Phinney Family

Chase Alexander Phinney

2009-06-08T14:40:00.008-04:00

What a whirlwind the past two weeks have been. Well.... for starters, Weighing in at 8 pounds 8 ounces...Chase Alexander arrived on June 8th, 2009 @ 8:17am. Mom and baby did great, baby was healthy and strong.

We checked in Monday morning, checked out Thursday afternoon. Kristy's mom was here for about a week. She arrived a few days before we checked in which was nice, she got to spend some one on one with Cayden before Chase arrived.

After Danette checked out of the Phinn Inn, Mom and Dad Phinkle checked in and stayed for a few days and we can't begin to tell you the difference in life, when you have family around to give you that helping hand.

Believe me, running around after a 2 1/2 year old while trying to figure out the new baby's schedule can get quite stressful.

So here we are as a family of 4, Cayden is warming up to having a brother, Mom and Dad are getting back into the swing of having a new born.

Good Times, Good Times.

The Final Countdownnnnnn.

2009-06-07T10:30:00.003-04:00

June 7th, 2008 begins the final countdown until the long awaited arrival of Chase Alexander Phinney. Mom is feeling good today, Cayden keeps saying he wants to see Baby Chase, Grandma Danette is in the kitchen preparing our final meal at home for the next couple days. It's not long now, in fact it is about 21.5 hours away but who's counting.

Mr. C. has really come around this weekend in actually wanting a brother. If you ask him he is ready to be a big brother (maybe it's all the ice cream he's been getting)

Mark your Calendars

2009-05-19T21:02:00.006-04:00

If you asked us last week what the due date was, we could tell you for certain it going to be on June 5th, 2009. All we were waiting for was a phone call from the Dr.'s office to confirm the time and we were set.

Well fast forward to yesterday. We expected a phone call last week to confirm this but by Wednesday we could not take it any longer. Kristy called to confirm the time. (she loves to plan)and come to find out: THE LADY IS OUT OF THE OFFICE FOR THE WEEK. Ok... ok... no big deal maybe like some of us, maybe she would check her voicemail and take sympathy in our message and call us back to get us locked in for June 5th. Nope, didn't happen. She called Kristy Monday and she pretty much squashed the June 5th date.

So needless to say we are going to have to wait to meet Chase until June 8th, 2009 to meet baby boy # 2.

Happy Mothers Day!

2009-05-10T20:24:00.006-04:00

To my mother. To the mother of my children. Happy Mother's Day.

We love all that you do for us.

May 1st, 2004

2009-05-10T16:49:00.004-04:00

Last weekend at this time Kristy, Cayden and I were at the beach celebrating Kristy's Birthday and our Anniversary. We left Friday afternoon and got to our hotel around dinner time. This was our last family trip as a family of 3 and we knew the next few weeks were going to be extremely busy and Cayden's world was about to be turned upside down. So why not get away from the hustle and bustle of your everyday routine and head to the beach for a couple days.

We had one of our last appointments, this appointment was important because we were able to pick the Birthday of Chase. We will get a phone call tomorrow with the time of surgery, but as it stands now, Chase Alexander Phinney will be here on June 5th, 2009 unless he decides to come earlier.

Happy Birthday Mommy!!

2009-04-30T09:48:00.000-04:00

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T07:40:00.007-04:00

Another busy few weeks, sorry for the slow updates. Now... let's get caught up.

Last weekend we had Grandma and Kiley come down to help with getting everything ready for the new baby. We are 7 weeks 5 days away from the due date. It was great to have them here. Cayden loved every minute of it.

Yesterday we went to a local Easter Egg Hunt at a park a few minutes from the house. It was the perfect size for Cayden. They had K-9 Police Dogs doing a demonstration, blow up bouncers to a bunch of local high school kids dressed up as Fairly Tale characters. We met Janice, Gavin, Dylan and Tayler at the hunt.

Busy Saturday

2009-03-22T15:29:00.012-04:00

Wow what a busy Saturday. We went to the St. Patty's day parade and met up with the Makuch's. The kids loved the parade, they waved to everyone. Every time music was on they all danced.

