This is one of my favorite pictures of Della! She had so much fun at Grant and Lauren's birthday party!
If you look closely, you will see banana smeared on his face. Regardless, it's such a sweet picture of Wesley.
The day we celebrated Wesley's first birthday is also the day I was leaving for Scotland for a week and Stephen was driving the kids out to Gary, Indiana to visit his grandparents. That said, I didn't have time to bake a cake. Instead, we gave Wesley an iced cookie w/ a candle. We set him in his chair to finish his cookie and ran upstairs to finish some packing. This is what we returned to find. He apparently liked the cookies enough to finished them off! Thanks to Aunt Noelle for baking him a real cake on his actual birthday!
Here are the kids with their Great Grandmom and Great Granddad in Gary. It was a blessing that the kids and Stephen were able to spend a few days with them while I was gone.
Here's Great Granddad giving Alice some tips for the violin.
Stephen and the kids also had the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving at his brother Peter's house. Stephen's parents were also there for the holiday. Thanks for the hospitality, Pete and Noelle! I know everyone had a great time and I was sorry to miss it!
Speaking of missing it, here is a picture of me
in Edinburgh, Scotland. I was there to attend an IAEA conference on nuclear trafficking. During my stay there I got to see a lot of the city. We had a reception at the National Gallery (caviar included!), toured the Castle and enjoyed a football (soccer) game at a local pub. On Thanksgiving day we got word that they were lighting the trees. We got there just in time for the kickoff of a huge festival where they lit the Christmas lights, shot fireworks from the Palace, had an ice show, blasted Christmas music and served Glühwein. It was a lot of fun and made a great memory!
Stephen and I celebrated our 8th anniversary this year by going to a Chicago Bears vs. Washington Redskins game. It was one of the coldest days we've had this year in DC and the Bears lost. We took out an ad in the local paper the next day apologizing for bringing the cold weather and stated that we made up for it by jinxing the Bears, enabling (to Stephen's great disappointment) the Redskins to win. ;-)Despite the defeat and the bitter cold, we had a great time and were so thankful for Matt and Kirsten letting the kids spend the night!
The next day we went to pick up the kids and we celebrated Samuel and Della's birthdays while we were with Lauren and Grant. They're getting so big!
Samuel turned 7 and decided he's had enough of this kid business. It was time to lose a tooth!
Samuel and Alice singing during our Church's Christmas program. They did such a great job!
We spent Christmas at home this year and, for the first time ever, got a tree! I think I was more excited about it than the kids :) This year the kids got a joint present--a wooden (Thomas-compatible) train set and train table. It is fun watching all four of them play together with one toy! After opening presents together as a family, my Aunt Theresa and Uncle Mark drove up from Maryland and spent the day with us.
Yo-ho-fiddley-dee... you are a pirate!
And where better to be a pirate than in Florida? We spent the week of New Year's down in Tampa with my Mom and Dad.
We have a knack for bringing the cold weather with us to Florida. It got down to the 20s one of the nights we were there. That said, we still made it to the beach to look for shells and get our feet wet!By the way, I have no idea why the text is now underlined. Not intentional!
Samuel and Alice got to stay up to watch the ball drop for the first time this year. This last picture is one of Grandma and Poppy staying up with the kids doing crafts to pass the time. Della went to bed shortly thereafter and the "big kids" got to stay up and play games and do the countdown. They were very excited! Thanks to Mom and Dad for the fun visit :)
