Halloween 2009

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. We went to a local aquarium that had a "Trick or Treating Under the Sea"... Meghan didn't even look at the fish. She was too interested in walking around and looking at all of the other kids. Connor just sat in his stroller staring at the sights. Not quite sure he knew what was going on.

We went with some of our neighbors' kids to go trick or treating. Meghan had fun just taking her time walking up the long driveways to the front doors. It was cute. Connor enjoyed the sights again.

Meghan's 2nd Birthday

Meghan had a princess party for her 2nd birthday. We had a bunch of friends and neighbors come celebrate her big day. The birthday cake was a team effort... Stacy's sister, Cindy, made the buttercream frosting. Kevin frosted the cake. And Stacy did the decorations. Not too shabby for a couple of amateurs.

More To Come...

Sorry we've been a little vacant from our postings lately. Needless to say, we've been a little busy. We have lots of new pictures to post, from Meghan's 2nd birthday party to Connor's first bath.

Love to all,
Kevin & Stacy

Introducing Connor Patrick

Connor Patrick was born on Friday June 5th at 10:35 AM, weighing in at 7lbs 11 oz. Both Stacy and Connor are doing great.

Here's the quick story of Stacy's labor:

The day before Connor was born Stacy had her 38 week appointment. She was already dilated 3-4cm with 2 weeks to go before her due date. That afternoon we took a tour of Labor & Delivery at the Naval Hospital on base where Stacy would be delivering. (Little did we know how timely this tour would be.) That evening we had dinner with Stacy's college friend, Lauren, for Lauren's birthday. Lauren just graduated medical school so we knew were in good hands if anything happened. Later that evening Stacy started feeling something, but thought it was more of an after-effect from the doctor's appointment and not labor pains. Until the pains started coming every 7-8 minutes. Stacy went to the kitchen to start cleaning up from dinner. The clanking of pans awoke Kevin from the couch, who said "Just leave the dishes for tomorrow."

Stacy's reply "I don't want to leave them."

Kevin: "Why?"

Stacy: "Because I'm having contractions."

(Silence)

After that, Kevin helped to quickly clean the kitchen and started timing contractions. We had most of our bags packed, but had to put the last minute things in them. We already had a plan for Meghan to go to our neighbor's house when Stacy went into labor so we made sure she had everything she needed in her overnight bag. At this point Stacy's contractions were about 5-6 minutes apart. It was about 11PM, so we tried to get some rest. Within about 15 minutes Stacy's contractions were 3 minutes apart and getting a little more intense. We figured it was time to head to the hospital so we called the family. Kevin carried Meghan over to our friend's house (asleep in her pajamas) and we made our way to the hospital.

We got to the hospital around 1AM. After spending an hour in the pre-admission room (where they monitored Stacy's contractions) we finally got to our delivery room- the exact room we were in for the tour earlier that day. We waited a few hours for Stacy to get an epidural. At this point Stacy was 7-8 cm. And then we waited a few more hours until they finally broke her water at 9AM Friday morning.

A little after 10AM Stacy was ready to push. 15 minutes and 10 pushes later our newest addition entered the world. IT'S A BOY!!

Crockett Baby Pool!

Okay, so the days are quickly ticking away... 16 days until Baby #2 is supposed to grace us with his/her presence (June 19th). Thought we'd have some fun and take all of your guesses for when the baby will actually arrive.

If you want to play along, put your guess in the comment section. Make sure you include:
-what day you think baby #2 will arrive
-length/weight
-boy or girl

A little background info:
-Meghan was born 6 days early (on June 23rd)
-she weighed 6 lbs 10 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long

Happy Guessing!

Visiting Kevin's Alma Mater

(These pictures are a little bit older, but we wanted to share them with you all.)

Right after we moved up to North Carolina we spent the weekend in Chapel Hill. It was "Alumni Rugby Weekend" so Kevin had a chance to catch up with some old friends from college. The weather was beautiful... much warmer than we had planned. We watched the game then walked around campus. We even bought Meghan some UNC gear, a Carolina blue dress and matching UNC flip flops. It was the same weekend as the NCAA basketball finals. Kevin celebrated with the crowd that flooded Franklin Street. Stacy and Meghan were (happily) asleep back at the hotel. Of course, that was also the night that Meghan flipped herself out of the crib at the hotel, so she was sleeping in the bed with Stacy. Kevin got to sleep in the other bed by himself.

