Science Center December 2008

Here are some pictures that we took at the Baltimore Science Center at the beginning of the month


Water Play Area

Fish Block Room

Making Hand Prints

Dinosaurs ROAR!

Digging for Dinosaurs!

Fishing!

Here's What I Caught!
Putting My Fish In the Bucket

Your weekley Chisholm update

Kenn bought me a new camera for my birthday so I have lots of pictures to post. Thurs night I went out with my friend aimey’s mother to the craft store. Way back in August Mrs.Robin said she’d love to make a quilt for Brandon, so I picked out a pattern and we were supposed to go to pick out fabric… it just took me this long to do so! We went and picked the fabric out, and now I’m even more excited! Mrs.Robin is an awesome quilter, she’s made several that I’ve gotten to see. She isn’t planning on starting Brandon’s until after the new year but once its done I’ll be sure to post it on here. The theme is Rubber Ducks b/c “duck” was one of brandons first words and I thought it was pretty gender friendly so we can pass it down. I even came up with the idea of making the soap bubbles out of my wedding dress. So I brought my dress to the fabric store and we kinda flopped it down on the cutting counter and we just cut a piece right there in the store. (the sales people were looking at me like we were insane) That brings me to my next project for Mrs.Robin!

My SIL found this website where they turn your wedding dress into a hanging quilt, and I thought it was just the neatest thing. Here’s the link: http://www.thepatchworkbear.com/Wedding+Dress+Quilt
So my mother and I are taking both of our wedding dress’s and Mrs.Robin is going to make one quilt out of the two of them in the spring. (That has a lot more planning we need to do first) They also have bears you can get made out of your children’s clothing so after Lisa and I are done our felt projects (we started our cupcakes last Tuesday) we are going to make the bears ourselves out of the kids baby clothing. She said she made one out of that pattern in the past, and I think it looks like something we can do.

One of Brandon’s new obsessions is the Christmas lights (which I mentioned before) so every time we drive at night he gets VERY excited as we drive past peoples houses, and he says “ohhh” and then “more” immediately after. So Kenn came up with the great idea to go see the 34th st lights in Hamden last week. It was pretty neat, although I was shocked that it was only one block. I think we’re going to go back with my mom and walk it.

Sat morning was $1.00 day at the Baltimore museums so we met up with our friends John & Jody and took Brandon. He Loved the dinosaurs dirt excavation area. He didn’t want to leave! He had one or two things he clung to on each floor. But when we got to the children's area on the 3rd floor, that’s where he was in his element. They had a small toddler area where they had a “fish tank” themed area with large plush building blocks. So he kept stacking them and knocking them over. Then we went to the water area where he got to play in the fountain with the boats. Then we went over to the play boating area where he was “fishing” with a magnetic fishing pole. He loved it all. We’ll have to take him back and go straight to the 3rd floor next time. I’ll post pictures later.

Sat night we went and had dinner with the Miller Family, and then Kenn and Chris went to a show while Courtney, Delaney, Brandon and I went to the Sandy Point Light display. We had a good time, Brandon had his first candy cane (given to him by Santa at the entrance). Sunday we did the normal thing !

Oh sat night we had an “exciting night”
So last June (some may remember) my cat Mocha got out at night and was missing for 3 nights. I went door to door and handed out poster's, called all the animal hospitals and went to animal control. my next door neighbor saw something black go under her shed so my husband went over and we found him.So you'd think that would stop him from wanting to go outside...NO.He tries to go out when the dogs go out the back door at night. Not every time we open the door but he sits right next to it and watches us. Maybe 1x every other week he actually runs out, we grab him and he comes back in.
Well sat night i came home, saw him at 9pmish. i went to bed at 11:30 and i realized he wasn’t in the house. (he has a nightly routine). I had let the dogs out a couple times and gotten firewood twice out the back door so he had a couple of options, and since he's black he easily gets out and I don't see him.So i didn't go to bed till after 1am. I went outside and looked around the house, then Kenn came home from a show and he looked. no success. Kenn put out food on the back porch and Sunday Am thought ti looked like it had been eaten. We looked again Sunday. (BTW it had been snowing off and on these two days) Sunday night we were getting ready for bed again and kenn put the food out, then he went back downstairs like 10 mins later and guess who’s eating on the porch? So today I went out and bought a cat harness and he’s going to wear a bell at all times so I can hear him walk past me. Darn animals know how to stress you out. Last time he did this i lost my wedding rings, so im secretley hoping now i'll find mine haha.

