mellybrelly | Entries tagged with photos

The princess and the dragon.. the prince is laying on the ground beside the princess :P

Crafts with Reagan ( instructions )

Paxton wearing overalls that belonged to a boy I took care of 13 or so years ago

Paxton wearing his vest from his auntie, in the back yard

Wearing dadda's work gloves

I was feeling a bit bummed last night because Amy had a girl's night and didn't invite me (or rather, invited me but then didn't answer any of my inquiries of details), I ended up calling my best friend who was also having a girl's night. She was excited and told me that they had just been talking about how it still didn't feel right to have girls nights without me. I love her. She knows how to make me feel better. We chatted for a while, and then I went downstairs and watched Tim play Fear, I didn't want to lay in bed just thinking about how I felt. Eventually I went to bed, and of course, Paxton woke up 10 minutes later. He woke up a few times, eventually I just brought him into bed with us. Tim says Paxton kicks him out of bed, literally. He grunts and complains and kicks at his dad till he leaves. I think he's just used to it being me and him in the bed and now that he's bigger, he doesn't like sharing with daddy too, but it's not his bed!!

I let Tim sleep in till 9:30, and then woke him and traded. I went back to bed and napped for a couple hours. That's all our day has really been so far. I think this afternoon we are going to go buy Reagan a winter coat. So far Lands End coats have been good for us, they are good quality and fit well and keep her warm, but they aren't what Reagan wants this year. She wants a dress up type coat, like pea coat. That's well and good, but we want something she can play in the snow with and ride her bike with, something that is useful, not just stylish. I think we'll probably end up buying her a Lands End coat to keep here, and a fancier one for school, since she doesn't play outside at her mom's house much and once it gets cool the school doesn't let the kids outside for recess. Maybe we'll get lucky and find a good coat that suits all our ~~needs~~ wants.

Thought I'd post a few recent pictures of Paxton. I'm terrible at posting pictures here now, it used to be where I put them, but now facebook fills that need.

Paxton the dragon:

Paxton in daddy's boxers.. he put these on himself and wore them around the house all evening.

But it doesn't seem to be accumulating very quickly. I brought Paxton out into the snow for the first time, he stared at it for a while and then gave me grins. I fed him a little :P

Reagan doesn't have school today so Tim left early to meet Michael. Nice, knocks about 45 minutes off the drive since Michael is meeting him.

Short sideways video

Some photos:

( more! )

And the rest on facebook

Poor Paxton woke up this morning with one eye sealed shut. No sign of pink eye or anything, just lots of gunk coming out of his eyes. Better than not being able to breath through his nose, in my opinion. I have really sore ears and a sore throat still. Had a fever in the night, woke up shivering so I took some tylenol and got the baby back to sleep in his crib, rather than in the bed with me. I can sleep better when he isn't all snuggled up to me.

He's in good spirits today, despite the funk. He's laying on the floor chatting with me at the moment.

No big plans for the day. I went grocery shopping alone last night, Paxton stayed with Tim and didn't even fuss once. He fell asleep in Tim's arms while they listened to music. I was surprised, he wasn't lunging at me as soon as I stepped in the door. I was able to put groceries away and make dinner and even eat dinner before he decided it was momma time.

We might work on getting Reagan's room clean. Unless I get a burst of energy, and this cold leaves, I think the tree will stay up till after next weekend. Tim is home again today, it's been nice having four quiet days with him.

I really want cheese today. I want a giant cheese ball, and string cheese and slices of cheddar and brie with garlic and crackers and a cheese fountain, a big delicious cheese fountain. Probably because there's cheese in the door of the fridge right now... Tim and Reagan had grilled cheese sandwiches yesterday. I really hope he grows out of this dairy allergy.

I tried fixing the faces of two of our drawers in the kitchen. One worked, one didn't. We need longer screws or more screws. Whoever did this kitchen made a lot of stupid mistakes. It was done fast, a flip house.

I'm back to cloth with Paxton. I rarely go downstairs now that we have our Christmas tree up. I spend most the day upstairs playing with Paxton, listening to Christmas music, tidying, etc. Before I'd be downstairs where the tv is mostly. Today I went down and got a bunch of diaper stuff, since I keep them there, so that helped.

