Alistair!

Alistair started Kids Gym at the YMCA 2 weeks ago in addition to his swimming. It is really fun. It's 45 minutes long and we sing songs and play games and there is a ton of soft-sided equipment for them to crawl and climb on, over and through. There are lots of different balls and such for them to play with as well. He seems to really enjoy it and so far the one day a week where we have swimming just before, he doesn't seem too tired for gym. I pulled his tunnel back out now that he is more into it from gym and we played in it quite a bit one day.
Alistair was taking my picture in the tunnel too.
Spaghetti night...need I say more?
Alistair likes wearing our glasses. I pulled out an older pair of my glasses for him to have, but he still insists on wearing our glasses. He has gotten quite adept at taking them off our faces with one foul swoop. He was wondering around our bedroom last Friday in the above state while we were trying to get packed to leave for the ocean.
We bought Alistair a couple of hooded toddler-sized towels a while back and he really likes them. For a while he would cuddle the lion one. He wanted to continue wearing his towel after his bath one evening. He looked so regal walking up and down the hallway with his robe dragging behind him on the floor! (:

First Camping Trip of the Year!

Well ok, it was yurting. But we were outside a majority of the day and sat around the campfire in fairly cold weather! Saturday didn't get too nice until the afternoon, but Sunday and Monday were gorgeous! The photo above is the sunset on Sunday night. We went out with both sets of parents. We had a great time. This was the first time since Alistair started walking that we have been out. There is a lot less sitting around with him wandering ALL OVER the place!

Alistair has the hang of the morning ritual: Breakfast cookie and some milk while sitting around the campfire! Mmmm, mmmm!

The rowdy crew before we left. Yes, Sadie is wearing a T-shirt. She had a cancerous tumor removed from her front right flank/shoulder and has a HUGE shaved spot and a 5 inch incision. We had to keep it covered so she didn't get her wound dirty. I think she felt foolish as did we for dressing our dog, even though people thought it was cute! ;)

Our little family portrait

It's January and It's Snowing!

We woke up to snow this morning. We have been hearing rumors of snow all weekend. We had about 5 minutes of rain mixed with snow on Saturday and then it was sunny yesterday. When we went to bed there had been a light dusting of snow and we thought, well there is our snow they have been forecasting. Boy were we wrong! We have about 3+ inches and it is supposed to snow tonight. If there is snow forecasted, we usually get it. We are in a convergence zone. We will have snow and you can go 5-10 miles down 405 and there will be no snow at all! Seth decided to stay home today, so we have been having some fun playing! We took the kids out to the front yard and played. This is Alistair's first time playing in snow. Though we did let him down when we were snow shoeing, he really didn't play!

Sadie LOVES the snow and just runs and flops in it and rolls and just goes crazy. She was in 7th heaven this morning having all the yards to run around in and roll in untouched snow! (:

Alistair got this nifty snow suit hand-me-down from my mom's coworker. It is lined with fleece and is nice and warm! Other than his hands getting a little cold, he stayed quite toasty for the hour and a half plus we spent outside!

He also got this cool baby tobogan from her co-worker. We keep forgetting we have it, it would have been good to have for snow shoeing! We dragged him around the block, through the park on the corner and then found the icy spots on the road to make him skid around. He thought that was pretty fun! We also made our driveway into a sledding run and pushed him down it a ton of times. Here is a video of him on a pretty good run! (:

A Walking Fool

Alistair's new found skill is still very much a novelty to him. He is walking all over the place. He will just walk back and forth across the room we are in if nothing else. Everyone kept telling us we would be sorry once he started walking but we are 1) relieved that there is nothing wrong with him 2) glad he can do some walking and give our backs a break and 3) love watching him be so proud of himself walking around and carrying stuff! (: I managed to get another video of him walking. This time it is horizontal and you can see how much progress he has made in his walking since the last movie!

So many things to talk about...

Happy 2008! It's a new year and it already has started off with a bang! As most people know by now, Alistair has finally decided to walk; he started walking on New Year's Day (the last post has a video attached to see evidence). We have been busy, busy since New Year's Eve. The Sandholms flew in that morning and spent the week with us! It was so great to see them and was amazing to think it has been 3 months since we last saw them. Having 2 busy babies around the house is sure a lot of work and forget about having any clear floor space. The Alistair and Sully express comes through every 5 minutes or so and knocks over and/or dumps out anything we attempt to clean-up. We kind of gave up after a while and just waited until they went to bed! Sully loved our stairs and was like a bee to honey to them. He loved going up and down repeatedly albeit we had to really watch him because he would either try to go down head first or at some point get his legs caught underneath him and start to go. Alistair would try to race him down the stairs, but I don't think he got that Sully was a novice! Story time and everyone looks excited about it!New Year's Day was the annual Hennessey Ravioli party. We all got there around 10:30 and started up the machines. The guys all stuff the sausage and then the gals jump in after the sausages are done to roll out pasta and make raviolis. Judy made all the kids chef hats and aprons - except Alistair. He got the head chef ensemble - from head to toe! Sully got stripes on his apron since he was a seasoned sous chef.

The guys diligently at work - it is definitely a teamwork thing!The raviolis are coming together nicely!
Sully is having a good time rocking out on Alistair's Rocking Puppy!
Mmmmm - the finished product! Time to chow!

