Nov 27
Here are the pictures from our trip to Disney World last month. I’ve got hours of video footage that I will be processing and posting up when I have time too. So for now you can enjoy these:
Nov 24
Yes folks, we’re still living in modern society with Internet access. We have not moved to the mountains in tents with a mission to never rely on technology again.
We’re all doing great. The kids got their first round of H1N1 flu shots last week, which is a relief for us. Jen entered into a local county lottery to qualify to get the shots (we’ve been unable to get them from the kids Dr.) and was notified the day after that we won. Maybe I should put Jen in charge of buying my lottery tickets?!?!
We did make it back from Disney World back in late October. I vow to have pictures put up on the site by the end of this week.
In a nutshell, the trip was great. The kids had a blast and we really enjoyed seeing them have so much fun. We got to spend a few days visiting with some family that we don’t get to see too often which was awesome too. By the end of the week we definitely all were tired and ready to come back. I think things will be much easier when we decide to go back in 4+ years or so.
The kids are all doing well. Preschool has been great and the kids learn fun new things every week. Alex is loving his sports class at Little Gym and seems to be really into it. He’s always trying hard to follow Mr. Dave’s instructions exactly so that he can accomplish the task at hand and seems to be focused the whole time. He’s much more into this than the karate classes he tried.
Avery is also doing great at her dance/ballet class which is also at Little Gym. She initially had some issues where she would cry and didn’t want to get started with each class (shyness or separation anxiety maybe), but she’s gotten over those things now. It amazes me and Jen each week with the fancy dance steps she’s learning and how well she can do them. Avery’s instructor even said that there were a few moves that she was the only one that could do them initially. Go Avery! I also mentioned to Jen last night that she seems more graceful and less clumsy when running and playing around the house. We also just learned this week that they will be having a little recital/performance at the end of this session in January. You can bet that the camcorder will be rolling so that we can share that with you all too.
Adam is doing great too. He’s signed up for a Little Gym class starting up in January too (are you seeing a theme here? My paychecks just get deposited into THEIR bank account every month). He loves to read and talks up a storm. He’s stringing tons of words together too and has no problems letting you know what he wants or tattling on Ah or Ee (Alex or Avery) when they do something bad to him (or even when they don’t). Alex has even taken to reading some books that he enjoyed a few years ago to Adam in the mornings — very cute!
We’re all gearing up for the holidays now as you can imagine. We’ll hopefully get our tree this weekend and start to get down the decorations. I’m looking forward to some yummy food and time with family this week.
The week will end with my birthday on Sunday and me getting to go to the Ravens vs. Steelers Sunday Night Football game at M&T Bank Stadium. The tickets were a surprised from Jen for my birthday. She even contacted my boss and arranged for me to be off work on Monday. How awesome is she?
I’d like to end this post to truly give thanks to my wonderful and loving family and to say how truly blessed I feel. I’m thankful for being employed, for having happy, healthy and such smart kids, and for having such a wonderful and strong wife. I feel very lucky in so many ways — thanks!
Jul 05
Yesterday we were invited to spend the 4th at Bill and Judy’s (Jen’s Uncle’s Sister’s house) in Leesburg, VA. It was nice because Leesburg is only 30 minutes from us so travel was pretty easy yesterday. What started out to be a rough day (thanks to the kids having colds) turned out to be a nice day where everybody had fun. Bill and Judy have a beautiful home with an amazing pool. As you’ll see in the photos we essentially had the whole thing to ourselves. In addition to the cool waterfalls the pool was also heated, so swimming was a blast!
By the time we got home everybody was pretty zonked and ready for bed. We didn’t see any fireworks but heard lots of them going off in the neighborhood. Maybe next year we will try to take the kids to see a fireworks display.
Jun 30
Well, since June is over tomorrow it seems like a good time to fill you in on what happened in June here in our little world. We’ve been busy as usual and June, like every other month, seems like it went by in the blink of an eye.
