Henri loves to dance. L-O-V-E LOVES to dance. In fact...right now he is sporting a nice bruise on his cheek from school...where he got a little carried away showing his friends his moves, and hit his cheek on one of the table edges. Didn't stop him from moving...they tried to ice his cheek to prevent swelling, but he continued to dance it off. :) Here he is...demonstrating how he "shakes his booty." It's very funny.


We are still trying to get a great shot of both kids smiling. Here they are...brother and sister. :)

Today, we decided to play with the sprinkler in the yard. Notice the dead grass...we obviously should have watered a bit earlier. It's so hot here...everything is basically scorched. :) Jeff and I were out shopping last weekend, and decided that Henri needed a special sprinkler to use in the yard. He loves the water...and we thought this might be our own "splash park." We were totally suckered in to the packaging...and in a weak moment...bought one of those Buzz Lightyear blastoff sprinklers...costs a ton...seems like fun. :) For all you parents out there...resist the temptation...it's not worth it. After prying it out of the packaging...we finally had it working...not nearly as exciting as it seemed...here is Henri wanting to have it "blast-off" one more time....

Running through the traditional sprinkler...giving up on the Buzz....

A bit out of order...but here is a shot of Lili from the back. We have decided she might be a Fleharty. From this angle...she resembles Grandma Fleharty. :)

Henri's favorite toy...crawling through the IKEA tunnel. Hours of entertainment.

Henri loves to read. This night...he was completely into The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss. He also rediscovered his ABC wheel...and danced and danced and danced to the ABC song. Thanks Mike, Jodi, and Emilie for sending the book and toy when Henri first arrived. They have been rediscovered!

Sweet Henri...

While Henri played...here is Miss Lili...in love with her daddy. She loves to babble...and will jabber all day long. She loves to say "da-da"....so sweet.

Cute Miss Lili...laughing at her brother. She loves the excersaucer...it's her favorite toy.

Ah...my sweet Miss Lili. She's so cute...sometimes we just want to eat her up!

Back to our at home water park...we found...forget the sprinkler...Henri loved the hose. It's so hot...the water straight from the tap was still luke-warm. He kept begging for us to spray him with water...so funny....

While Henri splashed...his sister tried to stay dry in the jogger stroller. She's so small...she's tucked away and you can't even see her...

Ah...I love the water!

Henri has a love-hate relationship with glasses. He loves to wear them (even though he doesn't need them)...but the glasses hate to be man-handled by his paws. :) He worked over my mom's glasses while we were in Ethiopia...she had to go in for a new pair. Yikes. Here he is wearing my glasses this morning. It was hard to get a photo...but we think he looks like a minature Spike Lee.

It was a good week for us...our stroller finally arrived! The wait was killing us....or maybe me. :) Here they are...giving their new ride a spin....

And one last shot...this time you can see Henri's smile. They love their new stroller. Mom and dad do, too. :)

Enjoy the rest of the weekend. We'll post more soon!

Wagon rides...

Thanks to Auntie Toots and Auntie Dort...Henri and Lili have an awesome wagon to ride around in. It's been such a great treat...and although Lili is a bit small...and we have to prop her in with blankets, they both love going for wagon rides...the perfect way to end a weekend. :) Here are a few pics from yesterday...mostly of the wagon ride...but a few from around the house. Enjoy!


Our sweet little little loves textiles. She is enamoured with fabrics and texture...of course...I am hoping that she will be my little sewer...and will someday be crowned the champion on "Project Runway" but we'll see. :) No pressure. Here she is all cuddled up in their chick blanket. Our little chick...cheep cheep.



When we added on our house...Dave Keltz designed this great landing area...that we have used as a reading space, study, Christmas tree display...it has served a variety of purposes...but we LOVE LOVE LOVE the space right now because we use it as a family room. We have a TV, play games, have tons of books...it is probably one of the most used areas of our house. :) While the kids were playing, we were trying to fold laundry. With little Miss Mouse...a fabric lover, and Henri the human tornado...you can imagine how effective that was. Here they are...contributing to the laundry effort...sitting in the basket, sliding on the floor. Fun!

Look at us in our new wagon. We look so serious....except for Lili...she was completely relaxed:

The wagon even came with cup holders. Now...that's class. Henri was obsessed with putting his cup in the cup holder...taking it out...putting it in...taking it out. Of course...he also wanted to try the same with his sister's bottle...and maybe while mom and dad weren't looking...he'd try just one little taste....oh how he has missed that bottle...wrong:

Walking through the neighborhood:

Back home....we made it!

Here's Henri...blowing a kiss to his Aunties as a thank you for his new favorite ride:

Mommy starts work next week...we'll try to blog lots before reality sets in. :)

Lili's revenge....

Jeff is now off on the weekends....so...we spent yesterday going to Downtown Disney to let Henri run through the splash fountains. Lili and I hung out and watched. Here is a sweet little shot of our two "mice." Thanks Molly and Derek for Lili's new favorite mouse. :)



Henri decided to show his University of Montana Grizzly pride....here he is post-fountain enjoying his favorite food...fresh fruit!


He has three bottom teeth...an awesome underbite...and more teeth on the way....