After the parade we headed north to Mooresville, NC home of the Lazy 5 Ranch (http://www.lazy5ranch.com/). The Lazy 5 Ranch is a privately owned exotic animal drive thru park that offers a 3.5 mile safari. We saw everything from Pot-Bellied pigs, ostrich looking things, giraffes to zebras. You buy a bucket of food for $3.00 and you better be on your toes when you head into the 8' high metal fencing. They start small, the first few animals are a bunch of pigs, literally. But soon after come the zebras and if you aren't holding your food they will tear it out of your hands. As the Makuch's experienced. Cayden absolutely loved it, as he got to sit in the front the entire time and even helped me drive. Good family adventure day.

Rained out weekend

2009-03-19T19:41:00.004-04:00

We had planned last weekend to go to the St. Patrick's Day parade with the Makuch's but it was rained out and moved to this weekend. Despite the rain we have not seen Tim, Laura and Kennedy in a while, so they made the journey over to the house so the kids could play and we could catch up.

as you can see they loved to see each other...

March Madness!!

2009-03-18T22:28:00.004-04:00

As another season of college basketball is winding down, the sun is beginning to show, it's the middle of March, so that can only mean one thing....March MADNESS.
I will be bringing you frequent updates to the status of my bracket through this magnificiant time of year. Good luck to all who played.

p.s. Kristy is doing very well,she looks and feels great. We promise we will be updating a belly shot very soon. We have a Dr's appointment on March 25th, for a monthly check up.

Busted!!

2009-03-01T20:43:00.008-05:00

I turn my back to go into the fridge and say Cayden don't touch the cookie dough, you didn't touch the cookies did you? "No Daddy I didn't touch it". I turn back around to get the evidence and find this...

Rainy Weekend

2009-03-01T20:30:00.000-05:00

It has been less than a week since we have been back from being away and although it was a short work week for Kristy and I, it is tough to come back and go right back to work. I have been home late every night since we have been back, Kristy and Cayden have not been feeling 100% since we returned so needless to say we were all looking forward to the weekend.

This has turned into this...

The weather has been beautiful all week long and now that the weekend is here, it has done nothing but rain from Friday night on and they are calling for snow Sunday night ( It has snowed about 2 inches so far). This has given us the chance to visit the new Ikea (www.ikea.com) store that opened. Me... personally I could give a hoot about seeing the store. Then to find out the whole reason to go was to look for 2/$4.00 bookends. Seriously.. bookends... come on man! Anyways... we get in the car. Head down the highway, get off the exit and are met with Charlotte's finest directing traffic the opposite way we want to go. We follow the heard of cars the OPPOSITE way, turn around come back to where we want to go, and they point us back to the highway.???? I smile and continue to drive towards home, did I escape? Maybe I can escape to a quick outing at Target and then back to college basketball. NOPE, no such luck. There is another entrance into Ikea and before I know it we are in and searching 2 floors for bookends.

After the trip to Ikea we were able to put a few of our purchases up in Cayden's room and have decided we are done with his room so we can move on to getting the nursery put back together.

Snowacuse

2009-02-24T11:04:00.003-05:00

We have had our trip to Syracuse planned since Christmas. As we all know February is usually a snowy month in the north which was one of the many reasons for the trip. We wanted Cayden to be able to go outside and romp around in the snow. The weeks prior to us arriving mother nature decided to grant the Syracusians some warm weather. We thought for sure we would be out of luck with the snow. Well needless to say the ole 'cuse did not let us down. We arrived late Wednesday night (2am) after dealing with drama at the Charlotte airport (our plane was delayed coming from Nashville but apparently no one knew that but us). We awoke on Friday to the sight of a white out, to the point you could not see the mailbox at the end of the driveway. This was perfect we thought!! Until it continued to snow ALL day!

Although for two days of the trip we got bombarded with snow, we were able to get out and enjoy this trip. Aunt Bridget and the girls came and picked up Cayden and took him to the M.O.S.T. Where Cayden was able to pet a snake and after we all went to get some true NY style pizza and wings at Twin Trees.