December already!

Wow I cant believe tomorrow is Dec 1st! I actually just sat and wrapped all of Brandon's Christmas presents. (since that's pretty much all we have completely done) This past weekend flew by! Thursday was Thanksgiving...Brandon and I baked sugar cookies that morning. Well I did, but we traced his hand print in a turkey design and i cut the dough into little Brandon turkeys. And then i decorated them with frosting. I should have taken a picture but i didn't...
We went to Kenn's Mother's house for 1pm Thanksgiving. Everything was good except He hadn't eaten anything since 10am and we had to wait till 2pm to eat (b/c kenns sister took longer then expected with the turkey) so he sucked down his milk and then ended up throwing it all up at the table... it was lovely. He only ate rolls and applesauce there. Then we went to my parents house, where i had hand made (b/c no one sells them) Turkey nuggets. Well he ate like one of them, and then a couple bites of stuffing, and then rolls and apple sauce again. It was a very nutritious Thanksgiving. He did eat quite a bit of the chocolate pie that i made that night. We watched football and went home and put B to bed, and i put up the Christmas Tree.

So I purchased a little 3foot Fiber Optic Christmas tree for brandon. http://www.target.com/Fiber-Optic-Christmas-Tree-Green/dp/B000ROK69Y/sr=1-15/qid=1228097628/ref=sr_1_15/181-2920761-1621162?ie=UTF8&index=target&rh=k%3Achristmas%20tree&page=1
Well I opened the box and look at the base of the tree... huge sticker "warning a substance in this item has been confirmed in the state of California to cause cancer and or reproductive issues" or something to that effect. So i was like WTF... i look at the plug and it has a sticker with the same warning but "after touching this wire please wash your hands" so now i really freak out and then get pissed. I threw the tree back in the box and then today I went to target, asked to talk to a manager and told her what happened. She said they didn't know it caused cancer, and i said "um the big sticker on the tree says it does" so how can they NOT KNOW??? she said they'd pull it, but i have my doubts so I'm emailing Target today. Its a 3ft tree the only people that use them are children and elderly people, I'm really irate about the whole thing. So my mom is planning on buying brandon a small REAL tree so i may do that too.

Friday Brandon woke to see the Christmas tree and he loved it. Kenn spent the day decorating the outside of the house. I somehow misplaced my camera from my parents house to here on thanksgiving so when i find it i'll take a picture of the tree and the house. Oh we also did our Christmas card picture :) That should be in the mail this week. I forgot to mention we purchased brandon his own pet weds night, a beta fish :) Kenn had a tank on his desk at work and his beta died a month or so ago and he came up with the idea of bringing it home for B. So Kenn set the tank up and I took brandon to pick the fish out. He picked a blue fish with red tips. He dropped the bag on the way to the register... its still alive so it must mean it passed the test. But every morning that's the first thing he says and before he goes to bed he always says goodnight to the fish. i think he really likes him.
Friday Night we met my parents up at Annapolis Mall to eat at McCormick & Schmidt's for my birthday dinner. It was surprisingly empty. They printed the menu's with "Happy Birthday Heather" which was sweet. We also got to meet James's new G/f formally. But i already forgot her name haha. She's been hanging around for years though and seems to be very nice. Oh man that means i need another gift for christmas...damn. Dinner was very yummy and brandon made it through dinner without anyone leaving the table to take him outside to play so thats a good dinner. Oh and we all got different desserts there so i got to sample a couple of yummy things, brandon and I had pecan pie for the first time and we both liked it. Then my parents came over and we played the Harry potter scene it and Kenn won (which is amazing b/c he's never read the books) My dad said thats how you know the game sucks :)

Sat the 3 of us went to my parents house to finish painting... we did the ceiling this time. Brandon didn't want to take a nap, so he ended up only sleeping for about an hour before my mom and I took him to see Playhouse Disney Live at the Lyric. So for the first half he was very sleepy, he watched it and ate popcorn but wasn't participating as we'd hoped. during intermission he finished his juice box and we purchased a Handy Manny Hard hat, and then the sugar kicked in. He was very very excited for the 2nd half. Too bad that was the shorter of the two. But he was pointing out mickey and saying "mouse" and pointed out winnie the pooh and said "pooh" and clapped and danced and had a very good time. He was wired the whole way home in the car. he kept playing with his new hat and saying "mommy, yes brandon, mommy, yes, mommy, yes, mommy, YES, MOMMY HAT!" He was VERY sugar'd up. My mother said we need to give him the juice box BEFORE hand next time. I also need to post a picture of him in his hat.
Sat Night Kenn and I watched Wall-E, it was very cute! I said "aww" prob 10x in the movie.

