Tim, Cody, and Egan

Easter 2011

2011-08-31T14:12:00.000-04:00

And no, these new posts will not be in any particular order... ;)

We managed to get ZERO pictures of the kids dressed up for Easter. So, here's Elle on her first Easter in her sweatshirt... ;)

Egan and cousin Owen in the woods at Nana and Papa's house

Egan's #4 Birthday

2011-08-30T14:27:00.000-04:00

These pictures are from Egan's actual birthday. We had a party for him, too, but I'll do that in another post.

Birthday Cupcake

Presents!

Ugly Doll- "Ice Bat"

My Birthday 2011

2011-08-30T13:57:00.003-04:00

I'm trying to get some stuff up before school starts. Life will be crazy busy until Thanksgiving when I get a conference period at work and should be done with grad school. So, I'm planning on putting up several posts and then you'll see nothing for a long time again. Someday I'll have more time, right?...

Elle @ 7 Months

Egan sad because we reprimanded him for taking a bite out of the middle of the cake... !

2011-08-25T10:55:00.001-04:00

My first post.

Egan's Point of View

2011-05-21T21:17:00.002-04:00

This post is just a bunch of pictures Egan took.

Zoo Trip- April 4

2011-05-21T21:00:00.002-04:00

Ellery is about 6 months here. We took a trip to the Detroit Zoo on Monday during my spring break. It was great! Rain was forecasted so there was almost noone there and it didn't start light sprinkles until we were heading out. Great Day!!!

Normally, this tunnel is packed. We were the only ones for most of the time!

And these are Egan's shots of the zoo. He's pretty much taken over our point and shoot camera as his own. Such a little mimic of his daddy. ;)

As a side note, I seriously injured my back trying to pull Egan's coat off in the reptile house. Spent the rest of the zoo gimping about. Very painful. Though I was going to have to lay done on the reptile house floor...

Cutie Pie

2011-05-21T20:58:00.002-04:00

Tim's taken over all of the editing and uploading of family pictures so I no idea when it's from, but it's a cutie! ;)

Ellery @ 4 Months/Dedication

2011-05-21T20:54:00.003-04:00

And yes, this was almost 4 months ago...

These posts will be mostly pictures so I can get caught up. I've got a few more weeks Grad School free and my seniors are all done. Very exhausting to try to get them all graduated...

These are from Ellery's dedication.

Don't you just love Egan??

Ellery Cheyenne Eats Food!

2011-02-24T21:49:00.003-05:00

When Ellery was about a week past her 4 Month birthday, we tried some oatmeal cereal for the first time.

Here comes the spoon!

And she loves it!

Not!

This girl may be one little chunky monkey, but she does not want to eat real food.

Tim's trapped Elle into his self-portraits.

And, Ellery has found out that sticking out her tongue is fun. Unlike the baby cereal, she does want other things to go in her mouth and I think she thinks she can get to them with her tongue. So funny!

Bag Boy

2011-02-23T17:09:00.002-05:00

I went grocery shopping this past Friday and Egan was my helper. He loves to carry the groceries in from the car and then unload all of the bags and tell me what's in them. While I was putting things away, I turned around to find Egan inside of one of the bags! Too funny. He was so squished he couldn't stay up for long, but it was pretty funny anyway.

He looks so small!

Helping him get back up. He fell backwards and clonked his head and you should have heard me gasp. This boy and his head...

And after he fell down one time...

Christmas with the Scrims

2011-02-19T16:34:00.003-05:00

Didn't manage to blog Christmas pictures with my family either. We went to my parents for lunch and presents on Christmas Day.

Dad and Mom with Ellery.

Egan with some new Mega Blocks.

Boo with a welding mask.

Some new lotion infused jammie socks.

Egan with his stocking. Yay for sock monkeys!

Jenny and Boo

Uncle Russ, Egan, Dad and Ellery, Moo

Egan with his new flashlight

Just some of the mess.

Some of tim's loot.

Ellery in her new snowsuit.

Egan Quin

2011-02-17T18:01:00.000-05:00

Compiled some random shots of Egan being Egan.

Egan in the shower wearing "Mommy's Funny Hat."

Let me just say that I didn't discover the joys of a good shower cap until way too late in life. Taking the straightener to my hair every 2 or 3 days is way more manageable.

He just picked this up and started "reading" one day. Too cute.

Egan likes to take all of the subscription papers out and calls them coupons.

Making art in Ellery's room. Tim hooked it up on the fan for him but the idea was all his. Hopefully he'll get some left and right brain from his parents. ;)

And one of Elle just because. She tries to sit up in bouncy seats now so we'll see how much longer they last...

Christmas Morning 2010

2011-02-17T17:23:00.002-05:00

Okay, so I realised I never blogged these pictures. So, not very timely, but this is what Christmas morning looked like at our house this year. Egan slept until 8 am. A true Christmas miracle!!! We woke Elle up so she could join the fun.

Egan and his Toy Story Potato Heads.

Opening his pirate puzzle from Santa.

Cuddling his new Ugly Doll.

Pointy Max.

Ellery with her Ugly Doll, Puglee.

Stuffies from Great-Grandma Powell.

Helping Elle open a present.

Playing Uno Moo and eating Banana Cake.

Hot Cocoa!

Criss Cross Crash!

Snowmageddon 2011

2011-02-16T17:54:00.003-05:00

Here's some pictures from a couple of weeks ago when we were hit with several inches of snow. We got 2 days off school and despite the warm weather we've had over the last few days, there was so much of this white stuff that there's still snow piled thick everywhere. Almost sad for the wamr weather. I don't love the bitter cold, but the snow is pretty fun to play in.. :)

The Sidewalk and Cars

Egan in his snowshoes.

We did a first run of shoveling before the snow was over. Egan's in Tim's truck!

Me.

Tim and Egan's snowfort.

Egan out front. The snowplow piled up a ton of snow on the sidewalk. We refused to shovel all of it.

3 Month Photo Shoot

2011-02-02T20:53:00.002-05:00

We did horrible at documenting Ellery's one month and two month "birthdays." So, for her 3 month birthday we made sure we took time to get some good shots. There's some of Egan and me in here as well. Tim's the photographer, so unfortunately there's only one of him- a self-portrait of course. ;)

There's a lot. But, she is the cutest ever.

The 2 Cuties.

The "Birthday" Girl.

Doesn't Tim make a cute headband? ;)

What a great daddy!

Egan wanted his picture taken on his dino blanket. Silly boy.

As close as we got to "Sit here and lean against this pillow." So hard to get a good picture of this boy these days...

Bath Time!

2011-01-27T15:21:00.002-05:00

We give the kids their baths at the same time. Generally we put Ellery's tub on the bathroom floor and Egan does his own thing in the tub. We tried giving them a joint bath one day, though. Both kids LOVE baths!

Poor Egan was a bit squished at the one end of the tub. ;)

It'll be a lot easier for them to share once Elle can sit up I guess...

Christmas Eve Afternoon

2011-01-24T11:28:00.000-05:00

Before heading to Grandma Mattila's for Christmas Eve, we met at Bob and Judy's to exchange gifts. Super insane. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. And for as big as Bob and Judy's living room is, I felt very claustrophobic.

Judy made all the boys knight cotumes and bought them foam swords. Fun!

Missed the opportunity to get them all in their costumes, but they had a blast!

Reading one of Egan's new book from Nana and Papa.

Opening gifts. We had Erin and Timmy on the computer via skype.

Maybe it's the huge coffee table? Don't know. Just felt very squished and claustrophobic. Maybe the two kids crawling all over me?...

The kids loved all their gifts and it was nice when all the kids left the room and the grown-ups got to open their gifts. Luckily, we've maxed out on kids until Erin and Timmy decide to start a family. ;)

Christmas Eve

2011-01-23T11:14:00.006-05:00

Pictures from Chrsitmas Eve at Grandma Mattila's. Tim was too lame and refused to edit/sort through photos, so I've been procrastinating at getting them up. Randomly chose some that at least had us in them. Crazy day with 2 Christmas parties in a row...

Us.

Us. Minus kids.

Egan with one of his new Matchbox car toys from the Mattila fam.

This is a pretty tame view of the party...

Opening up Ellery's gifts.

Ellery.

Egan opening up a gift.

I guess we'll call the a 3rd and 4th generation shot. Uhm. Really good, huh? ;)

The "grown-ups."

The kidlets. Kaylee, Grace, Eva, Berlin, Owen, Egan, Elijah, Ethan, Isadora, Ellery.

Yes. We like names that begin with vowels. Especially E.

Pre-Christmas

2011-01-08T08:38:00.000-05:00

Tim still has to upload a bunch of Christmas pictures, so for now I'll just share this one picture of the mess Tim and I made while trying to get presents wrapped. This was definitely the worst year for getting presents and for getting them wrapped. Being a mom of two and working full time is definitely cramping my normally very organized style.

