who am I?

time well spent

jackson, olivia and i headed up to visit my entire family on my mom's side in NY....a very over due trip, but since getting married, money and kids have made it hard until now to fit a visit in.  better late than never, right.  we had a wonderful time, just low key, family time.  cooking out, day trips to apple orchards, farms, parks and a whole bunch of pool time (margarita time for aunt kathy and i) and getting to catch up with some childhood friends (miss you kate, sigh). ohyah...and of course, shopping!!  it was amazing to see my children playing with my cousins!  my uncle joey was 15 when i was born, i was 16/17 when his daughter erin was born and now...baby erin is 14 the same year olivia was born....coming full circle! so wonderful.  my great aunt kay finally got to meet jackson and olivia, a true blessing.  she is so amazing...she still rocks in the kitchen at the age of 85!!  i credit her with my love of cooking and baking...i think we made our first batch of cookies when i was maybe 4 or 5.  

thank you to my whole family.....for opening your homes and your hearts to my family.  we are so very grateful for the time we shared with everyone and all the help everyone enlisted in,  to make this time possible!! xox

funny how fast it goes by, i thought 10days would be plenty enough time(bordering on obscene for aunt kathy and fam), but it went so well, yet swiftly.....it was the best.

aunt joanie and littlemama

uncle joey with olivia

aunt kay and olivia

the entire O'Brien family- minus brian & aunt kay....

Brian teaching jman all about dirt bikes...a took him for a ride too!

jackson feeding the animals at Jones Farm

Family dinner night-clockwise:  aunt kay, aunt 'joanie', me, olivia, erin, aunt kathy, gran, nathan, patrick and uncle joey.

the ladies gearing up for a full day of fun shopping at woodbury common....a must do for any visit north!!  littlemama got to come as well, notice her in the background in her seat..ready to hit it

school's in session

jackson started his first day of school today....he is getting so big.  I dropped him off in Ms.S and Ms K's 3's class...and it hit me, deja'vu.  as i was walking out of jman's new classroom , i was directly looking at his one from last year.  it was like standing in a time machine for one brief second.  the classroom was the same, but the children looked so small, surely jackson did not look as young, right? wrong, just then his old teacher saw me and i had to ask.."are these kids at the younger end of the age group"...her answer, "nope, just the same as last, some older some younger...just like littleman....then i asked, "did jackson look that little, she said with a wink, YES!!!"  wow....i am a mush, but it made me sad.  jackson had a wonderful first day..loves his class, teachers (one of them is his teacher from his toddler class, yay!) and all the new children he shares it with.

back in the grind

we are back from yankee town and getting settled into the groove of everyday life again.....a full post coming soon to see a snipit of our trip.  sorry for the blog confusion, i had to block my blog while on vacay due to some disrespectful comments left in a post.....oh well, not everyone respects boundaries and i had to adjust my security.  

Off to the OC...

tomorrow morning jackson, olivia and I are off to the OC......no, not cali, but rather orange county, new york. my entire family is up there and we have not been back since the winter after nathan and i got married!! none of my family has had the opportunity to meet jackson or olivia, so this is going to be a real treat ( on so many levels, wink)....wait til they get a load of littleman, they won't know what has hit them, hehe. along with it being our first trip back in quite some time, it will be the first ever plane ride for both kids......and i get the honors of being their escort solo!! i hope it goes by fast and smooth. fingers crossed and many prayers said........i apologize in advance to anyone who is on the continental fight north tomorrow for any craziness that ensues.
i remember, back in the day, looking forward to a nice flight somewhere fun, book in hand, the opportunity to catch up on some mindless reading and then looking at those who are boarding the plane and seeing it...... that mom, kids in tow, one screaming, one running around and the mom looking like, "please god, deliver me from evil", and all i could think was....."oh great, those brats and that crazed woman are probably going to be seated next to me...so much for peace!" a little ironic that now i may be one of those moms....just praying we can all get there in one piece and hope that we do not make others any crazier than we are.....karma baby.
wish us luck....happy travels