Santa Claus 2009...the year of the screaming...

Santa Claus Take 1:

Gabe's cousin Betsy arranges for Santa to visit the Octagon House in Aurora every year... Molly was the only cousin brave enough to sit on his lap, but wasn't very happy about it.

Santa Claus Take 2:

We took Molly to the Kids Party at Albany Fire... Santa slid down the pole - Molly was ok with it. Santa called kids names - Molly was ok with it. Santa called Molly's name - Molly was ok with that too. Daddy put Molly on Santa's lap - Molly was not ok.
Santa Claus Take 3:
This is the same Santa at the Salem Carousel as last year...remember the sweet sleeping baby?
Yeah, not so much sweet this year.
At some point you just start to feel sorry for her, but funny nonetheless.

Surprisingly, it only took seconds to calm down, and then she paraded around showing off her pretty christmas dress, jabbering to strangers, whinnying at the horses...

Molly was sooooo fascinated by the carousel that Gramma Helen ponied up for a ride, Molly wasn't quite sure what to make of it...

...but decided she liked it after all.

Ummm....

Perhaps it's time to start closing the bathroom door behind us...

Halloween Fun

Since Molly wouldn't make an appearance last Halloween, all of her cute newborn outfits didn't fit this year... we tried stuffing her into them, but all we got was a screaming baby.

Sooooo.... Molly Monkey had a good time on Halloween, tho she was really confused by the whole thing.

The family portrait courtesy of our neighbor Hazel:

Daddy Banana, Molly Monkey, and Zookeeper Lulu.

We had over 200 trick-or-treaters that night... 5+ pounds of candy!! Egad!

Molly finally visits the pumpkin patch!!

Just call me Martha...

A big Thank You to my Mom for coming down to watch Molly while Gabe & I tried our hand at canning! We are the proud creators of:

1 gallon of peaches

1/2 gallon of pears

1+ gallons of bread-n-butter pickles

3/4 gallon dilled beans

2 itty bitty jars of pickled beets

2 "special" jars of peaches & pears (we canned them with rum!!)

and a couple random jars of beans that we threw in some extra brine. (We call them Bread-n-butter beans, and beeted beans.)

(Don't laugh...We have so many green beans in our garden we're desperate for ideas!!)

Molly isn't so sure she's going to like all of these pickles,
but is excited to try the beets!!

PS. It's even cooler when you realize that with the exception of the peaches and pears, everything else came out of our garden!

Summer 2009

It's been a busy summer! Although fall means rain, we're looking forward to it since it also means an end to the endless BBQ's, weddings, camping trips...

For those of you who have not gotten to see Molly in a while, this has been a summer of change for her. She started the summer barely able to sit up on her own. By July she'd mastered sitting, which made bathtime a whole lot more fun!

We had to cut our annual Big Lake trip short this year... But we were able to make an appearence on Saturday. What beautiful weather!
Our Annual Shreve Camping trip proved to be interesting. Molly decided she liked camping, but didn't like to sleep in the cold. But she was a trooper & hung on for 6 days! She votes that she get all her baths in a rubbermaid container from now on.

Molly got to see her first parade courtesy of the Aurora Colony Days! She wasn't quite sure what to make of it, which pleased Gabe to no end. He hates parades, and says he's not going to another one until Molly is in the parade herself.

Thank goodness our neighbors have a pool! That 104 degree weather was rough going... a few days into it we finally installed the airconditioner, pitched Molly's playpen in our room, and camped out.

Concerts in the park are just one of the perks of living downtown! We're only 5 blocks away from the venue and so walked down for almost all of the shows. We were able to celebrate Momma's birthday in style!

We spent our anniversary in Seattle... nothing like having a romantic weekend with a 9-month old in tow. But we were able to get a few favorites in...

Breakfast at the Athenian Inn...

...Pikes Place Market...

...and the Seattle Aquarium.

Grammy Judy came to visit, and got to see Molly's last class at Little Gym as a Bug. She's now a Bird and loving all the new challeges and kiddos!

This summer we also discovered Molly loves the Beavs...

...and hates the Ducks!

(tee hee hee!)

Molly learned to scoot, then crawl within a week of each other. A mere 10-days later she was cruising like a champ. Then she discovered the drawer of tupperware/rubbermaid/glad containers. I've given up organizing it - Molly can destroy it in seconds!

