Independence Day Pictures

Our Independence Day was pretty low-key this year. We were supposed to go to the farm but through a long story that I won't go into here, we didn't. That meant that we were able to attend LD & Joey's annual July 4th/Anniversary (11th) party. The party was fun although the crowd seemed somewhat smaller than usual. And it gave us a chance to dress the kids up. Nana Ina sent Chiara this very pretty dress (with a matching hat) a few months ago and LD & Joey brought Asher the shirt from Mexico last year (it has matching shorts but he chose not to wear them this year).

I really love these two pictures:


Assorted pictures of Chiara. I just kept clicking and she just kept closing her eyes or trying to grab the camera but I got a few good ones.



And then we tried to get Asher to pose with some pictures with his sister or with me and his sister or just by himself.





I think he's singing here but you can see the space for his two missing teeth.


Happy late Independence Day, everyone!

Pictures

Here are some assorted cute pictures. This basket stands by the back door to hold towels to clean off dog-feet, balls, and other miscellaneous stuff. In this case, I guess the miscellaneous stuff was Chiara:


Chiara has her first obsession. Nernie. You know Nernie of Sesame Street. Of Bert and Nernie? We were at T@rget and saw this Bert and Ernie ball. If you press on the mouth of either side the ball says something or laughs and shakes.



Last week the kids wanted to do a craft so I set up the table to paint while Rachel was working. They were painting in one of those books where you just use a wet paintbrush and the color is on the page. Quite honestly, the books seems pretty worn out and not much paint was actually coloring the page, but that didn't seem to bother them.




And one day last week Asher, Chiara, Bumpy (the bunny), and I went to Wh0le Foods. We got what may be the only race car cart in the sore but it really made for an easy trip.

Beach Trip - Port Aransas 2009

We went to the beach from Sunday to Friday of last week. We got a very good deal from A Laughing Horse Lodge for the off-season. We had stayed there before but not in the last five years. The weather was fantastic every day of our vacation and we went to the beach at least once and usually twice each day.

Here are some pictures of the space. It was a real lifestyle shock to fit into one bedroom/living room and a dining/kitchen area but we had a lot of fun. And every meal was a picnic!



Here's Chiara stealing my hat.



And Chiara stealing a bag and making it a hat.


We went down to the pier but didn't go out on it. This is the beginning of the pier before you go through the gate (and pay). Chiara is asleep but she looks all fallen over.


Asher's favorite part of Port Aransas was playing in the big shark in front of a store.

Posing

Here are some cute pictures of Chiara from before we went to the beach. In the first few she is walking around on the deck eating a Popsicle. They are these Mott's pure juice Popsicles and they are very yummy.


Whenever Chiara declines sleep in the evening she likes to climb up on the coffee table (actually she always likes climbing on anything).


The other night Rachel was finishing crocheting this hat (which she designed) and Chiara wanted to try it on.

Asher's First Lost Tooth

We left for vacation with Asher's front left bottom tooth very wiggly and thought he would lose it on vacation. Six days later, we returned with all our teeth still intact. A few hours later, he was messing with it and said, "Here's part of my tooth." It wasn't part. It was all. Now the tooth next to that one which was very loose is now really really loose. But he's lost his first tooth! Cute, huh?

So Big

Wow, Chiara is so unbelievably big! We went for her 15 month visit last week (even though she's 16 months old). She is actually doing all the tasks on the 18 month checklist and she got only one shot so it was a good visit. She walks, runs, nearly jumps, and says 25-30 words and parrots an even longer list. Her favorites include: eating cheese ("cheese, cheese"), riding in the car ("car, car"), putting on and off shoes ("shoes, shoes"), going out side ("side, gate!"), and drinking water ("Bwah, Bwah"). She also likes taking off or putting on clothes (not necessarily her own), climbing into and out of the bathtub, and standing on the furniture ("get down, get down").

Here she is pushing and pulling Asher around on the deck:



And here they are snuggling on the couch while Asher eats carrots.


She also loves to ride the horsey (not pictured) and play the piano:

Weekend Pictures

First off, here are two pictures of Mitzi and David after finishing the MS150 this weekend. Although the first day of the ride was rained out, it is a fantastic fund-raising event and athletic event. We're proud of our family for participating. The links to the right will be active until the middle of May if you just realized you wanted to donate to the cause.


Asher tabulates votes for lunch location:


And Chiara (wearing my favorite of little kid clothing - a romper) climbs up the toy shelf and onto the window sill. I'm sure it sends a mixed message but I couldn't help wanting to get a picture of her signing more while I said please sit down. You know she's thinking, "You said sit down. I'm sitting now." If you say "sit down" or "get down" she will say it back to you even if she doesn't do what she said. And if you say "sit down or lay down" she will incline her head like she's taking a nap.