Father's Day 2014

We spent Father's Day this year down in Maryland with the Sharps. It was a beautiful weekend, just perfect weather, and we got to spend some good time at the beach.

 The girls enjoyed time on the swing set... here they are with popsicles. What more could you want?

Pop Pop and Lauren

 

Lauren's gift to Dave (with assistance from Michelle)

And another highlight of the weekend, for Dave especially, was getting his summer car back from the dealership, complete with a beautiful new paint job. The girls also enjoyed it. 

Disney

While we were spending the week in Argentina, the girls went with each set of grandparents for a week of fun. Lauren headed to New Jersey to spend time with Mom Mom and Pop Pop. Here's the happy girl...

And Sophie went to Disney World with Nana Nana and Pappap, where she was in princess heaven. Here she is with Princess Jasmine (I like the attitude)...

And Snow White.

 And she celebrated her birthday (again) with a Cinderella cake during her lunch with all of the princesses. I'm not sure we'll be able to top this birthday! 

Happy First Birthday Lauren!

Three days after Christmas we celebrated Lauren's first birthday. My parents came up from Virginia and the Sharps came in from New Jersey. It was a small family get together, which was perfect right after the big holiday. It also prompted us to un-decorate Christmas and decorate for a birthday party.

Here's the birthday girl in her special birthday hat

 This bouncer was a Christmas present, but she was still enjoying the heck out of it on her birthday. 

 Let her eat cake! Chocolate cake to be precise. She liked it too. 

 The birthday crew

Merry Christmas

We spent Christmas this year with the Sharps in New Jersey. It was a relaxing few days, with a lot of family on Christmas afternoon. Christmas morning was quiet with just Mom Mom, Pop Pop, me, Dave and the girls (and the dogs too of course). Sophie is very into Hello Kitty right now and got a matching pair of gloves and a hat from Lauren (what good taste at such an early age...)

Sophie's big present was a bike (without pedals, the "new" training wheels). She struggled with it a bit, so we'll need to keep practicing. 

My attempt to get a good picture of the girls together... 

Lauren in her new outfit from Nana

Sophie's favorite present was a box of dress-up clothes from the Boyles. She's a girl through and through. Here she is sporting one of the dresses, complete with gloves and clip-on earrings. 

Welcome Lauren Isabelle!

We are thrilled to introduce Lauren Isabelle, born on December 28th at 5:50am. She weighed 6lbs 15ozs and was 19 inches long. The delivery was such a good experience, and both her and I did so well we got to come home from the hospital a day early! Big sister Sophie has been loving on her all week, just like everyone else who meets her.

About 5 minutes after arriving in the world. We were lucky enough to get to spend about an hour with her before the staff took her. She was wide awake the whole time, and both Dave and I got in some good baby gazing time. 

Sophie wanted to inspect every part of her right away. Her belly button and umbilical cord were particularly interesting to her. She also loved her little fingers and toes. 

Two very happy grandmas. 

Pop Pop

Christmas!

This year we spent Christmas Eve at our house with Mom Mom and Pop Pop. Dave made a fabulous dinner (2 fishes, as opposed to 7) and then we opened a few presents. I got a new camera, and so did Sophie! She did a lot of practicing...

 This one was taken with mine...

A science kit! Dad was as excited as Sophie!

We then spent Christmas morning at home, just the 3 of us (well, with Benson, 4) and then headed to the Sharps for the day

 All she asked Santa for Christmas was chocolate. Easy to please I guess. 

 Jumping for joy with her new doll

 And a toy for Benson too

 A doctor kit from Santa at Mom Mom and Pop Pop's house. 

 They were very good patients

 With a butterfly net from her bug catching kit. She caught an ant later in the afternoon. Not much insect activity in Jersey in December.

 Having fun with Zoe

And ending the day with ice cream with Shannon. Goofballs.