Walking!

Luca took his first steps on October 18 (1 year & 18 days).  Since then, he has been taking 1 or 2 steps here and there, usually from a piece of furniture to one of us. Then on Sunday night (November 14), he learned how to stand up, and then started taking several steps in a row.  We officially have a walker!  Here is a video from that night when he started getting the hang of it.

Luca's Party

 We had a great time celebrating Luca's first birthday.  Luca enjoyed his first cake, although he mostly played with the icing instead of eating it.

Here are pictures of our decorations, and of Luca enjoying his icing!

Luca's Birthday

 Yesterday was Luca's 1st Birthday!  We have enjoyed every day with this little sweetheart.  He'll have a birthday party tomorrow, and those pictures will be posted soon.  But for now, here is his 11 month picture (because we forgot to post it last month), and his 12 month picture:

Ezra's Birthday

 Ezra recently celebrated his 6th birthday!  He had a backyard party with his friends, and Daddy took him to the Explorium (childrens museum) on his actual birthday.

Birthday party

Attacking the piñata

Blowing out 6 candles!

Explorium

Explorium

Culver's for his birthday dinner

10 Months

 Luca turned 10 months old last Friday.  He has figured out and mastered crawling in the past month, and is now on the move constantly!  He loves to eat, and enjoys a large variety of foods.  He had a doctor's appointment last week, and weighed in at 18 pounds, 1 oz, putting him in the 15th percentile (up from the 3rd percentile at his previous appointment!)

West Virginia

 We met the Jones family in West Virginia the last week of June for a week of hanging out, hiking, and lake activities.  At the end of our visit with the Joneses, we spent a day with the Sanders family, our good friends from Grove City.

Enjoy our pictures!

And now our our pictures with the Sanders...

9 Months

Luca Ezekiel is 9 months old! He is rolling everywhere, and is showing interest in crawling, but hasn't figured it out yet.  He started saying "momma" right when he turned 9 months.  He wouldn't lay still for his monthly picture, but these capture his delightful personality!

Cincinnati Trip

 We took a short trip to Cincinnati last week!  The boys went to a baseball game, and we all did 1 day at the zoo and 1 day at the aquarium.  It was a fun getaway!

We crossed a bridge to walk from our hotel to the game!

In our seats at the game

Judah brought his glove, but didn't catch any balls

The kids with Papaw at the zoo

Giraffes

Ready to see some hippos!

Judah with Fiona the hippo

Ezra checking Fiona out

Eliana with Fiona

Riding the zoo train

Eliana with a penguin

Ice cream!

Luca finally made a photo!

Ezra with the alligator at the Newport Aquarium

Touching a stingray

Ezra showing us how a penguin waddles

Checking out the turtle!

Luca enjoying the fish!