All I can say is...

WAR DAMN EAGLE!

It is particularly nice for the girl from FL to watch her team win in the swamp! Did you watch the game, what did you think? I bet it was a lot of fun to be there. Does anyone else wonder where this team has been all season? Ok, that's all I can say now, the baby is emptying her diaper bag and running around the house in her sleep clothes, I must go...Daddy didn't get her changed while I was at Church, but they had a great time yesterday and my daughter didn't even care when I came home. I don't know how to feel about that!

Shoe box

I think my daughter's love of shoes and boxes is captured with a shoe box! She loves to put stuff in it and carry it around and well, I think you might know how fun a box can be. In these series of pictures Gwen has put her keys into the shoe box and is trying to retrieve them, unsuccessfully...she hasn't quite figured out she can just turn the thing upside down and they will fall out.

In the following picture she is explaining something to me, I think that her keys are in there and she is trying to get them out! I am not as versed in Gwen babble as I should be!

Have a great weekend!

Super Pretzels

Gwen seems to have a new found love; I would say boxes, but that is too specific, Gwen is going through a phase where she seems to think that she should be able to sit in things, that most people wouldn't think to sit in...like this:
And, although we enjoy just sitting in boxes (and baskets, including laundry baskets) we also enjoy putting stuff in boxes and being carried or dragged around the room in baskets. Apparently Gwen is preparing for sledding! (I think Eric is pretty excited about going sledding with Gwen)

ok, so in this last picture she wants me to put the camera down and get her out, but sometimes Mommy prefers to get the picture and then get her out...a little figuring on her own won't kill her! So, if you are wondering what Gwen needs, apparently a box and a ball and she is set for days!

More box pictures tomorrow!

Happy Birthday Grandmom...

we hope that you have a wonderful day! Don't work too hard!

We miss you and we'll see you soon!

Our Weekend

We have had a very busy weekend, as usual. Eric as usual had a bee in his bonnet which meant for yet another weekend we had to trek up to outlets could he could get his latest 'must have' item! I am not saying this as a complaint, it is nice to get out and about, but it will help those of you who don't really know Eric to get a picture of what our life is like, you already know about most of my craziness. Eric's obsession of the weekend before last lead to the following pictures. Eric has decided besides training for a marathon to brew his own beer. Gwen decided that the box for said beer brewing box is good enough to play in! Who needs toys!



You can't really see her in this picture, unless you look real close you can see just the edge of the head, she enjoyed trying to sit in the box and then popping back up.

Gwen now has 1 more tooth in the bottom front on the left, I think the right will be popping through very soon. Over the weekend Gwen started saying "OH" to everything, this morning she started saying "Uh-oh" I think it is the cutest thing. When we say something to her like "Gwen you have your shoes on" she says "Oh". So cute. I think I probably have more to say, but Gwen has awoken since I started this post and although she is babbling and happy now, (practicing her chattering) we have errands to run, off to the store for us!

Catching up

Here I am posting again this week, can you believe it? I am some pictures from the vacation that I haven't posted. I wanted you to see the dolphins Lori and I swam with, do you see them? There were several dolphins, Nic counted 14 that were swimming in groups in the water, Lori and I saw them, not real close up, but they were just swimming and jumping. I tried to get some pictures for Eric & Gwen who were walking around, but it was like I was on one of those whale expeditions you know where everyone is taking pictures of water. Yep, that was me.
Gwen relaxing in Dad's lap while she was taking a break.
Gwen is really attached to Lori now, she walks right up to her and puts up her arms after class and wants Lori to hold her, sadly Katie is starting to get jealous.
When Katie saw I had the camera out she just couldn't help hamming it up!

These pictures are from our Monday fingerpainting experience.

She started folding the paper and putting it in her lap to make like a ink blot picture of her own.

All done Mommy, what is taking you so long to get this stuff out off of me!

She didn't eat as much "non-toxic" finger paint today, so I am happy with that. We are going to try and keep painting every couple weeks maybe every week to keep her creative juices flowing. She seems to think that crayons are for eating so we haven't delved very deeply into coloring. Maybe soon.

