First tooth...finally

Julia finally got her first tooth 4 days before turning 13 months old! My mom was starting to freak out, but as my pediatrician pointed out, no one has ever been born without teeth. Not to her knowledge, anyway. I had a hard time getting a picture of the new tooth, but Thomas took the picture while I held her mouth open. Julia loves Thomas so she was happy to smile for him! It's the front right tooth. She's taking steps, too, but she's been doing that for a while. She just prefers to crawl or be carried still.

Cumming Fair Part 2

Tim and Betty rode on the craziest looking Ferris Wheel, the Seattle Wheel. It was a little too high (and scary-looking) for me...

Getting on the ride

Waving to the little ones (I could see them-they weren't far from me)

See? Too high and scary looking-you can't tell you're connected to anything! I guess that's the point, but no thanks!

Cumming County, GA Fall Fair

We discovered this fair last year and went again this year with Grandma Betty. It's closer than the pumpkin patches, though we can find hay rides and corn mazes at the pumpkin patches. Considering how expensive gas is right now, we opted for the Cumming County Fall Fair and Festival. We can finally find gas, albeit regular 87 octane gas, at most stations, close to $4.00/gallon. And premium gas, when we can find it, really is a premium at about $4.29!

The weather was really nice today, a warm 83 degrees, but we had a nice breeze. Throw in some fair food and fair games and fair rides, and everyone had a great time! Even Julia had fun hanging out in the Baby Bjorn, but then, she usually does.

Grandma Betty and Matt on the big slide

Thomas feeding a goat in the petting zoo

Grandma Betty and Matt feeding the same greedy goat

Matt going solo on a ride-Thomas was more into the games (and spending money)

Tigers Soccer

Thomas is playing soccer with the Johns Creek United Methodist Church, the same league Alex played with years ago. And Tim's coaching again! Thomas seems to enjoy it, as no one celebrates like he does when his team scores a goal! They're the Tigers-the Pre-K boys came up with the name after throwing out suggestions like "Cheetahs" (because they're really fast) and "Airplanes". The best part about soccer...the tunnel we parents make after the game for the kids to run through and the after game snack.

That's dad (coach Tim) Thomas is low-fiving after his goal, which is kind of hard to see considering the swarm offense/defense strategies used by all pre-K boys teams. But it's great fun for all!

Birthday Girl's birthday cake

Julia didn't really care for her birthday cake. It looked small to us, gigantic to her!

Another birthday party

The kids went to a birthday party over the weekend and the entertainment was a petting zoo!
This picture is my favorite-yes, that's Matt's face buried in the side of a hairy cow! I can't tell is he's kissing it or smelling it, but this is typical Matt!


Thomas and Matt rode the little pony, but when we put Julia on it she cried, so no photos of her on a pony.

Happy 1st Birthday Julia!

We had a pool party at the neighborhood pool for Julia's 1st birthday. About 10 kids were there along with Grandma Betty and Aunt Karen. Julia had a great time, despite not getting fed-I had thought of food and drinks for everyone except the birthday girl, who still isn't walking and still has no teeth. She has taken a few steps, but prefers to crawl or walk along the furniture. Julia actually had a birthday week-after the pool party we were too tired to get pictures of her with her own cake, so we had to do that a few days later. She didn't care for the cake at first, but we did get a few good pictures.

Julia's Tinkerbell cake-she got her toes in the cake!

Birthday girl's birthday cake

348 days old!!

Julia is just a few weeks away from turning 1! She's getting close to walking-the video above was taken a few days ago on our front lawn. We've had that walker since Thomas was learning to walk, so it's missing a few pieces, but it serves it's purpose. She's cruising around the furniture and can even balance on her own for a few seconds. But still no teeth! She has been pretty fussy the past few nights, though. I know every kid is different, but Thomas got teeth at about 5 months and Matt got his at about 6 months. Both boys were walking before they turned 1. So she's taking her time, which is ok with me-I like having a baby in the house! And I love her fat legs and cankles!!

