Happy 3rd Birthday Leah!!!!

Leah turned 3 on Sunday, also the most beautiful day of the year so far. We celebrated with family, enjoying pizza, cake and lots of sunshine. The kids played outside all day long.

Our friend Troy was in town for the weekend. The kids especially loved having him come visit. They called him Uncle Troy and followed him around the entire time. Here's Leah with the Tinkerbell table we gave her. She's been taking it back and forth b/w the deck and dining room since Sunday, eating her meals and snacks with Carter. I tried to sit with her once and she told me "No, Mommy, that chair is for Carter!" Probably a good thing. They're not exactly built for adults.
After she got up from her nap on Sunday, she put on one of her summer dresses! I had gotten her a little tiara to wear for the party since it was her special day.

The kids played in the yard most of the party. Here's Kenny (Hayden's dad) pushing Kate and Leah on the swings.

I made her a Tinkerbell cake. She later put the candle in her room as a decoration and keeps pretending to blow it out.

One thing I love about the timing of Leah's birthday is that it's so close to spring. She was given a few adorable spring dresses and all the colors are bright and cheery, signifying the end of dreary winter!!
Jeremy's aunt and uncle gave her some dress up jewelry and a wand. She would not put the wand down and opened the rest of the presents with one hand.
Jeremy's sisters growing up all played with a doll rocker, built by Jeremy's dad. For Leah's birthday, they refinished it and gave it to her with a new doll. We'll pass it along to the next granddaughter too. Leah was so excited!! Here she is wrapping up the doll in her blanket.

On Monday, while I was on the computer, she took one of Elliot's diapers and put it on her doll. You can see the rocker behind her. It's really sharp!

Following Kristy's lead, I posted several of my favorite Leah pics from her 3 year journey thus far....Born with a full head of hair, we were so happy to hear the doctor announce, "It's a girl!!". I never realized how I'd feel having a daughter and always assumed I'd have boys, probably because I never had a sister. She's been such a blessing to Jeremy and I. She livens up our home and is tons of fun to be around.

She's Carter's little helper, sitting in his toolbox.

So silly, always looking for some fun.

Leah's first Halloween, a little ladybug.First ChristmasLeah loves hanging out with Daddy. Jeremy usually leaves before she gets up in the morning. Just in case though, each morning when she gets out of bed, she runs to the top of the stairs and yells, "Daddy, you down there?". If by chance he's still in the kitchen, she barrels down the stairs to say goodbye. Her hair was so long as a baby. 1 Year, after a haircut
18 months

We were re-doing our family room here, which is why the trim's all chipped up.

Fall 2007

Hiding in the bushes with Carter. She loves to play Hind-N-Seek.2nd Birthday

Since Leah was a baby, she's always sucked her fingers. We've tried to get her to give them up, but I won't be surprised if she never does. It's like part of her personality.

Leah's laugh is contageous. Here she is with big brother and Pop-Pop. She's always trying to be funny and joke around with Carter, trading giggles all day long.

Here she is just after Elliot was born, transitioning from little sister to big sister. She loves to get dirty. My mom saved a nightgown she had made for me when I was little and it fits Leah now. She loves blankets and stuffed animals. On this night recently, she had surrounded herself with her favorite snuggy blankets before falling asleep.

Happy Birthday Leah! We're crazy about you and love you so much. Thank you for making us laugh. You have a huge heart and a sweet little attitude. All that know you comment on your tremendous ability to communicate (she talks quite a bit!). You're so enthusiastic about life and have tons of energy. It's so fun to be around you and I can't wait to watch you tackle future adventures. Keep it up sweetheart!

Almost Done

It's been two weeks of the flu at our house. We're still not totally in the clear but slowly pulling out of it. This put a damper on the shower project. Jeremy has officially finished the shower tile and is almost done with the bathroom floor tile. It looks so sharp. He painted and put the toilet back. Now we're ready for the glass, which he's been researching for the best price and style we like. I'm sort of hoping that he hires someone to install it, only because it seems sort of tricky. We'll see....it's all coming together!

Here he is putting the very last tile in place. It's been a pretty tedious project with lots of cuts, so as you can see by his face, he's pretty glad to be done.

Elliot 8 Months Old

I've been trying to post a video of Elliot but having trouble. Does anyone have any pointers? It continues to attempt to load the video for hours, but never is successful. It's only 50 seconds but maybe it's too big?

I'm posting a picture and it's way overdue!! He's been 8 months for a few weeks now. Here he is standing against the wall in our family room. Jeremy had balanced him there for a second since he likes to stand. He's rolling a lot more and beginning to babble. He has two bottom teeth and is currently cutting a few on top. The best news is he's finally gaining weight. I'm hoping by his 9 month dr's visit he'll have climbed up a bit on the chart. He's doing better with table food and taking more formula. He scoots backwards on his tummy so showing signs of crawling.

