Phillies in World Series.

Heather and I haven't really been Phillies fans in years.  I did go to one home game this year.  However, they just made the world series for the first time in 15 years.  Sooooo...we are going to hop on the band wagon.  We watched the NLCS (National League Championship Series) against the LA Dodgers.  It was pretty exciting.  The Phils won the series 4 games to 1.  Still don't know who they are playing yet.  That will be decided tonight as Boston and Tampa Bay play game 7 of the ALCS .  We are leaving for Las Vegas on Thursday.  They will be at least a couple of world series games while we are there.  That will be exciting.  Probably will place a few bets at the sports book.  Go Phillies!

Brenna's 4th Birthday.

We had a party for Brenna's 4th birthday.  We had it at her gymnastics gymnasium.  It allows the kids to run around like maniacs and bounce on trampolines.  They had a blast.  Brenna wanted a High School Musical theme.  All the kids got blow up guitars and rock star sunglasses.  Here are some pictures from the big shindig.

Here's Brenna about to swing.

Here's Keagan swinging.

Brenna with her friends playing a game.

Here are all the party people.

Here's Brenna at snack time.  

YouTube Videos.

Just wanted to let everybody know that I am using YouTube to post videos of the girls.  If you go to youtube.com and type in dannydoc5 in the search box, you should be able to find all the videos I have posted.  So far there are 10 or 11.  They are pretty short but some of them are funny.  Enjoy them.

Amazing Summer Comes to an End.

We have done a lot with the girls this summer.   We went to Disney world in June.  It was fun but not very relaxing.  Taking 2 little girls around the different parks is exhausting.  We rented a house with Heather's family for 1 week.  We hit all the Disney parks including 1 water park, Blizzard Beach.   There are pros and cons to renting a house in Disney.  Definitely, nice to have the amenities of a house, i.e. washer/dryer, refrigerator and stove.  Especially handy when there are 2 little ones with you.  The down side to staying off site is the travel between the parks.  When you stay on site, Disney makes it very easy to get around. 

Grandmom & Brenna

Brenna at the Bippity Boppity Boutique

Keagan & Brenna with a princess

Mommy, Keagan, Aunt Reen & Brenna with Snow White.

Uncle Eddie with his nieces.

Then in August we went to Aruba with my family.  We always stay at the Radisson.  My brother owns a timeshare at the Marriott which is located about a half mile up the road from the Radisson.  He stayed there with my parents.  He owns a very nice 2 bedroom condo there.  Our friends Kevin and Melissa were also staying at the Marriott, where Melissa's parents own a timeshare as well.  The beach is truly beautiful in Aruba.  It's the best beach I have ever seen.

Daddy & Keagan

Daddy, Brenna & Keagan in the pool.

My dad and me in the Caribbean.

Valerie, Brenna & Keagan on the beach.

Mommy & Keagan in the ocean.

We also went down to Ocean City NJ for 4 nights at the end of August with my parents.  We had great weather.  We walked the boards at night which Heather and my mom love.  The girls had a blast going on the rides and eating water ice and monkey bread.   We didn't really take any pictures in OC.  Well, until next post.  Remember to click on the pictures to see more detail.

Skiing in Park City.

I have neglected this blog for quite some time. I have some pretty cool pictures from the winter that I want to share. Brenna, Heather and myself went to Utah for a ski trip in January. It was Brenna's first time on skis. My first time out west skiing. It was pretty awesome. Heather and I hadn't skied in about 5 years. It took some time to get the rust off, but we had a blast. Here are some pictures. BTW Brenna was in ski in school while we hit the slopes.

New Living Room Furniture.

We have had an empty living room for about 10 months now. We went to Ethan Allen because if you agree to buy furniture from them, they will provide an interior decorator at no extra charge. This post is mainly for our mothers to be able see the furniture. We are still waiting for a coffee table, (actually it's a tea table), window treatments, and some other pillow for the couch. Remember to click on the pictures for a larger view.

View from Foyer

Little KeeKee got into this picture

The girls are dancing here

September 2007

Didn't do a whole lot in the month of September. Mostly, settling into the new house. I painted the girls' rooms. Brenna wanted a pink room...GRANTED. Keagan, since she cannot verbalize her choice (I didn't use the term vocalize, because she certainly can do that), got a green room. I also installed surround sound and a large plasma tv in the family room. The wiring for the surround sound speakers was a job. I must say, it looks professional. We also had a visit from Heather's friends. Michelle came out and brought her baby, Billie. Here are some pictures:

Michelle & Billie

You know these Bozos.

