Cougan-Davis Dinner of '09

PURE PANDEMONIUM.

Every year (depending on whether it's odd or even) either that Davis' or Cougan's host a Holiday

dinner. This year Michelle Cougan made the dinner and we all met up at her daughter Melissa's house in Sand Point. It was a lot of fun and can't wait for next year...maybe we'll even get a picture of the kids actually looking towards the vicinity of the camera.

Merry Christmas to us from us

(Jason Eisenberg, Romie Lindsley, Julie Eisenberg, Lis, Chris Demco)

When we decided to remodel the house Kip had a dream of making a bay window in the living room so that we could creat extra seating. One year post remodel we've finally finished that project. Kathi, our friend from forever ago, made the cushion and pillows and her husband Chris made the bench. The bench has a huge storage area so now hopefully we can hide all of the toys that you normally get to trip over when you come in the house.

(couldn't get the top picture down below here but Kathi is Romie's mom)

Thank god for older cousins

Here's a bath for the day. Allie has been eating her "solids" and was quite the mess so we decided to go with the tubby. She, like me, apparently has a very ticklish neck.

Because they teach you the funniest things! I was sitting down the other day when Madeline came up to me and started talking. I said something and she responded, "oh snap" I had to ask her to repeat it a few times and then she told me that "Hallley" (hadley) taught her that one.

Sorry for the long video, I don't know how to trim it on this new computer. Soon, I promise.

Chatty Cathy

Fortunately she's started to play with the kitchen phone (i.e., it's not real). Sample conversation:

"Zaide/Nonna/Baba/Sophia/Jamie/Soneeeya/etc... where you at? You coming over? Want to play with my dog? What you dooooing?"

The Best

Best baby, best husband... life is good, except for those aforementioned cupcakes which were really, really, really good. I started circling the table for number two and totally got called out. I pretended to only be perusing what was left and not really wanting to actually be the fatty fatty two by four that I wanted to be but no one believed it.

Crack Kills

And these cupcakes are like crack to me.

The cutest little pink sweater you ever did see

Ahh, if only blogger could really show the true colors...of her sweater, of her eyes. Another fabulous Lavs creation. Thank you so much! With the weather we've been having this sweater couldn't have arrived at a better time.

baby blue eyes

Arts & Cratfs

For the girl who always seems to be dirty she sure does freak out about it!

"Uh-oh Mama, I messy. Mama, wash it!"

Arctic Blast

I don't know about you but I would prefer to stay in bed with a book.

Four months old!

We went to Allie's four month doctor's appointment yesterday. She is 24" tall (45th%), 13.3# (51st%) and is doing really well. We were told she can start trying out foods which is a bit earlier than Madeline but apparently there's been research that shows that introducing foods a bit younger may help with food allergies. She got a few shots but doesn't seem fussy from them and is hitting all of her milestones just fine.

O' Christmas Tree O' Christmas Tree

Yesterday we went here to get our Christmas Tree. They had the BEST "Charlie Brown" section which let me tell you this is NOT a CB tree. And for super cheap ($35!). I was wearing the Bjorn with Allie so conveniently I didn't have to cut. Sonja did. HaHa. There was an adorable cat that followed Madeline everywhere. He'd follow us, chase us, hide from us, pounce out...too cute. There were also choo choo track so if any of you know Madeline you know how excited she was. I think I heard, "Nonna? Where's Thomas?" About 3000 times in the hour we spent there. I would definitely recommend this farm to anyone who needs a tree. Especially you Bridget, Ryder would LOVE it!

Naughty or Nice?

I don't know...these girls look awfully nervous if you ask me.

p.s. thanks Zaide and GiGi for the fun annual PJ Santa pic!

Playa del Carmen

We're back home now after our 5 days in paradise. We stayed at Luna Encantada in Playa del Carmen which is just south of Cancun. Arriving after dark on Wednesday we got our rental cars and headed south to our condo with plenty of promises for pool time for Madeline and sleep time for Allie. Madeline has likely grown gills over the last few days. I think she was either in the pool or passed out from playing so much in the pool. We visited Tulum which is another hour south of Playa del Carmen and saw the Tulum Ruins. I had Allie in the bjorn. She apparently didn't find the ruins too thrilling...she fell asleep. After losing about 5 lbs of sweat we went to the hotel that turned my parents (my mom really) on to massage and yoga. They have a resident "gee-ya" (Jilly/golden retriever) dog there that Madeline immediately wanted to take home. On our last day we tried to squeeze in more swimming, shopping and eating. Unfortunately we couldn't find any authentic mexican vanilla but rest assured Kip got his tequila. While driving to the airport we stopped to fill the rental car up with gas learning AFTER the car was filled up that their credit card machine was down. I had images of being machine gunned down by the Mexican police but the guy trying to sell me Prada sunglasses was able to distract me. (As a side note there were NO beach vendors) We drove across the highway, Mexican style, i.e., going the wrong direction, got our cash and proceeded to the airport. Allie slept the entire way home and to reward her with her good behavior and the fabulous 45 minutes worth of tailwinds we left her car seat at customs. We just LOVE the airport.

Picture overload

Just for fun

Madeline at around 5 months old

Allie at four months