Kevin and Alison

We spent the holiday with Kevin's side of the family and had a great time! Chloe and I watched some of the parade on Thursday morning: and of course, Mimi's dinner was wonderful! We didn't get any pictures of the turkey, but Kevin did take a picture of the desserts: cheesecake, pumpkin crunch, and chocolate cake by Mimi, apple praline and caramel pecan by Abby Mimi and Poppop brought Chloe back a souvenir from their trip....can you guess what it is? ;) Before we left, we tried to get a good picture of the two youngest family members.....This is the best one I got: Hmm....must have had too much turkey: We had a great Thanksgiving and hope you did too!

We had our ultrasound today!! We had a great technician and got some 3-D pictures of this baby! side view of head, arm coming up to nose whole body, head at top w/ arm at face, torso, bent leg no more pictures please! whole body - arm over face, torso, bent leg, little foot Pretty neat huh? Our technician has been doing ultrasounds since 1979.....so we're pretty sure that her information is correct.... we're having..... A GIRL!! We're excited! :)

Spaghetti Night usually means a happy girl.....who heads straight for the bath tub!!

Chloe had her 15 month doctor visit today. She did great, except when the doctor tried to look in her ears and mouth. She is 20 pounds, 8 ounces and 30.5 inches long. She's on the go at all times, which is why she's a "light-weight". She burns too many calories running around! One of her new favorite activities is helping me in the kitchen while I make dinner. She has a bowl, spoon, and some random objects (plastic eggs, a bracelet, some blocks) that she transfers from the empty oatmeal canister into the bowl and stirs. She's usually pretty busy with "cooking" while dinner is being made! Chloe loves this new toy - picked out by Uncle Paul - she carries it around and the first day she had it she cried when she couldn't take it to bed for naptime. :) She still naps twice a day, but if she misses her morning nap she's usually okay. She loves to play with kids in the church nursery or if we're out somewhere she's always watching the

Happy Birthday to my Dad! He's a fantastic dad and a wonderful Grandpa to Chloe! I've added some pictures of the two of them, starting with one of his visit to the hospital the day after Chloe was born: hmm.....nap time at Christmas last year :) in January 2010 on our camping trip this year - they were both loving the music :) Poor Grandpa got clobbered as Chloe was opening her gift! August 2010 Hope you have a great day - looking forward to seeing you soon!

I'm at 16 weeks, which means I'm almost at the end of month 4. I felt the baby move for the first time "for sure" over our anniversary weekend trip ~ and I've felt it a few more times since then! The heart rate was in the 155-160 range at my last dr's appointment and we scheduled the ultrasound for the day before Thanksgiving! We're hoping to find out the gender when we go see this baby's sweet profile :) I can't wait to find out if it's a boy or girl! Just for fun, here's a link to my sister's blog post about being 17 weeks pregnant (back in August). Scroll to the end of her post to see the picture of her!

We went to Berkeley Springs for an overnight to celebrate our anniversary. It was a very relaxing trip! After we arrived in the town, we ate dinner at Panorama at the Peak, which had views like this: We stayed at a B&B that was attached to a restaurant. It was right on the "main street", but since it's a pretty small town, it wasn't too crowded or noisy! On Saturday morning we went to the State Park which was down the street from the B&B. I think it might be the smallest state park ever - only 4.5 acres :) Basically, it's a state park to protect the natural springs for which Berkeley Springs is famous. The water is at a never-changing 74.5 degrees, so on Saturday morning when it was in the high 40s, it felt pretty warm! George Washington visited often to enjoy the benefits of the mineral waters... Behind me is the Museum of Berkeley Springs which has exhibits on the water, geology, the strange history of fires within the town, and some other town histo

"Playing with leaves is pretty fun..." "Even more fun when Dad tosses them around..." "Wait, you want me to do what? Sit in the leaves?" "Get me out, please." "I guess this is sort of fun" "Actually, this is really fun!" "Ew, I think I just ate one...." "Really this time, get me out"

Aunt Laura and Aunt Michelle picked out a bumblebee costume for Chloe last Halloween....Here she is in 2009: and in 2010, it still fits! So, she was a bumblebee again this year, but I don't think she minded! After church and an afternoon nap, we stopped at Mommom Ritters with our bumblebee before the trick-or-treating started. We passed out candy to all of 12 kids, but that gave Michelle and me a chance to walk Chloe over to the neighbors. She returns.....with some candy!! My parents and Michelle showed up with these glasses on, and we thought it would be fun to see what Chloe thought of wearing them. What a hoot! Our neighbors stopped over with their kids and little C, the lady-bug, made a 'bee'-line to my dad! She walked right over like she'd known him her whole life! :) Of course, Chloe wanted to sit on his knee too....so she headed his way.... And then old-brother M, dressed in a great spider costume, decided he'd help us get a group shot and walked over too.