The Glaswegians

August Update

2009-08-30T20:39:00.001-07:00

August has been another great month. Here are some highlights and funny moments:

1. Laura's brother Val and his family came for a visit from the Netherlands. The girls really enjoyed meeting their cousins. Here is a shot of Carina at a Mariners baseball game at Safeco Field in Seattle during their visit.

Carina and Gavin at the ballpark.

2. We enjoyed our weekly visits to our local CSA farm to pick up fresh fruits and vegetables and to play on the farm. The girls have been in "farm school" once a week, helping the farmer pick vegetables, move cattle and other farming chores. They also got to swim in the Snoqualmie River, which runs through the farm. Here is Natalie looking at the pigs. I'm not sure who was dirtier: Natalie or the pigs.

3. We went for a hike on Tiger Mountain, which is only three miles from our home. Once again we didn't see any tigers on the mountain. Fortunately, Natalie didn't cry about it this time. We hiked along this trail, which was crowded with ferns and blueberry bushes.

4. Lachlyn has discovered the world of solid foods! She has tried rice cereal, sweet potatoes, bananas, peaches and peas. We introduced peas for the first time today and she wasn't sold on them at all. Maybe she'll warm up to them tomorrow.

5. We went on a day trip yesterday out to the Olympic peninsula to visit the Olympic Game Farm in Sequim and to hike along Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park.

The game farm lets you drive unescorted around the fields where buffaloes, elk, deer, zebras, yaks, alpacas and peacocks live, and you can buy bread to feed them. The animals walked right up to our car and ate bread out of our hands. Carina and Natalie learned first hand that buffaloes have really bad breath and aweful table manners. There are also bears, lions, tigers, cougars, wolves, coyotes, bobcats, etc in cages. Some of the bears are former trained Holywood movie bears; if you wave to them, they'll wave back!

Hurricane Ridge is a ridge at the top of a mountain that rises up 5,500 feet from Port Angeles, which is a town in the middle of the north end of the Olympic peninsula. Looking out to the north from the ridge you can see Port Angeles, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Vancouver Island. Looking out to the south you can see a wide swath of the Olympic mountains, including Mount Olympus. Lachlyn really seemed to enjoy the hike, as you can tell from her face.

The view to the North.

Views to the South.

6. Lachlyn is mobile!

And not only can she drive the car, she can crawl! She mostly army crawls, but she can get up on her knees and move a little too. Right now she only crawls to reach things that are within a few feet in front of her, but it won't be long before she's cruising around the house serving as our very own cute little Roomba. She's already shown to us that we'll need to start vacuuming and sweeping constantly or she'll do it for us.

7. And a couple random moments from the month:

We caught Natalie "brown-handed" eating chocolate chips that she had pilfered from the bag in the freezer. As if we wouldn't notice. At least she had a good time.

Milkmen of the world, beware! You never know what might be lurking in that little box.

Summer Vacation

2009-07-16T21:59:00.000-07:00

We're back from a great vacation. It started early Saturday morning when I donned my cycling clothes and started pedaling toward Portland. I was one of 10,000 riders participating in the Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic (STP), a 200 mile ride from Seattle to Portland. I rode 6.5 hours on Saturday, covering 120 miles. I met up with Laura and the girls in the tiny town of Winlock, Washington, and we drove to the Great Wolf Lodge to spend the rest of the day at their indoor waterpark. The girls had a great time at the waterpark. Carina tried 7 different waterslides and the wave pool and loved it. She is already lobbying to go back. On Sunday, I rode another 4.5 hours to cover the remaining 80 miles. Natalie very maturely (and without prompting) told me as I left: "Good luck Dad, I hope you have a good time on your ride!" I did. We met up at the finish line at Halliday Park in downtown Portland and enjoyed the party there for a couple hours. When Laura drove into Portland she made a point of noting to the girls that "Wasn't that a long drive, and to think your dad is riding his bike this whole way." Natalie was pretty impressed with herself too and replied "Yeah, I can't believe we drove all the way to Portland." Here are a couple shots at the finish line:

I'm the rider wearing the red long sleeve jacket.

From there we headed west to Cannon Beach, Oregon for a couple days at the beach. Cannon Beach is a wonderful little town with an amazing beach, great restaurants, unique shops, and a peaceful atmosphere. The only downside is that it is very temperate like the rest of the beaches on the Oregon and Washington coasts, so most days the temperature never gets above 70 degrees and you can't get in the ocean without freezing. Here are a few scences from the beach:

We then drove to Mount Rainier National Park. Natalie was very well behaved on the ride, and we found out why when we arrived -- she spent a good portion of the ride drawing on her pants with a pen. Here she is holding up her handywork:

We spent the night at the Paradise Inn, a lodge built in 1917 in a sub-alpine meadow on the south side of Mount Rainier (or, as Natalie insists on calling it, "Mountain Rainier") at an elevation of a little over 5,000+ feet. The lodge was a fun place to stay and the main hall and dining area are very charming. Here are pictures in and around the lodge:

Paradise Inn

Carina and Natalie sitting in "thrones" in the lodge.

The next morning we hiked around the meadows of Paradise. Some of the wildflowers were out, but most of the trails were still partly covered in snow. They had over 700 inches of snow last year and it hasn't quite melted off yet. Natalie and Carina proudly wore pins that a park ranger gave them that showed a picture of a hiking boot and the words "Don't be a meadow stomper." Though it wasn't long before we had to tell Natalie to stay on the path and she replied "But I want to be a meadow stomper." At another point on our hike, Natalie also complained to us that "Carina is going to push me off the steep cliff." Carina enjoyed the hike but repeatedly expressed concern that she didn't want to hike all the way to the top (which I explained to her would require mountain climbing gear and another 8,000 feet of elevation gain) and couldn't understand why we were calling it a volcano since "it doesn't have a volcano hole." Here are some pictures from our hike (and a few shots from a scenic overlook on the drive up to Paradise):

An Avalanche Lily in the meadow.

And here is some of the wildlife we spotted on the hike :

Marmots

Deer

Lachlyn (And don't worry about the snow, it was 70 degrees!)

We then drove around the south end of the park and made a pit stop at the Grove of the Patriarchs to look at some 1,000 year old Western Red Cedar and Hemlock trees.

Lachlyn in the Grove of the Patriarchs

Our last stop was at Sunrise on the Northeastern corner of the park, elevation 6,400 feet. The snow had all melted at Sunrise and the meadows were starting to bloom. The views of Rainier from there were amazing! We could also see Mount Adams as well (or, as Natalie called it, "Volcano Adams").

The meadows at Sunrise

The view of Mount Rainier from Sunrise

June Update

2009-06-21T18:04:00.000-07:00

It has been another great month. Some highlights from the last few weeks:

1. Lachlyn often will get a little fussy on long car rides. About a week ago Natalie apparently had enough. Laura overheard Natalie tell Lachlyn, who is 4 months old: "Lachlyn, stop making unreasonable demands!"

Does this look like a child that makes unreasonable demands?

2. Natalie likes exclamations and she recently coined her own: "Holy Smokeamoly!" A combination of "Holy Smokes" and "Holy Guacamole!" It's hilarious hearing these words in her squeaky voice.

