I'll Toast To That!

After countless hours of call, pager interruptions, black weekends, and late night EEGs, today marked the end to 9 years of Medical school, Residency, and Fellowship!

We have July to enjoy being together and then Andy begins a great opportunity in town. I am not allowed to say anything about it in case someone stalks our family. We are really proud of Andy and excited for this new adventure!

Father's Day

We celebrated Father's Day on Saturday with a trip to Andy's favorite deli in town. It is too hard for us to do lunch on Sunday's with my work schedule.

Carly waiting on her food. You can see Andy getting the drinks on the right.

Mr B anxiously waiting on his grilled cheese. He wouldn't even look at me!

Joiner with her drink

Andy and Joiner.
We still made a special breakfast of cheese danish and eggs for Father's Day.

I tried to add a picture of Andy with the red plate, but it didn't load. Oh, well. Happy Father's Day to 3 to the dad of the 3 luckiest kids!

Swimming Lessons

We joined the neighborhood pool this summer. They have free swimming lessons that we jumped on! The girls have had swimming lessons, but they just aren't in the pool enough normally to get really comfortable. They started the day after their Dance Recital so Mamie, Pops, and Robert were still in town.

The girls waiting on their coach, Ellen

Swimming with Ellen and the other little girl in their group, Avery. It is just the 3, so it is almost like a private lesson.

Meanwhile, Mr Be was stunning all the babes with his sweet body! Check out the little girl on the left. She just stared at him!

I forgot his sun shirt and hat that day so he was coated in sun screen literally from his head to his toes. He is a little confused about the shorts. Look how chunky he is! How is he the 8%?

So cute!

Practicing with the kick boards.

The girls have done really great. The lessons are 4 days/ week at 11:10am and they are over tomorrow. It is amazing how far they have come!

Dance Recital

The girls had their first dance recital at the Steven's Center downtown on June 14th. It was the most professional thing I have ever been to. The girls were so excited and asked me to braid their hair to make it curly. Here is Joiner with her curly hair.

Carly with her curly hair

I didn't take my camera to the dress rehearsal so I don't have any pictures of them on the stage.

Mamie, Pops, Robert, Gigi, Margaret, Caga, and Miriam all came to the show. We took up a whole row! Here we are before the show and before Caga and Miriam got there.

I didn't take my camera to the dress rehearsal, so I don't have any pictures of them on stage. Mamie has this awesome zoom on her camera and has some great pictures. I will post them when I get them. The girls did such a great job! Here are some of us after the show. It was 3 HOURS long, so some people had to head home earlier. We left Mr. B with a sitter so he wasn't there. Joiner is on the left, Carly on the right.

With some of their school friends who also were in their dance class. Carly on the left and Joiner on the right.

10 Months Old

I know, I know...The blogging has really taken a back seat to summer fun. But hopefully I can catch up on all the fun we are having.

Bennett turned 10 months old last week and I have no idea how it happened. I know I say this every month, but whew! I have no number pictures this month, just lots of pictures showing all that he is up to at 10 months. He is as happy as ever. He may be even happier because he can get just about anywhere he wants. He is a super-fast crawler, and can pull up and coast on anything. I really think he is almost walking. He is following the girls' pattern of mobility to a "T" and they were walking by the end of this month. We will see..

He made his big move out of the Bumbo to eat into the highchair. Here are all 3 after lunch one day.

So happy to be in the big chair. He is now at eye-level with us when we eat and he seems to really enjoy it. He is still such a good eater. He is starting to pick certain foods out of the mix to eat first, but he always eats it all. He routinely eats as much as his sisters and I:)

The girls went to Gigi and Grumpa's last week to spend 2 days in real Kindergarten. Here we are with Grumpa meeting at Subway for dinner.

Here is Mr. B looking out the window at Belle. After I posted this picture I realized it showcased the fact that I rarely clean the back door glass. In my defense, it is completely futile. Belle comes right up to the outside as soon as I am finished to press her nose against the glass to beg to be let in (the only dog in the world you have to MAKE go outside) and I literally have to hold Bennett with one hand and clean with the other. So as soon as I let his hand go, he scoots right up to the glass to alternately pound and lick it:)

This posted out of order, but here he is with his favorite Elmo table.

Back to licking the door and looking for Belle. Zoie doesn't bother standing at the door as she can't see in it;)

We have this Elmo table that Tricia gave the girls when they were born. They loved it, but with only three legs, they would constantly fall forward. I brought it out for Bennett and he also loves it. However, after falling a few times, we moved it to his room and put it up against his dresser. It is a great location. As his room is just off the living room, he can crawl right in and play. It is also great because I can hear him (it makes the most annoying sounds) and I know that he is safe while I wash dishes or do something else.

"Hmm...what should I do now?"

"I think I will have some ice cream from the saucer."

As soon as he sees me, he has to come get me!

