October 2014

October's here and so is Vienna Oktober Fest.  Here are the kids jamming out to the Bavarian band with their orange Solo cups of draft root beer.

This is Commander Alexis

October is farm season and this year is no acception.  Here's the baby at her first pumpkin patch.

And here she is at her first pig race.  Many children don't hit a pig race until they're way older...

Ooh!  What are these?  I think I found my feet!

And I can roll -- sometimes -- when I want to.  

Here we are at another pumpkin patch, this time no pig race and with the grandparents.

For her 5th birthday Alexis had a Frozen party.

Here she is with "her girls" before we headed out to Frozen on Ice.

Pumpkin carving got a bit more fun this year as there is a third helper.  Looks like this one isn't scared of getting her hands dirty like the other two were for the past few years.

No October is complete without halloween.  Here we have our family magician, princess, and baby owl.

September 2014

Off to another year of school!  It's hard to believe that Evan's already in second grade.   Here he is ready to go...

The baby aunt sally (aka Kaitlyn) is 3 months old now and really starting to look like herself.

And Evan's not the only one off to school.  Alexis is off to pre k at Emmanuel Lutheran -- and she's really excited!

Evan wanted to have the family go to Hershey Park for his 8th birthday and we enjoyed all the rides and chocolate that Hershey had to offer.  

Alexis continued with soccer this fall on the VYS 5 and under girls team.  She really loves all the running around and she never holds back - she really gets in there and goes for the ball.

For Aunt Jennifer's birthday we headed up to Philly and Kaitlyn got a chance to hang out with her new little cousin Grace.  I'm sure this picture will look really different in a year but for now they're laying nicely next to each other and smiling (for the most part).

August 2014

Time moves a bit odd when you have a newborn in the house.  Some days and weeks seem to go by slow and then others so fast.  Kaitlyn turned 2 months old in August and began smiling - a lot.  I like it's because she enjoys looking at her family.

In between baby related activities, Evan, Alexis and I got out a number of times and did some hikes in the area.  Here we are at Great Falls park.  Both of them walked further than they thought they could (especially Alexis) and with only minimal complaining.  

Each August we take our "big" trip to the shore and this year was no different.  Due to a very helpful grandma we got to go to Wildwood without Kaitlyn and the two older kids had a blast - eating their favorite food and riding their favorite rides.  My favorite was going on the big log flume with Alexis.

Yes - the baby did go to the beach.  I'm not sure if she liked it, loved it, or, most likely, nothing'd it.  Regardless, we had a bit of fun at her expense, digging her holes and putting her in a bucket.  The result of course was Jill's least favorite thing in the world -- wet, sandy baby. 

This was the month of the Kaitlyn smile, and learning how to continue on doing the things we normally do, but with her.

July 2014

I guess three kids really changes everything!  Jill and I are now so overwhelmed that these blog posts ground to a halt.  Instead of doing a post for each "event" I'm going to do a post per month hi lighting all the fun and accomplishments that happen, with an eye toward "actually getting them online".

First off we took the fam to Cape May for the Fourth of July as normal.  Baby Kaitlyn came with us and saw the shore for the first time - and fireworks.  She sat on the beach, saw the bike parade and hung with us really well.

Evan and Alexis love their little sister.  They're constantly holding her and kissing her.   She's a lucky little girl.

Hunter Mill Sharks (and mini sharks) was a big part of our summer.  Evan and Alexis practiced every day and Evan swam in a bunch of "b" meets - really learning how to race for the first time.  They both really enjoyed the experience and the people.  By the end of the season both of them had improved so much.  Evan could easily swim free and backstroke across the pool and got way faster, and Alexis was able to complete a 25 free all on her own!  

Of course Kaitlyn turned one month old - she's getting bigger, eating a lot and beginning to look more like herself.  She's so cute when she wakes up.  When you unswaddle her she does a big long STRETCH and uncurls herself.  

Already tanning...

We haven't even left the hospital and this one thinks she needs a bit of color.  Ok -- she's jaundiced.  Nothing a few hours under a fancy blue light won't cure.  Jill kept vigilant watch to make sure she was a comfortable as possible.  In the end, it's better than having her come home all yellow and Homer Simpson looking like Evan.

A fifth Demsey

Well the day has finally arrived!  Kaitlyn Anna Demsey joined us today at 1:48 in the afternoon.  She weighed in at 8 pounds 1 ounce and measured 21 inches.  We're so happy to have you as part of our family!!

Onward to the next stage of scouting

Evan has been in Cub Scouts this past year and today he's graduating from being a Wolf Scout.  Here he is with his den.

Memorial Day

As has become our custom since moving to the DC area we celebrated Memorial Day with a visit to Arlington Cemetery.  We've learned that the only way to get there is by Metro so we took the train and had an unplanned visitor as we entered complete with helicopter escort.

  

Viva Vienna

We are suckers for a town festival so I took the kids and gave Jill a break this year.  We started off on the trampolines and hit pretty much every ride they had.  As usual we had a blast, saw some friends, and ate some yummy food.