Making a teriyaki chicken dish in the crock pot, which I forgot to turn on for about an hour this afternoon. Veggies are prepped, rice needs to be cooked. I wanted to make ginger cookies this afternoon, but no molasses, ~~need to run to the store later~~ Tim is picking some up. Maybe I'll make some lactation cookies now.

Our gingerbread house:

more pictures

Where does daddy start and Paxton end?? :P

and more photos

I took a bunch of pumpkin pictures with Paxton, after we carved our hallowe'en pumpkins this afternoon:

( more under the cut )

I woke up feeling not great, again, so Tim took Reagan to Sunday school and Paxton and I stayed in bed and slept. Slept till early afternoon actually, and I'm glad I did because I'm starting to feel a bit better. I'm still way better than I was last week, but tired of this holding on.

Reagan and Tim studied her science and history, did her SOL testing website activities, Reagan wrote her journal and tidied her bedroom, and Reagan read her entire book she needed to read for Monday. I'm hoping we can get more organized and start homework on Friday night, to get it over with, do her SOL testing on Saturday, and have Sunday for fun.

I think our pumpkins turned out great, I'll have to take pictures this week. Reagan and I hung the ghost I made last year in the tree. The other day I cut out tons of tiny pumpkins from orange construction paper and I strung it on four long strands of dental floss and hung them in the big picture window in the living room.

Tim's driving Reagan to meet Michael right now, I think I'll probably be in bed a bit early tonight.

The weekend was a really good one! Well, despite the high fever, sore throat and illness I had, the rest was good. The baby slept well in his crib last night, curled up beside me. I like the setup. Even if he ends up in my bed, I don't worry about him rolling off the edge in the night.

I'm not sure if anyone else has this same insanity as me, but when I'm sick I suddenly feel overwhelming urges to clean. Like the instant I feel slightly better I have to go do jobs. The other day it was to clean out our closet of stuff, organize Reagan's closet, etc, plus cook and make the kids food and things like that. Then I hit a wall and was worse than before. Well, today I decided I needed to sweep.. desperately. Then all the chairs had to be moved, oh and then I noticed the chair rails were dusty, and wait, it's been a while since I moved all the couches, and the end tables. On and on, I stopped myself though, before I washed the floor. Not THAT desperate. Apparently we had a balloon hiding place behind one of the couches, there were three balloons that Reagan got weeks ago, back there, still full of air. I killed them all.

Tim is out doing some errands, I got him to buy me some brewer's yeast so I can make some lactation cookies.

Just talked to my mom, they are doing their Thanksgiving dinner tonight, except she's making ham instead of turkey. Silliness. Who would skip a chance to eat turkey???

We did ours last night with Reagan, I made cornish game hens with stuffing, dairy free mashed potatoes with chicken broth, asparagus and carrots:

Reagan was VERY excited about a whole bird to herself:

Reagan set up the table with candles and things and made a Canadian thanksgiving flag :P

Paxton chilled in his Canadian duds:

Till he heard he wasn't getting his own bird

So he got milk drunk and passed out

Rest of the album HERE

Pax is chilling with his toys, making music

totheleft came over this morning and took photos of Paxton and the family. Of course baby squawked and cried the whole time, I should have realized he'd do that, he's usually so content and quiet, but he's on me nursing and sleeping all day and night. He hates laying alone or being naked, but I think the photos will still be adorable. Lauren is so good and patient.

You can check out Lauren's photography here: http://www.laurenhefner.com/

In other news, I'm down 15lbs from my pregnancy weight, I gained 7, so I'm ahead of the game. I'm still retaining some water, so I'm looking forward to that going. Can fit my engagement ring back on, but not my wedding ring. My prepregnancy jeans fit! I wore a pair today.

Tim and Reagan are running to the grocery store, I'm going to take a nap. We are heading to Amy's for dinner tonight. Feels good to be and around more.

One year ago today, Tim and I played the best April Fools prank that wasn't actually a prank. We got married, and only told a very small handful of people, and then announced it on facebook and livejournal. Of course, almost no one believed us, till we posted photos.

A week earlier, he asked me to marry him in Nelson Park, here in Virginia, at the same place we were to be married. He was kind of upset when I picked that park to get married, because he had picked it months earlier, to ask me to marry him, he didn't want me to think he was copying. Two weeks earlier we picked up our marriage license. We do things the oddest way sometimes.

We were married by an 85 year old man named Col. Ulysses Xerxes White, a small group of friends attended.

I met Tim through livejournal, in August of 2004. I fell in love with him, and even though we had some major bumps along the way, with me living on an Island on the west coast of Canada, and him being in the busy metro DC area of the USA, we did it, and it was a good decision. It was a very big decision for both of us, not only life changing for Tim, but changed everything for me, from moving from my family and friends, my country, everything I knew. Became a step mom.

In the last year, we got married, we started and finished our immigration process. In one week, we bought a house, I flew to Canada to prepare for our wedding there, and we had our interview with homeland security. We threw a great wedding in Canada, in my parent's back yard, with a fruit and dessert reception. My main goal for the wedding was to have as many people who I love and who love me to attend. Children were not only allowed, they were welcomed. We came home and moved into our new house and decided to try for a baby, and here I sit now, on my one year anniversary with a little one kicking me. *tears*

I never actually posted my wedding photos here on LJ, life just felt so busy at the time. In honour of my first anniversary with Tim, here they are. Many many photos:

( our Canadian wedding )

we have a beautiful life.. :)

Reagan just came downstairs and said "We are bad, we are LIP-SASSY"

gotta love little girls..

Last night I noticed our sump pump was making weird noises and running on a regular basis. Tim listened and said he thought it sounded strange too, but it was too dark to see anything. This morning I noticed it was still going, so I went out in my jammies and running shoes to shovel any leaves off the pump drain. I noticed that our mini barbeque was covered with a couple inches of ice and there was a sheen of ice on our sliding glass door, and half the stairs were like a skating rink. There were these weird fingers of ice poking up as well, couldn't figure out what was doing it.

All of a sudden the pump started and water came spraying out of the pipe. I guess the pipe cracked, so it's pumping the water, but it immediately comes spraying back out, so it's running constantly, coating everything in water, which is turning to ice. Lovely.

Tim's going to measure the pipes today and hopefully replace it. I hope it isn't sucking a bunch of electricity, running constantly.

You can see the thick ice on the wires for the sump pump..

ETA: picture of the water spraying

Couple more photos

From Reagan and Amelia's puppet show yesterday:

Bo, taking down one of our leaning trees..

We decorated our Christmas tree tonight, and I love it. (click pictures twice to see bigger sizes)

and I love them:

and I loved setting up for Thanksgiving:

and I love turkey

This year, I barely even had to move things on the tree, Reagan's growing up so much! I also set up her tree in her bedroom and she decorated it with Amelia's help. We did some math work this evening, listened to Christmas music, ate turkey leftovers. It was a really excellent weekend, but I'm very ready for a normal day tomorrow to get this house back in order! (Although Tim says I'm under strict orders to take it easy after all my hostessing, cooking and cleaning!)

Our yard ghost

Tim and Reagan on Hallowe'en

heh..

my spider cake, it rocked

our first three pumpkins

we are sexy bitches

The husband is upstairs doing dishes and cleaning the kitchen. What a sweetheart.

I got a bit bored, this afternoon, so I went outside and mowed the lawn. I LOVE our new lawnmower, waaaay lighter and easier to mow with than the one I had in Canada. Even though it's gas, it's still light. (Not light to lift out of basement, so kudos to Tim for managing that on his own)

We just ate our Canadian Thanksgiving ~~photos~~ dinner, and for once I finally uploaded the photos. I'm so lazy with lj and photos these days, haven't even posted my wedding photos!

Dinner that I couldn't finish:

Cornish game hen, stuffed with cranberry/bread stuffing, scalloped potatoes, green beans (went lazy with veggies) and homemade cranberry sauce.

Dining room from kitchen.. we need pictures.. new table..... on and on. Oops, I mean, grateful, I'm grateful for what we have!!

Living room with curtains up, first picture up:

(Tim and I's wish list: big beautiful rug, new curtains, leather furniture, art!, new paint)

( pictures from our walk/bike ride with the neighbours )

I have triple chocolate custard cooling in the fridge, just waiting to be made into ice cream. Just need to let my stomach empty a little. So full.

Thankfulness
I know I cried after I hung up the phone with my family yesterday, and I was very grateful Tim was there to give me a hug and just understand, but today I was full of love and gratefulness for the fact that I'm here with Tim. I can't even explain how much I miss my family, my friends, the Island, my country, but at the same time, I don't want to trade it back, you know? I love Tim, I love Reagan, I love my house and my yard, my new friends, the blue Virginia skies, even being a foreigner is fun sometimes. I knew I was sacrificing a lot to move, but it's 100% worth it to be here with the guy I've loved for so many years.

