You say you want a revolution resolution, well you know, we all want to change the world

I typically don’t do the resolution thing because setting goals for the entire year seems crazy and most people just end up not doing what they said they’d do. However, this year I did set some resolutions and I have every intention of keeping each and every one of them because they really aren’t very hard resolutions to keep.

1) Exercise – I sit my ass in a chair everyday at work and while I wouldn’t say I’m overweight, I would say I could benefit from a little exercise. We will be joining the Y as a family again since Dylan is already a member and Brady is going to start swimming sometime in February so I will definitely be getting into the gym soon. I will also be returning to hockey soon as I found a good 35+ league that plays every Thursday night.

2) Eat Better – if you’re going to exercise, you probably should eat right as well. There are certainly things I can cut out of my diet  but more importantly I am going to look at how much I eat. We all over do it with food so I am sure being aware of how much I am eating wouldn’t be a bad thing.

3) Take More Pictures – I have 2 cameras ( a DSLR and a Point and Shoot) both take great pictures so I should do it more often. The kids will only be young once and I know I wish my parents took more pictures of me as a kid.

4) Organization – I’m horrible at being organized. You should come visit what I call my workshop…it’s AWFUL!! One of the projects on my list this year is to redo my workshop as it’s dark and dirty (which I inherited with the house) so I am going to rip everything out, build new shelves, build a new workbench/table and get everything organized. Then its on to the garage!!

What about you, set any goals/resolutions for 2012?

Sing along with.. Holy-Holy-Holy crap, Christmas is over, la la la da da da…. No seriously, I can’t believe Christmas is over.

We didn’t do anything out of the norm this year. My in-laws came over on Christmas Eve where we opened a few presents that we got each other and then had an early dinner which consisted of 7 different fish dishes (I’m not really convinced it was 7 but I’m not a fish eater so I am not really complaining). We then headed out to church where Dylan was a sheep in the Christmas pageant again this year and then headed back home to meet Santa on the firetruck (which I must say, the stocking full of candy has certainly improved since I was a kid) and ended the night eating some dessert, lots of dessert. Shhh, don’t tell anyone, but I think there might have been more varieties of cookies dessert than fish.

Then Santa came.

Sunday morning was a little chaotic as it should be opening our stockings, followed by Dylan opening his gifts from Santa and then Brady’s gifts from Santa as he’s too young to grasp the idea of Christmas. I will say though, he loves his new rattles and some of  the other toys he got. Dylan got two NY Jets jerseys as Santa was a little confused as to which one he actually wanted and a remote control car, which we quickly tested out but will do more thorough testing very soon!!

Then we headed over to my sisters house where there was more chaos, more presents, lots of food and alcohol. Dylan got more Jets stuff along with a bunch of other things. The last present he opened was a Nintendo 3DS that he got from his Aunt. He’s been wanting a 3DS ever since his cousin opened his on Christmas last year. We originally told him not until he was 8 but since he’s been such a great big brother and doing so well in Kindergarten, we decided to just let him have it now (and yes, this was a decision we made a month ago). His face was priceless when he opened it though. You could see the thought process going through his mind. Gasp…a DS, on no I’m not 8, please oh please let me keep this… Brady slept through most of his presents at my sisters house. I got a bunch of things for my camera so I hope that 2012 will be the year I take lots of photos. Actually, I’m not going to hope, I’m just going to make it be…

We are incredibly lucky because we are surrounded by loving and generous people. It’s not about the gifts, in fact there could be no gifts and I’d still think that our families are loving and generous people. I’m lucky because I have an amazing wife who continues to make my life wonderful and we have two amazing little boys. We have jobs and money and the resources to make sure there are presents under a tree and an abundance of food with which we can celebrate. I am very fortunate and very thankful to have the life I have

I hope your Christmas was a wonderful one. I can’t believe it’s all over already. Unfortunately I have to work this week but I do have a couple of half days this week so I will get to spend some time with the family before ringing in 2012.

