It's been a long time since we posted!! Life has been busy! Here's a picture of Isabelle and David playing patty-cake. And a picture of Isabelle in David's bed with all of her critters. For some reason his bed is more fun to play in.

I went back to work full-time and we've put the kids in day-care part-time. It's been a good change for everyone, I think. Isabelle absolutely loves it there. She's made some friends and the change of environment is good. Every day she come home and tells us about her exciting day... riding in the wagon, playing with the blue sand, playing with the kids and the big momma kids (apparently nothing just big or small; it's big momma or baby sized). One day last week she and her friend Jesse ran around and played "funny faces" and chased each other, laughing for 45 minutes.



David seems to like it there too, although he is still at an age where he would like us to carry him around all day and snuggle. The people at daycare are very attentive to the kid's needs are are big on comforting when it's needed. David's not really at an age that he likes to play with toys with other kids, but he does crawl around chasing and laughing with Isabelle and seems to like the social part of daycare too. And the environment of the daycare is pretty similar to home, same kind of toys, same kind of music, books and most importantly, the way they interact with the kids jives with the way we do things. I think that was one big reason that Isabelle never really adjusted to the last daycare we had her in... the expectations were just too different.

I am so grateful to have had the last year to be home full-time with the kids. It was such and important year to be able to do that. Now though, I still get to be with them in the morning and John gets the evenings still. I make it home to kiss them good-night and get to spend a little more time with John. And we get to have weekends off together. So after all of that... yeah... good change.



A couple of weeks ago we went to Tahoe with John's family. Susan had found a house to rent for a week and we spent a few days visiting with everyone. The kids had a terrific time with all of the attention, but didn't sleep much. Even so, they were happy and fun and didn't melt down until we were about home. Two days away seems to be enough for them, and for us... we were all tired and glad to be home.

Above are a few pictures of the kids at the park in Tahoe. David likes climbing up the slides, which is good exercise for him, since he can't really slide dwon them very well yet, and isn't too steady walking. Isabelle played basketball with Aunt Susie and Uncle Greg.



We also celebrated David's first birthday in Tahoe!! He got lots of presents and clothes and had fun painting himself with chocolate cake!





Another milestone for David is that he started walking!!! His first steps were taken on August 13. When we were in Tahoe he took 9 steps. He is still practicing, of course, but is doing really well! He can walk holding something in his hands now... mostly he walks with that cute shoulders hunched, arms poised to shoot out and maintain balance posture that they start out with. He'll be running in no time.