3. Laura stopped by Walgreens the other day with Carina in tow to pick up a prescription. Carina, being a curious 6 year old had to delve into this, and the following conversation ensued:

Carina: "What's the medicine for?"
Laura: "For my brain."
Carina: "What's wrong with your brain?"
Laura: "It's not working right."
Carina: " What is 4+4?
Laura: "8."
Carina: "What is 4+6?"
Laura: "10."
Carina: "Sounds to me like your brain is working just fine."

[If you are wondering, Laura's brain really is just fine. She is finishing up her course of treatment for the post-partum depression and anxiety that she experiences after the birth of each baby.]

4. Natalie has two of the most skinned up knees I've seen. I realized why when I looked at the pictures of her I've taken in the past month. She's never standing still or on two feet!

Natalie playing with paper dolls:

Natalie "juggling" an orange:

Natalie rocking out naked with her guitar (one picture slightly edited for modesty; this is on the internet after all...):

5. Here is Carina giving Lachlyn a bottle. Carina is enjoying playing the role of big sister. Notice that she is now missing four teeth. Pretty soon she'll be eating all her meals through a straw.

Lachlyn taking the initiative and trying to hold it herself:

Lachlyn saying "Look ma, no hands!":

And, finally, Lachlyn living every baby's dream:

Cycling

2009-06-14T13:28:00.000-07:00

I have been training the last few months for a long bike ride called the Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic, which is an organized bike ride (about 10,000 people participate each year) from Seattle to Portland the second weekend of July. The ride is 206 miles. Most people do it in 2 days, but about 25% of riders each year do it in one day. I'm going to do it in two days this year. I've ramped up my mileage each week in preparation for the ride, and yesterday completed my first 100+ mile ride in one day (with 5,200 feet of elevation gain too). It took 5 hours 45 minutes.

Here are some interesting sights I've seen around the Seattle area on my bike over the last few months:

1. Snoqualmie Falls. The ride up to the top is only a couple miles long and the grade is a steady and reasonable 5%. The view at the top is amazing.

2. On my most recent ride up to Snoqualmie Falls I heard a police motorcycle siren behind me, followed shortly by the throaty, growling sound of cars with big engines. I then got passed by one Lamborghini, two Lamborghinis, three Lamborghins, four, wow!, five, six, seven, how many are there?, eight, nine, and then a procession of about 20 Ferraris, Porches and some classic sports cars. They were headed up to the Salish Lodge (a nice hotel at the top of the falls) for some sort of Lamborghini club event. Here are some shots of the procession of cars and some of the Lamborghinis. I got to see them again as I passed them going up the hill because the valet parking attendants at the Salish Lodge couldn't park the cars as fast as they were arriving. So, I guess I can also say I've ridden my bike up a hill faster than a Lamborghini.

3. Here is a shot of Lake Sammamish from on top of Cougar Mountain (about 1,450 feet). Not sure whose house this is, but they've got quite the view.

4. This is Mount Si in North Bend, Washington. I've hiked to the top before with Laura (and Carina, who we carried up in a baby backpack).

5. You know you are in a rural area when you see this kind of sign by the side of the road:

6. And, lastly for now, I happened to stop for a drink in front of this house and noticed the fenced in pen in front of the house was full of kangaroos (or maybe wallabies). I wasn't expecting to see that in the Snoqualmie valley east of Seattle. My phone couldn't zoom in on them well, but they are visible in the full size picture (which you can see by double clicking on the picture).

Some Highlights from April and May

2009-05-10T21:32:00.000-07:00

We've had a great time with the girls the last few weeks. Here are some highlights:

1. Lachlyn rolled over for the first time. She isn't quite 3 months old yet, so her rolling over came as a surprise to us. Lachlyn is also starting to like to put weight on her legs and to be held in a standing position. Here is a shot of her earlier today standing upright by herself, just leaning against the couch. We don't try to encourage this, but she just seems to like it.

2. Carina was in a musical play in kindergarten. The musical was "The Little Red Hen," and Carina was the Steal-eyed Fox. She had a few speaking parts and sang along with her class on all the songs. Carina acted a little shy during her performance -- her voice was a little quite and she was standing turned at an angle away from most of the people in the room -- but she managed to say all her lines right and everything went smoothly. Here is a picture of the class after the performance.

3. Carina is a on a "treats time-out" right now. She stole a few bites of her little sister's ice cream (and wasn't completely truthful about it when questioned about it and other crimes later), so her punishment is that she doesn't get any treats for 10 days. Well, on Saturday morning we were planning to go to the farmers market. The girls had been to the market last week and had been ogling the stand selling fresh doughnuts. Natalie did something good before we left for the market, and Laura told Natalie that she could have some doughnuts at the market as a reward. Carina overheard this and must have come up with a plan because she called Natalie into her room to talk. A minute later, Natalie comes out of her room and tells Laura: "I don't want to eat the doughnuts all by myself. I want to share them with my best friend." Then she turned around and yelled down the hall: "Okay, Carina, I said it!"

4. I caught Carina in the midst of a classic six year old moment this afternoon. I walked into the office to grab a tissue, not realizing anyone was in the office, and suddenly Carina pops her head out from under the desk and says, in a panicked voice: "I wanted to be alone in here!" I decided that this comment and her location merited further investigation, so I asked what she was doing and peeked under the desk and saw this:

She was using a butter knife to shave a large piece of sidewalk chalk into chalk powder, which she was then putting into plastic bags. I'm not quite sure why she was doing it, but she said it had something to do with an experiment she was planning. I let her proceed with her work, outside.

5. And, for good measure, here are a few more cute shots of Lachlyn. She looks pretty good with her underpants on her head...

Easter

2009-04-12T13:45:00.001-07:00

We've had a great Easter so far today. The girls woke up at 7:00am, delighted to find a trail of candy leading down the stairs. They were so focused on the trail of candy that they didn't notice we'd moved all of the living room furniture into the dining area and moved the dining table into the living room (and they had to walk through the middle of it). We are cooking for 16 people -- by far the biggest group we've had over for dinner, and we had to shuffle everything around so that everyone will fit.

Here are some cute shots from this morning.

Lachlyn's Blessing

2009-04-05T11:01:00.001-07:00

Lachlyn had her baby blessing last week. Here she is in the dress Laura made for her:

The blessing was a sweet, spirit filled experience. It was great having my parents in town for the week. Natalie especially enjoyed having her grandparents here and must have talked my mom into reading her 100 story books over the week.

Natalie's Birthday

2009-04-05T10:49:00.001-07:00

Natalie turned 3 years old on March 10. After overcoming some initial shyness at having a crowd of family circling around her to watch her open her presents, she had a great time.

Carina's letters

2009-04-05T10:39:00.000-07:00

Carina spontaneously decided to write letters to several of her friends from school the other day.

Here is the whole collection. Note in particular the one that is second from the bottom on the right. Houston, we have a problem...

Playtime with Lachlyn

2009-04-05T10:32:00.001-07:00

Carina and Natalie are really starting to enjoy having Lachlyn around. Here are a few cute photos:

Like three peas in a pod...

