First real sledding day

This Christmas Eve, Sapphie had her first real sledding day. Of course we took her out last year, but only on the golf course (no hills, just flat). She loved it but was still too little to go on any hills. Here she is being towed by Kevin last year:

She had a blast and loved wearing her sunglasses!

This year, on Friday (Christmas Eve), I put her in the backpack and we went over to the golf course to walk the dogs. Honestly, it hadn't even occurred to me to bring the sled since there's no way I can pull it (34 weeks pregnant and a sore back), and I like having her in the backpack so she can see everything that I see. She still insists on wearing her sunglasses. And refuses to wear mittens.


As soon as we got there, I hear the shrieks of joy coming from the gigantic sledding hill and point out to Sapphie all of the kids sledding down the hill. "See kids!" She yelled. I told her we would go later, after our walk. So we did a loop on the course, then turned around and the whole way back, she asked if we could go watch the kids. We went over to the hill and she wanted to get out, but I hadn't put her boots on (she was wearing her slippers)! What was I thinking? I'm going through a huge learning curve during this switch from baby to toddler. I forget that she wants to do everything we do, not just sit there with her cute booties on! So Kev ran home and got her boots, but while he was gone she said she wanted to go sledding. So she and I headed home to get her sled, and met daddy in the driveway. He took her in our back yard on the ledge which is pretty steep! She LOVED it. Here's the video:

Bathroom Rehab

I've recently decided that I need to go into each room in the house, identify the things I absolutely hate about the room or what's in it, and write it down so that I can have a goal to fix it. I don't know why it is, but I have a bad habbit of getting used to things the way they are, and not realizing how simple it is to make a few adjustments that will make me really happy with my house. Do you do that? I don't think it's laziness, it's just hard to identify what needs to change in your own house unless you really make an effort. Anyway, the first room I tackled our guest bathroom, and, this weekend, I re-did it! I was inspired by a mirror that Kevin's parents just gave us. This gave me the perfect vision, and now it's come to life! The greatest part is that we didn't have to do new floors or a new vanity (which we'd love to do but it's not in the budget). Just some paint, some new hardware, and a beautiful mirror, and it looks amazing.

Here are the "before" pictures

And now, look! I love the guest loo!

Fall Frenzy

Hmmm. What can I say about the absolute deliquency of my blogging? Uh...we've been...busy. Yeah, that's it. Here, I'll show you what we've been up to the last few months!

Here's Sapphie playing chef at Ruby's house. She has really gotten into helping in the kitchen, and being the mummy to her dollies and stuffed toys.

Snuggling with Sylvester, Kevin's doll from when he was little!

Reading with Uncle Ollie

Helping Daddy walk the dogs


Oh yeah, and Kristen got married!! I love this picture of her

Kissing a monkey in Newport, RI

Walking down the aisle with mummy

A visit to Shelburne Farms

And we had a visit from the Manguals! It was such a great time. We went apple picking at Shelburne Orchards. Julia kept Sapphie in line.

Walking with Lukey

Sleeping with her new doggie that John gave her. She loves him!



And, last weekend, we carved our first Halloween pumpkins! Sapphie was scared of them when the lights were off, but when it was light she would run up to them and say "hello!"

There is so much new with Sapphie. I don't even know where to start! She loves to count. She says "one, two, three, four, NINE!! Two." It's hilarious. She is also totally obsessed with babies, both real ones and dollies. She hugs and kisses them, sleeps with them, eats with them sitting next to her (and yes, she tries to feed them), and takes them everywhere she goes. It's really funny. She also likes to bathe them and change their diapers. Her second favorite thing? The dogs. They are her best buddies and it is so cute to watch her play. If she's drawing, she puts out paper and crayons for the dogs too. She cleans their ears, rides them like horsies, and feeds them any food she doesn't want to eat. She's also talking all the time. Some really cute things she says: every night, when I put her to bed, I tell her I love her. Then she says "daddy love you? Babot (that's Cabot) love you? Coopy love you?" And I say "yes, we all love you." And she says "otay". Then she goes to sleep. If there's someone else on her mind, she'll ask me if they love her too.
She says her own name: Sassie. It's so cute! And she's starting to understand ownership with toys. She says "mine", and if another child tries to take it away she yells "no!"
For some reason, she's always asking if strange things have a nuk (that's a pacifier). She'll say "moon nuk?" "doggie nuk?"...she wants to know if they suck their thumb or have a nuk. I tell her they suck their thumb, then she puts her thumb in her mouth.
She loves to go to church because she gets to play with the babies in the nursery. She loves to go to Yoga so she can play with all the babies while the moms do yoga.
Whenever she wakes up in the morning, she plays in her bed for at least an hour. She makes such a racket in there playing with all her dolls and stuffed toys. She talks to them and often throws them overboard. When we walk in, she yells "all done night-night!"
When Kevin tells her no, she comes yelling "mummy mummy!" as if I'm going to save her. It's so funny. She loves the itouch and plays lots of baby games (spelling, animal sounds, etc) on it. I think she actually knows how to use it better than I do...
I think that's it for an update! Lots to tell. I'll try to post more frequently from now on. Happy fall!!

