Daddy Got a New Ride and the Halloween Parade

On Wednesday Corbin called after getting the Jetta serviced to tell me that he was looking at a diesel wagon and wanted to potentially get one if they happened to come in. Guess what happened the very next day? Yes, we are now the proud owners of a Jetta wagon. The dogs are still getting used to the tighter quarters but they like it much more than the other car and seem to enjoy the enormous sunroof the most. I don't particularly like parking in another time zone so no one will ding the car but according to Corbin we will be getting some exercise for a while.

Saturday Janet and Crawford came over for the neighborhood Halloween parade. Crawford and Gwennie had a great time hanging in the wagon while the adults lugged them all around the neighborhood. The Jack in the Box seemed to be the big hit (although most kids cried over the mask but the nice girl in the outfit was quick to take it off while the kids were checking her out). Corbin and I thought the Phelps costume was a great idea and the disco baby was also pretty funny. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

SC State Fair Gridlock

On Friday I was perusing Face Book and noticed that Aunt Eileen (affectionately known as "E") was heading to the fair for lunch. As a junk food junkie myself, I decided we'd change our plans to go to the Apple Harvest Festival and called our cousins Gini and Russ Webb to see if they wanted to head over with us to the South Carolina State Fair (which happens to be in Columbia where they live). Luckily...Gini and I are all about the fried food and Russ/Corbin are all about people watching and football...USC was playing LSU the same day (at the same location) so they were planning on going anyhow.

We met up on Saturday morning and Russ' good buddy Wheels (he does have a real name but Russ renames all of his friends so all we know him as now is Wheels). Piled the kids, adults, double stroller and tailgating gear in the cars and headed over. The fair itself was great...Gwennie and I had a corn dog and some lemonade. Corbin decided to eat some scary chili cheese fries that I was sure would come back to haunt him later and Gini went with the ever popular Carmel apple with sprinkles route. Good think Alex (their 6 year old daughter) wasn't hungry because the adults were eating enough for everyone! Blythe (their 10 month old daughter) also got in on the corn dog action and we had heard about these fried Oreo cookies so we all were on a mission to find them. After about an hour of searching we found the stand and it was well worth it....might sound icky to some of you but we all agreed......YUMMY!
By 3:30 we were all full of junk, tired of looking at cows/chickens/sand sculptures and sick of losing money on the fair games so we headed back to the cars so Corbin, Gini, Alex, Blythe, Gwennie and I could head home. Russ and Wheels were staying for the game so they helped us pile all the kids/crap into the car and then we were on our way.....or so we thought.
We pulled out of the parking lot to the left, didn't move for 30 min so we decided to turn around and try the other way. Same thing happened to the right and we noticed these people were even more mad (because they weren't letting anyone in, had some scary looks on their faces and some were just getting out of their cars to walk up to see what was going on) so we figured we were going to be there for a while. After an hour of no movement we turned around and headed toward the entrance hoping that gate was open. No luck there...that gate apparently was closed up and the highway patrol wasn't letting anyone out. After about an hour and a half, Alex had enough and she had to go to the bathroom so Gini headed to find out what was going on and to let her poor child finally relieve herself. 30 min later Gini and Alex returned and we found out that the highway patrol was the problem. The fair wanted to open more exits but because of they weren't in charge of the streets, they were forced to leave the exits closed. So....Gini took matters into her own hands. Somehow she made friends with the head of security at the fair, got the number of the head patrolman and left him a colorful message on how much we were enjoying sitting out here for 2+ hours. Corbin and I were saying that "Crazy Gini" was coming out to make sure we were going to get out of there in record time.
Crazy Gini came through and after 2 1/2 hours and a few conversations with the police, they opened the gate, and we were the 10th person through and we were home 10 minutes later. Crazy got it done!!!!!!


Sunday we took a trip to Costco for more Thomas (Namas as Gwennie calls him) DVDs as Corbin and I are sick of the 2 she watches over and over and came across the coolest Thomas toy ever which will be making an appearance around Christmas.

Here's the pictures from the weekend and a video of Gwennie raising the roof to the new Thomas song (they've made Thomas into a rap song which was pretty hilarious). If you'd like to see a moving rendition of the original click on Rich and Jess Christenson's blog done by their nephew Conner.

