New Location

Since we are feeling settled (for the most part) in our new home, we figured it was time to change the blog address since The Ducotes in Hawaii is no longer where our adventures are taking place. We will ALWAYS have a special place in our hearts for Hawaii and sometimes can't believe that we lived there for such a long time but we are excited about what the upcoming years will bring us here in Texas. Check us out at: http://theducotefamily.blogspot.com/

10+ years

When we were in Albany we were able to get together with my Geneseo girls for the day. It was so wonderful to see them and although the last time that we were together was 3 years ago, it felt like no time had passed at all. We all met during our freshman year in 1997, and we all ended up living together for two years (except for Diana but we saw her enough that it seemed like we lived with her.) I also got together with my very good friend Jen and her adorable two boys but we both forgot to take pictures until her boys were loaded up in the car-we were too busy catching up and swimming with the kids. I wish that we had more time to spend with all of the girls but feel so blessed that we have all remained great friends over the years despite the distance and I am so grateful for such awesome girlfriends!

10 years ago at our Triangle Bash during the week of graduation-May 2001

Can't believe it has been 10 years since we graduated!!!

Five years ago in Hawaii

Today!

The 2010/2011 babies-

Megan, Joseph, Logan and Eliza

All the kiddos-

Cade, Megan, Molly, Eliza, Paige, Lydia, Joseph and Logan

And, since Jen and I didn't take any pictures from this trip, here is a good one of the two of us from her rehearsal dinner in 2004!

Two Great Grandmas

On our vacation last week we were fortunate enough to spend time with both of my grandmas. My dad's mom is staying with my uncle and aunt in New Jersey for the summer so we stopped in there for a night on our way to Albany to my mom's mother's house. Joseph met them both in March so it was neat for them to see how much he has grown in the past few months and it was great for him to meet many of his great aunts and uncles and his second cousins.

Don't you just love those cheeks!

My dad's brother...see the resemblance?!? :)

His favorite place to hang out at Grammy S's

The Mechanicville crew

This picture makes me laugh :)

Future Cadet

While we were on the east coast we made a stop at Rich's alma mater, West Point. It was so fun to have him show us around and to see the campus-loved hearing his stories and memories from his time there. The campus is absolutely beautiful and it was a perfect pit stop on the drive from New Jersey to upstate New York. We were fortunate enough to meet up with our dear friend, Heather, from Hawaii, whose husband has been stationed at West Point for the past 3 years. Her husband, Joe, was in Kansas so we didn't get to see him or meet their beautiful daughter but it was wonderful to see her (wish I got a picture!)

Daddy showing Joseph all of the sights!

Go Army! the bleachers on the parade field say "Army Beat Navy"

Rich telling Joseph about the traditions of West Point!

Rich was on the rowing (crew) team so we had to check out the new boat house

It's never too early to start training for the obstacle course-Rich said this hadn't changed at all since he did the course

One of the churches on campus

We asked this little boy to take our picture-I wanted to ask him to retake the picture since J isn't looking but he was busy digging in the dirt as soon as he snapped this.

Who knows-maybe in 18 years we'll be back dropping him off for R-day (the 1st day for new cadets)!! Until then we'll let him continue to rock the high and tight/reverse mullet he has going on at home:)

Jersey Shore

Last week we headed to the east coast for a little over a week to spend time with family and friends. We started the week at Point Pleasant on the Jersey Shore with Rich's family. There were 16 of us in our house and about 30 people in the Faiella house a few houses down. We had a great time!

We spent a lot of time at the beach...

And some time hanging at the houses...

We chilled in the backyard in the pool and on the slip and slide...

Playing games and hanging out...

Lots of fun times with all the family...
We even went crabbing one day...
And Joseph LOVED all of the attention from his aunts and uncles!

It was an awesome time!

Almost the whole gang!

Point Pleasant 2011

Happy Friday!

Can't believe it is Friday already! We've been busy settling in, going to the park, meeting our neighbors, doing some shopping and just enjoying the new place. The week seems to fly by when you're chasing around this little guy...Happy Friday!

Our first visitor

My mom came to visit last week for 5 days to help us get organized and to get her fill of Joseph before her and my dad head to the Mediterranean for an awesome vacation for their 40th anniversary! (Congratulations Mom and Dad!) She was a huge help and it was great having her here.

