Nikki's 30th b-day party

Starting off with the birthday girl - Nikki
Happy Birthday to you Happy Birthday too you...
My precious sisters - Nikki and Joanna

My sisters and I in the following shots

Ok, If you can't tell I was a little bias as to whom I took pictures of at the party - My sisters.
Love you guys!!!

Mom with her precious grandson

Aunt Cary and Dylan get to meet:)
Ah and look friends in an instant - well that is what happens with family

Dylan and his cousin Troy.
It will be Troy who shows him a thing or two when it comes to sports. Troy was using his basketball moves out front playing a game of pick up b-ball during the party.

What a precious picture these two children take.
Dylan loves his cousin Kaelyn. They had a great time playing with each other during the party. Both Kaelyn and Austin (her big brother) were a great help with Dylan while I helped set up.

The 3 girls plus little man then Mom and her three girls

Ending with the Birthday Girl and her honey, Michael

Dylan - 9MONTHS!!!!

We interrupt our regularly scheduled Florida picture postings to bring you the "Dylan 9 months update" We will get back to the Florida pictures after this post.

TRYING FINGER FOOD
4-24 We started the morning by giving Dylan the opportunity to try and feed himself. Though this child excels at many things on the first or second try this was not one of them. He pushed the banana pieces around on his highchair tray even mushed a few in his hand but never brought anything to his mouth - uhmm. All of his toys go straight to his mouth but not food. After he concentrated on the strange things on his tray he looked to me to feed him breakfast. We will keep working on it. Maybe the motivation will come when I have zucchini in front of the dear child.

MOMMY'S BIG HELPER

As you can see Dylan was my helper yesterday.
We folded laundry and took rides in the laundry basket. Dylan protected my laundry by sitting on it from the kitchen all the way upstairs to his room.
He also thought he would be oh so helpful in the office filing paid bills. The last picture shows how serious he was about getting each one in the correct file or maybe he was checking up on me making sure I filed correctly.

9 MONTH DOCTOR UPDATE
This morning we were in to see the Doc.
A regular check up for our growing boy.
* 20 lbs and 12 oz (50th percentile)
* 29 inches tall (75th percentile)
* Head circumference 47cm (75th percentile)

Dylan decided to impress the Dr and give her a real good laugh by showing her how he can give you five when asked. It was funny because she really got a good laugh out of the one and asked to see it again. When she was leaving the room she came over and asked Dylan for 5 and he obliged which sent her out of the room laughing.

Today he also had his hemoglobin test done - 11.3 he is doing great. Interestingly enough our tough skinned boy made the Dr move the needle size up. Instead of going to the lab to get his blood taken via an iv we had it done in the office with a prick of his finger. The Dr had to try twice with the needle that was used for children Dylan's age. Each time the contraption would snap the needle down onto his finger and Dylan would just sitting there staring at the Doc. So the Doctor said fine I guess we have to change the needle to a bigger one. We changed the needle and snap down in went again into his finger. Ah this time there was blood but good ol' Dylan was still just starring at the Doctor wondering what she was doing holding his hand this long. He had absolutely no reaction to getting pricked by the needle then having the blood squeezed out of his finger onto a slide.
What a champ!!

Visit to the Ocean Angel

Dylan, Papa Steve, Nana and I went by to "show" Dylan the Ocean Angel, Mom and Dad Fredrick's sailboat. Of course, it was really to get more cute pictures of our sweet Dylan. It won't be too long and we will be back in Florida with little Dylan sailing with his Daddy (as civilians that is!!!!!!!) and Mommy (I still need to learn)

The Ocean Angel embarks on a race in the morning!
We pray that Papa Steve and his crew have a safe and enjoyable race.

Megan's Baby Shower

Here I am with the Lady of the day, Megan soon to be mommy of Trey:0
With Crazy Uncle Jimmy

I am sure Dylan wanted to tell Auntie M to relay to his cousin "Hurry up and get here buddy"

The Mommies and their little sweetie pies

Courtney and her dear daughter Finley
It was good to see you both:)

With my sweet boy

Little man all dressed up for the shower

Dylan

Pictures from Florida

Thanks for the fish Gau-Gau:)
It was too cute Dylan would crawl around my parent's family room with this plastic fish hanging out of his mouth

Here Dylan is trying to read himself a book - too bad it is upside down:) This is progress though since books in Dylan's mind used to be only good for chewing.

Dylan & Pops had some great bonding time reading

Below you can see Dylan in all his standing glory:) This little man is all about standing up because as we all know life is more fun this way:)

Dylan and I drove down to Florida for Megan's baby shower, Nikki's 30th birthday and to visit. I have added a few random pictures above. I will slowly get all the Florida pictures up on the blog, but didn't want to make a bunch of posts all at once.

Sayonara Daddy

It is hard to believe but it is already April 2008. A month that for so long seems to loom in our future as the time when our wonderful Rory would say Sayonara. He would be heading off to Japan via stops at "exotic" ports. Aah the life of a Navy Sailor. As many of you know it isn't all that romantic and wonderful. What is wonderful is that we have men and women who freely volunteer to defend our Precious Freedom.

We took some pictures the day (April 6th) that we had to take Rory to the ship. Being in the nuclear department he had to be on board the night before they were scheduled to take off.
In the following 3 pictures I tried to capture a game that Daddy and Dylan play. Dylan likes to grab at the Florida emblem on Rory's hat which causes the hat to hide Rory's face. Then Dylan grabs the bill of the cap and pulls up trying to see Daddy's face. Back and forth back and forth hat then face. All the while Dylan is giggling and smiling.

This game could go on forever it is too adorable!

Dylan also gets a kick out of sitting up on Daddy's shoulders. He will squeal with pleasure letting everyone around know that he is king of the world when sitting up on his Daddy's strong shoulders!

We are already missing Rory/Daddy. I know that it is tough for those of us left behind, but I believe Rory is the one making the greatest sacrifice. He is leaving behind his family and comforable life to be on board the USS George Washington living in conditions that oh man I know I could not handle. Can you imagine? I will have to post some pictures of his living quarters called berthing so you can see how cramped he is. Rory has my deep respect and undying love!!! He may be sick of the Navy life but he made a commitment and is sticking with it. We need more people of that quality in this country. Whenever you think of him please pray for his safety and well being.

We love you Rory and miss you!!

For Kaelyn

Dylan's cousin Kaelyn was very generous with some of her gift money! She used some of it to buy him this cute cuddly pooh bear shirt. This post is in her honor with a special thanks again for the precious shirt.
We love you Kaelyn!!!