Congratulations Stephen and Susan!

My brother Stephen and his fiance Susan were married on July 11 in Las Vegas! We had a great trip and were happy to celebrate with them. I have very few pictures of the wedding because it wasn't permitted to take photos during the ceremony. Stephen and Susan have a bunch from their photographer so hopefully I will be able to add some of those to my blog soon. For now I'll just post what I do have. Michael had the camera and as you can tell by the pictures he had eyes for only one girl that day, our little flower girl Kristen.

Here is Timmy just before we left. We got new dog beds and he made himself comfortable within 10 minutes of us putting them on the floor.

Here is my dad, brother Peter, and Uncle Bob
The groomsmen and the groom hanging out in the front of the chapel before the ceremony.

My beautiful Kristen. She did a great job as flower girl. She also got very excited about being a princess and loved being called Princess Kristen all day.

She loved the wedding cake too!

9 Months Old

My little Timothy James is 9 months old! He had his 9 month appointment on Friday. He is doing very well on all development and milestones. His only concern from the appointment is that his blood test showed he is anemic. I don't understand how a child who eats 30 ounces of iron fortified formula and 2 large servings of iron fortified baby cereals a day can be anemic, but he is. So for the next 3 months Timmy gets to take a very foul smelling vitamin with iron drop to bring those levels up. Hopefully that will do the trick!

I know I say this all the time, but I will say it again. He is a BIG boy. He weighed 26 pounds 11 ounces and was 31.1 inches tall. He is way off the charts on both measures. But he is proportionately large so the doctor wasn't concerned, he is just a big boy.

As many of you know our family will be moving to Chandler, AZ soon. While visiting a friend who lives near our soon to be home I discovered a McDonald's with a toddler playzone. This is so much nicer than those play areas with the big tubes and slides. It is perfect for my kids right now. Plus, it is inside and air conditioned, unlike all of our parks. Timmy and Kristen had a blast playing here. I have a feeling we will be making regular trips to this McDonald's at least until the weather cools off and we can start going to parks again.

Kristen kept stepping on to this stump, counting to 5, 10 whatever number she felt like, and jumping off, she had a great time.
Timmy loved crawling back and forth through this log, over and over and over again.

Riding the Rocking Horse

Kristen got this adorable rocking horse as a 1st birthday present from her Grandma Robin and Grandpa Dave. She was very tentative about riding it and didn't really get into it until she was 13 months. Maybe it's due to his big size or the fact that he is an adventurous boy, but Timmy has already mastered riding the horse! He needs help getting on and off but he can do the rest himself and he sure has fun. This video was taken about 1 1/2 weeks ago.

Timmy Crawls!

Timmy started crawling last Wednesday. After weeks of getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth he finally figured it out. I took this video shortly after he started and he was still tentative and a bit slow. He has since mastered it and goes goes goes!

Our visit to Indiana

Earlier this month we flew to Indiana to visit Mike's family. It was wonderful to spend time with Mike's extended family and get some quality time in with Grandma Robin and Grandpa Dave. We were there a full week, but it seemed like our time flew by. Here are some pictures from our trip.

Timothy, Kristen and Andrew, the 3 cousins on Mike's side of the family. We were thrilled to have several opportunities to get the three children together. Aren't they adorable?

Timmy and I enjoyed hanging out on Aunt Melanie and Uncle Roger's porch in Noblesville, Indiana.

Here is a box full of children! Kristen joined Mike's cousins' children in this huge box and had a blast.

Meanwhile, Timmy was watching the Cubs with Great Grandpa Bob

Bloomington is home to this HUGE playground. This is only a portion of the playground. Kristen and Timmy (well all of us really) had a great time playing here. Kristen even went down those big slides.

Timmy practiced walking with Daddy.

Kristen and Grandma Robin went down slides together!

Timmy loved the swings.

Kristen had fun on the swing too!

After we got home Kristen helped Grandpa Dave make bread

We also went to the Children's Museum of Indianapolis. We had a great time. Here Timmy is peeking out from a big log in the science exploration section.

Kristen and Daddy built an arch

Kristen got a little confused and turned around in the funny mirror maze

She also got to ride the carousel

And excavate a dinosaur. The museum was lots of fun!

On our last night in Indiana, Grandma Robin got to pose for some pictures with her 3 grandchildren. This was moments before chaos ensued.

Chaos! That Andrew sure is cute and he certainly knows how to liven up a photo shoot.

And here are the 4 of us on our last night in Indiana. We had a great time and look forward to seeing our Indiana family again.

The Children's Museum of Phoenix

This past Sunday we went to the Children's Museum of Phoenix with my sister's family. We had a wonderful time. Kristen enjoyed trying out all of the different toys and exhibits as well as playing with her cousins. Timmy had fun watching and Mike and I got to play too!

The Children's Museum is lots of fun!

Here I am trying out a human powered segway, it takes a bit of balance which I apparantly lack.
Kristen made me a flower in the arts and crafts room.

Here is my intrepid explorer heading off into the Noodle Forest

Timmy enjoyed standing at the baby sized ballet bar and looking in the mirror.

Kristen videos

I mentioned in an earlier post that Timmy always likes to stick some part of his body out of the crib when sleeping. It doesn't seem to matter what part or whether it looks comfortable or not. Here he is, sleeping, what a silly guy.

Kristen had a haircut this weekend.
You can see here how she was kept so happily entertained,

she adores The Wiggles. She enjoyed driving her own "Big Red Car".

I love my girl!

I know we've had video of Kristen playing the guitar before and singing the ABCs before, but now we have her doing both at the same time! So cute!

Kristen also discovered how to use the camera to take videos. I think she did a great job considering it was her first try.