The next day we met up with Kevin's good friend from high school, Karen, and her family. We went to an amazing public park in Cary, NC and let the kids run free for about 4 hours while the adults did their best to catch up on the past 10 years. (Maybe not quite that many, but pretty close.)

Meghan's Dancing Moves

We all know Meghan likes to dance. (Just see the video from our trip to Florida last year for Meghan's birthday. Its one of the older blog entries.) Here is a clip from some of her newer dance moves.

Less than 7 weeks...

It's already May! Kevin is staying busy at his new job and Stacy & Meghan are busy exploring new playgrounds nearby. Not too much going on otherwise. The nursery is coming together... Meghan has been sleeping in her "big girl bed" for almost a month now and the crib is all set in the baby's room. Diapers have been bought (we forgot how little newborn diapers are!! They fit on Meghan's stuffed animals.) We have to go through Meghan's newborn clothes and take out the "gender neutral" onesies to wash yet.


Here are some recent pictures for you to enjoy.

The morning of our move to NC:

Dyeing Easter eggs:

Easter morning:

Easter morning with Grandmom and Grandpig (Stacy's parents):

Easter bunny ears!:

Lasgana and chocolate chip cookies. Yum!:

Daddy & Meghan:

Safe and Sound in NC

After a very long week, we are all moved in to our new house in North Carolina. We were fortunate to get one of the newly renovated houses on base, conveniently located about 1.5 miles from Kevin's work, about 3 miles from the grocery store, and maybe 5 miles from the grocery store.

Kevin's younger brother Jason drove down to South Carolina last weekend to visit with us and help Kevin pack the moving truck. The plan was to get on the road Tuesday morning for the 6 hour drive to our new house in North Carolina. Kevin started out ahead of Stacy since his 22 foot moving truck topped off at 70 mph. Stacy and Meghan started out about 30 minutes later. Everyone was making good time. Stacy actually passed Kevin and was about 30 minutes ahead of him when the VW broke down.

On I-95.
Somewhere in SC.
With Meghan in the car.

We were fortunate to get a quick tow to a small garage in the town of Manning, SC. Meghan had fallen asleep while waiting for the tow truck. We moved her- still asleep and still in her car seat- to the cab of Kevin's moving truck while Stacy rode in the tow truck. We spent the night at a nearby hotel while the garage waited in parts for the car.

The next day we tried to waste as much time as possible waiting for the car to be fixed. Jason drove up to meet us in Manning, SC to help in case Stacy's car couldn't be fixed. The part was supposed to be in by 2 PM so everyone got lunch and hung out near the garage. Kevin got on the road around 2:30 in the moving truck while Stacy, Meghan and Jason waited for the part to arrive.

At 4:00, the garage notified us that "they ordered the correct part, but the wrong part arrived." Oh by the way, the earliest they could get the correct part would be Friday. So, we loaded everything from Stacy's car into Jason's Jeep Cherokee and started the rest of our trip north.

Kevin got to the house around 8PM and started unloading boxes. Jason, Stacy & Meghan arrived about 10 PM. The boys unloaded the rest of the furniture while Stacy tried to get Meghan to bed.

It was a very long week. We started unpacking some of the boxes, but most will just have to wait until next week when we all have a little more energy.

On a good note, the part did arrive at the garage down in SC and Stacy's VW is finally fixed!

Hilton Head Adventures

We took Meghan out on her first kayaking trip. She loved it! Kevin had her in his double kayak. Once we got over the fear of her falling out we all enjoyed it a little bit more. She loved to feel the water on her fingers. She definitely enjoyed sitting back while Kevin did all the work. Michelle and Stacy had their own kayaks... they spent most of the trip trying to not get beached because it was so shallow. On our way back in, the wind kept pushing us near the piers. Stacy may have even run into a pier or two. (It was just one!)

The following weekend Michelle talked everyone into running a 5k (3.2 miles) on Hilton Head Island for St. Patrick's Day. Kevin pushed Meghan in the jogging stroller alongside Stacy. (We walked it. Not much running for Stacy these days.) Towards the end Meghan started to get a little antsy so Kevin jogged a little, pushing her around in circles. When they got back to Stacy, Meghan turned and said "Faster Mommy! Faster!"

