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It’s still hard for me to believe I’m a mother. I don’t know when it will really become real, after all I’ve had nine months to prepare. But I continue to wake up and realize that the little person I’m holding is really here and I’m going to get to watch him grow up.

My Wiggly Little Boy is so perfect, even when he cries all night long and won’t let us sleep. Everyone is healthy and happy. We are thankful for the parental leave policies at work that mean I can stay home for twelve weeks and Josh has been able to take off an entire month to help us adjust.

Thankfully it hasn’t been that difficult, he is as easy of a baby as he was before he was born. He loves being held, and would prefer never to be put down. He gets along with Captain Jack, who insists on alerting us for every diaper and whimper.

I love sitting on the couch with all my boys. Getting to watch Josh hold a baby for the first time and learning together how to take care of him has been a wonderful start to the adventure of motherhood.

One year ago we drove across the state to meet a very special little guy. I fell instantly in love with Captain Jack (so named by his foster family to go with his brothers Pepper Jack, Cracker Jack, and Apple Jack) and spent an hour cuddling him at the meet and greet that helped serve to weed through applicants to take home the popular puppies in time for Christmas. We had to head home without knowing if we would see him again, but were promised by his foster mom that we were definitely in the running and she hoped to call us in the next week.

Luckily for me I was working from home on Monday when she called, since I don’t think I’ve ever been that excited before! We drove back across the state the next weekend to bring him home, and he spent the week dozing in my lap while I worked before family arrived and Christmas vacation began.

Here is my adorable baby just after he came home:

This year we will be welcoming another new member to our family as I continue the tradition of spending this time of year in anticipation and joy. And once again I am blessed to have my family nearby during this time of change.

Years ago we figured out that a certain number of days after Halloween Target would have their 90% off sale and we would go and pick up some costumes for “dress-up” clothes to play with at home. This was helpful as the kids got older as we used them to supplement their ideas for costumes (which were needed to be out of the house somewhere else if people decided to ring our doorbell).

As time progressed, and Target changed their sale policies, the family has still been able to be creative with their costumes, involving various amounts of time in preparation and thrifty use of materials in their construction. This fascination my family has nurtured these many years has amused me, as it has now expanded to include dressing like a pirate (rewarded by Krispy Kreme’s free dozen “golden rings” for doing so) on Talk Like A Pirate Day (as mentioned in a previous post), and I get to maintain my support, encouragement and “only dress up if I have to” position. So I am pleased to share the efforts of my family for Halloween 2014.

Rich has now established a reputation for wearing Halloween costumes to work and tries to encourage others to participate by figuring out what exactly he is even if they are not willing to dress up themselves. Can you guess what he is?

Ashley, now that she has graduated and entered the employment world, crafted a costume that required less guessing than her father’s.

Amber acquired a wonderful stick early in the semester, which inspired her creation. She found out later it only made sense to certain age groups who were familiar with the Lion King, but she enjoyed spouting off movie quotes which may have been relevant even if they didn’t know who she was.

Alyssa and Kirsten (her cousin) attended our church’s youth group’s party as ninja’s!

Gypsy only likes dressing up for a moment at a time. In other words, she likes to figure out the appropriate way to remove her costume as quickly as possible!

And finally, Alyssa, Rich and I continued the tradition of avoiding being home (and my other favorite tradition of receiving discounts) by dressing up for Booritos at Chipotle.

~Karen

Arr! It be that time again! Talk Like A Pirate Day!

This year Bingles in 3 states celebrated TLAPD not only by talking like pirates but even dressing like them.

Cap’n Rich prompted the following missive from an officer in the Royal Navy:

We need the K-9 unit dispatched to 1120 please.

The “Cap’n” may be enticed to leave the premise by placing Solaris scripting books or chicken wings in the parking lot. Don’t be alarmed about the apparent firearm as it’s been identified as the make shift window handle from the Telecom equipment van. Please do recover the key as it needs to be returned to a nearby 7-11 so they can regain access to the men’s restroom.

Splashly Ashley was also highlighted by her captain in a missive:

If you have not filled out your talent profile and turned it in to your manager, please do this by EOD today. We appreciate your help and timeliness in this effort.

Also, make sure you fill out the Career Ambition section!

Ashley’s is to talk like a Pirate… but just for today.

Amber (aka Leftie) and her parrot Evermore plundered The Isle of the Krispy Kreme with her sister.

And then there is Scurvy Don and Crazy Linda. Words escape me…

As Dad already mentioned, I got married the other day(!) and so here is my obligatory post to inform you of some of the details missing in that earlier post.

So: on Saturday morning at 10am on May 31st, 2014… oh I’ll just let the programs do the explaining:

We were joined by our family and friends who supported us in person and in thought from afar, and are very glad for those that were able to join us, even if we didn’t get to spend much time visiting between getting married and rushing off to the airport before 2:00 in order to catch the flight to our honeymoon (a cruise out of Port Canaveral that stopped in St. Thomas and St. Maarten). We want to thank everyone for coming and for all the help that so many people put into our wedding: our families, our roommates, and even random strangers from church that helped with decorations, lighting, sound, video, flowers. Everything went off smoothly (at least as far as we could tell) and I didn’t even fall flat on my face when I tripped (ask someone about that sometime, I’m sure it will be a story for a long time).

So now we’re married and I am officially Mrs. Ashley Peters (which is really weird to say and think, but that’s what happens when people get married)!

I may put up a post about our actual honeymoon, since I do have some pictures and video from the trip and for now I don’t have very many official wedding photos to share but feel free to check out the ones I have put in the gallery. However, for the time being I will be working on editing together the footage from the church videographer and the two hidden cameras that Dad put up in the balcony and in the plant behind the minister, so I should have that video at some point in the future too. For now, take a look at a time-lapse of every 10 seconds during the ceremony and the slideshow that Amber made for us that we played after the ceremony.

That’s all for now, you’ll have more when I have more to share!