Little Christmas Teaser

I never know whether it is going to be a good blogger night or a bad blogger night...but tonight (New Year's Eve) things worked ok. There are a lot more Christmas and snow pictures (yes Annie went sledding in Maryland with Dad...short story...she was underwhelmed...but I had FUN!) that I am going to post of Annie and Darla and I...but for the time being here are some pictures to whet your appetite.

In our apartment we had the tree and all the trimmings set up near our big west window. Annie didn't know what to make of it all but she couldn't take her eyes off the lights.

At Grandma and Poppop's house gifts were wrapped under a much larger tree and somehow this slightly undersized hat with the message "I've been good mostly" kept landing on Annie's head...no idea who could have insisted that she wear it.


Annie was also over due for her five month photo shoot, so Darla captured some great images (we'll post many more later) I love this one!


Darla and Annie and I were all dressed up for Christmas Eve service so we couldn't help but pose for a few pictures before we left for church.



Hope tonight finds you considering the blessings and trials of the past year and looking forward to the wonders that await in 2010. Happy New Year!

Four Months old (yes this post is a little tardy)

Each month we've been documenting Annie with some pictures that represent seasons of the year and her name blocks so we can all see how much she's growing. Here are a few images from that fabulous photo shoot done on location at the Team Baliko Studio:


A is for Apples!


a contemplative art shot


Here's looking at you! I cannot wait to get to eat these apples, mom and dad are teasing me by putting this food within arms length.



I love how Annie is now interested in the interacting with her world, everything is becoming something to look at, taste, and hold on to.


after these two shots Annie confided in Darla that "n's taste like nothing."



More pics to come. We love you all!

New clothes, tummy time, and some (stuffed) friends...

Below is a picture of Annie in one of my favorite outfits sent to us by our good friends in Alaska. It's called a Kuspik (also kuspuk, quaspeq, or quapeq - great word for scrabble!), which is a traditional Alaskan garment (Yupik, I think) which, in Alaska, is worn over a parka in the winter for decorative outerwear, or simply over a long sleeve shirt on warmer days. They also sent some adorable matching booties. I'll post a better shot (in which the lighting doesn't make Annie look kinda funny) of the entire outfit another day.



A couple other pics of our cutie pie...





Annie is enjoying tummy time more and more the stronger she gets. She is also enjoying the new area rugs we just bought yesterday for a soft place for her to lie down. Having a soft place will be especially important, I reckon, in a few months when she starts crawling.









Did I say she was enjoying tummy time? Well, not always... (If you look closely you'll see her christening our new rug with it's first - and no doubt not last - drool.)



Finally, a picture of Annie relaxin' on the new carpet with a couple of friends.

Halloween and other random pics

This post is going to be like opening that drawer in your kitchen, you know the one with all the odd items: mysterious keys, spare change, twistie ties, hair ties, bow ties, and a ticket stub to a concert you aren't sure you remember going to in 1974. Let's get the show started with our smallest and brightest STAR - ANNIE!
We had the best intentions of dressing her in an adorable Lady bug (or Ladybird for our British friends, cheers!) costume. However, because our lovely little lady is in the 95th percentile for her age...well let's just say the costume did not fit like a glove.

yup folks that zipper was not going to go up any higher, nope! Well since we weren't actually going to take her trick or treating...mostly because she can't speak, hold open a bag or walk...all was not lost.


We did carve some pumpkins. With my new job in the jail, I opted for an incarcerated candle. Fortunately the bars of the actual jail are not made of pumpkin...because that stuff is slippery and the inmates could probably squeeze right between the bars if they wanted to...I digress.


Darla opted for a more realistic depiction of our family, stick figure mom and dad with a baby buggy hovering above a giant heart that was on FIRE. Yes folks we live on the edge. Neither of us felt this was our strongest year for the pumpkins...the seeds however were the BEST ever. Roasted in an olive oil/butter blend to perfection after being boiled in salt water for 10 minutes. Then dusted with finely ground garlic and smokey black tea leaves. WOW


Five pumpkins sitting on the steps...AWWWWWWWWWW! It was really warm here last night...the fall has been beautiful and despite some rain (which is great too!) the weather has been quite nice.


OK I did not glue or surgically implant a blue porcelain cup on my daughter's head...it merely was able to be balanced on her head one day while we were sitting outside. Don't ask yourself why is he doing that...ask yourself why didn't I do that with my children. (No cups or children were harmed in the making of this image)


This Annie's new pal, her name is Sophie, she came from France and she was born in 1961. I hope I look this good when I'm 48 years old. I know, I already don't look this good, probably never did. This was a toy that her cousin Georgie had and since Annie is expecting some little teeth breaking in on the scene in a week or two, we thought it was time she had a good friend to chew on and drool all over. Good times, good times!


