Happy 3rd Birthday Caitlin!

Another year has come and gone. My baby girl is now a big girl. She is 3. I still remember the day (or days) of her birth like it was last week. Being put on bedrest for 2 weeks before, being induced and then exactly 24 hours later after checking into the hospital on Monday at 3:30pm, at 3:30pm on Tuesday March 21st I was holding the perfect little 7lb 7oz, 21 inch baby in my arms. I remember my mom telling me to HOLD ON and don't have the baby until she got there, because I really had a say in it. And being told to cross my legs and keep her in there. I couldn't believe how perfect the day went!! Here is Caitlins first picture, and perfect bribery when she goes to high school and college.

Caitlin got to choose where her party would be for her and her friends. She chose Papa Ginos. On her birthday, the 21st, we had 15 little kids ranging from 2 to 5 years of age running around Papa Ginos and acting like they own the place. All in all, the kids were good. Luckily the parents of all the kids were there to help.

Instead of a cake at Papa Ginos, I opted to make Cupcakes and frosted to match Tinkerbell, the theme to our party of course!!

On the way to Papa Ginos! Caitie was Sooo excited!

Caitie and her friends eating pizza!!!

Caitie opening her gifts!! So many gifts, so many good friends!!

This pic makes me laugh because I have a picture like this at one my birthday parties as a kid!! Same face and everything!!!

After that we had a party at home for our family. I didn't want to subject the grandparants, aunts and uncles to the loud kid party!! It was a wonderful day! Caitlin had so much fun and got so many gifts. Her birthday makes me realize how many people we have in our life that love us and want the best for her. Family is a wonderful thing!!

First gift we will need to return. Auntie Colleen thought it would be funny to give us Caitlin!! But she is a cute gift!


Auntie Vons gift was big hit for the kids (all sizes!). The Princess version of go fish.


Here are the dads trying to help the kids, even though I am convinced they just took the game over!

Of course our theme for the party wouldn't be complete without the wonderful yummy Tinkerbell Cake!! Thank you Aunt Catherine and Uncle Irving!! We loved the cake!!

One of Caities favorite gifts was her new costume, TINKERBELL!! Auntie Meaghan sure knew what Caitie wanted this year!

And of course it had to go on right away!!

Here is Caitlin telling Auntie Meaghan we must read the cards before we open the gifts.. Something kept telling her at Papa Ginos. what a good kid.

Well the person who was a big hit for the party was Auntie Colleen!! She was wonderful with the kids!! The kids convinced her to let them ride on her. I am honestly not sure what she was! Elephant maybe?? I saw her moving her arm at one point like the trunk, but who knows what these kids made her do!! And of course, I can't forget Auntie Von the doggie!

And probably the gift that made a big hit was Caitlins new playhouse!!! Oh she was so excited and still is every time she goes into the backyard!! Oh she loves it!! She even shares it with her Patrick and Bobo!!

And of course no birthday would be complete without 3 year professional pics! Out of all the pictures, here are my 3 favorites. This year was so nice and easy with her being able to take instructions! Say Cheese!

Ice Storm 2008!

It has been a while since my last blog and boy do I have a lot to share!! So here I go!

It all started on December 11th around 10pm. And for about 9 hours I have never been more scared! The 4 of us (yes Bobo included) stayed in the dark for those 9 hours not knowing what was next. All we heard was a crackle and a snap then a boom. Somtimes the house would shake. Sometimes something would hit a window. With each boom we ran from one end of the house to another making sure it didn't go through the house. I made Caitlin move to my bed and thank god I did since a HUGE branch came crashing into her wall and window about 30 minutes after she moved. Around midnight, we moved into the living room since the side of the house with our bedrooms kept getting hit with branches. These 9 hours were the longest of my life. Sitting in the dark, with no heat, TV, radio or computer we felt helpless. FINALLY around 7am when the sun started to try to peak out we opened our door to find something we never thought to find. Trees, branches, wires, and lights all down over our property, our neighbors properties and the streets. Here is a picture right outside our door when we opened it up.

We lost our power for 5 days.. the longest 5 days of my life. I felt helpless.. It was Christmas and all i wanted to do was be at home decorating and sitting in front of my tree like I do every year! Luckily my inlaws took us in and they had a lovely tree for me to watch at the times I needed that "O Christmas Tree".

Driving through our town later that afternoon was unbelieveable. I couldn't believe my eyes. The town was a complete disaster.

While outside cleaning up in the morning we noticed our 2 cars both got damaged. I was so upset! But luckily they are driveable for the moment, we did get my car windshield fixed..

The sounds during the morning were so strange! It was complete silence except for the sounds of the crackling of the remaining limbs that would eventually fall and also police and fire sirens. Those were the eriest. I felt it was the day after a war.

This picture if from our street. We live on a dead end road and i could not believe the ice!

But on a happy note.. My week was spent with my 3 favorite little girls!! I had so much fun bonding with my new niece! And watching Caitlin and Maridian play together is always the best! They are so good together!!

