Happy Birthday Dave

Today is Dave's birthday. What is there to say about him. He is a great father helping out in every way he can. He's a loving husband. He's a hard worker. He takes care of things at the office and at home.

Over this past year we have laughed together, mourned together, had a son together, loved our daughter more together and attempted to live our lives to the fullest together. We share an amazing life with each other.

Dave,

On your birthday, I hope your day and year are filled with joy and love. We love you very much.

Lisa, Arden and Thomas.

Is He Really This Big?

Thomas is such a sweet baby boy and he coo's all the time. He wants to be held all the time and laughs when his sister plays with him. He a perfect three month old. However, he looks like he's about 5 to 6 months old. Here are some pictures of him taking a bath. Let me know what you think. Does he look like a 3 month old?

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Arden is interested in taking pictures so I let her use our old digital camera to practice. There are lots of pictures of empty space but it is good practice for her and who knows maybe one day she might be a photographer.

Here she is in action.

Thomas

Thomas was in a great mood the other day so I put him in the floor and started clicking away. Here are some of my favorites. He is 13 weeks old in these pictures.

Happy Father's Day

We celebrated Father's Day yesterday with Dave. According to him he had a great day. The day was full with church, naps, pool and Pops in the Park.

Dave is a great father and Arden is definitely a daddy's girl. I have a feeling that Thomas will love being with Daddy too.

Happy Birthday Ed.

Today is Ed's birthday. He was my aunt's soul mate and so generous and loving to her family. He was kind enough to take my crew in for a few days and took us all around northern VA. He's the official photographer of the family. He even videoed my wedding for us.

Ed, I hope you have a great birthday!

Old and New Friends

On our way home from DC we stopped in Richmond to visit Dave's college roommate Will. Dave and Will lived together for 2 years, were teammates and were really close. Bonnie (Will's wife) was a great hostess and had a terrific lunch for us. Arden and Liam played in the yard and enjoyed the wading pool. While Thomas meet Kerrin. The are exactly a month apart. Can you tell whose the oldest?

Thomas is the younger one. But he's a little bigger than Kerrin. The entire time I could not believe we are old enough to have children much less that we each have two! Thanks Bonnie and Will for being such great hosts. It was great catching up with you.

All Tuckered Out

I forgot to share this picture the other day. After spending the day at the zoo Arden and Thomas fell asleep on the train. I had to snap a picture because I just love how the are sleeping with their heads together. Plus Arden is still falling asleep with her legs crossed.

I just love pictures of sleeping children. So precious.

Siblings

I was able to catch a great picture of Arden and Thomas together. What fun.

A Patient Little Brother

Thomas has a lot of patience. I know he's only 13 weeks old. How does a baby have patience. I'm glad you asked.

The other day I was upstairs and told her to come up to brush her teeth which she did. When I returned downstairs this is what I found.

From what Arden told me she asked Thomas to "watch her baby" and then put the doll behind him so her doll could share the swing with him. He didn't make a peep once even while I took his picture.



I have a feeling he's going to have a lot of patience.

Rewarded

Arden did such a great job of listening and participating in church she was able to chose and prize and this my friends is priceless.

She loves them and we think she pulls the look off well.

National Zoo

Last Monday we headed to National Zoo. All week Arden anticipated going to the zoo. Monday could not get there soon enough. She woke up and ran downstairs to eat breakfast. She was so anxious on the train and in the subway. Once we were off the subway it was a 3 block walk to the zoo. Arden could barley stand it. She was so excited. As soon as we walked into the park. I said "Arden we are at the zoo." I heard nothing in reply. So I repeated myself and still nothing. Ed looked at me and said "Lisa, she's asleep." Of course I look down and she is sound asleep. She slept for an hour which was perfect because that was the only nap she took that day.

Don't you just love how she crosses her legs.

Once she woke up. I told her we were at the zoo and what did she want to do. And the first thing she saw was a popcorn stand (she loves popcorn) and said I want some of that. Classic.

So our first animal was the Panda Bears. The female was outside and the male was inside. They were so hard to get pictures of because everyone loves the Panda House.

I tried to get her picture with the panda statue but she did not know what to think of it. It took her most of the day to warm up to the animal statues.

The order of the rest of the day is a blur so I will tell you about our adventures.

Arden loves birds. Always has...hence her calling for her woodpecker. She loved the large birds. I have no idea what this bird is but she really enjoyed it. As well as the flamingos.

Here are the elephants. Their area is under construction and they didn't have much room. The elephants are wanting to go inside. I believe they were hot (even though it was in the low 80s) because they kept throwing dirt on their backs.

We then saw the hippos. There were two different types. The pygmie hippo that was small and shiny and the Nile Hippo that was huge and I mean huge and fascinating to watch. Here are the hippos and Arden watching the Nile Hippo.

After the hippos we went to the Ape House where they had gorillas and orangutans. She loved the apes. The female gorilla just had a baby in Jan. The baby was about the size of Thomas and she carried her (her baby) around with her everywhere. When she traveled she carried her like a football. And when she was feeding her baby everyone was watching. I wanted to get her one of these so she could feed her baby without everyone watching and taking pictures.

