Love Those Grandkids!

I haven't posted in a while -- sometimes I just get busy and don't think about documenting what's going on.

Recently Bree was babysitting Will and Dee and took a few videos that she shared with us. We just love watching Delilah walking and talking!

And Jessica sent us this one of the kids laughing and playing. Will thought it was so funny that Delilah would throw the cookies he gave her on the floor.

Here's one more video of William at the Zoo class he attended. The kids had parrots come and feed from their hands!

And here's a sweet picture of Delilah that we received lately.  I think it's her 9 month picture.

Cukes Are Yummy ...

Jessica sent a new video of Delilah last night and it's just the sweetest. It's funny that it arrived when it did because Dave and I had just been talking about how William just loves veggies and fruit and we wondered if Dee would like them as much. I guess this video answers that question!

And I'm also posting a couple pictures that Jessica sent this morning. Love seeing William in his new Toy Story PJs and little Miss Dee is pulling herself up and scooting along tables and furniture now (in addition to crawling!) How quickly they change.

Princess Dee is pulling herself up on EVERYTHING!

Will has new Toy Story PJs!

Halloween 2011

Aren't these cheeks just irresistible?

This was an interesting Halloween. We had over a foot of snow on the ground but our power was restored and we were ready for trick-or-treaters. We even (still) had candy to hand out (we really shouldn't buy bags of candy that we actually LIKE!). We thought since we had kids living on either side of us now (who have friends up the road) we'd at least have a couple doorbell rings this year.

Alas. We did not.

It might have had something to do with the fact that our porch light wasn't on -- perhaps this was my passive-aggressive way of hoarding all those Milky Way and Twix bars to myself? Or it just might be that on a subconscious level I didn't want to deal with having Rascal and Daisy go nuts when the kids knocked on the door. (sigh) Either way -- we are stuck with lots of leftover candy.

Which I can't. stop. eating. (another sigh)

We are, however, very thankful that Bree went to Trunk or Treat in Rochester and snapped these pictures of our favorite sweets!

What I'd give to smooch those sweet little cheeks!

Someone just won some beads! Love our little Dash from The Incredibles!

Is there really any need for candy with this sweetness around? 

I think Dash has been hitting the chocolate! And working out a bit!
And clearly was a bit sick of having his picture taken :)

Jessica sent us these pictures of William as he got ready to hit the neighborhood for some fun and treats on Halloween night. I wonder how long it will be before William decides not to wear his costume everywhere they go.

Ready to hit the streets. Who is that masked boy anyway?

And away they go! Delilah and Mommy must have stayed home to pass out the candy :)

*** Update:  I meant to add this sweet picture that Jessica sent me of Will and Dee "hanging out on Saturday morning." They are just too cute! 

Pumpkin Carving and Sweet Pics

We were talking tonight about how fortunate we are to live in an age with such incredible technology. It's not always easy living 6 hours away from our grandchildren and not being there in person to see Delilah's first spoonful of real food being tasted or to hear about Will's first preschool field trip to the apple farm.

Thank goodness for iPhones that can take pictures and send them almost instantly. And how great are the videos they record (also able to be sent within seconds.) Then there is Skype -- the ability to see the kids via webcams in real-time.

Tonight was pumpkin carving time at Josh and Jessica's. Jess sent us a couple of cute videos of Will as they started to get the pumpkin ready. What a thrill to be a part of this experience. I'm posting those videos here and a picture of the final product ... and then I'm also going to post a few pics we've received over the past week or so ... we are so thankful for the opportunity to stay connected!

Will with his pumpkin. Good job Will!!

The owl hat finally fits!

Lilah's first taste of real food!

Lilah at Sticky Lips -- no ribs (yet) for you sweetie pie!

Good morning Grandma!

Will on his first pre-K field trip to the apple farm.

Will at Sticky Lips!

Remembering: The Strong Museum of Play

I guess I should just forget about going back and trying to post about all the different things we've done since moving to Massachusetts. I've got a list (somewhere) of posts I'd like to write up but ... well, it probably won't happen.

