More Birthday Pictures!

Benjamin and his trains
Show us that finger puppet Alec
Looks like Luke is happy
Open wide Luke

Hudson and his Dr. Pepper
Julia bug
Randall in mid-wave

Alli is so sweet

Birthday Week!

Birthday celebrating with Papa and Mimi

I had a friend whose family celebrated Birthday Weeks, where you would get a small present each day of your birthday week. I like that idea! So with Audrey's 2nd Birthday this past week brought a lot of celebration.

To prepare Audrey for her birthday on Thursday and what comes with it we talked to her about what her birthday meant and what people would say and do. She really liked the "Happy Birthday" song, especially the part that goes "...and many more!"

We knew we wanted to get another dog for our family and what better time than an Audrey-birthday! So on Tuesday evening we went and picked up our new beagle puppy, Winston Chewhill. Also on Tuesday and Wednesday Audrey got to take Chocolate Chip cookies to Mothers' Day Out and Park Way.

So when Thursday came she was ready for her big day! In the morning we spent a couple of hours getting her pictures done with our good friend and photograher Josie (shameless plug: http://allforfunphotography.blogspot.com/). Boy those pictures are going to be really cute. Then we went to one of Audrey's favorite restaurants, Taco Beano.

That night...we had a blast with our friends at Audrey's Birthday. We had hot dogs, chips and the best ...cake and icecream. Audrey wanted to make sure we had candy too, which we had a Dora Piniata. I think fun was had by all and we want to thank all our friends for joining us in celebrating her birthday!

She's getting so big, especially in her new dress-up outfits!
On another note...Friday evening my folks came in late and we spent the rest of the weekend with them and a few friends camping. This was Audrey's first camping trip and I think it make a good impression on her. As we were driving home this morning she said, "Audrey, good Camper!"

September....time of remembrance

I want to echo what Jaime (http://rinehart4.blogspot.com/) had to say about this day, September 11th, as a day to remember. Where were you... 7 years ago? Can you believe it...it was 7 years ago? I was a sophomore in college. I was in a class that was my least favorite, AutoCad (architectural drafting). Every month we would celebrate classmates birthday's by having cake and that day, September 11th was the day we ate cake and watched a great catastrophe on the classroom projection screen.
It was so surreal to be eating cake, of all things, while there were many who were suffering.

Not to downplay the magnitude of that day but I want to also note some days in September that have had great significane to me:

My first date with Matthew...the day that started all of where I am: September 7th, 1999

Our first dog as a married couple, Joan of Barc came into our lives: September 7th, 2003

Our sweet daughter, Audrey came to us September 18th 2006.

And many more special dates/memories that I won't forget....I don't want to forget...maybe I 'll forget...why do our memories fail us.

Make a point to remember special days, people, memories because frankly all the stuff we have is nowhere near as important and special as the relationships we have/had with others.

Labor Day in Hot Springs!

Daddy's a Dead Man

As a family we got to enjoy one last Summer get-away to Hot Springs, AR with my brother and his lovely wife! We have been planning some time to get together at least one more time before they head off to New Zealand to do mission type work.

Jeremy's lining up the perfect putt

We haven't seen my brother, Jeremy and his wife, Eliza since Thanksgiving this past year...wow...has it been that long?

Hole in one, Mommy!

We decided to meet in Hot Springs because it is a fun place to go and it is halfway between where we both live. Audrey was real excited about seeing Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Eliza. At first she was not sure what to think about them but by the time we parted ways she really misses them.



Should I feed the gold fish MY gold fish?

We got to go to a children's museum, Pirate mini-golf, an outdoor garden near the lake, original bath house and lots of great eating places! On top of all that we, Matthew, Jeremy, Eliza and myself played the game "Settlers of Catan" several times into the wee hours of the morning...okay so it was late for me!
I think overall we had lots of fun although I felt like I was in the bathroom all weekend because Audrey is still potty training but doing awesome!Picture Perfect...Jeremy and Eliza