To the zoo with you!

Trevor’s birthday celebration began with the arrival of Aunt Liz on Wednesday night.  Thursday, Liz was kind enough to watch Trevor so I could go into work for a bit in the morning and then we just spent the afternoon hanging out at the house and running errands. 

Friday morning, the three of us (Liz, Trevor and myself) went to the zoo in Norfolk.  The weather was beautiful—it got up to 88 degrees that day—so we made sure that we took advantage of it.  Trevor loved seeing all of the animals and had a blast riding on the train there. 

I apologize for T’s lack of photogenic-ness…..he was WAY more into seeing the animals than hamming it up for the camera. 

Happy Birthday Trevor Francis!

Today our little man turned two…I can’t believe that it has been two years since they placed him in my arms and our lives were changed forever. 

We had a super busy week and weekend, filled with visitors and celebrations.  All for our little boy.  In the past couple of days I have really seen how he is no longer the cuddly little baby he used to be, but a growing, learning toddler who is taking life for all it is worth.  He is happy, healthy and strong…and we love him, more than anything. 

Happy Birthday Trevor Francis!  We love you little bug!

We are going to take the next couple of posts to recap all of the birthday happenings—there sure were a lot of them! 

Ok, ok.

It has come to my attention that people may be getting tired of looking at pictures of our bathroom reno…I know I always say it, but we have been super busy…since then we have made a trip to CT and are now in the middle of Trevor’s birthday celebration.  (He turns 2 on Monday, but the celebrating started with Aunt Liz’s arrival Wednesday night.  Remember Aunt Liz?  If not, you can take a trip down memory lane here and here. )

Anyway, so the request for new photos of Trevor have been made, and thank goodness I have some.  We took no pictures of our time in CT(whaaaat?) but we have been blessed with some amazing weather in the two weeks since we have been back so have been able to spend tons of time outside.  So here is T-Rex a-la-backyard! Enjoy!

Bathroom Renovation

It was no secret that Shane and I planned to do a lot of updating to our house when we bought it in 2009.  For the most part since then, we have done little projects here and there—replacing the carpet, painting, adding ceiling fans, replacing the tile in our entryway…stuff like that—but nothing too big.  Last weekend we tackled our first big project—the hallway bathroom.  It wasn’t supposed to be a big project, our plan going in was to just replace the vinyl flooring and vanity.  Everything in there is what the builder put in in 1991, so it was time for a little updating and freshening up.  Once we starting tearing stuff out though, we found that the builder had an affinity for gorilla glue (discovered when removing the sidepiece of the vanity top) and the previous owner had a love for seashell-print wallpaper (discovered when we removed the mirror).  Nice, right?  So, as we did more demo, we found more things that needed to be fixed...our small update project became an all-out gut.  Shane still has one more towel rack to hang, but I wanted to share pictures of our “finished” project.  I hate to brag, but I think that the transformation is pretty darn awesome. 

Before:

After:

 

Things we did:

• New porcelain tile flooring
• New Vanity/Countertop/Faucet
• New Mirror
• New Light Fixture
• New Bath Accessories (towel rings, towel bars etc.)
• New Light fixture
• New Baseboard and Quarter-round molding throughout

Busy Weekend

As we are getting ready to begin another epic weekend here at the house, I figure it is about time to update from last weekend. 

Saturday I took a group from work to Richmond to participate in the Ordination Liturgy.  A young man from my parish was ordained a transitional deacon at the liturgy, so it was really cool to see.  Of course, being at a liturgy where there were easily 100 priests, deacons and 3 bishops in attendance is always a cool thing to participate in.  Bishop DiLorenzo gave an outstanding homily, which I could go on for days about, but anyway…I was in Richmond, Shane was on T-Rex duty at home, end of story.

Shane took Trevor out to the VB convention center for the train and toy expo and Trevor was in heaven!  From what I have gotten from Shane (as we all know, life at the Chapman household is a never-ending game of 20 questions) there were a lot of trains, all set up for Trevor to look at.  There were even big trains that Trevor could blow the horn on too.  The end.  You’d think that I would be better at the questions game after all this time…

 

  

Sunday I was right back to work in the morning, and Shane was serving soup kitchen afterwards.  Shane’s cousin Keaton just got stationed here, so he came over on Sunday afternoon and stayed until Monday when we took him back to the base.  Shane was really happy to have him around.  That afternoon, we thought we would take advantage of the still nice-ish weather and meet our friends Laura, Mike and their daughter Caylee at Mt. Trashmore.  I forgot the camera in the car, but our park time was short-lived, because in the 20 minutes it took us to get there it dropped from 70 degrees to a windy 55.  BRRRR!  We ended up moving our little get-together to the nearby coffee shop for hot chocolate. 

Tomorrow we start tearing apart our bathroom for real (there was some talk about doing it a few weekends ago) so wish us luck! 

Spring-like Weather!

Last week we were spoiled and teased with spring-like weather for several days.  It got up to 75degrees a couple of days, giving us perfect outside weather!  Of course, now it is right back down in the 40s, complete with dreary grey skies and the sniffles and coughs that accompany 30degree temperature shifts from one day to the next. 

everything stops when a plane flies overhead.

working on our soccer skills!  Uncle Chris should be proud!

Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s day seems like such a different holiday from the one that used to be celebrated before Shane and I were a couple, or even in our early years of dating and marriage.  This year, we still bought cards for each other and for Trevor, but our celebration of “love” was not centered on the idea of romantic love, but focused on family love—the three of us, how much we love it being just the three of us, and for the day, we took the time to think about just that. 

We started the day with Trevor making a card for me at child care at the Y.  It was so nice, definitely a card that I am  going to cherish forever.  After naps, we headed to run some errands, and by the time we got home, Shane was home from work. 

It got up to about 70 degrees in the afternoon, so we packed up the car with picnic stuff, grabbed dinner from Panera and headed to the park.  We had a picnic dinner and then Trevor played on the playground and walked around the docks until the sun was setting.  It was so nice to get out of the house and get some fresh air for once.  I do think that these random spring-like days are a tease---come on Spring!  Stick around for a while!

Once we got home for the evening, we spent the evening reading books and baking cookies as a family.  It was a perfect day.  The best Valentine’s day ever!