For the 4th we headed to downtown Houston for a big festival/concert/fireworks show.

We also checked out our community pool which is pretty awesome! It has a lazy river, a waterslide, and an entire play area for kids in the water-we envision spending a lot of time here in the future! I have found a great running/walking route so we walked every day and then ended the walk at the swings.Can't wait for her next visit!

7 months

I'm 7 months today!

We have a mover! Joseph turned 7 months on Thursday, July 7th and since we have been in the house he has been army crawling/scooting all over the place...we think he likes the tile! He is one busy boy and I think we have officially moved from chill baby phase to busy baby phase. The past two times that we have eaten at a restaurant we spent the entire meal picking up his toys that he would throw/drop on the ground and trying to stop him from eating the table...which brings me to the next exciting news...he has two front teeth! Well, they aren't all there yet but they have emerged from the gums and are sharp and pointy-he is basically a vampire right now :) If you look closely in the photo in the upper left corner you can see them popping out. We are excited about this upcoming month for him to meet lots of family and good friends on our trip to the east coast next week and to watch him continue to grow and learn new things. So fun!

Aunt Laura and Uncle Dave-take notice of what Joseph is moving towards! It is a good thing I have a cabinet full of the these!

It's Official

We are all moved in, so it's official...we are Texans! Both of our cars have Texas license plates, we have our Texas drivers license and we are finally starting to feel settled so no turning back now. The move was really pretty easy and other than nothing up on the walls, missing window treatments and the office/junk room being a total disaster we are in! It is amazing to think that all of our things fit in our condo in Hawaii and it was like Christmas opening the boxes of things that have been storage for the past 4 months. The best part though is being out of the apartment and not having to carry groceries (and a big baby!) up 3 floors of stairs...I love just being able to pull into the garage and unload! We really like the area and have already checked out the community pool which is great so we are excited to be moved in. The guest bedroom is all set up so start planning your visits now!!

This park is basically in our backyard-Joseph loves the swings already!

Guess I have to start cooking now with this kitchen :)

Quick update

We are busy getting ready to close on our house tomorrow and move in on Thursday but wanted to post a few pictures from the past week. We went to Galveston this past weekend to check out the beach...it's no Hawaii but it is a cute beach town and we are looking forward to going back in the future. Joseph is starting to scoot around a bit and gets frustrated when he can't move fast enough. We are definitely baby proofing the house as soon as we move in since his favorite things to do right now are to try to reach the electrical outlets and basically eat anything he can get his hands on. We are really looking forward to getting into our home-we are sick of wearing the same clothes since all we have is what we packed in our suitcases from Hawaii (well I have done a little shopping...great outlets 10 minutes away :) and can't wait for Joseph to finally get out of the pack and play and sleep in his crib!

Restaurant Manners

Growing up going out to a restaurant was only saved for special occasions and whenever we did go out my parents always reminded us to use our "restaurant manners." Rich and I have some work to do with Joseph using his "restaurant manners"...

Maybe we should start with not having his high chair on the table :)

Rich's Special Weekend

When Rich proposed to me, my siblings and I joked around that it became "Lisa's special year" with the focus being on me for the entire year. We have continued joking about this whenever one of us has something "special" going on in our lives. For some reason though it always seems that no matter what is going on in any of our lives, every year seems to be Lindsay's "special year"...just joking Weas ;) Anyways, this past weekend was deemed Rich's special weekend with his birthday being on Friday and then his first Father's Day on Sunday-definitely deserved the title!

We celebrated his birthday Friday night with candy bowls (Ducote tradition) and then pizza, cake and Friday Night Lights-our Friday night tradition...we're crazy, I know!

Since Saturday was in the middle of both of his special days we decided to make this the real celebration. We headed to Kemah Boardwalk about 30 miles south of Houston which is on Galveston Bay. The boardwalk has many restaurants, cute shops, an aquarium, midway games, and lots of crazy carnival rides. We had a great day of checking out the sights,

having lunch at Joe's Crab Shack,

and cooling off with ice cream!

Happy Birthday and Happy Father's Day Rich-we love you!