Below are some additional pictures from our get together on Saturday. Truly was a fantastic time!

Uncle Rich, serving up the drinks!
Bocci, anyone?
If you’re not over the age of 21, please skip over the next picture! By the end of the night the guys had the beer pong table out and in good use!
Aunt Lauren and Aunt Kate:
Uncle Jay with Aunt Lauren, cool effect with the smoke from Rich’s cigar.
These last pictures were taken by Chris on Sunday. You can see just how exhausted Shane (ok, everyone!) was from the last few days.

This kid doesn’t sit still for a second, let alone actually lay down!! Even Kylee is wondering what the heck is going on!

This is pretty much what we did all day long!
Does he look wiped or what?! And the sucker and blanket he’s got with him - those RARELY leave the crib - a true sign that the day before got the best of him!
Look at that poor, tired, face!
Yet, by Monday, he was rested and right back at it again! Anyone need any work done around their house? I know a guy . . .

This past weekend we gathered together some of our extended families and had ourselves a little seasonal get together!

Kids enjoyed being kids, adults enjoyed the endless supply of drinks and we all enjoyed some good conversation and being able to spend some time together.

We wanted to send a special “shout out” to Aunt Trae! We know how badly you wanted to be here with all of us and hope you know how much you were missed! We look forward to seeing you VERY soon! Hope you’re feeling better!

Pictures can only come so close to showing what a great time we had on Saturday, but I think these do a pretty good job at conveying the message!

Three generations of O’Connor boys! Daddy, Shane and Grandpa:
Shannon with Jerry:
Playing in the sandbox!

Jerry, Jamie, Chris and Jerry

Tara being a pirate! Andrea, Danny and Brooke, with Jeff:
Shannon and Tara on the slide:“Bu-bbles - Wowwwwwwwwwwwww!!!”
The best of friends . . .

Driving Miss Tara:
Timmy in the kiddie pool!
Chris working the grill:
Shannon and Jeff playing on the monkey bars:
Chris with Shane and Timmy:

The Daddy’s and their boys! Tim and Chris and Timmy and Shane:
Shane and Timmy playing at the water table. Notice the bus tucked tightly under Shane’s arm? Aunt Sue and Aunt Joni gave him that bus the night before and he even made us let him take it to bed! He’s still in love with the thing!
Playing is hard work!
Tara practicing her modeling skills!! We caught Shane and this little cutie trying to give each other smooches again!!! GramZ even managed to get a picture as proof! Maybe she’ll let us borrow it so we can share it with all of you?!?!
Lots more to come tomorrow!!!

Yeah, I’ve admittedly been pretty bad with updates the last week or so - things had been crazy around the house and Chris and I had both taken a few days off from work - so blogging was the last thing on my mind!

This is our “catch up” post! The photos I had planned on sharing last week that I never got around to posting! Tomorrow and Thursday I’ll post some photos from this past weekend and then back to “5 On Friday” this Friday! That will get us entirely caught up!! YEAH!!!

Chris has been working A LOT of overtime lately, with the crazy hours he’s been keeping and the lack of sleep, Shane has had a few days where he’s gone to daycare all day. The dogs are loving this! They get the house to themselves, they don’t have to keep one eye open at all times to see if Shane is on his way over to harass, I mean love, them! It also means they got some extra loving from me when I went home for lunch!

Horrible shot of me, but I had to share this - Kylee is SO loving life in this shot:Finally, a few more pictures from our day at Stepping Stones in Norwalk a few weeks ago. We plan to go back again in the next week or so! Shane LOVES the bubble exhibit they have outside during the summer. Stepping Stones really is a FANTASTIC children’s museum - anyone in the area should definitely look into checking it out.

Playing in the “water room” - as long as you don’t make him wear one of those smocks (meant to keep him dry) he’s happy as a clam!
Weeeeeeee!!!! We always start off in the toddler room (for kids 3 and under) to let Shane warm up. We think he’s more comfortable at first when he’s around other kids his size or smaller! Then we work our way around the rest of the museum - meant for kids 8 and under.
LOVE that face!
BIGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG Bubble!!!!
I think Daddy likes the bubbles as much as Shane does!
My boys, my loves . . .

I’ve been lousy about updating lately!

