Creeper

Tessa has reached the stage of development called "creeping". It's basically scooting around on the belly but not really crawling. I put her down on the rug to go make her some dinner (for reference, I laid her down in the lower right hand corner where the blue hat is) and by the time I came back a few minutes later here she was! She was excited because Isaac had dumped out all of his toys (and they are so much more fun than her "baby" toys!). I'm still not sure how she rolled and creeped her way through the obstacle course of all these toys so quickly, but she seemed pretty proud of herself!

The return of the sippy cup

It seems like the sippy cup is becoming a household favorite. I gave this one to Tessa yesterday and she played with it for about 20 minutes on the floor. Who needs all these toys when you have a sippy cup????

Brotherly Love

Lately Tessa has been longing for every thing her older brother has - especially the "sippy cup" - and Isaac is already figuring out how to torment his little sister. I love how he stands there pretending like he has no idea why she is screaming!

Happy Father's Day!

Here's a happy Father's day wish to my husband John. Thank you so much for all that you do and for being such a good daddy to our two little munchkins. I love you so much and I know these two little cuties do too! (This photo is a little dark - and yes - that is a rainbow in the background!)

Tessa's first ride in the bike trailer.

6 months

Last Thursday Tessa turned 6 months old and on Friday had her check-up at the pediatrician. He confirmed what we already know - she is a happy and healthy little girl! She was 26-1/2" long (75-90 percentile) and weighed in at 16 lb 14 oz (50-75 percentile). Tessa is already trying to keep up with her brother...there's no official crawling yet, but she rolls over and over and scoots across the floor to get to where she wants. I am already getting a taste of the silliness that is to come as she gets older and can interact more with her big brother...Isaac can really get her chuckling - what a sweet sound!

More cousins!

Last week Isaac & Tessa got a visit from their cousin Desmond and his fiance Nicole. They're moving back to Chicago from California and stayed with us for a night on their trip back. It was really great to see them - the last time we saw them was two years ago on their trip out to California! We'll be traveling to Chicago at the end of the summer to help them celebrate their wedding!

Sweet little summertime girl

Just a cute pic of Tessa in a cute summer outfit. (Little girls clothes are so much fun!)

Kansas cousins!

Last weekend we traveled to Kansas and Isaac and Tessa got to spend time with some of their Kansas cousins. Here are a few cute pics from the weekend!

Tessa and Finley - these 2 are only about 8 months apart - Tessa will be chasing Finley around before long!

Kisses!

Olivia, Isaac, and Jack making beautiful music on the piano!

Isaac, Tessa, Parker & Finley (don't you just love how the big kids have their arms around the babies?)

Rylee holding Tessa

San Francisco

John and I had a great time over the weekend in San Francisco. Even though we missed Isaac & Tessa - it was really nice to have some time with just the two of us. It was our first time to the city, so we had fun just exploring and walking all over. Here we are on the famous Lombard Street.


On Saturday we rented bicycles and rode from Fisherman's Wharf, over the Golden Gate Bridge, through Sausalito, and to Tiberon - where we picked up the ferry back to the city. How ironic that the rental company was called "Blazing Saddles".....my saddle was definitely blazing after that 18 mile bike ride! I haven't ridden that far since early in my pregnancy with Tessa last summer!

John on the ferry.

John and I on the ferry after our big bike ride.

I won't see these cute little faces for a few days....

John and I are leaving tomorrow on a short vacation with just the 2 of us...that's right - no kids! John has planned this whole trip and I am excited to get to the airport tomorrow to see where we're going! Even though I know that we will have a great time with just the 2 of us, that my mom and Mike will take great care of the kids while we're gone, and that the kids probably won't even miss us because they're too busy being spoiled....I'm still going to miss them just a little bit!

Baby gymnastics

Wow - it's been a week since I posted! It's been a busy week here. I tried to upload some new videos earlier this week, but kept getting error messages, so I got frustrated and gave up! Here are some photos of Tessa's new moves. She is sitting up for short periods at a time by herself (on soft places like our bed) - but the fun part is when she tips over - that really cracks her up! I had a hard time getting her to stay sitting for this photo because she wanted to fall over and laugh!
She has officially found her toes! This pose comes in really handy when you need to change her diaper!

Here is the one-toe hold. (I think this one is some sort of future cheerleading pose).