Settling down again

2009-03-04T08:56:00.000-08:00

We are settling down into life with three children. Lachlyn is doing great and up to about 9.5 pounds. Here are some pictures:

It has been fun spending the last four weeks at home with the girls. Here are a few funny moments from the last few weeks:

1. Somehow Carina and Natalie discovered Scooby Doo and have been asking to watch it everyday. The other day I heard Natalie responding to an instruction by Carina: "No way Scooby-Doo!"

2. A few days ago Laura heard Natalie desperately calling for help from the bathroom. She found Natalie stuck in the toilet with her arms and legs and head in the air and the rest of her body folded up and stuck below the seat. Natalie is completely potty trained now, but she usually uses a small seat adapter. This time she forgot to put it on and fell in.

3. A few days ago, Natalie came up to me and touched my cheeks, which I hadn't shaved in about a week. She told me: "Hmmmm, I like your fur."

4. I walked in on Carina and Natalie playing a game in the family room. Carina told us they were "playing orphanage." Wow... sounds like fun.

5. Natalie to Laura: "Mom, my eyebrows hurt." I offered her some "medicine" (a.k.a. a Cadbury mini egg) and she said it made her feel much better. Not surprisingly, when she realized that the medicine was chocolate, she let us know only moments later that her other eyebrow suddenly hurt too.

6. Natalie is very excited for her third birthday, which is coming up on March 10. She equates springtime with her birthday, so when Laura mentioned the other day that it looked like spring had arrived because the crocuses were blooming and the daffodils and tulips were coming up, Natalie excitedly said "Springtime!?! It's March 10? It's my birthday?!!!"

Three days in

2009-02-15T16:13:00.001-08:00

Lachlyn is 3 days old today. Here is a picture of her today. To show you how much she looks like her older sisters, compare this picture with the ones below of Carina and Natalie.

Carina:

Natalie:

And, for fun, here is a picture of Natalie today after her bath making a "silly" face:

Introducing Lachlyn Ann Glasgow

2009-02-13T20:50:00.000-08:00

We are very pleased to introduce our new daughter, Lachlyn Ann Glasgow. Lachlyn arrived on February 12. The labor went smoothly, and she and Laura are both doing great. Carina fell head over heals for her the moment she saw her. I've heard Carina say several times: "She is soooooo adorable!" and "I'm so glad we have a new baby!" Natalie, on the other hand, was initially a little skeptical about this new addition to our family, but she is warming up to her. Laura and I still feel like Natalie is our baby (in fact, we've each slipped up and called Lachlyn "Natalie" several times), so I guess we have a little adjusting to do as well.

If you are wondering, Lachlyn would be written phonetically as "Lock - lynn". We wanted a name that was beautiful and uncommon, and we both felt strongly that Lachlyn was the right name. It is the female variation of the name "Lachlan," which is a little more common (at least in Scotland). "Ann" is probably the most common female name in both Laura's genealogical lines and mine (at least over the past 150 years). We didn't give Carina or Natalie middle names, but this just felt right with Lachlyn. When Carina heard that we'd given the baby a middle name, she said: "What?! You gave the baby another name! I'm going to call her Ann!" We let Carina know that, no, she'll call her sister Lachlyn.

Lachlyn weighed in at 7 pounds, 9 ounces and was 20.5 inches. Here she is:

A day in Seattle

2009-01-24T16:17:00.000-08:00

We decided to spend a day in downtown Seattle before the baby comes. We started off by visiting the Olympic sculpture park, which is a brand new park right next to Elliot Bay (just down from the space needle) that is filled with sculptures.

The girls in front of "The Wake"

Natalie in front of two of the Eye Benches, made of black granite

"Split," a tree made out of stainless steel

A view of Elliot Bay and the Olympics

We then went to Ivars, which is a fish 'n chips joint on the waterfront. We were swarmed by seagulls begging for french fries. The girls were more than happy to indulge them.

Carina looking happy and sassy after lunch.

We finished off the outing with a visit to Pike Place Market. We bought some fresh rainbow trout at the Pike Place Fish Market and enjoyed watching them hurl the fish from the iced display to the counter for filleting.

What we said, what she heard

2009-01-24T16:12:00.000-08:00

Another anecdote of kids not hearing what you are saying:

The family was in the car together headed to Seattle for the afternoon, and Laura and I got talking about the dead sea scrolls. Carina is listening in on the conversation in the back seat and then, in a confused voice, pipes up:

"What are sea squirrels?"

I can only imagine what she was thinking: Mom and Dad went to see an exhibit at a museum about dead Sea Squirrels?!!?

Christmas

2008-12-26T09:38:00.000-08:00

We spent Christmas with Laura's parents and Boyd and Amy's families in Bellevue. Christmas Eve featured a Christmas talent show, which is becoming an annual tradition, and lots of good food. The kids spread out sleeping bags in one room and we all squeezed into the house for the night. Christmas day for Carina began at 6:45am when she came into our room to wake us up. Unfortunately, Christmas for Natalie started at 2:30am when she woke up coughing -- she has been fighting a fever for several days now. Natalie was awake for about two hours in the night and was not ready to get up at 6:45 with everyone else. She was cheerful for a few minutes and got through her stocking and a couple presents (a new easel and an easy bake oven), but then her fever spiked to 104.5 and she melted down and fell asleep on Laura for a couple of hours. Natalie's fever dropped later in the morning, and she perked up enough to finish opening her presents in the afternoon. (And she is feeling much better today.)

This is what Christmas morning looked like inside:

This is what Christmas morning looked like outside; it snowed most of the day!

Carina and Natalie opening their stockings:

Carina's first artwork on the easel she and Natalie received from Santa. She wrote "I Love Crismis and My Famle."

Carina enjoying her new bean bag chair:

Natalie passed out on Laura:

Carina and her cousing Emma dueling with Easy Bake Oven tools:

Carina showing off some gifts from her Grandma Linda and Granda Terry:

Carina's thoughts on Christmas, after having opened all of her presents:

Natalie taking her medicine with "magic sparkles" added:

Natalie, feeling much better, admiring a musical doll from Santa:

Doctor Natalie enjoying her new doctor dress up clothes and tools. Laura made the lab coat. And, yes, she is taking the camel's temperature.

Natalie in her Go, Diego, Go animal rescue outfit. Laura made the jacket.

Natalie opening a present from her cousin Luke:

We're Having A White Christmas

2008-12-21T14:38:00.000-08:00

It has snowed 5 or 6 inches in the last few days. We are enjoying the snow and I'm enjoying the time off from work. People in Seattle generally go into hysterics at the thought of snow, which is why Carina's school was cancelled on Wednesday because "it might snow," even though it never did on Wednesday. Last night the forecast was actually for a blizzard with sustained winds of 50-75mph and gusts of up to 90 mph, but the forecasters were wrong: a few inches of snow fell and there was a light breeze.

The weather should stay under freezing for the upcoming week and more snow is in the forecast, so it's looking like a white Christmas! Here are some shots of us sledding in the front yard and building a 7 foot tall snowman .

Natalie is wearing rain boots. We don't get much snow here...

Natalie "looking for snow"

The masterpiece

Christmas Party

2008-12-14T19:48:00.001-08:00

We had our ward Christmas party last night. Santa made his annual appearance and unlike last year, Natalie was delighted to see him. She ran to him with both arms outstretched and hopped onto his lap. When he asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she pointed to the basket of candy canes sitting next to him and asked for one. Easy to please.