Chris and I both took Thursday and Friday off and we had ourselves an incredibly busy weekend spending time with family.

Rich and Lauren are on their way to the airport to head back to Florida as I type. It was great to have you guys around and we’re looking forward to seeing you again for the holidays in a few short months!!

I do have TONS of photos to share and will upload them tonight after Shane goes to bed.

To give you an idea of just how busy this weekend was, Shane fell asleep last night sitting on my lap, after his bath, while watching Elmo! This NEVER happens! He was THAT tired, plain and simple!

Until tomorrow . . .

We stopped by Uncle Jay’s to drag him to dinner with us last weekend and while we there I snapped a couple of shots of some of the updates Jay’s done.

I want to say that while I did happen to have the camera in the car, my 50mm prime lens (aka no zoom) was the only lens I had with me. With a fixed lens, there is no zooming in or out if you happen to be too close, or too far, to the subject.

What I’m trying to say is that some of these shots may appear “smooshed” - and that’s just because I didn’t have the room to back up any further to get more of an image inside the frame.

In other words, deal with it.

Jay spent some time working on the “wells” (?) for the basement windows. He put in those new silver things (you can tell we don’t have a basement of our own - I have NO idea what those are called) and filled it with pea gravel - all to help with any potential water problems.
Checking out Jay’s efforts, while Shane “helps”
Uncle Jay finishing up the mulch bed around the GORGEOUS tree line in his yard.
A shot of that GORGEOUS tree line. Jay stained the deck off the sun porch. Looks FANTASTIC and makes such a difference!

Side yard, off the sun porch.
Front of the house. No more overgrown landscaping, new door knob/lock, mulch around the Japanese maple. Looking good!
Side yard (far side of house). Another shot of the tree line.
Kitchen. Finally starting to look lived in and “homey”. New microwave courtesy of the Z’s!

Living room portion of the “yellow room”.
Bathroom - this room looks GREAT! Shower curtain is perfect for in there.
Looking down the hallway. From the “yellow room”, through the kitchen, to the sun porch.

Keep up the good work, Uncle Jay! Your hard work is definitely paying off!

So Shane and I darted into Home Depot VERY quickly today on the way to daycare so I could grab a piece of Quarter Round molding that we needed for the doorway.

We run through the store, grab the one thing we need, hand the lady at the cash register our $2.98, she, in turn, hands Shane the receipt, and off we go.

As we’re walking out of the store, I notice he’s got his hand (and therefore the receipt) extended out of the shopping cart, and his head is turning every which way and his cute little face looks puzzled - and it dawns on me. I know what, or who, really, he’s looking for.

He was looking for the “BJ’s guy”! You know the one - the guy you hand your receipt to when you exit the warehouse stores with a cart full of (un-boxed, un-bagged) goods? Well, that’s always been Shanes job - to hand the guy the receipt. And I realized he was looking for one of those guys at the Home Depot today! Perhaps we spend a little too much time at BJ’s? Or perhaps our precious, innocent, little boy, thinks his Mommy just stole that piece of Quarter Round from the home improvement store!?!

So funny. So cute. So Shane.

Ha! Almost forgot to share this story!

This morning when I was in the shower, I heard a little knock on the door. I knew right away who it was, of course, and I also knew that because the door wasn’t closed all the way that he’d be able to get into the bathroom.

I kept looking at the shower curtain at the end of the bath tub, waiting for it to be pulled back and for the cute little face of my favorite little boy to be standing there smiling at me - smiling the smile he smiles when he thinks he’s gotten away with something!

To my surprise, I never did see that face.

A minute later I hear Chris yelling something to me from the hallway. I yelled for him to repeat what he said and this is what I hear:

“Your son just took your pajamas (the clothes I took off before I got in the shower) and very gently put them in the hamper for you!”

I about squealed with laughter! That little bugger! Where does he get this stuff from?!

When I got out of the shower and grabbed my towel that cute little face on my favorite little boy was standing in the doorway smiling at me. And he was smiling that smile he smiles when he thinks he’s gotten away with something . . .

You can’t tell me this doesn’t look like a kid who’s having a GREAT time!!!

Yesterday we went back to Stepping Stones Children’s Museum in Norwalk and purchased an annual family membership! We can now go back there and have THIS much fun as often as we want - for FREE!