Alex and Avery turned three on the 13th and we had a Handy Manny and Tinkerbell pool party for them. The event was fun as usual and brought friends and family from all over together. Luckily we only had a brief rain storm right before folks arrived and had decent weather for the remainder of the party. We even got to use the pool for a while, which is where Alex decided to show off his swimming skills for the first time ever. He, with just his water wings, was paddling all over the pool and even ventured into the deep end. I was very proud of him and enjoyed truly enjoyed seeing how much fun he was having, and how proud of himself he was too. All in all the food was good, the cake was tasty, and everybody had a good time catching up with each other.
The following Saturday we took the kids to a local horse farm where they got to do a 1 hour lead line horseback riding session. The place was hard to find and because of a scheduling mix-up the class almost didn’t happen. We hung in there and gave the organizers a chance to improvise and the kids eventually got to ride the horses. Both Alex and Avery did great and seemed to have a blast riding high in the saddle.
Last week the kids visited our neighbor’s church for a week long VBS (Vacation Bible School). Again, they had a blast and picked up many fun songs, worked on lots of cool projects and seemed to soak in more about the Lord in 1 week than I would have ever imagined possible. After the first day Alex broke out into full on televangelist mode at dinner while telling us about a game they learned called Jesus Came Down. Based on his volume and excitement level I thought he was going to give Avery an Amen! on the forehead and push her backwards in the chair or something. They will be attending another VBS in August at our church which I’m sure they will also enjoy.
Oh, and Jen didn’t mind the quality time with just Adam from 9-12 for a whole week. I think I saw her secretly Googling for other VBS sessions that could fill up the rest of the summer 
On Father’s Day we went to Pop-Pop’s house for some burgers and hot dogs on the grill. It was a nice day and the kids had fun posing in Pop-Pop’s garage with his hot rods and all his tropheys.
This past Saturday Jen and I enjoyed a nice dinner to celebrate our sixth wedding anniversary (which was Sunday the 28th). The night out was a nice break and allowed us to have a proper date, which we don’t really get to do anymore. It’s hard to believe that six years have gone by already!
And last, but certainly not least, we have two new additions to the family. Last night Jen went to pickup the two new kitties that we have been waiting for for two months now. I would tell you their names but we haven’t been able to agree on any yet. We got a boy and a girl and are wading through long lists of names that go together. I’m confident that they’ll have names by tonight or tomorrow.
Since they didn’t arrive until last night at about 9:30pm today is their full day home and they’re already getting comfortable around the house and the kids. And it took probably one hour for the kids to become obsessed with their new kitties.
Stay tuned over the next few days for more updates on our two new (un-named) family members! Also, in case you didn’t catch the links above we’ve added more photos (finally). Here are the new/updated albums:
Apr 21
Dear Mom,
I just wanted to write a quick note to say Happy Birthday! Bob sent a text message this morning to let me know that he had put something in the Metro section of the Washington Post this morning.
I thought that was very nice and very thoughtful of him. If you only knew how much he missed you!!
I too miss you more than you could imagine. I think about each and every day and don’t miss a chance to tell you about something funny that the kids have done, or something that you would be proud of them for.
Speaking of the kids, they’re doing great! Adam’s first birthday party was fun and he seems so bright and “ahead of the curve” on so many things. He’s a master at walking and runs all over the place. He idolizes Alex and Avery and studies their every move. He just wants to be one of the “big kids” and gets frustrated if he can’t always do what they do.
Avery and Alex are both doing fine too. They are enjoying preschool and show how much they’re leaning on a daily basis. It’s so cool to see them use their imaginations more and more and to just sit back and see the games they come up with.
Alex loves being a big brother and has fun playing with Adam all of the time. Avery’s still as smart as a whip and is getting into dolls and dressing up her beary bear. She’s a girl without a doubt!
We all miss you dearly and love you very much. Happy Birthday!
Love,
Donald
Dec 27
It’s December 27. I just came in to write a post about Christmas and found this draft from a few weeks ago, the weekend of December 5. I am happy to report that we’re all well now. Or on our way, anyway. Adam is on his second round of antibiotics for an ear infection, but seems to be feeling much better.
