Baby Jack's First Birthday!

On the way home we stopped in Rhode Island to celebrate Baby Jackson's first birthday! What a great time we had! Aliza spent a long time pushing Jack in his new swing! Xandra gave it a try too, looks like she digs it! There are Rock-N-Roll genes in this family for sure! We make the most beautiful babies! Finally - CAKE!!! Jack LOVED his cake! Look at that Baby - And that SMILE! I could eat him like a big slice of cake! Happy Birthday Baby Jackson!
After our stop to Rhode Island it was time to head home to Maryland. What a great trip! Can't wait to do it again...except this time we may fly so we can stay even longer!!!

Hop Scotch Anyone?

An afternoon at Turner Rd. turned into Hop Scotch lessons! Believe it or not I didn't really know how to play...Aunti Joey remedied that! By the end of that afternoon I was ready for a full on playground competition! It's not as easy as you may think...don't laugh! Joey was holding her grand-daughter, Xandra, and you should of heard that babies' squeels of delight! Her smile is precious and never ends!

Aliza and Madison both did great for being first timers! Don't fall over! I know you can do it!Madison climbed the tree in the front yard of Nan and Grampy's house which is almost an initiation in itself! I have pics of all the kids in this tree! Look at that smile!

Xandra can't even walk and she climbed the tree! OK - Uncle Luke helped a little!
Another great afternoon spent with family!

Smell That Salty Air!

While in Mass. we couldn't resist a few trips to the Atlantic! The first day we went to Scituate Beach and the following to Egypt Beach, a few miles away. The kids love the water, as you may have noticed throughout my Blog...but the Ocean is even magical to the kids! Madison went right up to the life guards and asked them if her and Ali could play in their rescue kayak...they couldn't deny those eyes!

The girls spent a lot of effort climbing the huge rock at Egypt Beach...here they are triumphantly at the top!Kaleb was very busy combing the beaches and became quite close to a few friends of the crustation persuasion! He had a great time! I had quite a battle getting them settled down out of the water for this shot, I think it was worth it though!Notice Aliza's fingers...she LOVES her brother!I may have another picture of this on here but I can't have enough, this is the lighthouse Luke and I were married at in August of "99! We always try to make a point of going there alone and reflecting on our past together, we always end up psyched about the future, it's rejuvinating for us!

Rockin' New England Narlee Style!

For the 4th of July we packed up Kaleb, Aliza, my niece Madison, and Tildy and trecked to Mass. to see some of our favorite people! After a long, long drive we arrived to a house full of family happy to see us! We had a 4th gathering at The Mitchell's in Hingham and the cousins had some time to enjoy each other!Here are Luke, Chris and Phil having some chill time!

The kids had a blast playing in Gramma's car with Pop to supervise...this was a real treat and lasted for hours! He's much more patient than I! the kids thought it was really cool to be "way " up there!
It was great to see Gramma and Pop too here they are with Aliza and "Baby Jack"! Awww!We were also pretty excited to see Nick and Emily, our cousins from Washington State! That was a treat!We hope to see everyone soon! We love our trips to Mass.!

Trek to the River...

We took an afternoon trip to Savage Mill, MD. to take the kids and Matilda swimming in the Little Patapsco river. This place has a great walking trail and crazy rocks to climb on and water falls to play on. It's pretty cool!Here the kids are crossing the historical bridge to get to the trail....Pretty right? Now you see why we trek to this land!Madison loved getting pulled by the "strong water" as she dubbed it! Too cute!Aliza loved having the bubbles from the falls tickle her belly! Look at that face!Kaleb is hard to watch here, the natural forces all around highten his daredevil nature and he makes my heart stop every two minutes - I can't believe the luck this boy has! Agility like a cat!Here he is loving this area of turbulance, he's actually riding the current down into another fall.
Pools and parks are dandy, but I'll choose a natural playground any day!

Jane Got Crafty!

On the way to the park in NY I saw a house that caught my eye. This old colonial house was completely decorated in the Americana style and had an American flag on the front that was really cool, and happened to be made of something I had kicking around my own home! Check this out....Made of left over privacy fence and some pre-cut stars I apinted whilte from the craft store...I'm pretty proud of it! I opted for the colonial design because, well frankly, I didn't want to have to rock out 50 stars!