Updated Pictures

Here are some of his first smiles! So rewarding :)

I can actually set this baby down...(Edison would never stand for it) McKay loves his mat. Thank goodness!

But the problem is, when I set Mckay down, Edison clobbers him.

But how can I refuse him when he just wants to spend time with his brother?

McKay is surprisingly interactive for 2 months. He loves books...this one in particular, and always gives us some good kicks and a smile or two when we bring it out.

Edison has his ways of letting us know that we're not paying attention to him....like banging his truck into Dad's head. But Dad always makes sure to throw him up in the air a couple of times after Mckay story time.

McKay Bert Alexander

Our second little one arrived two weeks early, March 10th at 5:30 am. McKay Bert Alexander was 6lbs 13 oz, and 20 inches long. He's a very calm and quiet baby (yay!) and we love him more every second. Edison is adjusting...but is very sweet with "Mac" as well. He loves to give him kisses, as we all do!

Edison Turns 2!

Our little Edison turned 2 years old Feb.13. He's such a character, Nate and I love having this little guy in our lives. He picks up on the funniest things, and has an excellent memory. My prediction for his future years is that he's going to be just like his Dad when he was little. In other words, I'm in for a wild ride. Here are some of his latest and greatest pictures, and a recap of his special day. Skinny Jeans. He loves putting buckets, blankets, etc. on his head. Always makes for some great goose eggs on his forehead. We've nicknamed him "taps" as he loves to try on our shoes and go walking around on our hard wood floor. The neighbors always know when we're home. His birthday dinner of hot dogs, french fries and root beer...at his request of course. Monster truck birthday cake. Loved every bite. Even the wax candle.

The coolest part of his day was when the Baltimore fire department showed up at his house right when he woke up from his nap. (The department was making it's yearly rounds on our street checking everyone's fire detectors. Amazing time on their part... and we looked like the best parents in the world to Edison!)

America's Winter Playground

Dec. 1st was our first snow. Very appropriate I thought. It was absolutely beautiful, and Edison adapted pretty well to it. He loves to throw snowballs, catch snowflakes on his tongue and mainly just eat it. We've had a couple of really nice snowy days which really makes things really feel like Christmas!

I love the big window in our front room that lets us gaze out at the snow all day long. Lovely.

Our little house so pretty in the snow!

Edison was so excited and moving so fast, I could hardly catch a picture of him!


This is coming in after the snow. I just has to put this one up because this is the face he makes when you tell him to say cheese. Such a funny kid.

Surprise!

Well, we're moving again. After four months in Amherst, NY, we'll be moving to Baltimore Maryland. Life has it's little surprises, doesn't it? Nate got accepted to Johns Hopkins to do a Master in Real Estate, which we can't pass up. Besides, we got sick of the buffalo wings here, and can't wait to move on to blue shell crab.

We spent our Thanksgiving Holiday in Baltimore looking for housing, and fell in love with the city. It's a really fun, upbeat and clean city (well, the parts we saw) and we're excited to try it out. I'm just hoping we can stay there longer than 4 months!

All of Nate's classes will be in that that snazzy high rise behind him in the picture. It's right on the water too! He's pretty excited.

Do we look like "Baltimorians"? Is that even what they're called?

Halloween

Holidays are so much more fun with little kids. Edison really grasped the "Halloween" concept and to my great pleasure was excited about every Halloween activity that we did.


I think I told Edison that we were going to eat the pumpkin seeds out of the pumpkin, but I must not have told him that we had to bake them first.

His very first carmel apple. I thought for sure he'd just lick the carmel off, but he surprised me and ate all the way to the core!

Trying on Mom's Halloween costume, over and over and over again.

Here he is in his pumpkin glory! I was so happy that he kept his costume on the entire ward party!!! And yes, that is candy corn juice spilling from his mouth. The center piece on our table was gone in about five min.

Such a happy pumpkin.

He even whispered a "trick or treat" at every stop.

Mixing in with his natural surroundings.

Poor Nate had to light those pumpkins over and over and over again because you know who had too much fun blowing the candles out.

Fall Has Been Good to Us.

Fall has been absolutely 100% enjoyable. No complaints here. Although the weather has gotten frigid, we've had some wonderful sunny "sweater weather" days as well. I had to post some pictures of those Fall moments that made me the happiest.

This is one of our beautiful trees outside out front room window. When the sun hits the tree just right, our front room couch is the best place to snuggle up and read.

Even better, watching the squirrels from inside come by on our tree for some bird feeder treats! (There he is on the second branch up)

I know it's blurry, but this picture captures our street at the very beginning of fall. It was like having streets paved with gold. It only lasted for about two days till all the leaves fell off, but it certainly was fun to walk through.

This is Niagara Falls River at the beginning of the season. Very, very pretty.

And of course, lots of leaves to rake and lots of piles to jump in! Edison loved jumping in the leaves.

Pumpkin patch, after pumpkin patch. We couldn't get enough.

When you're dressed right, a rainy day walk in the leaves can be nice!

If it was too wet and rainy outside, it gave us an excuse to stay inside and make some delicious pumpkin chocolate chip cookies!!!

Pumpkins

I have officially helped Edison in becoming infatuated about pumpkins this Halloween season. I taught him songs, read him books, "It's the great pumpkin Charlie Brown" has even made it to his favorite movie list. When you ask him what he dreamt about the night before, he'll say "pumpkins." Mission accomplished. So, here is a little video of Edison singing one of my favorite pumpkin carols, "Mr. Jack-o-lantern."

Grape picking and Juice making.

Apparently there is a lot of fruit to be picked out here. I had a friend from the ward invite Edison and I to come out to a grape orchard to pick our own concord grapes with the goal to make our own grape juice. This was not an opportunity that I wanted to miss out on...me making my own grape juice? Of course!

It was about an hour and half to the orchard, and fall was just beginning to creep in. It made for a beautiful drive.

Edison loved that grapes were finally for once not on a high refrigerator shelf, but just at the very touch of his fingertips. He ate plenty off the vine, and I encouraged it.

The orchard.

These grapes tasted just like how grapes should taste. None of this store bought plastic bag grape taste, but the real thing. The grape flavor that every candy, or juice, or soda tries to imitate, except these were real, and they were good.

In the end my friend and I picked at total of 110lbs of grapes. Give me a toga, and a vine for my head and I'm legit! I ended up taking a share of 30lbs at the total tally of $7.50.

Wow. I never thought I'd learn to can, fruits, veggies, tuna, ANYTHING. But here I am in my little kitchen with my hand picked 30lbs of grapes making my very own grape juice concentrate. I felt like I could take on the world. I will say however, that it's a lot of work, and something that I probably won't feel like doing till next year when I get nostalgic for the experience. I could of made a whole entire Thanksgiving dinner by the time I got through the last of the grapes.

However, the joy and pride I felt when I placed these 12 jars of hand picked, concord grape juice jars in my basement was unexplainable. Hand me the wheat, give me the grinder and I'll make you some bread. I did it, and boy was it delicious in every way.