I got the girls new headbands and they put it on Mr B. We will use this for when he is older to keep him in line:) Doesn't he make a pretty girl?

He isn't amused:)

I feel pretty safe letting B roam around upstairs. I can close the doors I don't want him to enter and he can just crawl around and explore. The playroom downstairs is another matter. Even though it is relatively safe, there are so many things that he shouldn't explore. Everywhere he goes there are TV cords, computer buttons and cables, books to pull out, etc. I am never relaxed and just playing with him down there. Of course, he LOVES it downstairs. He is in constant motion trying to get into everything. Here he is playing with the girls' kitchen. It is a really great height for him to move things and pound. He was having a great time.

Tinkerbell came by to give him a kiss (she is a regular guest at our house)

So happy!

Bennett is such a Blessing. He continues to grow and change each day and brings so much joy to all our lives!

Love you, sweet boy!

Baby Ninjas

This post will show a side of Andy that most people don't see. He appears to be so calm and even tempered, and he is, 75% of the time. The other 25% is this wacky goofball. He creates the oddest games and names for things. We were all playing in the living room last week one night after dinner. Suddenly, he had a baby towel on his head and was yelling "baby ninjas!" Well, of course the girls needed to do the same thing. Then Bennett was in the mix. They were all running down the hall, into B's room, into the living room and back. This is way too many pictures, but they are so funny.

Here was some kind of planning session.

Bennett is not sure what is going on, but he wants in.

Going to find the action

"Baby ninjas!"

The big ninja grabbed B and off they went

Stare down with the big ninja and Zoie

Going to get him

The girls coming to save him

Last night we got the 25% in a dance party with hits from the 90s on Itunes. We have some rhythm, that is for sure:)

Bennett's Baptism

Bennett was Baptised last weekend at Gigi and Grumpa's church. This is also the church where Caga and I were Baptised. Mr B was a little older than we hoped, but we were finally able to put a weekend together where almost everyone could be there. Sorry Miriam!

Poor Bennett only slept about 20 minutes in the car over to Eden. He was in a good mood though, and spent most of the service playing in the nursery. All of our family and the Evans' Baptism gowns were too little as we were all Baptised as infants and B is much bigger. Thankfully I found a NEW Strasbourg outfit for him at ETC. Unfortunately, he sat in spilled chocolate milk in the nursery. When I came in to get him just before the Baptism, they were trying to clean him to no avail. It wasn't a huge deal, but I think most people think he pooped:) I tried to keep his back to the altar so no one was staring! He was a champ. He let the Priest take him from me and pour the water on him with no crying. He just laid back and enjoyed the day. The Priest did a wonderful job. It was only the 2nd service I have been to in the last year, so I enjoyed a worship service:)

As there is no photography in an Episcopal worship service, all pictures are after the end.

Here is Mr B with Pops enjoying the bulletin

Robert, Mamie, Pops, and us.

The Godparents (Caga, minus Miriam, Margaret, and Bruce) and our crew. Look behind the Baptismal font for Joiner.

The Dineen's, Margaret, Bruce, and us.

Margaret and Bruce with B

Bruce is looking but Bennett turned

The Godparents minus Miriam (she was in a wedding)

Caga and Bennett

Mom and Dad hosted a wonderful luncheon with Grumpa's famous smoked pulled pork and lots of fixin's. Mrs. Leah, Ellison, Mrs. Lissa, and Tina all came from town. Along with lots of friends from Eden, it was a great afternoon.

Robert wanted to taste my carrot cake so I that with the cross.

Ms. Lissa made this beautiful arrangement for the day.

The girls and their buddies, Ellison and Tina

Mrs. Leah and Ellison

Bennett is always surrounded by women.

Robert with Mr B. It looks like he is screaming, but he is making this funny face for Mamie's camera. Her camera has this bright red-eye light and this is the best he could do. So funny.

Bruce and Andy going over plans for the desk for his new office. This is going to be the sweetest piece of furniture we own and it won't even be at home:) Maybe someday I can get Bruce to make me a dining room table!

B going for the little red chair at Gigi's

We found him under the dining room table. He was having a ball.

Pulling up (his favorite trick) on someone

Joiner in her new dress

The lunch ended and Mr B went to bed. He was such a trooper. He crashed in the pack and play in Gigi and Grumpa's room. I woke him up after 3 hours to get back in the car to go home. That was the only time he was really unhappy. He really didn't want to be in the car again. Thankfully Tina was riding home with us so she played with him.

The girls love to go to Gigi and Grumpa's house. There are all these "new" toys. By far, the favorite is the Barbie convertible. Their neighbors gave it to them when their daughter outgrew it and they literally run the battery down each day.

Here are Carly and Ellison on a trip.

Joiner and Carly off-roading

Coming back around

Ellison had to go home soon afterwards. Natalie next door came over to play with the girls and Tina in the little pool and sprinkler. I think it is safe to say that everyone (especially Gigi) slept well that night!

God Bless you, Bennett!