Fall at the arboretum

Today Sam had an all-day class, so Lydia and I took the advantage of a beautiful day to head out and go to the arboretum for the afternoon. We had a great time looking at the flowers, walking trails, collecting pine cones, and taking a few photos. We're calling this batch her official "year and a half" photos, and we put an order in today for prints to send to family. So many of you will be getting a few in the mail. I know it's been almost a year since we did this last!

And we have some fun family news: we're 15 weeks along with baby number 2! The morning sickness has subsided quite a bit, and I'm feeling much better than the past few months.

Lydia is growing up a storm. A bunch of her pants are getting too short to wear; finally our little peanut is growing! I'm excited about this fall, putting her in little jumpers with striped leggings and other fun things. The whole "fun" bit of dressing a girl is finally hitting me. She's talking like crazy and will repeat any phrase, though she probably doesn't know exactly what she's saying. Butterfly, book (pronounced "boo - cckkkkaahh"), and "i love you" are a few of the ones she adds her own sweet little twist on. It cracks us up. She loves reading books, playing outside on the porch or out on the back deck, and just learned how to play "ring around the rosy". (a new favorite).

More pictures!

More pictures I couldn't upload the first time.

Family time in NY

This weekend was our big family summertime get-together in upstate NY. Everyone was able to make it but Aunt Karen and Uncle Larry. They were missed! Here's a few of my favorite photos from the weekend.

We caught up with everyone and the cousins had a blast playing together while Aunt Allison hung out on the couch, overtaken with morning sickness. I'm sorry Allison! Keep taking the unisom! Seth and Mary and their 3 beautiful little girls were in from IN. The girls never cease to amaze me with the funny things they conjure up to say. "Aunt Jessica, her beautiful... (looking at lydia). her has a butt." And Mr. Owen - Allison told a story about how he coined the phrase "beep it up" after hearing big trucks beep as they backed up. It was great to see Josh and Allison too and share in the happiness of their baby-to-be. Aunt Sarah helped to entertain the kids and took lots of her infamous "self-portraits + 1" with her nieces and nephew. Mom and dad kept busy keeping us laden with lots of amazingly homemade food, dripping with calories and cholesterol, and worth every bite. Late night and early morning chats catching up out on the screened in porch were lovely.

We had a large family photo -- complete with all the drama that goes with those pressure-filled moments in between Lydia crying, Ellie cheesing it up for the promise of more candy, and Mom and Dad looking down at the grandkids instead of up at the camera...it all paid off for a halfway decent photo to remember 2008.

Dad's big party was on Saturday and a big success! Lots of friends came up for BBQ pork, fun, and fellowship to help celebrate 60 years. Mary made a fabulous dvd of photos from Dad as a child all the way up to recent photos with all the grandkids. Yes, we cried.

The trip out and back were pretty rough this time, due to a new upright-sitting carseat, and a big old molar coming in for Lydia. The trip back home this way was better, thanks to infant motrin, but the trip out was really rough. Probably because we didn't know that the tooth was on its way! I checked a day or two before we left, and didn't feel anything poking through. Leave it to a long car drive to bring out the best. Hooray for Aunt Mary for noticing it and saving the day. Maybe the next baby around we'll learn to look for things more intuitively. At least we can hope.

And now we're back home. Home at last where Lydia reached for her crib tonight when we put her down, and sweetly snuggled in, happy to be home sleeping flat instead of in her carseat. Another summer family-time in NY is done. We'll look forward to Christmas!

Summer

We finally got some warm weather. Our flowers are planted, mulch is down, and we're having fun blowing bubbles with lydia in the back yard on breezy days. And....we got a kitten! Still unsure whether it's a tomcat or girliecat, it doesn't have a name, but it's very cute, very small, and is very annoying to bottle feed. That part will be done this coming week hopefully, so I can't complain too loud. It was abandoned by it's mom in our neighbor's garage. They kept it for 3 weeks or so, but were looking to pass it on. So...we now have a kitten! Photos to come...

Happy Birthday Uncle Josh

Fun in the sun!

For the two days of Spring that we had, we spend a lot of time outside. Here's a few of my favorites of Lydia. One of her from the back as she peeks out from the porch...and then one from the other side! Little tongue hanging out...love it! She's walking around really well now - and her list of animal sounds includes: dog, giraffe, dragon, bird, sheep, and cow (if boo boo counts!). We'll have to post them sometime; she's hysterical.

Lydia's dedication!

Lydia was dedicated in the service this past Sunday. Sarah came out for it, and Mike and Lisa and Caleb and Jill came as well. They all came over the house for dinner afterwards along with our small group leaders, Bob and Patty Locascio. Lyddie did great, especially considering that there was a long line of babies and children being dedicated, and we were next to last. Now that she's up and about walking around, that's all she wants to do, and she squirmed almost the whole time. But when it was her turn and our pastor held her, she got all quiet and still...a little mesmerized by being in the spotlight. It was super cute. They zoomed in on her face on the screens above and everyone "awed". Yes, we are still new parents. ;)

Anyhow, the verse that we chose for Lydia was Isaiah 26:3: "You will keep "her" in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because she trusts in You". We pray that she will trust Jesus and rest in the peace He provides as a result.

She wore a little cream gown from her great grandma Townsend that was passed down, and a little pink bonnet of lace tatted by her great grandma Horvath. A legacy of love from both sides.

Birthday Fun!

Can't believe our little Lydia is a year old already. We had a fun party with lots of family and friends. The smashing cake was a little anticlimactic, but she had a lot of fun nonetheless!

Happy March!

Lydia's doing lots of new things! Today she gave us our first kisses from her. She's been kissing her giraffe for a while now, but would just smile and shake her head no when we tried to give and get kisses from her in the past. Like a game, she would try and run away from us when we said "kiss"! Not tonight...she leaned forward, and gave us sweet messy baby kisses.

She also is walking around quite a bit now - tottering from place to place. Too bad she can't get the hang of crawling! She still does the army crawl.

Here's a cute picture of her in the park right before Easter. Sweetie pie! My mom said that she looks like a little Dutch girl with the red jumper and cute hat.

Can't wait for Spring when we can get out and enjoy some more time in the park!

Finally! 2007 in review (mostly Lydia!)