say cheese...

every year at this time, we get anthony's pictures taken to use on christmas cards and to give to family when we gather at christmas. i have spent $100's on pictures at picture people and portrait innovations each year (this is the 4th year now) and every year they look the same (don't get me wrong...they've always been good)...but this year i wanted something different.

so, we enlisted the assistance of mattie horning (john's boss' daughter) whose going to school for photography. her talent, along with a beautiful setting (the horning's home) made for the best photos we've ever had taken of anthony...i couldn't be more excited. picking the photos to be used on the card was extremely difficult, but i did it (that's for a later post) and this year, each family member will be picking which photos they want printed out because i am having too much trouble deciding.

here are two of my favorite...

and two of john's favorites...

here is a collage of some of the other pictures she took too...

and a link to the rest of the photos. you'll notice there are some funny ones of tony wearing glasses sitting at a desk and in a chair with a lap top...these would be john's boss' glasses and laptop and desk area - mattie and her mom thought it was be funny - i agreed of course - to make tony into a "mini-lavern" for some of the pictures...it also helped to really loosen him up for the rest of the photos...he was a regular ham then coming up with his own posing.

thanksgiving 2008

on wednesday, november 26, i got to enjoy thanksgiving lunch with tony at his school...it was really cute. they made centerpieces for the tiny tables and we enjoyed a meal of turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, bread and butter and pudding for dessert. it was really cute and i was once again thankful that i have a job that allows me to leave and spend that time with him.


i then had to bake two pies for thanksgiving dinner the next day...i now present to you the very first and second pies i've ever made in my life...top: pumpkin, bottom: cherry crumb...

i hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving!!!

yeah, i'm a slacker...

wow - it's been a while and so much has happened since my quickie post about molly. i will now attempt to catch up on a few things that occured over the past few weeks.

november 16, 2008 - holy baptism of troy michael good

shannon and mike asked john and i to be troy's godparents and we accepted with honor! it was a beautiful day and troy was very good during the baptism. we shared a nice lunch following at anthony's trattoria and ate some yumm-o food. it was a nice time. here are a few pictures...



here is a link to view the rest of the pictures from that day...

november 23, 2008 - tony and harry

john has been busy at corinne and david's laying hardwood flooring in their dining room and living room-turned office-because the office-is-turned-playroom. tony helped out on saturday afternoon. we decided to spend the night so that john could get a head start first thing in the morning and i got some cute pictures of tony and harry pretending to help lay the floor.

here is a link to more pictures from that day...

and another link to some tony, molly and abby pictures (and some funny ones t and i took of ourselves)...

blessings

hoping you and your families have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

we are truly blessed to have friends and family like you all!

lots of updating to come (troy's baptism, more tony, abby and molly pics).
i hope to catch up on friday...stay tuned!

meet molly...

hello...

i'm molly...

this little boy is really excited...i'm not sure how i feel just yet...

let me check things out here...

ok...this might not be so bad...

i might be able to get used to this...

snoozing soundly...check out those ears!!

speaking of snoozing...and check out those eyelashes!!

the meeting of abby and molly went really well. abby is going to have to get used to not being "in charge" any more (like she ever was - we just let her thinks she was). at this moment (2 hours after molly arrived), abby (by the coffee table), molly (in her bed) and tony (in his bed) are all sleeping...and speaking of that...i'm off to bed too.

we fully expect that we might have a night of little sleep not unlike those most parents of newborns go through...unfortunately tony d spoiled us first time parents rotten and has slept through the night beginning at birth in the hospital and i can count on one hand the times we got up for middle of the night feedings, so this could be new to us. wish us luck!

oh, and stephen...i hope you're reading this and seeing that molly is doing fine...she definitely misses you (and was very vocal in letting us know that). know that you are welcome to visit us anytime you're home and in the area!! we can't thank you enough for allowing us the opportunity to provide a (new) loving home for her! we promise to take excellent care of her!

man, you look good for 80!!

1928

2008

happy birthday to the "big cheese" himself...mickey turns 80 today!!!

wish i were there to celebrate with you...sniff, sniff.

it all began with a mouse...

mickey mouse was born in walt disney's imagination early in 1928 on a train ride from new york to los angeles. walt was returning with his wife from a business meeting at which his cartoon creation, oswald the rabbit, had been wrestled from him by his financial backers. only 26 at the time and with an active cartoon studio in hollywood, walt had gone east to arrange for a new contract and more money to improve the quality of his oswald pictures. the moneymen declined, and since the character was copyrighted under their name, they took control of it. " . . . so i was all alone and had nothing," walt recalled later. " mrs. disney and i were coming back from new york on the train and i had to have something i could tell them. i've lost oswald so, i had this mouse in the back of my head because a mouse is sort of a sympathetic character in spite of the fact that everybody's frightened of a mouse including myself" walt spent the return train ride conjuring up a little mouse in red velvet pants and named him " mortimer," but by the time the train screeched into the terminal station in los angeles, the new dream mouse had been rechristened. walt's wife, lillian, thought the name " mortimer" was too pompous and suggested " mickey." a star was born!

