Totally forgot some pics!

Tuckered out, sleeping in her highchair!

Christmas

Warms my heart!

Christmas is here.  The last 3 days were filled with running around to see family and friends and oh so much activity.   My Little Bear hung in there so well!  She had a couple rough moments, as did I, but we made it though.  Kevin of course flew through it with flying colors.  Always the composed one.  Being 39 weeks pregnant doen't help my mood either!  I'm huge and ready to get this huge child out of me and meet him!

Maya had a wonderful day on Friday seeing Riley Jo and Aunt Lara.  They played so well together and it was good to see that although there is a year and a half between them, they still seem to communicate in their own special way.  We got home late and Maya FINALLY went to sleep around 11...only to be woken up on Christmas Eve morning at 630am for our annual "family" breakfast at Shady Maple.  She wasn't thrilled.  Kev had worked the night before so he did not join us.  I was disappointed but I definitly understand the need for sleep. It was fun but unfortunately I couldn't eat as much as I normally do.  Apparently having a baby in your belly takes up a lot of room!

So we get home, take a nap and its time to put out the luminaries that I did 3 days ago (so I could be prepared and not have to do anything in case I went into labor).  Dumb idea and lesson learned.  This pic is from 3 days earlier.

Anyway, I made 72 bags of sand and candles. Our driveway is about 1/2 mile long. Well, all 72 bags were now bottomless.  The sand had so much moisture in it that it leaked into the bags and when I picked them up the bottoms fell out.  So now, there is sand all over the garage and driveway, and Maya has a new sandbox. I cried my eyes out.   Lesson #1:  trying to plan ahead isn't always the best plan.

Christmas Eve we were supposed to go to church at 4pm and then my parent's house at 6 for dinner.  Lesson #2:  When your child has the symptoms of an upper respiratory tract infection, put her in a diaper before getting in the car.  Just about ready and she peed in her carseat!  Ugh, the tears began to flow yet again (me, not her)!  Pregnancy=emotional=tears.  Not a good combo.  I felt like my Christmas Eve was ruined.  Nothing seemed to be going my way, I was still pregnant and utterly exhausted. We missed church and now we were going to be late to my parent's house.

We finally made it to my parents about 7ish.  Maya melted down as soon as we walked through the door.  Madde, Jake , Abbey, Catie, Ben, Jesse, Savannah, and Riley Jo= waaaay to much pediatric stimulation for a 2 year old.  If we had been there first it might have been ok, but since we were dead last, it was a disaster.  We were hungry, tired, and ready for the day to be over. On top of that, I had started contracting and was very uncomfortable.  After multiple attempts to calm my screaming child, even after dinner and gifts, we headed for home.  Straight to bed for all 3 of us!

Christmas morning, I was hoping, would be a fresh start.  And it was.  I was woken by the sound of a little voice chatting in my ear.  We got up, got in the tub to play with some new bath toys that she got the night before (an octopus that plays music and blows bubbles).  While we did that, Kevin slinked downstairs to start breakfast and make sure the tree was lit and the gifts were all under the tree.  We went downstairs and everything was perfect!  The smell of bacon and eggs and a beautiful tree.  My heart soared!  My little one squealed with joy at all the lights and gifts.  She immediatly dug in.  "This one's for Maya!" she kept saying. Kevin and I had exchanged gifts the night before so that Christmas day was all about Maya opening her gifts....especially because this will be the last year it is about her.  Little brother comes in just a few days....unless he decides to make an appearance a little earlier.

Best gifts!
Becca- New Chocolate UGGS
Kevin- box of Padron Anniversario cigars
Maya- everything!  Especially her new tricycle and American Girl baby
Baby Seamus-a couple new outfits

After gifts and breakfast we started cleaning and played a little bit.  We also planted our first tree at our new house which was a fun memory.  Mud + Maya = good times!  Kevin's sisters gave us such a wonderful gift.  Because of gigantic state, I feel like doing absolutly nothing.  So, instead of packing ourselves like sardines in my parent's house with 20 other people, we decided to stay home. And instead of driving to Mullica Hill, NJ like we normally do, we decided to stay home.  It was wonderful.  Everyone came to us....AND instead of us having to do the cooking, they brought the food to us!!!!! What a gift!  Everything was delicious and it was such a pleasure to be able to spend time with his sisters and their families.  The kids were all well behaved and had a great time.  It certainly made up for my crazy Christmas Eve!  Everyone left around 930 or so and the Walsh family was in bed and asleep by 1030!  Merry Christmas!