Back up in Baltimore

This weekend we headed up to Owings Mills to visit with Alan, Heather and Ari and also to attend our good friend Nancy's baby shower. The shower was really fun and since Clark and Corbin did the catering, the food was great! Sunday we headed to a farm to pick out a pumpkin. They had hayrides, pony rides and all sorts of events for the kids. Both Ari and Gwennie had a great time and were pretty tired by the end of the day. Then we headed up to have dinner with Clark and Nancy. As you can see from the picture to the left Ari and Gwennie made themselves at home! Here are some pictures of the weekend and a few videos

A Visit From Ashley & Weekend Project

On Friday my friend Ashley came down for a quick visit (3 hours to be exact) while she had a flight layover back up north. Gwennie had so much fun playing with her and was pretty mad when it was time for bed. Ashley and I both tried to put her down and she was not going for it! Finally after a few tears she settled down and Ashley and I headed out to dinner while Corbin stayed home on baby duty!

Saturday afternoon Corbin installed a chandelier I have had my eye on for a while. As you can see from the pictures we were a little nervous about the wiring but it all turned out fine.

Namas and Bob

Saturday was a big day over here. We headed up to a Day Out with Thomas in Spencer, NC at the North Carolina Transportation Museum. Gwennie is absolutely obsessed with Namas (Thomas) and all of the trains/tracks that go along with him. Those Thomas folks are pretty smart...the first tent you walk into is where all the "for sale" items are and they are so nice over there.....they put these cute tracks out for your kids to play with. And they are nice enough to put price tags on everything so that when your kid freaks out when you try to leave (and you are desperate to get your kid out of there spending less than $100), you can just pay for whatever she's clutching for dear life!!! Luckily Gwennie's hands are still small so she's only got a book that she carries around the house repeating "Namas" all day.

Bob the builder was also there but Gwennie seemed more interested in watching Thomas ride around. The life sized Thomas train rides around the museum was both Corbin's and my favorite part. They take you around the whole station including the round house and all the trains they are restoring/using at the museum. It was raining/cloudy all day but here are some pictures from our outing.

Ari's Big Birthday Bash

This weekend Gwennie and I headed up to Baltimore for Ari's 2nd birthday. As you will see from the pictures below it was a blast! Gwennie and Ari are best buds and have a great time playing together. Ari also got a new toy that you can check out in the video. As you can see Gwennie took matters into her own hands when Ari didn't put the petal to the metal!

BBQ and Rally Day

This weekend Corbin got up at 5 AM to do some crazy barbecuing. Because it was literally enough food to feed an army, we invited some friends over to join us. As you can see, the kids dominated the photos. Sunday Corbin and I went to Rally day at our church (which is basically just a BBQ after services with a bounce house for the kids to play in). Since it's one of the few times we dress up I figured a picture was in order!

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Beach/Mountain Vacation 2008

Well, we are finally back home again and everyone (dogs included) misses our vacation but we are all happy to be back! Get ready, this is going to be a long post with 2 videos and a ton of pictures.

Last Saturday Corbin headed up to Chapel Hill for the UNC football season opener with his friends Mark and Matt. Mark's wife Kristin and I headed to the Zoo for the day. Ben and Gwennie had a blast checking out the animals (and each other) Gwennie loved to walk over and pat the "baby", Ben (baby to Gwennie) was having a blast watching her hand him toys and give him kisses. It was pretty hot all day so we only made it to the Zebras, Ostriches and the Elephants. We also had a nice long stop at the Carousel for lunch so all in all it was a fun day and the kids were wiped out during the car ride home.

Sunday we piled the whole family (Corbin, Myself, Gwennie, Ginger and Ruby) and all of our stuff into the car and headed to the Outer Banks for a well deserved vacation. On our way out there we stopped by to visit with Harold, Allie, Nathan, James and Bennie (the dog). It was so nice to get to meet the boys in person. I can't believe how big they are now and Allie/Harold have settled into parenthood very well. They both are so calm and the boys are so sweet. They both just love to stare/examine their surroundings and are happy just about anywhere. Gwennie gave Harold and Allie a nice preview of what their life will be like soon enough....times 2!! Gwennie loved their sun porch, the stairs, Bennie (who was not to keen on an 18 month old chasing her) and especially giving the boys their pacifiers.

