Reunions

Over the last two weeks we've been able to reunite with several of our closest friends from the time we lived in Maryland. Maura Roberts came for a visit with her kids just a couple weeks ago, and last Friday Jason & Laurie Lamar came for a visit on their way to western North Carolina. Kellen had a great time playing with Aiken, and we were amazed at how big Bailey has gotten! The next day we stopped to visit the Thomases on our way to Williamsburg, so Kellen got to play with his buddy Will and we got to meet baby Josh. Addie and Jessie had fun doing their hair - maybe Jessie's girlieness will rub off on Addie. It's been so neat to see the boys grow from babies to little kids - their different sizes, they way they talk, their interests. I hope we can keep getting together over the years so that they will always know each other and the special connection they had when they were so little.

Bryan & Amy - we're due to get together with you next!!! :)

She's Smiling!

After saying for a week that she would smile any day now, Ellary finally gave us her first real smiles on Wednesday morning, July 18! I was holding her and we kept making eye contact and she would give a little grin. Since then, she does it when she's calm and catches your eye, but it seems that if you try to get her to look at you she does her best to look everywhere else. It's quite comical!

Picture Slide Show

Here's a link to some pictures of the kids. Most of the ones of Kellen or Addie were taken by my dad or Geof's dad with their Nikons. Enjoy!

Funny New Shutterfly Service

Hey! Visit this link to view a funny little video of Kellen that we made through Shutterfly. Here's one of Addie. And, here's one of Ellary. Just a funny diversion while I wait for Ellary to wake up to eat. :)

Visiting with Friends

What a fun day! The kids came home from camp to find that their buddies Katelyn and Benjamin and Fran were here. They had a great time playing together, pulling out toys that my kids refuse to play with on their own but are somehow fun with a friend. They built lots of Lincoln Log houses, Lego buildings, magnet structures, cooked many meals, and dressed every baby doll in the house. Geof has a very busy day at work today and won't be home until late, so it was a great help to have friends here for the afternoon! I'm so glad we've been able to keep in touch. :)

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July! Given that there's a new baby in the house, we didn't have big plans for the day. Just having Geof home to spend the day with us was good enough! But we remembered that this morning was the Longlake 4th of July Kids Parade, so Kellen and Addie decorated their bikes and headed down to the clubhouse at 11:00 for the parade. There were tons of kids with red white and blue bikes, scooters, wagons and strollers and the kids got to take over Silver View Lane for a while. It was really fun and we will definitely do it again next year! One thing we did learn is that Kellen will need to ride his scooter next year - riding a 2-wheeler without training wheels at parade speed is quite difficult, so Kellen sped through the parade route and "won the parade." View more pictures here.

Geof grilled burgers and corn for dinner and we had a big watermelon. Kellen had a late night last night, so it was early to bed for K&A. At around 9:00 our neighbors started a fireworks display in their front yard, and we discovered that Addie had not yet gone to sleep, so she got to go outside (in her jammies - big fun!) and watch the show. She even got to do some sparklers. I was feeling bad that we had not gone to the fairgrounds to see the fireworks, but Kevin's display, combined with the great aerial display across our backyard, was enough to satisfy us! Addie really liked it and liked holding the sparklers. And now, Ellary is sleeping so we're off to sleep, too.

Ellary is 1 Month Old!

I've not been the best about posting to the blog since Ellary was born, but now that she's a month old I figured it was time to make some mention of her! Ellary was born on June 1 at 5:22pm. Yesterday she turned 1 month old! Our life has been a little crazy since her arrival, but all in all, #3 is relatively easy. She's a great sleeper during the day, and a great screamer in the late evening. It's taken us a lot of work and patience to get her to sleep at night, but once she falls asleep she wakes every 3 hours or so for a quick feeding and then back to sleep. She's started sleeping in her crib at night and taking morning naps pretty consistently. She tends to sleep well in her car seat as long as it's in a moving car, and she tends to sleep whenever we take her somewhere. She's also working hard on holding up her head.

Kellen and Addie have been doing very well with her. Addie has latched on to one of her baby dolls, and every day she comes to me with the doll in her shirt saying that she needs me to give her check-up and help her deliver her baby. Once her baby is delivered, she dresses her, changes diapers, feeds her, burps her, takes her for walks around the house in her stroller, and puts her to sleep in Ellary's crib, at which point we all have to start whispering. Kellen loves to entertain the baby when her eyes are open, and as soon as we tell him she's awake he comes running to her and says "here's big brother!" He's great at sitting with her when she's in her bouncy chair and talking to her or showing her toys.

Today is my first full day home with all three kids. Kellen and Addie are off from camp this week and Geof has a busy work week, so we'll see how it goes managing 3 kids by myself! Here's a link to some pictures from Ellary's first month.