Pop - We love and miss you

On October 12, 2008 my Pop passed away at the age of 90. Pop was my last living grandparent and Maddox's only living great-grandparent. I am so glad that I got a picture of Maddox with him last year when we went to visit him. My Pop had a rough life as so many did that came of age during the Great Depression. He never complained though. He worked hard his whole life and with Nana (who passed away 14 years ago) raised 4 wonderful kids. There are 6 of us grandkids and 5 great-grandkids.

I always remember him wrestling with us on the ground when we were little. He always called my brothers and cousins "Tiger" and we thought that was hilarious. He used to make and drink Whiskey Sours all the time. One time I demanded that he give me the "orange juice" I thought he was making so he gave me a sip...it was horrible. He was a Deacon in the Catholic Church and officiated at all of our Baptisms and First Communions before he retired to care for my Nana who had Alzheimer's Disease. He felt it was his duty to care for her at home until the end, and I cannot imagine how that must have been for him.

Over the years, he developed symptoms of Alzheimer's as well and ended up in a wonderful Assisted Living Facility. As he declined we kept visiting him and trying to keep his mind from forgetting us, but as I'm sure anyone who has been exposed to this illness knows, it's a losing battle.

I'm so thankful that my Mom and her sister Kathy were able to be with him when he died. While it's sad that he is no longer here, I'm so happy that he's finally reunited with Nana after 14 long years. They loved eachother so much, it's a blessing that they are finally together. The funeral home posted a bio of him with a slide show of pictures through his life, which is amazing.

Obituary - http://www.webfh.com/fh/obituaries/obituary.cfm?o_id=205300&fh_id=10498

Goodbye, Pop! We love and miss you!

September and Beginning October 2008

Since I'm so far behind on my posts, I've decided to hit the high points of September and October 2008. Here we go :)...

Sesame Street Live In early September we heard that the Sesame Street Live show was coming to Phillips Arena. Since Maddox LOVES Sesame Street so much (and the tickets were pretty cheap), we decided to try it out. The show was really adorable, however I think Maddox got totally overwhelmed by it. Being that he's only 15mths we weren't totally shocked. It was pretty loud and he didn't cry and freak out, but he was sort of awed and then passed out, so we left at Intermission. Maybe next year :). Here are a couple of pictures:

First GT football game
Also in September we decided to take Maddox to his first Georgia Tech football game. We were able to get some great tickets for GT vs. Miss State and figured that since the game was in the afternoon we may be able to get him to sit through a bit without passing out. It wasn't too hot out either, so we thought it would be pretty good. We headed down to campus early and hung out at the ZBT house for pregame. Then we made the walk to the stadium. We got into our seats and realized that it was going to be a lot hotter than we thought. Although the temp was ok, we were sitting in direct sunlight and I had forgotten the baby sunblock for the first time since Maddox was born. We kept him in the shade with a sweatshirt and he was interested at first. Then came the first GT touchdown. All the noise totally freaked him out and he started crying because he was clearly scared. Then a funny thing happened. GT started scoring a LOT (funny that never seemed to happen all that often in the other games we went to) and Maddox was pretty much done. Stefan took him into the inner part of the stadium where they sell the merchandise and food to let him run around a bit and after a while we decided to leave. I'm proud that we made it to halftime and GT ended up winning the game 38-7. Go Jackets!!!

GT Homecoming

As is customary since we moved back to the Atlanta area, we headed down to campus to the ZBT house for GT Homecoming in October. Maddox really enjoyed running around the house and it was wonderful to see a lot of our friends and their children. It always amazes me how different we all are since our days at GT. It's definitely a bit surreal to see people you partied with 10yrs ago (my has it been that long) chasing around babies and toddlers and talking about the which car seat is the best model. My how times have changed.

Tybee Island Vacation 2008

The first week of September 2008 we rented a mini-van and headed down to Tybee Island, GA for a vaction. We even brought Nelson and Mama Les, Grandpa, Nana, Granddad, and Uncle Luke met us there. We rented an amazing house with a pool in the backyard for the week, which was only 2 blocks from the beach. None of us had been to Tybee Island before, although we've been to Savannah which is a 30 min drive. We're so used to going to Ocean City, MD which is loaded with condo buildings and hotels, amusement parks, boardwalk, etc. Tybee Island is almost the exact opposite...a very small and quaint beach town. We had a great time and Maddox loved it. Having the pool in the backyard was awesome...even Nelson got to swim (although I didn't get a good picture of it). Maddox loved the pool and absolutely adored the ocean...I think he could've done without the sand though. It was great to have time with our parents and Luke as well. It was a very low stress vacation and Stefan and I even got some time alone togther. I've included some pictures, but all of them are in the Summer 2008 album (link under albums). I highly recommend it, especially for young kids that are not ready for amusement parks yet :).


Mommy, Daddy, and Maddox at the beach













Nana and Granddad


















Uncle Luke, Maddox, and Daddy

Daddy and Uncle Luke playing catch with Maddox in the pool

Family Pictures

We had a photographer come out to our house in late July and take some family pictures. I had been debating what to do for Maddox's 1yr pictures and finally decided that it would be nice to get some of our whole little family. They turned out really great and it was a fabulous experience. Our photographer was so amazing. She has a young baby (8 or 9mths old at the time) and a couple of dogs, so she knows how to deal with both, which was awesome. All of the photos are in the Family Pictures link on the right of the blog, but here are a few that I really liked. Enjoy!

