our family :-)

"Bring Him Home"

Soren is fond of music, as we all know, and lately enjoys watching music videos on youtube, but most recently we discovered that he is most entranced by watching Colm Wilkinson singing "Bring Him Home" from Les Miserables. He will sit on Brad's lap and watch the whole thing completely still with a very serious look on his face. Then nearing the end of the piece he'll shout "again!! again!!" Here's his glorious little boy face watching it...

Nana!

My mother (Nana) is visiting and one day we decided to go for a walk. We tried to leave early in the morning, but alas it was already ROASTING outside, so everyone was was quite red-faced by the time we got home, but we managed to fit them all into this sturdy life-saver of a double-stroller. I know I'm completely biased, but my children are SO beautiful I can hardly stand it. It's been fantastic to have my mother visiting, we've been having a wonderful time.

Erin's Birthday

We had a little birthday party for Erin (my younger sister) and per tradition, I gave her a big chocolate bar with a little piece already sampled (to be sure it isn't poisoned. Many years ago Erin sent me some Toblerone in the mail as part of a birthday or Christmas package and couldn't let it go without a taste. She included a little note taped to it letting me know it was not poisoned and was okay for me to eat. Ever since then, if we ever choose to give chocolate in our gift, it's always got a piece missing :-) ) Cora REALLY wanted to give her a Barbie for her birthday, so I relented. It was too sweet.

Swimming

The girls took swimming lessons at the local Y and really enjoyed them. That's what you do in the summer here. POOL.

Carl's visit

So Carl visited for a week last week and it was great fun. It had almost been 5 years since I last saw him-- he had never met Cora or Soren! So it was wonderful. The kids loved having him here. We went to the beach at Galveston, visited NASA Space Center, saw the Huntsville Prison Museum (the "sample" jail cell was the most intriguing for the girls - "They have to go to the bathroom where everyone can see?" Yep.) Here are a couple of pics:


It takes a Duerichen to meddle with the broken stuff. Soren's been trying to work the DVD player...

Soren's Monkey Sounds

While his Uncle Carl visited last week, he taught Soren how to sound like a monkey, so here it is! I wish I could have recorded Carl, too, it's quite brilliant :-)