Sainty Clause



Christmas is fast approaching, so we thought we'd take Weslie to see one of the near by Christmas parades. She loved it. We were kind of shocked that none of the noise from the bands or cars or sirens scared her. When Santa came by she held out her arms, and cried when he was gone. So we took her to the mall so she could meet Santa. She loved him.

Double D in da House



Ahhhh, visitors from Mississippi. Mary's younger brother and his wife and son decided to spend Thanksgiving with us. We all had a good time and we got to show them some of the sites around Baltimore including New York and Washington. As you can guess we did a lot of driving, but the kids didn't seem to mind.

Back to the Stinky Zoo



It's only been about three months since our last visit to the Plumpton Park Zoo, but Weslie has changed a lot. She walks a whole lot better, and she knows some of the animals. She loved getting to see and pet the "baaas" (lambs), the "ooooos" (cows, actually they were Zebus), the ducks (she says ducks), and the "neighs" (horses, in this case miniature horses or donkeys).

Beautiful Fall Day



The weather has been really beautiful the last couple of days, and the trees are really showing the colors now. Weslie is doing great and she has a new favorite word, "tank-hoo". If you have something she wants she'll walk up to you, hold out her hand, and say "tank-hoo". It's unbelievably cute.

Happy Halloween

This was Weslie's second Halloween, but the first she could actually "trick-or-treat". . . kind of. In case you couldn't tell by the picture she was a kitty cat. 

Meet the Parents



Danny's parents have driven up from Mississippi to spend some time with us and especially Weslie. It took a couple of minutes for Weslie to either remember or get use to them. They are also going to visit Danny's sister in New York, for Mississippians they get around the city like a couple of pros.

Taking it Easy



Not much really going on around here. The weather has definitely turned cooler. We've had to use the heater the last couple of nights. I don't know if it is because of the cooler temps, but it seems that we've all come down with a slight case of the sniffles.

The Fells Point Festival



This is the third year we've gone to the small festival, and to tell you the truth it's pretty much the same year after year. It was raining on and off when we went, so there wasn't much of a crowd. The food is always the best part.

Weslie Considers her Future Job Opportunities



A friend of Mary's was in D.C. for a interview, so we thought we'd show her around. We picked her up at Reagan National Airport, had lunch in downtown D.C., walked around the Mall a little bit, peeked in some of the museums, and then went out for dinner. The waitresses loved Weslie.

Fall is in the Air



There's a little nip in the air, the leaves are starting to change, football dominates the weekends, it must be fall. Weslie seems to like the change in weather. She loves going outside to walk around and play.

Ahhh Nature



It's been beautiful here lately. So, we decided to go for a walk, and become one with nature. Weslie still has a little trouble negotiating uneven ground, but she is getting to be a real pro at walking. She just loved picking up leaves and sticks to give to us.

Go U.S.A



We've really enjoyed watching the Olympics. The gymnastics, diving, and swimming have all been great, and the track and field evens are starting to really heat up. Weslie just can't enough of it. Her favorite event is the 20k speed walk.

Has it been a year already?



Weslie had her first birthday this week. We tried not to go overboard on the presents, but its hard not too. We gave her a little cake and then let her go wild. However, she did not tear into it like we thought, she ate a little at a time and was fairly neat. Go figure.

The Stinky Zoo



Today we took Weslie to the Plumpton Park Zoo. In all honesty it was one of the best zoos I've ever been to. It's right up there with Monkey Jungle. What I love about these zoos is how close you can get to the animals. The Plumpton Zoo is pretty much a petting zoo, but it also has tigers, bears, wolves, and other animals that you can't touch and some that you don't want to touch. The zoo is located on an old farm with lots of shade and small domestic animals walking free. It's not the National Zoo in D.C., but they won't let you get anywhere near the pandas.

Weslie goes to the Beach...



For the first time Weslie got to see the ocean, and she didn't really care for it at first. We pretty much explored the New Jersey coast line between Atlantic City and a place called Cape May. We had a good time. Weslie liked playing in the sand, but didn't care for the water. It was a little cool.

We're back



While we were in Mississippi the hard drive on our computer broke. I mean it actually, physical, broke. It made all kinds of strange sounds and rattled like a baby's toy. So, we lost everything, and I mean everything, because I never made backups. Ohh why didn't I make backups. Anyway everything is working great now. Big THANKS to Dell. They were great. They sent a new hard drive, free, and super helpful on getting everything back on track.



Here's a cute picture of Weslie. She's just happy to eat her French fries.

We can't relax forever



All good things come to an end. It was nice being back home in Mississippi, but it wasn't a relaxing trip. We're all over the place. Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents, friends, old jobs, bla, bla, bla, we had to visit them all. We did find some down time to relax every once and a while.

