Waits Family Annals

Frick park sledding. Winter 2012. We aren’t very good at it, but it was fun!

Sledding with the kid.

Todd has five other siblings (who make up half of the entire viewership of this blog.) Because of the largeness of the family, we do Sibling Family exchanges.  This year Sarah and Dan had us.  I dont think we have ever had them give to us, but it was awesome.  I have always wanted to sew.  I always got frustrated with the cutting fabric part, and the sewing machine part.  HA! Thats like what its all about, so my frustration would always have me never try again until years had passed.  I was overwhelmed when trying to figure out how to thread the stinkin bobbin.

I think Todd shared this with Sarah, and so they got me a Beginner Sewing Book.  It comes with cool patterns and directions. These projects got me excited, and there were some awesome super small projects that made me feel that I could have a successful outcome.  I NEEDED a good success story with this sewing stuff.

Also, the story gets more interesting because the book stemmed a more bigger issue: I need a sewing machine.  I didnt want to break the bank, but I wanted one that was new, and it helped it came with a dvd, I am a visual learner and thank goodness for that dvd and youtube! My mom has always quilted, and I did love helping her, although she did all the cutting and sewing, I ironed and pinned the fabric for her.  So I picked a Singer Confident Quilter.  I am very happy with it.  It was on super sale, and it was the right amount of money to invest to see if it is something I will figure out.

I bought some fabric, and ended up with 14 pin cushions!!! Lots of people will be getting gifts of pin cushions.  I really overestimated on my fabric.  But I loved it!!! It was so much fun, and it was a success story!! yay!!!

Thank you Sarah for getting that book for me! I love it!

The Burnetts Read More

We have only known the Mancusos for a year in a half.  They are such great people, and we are so glad to know them.  Brian has introduced the world of hunting to Todd.  And last year the Mancusos put on a Feast of the 7 Beasts for all their friends because they had so much left over meet.  Brian is Italian, and so they played off the Feast of the 7 Fish that they do right before Christmas.  Mandee did an AWESOME job last year, and I was so amazed she did it all by herself. This year she is PREGNANT!!!!!! Best celebration of the year!!! She and Brian are going to be the most super duper awesome parents, this is one lucky little person! I so wanted to do feast of the beast again, but could not ask her to do it alone.  So we co hosted, and we didn’t limit ourselves to only 7 beasts.   So know it is proudly called, “Feast of the Beast” and is an annual thing the night before New Years Eve. Read More

Christmas came this year with a lot of anticipation. Connor enjoyed the daily advent calendar where he got a small gift every day leading up to Christmas (magnets, rub-on tattoos, toy cars, etc).

We went to the mall and let Connor sit on Santa’s lap and ride the Christmas Train (not the Polar Express, too many licensing issues).

On Christmas Eve, we started a new tradition where we give each other pajamas and go look at Christmas lights. We went to Hartwood Acres. Connor was surprisingly into the lights. We spent about 30 minutes slowly moving through about 2-3 miles of lighted displays, and there were no tantrums. Every so often he would gasp excitedly and point at a rendering of Santa Claus or some other Christmas icon (except Jesus, no Jesus).

For Christmas, we opened presents (and in one picture, you can see I got the gift of conjunctivitis). Connor enjoyed and enjoys his new presents. He really enjoyed his new drums (linked is a video of him playing his drums).

One of the Garvin’s presents was a trip to Color Me Mine in Squirrel Hill. Connor did a great job participating and even painted a few things for his Grandparents. Grandpa got so into his cereal bowl that I don’t think he looked up from his black bird painting for at least 45 minutes. Connor supplied the handprints on the bowl.

All in all, a great holiday that included Katy moving in with us as she transitions from college to professional life.

On December 10, Connor turned two. What was originally planned as a repeat of his first birthday (a nice dinner and chatting with friends), quickly became more. It was actually the most stressful and time consuming party I have done. Lessons I have learned are: never throw a birthday party on the same day I work; I don’t have to do EVERY home made craft created on the planet that fits a birthday theme.

Besides those things, I really had so much fun and it was great to see my son love everything so much and be old enough to get excited.

Understatement of the year: Connor Loves Angry Birds. He loves the music. He loves searching them on YouTube. He loves making angry pig noises. And, of course, he loves to play the game. He couldn’t care less about his score, even when it’s better than his parents. He just loves to fling those birds off the slingshot ASAP.

The trouble for me began when I started doing some research online for Angry Bird themed parties. Thank goodness for Etsy to help me along the way. We actually only invited five families, but that totaled 14 kids.