New Years Day 2011

2011-01-08T05:32:00.000-05:00

On New Years Day, we have a tradition of heading over to Metamora-Hadley Recreation Area and tromping through the snow. I had thought Egan could take his new snowshoes and we could pull Ellery in the sled.

Then, the snow melted. Rather than tromp around in the mud, we loaded the kids up in the bike trailer. (Egan was going to ride his own bike but there was a mom-pinched-my-neck-in-the-buckle-of-my-helmet incident.)

I think this was my first time on a bike in over a year. I was pregnant all spring/summer and was supposed to avoid bikes due to my balance being off. It was also Tim's first time toting the bike carrier behind him. We both survived! The kids had so much fun they fell asleep...

Snowshoes!

2011-01-07T20:29:00.000-05:00

Every time I say "snowshoes," Egan says "No. Spike shoes." I guess the spikes on the bottom have made an impression. And, I think he things I mean his snow boots when I say snowshoes. I posted a video of this a few days ago, but here's a few action shots.

I'm not sure "spike shoes" are a necessity for a 3-year-old, but that is the glory of being a grandparent, I guess.

10 Weeks

2011-01-07T17:25:00.002-05:00

Some pictures from a few weeks ago on Ellery's 10 week birthday- 12/15/10.

We try to make sure Egan feels included, so you get a couple of him as well. ;) This is after bath time. Nothing better than 2 freshly washed kidlets. Well, maybe two sleeping, frshly washed kidlets...

Happy 3 Month Birthday Ellery!

2011-01-06T18:14:00.002-05:00

Ellery is 3 months old today! She is hanging out in the exersaucer right now. Not quite holding her head up all the time, but she can hang out if we give a blanket to lean on.

From Christmas. Too funny!

Adventure

2010-12-30T14:53:00.001-05:00

Egan adventuring in the snow. Okay, it is just our backyard. But thanks to Nana and Gump, he's ready to head to the frozen tundra... ;)

Stomper Truck

2010-12-30T14:51:00.000-05:00

Video of Egan trying out his new toy at Nana and Gump's this fall.

Christmas Tree 2010

2010-12-30T14:50:00.000-05:00

Video of the boys cutting down the tree at Mutch's Tree Farm.

Egan's P.O.V.

2010-12-30T14:21:00.002-05:00

Left the video camera on while I went upstairs to feed Ellery and found this short video when I came back. It made me crack up that Egan had taken this. Too funny!

Snow!!!

2010-12-12T20:43:00.002-05:00

Today we had our first real snow of the year. I heard the snowplow trucks before we got out of bed this morning and was excited to peek out the window to see how much we had gotten during the night.

Ellery went down for a morning nap and the rest of us had a chance to go outside and do some shoveling, have a snowball fight, and make a snowman. Great morning!!!

Egan with our creation. The snow was really wet so it picked up all of the loose dirt and grass...

Egan eating part of our snowman. We had to instruct hom to only eat the clean snow.

After his afternoon nap. His hair looked hilarious, but he didn't want his picture taken.

What We've Been Up To

2010-11-25T10:46:00.001-05:00

Besides setting into our new life as a family of 4. (Egan was counting us last night and it was too cute.)

You've heard about Ellery. She's a baby. She eats, sleeps, poops, smiles a bit and coos, cries, is starting to kick about a lot more, tries a little to grab and hold things, likes stripes, new voices and her favortie voices. ;)

Egan has been going to day care/pre-school 3 days a week. Both kids will head in for all 5 days starting next week. He loves dinosaurs and trains. He has a few sight words and counts and knows his alphabet and their sounds pretty well. He does always skip 16 when he counts, though. Weird!

Egan likes being a big brother. He's proud to show Ellery off to anyone. Egan is struggling to adjust to the new attention deficit at his house, though. Sometimes I can't believe how naughty he can be. He is an aweosme helper, though, He runs dipaers to the garbage, runs upstairs or downstairs to get things, climbs into my car all by himslef so I can get Ellery's car seat locked in. Great healper!

Egan likes his new room. Picks out his own books every night by climbing a stool in his closet. Tim and Egan even read books last night with headlamps. Too cute! We take turns putting the kids to bed so they get to spend time with both of us. Egan loves breakfast and can eat 3 bowls of cereal. Noodles are still his favorite food, but he loves fruit and bread too.

Tim's still at the jewelry shop 4 days a week. He shot several weddings with Kate this summer and even shot his first solo wedding a few weeks ago. Tim did a lot of work on the new room setup this summer. He's been doing more research on photography and spends a lot of time in his "hole"- his computer tucked away in the office. I also think he's addicted to Facebook. We got his truck paid off late this summer. Tim was even a really wonderful husband and put up Christmas lights early last week when the weather was warm. He was re-elected as a deacon at church, so he'll be busy for the next 3 years unlocking and locking doors... ;)

Me. I've spent the last 5 and 1/2 months hanging out. Vacations, gardening, cleaning, spending lots of time with my precious kidlets, doing grad school projects, getting a tan and then lamenting its loss, spending time with friends, family, and my lovely hubby, relaxing,... A very blessed time. Right now I have 2 weeks left in my current grad class. This was my 6th class. I'm transferring in 2, so now I only have 3 left and I'll be done aquiring Masters degrees. Yay! I get a raise halfway through the year which will really help with day care costs. I go back to work on Monday. I have Prob/Stats and Algebra 2 this year. I miss the kids so it'll be fun to get back in the swing of things. Trying not to think about it though. Reality will be here soon enough...

6 Weeks

2010-11-24T10:20:00.002-05:00

For Ellery's 6 week birthday. I had to report to work. So, Tim stayed hom with her all day. Then, I met Tim at Egan's day care/pre-school to talk over Ellery's care with Miss Ginny and Miss Kristal.

Elle has settled into a pretty good pattern of eating and sleeping at night. she doesn't really have a sleeping pattern during the day, though. She just sleeps when she's sleepy. :) She's still eating 4 or so ounces every 3 hours and wears a size 1 diaper. Tim weighed her and thinks she weiaghs more than 11 pounds. Her cheeks are so chubby!

I have loved this time with her. Lately we've been having a great time trading smiles. So awesome! Makes me cry a little to go back to work, but I think we're accustomed to heat and food. ;)

Here's a few pictures from Ellery's 6 week birthday!

Egan wants to be in every picture.

Her eyes are still a dark blue color. I'm still in shock/denial...

He just loves his "little Elle." I can't believe how huge his hand seems.

My little buddies.

Ellery- One Month

2010-11-20T14:33:00.000-05:00

This is almost 3 weeks late, but I'm getting close to catching up...

Apparently this 1st picture is the only one we took of Ellery on her one month birthday. We do, however, have several closeups of Tim's siblings. Not so useful here Tim...

This picture was taken a couple days after she turned a month old, so she was almost 5 weeks, but it's defninitely a better shot of her.

Ellery had already lost of the hair on the top of her head by a month. She was eating every 3 hours, about 4 ounces. We have her in Size 1 diapers. She was having a hard time sleeping. Staying up until almost 11 and then getting back up around 3. Yuck! Growing fast!

Monster Truck

2010-11-20T08:25:00.000-05:00

My parents spoil Egan to pieces. I guess that's a granparent's perogative. ;)

They picked up this kid car at a flea market or grage sale I think. Egan LOVES it. Tim and I always vowed we wouldn't have one at our house, but I guess it's okay at the grandparents.

Gump showing Egan how to work the radio. Egan wasn't very good at driving in the beginning. Spent a LOT of time crashing into Nana's mum plants.

And crashing into the tree. A pokey tree. Gump had to rescue him.

I don't think Ellery was that amused, but she had an okay time enjoying one of the last warm days of the fall outside.

A Boys Morning

2010-11-19T14:18:00.000-05:00

One thing that I'll miss the most about having all this time off (about 5 and 1/2 months including summer vacation) is having 3 day weekends. I don't love the monetary loss of tim being laid off on Monday's, but if they offered the option of going back to work, I think we'd pass. We're used to the loss of income, but even more spoiled about having time together as a family. On a normal weekday, I leave before Egan's even awake and then we eat dinner as soon as Tim gets home and then its baths and bedtime. No real family time.

Here's the boys on a Monday morning this Fall. I love these guys. ;)

Drinking coffee of course

This kid can pack away 3 bowls of cereal in the morning. It's the first thing he talks about when he wakes up. "Let's go eat breakfast!"

Big Brother, Little Sister

2010-11-19T08:14:00.000-05:00

My friend Lorraine sent these shirts for the kids. Too cute! Ellery's 2 and 1/2 weeks old here. I can't believe that she's now already 6 weeks old! I also can't believe Egan is 3 and 1/2 already and so huge. Time surely flies...

