St. Baldrick's

I am just giving a shout out to my friend's (Heather) dad, Mr. McClurkin.

Every year he participates in St.Baldrick's Day.

He shaves his head and raises money for kids with cancer.

If you would like to help out and sponsor him, click on the link above.

Good luck Mr. McClurkin!!!

Thank you Jen, Emma, and Hope!

A nice surprise came in today's mail all the way from San Francisco.

Jenny, Emma, and Hope sent the kids some trinkets from Chinatown.

Sam is so excited with his Chinese calender.

 He loves how it has Chinese letters and writing on it.

And Beth's eyes went wide when she unwrapped her lucky cat "good fortune" purse.

"Oh, Mom, I love it! It's so adorable!!! ;)"

Thank you so much for the impromptu gifts.

So sweet and thoughtful.

Muah!

xoxoxo,

Sam, Beth, and Tara

2 Days Left to Vote!

Here are the contenders.

NewFoundland

I am not sure how you can't melt when looking at this face.

I mean come on, so ruggedly gentle.

I love this brute!

St. Bernard

So I threw this option on last minute. Thinking of practicality, of course.

This guy could definitely handle our extreme winters with ease.

Plus the kids love the 'Beethoven' movies.

Golden Retriever

A classic for sure.

You can't ever go wrong with this one. My heart belongs to this breed.

My first dog when I was 3 was a Golden girl named Bridget.

But it's a kind of feeling like when you go to a restaurant and order the same thing every time.

I mean there is a lot of delicious things on the menu but you 

always end up ordering the same thing.

I kind of feel the same way with this choice. 

It's a safe choice no doubt, but should we try something new?

Apparently most you think no. :)

Then there are always the hybrid, designer dogs.

A Newfie/Golden mix maybe?

What ever the decision.... I'm famished!! :)

*** Images courtesy of wikipedia***

Saturday, Snowboarding, Sledding, and Sam

Well I got my wish.

More snow.

After Friday's marathon snowfall, Saturday was beautiful.

Sunny and not too cold.

So after I was done with a client's session I picked up Sam and headed over to the hill.

It worked out perfectly since Beth was out shopping 

for "girl stuff", as Sam put it, with Grammy.

He did sooooo well on his snowboard.

Even attempting, (my heart's in my throat now), a small jump.

Last year for Christmas Luke and Danielle gave him a snowboard.

Last year he was 4 going on 5.

I do believe that he is going to need a new one next winter.

He is already starting to outgrow it!

The one he is riding in the photos was one from a 12 year old boy that took Sam under his wing for the afternoon. 

After some serious snowboarding he decided to take it easy and go sledding.

I took my life in my hands by laying down on the ground, beneath the jump, trying to capture some cool shots. I am sure that the other parents there thought I was completely insane. There were a couple of times where I had to roll out of the way quickly but it was worth it. Sam loves the photos.

I told him I was going to put them on the blog

 and he said, "Mom I'm going to be famous."

Brian turns 36!

Brian, aka Stick, had his 36th Birthday yesterday!!!

At Christmas time, my dad gave Brian tickets to any SU basketball game of his choice.

He chose the Villanova game since it was on his birthday.

So we all headed down to the Carrier Dome  for the game.

SU ended up losing by 2 points but it was a very exciting and fun game.

I am especially happy that Patrick and Rachel were able to come too.

Love this picture of Brian and Sam.

So focused on the game.

It's something to hear Beth, with her little munchkin voice shouting,

"Go Johnny Flynn, go Johnny Flynn,...."

We discovered that morning that Sam's SU hat no longer fit him. So the hand-me downs began.

Beth got Sam's and Sam got mine.

I'm pretty sure all those were for him.

:)

Yup.

They were.

Rachel took over mommy duties with Beth.

Thanks Rae.

Since my dad's seats were two rows in front of us, Sam liked having his options open with the seating arrangements. Constantly moving back and forth between the two. 

He likes watching the games with Grandpa.

And Grandpa likes watching the games with these two also! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRIAN!!!

New Bitty

(click on image to view larger.)

Meet Brian and his new bitty.

We went out after the basketball game, with out kids, for a bite to eat and drinks.

So with my Dad offering to take the kids and the Johnstons having a babysitter, 

we were off to the Armory.

Kitty Hoynes is where we intended to go but they were closed.

Mulrooney's, closed.

PJ Dorsey's was open!! Yeah!

Once inside of course Brian runs into a handful of people he knows.

One in guy in particular, an acquaintance from high school, saw Brian with Kristin at the bar.

This guy was half in the bag and said to Brian with a devilish smile,

"Hey, I see you got yourself a new bitty."

Brian just smiled back and said, "Uh, no, it's my wife's girl friend."

So we made fun of them, (them being Brian and his new bitty), the rest of the day.

:)

Brian with me, his "old bitty", and two Sam Adams.

Kristin demanded to document me with a beer.

A sight rarely seen.

We headed over to Clark's Ale House for some roast beef sandwiches and more beverages.

The guys played "Ring the Bull".

We really had a nice time. It was a great day.

A nice way to spend Brian's 36th birthday.

Brian, Tara, Kristin, and Joe

This video is too funny.

It's called "David After Dentist". Apparently he had to get an extra tooth removed.

It reminds me of Sam when he was 3 and drank about a 1/2 bottle of cough syrup.

Danielle and I were here, probably painting a room in my house, and he came to us wobbling and talking nonsense.

 The poison control lady was so nice and told me that the worst had already happened.

He was drunk.

She calmed me down and told me to just try to get him to go to sleep and he would sleep it off.

A couple hours later she called me back to check in on us.

At the time I was so worried and completely mortified.

But it created yet another bond between Danielle and I, and another memory we have tucked away. We laugh about it now..... "remember when Sam was drunk?"

:)