Annabel's Baptism

We are so proud that our sweet Annabel was baptized in the Catholic Church on August 12th! The little lady continued tradition by wearing the baptismal gown my great grandmother made over 60 years ago. Annabel was the 18th family member to wear it (her brothers wore it too). Here she is wearing her first formal gown!

It was a bit of a challenge stuffing her into her carseat with the gown on but we did it. She was a good sport and even tolerated a bonnet! 

Annabel was such a happy little girl during the ceremony. She seemed to like the attention and didn't mind the bonnet or bulky gown. We were surrounded by lots of friends and family. It was such a beautiful day!

A little dip in the holy water! Big Brother Liam is watching to make sure his sister is okay. Or maybe he's hoping they will dunk her. He would think that was very funny. Dylan was probably climbing over or under the pews.

When the baptism was finished, Neil held Annabel high up in the air and everyone cheered!

Our daughter is very blessed to have Uncle Colin and Cousin Bridget as her Godparents. It was especially meaningful to have Colin and Bridget in this role together because they were the Best Man and Maid of Honor at our wedding. We were very thankful that Bridget was able to fly in from Chicago to participate in this special day! Here we all are with Father Nelson.

Although it seems we take hundreds of pictures every month, Neil and I are hardly every in them at the same time. I'm so happy that we remembered to take a family picture!

Grandma and Grandpa Hunter traveled from Iowa to be at Annabel's special day! It was also their first time visiting us in our new home. We are so happy to have a proper guest room for them now. When we lived at the condo, they always had two little roommates!

After the baptism, we had a party in our backyard catered by a local Italian deli. Annabel did an outfit change, it was really hot out! And, we had our local bakery make this delicious and adorable cake!

 Neil's Aunt and Uncle came from Connecticut to join the celebration! The last time we saw them was summer 2011 at their home and we announced that we were expecting Annabel. They were very happy to finally meet her.

Our friends, the Teagues, joined us in celebration too. We were so happy since they also brought playmates to keep the kids entertained!

At this afternoon party, we learned that the sun shines directly on our deck around 2:30pm. We just moved the chairs out to the middle of the yard and continued to move them into the shade every half hour. We were told by the previous owners that the sun shade for the deck was damaged during the October snowstorm last year. I guess we may need to invest in a new one or maybe we'll just have to schedule parties in the late morning or evening from now on!

Uncle Colin and Aunt Annie cuddle with the little lady!

Nana was at the baptism too! Here she is enjoying a little snuggle with three of her grandkids!

We thank God for a wonderful day of celebration and that our friends and family could be there to witness Annabel's special day!

Summer Fun with Three Crazy Kiddos!

The summer flew by so quickly! It was jam packed with fun activities. Although we should have been unpacking, decorating and fixing up our new home, it was summer and we wanted the kids to be out and about as much as possible. We didn't take pictures of everything but we've got a few fun memories photographically recorded.

We attended a kid's concert with friends at Senasqua Park on the Hudson River.

The kids danced and did the hula hoops!

Annabel enjoyed the music too!

We went to the aquarium in Norwalk. The kids had a blast!

I love this picture of Dylan! I finally discovered the "aquarium" button on my camera and it actually worked!

Liam waiting for the big turtle to make an appearance!

Liam and Dylan continued to have fun getting to know their baby sister. As she grew over the summer, so did their interest in playing with her!

I asked Liam to entertain his sister for a minute. This is what I found upon my return.

I think Liam likes his little sis!

The three kiddos are such great playmates for each other!

Throughout the summer, we hosted numerous barbecues for family and friends. Shucking corn (well, Dylan preferred to blow bubbles)!

Liam trying to clean off every single little strand of silk on the corn.

Aunt Mimi came from Vermont for a barbecue visit to see the new house and to meet Annabel!

Aunt Annie visited us too. She had so much fun rolling around the yard with the kiddos.

Liam wanted Aunt Annie to pay attention to him! Yes, he is wearing a swim vest. No, we weren't swimming.

Dylan lost his shirt somewhere along the way. His turn for Aunt Annie gymnastics!

Uncle Johnny came to visit from Vermont. The kids loved having all these visitors!

The boys discovered that they could pass through these bushes to get to the front yard from the back yard. Our "natural fence" has now been breached. I think we're in trouble.

For the first few weeks after our move, the boys were too excited to go to sleep. Neil had used a ladder earlier in the day to fix something on the roof and it was still out so he decided to climb up and spy on them. He told them to go to bed from the roof but I think the humor of the situation made them even more excited!

Our yard made it fun to host playdates with water fun! The water table, little pool and sprinkler kept the kids cool and busy all summer.

Good Buddies!

Cool dude with his chick on a tricycle. Twenty years from now, it will be on a motorcycle!

Jammie pic!

One night when the boys were taking a bath, Neil put Annabel in their jammie bin. When we told Liam to pick out his pajamas, he jumped back and laughed the biggest laugh we've ever heard from him. Dylan had a similar reaction, although he seemed more concerned that we remove her from the bin when the joke was over.

We attended a kid's concert at West Point to celebrate the birthdays of a few friends. The kids had a lot of fun going up and down the big hill, crawling on the canons, climbing trees, digging in the cooler, just about everything except listening to the music. They even participated in an "instrument petting zoo"! I don't think we sat down for more than a second!

What a beautiful view of the Hudson River!

Annabel had fun too! Here she is practicing a new trick!

Trying to get three little ones to face the camera and smile at the same time is pretty much impossible. Here are a couple of cute photos of the three kids taken this summer.

Brotherly love! Look at those dirty fingernails. Someone was playing in the dirt!

Well, that takes us up to August!