Halloween 2010

2010-11-18T10:09:00.004-05:00

Egan was a dinosaur again this year for Halloween. Actually if you asked if he was a dinosaur, he'd say "No! A T-Rex!" Too funny. And, it was probably really a dragon costume, but whatever. ;)

We carved a giant pumpkin the night before. Egan's design. Although I think Tim ended up making the eyes a bit scarier than intended. The boys went trick-or-treating while I passed out candy and watched Ellery sleep in her swing. Luckily I ran out of candy just as the boys got back. The last batch of trick-or-treaters got some of Egan's candy!

We went to Tim's parents the next weeknd to celebrate Bob's birthday and to let all the kids don their Halloween costumes. Fun!

Cleaning out the pumpkin guts. ;)

This pumpkin really was huge!

The finished product.

Ready to go trick-or-treating.

Can he please stay this cute and little forever?

Mattila boy cousins- Egan with Owen and Ethan. Eli doesn't like loud noises so I think he opted out of the lawn tractor ride.

The kids went on some kind of treasure hunt. A bit chilly for it, but they had fun I think.

Hike and Bike- Oct. 18th

2010-11-08T08:53:00.000-05:00

L.L.Bean was having this great sale one Saturday(1/2 off and then 20% off of that), so we ended up buying a convertible bike trailer/double stroller.

We've only used it as a stroller so far, but it worked great for the two kids. It comes with a wrist strap if you use it as a stroller and I can see why. It'll roll along flat ground very easily all by itself. I can imagine it would be easy to loose control of it going downhill if you weren't being careful.

Egan and Tim put it together as a "man project." It was interesting to watch Tim get it out of the house... ;)

Visitors- Oct. 17th

2010-11-07T08:49:00.000-05:00

I've been horrible about getting any pictures of visitors. Here's my parents with Ellery and big brother supervising.

When Ellery starts to cry, and he's holding her or someone else is, Egan will look at Tim or I and say that she wants one of us. He doesn't seem too bothered by the crying, but he doesn't really want it to happen either. If Ellery is crying, Egan will sing his special "LaLaLa" song. If she's in her swing, he'll go over and turn on the music. Not really all that helpful, but very thoughtful. ;)

Keeping Busy- Oct. 15th

2010-11-06T08:45:00.000-04:00

One of my biggest challenges has been to balance both kids in the afternoons and on Fridays. Egan does really great most of the time, but it can still be difficult.

Normally this would have ended in a big battle of wills. I was washing bottles and Egan decided he wanted to "organize" all of the pantry he could reach. Which meant pulling it all out of the pantry and putting on the windowsill and later the counter. He even made a "sidewalk" out of the boxes. Instead of telling him no, I just let him have at it and it kept him busy forever. He even helped me pick up later.

Stuff- Oct. 12

2010-11-05T08:37:00.000-04:00

Trying so hard to get caught up!

I've loved getting packages in the mail for Ellery. Such cute girly, pink clothes and things. James and Amanda sent a pckage and Amanda personalized it with with this awesome label. So creative! Super neat to see her name in writing too. We waited so long to decide on a name it's still weird to use her name. Sometimes I still just call her "baby" or "baby sister."

Egan is doing his best to share the attention of his parents. It's got to be hard when you've been an only child for 3 and 1/2 years. I was trying to take a picture of something else when he requested this shot. If it makes him happy at no cost to anyone else, then it's an easy attention fix at this point. ;)

Just some of the food that was provided as part of the Hospitality/Meals Ministry at our church. Between church and family and friends, I don't think I really had to prepare anything for at least 3 weeks. Awesome blessing! And our kitchen has stayed pretty darn clean too. ;)

He's Doing Great- Oct. 11

2010-11-04T08:19:00.000-04:00

Since we've had Ellery join our family, everyone has been great about including Egan. In fact when Tim walked in the door last night with 3 bags, he immediately proclaimed that the pink one was for Ellery and the other 2 were for him. He has been so loved on.

People ask all the time how Egan is doing with the baby. Great. Better than I expected. He loves Ellery. He calls her Elle or Eller. It's too cute. "Can I see?" "Can I touch?" He's as gentle as a 3 year can be I guess. He's just so proud to introduce her to new people and tell them her name. When they ask how old she is he says "zero" because he knows she's zero years old.

Egan's a great helper. He'll even get up while he's watching "Monkey George" to get me a burp cloth or a blanket. He likes to shake the bottles and would feed her if we let him. He does great getting himself into the car when I pick him up from pre-school and is adjusting to not being carried around whenever he/we wants.

Here's a few pictures from Ellery's first days at home. Love at first sight. ;)

2 Weeks- Oct. 20th

2010-11-03T13:59:00.001-04:00

Ellery was 2 weeks old on the 20th of October. Here's a shot of both kids. One's looking a little happier than the other. ;)

Ellery's Birth Story

2010-11-03T10:28:00.002-04:00

Ellery is 4 weeks old today. I can't believe it's already been 4 weeks. It flew by! Babues are just so precious and so exhausting. ;)

Tim and I are 1,000,000% certain that we will not be having another baby. Ellery's been great and we're much more relaxed this 2nd time around, but there is absolutely no way we could do this baby thing again. Every day I am astounded by the fact that I'm going to have to go back to work in X Days. I have no idea how I'll be able to function...

Anyways, here's how it all went down.

Ellery was due on Thursday, September 30th. On Tuesday, October 5th, I went in for my 41 week appointment. Dr. Powell had me monitored for a NST. Although the results were okay, you weren't moving and she didn't like that. I tried to explain that you really only liked to move around when I was trying to sleep. ;) The hospital didn't have any beds open for Thursday when we were hoping for an induction. So, Dr. Powell made a call and we got a spot that day!!!

I was quite nervous leaving the doctor's office and couldn't even call Tim because I had left my cell phone at home. After a quick stop at day care to say bye-bye to Egan, I made it home and called Tim and my parents to arrange pick-up for Egan. Our appointment was for 4:00 at Troy Beaumont. Your Dad and I had a leisurely trip down that included lunch at Panera.

At the hospital, I got all checked in, and then on an IV with Pitocin. You labor was a lot shorter than with your brother. I think I was hooked up on the IV sometime around 5 or 6 and you were born a little after 1:00am. Not too bad. I had an epidural, Dr. Powell broke my water, and you were out right after that.

1:10 am, 8 pounds and 7 ounces, 21 inches

My first time to hold you.

After your first bath.

Making phone calls.

Hospital Baby Bassinette thing.

Big Brother meeting Little Sister.

Bringing Ellery a present. I just love this little man more and more very day as he learns to be a great big brother. Such a proud Mommy.

Heehee. I just thought this face was funny. Holding Ellery.

I wonder if you'll have your own name for "Gump."

Giving Ellery cuddles.

Checking out Baby Sister.

A family of 4. Egan doesn't look happy to be so squished.

Nana Mattila

Nana and Papa visiting on your "birthday."

Daddy resting up.

With your eyes open. We were suprised to see they weren't brown.

Ready to go home. We headed home on the 7th- Thursday. We waited until after the evening rush hour and made it home without too much fuss.

She's Here!

2010-11-03T09:43:00.001-04:00

Okay, so this is 4 weeks late, but here's a digital copy of the birth announcement we sent out. Lots more pictures to come in the next post...

Boys and Tractors

2010-11-02T13:33:00.002-04:00

One Saturday in September, the boys took a break from working upstairs on the kids' rooms and headed to a tractor show with Grandpa and Egan. It was a very chilly morning, but I think the boys had fun. Wanted to share these pictures with the fam. Too bad Keith was working or we could have had 4 generations. [Tim took all the pictures- he's just a family imposter. ;) ]

Egan, Dad, Grandpa Scrimger

Time Warp- Maternity Shots

2010-10-27T11:29:00.002-04:00

We waited way too long to do this, so I think I look a bit like a whale in all of these shots. Ellery's 3 weeks old today so this is a bit late in coming. Wanted to get them up anyway since we went to the trouble and the bloggity blog functions as a scrapbook of sorts.

Finished Just in Time!

2010-10-21T21:51:00.005-04:00

Well, not really on time. The rooms were not done by my due date. I think we finished the new rooms on Sunday (my due date was Thursday, 9/30) and we headed to the hospital on Tuesday (5 days post-due date) to have Baby #2.

You'll have to scroll back through recent posts if you really want the full effect of the amount of work we put into this project. For this post, I just included a couple of "before" shots.

Background: We technically had 2 rooms for the 2 kids. It's just that youd had to walk through Egan's room to get to the other room. Which we used for all of our storage since the basement is only a kind-of-finished Michigan basement. So, we moved a TON of stuff into different storage, completely tore apart that room and moved Egan into it, built a hallway in Egan's old room, and moved Baby #2 (now known as Ellery) into the new mini version of the nursery.

Forgive my awful photography skills and the splotches on the camera lense. I think there was a dog/beach incident I need to clean off the lense...

The before of the storage room- to become Egan's new room.

