The Dreaded Christmas Letter Online Edition

In even more glory than the Santa photo, here it is...

Front Page (click to read)



Back Page



Unfortunately the original images are not working correctly because of an issue with Blogger so they are now linked through Picasa. You may need to click on the zoom (magnifying glass icon in the upper right) to read the letters. If and when this is fixed I will get things setup properly again.

Giving it a try

Erin, despite cruising the furniture for months now, has yet to take her first step. It is a bit of a puzzler as she practically runs when she cruises and has fantastic balance. So in keeping with the tradition of this blog I am going to complain that she hasn't begun walking yet to spur her on. If you look through past posts you will see that every time I mention that "Erin hasn't done x" she immediately does x to prove her old man wrong. I'll report back in a few days.

A Little Early But...

Here is the official Santa photo in all its glory!



Erin, if you couldn't tell, was completely terrified of Santa. Rachel was a little shy at first but the big guy did a great job of listening to our attempts to pump her up and picked up a lot of details that really got Rachel's attention and made her warm right up to him.

Oh well, the girls were cute in their matching Santa dresses!

Happy Halloween

I realize this is a few days after the fact, but here are a few pics from Halloween. We went trick or treating in Old Town Alexandria which was a good time. The stores were giving out treats from 4-6 then one of the neighborhoods just south of King Street blocked off its streets and the whole neighborhood was out and about. Rachel received so much candy that we had to get a second bag to fill. We had a great evening.

OK, now for some pics.

Rachel went as Alice, as in Alice in Wonderland and was adorable. She entered a costume contest and was quite unhappy when she didn't win. Her first words after she came off stage were "Dad aren't you mad that I didn't win?"





Erin slept through much of the evening...



but then she woke up later and had a good time trick or treating. And yes that is Rachel's old pumpkin costume.

Updated Career Plans

Rachel informed me yesterday that not only does she want to be a "premie baby doctor nurse" she also wants to be a bike racer and a swimmer. It was also important to note that she wants to be all three "in the same day" as well.

The premie nurse and the bike racer come from Mommy (for those who didn't know Mindy was a big time bmx racer when she was young) and the swimmer comes from Rachel's sometimes baby sitter Meredith (she is a competitive swimmer). It is sweet to see who she looks up to and admires, even if Dad isn't one of those people...

The Girls Being Goofy

A quick video of Rachel being a goofy big-sister shot in a Starbucks in New Hope PA during Columbus Day weekend while we were visiting my family.

Rachel is a great big sister to Erin. There have never been any jealousy issues and she genuinely appears to enjoy her little sis. I find it impressive that when you tell her that she is beautiful without complimenting Erin as well Rachel will reply "I think Erin is prettier than me". I find that touching.

Erin Claps

Here is a quick vid of Erin clapping. It usually doesn't last long but it is cute nonetheless.