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It was a super-fun weekend in the Kitchen home. I have a cold and have lost my voice, as usual. Alex has a cold, possible bronchitis, and is miserable. Avery spent the better part of Friday night throwing up all over herself and her room, and she has a little cold as well. She needed two separate baths because she puked in her hair. Alex got no sleep that night either because of her and his own coughing fits. At one point, in the pitch black room, he told me he saw baby Jesus, and I got kind of worried about him. Turns out I think he was just actively imagining their Little People nativity set. We all finally got some sleep from about 5 to 7 am, and they ended up missing Aunt Jen’s baby shower, which they’d been very excited about the next day. They both are having major attitude issues – whining, being defiant, and just generally being difficult for the sake of being difficult. Adam is a little stuffy and threw up his dinner tonight, and Don has been spared so far. Like I said, super-fun times.
Despite the plague, we’re trying to get into the holiday spirit. I had visions of us trekking out into the fields of the Christmas tree farm down the road as a family, searching for the perfect tree on Sunday, but we decided that it would be better choice for Don to do it alone. I stayed home with all the sick kiddies and he bundled up and left. Adam napped and the twins watched The Super Sleuth Christmas Movie for about the 5th time in 3 days. Avery is already quoting the movie, and when she asks to watch it, she calls it “Christmas comes tomorrow,” but she sings it the way they do in the movie. Cute. I was a little nervous that Don would come back with a Charlie Brown tree, but he chopped power-sawed down what is probably the nicest tree we’ve ever had. So thanks, honey, for braving such a cold, windy day and for getting such a great tree, and for scaring off the lady who tried to chop it out from under you!
I spent the rest of the day trying to get the ornaments on the tree while keeping the twins and baby out of it. Don went back out and strung lights on the fence and hung wreaths on the windows while trying not to turn into Frosty the Snowman. The house looks merry, even if it’s occupants look and feel like they got run over by reindeer.
Dec 15
12/13/1994 – 12/15/2008
I said goodbye to my sweet Kenna today. She lived 14 long, mostly happy years. It was so hard, but in my heart I know it was time. She wasn’t “enjoying retirement” anymore, to quote a good friend of mine. She’d gotten to a point of eating once a day if I was lucky, and half the time that was with me hand feeding her. She lost so much weight and her back legs were too arthritic for her to get up steps or even walk easily. And the smell…oh, the smell. But she was still my Kenna to the very end, trying to chase a stick in the yard this afternoon while I tried to help her enjoy a few of her favorite things one last time.
Kenna was a special dog, and I have so many good memories. I found myself wondering today who’d be the first one in the pool next spring, since she always seemed to know when the water was detoxed enough and would jump in and show up at the front door, drenched, at some point each May. She made sure she was the last one in this year before we closed it, too. She loved the water, whether she was letting Gunner do all the work and then trying to steal a ball from him at the reservoir, or proudly bringing me back a stinky dead fish at Lake Elkhorn, or jumping into the pool as soon as nobody was looking all summer long.
And I thought about what a rotten little puppy she was. Right after I got her, I left her with my boyfriend’s sister while we were in Florida. As soon as I got back, I had a message to go get that ^&*%ing puppy because she’d climbed a toilet and porcelain sink to get into Marnie’s makeup! She cost Josh the security deposit at the townhouse he rented by eating not only the carpets, but the baseboards and even a hole in a floorboard. But she grew up and turned out to be such such a sweetheart. She could be trusted around food, kids, off leash, you name it. She was smart, learning all the basic commands and even the trick of flipping a cookie off her snout and into her mouth when someone said she couldn’t learn it.
I remembered when she had her puppies. Motherhood wasn’t quite the natural instinct I expected for her – she birthed her first puppy outside and went back in the house like nothing had happened. She refused to feed those little things unless I sat there and petted her. Eight wiggly little black furballs to keep track of, and she was no help!
Kenna was with me for so long, and through so many things. Breakups, new homes, marriage, children. There was a long time when I wondered if I’d ever have kids, and then when I finally did, I felt bad that my first baby fell so low on my priority list. But Kenna adapted quickly and was great with the babies. They were propped against her and then climbed her and chased her, and she took it all in stride. She rolled with all the changes the years brought, and always had a knowing look and a soft head for me to kiss when I needed a friend.
