North Carolina Meets New York

A little Southern baby arrived with his mommy and daddy in Niagara Falls on the 4th of July for a week-long visit, and I can't believe how much he has grown since I met him in March/April! My nephew is just beautiful! He's so much more alert now, and has little smiles and tiny laughs, too. It's amazing how much babies change in just a few short months. Heck, even in a couple weeks! He is really growing well, and that makes me happy!

Our family spent the 4th at Mandy's house for dinner, and it was a lot of fun! Lots of good food was had, stories to share. The best part was seeing how enthralled Mandy's kids were to meet their cousin for the first time! Every time the little guy made some sort of noise, my niece would say "What's the matter with the baby??" It cracked us up! My nephew would give his cousin kisses, which was really cute to see. It'll be neat to watch them all play together when the baby gets a couple years older. I wish we all lived relatively close for them to be together a lot. We left Mandy's, and watched the fireworks down at the park from my backyard. I'm glad I don't have to walk down the street to see them. It's so crowded, but also, just walking down there would get me SOB, even wearing the o2. We had a little crowd of our own, anyway, and it was fun!

Last night my entire family went out to eat at a Greek restaurant in Lewiston called Syro's. There were 12 of us, and it was a really great evening. We were celebrating Mandy's birthday, which was yesterday, and Joan's birthday, which is today. Mandy has hit 30, and Joan is 27! We enjoyed some great food, and then we had a cake brought out that we had bought at Sam's Club. They cut it all up into really huge pieces for all of us, which was nice of them, but holy moly! The cake was a chocolate fudge cake, and it was really rich. I enjoyed it, we all did, but the pieces were just humungous!! We got the waitress to take a few pictures of all of us together, something we haven't done since probably Lisa's wedding. We also exchanged names for Christmas. We decided this year to just buy gifts for one person, and see how it goes. I think it'll end up being a good thing, even though I was kinda not for it at first. But hey, it helps us all with our budgets! Maybe we'll have started a new tradition.

Today I think I'm supposed to be going out with Lisa and Brandon and baby and our dad. Tomorrow night, my mom's making lasagna. Lisa also said she'd help me varnish my hope chest tomorrow, which I'm excited about because it means that very soon I will have it in my house!! I'm sure we might do a couple more things before Lisa and her pack leave on Saturday. It's weird because I feel like I'm not seeing her much since she's staying down at my parents' house now. I no longer have any room for her to stay here! She's also worried about the baby being around Mittens. Not that he would do anything! Oh well, the only good thing is not having to wake up on the middle of the night because the baby is crying!

I'm trying to get myself motivated in making more jewelry. There are a few craft things coming up that Mandy and I are going to participate in, and it would be nice to get my ass in gear to make new stuff!! I don't know why I keep putting it off....I love to play with beads!!

Oh, gotta go, shopping awaits us!

Comments

Nancy said…
What a great holiday weekend: filled with memories and great food. (I could almost taste the chocolate fudge cake, yum!)

I'll get to see my great-nephew for the first time next weekend. He turned two in February and his sister is three. It has been too long since I've been around small children.
6:46 PM
Anonymous said…
Wow..now when did I miss that the baby was coming???LOL..did you tell me and I was busy working at the farm???LOL
I bet he is so big now:)))
Sounds like a grand time and I am still craving that cake..>LOL...Will TTYL...Love ya...Hugs:)))

BTW I wanna see pics of the hope chest when it is done...
4:53 PM
Mortimer said…
Ahh...to read my J-landers again! Mortimer=Very Happy!
10:46 PM
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