Egan's Room!

We used sime really nice Sherwin Williams paint in two shades from the same swatch. The curtains and rods are from Ikea. Tim's mom made matching quilts for the top and bottom bunks.

Looking in from the new hallway. The windows make me super nervous. It's long way down...

Dresser and closet. Dresser also from Ikea. We bought another for Ellery as it worked awesome as a changing table and we were going to need that.

Slightly different angle. The closet doors are still a work in progress. Well, still for sale at the Home Depot. We had other more pressing priorities.

The wall we built through Egan's room.

The finished hallway. Egan's actually very excited to have this new "project center."

Inside Ellery's room looking at the new wall. Some day she'll realize she got the short end of the stick on room size.

Looking into Ellery's room from the hallway. We're a bit crammed, but we made it work. Everything is the same nursery stuff we had for Egan. Either Ikea or Babies 'R Us.

The new matching dresser. I already can't wait until we're done with the diaper thing again!

She'll also realize that double closets aren't that awesome when your parents have one stuffed full of storage. ;) Isn't that the cutest growth chart? Tim's co-workers got it from a company called Frecklebox. They got Egan a cute personalized placemat too. Have to get Tim to hang it now.

This was in Egan's room and we needed somewhere to put all the baby stuff so Ellery got to keep it. It is the biggest temptation for Egan to touch everything, though. And, he insists that all of the baby books are his favorites. Goofy boy. Tim's sister got us that cute art print. Antoher thing for Tim to hang up.

So, they're done and I am sooooooo glad. I have no idea why that project got so put off and enede up in such a time crunch. I am super glad that my dad is retired and spent the better part of a month coming down almost every day as unpaid labor. You're awesome Dad! Tim and his dad are awesome too!

Ellery @ 2 Weeks

2010-10-20T09:19:00.003-04:00

I'll get a pic up later and I know I'm really behind in blogging, but wanted to jot down things about Ellery while it's fresh.

Ellery- You've been a pretty easy baby so far. Of course, I think Tim and I are way more comfortable as parent of a newborn than we were with Egan. We have some gassy days/times and that make sit rough for everyone, but we're trying some Mylicon and lots of burps. Egan, unfortunatley, has decided that he would like to show me his burps too.

You're sleeping for stretches of 3 to 5 hours at night. During the day you'll go just as long between fedding but are up for stretches of time checking things out or fussing because of that evil gas. You eat 3.5 ounces of formula at each feeding. Today you have your 2 week check-up. You're still wearing newborn diapers because of the handy umbilical cord notch. Hopefully that'll be gone soon. Your skin is all shedding, which is a bit messy, but we had another bath last night and it seems a bit better.

You've been to day care/pre-school lots of times to help pick up Egan and we've had you to chruch, Meijer, and the park. So far, you like the carseat more than Egan and the swing less. You take almost all of your naps up in your crib. You seem to like Egan but sometimes his really loud noises disturb you. He loves you so much. He calls you Ell or Eller sometimes.

Can't wait to see how big you've gotten at the doctor's today!

Labor Day Weekend 2010

2010-09-26T09:36:00.000-04:00

Labor Day Weekend was a bit on the chilly side here in Michigan this year. I think it kind of put a damper on what's supposed to be the last weekend of summer. Tim had to shoot a wedding with Kate on Saturday so we didn't head up to Caseville until Sunday morning. We left Monday around noon and hit up the Pizza Hut on the way home. Yum.

Tim and Egan being hams

Too cold for people, but fine for dogs. Tim with Bailey.

Egan chasing after seagulls.

Me being huge.

Mom and Egan

Egan thought Monkey George needed to chill in the bike seat.

Tim being handsome. ;)

Monkey in the middle. Well, really more like boss man in the middle. Egan totally had the boys standing where he told them and throwing the ball the way he told them. Too funny.

Yup. Still huge.

Jenny Marie

Moo

Egan working hard.

Cutie Pie!

The men doing what the men do.

Digging up Nana/Gumps' driveway

Uncle Keith doing something intriguing with Egan and Sydney

5 Days...

2010-09-25T09:25:00.002-04:00

And we have exposed electrical, bare drywall, still no name, and I wake up (assuming I'm sleeping) in the middle of the night paranoid that I'll go into labor and the floor won't be vacuumed.

Please, oh please, let this baby hang in for at least her 5 days!

The boys headed off to an antique tractor show this morning, so I should probably be doing grad work, but I'm mentally exhausted from doing that.

Hoping for lots of baby room progress later today.

Metanora Celebration of the Horse today! Parade at 1:00! Hope Egan is still awake from his outing.

Found a petrified frog in my house yesterday while dusting. Apparently I need to dust more often. Also, totally creeped out. What other petrified things are lurking in un-dusted areas?! After I flicked it while dusting I refued to move it so I put a bowl over it and made my dad move it. I don't think even he was too excited...

I have a whole Labor Day Weekend post to get up so I promise more pictures soon. Just needed to muse for a while... ;)

Show Us Your Life- Master Bedrooms

2010-09-24T09:20:00.005-04:00

Kelly's Korner is featuring Master Bedrooms this week on her Show Us Your Life tour of homes.

Kelly did this last year as well, but considering that it was such an inspiration to really make an attempt at decorating our house, I figured I'd join in again. Being such a left-brained, non-creative person, I've appreciated the ability to check out so many "real life" houses, not just the dreamy stuff in magazines.

Our Master Bedroom is one of the rooms I haven't changed since the first tour, so this is mostly a repeat of the last tour. Considering Baby #2 is due in less than a week, I'm lucky I could pull this off! ;)

At this point in my pregnancy I would kill for a bed bigger than our full size. Of course we had to cut a hole in the door frame of the stairs just to get this up the steep stairs so I think I'm out of luck!

Tim made these nightstands. Not the most glamorous pieces of furniture, but they coordinate well and were cheap!

Looking into our room from the hallway. We did a TON to this room. Replaced the teal floral wallpaper with this gray paint from Sherwin Williams, tore up the carpet and painted the old wood floor, painted all the dark trim white, ...

Love this chair. Tim's grandpa gave it to us when we helped them move into their condo.

Looking across the room from the doorway. Yay for 2 closets! We would never be able to go to less closet space at this point.

A picture on the side dresser we share. Taken soon after we started dating. Hello 1997!

Okay, so that's all the excitement for our Master Bedroom.

BUT, if you want to see what we've been up to to get ready for Baby #2, you should check out these posts.

As a sneak peak, here's just a couple shots. Hopefully by the time Kelly's Korner gets to kids rooms, then we'll have 2 finished rooms.

Post-Destruction

Pre-Move In

My New Room I'm Moving To

2010-09-22T21:26:00.002-04:00

We have Egan officially moved into his new room. It's still a bit of a mess and Tim's finishing the closet so no final pictures yet. Egan still calls it "my new room I'm moving to" even though he's slept in there ofr 2 nights now.

We love how it turned out. Lots of extra work to plan out and then paint the stripes, but I am so so happy with the results. Yay!

Dad painting the dark blue over top of the light blue.

With the stripes painted. Just needing some touch-ups and tape removal.

No more tape!

Cleaned up and with the curtain rods installed.

Moving on. The baby is due in 1 week and this is her room!!! We're building a wall to make a hallway down to Egan's room. I think they'll both appreciate the privacy. :)

Looking down the hallway into Egan's room. You can see his curtains.

My New Room?

2010-09-16T22:54:00.002-04:00

Egan calls his current bedroom his "old room" and the room we are fixing up for him the "new room." He's been taking a lot of his naps in our room and even sometimes we've put him to bed for the night in our room and then moved him. In fact, he's in there right now while Tim works on taping the room for the stripes.

Here's what the boys have been up to for the last week...

Finished Mudding and Sanding. Now Primed.

Closet finished and primed.

Lighter blue painted on. We're painting vertical darker blue stripes each a foot wide.

Putting down carpet.

The trim has been painted as well.

$2 Knee Socks = Awesome Baby Leggies

2010-09-15T12:00:00.001-04:00

I gave my mom a tutorial for these leggies that I saw on one of the blogs I frequent. I got a few pairs of $2 Target knee socks and my mom said it was easy. Too cute! Yay Mom!

(I think they're technically upside down in this picture.)

1st Day of Preschool

2010-09-14T21:07:00.002-04:00

Technically Egan was allowed to do a lot of pre-school things last year, but now as a 3 year-old, he's officially part of the pre-school program at day care.

He's going Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. His 1st day was last Tuesday, September 7th.

It was pretty dark out and he's not always the most patient subject. Hopefully by the time he starts real school we can get a decent picture. :)

21 Days!!!

2010-09-09T19:54:00.002-04:00

Seems just like yesterday it said 121 days!

I stopped into school today and signed my contract and it was weird. It's like life is just moving on without me. :( Kind if sad. I know. I'm pathetic.

