Happy Birthday Nina!

Nina is 1 year old!



We love this stage with Nina, as every day it seems she is trying something new, or impressing us with a new feat. Just in time for her first birthday, Nina ventured into the world of the walking, and she's now able to string together 5 or 6 steps before gravity takes over. She is thrilled with this new achievement, often stopping to laugh, clap, or wave as she tries to maintain her balance.

Nina loves to climb things, and has already made us think that a certain additional level of babyproofing may be required this time around. She's also become quite the chatterbox, talking words or even what seems like sentences in her own language. Words so far include "Dada," "Mama," "Buh-bye," and something that sounds like "Tank you" (if you really listen for it!).

It's hard for us to believe that it's been a whole year since we were preparing for a big Thanksgiving feast with a 5-day-old...Happy Birthday Nina!

SNOW!!

We've been through enough winters by now to know that all it takes are a few inches of snow to completely shut the City of Seattle down. Our perspective on the chaos is a little better this year, however, with a 3-year-old girl who is extremely eager to get out there and make the most of it!


With Sammy home from school today, she and I bundled up and joined our neighbors for some sledding and snow angel action outside, and even a trip to the snowy playground down the street. Then, it was off to carefully walk down the slippery hill (past multiple abandoned Metro buses -- quite the sight!) to meet Daddy for lunch at the sushi place in his office building. Temperatures are around 25 degrees, but the sun is shining and it's a beautiful scene here. Now we just hope it melts in time for our Thanksgiving trip to Portland!!

Here are a few pictures from our adventures today.

Fall Recap

It's a snow day here (pictures to come!), and I'm catching up on a few great pictures from the fall...seems like a long time ago already that we were picking pumpkins with the Cho-Thompson family, riding bikes on Alki with the Sousleys, and trooping down in the rain with the girls to the Husky game!

Halloween 2010

Happy Halloween! We had a very fun Halloween night with Jake, Aurelie and Julien McKinstry joining us for the Capitol Hill festivities.

These are our pumpkins (l. to r.: Karen, Sam, Paul, Nina). Note: Sammy specified that she wanted a "mad" pumpkin this year.

These are our trick-or-treaters -- Nina as Lion, Sammy as Bumblebee (round 2 -- she decided not to wear this year's costume, a monkey), and Julien McKinstry as none other than Chewbacca.

And here they are, having a rousing time wandering the streets of Capitol Hill! Both Sammy and Julien were pretty excited to trick-or-treat this year, and Nina loved being along for the ride, until she decided to call it a night...

Happy Birthday Samantha!

Sammy is 3 years old!

We had a great time celebrating Sammy's big day along with Grandma, Gramps, Nani, Papa, and Aunt Abby. This was the first time that Sammy really seemed to anticipate her birthday, and she loved running around telling us that she was now THREE! Of course, she is now already talking about what she'll be able to do when she's four...

We're so proud of our big girl. Happy Birthday Sammy!

11 Months!

Nina is eleven months old!


It's hard to believe our baby girl is almost one! Nina continues to keep us on the move with her active crawling, and climbing, these past few weeks. Also, Nina is finally starting to reciprocate some of the exuberant attention bestowed upon her by Samantha, providing us with little glimpses of how great it will be when the girls can really play together. The other day, as Sammy moved from place to place around the room, Nina crawled her way over to Sammy each time, smiling and laughing. Needless to say, Sam was thrilled by the attention, and affection, from her baby sister!


Here's Nina, chasing ballons at our family bday party for Sam, hanging out with Sammy in their matching pj's, and on the swings with Grandma and Sammy.

We forgot to mention...

...that Sammy is a big preschooler now!

Here she is on her first day -- she loves the new class!

10 Months

Nina is ten months old!

Actually, closer to 10.5, or maybe closer to 11? Anyways, it's hardly surprising this took so long, as Nina is busy busy busy these days. She loves to scoot around the house, and is pulling herself up on anything that appears relatively stable -- chair legs, laundry bins, bathtubs, mom's legs, etc. When she's not looking for us to serve as her human jungle gym, it's amazing how self-sufficient she is with this newfound freedom!

Nina's hair is slowly getting longer, though it's hard to tell as it continues to develop into little spiral curls on top of her head. She's a champion eater these days as well -- sometimes competing with her sister in terms of quantity (Sammy can usually push into the lead once she hears this, however). Nina continues to be a mellow, happy girl, much to our delight!

Here are a few pictures of Nina doing one of her favorite things these days -- the swings. Fortunately (we think?) she has a big sister to give her "underdogs"!

And here's Nina decked out with Paul before one of the first Husky football games. Nina stayed home with a babysitter, but she was spirited nonetheless.

Summer 2010 Recap

Despite my best intentions, I somehow failed to post much of anything regarding the Breckenridge summer. This was not necessarily due to lack of activity around here, but maybe due to too much (or at least I can blame it on that, rather than my procrastinating tendencies!).

Anyways, fall is here, and I realized it's now or never with the summer postings. So, here goes, the all-in-one, Breckenridge-summer-bonanza blog post, a recap of many of the great adventures the four of us had this summer. Oh, and sorry, these are definitely not in chronological order -- with three months worth of pictures, that's just asking too much!


Larson Wedding -- Pender Island, BC:

We were thrilled to attend Jean-David and Brenna Larson's wedding this summer at Poet's Cove Resort on Pender Island, British Columbia. It was a beautiful event at a gorgeous spot, with perfect weather and great friends. Sammy loved the ferry ride, swimming in the pool, and getting rides around the resort on the staff's golf carts. Here are a few more pictures from the weekend.

Whidbey Island:

We spent a great weekend with Jake, Aurelie and Julien McKinstry at the McKinstry's cabin on Whidbey Island. Sammy and Julien were buddies the whole weekend, we had great weather for walks on the sand flats, and lots of time to barbecue and relax.

Vashon Island:

Summer wouldn't be complete without a trip with our friends to Vashon Island and the Leonardson cabin. With the kids outnumbering the adults this year, it was certainly a more active trip than the pre-kids days, but still a great time. Sammy got to go on her first boat ride with Pete, Paul, and Frankie, and the kids had a great time checking out all the creatures on their beachcombing walks. Here are a few pictures from Vashon.

Sunriver, Oregon:

We were happy to join the Savages and Flosis once again for our annual family trip to Sunriver. It was really great to get the cousins together again, and we kept very busy with lots of swimming, biking, and trips to the ice cream store. Sammy showed no fear on the tunnel slide into the pool this year -- probably because she had her cousins Jake and Becca to show her the way! It was also Nina's first official pool experience -- she splashed around a bit, but seemed to prefer sitting on the towel! Here are a couple pictures of Sammy with Jake (age 5) and Becca (age 3) on the slide.

4th of July:

We spent the 4th of July this year with the Sousleys at the Breckenridge home in Kenmore. Paul and Justin thrilled the kids with a fireworks display and Sammy tried her first sparkler. We capped off the weekend with a hike in the woods at St. Edwards State Park -- making it all of about a half mile!

Safeco Field:

We did make it to a couple Mariners games this year -- here are Sam and Gramps at one early in the summer...

Capitol Hill:

Sammy and Paul camped out in the tent in our backyard one night. Sammy had a great time trying out her new headlamp and sleeping bag...

Lots of "pajama walks" this summer in the post-dinner, pre-bedtime hour -- notice the contrast in state of wakefulness here?