Happy Hanukkah and Winter!

Holiday time is here. And with it we had our first local snow of the season last weekend.

As you can see Lilah wanted to get outside and play so quickly she didn't even wait to get her jacket and hat on! (OK that is not exactly what happened, we were really outside for a photoshoot for about three minutes, but it makes a better story).

She really loved the snow and hopefully next time it will stick around more than 24 hours so we can get make some snowmen and have a snowball fight.

Other than that, the week has been fairly quiet, gearing up for the holidays. Yesterday we had our last music class of the session (boo!) but Lilah did better than she ever has, following all the instructors directions and even clapping for the other kids when they did well. I was quite proud of her.

Then we headed off to my company X-mas party where Lilah got her face "partially" painted (as you can see) and I got to introduce her around.
We ended the night when Lilah and Jason lit the candles for the first night of Hanukkah and we read her the story of the holiday. It is amazing how much she remembers, and she was able to tell us that last night we lit two candles which means tonight we will light three. Amazing!

This morning Lilah helped me prep for our semi-annual Hanukkah party at Tara's house. Although her help was mostly "mixer" and "tester" she is getting the hang of cooking with Mommy.
Speaking of the party - off to get ready! Have a great Hanukkah and we will be back later this week with more photos and more candles!

Worth the wait

I know I had promised to update faithfully every day of our vacation, but a bad Internet connection thwarted my efforts. So now we are back in town and connecting with relative ease so I am back on the updating train.

The last few days of our vacation were wonderful and as you probably suspect we ate and relaxed alot more. It also snowed quite a bit on Friday and we got to enjoy the beautiful scenery while in the warm comfort of the house.

As you can see Lilah had a great time helping me cook, carve, and eat everything we were preparing and tried to taste everything raw and cooked as we all prepared our many many meals.

Although we had a wonderful time, it is great to be home and we plan to spend the next two weekends catching up on the house and getting ready for the holidays.

Speaking of getting ready...we will also be getting ready for a new Boig addition to the family. Jason and I are expecting our second Baby Boig on May 30th! With lots of excitement but nervousness you will get to again read about all the fun in and outs of pregnancy + the current Miss Lilah - so get ready it will be blogging fun!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well at least it will be (a Happy Thanksgiving that is) for most of you by the time you read this. We have a lot to be thankful for this year, not least of all our relaxing vacation!

As we are gearing up to put our turkey in the oven tomorrow, we have been continuing to eat our way through Deep Creek, MD and our well stocked pantry.

Today in addition to doing not a whole lot of anything else, Elizabeth taught me how to make chocolates all afternoon (I learned how to make empanadas yesterday!). As you can see if you look closely into the photos we filled the refrigerator with lots of different homemade treats. Lilah got to sample her new favorite which I am calling "Chocolate, marshmallows and peanuts mush!" Trust me it is much tastier than it sounds.

We also did take some time to try to get the kids outside to exercise, but it turns out that the state parks were closed today, so running around the backyard and then playing "Toddler Cage Match" in Alexander's pack n play was the best we could do to wear them out.

Off to a movie and then bed so we can all be well rested for tomorrow's hard days work of eating and (you guessed it!) eating.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Wait where's Lilah?

It seems that I have taken more photos of Pie (Alexander) then Lilah the last two days, so I thought I would share some of our current vacation before I move on to September.

Also a big shout out to Beth who is much warmer that we are today celebrating her birthday with family and friends in Atlanta

We are having a great time relaxing in Deep Creek and Lilah and Alexander are having a fantastic time playing together. This trip and last weekends birthday party are the first time that Lilah has really played well with other toddlers than the one she spends her days with. It has been great for us to see her development.
Besides playing we have all been doing a lot of eating and baking and then some more eating. You can see the Pie loves Santiago's famous waffles.

So with all that eating we have made sure to get in our daily workout. You can see Lilah practicing some of the new exercises on the Wii Fit Plus that we got right before we headed off on vacation.
Tomorrow we start our Thanksgiving cooking and some chocolate making fun.

Moving on to a quick look back at September (that will get us all the way to my last blog post at the end of August!) we ended the month with Lilah's' second birthday. It was more like a birthday week as she got to celebrate her actual birthday, mid-week at the park with all her friends there and then a big birthday of our family and friends at the end of the week.

For the other celebration in September we headed up to NJ to celebrate Lilah's Aunt Ashley's graduation from graduate school. Lilah met some horses for the first time and had a wonderful time feeling the coy fish at my Aunt's house.

That catches everyone up to date! Come back tomorrow for some new photos, milestone updates and more fun stories.

It's Fall! (well it was when these things happened)

October in the DC metro area is a fun time that always bring out the best things about fall.
Repeating the fun time from last year we headed out with a larger group of adults (and kids!) to the Butler's Orchard Pumpkin festival at the end of October.
Lilah got to experience her first time in a moon bounce and although we were not sure how she would like it, you can see from her expression the biggest problem we had was getting her out to go pick the pumpkins.
We also enjoyed eating carmel apples (well I did at least) and petting the animals they had.

