Happy First Birthday Charlie!!

Charlie had a great first birthday surrounded by many loving family and friends. He started the day being sung to by his sister and Captain Zoom. We then did some last minute organizing for his party. He was especially happy to see Aunt Ann Marie and Uncle Joe who he hadn't seen in ages. When it came time for his cupcake he was certainly not shy.



Charlie was very excited to open his presents but quickly overcome by overstimulation and exhaustion.

Although we still miss Keepher like crazy, and Michelle continues to ask for her, watching Michelle and Charlie interact with one another more and more each day is so much fun.

Yesterday Michelle was reading to Charlie and then thought he needed a hug. She wanted to make sure it was a really big one so she wound up for it before smacking it on him....






And isn't he just getting so big? I can not believe he is going to be one on Saturday!!!

Happy Valentine's Day

We had a fun morning at music class and then Nani came over with some Valentine's Day treats for Michelle. Of course one can not eat in front of Charlie without sharing so he tried some M&Ms too. ***EDIT*** Nani says this was a chocolate kiss, not an M&M.



Michelle has decided she likes to call people on the phone but not talk. When Nani arrived without Grampa she had to call him. Notice the candy smeared all over her face. I thought M&Ms were supposed to melt in your mouth not your hands?!?!?!

Ode to Keeper

We are very sad to report that we had to put Keepher down this morning. She has been such a wonderful dog. We will miss her so much. This picture was taken with the kids just yesterday and you can see in her eyes how sad and sick she was

Ready for his party...

Charlie is getting so excited to open presents on his birthday that he thought he would practice with a roll of wrapping paper. In the time it took me to clean the paper up he was up the stairs. I think we've entered the stage of constant trouble.

We did it, we did it

Okay so I should have attempted this before everyone got filthy for the day but still, we've succesfully taken a picture of Michelle and Charlie and they both look reasonably happy!!!

The Word War

We are having a blast with our little parrot Michelle and thus we've started a word war through her. I taught her to respond to "where do you wan to go" with "magic kingdom", but now Mike is trying to get her to stay "Naples" instead. Her Mimi got her a book about apples and since Naples is so close to apples she will often say the two together, it is really funny. Do you suppose she wants to go apple picking in Naples?

We have also taught her that her daddy is a policeman and that policemen say "stop" with their hand out. I'll have to get a video of that.

And now for the embarassing statements...

Yesterday there was a segment on the news about McDonalds and Michelle started repeating over and over "mommy's coke, mommy's coke", it was amusing but definitely embarassing that I'm there that much.

Then when Mike was getting into his truck for work after a morning of sledding and Michelle wanting more, she went over the the kitchen window and knocked yelling "Mike" (yes, I've done this to get his attention before) Then when he didn't respond she knocked harder and yelled "Michael", LOL.