New Blog, Where to Find Us Now

Hello friends!

It occurred to me after all this time that I had never posted a link to our new blog, though I publicized it on facebook and instagram and by word of mouth, if someone has only this link they would be out in the cold!

So, if you'd like to keep up with the adventures and see all the archives in one place and (sort of) updated, head over to:

http://emme.socialduchess.com

The new blog is Emme Ever After, since my sweet Bobosaurus is now the first of four siblings, but we are still enjoying adventures and hopefully many more are to come.  See you there!

Portrait of Us

 I printed an 8x10 of this photo out and have it framed in the hallway, I love it.  Everytime I walk by it it makes me smile and think of warm summer sunsets and hugs.  :)

The Hunter

Summer Days

Birthday Balloons

Autumn is Coming

Summer Running

Click to open larger picture

I love this color picture so much, I made a new category of photos on the upper right side called 'Favorite Images', so I can bundle all my favorite solo images for everyone to see easily.  This was taken September 2nd but the weather was still so summery and warm.  The yard at the new house is perfect for summer days and running outside, Matt and Arin were kicking around a bouncy ball and splattering a giant mushroom. You can see the sky is starting to turn red and orange from the sunset and we're just about to go inside for a tasty dinner that Matt just finished cooking on the grill.  It all makes for just such a timeless moment that I will cherish.

Biker Dude, Spiderman Style

Taken by Grampy after he set up one of Arin's birthday presents for him... Arin loves all the gear even if its still too big for him!  He's incredibly good on the bike, he apparently had lots of practice at daycare.  Note he just happens to be wearing his 'scary skull shirt' this day too... makes him look so much bigger than just barely 4! 

Bath Time

Click for full-size!

Taking a nice bath in his very own bathtub at the new house... eventually he'll have the whole bathroom to himself when we finally get the master bedroom settled in.  For now he has to share though, but the tub is so nice and clean now it doesn't matter, and there's tons of space to play with his bath time Thomas trains!

Little Peek

Pouring out the Bath

New Lens

I finally went out and bought a new lens for my very old DSLR camera.  It's magical.  It's ALL about the lens, I cannot believe I waited so long to get this thing.  So in love!  Canon's 50mm f/1.4.  Perfection.

Here's a little closer:

BW of the Week

  

I took this picture right after I got my new portrait lens, and I just love how amazing everything looks with it!  We were at Momo's house since it was a Saturday for Arin to take a bath, so here he is in the tub, bubbles and all, enjoying the end of a summer day while I snap away!

BW of the Week

I had this idea to go back over time and do a BW every week for Bobo.  I don't know if its a project I'll ever get around to... maybe when my classes finally end in May!  But here is one for the last week in March!  Matt, Arin and I were at Smokey Bones and he was such a good boy and ate his ENTIRE huge grilled cheese sandwich.  He's never hungry for dinner so we were super impressed.  We go out to restaurants a lot though, and he's usually very good, but just lacks an appetite like he had tonight!  We'll definitely be going back soon.  Click it, it gets cropped off a bit.

Good News for Groundhog Day!

Finally we have some good news in the midst of all these winter blizzards... Punxsutawney Phil told the world that he did not see his shadow and we will have an early spring!  Now that is a Groundhog Day worth celebrating!

To watch the video of the whole ceremony, click here: http://www.pacast.com/display_media_production_id.asp?production_id=8626  Phil doesn't make his appearance until 2/3 of the way through, but it's worth it because he's so cute!  I love that the town keeps the traditional procession to Gobbler's Knob alive and even dress the part. They have a great website explaining all things Groundhog Day at http://www.groundhog.org/

Here is part of "Groundhog Day: 1886 to 1992" written by Bill Anderson that explains the origins:

The groundhog tradition stems from similar beliefs associated with Candlemas Day and the days of early Christians in Europe, and for centuries the custom was to have the clergy bless candles and distribute them to the people. Even then, it marked a milestone in the winter and the weather that day was important. 

According to an old English song:

If Candlemas be fair and bright,
Come, Winter, have another flight;
If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,
Go Winter, and come not again.

According to an old Scotch couplet:

If Candlemas Day is bright and clear,
There'll be twa winters in the year.

Another variation of the Scottish rhyme:

               If Candlemas day be dry and fair,
              The half o' winter to come and mair,
              If Candlemas day be wet and foul,
             The half of winter's gone at Yule.

 

The Roman legions, during the conquest of the northern country, supposedly brought this tradition to the Teutons, or Germans, who picked it up and concluded that if the sun made an appearance on Candlemas Day, an animal, the hedgehog, would cast a shadow, thus predicting six more weeks of bad weather, which they interpolated as the length of the "Second Winter." 

Pennsylvania's earliest settlers were Germans and they found groundhogs to in profusion in many parts of the state. They determined that the groundhog, resembling the European hedgehog, was a most intelligent and sensible animal and therefore decided that if the sun did appear on February 2nd, so wise an animal as the groundhog would see its shadow and hurry back into its underground home for another six weeks of winter. 

