Bath time, so fun!

Another silly face.

Beautiful baby blues

Too sleepy to take my nap any where else.

Dublin's 1st big boo boo.

Its been a while...

Wow! Things were pretty crazy for us for a while there. In May, we finally moved from Germany to Maryland. Dublin did awesome on his first plane ride. We spent about a month and a half in a hotel with Joey (the cat) before we could move into our wonderful new townhouse. Our place is pretty awesome. The community is great. There is a pool at the end our our street. We have not been to the pool too much this summer, because it has been 100F almost everyday for about a month. The community we live in a nature preserve. Every night we can hear all of the frogs and animals aound the house. Its a little different from hearing church bells all of the time at our last place in Germany, but we still love it here. We couldn't have moved onto a better street. There are a ton of kids & everyone is super nice. Our nextdoor neighbor has a baby boy 9 days older than Dublin. They have hung out a few times. Its so cute to see them together, best buddies.
Dublin is growing like a weed! He is already 8 months old. He is waving now & he says "mama". So adorable! After we moved into the house Dublin finally got his new bedroom set. Its so nice to have Dublin sleeping in a crib now. He sleeps through the night. We are so lucky! I almost forgot to let you all know, Dublin was in a MAGAZINE! Mary Ellen submitted him in the Packer Report magazine. There is a picture of Jesse showing Dublin. So cute!
My parents just came out for a visit. We all had a great time. Thursday we drove up to see Aunt Carol & Uncle Rich, which is always a good time. Saturday we took them to Annapolis. It is beautiful down there. We had a great lunch & walked around. Sunday we made giant crab legs for dinner. Yum! The weather cooled down to the mid 80's so it was nice to eat outside. They left to go back to NC on Monday, but we will see them again in less than 2 months in BOSTON! Grandma Carpenter is turning 80! We are all looking forward to that trip. Plus it will be Dublin's 1st time meeting his Gigi.
My brother, Rob is on his way to LA right now for a few days, then he is going to Isreal for 2 weeks! He is so lucky to get to do this trip! I know we are all looking forward to seeing his great pictures!

After everyone left...

Here's some pictures and a video of Dublin laughing and sitting up on his own. A perfect ending to a fun day!!

Jesse's 30th

Jesse became an old fart yesterday. We tried to have as much fun as we could, being stuck in the hotel. Finally we sold the BMW and Jesse finished his outprocessing to leave ramstein. We took Dublin to see Shutter Island, he seemed pretty indifferent about the movie. We met some friends for some good Indian food, then came back to the hotel for some wine and Dublin cake. Jesse blew out his candles and I grabbed some plates, the next thing I knew Dublin's foot was covered in frosting. We had a really nice time with our friends and its always sad to say goodbye, but we are on a new leg of our journey.

More Firsts for Dublin

Dublin has had a lot going on this month. His bed is being moved. He has had 2 different beds since the movers took his. I think he knows something is going on. Dublin used to go to sleep on his own in his bed. With these temporary beds are not making Dublin too happy. Poor little man.
With most of his toys on there way to MD Jesse and I are trying to come up with new way to keep Dublin entertained. I gave Dublin a little water in his sippy cup for the first time. At first he took it right away thinking it was his bottle. The look on his face when he realized it was not his regular food was hilarious!
The hotel we are staying in is actually pretty nice. We have pretty much everything we need. The room even came with a highchair. Dublin doesn't have one of his own yet, we are waiting until after to move to get him one. However we took advantage of the high chair in the room. Dublin loved playing with his toys at the same height as Jesse & I.
Jesse & I were at the mall on base today, trying to kill some time. We were looking in the baby section, when all of the sudden I hear Jesse calling my name. There was so much excitment in his voice. I couldn't wait to hear what made him so happy. Jesse was holding in his hand a little Lakers uniform. How could I say no to that face... I love my boys and can't wait to start the next leg of our journey together in MD.

And so it Starts...

Things are starting to get a little Crazy around here. The moving company is coming in the morning to see how much stuff we have. It should be a quick look through the house. But we have a 6 hour window of when they may be here. I hate sitting around waiting for things like that. It's always my luck they come in the last hour in the window. I'm still trying to sell a bunch of our stuff, before the movers come. It's been going pretty well. It's like having a garage sale online. Have you ever tried to sell a kitchen table with 3 chairs??? Not fun. Jesse broke the 4th chair. One drunken night Jesse was sitting in the chair tipping it back, until he went too far and had a slow motion fall into the wall. It was too funny! Gotta love that man.
We had 7 different families come to look at our house on Monday. People were here for over 2 hours. Dublin and I sat outside and enjoyed the sunshine, while Jesse and the landlord gave 800 tours of the house. The house is going to a nice Firefighter. Hope he has as much fun in this house as we have. When it comes down to it, Jesse and I are really going to miss it here in Europe. However, when it is time to go, it is time to go.
Enjoy the rest of your week! ;)

Last Day in Germany

Just found out when we leave Germany. We fly out on 13 May, we're really excited. It has been too long since we lived in the US. Three and half years for Melissa, and about five years for me. Only having dollars in my wallet will be a welcome change. Well Maryland here comes the Smith family.

Dublin's 1st Time at the Pool

Dublin, Melissa and I went to the pool on Sat. Dublin was very good the whole time. He seemed to like watching the other kids play and spalsh. The pool that we were playing in was to shallow to dunk him and the other kiddie pool was being cleaned. We did pour water over his face, he spashed and did well with it all. It was a fun day for Melissa and I. As for Dublin it was a first among many.