SHOES!

I am very behind in my postings. I don't seem to have the time I need to have to get this stuff done. Eric being at home at night, is nice, but he is cramping my posting and general playing on the internet time. Blast you!...(j/k sweetheart!)

Gwen is getting more chatty, I think she is actually saying more words, but we don't realize it because of all the babbling she does. She doesn't talk much/or at all in public, but she does chatter up a blue streak at home! Today though, there were 2 incidents that made it clear that she is saying words. Tonight while I was making dinner I could hear her coming towards me talking I wasn't paying much attention until I turned around and realized she was holding my shoes saying "shoes,shoes,shoes....shoes" and was in fact holding them up to me to take them from her. I, of course, dutifully put on my shoes and finished what I was doing...dinner had to be in the oven for 20 minutes so I sat on the floor with her and asked her about her shoes. She walked right up to them picked one up came over and sat in my lap, handed me her shoe and stuck up her foot so I could put her shoe on. So, I dutifully put her shoe on the correct foot and she walked around for a couple seconds before bringing me the other shoe to put on. Unfortunately for Gwen, I was a terrible Mom and stopped putting pants on her at 4p. Gwen has been trying to drink from her sippy cup without the sippy cover, which makes for very wet pants! But here are some pictures of Gwen, in her stylin' outfit!

I don't usually look at Gwen and notice that she looks like one of us our another, but in that first picture, it is like looking at one of my baby pictures, I don't know if my Mom will agree, but I have seen that expression somewhere in our old photo albums...BTW Eric thinks I am nuts.

Here are some pictures from Friday, I tried to take a video of Gwen using her scooter, but the old camera doesn't really have as good resolution and you can't really see anything. She is pretty funny on the scooter, she kind of hops and then pushes herself backward, pretty funny. Lori gave Gwen this hat when we went on vacation a last week. Gwen likes to wear it around. Eric was putting it on different was, like backwards.


It is getting increasingly hard to take pictures of the moving target, especially with the old camera, it is very slow and many of the pictures are blurry, I apologize for that, but I think you would rather blurry pictures, than none at all, yes? So, the saga of the camera continues, I have yet again returned my camera to the store (this would be the 3rd visit for those keeping score at home), the last time the camera was sent out the people at the camera shop said that there was nothing wrong with it, well low and behold as soon as I tried to charge the damn thing it wouldn't work. BLASTED CAMERA! The guy at the store said I had to have it returned 4 times for the same problem before they will authorize a new one. I am not clear whether I would get a new camera of the same type of if I could fight to be able to get a new better camera that wasn't a lemon! I don't know if time #3 will count because the camera shop could not duplicate my problem. UGH! Anyway, have a great evening, hopefully I can kick the husband off the computer ever once and a while so I can post...I don't get to spend any time on the computer during the day, unlike some people!

PS have I mentioned that molar 1 is in molars 2, 3, & 4 have broken through the gums and hopefully we will soon have 4 molars and a better eater!

Vacation

We are back from vacation. We had a nice time, mostly. Gwen decided the only time she could sleep was in the car. She hated the water and the sand. Truly she was difficult, but we still managed to have some fun. Here are some pictures.
Gwen and Daddy getting ready to go.
This is the only time Gwen touched the water...a nice view of my butt, yes?
Gwen is not so sure about the water.
Some family pics taken by Nic, you can see Gwen is unsure of this water thing!

Gwen loved the swing on the beach, but the packed up the swing set the 2nd day we were there so we had to find somewhere else to play.
Gwen was up earlier than Katie and everyone else in the condo so we ate breakfast outside.
This was our view in the morning, well anytime really. You can sort of see Nic fishing, Nic did a lot of fishing at least what I know as a lot of fishing. Eric also did some fishing with Nic, I got no accidental pictures of them fishing.
We were in a very nice 3 bedroom condo, Gwen stayed in our room and that mostly worked out, besides the aforementioned no napping thing, she did learn how to sleep in the car. Today she tried to sleep in the car on the way home from meeting Eric for lunch. But she did take a 2.5 hour nap, so the little tyke is very tired!