Christmas in Portland

Thanks so much for the wonderful presents Grandma and Grandpa Whisler and Grandpa and Grandma Warth! Grandparent presents are always favorites ;)

How do we know exactly who is the Mommy pony and who is the Daddy pony? Well, since you asked... these ponies are extremely anatomically correct. I discovered that as I was picking out a "family set" for each girl at Target (chosen for cuteness with blatant disrespect to breed.) I picked one up and said, "Oh this can be a Mommy pony!" On closer inspection I realized that... THAT particular pony could certainly never be a Mommy. Gabriella also discovered this interesting fact so we've had lots of fun conversations about it.

Jingle Bells with flair! Note that Gabriella has changed out of her Christmas jammies into more fitting elegant holiday attire.

We had a very nice, quiet... Ok, maybe not so quiet, Christmas with just our little family in Portland. The girls were so excited and I heard the words "Thank You!" more times than I can count which is always a bonus.

Camels are so Old Testament

I don't know about your nativity set, but at our house the wise men use a Fisher-Price mini van for their trek to see the infant Jesus.


"Which way was that star pointing anyway?"
"Don't worry! This thing has GPS"




We wish you a very Merry Christmas. Hope and reconciliation entered into our world in the form of an infant. Today that hope is still living and active. This Christmas may you rest in the peace of God's love.

A certain twinkle in little eyes..

Christmas is coming.

Baby, it's cold outside

What mammals do best

Dinosaurs have invaded our house. To be truthful... it is kind of a fun break from princesses. It started with Juliana's discovery of a dinosaur book from Jonathan's childhood. She looked at that thing over and over for days. So, we got some more dinosaur books at the library, and then more dinosaur books at the next library trip and then lo and behold... nice big plastic dinosaurs showed up in the Target dollar section. We "adopted" four of them and Anna the deinonychus, Trudy the tricerotops, Ted the stegosaurus and Larry the apatosaurus all found a loving home in the Whisler house.




Juliana loves to include the dinosaurs in play with the dollhouse. One day she was playing out a little scene where the dinosaur arrived at the house and roared. This seemed to scare the dollhouse baby so the baby tickled the dinosaur and that seemed to start off a friendship. The baby then rode the dinosaur all the way to the couch where Jonathan and I were sitting. Evidently, all that riding had made the baby a bit thirsty so Juliana announced, "Dinosaur nurse!!" and put that little baby right underneath the dinosaur much like a baby calf would drink. Gabriella came along to observe this and with a rather reproving voice announced, "Juliana!, dinosaurs are not mammals!"

So there you have it. Dinosaurs can play with babies, but not breastfeed them.

Haircut

I have been in a state of hair desperation for months. My straightener died at the start of summer. Thus began the summer of the long poufy ponytail. After several failed attempts at actually getting a haircut I finally had an appointment and nothing was going to stop me. Nothing... except the fact that the car would not start. As Jonathan messed around with the car I called to cancel my appointment and tried to choke back tears. When to my great surprise Jonathan was actually able to get the car started (even though he never figured out what he did to do so) I said, "Whatever you do, don't turn it back off! I am GOING. I can always call someone for a ride home!! See ya!!" I'm pretty sure he tried to argue with that, but I was out the door before he had much of a chance.

After an hour of quiet, child-free, head massaging bliss with a miracle worker named Brianna I emerged a new person. And, the car even started. When I went to work the next day an eight year old boy said to me, "Natalie, I really like your new haircut!, but when you walked in I thought you were one of the teens." Remind to to forgive that blessed little boy the next time he attempts to drive me up a wall.

I asked Jonathan to take a picture of my new haircut. He said he would do it if he didn't have to get out of the chair he was sitting in. This is what I got:

Not the best picture of my face ever, but the hair looks pretty good. I guess it doesn't take much to beat a long frizzy ponytail.

Thanks to be given

We hosted our second Thanksgiving this year. We had 11 adults and three children total... all family and some of them were even related to us ;) Jonathan's sister and her family were able to join us and our other "family members" joined us from our church.

