Video of the 6 month cupcake

Here's a short clip of Alison's experiment with cupcakes on her 6 month birthday......she wasn't quite sure what to do with it.....in the middle she discovers that maybe frosting isn't that bad, but she wants no part of trying the cake......maybe she thought the frosting was the best part and the cake wasn't worth it.

Who's Zoo-ing Whom?

We made our annual trip to the St. Louis Zoo over the weekend.....the girls had a lot of fun.....we had to get there early to beat the crowd and the heat......Here are some photos -

The girls try to see what animals they measure up with
If she could straighten out her legs a bit, she'd be taller than a hawk Grace getting swallowed up by a hippo
I ain't afraid of no goat!
Grace and Ashley checking out the hippo tank....
Grace hanging out with some of her really "cool" friends (this penguin exhibit is the coolest thing (no pun intended) that I've seen at a zoo....these penguins are outside the exhibit)

Alison riding the carousel.....I think she's riding a baby hippo....
Grace having fun riding the bunny......
Silly faces outside the penguin tank.....(you literally get splashed by the penguins as they jump in the water)
Alison chilling out.....she was ready to go home.......

Alison turns one-half

Alison's 6 month birthday was last Friday......time fuh-lies......We went to visit Ashley's parents in St. Louis for the weekend and left Friday morning. After we got there, we made some cupcakes so she could try out some cake and frosting......she wasn't a big fan.....(we will be scheduling the DNA tests tomorrow to see who her real biological parents are).....she got some frosting on her fingers, but when we tried to get her to taste it, she cried.....I'll post some video of the event later.

Anyway, here are some photos of Alison on her actual 6 month birthday, and one photo of her cupcake experience (sitting in Ashley's old highchair)......

You never know where you'll find her

Tonight, we went upstairs to turn in for the night......As I went upstairs, I heard Grace talking to herself (common practice), and I could tell it wasn't coming from her room. I thought she was in Alison's nursery, but this is where I found her:

The difference between dads and moms? - I went to get the camera, and Ashley worked on telling her to never climb up there again because it could fall on top of her.

We're headed for St. Louis this weekend......early next week, we should have some pictures from the zoo, and Alison eating her 6 month cupcake!

Grace goes to Soccer class

We signed Grace up for a t-ball and soccer class this spring called Kicks and Swings.....for two nights a week for five weeks, they teach the kids some basics about throwing, catching, kicking, and listening to instructions (obviously, this is by far the most challenging aspect of the class). On Mondays, they have soccer stuff, and Wednesdays are the t-ball sessions. Grace seems to like soccer the best because she gets to run around more.

In the video, during the warm-up stretches, you can see her favorite teacher (she's the tall one), and you can also see a new little friend she made named Savannah (she's the one in the purple shirt with her hair pulled up in a pony-tail kind across from Grace). The kids like to play on the slides together after class.

Hopefully, later this week, I'll have a chance to add some more from class, including a very competitive, almost violent game of Duck, Duck, Goose.....j/k.....it's not violent.

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all you Dad's out there!

The girls took me to the pool at State Farm park today after church. Our company just upgraded the pool facilities over the winter and it's a lot of fun. They have two kids pools, slides, fountains, and a lazy river. Here are some pictures and video of the day.



It was a perfect day for the pool.....85 degrees by 9:30 this morning and not a cloud in site. Hot, hot, hot........Grace spent most of her time going down the kiddie slides and running through the fountains. Alison is warming up to the pool thing......she hasn't started splashing around yet, but she's talking more when she's in the water, and being really smiley!

Playing around with videos

Just experimenting with how to get some video linked into this page. I thought I might just upload our videos on to youtube.com. I think I might be able to have you guys see longer videos a little easier this way instead of the 30 second snippets over e-mail which take longer. (I'm talking to you, dial-up people)

Anyway, here's a video from about a month ago of Alison eating ice cream for the first time!



Tune in tomorrow when I hope to have some pictures/clips of our Father's Day trip to the pool.

Alison's 6 month photos

Ashley took Alison for her 6 month photos this afternoon at Portrait Innovations. Here are the 3 poses she chose. What a cutie!

Alison also had her 6 month check-up today! She weighed in at a whopping 14 lbs, 15 oz (35th percentile) and 24 5/8 inches long (20th percentile). I don't remember her head circumference but it was 60 th percentile; so, she's a petite baby with a big head!

Some recent photos of the girls

Thought I would share a few photos of the girls from recent "events".

The photo on the bottom is Alison trying out a swing at a park nearby the new house. (We recently moved; more on that later) She's getting bored watching her big sister get to play on all the playground equipment and wants to join in the fun!

The first few times on the swings she didn't know what to think, but she's started to warm up to it.

And the photo on the top is of Grace after getting her face painted at a recent Company event. Our workplace puts together a small carnival for its employees. They have rides, games, crafts, and most importantly, food for everyone for an entire day.

Grace rode her first roller coaster and spent a ton of time jumping in those big inflatable jumping castle things with her some of her friends