I've been keeping myself busy with grad school and cleaning the house in preparation for visitors and the rehab period. I've also washed loads and loads of laundry including my very first load with lots of pink. Considering I own like 2 pieces of pink clothing, this is a bizarre change for our washing machine. I wonder if it noticed the difference? ;)

Still no name. I think it'll end up being a hospital thing, but I think we're narrowing down choices. I think...

What's in a name?

2010-09-07T16:52:00.002-04:00

That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.

But I'm thinking if we name this baby "mud Wee Wee" as Egan last suggested, it wouldn't exactly sound as sweet. ;)

Which brings us to the point of this post- Tim and I still haven't figured out a name for this baby.

So, I thought maybe writing down the list of options (which is way too long) would help us decide. Tim changes his mind every day and I'm just in denial about making a decision. Don't even mention a middle name... We were originally going for a name that fit a whole slew of restrictions, but we're pretty open to anything as long as it's slightly unique and doesn't belong to a student I really didn't like. ;)

Feel free to commentate. We're leaning toward the names at the very end at this point.

Here we go...

Tara/ Clara/ Nola (Seriously?- Tim has the same theme to all his choices)
Neely
Lily
Lorelai
Gillian
Gwen
Tierney
Eleanor/Nora/Ellery/Elle/Ella/Ellie
Adelaide/Adele
Fiona

What a dilemma!

Preparations for Baby #2

2010-09-06T17:00:00.003-04:00

We've had to move EVERYTHING out of our stoarage area- the "Barney Room." It was a huge task. Some garbage, some GoodWill, lots of moving stuff into other storage areas, created a bunch of storage in the basement, moved all the baby stuff to its future needed locations. Our house is a mess! Anyways, here's a few pictures of what we've done so far.

The Recycling Area in the Laundry Room. This was always just a pile of stuff. I'm loving these shelves and they fit perfectly with a little custom ledge by Tim.

The "Barney Room" There's a whole stack of camping and holiday tubs behind the camera person. Also, a big stack of bed/crib frames/mattresses. LOTS of STUFF.

Cleaned out and ready for demolition.

Egan waiting for the cool man stuff with Nana.

Starting in. We are just now realizing that this room was never redone with drywall. It's still all old plaster and lathe. What a mess!

Before they knocked out the plaster on this ceiling piece.

Left the plaster on the walls. Just planned to cover over with drywall. We think this was water damge that they partially removed.

Ready for drywall.

Getting some drywall up.

Three sets of hands are better than one. My dad, Tim, Tim's dad

West Wall. Drywalled and mudded. Yay.

East Wall. Building Egan a closet.

Anniversary #9

2010-09-03T16:54:00.003-04:00

We didn't actually do anything on our anniversary this year. I had a webinar for my grad class and Tim had to work, so we celebrated early. Our anniversary was on a Wednesday, so my mom watched Egan Sunday and Monday night and we did a ton of stuff to prep for the baby.

Ikea, Target, Birch Run, Borders, Home Depot... Spent a TON of money, but we had/have some serious organizing to do to clear out the "Barney Room" to make Egan a new room. We also had a couple nice meals out. Yum.

Here's a picture from Tuesday, August 3rd. It was hot and humid, just like our wedding day. Why did we ever get married in August!? ;)

Cheeseburger in Caseville 2010

2010-09-02T15:28:00.002-04:00

My excitement for Cheeseburger this year was at a bit of a low level. It was hot and I'm huge and uncomfortable and whiny...;)

We did have fun, though, and I was so glad it didn't rain like it has for the last 2 years. We got cheeseburgers, rode around on the golf cart, went to the beach, went to the carnival, the rest of the clan walked downtown, Tim got his beloved deep fried twinkie, and we relaxed. Fun!

At the fire hall for our 1st cheeseburger.

Egan inside the fire demonstration trailer. You could watch on a TV monitor. My mom got dragged inside and she didn't find out until much later that we were watching the whole time! :)

Egan and Gump inside a fire truck

Inside the trailer

At the carnival

He had so much fun even though he wasn't spinning the wheel to get the dragon to spin.

The little train. He gave the worker guy a high five every time around.

Carousel

Bounce House

Trying to get Gump's attention when we were leaving.

A Tim self-potrait

The "Gump Band." Egan proclaimed that Gump was "horrible" after a point and kicked him out of the band!

This year's theme was the parrott. Can't wait until next year when I don't weigh 5 million pounds and can't breathe.

YA Camping 2010- Last Batch

2010-08-30T20:47:00.002-04:00

This is finally the last batch of pictures. Tim uploaded the group shot for me just this week.

Adults and Infants L to R- Tim, Cody, Jay, Brianne with Jeremiah, John, Nicole with Griffen, Lowell, Tracy with Greyson, Dennis, Jennifer

Kids L to R- Egan, Abby, Joccie, Addisen, Anna, Owen, Trenton, Ellianna, Alex

Sorry. These are all unedited.

The Boyle's

The Evans'

The Bierbusse's

The Petersen's

Nicole and I both brought tubs of homemade playdough for the kids. I think they had fun and it kept them distracted for a while.

Dennis- Tim uploaded these, so I feel obliged. I think you're his favorite. ;)

YA Camping 2010- Batch 8

2010-08-19T13:37:00.003-04:00

Just one more batch to go! This was our longest camping trip ever (Thursday to Monday), but I think we took less pictures than normal. I think the rain combined with spending almost a whole day apart from the group just amounted to less pictures. Hopefully we can do better next year.

Things to remember:
*They had a "gum tree" at this campground. Gross. Really gross.
A mouse ran between my legs, halfway up Tim's leg, Tim chased it with a broom, and then Dennis stomped it. A bit brutal, but totally necessary.
*Being pregnant. I really, really missed being able to lay on my stomach at the beach.
*Rain. The couples don't alwasy get along that great while putting up tents, but having all the couple try to put up tents and campers in the rain was humorous in hindsight. Hoping we don't have to do that again soon.
*Beach. I think most everyone agreed that this was one of the most enjoyable parts. Next year- more trips to the beach if possible.
*Kids. I can't believe we have so many kids. We are so outnumbered. Yet they get along pretty good and keep each other occupied. Next year we'll have 13 kids. Unless John and Nicole surprise us with a 3rd. ;)

Abby

Egan

Us- What is it about the beach that always induces a self-portrait?

Addisen and Owen

Jay, Egan, Alex. You can see the huge sand dunes in the distance.

Owen, Addisen, John, Griffen, Tim, Egan

Brianne and Joccie

Jennifer

John and Griffen. Griffen liked the beach way more than his big sister when she was little.

Kids and Tim

Brianne, Lowell, and Nicole

Jay with Jeremiah. At one point we had 4 of our kids asleep.

Griffen

Anna

I think this is Jeremiah?

Anna woke up!

YA Camping 2010- Batch 7

2010-08-19T13:22:00.002-04:00

Sunday Morning I think? And maybe Sunday evening? I don't know...

Tim being artsy. I'm sure he'd have more fun if we actually took the nice camera with us.

Jay, Joccie, Jeremiah- It just occured to me that the Evans' must really like their J's.

Tracy and Greyson. Wake up on the wrong side of the tent?

Jeremiah

Dennis. Overly ambitious for breakfast.

John, Nicole, and Griffen. I guess somebody didn't want their picture taken. :)

Griffen again with his phantom behind him.

Egan Quin

I think this is Abby? It doesn't really look like her.

Ellianna and Addisen

Joccie

Brianne and Jeremiah

Owen

Trenton

Kids. We have a lot.

Greyson

YA Camping 2010- Batch 6

2010-08-19T09:06:00.002-04:00

I think I'm on Batch 6? I'm too lazy too look back right now, so we'll just go with it. :)

I think these are still from Saturday? Just hanging around the campsites.

Mr. Lowell aka Mr. P-90X aka Mr. BeachBody :)

Anna and Abby- apparently we managed to get free child labor

Ah. Mr. Jay is the guy coercing children into hard labor. ;)

Owen and Joccie prepared to jump back on their bikes at a moment's notice.

I guess Mr. Jay helped too.

Jeremiah does not look like he was helping...

The Bierbusse/Mattila site across the street

Yup. I'm huge.

Egan taking a little break while we try to do something. Portable DVD players are definitely a magical invention.

Happiness and a Name

2010-08-12T16:38:00.002-04:00

Can anybody tell I have extra free time now that I have a 2 week break from grad school? :) I have a goal to get caught up on the blog, but I'm going to interupt camping for a Happy Today Break.

I ordered some fabric for the baby. I've recruited my mom for some sewing projects and wanted some really cool fabric. In the meantime, she has made me some awesome leggies. As soon as Tim gets the picture to me from his camera, I'll post a shot.

Help! This baby needs a name. Suggestions anybody? Everybody? We're trying to avoid names starting with vowels and we'd like something of the same "genre" as Egan. Please? We're starting to get desperate...