Elliot is a cuddly cuddly little guy! He still comes in our bed every morning to eat and snuggle. These are things I took for granted a bit with Carter and Leah. I'm trying to make the most of it with Elliot. Either that, or I'm too tired to get up and take him downstairs! Seriously, they get big so fast. I can't believe he's already 8 months old!!

Congratulations Carter

A big week in our house....Carter's been potty trained since he was 2 1/2, but still struggles with staying dry throughout the night. I always figured it was because he's such a heavy sleeper.

While we were in Denver, my mom announced on the phone that Carter woke up dry! I asked, "Are you sure?", not because I didn't believe her, but because a few times, he's woken up in the morning, taken off his wet diaper and thrown it in the trash. Then, he opened a new dry diaper, marched down the hall to my room and announced "Mom, I stayed dry all night!! See...(holding up the dry diaper)". He forgot to open the tabs and the diaper was perfectly flat, not a tough one to figure out. :-) Needless to say, I was a little suspicious.

When we got home from our trip, he surprised us and really stayed dry. So, we knew he could do it and we started putting him in underwear for bed. I promised if he could stay dry for five nights in a row, we would take him out to celebrate with a chocolate milkshake. And he's done it. The Dr. said that would probably happen in time and I guess it's time. Way to go Carter. We are so proud of you!!

Unfortunately, our house was struck with a long week of flu and we didn't make it out as promised. He was getting tired of waiting so I made him his own special milkshake at home.

Colorado Ski Trip

Jeremy and I went to Denver to visit my brother David and meet up with my cousin Jess and her husband, Karl. They just got married last May and we unfortunately didn't make it to their wedding in Baltimore because I was so close to delivering Elliot. Jeremy had hung out with them at my other cousin Matt's wedding, so I was so excited to finally meet him! I also hadn't seen Jessica in about 7 years, way too long. Anyhow, we arrived Wednesday and drove to a condo near all the ski slopes. My brother and about 15 other residents rented the place for the winter. It's a four bedroom condo with a hot tub and Foosball table. Everyone just comes and goes as they please, so you never know who's going to be there or if you're going to have a bed to sleep on. We thought this would add to the adventure. Well, we all had plenty of room to sleep, but the hot tub ended up being the adventurous part. More on that later.

Thursday morning, we got up early and headed right to Vail for our first day of skiing and the first time I've skied since Carter was a baby. We had gotten about 5 inches of fresh powder overnight, so Dave said the conditions were great. I later learned that I only like skiing on the groomed runs. Turning in powder is not so easy.

We took it to the green runs at first. Then, we headed for the back bowls of Vail, wide open runs that are a bit more challenging. This was sort of intimidating, but we all survived. The view was amazing and the large dose of sunshine warmed us right up.

Here's the group at the beginning of Day 1

There's Jeremy in the powder blue hat. He had found it at my mom's house before we left. It says Vail across the front. We all made fun of him the entire time for wearing it, but it did make him easier to spot. Not many other powder blue Vail hats with a pom pom on top.

Here's Karl...he moved here from Germany about five years ago (I think?). We had great conversations about all sorts of things, even politics! One smart and well studied guy... loved the challenging and interesting discussions. Funny thing about Karl, Jeremy kept calling him "Jan" by mistake. Must have been the accent that reminded him of our good buddy, Jan. Welcome to the family, Karl!!

A view of the village

Here we are hiking around the village after we returned our skis. It felt so good to get back into shoes.
And, the hot tub. We all couldn't wait to get in after using muscles not used in years. When we got to the condo, we told some people staying there, we were headed for the hot tub. They responded, "Oh, about the hot tub....., well, it's a bit slimy". So, we dumped a bunch of chemicals in and about an hour later (and after many drinks), everyone got in (except me). I was later talked into it though. We didn't put the jets on for fear of what would be floating around. It was pretty gross and I only lasted about a minute when I did get in. Jeremy and Karl took turns jumping in the snow and then getting back in the hot tub. I think the drinks had something to do with that too. Here are Jess and Karl posing with their drinks frosting in the snow.
And Day 2, we headed to Beaver Creek, a much smaller resort and in our opinion so much nicer. We loved it. The lines were shorter, the people super nice, and the village was awesome. Karl had packed a little Maker's Mark for the occasion . Here are the guys taking a break at the top of a lift.