Carina's Birthday and Other News

2008-12-07T16:45:00.001-08:00

Carina turned six yesterday and had two parties, one with 6 of her friends from kindergarten and her little sister ("because she's my best friend") and another with family. Laura actually offered Carina $20 to forego the friends party, but Carina knew better than to sell her birthday party for the monetary equivalent of a mess of potage. They started the party playing Hullabaloo and pin the tale on the donkey, then they had pizza for lunch. Instead of the usual cake and ice cream, Carina asked for a Krispy Kreme donut cake (i.e. buy 18 donuts and stack them in a big circle) and orange sherbet. A little weird, but the kids all seemed to love it. After that they opened presents and then attacked a unicorn pinata. Some pinatas break after a few hits; this one refused to give up. The kids each got 4 or 5 turns taking three shots at it each (which adds up to about 100 hits), and about half way throw I "tenderized" it with a paring knife, and it still didn't break, so in the interest of getting the kids out the door on time I finished it off. Perhaps the most striking part of the party was the sheer amount of noise 7 kindergarteners can make. Very loud.

Carina opening a gift.

A candid moment of Natalie and Carina's friend Will laughing at the party.

Carina tenderizing the unicorn. Or, as she put it: "We fed her with candy but then we had to spank her."

Other news:

1. A few days ago Carina lost her second tooth. She can now sing "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth."

2. Carina and Natalie are now sharing a room and have bunk beds. They love their new bunk beds and love sharing a room. We moved Natalie over early so she would have plenty of time to adjust and wouldn't feel like she was displaced by the baby, but it looks like we had no need to worry. Perhaps the best part about it right now is we no longer get woken up every morning by Natalie yelling: "Momm!!!!!! Daadddd!!!!! Open the door!!!! I need to go potty!!!"

Carina's friends at her birthday party playing on the bunk beds. It reminded me of the story "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed," though with fewer broken heads.

3. Carina is really big into writing and she has her own way of phonetically spelling everything. She also likes to type on the computer. The other day I walked in to use the computer and found the following gem typed in one long unpunctuated string into the search box on google: "i love my mom and my dad thea r my best peras i hv evr had an my hol an tir lif i love my mom and my dad thea r col i love my perass thea r the best and thea r rafc i love my peranss thea r the best evr i love my mom and my dad wen i m 8 i will b babtist wach the hole gost i will b blest i will b a mebr uv the chrch love will sdracchan my bod i will chec av jeszs fore vr aand evr af i oba the cmamans i will hav the hole gost a gen i will red the sgrapsrs and i wiav the sgrapsrs and oba the maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanmans and oba my mom and dad and oba jezas and gat the hole gost the end"

For those of you who can't read Carina, she wrote: "I love my mom and my dad. They are the best parents I have ever had in my whole entire life. I love my mom and my dad. They are cool. I love my parents. They are the best and they are terrific. I love my parents. They are the best ever. I love my mom and my dad. When I am 8 I will be baptized [with?] the holy ghost. I will be blessed. I will be a member of the church. Love will strengthen my body. I will [????] Jesus forever and ever and if I obey the commandments I will have the holy ghost again. I will read the scriptures and I [????] the scriptures and obey the commandments and obey mom and dad and obey Jesus and get the holy ghost. The end."

Wow! I'm not sure where that came from because I've never heard anything like that from her lips but it sure warms a parents heart. And just in time for Christmas too...

4. We had a family home evening lesson a couple weeks ago and talked about our bodies and how they grow. As part of the lesson, we sang “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.” Natalie must be accustomed to singing this at nursery when she is wearing a dress because when we got to the knees part she looked down at her pants and up at us and down again with a bewildered look - “ I don’t have any knees!!”

5. Natalie has a new favorite phrase. "My heart says...", "My heart likes..." or "My heart tells me..." I'm not sure where she got it from, probably some disney movie, but it has been funny to hear her say, in her squeeky little voice, "My heart says its time for dinner!" or "My heart says it needs some chocolate."

President Laura

2008-11-30T19:14:00.000-08:00

Laura has been the president of our homeowners association for the last couple years. The other day she stopped by the treasurer's house with Carina and Natalie in tow to drop something off. Curious, Carina asked: "What job does Dave have Mom?" "He's the treasurer," Laura responded. "And what's your job?" Carina asked. "I'm the president." Looking impressed, Carina said "ooohhh, very nice!!!" followed a moment later by a puzzled: "...but, I thought Barack Obama was president?"

A glimpse into Carina's mind.

Halloween (updated)

2008-10-27T19:51:00.000-07:00

Carina and Natalie were raccoons for Halloween. Laura's parents have been pestered by raccoons stealing their cats' food for years, and Ned has taken up the hobby of shooting the raccoons with an air rifle (it doesn't hurt the raccoons, but it does scare them) when they sneak on to his deck to steal the food. The girls thought it would be funny to dress up as raccoons and show up on Ned and Marilyn's deck.

Once Natalie started getting candy, she really got into the act. She has perfected the angry raccoon snarl. Take a look.

Here is shot of the girls with their haul. (And Natalie giving her trademark Raccoon snarl.)

Both girls have been devouring the candy as fast as we'll let them. Natalie is especially fond of the lollipops; she likes to lick them down to about half their normal size, and then leave them sitting around the house (perhaps she's creating stashes for later consumption?). We've found her half eaten lollipops on the family room floor, the stairs, the master bathroom countertop, etc.

Tiger Mountain

2008-10-12T11:20:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we went for a hike on Tiger Mountain, which is a few miles from our home. We walked about three miles on various trails, including the "Swamp Trail" and the "Around the Lake Trail." The girls had a great time, especially running ahead a little ways, hiding behind a tree, and then jumping out and shouting "Boo!" at us when we'd walk by. We passed many deer trails that went off into the woods, which the girls called "tiger trails." Just as we were finishing our hike, and came in sight of the parking lot, Natalie dropped on to her knees, let out a few tears, and said in a disappointed voice "Ohhh, I didn't see any tigers..."

The State Fair

2008-10-04T09:33:00.000-07:00

We went to the state fair a couple weeks ago. The girls loved the rides, the animals and the food. We also enjoyed "mutton bustin," which features 3 to 5 year old kids seeing how long they can ride on the backs of sheep, as well as the human cannonball.

One tooth down

2008-09-14T16:37:00.000-07:00

Carina lost her first tooth today. She has been wiggling it day and night for the last couple days. We asked Carina what finally popped it out, and she responded: I was munching some goldfish crackers and it was like "Is that a goldfish or is that my tooth?"

New Baby Girl (coming soon)!

2008-09-10T20:19:00.000-07:00

Laura and I are pleased to announce that we are expecting another baby. Laura had an ultrasound today and we learned that we'll be having a little girl around February 4, 2009. We're excited and are looking forward to having three cute girls running around the house. (And Laura is relieved we won't have to paint one of the bedrooms upstairs; right now the girls' rooms are purple and pink.) We asked the girls a few days ago whether they thought a boy or a girl was coming. Natalie told us it was going to be a "baby sister," but Carina claimed that she received divine inspiration that it would be a boy.