Anna Maria Horner

Egan's version of helping.

YA Camping 2010- Batch 4

2010-08-12T15:14:00.002-04:00

I think these are all from Saturday. It was a bit gloomy so we all kind of set out on oour own to explore Traverse City. I don't think I realized it was so huge! There's one of every store/restaurant you could imagine. Egan wasn't really having much of the whole downtown thing, but we did meet up with the Evans' at this really cool shopping area.

It's a renovated state hospital and the old buildings were just gorgeous. I LOVE architecture. I think maybe I should have taken some drafting classes in high school and considered it as a career. ;) It makes me really sad that they didn't take the old Oakdale buildings in Lapeer and try to renovate them into something cool like that. Maybe Lapeer just isn't cool enough?

Anyways, Tim put pictures of that up on his photography blog, so you can check those out here.

At the shopping place.

? I think these 2 are from when we stopped to look at the bay.

Mr. Jay

Egan and Abby checking out a retro seating area.

Joccie and Abby

The Evans' made us dinner Saturday night. Yum! I know it was a lot of work, but it was really good. Yay for Jay and Brianne!

Hmm. Dennis looks like he might be ready to take out tim and the camera.

Okay. Lowell's face in this picture makes me crack up every time I look at it. What was he thinking?

Dennis looking a little more peaceful. :)

>We tried keeping the 3 babies in a little playard in a screened tent. Most of the time we could only get one or maybe two at a time to hang out peacefully. This is Greyson in the cage.

YA Camping 2010- Batch 3

2010-08-12T09:00:00.001-04:00

A few of of us headed out for ice cream Friday after dnner. We went to this cute little coffee place/cafe. Because the Interlochen Music Camp is right across from the State Park, there was easy access to groceries, gas, ice, etc.

The ice cream place- Bud's.

Lowell and Greyson

Alex, Trenton, Anna, Ellianna, Owen, and Egan

Tracy

Tim and Dennis

The kiddos

Awh. Trenton sharing with Alex. How cute!

Uh oh Anna. Your cone escaped its cone house.

Ellianna

Owen's still got his cone captured in his cone house. ;)

Jennifer being silly. :)

YA Camping 2010- Batch 2

2010-08-11T09:58:00.002-04:00

I think these pictures are all from Friday? We didn't really do much that day. Finally set up camp without any rain. Just hung around and went to the playground. I think a few people went to the campground beach.

Our Communal Sight

The sight we shared with Dennis and Jennifer

The Evans' camper and the Boyle's tent. The Petersen's tent is hidden behind the mini-vans I think.

Jennifer. And another mini-van.

Abby. Apparently she has a taste for La Croix.

Griffen

The kids hanging out- Egan, Trenton, Alex, Anna, Owen

Mr. Dennis

For a while Owen just sat and told me stories. I was quite intrigued about a peanut butter and jelly sandwich coming out of the freezer. Until I realized it was one of those pre-made things and he wasn't just making up stories. Too funny!

YA Camping 2010- Batch 1

2010-08-10T21:31:00.002-04:00

Every year, we head out the last full weekend of July to camp with our good friends from church. This year we headed up to Interlochen State Park from Thursday to Monday.

Thursday was a bit of a bummer as it rained the entire evening and everybody had to set up in the rain. John and Nicole were rockstars and managed to feed us all in the rain. My pictures are all totally out of order because they came from 2 different cameras and Tim edited some on his computer.

So, in total disorganization, I'll start giving you a batch of 10 or so a day and hopefully I'll get over the mess... ;)

Egan drew us a monster! Sometimes he says they're people too, but usually they're monsters. Fun! :)

The artist.

Driving in the rain. I think we only made it to Saginaw before the rain started. We had the toneau cover rolled up to fit all our stuff, so I was not too enthused.

Passenger Tim

The rain- which looks like snow because of the flash. That's our truck with a canopy over it while we got it unpacked and the toneau cover rolled back up.

Jay, Tracy, and Greyson. The boys all got soaked putting up tents in the rain.

Rain coming into our campsite.

The rockstars- John and Nicole.

A wet self-portrait.

Mattila Vacation- Day 4

2010-08-09T19:30:00.003-04:00

On our last day of vacation with Tim's family, we all headed over to Mackinac Island on our way home. For those of you not familiar with this magical place, Mackinac Island is an island just northeast of the tip of the lower peninsula. You take ferry boats over to the isalnd, and then there are no more motorized vehicles. Just cars and horses/wagons. (Although we did see an emergency vehicle while we were there and Egan gave me a look of "Mom- you are a big fat liar!")

I don't think I've been before and not been able to bike around so that was a bit of a letdown. I love biking around the outside- so flat and no cars to hassle with. The inside island trails are good too because there's very few tourists that venture in. Fun! Can't wait to go with the kids when I can get back on a bike.

Here's some shots from our day. We went to the fort, had lunch, strolled through town, met up for ice cream, strolled the harbour, and then headed out for the drive home. We had beautiful weather.

Ethan, Egan, and Owen

The Whole Fam

The "rooster tail"

Egan looking at the rooster tail

Tim and Egan- Handsome boys!

The Town- No Cars!

Waiting to head up to the fort. And, that was a lot of climbing. I think if I had known just how many sets of stairs there was going to be...

Amanda

Mackinac Bridge from the fort.

This was the summer of the cannon for Egan. :)

Egan and Eli

The family headed out of the fort. Lots of climbing up and down...

James and Eli

Erin and Timmy

Egan just had to have Superman ice cream because Owen got it. Later he asked why he didn't get to have any of the special Mackinac Island Fudge ice cream. I think maybe it's a lesson on not just following...

With the real stuff!

There is a sailboat race from Port Huron to Mackinac and the sailboats had been getting to the island that weekend. Some were still coming in. Lots of drunken sailors! :)

Mattila Vacation- Day 3

2010-08-08T10:00:00.001-04:00

We planned to head to Mackinac Island on Sunday, but there was rain forecasted, so we ended up trekking up to Tahquamenon Falls instead. It didn't rain up there until a little after Noon, so we did have a chance to see the Lower Falls sans rain. It started raining when we were leaving the Lower Falls, though, and rained the whole time we were at the Upper Falls. I didn't mind too much. We dried out pretty quickly and got to see what we drove all the way up there for anyways. :)

Waiting around to head out to the Falls.

I apparently didn't get a picture of the outside of the cabin, but here's a view of the inside.

The kitchen.

The dining area/living room/entrance to the bathroom.

The "bedroom"- a nook in the wall

The main entrance/other side of the living area. This thing was teeny! :)

At the Falls! John and Ethan.

Yup. A family thing.

I think we were all at the cars applying bug spray waiting for the other family members who decided to stop at the sloooooooooowest gas pump ever.

I think we're still waiting here.

Family shot.

At least these 2 have their tongues in.

We all rented paddleboats to head over to the island that the Lower Falls surround. Fun!

John, Heather + Family; Timmy and Erin

Our Rowboat Captain.

The happy passenger

Timmy and Erin

Yup. They like to have their picture taken. ;) Good thing since we don't see them very often.

James, Amanda, + Family

Wrangling Egan up to the path

Family Shot by the Falls

I think this one looks like one of those cheesy backdrops they put you in front of for school pictures. So weird that it's actually real!

Some of the Lower Falls.

Sans Egan.

What did I say?!

Egan still thinks it hilarious that he looks at pictures and thinks it's Tim, but it's really Uncle James. He gets a funny face with his eyebrows raised and asks "Daddy?"

The Upper Falls

We were pretty wet at this point.

Mattila's braving the rain.

Apparently not all fun and games for Egan. :)

Mattila Vacation- Day 2 Continued

2010-08-07T13:00:00.002-04:00

I forgot about these shots from around the campfire. We got all the kids to bed and had some adult time. Nice. :)

John and Heather

Amanda and James

Timmy and Erin

Kate and Dave- We all look a bit sunkissed after our day the beach.

Bob and Judy- Bob looks cold.

John and Heather

Dave with his new iPhone4 always has something to entertain.

Me and Tim

Mattila Vacation- Day 2

2010-08-06T14:15:00.002-04:00

Where's Day 1 you may be asking? Uhm. Well, ...

Tim had to work. I had to pack up the truck. The truck whose toneau cover was laying loose and with broken straps in the back of the truck as I would soon discover. Let me just say that I had to stop, pregnant, in a dress, in a parking lot, and try to roll up said toneau cover while hurrying to make an appointment. I was not a happy person...

Egan woke up at like 5 that morning with a fever and wasn't any better after a morning nap. So fearing the alternative of trying to get him medical care during the weekend in the UP, I ended up hauling him down to Rochester ot our pediatrician's. They tested him for strep, but it ended up just being a really sore throat and fever.

So, by the time Tim got home, we got packed up, and made it all the way to the UP/St. Ignace, it was alreay like 9:30 at night. Day 1 Done.

