Stevie Grant Baumann

We were thrilled to welcome our new baby cousin Stevie on July 23, 2017!  We were among the first to meet her, and she could not be more perfect!

Niagara Falls

We traveled to Niagara Falls in June 2017; it was a great trip, and we had perfect weather.  We stayed the night on the way up in Windsor, Canada, and then we spent 3 nights at Niagara, at the Hilton, where our hotel room had a perfect view of the falls and the fireworks!  We did the Hornblower cruise, Behind the Falls, and a couple of other excursions.  The kids were thrilled to have passports, and we only quickly thought we'd get a kid taken away, when Joey answered the wrong age when we passed back into the US.  Melanie and I also walked across the Rainbow Bridge and met up with Suzi, Wyatt & Ernie and did one of the NY excursions with them!

Young Authors Night 2017

 Joey amazed me when he read his detailed account of our dolphin cruise we went on over spring break in FL.  He - and all of his classmates - did a great job with this project!

Ready to read "When I Went on a Dolphin Cruise"

Mel's and Joe's books side-by-side

Easter 2017

Melanie's annual Easter dress picture with Grandma

Very Eastery

Happy 7th Birthday, Joey!

For Joey's birthday, we had planned to ride around Purdue's campus in the Boilermaker Special, which Laura Mullen had arranged a gift card for his end-of-treatment celebration.  Unfortunately, the weekend turned out to be stormy, and we had to take a literal rain check.  At the last minute, we pulled together a party at Pinheads bowling center, and it turned out great - they gave us a private room, and the kids had fun bowling on a rainy afternoon.  Happy 7th birthday, Joseph Pierce!

Birthday lunch at school

The two friends - Ryan and Evan

Molly

Charlie

Olivia & Mitchel Koenig

Grandma & Papa

Spring Break 2017

For Spring Break 2017, the kids and I went to both St. Louis and Englewood, FL.  I'm not sure where the Englewood pictures have disappeared to, but here are a few highlights of our trip to St. Louis with Kate's and Gretchen's families

Happy 9th Birthday, Melanie!

For Melanie's 9th birthday, we sent the boys to Grandma & Papa and she had a sleepover at the house.  Olivia, Olivia, Lydia, Akshara, Sammie, Molly, and Maddie were able to help Melanie celebrate in style!  Happy 9th Birthday, Melanie Grace!

The Pinterest fail that I PAID for...pretty amusing; the top is what I asked for, the bottom is what I got

Alexa couldn't attend the sleepover, so we did birthday eve nails & dinner!

They LOOK like they're ready to go to sleep....

All Emojis all the time....