Our Big Annoucement

So on my birthday, Lisa and I came home and she had been telling me she wasn’t feeling very good. This had been going on for a week or so and she finally decided to take a pregnancy test.

Well the surprise was on us when the test came back positive. After the initial shock had worn off we decided to keep everything a secret. Until Jack’s birthday party….

The last gift that Jack opened was just a box, and with our friends and family around Jack pulled out the below note for everyone to read

The reactions came from being stunned (most everyone in the room) to my mother in law saying no and she was retired. But everyone was excited by the news that baby #3 is due June 14, 2012

I am told to

Look at me I'm Blogging

I need to apologize to the few readers I have. I have not really updated the blog in some time. I actually will say most of the time when I blogged I was writing everything at the hotel when I worked. When I put my notice in it really affected the time I had to do nothing on the computer and thus my blog has suffered greatly.

Have no fear; I am back at the hotel (as of right now this Sunday, next weekend, and the Sunday after Thanksgiving). And if you look below this blog you will see that I have spent my first day back at the hotel updating the blog and adding a whole bunch of pictures to the web site.

The family is doing very well. I am having a really good time being at home with the kids. Lex and Jack are getting big and doing everything they can to get into trouble. But they are so cute.

Lex as you know has started school, and after a rough few weeks he loves it. Lex getting ready for his first day of school

We had an event at St. Pius X School where the kids got to play with each other and the parents finally were able to meet and I was amazed that Lex seemed to be the leader of the class. Whatever they did was because that’s what Lex wanted to do. So they went from play ground to playground because that’s where Lex wanted to go. The teacher even suggested to another parent that Lex may be the best choice to set up a play date with because Lex has made it a mission to be friends with everyone in his class.

Jack is loving life and pretending he is five years old already. Lisa and I are constantly telling him he can not do some of the same things he see’s his brother do. But he tries and he is completely fearless when he does.
Jack just relaxing

Such an awesome shirt

If you are reading this blog now you have probably already seen the blog I am posting right after this about our big news. Lisa so far is doing very well in the pregnancy and we are keeping fingers crossed for a girl. However, I am already campaigning for the name Anakin Zod if this one is a boy.

Lisa with her dad and the boys

Finally, this picture below was taken of me and Tony doing our Modern Family pose. the Modern Family Photo - Tony is so my bitch

Hopefully I can get some more blogs up next weekend. It does feel great to be back and I really hope I can stay on top of this. At least I have two more weeks at the hotel to do this.

Jack’s 2nd Birthday

The Birthday Boy
Has it really been two years? Jack had his second birthday on Sunday November 6th. The day before, we invited some family over to our house for Jack’s birthday party. We purposely kept the party very low key.

Jack enjoying some pizza for his party

Some of our distinguished guest

Openign a card with daddy

Lex and Kaelyn waiting for Jack to open his presents

PRESENTS!!!!!

Even at 2 money is always accepted

Birthday Cupcakes
Cake Balls - Why my wife can be evil

Ready to blow out the candle

Halloween 2011

That time of year. At the end of Scotober the world gathers to celebrate one of the best holidays ever, Devils Night… I mean Halloween.

This year was a lot of fun. Lex wanted to go as the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from the Ghostbusters and we decided that Jack should go as the green ghost from Ghostbusters Slimmer.

Lex’s school really goes out of their way to make Halloween special for all the kids. So Lisa asked me if I could take the day off and hang out at St. Pius X, volunteer with the students and help them get their costumes on. So Jack and I were able to spend the morning together and we were given a whole bunch of thing to do that morning. So Jack and I arrived around noon to the school and when we walked to Lex’s classroom, Jack was treated like a Rock Star. All the kids came out to give Jack a hung. And being as shy as Jack normally is he did not like all of the attention. The funny thing was when the kids started to play with Lex; Jack became obsessive about Lex not giving Jack his attention.

But I was able to meet all of Lex’s friends in his class. Besides Lex as the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man I met a Superman, two different Spidermen, Obi Won Kenobi, a Power Ranger, Cinderella, Mermaid, Jessie from Toy Story and a bunch more. (Sorry I don’t have a picture with everyone in the class but apparently it was at this moment my camera phone decided to stop working).

I am not sure if Lex had the best costume or not from everyone in the Montessori school or if he is just really good at campaigning amongst the older kids, but Lex won first prize in the costume contest and brought home a 1lb Hershey Bar. Yes this is exactly what he needs. They then had a Halloween party in the classroom which proved to me that I was not meant to be a teacher for kids at least six years old and younger.

When we arrived home that night, Lisa’s parents had picked up dinner and we got the kids ready for Halloween. Lex as the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man

Jack as Slimmer

As I said before, Jack was suppose to be dressed as Slimmer from the Ghostbusters movies. However, Jack refused to cooperate with Lisa when she was making his costume. So because of this Jack ended up looking like a pregnant man wearing a green shirt with pizza on his stomach.

The kids were ready to go around 5pm. They had their costumes on and wanted to get started. The only problem was it really felt like we were the only group of people ready to start. So we hung around for about an hour and waited for our neighbor's children, Kaelyn and Chase to get ready.

Lex and Kaelyn

Chase

We finally were able to start around 6pm and after doing this with Lex the last few years we had a perfect route set up to hit as many house as we possibly could. I am proud of both Lex and Jack because even though we stopped at 8pm I felt there was enough life in them to go another hour. I think next year I am going to try to keep them out even longer because we have to hit as many house as we can.

