A few smiles from a Pretty Girl

Over the last few weeks, Sierra has started to smile at us more and more. She is a very happy baby so far. We hope that continues. She reminds us a lot of Stone as a baby who was also a very happy baby. What we are unsure of is whether she'll be as free a spirit as him as she grows older. Only time will tell. If she is, the chances of Stone watching her while mom and dad go out for a movie will become less and less likely as we would be afraid of the party that would occur. :-) Here are a few of her addictive smiles for you to enjoy:

At 3 weeks...

At 5 weeks...

Hockey Town U.S.A.

Sterling's latest sport that he is playing is hockey. He just started taking classes called "Introduction to Hockey" where they skate for an hour each week. They don't actually play against one another yet but he hasn't complained.

His foray into this sport wasn't something that just started this fall. He has been begging to play hockey since the opening game of the Hurricanes in October 2008. We were not really into allowing him to play but he was persistant. His persistance showed that he really wanted to play. Being parents, you have to recognize what your child loves to do and allow them to do it even if you are unfamiliar with it.

As you can tell, he is really enjoying it. The smile that he gets on his face from playing is one of the true joys in life as you get to see your child truly enjoying himself. He is one of the smallest in the class but that doesn't stop him from doing all of the skating drills. He suits up in his Hurricanes jersey just like he is going to play with the pros. He has gotten a lot better over the weeks and now can skate backwards all the way across the ice. He even promised his dad that he would teach him how to skate. :-)

Sterling's Baseball Birthday Party

After our night out playing mini-golf we were excited to celebrate Sterling's birthday with friends and family the next day at his Baseball Party. Sterling had the great idea of having a baseball party at a local park that not only had a picnic shelter and playground but also had a full size lit baseball field. Everyone seemed to have a blast - especially Sterling!

The action on the field lasted for hours...

An exhausted crew waiting for eats...

And then baseball cake...

And then there was one tired 6 year old...

Sterling's 6th Birthday

Sterling turned 6 on September 4th. It's hard to believe how quickly our 'little monkey' has grown into such a big boy! He's loving first grade and his new school. Favorite things include football, race cars, hockey, movie night (Fridays in our house) and popcorn. :-)
To continue an annual tradition we all went to play mini-golf and drive go carts on Sterling's actual birthday. Not only was it the first time we were on an outing as a family of five but we were lucky enough to have Mimi here to celebrate with us!