Question: What do all these pictures have in common?

Answer: There is something in each of these pictures that my parents did for us while they were here. (Clockwise from upper left: recaulk a piece of siding that was falling off, install front porch light, install two sconces and take off the old ones, fix the seal around the front door, remove butterflies, purchase and install new bathroom vanity!, and fix our chandelier). Thank you mom and dad!

Cecily has been practicing her scary Halloween face:

Happy Halloween!

  Nothing like some skelemingos to get you in the holiday spirit! (Thanks, Candy and Tony!)

Cecily on the town with grandma and grandpa

My parents just left town (sob!) after a lovely trip out to see Cecily. My dad kept saying how she is so much more than he expected. I have never had a baby before, so I can't compare, but I will note a few things I love about Cecily:

 - She loves making eye contact with people. She will stare at people in the store until they notice her and then smile when they meet her eye. (It goes without saying that people loooove this.)
 - She talks. A lot. Or "sings" as my dad calls it. She has only one consonant, m, with an occasionally b and some hand to mouth percussion.
 - Often her singing/talking is punctuated with hand movements. Most recently it tends to be two fists straight out.
 - When she is very interested in something or paying attention to something, her hands and feet are moving in little semicircle motions. It is very cute.

I feel so blessed to be her mom and get to see her change and grow. It seems like every day there is something new. For instance, today for the first time, she pushed up with her arms!

Cecily wanted to show grandma and grandpa around a bit, so to humor her, we visited...

the U.S.S. Constitution (Old Ironsides),

Bunker Hill,

Walden,

Lexington and Concord,

the ward trunk or treat,

Boott Mill Museum in Lowell, MA,

and finally Mike's pastry shop, Modern pastry shop (twice) and Arthur's pastry shop (twice). Those Italians sure know how to bake, right dad?

There was lots of good grandma and grandpa time for Cecily.

We already miss you!

Salem, MA

Some friends of ours from way, way back decided to take a long road trip and visit us on their adventure. We went to Salem for an afternoon, which is an interesting place to be in October. 

If we had remembered to bring our witch hats we would have blended right into the Salem crowd.

The ship in the background is called the "Friendship" I believe and is a replica of a 1797 ship and still sails occasionally. 

 This little man is a cutie.

It was a beautiful day, with great friends, two sleeping babies, good food, and lots of sights to see. What could be better?

This is a project I completed recently - spices on the fridge instead of crammed on a shelf.

Family resemblance?

This is a video you might want to check out. It might make you laugh.