Hi Ya'll



We made it to Mississippi with no problems, and Weslie got to play with her cousins and see the rest of her family. It's amazing how much all the kids had changed over the last six months.

Weslie goes to the farm



It's been a pretty busy weekend. We're trying to get everything together and ready for our trip back to Mississippi, which is fast approaching. Today Harford County was having "Farm Day". Several farms opened themselves to the public. Weslie really enjoyed it. She just couldn't get enough of the little farm animals. There were all kinds of things to see and even a hay ride. We all had a good time.

Happy Father's Day



Not much going on here. We went back to our old stomping grounds at Fells Point for lunch and to walk around a little. This is Danny's and Weslie's first father's day. We hope everyone had a great father's day too.



NOW30 YEARS AGO

Weslie's Yardsale Adventures



We all had a great Saturday. We slept in a little and then we had homemade blueberry pancakes. After breakfast we headed out is search of yardsales. The cool thing around here is that on any given sunny Saturday there are dozens of yardsales in a small area. We got Weslie a couple of toys but she seemed to really like our colander.

Just an Update



Not much is going on here. Weslie has picked up some new skills. She waves when you wave at her, she'll give you a "high five", and she's really playing with her blocks well. There's a new movie of Weslie playing with her blocks, and some new pictures of her. That's about it.

Protrait Proffs

Not much really going on today. We got the proofs back from Weslie's last portrait sitting and I thought I'd put them on the site so everyone could see.  Then I thought I'd go back and put all of the old proofs from the other sittings too. Just go to Weslie's page and under the Photo Gallery you'll see a link for portrait proofs.

Pool Time



Summertime is definitely coming. The temp the last couple of days has broken 90 and Weslie sure is glad that she has her pool. She loves it. Also, Weslie is no longer a vegetarian, we gave her some chicken the other day, her first meat of any kind. I know Gerber has a lot of baby foods that have chicken, beef, and ham in them, but we've stayed away from them. I'm sure they're fine, but they just remind me of cat food. The chicken also gave Weslie a chance to use her new teeth.

Snaggle Tooth



Every week Weslie seems to be getting more and more teeth coming in, and now when she bites it really hurts. She's had the two bottom teeth for a while, and a top one coming in. Now she's got three top teeth. She's also started crawling in the traditional hands and knees position, and walking while holding onto things.

Sick Days



Not much is going on here since we've all come down with some kind of bug, nothing to serious. Mainly a lot of coughing, headaches, and acute cases of the sniffles. However the worst seems to be over and everyone is recovering nicely. Weslie handled being sick fine. She's a real little trooper.

Happy Mother's Day



This is Mary's first mother's day and to celebrate we went to the National Zoo in D.C. Yesterday the temp topped out around 64, today it was over 90. The zoo was great. It's well laid out, lots of animal, and it's free. The temp kept most of the animals inside, but that was fine since you could go in and see them there. All in all a great day.

This baby can motor



Well, it's time to get baby gates. Weslie still does not crawl in the proper hands and knees style, she does more of a army style belly crawl, but she can move. She is also pulling up on everything. She tries to stand on her own, but can only manage it for a second or two before crashing down on her well padded butt. The problem is she loves stairs, and she can get to them and up a couple in a sec. She climbed the whole flight the other day, with a spotter of course, and since this house is almost nothing but stairs its time to get the gates.

The trip comes to an end



Well, my parents have been up here sharing their time between Baltimore and New York for about two weeks, and they have to be getting back to Mississippi. Their last weekend here we spent in and around Baltimore, my sister came now from New York too. Ellicott City, a small town just outside of Baltimore, is known for their antiques, and my mom loves antiques. There were some really cool things, but it takes just about all day to look through all of the shops.

New York, New York



We decide to go up to New York and let Weslie see the sights. We had a great time. We spent a lot of time in Greenwich village, Central Park, and Time Square. There's a Toys R' Us on Time Square that is unbelievable. It has about four floors with a Ferris wheel inside. Danny's parents kept Weslie while we went out and saw an off Broadway play. New York is great, there are unbelievable stores and restaurants that you probably can't find anywhere else.

Danny's parents come up for a visit



It's a pretty long drive from Mississippi to Baltimore, about 15 hours if there's no traffic, but they got here with no problems. They've actually made the drive several times before, so they're old pro's at it. This time they're able to stay with us instead of a hotel, even though they won't be staying here the whole time. They are also going to New York City to see my sister. All in all a pretty good trip.

Happy Easter



Well the weather here for Easter is awful, but we enjoyed Easter very much. It looks like Weslie is getting over her runny nose and she looked too pretty in her Easter dress that her gramma made for her to stay home. The women in the church nursery just love Weslie. They always oohh and ahhh and say such nice things about her. After church today we were invited to Easter dinner at the pastors house, and everyone was so nice. They made us feel right at home. This is turning out to be a real home away from home.

