Ho Ho Ho 

Merry Christmas 

Note to Blog Viewers

Just a note to blog viewers, I have removed the setting that made you have to be a registered user in order to leave comments. I have left the password verification on, that way there aren’t spam comments left on the blog. I hope that will help with any problems any of you may have been experiencing in the past trying to post comments.

Halloween Tradition
Here Laura starts her first of two pumpkins that she would carve. Maddy is eating her "sketti" as mom scoops out the innards of the pumpkin.

The Girls All Dressed Up
Here is Kayla and Maddy ready to go Trick or Treating. Kayla is a wonderfully dressed gypsy, with some help from Noni (never send a dad out to get the right attire - I didn't have any luck finding what was needed.) And Maddy was a witch - of course she did not like the man dressed like a pig while we were out trick or treating.

The Ham is Served
Unfortunately I only have one picture of the girls at Thanksgiving, here's the ham, usually we have turkey?? A good trip to Connecticut to Aunt Joann's and Uncle Felix's for the family tradition.


Olivia Turns Five
Here's the girls at Olivia's fifth birthday party, hard to believe its been five years already. I remember it like it was yesterday that Susan was heading to the hospital on Thanksgiving. We rushed to the wrong hospital, then still made it to the correct one in time to find out about Liv.

October Fest

Finally the rain stopped and it was time for the annual tradition of pumpkin picking and apple picking. We ventured out to Johnson's Farm in Medford. Grammy (Jeanne), Poppy (Victor), Olivia, and Kira Jill made the trip with us as well.

Madelyn finally was able to get her hayride and Kira experienced picking apples off the tree. The farm was wonderful, they had a band playing, food, a lot of pumpkins, and great apple trees.

Following the day away from work on the house, one of the remaining finishing touches on the basement happened....winter pool parties!

And here's Noni's new residence...she has it up and running, everything in place. Looking good!

Keeping busy....

Paneling is up...trim is up...of course trying to match a stain to the color of the paneling was impossible. After three trips to Home Depot, the decision was made to paint it. Ended up looking very good though, even though I was against the painting.



In other family news, Mary Ellen (aka Noni and Mom) is now an Ocean County resident, now residing in lovely Ocean Acres only blocks away. Although after being there last night, I don't think we will be having a pool party just yet...its a bit too green, but we'll get that straightened out.

Love the hammer drill!

Love the hammer drill!

Finished drop ceiling, for a couple of amatuers that never did a drop ceiling, I think it came out really nice.

And now we have started to put a little paneling up over some of the old sheetrocked walls. It's really coming along and looking pretty good...of course that is my opinion.

Continued progress on the basement

This past weekend, Laura and I finished the drop ceiling in our basement. Pretty nice accomplishment I believe, and it came out looking really good. I still have a little electrical work to do, throw some paneling over the sheetrock and then get the pool table set up. I'll post some other pics of the basement as it comes along. We hope to have it all completed by the weekend! (Of course there will always be more projects)

And...summer is over, we closed the pool last night.

Well, now completed one more step in getting our basement habitable. Laura led the team of the two of us in getting the rest of the drop ceiling done in half of the basement. Now we have prepped the other area to be done, just have to get some more energy to get moving and finish it. Then the pool table and TV and bar can be moved in.















Here's other shots I found from the the past to put up here...This is Maddy with our neighbors on the 4th of July (Mr. and Mrs. Hay as Maddy says, really Sean and Margaret Fay.)









Here's Kayla, getting a chance to ride the jet skit on the 4th as well.









And here is Samson, relaxing in his tent that Maddy painted just for him. This is usually a safe spot for him to avoid Sadie (the dog)









And lastly for today, a picture of Laura and I at the last Phish concert. Still hard to believe that she would go to something like that as much as she dislikes the band...but we went and had a great time!

To the left is Marley...he's a Hahn's Macaw. Cute little guy, can get loud, but working on getting him talking more.

Below is the dragon ROAR!(also known as Maddy)














Here's Laura, Maddy, and Aunt Kathy on the Cape.













And there's a shot of the little ones in the pool, usually the best place to find them this past summer.

Here's my girls, whom without I don't know where I'd be! : )

Starting this to keep up with the life of times of the Nut House on Sextant Road.

Here's Kayla on her first day of school, now in 4th grade! Beside her stands her usually faithful sidekick/sister/partner-in-crime Maddy.

More to come...