Maine Vacation

We've just had an amazing long weekend in Maine. We had planned this family vacation - Kevin, Sapphie and I, plus Penelope and Colin, and Hannah and Isaac - about 3 months ago. Brian was going to be in town so he came too! We had so much fun. We Wall sisters used to live in Maine, and we hadn't been back to Boothbay Harbor in over 20 years! It was just as beautiful as we remembered it, and some of our favorite places were still in business. Number one, the taffy shop, Downeast Candies, where they make homemade taffy the old fashion way and it just melts in your mouth. And number two, the popcorn place that makes so many flavors of popcorn!! Everything looked, smelled, and tasted exactly the same. Especially the ocean.It was so wonderful to be there with my sisters, and with Sapphie who really loves the ocean. It was really special to share the memories with our favorite boys, and watch them fall in love with the place. We've already planned to go next year, and will rent exactly the same house! It was such an amazing weekend and we left feeling sad to leave, but fully refreshed. Isaac has posted some of his fantastic photos on his blog. Here are some of my favorites that I took:

The ocean from our back yard

Walking to the beach

Sapphie playing in the sand
The guys taking in the ocean
Sapphie reading with Penelope
Walking with daddy to go on kayak!
First kayak ride
Playing at the beach, half naked
Saying goodbye to our wonderful spot

And, as usual, here are some more:

Marblehead

Last weekend, we went to Marblehead to visit the Manguals at their new house. We had such a blast!! Their house is absolutely beautiful, and I must admit we were a little jealous of how much space they have. One day, we'll buy a house and be able to renovate it just the way we want. For now, we'll have to go visit them more often. We've already invited ourselves for a week next summer!
Sapphie had so much fun at the beach, and with the kids. She really bonded with Julia and loved the ocean! We spent most of our time at the beach, and hanging out cooking. It was such a relaxing long weekend. Here are some of my favorite pictures:

With Daddy at the beach
Huge smile after she took a face plant in the sand

Bath time!! The three youngest took baths together every night.

On a walk with Julia

On her very first bikeride. She loved it and was so serious! We need to get her a bike.

And here are the rest!

My Office (by Kevin)

Do you ever have those days that you wonder why you are doing what you are doing? Maybe there is a better place to work? Maybe I should change careers completely?

And then there is something that brings you back to why you are doing what you are doing? Why you really do love your job, the people in the office or that commute for some?

I had one of those moments last week. Work has been crazy lately. The nights seems too late and the mornings come too early. Can't complain because I am gaining new business but that sometimes just brings that extra added stress. I sometimes daydream about Emma and I selling everything we got and packing up the family and move overseas and basically check out. Those daydreams are short lived and then something brings me back to Earth and I remember why I truly love my job.

The reality is regardless of the time of year I have one of the best offices in the State of Vermont from my windshield of my truck.

A couple pictures with my clients last week at Shelburne Farms. They seemed happy grazing and enjoying the view. Not a bad place to work or be a cow I must say.

Blog neglect

Yes, we've been neglecting our blog. The summer has been SO busy, and lots of fun. We went to New York for the 4th of July, we went to Colorado for a week, spent time at LaLa's and played with the baby chickens, and visited Nona and Grandpi in Walpole. We also picked a TON of blueberries, which Sapphie loves and still calls "bee-bees". Here are some pictures for you, but I haven't had time to write captions so you'll just have to guess where we were! We promise to write more soon!