This year Jonathan cooked up: A beautiful turkey, cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, tarragon green beans (do I get points for going outside to cut the tarragon in the pouring rain? Hmmm... I suppose Jonathan did do more work) corn, and homemade cranberry and orange sauce. I made: One dairy free (coconut milk) pumpkin pie for Gabriella. Our guest provided the rest of the desserts. Lindsay even brought Jonathan's family's traditional dessert that has been passed down through the generations, "Oreo dessert fluff." OK, maybe not passed down through the generations, but the Whislers certainly like that stuff. Especially Jonathan, who is not much for pie.

Unfortunately, after Jonathan completed so much hard work I failed in my one duty as a wife, which was to take an amazing picture of Jonathan with his beautiful turkey in all of its golden, we-don't-use-turkey-bags-in-this-house, glory. By the time the turkey was done out guests were more than ready to enjoy it and the photo opp was missed.

So, in an attempt to make things right, I ask you to observe Exhibit A:

Do you see it? Way down there in the bottom right corner?

I know, you'll have to stretch your imaginations, but see the beautifully browned skin? The garnish? The moistness practically oozing out? Imagine it whole and magnificent. Tell Jonathan that he made the prettiest turkey that you've ever seen imagined and you will make his day.

I also failed to get many decent pictures of the adults we had the pleasure of sharing a meal with. Mostly, they have unflattering "I'm eating faces" (another testament to Jonathan's good cooking) and I like these people and want to have them over again, so I won't post those on the web. I figure most of you just want to see the kids anyway.

Notice the place where the cranberry sauce used to be on Gabriella's otherwise perfectly intact and untouched plate of delicious food.

Ethan seemed to enjoy his first Thanksgiving. He was really into this tasty orange. Too bad it was plastic.

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Duo

I am never quite smart enough to set aside a non-busy time to take Halloween costume pictures. Each year the thought strikes me that I should really plan a little costume mini-shoot on a non-Halloween event day and each year... it doesn't happen. Looking at these pictures you might be thinking... "Good job Natalie, this year your planning paid off." Not so much... this year we seemed to have about a zillion Halloween events and I certainly didn't plan any decent time in for pictures. So, on our hurried walk to playgroup candy-free trick-or-treating I spied a nice spot with good light and abundant leaves, stopped the stroller and spent about 6 minutes taking pictures before rushing the children along so we wouldn't be late. Somehow I managed to get nice pictures of both girls individually and together with (mostly) pleasant facial expressions (OK, so the first isn't really a pleasant expression on G, but it is definitely a Gabriella expression and it makes me smile.)

next year... I really will plan an actual costume session.

Regal

Pounce!

Happy Punkin' Day!

Juliana loves pumpkins. Not even the discovery of the gooey disgusting stuff on the inside of pumpkins that she refused to touch would sway her from that love. We carved our pumpkins on Friday (plenty of time to spare right?) and from the moment Jonathan told her we would be carving pumpkins she walked around saying "Its punkin day!" Then, actual Halloween day was also deemed, "punkin day." Right now, if you ask Juliana what her name is she'll grin and tell you "punkin." If it happens to be Daddy asking she might even say, "I Daddy's punkin." (Finger + wrapped around indeed.)

Anyhow, cute stories aside... I know grandparents are dying for costume pictures. And I have them. Plenty of them. The girls attended four costumed events during the last week. Plus, I never posted pumpkin patch pictures. So while I'm sorting through all that I'll give you a preview of our princess queen (Gabriella promoted herself at some point during the week) and our white tiger.

Well that is the last time I brush something off as media hype... (but probably not)

Alternately titled, "I survived H1N1 and all I have to show for it is this lousy blog post."

What a week. Last week all the norms of our house were broken. The tv stayed on for several hours a day, no one wore anything other than pajamas, orange juice consumption was at an alarming high (I even handed out some undiluted juice to the children... how about that?), Mommy didn't work, Daddy didn't go to school, Laundry piled past our heads, we cleaned out bottles of tylenol and Gabriella even took naps.

Saturday (10/10/09): I first started feeling ill late Saturday afternoon after a very normal and lovely trip to the pumpkin patch with some friends. During the day I had a bit of a dry cough and tight chest, but once we got home it just hit me like a ton of bricks. I was up that night shaking and shivering with a high fever and then sweating... this would become what the next three days would look like.

Sunday: Sunday was much the same. Shaking, sweating, aching, bemoaning the fact that I felt like I was dying, etc...