Boys II Men or Bell Biv Devoe?

Stefan and I went with Ed and Gail to see Morris Day and the Time at Chastain at the end of July. Morris Day was opening for Boys II Men and if you're like me, you've never heard of Morris Day (Jungle Love is the only song I knew...o-e-o-e-o). Stefan and I have had this funny inside joke about Morris Day and the Time since he had to actually pull up old concert footage of theirs on YouTube before I believed him that they actually exist. Suffice to say Stefan was totally psyched to see Morris Day and the (mother-f**king) Time. Ed was also all about Morris Day, but Gail and I were there for Boys II Men.

Apparently Stefan confused Boys II Men with Bell Biv Devoe (BBD of New Edition fame). We were pulling into Chastain and Stefan swore we were at the wrong concert since everyone walking in looked so old. Finally he asked me what one of their songs were and when I said "End of the Road" and "Motown Philly" he flipped out and had the line of the night. "You mean we're not going to hear Do Me tonight?".

Now you can bring any food/beverage you want into Chastain and as Gail was intent to clean out her liquor cabinet, she made some Sangria using 2 bottles of wine and a bottle of Vodka (Absolute Orange). It's amazing how funny we thought our lines were after finishing off the entire cooler of Sangria.

Regardless, the concert was awesome. Morris Day and the Time rocked it and surprisingly so did Boys II Men. I was worried they would only sing ballads all night (since that's mostly what was on their albums), but apparently they came out with a Motown cover album a while back so they did a whole set of Motown which was awesome. We (of course) finished up the evening with a run to the WaHo where we ordered most of the menu and ate ourselves sick. Gotta love the Waffle House!

Late Summer Catch Up

Oh goodness! I have been absolutely terrible about updates this summer. I've been so busy with work and we've had illnesses all over the place and we went on vacation...

Bad excuses I know. I guess in a nutshell it's been a very hectic past couple of months. Maddox has gotten bigger and bigger and now has a ton of teeth (3 of which cut through while we were on vacation last week!). We have graduated into real "big boy" shoes and everything too!

We've spent most of the summer swimming in Mama Les' pool by ourselves and with friends (what's up B!). I'll post some adorable pictures of Maddox and Brendan swimming together...it is adorable. We also attended Mitchell's 1st Birthday Party which was a blast. We had Mitchell (and Lorann and Brad of course) over for dinner and playtime during the opening ceremony of the Olympics and the kids had a great time. I've also decided I must MUST visit China sometime in this lifetime.

We have also officially reached the end of another Purple Cobra Kickball season, so our Saturdays are finally free again. It'll be nice to not have to work around 2pm game times for a while.

We reached a bittersweet milestone a couple of weeks ago. We had our 1yr anniversary at Gymboree. I remember the first day I brought Maddox to Gymboree when he was 2mths old. I cannot believe how far we've come in a years time. Absolutely amazing! I cannot speak highly enough of Gymboree and the great classes they offer. I truly believe Maddox would not have reached his milestones as soon as he has without it.

We are still continuing with our Pilates classes and playgroups and looking forward to a great Fall. More posts to come with pictures from a shoot at our house and vacation pictures :).

Catch up to July 4th and Wheel of Fortune

Goodness it's been a while since my last post. Things got pretty busy last month. We had family in from out of town and lot to do :). I've been very busy with work as well...I'm hoping it calms a bit in the next few weeks, but we'll see.
Maddox is walking so much now it's really crazy. He has no fear and goes all out all the time. He doesn't quite have the greatest balance in the world, so when he tries to really take off he ends up face planting. He's gone head first into just about everything we own. I think the bumps, bruises, and scratches are going to be a permanent fixture all over him for the coming months. He really seems to enjoy walking around though. I don't trust it enough to let him walk outside and stuff, but he's getting pretty good. I guess it's time to go and buy him some real shoes.
We had a great month of June. We spent a lot of time with family and family friends, swimming at Mama Les and Grandpa's house, and playing with our buds. We also attended a wedding for a good friend. It was very fun to go out and cut loose without Maddox. The wedding was beautiful and we had a great time.
One of Maddox's new favorite things to do is watch Wheel of Fortune, so now that's on our Tivo rotation. We've even joined the Wheel Watchers club since he demands to watch it every day :). I think he's drawn to the puzzls and bright colors. Thank goodness for Pat and Vanna, since I have time to clean up while he's entranced from 7-730pm every night :).

Maddox and Daddy watching the Wheel

















We also had a great 4th of July. We watched the Roswell fireworks rehearsal from our back deck on the 3rd, which was great. We took Maddox to the Dunwoody 4th of July Parade that morning to hang out with Mama Les, Grandpa, Uncle Jason, and Aunt Staci while we sold hotdogs for charity. It was very hot, but we had fun and Maddox enjoyed all the firetrucks. We even ran into the Ohnstad's. We spent the rest of the weekend attending multiple other BBQ's with friends and family, so it was a great weekend.


Maddox and Daddy at the 4th of July Parade