And, here's Jess passed out with the Maker's Mark. She really slipped off the edge of the bench, attempting to sit down next to Karl.Dave and I, Jess and Karl

It was so cute in the village of Beaver Creek. They had an ice skating rink right in town, outdoor fire pits and they serve warm fresh baked chocolate chip cookies by the ski lifts every afternoon.

Day 3, we headed to Golden to tour the Coors Brewery. It felt like tailgating b/c we were drinking samples first thing in the morning. We had a lot of fun here.

Jeremy, sampling the fresh cold brew.

There's a bar at the end of the tour where each person can sample three different beers.
My favorite pick - Blue Moon

Next stop: Boulder. My cousin Bonnie, on my mom's side of the family, lives there. She met us for lunch in town. I haven't seen her since our grandmother's funeral about a year and a half ago. It was so nice to visit her in Colorado!!! We met at a really great little restaurant attached to an old hotel. Here we are in the hotel after lunch. Bonnie works as an art director for a business magazine. I loved catching up with her and wish we could see the Hofto's out west more often!!

Then, we took a hike near the flatirons. Thanks for showing us around Bonnie!

We stayed in downtown Denver Friday and Saturday night. They were having Restaurant weekend and Dave got us into a fantastic restaurant called Vesta Dipping Grill. We highly recommend it if you're ever there. The price was right...52.80 (mile high city) for two gourmet and delicious meals. Karl picked a great wine too!
And last but not least, on the way back to the hotel, we took the rickshaw bike taxi. We loved it! Here's our driver. He gave us a little tour around the area and was just a really cool guy full of fun facts.

I wanted to get a picture of the giant bear so he drove us by.

Thanks Dave for all the work you did in arranging this trip for us. We had a fantastic time, a trip to remember!!! If the doctor career doesn't work out, you should open up an online travel agency! :-)

Jeremy's Latest DIY Project

Jer's been diligently working on updating our shower. When he tore the old shower out, he realized he had to rework some of the plumbing and drywall before actually starting the tile. What seems like a pretty quick project always ends up being bigger once you get started. I'm just amazed at his ability to figure things out. He did some research online, got some advice from those who do this sort of thing and off he went. We worked on the layout together (that's where my contribution ends) and bought the tile at Home Depot. He has been up and down the stairs a thousand times! The saw's in the garage so every time he has to make a cut, he has to run back downstairs.

One highlight: Early in the project, when he was finishing up the plumbing, I was working on dinner down in the kitchen, when all of a sudden water started dumping out of the can light in the kitchen ceiling...not good. Jeremy's not one to panic, but I yelled to him and he came flying down the stairs into the basement to turn off the water. Then began running around the house trying to figure out what had happened. Luckily (sort of), it was the toilet in the kids bath. Due to him turning the water on and off several times during the plumbing changes, we think the pressure change made an already slightly leaky valve fail and water dumped into the bathroom and ran down into the kitchen. It worked out to be a quick easy fix, and free (the best part!).

My favorite part is the arched shelf. So cool!

Right now he's working on the bathroom floor. The next step is painting. Then, he'll have the shower door installed. I'll post some more pics as things progress.

Leah at mealtime

I was inspired by Kristy and Michelle's recent video footage. So, the other night I recorded Leah at the dinner table. We spend most meals just laughing while Leah entertains us. She can talk about anything. The reason I started recording was because she was telling us about helping Miss Kathy (her teacher) clean the toys at school and she said she wiped down the Holly Hobby, but she calls it the Holly Holly and it sounds funny. Anyhow, once I started recording she wouldn't say it, but this is what we got.

More fun in the snow/grass

Last Sunday, we spent the day out in Pennsylvania visiting our friends Amy, Jeff and their twin girls Riley and Emma. The plan was to snowmobile in their field and let the kids see their horses. However, after many weeks of constant snow, we had a big thaw. That didn't stop Jeremy's dad from bringing the sleds. We just managed to tear up their yard b/c it was mostly grass. The kids loved riding along and tried to hitch a ride from anyone that would take them. This of course made me nervous but everyone pretty much drove in a straight line. Carter was constantly screaming "faster!!!". What happened to my cautious kid??!!

Carter and Leah pretending to drive.

Amy with Riley and Emma

Jeremy taking Carter and Leah

G-ma with Carter and Leah

Jeremy and I on the red sled. Amy and Leah on the blue. Leah was grinning ear to ear!

Anna with Oliver, Elliot and I

We tried to pull the kids on the sled. Didn't go so well. They got soaked!

The kids did a lot better with the horses this time. Last time they were pretty scared.Elliot crashed on Aunt Heather's shoulder. Must have been all that fresh air!

Elliot - 7 Months Old

This is super late, but I took these pics a few weeks ago, around the time he turned 7 months old. Here he is wearing Jeremy's hat. Elliot riding on a scooter