Family Visitors

I guess it's been about two weeks now, but my parents came in town and spent some time with us. My dad was flying out here to shoot a wedding with me, so he figured he might as well bring my mom along as well and make a trip out of it. To be honest it went WAY too fast. Half the time they were here we were traveling to NY to photograph the wedding and the other half disappeared rather quickly.

One of the days my parents were visiting we went to downtown Boston and walked around. My dad took some family pictures for us and we got some delicious pizza at the Upper Crust near the Boston Common... one of our new favorites :)










Another day we went to Drumlin Farms in Lincoln, which is a town right outside of base. Adeline loved seeing the animals and it was a good little activity for the day instead of being lazy. The first day my parents were in town I am pretty sure my dad slept the ENTIRE day because he was recovering from a big story he had put together before they came to Boston.




We celebrated my mom's 51st birthday by going to Springbrook Park and swimming in the lake/pool. I love going there. It is a man made lake and it has a big shallow area for little kids, a big slide, a dock to jump off of, a splash park, a regular park, picnic tables, etc. My dad just enjoyed watching us the entire time and was a little creeped out by the merky water I think. He told Adeline it was scary. She kept telling me "the water is not scary mom".... I didn't know why she was saying that at first until I later found out who was putting those thoughts into her head! Adeline went down the huge water slide with all the other big kids that were doing it. I still can't believe she did it all by herself. After swimming we got a HUGE platter of sushi and ate ourselves sick. And of course, a cake!

Cirque Du Soleil

A couple weeks ago Abe told me he had a "surprise date" for me. I have been trying to figure it out for the past couple weeks, but he was able to keep his secret. Last night we got a babysitter and went on our date. The surprise was Cirque Du Soleil. I really didn't know what to expect, but was very pleased. It was AWESOME!! The live music was great, I loved the story line, the acts were amazing, the costumes were amazing.... I only have good things to say about it! We were in awe the entire time and it was incredibly entertaining. I also had a lady sitting next to me that had WAY too much to drink and she was quite entertaining as well. She had her hands up to her face the entire time and I thought she was going to have a heart attack during the acts. When the characters were dancing... she was dancing too! Anyway, if you ever get a chance to see it.... SEE IT! It was so nice going out without kids in tow as well. I, well we were desperately needing a date night. It was so nice just being Abe and I :) I think that is the 2nd time we have been out in 9 months. Thanks for such a fun night Abe!

4th of July Weekend- 3 weeks late!

We got back from our Ohio trip at about 4am on the Friday of 4th of July weekend. Abe's friend Rob decided to come and visit us for the Holiday, so that night we picked him up from the airport. At Nara Park here in Acton, they were having a big community celebration on Saturday. We went and got a free BBQ, free games and Adeline even got to pick out a prize with a bunch of tickets that we helped her win. Abe insisted that we battle each other on one of the games. I felt pretty funny that we were the only adults waiting in line for it. I surprisingly knocked Abe off his platform first because he was laughing so hard. He made a comeback and knocked me off the next two times.


After that we headed over to Concord and walked around town and then went to the Minute Man park where the Revolution began and where the "Shot heard 'round the world" was.

Sunday after church we headed over to the Coast Guard Station in downtown Boston. Texas Roadhouse was catering a lunch for the military and they had activities for the kids and stuff. Adeline even got to meet snow white there... which she told us later on was her most favorite part about the day :)

After the Coast Guard station we walked around town and enjoyed the crowds. Adeline and her friend Benjamin played in some random fountains that were on our way to the Boston Commons where we ended up watching Fireworks. They were amazing!! We had such a great time with Rob. He is one of Adeline's favorite people!

{playing in the fountains in Norah's clothes once again}

{Adeline, Norah & Rob}

My little Norah at 6 Months

I can’t believe that cute little Norah is 6 months old… almost 7 months old actually. At her 6 month appointment, she weighed 15.5 lbs (40%) and her head was in the 70% percentile. So she had dropped a little bit in the weight percentile. I looked at Adeline’s baby book and she weighed exactly 15.5 lbs at 11 months! Crazy the differences between these two little girls. Here are some things about Norah at almost 7 months:
-She is very ticklish and is pretty easy to get her giggling
-She is always very happy and has a smile that kills you
-She has the cutest little marshmallow bum that you just want to pinch
-She sits like a champ and has gotten very sturdy
-She rolls wherever and has starting getting up on her hands and knees and is rocking back and forth. Not crawling yet, but can scoot a little bit.
-Eats like a champ. Her favorites: carrots & sweet potatoes
-Has the cutest little “pouty” lip I have ever seen. For sure has stranger anxiety already…
-WAS sleeping through the night, but is now back to waking up in the middle of the night.
-When you get up close to her face and ask her to give you kisses, she knows what you are talking about and kind of gives you a kiss
-LOVES Adeline more than anything in the world. She is her hero.
-Loves riding in the little red buggy. She just holds onto the steering wheel and is ready for a ride.
-Has the cutest little rolls on her thighs
-She is a little monkey. One of my favorite things is that she reaches out to you and grabs your face or your head and pulls you into her. She is an affectionate little thing.
-Makes the sounds “mama” & “dada”
-Will NOT take a binky… what’s new?
-Has a cute raspy voice

