Recent photo roundup

I forgot to post the pictures we took of Annie on her 8 month birthday - so here they are, plus a few recent bonus pictures.


Annie and Daddy horsing around, as always...

Note that Toby dressed Annie for her 8 month birthday.  Yes, that's a Metallica top.

Last weekend we enjoyed what will surely be one of our last warm, sunny days of 2010.

Snuggles in the early morning.  Annie has been getting up at 5:15 lately, and still isn't sleeping through the night, so we need extra love to make it through the day!

Being Thankful for...

1. Toby, even when he's out-parenting me.
2. Annie, even she's crying at 1 a.m
3. Our home, even when it's dirty.
4. Our jobs, even when we're working late.
5  The fact that we have access to more healthy food and clean water than we could ever consume, even when I'm still hanging on to extra "baby" weight.

We have it made in the shade, and are prone to forget how lucky we are to have a strong marriage, healthy baby, healthy bodies, and no unmet needs.  Feel free to remind me the next time I'm complaining about 1-5 above.

Eight Months!

Annie turned 8 months old on Tuesday and celebrated by getting her first tooth!  I'm actually a bit sad - her toothless smile is so precious, I don't want it to change!

We took a few snapshots, and I'll post them soon.  Our resident photographer is down with a really nasty bug, so it may be a few days.

Introducing Peyton!

Congratulations to Edie and Justin on their birth of their sweet baby boy!  Peyton arrived this morning, weighing in at 9 pounds, 6 ounces! 

Nightly ritual at our house

You might not be able to see the baby food in her hair, in her eyebrows, on the highchair, on her hands - pretty much everywhere except in Annie's mouth.  I won't even see it all when I'm trying to get it off her.  But by tomorrow morning, it will be cement.

Happy 4th birthday to Hannah, Travis and Tristan!

We took Annie to Houston to celebrate the triplets' birthday last weekend.  It was really cute watching Hannah, Travis and Tristan trying to play with Annie - and trying to share their potato chips.  They got bored very quickly when they realized that Annie couldn't talk, follow simple instructions or chew. 

Annie did very well on the flights.  Our flight down left at 6:00, conveniently close to her bedtime.  She was asleep by the time we reached 10,000 feet and didn't wake up until we were deplaning.  It was great!  She did, however, cry all the way from the airport to Bill's house.  We were just so thankful that she waited until we only had Mom and Dad as a captive audience, and not a whole plane full of people.  The return flight was a bit more challenging, she waited nearly an hour to fall asleep and was fairly wiggly. 

Anyway, we had a great time in Houston.  I can't believe the triplets are FOUR years old!  We went to the aquarium and the park, and had a birthday party with Thomas the Train cupcakes.  Big fun.

Here's Travis at the park in his Halloween shirt.  He never slowed down, just ran ran ran!

Tristan slowed down for about five seconds, so Toby was able to get this cute shot.  Tristan was not to thrilled about the wobbly "bridge" at first, but was very proud when he went across on his own.

 Hannah is such a beauty.  She was also very happy to chase other girls around making friends.  I would, too, if I had two brothers!

I love this photo of Bill and the boys.  Potty break!

Unbelievably, we managed to get them all in roughly the same area at once for a picture.

And again at home!  It should be clear that (1) none of the kids wanted to be in the picture, and (2) Annie and Travis kept the whole house up the night before...we look tired.   I bet it is rare to have a picture where half the subjects have their hands in their mouths. 

A great time, indeed!

Happy Halloween!

I took the day off of work on Friday to get us ready for our trip to Houston (more on that later - it was a great trip and Annie behaved beautifully on the flights).  Since it was Friday, Annie's school was having Tot Shabbat, so I decided to check it out.  The kids (and Rabbis and musicians) were all dressed up for Halloween, which was a hoot.  I had already sent Annie's lion costume to Houston with Mom and Dad so that we would not have to lug it on the plane, so I put Annie in a ballerina "costume."  I had to put "costume" in quotation marks, because this is actually an outfit that I bought for her while I was on my first trip away from her and having serious withdrawal.  It really functions better as a cosutme than an everyday outfit, yet I will not be dissuaded from putting her in it on a random day soon - it is so cute!  Here she is with her friend Sammy Grace, who is dressed up like a pig.  (Insert inappropriate joke about dressing a child as a pig at Jewish school.)

Tot Shabbat was really fun, and I learned the Hebrew Hokey-Pokey and a great song that goes "Shabbat Shalom - HEY!"  over and over.  And the Rabbi was dressed up as Superman, so really, how could it be anything other than great fun?  He did a thirty-second lesson on peace, which was very nice, and then back to singing and dancing.  The kiddos loved it.

I'll post another photo of Annie in the ballerina costume soon - I have a great one where she is holding onto the bar in her classroom that faces a mirror.  She looks like a real baby ballerina. 

PS - Toby obviously disapproves of the ballerina outfit, and sighs loudly whenever I put her in it. :)  He would prefer a baby rugby outfit, but I didn't find one in the ten minutes I devoted to searching online.  Sorry, Toby!