It's the Simple Things in Life...

Easter...

2009-04-13T10:10:00.000-07:00

In past years it has been easy to forget the reason for this holiday. Last year I became more aware of it as I received my first communion and became a full member of the Catholic church. This year however, Easter had more significance as Matt and I had Emma baptized. It was a nice ceremony which took place during mass on Easter Sunday. We chose Emma's aunt and uncle to be her Godparents, as they are both active members of the church and have children who they are raising Catholic. Emma wore a Christening gown that is 50 plus years old and has been worn by many. Several family members attended and gathered at my mom's house after. It was nice to have everyone together. Emma fell asleep just before it was time for the water to be washed over her head. She let three cries out as the water hit and immediately fell back asleep.

Emma is such a happy baby and she is growing so fast...

here are some other recent pictures!

Warm weather is on it's way....

2009-03-30T06:03:00.000-07:00

The arrival of Spring brings much excitement to our home! Watching the snow melt means it will soon be time to start looking for antlers, taking rides in the jeep, spring fishing and showing Emma all our favorite spots. Spring time is just so exciting, especially since we spent so much time in the house this winter. Matt and I are really "on-the-go" kind of people and we're ready to get Emma out there with us! We're looking forward to lots of camping trips this summer and lots of time playing outside. Last summer was mostly work and very little play. The only projects we're planning for this summer are painting the house, insulating the basement and of course there's always firewood to cut, split and stack. A few little projects we can do together and enjoy eachother's company while we're at it!

Miss Emma!

2009-02-18T12:03:00.000-08:00

Here are some more recent pictures of our beautiful little girl....

Emma hanging out in her Winnie the Pooh bouncy seat....

Emma and I at my Grammy's apt. in Canada!

Emma dozed off while her Grammy

rocked her this morning.

Happy Valentine's Day!

...and how could it not be happy

when it starts out seeing this?!

Motherhood!

2009-02-12T12:07:00.000-08:00

So far, I just absolutely L O V E being a mom! There is nothing better. Emma is just amazing! The past month has been amazing watching her grow, change and develop each day. Last night Emma completely surprised us when she rolled over for the first time, at one month old! She is just beautiful and incredibly strong. I brought her for her one month check up and she is growing fast. Already up to 22 and 5/8" long and 11 pounds 11 ounces. She had her second Hep. B vaccine and I am sure it hurt me more than it hurt her. We are now looking at the next set of vaccines, HIB, dTap, polio and mmr, which there has been much debate about. So far, I have decided Emma will only receive two vaccines at a time, as opposed to the usual four. As wonderful as being a mother is, there are so many things to worry about. These vaccines are a pretty hot topic. My step-sister Donna, (mother of a 2 year old and 4 month old) have spent a large amount of time discussing the vaccine schedule along with other concerns we both have. I suppose these are just the beginning of my worrying days! But it is all so completely worth it.

She's Here!

2009-01-14T03:13:00.000-08:00

Since May 1st we have been anticipating the arrival of our baby. We had a very busy nine months, with the moving of the house and making sure everything would be all set when it was time to "bring home baby".

January 7th was by far the most amazing, and wonderful day of our lives! Emma Paradise Vining was born at 5:34p.m. in Waterville. She weighed 9lbs 9.1 oz. and was 21 and 1/4" long!

We had an amazing team of dr's and nurses who took care of us while in the hospital and throughout the past nine months. However, when Friday came we were ready to come home. We've been back in Jackman for one week now and everything is going great!

Making progress and it's a good thing... Fall is here!

2008-08-27T17:21:00.000-07:00

We started off the summer by digging a huge hole, literally! Our yard has been not much else than dirt, mud and heavy equipment for the past couple months. Alas, we are gaining!

We managed to successfully get our foundation poured and jack our house up three feet higher than it used to sit.

Thanks to some wonderful friends and amazing family, we are finally seeing some light at the end of what seemed like a very long tunnel. Saturday, August 30th we are actually going to move the house... well, not we ~Matt~ is going to move the house.

Matt has worked incredibly hard this summer (and always) to complete this process. As happy as I am that we are nearing the end, I can only imagine how relieved he will be when it is finished.

Aside from one camping trip and a wedding, this is pretty much what our weekends have consisted of all summer. I will definitely be posting more pictures after this weekend. Hopefully all goes well and our house will still be in one peice come Monday!

