Special Visitors - Special Delivery

Around the beginning of the year, my uncle Rich asked if I had any projects for him. An avid and skilled woodworker, he has made my parents several items and crafted the Pottery Barn inspired toy shelves we have (and love) in Owen's room. I've been using a small book shelf in the family room for Owen's toys and books, but thought a bigger, sturdier one would be nifty, so I sent Rich some measurements, suggestions for paint color, and sat back to wait.

Several trips to Home Depot, two loads of wood, and one severed fingertip later (really), Owen's new toy and book storage unit extraordinaire (bookshelf just doesn't do this piece justice!) was delivered today by Rich and aunt Cathy. It's gorgeous! Big and roomy, it looks great in the room and holds almost all of Owen's toys. The name piece on top was a surprise touch and makes the whole thing extra special.

After lunch we all helped Owen dip Easter eggs for the first time. Uncle Rich was the color man and aunt Cathy handled stickers. Owen really seemed to enjoy it; especially when he discovered that if you banged two eggs together, they cracked!

Thanks for visiting Rich and Cathy, and thank you so much uncle Rich for the blood, sweat and tears that went into making Owen's piece - we love it! And I promise to let you off the hook on projects for a while.

OBX For Us

Last Thursday after gymnastics (in which Owen did GREAT!), I loaded the little guy into the car with a Backyardigans DVD and a bag of chips, and we made the looong drive to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. My friend Amy and her friend Cat had graciously invited us to join them for the weekend at a beautiful beach house in Duck, and with Bob out of town again, we couldn't resist.

Although weather wise it felt more like December than the first days of Spring, we had a great time - visiting an aquarium (where, typically, the kids got the biggest kick out of watching an otter poop), playing with Cat's adorable 3-month old puppy Quillo, digging in and climbing up the dunes on our one very windy, very chilly jaunt to the waters edge, and all the while laughing and playing with Amy's kiddos Joshua, Jackson and Madison.

As Joshua said many times "I love the beach house!". Oh yes, we did.

We Apologize for the Delay in Broadcasting

My sister has questioned if Facebook is now cutting into my blogging time. This may be true - after all I'm having so much fun reconnecting with high school and college friends - but it's also true that not much has been happening 'round here. Bob has been traveling, and Owen and I have been happily spending our days playing and running errands. And I'm not complaining a bit; sometimes "the same old, same old" is just fine. The first picture is my Facebook profile pic; not bad for setting the timer and grabbing Owen for an impromptu photo shoot.

Owen did have his first gymnastics class last week. It was quite the workout for mom too as at one point I had to jump into the foam block pit and convince Owen to keep moving along. He was having a blast playing with the blocks and just kicking back. The pit was pretty comfy (but kind of tough to climb out of!). He liked the balance beam and he loved climbing on all the mats, but he would have preferred a bit less, um, structure to what he could and couldn't do. We'll see how this week goes.

The story behind the rest of the pictures ... Owen has crazy hair, especially in the morning. So taking a tip from my friend Amy, I bought some detangler spray and use it to tame his cowlicks. When I tell him it's time to fix his hair, he runs to the bathroom and grabs the bottle of hand sanitizer foam and pretends to spray it on his head. Never fails to make me laugh.

We do have a mini adventure coming up so stayed tuned for more cute pics next week.

Spring Break with Sister

How lucky are we? Cearra chose Chez Mechem in windy Westminster over sunny, warm Cancun for the week! She even got to witness our biggest snow fall of the season.

So, in order for her to not (completely) regret her choice of Spring Break destinations, we keep busy. And started it off with a bang ... C's new car! She now has the sportiest Toyota in the family (not that my mom-van offers up much competition).


Of course Owen adores playing with his big sister, and he took full advantage of her presence with games of hide and seek, plenty of fun with stickers and cars and MagnaTiles, trying on her boots, and lots and lots of cuddling. We went to the big McDonald's play place, made sugar cookies, hit the bowling alley, and blew bubbles once it warmed up a bit outside.





On March 6th we celebrated my birthday with Chinese take out, Carvel ice cream cake, and lots of great gifts. My favorite by far was a card signed by Owen and Cearra; it's such a mom thing.


Nana and Pop-pop came down to help celebrate too. In (finally) spring worthy temperatures we headed to the local driving range where Bob and my dad hit balls and Cearra, my mom and I played miniature golf. Owen went back and forth between us; he did like the Sponge Bob yellow ball a lot!




On our last full day together we put yet another coat of primer on Cearra's bedroom walls (pics of her new room will follow once it's all put together again!), then visited the community duck pond and playground.



We are all really going to miss Cee-Cee!!

For Brave and Beautiful Belle

Belle and her daddy Mark (pre-shave!)

A wise person once said to me that when you become a mom yourself, you also become a mother to every child. I think it's true, because when my sister called two days before Christmas to tell me that her 2 year old niece had been diagnosed with leukemia, my heart just about broke.

Thankfully, Belle's leukemia is a kind that has a high survival rate, and so far the treatments seem to be doing the trick in wiping out the cancer cells. She's still got a tough and long road ahead, and our prayers are with her and her family everyday.

Of course chemo comes with some nasty, painful and well, just sad side effects. Belle has had to deal with them all, including having her shiny dark hair fall out in clumps. So, in solidarity with Belle (and ultimately in support of all kids with childhood cancers), her dad and uncles have decided to participate in a fundraiser and shave their heads on March 14.

Please take a minute to visit www.stbaldricks.org, click on the Find A Participant tab to search for Jeff Mommaerts (Belle's uncle and my brother-in-law), and if you wish, make a donation. And then hug your child(ren) no matter how young or old and be thankful for their health.

Those Darn Stickers Acting Up Again

(yes, we play with stickers quite often these days!)

I Miss You Nana

One of my favorite memories ... when Nana first met Owen.