Thank You

We can't thank everyone enough for your generous donations to help support Team Strength. An extra special thanks goes out to the people who decided to join the team and walk today, even if it was going to rain. We didn't really ask anyone to join, people just decided to offer their support and fundraising efforts to help out. Tiffany Ritcey, Kelly Reeves, Lisa Snyder, Jena Paul & Marin Slosberg, Jasmine Pelloni, Nicole Stolzenberg, Kathy Townsend, Aunt Pam, Mellisa, Uncle Bill, Brittany, Stephanie Roberts, and Mary Ellen (who manned the fort watching Miss Charlotte). It means so much to have friends and family like you show your support for us and walk with us. The bar was set pretty high this year with the number of people who joined and who donated. So far it looks like we raised over $4,000! The event alone in Nashua raised approximately $71,000! Again it means so much to us to have everyone on our side doing what they can to raise money to find a cure for this terrible disease.

As soon as we arrived in the rondeszou point in Nashua the skies brightened and shortly after the walk started the skies cleared, the temperature warmed, and we had a beautiful day for a 3 mile walk. Luckily none of three eight month pregnant ladies gave birth on the route. Although we had a close call with Lisa and her twins. :) Just kidding Lisa. Also because our group was so big we lost a few other walkers (Jasmine, Nicole, and Kathy we are sorry). Dad tried to find them but wasn't sure if they were ahead or behind us. So we walked and everyone enjoyed the beautiful day and the nice route through Nashua.

Afterwards we had a little cookout at the Ronan household and enjoyed the day. We can't thank people enough for making this day a special day for us and only hope that next year you also join us to help raise money, get a little exercise, and enjoy supporting a great cause. Unfortunately we don't have any pictures of the event but here are a couple.

Here is a picture of Shelby. Well sort of:


Shoes after the walk. If it rained, but it didn't so they stayed clean:


Yes that is Ben Affleck with Violet. He didn't come out for the walk but if he did that would have been what he looked like.

MS Awareness Week

Those of you who read this blog and who have not donated to support the Team Strength MS Walk this weekend, please do so. It is simple to donate, click on the Shelbys Multiple Sclerois Campaign on the right hand side, type in your donation and credit card number and you are done. It takes all of 2 minutes to donate to a cause that we will be involved in for the rest of our lives. We didn't choose to live with MS it choose to live with us; and we will fight for every donation dollar, support every piece of legislation, and do everything we can to help make people aware of this disease in hopes that the more people become involved, the faster a cure will be found.

This means we need your help. Those of you with blogs we ask that you put a link on your site to donate to Shelbys cause, or at least put a link to the National MS Site nationalmssociety.org just for a week to help spread the word of MS Awareness Week, going on right now in cities all across the US.

The walk is this weekend. The weather is due to be cold and rainy. Its hard enough for Shelby to walk up a flight of stairs at 8 months pregnant, let alone a 3 mile hike in the rain. She will finish the walk, because she is strong. And very determined. If she doesn't finish it for some unforseen reason, I will finish it for her and for those who have donated to the cause that is now so important to us. With that we Thank You for your support, caring, and generosity.

News Bedroom

 

 

 

 

No News Haircut

Those of you waiting for darling pictures of Miss Charlotte and her new hairdo are just going to have to wait. We were all ready. The whole car ride we talked about getting our hair cut. She even said "snip snip" and pretended to cut her own hair. However when we pulled up to the front door of "Snip Its" she said "NO NO Haircut!". She wanted nothing to do with it. Why? We aren't sure either. The only thing we can think of is that we talked about how everyone gets their hair cut. Mom gets her hair cut, dad gets his hair cut, even the dogs, Abigail and Oliver get their hair cut. Well last week Abigail and Oliver got their hair cut at the groomer and I guess Charlotte was VERY upset that mom left them at the groomer. So we think Charlotte might have thought we were going to leave her at "Snip It's" alone. We did however manage to get her to walk inside, although she cried the whole time. She really didn't want her hair cut so we decided not to traumatize her and left without any major incident. Another day, another place. We have now started priming her by telling her she will go to the "beauty salon". Hopefully that will work.

Charlotte also adds an S onto the word new. When dad got his new car and Charlotte got in it she said, "Ohhh Dada's News Car!". We thought it was funny. We have been busy painting and getting her bedroom ready. Finally it is finished!! Woo hoo! And what did Charlotte say when she finally saw it? " OHHHH Charlottes News Room!" Yes dear, you have a News Room.