Oddly enough, I had a premonition many years ago that I might be one of those guys that had only girls, and it seems to be coming true. Well, so far so good. We'll see how things are going in 12 years when we have girls aged 17, 14 and 11...

Kindergarten

2008-09-10T20:13:00.000-07:00

Carina started kindergarten a few days ago. Her school is Sunny Hills Elementary, which is about a mile from our home. She has had a blast and seems to really love school. The picture below was taken as she left for her first day of school.

The Olympics

2008-08-10T18:19:00.000-07:00

We've enjoyed watching the Olympics the last few days. Natalie liked the opening ceremonies, especially a scene where a young girl in a pink dress was flying around the stadium.

After watching this for a few moments, Natalie ran off and came back with a dress, a pink tutu and some butterfly wings. She got all dressed up, and then turned to Laura and I and said: "Okay, now make me fly!"

Carina also had a funny comment on Saturday afternoon. We were watching a rowing event for a few minutes and she commented: "Ehh, we were faster in our canoe at the lake yesterday."

Camping and Horseback riding at Ensign Ranch

2008-08-10T12:39:00.001-07:00

We went camping yesterday at Ensign Ranch in eastern Washington. Ensign Ranch is owned by the church. Carina and Natalie enjoyed sleeping in a tent with us in the woods, though we couldn't get them to go to sleep until we laid down in the tent with them. They are too used to playing in tents to think of them as a place to sleep. We started the next morning by the side of a river watching people fish.

Natalie and I sitting on a log enjoying the scenery.

Once it warmed up, Carina and I spent an hour sliding down a giant, 50 foot wide slip 'n slide at the ranch (Natalie tried it too but protested that it was "too cold"). After that we rented a canoe and paddled around the lake, and then finished off the day with some horseback riding. Both girls got to ride horses, which Laura and I led around a field for about 20 minutes.

I've never seen Natalie so delighted and thrilled as she was on the back of the horse. Her legs were about a foot too short to reach the stirrups, even on the smallest saddle they had. When I mention the ride to her today, she gets a dreamy look on her face and talks about Micah (the horse she rode).

Natalie ended up with sun kissed cheeks from the day in the sun; I think this picture is pretty cute.

Getting bigger

2008-08-10T12:20:00.000-07:00

Carina has never been a big eater. She will gorge on the occasional meal, but she rarely eats much at dinner. From time to time I'll tell her that Natalie is going to out grow her, and Carina will end up being the little sister. It turns out both of them are still growing like bean stalks. In the last five months, Carina grew 0.75 inches and Natalie grew a startling 1.75 inches. Carina seemed pleased with her accomplishment and announced: "And that was without eating!"

Overheard Conversations and Naughty Words

2008-07-11T17:41:00.001-07:00

Here is part of a recent conversation between Laura and Carina that I overheard:

Laura: "Carina, you need to learn to clean up your toys. When you leave them out, it shows you don't care about them. We are going to take away some of your toys until you learn how to keep your room clean."

Carina's response (in a sad, disappointed voice): "But that will be hundreds of days!"
____________________

Another one:

Carina: "Why do I have to use the special shampoo after I go swimming?"

Laura: "Because if you don't your hair will turn green."

Carina: "Really? Do I need to go wash it right now then? Is it too late?"

Natalie (in a sqeeky, opportunistic little voice off to the side): "I need a shower; my hair is turning blue."
___________________

And one more involving Laura, Carina, Natalie and I sitting in the car eating ice cream.

Steve (holding a cup of hazelnut ice cream): "Sorry Natalie, you can't have a taste of this. You might be allergic to nuts."

Natalie (to herself, a moment later, in a squeeky little voice): "Dang it! I can't have any ice cream. Dang it!"

Natalie (a few seconds later): "Hmmm... Dang it... That's a naughty word. Hmmm... Stupid! Carina is stupid! Carina is stupid!"

Carina took this in stride; Natalie wasn't saying it to be mean. It sounded more like she was just taking an inventory of her collection of naughty words. We liked that Natalie's repertoire of naughty words is limited to "Dang it" and "Carina is stupid."

July 4, 200,000,000 b.c.

2008-07-03T21:35:00.000-07:00

Kids have a funny sense of time.

While driving to the store earlier today, Carina and I were got talking about the 4th of July. I explained that it is called Independence Day because it was the day the United States declared its independence from England. Carina nodded her head as she listened and said: "Yeah, that was a long time ago, before I was born and even before you and mom or grandma and granpa were born. That was back when Laura [Ingalls Wilder] was alive." (Carina and I have been reading the Little House on the Prairie books together for the last year, and are on the second to last book.)

I explained to Carina that the declaration of independence was made even before Laura was alive. Carina seemed taken aback by this and said, in a surprised voice, "You mean they made the declaration of independence back when dinosaurs were on the earth!?!" I clarified that, actually, the dinosaurs died before the declaration of independence was made and I could see the wheels in her head spinning while she tried to fathom how people could have been around before Laura without dinosaurs running around.

Cats Can't Drive

2008-06-21T15:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon, Carina decided to write a book by herself (this wasn't prompted). Here is her book -- funny, original, and impressive for a five year old who hasn't even started kindergarten yet. I've provided a little help below with some of her spelling, though it is kind of fun to try to guess what she wrote without help. The actual book is bound with scotch tape into book format.

Cover Page: "Cats Can't Drive" - "Book By Carina Glasgow"

Page 1: Cat on Skateboard says "Stop this Taxi!" Carina is the girl chasing the skateboard.

Page 2: Text: "She doesn't know that she's going the wrong way!"

Page 3: Cat crying.

Page 4: Cat sleeping - "The End".

Back Cover: A Photo of the Author (Carina asked Laura to print this for her; Carina decided to put a photo on the back cover and she selected the picture).

Dr. Jekyl and Miss Natalie

2008-06-21T15:26:00.000-07:00

These are two recent photos of Natalie. I think they do a great job of exhibiting the range of her personality -- sweet and silly (and occasionally wild).

The Graduate

2008-06-21T15:23:00.001-07:00

Carina recently graduated from preschool. Her preschool staged an actual graduation ceremony, complete with paper mortarboards, diplomas, and a line of preschoolers marching to Pomp and Circumstance. Carina was proud, though a little sad to be done with school for the summer. She is looking forward to kindergarten this fall.

Italia

2008-05-24T17:50:00.000-07:00

Our vacation in Italy was amazing. Since we returned two weeks ago, everyone has asked us the same two questions: (1) Did you bring your kids?, and (2) What was your favorite part? Answers: (1) Are there people out there that actually bring their 5 year old and 2 year old kids with them on a whirlwind trip through Italy? I don't understand that; I love my kids, but I think you'd have to be a little crazy to bring them on a trip like this. (2) I can't even begin to guess what my favorite part was, but I will say the places I most want to go back to are, in no particular order: Rome, Riomaggiore, and Lake Como.

Day 1: Paris

We boarded our Air France flight at 2pm in Seattle and a relatively painless 10 hours later (thank you Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones, thank you private seat back entertainment system, thank you roomy coach seats and delicious airline food) we landed in Paris at 8am. (What wasn't painless was the fact that it felt like midnight and we were getting sleepy.) We started off our sight seeing with Notre Dame. At the time, Notre Dame seemed like a really interesting church, though looking back now it pales in comparison with St. Peters and the cathedrals in Orvieto and Florence. We attempted to admire Notre Dame's flying buttresses but had to focus more on not taking flight ourselves -- it was cold, very windy and very wet. The weather couldn't have been much worse.

