9 Month Photos!

Milestone celebration

Happy 70th Birthday to Papaguchi!

The week after we returned from Minnesota, we headed south to Eugene and spent a 3 day weekend with Annie, Steve, Stephannie as well as Steve's sister Diane & husband Bruce from South Carolina. It was wonderful to get to see everybody and spend more than a couple hours together. Annie's cousin Linda and her husband Ben made it down from Washington as well.  The kids thoroughly enjoyed all the attention and affections and it was great just to be with family.

Zach updates

Frank the Tank is growing!  Zach is definitely on the high end of his growth chart and we advice Abi that Zach will catch up to her size if she doesn't eat more. He often out eats her and is only 5-6 lbs lighter.  While in Minnesota, Z started crawling. He now motors everywhere, bear crawls, stands next to anything and just this week stood up on his own in the middle of the room. Zach is still an incredibly happy baby. And at this point, we are already marveling at the difference between the kids. Zach puts everything in his mouth, pushes on everything to see if it opens or moves, is noisy in general and seems to be "all boy". 

Abi updates

Oh dear. If I had to give a single word update it would be "personality". Abi has always had it, but she just keeps getting more. She is proud of her new big bed (the twin captain bed I had growing up) and is into dressing herself. She prefers to be barefoot in the yard and if there's music, she's usually dancing! Abigail is still loving being at day school three days a week. Lately she has been telling us about monsters; they've been in her bedroom, all over our house and even in the carts at the grocery store. So far, they are all friendly and usually leave if you ask them to go home or notify them it is bedtime and they should leave.

Minnesota

Steven was asked to be water rescue for the Wild Canyon Games this year. Our boat was used last year for the event, but this year he went to the Young Life ranch and participated. He really enjoyed the scenery and seemed to have had a great time. Since he was going there for 4 days and working, the kids and I flew home. Yep, found my big girl panties and took a flight with a 32 month old and an 8 month old. It went so incredibly well! Lessons learned: car seats purchased for the great crash test ratings do NOT fit into FAA seats. It was such a great great trip!!! Malcolm, Christine, Michaela and Danielle were able to be with us at Mom & Dad's the whole week which was just awesome because the kids are now old enough that they just play play play. It was wonderful for the girls to be building such great relationships. While we were home, Zach learned to crawl. And has not stopped since! (Another post to follow on him). The trip included lots more biking than we'd done in a long time thanks to tag-alongs and Mom & Dad having the double stroller/bike trailer, a trip to Itasca and the girls swimming in the head waters as well as lots of time with aunties, uncles, cousins and all the grandparents.

I realize how blessed I am to know all of my grandparents and how lucky that my kids are to be getting to know them as well. I'm also grateful that we arrive in Minnesota with a bag of clothes and all the kid gear we need is there! Makes traveling so much easier. Check out Malcolm & Christine's post on the visit. In my focus to prep everything for a smooth trip for the kids... I forgot my camera. (Seriously?!?!) My few shots were taken with my phone which actually did ok, but it wasn't the same.

Inspired

I realized it had been 3 months since I had posted any updates when we were in Minnesota. Christine and I had a great conversation about how really when you get to the heart of blogs, they're for the benefit of your close loved ones and the subjects themselves. I often find blogging therapeutic to reflect on our lives but I always want to capture my children's lives for them. Thus, a major catch up.