{have you seen a cheesier grin?}


(more pictures on my blog: www.nicolebarkerphotography.blogspot.com

Ohio

About 24 hours after I got home from my trip to Utah, we packed our car and drove 14 hours to Ohio. Abe had a training there for almost two weeks and I wasn't about to let him go without me! One of my best friends, who was also my next door neighbor in Ohio, had her cute little baby girl the week after we moved to Boston and I never got to meet her. What a perfect opportunity to go hang out with her everyday and play!! Baby Makenna is SO cute. I can't wait for Norah and her to be best pals. It made me realize how much I missed Ohio. I had a couple break down moments while I was there because I really didn't want to leave. It was a little weird seeing our Ohio house every day (because I was at Kara's right next door). We saw the people that are currently renting our house and talked with them a little bit. I really like our renters and that makes it a lot better! While I was there I had a list of places I wanted to visit and was able to get to all of them.

CARRIAGE HILL
Norah, Adeline and Makenna


YOUNG'S DAIRY

Kaiya, Abby and Adeline





SWIMMING

Justin, Kara, Makenna, Abe, NIcole, Adeline, Norah


Best friends


making a silly face again...



norah getting dunked


Adeline going down the slide. She was a little hesitant at first because sometimes the water would go up in her face. She made me go down it with her. After two times of going down with her and looking pathetic (because no other moms were going with their kids), I told her that we weren't going down anymore unless she wanted to go by herself. Right away she insisted on going by herself!


WEGERZYN GARDENS


Buddies at Chick-fil-A (our favorite) eating some ice cream


FOUNTAINS AT THE GREENE
-we went out to dinner at the Greene and had some time to spare before our reservation. Of course Adeline wanted to play in the fountains and we didn't have a bathing suit for her. I need to ALWAYS pack one in my purse or something. Luckily I had a 6-12 month onesie for Norah in my purse that fit Adeline quite nicely!


We also went to Cox Arboretum where we got to go to the butterfly exhibit, Dinner at Lauries and Joe's w/ Kevin and Tami, Gap Clearance Center and a trip to the local car dealer where we had to get our windshield wipers fixed for $450! What a rip.

THIS was a first for Adeline on our trip:

yep, a big old bite from her pal Kaiya. She had some pretty sharp teeth. As much as I felt bad for Adeline, Karma sucks. Last month Adeline bit Norah on the arm pretty hard. She had never bit before and I was MAD! I'm pretty sure she will NEVER bite again after this occurance. So it maybe was a good thing?

Utah

So It's been over a month since I went to Utah, but there has been too much going on to blog... so hopefully I can catch up. My mom and dad decided to fly us out to Utah so they could have all their grandbabies around. I almost declined just for the reason that I was SOOO scared to travel all by myself with both of these munchkins. The plane ride was about 5.5 hours there, and 4.5 hours back. I was happy when the traveling part was over. We all survived though :)

So I had to take a picture at the airport. Thank you once again Phil & Teds stroller. I seriously don't know what I would do with out it. It carried Adeline, Norah, a car seat, Adeline's carry on and then I had a huge bag with a bunch of goodies for the kids. Let's just say I had my hands full!



UTAH HIGHLIGHTS

**Hogle Zoo





**Seeing the Barkers (we saw a lot more of the Barkers, but I don't have pictures!)



** My dad meeting Norah for the very first time

** Horseback riding

** Kitties (sniper and lucky). Jojo and Adeline spent a lot of time chasing after them and picking them up.

**Lounging around. Here are all the kids eating popcorn and watching a movie. Priceless

**Watching Jojo and Adeline. These two act like they are together every day of their lives. The are the best of friends and just play ALL DAY LONG! They hardly even need to be supervised (except when we find them outside on the driveway and Jojo was in a bikini and high heels)

**Pictures of me and the girls. Thanks Sierra!



**Playing on "grandpa's farm", my dad would say.


There were many more "highlights", but too many to mention and I didn't have pictures of everything. We had a blast and it was so sad to leave. I have decided that I can never go back to Utah for only a week. There were things I wanted to do and people I wanted to see and it just didn't work out. Maybe next time!