We are dying for our new stroller to arrive. In the meantime, we have given up on the Baby Bjorn and are using both of our strollers. Thank you, Tim and Carol, for the jogger. We still love and use it!

Here he is...our future Griz...jury is still out on what sport...Grandma and Grandpa Flea hope for basketball, Auntie Toots thinks football, Jeff and I are hoping for soccer. :) But...whatever he enjoys doing...that is what is most important.

The photo of the day. Jeff and Henri were wrestling...and Lili decided to get in on the action. With a little help from Daddy...she was Queen of the heap...much to Henri's chagrin. :) Look at that smile of pure delight!

More photos to come...we both have our phones ready. :)

PS....Lili had her six month check this past week. She is doing great...weighing in at a healthy 14 lbs. :) Still only about 5th percentile on all of the growth charts...but everything is growing proportionately...the doctor thinks her birth parents might have been very petite. Yay! A petite Fleharty...at last!

Economic lesson...

With two little ones...we have realized that we have to buy a double stroller. Have might be a bit strong....but carrying little Lili around in the BabyBjorn in 100 degree heat...is getting very old for us...and very hot for her. :) So...we've been researching, studying, shopping, watching videos on BabyGizmo...and finally settled on a stroller. If someone could please develop a stroller chassis with removable/changable tires...that way we could have a fold-able stroller that travels, that can serve as a jogger or a "city" stroller. Otherwise...you end up with at least two...a jogger and a "city" stroller. It's really quite ridiculous. What's more ridiculous...is that in 1988, my parents purchased this, my first car, a sweet 1978 Honda CVCC in this very sexy yellow color:

For about the same price as we are paying for this:Henri and Lili's new hybrid jogger/city stroller "ride."

The good news....in 1988, our neighbor called the EPA regarding the slight "oil buring" problem my CVCC had...seeing if she could file an enviromental complaint against my car. :( Henri and Lili's ride...is much more environmentally friendly...emitting only the sweat of the parent pushing. :) Yikes.

Lili's photo shoot...tornado warnings

I have been feeling extremely guilty that I haven't sent out announcements for Lili. She has been home for almost a month...and they just have not gotten done. This weekend...my project was to finish her announcements so I could have them in the mail this week. The big piece of the missing puzzle...was a photo. We have tons of great pictures of Lili...she is so beautiful and the camera just loves her. But...when we take photos of her...we are always using our cell phones, so when I tried to print in 4x6 size...the resolution was too low. This weekend, I was determined to get a great shot of her on our camera...to finish the announcement project. It didn't quite go as planned.

Here are a few selections from location one...thanks Ken and Mary for the darling outfit. Yellow is our favorite color on Lili:


This next one is not so bad...but the brown couch is not a good backdrop:

One last shot....not so much:

Let's try outside...natural lighting. Hmm...five more all looking like this:

We took a break and met Molly and Derek at Downtown Disney. 12 noon on a Saturday in the middle of summer. This is when I long to move back to Montana. It felt like it was 114 degrees outside...with 100% humidity. It was awful. Henri was even too exhausted to really run through the water:

It was miserable:

But...we had a great time seeing Molly and Derek...and of course...we bought a few vinylmations to add to our collection. Lili picked the magical "chaser" from the Cutester collection. It is a sparkingling Cinderella Castle, so girlie and beautiful...like our little Lili:

After being out in the heat...everyone was exhausted. Here is Henri crashed in car seat for the ride home.

Now that we were home...we tried to take more photos. Close....

Henri rode his moose...trying to help make Lili laugh:

Still not quite right....

If I would just open my eyes nice and wide:

OK...eyes are open...now if I would just smile. :)

She is now definitely over the photo shoot...30 pictures later...and still nada:

Maybe we could re-create our favorite mouse picture...this time in a new location. Hmmm....

Yeah...reallly not into the photos anymore:

Maybe if I lay on my stomach?? Still no....

Now I'm getting mad...here comes my pouty lip....

OK...I spit up and messed my pants...I feel so much better...let's try again. Almost....

Maybe not...you can see my "dots" as they say at school:

On my stomach again....if I could just smile....

OK...here I am smiling...this is definitely the best of the weekend bunch...but we still like the Miss Mouse photo better....

Fifty frames in this sitting later...we decided that we are still not there yet. Our favorite picture is still Miss Mouse...and everyone will have to enjoy a low resolution shot of our sweet baby Lili. Here was our last try...even without her big smile...she is still absolutely precious:

While mommy was taking my photos...suddenly the tornado sirens went off in the house (that is code for Henri the Tornado)...and this is what we found. Jeff, who has spent much of his life in academics, said, "wow....looks like Henri was writing a research paper." Now we know where Henri gets it from. :)

One final shot of our sweet Lili from this morning. I took ten pictures with the camera...all of them...her eyes were closed...so...we are back to using our cell phones. :) Our friends gave Lili Baby S's clothes to wear. Grandma Schultz (unknowingly) happened to buy a pair of matching socks for this little concoction. Wait till we bust out the bowdabra...watch out little Lili...hair bows coming soon.

I'll try and post more this week...Happy Monday!