Its About To Happen

Charlotte's first hair cut. I know, most people would have cut their kids hair way before 2 years and 4 months old. But we really like the style of her hair and well, we just were not ready to do it. Now we are. So our Saturday is going to be an action packed ride to Snip Its! Charlotte and dad looked at the web site and we discussed what would happen at the salon. (what did people do before the web?) She is very excited and is ready to go now. Don't worry, there will be lots of pictures and
hopefully a nice story of how wonderfully behaved she was getting her hairs cut.

(Updated: Do not get too excited, it's just going to be a trim. We like her style)

The rest of the weekend will be spent getting baby number two's bedroom ready. Dad has painted the walls, trim, floor, and dresser and night stand. One more coat on the floor and we are ready to move furniture back in. It all seems to be coming so quickly and he is really not ready yet. Six more months would be great.

RW Phenom

Those of you with older kids have no idea the phenomena of Ralph's World. Self proclaimed Superhero of kids music, Ralph is a Grammy nominated children's music superstar. Mom, dad, and Charlotte alike are fans of his "not so kids music" kids music. So when we heard he was playing in our old stomping grounds of picturesque Williamstown MA, we jumped at the opportunity to get tickets and see the show live for ourselves.

The trip started out uneventful. We should have known something was not right when during the ride Charlotte asked to listen to Ralph's World. Where was the CD? At home on the counter where he left it. Not good. So to prevent Charlotte from crying any longer we listened to Annie. Over and over and over.

We arrived at Nanny's house which was boarded up for the long and cold winter. There was not much to eat and Charlotte was starving. Dad scoured the fridge to find a snack for Charlotte. The only thing he could find was a jar of pickled polish sausages. Clue number 2 something was not right. Charlotte loved the pickled sausage.





The morning of the concert we left super early to get good seats. On the way to the show Charlotte said, "No No Ralph's World". Huh? Was she kidding? We shrugged our shoulders and we played along. "No dear, no Ralph's World".

When we arrived at the venue everything seemed OK. Then she said it again. "No No Ralph's World". OK, now what? The choice was either leave and waste the money on the tickets, or try to trick our child into thinking we weren't really going to see Ralph. We chose the latter.

Waiting for the doors to open we could hear Ralph inside practicing with the band. Charlotte seemed OK. Not excited. Not miserable. When the doors opened for us to run down and get our front row seats Charlotte lost it. Screaming, crying, kicking, tears streaming. NO NO RALPH'S WORLD!!!

Luckily the doors opened 30 minutes before the show. It took her 30 minutes to stop crying. We walked around. Dad did everything possible to distract her. Charlotte saw all of these kids gathered around some guy outside the auditorium. It was Ralph. They were all getting pictures with him. Charlotte waived to him and even said "Hi Ralph". Using poor dad's judgement (which many dads do), he decided to get a picture with Charlotte and Ralph. Mom quickly snapped away. Charlotte's lip started quivering as Ralph asked her what her name was. Then she started wailing. Poor Ralph, just trying to be a nice rock star had his ego trampled by a two year old little girl.


We did what all bad parents would do. We went inside and sat in our seats. Charlotte calmed down. She even clapped. Then Ralph and the band appeared before us. Instead of singing along she cried. She would stop for a few minutes, look at Ralph, then cry. This was not a cry like teenagers viewing the Beatles for the first time, this was a cry of this Ralph guy is going to kill me. Needless to say we left the show early. Poor kid. As soon as we got in the car it was like a switch went off and she was fine. She even joked, replaying the whole scene. Charlotte cry. Charlotte afraid Ralph. Then we turned Annie back on and life returned to normal. Sorry Ralph.

Happy Easter

Not to be outdone by the pumpkin bellies of two years ago, the girls decided to do Easter Bellies! Hard to believe they are all due within days of each other and yes that was unplanned. The countdown has begun and no one knows who is having a boy or a girl. It will be a very special May provided everyone makes it that far (knock on wood).





We all gathered at Lisa, Ryan, and Colins house. The girls left the kids with the dads and went to get pedicures. The guys, well we all hung out downstairs in the bar with the kids, we drank beers, watched basketball, and let the kids do what they want while the moms were not around. So much fun.




