The Babies

Henry had a cousin born just a week before he was this year. Joe and Marnie had Anson on March 5th (I think). They were hilarious together. They would lay on the floor and just roll over top of one another. They loved checking each other out. Marnie has a great picture of Henry with Anson's leg in a arm lock and Henry just sucking on his leg like he was going to gnaw it off. It was so funny. We had to keep separating them, but they always managed to get on top of each other again. We think they are going to be best friends.

The Dolphin & Lion Habitat

We tried to do a family outing each day while in Vegas. On this day we went to the Siegfried & Roy Dolphin & Lion Habitat at the Mirage. We saw a baby dolphin, which was super cute, and the lions and tigers were amazing. They were the retired ones from the shows, so they were old, but still pretty spectacular. Colin came with us, which was fun for the kids. I thought he was going to have a heat stroke in his jacket, it was so hot, but it was new and he didn't want to take it off. He is such a sweet kid. Charlie, especially, loved hanging out with him.

Boating at Lake Mead

We loved going boating while in Vegas. We only went out one day because we were worried that Henry wouldn't thoroughly enjoy it. But, we all had a great time. We went with Betsy's family and Brandon and Colin. It was so nice of Kate and Brandon to bring their boat down for all of us to enjoy and for Brandon taking us all out each day. Check out the "shark" infested waters in the first picture. The carp were crazy there at the dock! You should have seen them once the kids threw in some goldfish. They were just climbing on top of each other. It was kind of gross.

I couldn't believe that Meg and Charlie got in the water, especially after seeing the carp. They loved it. Lake Mead is very beautiful. The kids also had a ton of fun on the tube. Seth and Tom did some tubing on their own, it got pretty scary. Meg was balling the whole time, she was so worried about her daddy! So, Tom didn't do much tubing after that. We had a blast though.

The Trip Home

These are a couple shots during our long trip back to Ohio. It took us almost 3 days! These are pictures we took in one of our hotel rooms. Can you see how exhausted we all are in the first picture? And can you tell who stayed up the latest that night??? CHARLIE! He was so funny!

Leaving Texas

I didn't get many pictures of our exit, but here are a couple cute ones. We left Texas on August 16th. It was a whirlwind and an emotional roller coaster. We are excited to be home, in a house and near our parents and friends, but are heartbroken to leave Betsy's family and our dear friends that we made while there. Our kids miss Makena, Cameron and Bode like you would not believe. Changes are very hard on all of us, and this has been the hardest thus far.

My Dad flew down to help drive the truck back so that Tom could help me in the van. However, we had so much stuff that we ended up having to get a second truck that Tom had to drive. So, needless to say, it was a very long drive home that took nearly three days. We had a crew of 10 men show up at our house Sunday afternoon to help us load the truck. Not only was this a huge surprise to us, it was also an incredible blessing. These men worked for several hours in the hot Texas sun, we are in great debt to them.

Goodbye Tejas.

Meg's Pictures of Henry

This is Meg's photography. She loves taking pictures of Henry. She stages the set and everything! I wanted to include the full body shot so you can see Henry's huge thighs! :) You should have heard the nurse at the doctor's office for his 4 month check up. She literally gasped when I put him on the scale. He was 16 lbs 8 ozs. Which is actually only the 75th percentile, if you can believe that. But he's on the 95th percentile for length. We can't believe it! Charlie was on the 5th percentile for weight at one point. Anyway, we love our kids so much and think they are super cute so we wanted to share these pictures.

Cute Pics

I had a few random pictures that I wanted to post. The first two our of the kids sleeping. That is Meg's bed and Charlie sleeps in a toddler bed next to her's. Sometimes at bedtime he wants to get up in her bed and they play until I have to separate them and put Charlie back in his bed. This particular night they had been fighting all day, it was not very fun. I had put them to bed in their separate beds and then went to check on them before I went to sleep and there they were, sleeping side-by-side. All I could think was, "look, they really do love each other!" It was very, very cute...so I had to take a picture.

The next picture was of another memorable day. We have been working on potty training Charlie for quite some time now. He pretty much has the #1 down, but #2 is a problem, for sure! When the feeling comes over him, he just goes for it, no matter where he is or what he is doing. So, this day we were at the YMCA, I was exercising and the kids were in the kids gym, in their child watch area, playing. When I went in to get them the sweet lady who works there said that Charlie had had a #2 accident (of course I hadn't brought a change of clothes for him because he had been doing well) and she had cleaned him up and found an outfit for him in the baby area. When I saw him I could not stop laughing, poor Charlie. He was in these white overalls that were way too small, with his little white legs sticking out the bottom. He didn't have any underwear on and because of the "snug-ness" of the overall pulling upward, he was very uncomfortable and kept pulling on them and asking me to take them off. I had to rush home and get a picture though...priceless!

The next picture is just a good one of Meg...she's so cute. Did I mention that she has now chipped 3 teeth? Two of which has occurred wrestling with Daddy...I'm not too happy about that!