9 months old

Loretta continues to amaze us with her growth and general happy disposition. When she smiles now, she squishes up her whole face in delight. She is cruising from couch to ottoman and understands when mama and dada are busy (and asserts herself to be noticed). Little Lola is saying mama now, much to my delight, although she doesn't yet seem to know that is me. I think she calls Benji dada though- it seems to be said much more when he is around! She is happy to cruise around and just got a new (to her) buggy to push around.

School has been so busy for Benji and I that we don't seem to have a spare minute. I wish we could spend more time visiting with family, but hopefully this spring we will make a trip to Bakersfield.

On Valentine's day weekend we visited with Tamara, Marco, Amanda and Joe. The ladies went to the opera on Saturday night and then on Sunday we decided to drive to Marina to work on Amanda and Joe's new house. We love the weekends where we get to hang out with the 6 of us and we anxiously await Amanda and Joe's baby to arrive!

We just returned from a quick trip to Colorado to visit the Thistle family. What a great trip! We visited the art museum in Denver with cousin Josh, took a road trip to Greeley with Uncle Tim and Aunt Miki, and enjoyed many great meals with the family, the highlights being sushi with the cousins and Colorado eggs benedict with almost the entire family. Erin and Don - you were missed!