Thank You Grandpa Brad

Thank You Grandpa Brad.

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Merry Christmas! I was able to get the whole thing! This is the original.

We Love YOU Grandpa! Matthew and Joshua

Merry CT Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Here are a few Thank yous from 3000 miles away!

Thank you Aunt Debby, Uncle John, KaiLeigh and MacKenzie

We love OUR Globe.

Thank you WC Machans!

Thank you Grandma Judy and Grandpa Dave!

We love our Webkins and money always wins!

Thank You Grandpa Brad. Your Cards were awesome and the boys can't wait to spend their money. Your video was too long. We will make another and post it tonight.

Thank you Uncle Jim. WE LOVE MONEY. We have not gone shopping yet.

Thank you Grandpa Cheese!

Thank You Aunt Bunny and Uncle Spike! We love our gifts.

Thank you everyone for our Christmas Cards and wonderful thoughts from so far away. We are having fun playing with all of our new toys.

Merry Christmas

Love The EC Machans

Let it snow...let it snow...let it snow!

Well it has been snowing. We have been having so much fun that we haven't noticed that shoveling snow is not much fun. It has been our workout for the past few days. Rob has been diligently shoveling the driveway.

We have had a bit of help from the neighbors and their snow blowers. We then help them with their driveway. Thank goodness we our driveway is not that steep.

But out back yard is....

Yes that is me! Going down the hill on the side of our house. And yes! that is Joshua!We had to go check out the REAL HILL...this is at the Golf course down the street. There goes Joshua again! YES, there are helmets on my children! Gotta do what you gotta do! Matthew is not into the snow as much as Joshua is but he is working on it! It is just really cold! And really wet! Who new?

More posts to come a few of our snow day and Grandpa Brad's visit.

Have a Spooktacular Halloween!

Ooooo SCARY!!!!

Hope you have a great one!

Pumpkinseed Hill

Can you find the best pumpkins? Joshua, Matthew, and I went to Pumkinseed Hill at Jones Family Farm and Winery in Shelton. We went with our neighbor, Grace, and her mom and dad.

This is Gracie...she did not really want to sit on the pumpkin....her dad got a great picture of the three of them. I need to download it.

Yes, the sun was in OUR FACE! Not too happy here are they?


Off to find the perfect pumpkin....




HERE IT IS!


No HERE IT IS!!!!


Getting lost in the CORN Maze....It was really cool. This one was not scary, just fun.

A beautiful day in Connecticut Corn Fields.

We had a great time finding that perfect pumpkin, getting lost in the corn maze, looking at beautiful Mums, playing on the dance stage, and slamming into the stage wall. We we were done, Gracie's mom and I went wine tasting at Jones Winery while Kris, Gracie's dad sat in the car and watched 'Cars' with the kids. We had a good time. I put a link to Jones Winery in my favorites....go check out the CT wine!

Apples Apples Apples...Let's have some apples!

Silverman's Farm in Easton about 15 minutes away from Monroe. That bag cost $26.00!

The last ride to the Orchard for the day!
Posing for mom....look we are picking apples!
This is where you got to take an apple you picked that was yukie and roll it down the hill...look behind the boys. Those are all gross apples!

Okay we finally made it apple picking. The boys and I made it on the last tractor out to the apple orchard. We spent just enough time picking apples and posing for pictures before they closed the orchard. Joshua and Matthew enjoyed rolling the yucky ones down the hill almost as much as picking them.

First Day of School

Joshua is starting 2ND grade and Matthew is headed off to Kindergarten ON THE BUS!

The first day of school. A beautiful day to get going.

Nick Joshua, Matthew

Johnny, Alexa, and Hunter!

Here is comes! Oh no!

My baby is going to kindergarten!

There they go!

Yes, he did cry...and so did I!

We thought Matthew and Joshua could sit together...we did not know that the Kindergartners had to sit right behind the bus driver and Joshua, being in 2ND grade had to sit near the middle. So yes we cried. But it was a great First Day at Fawn Hallow Elementary School.

It keeps getting better.

Having a BLAST!

Where do I begin? We have been having fun going to New York City, playing with friends, painting, having visitors, gardening, fixing the Jacuzzi and fixing it again, going to Home Depot, Ace Hardware, Karate, the Lake, the pool, the library, Sacred Heart University, and going to New York City again and again. We have been there three times.

Great Hallow Lake at Wolfe Park


Having fun at the lake!

Grand Central Station!

The Empire State Building!

Is this the Statue of Liberty?

Having Lunch in Central Park!

Taking a trip around Central Park

This is the REAL Statue of Liberty!

The basement....Before painting the BIG BLUE dinosaur!

After, three coats of primer and a very happy YELLOW! The window will be done soon!

More fun pictures to come.

Take Care, Christy

We have been busy!

