Birthdays and Rugby games!

Been having busy weekends lately! My Mamaw's birthday was last Friday and alot of my family came together at my aunt and uncles' to celebrate. The cousins (and 2nd cousins) all had fun playing together and the adults got a chance to have "adult" conversations. Moe & Miss cooked a wonderful Southern meal: BBQ chicken and ribs, potato salad, baked beans, veggie casseroles...yummy!!
Dominick riding the big bear!

Dominick and Amery helping Mamaw blow out her candles:
Rolling around with her feet

M. & my cousin's boy Tully

3 generations :)

I'm still try to go to my baby play group on Tuesday mornings, and sometimes meet up with my friend Brooke at Chick-fil-A on Tuesday nights for kids' night (you get a free kids meal with a regular combo meal!), and get together with my friends Carly and Kimberly and their kids.

John goes to rugby practice on Tuesday and Thursday nights if he has off work. We try to get together our "couple" friends on Friday nights sometimes. Saturdays have turned into rugby game days, which is fun to watch, and we get to hang out with Jennifer and Phillip and their kids, and John has a great time playing. Since he started playing, they've won both games last week and this week! We've been to a new church twice now, and want to continue visiting. It's called Bay Life (in Brandon), non-demoninational, but leaning toward Baptist. We took the baby once to the nursery and she did well (very scary for Mom the first time, haha)!
For Valentine's Day we got a babysitter (thanks Susan!!) and saw "Wicked" at the Tampa Performing Arts Center. It's a really great Broadway play, funny, wonderful plot and themes, and music! Thanks John-great idea!

I got a hair cut and highlights recently, not a dramatic change, but just enough ;)

Rugby Pics!! Go John and the Tampa Krewe! (and bro-in-law Phil too!)

This week's game against FSU:

Thanks for keeping her warm at last week's game (against USF), Tony!!:

Extra Meredith pic...

Our neighbors and friends Mike and Kimberly invited us to their son's first birthday party. Happy Birthday Ryan!!


She loves "Auntie" Carly!

King for a Day! (Carly's son Austin to left and Ryan's sister Kathleen to right)

He's such a cutie!

Worn out :)
OK, I know this is really looong post, but one more thing. A video of Meredith laughing her head off at me tossing a ball into the air (and demonstrating "up/down"). Enjoy!

Adventures in Baby Eating!

Hello everyone! So, Meredith's 6 months old now and we decided to go ahead with the solid foods. What fun! I'm excited to be starting something new, although every day is something new with her! I decided to make her first foods fresh. So here's a little Baby Food Making 101:
I'm going by a meal planner in this book. It tells you how to cook, puree, and store meals and has great recipes.

I started with making both apple and plum purees.



Saved the purees for later, put in freezer.
Eating time! First cereal, yay! She liked it, and went for the spoon very quickly. Kept looking down at the zebra on her bib! A little messy, but I know more messiness is to come with real foods! Today starting sweet potatoes...

In her excersaucer
She loves grabbing her feet now, and likes her panda bear PJs!