Making room for the next Butcher baby...

Just in time for baby Em to arrive, Thomas got his first big boy haircut! He cried through the entire experience, but didn't squirm or even try to jump ship at any point. And his reward at the end - a sugar cookie - quickly mollified his sadness over losing what we dubbed "the girl curl" :D

That Blissful 10 Minutes of Peace...

The other morning as I was unloading groceries, I let the kiddos play in the yard so as to finish what I was doing unhindered... I normally don't just let Thomas explore by his lonesome (i.e., without my eye on him every second) as he is at "that age" where if there is trouble/danger/dirt, he will find it. But this morning, I just let it go for about 5 minutes so I could unpack the very few bags I had. And I poked my head out the patio door to check on the three of them to find this:

Thomas had crawled up onto the bench seat all by his big-boy self. Talk about leaping into toddlerhood....

It is such a sweet moment of satisfaction when you see your kids playing quietly and nicely together... like a brief glance at 3, 4, or 5 years into the future when this is the sort of thing they will hopefully enjoy on a more regular basis.

Dryden Dairy Day Parade

I posted about this parade 2 years ago and this is our 3rd year going. We have a bunch of families that all meet up and our slew of children hang out together and basically collect candy like it's Halloween. Here are a few pics from the yearly event...and if I can figure out how to get them to post, I'll share a few short videos of the kiddos in the near future...

Thomas turns 1!

Thomas turns one this Saturday... I've compiled a little photo summary of his first year with us ... it's hard to believe he's one already... except that he acts like a 1 year old! He says "HI!" over and over again... tries to blow kisses by blowing raspberries into the palm of his hand and shrieks when anyone takes something away from him. We love our sweet little Tommy boy and have cherished every minute he's been with us so far!

Jack-isms

Sparkitty = Sparkly

Slippity = Slippery

Dirtday = Birthday

Da-Tada! = Tada!

Hilton Head... home away from home

Thomas' first time at the beach and he loved every second of it.

I'm not sure who this is... I have a baby named Maggie, not a 4 year old diva.

Jack... web-slinging as usual (backwards, here)

Lil' bike ride to get some ice cream...

And evidence our children do play quietly and nicely...on occasion.

Walk Like an Egyptian...

In January, we got the once in a lifetime opportunity to visit Egypt. Jonathan was invited by Sir Magdi Yacoub to present his research at a meeting to kick off a surgical mission by Chain of Hope. Like I said, once in a lifetime. So, we hauled off Mags and Jack to their Memere's and took off to Aswan, Egypt with Thomas. Let's just say, Thomas was the.best.little.traveler ever. Given how long our journey was (20 hours there, 24 hours back), he did awesome. And, I think he thoroughly enjoyed having Jonathan and I both all to himself for 7 days. Our trip began in Boston with a blessing AND a curse. First, when our name was called at the gate, Jonathan BOOKED IT to the counter and scored us an upgrade to "club world" as they call it on British Airways. It was incredible, to say the least. We pretty much HAD to sample the free champagne (btw - in the first picture, we are facing backwards in the plane... yes, that's right - backwards).

So, we spent 4 days in Aswan, a city in southern Egypt, at the first cataract of the Nile. We went to their market, took a ride on a feluca on the Nile, and went to a light show at the Philae Temple*. Then we spent 2 days in Cairo. On the first, we visited the Egyptian Museum - really incredible artifacts from ancient Egypt are held within. On the second, we went to the Pyramids and a section of the city referred to as Coptic Cairo. Though, I will say, not many Egyptians knew what we were referring to when we started trying to get there... it is the ancient Christian part of the city - and contains the Hanging Church, a place where the Holy Family stayed during their escape to Egypt. Being there sort of left me speechless. So, that is a short summary of our trip, and below each picture I'm leaving a little piece of info...

our totally awesome upgrade, thanks to Jono.

the cutest little boy in Africa, if you ask me.

the Market

Seriously, does this even need a caption? (for those who want to know, he's wearing a Nubian hat)

at sunset, the Nile behind us

Like I said, he was the.best.traveler.

That's our hotel from the feluca we were on.

McDonald's.is.everywhere.

Incredible, huh?

Philae Temple

I'm pretty proud of this picture...if only I knew what the image meant.

Moments before they turned ALL the lights on the Temple out.

Someone once told us, that on a scale of 1-10 worst cities to drive in, Rome was a 9 and Cairo was was a 10. And now we know why.

A friend of ours from college recommended Maison Thomas as having the best pizza in Cairo...we had lunch there both days. Lucky for us, it was around the corner from our hotel.

The Egyptian Museum

Our hotel (Hotel Longchamps) - another of Jonathan's incredible finds

Riding out to the Pyramids

Seriously incredible.

I LOVE this picture cause you can see all 3 Pyramids, one after the next.

*sigh*... this was the last picture taken on our brand new camera... right before it got smashed. To be fair, it was Thomas or the camera... so better it was the camera.