st. patty's day

So back in March, the Burches were the initiators of the second annual St. Patrick's Day Block Party in Arcadia. My family has always been rather into St. Patty's Day. My mom was 100% Irish and it was definitely one of her favorite holidays. We used to have great parties when we were younger and Em and Pete are helping to keep that tradition alive. Dad and Pete got really into it this year and turned the whole garage into Temple Bar that is in Dublin. It was a grand old day and a lot of fun was had by all.

My family (most of them) in front of the bar.

J and F stationed at the Keg...

more for the ice eating than the beer,

but they did like watching Baabee fill up foamy green beers.

Inside the pub.

Corn Hole

I wanted to give Jimmy and Finn little instruments and an open guitar case because I thought they looked like little vagabonds in front of the bar.

Drinkin' with Baabee... always a good time.

Wearing hats with Dad.

Dad singing his traditional "Courtin' In the Kitchen."

And this was the closest thing we got to a family photo.

hale center theatre

Since we moved to Phoenix, I have been doing some free-lance scenic design work for a theatre in Gilbert called The Hale Center Theatre. They have a theatre in the round so the floor designs are a big part of the set. I didn't get great pictures, but here is what I did for Camelot.

And here is The King and I.

Just in case anyone was actually interested to see what I do with myself.

copper, ginger, and daisy

Since we have been in Phoenix we have dog-sat/housesat a lot for our friends the Balints. The dogs names are Copper, Ginger, and Daisy... all of which J learned to say very quickly and hasn't stopped talking about since. He loves these dogs and they are so good with him. Sometimes when we are driving near their house, he asks for them and when I say we are not going to see them today he starts to cry. Good thing we are housesitting again soon.

Ginger was the only one up for posing with him.

Oh, and he loves their slide too.

st. francis

Back in the fall, my dad took an old rotten statue of St. Francis from his friends the Restins and decided to try to fix it up.  J took a liking to it.  We thought it would have made good playmate for him, but alas Dad had to give it back. I guess we need to get a St. Francis Statue of our own.

BEFORE

 AFTER

peanuts christmas

So Emily and I started saying how Jack and Lucy reminded us of Charlie Brown and his little sister Sally and then we realized that would probably make Finn be Pig Pen. Then we thought it would be fun to dress them all up like that for Halloween. Of course at this point we already had Halloween planned and we were too impatient to wait for next year so we got the brilliant idea of doing it at Christmas and having the kids put on a play of Charlie Brown's Christmas. We roped in the Lili to be Lucy (she ended up playing Marcie too since Audry got sick), Charlotte to be Peppermint Patty, Luke to be Linus, George to be Schroeder, and J to be Snoopy. I wrote a script that was a combination of both "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and "It's Christmas Time Again Charlie Brown" and we decided it would be best to just film it instead of have them try to perform it for an audience since that would require less practice. Let's just say it was crazy, but we had fun. I think we should try to make it a yearly tradition so it just keeps getting better. I edited it the best I could but I am still learning iMovie. Some of the film is a little dark, but there was nothing we could do to fix it. Watch it somewhere with good speakers or you may not hear it very well. This is also the first time I put a video on my blog. It took forever and I had to make it a small version, but you can only see small screens on blogs anyway. I tried to put it on YouTube, but it was too long (they only allow ten minute videos and this is about 12). I did put it on Facebook for those of you that are on there (it is a bigger screen). This version is also very slightly shorter bacause I was trying to make the file smaller. I just hope everyone enjoys it because that is what this is all about.

a wisconsin new year

We spent about 10 days after Christmas in Wisconsin with Zach's extended family. It wasn't Jimmy's first time in snow, but I am pretty sure it is the one that made an impression on him. He learned how to say "Brrr" and "Cold" and now whenever he looks at pictures of snow he says "Nano!" since Nano was the one who played with him in the snow the most.

Jimmy was excited to see his Nano and Nana and Aunties and they were excited to see him too!

Jimmy got to meet his Great Grandparents Weisse for the first time.

We got a picture of four generations of Weisse Men.

Great-Nana did her special Italian hand game for Jimmy and he didn't want her to stop.

(It is about a little bird that gets shot and cooked, but it sounds great in Italian)

The Weisse Family Picture:

(Oh, and Michelle's boyfriend Ben too, but we put him on the end so we can cut him out if need be. They did the same thing to me once too. It is kind of a Weisse family tradition)

twas the season

Jimmy's second Christmas was a little more exciting for him and a little more stressful for me. Don't get me wrong, we had a great day, but it was non-stop action and I think he got a little over stimulated- so much wrapping paper and toys everywhere! Seeing as we spent most of the day at the Burch's house, a lot of the toys were not his which is hard for a one year old to understand. He did love waking up on Christmas morning and was so excited to see all his toys.  I was excited that he had some concept of what was going on. This is what he woke up to:

Dad got a grill and Jimmy was excited to have two trains to play with!

This is how most of the day at the Burch's looked...

Jimmy loved his collection of new toys, especially his monkey that Aunt Cathy made for him...

Merry Christmas!

turkey baby recreation

In an earlier post I put a picture of Jimmy at a few weeks old lying next to a turkey. This was Zach's idea originally and the following pictures were Zach's idea as well (not that I am blaming him, I am just giving him credit where credit is due). Jimmy was a little over one years old here and not nearly as cooperative with his parents crazy antics as he was before. It is fun to see how much he grew in a year if you go back and compare these to the old picture. 

... Even if it didn't exactly work.

baabee's house

My Dad so generously let us move in with him when we got to Phoenix.  We were hoping to get a house soon and not move into an apartment, but the best laid plans...... So we are still living with him and are trying to figure out our living situation.  In the meantime we are having lots of fun living with Dad (or Baabee as his grandchildren call him).  Thanks Dad we love you!

Some of Jimmy's Favorite Activities featured above: 

Helping Build Stuff, Playing Pots and Pans, Lounging, Eating Pizza (from Red Devil or NYPD), Making Fires in the Firepit, Watching Old Movies on TCM (above is The Ghost and Mrs. Muir), Snuggling (although that one is rare), Wearing Baabee's Hig Hat, and Playing the Ukalulu.

Oh, and, of course, the rocks...

At least he has stopped eating them these days.