We're baaaaaack!

Hi all -

Sorry for the huge lapse in time since last blog entry, we promise to update more often!

Alot has happened since january, in no particular order:

• Jack is walking, and kind of talking (ball, dada, car, bella, mama, duck) - he is growing incredibly fast. He smiles all the time, except when it's time to go to sleep OR when he rides in the car (he likes to save his scream-fests for that). He looks like bella (everyone says so, but we don't see it). I think he looks a little like Van Morrison.
• Bella is growing too fast, she is like a teenager now - sleeps till 9:00, plays video games (addicted to leapster) and every time you ask her to do something she says 'in a minute'. Next you know she'll be texting people and having her own blog, she'll be 4 in july! her big recital is coming up next sunday, all the grandparents are coming to it. She is going to do a dance routine to 'if your happy and you know it'. Ginny and i are excited, but worried bella will 'freeze' as she has threatened to 'lay on the stage' more then once....we'll see.
• Ginny's kitchen project has officially begun...sort of.. we picked a contractor and met with the architect, but don't begin construction until november. However, she continues to buy kitchen magazines at an alarming rate, just to get more 'ideas'. She also has had more time to ride lately, the old nags...i mean horses...biddle is 8 already.
• rumball - is quickly becomine 'granny-ball' she looks older by the minute, and snores! but, she's still a great trail dog, when ginny takes her out with the horses ..she's as spry as a puppy.
  

That's about it, we're in for a long hot maryland summer - but the petunas are looking great this year, the garden is in (thanks to ginny and bella) and the mulch is all down. Oh yeah, almost forgot about the HUGE pasture projects - i'll save that for the next blog!

What I'll remember about 2006..

- Jack Marcus Slyman made his grand entrance May 4, 2006. Heir to the throne, the slyman line is continued!
- Ginny/Gene slept pretty well until May 4, 2006, and got to eat out without being tense.
- Bella grew smarter, funnier, and cutier. She is a puzzle expert now, and a princess movie junkie. In addition to a ballet school apprentice and a pre-school attendee.
- Gene gets heavily into Stan Getz, ironically he also gets less into Miles davis/John Coltrane
- Ginny's continual planning and dreaming of a new kitchen (we're getting our new kitchen soon, right honey?)
- Rumball running around the back yard barking at nothing
- Pickles angrily meowing at us to let him out or feed him, or pet him.
- Another dissapointing year for the skins, and for my fantasy football team
- Our planning and resarching for the SUV we still haven't purchased
- lots of giggles and screaming from the kids when we play with them in the family room almost every night
- Realizing taking two small kids to the beach and staying in a hotel wasn't for us.
- Great family pictures taken right before christmas
- Ginny's tireless work on her dad's family tree gift
- The trip to the pumpkin patch, bella jumping in the pumpkin-moon bounce and smiling the whole time
- Multiple trips to the nursery for mulch in the spring (just one more trip aught to do it!)
- Cutting down our christmas tree at the tree farm (we got a beauty)


That's all i can think of for now