SJ's 3rd Birthday

SJ is 3! We celebrated with a party at home on Saturday with lots of family and friends. She had been SO excited about this for weeks and asked for a cake with Belle AND Winnie and Pooh and friends.


The birthday girl surrounded by sisters and Gran and PopPop


Playing "Put the birthday hat on Pooh" with a see-through (and thankfully breath-through!) blindfold


She stayed at the table enjoying her cake long after all the other kids had gobbled theirs up and gone back to playing...


Taking a swing at the pinata...


RL hung out with Grandpa to watch the pinata-bashing from a safe distance!


Most of the kids at the party...a hard group to capture!


Opening gifts from her grandparents...


We were all so happy to have Mimi, PawPaw, Uncle Francis, and Annabelle come for the party!




Whew! Relaxing after the party with Nana and Grandpa...


Having another piece of birthday cake on Sunday, her actual birthday, and trying to hold up 3 fingers!


She had been asking if she would be "big" when she turned 3 and get to do things like chew gum and take "bitamins" like AG and LL do. I have to admit she is growing up, but she'll always be our baby girl!

A Few Last Views of SJ at 2

Our "baby girl" turned 3 today! We have been celebrating all weekend and I'll post about that soon, but here are a few photos and a video taken in the last week, just to help us remember how wonderful "2" was!







and a grand finale...

10 Months...Already?

How can it be that we are just 2 months away from RL's first birthday? Parenting is like being in a time warp these days. The little guy just keeps getting bigger, faster, stronger, and more fun! He is all over the place now, often headed where he doesn't need to be. As AG said a few weeks ago, "L always wants to play with the things he shouldn't play with!" Specifically, he is less and less interested in the toys I set out in the middle of the floor for him and more and more interested in exploring the perimeter of the room, including electrical cords, outlets, cabinets, and floor lamps. Here are a few photos taken recently:

His first "teething biscuit"...'tis the season!


He has 3 teeth on the bottom and most recently cut one on the top. He's getting quite a little toothy grin!


He loves laughing and is always glad when his Daddy gets home from work!


I took these today...true 10-month-birthday pictures!


Everyone has an opinion on which sister he looks most like. He's always reminded me most of AG and continues to look more like her all the time, in his own boyish way!


The center of attention...


and a target for his sisters' kisses!


I may have to up my child-proofing game in the kitchen soon!


Always checking things out...


and having fun doing it!

Hot Air Balloons

We continued our August tradition of going to the Saturday evening portion of the local hot air balloon championship last weekend. It was hot, as expected, but it was a beautiful afternoon when we got out to the grounds. Last year we didn't get to see the balloons go up due to thunderstorms, so the clear skies had me convinced we'd get to see the mass ascension for sure. I didn't count on the fact that the nice breeze I was enjoying while T walked around with the girls would actually prevent the balloons from going up that evening. It was fun hanging out and picnicking before sunset, anyway, and then we got to enjoy the "balloon glow." Check out the video after the pics and you can see a little of it, too!

RL was noticeably low-key throughout the evening, and T and I commented on how he looked sleepy. I didn't realize til we got home that he had a few degrees of fever. Apparently it was the beginning of a little fever virus which ran its course over the next few days, but thankfully he is now once again a happy little guy.


The girls taking a little rest. It's funny...I looked back at our photos from our first year coming to this (2008) and AG was wearing the very same outfit SJ has on this year! SJ was not even a year old back then, so she's been to this event every year of her life.


It was neat to be in the middle of a growing forest of balloons when they began to inflate before the glow. Here are the 6 of us, ready for the show.


RL was pretty interested in the balloons despite his not feeling well.


T and our sweet SJ


Countdown and twinkle burn!

The hills are alive...

Last weekend the girls and I went to a little theater production of one of their favorites: The Sound of Music. It was really well-done, and all three of them were captivated the whole time. They'd asked me earlier if they'd get to meet Maria, so it was super exciting to discover after the show that almost the entire cast came out to greet the audience! We even got to take pictures with some of the girls' favorites!

Before we left home, ready to go!


The girls with the three oldest Von Trapp sisters


Maria!!!


"Gretl" told us she would turn 7 the following Tuesday!


No photo review of this show would be complete without a shot with one of the "Sisters"!


It was such a fun experience! Thanks to T for letting me be the one to go with the girls while he stayed home with RL!

RL Update

I haven't been taking many pictures around the house lately, but here are a few I found when I just uploaded some photos of recent events. RL is generally doing great and having lots of fun crawling all over the place and pulling up on anything that will stay still long enough. If you look at his forehead in these, you'll see the remnant of his first goose-egg (which he got while we were out of town a few weeks ago visiting friends).

Happy to have a better view looking over the crib rail instead of through it!


Racquet ball in one hand, frisbee in the other...get ready, Daddy!

Friends and Family Road Trip

Last weekend we went on a little road trip and spent all day Saturday visiting a collection of dear friends who now live in the same area. First stop was a family from our church here that moved last year. The girls had a great time feeding the many "pet" birds in the aviary they inherited from their home's previous owners and playing with the classic toys S pulled out from storage which belonged to her now-teenaged daughters. We had a great visit over lunch before heading over to our next stop, my college roommate K's house. K and I figured out we haven't seen each other in two years, so it was lots of fun to see her house and catch up, and the girls had so much fun playing with K's jewelry and checking out her extensive collection of books and movies. We had to tear them away from watching a Beatrix Potter ballet DVD or else we never would have left!


From there we went to visit my RTS roommate, C, and her husband J and their almost 4 month old precious baby girl, A. It is really unbelievable to me that C and I have not seen one another since her wedding day, 9 years ago! We lived together for 2.5 of the most stretching, exciting years of our lives, and thankfully we've been keeping up regularly by email for the last few years through what has been an amazing journey for her through major health issues into motherhood at last! It was wonderful to sit down face to face with her and hold that sweet miracle baby!

Finally, we finished the day and spent the night with another sweet family we knew from church here that moved away last summer! B and E have an adorable 16 month old little boy, H, and they were so gracious (and brave!) to welcome us all into their home for the night! The girls had an awesome pallet party in their playroom, and T and I enjoyed hanging out with B and E after the kids went to sleep. What a day! Needless to say, we all slept great that night!

The next morning we got ready and went to church on the way to the town where my great aunt Brookie lives. After church we went to her house for the annual reunion and had a great time catching up with extended family and enjoying her super cooking. The girls especially had fun with their second cousins, C and G, shown in the photos below. C and G were awesome with the girls, tirelessly entertaining them all afternoon with stories, games, and all kinds of fun. A week later the girls are still talking about them daily!





Here's Aunt Brookie with her great and great-great nieces and nephews!


It was a really fun weekend with so many special people. We are blessed!