Welcome Phoebe Hannah Shoenfeld!!

Born on December 23rd, 8 lbs., 20.5 inches. BEAUTIFUL! Can't wait to meet her tomorrow!! And here she is with my big brother, Eric. Congratulations Eric and Liz!!

Where'd '09 Go??

MAGIC HOUSE! YAYAAAAAYYYY!Emmy loves the light table! Stacking blocks with different colors to see how the colors change. Doesn't she look pretty all lit up?
Here are Nash and Mariel. Mariel is the older of two very special girls we spend our days with. They are very good at playing pretend; this picture was taken after finding them camping in the Spiderman tent with cupcakes.
Fairy Princess Margot! These little skirts are too easy to make, I imagine we will have a dozen by the time she's 3.
Hanukkah jammies! Margot would spend all day playing in Nash's bed. And Nash loves playing in Margot's. Are all kids like that? I don't get it! It's cute though.
Put the ball in the hole and watch is go BOING BOING BOING. These little cause and effect toys fill the magic house. And they are indeed magical to the little ones.

Hanukkah!

Margot was so little at her first Hanukkah, not so much anymore. Margot hung in there for 14 months and let me nurse her, but she's had enough now and I think she's getting bigger faster with all the cow's milk she's drinking. According to the baby scale at the Magic House she's 21 lbs, which puts her over the 20th percentile! She's never ranked so high before. So we've just finished Margot's 2nd Hanukkah and Nash's 3rd. What a Hanukkah! Margot and Nash's new toys include: a dump truck, books, tubation, CD's, people puzzles, jammies, and a few girly things :),



I've had a birthday since I last wrote. I am now 31! We had a fun morning at the butterfly house playing with my new camera

I started to write deep, reflective thoughts about my age and my birthday and the love and craft and excitement in life, but I don't really have the words to express just how happy and grateful I am everyday. So I'll leave it at that.
Back to more everyday fun: The Magic House!

Margot and I are headed to Richmond, VA on the 26th to give a big welcome to my neice, who I am sooooo excited for! Eric and Liz are due on the 23rd with Nashy and Margot's first (first) cousin, a baby girl. We also can't wait to see Maeme and G and a few friends too!

Was trying to upload more pictures by Blogger isn't responding, so I'll try again later.

Bye Bye Fall!

We all love Autumn. Margot's birthday, Halloween, our Anniversary, Thanksgiving... then before you know it, it's my birthday and Hanukkah! Margot is standing up on her own and takes the occasional step. She's still only got three little teeth, which she loves to show off with big smiles.Stand in the place where you live...

We stayed home for Thanksgiving and missed our families! Ray took the week off and it was really great to relax at home and be goofy.
We made ourselves a yummy pre-Thanksgiving dinner.

Ray is crazy about these kids.

Daddy's girl?
Nashy's a little sick today, but was still playing games with me when I tried to take a picture of him resting on the couchAnd Ray and I after Turkey din at the Bell's house.
And the exciting news of the week is we are now pet owners! Here is our fish Aleph the Beta. Isn't he beautiful?Nash and Margot love this Farm House we got them as a special present to play with Thanksgiving week while Daddy was home


And here's our little Margot, with her hair back, doing what she does. Being sweet, and peaceful, and studying books and cars and chillin' in the doggie bed.

Cute little Margot video

Triple P: Projects, Playing and Pretending

We do a lot of the triple P around here. Now that the Flaherty girls, Mariel and Noella, have joined our daily play, I need to accomodate two babies naps, which means a lot more time around the house. More toy rotation, more theme playing, and more projects. Somehow, our days are not always consumed by chaos.
"No thanks, Mashy, I have enough."
A little tea time always settles these crazy kids down a little bit.
We used a potato masher to paint Nash's shirt! We've got a few other shirts, can't wait to get them decorated.
Margot with her little baby, giving her a kiss, after a Cheerio breakfast.

Nash's new favorite is Peter Pan. So, I've added a link to "You Can Fly" on You Tube, which he can watch again and again. Speaking for flying, Margot has taken a few steps on her own, cruising between chairs and tables. And thanks to big brother she is playing with bigger things so much earlier than he did. We got her a washer & dryer set from PBK which she loves, and she plays with the kitchen. She loves the Rody pony and her 1st birthday present, the Whirly Bee! She pretends to take sips and bites. Yesterday at the train store she was rolling trains along the tracks. She has defintely phased into a new way of playing that is much more like a little girl and less like a baby.
Time's going extremely quickly....

Florida in October

After Margot's big sha-bang, she really needed a break from the everyday grind. So we took the fam to Florida :) WHAT A GREAT TRIP! Our anniversary was the 30th, and we wanted to do something special. We are very lucky people we have amazing friends we can get together with and relax and enjoy ourselves. We met my college friend, Audrey, and her super-sweet family at the Hyatt Coconut Pointe resort for a long weekend of sun-filled fun. We swam at the pool, lounged in the lazy-river, ordered a frozen drink here and there, headed down to Old Town Naples to one of our favorite restaurant, Campiello, and enjoyed the great company! Margot loves the water!!!
Just like old times, eh? :)
The boys contemplating jumping in, at Campiello.


Nashy loves Jacob, their almost2 year old, even though he wouldn't call him anything other than "that boy"! And their baby, Max, is 6 months old and quite nearly 1.5 times Margot's size! He has the sweetest disposition, and it was so interesting to watch them all together and their curiosity toward one-another.
Then we headed to Siesta Key to enjoy the generosity of our friends from Roanoke and stay at their amazing house. There it was all about the beach and the seashells.


We also had a really nice visit with Nanny and are really hoping she'll come visit us for awhile this Winter- and see some snow for the first time!We're waiting for the call, Nanny!

Margot's Special Day

Scenes from Margot's first birthday:

Our Favorite Things

The Carousel. They're everywhere here.

Library books! We go about twice a week. It's amazing how many great books we've discovered.


Put it in. Take it out. And repeat about 30 times.
Seeing this big Elk with the amazing antlers at Lone Elk.
To be continued...

Here and there and everywhere!

We had Grammy come to visit for Ray's birthday and had fun fun fun. Here we are having milkshakes at Jen's Pharmacy in Clayton,
walking around at the art fair, going to Grant's Farm and getting spoiled. How does that already seem like it was so long ago? Thanks for visiting, Grammy, come back again soon! Here's Nash enjoying a nice, big pickle from Dickey's!

And Margot getting super duper messy.
We spent 10 days in VA for Rosh Hashanah, visiting Maeme and G and Uncle Eric and Aunt Lizzie. Nash looooves his Uncle Eric. I'd say a highlight for Nash was definitely seeing this big Firetruck! He even got to go sit inside and talk to the firemen!
Time went by fast and then we were back at the airport again.
"We had a great time in VA, be we miss Daddy! Let's get on one of these planes and go home!"



Now, back home, Nash had fun in a jumper, putting his arms out and flying like a plane!
Here are the kids back home on a beautiful Yom Kippor day



One of our favorite places to go at home is Lone Elk park. It's a State Park a few minutes from our house which has herds of Bison and Elk!
We looove to drive through and look at these big beautiful animals.
Margot's first birthday is only 2 WEEKS away! Where has the time gone??????