We held our first Passover Seder this year. We invited Gary’s Mom and our friends Matt & Erika with their kids…nice and small to ease us into the craziness of a Seder. Of course even with only 9 people there, the 4 kids in attendance managed to make things very, um, lively. As it should be though! A Seder wouldn’t be a Seder without loud kids and some spilled wine. It was fun though, and Gary did a great job with all the food and leading the service.

Pictures were limited, but we got a couple nice shots of the table before chaos ensued.

Here’s the one shot I got of the kids playing. Nathan wasn’t too keen on getting his picture taken, as you can tell from this photo!

“What? We’re being good! I swear!”

We got together with Gary’s family for one of the Raven’s Playoff Games in mid-January (their last one since they lost, if I remember correctly). Everyone wore their purple, even Hannah!

I attempted Hannah’s first bow, mostly so she’d look like a girl in the gender-neutral outfit she had on. Cute stuff!

Hannah got lots of love from the family and I adored seeing her spend time with everyone.

When Hannah was 6 weeks old (early January) we had a Baby Naming, or Simchat Bat, for her. Our dear friend Matt agreed to lead the service and did an amazing job, and our house was filled with friends and family. It turned out to be a great day (exhausting, but great!).

My brother and his girlfriend, Heather, came to visit for the weekend. It was wonderful to have them here to celebrate with us and to meet Hannah.

A friend of mine took pictures during the the naming, but I haven’t loaded them into Flickr yet. Here are some that were taken with my camera:

My Aunt flew in for a night just for the naming. We were so happy to have her there!

I love this picture! Six of the kids here (the exception being one younger sibling in the striped sweater), were all born within a few months of each other. I hope that we can continue to get them together like this for years to come.

Family picture with a squiggly 3 1/2 year old

More pictures here

Christmas morning was at Gary’s sister’s house with this family. It’s always a relaxed and fun time.

Nathan got a Toy Story Snuggie (his request).

Oma had a run-in with a remote controlled helicopter.

Usually we get the cousins in a picture together, but Nathan wasn’t going for it this year.

The holiday was pretty exhausting this year since Hannah was just a month old, and Nathan was on an extended high from several days of presents and junk food. But even so, it’s still always a holiday I love.

More pictures here

Hanukkah went by in a blur this year since it came less than a week after Hannah was born. The timing worked out so that my mom could be with us for the first night, and we had Gary’s parents over then too. It was nice to have the family there to celebrate with us.

Nathan got to use his wooden Menorah to light candles.

We opened presents every night, but isn’t it just like a kid to have more fun with the packaging?

Nathan loved Latkes!

More pictures from Hanukkah are here

Let’s finish out the rest of November, shall we? Actually, not much to report other than Gary and I now have to get used to saying we have kidS (still sounds weird to me). Nathan seemed to be adjusting fairly well and my mom stayed with us for a few days to help out.

Swaddled

She has loved her hands from Day One

A little sunshine for some slight jaundice. We have to get her levels checked once after leaving the hospital but after that she was fine.

Blue eyes

The first sibling pose (which I could only convince Nathan to do if he was allowed to have Woody in the photo)

We ended up with very similar pictures of Oma and Grandma with Nathan and Hannah right after they were born. See for yourself…

Oma & Nathan

Oma & Hannah

Grandma & Nathan

Grandma & Hannah

September was a big month for us. Besides a trip to the State Fair, Rosh Hashanah, and a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Bob, we MOVED! Here’s another month in pictures…

We spent a day at the Maryland State Fair checking out farm animals, riding rides and playing games.

Nathan played a bunch of carnival games and did really well! His first win was busting a balloon with a dart. They give all the kids prizes, whether they break the balloon or not, but Nathan actually broke one!

The first prize

He did two different fishing games. The first time he needed Gary’s help, but this time he did it all by himself.

All his loot- a panda, a lion and a bright orange dog.

We did quite a few different rides…cars, merry-go-round, bananas, trains, tea cups with random strangers…whatever seemed age appropriate.

Grandma and Grandpa Bob came to visit around Rosh Hashanah.

The goofball really liked apples and honey

Moving Day!!

Random pictures of plants I’ll miss this summer.

Nathan in his bed, in his new room, in the new house. He slept in the 3rd bedroom for a couple nights so Gary could quickly paint his room, then we moved him in.

Random cuteness that Nathan made at school. It hung on the door to the room that would eventually be Hannah’s, and now resides on her photo board.

This was the month were we also took Nathan to a Sibling Class at GBMC, where Hannah would be born. He got to tour the recovery rooms, learn about babies and how to hold them and get a little extra “big brother” attention. Here he is peering into the baby nursery.

He let me take some good pictures of him in his Big Bro To Be shirt too. I was so happy he finally let me do this! I think he was a little more cooperative than usual because we played a game where I asked him to show me different faces.

His sad face

His silly face

Eventually we got to some nice faces

And then back to silly faces of course

I got Nathan to take a few pictures with me and my growing belly at 30 weeks pregnant. My stomach is not as big as the shadow on the wall implies….

….though it’s definitely getting there (self portrait without flash)

More pictures from September here!

In July we took a trip to Ocean City, MD with Gary’s parents. As usual, the trip was packed full of activities…beach, water park, mini-golf, the boardwalk carnival, and of course feeding ducks in the canal.

(You can always count on Oma for M&Ms on the beach!)

(I think maybe he’s explaining how to mini-golf to Ava?)

Family Picture time!

More pictures from our trip here

I was going to stop updating the site, but it just seems like such a great way to chronicle our kids lives, so I’m going to start updating again. First things first, I need to catch-up to where we are now, so here’s the first of a few posts to get us there…

Last April, besides Nathan turning 3 (!), he learned to ride his tricycle all by himself. We spent a lot of the Spring peddling around the neighborhood and up to the playground.

Nathan loved collecting things in his bike basket.

We enjoyed a trip to the circus this month, and Nathan has had more and more fun playing with this cousins.

The highlight of the month was, of course, Nathan’s Birthday. The big 3! We had family in town to celebrate for his party.

The party was at a firestation, where the kids got a lesson from a firefighter and then a ride in the firetruck! I think it was a hit.

We celebrated his actual birthday at home with hot dog octopus and an ice cream cake.

And that was April! More pictures here and here

More to come…I promise this time!