The night before that we attended Boo at the Zoo where they open up the National Zoo to allow kids to go trick 'r treating by moonlight.

Lilah dressed up as a clown, although without makeup it is a little hard to tell. She was cute no matter what you think she was.
Lilah's grandma also visited in mid-October and we had fun attending music class and hanging out in the nice weather.

We also kicked off October with Lilah's second birthday party where Mickey Mouse (aka Uncle Steven) made an appearance and lots of fun was had by all. It was wonderful to see so many kids running around and playing together (while the adults ate and drank the day away of course!).

Wow - we are to September already. Well that is for another day (tomorrow!). Then we will be all caught up on adventures and I look forward to giving updates on "funny things Lilah has said in the past three months". As well as some more photos from our Deep Creek vacation.

A preview..... "Mommy I want to go downstairs to see my boy" - That would be today - that would be Alexander she is talking about :).

We're back!

After a three month hiatus I am finally back to the MBB blog.

With a goal to write every day of our Thanksgiving vacation I figure we will be caught up by the time we head back home on Saturday. We are spending a week in Deep Creek, MD with the Reiches unwinding and relaxing with food, tv, food, an amazing view and did I mention food?

So starting today and heading back (throughout the week) to the end of August where I left off on our Lilah adventures.....

Today finds us at Deep Creek Lake where Lilah and Alexander are having fun playing together and Lilah is learning lots of new skills, including how to play Guitar Hero from her dad. As you can see she is getting pretty good at it. We expect her to be beating all of us by the end of the week.

Yesterday we helped Jordan celebrate his second birthday (Happy Birthday Jordan!). The party was super fun and Lilah loved it because she found all new toys to play with. As you can see Lilah tends to like other kids toys more than hers "new toys!".

We have also been enjoyed the warm days so far this winter by spending as much time outside as possible This is Lilah "helping daddy" to mow the lawn last weekend.

Last weekend we also visited more recent baby kate elisabeth parker, where we are happy to report that Lilah was very gentle and didn't poke Kate in the eye at all (which is more than I can say for the first time she met Alexander).

In early November, we headed out to Lancaster PA with Lilahs's Bubbe and Aunt Sarah for "Joint Birthday Weekend" where Bubbe and I celebrate our bday that are only a week apart. It was Lilah, however, who had the most fun at the Children's museum, the petting zoo and of course the obligatory big waffle.

We started off November right though, in NY with the NYC Marathon where Darryl was one of 52,000 runners to take on the amazing feat. With a great time and a great finish Lilah got her "cheer" on and her naps in. She loved the subway and talked for a week after about wanting to go on the train. Good thing we took her to a Caps game shortly after.

With one month down, I'll end there tonight, but will be back tomorrow to recap October!

Welcome Katherine Elizabeth Dailey & Matthew Kyle Sward! and other semi-important things

So it may look upon first glance that Lilah is singing karaoke in this photo, but if you look at little closer you will notice it is a flashlight which Lilah learned to use during last week's almost 24 hour power outage at our place!




That said ... I can't use that or any other darn good excuse that I can come up with (and I have lots!) for not updating the blog in nearly a month. But I am back and will try and highlight a few milestones of the past few weeks.

Besides learning to draw with her flashlight, Lilah is also coming into her own as a toddler artist with her crayons. If you look very close at the first pic - you can see that she does not limit herself to the easel (hint: look at the stool she is standing on). Good thing crayola makes washable crayons!

Lilah (and her family) have also been enjoying the local summer activities such as the Montgomery County fair where Lilah got to experience cows, sheep, and bunnies and her parents got to experience their first fried oreos (first and last for this parent!).

This weekend we head out to the Rockville Wine festival - hoping to see less animals and slightly better food. Hoping NOT to see Kate Gosselin who just moved into the neighborhood.

With all of her activity, Lilah does occasionally mugging for the camera and get some sleep. That doesn't mean her parents stop taking photos those...

MOST importantly...one week ago today (about 30 min ago) the newest addition to our crazy DC/VA/MD was welcomed into the world - Katherine (Katie) Elizabeth Dailey!




And just three days later she was showing off.... (take that Alexander!).

In case you were wondering what part Miss. Lilah had in Katie's arrival, just a few days before she was so excited that Anne had a baby in her belly that she wanted one too!

AND one month ago yesterday Matthew Kyle Sward, a second to newest addition arrived as competition to Alexander for Lilah's affections :).

So welcome Matty and Katie and welcome back readers....

And in case you missed it on Facebook or over email a video to take to sleep with you tonight.

OK OK, I couldn't really slight Alexander as know he only has eyes for Lilah: