Happy Father's Day, Papa!

For Father's Day, we flew out to Tucson to see Vanessa's dad. It was a quick trip, but we were all happy to see each other and the boys had a great time with their Grandma and Papa. Also, we had two birthday parties during our visit. First, we went to our cousin Demetrius and Xander's house for Xander's 2nd birthday (the picture shows Demetrius and Emmett playing while Grandma and Great Grandpa Bill look on). Then Grandma and Papa threw Emmett his 3rd birthday party at their house(that's Emmett, Harrison and Demetrius drooling over the cake!). Lots of presents and cake, totally fun, over stimulating day!

moved back to the Cape house

In January 2006, we moved into a fancy historic house in Fort Myers. Long story short, it didn't work out, so on June 1st 2007 we sold that house and are now back in our nice little house in Cape Coral. I am honestly not sure how we survived last summer without a pool at the Fort Myers house. We are in the pool hours every day, the boys love it and have these great little tans :)

Orlando for Mother's Day

We met Grandma and Papa (who flew in from Tucson) in Orlando over Mother's Day weekend. Stayed in a great condo with an awesome pool for kids, spent a day at Sea World, and had an overall marvelous time. This is Harrison with Papa in the pool, looking at the water shooters. And this is Emmett being the ultimate tourist at Sea World, with Grandma helping in the background.

Harrison is 1!

Our little baby is now a toddler, can you believe it?
He is walking quite well and wants to do everything his brother does. He has 8 teeth and likes most food, the only thing he has spit out so far has been meat. No words yet, but lots of yelling and laughing and pointing. He loves our shih tzu, Ruby and can usually be found walking around holding a pretzel rod in one hand. He is still nursing well mostly in the evenings, but is only waking once or twice a night for a quick nip.


He's a little too fearless with climbing and swimming, but is pretty coordinated for such a young guy. We are looking forward to him learning to talk and continuing to explore the world around him, with his brother ever-present to "help" :)

The boys are getting bigger!

In the courtyard at Starbucks, isn't Kirsten a great photographer?

Valentine's Day in Maui

One of the highlights of our trip was getting "married" on the beach. Hawaii is one of a few States that allows domestic partnerships, civil unions or other marriage equivalents for same-sex partners. We had a beautiful ceremony, at sunset on Valentine's Day. Vanessa's Mom and Dad were there and helped keep the children entertained, although Emmett did end up naked and in the waves by the time the sun was down :)

Emmett blessed our 5-year anniversary bands with his breath at the beginning of the ceremony and Harrison played in the sand. It was an evening we will never forget, such a beautiful and spiritual experience. Kirsten and I have known each other for 10 years and together have created such a wonderful, happy family and life. Maui on Valentine's Day was an ideal place to celebrate that together with those we love.

Maui is so awesome!

We took an amazing trip to Maui for two whole weeks. What a luxury to take an entire two week vacation in paradise! Grandma and Papa met us there and we stayed in their 3 bed 2 bath condo on the beach (thanks Grandma and Papa!) The kids loved the big waves and coarser sand that Maui had to offer. Emmett loved watching the surfers. We went to an authentic plantation luau and loved the food and the show. Mommy Vanessa and Papa had a SCUBA adventure and saw big sharks, sea turtles, eels, spiny lobsters, you name it. Papa, Mommy Vanessa and Mommy Kirsten took Emmett on a whale watching trip and we saw the most amazing whales swimming under our boat, jumping 10 feet away. It was so exciting! We definitely need to get back to Maui when Emmett and Harrison are old enough to do more fun activities with all of us. Huge thanks to Grandma and Papa for hanging out with the boys so the mommies could have some alone time and even play some tennis...

Merry Christmas!

Christmas

2006

Harrison's first Christmas and he enjoyed the ribbons and ornaments the best, very cute. Emmett understood the concept of Santa this year and was so excited that Santa brought him a big firetruck with a cherry picker and ladder. We had a quiet Christmas Day at our house, unfortunately all four of us were quite ill with a stomach virus and high fevers. Thankfully it passed quickly and we were able to spend the day after at Granny's house with the boys' cousins, Sydnie and Dominic.