Notre Dame (and Ma Dame)

Next came the Eiffel tower. We hiked up the tower on foot to avoid the elevator line, but started to wonder about our choice about half way up -- not because the climb was difficult (climbing the first two platforms is pretty easy) but because it started hailing, and then because of the lightning. I've never sat through a lightning storm before while sitting on one of the largest lightning rods in the world, but it turned out okay. The view from tower was nice, but next time I'm going all the way to the top.

We headed over to the arc du triumphe to finish off our excursion and then headed back to our hotel completely exhausted, having been awake for about 30 hours straight.

Days 2-4: Rome

Aahhh... It was 80 degrees and sunny almost every day we were in Italy. What a welcome change after Seattle and Paris. Our first day in Rome was supposed to be a visit to the coloseum and the Roman forum, but it was a national holiday and despite assurances on various Italian government and tourist websites that everything we wanted to see would be open, it was all closed. It turned out just fine though because we spent the day wandering the city, mesmerized by the incredible array of piazzas, churches, Roman ruins, quaint cobble stone streets, obelisks, statues, fountains, bridges, pizza shops and ice cream shops that is Rome. Rome beats Paris any day of the year (especially May 1). The ice cream was delectable (I ate Hazelnut, Pistaccio, Mixed Berry, Chocolate and Peach gelato on the first day alone) and the smell of the baking bread in the air in Trastavere was mouth watering.

The Trevi fountain

The Tiber River

The Pantheon

Our second day in Rome we visited the Vatican. We started off with St. Peters. St. Peters is a behemoth. I've never been a building with a more impressive scale; it almost feels like you are outdoors. We were lucky enough to participate in an underground tour at St. Peters which took us into an active archeological site called the Necropolis underneath the basilica. It turns out the basilica is built on top of an older, smaller church (the floor of which is now the floor of a crypt under St. Peters that holds the Popes' coffins), which in turn was built on top of a street full of houses on a hill in ancient Rome. This is hard to imagine when you are standing in the piazza outside of the basilica, because it is flat, but when they built the basilica, they put up a giant retaining wall at the bottom of the hill and then cut a huge chunk out of the top of the hill and used that dirt to fill in the bottom. What is amazing about the Necropolis, was that they didn't bother to tear down the houses that were on the hill when they changed the grade of the hill and built the basilica. They just buried them and, if they were too tall, trimmed off their roofs. Thanks to that, we were able to walk on the original hill past the original homes, which still have their original mosiac tile floors. (Dan Brown wrote about this in his book Angels & Demons.) After the Necropolis we climbed to the top of St. Peters' dome, which features a really cool staircase that winds through the dome at an angle requiring you to lean way over side ways while you walk up. We finished off the day with a 45 minute sit in the Sistine Chapel staring at Michelangelo's masterpiece.

View from dome of St. Peters

Our last day in Rome we visited Palatine Hill, which is an active archeological site where they are excavating Augustus Caesar's palace. The palace still has some frescoed walls that are in tact from 2,000 years ago. We also saw the Roman Forum and the Coloseum, which were both amazing.

The Roman Forum (click on this and other pictures to get a larger view)

Remains of a Roman Imperial Palace on Palatine Hill

Day 4-5: Orvieto

We rented a car (a Fiat Grande Punto diesel that didn't seem to use any gas) and drove out of Rome. They say all roads lead to Rome, which if you think about it makes it darn near impossible to leave Rome because any road you get on leads to Rome. Somehow we made it out of Rome though and headed an hour north to the small Umbrian hilltop town of Orvieto. Driving in Italy was an adventure. I had memories of crazy drivers when I was a missionary in southern Italy, but it is an entirely different experience driving among them. I knew it was a bad sign when we found out our credit card, which offers free comprehensive rental car insurance everywhere in the developed world except for two countries, did not offer coverage in Italy (the other country was Israel ... who knew?). It was a worse sign when we found out comprehensive insurance would more than double the cost of our rental. So, we decided to go without. We ended up okay, but it may have been worth the peace of mind to buy it.

Orvieto is stunning. The town is perched on top of a large hill surrounded by sheer cliffs on all sides. On top of the cliffs are stone walls. We had to park our car at the base of the hill and take a funicalar train up to the town. Orvieto is famous not only for its amazing setting, but also for Etruscan ruins from pre-Roman times, and for what many consider to be the most beautifully ornamented church facade in all of Italy. To me, it is also famous for delicious Lemon gelato too. We spent the night in an old farm house called Locanda Rosati a little ways away from the town. We knew it was a nice place when half of the people staying in the farm house with us (it has 6 or 7 rooms) were Italians from Rome on vacation.

Orvieto

Orvieto's cathedral

Locanda Rosati

Day 5-6: Civita; Sienna; San Gimignano; Volterra

Civita di Bagnoregio may very well be more dramatic than Orvieto. Like Orvieto, it is situated atop a hill surrounded by cliffs, but the fact that the town is slowly falling off the cliff because of erosion (and the fact that its nickname is "the town that died") makes it more intruiging. In one place the facade of a house is standing, but there is nothing behind it because it collapsed into the valley below. Civita also has an amazing tunnel you can walk through that passes through the rock under the village. The tunnel was part of the village's original fortifications.

Panorama of Civita

A building in Civita (notice the sky through the windows)

After seeing Civita, we drove out of Umbria and into Tuscany. Our first stop was Sienna, another hilltop town, which is famous for its mideval buildings and a piazza called "Il Campo" where they stage a violent horse race called the Palio twice a year. It also has a church that is only half built because the town was decimated by the plague in the middle of its construction and they were never able to finish. Sienna was nice, but it didn't quite live up to the guidebook hype.

San Gimignano, also a hilltop town, came next. The town is like a mideval manhattan with dozens of towers popping up over its mideval walls.

San Gimignano

Our final destination of the day was Volterra, which, of course, is a hilltop town. The main entrance into the town is through a gate built by Etruscans in 500 b.c. On the opposite side of the town is a Roman ampitheater from 100 a.d. The town survives on its production of alabaster, which is absolutely beautiful. We purchased an alabaster vase, an alabaster chess board, and some alabaster pears, which we've really enjoyed since we returned home. Volterra was especially nice because it isn't very touristy. We actually laid down for 5 minutes in the middle of the main square and looked at the stars and no one was around to notice or bother us. Our hotel in Volterra was nice and had great views of the Tuscan countryside.

View from our hotel room in Volterra

Roman Ampitheater in Volterra

Day 6-7: Pisa; Cinque Terre

Pisa is a dump. We knew in advance that it was really run down and that we only wanted to stay for 30 minutes to see the leaning tower, but I was still struck by how unbelievably seedy and touristy the town is. The tower is really cool and definitely worth a stop, but it is amazing what unbridled tourism greed can do to a town; 30 minutes was enough.

