SOPHIE!!!!!

At Noah's party last week, the Malin's brought all sorts of animals including two little puppies. One of the puppies just sat in Nina's lap the whole time and was super calm and sweet. Everyone fell in love with her.

After the party was over, Paul said how much he wanted the dog and so we looked into it... the male dog was spoken for but the female was still available! So, yesterday we went and picked her up!! She is a mutt -- border collie, german shepherd and chow-chow. We met her parents -- the father is pretty large but the mother really isn't, so we're hoping for the latter. She is the calmest dog ever! She just lays right by us all the time, unless we are out in the yard and then she loves to run. Despite how fluffy she is, there really hasn't been any hair on us at all which is awesome.

We tried to look up Noah's daughters and wife in the Bible but they don't name them, so we were bummed. We looked through lots of names and then we decided on Sophie because it meant "wisdom" in Greek. I smiled when Paul chose the name because it is my great aunt's name. He asked if that upset me and I said no... we never really see her. We thought we'd leave the middle name up the the family who had her. When we went to pick her up we asked what her given name was and they said Amelia. This is even more hilarious because Amelia is Sophie's sister (my other great aunt!) I like it because in a round about way it reminds me of my grandmother Stella and her sisters. So... we are thrilled to welcome the newest addition to our family and we can't wait for you to meet her!

Baby #3-- Riley

Told you it was baby season here! Our 4th friend to welcome a baby in a month's time. Tania and Dave are proud to announce Riley, born May 1st!!!!

Noah's 2nd Birthday

We planned a barnyard themed party for him and it was great. Members of our congregation have a farm and brought some live animals for the kids to play with... Noah kept choking the kitty but that's okay. We had piggy cakes and hay bales and cow balloons and milk jugs. Yaz made these awesome "feed" bags with chex mix in them for everyone -- so cute! Noah's birthday present from his grandparents, uncle and us was his new swingset. We were trying to move away from lots of gifts and this way we could get something nice that would be around for a while. All the kids played on it for hours and hours.

It's so hard to believe that he is 2. I know everyone says that and everyone says -- oh it goes by so fast, but he is really a little boy now and no longer a baby. He talks to us and walks around and is less and less dependent on us every day... sniffle. I said to someone that I wish I could just keep him right here. He was a difficult infant, but he is a wonderful toddler, so happy in so many ways and so smart! I love that he isn't to the point yet where he "wants" presents and just thinks it's fun to pull wrapping paper. He sat forever at his party just drawing on the sidewalk with sidewalk chalk. And cake! He loves cake so much. We taught him to say Happy Birthday and so he was walking around to everyone at the party saying "happy birthday Noah." Happy 2nd Birthday little man!!!






Wow... I can't believe it is over. We had such an amazing day....and my baby is 2!

Visit with Cora

I got to see the precious little girl today! I tried to see Amelia too but we didn't get to cross paths. :( Cora is so sweet and beautiful. She slept the whole time I was there but it didn't matter because everyone was so entranced by her! I got a few good shots....

Baby #2 - Cora

Well, it didn't take long! Cora came on Saturday at 12:31. She was 7lbs, 4oz and 20.5 inches. Both Amy's were really early! But the craziest part is that Amy (Amelia's mom) and Amy (Cora's mom) were born three days apart and now their little girls are the same! I'm so happy for both of them!!!!

Baby #1 -- Amelia

I think 80% of all of the people I know are pregnant right now. Babies are EVERYWHERE. So, yesterday I got news that one of the first ones was actually born. Yippeee!!! She came early and is tiny tiny, but so cute. These are friends from our church camp in PA and we can't wait for the church camp baby crew to grow. Congrats Amy and Karl!!!!

A fantastic spring day

The weather here has been incredible the past two weeks. We've been at the park every day and just enjoying all the sunshine we can get. Today we decided to head over to Longwood Gardens with Erin and Asher to play in the children's garden. It was the first time we had been there and I felt like I found a hidden gem! Noah absolutely loved every second of it. Inside the conservatory was a smaller room with kid sized everything...even the ceilings were low (which hurt for the parents!). All of the fountains were at kid height and the children were encouraged to play and frolic in the water. Noah just kept shouting WATER over and over again and laughing. We were soaked when we left but it was so worth it! There are lots more pics on flickr.