After our visit and some lunch we piled into the car again and headed to the beach. This was Gwennie's first time in the sand and she was like a cat to cat litter! She loved the sand and playing in the ocean. We at first thought that she would cry when the waves knocked her down but she just got up and laughed and went on her way. Between Gwennie and the dogs, I am pretty sure we took 1/2 of the beach home with us! Ginger and Ruby loved rolling in the ocean and were covered in sand for most of the week. By the end of each day the dogs and kids were so tired that they would all pass out around 7:30 and no one would make a peep until the next morning (which the adults enjoyed most of all!).

Here is some video of Ginger in the pool. She hates to jump in but as you can see the dog toy was more important than her fear of jumping! She loved using the stairs on the pool so we tried to make her jump off the end and you can see how that turned out...




Gwennie also got in on the action and loved to wash the sand off of her feet. We thought it was great (less sand in the house), but after she refused to leave the shower we realized we had created a monster!



On Thursday we headed home to unpack, drop off the girls and do a quick load of laundry before we headed up to the mountains for our annual Kanuga Parrish weekend with our church. Unfortunately I forgot the camera for most of the events (other than a quick snapshot of Corbin/Gwennie heading out for a hike). I wish I would have taken a video of Gwennie jamming out to the bluegrass band. She was an absolute riot and everyone came over to tell me as much.

Sunday we stopped over in Sparkle City to visit with Aunt Lynne and Uncle Bill. Unfortunately again I forgot the camera! We checked out their beautiful new house and went to visit Bill doing work on his farm. Gwennie loved playing with Belle and next time I will be sure to bring the camera so everyone can see how peaceful and nice the farm is.

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Girls Night Out...and Charlie!

This week I was up in Boston for work and got to meet the one and only Charlie (Kiki and Ted became new parents 3 weeks ago). He's such a good boy and apparently when Mommy Kiki went out to dinner he slept a full 4 hours that night! We all had so much catching up. I stayed with Addie, Ryan, Tyler and Alexis who is now sitting up on her own! When she's not playing with her feet (her new favorite toy), Alexis pretty much loves to be jumping up and down. As you can see from the pictures she loves her jump seat!

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Peas

So I am sure this might upset all the mommies that read this when I let everyone in on a huge secret. We all post that are kids are these perfect little angels and that life is just wonderful with a baby or toddler. Here's the reality....we are all nuts and liars! I write these posts about how great things are and what good things she does and in reality she probably just ate some dog food, turned over their water bowls, had a temper tantrum and then broke another remote control. We all pretend our kids are perfect (and they always are in our eyes)., but today Gwennie just achieved perfection and learned the magic word that is the key to mommy and daddy's heart....take a look! And then immediately after that you can watch her make another mess :-)

Back from AZ

We are back from Arizona (and for Corbin - India) and everyone is settling into normal life again. Corbin is very happy that he can get a cheeseburger and I am happy it is not 117 degrees out! Gwennie seems to be the only one missing the old times. Last night she was in no mood to go to bed and ended up playing in her crib until about 9 PM! This morning she slept in until 8:30 AM and we are pretty sure whe was wondering why Geegee and Grandpa weren't around to take a walk with her. We are hoping that sooner or later her internal clock will go back to EST, although the late sleeping has been great!

Here's some pictures of our last days in Arizona including one of Maria (our lifesaver!) who watched Gwennie while I worked, a "nude self portrait" and one of Ben and Gwennie giving each other a kiss goodnight when we went over to Ben's parent's house for a BBQ.

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Hanging Out with GeeGee and Grandpa

This week we headed out to see Geegee and Grandpa and as you can see they had plenty of toys and gear to keep Gwennie busy. She swam in the morning and at night right before dinner (and probably would have stayed in the water all day if we let her). We also visited the Phoenix Children's Museum and a local park but Gwennie seems to enjoy the pool more than anything else (probably because she gets to hang with her grandparents and the water is so warm)!

