Memorial Day weekend part II: MD

Sunday night we headed back home from PA so that we could go on a picnic with some of our "first babies" crew at Cunningham Falls State Park in MD on Monday. It was a great day for a picnic!

William H. is the newest addition to the group, here with mom Felicity.

William J. (4 mos.) enjoyed relaxing on the blanket with dad Bradford.

Joshie took a nice nap in the shade after lunch.

Charlotte played a little peek-a-boo from under daddy's hat.

The whole picnic crew- Andersons, Spiveys, Hancocks and Johnsons.

After lunch we made the short hike up to Cunningham Falls. Rob and some of the others climbed around on the rocks while Charlotte & I waited below with others. Rob just can't resist a nice rock formation! After our hike we cooled off with a little swim in the lake... where all the new mommies enforced a "no photographs" rule. ;)

Memorial Day weekend part I: PA

We hope that you all had an enjoyable Memorial Day weekend! We spent Saturday and Sunday in PA visiting family...

Charlotte and Leah are ready to go to Connie's pool for a swim on Saturday.

Once there, Charlotte was not very happy about how cold the water was. She did like how it tasted though!

After her first swim, she took a little nap with daddy.

Saturday night we went to Becky's Drive-in and watched Shrek the Third. We were too tired to stick around for Spiderman 3 (which didn't start until 11 pm,) but we enjoyed the movie despite the drizzle- and I especially enjoyed the funnel cake. ;) FYI- an odd bit about Becky's- apparently they used to only show "adult movies"... now they only show "family friendly movies."

Charlotte even let Shrek hold her!

Sunday we spent time sharing stories and Rob and Mark took the kids for a walk in the woods at Beltzville State Park. One thing that really surprised us over the weekend was how much Charlotte LOVES dogs! When we went to Pop-pop Kaufman's house, she especially loved that she could yell and wave her arms and Nana would come over and lick her in the face! This picture is of us with Buster (all 120 lbs of him) after he jumped up on Rob's lap and licked his neck.

Happiness is...

... sitting on the steps on a late spring evening.

taking a moment to reflect

Rob, Charlotte and I attended a wedding reception for friends Alissa & Joseph last night. There were many people there from our old singles ward in Chevy Chase that we hadn't seen since we got married. It was a lot of fun to visit with everyone and to introduce them to Charlotte. :)

On the way home it had Rob and I talking a lot about our own wedding and what the past 20-ish months of marriage have been like. We've been very busy! It was less than 2 1/2 years ago that we met. Memorial Day weekend will mark 2 years since Rob first asked me out. Since then we have experienced many happy moments together... and a few trials as well. For example, we've bought our first home, moved, had Charlotte and I've left my job- all just within the past 9 months.

Anyway, I am so thankful to have my dear husband Rob and our sweet Charlotte. And I just wanted to take a moment to remember that. :)

On our wedding day - 10-08-05

Charlotte's birthday- 10-19-06

7 months old- 5-19-07

Charlotte is a pipe in our basement

A while back, Rob informed me that some of the pipes in our laundry room have "Charlotte" written on them. Today I was doing some spring cleaning and saw them for myself. Sorry, these are the best pictures that I could get...

This one says, "CHARLOTTE Pipe & Foundry Co. Made in the USA"

Clearly, we think this is very funny.

(And no, we didn't know that before she was born, and we did not name our daughter after the company that made the pipes in our basement.)

our little party girl

Charlotte just keeps amazing Rob & I with how social she is! She loves seeing other little kids and babies, and so far she is even willing to go to new adults and smile at them and talk to them. Neither one of us was ever that social... that we can remember anyway. This past weekend we were in PA for Charlotte's cousin Max's 3rd birthday. We had a great time visiting with friends and family...

Charlotte and Daddy on the hammock swing in Max's room.

Cousin Eddie helped feed Charlotte some peas on the deck. Too bad it was raining on our wedding day!!! We certainly would have enjoyed these decks at our reception. :)

Tug of war was so much fun! We had a lot of combinations of people playing. (I was on the winning moms team vs. the kids team.) Here is Miranda, Mikey, Leah and birthday boy Max.

Ed gets everyone set... On this side: Connor, Sarah, Aunt Melissa & Eddie.

And on this side: Uncle Dan, Miranda, Leah & Mikey.

Charlotte won "pin the tail on the puppy." She just LOVED this puppy poster! She sat and squealed at it for ages. (Okay, so Aunt Pam helped her win.)

