Eden is now 9 months!!
She has been such a fun baby. I think that I probably take more pictures of her than all of the others combined. She loves the camera! She has 
started this new thing where if she thinks she is being cute she will shrug her shoulders and cock her head to the side and give you the biggest grin. She is going to get away with a lot!! She has started shaking her head yes! Usually little kids will shake their heads no first. Not Eden, she raises her eyebrows, has her mouth in a little circle, and her head bobs up and down. It cracks me up. She also finds many things funny and spends lots of time laughing! She is so much fun and is a wonderful addition to our family. 
Crawls quickly all over the upstairs, we now have a gate at the top of the stairs.
When she is downstairs, she will crawl, very carefully, upstairs!
Pulls her self up to everything (especially my plants) and has started walking around furniture.
Loves to play games with the kids. No one can make her laugh harder then Hannah, Peter, and Joe, but if she doesn't want them to touch her she has this yell that lets me know that someone is touching her.
Did I say there were going to be no more toothless grins?? Boy, was I wrong!!
Peter has both top middle teeth missing and one of the middle bottom teeth is out too. Surprisingly I think he still has 2 or 3 that are still loose. We have officially changed his name to Jack, short for Jack-o-lantern!
Worst part of it is that he can't eat one of his favorite foods, corn on the cob!
We went to Ocean City, Maryland this past weekend. We stayed on the 15th floor of the Capri on the North End of OC. Alan's department chair has a condo there and was so very kind to offer it to us. It pays to have well established friends!!
Within 15 minutes of getting there, the high-rise next door had a fire alarm go off and people were running out of the building. Then a couple of fire trucks came along with an ambulance. They were fully dressed in their garb and went marching in as hero's only to come out shortly after having been a false alarm.
We spent a lot of time at the pool and on the beach. It was so much fun to just relax and be together!
Our sweet friends let us have access to their community pool this summer and my kids have just become little fish. Loving the water and not at all fearful...not at all the song we were singing last year. I decided that our children needed to gain some skills, so we have been taking swimming lessons over the last 9 days at the West Laurel Swimming Club. Joseph was in the level 1 class and Hannah and Peter were in level 2. They could not have been more happy and perfectly placed. Hannah and Peter really took off and are able to do fairly well with swimming. In their class they started teaching them how to perform the different strokes.
Peter just needs to get his legs working with his arms and he will just take off. His arms are very powerful!
Hannah is just "easy does it" with the greatest of ease.
Joseph is always so happy! Every time he would jump in the water it was on top of his teachers. They started to teach him some different strokes but they were mostly trying to get the kids comfortable in the water and to be able to go under without drowning.
All covered with cheese, I lost my poor meat ball, when somebody sneezed.
"They say when you marry in June you're a bride all your life"
I got the opportunity to do the wedding flowers for Natasha Nielsen. It was a lot of fun to use such bright beautiful flowers. I think they turned out just right. The bridesmaid bouquets were very similar to the brides bouquet. (the one in the picture to the left is laying on it's side)
I don't care what the calendar says the first day of summer is. The first day of summer is when the fire flies come out, and today is the day. I went outside to close up the van and sure enough I saw little lights floating through the air. I remember living in IL as a young child catching fire flies. It was always fun, happy times and nothing brings a smile quicker then to see them flying around. Happy summer days!
...and what a man is he! Dad's are just those people who are near and dear to your heart for all of the little things that they have done for you. The times that they made you and no one else feel like the most important person alive!
I think that my children are very lucky because not only do they have a great Dad who loves them they also have two wonderful Grandfathers to look up to as well. I can not say enough about the way these three men have touched my life. I love them dearly and wish that I could spend more time with each of them.
Some of the things we like best about Alan, my husband and the father of my children:
