Springtime

them
Hi everyone,
I can't believe it is already March!  Soon enough it will be summer (which is fine by me, since I look foward to the time off!)  In January we found out that Brendan would be recognized as Officer of the Year for the Northeast Division.  There was a dinner and banquet held for all of those honored in Feb and almost everyone on both of our sides in town were able to attend, so it was great to see all the support for Brendan and his hardwork as a detective.  He is now in a new postion as robbery detective, so even more work, but it is pretty rewarding for him.  It was a great evening seeing all of the great pictures and hearing all of the speeches, I may be biased but Brendan's speech was the best-he was able to combine humor and seriousness in a great way with honoring his profession. 

Chief Dyer and Brendan

Great speech!

The family

In March we took our first trip out of town without Harper.  We spent a weekend up in Tahoe skiing with our good friends Michelle and Ed and also were able to see some of my family from Reno:)  It was definitely hard being away from Harper for the weekend (I had yet to spend a night away from him) but he was in good hands with his Nana and Grandpa and Aunt Kaila and Uncle Jeff, in fact Brendan asked after we arrived home-"do you think he even knew we were gone?!!!"

Squaw Valley

We celebrated Chris' and my birthdays in Kinsgburg by going to the new tasting room Blendz and then next door at Jonathan's for dinner. The wine, company and food was great and Harper expecially loved the sauteed mushrooms.  The next day was St. Patty's and Harper dressed up for the occasion;)  We headed to a rotary dinner with Erin and her family and had a fun night with the silent bidding and free wine tasting.  Harper was having a blast with all of the people and seeing one of the puppies up for sale.

11 months

Where are my kisses?!!!

This past weekend Chris, Stacie, Kaila, Nana and Grandpa, Brendan, Harper and I all went to Ramos Winery in Kinsgburg for an art show, appetizers and  wine which was great, we all bought a few bottles.  There we met up with my mom's friend Toni and her daughter Lucinda and afterwards we headed to my parents house for dinner (all made in the crockpot and delish).  We had so much fun just laughing and visiting-it is so nice to have such a loving and fun family!  Brendan, Harper and I stayed the night since we didn't want Harper to have to stay up too late and we didn't want to leave early.  The next day was realxing, breakfast and coffee on a rainy day.  Plus it is always nice to have some extra hands for Harper. 

Ramos Winery

Stacie, Kaila and me

Reading with Nana

Small Paul pjs

Spring break is coming up, so I am looking foward to some time off to relax a little and prep for Harper's big UNO (1st bday) party!  Hopefully I will make it up to Lodi to visit with Jenny and Julie and kids:)  We just booked our flights for Virginia and will head there this summer along with Brendan's mom Donna to visit Matt (Brendan's brother) and his family.  I am looking foward to it since I have never been to VA or DC.

                              Getting started with the walking thing (though he is already much better in 2 weeks time!

On the swings for the 1st time

Harper updates:
still 5 teeth, wondering when the rest will fill in
walking like crazy, will probably be running around at 1st bday party
talking a lot, some words sound like English (zizi for kitty, waz dat-what's that?)
points to a lot of things
loves books and listens as you read and likes to touch the books and carry  them around with him