Our Third Anniversary

May 12, 2010

We celebrated our third anniversary at Cheesecake Factory and had a great time together!

We're so excited for our four year together!

Reading Terminal Market

May 14, 2010

We had a day off of school so we decided to meet up with some friends and check out a really cool market in downtown Philadelphia called Reading Terminal Market.

On the way home we stopped by Love Park, symbolic of the "city of brotherly love."

Camping at French Creek

April 2, 2010

We went camping with some friends at French Creek - our first time camping with Brooklyn!! French Creek is a state park (I think?) that is just a few miles down the road and a great place to go camping with kids when you don't want to be too far from civilization but still feel like you are "camping." It was a BLAST and worked out even better than I was expecting! We bundled Brooklyn up and she was a great sport, going to bed without a peep and sleeping all night. We roasted hot dogs and made banana boats with our friends and played a game of "Tea Kettle" before hitting the hay. It was great!

The Greens

Deborah, Kelley, Lil, me, the Greens

Ocean City playgroup

April 1, 2010

I love that we always have such fun playgroups! This time we went to Ocean City, NJ to play on the beach. I can't believe we are only 1 1/2 hours from the ocean! It was still pretty cool so I didn't swim (though I did see some young kids getting in the water - crazy!). We loved the chance to catch some sun, eat picnic lunch, and play with our friends.

I tried to get Brooklyn to stand so I could take a picture of her with the ocean in the background but she totally refused and kept hiding her little face in my legs!
A view of the boardwalk with our friends Megan, Hallee and Maddie Payne. This place was so fun - I can't wait to bring Nate back here!

Cutie Brooklyn

March 22, 2010

Just a few cute pics of my favorite baby girl!

Brooklyn is getting so active! She pulls herself up to everything she can and gets into everything! This is a shelf in our kitchen that she can reach and it seems like it's on her daily "To Do" list to pull everything she can reach off on it. If we get the chance to buy an entertainment center (with doors) for a good deal I'm getting it! I'm so done with DVD's being pulled off and thrown everywhere!

Brooklyn's first pair of jeans!! Doesn't she look delighted?! :)
Destructo Girl

Okay so I know it is kind-of weird that I even still HAVE cassette tapes but I had a random one sitting in the tape deck of our CD/cassette/radio player that had probably been there since high school or something. Anyways, one day I came out and found Brooklyn sitting there seriously tangled up in the cassette's ribbon, happily pulling more out. I'm not even sure how she got the cassette door open in the first place... I guess it's a good thing I didn't care about the tape! Just the beginning of her destruction in our house I'm sure...little stinker.


Helping Dad load/unload the dishwasher.
Stuffing her mouth full of banana!
She's so hilarious. She loves to pull herself up to the window and look out over our balcony. I'll see the blinds moving and find Brooklyn hidden behind them looking out.
She LOVES this little music table (thanks Kelley!) that we borrowed.

Nate's b-day and St. Patrick's Day

March 17, 2010

Celebrating St. Patrick's Day and enjoying the sun with friends Deborah and Abby, Megan and Benjamin, and Kimberly and Nathan.

A few of Nate's b-day gifts - DVD player, "A Patriot's History" book, and a new tent! My bro Spencer recommended the tent that we got (backpacking tent, Sierra Designs) and it has been AWESOME.
I threw Nate a b-day party and invited our other first-year dental friends. Nate loves jambalaya so I found a few recipes that sounded good and gave it a shot. I was a little nervous because Nate can be somewhat picky about his jambalaya... Plus I have never made jambalaya before and we were inviting friends over (why do I always do that? I should probably practice my recipes before inviting friends over but instead they usually become my reason - and my guinea pigs - for trying new recipes!)! Luckily Nate and the guests gave the meal thumbs up. We ended the night with b-day candles and grasshopper ice cream cake - yum!

Spring Break!

March 8, 2010

We wanted to take full advantage of any of Nate's school breaks so we mapped out some areas we wanted to tour while we are out here on the east coast and tried to figure out the best times to hit them. For Nate's Spring Break we decided to head south. First stop: Harpers Ferry in West Virginia.

Harper's Ferry is a historic Civil War site best known for John Brown's raid on the Armory in 1859. John Brown was trying to empower the black slaves to rise up against their owners and arm them with guns to aid their revolt. His attempts failed but his actions were a catalyst for the Civil War. (It's interesting but we kind-of went backwards in time on our trip. We probably should have started with Jamestown, then gone to Williamsburg and ended with Harpers Ferry but oh well...)

We loved touring Harpers Ferry--it was one of our favorite sites. Such a neat town, interesting history, and the local shopkeepers were really sweet (one lady gave Brooklyn this cute little beaded purse for free because she was so cute!).

Nate and Brooklyn in front of the famous engine house turned John Brown's Fort.

General Store. It was pretty chilly so I was glad we had a little furry pink snowsuit for Brooklyn (thanks Melynie!).
Harpers Ferry is situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers.
Well preserved town.
Old Civil War era church.
From this rock, Thomas Jefferson called this site overlooking Harpers Ferry and the Shenandoah Valley "perhaps one of the most stupendous scenes in nature."

The battlegrounds of the Battle at Harpers Ferry.