Chesapeake Beach

The whole gang:
Baby girls wearing matching outfits from Grandma Mel (above).

Kent and Maddie spent a lot of time fishing on the pier (below). Mommy spent a lot of time worrying about Maddie falling off the pier.

Maddie sporting her new red crocs, a birthday present from Grandma Shirley.

Hanging out at Grandma's

Maddie shares some of her ice-cream, gelato to be exact, with Sophie. Sophie gave ice-cream two thumbs up, I guess we should have expected that!

I returned from a morning workout to find my sweeties relaxing in the sun.

Sophie and Emmet get to know each other better during some saucer time. Grandma had all the baby favorites: a saucer, a bumbo, a bouncy seat, 2 pack and plays, and a high chair. Dagney even brought her swing, so we were all set!

Getting Pretty

After the boys spent a day golfing, the girls headed out to the nail salon for some pampering. Since it was Maddie's birthday (4 is not a baby anymore!) she got to go with the big girls! You're never too young for a mani/pedi right?

When we got back to the condo, we found each Daddy with a baby in one hand and a beer in the other. Kent wasn't sure how he felt about Maddie's new look. If he had his way, she'd wear jeans, t-shirts and tennis shoes every day.

Maddie at the Museum

While in D.C., we took Madeline to the Museum of Natural History. She had been looking forward to seeing the dinosaur bones for a while. As you can see, she was in a silly mood, giddy from our undivided attention that day.

Maddie on the Mall

Kent and I took Maddie into D.C., our old stomping ground and place of our first date, for a special day with her. We had great site seeing weather, note the sweatshirt in August!!!

Baby Dagney

A highlight of our trip was getting to meet and hold the youngest member of our family, Dagney Maria. Josh, Jenn, and the baby drove down from New Jersey.

These pretty babies look more like sisters than cousins in this picture.

Grandma Connie, such a sweet Grandma. She is probably still getting use to the quiet and lack of chaos now that we have all returned home!

Kyla!!!

These girls are inseparable! Madeline loves her cute, cuddly cousin so much!

Aunt Dawn and Uncle Tim

We spent one day in West Virginia at Dawn and Tim's house. Their home is awesome, 18 acres and a pool. They were great hosts, and we all had a great day. FYI, Dawn is 9 months pregnant, and I can't wait to find out if I am getting a new niece or a nephew. . .


Look closely, the boys are searching for their golf balls, and Maddie is picking flowers.

Flying East

We have been on vacation for the past two weeks visiting family members on the east coast. On our flight east, we gave Maddie an "A." She lost a few points for refusing to step on to the moving walkway in Dener, but she was a perfect traveler all around. Sophie scored a C-. While she never had a true meltdown, she was quite squirmy. Oh well, who can blame her? Six hours is a long time for a 10 month old to stay in a lap.

Maddies Party

We had a wonderful time celebrating Maddie's 4th birthday (just a bit early) today. The jumper company supplied the wrong one, a power ranger jumper, but it looks like we're going to keep it another day as it hasn't been picked up as of 11:00. Should make Maddie pretty happy tomorrow morning when she wakes up.

Slide Show Comments

My wonderful sister helped me put put the slide show on the blog, but since I didn't want to delete any sweet comments, I left this initial post. Thanks, Jessie!

Pirate Day

I found out yesterday afternoon that Maddie needed to dress up like a pirate for school today. Having nothing I could think of that would resemble a pirate's costume, we improvised. I cut off a pair of too small overalls (sorry Sophie, no hand-me-downs with this one), found a striped shirt, and made a headband out of tights. Here she is at school with the other pirates.

It's a Date!

A play-date that is! Here are some cute pictures from this afternoon at Milo's house. His and Sophie's official first date!


Milo looks pretty excited about it:

What base is a hug?

I think she likes me! (She does!)

There's "Murphy," sleeping in the crate . . .

10 Months

Sophie is 10 months old today! Her favorite things lately are table foods. She'll turn her noise up at anything mushy served on a spoon by either grabbing at the spoon or shoving it out of her way! She loves bread, pasta, peas, carrots, and bananas.

Madeline took this picture:


Playing peek-a-boo with Daddy:


Playing "So Big" with Mommy (again!):

Party Preparations

Madeline and I have begun preparing for her birthday party next weekend. Yesterday we filled the pinata and the goody bags. Today, we (and by we, I mean, me) blew up 12 beach balls. We decided to keep them in the pack and play (recognize it Brenda? we've put it to good use) and create a ball pit. Both girls had diffferent reations:


Maddie is having the time of her life.


Sophie wonders, "Are you going to leave me in here, Mommy?"

I'm So Big!!

"How big is Sophie? How big is Sophie?" Ah, this game never gets old. Actually Sophie has turned the tables on us and now throws her arms up in the air spontaniously for our reactions.

Sophie's New Trick