Destruction... or Construction???

2008-06-15T18:11:00.000-07:00

We talked all winter about putting a foundation under our house. For a while it seemed like a lot of just that, talk. Spring came and we started talking more and now the project has begun! I guess the idea that we'll have a baby in January wasn't quite enough excitement for us.

YIKES!
Friday we started digging, Sunday is here and the whole is completely dug. The shed is now on the other side of the yard, and we no longer have a pretty yard.

This week the footer and the walls will be poured. Then comes the interesting part... we get to move our house! I guess that is the part that has me a bit nervous.

the view from here in alaska

2008-02-25T00:45:00.000-08:00

i hope you know i can break into your blog little sister.
i dont know if you meant to change the settings this way... but couldnt resist posting this- looks like we had matching beautiful weather this weekend. what an amazing day.
thank god for the sun coming back around again, eh?

Blue skies and sunshine!!

2008-02-24T16:13:00.000-08:00

Finally! It was one of those days I have been so anxiously looking forward to. Matt and I both had the day off, and the weather was fabulous! We took full advantage and went on a little off-trail ride w/ our friends Jenn and Denise and Eric.

We went across Attean and Big Wood then through a few small trails and onto some other more remote ponds. We stopped for a while on one of the ponds for a snack and hung out for a bit. We ended up at Little Big Wood where we met up with Eric and continued our loop back to Jackman from there.

The beautiful weather made for excellent views and a great ride! The riding conditions were perfect. Good solid base, lots of fluffy snow on top! The lakes are perfectly smooth and there was plenty of untouched powder to play in. The guys even managed to find a pit nobody had broke out... excellent place to get some good pictures and break stuff!

It was a perfect day! Good ride with good friends and finally some good weather!

Cold, tired, cold- trying somehow to find the upside...

2008-02-20T09:52:00.000-08:00

I think I will be bitching about winter and cold weather until it finally goes away! I generally try to find the up-side of everything, but my optimism is running out. As much as I enjoy snowmobiling, it's not fun when you have to ride double all the time. It's late February now, I know we still have a good solid month and a half of winter left. I suppose I am looking forward to the warm, sunny days of March ice fishing.

It's pretty enjoyable when we're able to build a fire and stand outside in just a sweater, as oppose to being bundled up like Eskimos.

April and May are just not that exciting here in Jackman. Although I will be content with some sunshine, the grill out of the shed and chairs out on our porch. That's pretty much all I can think about at this point. Watching the snow melt and knowing that HOT days of Summer are right around the corner will be absolutely wonderful!

Anyway, enough of that I should get back to work now.

It's all about the simple things...

2008-02-06T19:51:00.000-08:00

January flew by, and I can't say I'm not happy about it. Winter just isn't as wonderful this year as I usually think it is. We have been too busy to do much in the way of snowmobiling and icefishin, at least compared to past years. However, we did make time last weekend to venture out to a local favorite winter spot. Near the end of our journey we came across some other Jackman folk who had the same idea. Find a spot where the wind isn't blowing 50mph, build a bon fire, cook some food and enjoy a (few) cold beverage(s) with friends! I love that in Jackman it is not uncommon to pick an unlikely destination, or maybe have no destination at all to go someplace and hang out for an afternoon standing around a fire chatting or taking in the quiet.

In spite of the full schedule we have managed to squeeze in a day here and there for some fun. I have decided that the house chores will always be here. If we are going to work like fools all week long and sometimes on the weekend, then we need to make time for something enjoyable in between. If not, then what is the purpose of all the hard work?

So anyway, aside from the crazy schedules~I am glad to see that the days are getting longer. I travel a lot and generally leave early and return late. The past two weeks I have been able to leave as the sun comes up and get home just after dark. One morning, a couple weeks ago the sun was just finally peaking over the trees as I was getting to Skowhegan around 7:00a.m.

I am looking forward to summer and all of my friends curse me for saying so, but I need some warm, fresh air!

I am finally seeing the light at the end of the snow tunnel!

P.S. I am pretty sure I'll never move to Alaska;) LB, beautiful as it is... it's all yours!

