Vacation

Mike, Harlie, and I went on a little trip at the beginning of the month. We stayed in a sweet little cottage in Colonial Beach, Virginia. We had a relaxing week, and I can't wait to go back again. If anyone is interested in visiting a small town and just getting away, any time of year, check out this site: http://www.twinmaplesva.com./ The price is right and the cottage is so clean and has everything you need. Anything else you need can be found 5 minutes away. It's great.

Just the three of us on our last day before we made the trip back to PA.

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A gorgeous sunset on the beach

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A gorgeous girl during a gorgeous sunset on the beach.

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My little ham in her car seat

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Mother and Daughter

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Mikey and Harlie walking the beach. He actually had to grab her arm to keep her from running straight into the water (the Potomac River to be exact)

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So sweet!

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Harlie on the chair in the master bedroom of the cottage. She liked to play there every day.

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We took a trip to DC one day to visit the zoo. We all loved it, especially Nugget. Here she is looking in one of the aquariums. She would run from exhibit to exhibit pointing at the animals she saw. She's definitely my kid!

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This is when we knew we were back home. It's pretty, though, isn't it?

New Year's Eve

We had a nice quiet evening this New Year's. We had our regular group over for a murdery mystery (Pasta, Passion, and Pistols). We do them quite often and we always have a blast. If anyone ever wants to borrow one, let me know. I have a stack here that we've already done and once you go through them once you can't play them again. Anyway, here are the photos:

The boys: Rick, Mike, and Charlie (Rick was the killer, as he has been SOOOO many times)

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The girls: Shawna, me, and Stacy

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No, we didn't all dress in nice clothes for the evening. We were in our costumes for the mystery. We try to go all out for these things. This one was put together a little faster than usual, so no fancy decorations.

On a wonderful note, I just have to let all of you know that Shawna, my best friend since who-even-remembers-when, is pregnant!!! She and her husband Rick (the killer from the murder mystery) are expecting a little one around the end of August. We are SO SO excited. All in a matter of weeks he got a new job, they found out she was pregnant, and they found a house! The greatest part (aside from the baby in her belly) is that their new house is only five minutes from ours!!! I'll have her close enough to walk to (if we're feeling ambitious). Yay!

Christmas

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas this past year. Harlie was at such a great age. She understood that she was getting new things, but she wasn't holding her hands out for more more more. She just appreciated what she got.

Family on Christmas Eve: Roger, Pap, Gram, Gloria, Brian, Jen, Me, Mikey, Scott, Harlie

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Dad with his favorite grand-dog

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Harlie feeding and cuddling her new twins.

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Me with my FAVORITE Christmas gift from my FAVORITE husband.

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Me, Harlie, and Mikey on Christmas morning. This is the best we could get from the wiggle-worm.

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Mikey playing Rock Band Christmas Day.

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Harlie kissing Aunt Jenny. She LOVES giving and getting kisses and hugs.

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Our crew at our yearly "Day After Christmas Party": Tara, Harlie, Mom, Debbie, Becky, Elise, Aunt Bonnie, Lisa, and me
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Harlie LOVES the drums her Uncle Scott got her.

Merry Christmas!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Way Too Long...

.... since I updated this thing. It's not that we've been bored... Things have been crazy around here as usual, but the holidays are of course making things even nuttier. I still haven't reached my slow time of the year. Hopefully soon... No matter what, we have scheduled a vacation for the first full week in January. We're getting away just the three of us (maybe four if we decide to take Spike). I'm very much looking forward to it. I'll give you all the details after we return. For now, here are some photos and explanations. I can't include all that I have, but I'll try to show you all just a piece of everything that's occurred.

We had a wonderful visit from our friend Chris, and her kids Rayanne, Ryley, and Rheaunna. It had been way too long since we got together, and I hope we don't wait a year until the next time. We just played games and hung out all night. Relaxing and fun! Rayanne decorated Shawna with some mega blocks. Beautiful, huh??

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Remember a few months ago when I said my birds were leaving the nest? Well since then they had another set of babies, and even still they are living on the porch. I know all the babies are grown, but I think they've found a safe haven under our roof, which is fine with me.

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When my cousin Trish, her husband Jacob, and daughter Dakota came for Thanksgiving, we decided to take the girls out in the snow. They haven't had much in Memphis, and Harlie was always too little last year during our big snows. The girls couldn't move too well in all the layers of clothing (kind of like the movie "A Christmas Story") but I think they liked the snow as best they could at this point in their lives. As you can see in the above photo, Spike LOVES jumping to catch snowballs.

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The girls didn't pose too well for their photo together... neither one of them likes to sit still for more than a few seconds, and of course they couldn't make their few seconds match up! The bottom photo is Trishy and Dakota. They look alike, don't they???

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Just some of the Christmas photos I've taken of her. I have some in one more outfit that I need to process. I'll probably post them after the holiday. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and New Year. I plan to spend as much time with my family as I possibly can.

Love you guys!

Some Updates....

Hi there. I'm writing to give an update from Harlie's doctor appointment, and really just to show some new photos, because I know that's what you all come here looking for. And that's really what it's all about for me as well. Anyway, I took the nugget for her one year appointment last week (and waited an hour before seeing the nurse - so frustrating). This is what we came up with:

Height: 29.5 inches (63%)

Weight: 24lb 11oz (93%)

Head: 18.03 inches (71%)

I'm not at all surprised by her weight, considering the way the girl eats. She has yet to turn down a new food. Makes meal time easy for me!

I'll give some info with the pictures. Love you guys!

Here she is eating her first peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and drinking her "muice" (milk and a touch of orange juice). We have found that the "muice" combo is the only way to get her to drink regular milk. She has this unnatural orange juice obsession, and Mike came up with the idea of mixing the two. It's like an orange julius without the frosty sugary goodness.

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This costume was way too small, so she just wore it long enough for me to take a few photos. Then it went straight to the "I hope someone can eventually wear this on their child" box.

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This is the costume she wore to a Halloween party. That cheesy grin is the one we see 100 times a day. So sweet. Spike is so tolerant!

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My handsome little boy

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Last friday Mike and I both had off in the afternoon/evening. It was a beautiful day out, so we all played in the leaves. It was so so nice to just hang out as a family. It makes me happy just looking at the photos and remembering that day.

Happy Harlie-Ween 2008!

Yesterday was Harlie's first birthday, and our second Harlie-Ween. We had a birthday party with our most immediate family and a few good friends. There were about 30 of us here. Thank goodness the weather was decent and we opened up the sun room. If we couldn't have done that, I'm not sure we'd all have fit in this house! Harlie had a blast, of course. She loves being the center of attention. She got some great gifts, and now she has some big-girl toys to play with! She was so sick and tired of the same old things that were really meant for babies.


She's walking now - she took a few steps a week ago and has been progressing over the past week. She still crawls a lot of places if she wants to get there quickly, but she's getting pretty good on her feet.

I decided she wasn't allowed to have the bottle or formula anymore, so yesterday I took them both away from her. She's doing quite well! Anyway, I don't think I have much time before I need to get her up from her nap (not that she's slept through any of it) so I'll post the photos now. Enjoy!

My mom worked so hard on these - I think they turned out beautifully!

I went a little overboard on the decorating!

Even Spike dressed up for the occasion.

I'm not sure if you can tell what's going on in this photo, but Harlie was sharing her cake with her big brother. This is a normal occurrence in this house.

They crashed at the end of the night on her new couch. My two babies!