Monday: Monday morning Jonathan took Gabriella to her preschool class field trip (to another pumpkin patch) and when he got home he was not feeling so good. *Perhaps I should purpose a theory that pumpkins are a catalyst for swine flu. Anyhow, by Monday afternoon I was ridiculously sick. My muscles were exhausted from the shaking chills, I was dizzy, short of breath and felt awful. I called the advice nurse who forwarded me to the on call doctor. The on call doctor said I probably had pneumonia and that I should go to urgent care. As much fun as that waiting room sounded, I decided to stay home in my bed. Although, Jonathan said that at some point in the night I told him that I thought I should have gone in. I also said a lot of other things that made no sense. Mostly, I scared the bejeebers out of Jonathan by laying in bed shaking and sputtering absolute nonsense. Oh yeah, and vomiting. That was fun too.

Tuesday: Tuesday morning I went to the doctor. He asked a bunch of questions and announced that I had H1N1, Swine flu. He actually had a very nice movie-esque spiel for me. When the nurse came back in and I noticed that the nurse was now wearing a second mask over the mask that he was wearing when he first brought me in. He gingerly picked up the pen that I used on my patient questionnaire with his gloved hand and tossed in in the trash. I couldn't help but chuckle, but you know... I was wearing a mask myself so I could keep my bemused status to myself. I was swabbed for the flu (they confirmed the H1N1 diagnosis the next day), had blood drawn and went off to the hospital for a fun chest x-ray. Jonathan and I were both able to get on tamiflu (antiviral meds) right away, but I spent the rest of the afternoon on the phone trying to work out how to get a compounded liquid version of tamiflu for the girls (trust me, it was way more complicated and frustrating than it needed to be.) Gabriella was falling ill literally before my eyes. By Tuesday night Gabriella was 103 degrees and Jonathan was feeling pretty awful himself.

Wednesday: Juliana developed just a bit of a fever, Gabriella and I were still feeling awful and Jonathan's fever broke. We were finally able to start the girls on tamiflu Wednesday afternoon.

Thursday: Jonathan was feeling much better, still tired. Gabriella was still at 102 and was a couch fixture. Juliana felt fine and I felt a bit better, but was still running a fever.

Friday: I woke up and my fever seemed to have broken. The kids had a touch of fever and Juliana was a cranky pants, but otherwise it seemed we were all close to getting over it. Then my doctor's office called. My strep culture came back positive. I actually laughed at the nurse. She called in antibiotics for me and told me to continue to stay out of public circulation for awhile. I called the pediatrician to make sure the kids didn't have untreated strep. Their office was booked, but we got an appointment at another location so we schlepped all four of us across town for strep swabs for the children. The children were given giant masks that covered their entire face. Juliana's covered her eyes and so she refused to keep it on. Gabriella decided to wear Juliana's mask as a hat. I really wish I knew how to get that picture off of my phone. Anyhow, we were ushered out the back door of the across town ped's office and then Jonathan had to head over for his very own strep test. I started on gianormous antibiotic horse pills four times a day that I'm not supposed to take during meals. Fortunately, everyone else was free and clear of strep.

Saturday: By this point we were all feeling more or less better, but Saturday night Gabriella and I STILL had a bit of low grade fever.

So there you have it, we lived and we're now allowed to circulate amongst the general population. It wasn't much fun though. I don't remember ever feeling so sick and Jonathan (who had the tamiflu reduced version) said the only thing he could think of that might compare was the intestinal virus that landed him on the hospital in junior high. I'm so thankful Gabriella made it through so well and I'm even thankful for the cold she caught earlier this fall that caused a severe asthma attack and prompted us to put her on daily inhaled steroids along with her oral asthma medication. I think those two things plus the tamiflu kept her from having more serious lung involvement.

Now, go get yourselves vaccinated.

Dodging the flu... and DHS.

The other day I took the girls into the peds office to get the flu shot. The plain old regular (preservative-free version) flu shot. I'm a little cold and flu nervous this year. Not because of media-hype, but because of Gabriella's lungs. A little cold can turn into pneumonia so quickly for her and watching your child gasp for breath... well, it makes me a little teary just thinking about it to be honest.

