AHOY MATEY!!!

From May 16th to the 25th Five Finnegans traveled down to sunny, southern California to visit my parents and brother. The boys were so excited to see Gma, Gpa, and Uncle Conner, and it felt like an eternity before it was finally time to go to the airport and board the plane. The flight down was uneventful, as always the boys all flew like champs!

Once there, we began a BUSY itinerary of fun So-Cal activities. Hanging out in the pool (given a few more days there, I know we would have had two full-fledged swimmers on our hands) and the hot tub were top on our list in the first few days. Then, down to San Diego we went, to tackle Sea World (the whale and dolphin shows were amazing). On Monday night, when Sea World was over, we headed up to Anaheim to do Disneyland and California Adventure Tues. and Wed. I made a real effort to get the boys' pics w/ (and the autographs of) all their favorite characters. At CA. Adventure, the highlight was the Aladdin play (the genie was hilarious) complete w/ a flying carpet that comes out over the crowd! Cole is such a big, brave kid, he went on the Tower of Terror w/ Steven and I, and loved it!

Wednesday night, we headed back to my parents house and Thursday, it was back in the pool! Friday, the boys got to go w/ Gma and Gpa to Sesame Street Live "Elmo Grows Up", and they thought it was great. Saturday, my mom and I took my brother, Conner, clothes shopping for his birthday at the outlet mall in Camarillo, and man did he look handsome in his new threads!

All the while, we were eating good food, playing the Wii (and oh my did I get sore from bowling!), having great talks, relaxing in the sun, and enjoying each others' company. Unfortunately, all the pictures taken were on the old fashioned 35 mm so I can't upload anything, but while we were at Disney, my mom and dad bought the boys these awesome pirate costumes, and Aidan insisted on putting his on for the parade Tuesday night at Disneyland. All kinds of people were commenting on "that darling pirate over there" and I did get some great pics for the scrapbook.

Today, they decided to relive their Disney days and put the costumes on again. They ran around the house for a good hour and a half playing "Jack Sperrell" despite me telling them over and over again it was "Jack Sparrow". :o)

Nearly 11 months already!!!

In my short 11 months, I have already.....

1.) gone to 3 weddings (at 1, 2, and 3 weeks old no less)

2.) Watched my big brothers fish and my mom and dad wakeboard behind our boat (at 1 month old)

3.) Flown on an airplane twice and been to California to visit Gma and Gpa Clancy (oh, and Mickey Mouse)

4.) Given up a binky, and opted for my thumb instead (it's much easier to find in the middle of the night, folks :o)

5.) Had a ROUGH winter sick season and been tested (negative) for allergies, asthma, and cystic fibrosis (man, it's good to be breathing clear again!)

6.) Learned to crawl, sit, and pull myself to standing all on my own

7.) Learned to sign "milk", "more", "eat", and "please" (I am now working on bath, thank you, bird, and drink)

8.) Started to use a sippy cup during the day (my mom can't believe how fast time is flying)

9.) Fallen off my mom's bed and been checked out by the nice EMT guys via 911 (mom was in a bit of a panic with this little charade)

10.) Found out I am going to be a big cousin to the soon to be youngest boy in our family, my Uncle Trent and Aunt Andrea's baby boy, Taven.

11.) Proved to be one of the most mellow and happy babies on the planet....

Look out world, Jackson Ryan Finnegan is going to be 1 YEAR OLD in the blink of an eye!

Tea Time!

Today Cole had a Mother's Tea at his preschool in celebration of Mother's Day coming up this weekend. We got dressed up (sort of) and all trekked over to The Giving Tree. Miss Jennifer (Cole's teacher) had the table in the back room set up w/ a tablecloth, a pitcher of apple juice (that the kids poured for their mothers), mini sandwhiches and grapes. It was so cute to see Cole pour me some juice in a tea cup and serve me. He also had made me a little gift of a hot pad stamped w/ his handprint. It was a sweet way to start our morning. Here are some pics of the boys and I....

My Pup, Cody.

So right after Aidan was born, Steven surprised me with something I had always wanted...a golden retriever!! Truth be told, I was up to my eyeballs in the new baby and adjusting from having just one child to two, but somehow, we managed the chaos, and Cody was welcomed into our family.