We got home pretty late, Charlotte fell asleep in the car. Of course she was exhausted because she didn't nap on the ride there as we had planned. Instead of napping she sang her little lungs out in the backseat to the soundtrack of Annie. Yes, she knows the words to virtually every song and her favorite is The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow. Over and over and over and over we listen to that CD. If she doesnt know the words she fakes it and sings along anyways. She will pick up the little plastic microphone and just belt out a tune. Watch out in 15 years American Idol.

Not only does she sing Annie, but lately it's been the Alphabet. She can even identify some of her letters A,B,C,I,E,G,H,J,M,O,P,S,T,U,W,V. We are impressed none the less with her alphabet skills. Counting? Well 1 - 20 is a breeze. Dad even had her doing 1 - 10 in spanish. And her vocabulary is picking up speed every day. Stringing lots of words together to make sentences. I think we counted 8 word sentences the other day. Her favorite phrases are "I love it!" and "I'm so sorry". Too cute.

But I digress. Today is Easter. This kid must have been dreaming about the Easter bunny all night long since it was the first thing out of her mouth. Charlotte awoke telling mom about the Easter Bunny, Candy, and Eggs. We went down stairs and Charlotte quickly scoffed up all the plastic Easter Eggs, leading her to an Easter basket packed full of arts and crafts. Amazingly not much candy (thank you Easter bunny!). Today dad is cooking a leg of lamb and corned beef and cabbage for the family (lamb for Charlotte and I, corned beef for mom and the dogs). She at lamb last year, hopefully she still likes it.


Ok, enough writing. You want pictures. Here is Charlottes latest runway fashion shoot done in the living room on Saturday. She is a ham and loves to pose for the camera.







http://pinksandbluesgirls.wordpress.com/2008/03/19/blogger_baby_bump_watch_2008/



















*** Just a side note. We put some of these details about her letters etc b/c this is our baby book for Charlotte and our way to remember what and when milestones occured. It's not a brag book it's our baby book.

Enough Already!

8:00Am: This winter is never ending. Saturday morning we awoke to snow falling. Another 3 inches on top of all the existing snow was not what we needed. At least the new fresh white snow is hiding all the disgusting brown snow underneath.

Today is the town's annual Easter Bonnet Contest. In case you forgot, we are reigning champions from last year and dad has mustered ever ounce of creativity in his mind to ensure we win again. Hours of planning, cutting ribbon, and hot gluing items are sure to bring in win number 2. However the competition is fierce in the Easter Bonnet Competition. Everyone in town wants the coveted title and dad is sure the towns women have been plodding and planning the take over for months.


Update 11:00am. The Easter Bonnet Contest had a record number of entrants. Instead of the usual age group of 3 and under they expanded it to age 4 and under, thus increasing the number of competitors. Walking into the town gymnasium and seeing all of the kids with their spectacular bonnets, dressed to the hilt in their Easter best, dad knew this would be a tough contest to win. Of course everyone was eyeing us as we strolled in, knowing who the family to beat to take over the champion title of Cutest Easter Bonnet.

To make matters worse Charlotte was a little fussy at keeping the bonnet on her head. It could have been the giant Easter bunny that was waving to her that threw her off. Surely she was a little rattled. Dad began to think the competition was doing it on purpose, just to throw her off.


They announced the parade would start and mom and Charlotte jumped up into line to waltz around the gym. The table of judges in the middle looking at all of the contestants walk by. Charlotte pulled away from mom and stood there, staring at the judges. They smiled. Charlotte smiled back. Dad saw it all from the sidelines. There were so many amazing bonnets. Some decorated with flowers, others with bunnies, the little girls in their beautiful dresses. Waiving and smiling. All the kids lined up in front of the table for the final judgement.


Who would win? The girl in all red with the feather boa and gloves up to her elbows? The little girl pushing the stroller full of baby bunnies? Or could it be Charlotte with the Easter eggs dangling from the brim of her bonnet.

Then they announce, "And the winner of the Cutest Easter Bonnet Contest is......the little girl with the eggs dangling from her bonnet!!" It was Charlotte!! She won!!! Two years in a row!! Dad was so proud of her.

Yes she will be in the paper again. The interview went very well and she was well spoken. Of course she said the competition was fierce and that she looks forward to the opportunity to compete again next year.

Growing Up

It is so hard to believe our child used to be a little baby, helpless, relying on us to do everything for her. It's as if we are living our lives in warp speed, milestones are flying by left and right. The seasons come and go as do birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays. Instead of life slowing down as she gets older, its getting faster and faster. Our baby has become a little girl, one who is striving to do things on her own, to be independent and prove to us how she is now a "big girl". Dad's not buying the "big girl" notion, at least not until she learns to go on the potty.

