crosswalk and more

okay so this is a really long post, mostly because of the large quantity of pictures, but everybody likes pictures so here you go.

we went to lunch a few weeks ago with laura (due any day now), karin & little eric, edi (eric's mom), orlando and gabriel at stephanie's on newbury.  it was soooo good.  i absolutely love maddie's smile...i cannot get enough of it.

here's maddie and eric giving each other a hug.  both dad's had appropriate reactions...

eric:  that's my boy!

steve:  what? (said very sternly)

as you can see, they hugged several times.  maddie is smiling almost every time and eric seems to get a little embarrassed each time.  it is so cute.

we have been seeing this little critter in our yard the last few weeks and i finally got some video and pictures of it.  it's either a woodchuck or a groundhog...actually they're the same thing...who knew?  so we have multiple "villains" in our vegetable garden which is why we re-enforced the fence (see pics at the end of this blog).

maddie and i had a little photo shoot thanks to a timer and a pillow used for a prop (C:  she is the most adorable baby ever (C:  at least i think so.

this one is my favorite




post-bottle time with daddy...steve misses the days when she would fall asleep like this.  these times are few and far between now.  usually she's too squirmy.

karin and i (and maddie and eric) took a trip up to crosswalk (youth camp that some friends run) in wenham, ma (north shore).  we were there for lunch, the mega-relay event, free time and dinner.  we had a great time.

here's maddie with her auntie ellie.
here's eric with our friends' (jen and ken) little boy caleb.  he's a few months older than eric.

here's part of the mega-relay finale...staff vs chaperones & youth leaders...this is the staff doing leap frog
here are the "non-participating" chaperones and youth leaders cheering their team on.


this is the chaperones & youth leaders team racing to another event in the relay...go stephanie!


stacey didn't want to hold her twizzler in between bites...ellie and i thought maddie looked like raggedy anne.  nothing much bothers her...
...besides riding in a car after a long day at camp. (C:  here's maddie and eric after a long day.  karin and i couldn't help but laugh in the front seat.  what else can you do in a situation like this?

on saturday, we had a few visitors.  mike and courtney came over because steve needed mike's help to put the blade back on the riding lawn mower and courtney wanted to come and help take care of maddie.  we enjoying hanging out with them in the morning and having lunch.  then mel and lydia came over to help me with the vegetable garden.  after we worked in the hot sun, we came inside and played with maddie. here's lydia with maddie...we'll have to be better about getting pics with mel next time.

and here's the veggie garden.  i have since added stakes to tie down the strings that were crossing over the path.  i need to replant beans and snap peas as i don't think they have survived all the critters and lack of support (ie bean trellis).


and finally...here's the updated hair cut.  much better...off the neck.