Cooling down

At last the hot summer heat wave broke this week, and we have taken full advantage of it. On Wednesday I turned the air conditioning over to heater. Nothing says fall like the smell of the dust and spider webs burning off of the heater.
On Thursday we built a fire in the fireplace. Sylvie was very interested in that, but I'm glad to say her instincts are functional. She came up close with me sitting there, and as she climbed up on the hearth to get closer, she felt the heat and backed right off.
On Friday, we were going to hit the balloon glow, but changed our minds due to weather, then changed plans again and decided to have dinner at Red Lobster, then buy marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers, and head home to use our fire pit. What a perfect night for it.
Then on Saturday we went to the balloon race, and had a great day. We saw the parachuters, and had a front row spot for our blanket. Gideon and Sylvie loved the balloons. I'll post some pictures later.

It's been a great week, and while our lives might be crazy busy, we wouldn't want it any other way.

Happy Birthday Sylvie!!!

It's hard to believe an entire year has gone by, but today you are one year old!!! You've been walking everywhere without help for two weeks now, which also means Mommy has been putting you in some very cute dresses (crawling in dresses is hard work). You are a very happy baby, and you are quick to cheer up even if things aren't going your way. You have four teeth now, all on the bottom, and you love French toast, pancakes, little mandarin orange slices, red or white pasta, hot dogs, peas, carrots, rice, corn, and whipped yogurt. You don't like broccoli much. You sleep most nights almost all of the way through, except for a half-bottle occasionally around 4AM. You love animals, sometimes even climbing up on our giant black cat, Cole, using his fur. He is a very good cat and just says mrrrooowwwlll until someone saves him. You love to play in water, although you don't like bath time lately, but I think that's just from getting water in your eyes a couple of times. You love bath time if Gideon is there too. You splash him a lot. You giggle when you eat something you like, just a little. You've started really played with dolls and your dollhouse, and some pink race cars too. You're stacking foam blocks, nesting toys, and pointing at things you want. You really like playing your little pink piano, the xylophone, and the drums, so I'm thinking you'll be musically inclined. You've also started grabbing dishtowels and carrying them around like security blankets, which is pretty cute. You say mama, dada, and baba, and sometimes you've even said Gideon, and recently, you started saying meow and pointing at Cole. Daddy carries you all over the place still, just because. You love to snuggle up to us, and climb in our laps when you want to take a break, just leaning back against us.

With all of these things you do, you still find time to be so cute that you make everyone smile when they see you, and to melt our hearts all day long. So Happy Birthday Sylvie, we love you so much, and if you want that car when you turn sixteen, keep being Daddy's Girl and I'll see what I can do.

My First Year

My First Year

I entered the world on the 2nd of September
One week early, 8 pounds 3 ounces, a day my parents will always remember.

Those first few months I didn't do much at all
My parents were told, “Enjoy this time while she is small.”

Once I discovered I could scoot around by my own might,
It’s been non-stop action morning ‘till night.

At 10 months, my first tooth finally broke through,
And it did not put me in a good mood.

In June, I took off crawling across the floor,
With in a few weeks I was pulling up and finally off all fours.

The first time I tried putting one foot in front of the other,
I was 10 1/2 months old, and I walked to my mother.

I practiced walking all day and into the night,
And by August I had at last got it right!

“Mom-mom”, “Daddy”, "Barba" "Pa" & “Gid” are words I now can say,
But “Mom-mom” is what you will hear most of the day.

As you can see I’ve had a busy year
Hard to believe my 1st birthday is already here.

Happy Birthday, my sweet baby girl.

So I know this post is early, but I wanted to be able to do it when I had time before your weekend events started.

To My Sweet Silverbell -

You turn one in 3 days and I cannot explain the joy you have brought to my/our lives. When I first found out you were a girl, I had every emotion go through me, I was scared, nervous, excited and worried. I had experience raising boys and had felt like I had succeeded, but a girl, what was I going to do a with a girl.

And then you arrived. The moment I laid my eyes on you, I fell in love. You were my "pretty girl". This past year you have melted my heart in ways I could not even imagine. Your sweetness makes my heart grow everyday and your cuteness makes me smile. I cannot imagine my life without you. You make our family perfect.

I have so many hopes and dreams for you and I look forward to sharing every moment of them with you.

Happy Birthday!
Love,
Mommy

My pretty girl and handsome boy!

Thanks to a our friend Matthew for the wonderful pictures of our children. He truly captured their sweetness and cuteness.

Little steps!

She took two steps this week!! And has been progressing every day, I think we are going to have a walker by her first birthday.

I fall more in love with my family every day, if that is possible.

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Playground

So it's 10PM and I'm exhausted. Tammy went to bed an hour ago. It's been a very long but excellent day, thanks to a great offer of a playground from a good friend, and the help of three other good friends. I woke up at 6AM with Sylvie, and then at 8:30 headed out to begin the day. I got the Trailblazer from Terry's house, drove back here, rented a trailer, and up we went to St. Peters, to get our playground. Mike C, Tim O, and Terry W all showed up to help take it apart, bring it here and put it back together. Tammy also brought Gideon along to supervise. After 3 hours we had it in several big pieces, loaded on the trailer and a truck, and tied down tightly. Meanwhile Tammy headed on home after grabbing us lunch, and got both kids in bed for naps.

We got the whole thing back together after another 2 and a half hours of working in the full sun, then I returned the trailer. When I got home Tammy woke Gideon up, and he and Sylvie came outside to play. He was very surprised to discover the playground was totally set up while he was napping, and we proceeded to have a neighborhood test drive of our new playground.












Then Tammy grilled up some dinner, and we sat outside eating and relaxing for a while before bath and bedtime. Now everyone is asleep but me, and exhausted though I am, I just wanted to say that when you kids read this in 10 years, I hope it is with fond memories of days playing on the playground we put together today.

Love, Daddy.

Happy 4th of July!

We had a crazy, fun weekend!
Hope you did too!




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Money well spent

G is 100% boy, now that we can go out side it's all about monster trucks and tonka tractors, etc. May I insert Daddy is thrilled! One of the main things he has been wanting was Grave Digger, one of the biggest baddest, monster trucks.

He was so excited when Dandy & GranDawn sent him a gift card for his birthday so he was able to go buy the small one.

Yesterday we spent the day with Barba going to garage sales, the first one we went to was the win of the year. We found a motorized Grave Digger! I saw it upon driving up but parked where he couldn't see it and had Mom stay in the car with Gid, while I checked it out.

The seller didn't have a price on it which usually means they want too much for it, when I asked him he said make an offer. I hate making offers and so told him to name me a fair price. I about hugged him when he said $30.

As you can see by the pictures it was a win! Sylvie likes it as much as Gid does!

Happy Father's Day to Daddy!

When it comes to being a dad, Josh scores everytime. He plays with Gideon and Sylvie has melted his heart and has became quite the daddy's girl the past week.



Thank you Josh for being a wonderful father. Here are some of my favorite Daddy's pictures.