Saturday was a great day for me. It has been probably at least 10 years since the last time I had rode a snowmobile. A friend of mine Marty has a few sleds and offered them to me and my father to use. So Saturday morning we met up with the Williams family and rode for a good 5-6 hours, we went from one end of Oneida Lake to the other, each of us with a perma-grin on our faces. It was nice to break away and spend some time with dad doing something we both enjoyed. But man, did we pay for it on Sunday.

Saturday night we spent the evening over at Kristy's family house. The adults were able to sit and catch up while Alex and Hope kept Cayden entertained. Kristy's dad is the musician of the family, so Cayden was able to sit and play guitar and fine tune his skills on the piano.

Sunday I was invited to go to the Syracuse/ Villanova game at the Dome. Now let me start by saying, I am by no means happy with how this year is turning out. It is your typical Syracuse basketball season, full of high hopes and disappointment. I could not pass up the opportunity to attend simply because the seats were 4 rows directly behind the Villanova bench. And once again my boys in Orange did not let me down. 3 open looks in the last 30 seconds and we lose!

Monday was another day of snow and making the last few rounds to say goodbye to the family. As all good things do, our time is winding down in the 'cuse and we are heading back to our routines in the Carolina's. Overall another great trip

And to make sure we remember this trip as I am typing this we are sitting on tarmac being de-iced

Thanks for the good times Syracuse family, we miss all of you. The next time we see everyone, we will be a family of 4.

Love,
The Phinneys

He held the guitar like he has played before...

Hundreds of sleds out on the lake. One of the last few weekends for riding.

We forgot what it is was like when it snowed like this. Also forgot that you need to snowblow 2x's a day to keep up with it.

ugggg

Not sure why I am getting the stink eye from two of em.

The Bunk Bed Arrives!

2009-02-15T20:49:00.006-05:00

As of today we are one step closer to finishing Cayden's room. His bunk bed arrived today!! Let's catch everyone up on the bunk bed story. We had been talking about getting Cayden a bunk bed for a while because...basically what kid would not want a bunk bed...? But we were not about to shell out $1500-$2000 for one. One visit to trusty "google" and we are in touch with Myra's Bunk Beds. Nice guy out of Greensboro, NC who makes bunk beds out of his garage. We sent him a picture of the bed we liked from some place about a barn and he says , "yeah I can make that". For a 1/4" of the price we now have us a handmade bunk bed that is going to be hell if we move. We chose to go with the natural stain for 2 reasons. 1 reason being we could not decide on an espresso color and 2. we could paint it or stain it a different color fairly easily.

As you can see Cayden is loving it.

Valentines Day

2009-02-15T20:43:00.000-05:00

How a simple Valentine's Day is the best. We woke up Saturday morning, had some breakfast, played in the back yard and tried to teach Cayden how to play wii all before nap. We had the afternoon planned to get all of us out of the house.

First we went to Chuck E. Cheese and quickly decided not to return for a while. There were so many people, not even kids, so many adults there that is was almost impossible to walk around. Plus Cayden is to big for the little kids section and too little for the rest of it. Maybe we will try again in a year or two. But for now it will be Monkey Joe's. http://www.monkeyjoes.com.

Next Kristy wanted some good NY Style Pizza for dinner. We had been to place a while ago called Hawthorne's that was very good but a little out of the way for us. But they had the best pizza and wings, so we made the journey. Once again, perfection. We even had enough for leftovers to have for lunch today.
To close the night out we came home and played outside for a while and then went out to Holy Cow a local ice cream shop for an ice cream cone. Cayden got his own ice cream and cone and actually kept most of it off his shirt.

All in All a great Valentine's Day. Hope everyone enjoyed yours as well.

A few more months and he should get it.

For some reason Cayden wanted to wear sunglasses the entire day

Snowman...?

