Appleton Farms

Cole and Claire at Appleton Farms, originally uploaded by kristaveenema.

A weekly highlight of every summer: trips to Appleton Farms. This week we shared a picnic with Meg & Tim and the kids after picking snap peas and strawberries. Claire always loves hanging out with her cousins -- and no one can make her laugh like Cole.

Learning to Brush

West Beach

At Beach, originally uploaded by kristaveenema.

Meg hooked us up with a Landmark pass, which gives us easy (and free) access to West Beach in Beverly Farms. To our surprise, Claire enjoyed both the frigid water and the taste of saltwater mud.

Vermont Wedding

DSCN1453, originally uploaded by kristaveenema.

A great old friend from high school was married last weekend on Ames Hill Road in VT. It was an amazing time. The ceremony in the upstairs of the barn; taps to micro-brews protruding from a nearby trailer; some bluegrass; some great food; some great speeches; and most importantly a lot of laughs with great friends. A perfect summer wedding.

Memorial Day Weekend at the Lake

After a big weekend between home and VT, we headed up to Wolfeboro on Sunday afternoon for some R&R and to celebrate the start of Steven's life between jobs.

Big Events...Big Joy

It was a weekend to remember. Steven's Dad turned 60, so we were in Vermont on Saturday at a surprise party for him, (he is well worth all that driving in one day.) The following day Claire was baptized in church. I was able to finish sewing her dress (in the car on the way to Vermont) so she wore haute couture by Veenema to mark this sacred event. She was quiet and solemn as she was blessed and called "a child of God." We had a big party in our backyard where Claire ate a chocolate cupcake and was ecstatic to be welcomed into the world of sugar. We also celebrated Steven's Magna cum laude graduation from Suffolk Law School. As a wife and mother, let's just say I was overwhelmed- to be the mom of little, happy Claire and the wife of a smart and sweet man makes me tear up... a lot of blessings... a lot of joy.

Visiting G-parents in VT

DSC01823[1], originally uploaded by kristaveenema.

Here is claire, playing with gramma.

Bath Time

Our little musician

DSCN1225, originally uploaded by kristaveenema.

So, one of Claire's favorite 'toys' is the guitar. We've developed the habit of simply laying our guitars on the floor and leaving her in the living room to entertain herself. Her playing style currently emphasizes the percussion elements of the guitar, which would probably grow tiresome if she were more committed to practicing. Gratefully, the blocks and books that often litter the living room floor are easy distractions, and she quickly moves from banging on the guitar to looking at a book.

Used Car Obsession

Exactly two weeks have passed since a minor rear-ending incident (my doing) on a 128 on-ramp ended the useful life of my old Mazda. Since then, we've been spending obsessive amounts of time on websites like Craig's List, Carfax, Edmund's, and Blue Book, and just as our search began to invade our dreams the past few nights, we decided to pull the trigger on a 2000 volvo v40. I'm not sure what it says about where we are in life that we will now own two volvo station wagons, but for now, we are simply glad that we will be capable of transporting ourselves in more than one direction at a time.

Cindy Loo Who

The resemblance is scary.

Papparazzi

Only 9 months old and Claire is already sick of having a camera in her face all of the time. We only have ourselves to blame.

Tuck's Point

Though it's hard to believe this morning, as icy rain pours down on several inches of snow, last weekend and this past week gave us a taste of spring -- one that we will attempt to recall as we shovel and skate our way through THIS weekend. Tuck's Point is near Meg's school, and we'll often go up there, park at landmark, and take a run along the water. The pay-off to Claire for riding in the babyjogger is some time on the swings... One of her favorite activities these days.

Some new clothes for Claire

Colleen sent us this dress a while back and specifically requested a few photos. This is one of the better ones.

Finally, several months into winter, Claire gets a decent coat. Also visible in this shot is her ever-present pacifier chain, a favorite from Moolka, a great source for cool baby stuff.

Aruba wedding and our slow updates

We've clearly been pretty slow to join the blogosphere, but we're going to try to be better. We'll aim low by shooting for one post a month.

Our most recent (though no longer all that recent) pictures are from Missy's wedding in Aruba. We haven't managed to get them into flickr yet, but we'll make a few available here to start, and put up a new post when they're in flickr.

For sleeping in the hotel room, Claire loved the king size bed, and we spent a lot of time in the room trying to get her comfortable there. As soon as she would wake up, she would crane her neck around to track down whomever might be in the room with her -- oftentimes that was Kris's mom, who was a great babysitter and offered many times to relieve us for some relaxing by the pool. From the wedding itself, you've got the beautiful bride with her happy niece, and the proud parents with the dazed 5 month old at the rehearsal dinner. Finally, a great shot of the happy couple, also from the rehearsal dinner.

Claire getting bigger

We're still experimenting with the whole idea of having a spot online to post things. But, as we start measuring Claire's age in months instead of weeks (4.5 mos to date) and our schedules fill up, it starts to make more and more sense to give family and friends a place to update themselves on our lives rather than leaving it to e-mail to share things with everyone. So, here is one picture, and perhaps we'll figure out how to link to more in the next few minutes.

Starting a Blog

Just back from a weekend away in New York for Krissy's brother's wedding and, with high hopes for a little extra time, and inspired by many others, we're starting up a blog. Though we intend to avoid using this as a means of creating some fabricated online identity for ourselves, we fear such posturing may be unavoidable, so to those who know and love us, forgive us in advance for any misrepresentations you may find here. The mere act of posting something online is likely to cause us to attempt to improve on its ordinariness.

With that disclaimer, the hope is that this will be a means through which we can reach out to friends and family - both old and new - with updates on our lives' activities. The weight is likely to be placed on baby Claire, with maybe a few notes on Krissy's crafts or similar interests. We'll see how it goes. Please join us whenever you can.