Love and Family

R and G at the park

Nephews

All of our nephews--along with my parents, three of my brothers, and two of my sisters-in-law--got together in San Diego this past week. Here are some pictures of the cuteness. When J and I looked at them this morning we really really wished we could have been there, too.

This is G (almost 2.5) meeting Li'l Tyke (9 months) for the first time.

Is this not the cutest ringbearer (and family) ever? A&M travelled out to San Diego for a wedding, and G was the ringbearer. I can't get over how adorable he is in his tux!

In this picture of Li'l Tyke (who is getting so big!), J and I think he really looks a lot like Cali's dad.

Love this huge smile!!

Here's 4-month-old Trucker chatting it up with Li'l Tyke.

Trucker always has the cutest little baby expressions. I just love this photo!

M's face in this picture is classic.

Looks like the water was cold!

I love my sisters-in-law!!

And, not to be outdone, here's one of my brothers--Geg, Surf, and A:

Hunting for Easter Eggs

R and G had a great time hunting for Easter Eggs at Grandma and Grandpa's house this weekend. It was the cutest thing to watch them looking for the eggs together.

Name Paintings

So we've ordered a painting for each of our nephews-- G, Li'l Tyke, and now Trucker. Here's a link to a picture of the painting we had done for Trucker. It's totally cute and we just heard from A&M that they really love it. I can't wait to get to see it in person! Check it out here.

p.s. We've now ordered three paintings, plus I won one in a contest, and these paintings are so cute and really reasonably-priced for custom-made artwork, so if you're interested, check out Penny Pickles Art (there's also a link to her blog on the side of this blog).

Nephew updates!

G got a new hair cut, courtesy of M-- who did an amazing job. It's sad to see his curls go. Boy, doesn't he look all grown up all of a sudden?
Li'l Tyke is 5 months old and doing all kinds of acrobatics now, we hear. Check out that push up in the first picture!and Trucker is now a week old. Here's a tiny little baby picture. Isn't he adorable? (and how many of us can remember when our babies were that tiny? I swear, every time I say, "I'll never forget..." a few months later, I'm like, "ooh, I've already forgotten what it was like when...")

Introducing Trucker!

As promised, here are some photos of Trucker from the day he was born. Everyone says he's the spitting image of A as a baby, down to the cleft in his teeny little chin!
Is this not the cutest pregnant lady you've ever seen? Obviously she was all belly!The happy family-- G, M, Trucker, & A.
G meeting Trucker. I love the happiness radiating from M's face in this photo.

She took her first steps!

My brother A and sister-in-law M gave R this Leap Frog table for her birthday, and told us that it helped our nephew G learn to walk because he would move between the table and another toy, and they gradually kept moving the toys further apart (or G just wanted to get between them faster) until he actually took steps to get from one to the other.

The first day R got the table, she spent 15 minutes straight just cruising circles around the thing. Initially, she singlemindedly went only in one direction (counter-clockwise) but she's since learned to move in a clockwise direction too. Lately, she's been reaching for the table from other pieces of furniture, usually the couch or the chair. While she has previously moved one foot while standing to try and maintain her balance, two days ago we saw her for the first time move both feet in a forwards direction. J says he's seen her do something like that before, but I hadn't, so I say it counts as her first steps!


And, because you're thinking this, yes, we were incredibly lucky to get it on video! We were actually trying to get some pictures of her with one of her favorite toys these days, this little telephone she's had since she was born but has only recently gotten really interested in.

We joke about how this toy is going to be so archaic by the time she's bigger because phones just don't look like this anymore, with cordless phones and cell phones being what they are. But anyway, she loves this thing. It rattles and she sits and shakes it. She's also really gotten into putting it on her shoulder and hugging it between her cheek and shoulder, kind of like the move you do when trying to talk on the phone without holding the receiver in your hands. You actually see R doing this in the video. It is so cute.

When she walks around with it, she also likes to hand the phone to us, as if she's answered it and it's for one of us. She hands us the receiver and we talk into it, usually to Grammie and Grampie or Grandma and Grandpa, who are always very excited to hear from her and want to talk to her again, and then we give it back to her. She sometimes says “Hiiii” or babbles a bit, but usually she just cradles the phone for a bit and then gives it back to us to talk again. Too fun.