Tallahasee Weekend-Emory's Birthday and Baptism

We had a wonderful weekend in Tallahasse for Emory's birthday and baptism celebration. The weather was really nice-warm but not humid and cool in the shade. We had a great time hanging out on Ben and Kim's new deck on Sat with lots of friends and family. Ben smoked some delicious ribs and chicken, the kids played in the pool, and there was lots of football to watch! On Sunday, we all went to church for Emory's baptism and then to MaClay Gardens State Park for her first birthday party. The weekend was over to quickly-We must figure out how to get those Zierden's north!!

Max's First Day of School and We're Having a Girl!

Max had a great first week of school at the Y. He loves going and seems to be doing really well. He doesn't even look back at me when he runs through the door in the morning! It helps that his friend Alaina is in his class.

Our other big news is that we are having a girl and I have included her first picture! The sonagam went well. She is an active little one-we saw her moving, waving her hands, and even putting her foot in near her mouth at one point. We are hopeful that our due date may be moved to sooner in January based on her measurements but I won't see the dr again until Oct.

The End of Summer

What a whirlwind this summer has been and we can't believe it's almost over! Max has had a great summer. He loves the pool and we will be sad when it closes in a week. Thankfully we can still go to the indoor one at the Y. He is such a little fish and would spend all his time under the water if he could. We let him try the big slide and he loved it!! He is such a dare devil. He is sooooo excited about being a big brother and wants to tell everyone that "Mommy has a baby in her belly". He is still insisting on naming the baby Buzz so we will see how that goes! He discovered the joy of a new box of crayons and spends quite a long time coloring. We are excited about fall. Max starts school on Sept 9th and we have a sonogram that day and hoped to find out who this little baby is! The first picture is one that Max drew of his family. We'll let you figure out who is who! Apparently none of us brush our hair!

The Black and Blue Ride

Lee and his friends Todd and Nathan rode in a 200 mile relay race that went through North Carolina and a small bit of Tenn. and Virginia. They each did a few legs of the race and finished 7th out of 25 teams! Max and I are very proud of Lee!

Philly Trip

We had a great visit with Nancy and Eric in July. Max loved meeting Reno and Custer their cute cats and we had a really fun day in downtown Philly. We took Max to see the Liberty Bell. He had been singing a song about it from his patriotic CD and had played with a replica at Nana's house so we thought he would enjoy the real thing. We also went to the Franklin Institute which is a really cool science museum. There were lots of buttons for Max to push and things to climb on including a 2 story giant heart! He really enjoyed that and we hope to go back there again sometime soon!

Happy Fourth of July!

The aquarium was lots of fun and we had a wonderful last day on the beach! We are looking forward to a yummy cookout and then fireworks on the beach Nagshead Pier!

More Beach

We are having such a fun week at the beach! We have had wonderful weather-not very hot and storms at night not during the day! We have noticed that it is really windy down here in Salvo all the time. We celebrated Addie's third birthday and there were lots of princesses. Yesterday we took the kids to a beach on the sound. It was perfectly calm and shallow-even Emory got in! Lee, Ben, and Bapa went charter fishing today and caught a cooler full of Mahi Mahi. Tomorrow we are heading into Manteo for a performance of Sleeping Beauty at the Lost Colony Theater and a visit to the aquarium. Of course the girls are all hoping for some shopping time while we are there! The best part is having everyone together!