It's Official... x2!

Don't freak out - this has nothing to do with having another baby... but rather two other very exciting things!

1 - Henry if officially off to the races crawling! He just really started which is about the same time Ella started crawling, but he's so cute to see his little behind crawling across the floor. He's pulling himself up and walking around things. It won't be long now before he's starting to walk and then running after his sister! I have 2 videos to post - couldn't decide. The first I love b/c Ella wants to be like Henry - and wants me to get a video of her and him crawling. The second I love b/c at the very end, Henry retaliates on Ella and pulls her hair. It's terrific! Enjoy!

2 - We officially bought a new house! It's kind of been in the works for about 5 months or so now, but it's officially ours as of today! It definitely needs some serious yard work, some sprucing up inside (paint and carpet) and the basement has been gutted - water damage. But it's really a great house and we're so excited to turn it into our new home. Not sure when we'll move yet, but we are going to try and rent our existing home out for some ND football weekends. If you know of anyone needing a great cute house about 2-3 miles from ND - let me know! We'll keep it cheap - just trying to cover the extra mortgage a little. :) Here's a picture. We'll definitely be in before Christmas, most likely in the next few weeks. We are very excited!

This One's for Uncle Tim & Aunt Alex

I had to post this before the weekend. In case you didn't know this, Ella is quite the performer. She gets a little bashful around boys (stay that way!) and she's not really sure about being on stage in front of an audience (thank you Christmas program at school) but, at home, she's a dancing and singing machine. Tim & Alex got Ella a microphone for Christmas last year. It's actually an official 'kaeoke' microphone that you can plug into your TV. Anyway, Ella has recently re-discovered it and I captured her singing the Blue's Clues theme song (after her own made-up song) last Friday morning. Enjoy.

Here are the lyrics for those of you who don't watch Blue's Clues 5 times a day...
"Now it's time for so long, but we'll sing just one more song. Thanks for doing your part... you sure are smart. You know with me and you, and my dog Blue, we can do anything (bum, bum, bum) that we wanna do!"



And here's a picture of Ella & Henry with Baby Sofia (my girlfriend from HS Kasey Heer, now Kasey Swade's daughter) born in early May.

July Pictures

Well it's taken me long enough to put up a new post, I thought it would be best to just do a slideshow (to the right) of the past month. It's been hot so we've been playing in sprinkler and water parks with friends. Ella's class took a trip to Kennedy water park (see below.) It was quite a crew, but so fun! We also went to visit some friends in Chicago for the day (Cole & Finn) and had a great time. I'll try and be better this next month.

Most of you know we're in the process of buying a new house (still TBD until we close) so that's consuming most of my time. Phil just finished 2 fantastic boat shows and so now he's ready to enjoy the rest of his summer. Hope you're having a great summer too! More to come!

A little preview...

We were in Punta Cana (in the Dominican Republic) over the 4th of July holiday weekend to celebrate the wedding of my brother Chris and my new sister-in-law, Candice. The whole family traveled there and we had a great time. The beach was beautiful, the pool - so fun, the wedding was so romantic and and simply perfect. The kids had a great time. Ella was the flower girl (another dancing machine,) I was a bridesmaid and Phil and Henry were there for support and to enjoy it. Candice looked absolutely gorgeous and Chris looked pretty handsome himself! I plan to get more pictures up soon, but wanted to do a quick post before the weekend.

Summer Fun

We've had a great couple of weeks just enjoying the weather and playing outside. Ella's class took everyone to the South Bend SilverHawks (Single A baseball) game for Father's Day. We took a family picture and Ella's got about 10 Skittles in her mouth! We also went for a picnic and played on the playground. We went to a marionette puppet show with Sally and Ella posed with one of the puppets. Our friends, Kasey & Matthew just had a beautiful baby girl, Myla James, and we visited with them one evening as well. You can really see Henry's two bottom teeth now and he just laughs and laughs all the time. Ella loves making him laugh and just running, running, running (it doesn't stop!) around at the playground. By the way, Ella took the picture of me laying down with Henry!

Our newest discovery is that Henry just loves the 'Jack-in-the-box' and Ella makes it POP out for him. The both just squeal with delight. Enjoy this clip!

Playing Around

Hanging Out

We've been having a lot of fun lately just hanging around the house. Henry is growing and changing each day. He's really squealing now and talking a lot. His two bottom teeth are through his gums... so his smile will change any day now! He's eating all kinds of Stage 1 baby foods and sitting up on his own (for about a minute or so.) He loves his new 'jumperoo' toy and Ella really knows how to make him laugh and get him going!

Ella has been testing us lately and we are deep in the throws of the "trying two's" at the moment. She's reluctant to nap and really wants things her way... but then again - she's always been determined! Wonder where she gets that stubbornness from?!?!? She is looking especially cute lately as well - which makes it hard to say 'no' sometimes! We had a play date the other day and she was throwing a tantrum. As I tried to remove her from the situation, she got herself so worked up she threw-up grape juice all over me and our friend's white carpet! UGH! Needless to say, we're glad it's Friday! Happy Weekend everyone!