Charlotte had her first dentist appointment. Dad took her to his dentist, the same one he has been going to year after year since he was 13. Dad sat there in the chair, with his daughter in his lap opening her mouth wide to be examined. They counted her teeth. They even got a chance to polish them. Of course Charlotte loved holding the suction tube in her mouth especially since it made funny noises against the inside of her mouth and lips. She did great and loved the trip to the dentist. Although his dentist was a little taken back when she realized how long she had been practicing.




Saturday afternoon we all went to go see one of Charlottes favorite bands
Justin Roberts and the Not Ready for Naptime Players. She had a blast dancing and singing along. Then of course running up and down the isle while the band played on the stage. She loved it and kept telling us the whole car ride there we were going to see Justin Roberts.



She was so excited when she heard her favorite song "Our Imaginary Rhino" that she probably peed her diaper. We have a groupie on our hands at 2 years old. Great. Dad's really in for it when she turns 13 and wants to see the new boy band of the day.



Sunday dad and Charlotte went grocery shopping. She wanted to bad to help dad. So he let her pick all of the vegetables out of the bins and put them in the plastic bags, then into the cart. She did amazingly well with the exception of the lemon bin. Pulling the one at the bottom of the pile causing most of them to tumble onto the floor. We laughed. Clean up in isle 7 please! Highlight of the trip was Charlotte in the checkout line putting all the food on the moving belt. She loved it. She is becoming such a big helper.

We are doing everything possible to enjoy every single second together as a family. It's going by fast and baby number two will be here before we know it. Life isn't going to slow down for us so we decided to hop on and enjoy the ride.

"Happy to me to you Dadddy"

Happy 35th Birthday Daddy...oopps was I not suppose to say how old you are???
We hope you enjoy your day. We all love you very much! Thank you for being the best Daddy ever.







Mommy and I tried to get some party hats for you but they didnt' have any at Walgreens, I really wanted you to have elmo ones and blowers..sorry, maybe next year:)

City and Snow

This week dad was on a whirlwind tour of the country. Sunday he flew to Boise, Idaho for a traning at his new job. Wednesday night he flew back into Boston at 1am. Of course it was snowing. He made it to NH in 2 hours. At 3am he arrived home. His head hit the pillow and it was up again to drive 5 hours to Long Island NY. We left Charlotte with auntie Tiff, uncle Ian, and cousins Liam and Chase.< We hopped on a train and headed into NYC to enjoy the wedding of Matty B and Lila, now officially Lila B. It truly was planes, trains, and automobiles for dad.



Spending time in New York City was nice. Mom and Dad got some quality time alone. Of course the city is the city, and staying in time square you really do see it all. Case in point was meeting two women while eating lunch who were healers that told us God needed to talk to us and pray for us. Yes the four of us held hands in the middle of Carmines while the gypsy prayed for safety and money for dad and health and patience for mom, and of course told us our unborn child is a boy. It was kooky but at the same time we will take anyones prayers at anytime. We have learned to take all the help we can get especially from God. Yes it's a true story. And yes it would probably only happen in New York City.



Matty and Lila's wedding was very cool. They got married at the Foundry which is in Long Island City, just over the 59th street bridge. However, our cab driver didn't seem to know where that was and was asking us for directions. Despite the language barrier we got to the destination in time for the cermony. The place was beautiful and the ceromony was completely Matty and Lila. We are so happy they are married, they are a great couple.








Here are a few shots of NYC. What do you know? Chris Gilbert (a lifelong family friend of the Sanders) was up on one of the billboards for his show 10 Items or Less. If you haven't seen the show you really should. It is hysterical.



Here is mom in the middle of it all.

So our trip was over and we headed home. As we drove further and further away from the city there was more and more snow. When we finally arrived home we could not believe how much snow we had. This winter has been brutal in terms of snowfall. I keep telling people we have six feet of snow and they dont believe me. Here are the pictures to prove it. Notice the snow going half way up the tree in our front yard. That is not a snow bank people, its snow. Lets hope it SLOWLY melts to prevent any flooding like the last couple of years.




And what do you do with a two year old with all that snow? Well you teach her to ride horses of course. Mini plastic horses. Yes Charlotte is a cowgirl.