2009-02-11T21:17:00.004-05:00

Snowman, Snowman, Snowman... is the immediate reaction of Cayden when he sees snow. Well for the 2nd time this winter we awoke to snow. This was a good snow, we got about 2 inches, Cayden's school was delayed 2 hours and mom was able to work from home. So Mom and C got bundled up and went to play while I went to work. Needless to say the snow was not good enough to make a snowman but he was able to get out of the house and play.

Next Few Weeks

2009-02-01T21:07:00.005-05:00

So the next few weeks are going to be filled with getting the kid's rooms put together. Cayden's bed is being started tomorrow and should be delivered around the 14th. Once we get his bed, we can see how much more we need to decorate his room. Once Cayden's room is done, we can focus on baby # 2's room. And once we get that done, the garage (Which has become a catch all of old decorations) will be cleaned and hopefully get some shelving and bins. That was our biggest focus of the weekend, mission accomplished.

Saturday morning we woke up took Cayden to the park for a while. There were lots of kids there and he had a ball. It amazes me that these kids just run, run and run. Every where they go, they run. I have never seen so much climbing, swinging, falling as many times as they did. If I hit the ground as hard and as many times as some of them, I would definitely need a Dr's appointment.

20 Week Belly Pic

2009-01-25T15:03:00.004-05:00

Here is a picture of beautiful momma at 20 weeks with her two strong, healthy boy's. Baby "Chase" just started really moving in the belly, he has been a kicking machine the last few days.

Quick remake of the kitchen area

2009-01-25T14:51:00.003-05:00

We decided to make use of our breakfast area this weekend. Just a quick update of what's happening around here.

Before

After

19 Week Dr.'s appointment

2009-01-20T20:32:00.008-05:00

The 19 week appointment is a very important visit. As any husband who has a pregnant wife KNOWS on this visit you find out the sex of the baby. I remember thinking when Kristy was pregnant with Cayden that the purpose of this visit was strictly to find out the sex and for the Dr. to take a couple measurements.

With this visit we were going in already knowing it was boy and we quickly realized how truly important this visit actually is. Not only do they take measurements, they measure his head every which way, the belly, the femur bones, his hands, his feet,his ears, his man parts, they are even able to zoom onto his lips and nose and check for cleft lip. Now the coolest part of it, I thought, was every measurement they took would measure and display on the screen in weeks and days.

Every measurement they took read perfectly 19 weeks 2 days (we get to go in a week early), his heartbeat came in at 141 bpm. Half Way there! Half way!

Snow..? Snow in Charlotte

2009-01-20T06:36:00.005-05:00

Oh boy, we got snow last night. About 1/2" and everything is closed today except Cayden's school, Kristy's work and My work. So it will be a normal day for us just a little slower. Suppose to keep snowing throughout the day.

Living in HD

2009-01-18T14:56:00.007-05:00

So when the family was here during Christmas Break, Dad and I ran the wires in the attic down and down the walls to move the Directv Receiver, Surround Sound, Wii, and Internet into a closet to rid the mantle of the hideous wires. It was a process to say the least to get the correct wiring and finding someone who was open or stocked the cable.

Now with the tv exactly how I want it, it was time to upgrade to High Def. Now.. where the heck has this been all my life? Is it possible to make TV viewing more addicting then it already is? Why.. yes, yes there is...

Directv arrives for the upgrade!

All Done!

Starting already

2009-01-11T17:38:00.009-05:00

Well this weekend we decided to get started on moving Cayden out of his current room into a "Certified Big Boy Room". The spare room has served well for us for the last few years but the time has come and the family has grown, now we must move forward to make room for the new addition. Here are some pictures of his room. (Work in Progress)

He plays and plays and plays..

Hoop Mounted on the wall.

Here is the bed we are having made. We found a local guy who makes these for about 1/4 of the price. He even delivers and set's it up.

Fantasy Football was owned by the Phinney's this year!

2009-01-04T17:58:00.008-05:00

With regular season Football ending, we say goodbye to another year of Fantasy Football. This year unlike most we didn't throw away our entry fees. Kristy won the 10 person Fantasy Football this year (I came in 4th). She was the underdog going into the playoffs and came away with the two critical wins needed to win the whole thing, which she did by .7 pts in the final matchup. For Pick-em, I came away with the win (Kristy finished 5th). I was in first the final two weeks, so it was mine to lose and won the final week to clinch the season.