Day 2- We went to the Mystery Spot, which was a lot better than I thought it might be. The family had a great time at the actual "Mystery Spot" and then you could play putt-putt and go through a maze. Of course we don't have pictures because the person in charge of charging all batteries sucks at his job. ;)

Then, back to the cabins for lunch and Egan's nap which he really needed after not feeling so well. We ended up waking him up ealry to head to the beach, though. It was lots of fun! A little windy, but sunny and the waves were great and the water was suprisingly nice. Fun fun! Okay, so now on to some pictures.

Apparently our camera was working in the morning before we all headed to the Mystery Spot...

Must be a family thing. Tim and Kate also really like to stick out their tongues for pictures.

John and Heather's Cabin

Timmy and Erin

Kicking around the soccer ball.

What's better than digging in the sand in the road?

Cousin Eli

Isadora- the baby of the bunch

Getting ready for the beach.

It was really too windy to fly a kite. This is my kite from when I was a kid and I was a bit worried that the string wouldn't hold up.

Some of the family in the water. The brothers and the Elliott girls spent a lot of time bobbing about in the waves.

Heather was being a super-mom and spent a TON of time playing with the boys in the sand and later managed to get Ethan to take a nap.

Cousins Owen and Egan

Cousins Egan and Eli

I can't believe Tim managed to make this many bucket castles before...

This happened.

My hubby.

Tim took Egan out for a float. :) Cute boys.

E-G-A-N

2010-08-01T14:06:00.001-04:00

Egan has known for quite a while how to spell his own first name. I did have to help him get the stickers on his forehead correctly, but he was so proud to hva ehis name on his head! :)

Nana Camp

2010-07-31T14:29:00.002-04:00

We've had 2 Nana Camps so far this summer. These pictures are from July 8th,a dn we just had one this past Thursday, July 29th. I've apparently slacked in the photo-taking department because these 3 pictures are all I have, but it's better than nothing, right!? :)

During this first Nana Camp, Judy had the kids make there own stepping syones using concrete, decorative glass, and then they could add hanprints or fingerprints. Egan's turned out pretty cute.

This week they did watercolors on coffee filters and Egan was a bit wound up from his whirlwind tour of vacations, but we made it through. They also took a hike to look for frogs and it worked out great that Egan had brought some tadpoles with him from Nana/Gump's.

Thanks Judy for all the fun for the kiddos!

Egan and Owen

Kate, Ethan, Grace, Kaylee

4th of July!

2010-07-30T12:15:00.003-04:00

We headed up to my parents place in Caseville on Saturday, the 3rd for the holiday festivities. The fireworks were that night at the beach so it was great timing. We ate lots of grilled food, went to the beach twice, fixed the golf cart a lot, and sat in the sun. Even Keith and Jenny got a chance to get away from work and come up. Yay!

Egan getting a shoulder ride onto the beach for the fireworks.

Our set-up.

I am rather sideways, but here's a family shot.

Boo and Jenny.

Gump and Egan.

I let Photoshop auto-correct these so Tim will probably be a bit miffed that it turned his sunset picture into a barely dusk picture... Sorry Hun.

Tim and I.

I think he stayed like that for approximately half a second.

Finally! There were some technical difficulties, so the fireworks seemed to take foreverrrrrrrrr.

Keith never takes a break. He went right to work on Mom and Dad's new toy.

Egan and Tim worked on a birhouse that Grandma/pa Scrimger got Tim for his birthday to do with Egan.

Great-Grandpa's Backhoe

2010-07-29T22:31:00.002-04:00

My brother and his wife bought a new house a while ago and got a great deal because it was a foreclosure. It's needed a lot of work, though, and so at the end of June Tim was able to help out with the new roof.

Egan was pretty excited about getting to play around on my grandfather's backhoe. He'd just climb right up there himself and pretend to drive and move the digging part around.

:) Such a boy!

"Hmm. Yup. We're standing on the roof."

My dad and Jenny's dad doing some kind of man job. ;)

Okay, so they really did more than stand. They actually worked really hard. It was like 90 degrees and humid and I'm sure no fun at all.

:) I love this little guy.

Adirondacks- Days 7 and 8

2010-07-27T14:04:00.002-04:00

We just got back from 2 back-to-back vacations, so the blog got a wee bit behind again. Between grad school work and laundry I'll try to get back on track, but it may take me awhile. :) For now, here's the end of our Adirondacks Vacation.

We spent Day 7 just hanging around the cabin. We took Egan out for breakfast at the General Store and let him pick out this toy he'd been wanting since the first time Tim took him down there. The pancakes were huge! I think I ordered 3 and only managed to get through 2. Egan had 2 blueberry pancakes and probably got through 1 and 1/2! He likes his pancakes. The squishy ball toy he picked out, however, didn't manage to last more than a couple days since Egan decided it would be fun to pop, but he had fun for awhile.

We spent a good part of the day at the beach. We took out the canoe and both boys got a good nap while I managed to get a really good burn reading a book in the sun. It was nice to have such a relaxing day before getting back in the car for the drive home. The drive was really long, but overall totally worth it because we had a great time and Egan got to see some little mountains and a lot of other really cool stuff.

Egan carrying down the canoe paddle. Too cute!

I went for a ride later, but the boys went out on their own in the morning. Egan did so good! I'm not sure how he'd do a for a really long ride, but he sat still and it wasn't really too scary.

Egan after waking up from his nap and needing some cuddle time.

A mother duck/loon? with her little ones.

Our view from the beach.

Egan swimming. He still wears a life vest, but I'm so glad we had him take swim lessons. He just loves the water. Of course I'm glad we went here before our trips to Lake Michigan or else I don't hink any of us would have went in the water. Cold!

Tim always gets antsy sitting at the beach. To brave the cold water he tried the "just run in" approach. Brrr.

My cuties.

Just to prove that life isn't always sunshine and smiles. ;)

Big tough boys.

We just buried his feet and made him sand shoes. Maybe next year we'll go for more. :)

On the way home. He drew a car!!! I love his little drawings. This one was such a suprise. He really likes to stick to his tadpole/dolphin drawings.

Adirondacks- Day 6

2010-07-20T08:35:00.000-04:00

Going to get a whole day in in one post again. Yay! We drove up to the Adirondacks Museum and got to see a lot of different stuff- transportation, logging, boating, camping, ... We wanted to go see Great Camp Sagamore too, but the timing was off, so we just headed back to the cabin and had a relaxing evening. Maybe next time!

A recovered fire watch tower. Egan and Tim are in the top.

Inside the tower.

Me. Waiting at the bottom.

They had one whole buidling full of just exhibits for kids to touch. Great!

It proved a lot harder for someone who's only 3 feet tall to catch a fish from this thing. :)

Inside the logging building. Egan liked the chainsaws and declared them as the things that Uncle Keith has. :)

Smokey the Bear.

Camping Exhibits outside.

Transportation building.

The museum did a good job of having things kids could actually play with scattered about in the different buildings.

We ate lunch in the cafe. Too bad it was so dreary out or we could have taken some lovel Adirondack mountain/lake shots.

Little Boy in a Big Chair.

Big

Boy in a Big Chair.

Medium Girl in a Medium Chair.

Little Boy in a Little Chair.

Egan's attempt at photography!

The boating building.

We played with Egan's souvenir while relaxing back at the cabin.

All this vacationing was rather tiring. :)

Waiting for dinner!

Showing Egan how to eat his cookie.

Uhm, No Mom.

This way!

Adirondacks- Day 5

2010-07-19T09:14:00.000-04:00

Not a ton of pictures from this day, so I'm doing this whole day in one shot! Woohoo! We're already in another vacation as this posts, so I still have a ton of catching up to do.

On Day 5 (Wednesday), it was supposed to be gloomy so we planned a road trip to Vermont to visit a Ben & Jerry's ice cream factory. You get to watch the production and taste a sample of the newest creation. Yum! And you know we Mattila's like our ice cream.

They had a playground Egan spent some time playing on and we ate ice cream and bought souvenirs. Then, we headed out for some lunch and ended up at the Vermont Teddy Bear factory on a whim. I told Egan and he and little sister no longer get college educations since they both now have teddy bears. :)

Waiting for the ferry.

Going through the Green Mountains in Vermont. I am such a nervous wreck driving on little windy roads with Tim who seems way more interested in the scenery than the road.

Yum!

In the tasting room with our new flavor- Cookies and Cream- like a regular cookies and cream, but with the dough part too. I was suprised that I liked it.

Chunky Monkey.

? I think Tim got something like Cappucinno Crunch?

Fish Food

Onto our 2nd tour. A little bit more interactive than Ben & Jerry's but definitely less high-tech.

Egan picked out his own bear- Dark Chocolate with a Green Bow.

The ferry back. The main bridge was closed, so most of the ferries were pretty jammed. Luckily this one was a larger ferry and wasn't crowded so we actually got to get off and wander around.

