Tutu Tresses

Well, it's been a while since I've written anything here. As Mary pointed out to me, I can't use the school excuse anymore since I've been out of school for a couple weeks already. We've had a whirl wind of family gatherings over the last week or two. It was a lot of fun, and we were sad to see everyone go, but sometimes it is nice to get back to normal life.
We had a fun Christmas with my folks, it is fun to have a new generation of kids running around for a change. It's funny how much less I've cared about what I get for Christmas since Dylan was born. There is a huge switch that gets turned, and it's all about the kids.
At the Bouchers (Sarah's family) we had an incredibly sweet time. A bunch of the daughters, grandkids and great-grandkids wrote notes to Jim about memories of him that they cherished. Jim read all the notes out loud and we all listened. It was a very Christmasy morning, full of joy and tears and all that.
Amongst the many things that Dylan received this year was a tutu from my mom. Last night Sarah put it on her head to entertain Dylan. Dylan thought it was hyllarious and then wanted it on her head. For the next 15 minutes or so Dylan wore the tutu on her head and laughed and played. Every time it fell off, Dylan would hand it to Sarah so she could put it
back on. Here are a bunch of pictures for your parusing pleasure.

-charlie

Happy Birthday!

Today is Dylan's 1st birthday. I cannot believe that a year has already passed. Everyone always said it would go fast - and to tell you the truth, I thought it was just a silly cliche myth. But, I have definitely been proven wrong. She is so much fun and so sweet. I know that parenting will have its challenges, but I love spending time with her and seeing her discover new things. She is teaching me so much about faith, love and patience. It is such a blessing to have her in our lives. Here are a few pics - Merry Christmas to everyone! We love you all.

Thanksgiving with Attitude

So, I knew it would start to happen more often as Dylan grew older, but I didn't realize how soon. Now that the world has opened up to Dylan from a mobility standpoint (she sprint crawls and pulls up on most everything), she seems to think that she can do whatever she wants now. A few times this holiday weekend she had decided she does not want help with certain things. And when she is doing something she enjoys and I go to pick her up, she throws herself backwards and straightens her body in defiance. Yes - the attitude is coming out. A firm "no" and sometimes a smack to the thigh have been necessary to let her know that it's not going to go down like that!

Don't get me wrong, Dylan is a very sweet, fun little girl. But, I guess I just wasn't looking forward to the not so fun, but oh so necessary, part of parenting - discipline.

Charlie is almost done with this semester. Only one more to go. Work is going well for me - not very much overtime at all, which is really a blessing. I'm looking forward to taking the entire week of Christmas off. I will get to hang with Dylan 24/7 and see lots of family. I have to be gone from her for about 4 days at the end of January for work. I'm not looking forward to that - but we have been very blessed that I have not had to travel overnight at all since I went back to work.

Well - here are some fairly recent pics. Her eczema was much better this last week - which was such a relief. Not sure what changed - maybe the rain has helped. Here's hoping that she is just outgrowing it!

Cruisin'

So, lately Dylan is starting to give up the army crawl. Every once in awhile she reverts back to it, but lately she is a pro at using her knees. I just can't believe how old she is now. Almost a year old. This Christmas should be tons of fun. Dylan will celebrate her first birthday and it sounds like we will have quite a crew for the holidays...20 people maybe.

Charlie's school is going well. I know that he is ready to be done, but by the way he talks, I think that he is enjoying what he is learning. He is in a course today - but it is not engineering. For those of you that don't know yet, Charlie has a motorcycle. Yes, I know what you are thinking - did Charlie finally master Jedi mind tricks and has employed them on his wife. No - I know that he has always wanted one (as most men do) and we are planning on only having one car once he is done with school. So, he is taking a safety training course this weekend. I know he is really glad he is taking it.

Autumn is in full swing. Well, actually I think it is on the verge of winding down here. But, it is still very beautiful today. One of those great November days where the sky is dark grey, but the trees are amazing hues of red, orange and yellow. The colors have been quite incredible this year. Dylan loves picking leaves off of trees and bushes. She studies them for a moment, attempts to eat them, having been thwarted by mommy from ingesting the leaf, she then proceeds to tear it to pieces and toss it to the ground. It's so fun to see her learn to do new things. She truly is a joy.

