HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY !

Ada celebrated her first birthday yesterday. It was a wild occasion with much singing, ripping of paper and a close call when Ada grabbed for her birthday candle! We had some special baby birthday cake and opened presents in the evening and Ada appeared to have a great time. We will post a slide show and some videos early next week after some more birthday activities this weekend!

Just back from another working weekend at the Mancoon. The siding is all the way up and we were fortunate to enjoy a glorious fall weekend of blue skies, crisp days, and falling leaves. The temps dropped below freezing at night, but we were plenty warm (down right hot at times!) with the wood stove pumping out more heat than our little cabin needed. Ada desperately want to touch the wood stove and this requires lots of vigilance on our parts... but she got plenty of time to crawl around outside and develop a taset for white pine needles!

Ada is full steam ahead! She is super active, crawling fast, and getting into everything! We spent an awesome weekend up in Maine and Ada had a chance to don a new winter hat- pink tiger stripes! I celebrated a birthday with polish porkchops and home made whoopie pies for dessert. Ada's gift was to let me sleep until 7:20 am!

Since learning to crawl, Ada has proceeded to take our house apart! K and I are scrambling to plug all of the outlets, take up electric cords, and clear the lower shelves! She moves ever faster and has started pulling herself to standing in her crib… looks like we will be dropping the mattress to the lowest setting tomorrow!

She has also started ‘talking’ more. She now says versions of “all done”, “hi”, “baby”, “dada”, “maymay” (instead of mama!), and “uh oh” when she drops something. It is an exciting time and we have been outside enjoying the warm days of early fall.

She's crawling! Enjoy the video
(It is about 30 seconds long and loading time will vary based on your internet connection. Cheers!)

It's OFFICIAL!

We are now proud owners of our long awaited “Piece of land in Maine.” Over the last several months we have been negotiating and working through the paperwork of buying a parcel of land in Maine. The property is 17.6 acres and is located in Stetson, Maine (about 30 west of Bangor). It has a little cabin set next to a babbling stream and also has electricity and a well (though no indoor plumbing!).

The cabin and property had been uninhabited for the last several years and were in significant disrepair when we bought the property. During the month of August, we -along with *lots* of help from family- have cleaned out, cleaned up, and remodeled our little cabin. There is still a lot of work to do, but it is now totally “livable” and down right enjoyable to spend time at! A few more work weekends and we will be ready for guests!

Please enjoy the slide show of a few of our remodeling pictures… as always you can double click on the picture for a full screen version.

just back into town and faculty training starts tomorrow... just a quick pic but promise more later!