A shout out!

Dear truck, bus, and tractor drivers,

Thank you for being on the roads or at construction sites each and every day, rain or shine. My daughter lives to see you drive by when we are out on the road. Not one of you passes us by without a "shout out" from my daughter in the form of an enthusiastic announcement of your name (ie - dump truck, bus, digger). I used to dread driving through construction zones and now I'll almost make a detour just to ensure we pass one.

If you were part of the dump truck convoy on I-95 two days ago, thank you for saving me from a crying melt down as we raced home to get my daughter a nap. She got to count each dump truck in a row and talked about you the rest of the way home. I think she is almost counting to five because of you!

Keep on truckin'!
Love,
Charlotte's mom

Grapes

One of Charlotte's past times is going through the very messy cabinet to the left. She does it almost on a daily basis. Here she is taking a break to shove some grapes in her mouth.

I'm way behind on posting these days. I'll add more pictures soon. Half of my company is in Florida this week for a conference, so they left me with most of the review work. I guess that's why they keep me around and pay me the big bucks ;) More pictures soon...

Happy Mother's Day!

This was posted on one of my mommy groups for Mother's Day:

A Newborn's Conversation With God

A baby asked God, 'They tell me you are sending me to earth tomorrow, but how am I going to live there being so small and helpless?' God said, 'Your angel will be waiting for you and will take care of you.'

The child further inquired, 'But tell me, here in heaven I don't have to do anything but sing and smile to be happy.' God said, 'Your angel will sing for you and will also smile for you. And you will feel your angel's love and be very happy.'

Again the child asked, 'And how am I going to be able to understand when people talk to me if I don't know the language?' God said, 'Your angel will tell you the most beautiful and sweet words you will ever hear, and with much patience and care, your angel will teach you how to speak.'

And what am I going to do when I want to talk to you?' God said, 'Your angel will place your hands together and will teach you how to pray.''Who will protect me?' God said, 'Your angel will defend you even if it means risking its life.''But I will always be sad because I will not see you anymore.' God said, 'Your angel will always talk to you about Me and will teach you the way to come back to Me, even though I will always be next to you.'

At that moment there was much peace in Heaven, but voices from Earth could be heard and the child hurriedly asked, 'God, if I am to leave now, please tell me my angel's name.'God said, 'You will simply call her, 'Mom.'


We had the pleasure of a visit from Mem for Mother's Day weekend. We went out to brunch with Uncle Brian this morning. Poppy was away for simulator training, but we got to see him on Saturday.

Mem, Charlotte, Elizabeth, and Dave in the back.

A funny story for those of you who know my Dad:

Dave brought the above flowers home for me on Thursday. They spent two nights in his fridge at work because he kept forgetting them, but they were still nice two days later. I LOVE getting flowers! My parents were arriving Friday afternoon to visit for the weekend. My dad called me Friday morning to see if I would be home to accept a delivery. We were gone most of the morning but I assured him that Fedex is good about leaving packages in a safe place. He sounded very concerned and anxious about the delivery. I had a feeling they were flowers for me and my mom for Mother's Day.

The "package" had not arrived when my parents walked in the house. The first thing my dad saw were the flowers Dave got me this week. I couldn't resist the chance to play a little joke on him. My dad stared at the flowers for a few seconds, scratched his head, and said "Son of b!@#%, I got ripped off!" I burst out laughing and assured him that Fedex had not come yet and these were flowers from Dave.

These flowers arrived later that evening and they are gorgeous! My dad was pleased that he got his money's worth and we've been laughing about the whole thing all weekend.

Playgroup photo montage

The whole gang (all 6 kids) together for a group photo at our house last Friday. I don't think we've sucessfully taken a picture of all six since last June. From left to right is Ian, Carly, Charlotte, Max, Amelia, and Bella.

Here's one with the newest members of our group, Henry (5 weeks) is Max's new brother, and Jack (7 months) is Bella's little bro.

Max is the man! He was getting kisses from Carly and Amelia.

Who does Charlotte look like here? I think my mom.

I don't know why this photo uploaded in this direction but I'm too lazy to fix it. Here is one of the newest additions to the group - Henry, born March 25th, 2008.

Max and his mom, Danielle, who is now the mother of two boys (Max and Henry)!

Bella, Amelia and Max playing with the doll house and eating muffins.

Tara (Bella's mom) and Jack, 7 months. Tara makes being the mother of two under two look so easy!

Carly sitting in Charlotte's chair and talking on the phone.

Friday afternoon at the park

The weather has been amazing here lately. We picked up Jacob and his mom to head to the park on Friday afternoon before all the daddies got home from work. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of Charlotte and Jacob. They were so cute riding in the backseat of my car together. Charlotte is getting really good at the slide solo.

Leapfrog Mania

We've had these magnets on our fridge for almost a year. Up until recently, Charlotte would simply push the buttons to play music or throw all the animals and letters on the floor. She's finally getting the hang of it now. Just last week she matched up every single animal on her own. I was getting ready to take them all down, but it seems like they finally serve an educational purpose. Good girl, cha cha.

21 months old!

I haven't taken any bath pictures in a while because I always forget to bring my camera in with us. Charlotte's favorite bath activity is to drink "tea" from the tub faucet in her little red tea cup. She fills it up and then sits in the back of the tub to drink and relax. It's really quite amusing!