Tucson for Thanksgiving

We flew to Tucson for Thanksgiving, Harrison's first trip "home to Arizona". The boys handled the flights very well, although lugging two car seats, a double stroller, two kids, and various bags and luggage isn't the Moms' idea of a good day. For traveling with two kids under 3, it went very smoothly!

Our trip was awesome, just too short as usual. We all went hiking in Sabino Canyon, see this pic of Emmett with his Papa, so special!

And here's a pic of the proud grandparents, always sad to see us leave...

Visitors from Central Florida

Kirsten's Uncle Richie and Aunt Sue, and their dog Hildie, came to visit us this weekend. It was a great visit! They took us out to a nice dinner in dowtown Fort Myers, where Emmett thoroughly enjoyed some ice cream :)

On Saturday afternoon, Granny Susan and Uncle Marc and his kids, Sydnie and Dominic came over to join the visit. It was the first time all had seen each other in many years. This is a pic (left to right) of Emmett, Kirsten, Harrison, Richie, Sydnie, Mark, and Dominic. Susan and Vanessa opted out of the photo :)

Happy Halloween!

Here's a picture of our spooky Halloween entryway... weather was perfect for trick or treating. Mommy Vanessa took Emmett around to a few houses while Mommy Kirsten stayed home with Harrison to answer for a paltry 3 trick-or-treaters. Emmett wouldn't really agree to a costume, ended up wearing a cowboy hat, no shoes, and pushing a toy shopping cart so we said he was a "beach bum". It worked, he still got candy :)

After the big trick-or-treat adventure, we played in the living room with Harrison's new Dinosaur toy. Emmett likes it more than his little brother, of course!

Harrison Eats Peas!

His first solid food at 5 months... very well received and fun for all :)

Look at those cute little teeth on the bottom.

Oh My Gawd...

Here is Emmett yesterday at Kirsten's cousin Clinton's ranch out in Arcadia. His daughter, Emma got a little 4 wheeler for her bday...neat concept for an 8 year old. The speed can be controlled with the turn of a screw and the engine can be killed via remote switch (only in the responsible adults hands) if the child is out of control or acting nuts. Dominic, 4, cried each time he had to surrender his turn to the next child panting in line. Clinton was trying to help Emmett (2!) who loved each second on that pink camoflague seat, when Emmett hit the gas and jetted away from Clint. Yipes, end result....Emmett fell off of the bike.... NO INJURIES....and lesson learned...HELMET..even when we are just learning because anything can happen at anytime. He did really like it

We love local parks!

One of the wonderful things about living near downtown Fort Myers is being within walking distance of a few neighborhood parks. This is a picture of Emmett and Mommy Vanessa havinga great time only a block from our house, at a fully fenced, well shaded park.
Good times!

Our boys!

So cute how they are pretending to like each other, isn't it? ;)

Poor baby...

Emmett had extensive dental work performed this morning, poor guy had big cavities in his front teeth that needed caps :( and more cavities in his back teeth that needed filled. Thankfully, the general anesthesia worked out fine and the dental work is over. He was quite a trooper, for sure! Don't worry, we had the dentist put sealant on the rest of his teeth so the chance of a repeat problem is decreased. Poor baby!

Cousins at Granny's

Emmett tasted his first "push-pop" with his cousins, Sydnie and Dominick, at Granny's this weekend. As you can imagine, it was a huge hit. We had a fun day playing in the pool and BBQing in the summer heat.

La Leche League event

We attended a promotional walk and potluck event with our local La Leche League parenting group this Saturday.
Harrison slept through most of it, our dog Ruby was very helpful, and Emmett had a great time with the other kids (and Ruby, as you can see below). La Leche League has been a great source of support for us as we contemplated early parenting, breastfeeding, nutrition, birth choices, and just plain friendship. These are some very cool women and happy families!

Cape Coral Yacht Club

We love the Yacht Club...
Harrison's first taste of sand :)

Art fiend!

Kirsten was brave enough to find out that Emmett has an affinity for painting, his preferred mode of expression is his own body ;) Harrison remained an innocent bystander, thankfully.