Nana! July 30, 2011

Josh Groban- July 27, 2011

Mom and I went to see Josh Groban to celebrate her birthday.  It was a great show, even if I only knew one song!  I took these pictures with my phone (who knew you could take a camera?), so they aren't that fabulous!

Coloring- July 21, 2011

Emily loved having her cousins here while she was recovering!

Emily's Bone Graft- July 19-20, 2011

Emily had the cleft in her gum line closed on our 14th wedding anniversary.  Debbie, Scott, TJ & Julia came down to take care of Daniel & Sarah while we spent the night with Emily in the hospital.  This was our first surgery in our new state, so we were curious to see how things would be different.  Everything went smoothly, and Emily was a trooper!

Aunt Debbie braids Emily's hair before we head to the hospital for her afternoon surgery

Hugging Bimble while waiting with Daddy

We had to take this picture and email it to Sarah H., which I lovingly did.  I didn't ask why, I just did it!

Emily had bone taken from her hip and put in the cleft in her gum line.  She also had a cyst removed from her nose.  The cyst ended up being the biggest challenge because it was huge!

Emily was so happy to have food since she couldn't eat all day Tuesday!

The view from her room

The Gergicks! July 16-17, 2011

We were thrilled to have the Gergick family come for a visit!  Emily had made "awards" for visits, so the Gergicks won a "First Full Family" visit and "First Pet" visit.  It was great to see them, and they even brought Cheerwine!

Harry Potter- July 15, 2011

Emily and Caroline celebrated the release of Harry Potter's 8th and final movie!  Sarah and Emily were excited to get to see this movie in the theater!

Greg- July 8, 2011

You might recognize this photo if you read the Fall issue of Healthcare Philanthropy, the Journal of the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy.  Greg's article, entitled "Game Theory:  One Tool for Understanding Donor Motivation," was featured as the AHP Professional Paper Competition Winner for 2010.

Independence Day- July 4, 2011

We had a great time at the neighborhood parade, which ends with Popsicles and the fire truck spraying the kids!  Emily was the only one brave enough from our family to go in!

Skyping with Nana- July 2, 2011

June 30, 2011

Emily loves Harry Potter!  I never did get to read this issue.

Michael (the previous owner) had planted a garden that included many tomato plants, egg plant, cucumbers, various herbs and some lettuce.  When two cherry tomatoes were ready to eat, I snapped this photo to send to him.  Sadly, that was the highlight of my gardening skills.  I think we harvested a total of 4 cherry tomatoes and two cucumbers.  Oh, and lots of basil.  I have managed to keep that alive!

Lite-Brite! June 29, 2011

Debbie was so excited to play the Lite-Brite with Daniel.  She toted it across several states to do so!

Travis! June 28, 2011

On our way home from our trip, we stopped to pick up Julia and Debbie for a visit.  After lunch at Fat Daddy's (yum!), Debbie drove and took us on a slight detour to see Travis.  I had no idea what we were doing until he walked out (neither did he)!  It was a great surprise!

Friendship Day- June 27, 2011

While Emily celebrated Friendship Day with Bailey, Sarah, Daniel, Papa and I had a fun day at the beach.  Emily's day of fun included skating and a movie.

Back for a Visit- June 25, 2011

After two weeks at the new house, we came back for a brief visit.  We had weddings, birthday parties, friendship day, a beach trip and car repairs all in the span of a few days!

Jeff lovingly changed the headlight in my car, which oddly involved removing a tire.  What a good brother!

Nana, Emily & Sarah at Javier & Christy's wedding reception.  Emily was an altar server during the Mass.

Lincoln's 5th birthday party!  

Cousins and Cards- June 17, 2011

TJ, Sarah, Emily & Julia play cards on the sun porch.

Home, Sweet Home- June 10, 2011

After a long day of driving on the 9th, we arrived while there was still daylight, which was good since we had no lamps.  The house only has a few overhead lights, but I found some vintage lights on the sun porch and plugged them in on the mantle.  This proved to be exciting, as I blew a fuse and caused a nice spark show.  Burning down the house would be bad.  Then, we had a hail storm.  Such a welcoming state.

The movers arrived bright and early on the 10th.  They wisely added another man to the team.  It was over 100 degrees, and we have no A/C, so those guys were troopers.  They finished around 6:00 PM, and we were left with the daunting task of unpacking.

Daniel has breakfast in the kitchen while we wait for the movers to arrive with our furniture.

Emily's room came with a complete bed, a desk, a bookcase, some spiffy shades, and Hedwig.  Michael, the previous owner, was moving to a much smaller house, so he left most of the furniture in his younger son's room for Emily.  They had discussed this over breakfast one morning in April.

Sadly, we scared the birds away that had worked so hard building this nest.

Here comes the truck!

Wallace greets us with a huge smile!  The guys all live in the area, so it was great fun talking to them about our new city.

The first thing off the truck, chairs for the girls.  Thankfully, Greg had a TV up here already, so we had that to occupy Daniel (and the girls) while the movers unloaded.

Krispy Kreme- June 9, 2011

Our final breakfast was a good one!