Happy New Year!

I'm enjoying my New Year's Eve with my two favorite guys :)

Wishing everyone a healthy & happy 2011!!!!!

Basement Project

Pete is still working his butt off in the basement. The end is in sight!!! In the last week he has put the hardwood floor done, installed the ceiling grid, bought the doors and last night his friend Ryan came over to help him finish up all the outlets and lighting. Thanks so much to Ryan!! We're hoping to be down in the basement in two weeks!!!

The walls are painted, hardwood section of the flooring is in and the electrical work is done!

The ceiling grid and recess lighting is up!

Operation Paci

Bye bye Paci!!!

Operation Paci began on Sunday. I don't want to pull a George Bush and say mission accomplished to early, but he is doing great! On Sunday night I cut the paci's so that he could still hold them because that is what he likes to do! He put one in his mouth, said "uh oh"! I said it was broke and he started to cry, he was devastated. I felt like such a horrible mom. He was upset for about a half hour. When it was time for bed, he went down holding a couple and did fine sleeping. The next night he realized they were still broke but didn't get upset and went to bed again with them. The last two nights, he hasn't even asked for them and he hasn't seen one in days! The whole process was much easier then I thought it would be!!!

Helping Nonni at her office :)

Looked who stopped by!

True Crime Books

My two favorite book genres are Biographies & True Crime. I asked for the book One Promise Kept for Christmas and will hopefully finish that book during Peter's nap today.
Here are 5 true crime books that I would recommend in no particular order.

1. Finding Amy by: Deputy Chief Joseph K. Loughin & Kate Clark Flora
...... a must read if you're from the state of Maine!

2. Bitter Blood by: Jerry Bledsoe
...... a bitter divorce and a crazy ex wife.

3. Finding Laci by: Sharon Rocha
.......part biography, part true crime, heartbreaking.

4. Almost Paradise: The East Hampton Murder of Ted Ammon by: Kieren Crowley
.......another divorce story (so many true crime involve divorce!)

5. And Never Let Her Go by: Ann Rule
.... I have read almost all of Ann Rule's books. If you love true crime, she is a must read!

Book Reviews

I love books, it's no secret! Since I was little, I read before bedtime. Now a days it is usually the only time I get a chance to read. BC (before children) I use to read a book a week. When I was nannying down in Cambridge I would read 2 - 3 books a week. The library is one of my closest friends, haha!! Since I read books so quickly I request them through the library and it saves me a lot of money. I use to have three big bookcases full of books but with a growing family, gave many away and am now down to only one. When I was pregnant with Peter, every week I bought a new book for him so that he would have his own little library. I continue to add to it for him and for "baby dos".

While reading another blog, I noticed that she did book reviews on the books she read. Why didn't I think of that!!! I loved the idea and will start doing it here. Stay tuned for my first one this week!!!

There is a storm outside....

but the roads aren't bad inside!

Menu Plan Monday

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!!My sister-in-law told me yesterday that she enjoys my menu posts! I was very happy to hear I had yet another person who reads my blog and apologized again for not having very exciting meals right now with my pregnancy! This week I am on vacation (WOO HOO) so not sure how the week will really go. I am suppose to get together one night with some girlfriends for dinner and I think we will have friends over one night so here is what I have planned so far.

Monday: Hash from our Christmas Eve boiled dinner.

Tuesday: Stuffed Shells & garlic bread

Wednesday: not sure yet, thinking we might have friends over.

Thursday: Pasta e Fagoli

Friday: New Year's Eve.... not sure yet, maybe dinner out?

Christmas Day!

Buna woke up at 6:30 on Christmas morning with a very wet diaper and PJ's. So he opened his presents with no pajama's on! It was so fun watching him and seeing his reaction to his presents. It makes Christmas so fun, can't believe we'll have two of them next year!

Here he is reading one of his new books!

Opening his Cabela's adventure truck & trailer....he loves it!

After we opened gifts and had our cinnamon rolls that we have cooked every Christmas for breakfast since we have lived here, we headed over to the Wescott's. We do Christmas with my family the week before, it's so nice to not run around on Christmas Day!!! Joe's parents came over and we all opened presents and enjoyed the morning together. I got a new printer and a book I wanted, Pete got stuff to go with his new smoker and Buna got spoiled with lots of gifts! We then took him home to take a nap and Pete and I got to relax for a while.

All of us with Gram & Papa Wescott

Jenny, 24 weeks and I'm at 30 weeks!

After his nap, we went over to see Pam's side of the family, the Berniers. They live in our neighborhood so it took us all of one minute to drive from our house to theirs! Pam's brother Randy, who lives in NC and we haven't seen in over two years was there with his wife and son Seth. There were three boys under the age of 5 running all around. It was a great visit!

Peter with his 2nd cousins Adam & Seth, both 4...

Using the easel that his Aunt Jenny & Uncle Craig got him. This will be the last photo of him that you see a paci in his mouth. Today we say goodbye to them... wish us luck! We had a wonderful and enjoyable Christmas!! Hope you all had the same:)

Santa Peter

Peter doing his Santa impersonation in the bath tonight!

Merry Christmas from the Wescott's

Cupcake Heaven

Today I had a cupcake decorating party for the daycare kids. It was a big hit! As you can see from the photos, Peter did more eating then decorating!! He really enjoyed himself!