More pictures to come from our weekend, but this one pretty much sums up the great time we had all weekend long! We had ourselves a nice family weekend, and we look forward to spending time with even more family next weekend!

1). Peasssssssssssss??? (aka Please) Our new favorite word! Which I’m thrilled with, really! Except for when: he hands me the bottle of gas drops - “Peasssss”?; he hands me the bottle of infant tylenol; “Peassssssss, Meeeeeee, Peasssssssssssssss”?; he hands me the tube of toddler toothpaste while the tootbrush is still hanging out of his mouth- “Peasssssssssssss, More?” I think it’s time to hide EVERYTHING from this kid! I couldn’t be happier that he’s learning to be polite, but when did he start thinking that saying “Please” would get him anything he wanted???

2). Uncle Rich and Aunt Lauren are flying in today from Florida!!! They’ll be up here with us for a little more than week and we couldn’t be happier! Let the good times roll!

3). After spending a few weeks with Aunt Trae, GramZ flies back home from Florida tomorrow and Shane has a big ol’ hug waiting for her when he sees her next week!!!!!

4). Cute story. Last weekend Shane was playing with his matchbox cars and he was lining them all up along the top of the sofa in the playroom. The sofa sits up against a wall, under the row of windows in that room. One by one he knocked each car/truck off the edge so that it fell behind the sofa. And to each one that he knocked off, he said “Bye, Gee!” Seriously - how cute is that?!?!

5). I PROMISE to take pictures of the new floors this weekend and post them on Monday. It’s just been that kind of a week!

I mentioned in last weeks “5 On Friday” that we had gotten Shane a ball pit after he fell in love with Melissa’s at the 4th of July BBQ we went to.

Here’s some proof of that love affair!

I’ve seen this on other blogs before, and seeing as how I still don’t really have any new pictures processed to share, I thought this would be a good topic for today!

1). He’s a back sleeper. LOVES to sleep on his back, which wasn’t always the case (he used to be a belly sleeper). Usually, his arms are thrown up over his head in a “touch down” pose, though sometimes they’re fully extended to the side, like a cross. He loves snuggling in with his pillow and his special blankets. He always looks so cozy!

2). He’s very independent. He can do it himself, thank you very much. Don’t try to help him, it just sets him off. If there’s some yogurt left in the bottom of the container, it’s usually best to just leave it there. He doesn’t care if he gets sauce on his nose or pudding in his hair. He’s doing it his way and he’s doing it himself - which is just how he likes it!

3). He loves to pick out his own shoes. If we’re going out, we’ll often ask Shane to go get his shoes. He runs down to his bedroom, throws open the closet door and a minute or two later, he’s back in front of us with a MATCHING pair of shoes in his hands. Makes us smile every time!

4). He has the world’s greatest laugh. It’s seriously contagious. And he always laughs like he means it, like whatever just happened was the funniest thing in the world - and to him it probably was. His laugh would melt your heart and give you a case of the giggles for the next 10 minutes!

5). He loves to be outside. Loves walking outside, loves playing outside, loves just plain old standing around outside. If it’s outside, it’s for Shane. Unless of course it’s snow. He HATES snow.

6). His hair has a mind of it’s own. It does, I swear. He still has pretty fine, soft hair, but it’s always sticking up in at least one or two places. There’s no telling his hair what to do, I guess it’s independent just like it’s owner! I don’t know if it’s the curls in his hair or what, but there’s seriously no hope! The only time it looks good is right after his bath when it’s all combed out. I love it though. Gives him character and it suits him perfectly! And no, it’s not time for another haircut!

7). He has the cutest head tilt/smile around and loves to use it to his advantage. This kid is a HUGE flirt! I think we’re going to be in some big trouble when he’s older!

8). He’s stubborn. And he has a temper. Not a great combination. He wants, what he wants, when he wants it. And he doesn’t forget about it either. He has the ability to hold a grudge until the original desire is met. And he’s great at throwing tantrums if he doesn’t get what he wants quick enough. This can make for some rather unpleasant outings!

