Hilarious.

I always peek in on the kids before I go to bed. The other night, this is how Sam was sleeping...

Love this baby

This little girl is 9 months old today.

I can't believe how fast she seems to be growing up. I guess when you are also distracted by a 3 year old, time flies. She is crawling everywhere and is very close to pulling herself up and standing on her own. She's really not talking much at all (it is pretty hard to get a word in with her brother's constantly running narrative) other than saying "da-da" all the time. She's just as sweet as can be - a perfect baby...sometimes I seriously wonder if she's a real angel. And she always seems to be very happy! This wide-open mouth "smile" she has when she's excited can be a real problem on morning jogs in the baby jogger now that we have a sudden outbreak of flying grasshoppers.

Trying to get a good picture with the cousins

Sam! Look this way!

Emma - get that pickle out of your mouth.

Sam, stop being weird.

Oh just nevermind.

Sure do love these boys

The 2 sweetest boys I know

This is how they play now

Sam and Henry love to wrestle.

Except that it's not really wrestling, because they literally take turns being on top. First Henry will jump on Sam. Then he'll say, "Ok, you're turn Sam" and he'll lay down so Sam can jump on top. See how cooperative Henry is being?

So cute. And so necessary, since Henry has Sam beat by about 4 inches and 10 pounds.

Just a normal night at home

From fear, to sheer delight...

What would prompt an 8-month-old to react with expressions such as this?

The answer: simply watching her brother do this:

Kinda like Halley's Comet

We love when Grandpa is in town for business because that usually means we also get to see Adam and Becca (getting married in 2 months!), eat really good food, AND recently it has meant that we get to see this:

In my entire life, I have never seen my dad with a beard. I think it may only come around once every 60 years. Who knows if it's the mountain man reference, the salt-and-pepper look, or the general anomaly of it all - but it was cool.

And just like Halley's Comet, as fast as it came, the beard is now gone...and I may never see it again in my lifetime...

Guess I wasn't fast enough

He asked me to come help him in the bathroom. I told him to wait just a minute because I was in the middle of cooking dinner.

I found him "waiting" for me in the bathroom/hallway like this:

Guess I wasn't fast enough.