We live in downtown Portland and Annie and her Dad are both extremely hip ("and bald" her mom added...thanks Love!) Here are our matching beanie caps...ok once again Annie wins the stare down, she is a tough one!



We are taking our computer in to get some glitches fixed this week so anticipate a long pause between posts...which given our track record of posting will seem perfectly normal. We love you all, thanks for peeking into our world from time to time...make sure you say hello when you do. Happy November!

More of the Cuteness

Every month we try and take some pictures of Annie with her name blocks and some interesting items that remind us of the corresponding time of year. We're a little late on her three month pictures but it is close enough. You would think there would be plenty of time, but those thoughts are the luxurious illusions of the PP days (pre-parenting). Now were are in the PeePee days and time take on a whole new meaning. We love it!







Annie was dedicated at church this past Sunday, and Darla made her adorable little white dress. So here are some pictures of dad and mom with Annie and two of her in all her dedicated glory. Darla stitched the Bible references Isaiah 59:21 and Ephesians 5 on the shoulder straps of the little gown. I read the Isaiah passage as part of what we shared with the church on Sunday. A special day for all of us.

Look what a great little Pumpkin we found!

When then trees are blazing with their last gasp of beauty and the mornings are foggy and crisp, it is time to head out to the pumpkin patch to see what plump prizes there are to be found. When we got there we were shocked to find that people had over looked this gem of a pumpkin.



And we thought...Well we've already got three pumpkins but this one is too cute to pass up, so we put her in the wheel barrow to bring her in from the field.



She smiled the whole way back, she told me to go faster...so I obliged.



and well you can tell from the pics that she loved it!


When we got back to the barn, they told us that we didn't have to pay for the brown pumpkins, I was relieved since I only had enough cash for the orange ones.



Darla said we could keep her and well I think the two of them look great together...I wonder what we'll find when we try and get a Christmas tree???

Kerbluuooeee!!!

This past week we had what was probably going to be the last totally beautiful day of 2009. So in honor of the occasion we took a picnic dinner to one of the rose gardens near our house. *(Ladd's Addition for those who are curious) Annie and I were having a little conversation about her most recent reading of Shakespeare. At the moment she is fascinated by the comedies.


She and Darla began discussing the need for a mobile that would hang over her co-sleeper...she suggested something with birds on real twigs. We have a suspicion that she's been surfing the net again looking for ideas.
Then all of a sudden I...Sneezed!!


Annie could not contian her mirth and let out the clearest most beautiful laugh! So I did what any respectable man in his late thirties would do in public. I pretended to sneeze 20-30 more times. And she kept on laughing.




By the time we figured out how to get the video feature on our camera to work the gig was up and she told us that she wasn't going to be our little preforming circus monkey...fair enough. But suffice it to say that when you get to hear this little girl laugh, you will believe that leaves can return to the boughs of trees after falling, that dead things can live again and that all manner of things will be right in the world.

Sleeping Beauty meets Little Red Riding Hood

...need I say more.

Out-facing!

Annie now has enough head control to face out in the moby wrap! Congratulations, Annie. I'll try to give you lots of interesting things to watch as we go throughout the day. How interesting it must be to have hands the size of your head working a foot or so away from your face. So far, Annie has gotten close ups of chopping vegetables (don't worry, grandparents, I'm very careful) and washing dishes, to name a couple. Things she will not get close ups of: frying bacon, lighting fires, sparklers on the Fourth of July, and snake charming.

Annie Meets Grandma Marilyn & Grandpa Dale

Finally, some pictures of my parents' first visit with Annie! Our time began ith a trip to the RV park where my parents "lived" for the week.



On day two we drove up to Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood. This is the view from the top. We're pretty sure that's Mt. Jefferson in the distance.



The next day we drove out to Sauvie Island where we stopped first at Kruger's farm for a look around and to buy some farm-fresh produce. (I didn't know bananas could grow in Oregon. Maybe Farmer Don has experienced some more dramatic climate change than the rest of us.) Then we stopped at this picnic shelter where we enjoyed the shade and took a few pics before heading back to Portland.



The next day my dad had some work-contacts he wanted to see, so while he did that, Mom and I were little miss domesticities canning tomatoes and sewing together. Here's a shot of Mom rocking her sleeping newest granddaughter while I worked on the tomatoes. Neither of us wanted to get into a big canning project; I just wanted to do a couple of jars while Mom was here to help with Annie and to share her canning wisdom. (She would deny she has any, but compared to me she was a sage.) We canned two pints of Lemon Boys that Steve has been growing. Canning was pretty fun and not too difficult - rather, I can tell it wouldn't be difficult with the right equipment(which we didn't have. Even so, it wasn't bad.) I forgot to take pictures of the final product with our camera. They're on Mom's.





A few parting shots of Annie and her Grandparents...





We had a wonderful time with you, Mom and Dad. Thanks for coming to visit!