9). He’s a sweetheart. Honestly. As crazy busy as he is, he can still be my little cuddle-bug - when he wants to be. He’ll run through the house looking for one of us just to so he can give us a kiss or a high five. At the end of the day, when he’s plain old exhausted, he’ll cuddle up on the couch next to me for 5 minutes and let me play with his hair or rub his back. He’ll snuggle with me in the chair in his room at the end of the night and watch some Elmo or read a few books. He’s a total love bug and the fact that he makes you wait for it (or work for it) makes it all the more special. This is one of my favorite things about him. His dad is the same way. I’m a lucky girl.

10). He refuses to try peanut butter and jelly! Seriously. Do you know any other kid who refuses to even TRY it?!?! Any tips for me on how to get him to try and then enjoy this childhood staple?!

That’s pretty much how we’re all feeling at our house after this VERY busy, and LONG, weekend!

After 3 days, a whole lot of manual labor and elbow grease, our kitchen/computer room are now complete!

Appliances removed from kitchen - CHECK
Corner hutch emptied and removed - CHECK
Old kitchen floor removed - CHECK
Old molding removed - CHECK
Screws removed from concrete - CHECK (after SEVERAL hours)
Appliances all deep cleaned - CHECK
Cabinets and counters all deep cleaned - CHECK
New molding purchased - CHECK
New molding cut - CHECK
New molding painted - CHECK
New floor installed (this was the only thing that we didn’t do ourselves) - CHECK
New molding installed - CHECK
Appliaces all brought back into the kitchen - CHECK
Corner hutch cleaned and re-hung - CHECK
New curtains ironed and hung - CHECK

CHECK, CHECK, CHECK and CHECK

We’re done and won’t be doing it again anytime soon! We have no pictures of the “during” stage of the project (mainly because I couldn’t find the camera amongst all the mess that was our house this weekend), but I’ll take pictures of the completed rooms and post them this week.

Thanks to Grandma and Aunt Kate for taking Shane all day on Saturday so that we could get the majority of this project behind us!

I never thought we’d be so happy to be at work today!

1). At 8pm on Wednesday night I put Shane to bed in a 2-piece, shorts, pj set. Around 10pm he was STILL awake and quietly talking to himself. Over the monitor, I hear him saying “on, on” - which he often says when he wants us to play one of his DVD’s for him. I thought to myself, “he’s nuts if he thinks I’m going to put Elmo on right now”. I gave it a few more minutes and he’s still looking for whatever it is to be put “on”. So I go into his room. And I find Shane standing in his crib, with his face smushed up against the netting of his crib tent. I can see he’s holding something in his hands. As I get closer, I notice that he’s standing there in just his pj top and his diaper. All this time he’s been quietly asking me to put his pj bottoms back “on” - which is what he is sweetly holding in his cute little hands. I about melted right then and there. So I pull him out of the crib, trying SO hard not to smile so he wouldn’t get all wound up, and I put his shorts back on. So sweet and so cute - at first. He did the same thing to me two more times in the next 20 minutes. Needless to say, last night he went to bed in a one piece pj outfit!

2). Our new kitchen floor is being installed on Monday and we couldn’t be any happier or any more excited. Our existing floor is REALLY, REALLY bad! The flip side to this is that Chris and I get to spend tomorrow pulling up the old kitchen floor - that, we’re not so excited about. At least Shane gets to go to breakfast with Grandma and Aunt Kate in the morning! And I’m writing this here so that there’s record of it - but my bet is that this will be the last time Shane goes out to breakfast with Grandma and Aunt Kate!!

3). Shane discovered Melissa’s ball pit at the 4th of July picnic we were at last weekend and we’ve since gotten him one of his own. We’re having a hard time getting him OUT of the thing at the end of the day - he LOVES it that much! He starts from across the room, runs towards the ball pit and DIVES into it! Yes, DIVES!!! He then spends several minutes rolling around in all the balls, kicking and giggling and just having the best time! Thanks, Melissa!!!

4). Shane has been eating less and less yogurt over the last week or so!! Instead of 4/day, he’s down to about 2/day - on a good day! Could it be he’s FINALLY getting tired of Yo-Baby?! That would be an extra $20 saved at the grocery store!

5). We hope Aunt Tracie is feeling okay and that she has a quick and speedy recovery! We love you, Aunt Trae!!!

Because I don’t think we share them enough . . .

Despite spending much of the weekend helping Uncle Jay with his move, we did manage to make it to one 4th of July party!

