a Week with the White's

Mindy, Raleigh and their 2 beautiful kids (anneke and owen) came down for a visit this past week.
Their first night here, we were hosting Hamiltopia! I wish I had some fun photos from that night - but I had only one of Christine in this elmo/pirate/cowboy costume.
We went hiking at Oregon Ridge (which we all know is Jess' favorite outing....). Christine rode on Mindy's back, Josh lagged behind and Ryan kept up with the big kids (thanks Owen for motivating Ryan).

The downhill section before the playground. The kids all went with me on the short route (1 mile - if even that) while the other more ambitious adults took the 4 mile hike. As you can see, Josh and I took our time walking down the hill... :)

A night out in Hamilton!

Roller Skating with the Awana group.

I guess I've become a once-a-month poster - and I appreciate my mom's reminders. :)

Recently we celebrated my grandparents 40th anniversary... congrats to them! The kids turned it into a costume party. :)

Birthdays

What better a way to round out the hectic Christmas season than with 2 birthdays??? Ryan turned 5 on the 6th of January and I 26 on the 14th...
Ryan got to celebrate 3 times! A special dinner with Grandad, a boys sleepover, and a big family party.

This past Saturday, my mom and Joe took the fam to La Tolteca for my birthday where I had to wear a sombrero while they chanted a birthday song to me. I think Tony and Ryan look much better in the hat...

I will go ahead and post 2 pictures, Christmas related... Ryan's new bike from Nana and Papa Joe (waiting for warm weather to ride!!!).... and the kiddos at a family get together. :)

Busted...

I'm going to skip all the Christmas pictures this year... they look pretty much the same as last years. If you care to look at them again - you may! http://baltimoresmiths.blogspot.com/2007/12/long-christmas-post.html



More recently though, Josh got a hold of my camera - without me knowing - and tried to take pictures. The camera was set on video mode and I had 13 videos on my camera this morning. Poor kid was busted...

Will you take pictures of me?

My boys ask all the time to have their picture taken. Is that normal? After their most recent questioning, I sent them to daddy for a professional posing session!

Nana's Cookie Day

Yesterday we enjoyed spending the day at Nana's baking cookies, playing games, decorating their Christmas tree, taking lots of posed pictures and eating tons of food! A great way to begin Christmas celebrations...

The anxious (yet patient) cookie decorations.

Can you tell the kids got excited using the sprinkles?

The younger cousins

The older cousins

Poor kids on the chairs - Andy posed them... :)

Old Friends, New Joys

A dear high school friend gave birth to her first, Sophie Louise, last Sunday. They were kind enough to let us ALL come visit on Friday night. Sophie was just precious to hold and snuggle up to! Congratulations Chris and Gabby!