But I'm hoping I can make up little videos as I come across pictures from fun days. And who knows  -- maybe I'll get to those blog posts this winter.

In the meantime, here's a little video of William at The Strong National Museum of Play. That was such a fun day. I didn't end up taking a lot of pictures that day. I sort of remember that my battery died and I didn't think the pictures would come out because of the indoor lighting. Oh well. William was still cuter than cute that day and watching the video reminds me how excited he was with all the cars and the train table ... especially the train table!!

William's Birthday Video!

I've been having fun making videos lately and this is the video I made for William's third birthday ...

William's Third Birthday!

We had a fast but fun weekend in Rochester over Labor Day to celebrate William's third birthday. I can't believe three years have already flown by since the day he first entered our lives.

We arrived in town late Friday night -- traffic was terrible and very slow. Guess everyone had the same idea that we had, trying to skip the Saturday traffic. We stayed with Bree that night (she's willing to stay up for late night arrivals!) and were up early for a full day of activity on Saturday.

We took Bree to Perkins for breakfast -- but then we were off. Bree had massage clients and was anxious to get back home to work on William's cake afterwards. We wanted to get out to visit our moms.

I dropped Dave off at his mother's place and then headed out to see Mo. Josh met me there with the kids! That was a nice treat although I didn't get many pictures. Will brought his lunch ...

and Mo got her picture taken with Delilah (and me ... )

Next Dave and I headed for Josh and Jessica's house for a little grandparents celebration. Josh cooked out on the grill -- omgoodness! Chicken, ribs, pulled pork. He really went to town and it was incredible. Jessica made Dinosaur's version of Mac and Cheese to go with it. Sooo good ...

Will loved his gifts:







Sunday was party day -- we were up bright and early. Bree said she could use a hand with the cake (just coloring the frosting for her to use on the detail work) so I headed over there.

Here's the finished cake:

And a couple pictures of Dan and Renee -- just to prove they were there!

I'm making up a little video of the party that I'll post shortly.

A Different Thanksgiving ...

With a year full of changes, why should having a non-traditional kind of Thanksgiving be any different?

Dave and I longed for the peace and relaxation of a quiet Thanksgiving here in Holden. Josh and Jess had been up to visit a week or so ago and we had a nice turkey dinner with them while they were here. It was kind of our "Thanksgiving With Family" ...

We knew that on the actual day Daniel and Meghan would be busy with their own celebration in Georgia, Josh and Jessica would be with her family, and we figured Bree would maybe get together with her Grandma or something.

As it drew closer we decided that we really were having trouble knowing that Bree, Grandma, and Mo would be alone for Thanksgiving. Soooo -- we decided to let Wegmans do our cooking and ordered a complete Thanksgiving dinner from them. This was a first for us!

Dave and I packed up and were in the car by about 7 a.m. -- the dinner was ordered with plans for Bree to pick it up about noon. She was going to bring it to Grandma's and get things started while we made the drive in. We were blessed with light traffic and fantastic weather. We arrived with plenty of time for me to go and visit with Mo while Dave and Bree got dinner prep underway.

As for the dinner? It was ok. The turkey was great, the mashed potatoes were pretty good, stuffing was fair and the rest was nothing to write home about. But it was nice to be able to spend the day with family ... that was the real blessing.

Friday we were up early and out the door to spend a little extra time with Bree and then headed to The Arlington to have lunch with Patty and Steve (so nice ...) We headed back to Grandma's house where Josh and William were waiting to see us. William was adorable and told us Grandma's house "was not a good place to run around." I was able to give the hat I've been making him a try to see if the size is right (it is!) when we took a quick trip to the bedroom to sneak in a little "jumping on the bed" time.

We packed up and headed out around 5:00 ... we had originally planned to stay til Saturday but the thought of sleeping in our own bed and having a full weekend to enjoy was too hard to pass up (not to mention we were worried sick about the pipes in the house since we'd turned the heat off when we left -- what were we thinking?) We were blessed with very light traffic and made great time. We arrived to a house that was 47 degrees inside and had apparently lost power while we were gone (but it was back on ...)