Stacy's Growing Belly

Stacy is now 27 weeks along... 13 to go! Baby #2 is already feeling the effects of being the second child. We haven't been the most diligent in taking pictures of Stacy's growing belly. She is feeling good, albeit BIG.

October 7, 2008: The day we found out Stacy was pregnant.


December 24, 2008: 15 weeks

March 14, 2009: 26 weeks (not the best picture because Stacy's shirt is stuck on her belly)

Princess Meghan

Meghan received a "princess chair" from her Aunt Cindy and family for Christmas. It has a crown, necklace, earrings, bracelet, etc that are part of the chair but can be removed for playing dress-up. It also has a pink dust ruffle that doubles as a skirt. As you can imagine, Meghan loves the skirt. (She made Stacy wear the crown.) She does let us put it away before we leave the house thankfully.

2009 should be an exciting year!

As many of you know, we are expecting our newest arrival this coming June. (June 19th to be exact... 4 days before Meghan's 2nd birthday.) We told the families at Thanksgiving during our road trip. We wanted to tell everyone in person. Stacy is doing well. She was extremely exhausted for the first two months but no morning sickness! We'll try to be better about posting pictures and keeping everyone updated on Baby #2's progress and Meghan's newest adventures. Love to you all!

Christmas & New Year's

We had a nice relaxing Christmas here in SC. Kevin's mom was visiting for the week. The weather was almost too warm for the holidays! All of the present were wrapped, but we had a couple last minute tasks to do before Santa could come. Kevin put together the new kitchen for Meghan. Of course some of the parts didn't really fit the way they should. Needless to say, it was a little aggravating but she loves playing with it and hardly notices that the dishwasher door doesn't stay closed. (Replacement parts should be in the mail.) Stacy made Christmas cookies on Tuesday with the plan of frosting them Christmas Eve. Unfortunately they didn't turn out very well and she ended up making a whole different batch on Wednesday. The eventually got frosted, some on Christmas Day, and the rest a few days later. It was great having family together on Christmas. Kevin hasn't spent Christmas with his mom in 6 years so we were glad to share the day with her. We talked to Stacy's family on the phone and Kevin's family on the webcam. Gotta love technology!

The real reason Kevin's mom was in town was so she could watch Meghan for New Year's. (Not really, but we did appreciate her watching over Meghan on New Year's Eve.) We're pretty sure the plane ticket cost less than a babysitter would have been on New Year's. (The going rate for a normal night is $10/hour!) Our friends came over and we visited a few neighbors throughout the night. Last year Meghan had double ear infections and a respiratory infection for New Year's... thankfully this year she was much healthier and slept soundly all night. (She even slept in past 7AM!! Thank goodness!)

Busy Times

Well, its been awhile since we've posted anything. We've been busy traveling and relaxing. Over Thanksgiving we drove up to Chicago to spend the week with Kevin's family. It was a great time seeing everyone. Meghan even got to play in snow for her first time! She loved it. She tried to help shovel snow in the driveway and really seemed to enjoy herself. We extended our time in Illinois an extra day due to the snow.

We knew we couldn't make it to Maryland in one day so the plan was to drive to Pittsburgh and stop at the Children's Museum. This would give Meghan a chance to get some energy out after a long day in the car. The drive took a little longer than we thought, between pit stops and snow flurries, but we got to the museum about an hour before they closed. It would have been nice to spend more time there, but we made the most of the hour we had.

Our trip to Maryland was busy. We met Adrian Cronauer, the deejay portrayed by Robin Williams in "Good Morning Vietnam." Spent some time with friends watching the Army-Navy game. The big reason we went to Maryland was for Stacy's nephew's baptism. We were asked to be Andrew's godparents so it was pretty important that we be at the Christening. Meghan had fun playing with her other cousins, but wasn't happy seeing her parents holding another baby. (We'll get into that in another posting.)

All in all, Meghan did great on the trip. She had some trouble sleeping in so many different places but didn't seem to mind the long hours in the car. We did watch "Cinderella" about 5 times, which has now become Meghan's favorite movie. She thinks all Disney princesses are Cinderella.