2011 was certainly an interesting year. I have to admit that the beginning part of the year was a time of complete anxiety. Terri spent a good portion of December of 2010 in bed because she was thrown into the first trimester of pregnancy and she was just trying to survive. With her last pregnancy, everything seemed to be going well until we got to the 20 week ultrasound where we were blindsided with an abnormality that was found. Both of us were dreading that 20 week mark in this pregnancy, both of us didn’t want to admit that there might be a baby because we didn’t want to have our hopes dashed. The 20 week ultrasound came and went and thankfully everything was looking good.

Once we got passed that mark, I think both of us started to relax a little and maybe started to believe that we might end up with a baby at the end of all this but I am not sure about that last part.

I can’t really say we did many exciting things in the beginning part of the year because we didn’t. It snowed A LOT, so much so that it was getting to be a weekly ritual of waking up in the morning and shoveling the driveway and walkway just so we could get to work.
When spring rolled around we started to think about things like playing outside and realized that it was time to replace the swingset in the backyard. Uncle Mike would be visiting us in April so we put him to work when he got here and he helped tear down Dylan’s old swingset and build his brand new swingset in a weekend. I think he’ll admit, as will I that it was a lot more work than either of us thought.

The end of April we took Dylan to see the Imagination Movers live in concert and Terri did a fantastic job setting this up. She got tickets for us in the second row, which was normally part of the pit so there was a wall right behind us that the movers kept walking on during the whole show. Dylan got to slap hands with all the movers and being up so close was an incredible experience. At the end of the show, Mover Rich handed me the set list that was taped to the floor of the stage. It’s now in a big picture frame in the playroom with photos of the show.
In May, Dylan turned 5 and we had a party at The Funplex with all his friends and then a family party at home that night. All of it went really well and Dylan got some neat stuff. To add a little more craziness to that weekend, Terri and I decided to host Coffee Hour at church for the first time ever but that went well too.

In June, Dylan moved up from Pre-K to Kindergarten and I can’t even begin to tell you how emotional that ceremony was. The showed a video at the beginning of the ceremony showing us their entire year and it was pretty emotional. Certainly not ready to do that all over when he graduates from Kindergarten this year. June also marked Uncle Mike’s graduation from grad school so we got on a plane and flew out to Chicago for a long weekend. Dylan loved Chicago and still talks about going back there to this day. Here are a few things I will remember about Chicago:
• Despite Chicago being in the central time zone, somehow Dylan still managed to wake up at 7am on the dot.
• Terri was extremely brave and conquered her fear of heights and stood out on the skydeck some 103 floors above the streets of Chicago.
• Those tour bus rides that show you cool things in Chicago, while pretty neat are super long.
• I wasn’t all that impressed with Garrett Popcorn that everyone raved about the whole time we were there.

Once the Chicago trip was over, it was really time to start focusing on the arrival of our new baby so we started painting the nursery and getting that all set up. In early July Dylan did got invited to see The Wiggles at the Sirius/XM Rumpus Room so Terri took him into the city which he thoroughly enjoyed. Since Terri was going to be home on maternity leave all summer, we decided to send Dylan to half day camp instead of full day camp. The afternoons were full of Dylan and Mommy time which I think both of them really enjoyed.

Finally the big day was here and on July 29th in the early afternoon, Brady Owen weighing in at 8lbs and 12ounces joined the world. Having gone through the emotional roller coaster that was the previous pregnancy, I can’t, to this day describe the feeling when Brady entered this world and everything was ok. All I can say is that I was relieved he was here, ecstatic that he was here and felt completely blessed to have another baby.

