Alexis' Bridal Shower

A few weeks ago we celebrated Alexis at her bridal shower. It was a really beautiful and perfect day. Her Maid of Honor did a wonderful job (we all helped where we could), Alexis looked stunning, and it was so great to celebrate her on a day that I know she has dreamed of forever.

The shower took place at Lenzi's which is right up the street from my house. It was recently redone and was absolutely gorgeous- the perfect setting for Alexis' "romantic" themed shower.

We kept it simple and played a few easy games- a how well do you know the bride and groom quiz, a "guess how many kisses in the kiss jar" game, and a few other little fun things went on. I made a photo book of Alexis' and Rich's life together so far and had everyone sign it. I was pretty proud of how it came out and I know Alexis loved it so that made me happy. Alexis got just about every item on her registry and there were so many people there to celebrate her. I loved capturing photos of the day and everyone said they had a wonderful time.

Bring on the wedding! Love you, sissy boo.

Halloween 2015

Hey folks! It has been wayyyy too long. I partly blame my recent binge watching of House of Cards, but also life, as always, has been crazy- crazy wonderful, of course.

Here's my long overdue Halloween post!

When Nicholas was born we started a tradition of inviting over friends and family for Halloween. We are lucky to have a great neighborhood. The houses are close together and we get approximately 100+ trick or treaters. It is SO fun to watch, we even had a great time before Nicholas was born. This year Nick's brother and wife came over with the kiddos as well as our friends Matt & Jen and their daughter Eva, my Mom was visiting, and Nick's parents and sister stopped in to see everyone as well.

Nicholas went back and forth a lot on his costume (Iron Man, Superman, Wolverine, a super dino robot....) and one day he pulled out his Superman shirt today and I said "how about you be Superman for Halloween?" And it was settled! My brother Erik has bought his costume every year and this year was no exception. The costumer came in and Nicholas was in love, haha. I let him try it on but then had to hide it so he didn't ruin it before Halloween came.

Also, Teddy's birthday falls on Halloween so we celebrated his big day as well. <3 Here are some pictures of the night.

Dexter Photo Shoot

Last weekend, my friend and fellow volunteer at Lowell Humane Society, Shannon, had a fundraiser that benefitted Lowell Humane Society. Shannon would like to do this again in the fall so if you live in the area and would like to be a part of it, please let me know! Here are the results of our awesome photo shoot :)

Foster Cat Update

I recently received the most wonderful update on a cat I fostered for most of last summer, named Bear. It brought tears to my eyes and made me so happy. I always say how lucky I am to be able to help out doing something I love so much. I wanted to share the message from Bear's adopter with all of you. The last picture cracks me up SO bad:


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I just wanted to update you and let you know how well Bear is doing. I don't know how in the world she ended up with that name, but so glad she did because it was the reason I adopted her. She is an absolute joy. Remember when you said she wasn't a lap cat? I am pleased to tell you that she is now a lap cat. One of her favorite things to do is sleep on my lap when I lay down. She is my best buddy and follows me around and comes when I call her, like a dog, haha.

She still doesn't like being picked up (but slowly getting better about that). She started clawing furniture so I got her a 6ft cat tree and she loved sitting on the top of it and looking out the window, and only claws the rugs now. Her favorite place to sit, when she is downstairs, is on a chair that my beloved deceased cat Baron (nicknamed Bear) loved to sit. I don't think her eyesight is so great because sometimes when I feed her dinner (she still eats like a champ) she follows me when I walk away. I just started picking her up and putting her in front of her dish. She loves to follow me around the house and she is never usually out of eyesight, except at night, she likes to sleep downstairs.

She broke my heart when I was bringing her to the vet when I thought she had a bladder infection (she didn't, turns out I was smelling the remnants of old Bear's markings). She cried in her carrier the whole way over. Actual cries that you could hear. I'm sure you remember that she normally can't make sound when she meows, and still doesn't. She also peed and pooped in the carrier, out of fear. I felt so bad because I figured out that she was afraid I was going to give her away! The not being able to cry has gotten her locked out on the front porch a couple times, so I put bells on her collar. I take her on trips with me and finally, on the last trip, she didn't pee and poop in the carrier from fear. Yay!

My big golden retriever, Billy, was terrified of her and couldn't stand to be in the same room with her, but she loves him! He's starting to come around and accept her. He was another rescue from Tennessee so who knows where that fear came from.

I wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking such good care of her. I was in a pretty bad depression when I got her but she really helped pull me out of it completely. Wonderful people like you help animals but you also, in turn, help people. I hope you are doing well.

This Dude.

Just wanted to give a shout out to my handsome little dude. We went to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese today. Always a blast, right? Although it might not be a parents favorite place to be, Nicholas started screeching when we pulled into the parking lot because he was so excited.

I know I'm biased because he is my kid, but man oh man. This little 3 year old is polite, says hello to everyone, says please and thank you, and almost always has a smile on his face. When it was time to leave he understood we had to go and didn't put up a fight. I know some of it has to do with our parenting, but we are truly lucky to have such a cool little dude.

Love you, booger.

Life Updates :)

Hey folks!

It's been awhile, so I'm just going to go ahead and condense the past few weeks into one post. Mmkay? Mkay.


July 4th week we had our FIRST EVER family vacation and it was so so wonderful. It was Nicholas' first time to the beach. I should probably mention Nick and I are not big beach people. We're pool people. We're lay around and try to relax people. Anyway, enough about us. Nicholas had a great time- he was a little nervous at first, but Ima toot my own horn and say I helped him (along with his friends Matthew and Leah and Auntie Deanna) get comfortable with the water. I had him stand behind me and put his arms around my neck while I sat in the water, and he was then comfortable enough to creep in and hold hands with his friends. Here are some pictures of our amazing time in Newburyport. I didn't get many of Nicholas in the water since I was busy making sure he didn't drown ;) :

When we came back from Newburyport I had a little bit of a health scare, and after that Dexter wasn't feeling so great either. I found a lump in my left breast and was beyond terrified. I am thankful to say I went for a mammogram and ultrasound and it was found that I had dense tissue and no signs of an actual tumor or cancer. I can't stress enough how important it is to check yourself, ladies! I am lucky enough to have no family history of cancer but that's just one of the many factors that go into determing breast cancer.

We also visited the vet today and I'm thankful to say Dexter is also doing ok. The picture of Nicholas and Dexter below is when he brought his favorite bone over to play tug of war- he hadn't done that in days and it made me so happy.

My friend Brooke is going through a tough time with their dog Kaia right now. Kaia has been diagnosed with cancer and she's going through treatment- all I can say is Brooke (and Kaia) are two tough girls because I look at Dexter with an upset stomach and am reduced to tears. I can't imagine what they're going through and I can only hope that Kaia gets better- she's got two amazing parents who will do anything for her so she's in the best place she can be, and I choose to believe she's a fighter and will get better- she has so much more life to live. <3