Knoebel Family Reunion: Corolla, NC

What an awesome family vacation last month, full of sunburns, beautiful beaches, good food, and lots of dirty diapers!

Midnight hair-pulling

Allison, Elyse, Kenley, Brynn, and Edie watching Dora

Matching dresses made with love from Grammy

Regen's birthday cake; Edie and Great Grandpa

Allie and Uncle Matt

This is how Kenley spent the vacation...sick and immobile, poor thing!

Here are some funny pictures of our sleep-deprived kids.

Another first for Allie

Book of Mormon Stories

For those of you who have served in Nursery, you are familiar with the blank faces and locked lips of the children as soon as the music starts playing when singing time rolls around. Why is that? You make a fool of yourself attempting a high energy rendition of Popcorn Popping or Once There Was a Snowman with the only response being unblinking eyes and slight drips of drool exiting the corners of their little mouths. I assume most toddlers are just like Edie and can't keep from singing all day long while at home. What's so different in Nursery?

Yesterday, her Nursery teacher expressed some frustration about this idea. They taught Book of Mormon Stories, complete with headdresses, only to find that the only lips moving were their own.

Well, I just want Terry, Debbie, and Alyssa to know that their labors are not in vain. Last night, I asked Edie to sing the song (with no prior personal instruction) and this is what she sang:

Aren't toddlers the best?

It's Official!

Well, it's mostly official. We're nearly homeowners!! We found a lovely house in Lynnfield that we adore! Closing date is July31st.

Here are some pictures from the listing website:

Visit from Mom

So, this picture has nothing to do with the following post. I just thought Allie looked pretty cute.


Mom took a red eye into town in May and we got started on all the local action right away. First stop was Fisherman's Beach in Swampscott. We met all our playgroup friends there for the afternoon.
A shark ate all of the children's legs. It was unfortunate.
The next day we ventured downtown determined to complete the entire Freedom Trail with two small children.

We had fun blowing all our money on street performers. Edie's still a little confused in this picture after watching the statue behind them move.

We almost quit after a tour of Old Ironsides. Although not pictured, Nate was in attendance and rallied us to persevere. I'm happy to say that we did, in fact, accomplish our goal.
Sunday we had a wonderful family reunion with Matt and Hannah, Andrew and Tina, and Chad and Mary (with accompanying children). Sorry no pictures!

Edie and Allie kept mom busy playing and reading.
Monday we walked the Minuteman Trail and discovered the last remaining Red Coat.

The kids were good sports.We ended the day at Walden Pond. I'm not sure what got into us, but we actually walked the entire perimeter and found the remains of Thoreau's cabin.


Mom and Edie made great cookies! Oatmeal Peanut Butter, my favorite!


Brave ol' Mom encouraged us to take MBTA downtown to the aquarium (so we wouldn't have to pay for parking). We had so much fun! Edie loved it! Not sure the other riders loved it as much as we did.
By the time we made it to the aquarium, the girls had fallen asleep.
What a fun trip! We all slept very well at night...even mom, who took the sloping couch. Edie and Allie miss their Grandma Ducky. It sure was a treat to have 2 mom's around. I'm pretty sure that's how family life is designed to be.

she's getting it!!!

Allison started taking off today! It's so fun to watch her excitement and pride in her new ability. She's just been walking all day...everywhere! She definitely wasn't doing this yesterday.

You'll notice in the beginning of the video that when she tries to start crawling, she starts shaking her finger, which is how she says, "No, no"...because she knows what her mom will say!