We drove down to Long Island to spend time with the Sullivan’s and the Finn’s (and GramZ and Grandpa, of course!) and had the best time!

Shane got to spend some time with the adorable girls again and Chris got to spend some time in the incredible pool at Shawn and Christine’s house! Great time!

Let’s do it again soon, guys!

Shane re-discovered his love for cupcakes at the party!!!
Check out these cuties!!! Shannon, Tara and Melissa:

It’s been brought to my attention that I haven’t posted any pics of Uncle Jay’s kitchen. The reason is I actually only have one picture right now, and it’s not from a very good angle.

The ceiling fan has already been replaced. The cabinet door sitting on top of the dishwasher has been re-hung and the knobs on the cabinets have all been switched out. The mess has been picked up and the shelves have been cleaned off.

The wall behind the (standing) fan is the wall that is shared with the future living room. This is the wall that will be knocked down.

I’m standing in his hallway taking this picture. The “yellow room” is behind me, the bathroom is to my right and the living room is to my left. The doorway that Shane is standing in leads out to the sun porch.

(**Click on the picture twice to enlarge it**)

My boys. Taking a break from helping Uncle Jay move, by enjoying a Slurpy out on the front steps.

My heart is so full of love for these two . Sigh . . .

(**Notice the couch that wouldn’t fit through any doorway just sitting out on the front lawn, likely waiting for a miracle!!**)

We were all back at Uncle Jay’s new house on the 4th of July to help him officially move in! Quite a day, but we got a lot accomplished. The move went really well, only one snag. Jay’s leather couch wouldn’t fit through any of the doorways. They ended up having to take out a large window on the sunporch and bring the couch through that way! By the end of the day things were in pretty good shape!

Below are some last pictures of the house before the actual move:

Jay is currently using this room as his living room and as his bedroom while he is renovating what will be the living room. Jay will turn this room into 2 rooms - his bedroom and an office. View of the “yellow room” from the kitchen/hallway:
View of the back of the room (taken from inside the room at the front of the house):
Same angle: Front of the room, the large window overlooks his front yard:
Same angle:
Taken from the corner next to the large picture window. Looking into his entryway:

Taken from the corner next to the front door, into the “yellow room”:
Taken from the “yellow room”. The closed door is directly across from the front door. Behind that door is the staircase to go upstairs. The open doorway leads into his future living room:
View up the stairs to the 2nd floor. Pictures to come of the upstairs:

And he’s finally home!!!

Welcome home, Uncle Jay!!!
All Jay’s belongings! And he thought he’d have room to spare with this truck!

Uncle Jay was a hero that day! In Shane’s eyes, Uncle Jay was Superman! Uncle Jay had a “gee”!!!!

Congratulations again, Uncle Jay!!!! REALLY great house!!!

Next time we go visit Uncle Jay, we’ll take some updated photos to post.

Ok, so I lied. I’m back before Monday, but when it’s 4:30 in the morning and you can’t sleep does it really count as lying???

These are the first pictures of Uncle Jay’s new house! I don’t photoshop house pictures people, so these are all straight out of the camera (SOOC) and for many of them, the flash even engaged (GASP!!!!) I know, I know.

We’ll take pictures of the rest of Uncle Jay’s house today and we’ll post them on Monday. Unless of course my new sleeping pattern continues.

The outside of the house, as it was when he closed on Tuesday:

And, yesterday afternoon, after ripping out/cutting back all the overgrown landscaping:

What will be the living room:

The wall to the left (Shane’s right) is the wall that separates this room from the kitchen. Jay plans on knocking this wall down immediately. He also LOVES the grapevine border and lilac paint. He plans on leaving that as is!!! (Just kidding, obviously!)

The bathroom (before cleaning!):

The sun porch, which is the most adorable little room ever! He gets a really nice breeze out there and it’s right off the kitchen. He’ll get a lot of use out of this room!

Don’t mind the mess!! This room has become the “staging area” for now!

I’ll try to remember to take more pictures of this room earlier in the day, to avoid the shadows:

That’s it for now! Back in a few days with pictures of the kitchen, his future bedroom, the upstairs and the rest of the outside.

Congratulations, Uncle Jay! You’ve got yourself a GREAT home!!!