Morses save Us!

Julie and the boys came to visit us, to end our holiday blues.  Lily, KJ and David are the most loving cousins ever.

Sean is a loud screamer.  (That's for you Julie :).  Sophie and Sean are still learning to love each other.  But they will.

Christmas '08

Christmas morning, and crazy it was.  Sophie certainly had the idea this time, but the show was mostly about keeping Lily calm between her presents.  Here's a huge doll house from Santa.  We miss Christmas in Maine, but it is nice to stay home and relax.

Gorgeous Girls

Busy day for our budding models.  Looking for the perfect Christmas card photo, we headed (again) to Duke Gardens.  Hundreds of beautiful pictures of our baby girls; so hard to pick just one.  In this photo, the girls are sitting on the Magnolia bench, under a huge old magnolia tree, at stage right of the Japanese garden.

Forest Hills

Not much going on these days.  Leah is starting to show.  Trip to our favorite playground, Forest Hills.  Fortunately, the water fountains were turned off.

Wonder Woman & Holly Hobby

Trick-or-treating today.  Lily went as Pink Wonder Woman: I don't remember that character from my comic book days.  Sophie went as Holly Hobby: nobody under 65 remembers that character, save for Memere.  As usual, we went around town with Amelia. Chuck gets to eat Lily's chocolate.

Secret's Out

It's a boy :)

Sophie's new Bed

Sophie got a new bed.  We want her to forget that the crib is hers, in case, uh, someone else might need it.  Anyway, you can see how much she likes to use it.

Potty Training?

Sophie doesn't like wearing clothes.  Or diapers.  Here she is, having gotten comfortable for her midday nap.  In other news, Leah has a secret.  Hint: she's hungry alot, and that bottle of pre-natal vitamins is lighter than it was on McCain's "change" day.

Pittsburgh PA

We were bored last week, so we jumped in the car and drove to Pittsburgh.  Had a great time with Julie, Ken & the boys.  Here they are -- KJ, Lily, Shawn, David & Sophie -- in some train car thingy that goes up the steep hills of Pittsburgh.  Beautiful view from the top, but getting all 5 kids in one photo was tough from up there :).

Insurance Alert!

Leah was in a panic today. We're preparing to put the house on the market, and she realized that if it burned down, we wouldn't have proof of the value of all of our goods.  So... she took today's paper -- McCain's promise of "change" will live forever in these photos (for those of you reading this blog in the future, "change" was Obama's thing) -- and photographed everything we owned beside it.  Here is proof that we have some EVOO, a salt and pepper shaker and a huge bottle of pre-natal vitamins.

First Day of Preschool, Year 3

Lily is off to pre-Kindergarten this time.  We have no doubt she'll love it.  Much of her class is a repeat from last year: same friends, same parents.  Good for Lily, good for us, good for everyone.

Out for ice cream

Today was Lily’s half birthday. There was no party or presents but the four of us went to dinner at one of her favorite restaurants, Chic-fli-et and then for ice cream after. Here are Lily and Sophie (hamming it up) after chicken fingers and ice cream, yum!

Fog on the coast

Grampy Dorval took us down the Kennebec today on his boat. Chuck, Leah, Lily, Julie & KJ went...big kids only! We made it all the way down to Robinson’s Warf for lunch despite some heavy fog on the way. What a fun Maine experience!

Pooler family reunion

Chuck’s family gathered at The Sterling Inn in Caratunk, Me this weekend for the Pooler family reunion. Aunt Nancy and Uncle Butch graciously hosted the mob at their beautiful inn, shown in the picture above. Their were kids, campers, boats, bonfires, and loads of fun. A good time was had by all. Thanks Aunt Nancy & Uncle Butch!

Camp at Oregon Inlet, Nags Head

We decided to take a drive to the coast this weekend for a beach camping trip. The weather was beautiful and so was the scenery. It was a great success. This is our campsite just over the dunes from the ocean. The girls did great!

John & Sarah's wedding

John & Sarah got married today. They had a beautiful ceremony on Friday night and a rockin’ reception Sunday night. We had a great time and are thrilled that Sarah & Logan are officially part of the family!

Last day of school

It was Lily’s last day of preschool for the year and they had a party for the kids. Refreshments were served and the kids launched rockets they made for the occasion. Here are Lily and some of her classmates watching one of the rockets flying (on a string) from a second floor classroom with teacher Teresa.

Amelia & Lily with magician

We went to dinner with friends tonight and enjoyed an awesome magician who showed the girls some pretty cool tricks. He had us all scratching our heads.

Gram & Grampy visit

Gram & Grampy Phillips came for a visit this week. We had great time. Well, except maybe Grampy who worked too hard helping Leah with a wallpaper removal project. We did have fun too. Here we are at the Museum of Life & Science in Durham playing in water moving sand exhibit.

Lily's first Roller Coaster

We went to Florida this month to visit Chuck’s parents. We got to take the girls to Sea World which they both seemed to love. Lily really wanted to go on the Shamu Express. She was very brave and claimed to have fun but the look on on her face says it all.

Curious George

Lily brought Curious George home from school this week. It was her turn to have a ‘visit’ and take pictures of herself with George for the class book they’re making. Here are Lily and George playing a game of checkers.

Lily's 4th Birthday

Lily celebrated her 4th birthday with her friends at the Scrap Exchange. The kids got creative with arts and crafts then enjoyed cake and ice cream, except for Lily who doesn’t care for that kind of stuff! She had some of her favorite snacks instead, pretzels, popcorn, and anything not chocolate.

Sophie turns one

Sophie celebrated her first birthday today. First a trip to the doctor to get her one year checkup - who’s great idea was that (sorry Sophie)?! We are happy to report that Sophie is a healthy, happy, and huggy baby. Oh, and she recently discovered how to walk and is hot on Lily’s tail. This is a picture of the celebration we had for her. You can see that Sophie thinks the candle looks pretty fun. Luckily Lily has already blown it out, thanks sis.