And finally I want to share a picture of our neighbors backyard.. Now THIS is amazing!

Cindelella!

Asking Caitlin what she wanted to be for Halloween was quit a trip! She cracks me up. It is so true that kids do say the darndest things! So I ask.. and her usual response at the moment is "Ummm... I don't know!", with the littlest sly smile she can do! So i give her a few suggestions into which she got so excited and yelled "CINDELELLA!!!!!!!!!!!" So here is my little Cindelella debuting in her first appearance!


What a pretty smile....

Her royal subject, Bo...

She has the royal waive down!

3rd Annual Apple and Pumpkin Picking!

Thanks to friends of mine (the other 'ooleys!) I LOVE October! Yes, it is a wonderful month due to my birthday of course, but now being older and having a child it isn't the same. But I love Apple and Pumpkin picking. It has become a time of year that I can't wait to come. Once this time is upon us I know it is the fall and soon to be holiday season! (I LOVE the holidays!! you will soon learn if you don't already!!). This year a record number of people came with us! It was wonderful. There was probably close to 15 of us.



My toothless wonder was very excited when she found her first apple! She was looking forward to this day all weekend. She told me to clean it off and took her first bite of the season!


This year Chris was able to come with us as well. This was his first time apple picking with his girls, and probably didn't find it as exciting as us, but had a great time overall as well!





Here is Caitie playing with her BFF's! She was so excited Nick and Emily could come along with us!

Ok, so looking back over the past 2 years of Apple picking I can't believe how much she has grown!



Here she was, October 2006, so that would make her 7 months. Oh how I miss this stage!!!



And on the other side 2007...



Time sure flies when you are having fun!

My Big Girl

Caitlin is 2 1/2. We were trying to hold off on getting her a big girl bed until her 3rd birthday. Didn't happen! Last Friday I decided to take the day off and sleep in and do some stuff around the house. Well sleeping in wasn't an option, I got woken up by a little girl crying and calling for her anybody. Fearful she fell or was hurt I got up and ran to her, but she was just walking around looking for me or daddy. So obviously she climbed out. I was terrified of the thought of her falling and me not hearing her. She would break something or get stuck. Yes, I know you are saying, "Oh you will hear her" My response, and what if i don't! So I got her a toddler bed. It is a cheap alternative for the time being and we can still use her crib mattress. But this is the end of my baby. I spent the weekend taking down her crib and putting up her bed. Also, we had her changing table still up, mostly for use of the shelves and I took that down. But she is so excited about her bed. She calls it her big girl bed. Everything must now be done in her big girl room or on the bed. We have a portable DVD player that she must watch movies, on the big girl bed.






My little baby is now a little big girl.







The picture to the left was my favorite when she was little with her little bum in the air! And now she is a big girl. It is so sad how fast the time goes..

Our Cruise Vacation

Last month we went on a wonderful vacation. We went with my dad on
a cruise of the Eastern Carribean. We left out of Miami and made stops in the Bahamas, St. Thomas and St. Marteen.

Here we are waiting in line, somewhat patiently, to get on the boat!

Well, this is Dooley's favorite part of the cruise, the Muster Drill, or as I call it the Mustard and ketchup drill. Here are Dooley and Caitlin in their respective life jackets.

Next we visited Camp Carnival, a place where we thought Caitlin would live for most of the trip, NOPE! She wanted to hang with us.

Caitlin in front of the boat!
So excited to see the dolphins!

Our first stop was the Bahamas. Chris, Caitlin and I did the dolphin excursion. If you know me, this is something I have wanted to do forever! So Caitlin said she wanted to do it to, and finally she was free to do something! Well note to self, don't listen to a 2 1/2 year old! She FREAKED out when the dolphin trainers blew the whistle and the dolphins responded in their loud screech! But all in all it was a great experience.

Day 2 was at sea! A wonderful day at sea. I relaxed with the fam. Caitlin really wanted to go swimming so Dad and Papa took her, I couldn't take the annoying jumping children!

Day 3 - St. Thomas! All i can say is I love this island! More I love the beaches. I have never been to the resort area, but the island itself does seem a little run down, but the beaches are beautiful! Here are some pics of our day! We revisited Coki Beach, which is the same beach we went to on our honeymoon.

Caitlin singing in the rain!

SAY CHEESE!

Day 4 - St. Marteen! Again, another island I love (now if we just stopped at Aruba too!).. This island is definitly being worked on to become the next wonderful island to vacation at! Construction everywhere! But boy has the place changed in 4 years. Unfortunatly today it rained. But there were a good 5 hours in which it didn't and we were able to walk around. Poor dad, we dragged him everywhere! I love window shopping (can you say I am my mothers daughter!)..

Well the last 2 days were at sea. So needless to say I did nothing but read my book, sTori Telling, by the pool and relax! Didn't take too many pictures. But we did get a little bit of rocky weather on day 6 with Hurricane somebody, lost track of them all!

But here is my favorite picture of Caitlin from the trip. She had the camera before me and smudged the lense, but i realized it looks so cute and makes the picture look really good.