So needless to say it was a stellar year for the Phinney's for Fantasy Football, just sad its over...until next year, Let's Go Giants!

Christmas Week 16 Surprise

2008-12-28T09:32:00.011-05:00

Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Meg have come down from Syracuse to visit us for the holidays. It has been wonderful having the extra hands around to help keep Cayden entertained and to help with projects around the house.(thanks dad)

We picked them up Tuesday night and did not do much that night except chit-chat for a couple hours before bed, Christmas eve was filled with adult beverages, toy assembly, food and a good ole game of Monopoly (Yes in that order). Christmas day was perfect. Cayden was your typical "kid on Christmas morning".

After the gifts were opened, we told the family we had one more surprise for them and they had to be ready by 8am on Saturday morning. It was so much fun for us for the next two days having them anticipate the sruprise. Everyone had a guess at what they thought. Dad thought it was a new house we were buying, Meghan thought it was go-carts and mom thought it was a family portrait...in reality we were going to take them to find out what sex the baby is.

well needless to say none of them got it right and from what the stats show on the gender poll on the blog, 22 of you should not be playing the lottery cause we are having our 2nd baby boy.

That's right, the Phinney's are having a BOY!!

Happy Holidays

2008-12-24T18:11:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas to all! Cheers!!

Here comes Santa Claus

2008-12-20T21:39:00.011-05:00

The last weekend before Christmas and we are going to see Santa Claus. We had planned to take Cayden to see Santa on Friday night after work. We were not sure how he would react this year to Santa! Come to find out Cayden's school had a visit from Santa during the day on Friday and Kristy was told that "Cayden wasn't a big fan of Santa today". So needless to say any mention of Santa on Friday was met with a response of "No Santa,No Santa". We decided against taking him to avoid scaring the poor kid. We pushed Santa to Saturday.

Saturday morning, Cayden slept in till 8am(yeah slept in) and was ready to go first thing. we asked if he wanted to see Santa and he seemed good with it. After asking a few more times throughout the day he was ready to go see Santa.

There is a small market on the corner near the house and they have Santa every Friday and Saturday. We go at 4:30pm, no line, Santa is waving to Cayden and Cayden is clutching my neck. He did give Santa high 5 and a pound, but was still wanting to keep his distance.

I throw Cayden on his lap and sit near by.. here's what we get...

Here is last year's Santa picture....

Holiday Season

2008-12-14T20:34:00.006-05:00

Kristy and I had a few holiday parties this weekend. Kristy's sister and her daughter Hope came down to spend some time with Cayden while we went out. It was very nice to get out just the two of us for a change.

Friday night was Kristy's work party, while we were there Aunt Mel, Hope and Cayden went to Monkey Joe's and had the place to themselves. Saturday was my party and they all went to Cici's Pizza for dinner and then to Chuck E. Cheese

Head, Shoulders, not a fan of the Knees and Toes....

2008-12-14T20:16:00.006-05:00

Mommy and Cayden

2008-12-14T20:05:00.005-05:00

Just wanted to post this. Everytime I look at this picture, I smile.

2008-12-07T10:21:00.002-05:00

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Demeber 4th- NT Scan

2008-12-05T21:22:00.005-05:00

Thursday December 4th 9:15am. It was a cold day in Charlotte. We are on our way to the Dr's office for a simple NT scan. We have full intentions to ask (beg politely) whether the Dr. could take a peek between the knees. Keep in mind this is the first time I get to see baby, scan begins, images are on the screen, Dad hits the floor, passes out. And......

I wish I could say this happened, it would be a much better blog..

But it didn't happen....

ok, ok..In all seriousness, the appt. went great, baby is measuring 13.3 weeks, with a strong 149 bpm. The Dr. would not tell us the sex, she did peek and told us to make your own assumption, I said boy and Kristy said girl and the tech said her guess is a girl but she said it was only a 50/50 guess. "what the heck, i dont want a 50/50 answer, tell me.. tell me!!!"