My little helper

The last 2 years we have made cookies and put them in tins for people who work hard for us all year long....the trash and recycling guys, the paperboy, our neighbors (they don't really work hard for us, but you know what I mean.)  People who you want to appreciate but that you don't know what kind of a gift to get them.  Coworkers etc.   Anyway, so here is the day we were baking away and my little helper was with me every step of the way and testing everything to make sure it was edible!  Of course being 9 months pregnant and a 2 year old probably shouldn't be consuming raw cookie dough, but that would just be absurd to not try it....but don't worry, I didn't eat nearly as much as I usually do!

And yes, baking in your jammies all day makes it so much better!

Christmas baking and such...

I was so excited to do a gingerbread house with Maya this year.  Unfortunately the icing in those kits really does taste like cement but luckily I had some of the really good Pillsbury frosting in the jar and brought that out for some tasty dipping!  Needless to say, we had a great time!

We went out to do some errands and when we came home, our poor gingerbread house, had a leaky roof....a really leaky roof.

It was fun anyway. 

Christmas photo

Halloween 2011

It took me long enough but here are some Halloween pics.

My Baby is 2!

My sweet little baby is 2.  And she is letting us know it.  What used to be small confrontations have become assertions of her independence, she attempts to tell me how it is, and wants to do everything "BY MYSELF."  Can I really get blame her.  After all, look at her parents!

Yesterday she turned 2.  It is amazing to think that 2 years ago I gave birth to this little angel.  I have loved being her mommy and watching her grow and learn and turn into this little person that 2 years ago I could not even imagine the thought of her being 2 years old. 


Here are some pics of her special day.

Highland Orchards 2011

Looove love love the fall!  Today was gorgeous and was a total fall day...chilly, windy, and just beautiful.  Kevin had to work later in the night but we had the afternoon to spend as a family so we decided to go to Highland Orchards.  So much fun!  Hayrides, cider, petting zoo, Maya sinking her teeth into every apple in the apple bins, and pumpkin picking.  It was awesome!

Long lost pictures! yay!

So I found Kevin's camera tonight and decided to see what pictures were on there. Behold! The last 6 months of our life....

Easter Egg Hunting at Grammy and Pop-Pop's

Easter Egg to the face!

 The best storms rolling in from the west.  The view from our front porch!

Hmmm, I don't think we'll recycle this one.  She's a keeper!

 

She found her old bathtub down the basement and wanted to bring it upstairs to "lounge" in.

 

And we wonder why some days I want to pull my hair out!  Daredevil!

 

My big girl!

That's right! My little girl is growing up and using the potty and wearing her big girl pants!

Fall is here

Words cannot express how happy I am that fall is here (well, I think not officially for another couple of days) and the weather is cooler. Summer was waaaaay to hot for me. I barely stepped out of the house unless it was to get to the car to go to the pool. We actually spent the day outside yesterday as a family doing yard work and clearing some of the brush and poison ivy out of the side yard. Guess who got poison ivy....again. Nope, not me and not Maya. Kevin could wear a bubble suit and he would still get it somehow. He had on long sleeves and long pants with his pants tucked into his socks and yet again the next morning woke up blotchy and itchy. We accomplished so much and my "little helpler" supervised and even helped put some sticks in the back of the tractor. Her favorite part was the mulitple tractor rides to take to brush to the dump spot.

Although it felt great to be outside, I think I overdid it a little bit with the lifting and hauling. The Braxton-Hicks contractions that came later that evening were not so much fun. My "little man" inside probably was not too happy that Mommy was feeling "strong." Oh that's right. For anyone who doesn't know, yes, it's a boy! Kevin talked all day about how he was going to put him to work. I hope he at least waits a couple years before working him like crazy.

What we've been up to!

My computer fails to let me post sites so I always have to do it from my parent's house. Here are some pics from the summer. I won't bore you all with verbage.

Ok, yes I will. I'm in my 19th week of pregnancy now. Thank goodness. After weeks of constant nausea and feeling like doo doo, I am feeling pretty good now. We finally have had the landscapers come out and grade our property as well as plant grass and thankfully we actually have some grass growing in this baking heat. Maya has been a busy little bee with summer fun from spending her days at the pool to going on Pop pops boat, going to the beach, and playing outside in her little pool. (or the sink, if its too hot outside).

We are getting ready to head to the beach for a week with family for vacation and it is well needed (and well deserved I must say :) Kevin is working hard in the city 3 nights a week and I'm still full time at Paoli (which really makes being pregnant with an almost 2 year old utterly exhausting). I don't know how my sister-in-law does it!

Many of my gfs are pregnant at the same time I am which has made it alot of fun.

