Fresh Beat Band!

Liz surprised Lily at school on Friday and took her on a secret trip to meet Paula and her daughter Grace in Cleveland. They went to see the Fresh Beat Band--Lily's first concert! Lily was so excited and everybody had a fantastic time! Lily can't wait to go to another concert!

A Fall Adventure!

Charlie's First Year in pictures...

A year of Strawberry Princess!

Charlotte's First Birthday!

It's hard to believe, but Charlie is already one year old! She loves activity and noises and Dora. She says "Bye" with a Southern Accent and will soon be walking. She loves eating bananas and noodles and yogurt and apparently, paper. She's a big time climber and loves jumping on her new trampoline with her sister. We're having her formal party on Saturday with friends and family but celebrated tonight with a little cake and a small party. She's an awesome, awesome kid, and we can't believe she's already "So Big!"

CharlotteBDay2013, a set on Flickr.

Also, I wanted to share a picture that Lily and Charlotte's Cyber-Grandma Katie Hoeppner drew and shared on Facebook:

(She also gave Charlotte a handmade pink sock monkey--see pictures above! Charlotte LOVED it!)

Karate!

Lily started Karate tonight with her friend Sarah!

World Rhino Day!

We took Lily to the Buffalo Zoo's Celebration of World Rhino Day tonight! Lily has loved Rhinos from a very early age and has been in love with Tashi, Buffalo Zoo's Rhinoceros, since the first time they met many years ago. We are so excited that she is going to have a baby and can't wait until next June to meet the newest Rhino at the Buffalo Zoo. Lily thinks they should name the baby after her!

We arrived at the zoo a little early and Lily and I took a few pics in Delaware Park!

Lily took this pic of Liz and I.

Charlotte wasn't too impressed with eating dinner on a bench in the park.

Some of the Buffalo Zoo docents made Rhino Cookies!

The presenter showed pictures of World Rhino Day from other places on the planet!

Here's the sonogram of Tashi's baby!

Lily with one of the many posters hanging at the World Rhino Day event!

Also, a flashback from a few years ago from a morning at the zoo!

Brave...

Tonight, Lily told Liz that she was feeling brave. We told her that it was the 3rd anniversary of her brain surgery to remove the tumor and how brave she was that night. She wanted to celebrate by getting her ears pierced so Liz took her.

Liz said she cried briefly, but then wanted to pick out tons of different earrings but settled on the butterflies. While I'm happy that we've been blessed with a kid as awesome as Lily, I have to admit that I'm not nearly as brave as she is. She doesn't remember a whole lot from that time but I do. I'm glad that we're where we are now, and I'm glad that this little ham is mine. Earrings and all.

11 Months Old!!!

Where is the time going? This kid is on fire...

She loves laughing and screaming and imitating her sister. She loves bananas and yogurt and bits of food off of our plates. She's trying to talk but seems perfectly content with grunts, squeals, and ba-ba-bas. She watches Dora the Explorer with an incredible attention span. She's a happy baby, but completely different from Lily--she's wild, wild, wild! We can't believe it's been almost a year!

Lily, Modern Student

I was showing Lily a video that I wanted to use for an upcoming workshop. She suggested we make our own. She helped me write the script and choose media that we'd created before to use in the video. I showed it at a conference and the audience seemed to like it--especially her John Denver rendition. I'm really proud of this kid. She's an articulate, funny, caring, and awesome child and we love her to pieces!

Charlotte's Baptism and Visit Down South

Here are the pictures from Charlotte's Baptism and our Summer Visit down South. Charlotte was quite a little ham while we were there and everybody loved her!  Also of note...Lily was an Angel in the car on the way down and on the way back. Charlotte...not so much!  *See pics below...

Click here to view this photo book larger

Photo books are the perfect gift for any occasion.

Art for the New Books!

Got the front cover art for my new books coming this Fall. I contributed chapters to two of the books in the new series--can't wait to finally see them in print!

See the landing page at Solution Tree HERE!

10 Months Old!

Charlotte is 10 months old today! She's had a lot going on this month! Her first tooth has coming and the rest of the chompers are on their way in! She's walking around the couches and furniture and will soon take off without holding on to anything! She's starting to eat real food and has had Cheerios, Nana TT's Chicken Dumplings, and a bit of a cookie. She likes to squeal and click her tongue and is a happy, happy baby. She's saying "Ma Ma" and "Da Da" and we think she said "Li Li" too. She also says "Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba" over and over. The pictures this month are more "outtakes" than what we were hoping to get. Charlotte is into everything and getting her to stand still to do anything is next to impossible. Onward and upward...we're off to see Nana TT and Paw next month and introduce Chuck to the rest of the family!