So we get the girls into the exam room and Gabriella, who had been pretty worried about this shot situation, went into complete hysterics. It took Jonathan and I to hold her down while the nurse gave her the one tiny poke. When Gabriella was done I looked over at Juliana to see how she had fared watching her sister through what must have appeared to be an excruciating, horrendous ordeal. Juliana was sitting quite unphased, in a chair by herself and she had managed to pull one pant leg all the way up and was holding it up, ready and waiting for her own shot in the thigh. That girl will do anything if she thinks it makes her a big girl. And let me tell you, she took that shot with only one little grimmace.

Gabriella, on the other hand, limped pathetically down the hall and told me she needed to use the bathroom. I went in with her, while Jonathan and Juliana waited outside. Once in the stall Gabriella resumed sobbing about her shot. She wailed, "I don't like shots! I don't want anymore shots! I just don't want to get hurt anymore!" We emerged from the bathroom and Jonathan gave me a funny look and asked if a red haired woman had been in the bathroom with us. I said that I thought a lady had gone in right ahead of us and asked why. Apparently, the red headed woman had come out of the bathroom ahead of us and told her companion who had been waiting for her, "There was a little girl in there that was just sobbing and sobbing! I think she told her mother that she didn't want to get hit anymore!" So... umm... if child protective services comes knocking on my door... You'll all help me clear that one up, right?

(This photo is from last week, but I figured I'd throw it in. I love these blue flowers. So vibrant... and this photo has very very little processing and no color alterations. Too bad Gabriella threw on her "I don't really like pictures" face. Sigh... I hope I'm not painting her as an uncooperative child, but she draws lines with pictures and shots. and dogs... but that is another story)

The (not so) perfect portrait

I don't have any particular subject to post about, but here are some random tids and bits...

Gabriella has a baby in her tummy. I know, I know, I was shocked too. But, she has been married to Aladdin (her imaginary husband) for over a year and it was bound to happen. I was first informed of this on Sunday. The conversation went like this:

Gabriella: Mom, you need to take me to the hospital.
Me: Oh? Why is that?
Gabriella: Because there is a baby in my tummy and it needs to come out tomorrow.
Me: How do you know it will need to come out tomorrow?
Gabriella: I'm just fairly certain it will. You can take me to the hospital after preschool.
Me: OK, that sounds like a good plan.

She then proceeded to tell everyone at church. She even told a few people that they needed to "look out for her" because she had a baby in her tummy. She is quite insistent it is a real baby. She intends on naming it Ruth. I'm sure Gabriella's Great-grandma Ruth will be quite honored to have her great-great grandchild named after her.

Juliana chatters away these days. It seems she is talking more while we're out and about in crowds of people. Calling our friends by name and attempting long strings of (sometimes difficult if not impossible to decipher) conversation.

Gabriella still looooooves preschool. She wakes up 30 minutes to an hour early on preschool days just to jump on our bed and insist we get a move on with breakfast lest she be late. Preschool doesn't start until 9:30 and she has yet to be late.

Yesterday I broke out the fall clothes and put actual shoes and socks on the girls in goodness knows how long. Juliana and I went to a baby shower in the morning while Gabriella was at preschool so I picked out a cute outfit for her that used to be Gabriella's. Some outfits I'm just so happy to see again. Anyhow, in the afternoon the girls and I made a park trip and I brought along the camera. I have to reconcile myself to fall somehow and cute pictures with stripey tights may be just the cure. I even had some secret hopes of that illusive perfect sibling portrait.

I was very pleased to actually capture some very cute pictures of Juliana sitting on the lap of... a cute five year old from the neighborhood that the girls often play with at the park. It would've made a darling sibling picture... too bad it wasn't with Juliana's sibling.

I love the potential of this picture, where Gabriella is actually the cooperative one. Juliana had no intention of laying on that grass.

This, however.... this is truly a slice of life with two small girls. One second I have the girls sitting next to each other sweet as can be and the next moment, Juliana is on top of Gabriella with her finger, well you know...

A perfect portrait, a not-so perfect portrait... take your pick. No pun intended.

I ♥ Faces: Completely Candid

Most of the pictures I take are candid. I will give direction when needed to get just the right shot, but I by far prefer to just blend into the background and capture real moments. This was a fun weekly challenge category. What does a completely candid photo look like? What makes a candid photo shine? In the end, this fun mirror photo of Liddy getting ready on her wedding day stuck out. After all, two candid faces have to be better than one, right?


Plus, I really wanted to share another wedding photo. I have to say, she rocks those curlers. See more candid photos at...