Here's a video of Gwennie playing with her new toy (turning wasn't really her thing) and another one of her swimming.







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Bubble and a Bug....

Sorry about the delay in posting this week. Friday night Gwennie picked up a nasty stomach bug that she just got over yesterday and consequently so did I. We are both just starting to feel normal again. We also had a weekend visitor named Tucker. Tucker's parents Kristin and Mark were in Chicago at a wedding so we volunteered to have a doggy sleepover. Poor Kristin and Mark ran into every plane delay there is and did not get back until last night around midnight. Tucker was very happy to be back with his parents and the girls will miss his goofy demeanor. Here's a video of Tucker's reaction to bubbles.

For some reason Google Video refuses to work so click here for the video

The things you find at Costco....

Well, as most of you know, Costco seems to be the place to find ANYTHING. Today I found the first season of the Muppet Show. Hoping Gwennie would think it was cool, I picked it up and as you can see...she got her munamuna groove on.

Another Great Family Weekend...

This weekend was super busy! We had lots of family in town staying with us for both the Duncan/Webb Family Lake weekend and the Widespread Panic Concert. Russ, Corbin, Rachel, Parks and "Wheels" (poor kid's name is Hunter but Russ refuses to call him anything other than his "wheels") headed to the concert while Gini and I got a mommy's night out and saw Avenue Q at the theatre. Alex was an amazing help to Jennifer while she was watching Blythe and Gwennie. As you can see from the pics they all enjoyed bath time! Gini and I decided to get all dolled up but forgot the makeup part so please excuse our "au natural" look.

I don't know why but this is one of my favorite pictures from this weekend. I am sure most of you have no idea who this is in the picture but for those of you at the lake weekend, you know this is Uncle Robert in his "natural habitat". To the untrained eye one would think he's catching a few Zs. He's really just taking in all the conversations around him and resting at the same time. My theory on the Webb/Duncan family weekend is if you need to know something...ask Uncle Robert. He probably was "playing possum" as Lynne calls it and can tell you the scoop. He also tells some of the funniest stories out there so every conversation with him is a good one.

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Best Scam Out There...

So chalk this post up to me being cheap (and Gwennie not feeling great that day) but as much as I wish I could say it....Baby Loves Disco is not worth $12 per "walking person". Especially if they don't throw in a beer for mommy and daddy! Anyhow...we headed up to a bar in uptown with our neighbors (that's Stella in the pictures...Stella loved giving Gwennie kisses most of our pictures were an attempt to capture the moment) to check out this Baby Loves Disco event. Basically they clean up the bar, throw some hula hoops, noise makers and scarves onto the dance floor and this nice DJ plays 70's music. Downstairs they have goldfish, pretzels, fruit and juice boxes along with an area that they put some pillows down that they call the "yoga zone". As you can see from the pictures they will also paint your kid's hair a different color which takes about 3 washes to get out.

Gwennie wasn't really into the whole thing and was pretty tired so we only lasted about 2 hours. On a good note we did get a cool goody bag when we left so that was a nice surprise. Might be more fun when she's a little older. The kids that were 3 and older seemed to be having the most fun out there.

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Lots of Family and Sun!

Last week Grandma V (Gee gee now...Grandma was just too hard to pronounce) flew in to play with Gwennie. They had so much fun going for walks, shopping, going to the pool and playing dress up. Gee gee seems to think Gwennie needs a new outfit every time we leave the house so I am pretty sure she had at least 3 wardrobe changes a day. The good news is that Gee gee loves to to laundry so I didn't feel like I was constantly having a date with the washer and dryer. Gee gee also seems to think Gwennie is still 2 months old and loves to nap so whenever I noticed the house was quiet I'd check the bedroom and there they were...rocking in the glider. I think Gwennie appeased her because she liked having Gee gee around but was sick of nap time by Saturday!

Saturday morning we headed down to Sparkle City for the July birthday lunch with the Gary/Meek/Crawford side of the family. Great Grandma Gary, Great Aunt Nina, Great Uncle Bob, Grandma Nancy, Grandpa Bob, Megan, Corbin, Gwennie and I all had a nice lunch and then headed back to Great Grandma Gary's house where Miss Gwennie decided it was her job to check out EVERYTHING in the house. She was all over the place in drawers, rooms, hallways, grabbing magazines, books, and checking her reflection out in the television. The good news is that after all the running around she passed out as soon as we left the driveway and slept all the way home.

