Happy Birthday Finnegan!

Bear with me while I flood you with photos of my "baby", in no particular order...

Finnegan is 6 years old today, Happy Birthday Punky-Chunky!

The first person I think of on the kids' birthdays is actually not the kid, believe it or not - it's this wonderful lady!  After some 5-6 odd surgeries not including C-sections, this lady's surgical skill and willingness to try experimental techniques are the reason why I was ever able to meet my boys at all.  I will never be able to express exactly what this feels like, lucky for me I think she knows, since she was there at the very beginning to share the tears, fears, and joy all her patients experience.  Thank you doesn't quite begin to cover it...

Always the "happy baby"

The "mullet" phase

Mullet/Fu Man Chu 

 First surgery

Playing dress up with daddy's gear

Finn really lucked out in the brother department!

His first fishing pole and tackle box

the cleavage shot... let's just say he was a bit chunky as a baby!

Me taking Finn on his first paddle

By age 4 he's got the whole "don't stand up in the canoe/kayak" thing down

 How many kids do you know who will eat sushi?  It probably helped that he got to help make it!

First "at the cabin" photo, gotta love the dirty face!

Daddy's first deployment he wore this hat all the time

My Chunky Monkey

Went through his "first deployment" at age 3 and did it like an old pro!

Mommy's first "oh my" moment... I might be in for it in a few years!  I love how he just sauntered by as if no one would notice!

Kinder "Gardener" 

Who could forget when I subjected him to the horrors of a bike ride this summer while he was "in training" for snowshoeing?

 First time sledding thanks to Aunt Sarah's big hill!

Already starting to look like a big guy with dreams of quads and camo!

He already is starting to prefer Bass Pro and Cabela's to Toys-R-Us for his Christmas List

 All boy, dropping sand crabs on mommy knitting in the beach chair

 Everything was so darn funny to him!

We've progressed to him being experienced enough to go out and harvest what is ready on his own!

 Finn's first funnel cake

His first bike, the start of him separating from me...

  

He has become quite the ladies' man in the past 2 years, they can't stay away!

 Finn's first sleep-away camp

 he's always willing to be my knitting model, even when it's pink - although he growled at me!

 Here he is as of last week - doesn't need mommy or Aunt Sarah to go sledding anymore, I thought I was going to faint watching him go flying down the hill!

All my "training" paid off - this kid snowshoed 4 miles last week and didn't even look back for me once or complain, he had a smile the whole time

I feel like I should be sad he's growing up so fast, but I'm not - I really enjoy them becoming so independent and watching their personalities develop.  Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I'm an "older mom" LOL.... I would like to hurry up and get them sufficient enough so we can all go do hiking/outdoor activities together before I need a walker!

So many posts floating around in my head, but I would be a "bad mom" if I didn't to a birthday post!  I should have a few vacation posts up soon and then am eager to get to posting about my resolutions and then about the Spring Garden planning.  Someone should have warned me how hard it would be to get back to reality after a long vacation!