The park in our backyard

This project has been a good bonding time for Mike & Kieran.

Marisa & I hung out inside and had some good quality time together while
the boys worked on the play set outside.

Finally, Kieran has his slide!  It was the last thing to be completed.

The play set is done!  Mike worked on it diligently for three weekends.
The kids love it, and so do the parents.  It's like we have a park in our backyard!

When not outdoors, the kids love to play "chase".   Kieran is much faster,
but Marisa is motoring along quite well these days.  She's taking more
steps without the help of her little push toy too.  

Mother's Day 2011

Marisa's standing all by herself!  Oh yeah!!

Mike is building a play house for the kids.
Kieran has had a great time "helping" daddy put it together.

Our boy has such a gorgeous smile.  What a blessing he is to us.

These two have so much fun together.  Marisa has a great sense of humor
already.  She's a perfect fit for our family.  Kieran loves to laugh with her.

Mother's Day 2011 with my precious babies.
Mike took us out to dinner and dessert, then to buy veggies for the garden.
A perfect Mother's Day.  It's awesome to finally have both kids home.

Goodbye crawling, hello walking!

Latest news... Kieran & I saw Marisa take her first step yesterday!  For about a week she has been working on pulling herself up to stand without holding on to anything.  (Marisa is so proud of herself whenever she manages to stand up!)   Once she's up, she'll wobble and try to stay standing with some success. That's how it started yesterday, and then the wobble turned into a tiny step and she stayed upright for a while longer.  We cheered and hollered for her like crazy.  So today she figured out that if she holds onto the laundry basket, she can push it and walk.  It didn't take much encouragement before she was off down the hall- the same spot where Kieran took his first steps.  This time, Daddy was home to see her taking some steps.  You'd have thought she was competing in the Olympics, we were all so excited as we watched her motoring along.  The laundry basket is a bit of a hazard though so I just ordered a toy (much more stable) that she can push while walking.  Look out world, here she comes!

End of March, she was just starting to stand with help.

Look at me!! I did it!!
(We were all recovering from that awful virus.)

Exactly one month later, she's pulling herself up
 to stand anywhere she can get a hold on something.

"Hey people, get me outta this thing!  I'm ready to do some walking."

Photos of our girl standing all by herself coming soon...  As soon as I can have the camera on at the same time she's up!

The latest goings on...

Happy Easter!  (It's hard to get a photo of everybody smiling.) 

Ah, spring is here!  Time to introduce Marisa to grass.  She's not a fan.

Marisa & daddy having some fun snuggling on Easter.

Marisa was so cute in that rocker that I had to get a picture.

Kieran wanted a turn to be photographed and insisted
that he needed to have the phone in the picture too.

"Wow, look at that airplane hanging from the ceiling!"

It's morning, and we are ready to play!!  Marisa is a bit dizzy from spinning
in the chair.  Kieran kept his arm around her to keep her safe.  She did not
want to get out of the chair, even though I could tell she was getting seasick.

We took a few days to chill out at the beach.  Finally got sunshine on the
day we left.  

That's all for now folks!