One Great Day



The weather around here has been chaotic at best. We'll have one great day in the middle of some really crappy weather. The last couple of days have been cold and dreary and the forecast for the next few days is the same, but today was beautiful. So we shot down to DC to see the cherry blossoms, and we weren't the only ones. It was crowded, but worth it. The cherry blossoms had already peaked, but they still looked great.

Teeth



Weslie has had a couple of teeth coming in on the bottom for a couple of weeks now. They broke through last week but she was still having teething pains. Now they are clearly visible, though taking pictures of them is impossible, but still she has been grumpy and restless and not sleeping well. The doctor wanted to check her to make sure she didn't have an ear infection. She didn't, but we found out she has another tooth coming in. This one is on the top. Maybe one day we'll be able to get a good picture of Snagletooth.

Weslie's Room

Well we're finally working on Weslie's room. I know most people do this before the baby is born, but better late than never. We've updated her photo gallery with a couple of recent photos. She's really starting to scoot around now. She's turning into a real speed demon.

Metal Mouth



Mary got her braces on today. She got the ceramic kind, so they're not that noticable. They're practically invisible compared to the ones I had. Mary thinks they look awful, but you can really only see the wire that runs across them. She'll just have to get used to them. They feel very strange to her right now and her mouth hurts a bit. Well take a look at the pic and see what you think of them.

New Photos

Weslie is growing like a weed now. It's like all of sudden she able to new things over night. We've added some new pictures to Weslies photo gallery.

No News is Good News (I guess)



Nothing much going on today. We drove into Baltimore so that Mary could get her teeth ready for her braces, which she gets net week. When we drove home there were helicopters everywhere. This time it had nothing to do with the Army. There was a house fire about two blocks away from us, and there was news crews everywhere. Well, nothing is really happening. Weslie was looking especially cute today.

Sunny days are here again



We've been having really good weather lately. So, we've been taking advantage of it and going out a lot. We drove to Baltimore and got to walk around our old neighborhood and down by the water. We even stopped to feed the ducks and seagulls, and then we had to run away. There is no such thing as a small flock of seagulls when there is food involved. We've also been walking around our new neighborhood. Weslie really seems to enjoy the exercise.

Say Cheese

The weather has been just beautiful lately. You would think that's spring already. We took Weslie to get some pictures of her in her christening gown. As usual she did great. I swear she was born to be a model. She just loves cameras.

Ooohh Nooo



Besides having a flat this morning, everything else is going great. Weslie has finally gotten her crib. We're going to start on her nursery soon. The weather has been good. Yada, yada, yada. . . Checkout the picture. It took me a while to figure out how to even use the jack. That's German engineering for you.

Happy Valentine's Day



We really didn't do that much today. We went shopping for Weslie, she needed some new clothes, she's out growing everything. The best thing today was lunch. We drove all other place looking for a place to eat. Some places had a waiting time as long as four hours. We finally settled on a Chinese buffet right around the corner. No waiting, the food was good, and Weslie eat for the first time at a restaurant. She sat in the high chair and ate jello squares, more like squeezed them to mush, but close enough.

What's Up Doc?



Weslie had her 6 month checkup today. She weighed 19 lbs and was 27 1/4 inches. The doctor said she was absolutely perfect, and getting cuter every time she sees her. Then came the shots. She got four vaccines, and of course she cried but only for a few seconds. She does so well at the doctor's office all the nurses love to play with her. She loves it.

A New Gamer???



Not much going on around here. The weather's keeping us indoors, so there's not much to do but play. Now she's not the best at video games, but she's getting better. Like I said not much going on here, as far as home. Lots of stuff going on at work, but that's all . . . you know.

Mmmmm.....Chocolate!



The sun shinin' bright and the temps above 20 (you know T-shirt weather) so we thought we'd get out of the house and do something. Just so happened it was the weekend of the Bel Air Chocolate Festival. Got to sample several different chocolate goodies like chocolate mousse, eclairs, brownies, cookies, and more! Weslie had fun and so many people stopped to see her and say "How cute!", but she didn't get to enjoy any chocolate treats.

Electricity?



What does snow, ice, and a high winds equal? Power outage. The power went out around 1:00 in the afternoon, and was out till around 7:00 pm. *At the height of the incident, about 70,000 Baltimore Gas and Electric customers were without power in Harford County. WBAL-TV 11 News reporter Noel Tucker reported that two large feeder lines sagged due to heavy ice from this week's snow storms. As they swayed together, the lines eventually touched and shorted out, causing the outages.







*Thanks to WBAL-TV for this information