Happy Easter!

Daddy and Fi and the Sunday morning funnies.

While it is belated, we wish you all a very Happy Easter! this past month has been very busy for us.
We went to visit Grammy and Grumpy. It was a long car ride, but both kids were marvelous and with Daddy driving part way and Grammy and Grumpy meeting us the rest of the way, it was much easier!

Keeping the kids entertained all week was another story... Here we are at the Cincinnati Children's museum. Grumpy was a little afraid of Dan's driving.

This tunnel above Grumpy's head is what Dan is crawling through. Then he crawled through one that was higher than that. For those of us who are afraid of heights (me and Ken) this was incredible.

Sophia is old enough to play in the water. I can't believe time is flying so quickly.

Sophia with her favorite thing at Grammy and Grumpy's house... the phone cord. I guess none of our phones have them.

Then Grammy and Grumpy came back to Virginia with us.

I realize there are not very many pics of Grammy here. She is like me. Elusive to the camera :-) But I promise she was there nonetheless.

Here is some video of Grumpy's birthday. Daniel said he can't wait until he is 63 too because then he'll be old enough to say "butt" and not get in trouble.

Here is some video of Sophia toddling around the house saying her new favorite word.

I took Sophia to church and tried to leave her in the nursery where she promptly began crying. She doesn't throw a hissy fit -- she just gets VERY mad and lets you know it. She gets so angry that she gives herself hives. This has also happened at the doctor's office much to their surprise... frankly, I'm surprised the docs are surprised about her getting PO'd - who wants to get shots?

We took the kids to the Easter Egg hunt at church. Here are some pictures and the cutest video of Sophia. She is really getting into the eggs.

Also, notice Dan's new big boy haircut. He deserves one because he is now POTTY TRAINED! Yes he is. After many broken promises to Spiderman Dan finally made good and has not weeweed on the webbed wonder in over three weeks!

We have been letting Daniel Bear use our old laptop to look at PBS Kids.org. They have cute little thinking games on the site, so we figure no harm can be done for a few minutes a week. Dan figured out how to manuver a computer lickety split and can work the keyboard mouse better than I can. He also knows that when he is waiting for the computer to boot it says "Welcome." He tells me over and over again.

Snow Day!

Finally. After three years of living in Richmond, we have a snow day! And man, was it a snowday. Within a half an hour it was like the arctic last night. Today Dan and Sophia got to experience their first snow. We had to make a hodgepodge of snowsuits since we aren't really prepared for snowy weather. Poor Sophia had to wear Dan's spring rain boots.
All the neighborhood kids are out throwing snowballs. Mark is shoveling the driveway in his old battledress uniforms (BDUs) and Craig is in his fireman's outfit for warmth and protection doing the same.

Some memories for Seventh Heaven below:

Mmmm. no wonder Sophia and Magic get along so well...

We went to the circus last week and everyone, even the Woobie, got into the act. I think Woobie did it for the cotton candy, which cost $12 this year!!! Yikes. Save your pennies before you go!

It's been so cold out lately, we have taken to enjoying inside sports and activities.

Here is "Mountain O' Laundry."

The thrilling acrobatic delights of Daddy and the wee ones... (notice Dan's laundry list of other activities we will complete that weekend. He carefully plans every Saturday -- it is always the same schedule.)

Here is Dan demonstrating endurance activities (endurance for those of us who have listened to him play the harmonica like his hero Johnny Cash for three months straight!)

"First Oreo" fun...

And of course, the navigation courses... navigating the mounds of medicine that we had to have on hand and juggling dosages and times while both kids and Mark had the flu. Ugh.

Finally, our aerobic dancing exercise.

Have a great week! Next posting: pics from our trip to Ohio!

Holding Pattern

I am waiting for a new external hard drive to arrive before I can download all of our recent adventures and post them here. So, to hold you over, I leave you with the Fi and her best buddy, Magic.

Happy 1st Birthday Sophia!

Has it really been a year? It is so hard to believe. But, there is a candle on the cake that says 1 and Sophia Rae is almost ready to walk on her own, so I guess it must be true.

Soph cheesing for the camera

Here is Daniel packing his things and waiting for the "cruise" to come pick him up like it did Uncle Fred and Aunt Diane. I don't think he understands quite what a cruise is.

Who says you have to be drinking to end up with a lampshade on your head?

One of Sophia's birthday presents.

On Sophia's actual birthday she was very sick -- she's been out of school all week, so she wasn't really in a party mood.

Here is the gift that Aunt Lynne sent. Thank you Faster!

However, by the weekend she was ready to rumble. In fact, everyone was in a party mood.

It took her a few minutes, but she got really into the cake!

Nana and Pop came to visit us to celebrate Fi's birthday!

And, of course Dan was happy b/c there was chocolate.

Sophia has learned what "smile" means. I think this one is my favorite.

Watching Lawrence Welk... it is Saturday night after all!

Sophia got her first Care Bear.

Dan got a car that you can build. Pop helped him put it together.

Thanks for all the well wishes for Sophia's birthday. We hope that your New Year is starting out well and that you are keeping warm right now!

Merry Christmas! (Belatedly)

Because I have so many Christmas pictures I am posting two posts tonight. Things just got away from me after the holidays with Classes starting again and the kids going back to school. I think the manger scene is still up (Shhh....) I'm a little behind :-)

The weekend before Christmas we went to go see Santa Claus at the William & Mary Alumni House and invited Ms. Charlotte and Ms. Emily to come. It was a very nice brunch and Santa was of course in his colonial best.

Once again, this is the only picture we got of Sophia with the bearded one... she was having none of his shenanigans.

Here are Dan and Ms. Emily with Santa.

Santa had a handcarved button made out of reindeer horns (yeah... a little odd, but the kids ate it up) for each child.

The boys made gingerbreadmen for the holidays with Parker.

When Grammy and Grumpy came to visit Dan got to indulge in his favorite "grumpy treat" -- DONUTS!

The weather was pretty nice for this visit considering it was Christmastime.

Grammy and Eric practiced songs on the piano.

And then we went to church for Christmas Eve.

On Christmas morning Sophia took it all in stride. She got a grocery cart from Santa Claus filled with wooden food that you can actually "cut" apart and a baby doll.

The puppet theatre and puppets from Grammy and Grumpy were a big hit too!

Here is Daddy with his finger alpaca (yes, a finger alpaca) that Eric got him at the school Christmas bazaar. Bizarre.... but thoughful!

Dan and the Pooh books that Aunt Lynne sent. He has read out of them on a regular basis.

Sophia means business with these baby dolls. If they fall forward on their faces she stops pushing and shoves their heads gently back in their seats and then tromps on. Tough love...

Dan got a doctor kit. We all had our ears checked about 20 times this week.

Grumpy and his new digital camera. You thought he was bad before!

Grammy's picture frame.

Eric was very excited about his new night vision goggles!