The Germans recited:

For as the sun shines on Candlemas Day,
So far will the snow swirl until the May.

Le Snowpants

Apparently in some parts snowpants are known as snow-bibs.  This is apparently because some have the top part that zips up like a vest under your coat?  We always just called them all snowpants... anyway, this year I had one heck of a time finding any kids snowpants anywhere!  I waited until Christmas time and then it was too late.  Everyone seemed to be sold out or only stocking $100+ designer snow wear ...crazy!   Finally I managed to track down some camping outlet online that still had some in stock...and they were a good price too.  They turned out to be really nice, and Bobo loves finally being able to run around in all the snow we're getting.

Snowy Bobo

They say this year will be a record-breaker for snow in New England.  Personally I'm pretty much done with it, but Bobo absolutely loves it.  He is such a snow baby!  Lucky for him we're supposed to get another foot tomorrow (after 6 inches today!).  That groundhog better give us some good news tomorrow!

Kitchen Envy

Probably the biggest present Bobo got this year was a giant and awesome play kitchen that inspires real kitchen envy from me.  It's so nice and pretty and I very much want a mommy version!  He didn't open it on Christmas day, so he had a while in between presents to sort of extend Christmas out a bit.  Plus, this thing required a lot of set-up.  You can see that from the two separate boxes!  Which Bobo loved playing in, of course... Finally with Grampy's help it got set up, and is now sitting in our living room taking up about half of it.

Get Ready For Sledding!

No snow here yet but this video sure puts me in the mood to go sledding!  And also makes me want to curl up by a fire, brrrrr!

Santa's Lap

 Friday was our library's annual Christmas Tree Lighting, and of course Santa was there to do the honors and then ask all the little munchkins what they wanted.  Bobo was sitting on him so nicely with his hands folded so sweet, and ventured to ask for Thomas trains and a Mickey Mouse toy.  He was so well-behaved and looked adorable, so cute that a lady from the newspaper had to write down his name because she was sure the picture she took of him 'was a keeper'.  I'll be checking tomorrow to see if he's in there of course!

Believe in Santa

The New York Sun, September 21, 1897

We take pleasure in answering at once and thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of THE SUN:

  "Dear Editor: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; Is there a Santa Claus?
        "Virginia O'Hanlon.
"115 West Ninety-Fifth Street."

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no VirginiaS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest man that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No Santa Claus! Thank GOD! He lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

http://www.newseum.org/yesvirginia/

Poem for a Sick Day

When I was sick and lay a-bed,
I had two pillows at my head,
And all my toys beside me lay,
To keep me happy all the day.

And sometimes for an hour or so
I watched my leaden soldiers go,
With different uniforms and drills,
Among the bed-clothes, through the hills;

And sometimes sent my ships in fleets
All up and down among the sheets;
Or brought my trees and houses out,
And planted cities all about.

I was the giant great and still
That sits upon the pillow-hill,
And sees before him, dale and plain,
The pleasant land of counterpane.
            ~ Robert Louis Stevenson



Yesterday Bobo and I had a sick day.  I was going to go into work and deal with it even though I had lost my voice for a few days, but then Monday evening when I picked up Bobo from daycare he had a raging fever which lasted all night, so home we stayed.  We slept most of the day, but managed to watch "Feel Better Little Bear" for a while in between pancakes and drinking fluids.  In one of the episodes Father Bear recites this poem and Little Bear acts it out, I wanted to share it.

Boots the Puppy

Okay here is something recent I found in my gmail!  Pics from my BlackBerry... these were taken late October when they wisely had a carnival in our town.  It was *freezing* and pretty much no one went!  But we did, and we had a (mostly, tantrums aside) good time.  We pigged out on fried dough, Bobo got a big old fair hotdog that he ate in 3 seconds flat, watched Bobo and Julie get stuck on the giant slide and then them close it down due to condensation, had Bobo go on the train ride all by himself, played whack-a-mole so he could win a huge ($10) stuffed chinese dragon, and met up with Julie's friend Will and his puppy Boots! 

After we defected to the -regular- playground cause I had no money left for more tickets and froze our bottoms off, we headed home for some hot spiced cider.  Boots had to stay on the porch, but it was so chilly out there we finally set up the baby gate so she could come in the kitchen and play!  And that's what I have pics of!

Cheesy Face

Since I'm apparently incapable of sitting down to update... here are some pics from JULY that my dad emailed me!  These are huge if you click on them.  Saved the best for last, love it! 

I promise I will get around to putting up summer and fall, before Christmas I hope!  I have to order Snapfish prints anyway, I'd love to do some scrapbooking over the holidays... maybe after Nanowrimo (as if I'll finish that anyway!).  Love!

Walking the Forest

Arin getting a ride through the wonderland of woodland trails behind my mom's house.  After her yard ends there are wide trails that four wheelers make occasional use of, which eventually lead to the pipeline and a large river.  We used to explore the area all the time growing up, and it was fun to take Bobo out there for a walk and I hope to do it more often.  The only trouble is we have terrible ticks, but for enchanted moments like this it is worth it.