Loving this treat!

This is his new "cheese" face, whenever he now sees me taking a picture......he makes this face!

First Snow

On Monday afternoon, we got our first snow of the year. Since Buna was so young last year, this was really his first experience with it. He wasn't all that impressed!

coming back from sledding with Daddy.

Deciding he's had enough of the snow!

Chipotle Grill

...... has arrived in Portland!!! It takes us a few years to get anything that most of the world already has. The first time I went was in Denver, CO visiting my friend Jill. It was SO GOOD!! Usually you can't use fresh and fast food in the same sentence, but that is how you would describe this place! The closest one for a few years has been in Portsmouth, NH and I would go eat there whenever I was down there!

Check out the menu and go enjoy!! Their website.....

Sunday Christmas

On Sunday we headed to Dad & Jan's to celebrate Christmas. They are down on Cape Cod on Christmas so we celebrate before hand. We had a great time and enjoyed the tradition of getting KFC for our dinner, something we have done for twenty years!

Opening one of his bobcat toys from Mame & Papa.

In front of the tree :)

Saturday Christmas

A couple of years ago my Mom decided that we would celebrate Christmas the Saturday before so that we could all be at our own homes on Christmas morning. It has worked out great! We do a nice italian dinner. This year we added a yankee swap for the adults to the mix. The kids all got a lot of great stuff and a good time was had by all!

29 weeks pregnant

Sisters :)

baby Jack's first Christmas gift from Aunt Laura!

Gwen & Peter hugging :)

Nonni & Poppi with the kids!

Menu Plan Monday

For some reason,I am having trouble uploading photos to my blog! Ugh! It will say it uploaded but then there is no photo in the post.... so annoyed. We did a lot this weekend that I want to show!! Can't believe this week is Christmas! Our celebrating has already started, hopefully I will be able to get photos up tonight!

Monday: Chicken Pot Pie & salad
Tuesday: Tacos
Wednesday: Spiral Ham, green beans & mashed potatoes
Thursday: leftover ham = hash!
Friday: Christmas Eve!!!

Menu Plan Monday

Pete asked for more meat this week, I haven't done a great job of putting it on the menu since I can't eat it, but need to remember that the Pete's enjoy it!!

Monday: Dinner at Papa & Mame's

Tuesday: Pork Chops, mashed potatoes & green beans

Wednesday: Mac n' Cheese muffins

Thursday: Steak, rice & salad

Friday: Take out!

I'm Ready For Some Football!

I'm ready for the Patriot's game today!!!

Thanks for my jersey Aunt Joanne!!

Daddy Got a Duck

Last Saturday, while we were enjoying breakfast with Santa, Pete was duck hunting. When he came through the door with a duck, Buna started quacking! He wasn't afraid to touch it all all! Also, check out his shirt, I bought it at Carter's, I thought it was so cute!

When I went to a Lia Sophia jewerly party on Sunday night, the boys enjoyed some duck breasts for dinner! Glad that Pete will expose our boys to stuff like that!

Laura's Parties Go National!

My sister Laura has always had a knack for creating a good party! A while back she decided she wanted to start a small party planning business, Live Laugh, Celebrate! She'll be planning Buna's 2nd party (a barnyard theme) since I will have a newborn. Last month she started a blog to showcase photos of her parties. Make sure you check it out!

Yesterday, another blog called Celebrations At Home, based in Virginia, featured one of Laura's parties! I hope she gets a lot of recognition from it! Congrats Laura!!

Menu Plan Monday

Another Busy week! We didn't get a chance to make one of our meals last week, so I am putting it on the menu from this week.

Monday: Dinner at Nonni & Poppi's

Tuesday: Beef Parmesan

Wednesday: Lasagna

Thursday: Orange Chicken

Friday: Pizza

A Fun Saturday!

For the last 10 years the Westbrook/Warren Church on Main St. in Westbrook has held the Festival of Trees, it runs on donations. This is the 1st year I have ever gone. It is great for kids! They had a breakfast with Santa, 45 decorated trees and a huge train display. Buna loved it. I was shocked how easy it was to get him to sit with Santa, three weeks ago in Florida he screamed when he saw Santa. We looked at all the trees and of course he LOVED the trains. It runs for a week and I think I am going to try to go back with him. I love this time of year!

Looking at all the trees.

For the last 4 years we have gone with Pete's cousin Kyle and his wife Sara to cut down a Christmas tree. Some years other people join us, this year was small. We had Lindsay, Kurt's girlfriend with us. It was getting cold and we were lucky to find a tree pretty quickly! Love the tradition we started with Kyle & Sara!

Our family :)

I thought I could cut it down... It sawed for about 1 minute, then Kyle helped!

This year's crew.

What a Find!!!

27 weeks pregnant.....

So no one told me about this until now??? This is my second pregnancy!! My friend Kelly came over last night with Fre Wine, an alcohol removed wine popular for pregnant women. It was red wine, and it tasted a lot like grape juice, but being able to pour it out of a bottle and into a wine glass made it so enjoyable!! I am going to try the white wine next. Thanks for the discovery Kelly!! It made my night!

Kelly & I enjoying our wine, while Pete & Brandon drink their beer!!

Buna being silly for our guests :)