Longwood Gardens

This morning we babysat Landon while his parents headed to New York. Landon is such a great kid! He is a year older than Nicole and is the nicest and well behaved boy. Alex said that we can tell Landon's parents that we'll babysit anytime (hint, hint Crystal).

After Landon left, we headed to Longwood Gardens. Alex's mom chose an annual garden pass as our birthday presents this year, and we wanted to get a head start! Alex scoped things out for our garden this year, and Nicole was loving being outside and seeing people. And I have to say that the conservatory was absolutely beautiful! Everything was in bloom and colorful and fragrant and it just made me long for spring. Here are just a few photos from our day.

Erin Go Braugh!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Anyone who knows me knows that I love this holiday. We celebrated in so many different ways - none of which were a parade (in large part because Alex isn't such a big fan of them). But we still had fun! We had some friends over for an authentic Irish meal of bacon & cabbage, colcannon (potatoes & cabbage), and soda bread. When I asked my Irish brother-in-law what to serve for dessert, he said it had to be an apple tart with custard. I found a recipe online and it turned out great!


Nicole got dressed up for the holiday (and got lots of kisses), I made shamrock sugar cookies (Alex took some to scouts), and we ate fish and chips for dinner. All that was missing was the garlic mayo (I know, sounds gross, but when we had it in Ireland it was delicious)!

9 Months!

I can't even believe I have a 9 month old. Time flies! Nicole is so active these days - crawling all around, pulling herself up onto anything, pulling everything off of bookshelves, talking (we think she's starting to figure out the mama and dada thing), and letting us know her opinions! She loves people, especially kids, and is always smiling at them. She has 3 teeth, with 3 others about to break through. Nicole is the nicest little girl and is so happy. We are so lucky to have her!

Here are her stats:

17 lbs 9.8 oz - 24th percentile

27.5 inches long - 42nd percentile

18 inch head circumference - 90th percentile

When I told Alex these stats, his response was, "so she's skinny, normal length, with a big head." Yep, that just about sums it up!

70° Weather!

Saturday was absolutely beautiful! I started the day nice and early by going to a consignment sale and getting some awesome deals on toys and clothes for Nicole. I got this Peek-a-blocks hippo for $5 and Nicole loves sitting on it and getting pushed around the house.

Then we spent the afternoon outside, sitting on the lawn while Alex worked in the yard and then going to the park up the road. We rode on the bouncy motorcycles, teeter-totters, and went down the slide. Nicole was a big fan of the swing - it was her first time on it and she couldn't get enough of it!

Trip to Utah

Alex had a conference in Salt Lake in February, so Nicole and I tagged along. We had a great time with family and friends, and I think they really enjoyed seeing Nicole! We got to spend an afternoon with my best friend from home, Sara, and her two cute kids (although her baby was sleeping so I never really got to see her). Sara and I grew up together - literally. I still remember in elementary school when we got those big awkward glasses (which are still around in my parents house), and I remember sleepovers at her house drinking coke floats and watching movies. Then we moved on to bigger things like joyriding in our first cars and passing notes in school. So much fun! Anyway, here are our two munchkins hanging out.

Max and Nicole

We also spent time with my parents, my Grandma, and Alex's family.

But, I'll be honest, the best part of the trip was coming home. If you could have seen the look on Nicole's face when we walked in and she started to recognize everything. She was smiling the whole time, and couldn't wait to get out of my arms to start playing with her things. Priceless!