Halloween: Cara's first trick or treating

Last year Cara was a dressed as a pumpkin. This year she went as an angel.











But first... we started with a daytime party at daycare.












There were many activites planned including face painting. ... after we were unsuccessful there we elected for the temporary butterfly tattoo.

Here is Cara attempting a bean bag "toss".

She seemed to like the stickers and had fun with Pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey.

And here are some pictures of the trick-or-treating in the neighborhood.

Trip to Austin

We finally got out of Houston and took a trip to Austin, TX last October.

Here is a picture of us at the summit, Mount Bonnell.

We visited the capitol building (raining that day) while we drove around downtown area and UT campus.

One of our evenings we drove out to Lake Travis and had some decent food (with a view).

On the drive back we visited the Blue Bell ice cream factory (it has got to be one of the best ice cream in the country). Free samples!

Visit from Nana and Papa

We had a surprise visit just after Labor Day when Papa Piland had a business trip scheduled just south of Texas.

We had some good Texas BBQ in Kemah.

...visited the beach at Galveston

... and spent some quality time as a family.

July 4th in Ohio

We had a great time in Ohio celebrating July 4th weekend! We saw the Stow Parade and visited the Akron Zoo. We enjoyed spending time with the family at Uncle Jerry and Aunt Pam's house. Great food! We had some fireworks and of course a game of horseshoes in the backyard. Here are some of our favorite photos.

Here is our little angel with Nikki (Nicole) and Cara's cousin Avery.








Uncle John and Aunt Sue:











Avery, Erich, and Sarah:

You really need to check out some more great pictures of this weekend at:

http://pilandpages.blogspot.com/2009/07/4th-of-july-fun.html

Cara's First Birthday

Happy Birthday Cara!

Cara celebrated her first birthday June 14th. We had lots of friends over. Here are some pictures.

Almost a year now

Cara is full of energy and running all over the house. She is very vocal too. She likes saying "ma-ma" ALL the time... here is what we've figured out so far:

"ma-ma" =
"I want that" or "I want to give you this"

"dad" (prounounced "dadt") =
either "Dad" or "I am having fun playing"... usually both are happening at the same time

when we say "thank you" to her =
she gives us back the remote control

Cara likes to imitate us too. Daycare asked us why she occasionally makes an"Ahhh" sound. We later then realized that after I (Dad) drink a Coke and finish with my own "Ahhh" she repeats after me while she's drinking her milk at the same time. She likes to play, one of her favorite things to do is to take off the glasses from our face and politely force them back onto our eyes. Too much fun.

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day today to our mothers in Ohio and Thailand.

Here is a fun photo of Cara. She loves to laugh and play games with us. She is walking more routinely now (4-5 steps at a time). She is still a very quick crawler (faster than we are) and occasionally walks using only her knees with no hands... Passa thinks it is a Thai trait since we don't see many babies in the U.S. doing this. Hope you are all well!