April 2011 Updates

One of James' favorite activities is to count money and put it into Otto's bank.

Otto, James and I took a fun trip to the Seattle Aquarium where we saw the octopus stuck to the window showing us all of her suction cups. It was a memorable experience for James as he talked about, "octopus stuck on window," for several weeks afterwords.James and Otto braved to cold water touch tanks and discovered urchins, cucumbers and starfish.

Otto's been waiting a very long time to have his very own two wheel bike. We were going to get him one last summer but just thought it was too early. So, this is a belated 4th birthday present since we decided to wait. We went to Toys-R-Us and he picked out this new bike. It's a red Cars bike with a hand brake. He's been working on building his leg muscles since there is a lot more strength required for riding a bike compared to his scooter.

A fun family trip to the beach park right down in Mukilteo. We always have fun watching the ferries come and go, playing at the playground and exploring the seashore.

Daddy and James at the beach park. Cuties!

We took another trip to the Seattle Aquarium with our friend Hannah and her son Oliver. Otto sized himself up to a six gill shark. He's grown over 2 inches since January! Wow.

Otto and Oliver got an extra tutorial on sea cucumbers. Very interesting.

This year was James' first true encounter with the Easter bunny. I was impressed that he let the bunny hold him while I snapped a quick photo. He was a little hesitant, but no tears.

Otto and James shared their Easter treats after the egg hunt. Aunt Jessica joined us this year. It was lots of fun and we had nice sunny weather, but it was super duper crowded.

March Madness

March began with a family vacation to Hawaii. It was nice to relax (as much as a family can on vacation with two small children) and play in the sand. The kids loved the beach and sand and were generally covered most of the time in sand.

We spent part of our vacation on the tiny island of Molokai where our friends Adrienne and Josh shared their place with us. We enjoyed living in a house rather than a hotel and loved spending time with our friends.

Before we left on our vacation Otto's only goal was to climb a coconut tree and get a coconut to eat. On Molokai he actually succeeded although Daddy did the climbing. Otto cracked this coconut open all by himself with a swift throw onto the cement. Otto loved all the insects and creatures on the island.

The boys played pretty well together with James imitating a lot of what Otto did.

James' first sand encounter. He rolled in it. It was everywhere!

James also loved all the creatures on the island. Here is a cute one of him with a small green lizard, which Otto caught, climbing on his shirt under his chin.

Here are our friends Adrienne and Josh. They are getting married in June in CA (can't wait). Adrienne by the way is the best tsunami packer in the world. If ever we encounter a tsunami danger again I want her on my team. Yes, we had to evacuate to higher ground after the devastating Japan tsunami. Luckily we returned to no damage just very sleep deprived.

Family Memories 2010

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Word Explosion

Andrew and I noticed an explosion of vocabulary from James the other day, so we decided to keep track of all his words for the next 24 hours. Here is what we heard.

hot, bite, spoon, Dada, hi, bye, juice, more, down, car, Mama, squirrel, bird, please, teeth, fish, frog, no, uh-oh, cracker, no way, poo poo, night night, spider, koo koo, choo choo, achoo, tissue, ball, cow, bark, book, moo, crow, caw, mine

And here are some phrases we heard him use.

me book, I love you, thank you, more milk, excuse me

So exciting to be able to communicate with him!

Halloween 2010

A truly ridiculous bunch! Otto wanted to be Popeye for Halloween this year, so we all followed suit. Andrew was Brutus. James was Sweet Pea. I was Olive Oil. I enjoyed making our costumes and saved a ton of money!

October 2010

October began with a birthday celebration! Happy Birthday Opa!

James dressed up for the occasion. Here is Opa showing James something outside.

Grandma Kathee let Otto lick the beaters. Lucky kid!

After a delicious meal we were treated to another delicious masterpiece. Yum. Look at those smiles. We all know how wonderful Grandma Kathee's cakes are.

Otto's preschool went to the pumpkin farm. Lucky us, it's just right down the road less than 2 miles away, so if we get the urge we can go again sometime.

Otto got to pick out his very own pumpkin. This is the one he chose. He carved it later at our friend Amy's pumpkin carving party and won a prize too!

This is the pumpkin James picked out. He had a little help from one of Otto's classmates, Spencer, such a nice boy. We didn't carve this one, too little, but perfect for James to carry around and feel like he was part of the group.

Here is one activity James and I do together while Otto is at preschool. James' feet don't reach the pedals yet, but he loves to go for a trike ride. This time he was actually falling asleep during our ride.

James and I also do a lot of playing while Otto is at preschool. Here is James 'in' the cupboard picking out a pot to use for cooking.

Such a beautiful baby! This knit jacket was made by my mothers good friend Valerie.

We hiked down to the water near our house with Grandma Kathee and Opa to see if the salmon were spawning yet. Unfortunately we didn't see any yet, but we were rewarded with a beautiful fall day down at the beach.

What a beautiful pair!

Opa and James were trying to collect all the sand fleas possible. Just kidding. Opa was relaxing on the warm sand and James was crawling all over him.

Aw, can't believe these two amazing beautiful children are mine. I'm very lucky!

September 2010

Our September started off with another trip to the Evergreen State Fair. This time we totted along Grandma Kathee, Opa and our friends Matt, Shannon and Joseph. We exceeded our last trip by two hours for a total of 7.5 hours at the fair in one sitting. Wow! We had a great time.

Otto and Grandma Kathee ride the train together.

Here are our friends Matt and Shannon with their son, Joseph. Matt and Shannon are very fond of the fair. That's where they fell in love.

James rides a tractor. He didn't really get the idea of moving his feet to move the tractor, but he had fun just sitting on it and steering.

Big brother Otto tried the bungee bouncer. It was trickier than he thought. He learned quickly how to push off with his feet to propel himself further into the air. Loved it so much he went twice.

Aw, one of my favorite photos! This was Otto's first day of Montessori preschool. He was nervous and excited.

Otto got started right away on an activity. Just moments later as we were saying good-bye he broke into tears. He recovered and we left.

Here is a cute photo of James at his second ever camping trip. We went to Lake Chelan State Park with our friends. We had a blast. A beautiful campground and a beautiful September weekend.

Otto enjoyed playing inside and outside of the tent. This was just after he helped Daddy set up their tent.

Here is James eating breakfast. I think he really wanted some milk. He's trying so hard to express his need.

Otto's best buddy, Owen, came to our house for a play date on his 4th birthday. We made peanut butter cookies a la mode and sang Happy Birthday to him. He is a very special part of our family!

Andrew was away for the weekend playing water polo in Canada, so I took the boys to Remlinger Farms in Carnation. It was our first ever trip there. They had fun rides in addition to a huge market and field. Here the boys are riding in a canoe together (duh). They loved it so much they went three times.

Here are the boys ready to ride the steam train.

Now they are driving the fire truck. Must have been quite an emergency!

Then we drove antique cars. Otto took this job VERY seriously. He was driving in the front while James and I were in the back.

Here is James in the hay maze. Luckily it was the perfect height so I didn't lose either of the boys. A little scary for me to keep track of them both since they went different directions.

New school hair cuts. We love Tete at Fun Kuts in Lynnwood next to the Alderwood mall. Otto has been getting cuts from her since we moved up to the area (almost a year ago).

After James' haircut he had a snack which he shared with this ferocious looking crocodile.

This was James' second hair cut ever. With Tete of course!

We met Owen, Lola (his baby sister) and Karen at the Ballard Locks to watch the salmon returning.

Owen and Otto were pretending to be pirates looking for treasure. Another beautiful fall day.