new addition...

so it looks like the brumbaugh's aren't the only ones that will be getting a new addition to their family...

the d'angelo's will be welcoming a new addition as well!! ok, back off..nope i'm not preggers (ha! less than 3% chance...if i had luck like that, i'd be in vegas not berks county!)...

nope, we'll be welcoming a new furry baby on tuesday 11/18...an adorable 2 year old female bassett hound named molly. she's coming from a (related by marriage) family member who is in the service, needs to find a home for her (and her 2 siblings, a rottweiler and a beagle - unfortunately, we aren't in a position - or the right house - to take in 3 new dogs plus the one we have)...but, please let me know if you know of someone who can take in 1 or 2 dogs. i can give you specifics about each.

here's a quick picture although i'm sure you'll be bored to death with more pictures of her after she gets settled in with her soon to be big furry sister abby and new "real boy" brother tony!

just got the call...

i just got off the phone with corinne after her big u/s today...looks like harry is getting a baby brother! name yet to be determined. congratulations corinne, dave and harry!

schaeffer '08

my beautiful friend luci's amazing blog has been nominated for a "love this site" award in the relationships category on the site divinecaroline. if you haven't checked her blog out yet, it's a definite must read as she walks you through her life as a wife and mother of 2. her blog is the story of their life with an autistic son and all the joy and saddness that comes with it. you can check out her blog here and vote for her blog by clicking on the button on the side bar to the right. you won't be sorry you did!!

update 11/14: luci was kind enough to think that the d'angelo blog was worthy of the award as well, so if you agree...click here or on the button on the side bar to the right to vote for our blog too! thanks luc!

announcing...

the most recent set of announcements i've done...a set of baby announcements for a co-worker of john (their last name has been blurred to protect their privacy)...

his nursery is done in a construction theme using these colors. i couldn't be happier with the outcome...hope the new mom and dad like them as much!

happy birthday tony d!

tony d. was up bright and early to start his birthday! 6:45 a.m. and we felt him crawl in bed with us...he laid quietly for about another 1/2 hour before he finally lost his patience and wanted to open his present.

john and i (after much discussion) decided on a cabbage patch kid for anthony. he has become obsessed with "caring" for babies to the point where he'll carry around the strangest things (ie: napkins) saying they're his babies, "feeding" them, "changing" them, etc. john's only stipulation was that it was a boy baby. can i just tell you the premium i had to pay to obtain a boy cabbage patch doll? can you say about $40 more than the girls? ridiculous and the reason behind only 1 gift this year from mama and daddy (plus the party)...he didn't care.

let me introduce you to duncan bertram...

funny thing...when i ordered the cpk, i wasn't able to read the name of him online, so to my surprise (and excitement) when he arrived and i read his name, tony's baby's middle name(bertram) was the name of my first boy cpk when i was growing up. i was extremely excited about this and knew this was a sign that we had made a right choice in his present!

tony was really excited about his new "baby"!

after our present opening in bed this morning, we headed off for church. tony had a special "shout out in the bulletin" for his birthday and pastor amy even mentioned him and asked his "new age" during the children's circle this morning.

after church (and a quick nap for t), we headed off to his favorite restaurant, sebastiano's, where we met up with 30 of our friends and family to celebrate tony's big day.

after enjoying chicken parm w/angel hair pasta or baked ziti, salad bar and garlic bread, we all dug into the yummy cake! thanks nee nee!

tony had no complaints!

i'm pretty sure everyone had a good time. we couldn't have asked for tony to be in a better mood than he was. even with all the people and presents and sugar, he was on his best behavior!

after leaving the restaurant and heading home, the next two hours were filled with him playing with every single toy he received...i'm not kidding you...aside from trying on the clothes he received, he played. with. everything.

for a complete look at his day, click here for his birthday photo album!

november 9 - 11:32 a.m.

happy birthday tony d,
what a big boy you've grown to be

you're funny, smart and so much fun,
it's hard to remember when you were just one

you read books, play games and watch tv,
play with toys, go camping, act like a mini-me

each day is an adventure, each day is a gift
and the way you keep growing, you've become too heavy to lift

we miss our sweet baby, we miss our tiny boy
but the big boy you've become brings us such joy

we are thankful to Him for allowing us to be
the parents you love and are happy to see

we love you each morning, each night when you sleep
and we'll love you forever, that promise we'll keep!

mama and daddy love you duder!! happy 3rd birthday!

super cheers!

as if arriving at my aunt and uncle's house for dinner wasn't surprise enough for anthony...he was totally excited when we walked into the club box and headed towards our seats and the announcement came overhead "welcome to disney on ice"!! his little face lit up and he said "we're at disney!!!". it was very cute and i can't believe we managed to pull off the surprise!

here's tony the minute he found out where we were and what/who we were about to see...

the main "men" we were there to see...

we had really good seats (thanks again aunt cathy) and i was able to get some good shots like this one...

to view the other pictures i took...click here or view the slide show below (this includes video clips i took of the show as well).

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com