I’ve told Don several times that I had her longer than I’ve had him. It’s very hard to imagine life without her. But she was always a loyal and true friend to me, so I owed her my loyalty as well – a life free from pain, and a death with some dignity. Making the call, and the drive to the vet, was one of the hardest choices I’ve ever had to make. I’m beyond thankful for the kindness and gentleness our beloved vet and his staff treated us with tonight. Her death was mostly peaceful – she did snap at Dr. W. when he gave her the first shot, but he quickly forgave her. She quickly fell into a deep sleep, snoring for all she was worth, before the second shot came. I sat with her for a while after she was gone, saying goodbye and wishing we’d had more time. I can only hope that in her doggie heaven, there are plenty of lakes and pools to swim in, and meaty bones to chew on. I hope she’s back to her little truck-puppy self, free from pain and full of energy.
Above all else, Kenna was a good dog, and she will be greatly missed.
Nov 25
Man am I ready for Thanksgiving! Not to complain (well, it’s my website so I can do what I want) but I have been working a lot the past few months and have not taken even a weekend without putting in some hours. I am looking forward to a nice long 4-day weekend and can’t wait to kick it all off with some good quality family time and lots of yummy food. And I must admit, seeing that they’re calling for some snow tonight (ok, yeah, it’s only .01″, not even a dusting) I’m excited to get the holiday season started. I think it’d be awesome if somehow we could get a few inches of snow before Monday.
The Christmas tree farm down the road kicks off their season Thursday and I’m actually pretty psyched to get a tree this year. Jen and I are both pretty excited to see how much fun Alex and Avery will have this Christmas. I think they’re at an age now where they’ll enjoy the tree, the decorations and Santa. They’ll also get excited about seeing family. Another nice thing lately has been using the “Santa is watching” line to get them to behave. It doesn’t work much, but sometimes if you throw enough out there something works. It’s nice to have another one to add to the arsenal, even if it’s just for another month or so.
Jen has finished all of the Christmas shopping for the kids already, which is very cool. It seems like we’re always running around at the last minute. Thank god for the Internet, it really does make things so much easier and with free shipping available most of the time, it’s really a no-brainer. I need to get my butt in gear and get some of my Christmas shopping done. Luckily Jen handles most of it so I really just need to focus on her 
I also plan on catching up on some of the pictures and videos that we’ve taken lately here on the site over the next few days. We’ve got a few good videos of Adam and his new tricks to share too. He somehow has developed dancing skills in tht past day or two and yesterday started to cruise around a little bit on the couch and transitioned himself from the coffee table over to the couch. Man, he’s going to be walking soon! It’s so cool to see how much he loves Alex and Avery and how he wants to be right in the middle of whatever they’re doing. It’s really cute to see them run down the hall with him following closely behind doing his “turbo army crawl”. They’re in trouble once he can keep up with them at full speed.
So if I don’t get anything up before Thursday have a good Thanksgiving and be sure to spend some good quality time with YOUR family!
Sep 22
Many of you have asked for details about my mom’s memorial service. We finalized plans and will be having a small service Saturday, September 27 at 7:00pm. More information can be found here.
Sep 19
My mother, Pam, passed away this past Wednesday morning. She fought for over three long years after she was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer over Labor Day weekend 2005. Her fight came to an end on September 17, 2008. It’s a testament to her strength and will to live that she surpassed every expectation doctors had for her survival.
Even though she did not get to spend as much time with her grandchildren as she wanted to, I know that she loved them with all of her heart and more than anything. She was a wonderful mother and made me the man that I am today. I hope I make her as proud as she made me.
The twins didn’t get to spend enough time with Grandma, but they have great memories of the times they did share with her. Both still talk about “Grandma’s Beach House,” which was really a condo where we stayed for only one night in Ocean City with her back in May. It was their first beach trip, and it made quite an impression on them. They drive their couch pillow cars there, push their strollers there, and even occasionally ask with a hopeful tone if that’s where we are going when we get in the van. It’s a shame there won’t be any new memories to be made, but we will make sure the kids know her through stories and pictures as they get older.
She will be dearly missed by everybody and will be in my thoughts every day.
We’ll miss you grandma!
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In an effort to keep friends and family informed about details regarding a memorial service, I have setup a page on this site where I will post all of that information. Please check back there if you have any questions regarding a memorial service, any donations, etc.
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