Trading Stories With The Leaves

Moving…

Andy — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 09:41:49 +0000

I will now be blogging at http://inthepresenttense.blogspot.com/

Perkiomen Creek and Trail

Andy — Tue, 19 May 2009 05:34:42 +0000

Saturday was an excellent day! Took the two girls to the Perkiomen trail for a little stroll. Lily was crashed in the stroller the whole trip (almost two hours) but Josie and I got to throw some rocks in the creek. We found a perfect spot with a ton of rocks that looked like they were just made for skipping. Josie tested out the arm a bit and just had a blast throwing the rocks in the creek while Lily snoozed away.

Of course what’s an adventure without a necessary commando diaper change. Josie decided to take a nice poop while we were down by the creek so my McGyver skills had to kick in as there was no where to lay her down for a comfortable change. Had to go with the stand-up change which is not the most desirable but we came out of the whole thing nice and clean Isn’t funny how discussion about the children always goes to shit

After the diaper change of the century we decided to hike down the trail a bit and found a nice little playground. That’s the picture of Josie hanging on with the look of fear and enjoyment on her face.

Overall, a great little outing and mommy got some well deserved mommy time.

Family of 4!!

Andy — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 22:11:07 +0000

On Friday February 13th of 2009 we officialy became a family of 4! Lillian Faith Wendler was born at 1:36 PM ET. She came into the world at 8lbs. 8oz. and as you’ll see from some of the pics to follow some chunky cheeks and legs!

This has been a long, long journey getting Lily to come into this world. She is our second IVF success story and even though it was successful there is a ton of stress involved with that whole process. From the financial committment to just praying that it will work it can put a lo of strain on a relationship. I think through it all Cara and I have only grown closer. Once we got pregnant with Lily we continued to have our fair share of complications. Cara, of course, carried the large, large majority of that burden as well. Such a strong woman and she made that clear throughout this trying pregnancy.

Now that we’re finally through all of that crazyiness and Lily is finally here the new adventure of raising two little girls begins. I know I speak for both Cara and I way I say it’s the most amazing thing in the world seeing Josie and Lily together. Josie is so interested in her new baby sister. She is always trying to give her things that Lily can’t quite handle yet like books and toys and whatever she can find to put in Lily’s face This is going to be a most interesting and enjoyable journey!

As I write this all three of my ladies are resting peacefully, if you can beleive that, on day four of Lily’s life. I should probably be resting myself but I needed unload this joy somewhere I know there are many, many challenges ahead and these little peaceful times will be few and far between but this is one of the coolest things I’ve ever experienced. Much more to come in the days and weeks and months and years of these two girls lives!!

Here are a few sample pics from delivery day and the weekend. The rest can be seen in this Facebook album.

Looking back…

Andy — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 11:44:59 +0000

Once again too long between blogs Before looking ahead to 2009 I first have to go back just a bit so I can get Josie’s second encounter with St. Nick up on here. Let’s just say it was less than happy experience for her. She was just fine from a distance but as soon as we moved in for the pictures below… well you get the picture!

I should have mentioned that we went to The Willow Creek Orchards to meet Santa this year. It’s a great place with a whole bunch of cool stuff going on from live music to art galleries and all kinds of great food. It’s an organic farm too which is a bonus.

So Santa was not such a big hit but she really loved the John Deere tractors they had available to check out. She (and I of course) had a good time on these babies!! Overall a great day but hopefully she’ll get a little better with Santa in ’09

The Christmas Dress

Andy — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 11:23:56 +0000

Here are a few pics of Jos modeling the ’08 Christmas dress She’s loving the camera lately and the camera is loving her too!

A couple Josie vids

Andy — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 11:14:39 +0000

Not sure why I thought I’d be able to maintain two blogs but I’ll try to keep this going. Keep it simple, right?
So here’s a couple little videos of Josie jammin’ out on the harmonica! Look out Sheryl Crow
Part I

Part II

Thanksgiving 2008

Andy — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 16:19:19 +0000

Thanksgiving is one of the best holidays. It gives us a chance to reflect on the things that are truely most important in our lives and usually gives us a chance to spend time with those we love and care deeply about. Although we celebrate this holiday with an enormous feast and stuff our bellies until we can barely walk, that is not what’s important. It’s the people in our lives that make us who we are.

This year we got to spend time with several of the people that make our lives so special. We didn’t get to see all of the family on Thankgiving but we were still thankful to have them in our lives and they were in our thoughts throughout the day.

Here are a few shots of us enjoying our time at Nana and Pa’s on Thanksgiving:

Mommy, Daddy, and Josie

Nana , Pa, and Josie.

Nana, Pa, Alexis, Leah, and Josie. We missed Parker and Aiden and can’t wait to see them at Christmas!

And of course there was the traditional bird!

We have so much to be thankful for that it’s nearly impossible to express it in words. We get to wake up every morning and not really have to want for anything. We have an abundance of food on our table when others don’t even have a table. I could go on and on but one of the people I am most thankful for wants to play with Daddy!

Passion # 2

Andy — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:26:15 +0000

So as you’ve seen below my # 1 passion is my amazing daughter. Passion # 2 is music and you will soon notice that I have what some might refer to as an obsession with Pearl Jam. I do infact have a seperate blog dedicated to sharing their bootleg recordings so if that is of interest to you head on over to http://inthepresenttense.blogspot.com and enjoy some live PJ.

Also if you happen to already be familiar with Pearl Jam you may have noticed I’ve stollen the name of this blog from the lyrics of their song “In My Tree” from the amazing album “No Code”. I highly recommend both the song and the album.

From time to time I’ll probably share a track or two on here that I think are spectacular so stop by frequently If you’re interested in free music. I have to warn you that most of the time it will be Pearl Jam but I’ll try to mix it up a bit. Some artists that I’ve recently discovered include Damien Rice and Ray LaMontagne. Both are amazing artists that deserve a listen.

Below is a live recording of Damien Rice performing one of my favorite songs of his called “:Rootless Tree”. This version is slowed down quite a bit from the album version. Amazing performance. The female vocalist is Lisa Hannigan. She has since released her own solo album and has an unbelievable voice. Enjoy.

My Almost Two Year Old!

Andy — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:07:33 +0000

This was Josie’s first trip to Green Lane and she just had a blast. Cara, Josie, and myself all went together and enjoyed an amazing, warm, almost fall day. Josie just loved climbing on the rocks and hanging out by the lake. We brought a few soccer balls with us and just had a blast running around and taking in the beautiful scenery. Josie loved seeing the horseback riders going through the park trails.

Mommy was able to get a bit of a rest in a beach chair while Josie and I played and explored. We had an awesome picninc lunch and really just enjoyed the day. We need to do that more often. Just spend time with each other and have fun. Enjoy how fortunate we are in these unfortunate times.

I love the above pic of her on this huge rock. My father used to take my brother and I too this same park when we were kids. It’s so cool to be able to share this special place with my daughter. I can even remember being able to ice skate on this lake a few times. It’s been years since it’s been cold enough for that to happen again. Global warming? I don’t know.. maybe.

She just loved sitting by the lake. She seems to really be drawn to the water. She love the ocean when we went to the beach this past summer too. I’ve always been fascinated by the ocean myself. The size of it alone is mind blowing.