This is a picture of Keagan that Brenna took while we were driving somewhere. I think it's funny.

August 2007.

Just before we left for Aruba, we settled on a new house in Lancaster. We bought a new house in Manheim Township. This is the "Main Line" of Lancaster. It boasts the best public schools. The nicest homes. It's also where my buddy Chico grew up and went to high school.

We had met with the builder in March even before the ground was broken. After negotiating for about a couple weeks and agreeing to a price, we backed out of the deal. We were uncomfortable with a lot of the process. When we had bought in New Jersey, it was from a large builder. All the options were laid out and priced ahead of time. This is how our interaction went with this builder:

Us: Are you going to put in double ovens?
Builder: You could do that.
Us: Granite countertops?
Builder: Yeah, you could do that.
Us: Tile in the bathrooms?
Builder: Probably.

This uncertainty had us uneasy. Here we had agreed to a price that we and the builder wasn't sure what it included.

Anyway, the lot is a huge plus. There is a mandatory open space behind the lot. Our neighborhood does not have a home owner's association. The open space behind us is actually maintained by the development behind us that does have a HOA fee. The other benefit is the house is located in the best elementary school in the entire county. So, we walked away in March.

Fast forward to June. We get a call from our realtor. She tells us that she ran into the builder and the house is almost complete. She wanted to take us through it. She went through it with the builder and loved the house. We went through and saw that the builder had done a lot of upgrades that we wanted and some that we would have wanted, but probably would not have paid for.

Long story short, we agree to a price that is $5K more than in March. He had risen the asking price $10K. Here are some pictures of the house:

Front View.

Kitchen.


Stove top.


Dining Room.


Master Shower.

July 2007.

Sorry I have been neglecting this blog. We have been through a lot of change over the last 5 months. I am going to recap each month with a host of pictures.

We started a family tradition of going on summer vacation with my parents and Bill's family 2 years ago. Last year we went to Ocean City, NJ. The weather was horrible. It rained every day. So this past summer, I suggested that we go to Aruba. Heather and I first went to Aruba in 2003. We loved it. We have recommended Aruba to many people for several reasons. The weather is constant. It is always sunny and rarely rains. Food is tremendous. The water is absolutely beautiful.

So, I talked everybody into Aruba. My parents and my family stayed at the Radisson. Bill's family stayed about a half mile up the road at the Marriott. He cashed in his Marriott points and had a penthouse room with a panoramic view of the ocean. Very cool. Anyhow, it was a great week. In fact, my parents are going again in 2 weeks. Bill and Andrea are going back this summer.

Here are some pictures of the week:

Valerie, Keagan & Brenna on the beach



Dad, Keagan & Mom in the ocean



Brenna, Me, Keagan and Heather in the pool



Mom & Dad at El Gaucho (Argentinian Steak House)



Brenna, Heather, Keagan & Me at El Gaucho.

Dad's Retirement Party.

My dad retired from Local 420 Steamfitters Union on May 23rd this year. It was his 58th birthday. Bill and I had a retirement dinner for him at Morton's Steakhouse in the King of Prussia Mall. The food was great. Brenna and Valerie had a great time together (Keagan is still too young to party with those two). The dinner was nice. We had a couple bottles of wine. There was an incident however. There was this table of 4 which included a 60-ish couple and a 70-ish couple. Apparently, they were none too happy that we had a 1 and a 2 year old in the restaurant. They made several under their breath comments during the evening. However, at one point the younger of the two women yelled at Brenna to be quiet and sit down. So, Bill got into a little shouting match with them. Amazingly, Bill didn't use one profanity. He did manage to call the older lady a mummy after she called him an asshole. I am not sure, but I think this could be a first in the history of insults. Does anybody out there know of the word mummy being hurled as a insult in an argument? Here are some pictures of the night:

Brenna and Valerie

Dad, Keagan and Mom

Bill making Brenna and Valerie laugh.

Valerie, Brenna and Keagan.

My parents with my family.

My parents with Bill's family.

My parents with Camille and my uncle Bill.

Negotiating a New House.

Heather and I went to look at a house that is under construction. It is in a great school district and a great neighborhood. I have included some pictures below. We have made an offer but are waiting to hear back from the builder. We are hoping that in the midst of this housing debacle, we'll be able to get it at a great price.

Front of the House.

Three car garage.


Kitchen.

Looking from the dining room through the living room into the study.

Walk in master shower.