Molly also popped her first two teeth... Wow. What a cranky baby! She also took her first steps, and is now walking a few feet independently. Our life as we know it is over. Nothing is safe. Nothing!

And just this week, she discovered the stairs. Man this kid is fast!!

Ummmm...

Jeepers I'm bad at keeping this thing updated!! Let's see...what's new on the home front...Molly is crawling, cruising, babbling, and still not sleeping thru the night. Gabe is still loving his job, and is starting to get into the groove of house maintenance (nothin' like buying an old house!). I am contemplating returning to school (if/when we find childcare for Molly), but am scared stiff by the prospect of Microbiology. Other than that our life is pretty boring. (OK, not boring but it's sure not exciting either!!) Our old camera had one too many trips to the beach so we had to invest in a new one, and I haven't had a chance to figure out how to download photos from it yet. (Yes, I know, shocking - Elizabeth doesn't have a free minute. Ha ha ha. I'll laugh with you.) But once I figure out the new technology (with a few more phone calls to my brothers I'm sure) I will get some new pictures of Miss Molly up here. She's grown so much!! This one will have to tide you thru until then...

Ok ok ok... hold your horses!!

Ok already! Here are pictures of Molly!! Good grief - you'd think people loved her or something!

This was Molly's 2nd trip to the beach, but considering her first time was so windy we turned around and headed back home I hardly think it counts. Therefore, I deem this Molly's First Trip to the Beach!! She liked it and hated it all at the same time. Hopefully next time it won't be so windy and rainy!

Molly has started this new thing of sleeping on her side that is just too cute! To top it all off she flings her arm up over her eyes... Poor persecuted baby!
Gramma Helen discovered that Molly loooves herself in the mirror. She cooes, slaps, kisses, talks, tries to figure out why there are two Daddy's... A mirror is always a good 45-minutes of entertainment for everyone.
"Can you believe the price of shoes these days?" murmurs Molly from around her binky.
(To be fair, the binky is in her mouth so she won't eat the paper.)
Grammy Judy sent Miss Molly a bunch of sun-suits, and with the weather warming up she's finally getting to wear some of them. Molly says, "I'm sorta naked...but I have clothes on...but there is definitely a breeze on my tummy... you know, I like this! Thanks Grammy!!"

Our big girl is sitting up like a champ now. She still hasn't figured out how to get to the sitting position by herself yet, but she'll get there soon enough.

"Look Mommy! Daddy & I are twins! Same haircut, same eyes, same goofy looks on our faces!"

(Gabe got his head shaved as part of a charity event...Molly wasn't quite sure if she liked the feel of it or not, but kept slapping his head reapeatedly.)

Molly does not like carrots. Do you blame her?

Molly's first Peep Day

Molly seemed to enjoy her first Peep Day at Aunt Kitty's. In fact she was so pooped out from all the entertaining she was required to do she slept the whole way home. What a trooper!

It's truely a shame the pink cowboy boots got cropped out of these pics, but you'll have to trust us that she was adorable... as usual...

I promise...

I promise to update more pictures soon! The last couple of months have been kinda hectic; if I was able to get to the computer I was working on papers for school... and when I finally downloaded the camera the other day we had over 200 pictures on it! Now I finally have some time to get back to updating this site. Hope you will bear with me for a bit longer! Here's our latest favorite picture to tide you thru until then...

Before & After...

There were a loooot of ugly overgrown bushes in the front yard when we moved in... It was a long time to get them cut down...

...torn out...
...and stumps dug down...
...before we finally had an "after" photo.
(Thanks to Cliff for all of his back pain/sweat/tears, and last but not least for his supervising skills! We owe you buddy!)
Hippies though we may be, when you're allergic to a tree it just has to come out of the back yard. Gabe didn't mind, it meant he got to use power tools.

After it was down, we realized it was the one tree on our property! All the other trees you see belong to the neighbors... Oops.

Mom begged me to keep the "beautiful" wallpaper, but it had to go.

(Sorry Mom. There are about 20 more rolls in the basement when you convince Dad into it...)

Before...

...during....

...and after!

Molly & Gabe want to know what I was smoking when I picked out this color, but I think it's nice. (Shut up!! It's nice in person I swear!!)