Today Is my 27th birthday, and also the 2nd Birthday of my good friend Lisa's daughter Emma! So today Brandon and I went to her party, where he ate almost 2 pieces of pizza whole! (meaning he held the slice without it being cut up) he likes to hold them upside down i learned. We also surprised by Dora making an unexpected appearance! Emma was pretty darn surprised herself. Both of them were scared to go near her, luckily for brandon it wasn't his birthday so he was farther away. Although i did tell him not to expect Diego at his party, i do not have the same pull as Lisa does in Nick Jr World.

*I am going get political for one second b/c i've been very good so those of you who are very conservative may want to skip this part*. I did get very annoyed at 1 point in the party b/c i was in the "toy room" with brandon alone and there were some adults in there talking politics and expensive gas etc etc, and somehow the election came up and they started spouting completely ridiculous things... like "Obama doesn't put his hand on his heart for the pledge, Obama is a Muslim and a terrorist, I cant believe people say that this is the first time they are proud to be an American" etc etc. 1st off, totally unnecessary to be at a 2 year olds birthday party. I took brandon immediately out of the room at this point. 2nd ok seriously he's a terrorist? Do you really think that he just conned 1/2 the nation and the whole government FBI etc??? sorry it just irritates me that people are still spouting hateful lies. And last part of my political rant. I *am* one of those people that now can say for the first time their adult life that "I am proud to be an American". Because before I did not boast that, its sad but true. I was honestly thinking, 2009 will be the first presidential inauguration i've ever watched, and the first 4th of july (as an adult) I will wear red, white and blue and wave a flag. Ok i'll get off the soapbox.

Tomorrow night I'll be goign out with my best friends to The Melting Pot for dinner, and then work's takign me out for Sushi this week also :) mmmmmmmmmmm
Oh and i got a beautiful bracelet from Kenn and Brandon that had brandons name and birthdate on it, a awesome Jacket from my parents and a brand spanking new Coach purse from Aunt Gail :) But one of my favorite things is the card from my godson connor sent all the way from Alabama!
I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving, we have more to be thankful this year then ever before!

Our Western Vacation

Short Version of our trip:

In the last 5 days/4 nights i have been...

in 5 airports (BTW JFK is the most horrible airport in the world)

on 4 planes

stayed in 3 different hotels

driven 6hrs through two states with sand dunes and rocky mountains

climbed a small mountain

gotten pulled over by the border patrol

seen the sun rise on the pacific and within 10hrs watched it set over the Atlantic (both while stuck on a plane)

gotten barefoot and splashed in the pacific ocean

touched a sea anemone

watched the sunset over the pacific ocean with some harbor seals

been nose to nose with a polar bear, panda and a hippo

been in a sandstorm

driven myself around two unknown cities to see many vet clinics and be awesome at it

eaten at a SONIC! (OMG they exist! i took a pic of the menu to prove it)

eaten sushi in the San Diego gas lamp district

found an orange grove in the middle of a desert

bought a $200 lunch at quiznos (for a clinic, but STILL)

came home and put my son to sleep

Long Version

Kenn and I left BWI on Weds AM, flew into Atlanta's Airport, flew out of there to Phoenix, Az. Picked up our Rental Car and checked into the Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak Resort. (which was beautiful). The next Day I left Kenn to his own devices while i went around and visited 6 clinics or so in Scottsdale, Gilbert and Phoenix. While I was gone ken climbed a mini mountain (we're not sure what constitutes a mountain) This is a picture of the mini mountain, which ken also made me climb the second I pulled into the parking lot at sunset. He has some neat pictures of that sunset which will be posted on Kenn's blog. (http://www.wherethelightfalls.com/)

Then after that Kenn decided he wanted a real challenge so he walked several miles to this mountain (squaw peak) and climbed it!