Thanks everyone for all of your support and best wishes for our spectacular adventure! We have been having FUN! A little bit of work too! The boys and I arrived happily on Tuesday July 10th. Fly also arrived on the 10th and per Rob she was pretty happy too, and still is. (she has been enjoying all the freedom the huge yard has to offer)

Where to begin.... After getting to know our awesome neighbors the family went to the the carnival down the road to support the local volunteer fire fighters.

We had a good time. The boys did all the rides while Rob and I ate Carmel apples (yum yum!).

I decided that our curb appeal was not too appealing. So first, I tackled the mailbox post space. It did not take too long. Just about one day. (I forgot to take a before picture.) It was pretty bad. After that, I decided the front walk was atrocious. And it was! As I began to remove the shrubs, I discovered I did not have all the gardening tools I needed. Just about the same time one of our neighbors came over to see what I had gotten myself into and offered me help as well as some trimmers.

Once the shrubs were out I discovered that under all the shrubs and mulch were white landscaping rocks. Not easy to plant in a 4 inch thick pile of rocks....I decided to remove them. 4 days later all the shrubs and MOST of the rocks were gone. I was able to start planting. Then as I decided to trim the remaining shrubs directly in front of the house...I found a wasps nest in the ground. Exterminator Christy went to work. Early in the evening when they were sleeping......I got out my stick and my can of wasp/hornet spray foam and WENT TO TOWN. No biggie. The next day they were STILL there but not were I sprayed...I saw them and heard them in a different spot about 12 inches away. I only found the winter home!!!! And everyone was near the beach in the SUMMER Home!!! I thought "I can do this again. It wasn't too bad before!"

With my kids watching from inside the house...I went for it and about 2 seconds later OUCH! One got me. Good example I was...see don't play with wasps nests! While in quite a bit of pain the boys and I waited to see if any reaction occurred, since I had never been stung before that I could remember. With all that pain you would think I would remember. SO as I gave Joshua instructions on what to do if something happened we sat and waited. Nothing happened except for the fact Joshua was sad for me and told me to leave them alone and wait until winter because then they would just die anyway because it will be too cold for them to live in our front bush anymore! Well I couldn't wait...so I called a real exterminator to get them out for me! They are gone and now my front planters are as done as they are going to get until I pay someone to redo the entire front walk (in my 5 year plan that will happen)!

While all this is going on Rob had been in CA working. He is now DRIVING my car here. Tonight he is in Ohio? Hopefully in CT by late Monday night! The company that was going to ship my car was not all they cracked up to be and sort of backed out after three weeks of telling us someone would be picking the car any day now. Well nobody came to get it and no one was going to come get it...so Rob drove it. I will have the exact mileage soon!

Joshua, Matthew and I have been enjoying the neighbors, the local library, the local pool and park as well as our SPA. (the spa was another project I took on! I have never had to BALANCE water before....that was job! but worth it.)

Danielle will be here on Tuesday for two weeks. My Dad comes to visit for 9 days and then my Mom will come by for a quick visit in the middle of August! We will keep the BLOG updated as much as possible. Keep in touch. God Bless you and keep you safe!

We made it!

We have been here for a whole week. What an awesome week it has been! All of our furniture made it safely. Rob had to be one of the movers when everything arrived or it would never have gotten done. It still isn't really done, but it is functional and somewhat in the right places.

I can't tell how beautiful Monroe is. Our house is spectacular, our neighborhood is beyond imagination and our neighbors are what neighbors should be like! We are going to love it here. I am unable to locate the cord for my camera so I can't download any pictures yet. Very soon. When I find it and the time. We have been so busy keeping Home Depot and Ace Hardware in business that I'm not sure when I will have the time. I decided to make our Mailbox planter presentable and then I decided to pull out the shrubs along the walkway and then I found out there were ROCKS underneath the weeds and the shrubs. So I have been been digging out smelly shrubs and Rob has been hauling little white rocks to the side of the house. A much bigger project than expected...but oh well I think we are having FUN!

Too many kids for the boys to play with. Such awesome neighbors and beautiful weather. We are loving it. I will update soon. Thank you everyone for being so supportive.

OOPS!!!!! our area code is 203 not 230 like I put on some of the cards. The number is correct but the area code is 203. Look forward to hearing from you. Our cell numbers are the same for now.

GOD BLESS YOU and keep you safe.

Christy, Rob, Joshua, Matthew, and Fly

The Truck is here...now it's gone!

The moving 'semi' truck arrived at 10:10am on Thursday, June 28th, just like we scheduled. We felt prepared for this event. We were wrong!

12 hours later...the truck left will my all of our belongings AND we gave the $6,000. The truck is on its way to Connecticut...we hope!

We had an awesome party with family and friends on Saturday night. We were able to spend time with many people we will miss very much and hope to see again when we come to visit.


We are staying with my dad. I'm back in my old room.... how silly. Rob is off to Minnesota Sunday morning. The boys and I are going about our business. I work until Thursday and the kids are going to summer camps. The dog gets to fly on the 9th and we will leave on the 10th. Rob will already be in CT after he is done with the year end club volleyball tournament.

Check back for more pictures and updates as our departure grows closer.