David and Trish's Blog

End of Summer

We have really had a blast this summer with our two kids, concerts in the square, festivals, family reunions, parties and celebrations.  This weekend, we went to the concerts in the square on Saturday night, and to the Yellow Daisy festival at Stone Mountain today.  Lyric, with her incredible 3 year old zest for life, had a blast at both events.  We've posted some pictures here, so enjoy!

Summertime, Summertime, Sum-Sum-Summertime!

For many of our friends, this is the last weekend of summer.  School starts Monday and for all intents and purposes, summer is over and the daily grind of work, school, carpooling, etc starts back up.  Well not for us!  For another 2 years, I get to enjoy summer as it was meant to be enjoyed:  'til Labor Day!  And with the weather websites reporting temps so hot, the thermometer will spontaneously combust (seriously:  the graphic they use is a burning thermometer), I am glad we don't have to stop going to the pool and enjoying the cool of the aquarium. 

I have posted some pictures of Quinn and Lyric this summer as we lounge by the pool and Lyric shows off her new gills, er, skills, I mean.  She has really learned how to swim and has done so well in the pool and lake.  She has no fear of the water.  This is good, right?  Well, sometimes.  She has asked on many occasions to jump off the diving board, or boat without any floatation devices.  This is concerning since she can't float or tread water, but maybe next summer, she can be in 13-30 ft. depths and I won't have to worry so much about her sinking to the bottom.  But enough with the gloom and doom.  Enjoy the pictures, especially the last 5 or so in the set.  If you click through them really fast, they look animated. :)

The Winds of Digital Change are Shifting

Hello All,

Man, it's been a while since we have posted anything; at least, on this out dated, old-school blogging format.  That's right, you heard me, Facebook and Twitter are the new update sites, and we post there constantly.  Our poor blog has gone the way of the Model T.  But don't worry, those of you who still rely on the blog to keep you updated on the happenings in the Hoffs world will not be left behind.  We just won't be doing posts as often.

We have had a crazy busy summer so far.  We just got back from our annual family reunion in Mineral Bluff, where we had a couple of huge celebrations.  Not only did we celebrate our usual 4th of July/Father's Day/Sean's birthday trifecta, but this year, we had two other celebrations:  Mom and Dad renewed their vows as they have acheived 40 years married, and both Quinn, and my beautiful neice Reagan were baptized.  At the same ceremony!  We've included pictures of all the family through our Picasa Web album link.  We may post some pictures on the website, still, but if you'd like, you can download the pictures from Picasa and save them to your computer.  Whoo-Hoo!  We love you all.  Please leave comments so we know you are still around; and check us out on Facebook if you get a chance.

Spring is here

We have had the most beautiful weather this month as spring has loudly announced it presence.  The trees and bushes are in bloom and our mulberry trees (we have at least half a dozen wild ones in our yard), are starting to bear fruit.  Lyric is after me every day to pick mulberries, which she eats by the handful right off the tree.  Every day, a few more are ripe (or "right" as she says) and we spend our afternoons trying to beat the birds to the berries.  Part of the reason the flowers are so beautiful is that we have had a lot of rain.  For some reason, it seems to come on the weekends and our concerts have been rained out.  I wanted to post some pictures of Lyric dancing in the square, but that will have to wait for a sunnier weekend.  In the meantime, enjoy the pictures of our two kids as we celebrate Mother's Day in the Bluff, attend princess tea parties, learn the are of rolling over and let Daddy know what we think of him taking our picture in the swing.

Lyric's 3rd Birthday

Just wanted to do a quick post about Lyric's 3rd birthday.  Three?!  Seriously?!  Man, how time flies.  Anyway, here are the pics.

Easter Break

Hello all.   We have tons of pictures to post as we have had a very exciting couple of weeks.  Taylor came to visit, so once again, we had to get a lot of shots of those two adorable girls.  Also, I have a new niece, Reagan, who was born 5 days after Quinn, so you know we had to get some pics of her up.  We also spent Spring Break up at Nana and Pops and had a day of snow (preceded by and followed by 3 days of 70 degree weather).  We colored Easter eggs and had a "trial hunt" to prepare for when the Easter bunny did the real thing on Sunday.  And finally, while we had so much family there (Nana and Pops, Lauriann, Taylor, and Reagan, Anne Marie and Chris), we decided to celebrate Lyric's first 3rd birthday early.  (We'll celebrate at least twice more).  Anne Marie, baker and decorator extraordinaire decorated a Diego and Baby Jaguar cake for Lyric that was phenomenal.  It was her first try at a process called butter cream transfer and it was amazing.  Lyric liked it so much she asked for Diego's face and promptly ate it.  That's my girl!  She was so delighted with the cake that that night when she went to bed she said "Mom, can you tell Aunt Anne that tomorrow I want a Dora cake?"  Of course, now that Anne Marie has proved her skill, she will be the oft-requested decorator.  I hope it won't be too stressful for her to do Quinn's cake December 3rd and then fly to Arizona for Reagan's cake on December 8th :) 2 pages of pics are here.  Enjoy!  My Favorite one is on page 2 and it's called "Busted!"

March Madness

No, I'm not talking about basketball, I'm talking about the 4 March birthdays we have to celebrate in our family, as well as that most venerable of Catholic celebrations: St. Patrick's Day.  This month we celebrated Craig, Cecily, Mom and David's birthdays.  We have pics from a couple of those, as well as from the St. Patrick's day party we had at our house with Lyric's friends Chase, Peter and Ayla.

This has been a busy month for many reasons.  Not only have we had birthdays to celebrate, but David has been traveling every week and we have had a lot of weather that has caused us to have to stay inside.  Between the 3 inches of snow we got at the beginning of the month, to the three straight days of rain at the end of the month, we have been struggling to fill the time indoors.  Some of our pictures reflect that.  Since I know that everyone just checks in to look at the kids, I will provide the link here. 

Taylor is in town this week, so we will have more pictures to add soon.  Check back later for fun pics of the cousins together.

All We Need is Love

We had an exciting Valentine's Day/Birthday/Anniversary weekend up at Nana and Pops this past weekend.  David and I had the opportunity to go to dinner (just the two of us!!) on Saturday night, while Nana and Pops watched the kids.  Pops is proving to be an able baby wrangler, giving Nana a run for her money.  Lyric practically pushed us out the door when we left, and didn't seem terribly thrilled to have us back home, probably because she saw the end of her treat conning racket coming to an end.

On Sunday, we engaged in the time honored Cotter tradition of having Mom make your favorite meal for your birthday.  I opted for the old stand-by--always a crowd-pleasing favorite---of Mama cotter's famous fried chicken, mashed potatoes and corn, with a special spinach salad twist.  Chocolate lava cake for dessert.  It's a good thing we decided to spend the night and head off on Monday morning, else we might have fallen asleep at the wheel.

We've included pictures here.  In addition to the expected pics of the kids we have also included some shots of our long suffering, oft neglected 3rd child, Sasha.  Somehow, she doesn't blame us or the kids for her Omega status in our little pack, and her love and dedication to Lyric (and now Quinn), is still legendary.