Fashionista

Mama provides the diaper. Baby girl provides the style.

First Day of Preschool

This post is alternatively titled, "No, I didn't cry."

Gabriella has been sooooo excited to go to preschool and I've been exited for her. It helps that she has a wonderful teacher. Any time I leave Gabriella with someone I have to trust them to manage Gabriella's food allergies. Will this person think about allergens hiding in craft activities? Will they think about cross contamination and residue on sticky hands? Can I trust them to administer the epi-pen without hesitation in the critical first few minutes after peanut exposure? It is a big job. In the case of Gabriella's preschool teacher... I feel very much at ease leaving Gabriella in her care and that is no small thing. Gabriella's classroom is peanut free and I appreciate the other parents and children making that sacrifice to keep Gabriella safe at school.

Anyhow that got a bit off track... back to Gabriella's first day...

Gabriella was up bright and early proclaiming that she was ready to go to preschool. I managed to hold her off for a few hours, but we still ended up heading out the door with way more than enough time for our short walk. When we arrived in the classroom Gabriella's teacher mentioned that she had some papers for me to sign for medication administration so she asked if I would stick around for a few minutes. Gabriella went happily off to explore the paints and the play kitchen. As I was signing the papers and answering a few questions for her teacher, Gabriella came up to me and proclaimed under her breath, "MOM! The other parents are leaving!" Sigh. I really thought I had another 8 years or so until she was embarrassed by my mere presence. So I waved, tore Juliana away from the marble tower and headed out the door.

I will say that as I walked away with Juliana I couldn't shake that vague feeling that I had forgotten something. Juliana quickly overcame her frustration at having to leave her beloved big sister AND a room full of toys as we headed for her first solo park trip. For once, she controlled the pace and we spent a good long while smelling roses (each of which must be declared "thats nice" or "not nice") and watching ducks.

When it was time to pick Gabriella up she was full of stories from her day. They pack a lot into a morning! I think that will be my favorite part of preschool days. Letting her have her own little adventure and sitting down with her to hear about it afterwards.

Contemplative

I've been wanting to join in the fun of the weekly iheartfaces challenges for awhile now, so I'm excited to put up my first entry for the "contemplative" challenge.

Most of you know that Miss. Gabriella is a thinker. It isn't hard to catch her in contemplative mood. I was excited to capture her sweet face perfectly framed by these colorful walls when I took this earlier in the summer.

Be sure to check out more "contemplative" photos on the iheartfaces blog!

Twenty Big Ones

Dearest Juliana,

I have a proposition for you, my sweet youngest daughter. If you go to bed tonight at a reasonable time, with minimal fuss and stay that way until 8am... I will deposit $20 into your savings account. I can assure you, it would be a deal well worth it for me and by the time you enter college the tuition will be so ridiculous that you'll need every cent. Surely, surely... you could muster up some sleep.

Is your acid reflux medicine not cutting it? Are you still a bit congested from your recent cold? Your father and I would love to help resolve any issues that are keeping you from slumber, sweetie. Perhaps you might try to knock down the decibal level a few notches and try using all of those new words you've picked up to simply let us in on the source of your frustration? I'm a little worried the neigbors might call the police when they hear your wailing. Anyhow, just think the twenty bucks over and let me know, OK?

Love,

Your Mother

Birthday Girl

Gabriella had a nice, low-key birthday. At least, "low-key" was nice for me because I had to be up at 3am for work most of the days of last week.

The day before her birthday, Gabriella enjoyed her first trip to Build a Bear to where she helped bring a panda named "Lola Bear Whisler" to life. Lola was part of Gabriella's gift from Grandma & Grandpa Warth. Lola is quite snappy in a red and white sundress and white eyelet sandals. You should meet her or perhaps join one of her tea parties.

On her actual birthday, Gabriella enjoyed a supper of her choice followed by some gifts. Jonathan and I gave her a cupcake set for her play kitchen and a toy percussion set with a drum, some shakers etc...

I love, love, love her little "thankful" hand gesture.

...and then what should appear in the driveway, but a new bike from Grandpa and Grandma Whisler. (She was way more excited than this picture shows, but getting up on it so high off the ground was a little intimidating the first time.)