Well, here are some fairly recent pics. We are still dealing with eczema and it is now getting worse as the weather gets progressively colder and dryer. But, hey, there are worse things to have.

Getting Chompers

ok, so I'm not as funny or eloquent as Charlie. So, this will probably be more of a brief update and then lots of pictures (which I'm sure no one will complain about). I decided that I would learn to post some stuff on the blog since Charlie is so busy with school. He's halfway done with this semester. So, just 1 1/2 semesters left til he graduates. This semester has proved pretty difficult so far, but he is doing really well. Hopefully by the end of May Charlie will have a job and I can say au revoir to my full-time job. I'm really looking forward to being a stay at home mom. I'm not saying that it is easier than a job outside the home (b/c I know that it is not), but it is much more rewarding. I do enjoy my job, but I much prefer to spend time with my sweet girl. She is so much fun and has such a sweet personality. Speaking of Dylan - she got her top teeth over the past few weeks. It was not the most fun process - she had lots of drainage, weary eyes and sore gums. She seemed to keep a good attitude throughout the process though. She didn't eat very much solid food for those two weeks - but we are back to eating most everything.

Dylan isn't crawling yet. She still rolls a lot. She goes from sitting to her tummy really easily now. She has decided that dragging her body across the floor is a good means of transportation. She is still addicted to bouncing - all the time and anywhere! She has started saying "mama" and "dada" quite a bit. It's so cute b/c she even gets it in context (i.e. I generally hear a "mama" when she is upset about something).

Well - that is the family update. By the way, keep my grandpa (Farnsworth) in your prayers. He had knee surgery today and will be recovering over the next few months.

-Sarah

What up doc? (Bugs Bunny style)

It's been a bit sad going back to school. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I leave around 7:15 and don't get home till after 7 pm, which means that sometimes I don't get to see Dylan at all on those days. It is good to be making progress towards graduating though. If anyone thinks about it, pray for me on the 16th cause I'll be at a job fair for most of the day trying to line up some work. It's very important that I get a good job lined up so that Sarah can quit working when I'm done with school and we can start production on more of those grand babies you all seem so excited about. I have never fooled my self into thinking that you come here for my ramblings, so here are the latest pics for ya, most are just Dylan, but Sarah's sister Jenny and her daughter Sky came by last month so there are a couple of them with her as well. Oh yeah, today Dylan was sitting on the floor playing with some stack-able cups that she loves to bang together, but this time she closed her eyes and "sang" while she was banging (I'm including a video of it).
We love you all,
Charlie and fam.

Heat Wave

It would seem that it's been over a month since I last posted and for that I must apologize to you grand and great-grandparents. I do however have several cute pictures that I think will make up for my neglectfulness. It's really been a wild summer for me this year. Dylan is both a lot of fun and a huge responsibility. She's sitting up fairly well and she's eating fruit and veggie puree. She laughs at my funny faces now which is awesome; plus she's been making funny faces back at me which is even better. I'm looking forward to school starting a bit because I really want to be done with it sooner, but it'll be weird to hand Dylan off to someone else for a good part of the day. There's something really cool about being the one that knows how she spends her day and all the funny stuff she does. I really want to provide for my girls and I know that Sarah wants to be home with Dylan, but I really think I'll miss being Mr Mom when I get a job.
The last couple weeks have been a bit tough for me at home cause Sarah has been really busy at work and it's been so hot that I haven't been able to take Dylan out for walks. During the school year I like to taker her out so I can get some exercise and she can see a bit of the world outside, but lately it's only cool enough in the mornings which is not my time of the day. I basically stumble through till 9am when she (we) takes her first nap. After nap number one I'm ready to go but it's 90 degrees outside and miserably humid. Soon enough it'll cool off and the leaves will change and walks will be back on the menu.
Well, enough blah blah here's the swag you've all been waiting for. There are some pics of Maggie (my niece) mixed in as well (check out her push-ups). Hope everyone is doing well
charlie