Carter is a 5th grader!!!

Yesterday was Carter's 1st day of school. He is a big 5th grader this year and is very excited about being upstairs with the other upper grades. Since I work on Mondays, Jason took him over to school for his first day. Knowing that I wasn't going to be going over with him, I decided to just take some pictures of him at home before I left for work. Before leaving, I jokingly told Jason that he could be a good husband and take my camera with him and take lots of pictures for me. He laughed. But......being the awesome husband that he is, he realized how important it was to me to have pictures of Carter on his 1st day of school and took lots of them for me!!! To, once again quote Salt-N-Pepa......"What a man, what a man........what a mighty good man!!!!". :0)
Hope you enjoy the pictures!!!

Carter eating a good, healthy breakfast before his big 1st day of 5th grade.:0)

Decked out in his tie-dyed shirt and backpack.:0)

"Doorway to Learning":0)

Carter's 5th grade classroom

Carter standing next to his locker. He is, of course, SO EXCITED to have a locker this year!!!

Carter with his teacher, Mrs. Gizenski (sp??)

18 5th graders......YIKES!!!

Ready for his big day!!!!



We love you, Carter and we pray that you have a wonderful year in 5th grade!!!

Disney!!!

WOW!!! What an amazing vacation we had!!! My parents treated us to a wonderful Disney vacation to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary and my dad's 60th birthday. We spent 3 nights at Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort and spent time at Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, and Animal Kingdom. Then we boarded a Disney cruise ship for 4 glorious days at sea with stops at Nassau, Bahamas and Disney's own private island, Castaway Cay. We had an fabulous time and I have 400+ pictures to prove it!!! Instead of uploading them all to our blog, I put them into a album on Shutterfly. Just click on the link below to see them. ENJOY!!!

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=1BYsWbNw2ZOiA

Jack Funny:0)

We went to the 1st Annual Hannahstown Rd. Neighborhood party this evening and met a little girl from down the road named Hannah. She and Jack were climbing around on the playground and she said, "You can call me Hannah Banana.....that's one of my nicknames.". In response Jack said, "Um, yeah, and you can call me Apple!!!". Makes sense.:0)

"Whatch Readin', Daddy???"

Jack loves to sit next to Jason in the morning and look at the newspaper with him. It's a really sweet routine.....Jack watches Jason walk out to get the paper and then greets him at the door with a big, "Oh, Hi Daddy!!!. Then they sit at the table and "read" the paper together. Jack likes to say the letters in the headlines and Jason helps him sound them out. I love seeing Jason interacting with the boys...he's such a great Daddy!!!

"Wook (look) at all these wetters (letters), Daddy!!!"


Such deep concentration....must be some very riveting news this morning!!!

Exploring Pittsburgh

The boys and I had such a great time exploring the Strip District last Saturday morning with my friend. Leslie, who was visiting from out of town that we decided to make another trip down there this morning with Jason along this time. We got some good coffee at one of the cute, little cafes as well as some yummy goodies from The Biscotti Co. Then we just walked around and explored the shops and stores all along the strip. After we were done in the Strip District, we took a long drive through several really neat Pittsburgh neighborhoods including Lawrenceville (where the new children's hospital is located), Bloomfield, and Highland Park. The last stop on our morning journey around Pittsburgh was at Frankie's Hot Dog Shop which was first introduced to us by Pastor Barry when Jason and I first visited here over 6 years ago. We love exploring Pittsburgh and look forward to exploring all the places we haven't gotten to see yet!!!

Our Tour Guide:0)


Carter with his ever-present book.:0)

Really funny picture of The Stink. He has started leaning toward the camera when we take pictures of him so we have been getting a lot of blurry pictures lately.:0)

Me.:0)

Carter enjoying his HUGE cookie. Nothing like filling them up with sugar at 9am!!!

Jack enjoying his HUGE cookie.:0)

My 3 guys outside of the Pennsylvania Macaroni Co.

The boys walking down the sidewalk.

Checking out the fish in the tanks at Wholly's Fish Market.

Carter trying on a turkey hat at a cool little variety store that we went in.

Carter picked this hat out for me to try on.:0)

Front view of the Pennsylvania Macaroni Co. They have all kinds of great pastas, oils, breads, spices......pretty much anything Italian.

Frankie's!!!!

Mmmmm.........kielbasi!!!

Carter enjoying his footlong hot dog. Gotta love the big smudge of ketchup on his cheek.....what a boy!!!:0)

Jack doesn't care much for hot dogs but he dove right into his bag of chips.:0)