After gifts we headed to The Living Room, a community space hosted by our church and met up with some friends for cake and cupcakes. Yep, I made vanilla cupcakes with pink frosting AND a yellow cake with strawberry sauce. Not too bad for someone who was up at 3am.

What will year 4 bring to Gabriella? Preschool, new friends, new skills, new challenges... I'm excited to be there with her.

Today

So far today, Gabriella has...

Married Aladin.

Given birth to a baby girl named Kailyn.

Taken a ride on her new bike from Grandma & Grandpa Whisler.

Hurried home to nurse her now one year old baby.

...and that was all before lunch!

Freshly Four

Everyone talks about that powerful moment of bonding with your newborn baby. Gabriella's birth was my first chance to experience that miracle. There were two things about Gabriella Kate that gave me an instant sense of "this really is MY child." The first was her intense amount of black hair. Before Gabriella was born I just knew she would have lots of dark hair. The actual amount surprised me a little, but I fully expected a dark haired girl. I even had a dream before she was born where the nurse handed me a baby with just a few light barely-there wisps and I actually questioned whether the baby was mine. In the dream I explained to the nurse that my baby simply did not look like that. The second thing was the way she stretched. During the end of pregnancy I was fortunate never to completely feel as if I had run out of room for my growing baby, but my unborn baby girl seemed to think her quarters were a bit cramped. She would make an excellent attempt to uncurl her body in its cramped quarters and push those pointy little feet as hard as she could right out of my midsection. I can still feel the spot where her feet would practically stick out on my right side. After my black haired newborn was laid on my stomach she stretched out and uncurled. Finally unfurling without resistance. It was such an intensely familiar sensation. She was mine. I was hers.

What they don't tell you is that there will be a million more moments where you fall in love with your child all over again. When she thinks that maybe she got a few more wheat thins than her little sister, so she shares some. When she tells you that she loves Jesus. When she is proud of herself for accomplishing something new. When she protectively grabs her little sisters hand when she thinks that she might be getting too close to danger. When her blue eyes sparkle. When she tells you that she wants to help people who don't have enough food to eat or places to live... that she would like to give some of her dresses to little girls that don't have any. When she makes up an imaginary husband and 8 imaginary children.

Happy Birthday Gabriella Kate.

Tremendous Trio

While Alyssa was here, I stopped at a fast food restaurant with her and the girls. The cashier took a look at the four of us and said to me, "Three girls!? Oh my, I feel for you!" I was pretty shocked she would say that right in front of said girls, but I just smiled and said something along the lines of "Oh, this one is my niece, but we really love having girls." Our time with three girls was quite fun... especially since the eldest one dotes on the younger two and was more than willing to help man handle... I mean, help keep an eye on them during outings.

I'm still working on editing photos from the month of August. I've been taking a break to work on a fun shoot with a fabulous family and their sweet new daughter. You can check out the first batch of those on my photography blog. While you are over there you can check out the changes I've made and let me know what you think.

I don't want to face the wrath of my big sister over lack of photos (after all, she did entrust her baby to my care for two weeks) so I put together this slide show of our trip to the rhododendron garden with Alyssa. After I talked it up so much on here she just had to see for herself! Unfortunately, NOTHING was in bloom, but we still had a fun time...




PS: The working title of this post was, "No, I feel for YOU" (back to the subject of the fast food cashier)... but that seemed a little obnoxious. When all else fails I always fall back on corny aliteration.

PPS: Gabriella and Juliana held hands almost the whole time walking around the rhododendron garden. They do that a lot. How cute is that?

Beach Portrait

I can't help but love this photo. The timing was a bit early... the kids were wet and tired well before actual sunset and the sky was patchy... overcast in spots and bright with clouds in others. Not quite the perfect recipe for a silhouette, but I was determined to get one. The sky doesn't have the range of colors or detail I would've wanted, but still... I love it. Even in stark profile you can tell that Juliana's face is pure glee at having her Daddy toss her in the air. Juliana is always our little thrill seeker. Whats more, she has perfect trust in her Daddy. I love that you can see the little pony of the top of her head, her button nose and her tiny little feet... Ok, not so tiny at size 6.5, but still. Jonathan mentioned that the way her shirt has billowed up gives the appearance of fairy wings. I have to agree... my little pixy and my wonderful husband. No wonder I love this picture.

A wave!