They make my life happy.

Sometimes I miss when I didn't have bangs:

(just looking back at old photos

We had a great trip to North Carolina, we originally planned on going for the long weekend, but Reagan wasn't out of school yet. This turned out even more perfect because we didn't have to fight traffic.

I ended up driving the entire way to Tim's parent's house, all 7 hours or whatever it turned out to be. I wasn't even freaked out. We didn't there till well after midnight, and everyone was crashed.

It's hard to remember what we did each day, but one day we drove out to the Outerbanks and spent the day at the ocean. It was really perfect. Hot, but not too hot. The beach wasn't crowded. We were on the marine corp base beach, and it was wonderful. I missed being able to swim, but I loved jumping the waves and the fact that there was no seaweed!! So different from the beaches back home.

One day we went out on Tim's dad's boat. It's a really nice boat, I fished off the front and caught 7 or 8 or more fish, I kind of lost track. They were mostly too small to catch, but the kids loved throwing them back in the water.

The pelicans were so cool, I wish I had taken pictures of them. I'd never seen pelicans in the wild before! At one point, a pod of dolphins swam by, there must have been 10 or 15 of them, it was a really special thing to see, as the sun was setting.

Tim's mom fed us well, and Tim's dad took good care of us. I really appreciate the fact that his parents are so loving and kind, and that they love and accept me so fully! They are so happy that Tim is in a loving relationship again.

Spent some time with Tim's sister and her new boyfriend, and lots of time with Reagan's cousin Seamus. He was very interested in the fact that I was now his aunt, it was cute to have him asking so many questions about how family works. Not so cute when he pulled me into another room to say that he saw us having sex on our wedding dvd. LOL I explained that we were just kissing (now you may kiss the bride..) but that yes, married people did have sex, but that wasn't sex. He told me that he thought sex meant a lot of kissing, and I said that yes, that was part of it, and we left it at that. Heh, not sure why these kids feel the need to ask ME all the questions, but I guess I'm not scary.

Tim's brother stopped in one night, good to see him. He is moving for university and his girlfriend Taylor couldn't make it, which was too bad.

Tim and I bought Tim's mom some hanging baskets and wrote her a card for her retirement. She was so happy with them, which made me so happy.

There's so much else to tell, but of course my brain just isn't thinking it all up right now. Overall, a great vacation, a relaxing time, great family time. I always leave feeling loved and I always feel a bit sad to go, cause I get used to be around lots of people and I enjoy it. It's so nice to have family at the beach! Makes for a fun, but not too expensive vacation!

( pictures pictures pictures! )

Oh wait, we already did that!

This morning I remembered that my ring was arriving today, but I forgot by the time Tim arrived home! He brought me tulips, and I still didn't clue in that I was getting my ring, and he actually forgot too!

All of a sudden, after dinner, he dimmed the lights, grabbed a tulip, went down on one knee in the living room and asked me to marry him. Even though it was almost a week after we got married, it still made me all mushy.

Turns out that rings are really hard to photograph!! For me anyway, I'll try again tomorrow, but here's one attempt from tonight. I think my wedding ring looks a bit big beside it, since it's a 4mm ring and the engagement ring is maybe a 2mm, but I like it.

Nelson Park, a rainy wedding day

Something blue, Reagan's butterfly

My flowers

And a further away view. I was pretty happy how they turned out, since I made the bouquet myself

Col. Ulysses Xerxes White, before he took off his hat and coat

Listening and preparing

I started crying

and he put his arm around me

me saying my vows

him listening.. the look in his eyes while he looked at me almost made me cry

The kiss

The rings

He was supposed to whisper sweet nothings into my ear for a photo, but he went with less than sweet

he took to married life very easily. Handed me the umbrella and automatically took my purse

Our future looks bright, and we look ready!!

Today we went to a chocolate festival in Fairfax, it was great. First off, the weather was amazing, none of us wore jackets, sort sleeves were fine, which was good because we ended up in a long line-up, but we enjoyed our selves. We bought truffles and chocolate bars and had ice cream and tried the chocolate fountains, and I bought three kinds of fudge. Yum.

Afterward we walked around old town Fairfax and took some photos. :)

I look terrible, but I think Tim looks adorable: