Katie turned three years old today. Because I had to go to a Capricon meeting tonight -- which meant missing dinner with daisy_knotwise, Katie, and Julie -- we went out to Red Robin for lunch. There, they brought Katie a little chocolate sundae and sang their happy birthday song for her. Katie was delighted.

On the way home, we stopped at the bakery and picked up a small cake, because there had to be candles some time. Katie insisted. :)

And Katie had a decent haul of presents. Julie gave her the "Melody Time" DVD that Daddy had picked out, while Mommy and Daddy gave her several Dr. Seuss books and a box set of Curious George books. And there was much reading as a result.

But not when the cake was present, as you'll see.
( Photos and cake inside... )

Today is Katie's birthday, about which more later. But before I get around to that, I owe pictures dating back to the pre-WindyCon 36 era. Like, for instance, November 1st, the day when Julie turned 18 months old.
( Photos inside... )

We went out to lunch at Red Robin earlier today, then proceeded home. While doing this, we were listening to the new Phineas and Ferb CD. Did we mention that Katie really likes Phineas and Ferb? And since jeff_duntemann mentioned that he and Carol would really like to see some new pictures of the girls...
( Photos inside... )

The City of Des Plaines finally came out to fix the hole in our back yard. You may have seen the photos that jeff_duntemann posted when he stuck his camera down there and started shooting. Here are a few more as the repair proceeded.
( Pictures inside... )

daisy_knotwise bought markers for Katie. Julie found them. Oh, dear.
( Pictures inside... )

Julie turned fifteen months old today. Naturally, it was time for photos to be taken.
( Pictures inside... )

Goodnight, Mrs. Calabash And here's one more photo of the girls from around Easter. There something just a bit Jimmy Durante-like about Katie in her Tigger sleeper and hat with Julie providing musical accompaniment on the keyboard...

Yesterday was Julie's first birthday, so it was time to pull out the camera and get some fresh photos. Fortunately, the girls decided to cooperate. Mostly.
( Photos inside... )
And that's the way it was on Julie's birthday. Happy birthday, sweetheart!

We've been running behind on our picture taking. daisy_knotwise misplaced her small camera and Katie managed to get fingerprints on the lens of my big camera which I haven't had time to clean off yet. But the small camera I've been looking to buy showed up on sale this weekend, so I've now picked one up and installed a 16 GB memory card -- good for about 7000 pictures!

I guess I should take some.
( Photos inside... )

Julie turned nine months old today. Because we figured the place would be insane for dinner -- they were having an all-you-can-eat, all-you-can-drink Superbowl buffet -- daisy_knotwise and I decided to take the girls over to Sweet Baby Ray's for lunch.
( Pictures inside... )

jeff_duntemann, Carol, and many relatives from Carol's side of the family joined us earlier tonight for a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner. We'll be heading out to Bob and Kathy's place tomorrow for Christmas dinner.

daisy_knotwise is downstairs wrapping the last few presents, but just to give you an idea of what things look like now, here's a picture.
( Cut tagged for your viewing pleasure )
Merry Christmas everyone!

And now, having finally pulled out the camera, I can present pictures from Julie's seven-month birthday. Of course, no photo session is complete without Katie. Just ask Katie...
( Photos inside... )

It was Katie's second birthday, so it was time to take some photos. :)
( Photos inside... )

Julie turned six months old today. Having completely missed taking her five month photos in a welter of confusion leading up to ConClave, I'm making up for lost time. Of course, Katie wanted to get in on the act too.
( Kid photos inside... )

It was Halloween and I took Katie out trick or treating for the first time. We only hit the six active houses on our block, because that was about as much walking as Katie wanted to do.

Of course, there were pictures.
( Beware of the horrors inside... )

It was the last day of summer, so after breakfast at Charcoal Delights -- where Katie was determined to steal Mommy's eggs -- we dropped Katie and Julie off at a friend's house and went down to Wrigley Field for the last game of the regular season. Unfortunately, the Cardinals lost which, in combination with the Phillies victory tonight, eliminated them from the playoff picture. Mind you, the odds were pretty long by this point anyway, but now I can root for the Cubs for the rest of the season with a clear conscience. :)

After we picked up Katie (who had skipped her nap) and Julie (who hadn't), we ran up to RAM for dinner. Katie was being moderately badly behaved, running away around the edges of the parking lot. This has been getting worse lately and is behavior we need to discourage right now. By the time we got home, Katie had worked herself up into persona non grata mode.

But first, she needed a bath, if for no other reason than to get the caramel from the apple dippers out of her hair. She was actually pretty well-behaved in the bath -- I suspect she realized that the limits of parental patience had arrived. We even managed to use the special bucket to rinse shampoo out of her hair without getting water in her eyes.

And then it was time to bathe baby sister. And the entertainment began.
( Pictures taken by husband with no survival instinct inside... )

Katie was 22 months old on Wednesday when no camera was handy. Tonight, we took care of that little problem. And despite Katie's occasional best efforts, Julie got to share the spotlight.
( Katie and Julie pictures inside )

Today, Julie turned four months old. This means that it's time for more baby pictures. :)
( Kids inside... )

Today Katie was 21 months old -- 1.75 years! Gack!

In honor of this, I walked her over to the neighborhood playground after dinner. Later, daisy_knotwise came by with Julie in the van (which is why Julie is sadly absent from these photos), picked us up, and we proceeded to Culver's for turtle custard.

But before that, I snapped a few pictures.
( Photos inside... )

Julie is three months old today, which means it's time for more baby pictures.
( Baby inside... )
daisy_knotwise asked me if I could link to photos from when Katie was three months old. So here they are. :)

As promised, here are some pictures from Julie's christening. It was a lovely ceremony.
( Pictures inside... )

Afterwards, I grilled burgers and Polish sausage. And, of course, there was cake. :)

This would have come out better had I remembered that I'd turned off the flash on daisy_knotwise's camera when we were down in Lisle. But it'll do...

Let Sleeping Babies Lie Gretchen says that the appropriate familial remark here is "Get this kid off my neck!" Ok.

I promised to post pictures from our trip out to Lisle for Independence Day. There are no pictures of the fireworks themselves, but Katie did sit on my lap and point and say "Hee hee!" as she watched the explosions, so I think she enjoyed them. :)
( Photos inside... )

It's important to raise your kids right. And with a little help from catalana, we're working on that. There are, of course, photos.
( In here! )

Here are the pictures that we took at Aidan's birthday party on the first of June, when Julie was one month old.
( Kids inside... )