The weekend after New Years was our annual "French" night weekend with the Sandholms and Folgedalens (part of the reason the Sandholms came out). We headed out to Seabrook, which is out by Ocean Shores. It is a new seaside community that has tons of houses to rent that are very nice, state-of-the-art and very reasonable during the off season. We went out Friday and came home Sunday. We had a great time! Our group picture really says something about the evolution of this gathering - we are all dressed up, we have our wine glasses full and are about to eat our crab and shrimp cakes and on the edge of the table are cut-up chicken nuggets and a sippy cup! (:

Alistair is taking notes and learning so that one day he and Sully can cook all the food for us and all we need to do is sit around and be waited on! Ha, Ha!

Ah, empty glasses, empty bottles and very full stomachs!

He Walks...FINALLY!

On New Year's Day, Alistair finally took his first, unassisted steps! He walked about 5-6 steps at a time and did it a couple of times during the day. He did a few steps here and there this weekend. This morning he walked across our rec room and back. I managed to grab the camera and take a video of the incident. I apologize for the sideways view, I wasn't thinking when I started filming! (:

The Many Stages of Christmas

Christmas was a multi-day event for us again this year. It's nice because we can have some ample time at each stop to spend time with everyone and truly be relaxed! Our Christmas started on Saturday the 22nd with the Martinson family. We all gathered in North Bend for brunch. We had a very nice day full of good fun, laughter, relaxation and delicious food. Alistair was asleep in the car when we got there and when we brought him in, he was being shy until he saw Natalie. He LOVES Natalie. He hopped off my lap and went to her on the couch...we didn't see much of him the remainder of the day besides needing some items like diapers and food.
Alistair has figured out how cameras have worked, kind of. He thinks you put it right up to your face. He "took" many photos of himself with my parents camera.
Carrie got a new book for Christmas and wanted her grandma to read it to her. Alistair wanted in on the action too!

We did our Christmas on Christmas Eve morning. Alistair's big present was this rocking puppy. Our friends have a rocking horse for thier son and Alistair spent almost the entire time we were at their house on the horse, so we figured he would enjoy his own. It's nice because he can get himself on it, no parents required! He know exactly what to do when he saw it! (: We then headed down to my parent's house for Christmas Eve with my mom's family. We had a delicious dinner and nice time together despite the fact that Grandma couldn't make it due to being sick!

We spent the night and woke up Christmas morning on Fox Island. My brother, Michelle and Natalie came out around 11 or so and we had a fun time opening stockings and gifts and then just hung out for a bit and played with our new toys.

Natalie and Uncle Seth tearing into their stockings

Alistair has his stocking and is posing with his cheesy grin in tact.

Christmas afternoon we headed down to Olympia to have Christmas dinner with the Hennesseys. We had standing pork roast with stuffing and some other delicious side dishes. Alistair got a cool new horse to ride on, although he won't truly be big enough for it for a while. Probably a good thing because right now he is very unsure of the horse and would rather not be on it! Part of that may stem from the fact that he was very tired and had had it for the day!

To go with his horse, Alistair got a genuine cowboy hat. He looks pretty good!

Hi Ho Silver Away!!!

Snow Shoeing Near Iron Goat Trail

This past Saturday we headed up Stevens Pass with our friend Brian to go snow shoeing. We have been meaning to go and for whatever reason it just hasn't worked out in the past. So we made time to do it this weekend and it was a lot of fun! Where we ended up, there really wasn't a need for snow shoes (ie the snow was not more than mid shin deep or so), but it was still good to try them out and get the hang of it for future outings! We drove all the way to the summit and read about the trails we could go on. Unfortunately for the majority of what we would have done, we would have been walking along the ski runs and we wouldn't be able to let Sadie off leash for fear of causing ski accidents! So we headed back down to the turn off for Iron Goat trail and hiked the road that goes to the Forest Service road for Iron Goat. There was plenty of snow and it snowed the entire time we were out! Everyone had fun...except on the way back. We let Alistair out of the backpack at our turn around point to play in the snow a little. He cried all the way back, at first because he didn't want to get back in the pack and then probably because he got cold. Sadie seemed to be having the most fun...she LOVES the snow! All in all it was a fun day and we are talking about going again in January. Maybe next time Alistair can stay with someone insead.

I am ready to go, stuffed in this thing. Hmmmm...maybe if I learned to walk I wouldn't have to ride in this get-up!
The novice snoe shoe family.
Brian, our guide for the day
If you can click on this photo and see it bigger, you will see that Alistair is giving his trademark grin for the camera!
Look, I can even stand in the snow by myself! I am getting the hang of this balance thing!

Merry Christmas!

O Christmas Tree

This past weekend we headed out for our annual trek to hunt for the perfect Christmas tree. This year took us to Eatonville to Cox's Tree Farm. There were 12 of us and we all found our trees within 25 minutes of our arrivals! They had a great selection and decent prices. Afterward we headed to Frontier Park in Graham for a lunchtime picnic of hot soup and snacky stuff. It was a gorgeous day and being in the sun made it a little less cold out!

The next morning we set out to decorate the tree. Seth and Alistair worked on the tree lights to give me a year off (it's usually my job). They did a great job and Alistair was very helpful!

The finished product

In an unrelated bit, Alistair is inching closer to walking. He is now standing without holding anything. He will either hold something to get his balance and then let go and stand there for a minute or so while he lectures us or tells a story and then he will sometimes fall back on his butt and do it again. Sometimes when he falls, he will just stand up from the floor. He did take a couple of side steps yesterday to get to his mail cart. He is so close!!!

Our Little Comedian

Alistair let his humor shine through tonight (and desire for a bath)! He decided to perch pieces of his fruit cocktail on his head and wipe his juicy hands through his hair. He was quite the sight and the bathwater had little hints of dinner floating on the suface!