Introducing...Miriam the Magician!

This girl has got tricks up her sleeve (or maybe I should say, down her shirt). If you want the full effect of this magic trick, you need to close your eyes when prompted. If you want to know the magician's secret and get a good laugh, keep your eyes open!

A Lesson in Counting Cards

Miriam has become an UNO junkie, which will come as a surprise to no one that knows her father. Despite it's many virtues, UNO has never had much appeal for spectators until Henry started playing. Sorry the video's not all that great, but it's the audio that's important. Even then, it's a bit repetitive. It makes his parents laugh, though, because it's soo Henry.

If you made it to the last "ONE", then you can imagine how enthusiastically Henry says 'AMEN' to every prayer. We're still deciding how to video tape that.

Announcements, Announcements, Announcements!

After reading that title, you should be singing a boys'/girls' camp song. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, don't worry, you didn't miss much.

Anyway, on Sunday we sent Miriam on a scavenger hunt around the house where she gathered word strips that would tell her a surprise. After she had all the words, we helped her read the sentence.




For almost a year, Miriam has been repeatedly asking when we will have another baby in our family. Since she has no concept of time or how these things actually work, I finally told her we wouldn't have a baby until Henry was 3 (July 2010). This answer seemed to pacify her somewhat and she didn't ask quite as often. We were excited to finally be able to share the good news with her, and it's an added bonus that the baby will be here when Henry is still 2! The due date is Feb 17, 2010.

So you think you can dance

Last weekend, we attended the wedding and reception of Tammy's good friend, Ann Hughes, from high school. The reception was "immediately following" the wedding, but it took the wedding party a little while to arrive. So, while we were waiting for the real party to get started, our kids enjoyed having the dance floor to themselves. Unfortunately, we were slow to get out the video and missed the best of their moves. This video allows you to catch a small glimpse of their budding talent!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Henry!

Henry turned 2 on July 18th, while we were in NC visiting with family. We made him a "cereal" cake. As strange as it sounds, cereal has been one of his favorite things this past year. (He gets it from his dad). He will often have 3 or 4 bowls for breakfast. He favorite types are Life and Frosted Mini-Wheats, and he often asks for them to be mixed in the same bowl.

He wasn't very skilled at blowing out his candles, but he definitely approved of his cake!

Water Girl

During our family reunion at the beach, Miriam borrowed some goggles and a life vest from a cousin and became very courageous in the pool. (Really, how hard can it be when there's no fear of going under and you don't have to wipe water from your eyes!) It was so fun to watch her 13-year-old cousin patiently giving her swimming lessons. We've yet to see if she'll continue her progress without the aide of the aforementioned goggles and vest.

This video shows her practicing her swimming and ends with a demo of her super fun way of going down a slip 'n slide. We're thankful for older cousins!

Henry's First Wave

Greetings from the Outer Banks!

It's Henry's first experience at the beach. Notice how he waves when Tammy says, "Here comes the wave." Perhaps we should have prepared him better for what was coming next...