Benjamin Cormac Purl

Our newest nephew, Benjamin Cormac, arrived on 8/31. I planned to go on her own and help Anne as she recovered from delivery but ended up bring Cecilia along because she's still not sleeping through the night (which would have been exhausting for Eric who also gets up with Maeve at her 6am daily wake up time). Cecilia was a great traveler for her second plane trip and visiting her second state, Boise. We got to see Ben when he was only 3 days old. I took some pictures as they were discharged from the hospital and wheeled out in a wheelchair because that's standard practice in Boise. So interesting as Minnesota doesn't have that requirement. Benjamin is just precious and so is big brother, Finn. Finn referred to him as 'Baby Ben' and it was so adorable. He is a very loving big brother and wanted to hold him and take pictures with him. We got him some toys to keep him occupied while Anne watches Finn and Ben on her own during the day.

In other Boise fun, we enjoyed the Hot Air Balloon festival. Besides the one woman that wanted to take Cecilia out of Grandma Brigid's hands when we were taking pictures, it was an enjoyable morning. We brought Finn and Cecilia and got some fantastic pictures of the balloons in the air. I enjoyed taking Sadie Edmonds for a walk too. We also enjoyed several trips to the park and coffee and donuts. The caffeine is needed since Cecilia isn't sleeping through the night consistently yet. For Cecilia news, though, she is rolling both from her back to her front (which she has been for a few months) and now from her front to her back. She continues to enjoy solid foods but not really formula in the bottle. We'll get there someday but she is similar to her sister in that aspect!

Eric and Maeve had a great time at the cabin for the Labor Day weekend when we were away. Maeve continues to tell me stories about how she played with Will, went to the park, and swam in the lake. She keeps asking if we are going back to the cabin but I have to tell her that we aren't going back until next Summer!

Summer sports with Maeve

Where did the summer go? We must've been busy since the unofficial end to summer, Labor Day, was last week! We thought we'd provide a few updates since Maeve is done with some of the sports that she enjoyed this summer. She had another season of Soccer which she enjoyed. We liked it too because it was during school hours so she could play during their afternoon outside time. You'll see in this video that she's getting the hang of dribbling (and I'll try to remember to take videos the correct way!) . She can also do the soccer moves 'control' and 'pull back' - and now she knows more about soccer than her Mom does!!

Maeve isn't continuing to do soccer in the fall since we're back to swimming and continuing gymnastics! We moved to a different day of the week for both so she's meeting new friends but here's a pic with her best friends from gymnastics, Sloan and Gianna, that we'll probably meet up with again in future classes!

And, lastly, Grandma Jan took Maeve fishing on the dock a couple of times this summer and she caught her first fish last month! She was excited and we caught it on video:

Cecilia's Baptism

We celebrated Cecilia's baptism the weekend of August 7th, 2016.  We were so blessed to have the love and support of our family from both near and far.  Kate's brother, Paul, and Eric's sister, Laura, are the Godparents.  Thanks to Sarah Currie of Sarah Louise Photography for the wonderful photos!

5 Months Old

Cecilia is 5 months old today. This handmade blanket was made by her Grandma Jan and given to her on her Baptism day a few weeks ago! Isn't it beautiful?

We have a special outing today - we're going on her second airplane ride and visiting our new baby cousin, Benjamin Cormac Purl! We're so excited to get to meet him soon.

Cecilia has started enjoying food and some formula as we get ready for our trip to Ireland. She's easy going but not sleeping through the night yet. Sleep training has begun so hopefully we'll have longer stretches of sleep in the coming weeks!