Congrats in order!

Our good friends from grad school Peder and Colleen had a baby girl, Lilia Isabelle, the night before last. From what I hear, everyone deserves a big pat on the back (Colleen especially!) because Lilia chose to keep everyone in suspense for a while before finally making her appearance. We've yet to see pictures, but can't wait! Peder is a resident in emergency medicine at U Chicago and has had to go back to work some already, although he tells me some of his wonderful colleagues are covering many of his shift hours. Colleen is an assistant professor at Loyola University so we assume she gets at least this week off! We continue to be grateful that Aiden's arrival was timed between jobs for me, and that Hopkins grants a week of paternity leave to residents so Brent could be there for both of us when we got home from the hospital. We can't imagine how hard it must be for Peder to go back to work so soon!

A belated congratulations also goes out to my dear friend Lauren, who got engaged to boyfriend Brian over Christmas. You'll remember these two came to visit us in September. Anyway, after graduating from UofI, Lauren took a postdoc position at West Virginia University in Morgantown--and it looks like now that she may be there a bit longer than originally thought! Brent and I would like to get over to Morgantown to see them--Brent has had a hankering since he drove through WV in the dark en route to the east coast from Illinois last May. Apparently that was a stretch when the cat wasn't yelling, so he could concentrate on the moonlit scenery in peace....

Finally, those of you who know Aras & Kristina Mattis (now in San Francisco as Aras started residency in pathology at UCSF) will be pleased to learn that they are expecting a baby in June. And, Bob & Erin Mihelich (architects in Elgin, IL) are also adding a new family member in a few months--both Kristina and Erin looked fabulous when we saw them over Christmas (perhaps we were trendsetters in this whole start a family thing...!)

random collection of pictures

I didn't have a good subject for this post but wanted to share some more pictures that we have from the last several weeks. There are quite a few of the requisite cute kid pics (Aiden and Vongs, Maia and Leo, and Aiden with Kennedy). Also, Aiden with his Christmas gift from uncle Andrew and Aunt Tracie ("Baby-Banz") and his early attempts at eating solid foods. The top left pic was taken tonight. He is starting to get more food in his mouth and less on his face. Enjoy!

Aiden eats solid foods

Aiden started eating solid foods in the last couple of weeks. Nothing is better than barley or rice cereal mixed with breast milk. Yummmmm! It is supposed to help the little bugger sleep through the night (hopefully). This may be a little much but I have included a brief video of the event. Check it out below.

New Year's 2007

This year for New Year's Julie's parents and Grandmother came up for a couple of days. Also, since we were gone for Christmas we got to have one more round of presents!! We all had a nice time and a very nice New Year's Eve dinner (Julie finally had a reason to break out her fine china....although, she admits to not doing any of the cooking--thank you Paula!). As is the case for every New Year's eve, Julie's dad had a cache of bootleg fireworks. I thought that I would share a litte bit of the pre- and post-firework conversation.

Julie: Dad, I don't know how the neighbors will feel about fireworks.
Steve (with mock seriousness): Julie, we are all Americans.

10 minutes later....

Ms. Shirly down the street: If you don't get out of here right now, I am going to call the police!!!! (Maybe she is a communist?)

Anyway we all had a nice time and it was a great way to finish off a lengthy holiday vacation. Click here to see the whole album.

Christmas Part 3: I guess I don't have to sit at the kids table anymore

The third Christmas post we have is some pictures we took in Danvers, IL when the Arbuckle and Larochelle families visited. Chris and Dave are my two oldest friends as we met in preschool/kindergarten. It is hard to believe that we are grown-ups now (I am using the term loosely for all you objectors out there). Between us we now have six children, the oldest in preschool herself.

There are also pictures from when Bob and Erin Mihelich came to visit. Bob is an old friend from college and roommate in gradschool. They stopped by my parents place on the way up to Elgin, IL. As you all may have noticed we packed a lot in trying to see as many people as we could over the holiday. In fact we are kind of lucky that Aiden is so even tempered because we probably tempted fate a little with all the travel and passing him from person to person. All in all, the trip couldn't have been much better. Check out the full part 3 album here.

Christmas Part 2: Five generations enjoy Christmas day

Our second post includes a few pictures from Christmas eve at my parent's house and a lot of pictures from Christmas day at my uncle Larry's house (Aiden's great uncle). We have a large extended family on my mom's side and had five generations all together. The oldest member is Grandpa moses at 99 and youngest my cousin Tiffany's baby Brayden at 4 months. We got some great pics of Aiden with his great-great-grandparents (Grandma and Grandpa moses) and great-grandpa Ed. In all, I think we counted around 35 people Christmas day. I have to admit that it is a rough estimate as some of the kids don't sit still long enough to count.

One interesting fact we learned Christmas day is that my great grandparents have 11 great-great grandkids that are all boys! It makes for some pretty wild (and loud) holidays. Click here to see the complete album.

Christmas Part 1: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

I got a week vacation for the holidays, so we headed out to Illinois to visit family and friends. It was quite a tour with our first stop being a trip to Chicago to see my twin brother, Brian, his wife Bethany, as well as several of our friends. Aiden had his first plane trip which went surprisingly well. In fact, the baby got us out of a long ticketing line because a agent pulled us out of the line and checked us in after a 5 minute wait. I guess all his smiles were too hard to resist. We only stayed in Chicago one night, but met a bunch of friends out at an Italian restaurant near Brian's place, Pizza Bella. It was great seeing everyone (though Julie and I both agreed it felt too short). In all I think there were 14 of us and the baby passed out in mommy's arms by the end. (I noticed that we didn't get any pics with Amber, Peder, or Colleen but it was great seeing you guys, too).

The next day Aiden, Julie, and I took a train down to Bloomington, IL where a very excited set of grandparents awaited. We enjoyed mom and dad's new renovated house and had some family friends, the Melick family, over for dinner. I noticed in the pictures that we have pictures of Megan (Melick) Whitecotten's girl, Kaitlynn , but none of the others in the Melick family--fire the photographer.

Anyway, this is the first of three (or four) set of pictures from Christmas, so check back soon for some new additions. Here is a link to some pictures from the first leg of our trip (click here).