Happy St. Patricks Day

The family had a wonderful time last weekend at the annual Brookside St. Patrick's Day Parade. This balloon was our second of the day, Bill got some great video of us loosing our first it was pitiful and cute all at the same time. Lots of our friends and their families were there so the day was great. Check out the video at the link below.

Elie and I head to Kentucky on Wednesday for a few days with Da, Paw, Uncle Boodleheimer, Aunt Nikki, Emma and Sophie we can't wait for the pictures and videos to show you then.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBO1dMhrsi8

Our Little Picasso...

For Christmas Elie received lots of "art supplies" from Mommy and Daddy and the most fabulous box from Aunt B. Well truth be told I've been to scared to actually dig in and get "wet". So Wednesday I dusted off my courage wings and announced to Elie at 8:30..."how about we paint"! This is what we had about half way through our hour long painting extravaganza. She was so excited. She wanted to call Grammy and Papa and Da and Paw. At one point talking to Da she had gotten paint on her hands and told Da "I have muddy footprints all over my hands". This is a reference to one of her favorite books where one of the characters gets muddy footprints all over his momma's floor. But Elie's use sure was cute.

Fast forward about 30 minutes. The paper is full of color and water. So much so that the paper is falling apart. I gave Elie a little warning that it was almost time to stop painting and the drama which insued was off the charts. Big Big tears....no mommy no I"m still painting was her plea. I admit it was so cute and pitiful that I actually laughed in my sweet childs face. So how much in therapy do you think that will cost her? I finally set the timer on the oven and announced that when it went off it would be time to stop painting.

Somehow the timer worked.

You would think we had hung her "beautiful picture" (her words) in a gallery in SoHo rather than on the front door. Anyone intersted in an original work of art is welcome to contact me.

Perhaps I'll be brave enough to dig into B's box and pull out the glue next.

Happy Valentines Day and more

Make a Smilebox greeting

Just yesterday a good friend sent me this quote and I wanted to share it with you all...

Family of Origin and Family of Choice. Family of Origin is the family you are connected to by law, or history, or the happenstance of genome. Family of Choice is the family you create from friends, neighbors, lovers, and sometimes even relatives, smile. It is a beautiful mosaic of past, present and future, and it's main components are love, acceptance and joy, and support in the times when the joy seems dim and the love harder to reach.

So to all of you who are my Family of Origin and my Family of Choice I say thank you and Happy Valentines Day!

Elie Turns 2.

It absolutely blows my mind that on January 19th our little one turned two years old.

Since I'm not really a scrapbooker, I'm lucky to have Bill around to take our pictures and video and make an "album" of the year. Our hope is to continue doing this for her each year until we are so old we can't keep up with the technology.

We hope you enjoy watching our baby girl grow up. Click on the link below for Daddy's Ode to his little girls 2nd year on the planet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PfRQGlhICQ

Inaugurations make me nostalgic

No matter what you think of Barack Obama or Bill Clinton few people have the honor to be this close to a President being sworn into office. I was lucky enough to do it twice, in 1993 and in 1997. I'll only bore you with my favorite memory.

In 1993, Wendell H. Ford was the Chairman of the Senate Rules Committee and therefore the Chairman of the Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. This committee begins its work months before the new president is even elected. Working on Senator's personal staff we all had extra duties and responsibilities.

On the day of the ceremony I was in charge of Senator Ford's grandchildren, ranging in age from 6ish to early teens. Senator is fiercely proud and protective of those grandchildren and it was my job after the ceremony to guide them through a packed Capitol back to his offices in the Russell Building. Things were going smoothly until I heard "ITS BATMAN" and all I remember are children scattering like flies. I managed to grab the smallest by the collar as my life flashed before my eyes. How would I ever tell Missy and Senator that I had lost them? Fortunately Batman (a.k.a. Michael Keaton) didn't have a pen on him to give them an autograph and they all came rushing back to me to see if I had one.

Clearly the story ends well as I lived to tell. To be honest I don't even remember if I had a pen or not or if they got the autograph.

All I know is that tomorrow will hold many memorable moments for many different reasons for many different people. That is why this country is so great.

**There is an arrow that points to me in the first picture sort of in the left hand corner.

**In the second photo I"m the 3rd person to the right of the officer.

You Need To Dance....

could possibly be our family motto for the coming year. As most of you know Elie turns 2 on Monday so all is a-twitter in the house preparing for the Happy Birthday Party. It will be a small affair with just Aunt Kristin, Uncle Evan, Lucy and Max but will produce ample "memorable moments" to share with you all soon.

Like this one. Ever since the holidays when Elie and her cousins Max, Lucy and Maddie held marathon "dance parties" on their days off from school, Elie has been dancing all over the house. (Please notice the shoes she is wearing, hand me down tap shoes, that make a fabulouse noise on the wood floors.) At any given moment she will look at Mommy, Daddy or the both of us and say "You need to dance".

You know she is right.

So lets all dance our way through 2009.

I know I'm planning on it.



P.S. I know many of you used this blog as a way to keep in touch with our family last year and receive updates on James Henry. Please don't feel obligated to continue to subscribe. I'll be happy to take you off the list, just let me know in one way or the other.

James Henry Patterson

Born to Heaven: Tuesday, October 7th, 2008.

It was a day filled with physical pain, sorrow but mostly a great deal of joy and gratitude.

Perhaps someday soon I will feel up to writing about our day. But for now I wanted to share with all of you some images so that you may know our beautiful baby boy.

These were taken by a lovely woman from the not for profit, Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep. We have others taken by family that I will share in the coming days.

(the images will not come through on this update email so please go directly to our blog from the web: www.athomewiththepattersons.blogspot.com to view them.)