Happy New Year

2008-01-09T10:59:00.000-08:00

The holiday craziness has passed and now it's back to reality. Ouch! So far the new year has brought me a busy schedule! I am working for a brand new company in Jackman, called Northern Mountains Real Estate. Also, I will be enrolled in school for Speech/Language Therapy full time this semester as well as waitressing every-other weekend at a local restaurant. Oh yeah... and for the next nine weeks I get to travel to Augusta one day a week for my Associate Broker class! Matt is still working like crazy. However, with the heat wave that is passing through, the plowing has slowed down for him.
Anyway, I hope everyones holidays were wonderful! We had a really good Christmas. Although we were spread pretty thin as far as spending any amount of time with people, we were able to visit a little with everyone. We had Christmas Eve Day @ my Mom and Mark's house in Jackman, from there to Christmas Eve with friends and more family, then Christmas morning at home, then afternoon at Nana and Grampy Buchanan's in Milford, then finally we made it all the way to Blue Hill for an amazing dinner at Corey and Cullen's.
2007 was a busy year and flew right by, hopefully this year will pass a little slower. It was a great year! Some pretty exciting things happened. We made new friends, spent some time with old friends, celebrated our one year anniversary, our niece turned one, and we bought our first home! I am anxious to see what 2008 will bring us. Happy New Year to everyone, wishing you all the best!

Counting Down the Days to Christmas!

2007-12-12T04:08:00.000-08:00

The days are passing quickly now and Christmas is fast approaching. Of course, it seems to come quickly because we begin celebrating this weekend! Matt's family will be here this weekend for Christmas at our house this year.

Matt and I did the traditional hunt for a perfect Christmas tree on Sunday. It was getting close to dark before we finally snowshoed down the right road and found our tree and a tree for my mom. We spent Sunday evening stringing lights and decorating the tree together!

Now that the house is decorated. I have started wrapping presents. The next big project will be the Christmas baking. That starts tomorrow.

As hectic as Christmas has always been for me with traveling, I am just like a kid during the holidays. I love all the crazy family gatherings and of course the many home cooked meals (that I don't have to cook)! So anyway, with that said... I need to stop procrastinating and do something productive.

snow=job security

2007-12-03T17:50:00.000-08:00

Well, I didn't think this blogging thing was for me... but when there's no one to talk to I can type! How thrilling. Anyway, I had almost forgotten that lots of snow means lots of work. I shoveled 6 times today, had the driveway plowed, swept the car off, filled the wood box, and made beef stew along with some other stuff in between. Sounds like a busy day. Not really though. Matt left at 4:30 a.m. went to work for a while, he came home at 9:00 a.m., so we did get to have breakfast together. Now it is 8:00 p.m. he just called me from work and said he's taking a break and having supper but won't be home tonight. Matt will be plowing empty dirt roads all night long. That's a busy day! He works so hard and for so many hours. So George [the dog], Bisquit, [the cat] and myself are holding down the fort. We're watching Charlie Brown Christmas and making sure the fire doesn't go out. Hope everyone has a good night! Enjoy the snow!

Winter Wonderland!

2007-12-03T04:57:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning to see that everything is covered with a beautiful white blanket! It looks like today will be the first substantial amount of snowfall in Jackman and most of Maine from what I have heard. I am so excited! We have had a bit of snow on the ground since early November but we had rain in between which turned it to ice.
I absolutely love December. It's busy and Christmas is around the corner, but I am always so excited! Sometime in the next couple weeks I will begin the process of making Christmas cookies. In stead of buying lots of expensive gifts I make cookies for everyone on my list.
Christmas this year is definitely on a smaller scale as far as gifts. Matt and I are in the process of purchasing our first home together! We close on Friday. It is very exciting and very scary. Fortunately we are buying the house we already live in, so we don't have to move!
Since the traveling won't be so nice today I will stay in and keep the fire going. Probably do some cooking and cleaning and at some point take my dog out to play in the new snow!

(I don't have a current picture... but this is the view from my living room in the winter!)

hmm... what's this all about?!

2007-11-28T13:54:00.001-08:00

It seems this blogging stuff is what everyone is doing! I on the other hand am still stuck on myspace since writing isn't really my thing. With myspace I keep pictures posted and chat randomly with old friends... blogging, well it's just me talking. NOT SO MUCH FUN! But hey, maybe I can learn something from it. Besides it's how I keep up with what my sister in Alaska is up to. I also recently found there are other people I know using this too. So anyway, this is my first blog. It's more like a blob if you ask me. Boring! I'll try and make the next one more interesting.