First day of pre-school!

Thomas and Matthew started pre-school on Tuesday, August 19 at our church St. Benedict in Duluth. This is Thomas's 3rd year at St. Ben and he's in the 4-day pre-k class. It's Matt's first year! Too cute. His teachers are some brave ladies-the two year olds are still in diapers! They both start at 930a. Matt's class ends at noon and Thomas's class ends at 1p. But if Matt gets the all clear, starting Sept he'll get to stay for "lunch bunch" until 1p so Julia and I will only have to make one trip back to school. He'll pass-he barely said 'bye to me his first day, he couldn't wait to start playing. So I know he'd do just fine staying another hour. I just hope he's not pushing and grabbing for toys, though I know that's wishful thinking. At least he's not a biter!

Matt's backpack is as big as he is! Good thing it's only used for his school folder and a small snack.

Did I mention it's a Catholic pre-school?

Brothers-Matt's cowlick looks really good here.

My littlest child of God

I really wanted Julia to be baptized at my home church in Buena Park, CA, where Tim and I were married. So Jen and I decided to have Caroline and Julia baptized together! They were baptized (along with 14 other kids!) on July 6, 2008, my 6th wedding anniversary! I am Caroline's Godmother (Jen and my cousin Char are Godmothers to Thomas). Julia's Godfather is my Uncle Gilbert (my Mom's brother) and Julia's Godmothers are Uncle Gilbert's wife Fortune and my own Godmother's daughter Theresa Drew Falk (below in the multi-colored dress). It worked out that Tessa (what we have always called Theresa) was going to be in Southern CA for a visit while her husband Chris was in a seminar in Northern CA. I still can't believe we were able to see eachother twice in one year, unfortunately our first visit together was for her mother's funeral. But the second visit was so special with Tessa becoming Godmother to Julia, just as her mom was my Godmother.

Julia and Caroline wore beautiful long baptismal gowns my mom's friend brought back from the Philippines, just for the girls! Thomas and Matthew, who where baptized at our church here in GA, wore the same short white baptism gown, but these girls had the long traditional gowns...

Julia in her gown

Caroline and Julia

Jen, Russ, Caroline, Tim, me, Julia, Tessa, Gilbert, Fortune and Father Ted at the baptismal pool
Baptized girls with Grandma and Papa

2008 Summer Vacation

We usually take one big summer vacation each year, usually out to CA to visit my family. This year we drove up to Monterey Bay for a few days. "We" includes everyone in my family, my sister Jen, her husband Russ, and their daughter Caroline, my Mom and Dad, and my two cousins on my Mom's side, Christine and Colleen. Needless to say, we needed two mini-vans. The drive up took 8 hours! But we stopped in Santa Barbara for a potty break and then again in Solvang to eat breakfast.

Monterey was so pretty! I just love being by the ocean, hopefully one day we'll be close again. We visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where the pictures below were taken. We saw the craziest fish called Sunfish. I bought Caroline and Julia matching socks with sunfish on them. Caroline and Julia are 2 1/2 months apart, but Caroline outweighs my petite girl by about 5 pounds! Caroline loved running around with Thomas and Matthew-she could keep up with all the playing by the time our 3 week visit with her was over!

Me, Tim and Julia

Tim, Me (with Julia), Mom (with Caroline), Jen, Christine, Colleen

The Tim Rohrers

The whole gang!

Caroline and Julia in their matching dresses and Sunfish socks

Father's Day 2008

Here are a few pictures I took on Father's Day. Sometimes I see such a resemblance between Julia and Tim, but I couldn't capture that in their picture. Everyone says she looks like me, but I think all they see is dark hair. She does look a lot like big brother Thomas, though, her favorite. He can make her giggle just by looking at her!

Father's Day 2008

We took the bottom picture last year on Father's Day and it's one of our favorites, so we tried to duplicate it this year to see the growth difference of the boys. It's hard to believe Matthew was only 16 months in the bottom picture-I think as the middle child, it is harder to remember his milestones, I hate to say.

Father's Day 2008

Father's Day 2007

Alex spent Father's Day last year and this year with Tim's dad in Jacksonville playing golf. I'll get pictures of all the kids soon.

Crawling, too

I took this video of Julia crawling. She had been rolling to get to whatever she wants. Then she was rolling and sort of crawling. Now it's mostly the army crawl. Both boys started crawling at 7 months. She'll be 9 months on 6/9. But still no teeth yet!

Pool is open!

We have two neighborhood swimming pools-one is mostly for swim meets, the other is more family friendly with a little water slide. So we took the three little ones to the family pool. Here's a picture of Julia in her bikini and matching hat.



Oh yeah, it's a halter top. Tim pulled her through the water in the shallow kiddie pool and she didn't complain, just floated. Meanwhile, Thomas and Matthew were in the bigger pool with their arm floaties. It took Matt a little while to figure out how to float with the arm floaties without pitching forward or backward. Thomas is a pro now. He starts swimming lessons soon.

If she could just stay little...

Julia is at such a fun stage right now. She's just started waving! She started out last week with what I call her "Evita" pose with one arm raised, palm facing in. Now she's waving, wiggling her little fingers. And she still has that adorable baby fat around her legs and her cheeks. And she loves to smile. One of my favorite things to do is get her after her nap or after a good night's sleep. I'll warn her before I go to her in her crib so she isn't startled, and I fall in love all over again when her little head pops up over the edge of her crib. Precious. I know every stage will be my favorite, but right now, she's allowing me to squeeze her and to kiss her non-stop. And she prefers me over daddy! We'll see how long that lasts...

Thomas and Matthew

Thomas just turned 4 on April 20 and Matthew turned 2 on February 22. They're almost 2 years apart. I've been told they'll be the best of friends when they get older. I hope so. Right now they're watching the movie Ice Age together while Baby Julia sleeps. I love when they're like this, sitting closely. They are both on their tummies with their heads propped up by their arms. Totally adorable. This is how Thomas watches TV sometimes and Matthew just started doing it, too, probably because Thomas does it. Really adorable.

Thomas was quick at everything-walking, talking, reasoning. Matthew is taking his time talking. He's just starting to string words together, like Pig is up (his piggy bank is up high, out of reach). They both walked early. Matt got teeth at 8 months, Thomas at 6. We can't wait for Matt to say more-right now when he gets frustrated he whines. He's been whining a lot lately. They like to hug eachother, play trains together. Matt hits Thomas a lot, though. On the head. With whatever he has in his hands, whether it be a metal train or a wooden train. Luckily he's learned how to say "I'm sorry" and I think he means it.

Thomas and Matt in the bath (Oct '07)

At home after cotton candy (Nov '07)

Halloween 2007

My kids are really loud!

I'm upstairs thinking about my first real topic, but all I can think about is how loud Thomas and Matthew are. They're really loud! Poor Julia thinks this is normal. Well, in our household it is. The boys are playing with their GeoTrax train set-rather, they're fighting over their GeoTrax train set. Now they're quiet. That was quick. Most parenting columns I've read tell parents to let them work it out. Usually they can, but of course we get tears a lot. They're fighting again.

Some of my most recent pictures are from our Day Out with Thomas the Tank Engine in Chattanooga, TN. It was a quick trip, about a 2 hour drive each way. I love Tennessee. It's so pretty with the hills and the river. Knoxville, where Tim's brother Gary and his daughter Brittany live, is really pretty-the Tennessee River flows right by the university and is just beautiful.

First Post!

I've decided to create this blog because I have lots to say. And I have a lot of pictures of my kids I haven't done anything with. And I figured this would be a good way to keep in touch with family and friends.

One reason I haven't done anything with my pictures is because I always seem to be short on time. Like now-we have to go to the mall to get Tim more dress shirts, but be back by 3p so we can get ready to go to the Johns Creek Friends of Children's Healthcare Derby Day party. Maybe I'll have more time to write later...