Black Friday

2008-11-29T21:16:00.010-05:00

Friday morning: Thanksgiving has come and gone, the jokes about hitting the stores at the crack of dawn are still fresh, as of late last night no plans made to hit the stores. Alot of the stores are starting to allow you to shop online and receive the same deal, which can only be a benefit in my eyes.

Once again 7am, ice cold tiny hands and feet waken us. Before my eyes are even open I feel Kristy climb out of bed, go into the closet for some clothes and say "ok family let's go, I want to see what this is all about". Cayden hears "let's go" and he is all over me to get up and get moving. (come on dadda...).

7:30am: Target to look for a video game and to take something back. Yes, you read that correctly, to take something back... on freakin' black Friday. to take something back...

8:00am: Best Buy. iTunes gift card. Canon Xsi camera.... $100 off. (early b-day gift to me, thanks babe!!)

8:30am: Concord Mills. Not what either of us expected, we still had to park in the very last parking spot in the row but once inside, not many people. Just like a typical weekend. Overall great deals we thought if you were out for the shopping experience.

Here are a few shots with the new camera. Still not to sure about how to use it but figuring it out.

Happy Turkey Day

2008-11-29T20:47:00.006-05:00

Thanksgiving day started this year like a normal day. Cayden was up at 7am climbing into bed with us asking for a drink of milk and tv, tv, tv, tv... we all laid in bed watching cartoons until about 8am, then went and had some breakfast. We all came back and cleaned up for our plans with the Makuch's.

We headed over to Makuch's house around 11:30am, arrived just in time for kickoff of the Lions game (what a thrilling game). Cayden and Kennedy waste no time running to the playset they have to catch up on all the gossip.

The kids play, the girls prepare appetizers, and the dads stake claim on the their position around the fryer. Going to be a good day. As it stands now, no plans made to try and get me to go hit Black Friday.

11/19/2008. 10 1/2 Week Dr. Appt.

2008-11-23T21:05:00.007-05:00

Kristy went in for a 10 1/2 week Dr. appointment, everything is going great. Our baby had a healthy 170 bpm, everything looks normal, see you in a few weeks. Our next appointment will include an ultrasound and is on December 4th.

Cayden also had his 2 year old check-up and a follow up for an ear infection on the same day. Cayden and I went to his appointment while mom went to hers. We were having a great time until Cayden fell off the stool landing flat on his back and bit his lip. The Dr. has impeccable timing as he walks in and sees Cayden crying, bleeding, and the deer in the headlights look from me. Oh Good times, good times.

and now there are going to be 2.. interesting.

Cayden's Birthday

2008-11-23T20:27:00.006-05:00

We celebrated Caydens Birthday on Sat. Nov. 15th, what a great turn out of people. Thanks to all of you that came.

October 14th, 2008

2008-11-02T17:45:00.001-05:00

Today was a huge day for the Phinney Clan, test 8 of 8 has came back as positive. Off to the store we go to get the digital kind that actually reads "pregnant" and sure enough... "pregnant" appears. The journey continues. . .

2 Weeks and Counting

2008-11-01T12:00:00.006-04:00

Today marks 2 weeks until Mr. C's 2nd birthday party. We already gave him our gift as it would take us time to get the backyard ready and too assemble to playset.

We started on Saturday October 26th with our friend Gavin coming over and leveling our backyard and helping to set-up our "heli-pad" for the play area

Blog worthy..?

2008-11-01T10:08:00.001-04:00

As a follower of a few other blogs, I often question whether anything I or we do is blog worthy? Are we ready for a commitment such as weekly or if we dare, daily posts? Will people actually read what goes on in our lives for more then 1.3 seconds? Are we witty enough to keep people entertained for those 1.3 seconds?

And then other times I think, how tough can it be? Screw it... do it! So here we are.

Welcome to the Phinney-Family blog, the Story of Terry, Kristy, Cayden and "Baby 2" on the way....