What the world eats

Check out this photo gallery: http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1626519_1373664,00.html

Rob & I just spent like 30 minutes looking at these pictures together and discussing them. There's really a lot of food for thought- sorry that was a shameless pun. But, notice how much food costs in different parts of the world... how many people eat tomatoes and drink Coca-cola... the food to number of people ratio... packaged vs fresh foods... which family is yours the most like? Let me know your thoughts. I just found this fascinating. :)

9 is fine

Someone once told me that most baby dolls are designed to look like 9 month old babies... I can believe it! Charlotte turned 9 months old yesterday and she is just more fun each day. She had her check-up this morning and she now weighs 18 lbs. 3 oz. (45th %) and is 29 inches long (85th %).


Charlotte really enjoys going to storytime at the Library and playing with the other babies. We even did their summer reading program (they have one for pre-readers) and she won a beach ball and a kid's meal at Chick-Fil-A among other things. The other night Joshie came over to play and they were so cute jabbering to one another and "sharing" toys. Charlotte generally has a very friendly and quiet personality. She plays well on her own now and likes to "read" her books. We are thankful every day that she is part of our family. :)

Charlotte and Josh- two heads are better than one?

Charlotte as a cartoon character-

boy, I'm glad she isn't that orange in real life.

Sitting outside by the garden...

Happy 9 month birthday Peanut!

busy busy baby

Charlotte has been keeping herself and everyone else in the house busy as she crawls around as quick as can be! She is such a good helper though. She especially likes to put things away... for example, she put Rob's watch away in a drawer in the guest room, she put her sippy cup away in the bathroom, and she put my flip-flop away in her toy basket. (Don't worry that isn't something yucky in the Bumbo seat- it's just a plastic leaf that Charlotte pulled off an arrangement.)

All of this hard work can wear a girl out! After dinner, Charlotte sometimes likes to make a big mess having a Biter Biscuit and some Cheerios. (On this particular night she was actullay falling asleep in her highchair.)

This past weekend Charlotte and Rob helped me set up my CherishBound display for a Craft Fair. It was a great success (and more fun than I thought it was going to be.)

Charlotte really is a busy little girl! And we love having so much fun with her. :)

7-7-07

This past weekend was very busy! We attended Mark & Sandy's wedding in PA at Our Lady Queen of Peace and then the reception at the Stroudsmoor. It was a beautiful day for a wedding and we very much enjoyed ourselves.

We also spent the night at the Palmers' house, enjoyed a picnic, watched fireworks, and swam in the pool. Cousin Eddie was especially interested in all of the new things that Charlotte can do and helped her (along with Rob) to climb her first tree! Cousin Max helped to (carefully) bounce Charlotte in the moon bounce (along with the help of Lucy.) It was all very exciting for Charlotte!

Ring bearer, (and Sandy's son,) Keith blowing bubbles.

We made a pit stop at Burger King in Brodheadsville for some french fries and they crowned Charlotte their queen!

Max bounces baby Charlotte while Lucy ensures that she doesn't bounce away.

For some reason the title field on Blogger isn't working for me right now! Oh well, we just wanted to take a little space to say congratulations to Mark & Sandra Miller! Your wedding was beautiful on 7-7-07 and we loved seeing the two of you so happy! :)

On the 4th of July we spent time with our good friends the Senzees. It is always nice to get together and talk with them! We also played a game of Monopoly that ended in a stalemate, enjoyed yummy food, and lit some sparklers and other fireworks.
Charlotte and Laura seemed very interested in each other this time and it was fun to let them play together.

"The Bean" and "The Peanut"

here she is as promised

I do a lot of talking on this video! Charlotte tends to get distracted when she sees the camera so I was just trying to encourage her to keep crawling. :)

mobility update

Well, she's on the move! :)

On Sunday afternoon, Charlotte surprised us by getting up on her hands and knees and doing some "proper" crawling. She can also pull herself to standing on any stationary (or assumed to be stationary) object. So, needless to say, the head bumps have begun! Poor girl. I'm trying to keep a step ahead of her and move objects that she shouldn't have up to about 3 feet or higher... but she is still finding them. She seems to really enjoy her independence- and I am glad about that- but it's wearing me out! ;)

Our little Peanut also has a new nickname- "Tout de suite." For you non-francophiles out there, it is pronounced kinda like "toot sweet" and means "right now" or "immediately." Which is exactly how Charlotte wants everything. Incidentally, "toot sweets" were the candy invention in the movie Chitty chitty bang bang and there is a song that goes along. (Much to my joy and Rob's chagrin!)

