What's your story: The Pittsburgh Steelers

Terrible Towels and the Pittsburgh Polka.  Here We Go.  Black and gold decorations.  Rituals and elevated blood pressures.  All of these things for a football team; a football team from the greatest city on earth (which of course is just an opinion but an opinion I share with a few million people I think)

Pittsburgh fans take their football seriously. Everyone has a story, a superstition, a ritual for their favorite team.

And we have a little Steelers story of our own that we like to think is pretty special.

You see, in 1979, the year I was born, the Steelers won the Super Bowl.
It happened again in 1980, the year Mike was born.

And then there was a bit of a Super Bowl drought in Pittsburgh...but fast forward to 2006, the year Brady was born and the Steelers won the Super Bowl.

Fast forward two more years, and the 2008-2009 Steelers won the Super Bowl, the year our little Lucy was born.

And here we are today.  A few days away from the Super Bowl in which our beloved Steelers will play The Green Bay Packers.  We have another new baby in our house and she, my friends, is hopefully the last piece of the puzzle.  Another McCarthy/Zollars baby born and hopefully another Super Bowl Victory. 

She'll wear the same outfit that has only been worn two other times, once by Brady on Super Bowl Sunday in 2006 and the second time by Lucy on Super Bowl Sunday 2009.  She'll have the obligatory picture taken covered up in her Dada's Terrible Towel, again, just like her older brother and sister.

Brady, just 10 days old

Lucy

The outfit and Terrible Towel await our little Macy.

It's your turn, May-May, to have a Super Bowl Victory.  It's all on you.

No pressure.

Stay tuned....and in the meantime, do you have a Steelers story you'd like to share?  What's your Steelers ritual?

Dear Pittsburgh Steelers, Macy and I would be happy to fly to Dallas to be your good luck charm.  We just need some tickets. 
Love,
Jenny

6:17

The minute I became a Mama

Every year for 5 years I've snapped a pic of him at his birth moment. 

And I hope to do it every year for a long long time.

6:17pm January 25, 2006 Wright Patterson AFB Medical Center, Ohio

6:17pm January 25, 2007 at Mema and Pop's house, Pittsburgh, PA

 6:17pm January 25, 2008 Milano's Pizza with Mema and Pop Dayton, Ohio

 6:17pm January 25th, 2009 at home in Dayton, Ohio

 6:17pm January 25th, 2010 at Grandma and Grandpa's house Dayton, Ohio

 And at 6:17pm, the five year old, on January 25th, 2011 at Maggie Moo's in Annapolis, MD

Five years.  Five years of being a Mama.  Five years that I cannot sum up in words. 

Gosh, we love him.

Happy 5th Birthday Brady Bear.

the birthday party

Wow, another year has gone by.  I'm speechless.  Our little son is (almost) 5.  Oh sweet boy....

His Mickey Mouse cake that Mike and I worked on together....more Mike than me...I obtained the adorable cake topper (thank you etsy) and baked the cake, Mike iced/decorated it.  It is supposed to be Mickey Mouse's pants, what do you think?

 The pinata.  By the way, this picture reminds me that we were all wearing Mickey/Minnie clothing!

 Cake time!

 In the middle of his two best friends, Peyton and Nora. 

 This one makes me laugh, I was trying to get a pic of the 3 of them together sporting Mickey/Minnie clothing and this was the best I could do!  Lucy did at one point have leggings on but who knows what happened to them!

More birthday celebration pictures to come, his official day is on Tuesday where we will continue to let him know what a joy he is in our life.  5 wonderful, precious years.

alike.

so I'd say they are definitely sisters, what do you think?

Have a good weekend.

a wonderful surprise

I was going through some pictures from Christmas and I came across this one. 

I remember the moment well.  It was Christmas Day.  And this picture above that I will cherish always was taken by a world renowned photographer.

Brady.

He also took this self-portrait. 

Thank you little Bud.  I am forever grateful.  

The Essex Steam Train

Blogging, sadly, has taken a backseat to the daily grind of life.  I'm determined to get caught up though because all of these Christmas memories must be preserved.

We traveled to Connecticut on December 28th to visit Laura, Ben, Mckenna and Elly.  Grandma and Grandpa Zollars drove to Connecticut from Ohio.  On our first night there we rode the Essex Steam Train and once you see the pictures, you'll know that the kids had a magical, delightful time.

 Macy

 Elly and Laura

 Mckenna

 Mckenna and Lucy dancing...lots and lots of dancing on this train thanks to Reindeer Casey who appears in a picture later...

 Grandma (or Gram Gram if you ask Lucy what her name is) and Macy

 Santa delivering a fantastic ornament to each of the children.

Matching outfits.

 I was there.

 Elly

 I adore this picture of Brady.  He was having a blast dancing in the aisles.  And yes, that's Reindeer Casey in the background, he was awesome.

 Dancing in the aisles.

 I think they were learning the "sprinkler" dance or maybe the "shopping cart dance" in these pictures, you can see Brady and Lucy are doing the same move!

We had such a great night with the family, lots of laughter and smiles.  Great memories that we will cherish always.

just one

of an amazing train ride we took while in Connecticut.

His face says it all.