It was great to sleep in a nice toasty bed with flannel sheets (and a pillow top!) and to wake up at "home" ...

William ... The Garden Gnome

It's so hard to be living so far away when you know that there is fun being had in your former stomping grounds.

Case in point -- Trunk or Treat.


There isn't much we would have enjoyed more than to have been there to see William enjoying the bounce house (which I understand was his absolute favorite thing to do!) the games, and the trunk or treating that took place yesterday at Orchard Community Church (a.k.a. Latta Road Baptist Church where we used to attend when living in Rochester.) But ... that just wasn't to be.

Luckily, Bree was there with camera in hand to snap a few pictures for us to enjoy. Apparently the majority of the bounce house pictures were mostly a blur that resembled a little gnome jumping through the air ... the better pictures (meaning in-focus!) came when William was convinced the playground was lots of fun too.

Here's a few pictures of our little Garden Gnome. Gosh, it brings back memories of when the kids were little and they watched David The Gnome on TV ...

Saturday Fun With William

Dave and I had spent the afternoon with William yesterday. He was happy and full of energy -- totally ready for some serious play time! He's growing by leaps and bounds and every day he seems to conquer something new. He's able to sit up (unassisted) for longer periods of time, is doing the commando crawl, and loves to play games such as Peek-A-Boo. Here's a quick video of our play time ...



This is one of my favorite pictures of the day ...

William Time!

Another wonderful event that has taken place since I was last blogging about the Paine family is the birth of Josh and Jessica's son -- William Joshua. Will was born on September 8th, 2008 weighing in at 8 pounds, 4 ounces and 21" long. He had a full head of black hair (no surprise there!) that is already starting to show signs of curling a bit. He has, of course, just been an absolute delight and the bright spot in all our lives.

Dave and I look forward to ANY time we can spend with William and we jump at the chance to babysit (which works out very well for J&J I imagine!) Today was no exception. Josh asked me a couple days ago if we'd be free this afternoon to watch Will while they went to a movie. We were only too happy to oblige and had been looking forward to getting in some cuddle time ever since.

William arrived a little after 2:00. Aunt Bree was busy making all sorts of treats for her Halloween party at Jay's house but took a few minutes off to snap a couple pictures and get a few snuggles in. William was wide awake and couldn't have been more fun.





Dave and I decided to surprise Great Grandma and bring William out for a quick visit. We were hoping his cheery disposition would last and it did! William was happy as could be visiting (once he got some of his bottle) and loved having Great Grandma hold him -- he couldn't take his eyes off her!

I can't believe how blue Will's eyes are -- and he's almost 8 weeks old! We fully expected him to have brown eyes since everyone on Jessica's side has brown eyes as do Dave, Josh, and Daniel. I'm the only one with blue eyes so the chances were slim that his would be blue. I just would have thought that if they were going to change to brown that they would have started by now ... or at least appeared to be more muddy in color. Nope. William's eyes are clearly a very beautiful darker blue color and I can't help but wonder if they are going to stay that way (fingers crossed for finally having a baby with my (and my dad's) eyes!)

William was a fascination to Rascal and Daisy who were allowed to sniff but not touch today. However, when J&J arrived to pick up Will, the dogs (who were laying on the couch next to me watching William's every move) jumped up and barked. The loud noise startled Will and his face puckered up and he started to cry just as mom and dad walked in. Fortunately he calmed right now and turned back into his cheerful self in time to get scooped up by mommy for lots of "I missed you!!!" kisses.

What was such a thrill today (well, yesterday as I'm writing this) was that William seemed really able to focus and pay attention to us. And best of all -- lots of smiles and babbling. That's really still very new and so much fun to see.

Gosh -- I just love that kid and can't get enough of him.



After he goes home it's just like Mary told me it would be -- it feels like the day after Christmas ... :( But thankfully, it won't be another 365 days until the next visit!