The Cinque Terre is a series of five fishing villages on the southern end of the Italian riviera. The villages are collections of colorfully painted houses stacked on top of one another on cliffs along the sea and are now an Italian national park. We stayed in the southern most town, Riomaggiore, and hiked/took a train from there to two of the other towns - Manarola and Vernazza. We had an amazing room in Riomaggiore which was both at the top and at the middle of the town at the same time. The town is so beautiful that it really was hard to leave the next morning.

View of Cinque Terre from above

View of Riomaggiore from our room and terrace

Panorama of Vernazza

Day 7-8: Florence

I had modest expectations for Florence after seeing a plain Sienna and a seedy Pisa, but Florence was wonderful. Apart from the insanely difficult streets to navigate to get into town (you have to avoid certain streets that aren't clearly marked or you get fined), I liked everything about the town. The city is full to the brim with amazing works of art. I was impressed by the artwork I saw elsewhere in Italy, but no other town has sculpture like Florence. We saw the famous statue of David in the Accademia gallery. We toured the Uffizi art gallery and the Medici family's palace and gardens. We gawked at the bronze doors Ghiberti created for the town's baptistery, and we ate what Laura considered to be the best gelato in Italy. We saw the opera Carmen at Florence's opera house and discovered that in Italy you can get a plate of pasta at the opera during intermission (and we did -- yum).

Ghiberti's bronze doors on the baptistery

Day 8-10: Venice; Murano

Someone once said that Venice is an elegant state of decay, and that about sums it up. We spent most of our time in Venice riding on the vaporetto boats in the canal, getting lost in the streets, checking out the Doge's palace and St. Marks basilica, and shopping for glass (we bought a really cool red glass bowl in Murano).

Day 10-11: Cortina; The Dolomites; Castelrotto; Bolzano

Only an hour north of the shallow muddy waters of the Venetian lagoon, the alps rise up into some of the most jagged, rocky mountains I've ever seen. We drove to Cortina first and had some pizza, and then proceeded to see how far you can push a Fiat before it explodes or whimpers its way to an early death. We drove through a stretch of mountain passes (we crossed over at least 6 passes) and valleys called the Dolomite range, on a road known as the Great Dolomite Road. Words don't do it justice, so look at the pictures. Passo Sella was probably the best of the bunch. At the far end of the road we came upon the town of Castelrotto, where locals still dress up in traditional attire. We then drove to a hill 9 kilometers above Bolzano and checked into Gasthof Kohlern, which wins the award as the nicest hotel we stayed at. We had a corner suite with a bathroom covered with marble and huge views of the alps out of every window (and it wasn't very expensive!). Staying in Bolzano was a lot like staying in Austria (in fact, it used to be part of Austria until 1919). Everyone spoke German first and the menu at the inn's restaurant was full of dumplings and streudel.

Panorama of Cortina d'Ampezzo

Passo Sella

Passo Sella (nice sandals Laura)

View of Sasso Schlern from the road near Castelrotto

View from our room in Bolzano

Day 11-12: Lake Como

Our little Fiat started out the day as the little engine that couldn't. About half way down the hill to Bolzano, our brakes started smoking and we had stop the car and let them cool off. We then proceeded through the mountains and over several more mountain passes, past several ski resorts (one of which was still open) to Lake Como. Driving that morning was intense. The roads were skinny and windy, and motorcycles were passing us into blind turns. We had to swerve numerous times to avoid accidents. We made it to Lake Como by early afternoon and promptly boarded a ferry boat (on foot) from Varenna to Bellagio. Bellagio was nice but very small. No, we didn't see George Clooney while we were there. We had a picnic on the shore of the lake and enjoyed the views of the alps surrounding the lake.

View from our picnic spot in Bellagio

Day 13: Fly home

We flew Milan to Paris to Seattle. It was a wonderful trip.

Remodel Project

2008-04-27T21:19:00.000-07:00

It has been about a month since my last post. Things have been busy and dusty around here. We remodeled our kitchen and all three bathrooms, replaced almost all of the carpet in the house, installed hardwood in two rooms and refinished all of the hardwood in our house, put new cabinets in our office, installed some new doors and windows, installed new garage doors, and had our crawl space cleaned out (to name a few). We aren't quite done yet, but I think we are close enough to show off the before and after pictures. We've been excited to do this; I think this is sign we've watched too much This Old House and HGTV over the last couple years.

So, without further ado, here they are (click to see larger images).

Kitchen - View 1 - Before / After:

Kitchen - View 2 - Before/After:

Kitchen - View 3 - Before/After:

Kitchen - View 4 - Before/After:

Kitchen - View 5 - Before/After:

Master Bath - View 1 - Before/After:

Master Bath - View 2 - Before/After:

Master Bath - View 3 - Before/After:

Easter

2008-03-23T20:39:00.001-07:00

Carina and Natalie had a great Easter. They woke up to find a trail of jelly beans outside of their doors heading down the stairs. Carina wanted to get on the hunt immediately and started heading down the stairs. Natalie, on the other hand, was more than content to eat the trail one bean at a time. Once Carina finally persuaded Natalie to hurry up, they found two nice baskets in the living room. Carina's basket included some clothes for her teddy bear, and Natalie's basket included some dancing shoes. The girls also had large chocolate bunnies in their baskets. Carina admired hers for a minute before nibbling on it (and later filling it with milk and using it as a drinking glass); Natalie unceremoniously tore the foil wrapper off her bunny and stuffed its ears as far into her mouth as she could (about two inches). The picture below is the girls this morning in their Easter dresses.

A big bad wolf with good manners

2008-03-23T10:15:00.000-07:00

Carina and Natalie came across the Easter baskets yesterday and decided to play Little Red Riding Hood. Carina declared herself to be Little Red Riding Hood, wrapped a blanket around her head and shoulders for a hood and grabbed an Easter basket. She roped Laura into being the Grandma, which left Natalie to be the big bad wolf (a natural fit). Laura waited on the bed while Carina and Natalie went off to get Natalie a costume. They came back with Natalie wearing a bib with utensils stuffed in her pocket. Carina told Natalie "Go eat Mama!", so Natalie ran over to Laura, whipped the fork and knife out of her pocket, said "cut, cut cut!" and then made big, mean eating sounds while she pretended to eat Laura.

Hola! Hola! How is it going down there?

2008-03-20T09:55:00.000-07:00

This morning we have some Mexican workers cleaning up our crawl space. (We had some rats running around there a few months back. The rats were taken care of, and now it was time to clean up the mess. The workers are replacing the vapor barrier and the insulation around the floor joists.) Carina noticed that we can hear their conversations through the floor. She couldn't resist being friendly, so she put her mouth down to one of the furnice registers in the floor near where they were working and started shouting "Hola! Hola!" to them. They heard her and ended up having a little conversation through the furnice register.

Carina has also apparently picked up on the fact that oftentimes when she does something funny I end up writing about it in this blog. The other day she did something funny, we laughed, and then she said "Ohhh... Dad, blog it! blog it!"

Who stole the kitchen?

2008-03-17T18:03:00.000-07:00

Our remodeling project started today. We are getting a new kitchen and new bathrooms. Our contractor started by ripping out the kitchen cabinets today. Natalie was napping while he worked, and he was done before she woke up. When she came down and saw all of the cabinets gone, which were there when she went to bed, her little jaw dropped and her eyes got big, and a moment later she said in a shocked voice "No....kitchen!." She couldn't believe it.