You can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiKjAiK7yII

(Although, personally my favorite song from this movie is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thJOfavJLeA ) Awww... how could anyone not love Dick Van Dyke? :)

Anyway, we'll try to post a little crawling video over the weekend- so be sure to check back soon!

Enjoying a sunny day in the front yard.

8 is great!

Charlotte is eight months old today! So what's new?


*She is as friendly and sociable as ever, although she needs to know where mom and dad are at all times, and she cries if anyone leaves the room- even if she just met them.

*She likes going to Storytime at the Library on Tuesdays and is quickly learning to clap and dance along with the other babies (up to 24 months.)

*She has an affinity for shoes, and I struggle to keep our dirty ones away from her as she scoots and rolls around the house.

*She is eating lots of solids and some finger foods- little bits of macaroni, soft veggies and berries especially.

*She desperately wants to walk on her own, but still needs someone to hold at least one hand.

*She is starting to repeat sounds that we make... we call them "words" but we know they wouldn't be recognizable to anyone but us. ;) For example, "uffff" is "love" and "ap, bap, bap" is "clap, clap, clap."

SOMEBODY decided to let Charlotte taste chocolate on Father's Day!

(Yup, she loved it.)

Standing with support from the drying rack.

Happy 8 months baby!

Mama's got a brand new ride

This past weekend Rob, Charlotte and I went to look at cars. The air conditioner went on the Rodeo about 3 months ago and the estimate we got to fix it was $1500-- which isn't much less than what the Rodeo is worth! So, we decided to put that money into a new car instead and become a 2 car family again. :)

We were kinda focusing on the Honda Civic and went and test drove one of those first- but weren't really impressed with it. So we decided to stop by the Toyota dealer and we saw this green 2004 Nissan Altima that had just been marked down. We didn't believe him at first that it had just been marked down- but after a call to Pam to check the Blue Book value for us we learned that it was priced just below that! Yay! It had previously been used as a driver's ed car and has really low mileage and we figure has probably never been taken much over the speed limit. We also checked Consumer Reports and found that the '04 Altima had top marks in most categories. We were sold! So here are a couple of shots of our new family car.



I especially am very excited to have 2 cars again! Now the Rodeo can sit at the park-n-ride while Rob's at work and Charlotte and I can get to the library, grocery store, park, etc. whenever we want!

Hiking the Falls Trail

This past weekend we visited Rickett's Glen State Park with the Haydt family. While there, we all hiked the 7-ish mile Falls Trail- which is gorgeous! If you ever get a chance to go there, don't miss it! I'll spare you from pictures of all 21 of the waterfalls that we saw, but here are a few of our favorites...

Mark, Connor & Pam

Rob & Charlotte

(Thanks for lending us the baby backpack Spiveys!)

Mark, Leah & Pam

Yup, that's Rob and Charlotte down in the front.

Camping Out

We had a lot of fun in addition to the hiking that we did. We told scary stories around the campfire (but not TOO scary,) we went swimming and got ice cream at the beach, we caught tadpoles and a salamander that Connor named Spiderman, we had a funeral for Spiderman, and we had an enormous raccoon come to our campsite and peek in the tents and open the cooler (while we were all there! Apparently raccoons are no longer nocturnal at Rickett's Glen because they have learned that food is out during the day. The Brownie troop next to us said he stole their chocolate out of a tupperware container.)

Anyway, here a few pictures from our time at the campground:

Charlotte at Lake Jean. She loved eating the sand and banging the shovel on things.

(She's better at manuevering a sippy cup than a water bottle.)

Connor and Charlotte at the campsite.

A very tired Julie and Rob at the campsite...

Charlotte didn't let us get much sleep the first night!

Cooking breakfast... I LOVE campfire cooking!

Connor near Lake Jean.

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.)