This is the only picture we could get with all four kids kind of looking at the camera

Overall another excellent Halloween, and my community just makes so much more fun and it feels like an event. Halloween is quickly becoming one of my favorite holidays because of this. I am already looking forward to next year’s Halloween.

Vacation #2

Ahhhh… lets go back in time here to August 11, 2011.

Our second vacation of the summer, as we went to visit my Aunts house on the Eastern Shore in Nanticoke, MD. Last year I decided to cut myself off from the outside world and just enjoy my time away from e-mail, cell phones, and the world in general. This year I tried to make the same promise but I did not do a great job.

Lisa drove down to Nanticoke with her parents and the boys on Tuesday August 16th, and when her parents left that Thursday I drove ended up joining my wife and kids for the remainder of the weekend.

When I got to their house Thursday night I could immediately tell the new addition was the outdoor pool everyone had been playing in all week long.





So as much fun as the pool was the new big thing for Jack this year was the golf cart. At one point he had woken up badly from a nap and was crying uncontrollably and to get him to stop he was asked if he wanted a ride in the golf cart. Jack immediately stopped crying and ran to the garage that housed the golf cart.




It was a fun weekend. The weather really prevented us from going out on the boat but we were able to do some fishing and Lisa ate crabs on Thursday before I arrived. We can not wait to do the trip again next year.

NFL Playoff predictions

So the NFL season is more than half way done and the playoff picture is becoming a little clearer. Through 9 weeks and 1 game this season the playoffs look like this (according to ESPN)

NFC
1. Green Bay Packer (NFC North Champions)
2. San Francisco 49ers (NFC West Champions)
3. New York Giants (NFC East Champions)
4. New Orleans Saints (NFC South Champions)
5. Detroit Lions
6. Chicago Bears

AFC
1. Cincinnati Bengals (AFC North Champions)
2. Houston Texans (AFC South Champions)
3. New England Patriots (AFC East Champions)
4. Oakland Raiders (AFC West Champions)
5. Baltimore Ravens
6. Pittsburgh Steelers

So looking at my prediction back before the season started all of the teams except the Colts and the Rams have a shot at making the playoffs. As it turned out the Colts and the Rams turned out to be two of the worst teams in the NFL this season…. But hey the Ravens beat the Rams 37 to 7 while the Rams turned around and beat the Saints 31 to 21.
(Yes Tony that’s a dig at you)


Anyway my friend, Matt (also probably one of three people who actually check and read this blog) decided to do our a little more than midway NFL Playoff Predictions. Now at the time of this blog week 10 has already started and the Raiders have beaten the Chargers. Matt and I made these predictions on Monday November 7th.

Since it is my blog I will put my predictions first.

NFC
1. Green Bay Packers (NFC North Champions)
2. New Orleans Saints (NFC South Champions)
3. San Francisco 49ers (NFC West Champions)
4. New York Giants (NFC East Champions)
5. Detroit Lions
6. Philadelphia Eagles

AFC
1. Houston Texans (AFC South Champions)
2. New England Patriots (AFC East Champions)
3. Baltimore Ravens (AFC North Champions)
4. San Diego Chargers (AFC West Champions)
5. Pittsburgh Steelers
6. New York Jets

NFC Wild Card Games
Philadelphia Eagles over the San Francisco 49ers
Detroit Lions over the New York Giants

AFC Wild Card Games
Baltimore Ravens over the New York Jets
Pittsburgh Steelers over the San Diego Chargers

NFC Divisional Games
Green Bay Packers over the Philadelphia Eagles
New Orleans Saints over the Detroit Lions

AFC Divisional Games
Houston Texans over the Pittsburgh Steelers
Baltimore Ravens over the New England Patriots

NFC Championship
Green Bay Packers over the New Orleans Saints

AFC Championship
Baltimore Ravens over the Houston Texans


The Baltimore Ravens over the Green Bay Packers



Now to be fair yes my pick is a complete homer pick. And I do think the Green Bay Packers are the very best team in football. I would love for the team to go 19-0 too. But for me to have the Ravens in the Superbowl and not pick them and defend them… well I just could not justify my fandom if I did.

Now on to Matt’s predictions for the playoffs

NFC
1. Green Bay Packers (NFC North Champions)
2. San Francisco 49ers (NFC West Champions)
3. New Orleans Saints (NFC South Champions)
4. New York Giants (NFC East Champions)
5. Detroit Lions
6. Philadelphia Eagles

AFC
1. Baltimore Ravens (AFC North Champions)
2. Houston Texans (AFC South Champions)
3. New England Patriots (AFC East Champions)
4. Denver Broncos (AFC West Champions)
5. New York Jets
6. Pittsburgh Steelers

NFC Wild Card Games
Philadelphia Eagles over the New Orleans Saints
New York Giants over the Detroit Lions

AFC Wild Card Games
New York Jets over the Denver Broncos
Pittsburgh Steelers over the New England Patriots

NFC Divisional Games
Green Bay Packers over the Philadelphia Eagles
New York Giants over the San Francisco 49ers

AFC Divisional Games
Pittsburgh Steelers over the Baltimore Ravens
New York Jets over the Houston Texans

NFC Championship
Green Bay Packers over the New York Giants

AFC Championship
New York Jets over the Pittsburgh Steelers


Green Bay Packers over the New York Jets



The funny thing about predictions and the NFL is that we are both pretty sure we have it wrong. But it sure is fun to predict it all.