We chopped off all of Egan's hair because he just gets too hot in the summer so this picture makes me a bit nostalgic. :(

Adirondacks- Day 4- Part 2

2010-07-18T08:35:00.002-04:00

After our hike, Egan fell asleep in the car, so Tim and I had a chance to fix some lunch and just hang out. Once Egan got up we fed him some lunch and then headed down to the beach. Good times!

The water was a bit chilly. I don't think I made it in past my bellybutton and that wasn't until Friday when it was really hot.

:) My lovely hubby.

The boys having fun jumping.

Me having a more relaxed version of fun. ;)

Egan gets hot and cold very easily and to extremes. So, after a while in the water he turns a bit blue and needs to curl up in the heat. We call it his turtle stance.

The cabin had several floaties and a canoe. The boys took this floaty raft out on Tuesday and we took the canoe out on Friday. Egan did really well in both.

Cutie!

Egan seems to have learned a lot from his swim lessons. Hopefully he'll be able to continue with the next series soon.

More of Egan being a turtle. It's the only time he sits still at the beach.

My feet.

Tim told me my foot shot was lame. So, this is his. I say his is lame.

And, of course, Egan had to get in on the fun.

A seashell

Adirondacks- Day 4- Part 1

2010-07-17T08:30:00.000-04:00

We decided to spend Day 4 (Tuesday) just hanging out.

Tim (after a bit of trouble) found a "nearby" hiking spot and we had a great time hiking along this little stream. Egan was maybe not up for such a long hike so close to naptime, so he ended getting a "shoulder ride" from Tim for part of the way back, but it was still really fun. Egan did a great job looking for the trail markers and didn't trip and fall and kill himself on the rough terrain.

Again, these are from Tim so there may be (definitely is) an overabundance, but at least they're not too big. :)

We made it just a little ways past the pond we think. We didn't have a pedometer or GPS to tell us how far we'd gone.

Tim likes to take pictures of his truck on vacation. He should warn others when they're being used as a size comparison...

Egan with his big muscles.

I am in total denial about how huge I am. I look so enormous!!!

Shoulder ride.

I think we crossed the stream 2 or 3 times on little bridges. There were lots of dragonflies to look at.

Handsome!

I'm hoping his little sister gets his eyes. So cute!

I'm glad Tim can carry the lump around because I'm just too wimpy for that.

He brought his binoculars but I don't think he ever used them properly. He insists on looking through them backwards!

I'm so glad we got to take our little man on a vacation with just us before little sister is born. I've reall enjoyed having this much time to get to know him before having to multi-task with another kid Soon poor Egan will have to share...

Adirondacks- Day 3- really short Part 2

2010-07-16T08:23:00.002-04:00

We spent the end of Day 3 just hanging out at the cabin, grilling some hot dogs, playing in the yard, getting a good bath, and taking a walk. In fact, unless it was raining, we took a walk every night. It was good family time. We even got to see a mother woodpecker feeding her babies. Egan liked looking for deer tracks and we're pretty sure we saw tracks of something that had to be bigger than a deer.

Tim grilling. We have a gas grill at home so this charcoal business was a bit tricky. In fact, one night we had to finish off with the microwave we were so hungry. ;)

Egan had a blast just throwing things around the yard and chasing them down. Here, he and Tim were throwing a float tube around.

Getting a good bath. We didn't bring bath toys so we had to improve with trucks and other things that could get wet.

Adirondacks- Day 3- Really long Part 1

2010-07-15T09:00:00.003-04:00

One of the things I wanted to do was take Egan to "The Wild Center." There were tons of live animals and exhibits. Lots of stuff to see and touch.

These are pics from Tim's camaera again and I let him pick them out and edit them, so, uhm, there's a lot. I guess it's a good thing he sized them a bit small for my taste. Hang in there!

The boys.

Which animal eats what?

There were lots of examples of Adirondack animal poop. Very enthralling. :)

Butterflies.

? Pouting? Resting? I think I was in the bathroom during this photo shoot.

I guess we need evidence he picks his nose?!

A big piece of "glacier." It was real ice!

I think this is the otter. It put on a great display for the kids. I think it was having as much fun as the kids swimming from one side of it's area to the other.

To the right is the otter tank. I think the boys were checking out some fish to the left.

Turtles.

Huge tank of trout.

Doing crayon rubbings.

Heading outside to go on a short nature walk and then have a picnic lunch.

My foot. Not sure why, but I guess Tim wanted to remember my foot size before they swelled up to their current gigantic size. Yes. I do have canckles.

The natural playground.

Eating a picnic lunch.

Reading about bug catching devices.

Okay, so Tim really must love me because he thinks this picture is nice. Uhm. Tim. I look weird. But thanks for all the love. :)

This little red squirrel (or chipmunk if you're Tim) would get way too close for my comfort level. In fact, I think he'd probably climb right on you!

I try to make a mental note just to smile when Tim's trying to take my picture for the gagillionth time, but this is what he gets instead.

Lunch again. Wow. These are really out of order...

Last one! My 1 - 2 Boys in the natural playground. Not really all that fun, but I get the point. Maybe if there were other kids to play with and he was a little older?

Adinrondacks- Day 2- Part 3

2010-07-14T09:00:00.002-04:00

I think I'm doing pretty good with my promise to be a better blogger, right? Does it still count if I do several of these in one day and just set it to auto-blog?

After we got back from the fort, we hung out at the beach for a while. We got a frozen pizza to eat and the evening was pretty easy.

Tim sized these pictures from his camera down a bit small I think, but here we go anyway...

Our beach! Obviously the floaty thing is supposed to be in the water, but the owner stopped by and explained that it had just been too cold to get it out there, so it worked as a nice landing pad anyways.

Schroon Lake.

The stairs back up to the road/cabin.

Egan was told to stay dry. But, not so much...

Yup. I'm huge.

This place a great showing of creepy moths. Here's one of the most normal looking kind.

Adirondacks- Day 2- Part 2

2010-07-13T08:48:00.000-04:00

We visited Fort Ticonderoga, which was a pretty imprtant battleground during the Revolutionary War. You'd have to ask someone else for the specifics, but that's what I think I remember. :)

The French defended the fort, and it's right on Lake Champlain. A lot of the signs (even road signs) in this area are in French. I've been a couple times to the fort, but this is the 1st time they've had the gardens open. Egan was a bit rambunctious for the entire visit, but I'm glad he got a chance to run around after so much time in the car.

Outside Perimeter.

Egan climbing up to see another cannon.

It's just so hard to get him to smile nice AND look at the camera...

Me reading up in my war history which I have completely forgotten now.

Egan was so cute running around putting his head in all of the cannons. We got some cute video that I'll put up if I ever get to it.

My 1 - 2 Boys.

This was the barracks for the artillery men. They fit them in like sardines!

The best we could get in the entranceway before...

This! Yup. He was a bit stir crazy. :)

Lake Champlain

Looking over the edge.

This big house was part of the gardens. It was used for a vacation retreat I think until steamboats died out and then there was not as much interest in this area.

Peeking around the doorway of the walled garden.

The entranceway from the fort side.

Exiting the other way. I LOVE tree-lined roads and driveways. I could barley get the camera to turn on at thos point, so not really a great shot, but we had fun walking back. Until Tim went and got the truck to haul my big but back up to the picnic area. :)

Adirondacks Vacation- Day 2- Part 1

2010-07-12T09:00:00.000-04:00

So, on our 1st day in the Adirondacks, we decided to jump in the car and drive some more... Okay, I know that sounds insane, so it's not really how it worked out. :) It had started raining for the last couple hours of our drive Saturday, and was supposed to be rainy again Sunday, so we decided to head out to a nearby fort to do some sightseeing.

Tim and Egan ran out that morning to the General Store that was maybe only1.5 miles from the cabin we had rented. We packed up some lunch and headed off. Luckily, Egan took a nap on the way there, so he was ready to run like a crazy person when we got there. :)

We're actually a bit short on pictures from this day because a certain un-named member of our family that's in charge of charging all batteries did not fulfill his duties. So, we took 2 cameras on our sightseeing adventure, but both had dead batteries before we even left the fort...

After the fort, we thought it would be fun to take the ferry that's right by the fort over into Vermont. We drove around a little, looked at all the cows, got some strawberries right from a farm and ate them, drove through a cute little college town, came back across another ferry while Egan slept, and then headed home.

Fort pictures tomorrow during Part 2, so here's just a few pictures from pre-fort.

The cabin. The side lawn worked out awesome for playing with Egan when it wasn't quite warm enough for the beach. The porch was a bit scary, but Egan did great staying away from the edge.

Walking down to show Egan the beach for the 1st time. We had our own private beach and never really saw anybody else except for a few kayakers and ducks when we were there.

I'm trying to catch up to Tim with the self-portraits?