Marshmallow Peep Grandpa Terry?

2008-03-16T16:34:00.001-07:00

The Seattle Times does a contest before Easter every year asking readers to use Marshmallow Peeps to make artwork / dioramas / etc about pop culture. Laura, Carina and I were looking at this year's entries when we came across the picture below. Carina's comment when she saw it was "Hah! Isn't that funny, he looks like Grandpa Terry!"

After Laura and I finished laughing, we assured her, he definitely doesn't look like Grandpa Terry. (Note to self: we should get Carina and Dad together sometime soon so she'll be able to differentiate Dad from Senator Craig.)

Carina the Counterfeiter

2008-03-13T10:00:00.000-07:00

Carina and Laura have worked out an arrangement to ensure that Carina isn't watching too much TV in a day. Laura gives Carina four pieces of "TV Money" at the start of the day, which Carina can cash in to watch TV or use the computer during the day. For example, two dollars of TV Money might buy Carina a "Dora the Explorer" show.

Yesterday, Carina came up with the bright idea of counterfeiting the TV money to see if she could get an extra show. Take a look at her handywork below. The real TV money is on the left. Her counterfeit TV money is on the right. Not a bad imitation, but she got busted and all her money was confiscated.

Look out secret service...

Natalie's Birthday

2008-03-13T09:51:00.001-07:00

Natalie had a wonderful second birthday. When Laura asked Natalie what kind of cake she wanted, Natalie replied "a happy cake." We weren't sure what flavor of cake is happy, but the cake Laura made (the smiling butterfly made of white cake and yellow buttercream frosting in the picture below) seems pretty happy. Laura apparently got it right because Natalie endorsed it as "happy!" the first time she saw it.

Natalie practiced blowing out the candle a few times the day before her birthday and was able to blow it out on her first try. Shortly after we took the picture below she leaned her face right up to the cake and started saying "yum yum yummy..."

All of Natalie's grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins in Seattle came to her party. She has figured out how a birthday party works: she dived right into the presents and the moment they were all opened she ran out of the room, leaving us all behind, saying "Cake!"

The sincerest form of flattery?

2008-02-22T23:31:00.000-08:00

I walked into Carina's room today while she was getting ready for bed and found her standing in her little closet. "What are you doing in your closet?" I asked. "I'm getting my pajamas on," she replied. "Why are you getting your pajamas on in your closet?" She responded, "Well, you get dressed in your closet, so I'm getting dressed in mine." I explained to her that I have a walk in closet, so it's different. Carina stood in her closet mulling this over while I walked out of the room to talk with Laura, and a few moments later Carina called out from her closet: "I want a walk in closet!"

No, Honey

2008-01-20T11:14:00.000-08:00

Often when Natalie wants something that she can't have, Laura will tell her "No, honey, you can't have that." Well, Natalie has turned the tables on us, and now when we ask her a question, if her answer is no, she tells us "No, honey". Here are some video clips:

"No, honey"

"Please honey"

Carina's Haircut

2007-12-31T14:03:00.000-08:00

Not to be outdone by Natalie, Carina got her haircut too. We think it makes her look older, like an elementary school girl. Take a look:

Christmas

2007-12-30T19:26:00.000-08:00

Christmas morning started early this year. 5:55am to be exact. We spent the night at Laura's parents' house, along with Boyd's family and all of his children. The kids woke up at 5:55am to, as Gavin said to us, "do our morning exercises." No wonder he is so skinny.

Christmas morning was full of surprises. Santa was good to us. Here are some pictures of the fun. This first picture is how it looked before we got started.

Here is Natalie in front of her new favorite toy. The door fits into the door way in her room. She spent most of Christmas morning walking in and out of the door and ringing the doorbell.Here is Carina opening a Leapster video game machine.

And here was my favorite Christmas present -- a 42" Panasonic High Definition Plasma TV. TV has never looked so good.

It was a very merry Christmas.

Christmas Eve

2007-12-26T16:22:00.000-08:00

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day at Laura's parents' home. The highlight of Christmas Eve was a little recital that we had. Everyone sang carols and almost everyone had a solo piece as well. The girls enjoyed running in circles and dancing to the music.

I've attached links to two videos from the recital -- one of Carina singing "Picture a Christmas" (actually filmed earlier, but it is the same song) and my favorite, Boyd singing a special Christmas rendition of "Turkey in the Straw (under the Manger)."

Boyd's video:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=6lNUSOrTbO0

Carina's video:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=KAbaE9VtQUY

Merry Christmas

2007-12-22T12:57:00.001-08:00

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Guess which was on the naughty list and which was on the nice list:

Seattle in Wintertime

2007-12-22T12:55:00.001-08:00

No, this isn't a black and white photo...

Carina's Birthday

2007-12-22T12:49:00.001-08:00

Carina turned 5. And "yes," according to her, she does feel older now.

Natalie's Haircut

2007-12-22T12:33:00.000-08:00

Natalie got a haircut. She is very proud of it. Take a look!

Italy Here We Come!!!!

2007-11-04T16:52:00.000-08:00

Exciting news: Laura and I just booked tickets to Italy for next spring. We leave on April 29 and arrive in Paris on the morning of the 30th. We'll spend the day in Paris and then leave on May 1 for the main event -- three days in Rome, four days in Tuscany and the Italian Riviera, a day and half in Venice, and a day in half in the Dolomite range and Lake Como. We leave from Milan on May 11. We can't wait!

Now accepting reservations to babysit Carina and Natalie!

Dancing

2007-11-03T12:45:00.001-07:00

Carina and Natalie love to dance in the living room whenever Laura or I play the piano. I snapped this particularly well choreographed, but not staged, shot. Look out Osmond family...

Halloween

2007-11-03T11:30:00.000-07:00

Carina and Natalie had a great Halloween. Carina dressed up in her costume from a Mary Poppins dance recital she performed in this past summer; she was a "London girl." Natalie was a frog.

Carina and Natalie came to my office in the afternoon and went trick or treating in the halls (which is a tradition at my firm). Natalie quickly got the hang of trick or treating and decided that two pieces of candy from each person was an appropriate amount.

The girls were a little terrified of some of the Halloween decorations we saw though, especially anything with ghost noises or that moved.

We live in Microsoft country. This is Laura's pumpkin. I guess it would be about the scariest pumpkin out there to most Microsofties.

Whistler, B.C.

2007-11-03T10:56:00.000-07:00

Laura and I recently spent a weekend in Whistler, B.C. The drive up was beautiful -- the mountains plunge directly into the Howe Sound north of Vancouver.

Whistler is full of great shops and restaurants and has great biking trails all around. We biked about 20 miles over the weekend, includig rides on the side of Blackcomb mountain and on the valley trails. The valley is dotted with about a dozen lakes.

The highlight of the weekend was a series of five zip lines we went on down Whistler Mountain. (See http://www.ziptrek.com/ - we did the "Eagle tour"). One of the lines was a half mile long and dropped 20 stories; you can go up to 90km per hour if you ball up. Several of the lines cross a gorge between Whistler mountain and Blackcomb mountain. We had a blast!

Vacation Rating - Whistler, B.C.: 5 stars