Early this morning we saw my 12 (almost 13) year old niece Alyssa off to the airport. Alyssa came to visit us for about 11 days or, as Gabriella would say "This is my cousin Alyssa and she flew all the way from Iowa... by herself." Can you tell Gabriella was impressed with the solo flight? We really enjoyed spending time with her for the past 11 days and we'll all miss her. Gabriella has already requested that we look at pictures of her all day so to "remind us of her."

We capped off Alyssa's visit with a fun overnight trip to the beach. Weather on the Oregon coast is less than predictable. It is pretty darn chilly more often than not and sometimes downright cold even in the summer. For this trip we were excited to find that it was just warm enough to let the kids actually play in the water. We all had a blast. It was Alyssa's first time seeing the ocean (any ocean) and it was Juliana's first time to really romp in it (she was 6 months old during our last ocean visit.)

Juliana was able to add a few new words to her vocabulary.... wave and ocean. Letting Juliana get into the water was a lot of fun because she would shout "A wave!... Yay!... Go!...One more!" etc.... every single time. However, you have to watch that small girly like a hawk. As proved by the hotel pool and the ocean, Juliana has NO water fear. Gabriella also enjoyed the sand and water, but she had a healthy respect for "white waves" and did a pretty good job of observing our family rule of, "No deeper than your knees." Mostly, she wanted to build sand castles and decorate them with shells.

I'll have pictures eventually, but for now.... some video. (Do I get some applause for that? You ask and I deliver. Even if I have to use Alyssa's camera to do so.)

Alyssa opted to wear a fleece jacket over her swimsuit. So maybe it was a bit chilly, but in comparison to our past trips it was downright warm. This video was right after she got hit by a nice big wave.... it turns out that bending down to inspect something in the ocean is risky. Jonathan is the one who is dying laughing.

And a cute picture I snapped of Alyssa on her camera...

Thanks for visiting Alyssa! We love you!

A Summer Smattering

I'm so backed up on blogging about our summer exploits! I could do whole posts about so many of the things we've been up to, but you'll have to settle for the super condensed version. So here you have it, a summer smattering...

I should probably start right back at the beginning of the month. For the fourth of July the girls rode in a very cute little parade with Gabriella's playgroup and we enjoyed a BBQ at our pastors house with friends.

A few weeks ago we enjoyed berry picking (raspberries, marion berries and blueberries) at Sauvie Island. We love going to Sauvie for our pumpkin each year and it was fun to make a summer visit.

We left just as the light was starting to get good. I really wanted Gabriella to stand in this glowing golden wheat field, but she would have none of it.

Our church enjoyed a beautiful day of baptism down at the riverfront. Afterwards we enjoyed spending time together with some food and games at the riverfront park. You can see more pictures I took at the baptism here.

This is Becky. She has a pretty amazing story. She inspires me with her faith and courage. It was wonderful to be able to stand with our friends as they professed the change that Jesus has worked in their lives.

We made it down to the Lake Oswego library to see a free live "Reading Between the Lions" show. Reading Between the Lions is a show on PBS that focuses on early literacy (phonemic awareness etc..). It is super cute, but Gabriella hasn't watched it on tv in a long time because Caillou is her current choice when she gets a tv show of the day. It was a great live show and we were able to meet and chat with the characters and their voice actors/puppeteers.

Leona!

Jonathan chatted with this guy. He was super nice.

The kids were totally entranced.

This lady does both Leona and a few other minor characters like this "Dixie Chimp". She was also super nice, but she looked totally different than I would have expected from her voice.

Gabriella had her first trip to the Portland Art Museum. She was pretty excited to see the Monet they have. The museum was actually celebrating the acquisition of a new sculpture of Ganesha so they had free admission and lots of Indian cultural activities. Gabriella was able to do a sand paining. Juliana pretty much slept through the whole trip in her stroller.

We were hoping to see "Sand in the City" in Pioneer Square after we finished at the museum, but we made it just in time to see them tearing down the sand sculptures. Gabriella was a little bummed she missed the kids sand play area, but tt actually ended up being pretty entertaining so we grabbed some food at Taco Del Mar and watched them work.

So there you have it. Just throw in my work, Jonathans internship, some pool trips, playgroup dates, creek splashing, visits with friends, library trips, birthday parties, church community get togethers and art projects and you have our July in a whirlwind. We've kept busy, but enjoyably so.