Fall Update

We'll start at the end of September, when we went to the Maryland/DC area to visit friends and family.  We spent a few days out at the beach, but Rose wanted to spend most of her time there on the playground.

Papa came out for a fall photo shoot at the French Creek Metroparks here in Sheffield.

Obligatory "kissing the belly" shot.

"No!  No kisses!"

We also went down to Hillcrest Orchards in South Amherst for a corn maze and some pumpkin and apple picking.  Rose enjoyed getting lost in the maze as much as she enjoyed eating apples off the trees and trying to pick up the pumpkins.

"Rosie's pumpkin!  Face!"

It was a wet, cool, windy Halloween night, so Rose stayed home to help us pass out candy in her jaguar costume.

Rose turned two at the beginning of November, and had plenty of family and friends come out to celebrate.

She did much better with her cake this time than she did for her first birthday.

We also had another obligatory "age made out of leaves" photo shoot.

And just this past weekend, we hosted Thanksgiving once again.

Rose has been a flurry of activity again, both physically and verbally.  She can now run and jump, and speaks in phrases and sentences instead of just single words.  This week, we moved her into her "big girl room," which has taken her a few days to adjust to.  Now it's time to prepare the nursery for baby number two, who will be here in a few short weeks.  Speaking of the pregnancy, Erin has been doing quite well outside of the expected heartburn, aches, and tiredness.

Rose's First Trip to Notre Dame

Rose made her first trip to Notre Dame this past weekend, and while she didn't go to the game (she watched from the hotel with Mom and Grandma), she did make sure to see all the major sites.  Well, except the Backer, but she can catch that next time.

Brushing up on her Go Irish book during the car ride

On the field Friday afternoon

Wearing her gameday outfit, courtesy of Mamaw

Touchdown!  (And later: "Jesus!  Hi!  Hi Jesus!")

Beat Purdue!

Recreating our engagement picture, a few years later

With some current bones

What's going on back there?

Clapping along at Concert on the Steps

Who has the better stare?  And who's taller?

Visiting the Grotto Sunday morning

Meeting St. Bernadette

Coming Soon: Baby K #2!

Surprise!  It's been a while since we've posted (again), but we couldn't help sharing the good news.  Baby K #2 is due January 1 (although Erin plans to start walking December 26 so the baby can be born before the New Year).  We went to the ultrasound a few weeks ago, and although we didn't find out the gender - we're going to be surprised again - we did come back with some pictures.  Here they are.

First, a good healthy heartbeat

This baby was much less shy than Rose, who wouldn't let us see her face

Baby also had a message for his/her older sister

We were also able to get some 4D pictures of this baby, which was pretty cool

As for the big sister, Rose has been doing well and has been going through a flurry of development.  She's loving the summer, running around, going to playgrounds, and swimming in Grandma and Grandpa's pool.  Her vocabulary has exploded, even using words we haven't specifically tried to teach her.  Her memory is great as well, and she can now tell you things she did earlier in the day, fill in the blanks with her stories, and even associates people with certain places or other people.  Now this isn't "our baby is so smart" bragging, it's just amazement at how far she's come in such a short time.  And now we get to do it all over again!

Catching up, yet again

The last two months featured a couple visits from the Detroit Wards, Easter, Mother's Day, and park weather!  Here are lots of pictures with a few words added in.

Godfather and Goddaughter

Beckett, I know how this works - let me show you.

This year's American Slovak Club bat girl

Kids these days....

First Easter Egg Hunt!  She did well, except she wanted to open each egg to eat the treats inside before moving onto the next one.

Garrett helped Rose put her new letter magnets on the fridge