anthony's 1st boo-boo

ok, well, not actually the first boo-boo, but john said the others didn't count because a real boo-boo produces blood...which this one did. anthony gets in these moods where he just floats around in his own little world oblivious to what's going on around him. this was one of those days as he got out of the car and was walking towards the house and just fell over...out of no where on a sidewalk he's walked on a million times. knowing how he is i turned around and told him to "get up and shake it off - you're a big boy"...well he stood up and that's when i noticed the blood. how a child can fall straight down and yet skin his knee like he was dragged across a cement walkway i'll never know. but instantly i felt like a horrible mama and scooped him up to run in the house to play nurse! he sat like such a good boy on the toilet as i cleaned out the boo-boo with water and then hydrogen-peroxide (he barely winced - what a big boy!) and then topped it off with some first-aid cream and a sesame street bandaid. my memories of being little and sitting in the bathroom at orchard court flooded back...it's funny how as i experience these things with anthony, it takes me back to my childhood days but now suddenly i was the reassuring mom making everything better!

corinne's baby shower

today was corinne's turn for surprises! we threw a baby shower for her at my mom and dad's house. all of her friends and our families were there to celebrate and shower her, dave and harrison with gifts! chip hartzell and his wife kathy outdid themselves again with the food and as you can see from the pictures we all had a great time! she immediately went home and put everything in it's place! the nursery is complete...ok, well almost complete...all we need is that darn baby!

happy 30th birthday to me!!

wow - where to start! john and my sister surprised me with a party in honor of my 30th! i was expecting to help my sister at a neighborhood party only to show up and find a few of my friends and family there waiting in the front yard to surprise me and celebrate with me. it was a total shock and wonderful surprise! john even fessed up that he wasn't working late last night as i had thought and was actually at my sister's helping her and dave set up/prepare for today. a big thank you to everyone involved and who came! it really meant a lot to have you all there!

deep creek lake 07.21-07.25.07

we had a blast at the lake! the weather was perfect and the spirits (including Mike-a-ritas) were high! we enjoyed several days of boating, sunning, tubing and hot tubbing! oh, and how can we forget the great food and snackies as well as the bucket of margaritas with waaaay too much tequila (is there such a thing?) they even got me out on the tube! anthony enjoyed his first official boat ride (i don't think you could really count "it's a small world" as a boat ride) and tube ride and loved it! so much so that all his nana's, mimi's and poppop's might just have to pitch in for a boat! hint, hint! oh and would the lake house to go with it be too much to ask too? he didn't even mind wearing his life vest which was great - very colorful! we got to enjoy the company of gary's family a few evenings - it was nice to see all those we haven't seen for a while and to meet those we hadn't yet! missie - i still need that onion dip recipe and keith - the whoopie pie one too! enjoy our slideshow of the pictures from the trip! sorry there are no leftovers to share!

10 days to go but who has time to count...

call me childish, but the countdown has begun until my birthday! and while you all may laugh at me, anyone who knows me knows just how crazy i am about my birthday! things have changed only the very slightest bit with maturity and becoming a parent, but i still get as excited as a 5 year old on christmas day! i haven't really had too much time to get excited though as we are very busy preparing to leave for vacation on saturday. we are headed to deep creek lake in western maryland with john's side of the family...12 of us in all. 12 must be the number for family vacations this year as when we went to disney in february it was 12 of us total from my side of the family. hmmm - how funny! the picture above is the house...yup - right on the lake. just follow all the stairs to the bottom and you're there. everyone's decided just to roll down, it's a lot faster. we're just wondering how the heck to get the car down there to get all of us back up to the house. we'll also be enjoying a pontoon boat that they've rented for the week as well. nope - that's not us on the boat yet - this is a picture similiar to the boat we'll be using. i will post more about the trip when we return on wednesday evening (we're heading back early - not enough vacation time to spend the whole week). it'll also give the family a chance to enjoy some time without anthony saying, "mama, keys, car, da, boat" over and over and over...and over and over and over again!

date night...

after our weekend at the beach got changed, john and i still took advantage of a date day/night. we had lunch and poked around the shops of kitchen kettle village for the afternoon. stopped by our favorite campground, oak creek to book sites for this fall (http://www.oakcreekcamp.com/) and just enjoyed an afternoon of no rushing around for once. then we headed to panda heaven to enjoy some sushi before going to the movies (first one since anthony was 2 weeks old) to see the die hard 4 movie: live free or die hard. not having seen the first 3 die hard movies, i didn't know what to expect, but i like bruce willis and love my husband, so i thought , what the heck! well, now i'm hooked and want to see the first 3! it was an excellent movie. kept my attention (which was hard to do as we went to the 10 p.m. showing), but i stayed awake and couldn't wait to talk to john about it afterwards! with as much fun as the both of us had on our date, if you'd ask either of us who the conversation focused on much of the evening, both of our responses would be anthony d! we really miss the little guy when he's not around, but know too, how important it is to sneak these little dates in here and there for us!

berks homes company picnic @ the r-phils

another year, another fun summer company picnic!! john's company picnic for the last several years has been held at the reading phillies picnic pavilion. this year's event was moved to a friday so no one had to worry about waking up and heading to work after a long, fun evening at the ballpark. this year's event also included the post game fireworks. it was so much fun and we got to see a lot of the families of john's co-workers we wouldn't get to see throughout the year. we always enjoy mingling with their spouses/significant others at the company christmas party, but it's always nice to see all the kids having fun with each other. anthony was such a good boy, but as you can see in some of the pictures, was also a very sleepy boy towards the end. he doesn't want to ever miss a thing, and hung in like a trooper til the fireworks started, then dozed off and slept through the loud booms til it was over. he was awake for the trip to the car and then was out before we were 2 blocks from the stadium. yes, in true christy style, he was dressed to the 9's for the occasion in his phillies gear! included are some pics of the lutz and frey families. mike and heath started as co-workers of john but have become good friends of ours outside of work now as well!! hope everyone has a great weekend!