Here is a picture of Phoenix that he took from the top of the mountain

And this is a picture from on top of the mountain of the mountain he climbed when we were here for my work 3 years ago . (Camel Back Mountain)

That night we watched the Thursday night football game at a local sports bar, and had the best cookie ice cream I've ever had... They baked a choc. chip cookie in the bowl then put ice cream over it. ohhh soo good... i digress again

Friday morning we drove 3hrs to Yuma, Az which was having a small sand storm when we pulled up. Ate "breakfast" at a "in and out". Then I had my large meeting and drove around Yuma locating 3 other vets and found they have an orange grove in the middle of the desert. BTW there is not much in Yuma except for a mall which was built 2years ago. And lots of trailer parks, apparently AZ is the FL of the west for retirees. so we have no pictures of Yuma... Kenn was so tired he hung out in the hotel all day while i was out. We ate dinner at Cracker Barrel, which just happened to be located next to our hotel. Saw a movie (3bucks cheaper then MD) and then found a sonic for dessert!!! Sorry we have never actually been to a sonic so it was a big deal.

Sat Morning we got and drove 2 1/2 hrs to San Diego, CA. The drive itself was beautiful! We drove through sand dunes..

This was taking by Kenn, out of the window as i was driving. (so are the next 2)

We also came across a couple of border patrol stops... for those who don't know the road that goes from Yuma to San Diego follows very very closely to the Mexico border.

Then when we were in CA we went over really big mountains that didn't look like normal mountains, they were actually huge boulders on top of one another. I felt like i was in the Flintstones...

We got to the San Diego Zoo right when they opened at 9am and it was amazing.

This is the 17yr old panda that has fathered 3 children at the zoo. He was ADORABLE. I wanted to take him home. These hippos were GIGANTIC! I could see all the individual hairs on his snout!

They had 3 polar bears, i think two were cubs of the mother. They were playing and splashing together in the water. To be that close was spectacular.

They also ate carrots :)

They had 3 baby tiger cubs with their mother. Two stayed by the glass, but one was adventurous and hung out up near its mother. Below is the single cub

We left around 1pm and went to check into our hotel bayside. (which there were protesters against prop. 8 everywhere) we ate at elephant and castle mmmm the drove out to La Jolla, which is one of the most beautiful places on earth. We stayed there until sunset, walking around the tidal pools and watching the seals on the beach. (My sandels were on for like 5 minutes)

The Seal Beach

Sunset..Kenn in his element. I think the my bare feet rubbed off on him :)We drove back to the hotel, then walked like a mile to the Gas Lamp District and had a really yummy sushi dinner. The Hotel was nice except that the train kept sounding its horn all night (which was near the harbor). Got up made our 6:40am flight to JFK. They had personal tvs on the flight so Kenn was able to watch ESPN... Got to JFK where its just chaos and dirt and unhappy people. we were due to leave at 4:10pm, we left at like 6? and then we were 18th to take off the tar mat... so we got to BWI at like 6:30. Picked up B (who was not too happy with me) and went home. Kenn went over to the 98rock radio station where he was interviewed at 11pm for his show the following night. So then Monday (last night) Kenn played his first show with his band "Recast". Gail watched Brandon so my parents and I could go, and it was a great show! Kenn did awesome! My camera wasn't working well so i unfortunately do not have any pictures. So that was our trip! It was awesome. Just getting back to normal for the holiday rush!

Love,
Heather

Chinese Take Out anyone?

So my friend Lisa-Marie (aka martha stewart) has me doing all sorts of crafty things this past year. First we crocheted baby blankets for our children, then we crocheted turtles (i made one for B and one for Connor). Now our newest project... felt food! If you've ever gone into pottery barn kids you'll know what I'm talking about. Its play food for children but instead of being hard plastic, they are fabric. Its actually kind of expensive to buy... So we decided that we could make it ourselves and found a person who sells the patterns. We purchased three sets, and decided to start the first one this past weekend. We expected to finish the whole thing in one night... we severely underestimated the patterns. First Lisa Spent 3 hrs friday night just cutting out our fabric. Then we spent 5hrs sat night, and then i finished mine up sunday evening (another 2hrs). And we only did one part of the one pattern! We still need to make fortune cookies, shrimp tempera and dumplings~ But it looks awesome, I'm saving it for B's Christmas present

to go with his Kitchen set that Santa's bringing.

Kenn drew the pagoda for me since I'm horrible at that stuff.

chow mien!

