Memorial Day in Philly

Tommy and I decided to take advantage of the long Memorial Day weekend and headed to Philadelphia on Monday. It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive to Philly, but we decided to start the day a little outside the city at the Valley Forge National Historical Park. Seems appropriate for Memorial Day, right? In case you are not familiar with it,Valley Forge was the site of the camp of the American Continental Army over the winter of 1777–1778 in the American Revolutionary War. No battles were fought, although many American soldiers died in the harsh winter. The rangers at the park stress that the poor conditions at Valley Forge were greatly exaggerated and that, more than anything, Valley Forge offered the Continental Army the opportunity to mature, train, and come together as an army that would eventually defeat the British.

We took a 90 minute guided bus tour around the park. These cabins are models of the ones in which the soldiers would have stayed:

Here is one of the Park Rangers giving us a musket firing demonstration. I never realized how many steps were involved just to fire one shot!

The famous Valley Forge National Memorial Arch:

From there, we headed into Philadelphia. We were a little early for our 3:30 tour of Independence Hall, so we stopped by a cute restaurant in Old Town for lunch and then headed over to Independence Hall. The tour was fairly short, only 2 rooms, but it was amazing to think that we were standing in the room where our founding fathers met, debated, and eventually signed 2 of the most important documents in our nations history, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

Here we are in front of Independence Hall:

The room where the Consitution and Declaration of Independence were signed:

From there, we headed over to take a look at the Liberty Bell:

After that, we wandered around Old Town Philly a little bit more, being sure to stop for some ice cream at the Franklin Fountain, an old-time soda shop. Strangely enough, we both ordered cherry vanilla on a sugar cone - YUM!


By this time, the wimpy pregnant lady was getting pretty tired, so we decided to head home. We couldn't leave Philly, though, without stopping for a cheesesteak. This time we tried Jim's Steaks - another fairly famous and well-established steak place. Maybe we were too full from lunch and ice cream, but this cheesesteak was not our favorite. The meat was dry, there was too little cheese whiz and it was on the bottom of the sandwich - not a winning combination. The very first cheesesteak we tried on our first trip to Philly, Pat's King of Steaks, is still the winner in our book!

Nephews

We got the wonderful news last night that Lincoln's adoption paperwork has all been finalized and the new family of 3 are finally home! I wanted to be sure I posted a photo of our new nephew:

And just so he doesn't feel left out, here is a picture of my other adorable nephew, Evan. I can't believe he will be a year old in just a few weeks. He's getting so big!

We can't wait to find out whether Evan and Link will be joined by a boy or girl cousin in November - stay tuned!

Lincoln and Riley

We are excited to announce that our extended family added 2 new members this week!

Lincoln Thomas McCarthy entered the world on Tuesday evening - a healthly 7 pound, 5 oz baby boy! Brandi and Ryan were staying with him at the hospital until Friday evenining. They were released last night and the three of them are staying with a transitional care family pending completion of all of the adoption paperwork. I can't post pictures until the adoption is officially finalized, but I'll tell everyone that he is absolutely adorable and Brandi and Ryan are settling right into parenthood. We hope they are able to get settled into their own house very soon and can't wait to meet little Link!

Also on Tuesday, Mom and Dad brought home their new baby - a 6 month old poodle mix puppy that they adopted from a nearby shelter. They named her Riley. She is shy and a little scared, but it sounds like she is finally starting to adjust to her new home. Max and Albert are excited to meet their new "Aunt"!

Isn't she cute!?!

New Bedroom Furniture

This post is a little dated (what else is new ?:) ), but a few weeks ago, Tommy and I bought new bedroom furniture and it arrived about a week and a half ago. The furniture store was having a great sale, so we got 20% off and were even able to negotiate a little with the store manager!

The furniture is much needed! Our old furniture was a hodgepodge of items. The bed had a wrought iron headboard I bought when I graduated from college (the footboard is being used as the headboard for the bed in the guest bedroom!). The dresser and chest of drawers were the ones I used in high school that Mom and Dad were nice enough to give us when they moved from Houston to Boerne (those are going in the guest bedroom unless we are ambitious enough to try to re-finish them for Baby Mhire's room). Best of all, I had a bedside table that matched the bed, but since I bought them before I was living with Tommy, he was using the dog bed as a bedside table. Now we have a dresser, chest of drawers, bedframe and 2 nightstands that we absolutely love! Max was a little upset because we moved the chest that sat at the foot of the bed (he used it as a step to get on the bed), but he has learned that he can hop up on top of his crate, on to his Dad's nightstand and on to the bed. I guess we should be discouraging that behavior, but we were both amazed by his ingenuity. Heaven help us when we have kids!! ;)

After that long-winded post about bedroom pictures, here are the photos (we're still in the process of looking for new bed linens):

Introducing......Baby Mhire!

I guess its time to finally share our big secret with everyone. For those of you who don't already know, Tommy and I are thrilled to announce that we're expecting our first baby this November (the 24th to be exact)! That means I'm just about 12 weeks along and almost out of the dreaded first trimester. I haven't felt great for the past few weeks, but I'm starting to feel much better and I haven't felt nearly as bad as my sister did when she was pregnant with Evan, so I guess I should be counting my blessings!

We had our second appointment earlier this week, including the nuchal translucency screening, where they test for downs syndrome and other genetic abnormalities. We're still waiting on the results of the blood tests, but the everything in the ultrasound looked good, and my doctor said that's about 70% of the tests. Tommy and I were so relieved and excited to see our little one squirming around on the ultrasound and hear the heartbeat. It really is amazing! Here is the first photo to the world of Baby Mhire:As you can imagine, Tommy and I are thrilled, awed, and of course slightly terrified at the prospect of becoming parents. Hopefully, I'll update the blog more often so you can follow our journey. And those of you with any previous experience on the subject, BEWARE - I'm sure we'll be coming to you often with plenty of questions!

In other baby news, Tommy and I are so excited that we'll soon be an aunt and uncle for the second time. Many of you probably already know that Tommy's sister, Brandi and her husband, Ryan have been going through the adoption process for several years now. Earlier this week, they received the wonderful news that a birthmother had chosen them - and is due MAY 15th!! They had lunch with the birthmom earlier this week and said everything went perfectly. We are so excited to meet Lincoln Thomas McCarthy and are absolutely thrilled for Brandi and Ryan - they will be amazing parents! Baby Mhire will already have 2 boy cousins when he/she enters the world!

I don't think I can top those pieces of news, so I guess I should go try to do something productive for the day. Happy Mother's Day to all those mom's out there - enjoy the weekend!!