Muppet feet

My new favorite video. ;)

I love how she lifts her feet up like a Muppet.

playing and gardening

Over the weekend we had a nice visit with the Spiveys and we were so excited to see Josh and Charlotte finally interacting a little bit with each other. Josh gave Charlotte her first taste of papaya and she ate the whole jar! Oh, and Kris and Lindsay, you can beat us at Settlers anytime. ;)

We love that Charlotte has a buddy who lives nearby and is almost exactly the same size as her. :)
Charlotte kept trying to check out Josh's pacifier...

but of course she'll never take one from us.

Josh was kind enough to let her see it, although I think he's looking for Rob to intervene here. (Check out those muscle-y arms!)

Also on Saturday we got a few veggies planted in the backyard- tomatoes, onions and broccoli so far. I just bought a couple of pepper plants today to add to our garden and Rob has been talking about a melon of some sort... but we'll see about that- those vines can be crazy.

That brown blob in the middle of this picture is the rather large groundhog living under our neighbor's shed. He better keep away from my broccoli! (We see an amazing amount of wildlife for having a 20' x 50' yard- or whatever it is- I don't estimate well.)

Rob took these pictures of Charlotte "gardening."

After these photos, we had a hard time getting her out of her Bumbo seat. Poor girl, her thighs were stuck and she looked a little bewildered!

6 months old yesterday!

Wow... we can't get over how quickly Charlotte is growing. At her check-up yesterday she was 17 lbs (75th percentile) and 27.5 inches long (95th percentile!!)

The most noticeable changes to us though have been in her behaviors... She LOVES when Rob throws her in the air and swings her around. She laughs now when we laugh- even when we're sure she didn't get the joke. She eats everything that we give her (she must take after Rob there- I've never been that adventurous of an eater.) And she makes us laugh with her jabbering and squealing (as long as it's not too close to our ears.)

Happy 1/2 Birthday baby!

Upside down girl strikes again!

Mmmm... watered down grape juice

Hey Mikey, I think she likes it

All tuckered out (go Cougars volleyball!)

pictures from Max's birthday

Josh has posted a few pictures from Max's first birthday on his blog at http://spiveyfamily.blogspot.com/2007/04/party-like-its-your-birthday.html

(There is a very cute one of Charlotte and Josh!)

And of course, Max has pictures on his blog at http://sunserver.homelinux.org:8080/index.php?/archives/99-Maxs-1st-Birthday-and-His-party.html

Enjoy! :)

Happy Easter!

We hope you all had a nice Easter weekend!

We had a great time taking Charlotte to her first birthday party on Saturday- for her buddy Max who turned 1. We also enjoyed eating out at the Bombay Peacock to celebrate Rob's birthday and our 18 month anniversary. :) Of course we forgot our camera- but here are some pictures from Charlotte's first Easter at our house...

This is Hazel. I couldn't get very close to take a picture, but she has enjoyed eating lunch in our backyard most days since we moved in. Rob named her after the chief bunny in the book Watership Down. I think maybe she works for the Easter Bunny.

These were our Easter baskets- one for Charlotte and one for Mom and Dad.

Charlotte enjoyed that everything in her Easter basket could go in her mouth. This picture makes me think of Elvis... I guess it's the combination of the raised lip and the jammies.

All dressed up for church.

Charlotte and her Daddy. Happy Birthday Rob!!!

We love you. :)

some random photos from this week

We've been having some beautiful Spring weather and Rob, Charlotte and I have all been enjoying walks around our neighborhood.

We dyed Easter eggs this week... we knew the concept would be pretty much lost on our Peanut, but Rob humored me and we did it anyway. This egg says "Charlotte" in Arabic. ;)

"Can I eat it?"

And lastly, Charlotte has developed some new eating habits lately that we're not thrilled about. She likes to chew on her bib between bites (especially if she thinks the service is too slow) and she sticks her tongue out a lot. Rob's theory is that she's discovered her tongue is what does the tasting... I dunno.

a bit of news...

Hi all! We just wanted to share our happy news that we are once again expecting a baby!!! Baby Anderson should be arriving in October- boy, we just love October- our 2 year anniversary, Charlotte's first birthday and a new addition to our little family all at once! :)

We hope that this news finds you all well and enjoying this beautiful first day of April. ;)
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APRIL FOOLS!