Colleen due in Oct.

Jen McLaughlin due Sept/Oct

Christine due in Oct.

Colleen due in Nov

Myself due Jan but probably going to be induced in Dec.

Jen due in March

Kari due in March (I think)

So fun! Love new babies!

Summer Daze!

Happy Birthday Abbey!

My beautiful little niece Abbey is three! So hard to believe. We went to her birthday party yesterday afternoon and it was so fun. So much fun in fact that all Maya has been talking about this morning is "Abbey play, Abbey play, Abbey play." I love that she adores her cousins and wants to play with them. Its such a blessing that all of them, except Riley Jo :-( are in such close proximity to us. We've seen them twice in the last week! It's been lots of fun. We're all looking forward to the family beach trip to Bethany in August where there will be 20 of us packed into one house for a week! It will be chaos but its always a blast!

Easter Egg Dying

Last night we decided to dye easter eggs in the garage. (more space = less mess= waaaaay wrong) Maya and I are completely covered in blue dye. Why blue you ask? Because, our beautiful eggs all started and ended as a wonderful array of colors. But.......Maya decided that when Mommy went into the house to get stuff to clean up that she would put all the eggs in the blue dye. Awesome.

Pimp my birdhouse

We've been very busy lately enjoying the weather...when its nice. But even when its cloudy or overcast we find something to do like...

1. Build a fort

2. Bake cookies

3. Make a really giant bubble bath

4. play hide and seek (one of our new favorite games)

5. jump on the beds

6. finger paint

7. color

8. or we just go swimming at the YMCA

It's those gorgeous days that make the cruddy ones bearable. One day we decided to build a a birdhouse. Actually not build it. A.C. Moore already has them so we were just going to decorate it and paint it. I of course picked out some nice earthtones but my little one had different ideas. It turned into "Pimp my birdhouse!"

My favorite time of day.

Call me crazy but my favorite time of day (besides spending it with my baby girl and my hubby) is the end of the day. When the house is so quiet and a complete disaster. I actually enjoy cleaning it up and looking at all the fun toys and the activities that we did that day. For example, today, after I put Maya to bed, I had to clean 7 broken eggs off of the island in the kitchen. Why you ask? Because after we got home from the grocery store, I sat Maya on the island and she found the bag with the eggs on it. The curious little thing that she is, she opened the lid and picked them up. Apparently she thought they were balls and decided to throw them. How could I get upset. After all, I taught her to throw a ball so she was transposing what she learned. Well, tonight we learned about FRAGILE.

Sooooo, we began to count the eggs as we "gently placed" them on the counter. I am using the word "gently" gently. Eggs 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 survived. Eggs 1-7 became dinner. A seven egg omelet for mommy at 8pm while watching American Idol. Life is good.

Back to my favorite time of day. As I finished my omelet I looked around and there were books everywhere, toys everywhere, clothes everywhere (because we go through at least 4 outfits a day), and of course the furniture is askew due to "for"t making. It makes me smile that my little girl and I have so much fun together and that each day brings new creativity and new learning experiences. I have to laugh sometimes when Kevin (after working all night and sleeping all day) comes downstairs at 4pm and says "so what did you guys do today?" Usually all I have to do is lead him to the family room and that says it all. He usually just smiles and laughs and shakes his head. I think he gets anxiety from the mess. But like I said, it warms my heart to clean it up at the end of the day.

Mattress Sledding

I figured out that Maya's mattress is so firm that we can sled down the steps!

Random thoughts

The Ditri's came to visit and Maya is sitting in her favorite drawer.

I know I am probably the most random blogger ever. I can't help it. Usually by the time I get around to posting anything, so much has happened that it would take me forever to update the blog. Sooooo, I just give short little blurbs. Since the last post we have had some good times. Yes, Kevin passed his nurisng boards and is officially Kevin Walsh, RN, BSN. Very exciting! He will be working in the city in a level 1 trauma center and is just very thankful and very excited. Kevin started this past week and so far so good! I am no longer working at MinuteClinic (thank goodness) and have enjoyed working less hours than I am used to! We joined the local YMCA and Maya starts swimming lessons tomorrow so we are looking forward to some time in the pool! We had a great brunch with some of my college girlfriends on Monday at Black and Brew. It was fun to see Sarah (with little Dimitri), Maureen, and Maria. I haven't seen any of them in 3 1/2 years. Crazy how time flies!

Kevin passed his boards! Kevin got a job! Becca quit one of hers! Life is good!

Little Miss Maya-pants.

Our latest endeavor....and purchase!!!!