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Our Thanksgiving was spent with Todd’s brother and his family. This seems to be a tradition we have been doing for many years now. With Todd’s sister’s family away for school, it was just the two local families and we made it as chill as possible. Todd’s brother was determined to deep fry a turkey. Let me tell you, it was amazing! Done in 45 minutes, and you have your oven free for other food. The food was all delicious, and we stuffed ourselves with everything from brussel sprouts to salad, biscuits and potatoes, stuffing and turkey. We had some “punkin” pie and chocolate awesomeness pie.

We had Thanksgiving dinner early afternoon, then headed to the theater for The Muppets. This was Connor’s first experience at the movies. We took separate cars just in case Connor had a melt down in the theater. When he gets his picture taken, and he’s not in the mood to be “posey-boy” he planks (i.e. lies on the ground) whereever he is at. What I love about this moment, is that his cousins just joined him, and at that point, he became “posey-boy”. He loved The Muppets, and he made it through the whole thing. It was a great Thanksgiving day.

A new tradition we are starting as a family is picking out a real tree the day after Thanksgiving. We found a great farm just north of Pittsburgh called Allison’s Tree Farm. We love having it in our house and it was also a great day!

Connor and Ethan had a blast together.  Connor loved following Ethan around, and Ethan liked having a shadow.  Something about Ethan you must know: he has an obsession for Spiderman.  He wears his Spiderman costume EVERYWHERE.  When we were there we introduced him to Venom, and found some Venom, and Spiderman costumes at Walmart for under 3 bucks.  We couldn’t resist, and we dressed them up.  Of course Ethan was pretty much in one or the other all week.

Had to capture a moment with Granny.

I love this picture of Connor and Ethan in the Grocery Store.  And they were entertainment for us while we went shopping for makeup.

Of course there will be moments of frustration, and bossiness.  Connor is a great hitter.  I cannot stand it, but that is the stage he is in.  Ethan took it like a champ, and Jaclyn had a great attitude about it.

I still dont know what is up with Connor not wanting to share his bath with Ethan, but on the last night we made him.  I have a bath time pic with me and Jaclyn, so we had to do another one.  And I think its funny to see him so upset.

Okay, back to the good times.  The good times that will get you into trouble.  And here was the most popular one.  Ethan would gladly take Connors shoes and socks off so they could jump on the matress in Grandpas study.  Oh and what else would they do together?  Get all of Grandpa’s big books off the shelf and Connor would pile them on Ethans belly.  I caught that on tape.

Some great moments, on Grandpa’s chair: Ethan watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Connor with his Angry Birds.  Both in their new Cowboy boots.

On the last day at Jaclyn’s house.  Saying goodbye was hard.  We had so much fun.  The flight back was really horrible, but Connor did great.  I will never fly Delta again.  I will always fly Southwest, even if it means three layovers to get to Texas!

I have always loved Texas.  Growing up we would drive there at least every other year to visit my Grandparents.  I have great memories of those trips (of course not the travel part.)  The last time I have seen them was during our trek out to Pittsburgh.  We stopped there for a few days.  That was six years ago!  It was time to go back.

I had an extra bonus, my cousin lives there now too.  I am very fond of my cousin Jaclyn.  I have great memories of her growing up, and we lived together while going to school in Provo.  We both met our husbands while living together, and got married within a month of each other.  We have two boys, and it was just time to get them together.  I was super excited about this trip.

In the past six years, my Grandparents moved into a smaller house and closer to my Uncle Mike.  We got to see him a lot during our visit, and another bonus was that my mom flew too!  The week went by way to fast.  What did we do most of the time???  Eat ice cream, and play the best game made, Rook!  I was always Jaclyn’s partner, and we were unstoppable. (this of course depends on who you ask.)

Whats a trip to Texas without a Cowboys shirt, and some cowboy boots, and a hat?  Also, a trip to Cabela’s with Great Granpda, and some train conducting with Great Granny.

Here is Connor and me with my cousin and her family.  It was great to spend the week with them!

Connor with his Great Grandparents, giving them a laugh!

These boys together were a hoot! Still making a good time!

Us with Uncle Mike and Nancy.  It was great to meet Nancy and see Uncle Mike again. I think we resurrected his love for Rook.  It was fun to go to Cabela’s with them, and a great Texas Roadhouse.And lastly, I couldn’t go to Texas without the four generations of Marquette’s. Great visit.