August was a bit of a crazy month because there was a new baby in the house and we had to try and settle into a routine and keep Dylan’s routine in order as much as possible but we succeeded and came out with flying colors. It was the end of August where things got crazy. On a nice sunny day, the ground started shaking like we’ve never felt before. An earthquake had hit in Virginia which could be felt way north of here. A few days later, Hurricane Irene came rolling through and did a lot of damage to my neighborhood and my town. The center of town had at least 5 feet of water in it and lots of homes were damaged or destroyed. I’ve lived this town practically my whole life and seen some crazy moments, some bad floods but never have I witnessed this kind of destruction. But this town has managed to survive, to fight back and shown that we care about one another and raised a ton of money to those affected. I am so proud to be a member of this community and couldn’t think of a better place to live.

Dylan decided to play soccer again this year but I got asked to help coach this year. I wasn’t too sure about it in the beginning but I actually had a lot of fun doing it, so much so that I would be willing to consider doing it again next year. The season itself was really a bust because it rained a lot and we lost a lot of games because of the weather.

As we were getting over the Hurricane, an early October snowstorm dumped a foot a snow on us and thanks to the leaves still being on the trees, those trees held the snow and eventually trees broke causing massive power outages all over. It took a good week for everything to return to normal but once again, we made it through that storm.

So here we are at the end of the year, getting ready for Christmas. Like I said in the beginning of this it has been an interesting year but with Brady in our lives, it will go down as one of the best years of our lives. Dylan adores Brady and Brady certainly adores Dylan. When you sit back and watch the two of them, you realize how special they are and how thankful I am to have them in my life.

Here’s hoping that 2012 brings us a lot more memories and good times. I for one am going to be taking a lot more pictures in the new year and a lot of video as well.

When Dylan was a baby, he got his first ear infection when the hit the age of 4 months and 1 day old, which would have been on Sept 18th. Brady has been tugging on his ear this week so off to the doctor he went yesterday and yup he has an ear infection and HOLY CRAP he’s 4 months and 1 day old… That is just unbelievable…

Thanksgiving was successful followed by a successful Thanksgiving weekend that included a lot of Christmas preparation. Once again, Terri did the parade this year and this year we got to see her on TV. I have video of it on my DVR at home and will get it off soon (unless I find it online). Last year we kind of saw her but this year she was front and center waving at the crowd. Dylan was pretty excited to see Mommy on TV plus she was on a train which he loves!!

We decided to make Turducken again this year. The last time we did it, by my count was 4 years ago.  Terri and her brother did most of the work, deboning the birds and making the stuffing and then he and I put it together Thanksgiving morning and popped it in the oven. I’m not sure it worked out as well as the last time mainly because the turkey was so much larger than the rest of the birds but it was still very yummy so it didn’t really matter.

Friday it looked like a bomb exploded in our living room as we were putting away fall decorations and getting out the bazillion Christmas decorations we have. On Saturday we saw temperatures up near 70 degrees which was perfect weather to get the Christmas lights on the house. Usually I’m on top of the house freezing as I put the lights up so it was a nice change to put them up without a coat on this year. Every year it seems that I add one more thing to our lights display. Last year it was lights around the light pole and this year it was adding lights to a tree in our front yard. I’ll have to come up with something else next year!!

Saturday night we made it to the lighting of the Christmas tree in the middle of town which was a lot of fun. We ran into a number of friends, sang a few songs, had some hot chocolate and because of the unseasonable temperatures during the day, didn’t freeze waiting for the tree to light up.

Sunday we finished cleaning up all the decorations and the house and made it to the annual Holiday parade in town. The first time I took Dylan two years ago, we got chased away by a booming canon on some military truck. Last year we didn’t make it to the end because Dylan got cold but this year, we made it all the way to the end and saw Santa riding on an old fire truck. Brady was with us as well, made it through most of the parade and fell asleep right before the fire trucks came. I was a little surprised that the sirens and horns only made him open his eyes once but quickly went back to sleep.

All in all a successful weekend as we head straight into the Christmas season. Terri has been on the ball this year and has a lot of the shopping done. We are getting a new camera this year that has incredible video quality so 2012 is going to be all about the videos. Just a warning!!

How was your Thanksgiving??