The orangutans were so funny. This one is outside with a paper bag over his head to shade him. Arden loved watching them hang around on the ropes.

The reptile house. I was able to avoid these animals because it was time to feed Thomas. I can't say that I missed seeing all of the various cold blood creatures. I will spare you the details and just show you the turtles.

The large cats were beautiful but rather boring. They just laid around. The tiger did mange to hold his head up so we could see him. Arden kept yelling "Hey Tigger" at him. She kept asking where Winnie the Pooh was. We also saw the lioness but not the male loin.

The cougars were hidden well the in the tall grass. The weird thing is they can see the zebras from their area. I guess they are too well feed to be tempted to attack the zebras.

Arden said that zebras are her favorite animals and wouldn't you know it that this was the only view she saw. She still loved talking about the zebras.

She started getting into having her picture taken on the statues.

She also like the cows. The farm area won the best manicured lawn hands down. Thanks to the goats.

Arden and Daddy taking a break and sharing an ice cream cone.

The seals were sunning themselves on this rock and all of a sudden one jumps in to cool himself off and then leaps back on the rock. It was spectacular. I would have loved to watch them when they are more active. Arden looks a lot like me in the picture when I was her age.


Here's a couple of great pictures of us leaving the zoo.

We had the best time and are so glad that we spent all day there. I would go back anytime and enjoy it all again.

Best Knock Knock Joke

I just heard the best knock knock joke that I have ever heard from Arden.

Arden: "Knock, knock."

Me: "Whose there?"

Arden: "Mommy"

Me: "Mommy who?"

Arden: "Mommy. Arden loves you."

Question of the Week

Don't you wish they had these when took road trips?

Air and Space

Since we were in northern VA we decided to take a vacation and see the sites of Washington DC. On Sunday afternoon we traveled to the Air and Space Museum. I always loved that place as a child and figured that Arden would enjoy looking at the air planes. They had a stealth fighter jet there as well as the Space Shuttle Endeavor. It was pretty cool seeing all of those planes. Ed joined us on our adventure and was the official photographer. We really enjoyed the day.

Here I am pointing out an airplane that was painted like a shark on the front.

Arden and Dave under the space shuttle.


The four of us together.

There are many, many more pictures of our day too many to upload. We really had a great time. It was something different to do. If you're in DC go you will have a great time.

Extended Family

On Saturday Arden played with my cousin's kids. Arden and Jakob are 6 months apart and soon discovered Patty's M&M machine. Arden would say I'll be right back and then go into the house very quietly and get her some M&Ms. Her and Jakob did this all day until Tammy (Jakob's mom) couldn't take it any more and moved it.

Ashley is about 18 months younger than Arden and was still trying to figure out how to keep up with Arden and Jakob. She is so adorable.

All of the kids were in the pool and had a great time playing around. Dave was the entertainment for the kids and did a great job of occupying them. My cousin's husband Tom (who is a grandpa himself) decided to throw Dave in the pool after everything was said and done.

Us "kids" were spoiled by my Aunt Bonnie and Fred. They were surrogate grandparents for the day helping us out in every way. The four of us, Bonnie and Fred all stayed at Ed's that night. The next morning after Bonnie and Fred left Arden asked me "Mommy, where's the other Gran Gran (my mom and her sister look a lot a like) and a different Paw Paw?" She really enjoyed spending time with them. She knew they were family instead of strangers she just met.

Arden and Jakob watching Dora together at the end of the day.

Arden and Ashley posing for pictures.

Arden and Ashley hugging good-bye.

Arden hanging out with Bonnie and Fred.

Arden's already looking forward to Uncle Eric's wedding so she can see everyone again.

In Loving Memory

This weekend we traveled to northern Virginia/DC to celebrate my Aunt Pat's life. She passed away in May from ALS or Lou Gerick's disease. She fought hard against it.

When I think about Pat I remember:

• High heels
• Lincoln Town Cars that she drove using both feet
• My Uncle Fred always wanting to give her driving lessons.
• Going to her if we wanted to get away with something when the family was all together. She'd let us get away with anything. Especially an extra soda.
• Her dolls.
• Going to work every day
• Her loving her daughters and grand kids and Ed more than anything else.

She will be missed but her legacy will live on through her children, grandchildren and great-grandchild.

Question of the Week

Why is it that if you don't put a bib on a baby after they eat they spit up all over their clothes. If you put a bib on a baby then no spit up?

Her Own Idea

Arden is such a great big sister and I was able to catch her in action. Thomas had spit up on him self while I was eating dinner. She ran over and grabbed his burp cloth and went over and cleaned him up.

Then she started a peek-a-boo with him. He loved it. They continued on playing together and really enjoyed each other.

Learning to Be One of the Guys

I ran a quick errand on Sunday afternoon while Arden was napping. When I returned this is where I found Thomas and Dave.

They were hanging out in the yard. Dave managed to find the one sunny spot in our yard for him and he left Thomas in the shade.