Lets Go Fly a Kite

On a recent trip to Brown County, Indiana, we took in some country pass times like fishing and kite flying. The kiddo had a great time hanging with his uncles and his Grandpops. A good time was had by all!

Play Time is Hard Work

When Papa is home it allows Mama to pick up the camera a little more often to catch the developments of the littlest one. Her current task is learning to bat her toys with those other new discoveries - her hands. She especially likes to hit the toys that make noise and she is already keen enough to know the difference. She is a champ, working hard between naps and feedings - but she still finds enough time to flash a smile at the camera!

Two turkeys in the woods

Mark and I went out in the woods this morning looking for turkeys. We heard several gobblers and even saw a turkey or two, but nothing was close enough for us to even consider shooting. In fact, we had a really good dialogue with a gobbler (at least we thought it was a good conversation) right up until someone else shot it. Enjoy the photos of camo below.

Sleeping in the big boy bed

Here's a photo of the first time our son spent the night in his big boy bed. As far as we know he stayed in it straight through till the morning. Annette tells me when he woke up this morning he was a little disoriented and asked to be put back in his crib.

Family Photos from Easter

A few family photos from Easter Sunday.

Calling All Family Members

Here are a couple of the family shots from Baptism day.



Here a couple of the family shots from Baptism day.

Child of God

We were so happy to have so many family and friends join us for the Baptism of our little girl. Here are a few pictures from her big day. Thanks to our favorite WKU photo journalism major for shooting the event!

Big smiles

Our little girl has been smiling for about a week now. Just tonight as she was falling asleep in Papa's arms she gave off a big smile just before checking out.

Backyard Experiments

Kevin was over tonight. While at dinner, he noticed there were two Mentos in his pocket. So, with pocket lint and all, he dropped them into his glass of Diet Coke. The drink fizzed up but didn't explode. That got the brain juices flowing, as they say. Immediately Kevin and I snatched up the little guy and headed off to UDF for some supplies for our backyard experiments. Below are the photos from our adventure.

Twice the fun

My First Bow

Her father still isn't sure what to think of this one - bows are not his area of expertise - but I thought this shot of our new little girl with her first bow from Grandma was too good to pass up. Isn't she cute!

Visit by WI family

It was good to have Jeff and Rebecca in town even if it was only for a few hours. A few photos are posted below.

Tree and Backyard Fun

You're probably here to see more photos of the new baby. Well, that's coming up in our next post. For the meanwhile, here are two photos of the back yard. We had a nasty ice storm recently that has coated the trees. I snapped this shot one morning last week of the tree in our backyard. The other photo is clearly me and the boy having a good time playing with the dog that lives in our backyard.

More photos

Check out these shots from 2/7.

Notice the dimples in the photo above.

There's only one word for it - stunned.

I posted this one just because I liked the lighting.

Baby!

Bath time

A few photos from bath time earlier today. How 'bout that hair!?

Actually, she was born yesterday

For those of you looking to see Baby #2, here's a photo from yesterday morning. More will come later whenever the photo editor of the family wakes back up.

Katie's Birthday

A few photos from Katie's birthday recently. Speaking of birthdays, no news on that front just yet.

Chocolate

Annette spotted this toddler snatching a taste of the chocolate pie left on the counter. Apparently it tasted pretty good.

Caption Contest

What's he thinking?

Nap time

While we're getting ready for baby #2, we thought you might like to see this photo of nap time with baby #1.

New Years Eve

Chances are you're reading this next year -- so Happy New Year! Tonight we had Annette's family over for dinner to welcome in 2007. Some random quotes from the evening particularly stick out:

Gina - Now I'll have to wait until August before I'm interested in football again.
(After watching the Bengals lose to the Steelers)

Adam - Just get in the car! It doesn't matter where we go!
(Said to Mark, Gina and Annette after the grandparents and Uncle Kevin offered to watch the little guys for two hours allowing the parents to go out and party --- at Starbucks)

Annette - My kidney's hurt!
(Not sure about that one, but I hear it has something to do with pre-natal kickboxing)

Katie had the camera at the dinner table. Below are a few of her shots:

Christmas Morning

A couple photos from this morning's events. Santa brought a new playhouse for the kiddo this year. Immediately he took a book inside his new place and began to "read." He has also found it good for playing peekaboo.

Elmo Christmas

We had a blessed and wonderful Christmas morning watching the kiddo open gifts, but a sign of the times could not be escaped. After the Christmas loot was sorted, we discovered Elmo was everywhere. He was in the books, in the tape measure, and even in a shrunken head known as a giggle ball. Oh yeah - and don't forget the 3 DVD's featuring Elmo. At least he wasn't in any underwear this year. We're sure that's coming down the pike but Santa is waiting another year or two.

Jingle Bust

Jingle Bugs is no longer with us. After a late night surgical procedure, poor Jingle Bugs didn't make it.

R.I.P.

Jingle Bugs

Christmas 2004 - Christmas 2006

Jingle Bugs

We have a book here called "Jingle Bugs." It's a pop-up book with a musical Christmas Tree at the end. Unfortunately the switch for the battery operated Christmas Tree recently got permanently stuck in the "on" position. This means the book, whether open or closed, plays Jingle Bells continuously. This wasn't a problem until Annette had had enough and told me to do something. So, I shoved the book between two mattresses in the spare bedroom and left it to die. That was 7 days ago and as of this afternoon, it was still going.

Traditions begin at Kroger

After great debates over the merits of artificial vs. 'live' Christmas trees, we decided to take a nap... which is why, after other holiday festivities and obligations, we were only left with the time for a quick run to the supermarket to procure our first 'live' holiday Tannenbaum. It was a comedy of errors including excess luggage in our trunk, a lack of twine and a screaming child who did not understand the significance of his parents fumbling their way towards creating new 'traditions'.

After less debate--and more laughter--we've resolved in future years to leave ourselves at least half a day--not just 20 minutes--to hunt down our tree in hopes it will be a bit more respectable 'tradition'.

After all was said and done, the kiddo was head over heels for the new addition to our decor -- declaring the lights "preedy" while quickly clearing off the ornaments from the bottom half of the tree.