A few more shots from North Conway

Greg took us on a super short hike ( mostly a drive) up to Cathedral Ledge. Here is Keira and I on the ledge.

It was pretty cold up there as you can see....

Here is Mike climbing the ledge- he said he preferred to get some exercise and would rather climb than drive :o)

Another view of the Ledge.

My brother Greg, Keira and I on the Ledge.
I forgot to mention that there wasn't as much foliage as we had hoped for. Despite the foliage predictor maps telling us this area of the state would be peak foliage- there was more color up here than back in Manchester but not that much. The record breaking 90 heat we had last Wednesday probably didn't help much either. I think if I remember right trees need the crisp cold fall weather to help the leaves change color.

Views of Northern NH

Here some views from North Conway.

shopping at the outlets

So for those of you don't live in NH... We went to North Conway yesterday to visit my brother Greg who works as a lawyer up there. Anyways North Conway is in the valley of the White Mountains (we will show you some pics) and its also known for all the great outlet stores there. So went shopping around the outlets for a few hours. We found some great deals in a kitchen store and also at Baby Gap (where we bought kids clothes for 47 and 97 cents a piece) and Children's place where we bought tights for Keira for 19cents each and clothes for 99 cents. Better than yard sale prices. :o)

Some of you know that Mike has an obsession ( yes another obsession) with going to every Lowes and Home Depot store he can. Every time we go somewhere if he sees a Home Depot we have to go in "just to look"- because its not a chain or anything and they aren't all the same or anything. So in North Conway there was a Home Depot in walking distance of the outlets.. so here we are going to the Home Depot 2 hours north of us.

some random photos

Tomorrow we are headed for North Conway for the day. We are going to visit my brother and hopefully take in some beautiful fall foliage. So we hope to have some great pics to show you all. :o) and we are praying that Keira sleeps the 2 hours there and the 2 hours back.

I am forcing myself to learn how to use Mike's super duper camera- So I apologize for the blurry shots-- I am slowly figuring it out. It has too many buttons for me to handle.

Our new street ( in progress)

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Here they are- paving the street yesterday- it was scorching hot at 90 degrees out and humid.

What goes on in our house before bed....

Well as most of your know or don't know Mike HATES spiders. Most people hate spiders - but Mike REALLY hates spiders. He feels like spiders exist to stalk him and show up in his life at random times and drive him crazy. Well last night as we were getting ready for bed I saw that a teeny tiny spider had made a little web on my dresser between my alarm clock and my make-up basket. Mike was in the bathroom brushing his teeth and I casually informed him that he would have to be a man and do the husbandly thing of getting rid of the spider.














Here he is killing the spider- notice the gloved hand.















He killed the spider, then put the paper towel with the spider remains in a plastic grocery bag- then took the bag outside the the garbage cans. :o)















Then he had to do a spider check to make sure there weren't any other spiders lurking in our bedroom waiting to disrupt our sleep. He did a quick check of our room and went back to brushing and flossing his teeth. Being that he isn't a woman he lacks our keen eyesight, he missed a few spiders in the corners. I of course had to let him know this - he then donned his gloved and went around the room killing the spiders in the corners.















ohhh I think I see another one!!

Gotcha!!!!

Then he informed me that I need to do a better job cleaning and if I had cleaned better we wouldn't have any spiders. RIGHT. Because no one has spiders in their house in the fall.... Ohh and of course he said we need to "bomb" our house to kill all the bugs. I try to remind him that spiders are good to have because they kill all the other bugs but he wasn't buying that logic.

Looks like things are getting fixed finally!

So, these are the pictures taken during the last rainstorm. This is the same storm where the engineer from Manchester said we were getting 3 "catch basins". Well...they installed the catch basins and now we have a place for rain to go (instead of pooling in the street).

Yesterday they came and tore up our street. Instead of just paving over the top of our street, they decided to do it right and tear all the way down to the dirt and then put new asphalt down. Of course we will take pictures when it is finished because I know that all of your are DYING to know what it will look like having never seen a freshly paved street before.

How Nabisco is duping us!

Before I start my reason for this post, Tanya has been a little distraught lately for another reason (as Nabisco duping us doesn't seem to bother her). She knows that some people are reading the Blog, but alas, only 1 or 2 people actually post comments. This has caused her to feel that perhaps nobody is actually reading the blog and has her questioning on whether she should continue or not. So, if you want Tanya to continue posting, please comment once in awhile to let her know that it is being read.

I remember when I was young and my mother went grocery shopping on Saturdays. When she got home, the 6 boys (including my dad) would ransack the bags to see what she purchased for snacks – often causing chaos and crushed groceries. After finding the 1-2 snacks that she purchased, the finder would quickly open up and annihilate the snacks they found. My mom would complain, in vain, that the snacks were supposed to last a week. Or that the snacks were for our lunches or some other trite reason that we would all ignore. What she was able to do was sneak goodies past us so that we would, indeed, have something for our school lunches.

The few times that my mom purchased Oreo DoubleStuf® cookies, it was great because all of us would be able to enjoy the cookies. Even though the finder was able to finish off an entire package of cookies, there wasn’t enough time to do it before everyone else would see and then jump on top of the finder for the cookies. It was MAYHEM.