Sunday as usual we had breakfast with Miss Jen at the Pancake House (ergo the new bathing suit...70% off sale at Shower Me With Love...can any kid have too many???) and then headed over to the pool with our neighbors. Gwennie is obsessed with running through the water and has so much fun playing with the other kids when we are there. We think she's so popular because of her funny nature but really it's because she's armed with 20 buckets and plenty of beach toys. By the end of the summer we will probably be down to 1 bucket and a rake with the way kids run off with them. Corbin and I spend a good 15 minutes searching the pool to find any toy with "MEEK" written on the bottom :-) Needless to say by the time we are all home everyone is ready for bed!

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Miss Madeline Grace has arrived!

We are very happy to let everyone know that our friends Michelle and Michael Leichtner have a new daughter Madeline Grace. She's a wee little thing at 5 pounds 14 ounces but as you can see from the pictures she is a beautiful baby.

Driving Vacation up the East Coast!

Well we are back at home now and I can honestly say that I don't think Corbin and I will do another driving trip for a while. Gwennie was actually great! She loved to check out the rest stops and entertained herself or slept most of the way there and back. We started on Tuesday night and headed up to visit Gwennie's godfather Clark. Clark and Nancy are going to have a baby in December so Gwennie is great practice for Clark, Nancy and Morgan (who is very excited to be a big sister). Gwennie was all over the place checking out the house. Her favorite places were anywhere near Bristol (the cat), Trout & Brooke (the dogs) or climbing up the stairs; which scared both Corbin and I...especially when we would find her at the top of the stairs laughing at us because she was up there before we noticed (or blinked an eye). Thursday Nancy and I went shopping while Clark, Morgan, Corbin and Gwennie headed to the park to play. Clark and Corbin got their cooking grove on Thursday night and the rest of us got to enjoy all of the food!

Friday we headed over to Gwennie's godmother Heather's house. Heather, Alan and Ari all welcomed us by putting the pool out for Gwennie to play in. As you can see we barely made it out of the car before Gwennie was running into the water. Luckily we quickly changed her into her swimsuit before she was soaked. We then headed to their friend's house for a barbecue which was lots of fun. All the kids were testing out their new swing set and Corbin and I have decided the recycled tire rout is the way to go for playground mulch! Gwennie and Ari were so excited to go down the slide and by the end of the night were pretty exhausted so we headed home to give them a bath and put them to bed. As you will see from the pictures they got their second wind in the tubby. Saturday we took the kids to get some pictures taken and then Heather and I had a girls night and went to the movies. Sunday we all headed over to the Baltimore Farmer's Market to check out the produce and local fare. Then around noon we headed home and are happy to be back in Charlotte.

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Long Week....

It has been a long week over at the Meek household. Monday Gwennie and I flew up to Boston for work and we had planned on spending the week with the Weiss Family. Unfortunately on the plane ride up I noticed a couple of bumps on Gwennie's hands and feet and quickly realized she had Hand, Foot and Mouth disease. Typically this isn't that big of a deal but everyone has that story where someones kid was so sick they couldn't eat and Alexis is still only three months old so we checked into the Sheraton and shortened our trip to Tuesday night. Thankfully Addie and Gladys did some babysitting for me so I could still work at our office. Addie took some cute pictures and video of Gwennie at the pool in her green swimsuit. When we got home the rash had spread to her back and tummy so just to be safe we headed to the ER where you will see that the cure to Hand, Foot and Mouth is Popsicles :-)

Saturday we all headed over to swim lessons with the rest of the kids from the "Parent and Tot" class. This was Gwennie's second time at lessons and she's already swimming like a pro. Corbin was a great cameraman and took lots of good pictures and videos of Gwennie in action. Saturday and Sunday we were back at the pool at the "J". Unfortunately we didn't take any video but Gwennie now goes completely underwater and loves to play around in the pool. The best thing about the pool....Gwennie sleeps in until 9 AM on Sunday mornings!!!

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