He was such a smart dog, right from the beginning. He pretty much came to us potty trained and he learned very quickly how to sleep in his crate w/out whining. When he grew a bit older, I enrolled both he and I in Puppy Class at Petsmart and he was the "Star Pupil"! He loved (true to his breed) nothing more than to make his "people" happy.

Cody also loved my favorite place on earth....Lake Cushman. We took he and Max w/ us and Cody spent hours swimming in the lake (especially if we were swimming). He loved to float on the air mattress chair with me, and would fly off the end of the dock to retrieve his tennis ball.

He was always wonderful w/ the boys, and as just happy as long as we were all together.

This isn't to say we didn't have our "issues" with this dog....he was a digger and a chewer (also true to his breed), and we still have our fair share of land mine looking pits in our backyard to remind us of this fact.

Right around Halloween of this last year, Cody started dropping weight and was coughing and hacking a lot. To make a REALLY long story short, Cody was diagnosed w/ something called Megaesophagus and it was secondary to a diagnosis of Myasthenia Gravis. (Both very rare, and not very promising diagnoses). He basically had no movement of the muscles in his throat so when he ate, his food just sat there and wouldn't make it to his stomach. Everything he ate just came right back up. He also contracted pneumonia easily as it was easy to aspirate the food back down into his lungs when he would try to cough it out of his throat.

For a while I was blindly optimistic, assuring everyone that I could "do what it takes" to manage all this (and a job, and three kids, as Jackson had now entered the picture). Cody was put on lots of medication and had to eat three small meals a day (can food only, mixed w/ water in the blender to a soupy mixture).....in the standing position... and then we would hold him up for 15 minutes afterward in the hopes that gravity would aid in getting his food to his stomach. It was a lot like feeding and burping a baby. And for a little bit, it was all working...

And then he developed his second pneumonia in a month and a half and the weight began to fall off again. Shortly after Christmas this year, I realized we were losing the battle and my dog's quality of life was suffering terribly. So Steven and I made the choice to let him go.

Never had I planned that I would lose my dog after just 2 1/2 years. In that short amount of time that dog had taken up a HUGE space in my heart. I had to go to work the day we made the choice to have him put to sleep so I think the closure is taking longer than it would have if I had been there to hold him. Cody has been on my mind a lot lately, and this morning I came across some pictures of him that made me smile, so I thought it might help the whole process to tell his story. We still have our other dog Max, and I love him very much.....I just miss Cody.

Almost 9 Months!!!

This is really hard for me to believe, but Jackson will be 9 months old on the 6th!! Where has the time gone? It seems like yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital, and the "big boys" were getting to know their new little brother. With the boys getting older, time seems to be going faster and faster by the minute, and I just hope I can hang on and absorb as much as possible without missing the memories. It sounds really cliche, I know, but recently I had a bit of a realization.....the dishes will always need to be done, the play room will always need cleaning (ALWAYS), and the laundry will continue to pile up, but my boys won't always ask me to sit and play with them, and I need to cherish this time. Besides, the more I sit and play, the more I remember how FUN it is to be a kid, and how fun my kids are to play with. Without these boys, I have no idea where I would be......

Spring Break........and snow!

As you can see, we got some SNOW last night! Here it is nearly April (spring break is next week) and we have snow......go figure. Of course the boys wanted to go out and play in the white stuff so I said I would help them make a snowman.....or in this case, our Sunny Snow Lady, Shelly (the boys named her) :o) It was kinda fun getting all bundled up and playing outside in it, but I have to say I am ready for the real spring to start. Bring on the sun!!!!

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR LAURA..."

I had my 29th birthday on Feb. 26th and boy, was it great! I woke up at 6:50 a.m to Steven, Cole, and Aidan walking into Steven's and my room w/ a cake (lit w/ 29 candles) and a bunch of 29 balloons, singing "Happy Birthday". Let me just say that 29 balloons is a lot of balloons. When they were done singing, I blew out my candles (all of them), and opened my card. Both Colton and Aidan had separately drawn pictures of our family inside and written their names (it was darling), and Steven had enclosed a gift certificate for a full day at the spa!! Hot stone facial, hot stone massage, manicure, pedicure, lunch.....AHHHHHHH.....relaxation, here I come. :o) I did have to work that day, but Rita brought me flowers and work gave me a gift certificate to go shopping....life is good. I have always welcomed my birthday, I love it, and each year it seems I have more and more to be thankful for.