Now, I know what you are thinking and you are wrong! DoubleStuf®s are not just an Oreo®, they have twice as much crème filling; therefore, making them twice as good as a regular Oreo®. They have the right ratio of crème to cookie. Now Nabisco® has done some amazing things with Oreo®s over the years that they now have over 45 varieties including:

• Cakesters (ala whoopee pies)
• Winter with Red Crème
• Pure White Fudge Covered
• Golden Original
• Chocolate Mini Bite Size
• Halloween Orange Crème
• Spring Purple Crème
• Oreo with Organic Flour and Sugar
• Milk Chocolate Covered Mint
• Pie Crust
• Ice Cream Cones
• Duo Vanilla and Chocolate
• Uh-Oh with Chocolate Crème
• DoubleStuf® with Chocolate Crème
• Double Delight Chocolate Mint’N Crème

But alas, I am here to lodge my complaint. My dad (and others) has always said that when he was young, the DoubleStuf®s actually had twice as much crème filling. He said that the Oreo®s my mom had been purchasing would actually be considered single stuff or regular Oreo®s.

Well, I always thought how great it would have been to have twice as much crème filling. I even took 2 DoubleStuf® cookies and made a QuadStuf just to see what it would have been like…and it was a delight!

Have you been in the grocery store lately? If you are female, probably yes for grocery shopping; but if you are male, then probably only for snacks/beer/etc… Well, this should really strike to the heart of everyone that reads this. Next time you are there, or you may have already noticed, take a walk down the cookie aisle. As you approach the Oreo DoubleStuf®s, prepare yourself for some mischievous marketing. The first thing you will notice is the packaging of course. It is no longer transparent where you can see what is contained inside. You have to trust them when they say they are DoubleStuf®.

But be forewarned that I have recently noticed that there isn’t as much crème as there was when my mom used to purchase these decadent snacks. Even though they have decreased the amount of crème sandwiched between the 2 chocolate cookies, the number of cookies are staying constant (less crème=more space for cookies) and the price has gone up.

If this is twice as much creme filling as the regular Oreo®s, then it frighten and sickens me to think about the sliver of creme available in the regular Oreo®s now. Can you even see creme in there? Ohh...the humanity!!

So...do us all a favor and stop buying Nabisco® Oreo® DoubleStuf® until they fix this grave mistake.

Way too Happy!

No one should be this happy, but alas, Keira seems to have REALLY enjoyed her 4 hours outside yesterday as she is laughing like crazy.

Keira laughing at Daddy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mdVMohTlDQ
Keira laughing at Daddy (but distracted by the camera): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjoSMPYXjno

Apples and...

Pumpkins

Today was gorgeous fall weather. 80 degrees, sunny and breezy. Maybe they are right about Global Warming. I have never picked pumpkins when it was 80 degrees out, but I guess everyone had the same idea because the place was packed. We had lots of fun and Keira was talking the whole time (or at least babbling).
Here is Mike and Keira with a cotton candy pumpkin. ( That is really what they are called.)




We picked Apples and Pumpkins. The place we went to has a huge farm stand/general store. Keira was kind enough to spit up all over the apple tasting table. Thankfully no one was paying attention and a pack of paper towels was quickly used by Mike to clean up the mess.


She also marked her favorite pumpkin...ala puking on it. Because we all know she only pukes on things she loves.

My first......

SHOES!!!

yeah I know.... its a lame post. Our life has been rather uneventful lately. Keira has been a little bit fussy and not eating much.. We think she is teething- But the experts say babies can teeth for months before they actually get any teeth so who knows.

Yesterday I ventured out and took her to Mass at 6 pm. She was pretty good- although if I hadn't had a pacifer I am sure I would have had to leave...and I think as soon as she wakes up from her morning nap I am going to take her to the library so I can get something new to read. I know- wow I lead such an exciting life.

ohhhh we looked through the pics from Mike's birthday- There aren't actually any pics of Mike.. and the few that he took didn't turn out so well- so I doubt we will post any of those pics.

Tomorrow- weather permitting we are going to go pumpkin picking and apple picking and make and pie so hopefully we will get some cute pics of that.

Keira's new toy

Mike's sister and brother in law are lending us their Jolly jumper. Keira loves it so far- but I don't think she has realized that she can jump up and down in it. So far she has only figured out that she can twirl around in swing back and forth. It kept her entertained for 5 whole min so I could brush my teeth this morning. They also gave us their exersaucer to try out- but we haven't tried it yet.

The last of the cukes- and other non exciting news

Yesterday as I was cleaning out the cucumber plants I found this long lost cuke that was hidden in the tall grass- Hence its plumpness- And of course I had to put all these teeny tiny baby cukes in too because they are just so teeny tiny... hence I guess that makes them interesting. :o)














Mike being the genius that he is put Keira in the stroller without the car seat- so she was sitting up and facing forward. She LOVED it- she can see out now- Here she is last night as we got ready to go for a walk- She babbled and "talked " the whole time!!!
In other news today is Mike's 26th Birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKIE!!! :o)
We are having a little spaghetti and meatball dinner party ( his meal choice) with his parents and family tonight. We will post some pics tomorrow.
As I am sure you have noticed we are playing around with the look of the blog... Not sure if it will stay this way or not..... opinions please!!!
Tanya

Monday

Well the weekend is over already. Here are some pics from yesterday- This pic has nothing to do with this post... I just think its cute.. :o)










And here is Keira sleeping while I write this.. For some reason the couch is so much more comfy than her crib...










Saturday we traveled up to Warner to clean/do yardwork at my Dad's house since he is in Wyoming till Christmas. We stopped at our friend's house to pick up some more rocks for our ongoing front yard lanscaping project. Mike's was nice enough to dig me yet another flower bed- going from the pathway to the mailbox.