Besides that we're just getting ready for our trip! Im a little nervous b/c i'll be driving the GPS alone through a strange town. I think i'm more nervous on the fact i really want to prove myself as being able to be an outside rep and getting a lot done on only 2 days. Im very excited about San Diego since we've never been to California, but i'm getting sad about leaving my little B. But we know he'll be spoiled rotten by Aunt Gail and Grandmom/GrandDad!

Connor George

Here are the pictures from my Godson/nephew Connor George's Baptism in October.

This is me holding Connor, with his mother Courtney & father Colin. He did so well during mass and during the Baptism itself!



Connor in his gown! I feel so blessed to be able to be his Godmother! I can't wait to watch Connor and Brandon grow up together like i did with Colin, Neal and Mike.

Happy Halloween!

It's been a VERY busy October. Last weekend my nephew Connor was baptised and I was blessed enough to be asked to be his Godmother! Since Kenn was given the job of entertaining brandon in Church we do not have any pictures. As soon as i get some I will post them though :)

To give an example of brandons "ants in the pants" attitude recently, i took him to church the night before the baptism with my mother... he sat for about 15minutes tops and then had to get up... we went to the back of the church where he called jesus "baby" for a while and tried to touch some candles, so even though it was raining we went outside. He ran around out there for a couple minutes and when i tried to get him back inside he sat in a puddle as protest. That was the end of church for the evening. I'm hoping by christmas he'll be a little better.

Last weekend we also had the pleasure of having dinner with two friends of ours Julia & Andy and they were sweet and gave Brandon a Halloween present. Part of the gift was an orange pumpkin bucket and glow sticks. Kenn apparently taut B that the bucket was for wearing... so this is what we got. He has been walking around with that bucket on his head all week bumping into things (We're so proud). Oh and he's naked in this picture b/c we are starting to teach him how to use an adult cup and most of it ends up on him so we had to strip him.

As for Halloween itself Kenn and I do not usually dress up, but my office does a large halloween party each year. We have a competition between all the departments who can be the most eccentric (that may be the best word). So this year Sales went with the election (we felt that was pretty scary in itself). So we made up 2 voting booths and came up with Ballot's with things like "should dogs be accessories" or "should we fund the no cat left behind" etc etc. And the main part was the "Demicats" VS the "Republicanines". And then our department dressed up like the candidates... ENJOY!
Holden was the Republicanines posterdog...

I was dressed as Obama but i personally get the biggest kick at my coworker Ted(a large black man dressed as Palin)

Although scary to see i digress from Brandon's Halloween. We went out at 6pm around our neighborhood. This is his entourage. (my parents, Aunt Gail, Kenn and I)

He had a great time with his glow sticks and pinwheel. (he would shake them at people). He wouldn't hold his mickey pumpkin pail by the string, but by the ears and then get very excited by the treat the person would put in. He would take it out and look at it and put it back in the pail. He had no idea it was candy but it all delighted him anyway. By the end of the evening (about 7:30) he could say "gick r eat". He had a blast, it was great to see.

Then yesterday Aunt Gail took the three of us to Disney on Ice! It was the first show he's gone too and i was a little nervous about the whole sitting thing i talked about earlier. Aunt Gail spoiled us and got us front row seats which i assumed meant there would be a barrier in front of us... no such luck. He could actually run onto the ice if we allowed him too. So before the show he ran around at this backstage area where they had princess dress's set up with props. he really liked the mice from cinderella & the diamonds that lit up with snow white. Then the show started and he loved it. i think he was a bit nervous at first but then he quickly got into it. They had mickey and all the normal people, then a really neat Cars presentation. they had real cars on the ice! I was really impressed. He would point and say "car". Then they did the little mermaid (which is my personal favorite) and then the Lion King. Brandon loved all the fish and the animals. He really liked the lions and Timon and Pumba best though. (he's never even seen that movie) Gail also got him a really neat light up dragon toy that spins... The 2nd half he was starting to crank out. (this was during his normal naptime) but he watched it well. That part was the new tinkerbell movie... it was ok. But overall was a really really neat experiance. (i'd never been to a disney on ice show). This makes me excited for the Playhouse disney show at the end of the month. (my mom is taking B and i to that for my b-day) And kenn didnt want to go, well now he's sad b/c he really enjoyed how much brandon loved it.

I hope everyone had a great weekend! we're excited about our trip to Az & Ca coming up!