Keira is 7 months old

Keira was seven months old yesterday. She can move around without problems doing the army crawl. I put her down in one spot and before I know it, she is off somewhere else, like pushing a ball into the living room, trying to chew on Lukas dinosaur bag,...She sits up unassisted, smiles a lot, loves her siblings, still prefers to sleep in our bed at night, loves her excersaucer and self-feeds cheerios. She has started to take her bassinet apart. Yesterday, while waiting for Katharine's tap class to be over, I noticed that the snack trap bowls are not Doescher children proof as ALL of my kids have managed to spill all the contents from those little bowls without any problems. Keira also got into the boys' pirate booty that they left open on the floor. She was having a very good time,...And needless to say, we now have to take down the crib, take it out of the boys' room and put it back up in another room. Don't ask me if I am ready for that move.

Flashback: April 23, 2008

I'm beginning to understand why I never finished posting the vacation pics from last year- the last day was going to be huge!

Jamaica: Day 8

It looks like it started off with bubbles and breakfast... or is that bubbles for breakfast?

Liam and Katharine were up to their usual clowning around.

I then gave the camera to Liam:

he walked around and took some nice parting shots of everyone...

and a few shots from behind, which greatly amused him...

and then a really cool shot of Katharine. Way to frame an image, kid!


And speaking of Katharine-

This innocent looking shot was taken of a moment that will remain in infamy. Katharine had been told all morning that her swim suit and clothes were packed up, and the pool was off limits. While everyone else was eating, Katharine had the idea to take off all of her clothes and slip into the pool unnoticed. I don't know how long she was standing there sliding one article of clothing off after another, but eventually she was naked and made her move.


Lets just say... she got in trouble.


I asked her about it today, and she went quiet and gave me a wide eyed, sullen look. Lesson learned.

Before heading out, we took one last stab at a family portrait. Lukas was not in a good mood, and I remember having to bounce him up and down repeatedly to try and cheer him up.

One of the shots came out.

We snapped a family portrait of the Martels as well.

Waiting for the bus, the kids got in the spirit of traveling. I'm not sure if they are on a plane, train, automobile or horse in this shot.

I snapped this shot over my head on the bus ride to the airport. That was the last shot in the sequence, and it makes you wonder what ended up happening there :)

Liam shared his Leap Frog with Katharine in the Jamaica airport, and Lukas and Aiden were probably planning out some new shenanigans.

Lennon feel asleep. Note that in this picture he is the exact same age as Keira is now (give or take a few days).

The sleeping continued into the flight to Miami, and Lukas joined in.

Here we are at the airport in Miami.

I think there was a flight delay, so we had to do a little bit of waiting around.

I remember that the airline give us vouchers for free food, and we all went and had some pizzas. In hindsight, that might not have been the best idea:

http://the-doeschers.blogspot.com/2008/04/were-back.html

Flashback: April 22, 2008

This time last year we were spending our last full day in Jamaica. I posted a pretty extensive diary of the trip after we got back (http://the-doeschers.blogspot.com/2008_04_01_archive.html), but never got around to finishing up with the final two days. So before I completely forget everything, here is:


Jamaica: Day 7

The Martels and Murphys went off to parasail and hit the beach one last time, but we were tired (and Iria pregnant) so we decided to keep it low key.

The kids even passed out during lunch.

Back at the house we took some goodbye photos with the staff. This is Hazel, our amazing cook.

And Lionel, our "butler". All the kids loved him.

No matter how tired we were, there was one thing we could not miss- the dolphin lagoon. Lukas liked it because there were always a bunch of hermit crabs walking around there...

but the real attraction were the dolphins. We bought tickets for Iria and Katharine to go in, but after petting the dolphin once Katharine wanted out of the water.

That opened up a slot for Lukas, but after petting the dolphin once he also wanted out of the water.

I was holding Lennon, a video camera, and my picture camera; so that left Iria alone with dolphin. I don't think she minded.

Dorian and Adriana's Wedding

Dorian is a friend of mine from Gearbox, and we have recently partnered up on a new project together. Katharine and I attended his wedding today, and had a great time. It was Katharine's first wedding, so I am sure that a lot of the details (the bride and groom sharing one necklace, the exchange of coins, pinning the money on the bride and groom, etc) will make its way into the Prince and Galadriel doll's weekly marriage ceremonies.

Dorian and Adriana.

Yep. It sure was windy today.

Katharine stayed on my lap and we were both able to keep each other relatively warm.

And who would end up sitting in front of us? Shelly from Sunday school! Adriana is her kid's nanny.

Small world.

The Gearbox table. Jeramy was there, but not Maya.

This is the Colonel, who is in charge of our new project at work. The guy looks like a tanker, doesn't he?

Katharine checking out Dorian and Adriana's pictures. She signed the guest book and drew a bride and groom's smiling faces next to a heart for her "comment".

Katharine might look pretty hungry in this picture, but all she ate was a slim slice of watermelon and the inside of her bun. We had to leave before they cut the cake, so maybe I will bring home a cupcake for her sometime this week.

Katharine did a little dancing...

and took some decent pictures of me. I wear a coat and tie maybe once every five years, so I'll post two pictures here to help the memory last.

Keira on the mat

These came out a tad blurry (still learning the new camera), but cute nonetheless.