My birthday

Yummy dinner---Mom and I cooked the birthday dinner for each other! But don't worry, the men did the dishes!

Mmmmmmm....corn on the cob!

Time for presents!!!
Thank you Brian and Mom and Dad for a wonderful birthday. (oh...and of course Stefan!) I had a wonderful day!

Happy Birthday, Johanna!

My dear wife celebrates her 26th birthday today. She is the best wife and mother--Stefan thinks so too! We are both blessed to have her. We love you!

A glimpse of our day in Plymouth

Ridin' in style!

Mom's birthday

Yesterday was Mom's birthday. We had a birthday breakfast--dinner will be tonight. Stefan is enjoying getting to know his grandparents!

Papi and Meme are here

And Stefan is loving all the spoiling! --so are Mommy and Daddy:-)

Ready and waiting

We're getting excited about Papi and Meme arriving tomorrow! Stefan's all ready to play! By the way... notice the row of teeth?!

Daddy and Stefan having fun at bath time

one of my mothering "jobs"

Step 1: Cut up and cook veggies until very tender


Step 2 and 3: Blend until desired consistency and throw in some pasta (I love Pastina pasta because it is so tiny there is no need to cut it up) or ground up chicken. Spoon the food into ice cube trays and freeze.

Step 4: Once frozen pop out the food into bags and, voila, you have a great supply of baby food!

Before you attribute me to some great desire for nutritious food, let me just tell you that it is the $ that spurred me on. When I do my grocery shopping, I take great pleasure in the decreased bill due to not having to buy any baby food. I am also happy that a side benefit is the nutritious value--especially when a lot of the veggies are home grown, thanks to some families in church who are sharing in their bounty from their gardens.

Our little man

"I love touch and feel books!"

climbing trees together

...sentimental?

Maybe...but dates have always been a big deal to me. And today happens to be an important one! Two years ago today, Brian asked me to be his wife! I know, you are probably thinking TWO years!?! A lot has happened since then and God has blessed us so much. I'm so thankful that God brought us together. Here are a couple of pics of our engagement day.

Our happy boy!

JOY!

Cutest Red Sox fan ever!

final day with Hannah and Erin

The girls looking at the Mayflower in Plymouth

Taking an ice cream break in a small town on the Cape.

I took them to the airport this morning and hopefully they are safely on their way home. We had such a good visit and enjoyed it so much.

Famous Houses of Concord

Clockwise: Emerson and Hawthorne lived in this house at North Bridge. The second house was another one of Emerson's. Orchard House is the third house and is "Home of Little Women." The last house, Wayside House, was where Louisa May Alcott's family lived.

This is Walden Pond where Thoreau lived for a time. We saw a replica of his very small house. It wasn't much bigger than a shed!

Hannah and Erin

Fun at North Bridge

Today we went to Minute Man National Park in Concord. It is very big and has tons of bike trails. One of the places in it is North Bridge where "the shot heard 'round the world" took place. It was really beautiful there, and we had a good time walking around.

Hannah and Erin

We have visitors from SC!

We are really enjoying having Hannah and Erin Hurst here this weekend. After multiple delays, their flight finally got in at 11pm Thursday night. Here are a few pictures of our time in Boston yesterday.