First Food for Amalia

First bite of some organic brown rice cereal-mmmmmm

Yeah, not a fan.

The much watched event (witnessed by Daddy, Gareth, Aunt Mikayah and Titus).
I let her play with the spoon afterwards to try to get her to suck on it and swallow a bit of the cereal.

Crawling practice. She can really crawl now (12/11) but this is when she was just rocking.

A little downward facing dog to strengthen and stretch a girl. (She tried to move forward by doing that.)

Gareth's debut

Our church has an annual Hanging of the Greens service in early December. During the opening number all the children in the church bring banners, lights, garland, etc. The last group to come are the Jingle Bears (the 1-3 year-olds). They have bear hats on and bears with jingles on them to shake to the music. Gareth didn't want to participate last year (which did not surprise me). I thought he was ready to do it this year and started talking it up a few weeks before it happened so he'd know what was going to happen. He was pretty excited about it. Grandma and Grandpa came down from Wisconsin to see Gareth's theatrical debut. And Aunt Mikayah and Titus (boyfriend) came up from Chicago to see it as well. Thanks to Aunt Mikayah for the pictures and video. There are many people in the way of seeing Gareth, but just look for the cream colored sweater vest and that's him.

Beatles Rock Band at Thanksgiving

Lead Vocalist=Aunt Robyn
Harmonies=Grandma
Guitar/Bass=Daddy and Uncle Josh
Bass=Gareth (unplugged)

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving with Eric's parents in Wisconsin and had a nice, low key time. That was good considering the kids went into it with 2 colds and an ear infection between them and came out with 2 colds, an ear infection and a virus. We spent the following week recovering.

Amalia and Mama before her first Thanksgiving dinner (to attend, not eat).

Amalia met Great Aunt Robyn.

Gareth got in some good play time with Grandpa.

Uncle Josh helped make the meal (see the yummy brined turkey in the back).

Amalia had duck.

A lovely meal.


A little post-turkey Beatles Rock Band. Gareth had this guitar (unplugged) and was playing bass (so he informed us). He played watching the screen for about 20 minutes straight. He's a serious rock band guy.

The day before Thanksgiving we got to tour a business that works on train cars. It was in a giant old tractor factory in Milwaukee and Gareth just wanted to run up and down the train tracks. The business restores, repairs and creates fantastic passenger/train cars. They did Obama's car that he road in across country.

Here's the outside of the car we toured. It is a fully restored 1912 train car for repopulating fish populations. (There were tanks for ice that they'd put buckets of fish in to carry and some places for the crew.) They do metal, wood, paint (almost everything) in shop, hiring out to local artisans for what they couldn't do. They were in the final phase of a 2 year project that cost something like a million dollars (can't remember exact details, was too busy making sure a 2 year-old didn't ruin the ridiculously expensive car). It was being redone for a museum and we got to go inside (no one will get to when it's in the museum). It was really neat.

Gareth talking about motorcycles

This is for those of you who don't get to hear Gareth talk very often. He's particularly interested in motorcycles right now so I tried to get him talking about that.

Amalia can really sit up now!

The Music of Our Lives

Over Halloween weekend, Aunt Mikayah was visiting. This is her hanging out with the kids. Gareth is humming "All Aboard the Choo Choo Train" (Disney channel thing). Amalia is complaining because Gareth has her book.

Quotable Gareth

"I will never walk again"-while throwing a fit and walking down the hall
"I got flewed by a chicken"-referring to a chicken flying by his face when Abba opened the chicken house in the morning, it was very traumatic
"I want Aunt Mikayah to go in the potty chair and flush away"-while being tacky about his Aunt when she was visiting
"I want Aunt Mikayah to go to her train station and go to Chicago"-while being tacky about his Aunt when she was visiting (yes, he is tacky about her a lot, haven't figured out how to stop that one yet)
"I wipe my spanking off, wipe, wipe, wipe"-after receiving a spanking
"Yes, Ima loves me"-to the tune of Jesus Loves Me

Gareth's big boy bike

Gareth's Grandma got him this bike about the time Amalia was born. He can go "super fast" on it and "lean into the turn" just like motorcycle drivers do. He also has knee pads that he wears sometimes. He really likes his bike, needless to say. And has taken a few tumbles, but gets back on after an appropriate grieving period.

Halloween 2009

Aunt Mikayah was able to be with us Halloween weekend and was part of our festivities. Here she is with Amalia, the chili pepper.

Daddy and Amalia. Before the cold trick or treating.

I asked Gareth to stand like a football player :)

Close up showing the last minute though, mascara smeared under the eyes.


The obligatory pre-trick or treating pose. Gareth decided this summer he sometimes does not like having pictures taken of him. So here he is sitting next to Amalia, helping her because she was having her picture taken.

In the stroller, how she spent the entire trick or treating outing.

After getting some candy.
Finished with trick or treating, a little foggy looking because the camera was fogging over from the warmth inside.

Amalia really wants to sit up

Amalia practicing sitting up. She does not face plant at the end of the video, it just appears that she does.

Amalia having tummy time

Not an exciting video, but interesting if you love her and don't get to see her very often :)

Amalia has discovered her upper register

A taste of how she "talks" by squealing...and a little spit up at the end.

Gareth and Liam racing

Two two-year-olds racing :)

Amalia having tummy time-Summer 09

Amalia did not really enjoy tummy time. This is her trying to get out of it at 2 months old.

My adorable nephew and son dancing-Summer 09

Liam doing his ballroom dancing, while Gareth makes up his own dance.

South Carolina

Eric finished his military training for the Army chaplaincy at the end of August. CH-BOLC at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina. Here he is waiting for the graduation ceremony to start.


After the graduation with Roy Beebe (the EFCA endorser for the chaplaincy) and Amalia.
The family after successfully getting Eric through two summers of military chaplain training. Very proud!

Berry Creek Farm

A few highlights of our time on the farm. Liam and Gareth at the feed store.
Gareth would go out in the mornings with Abba and feed the chickens.
We visited the Oklahoma City Farmer's Market where Abba and Ima sell.
Just resting during harvesting.
The harvesting. AKA picking and eating as many grapes as you can reach :)
The grapes-super yummy off the vine (and pestcide free so no worries).
A box of grapes ready for the market or CSA's.

What I did Last Summer by Bethany Hughes

We started driving on July 13th. Here's Gareth with his purchased especially for the car trip race car driving toy.


On July 14th we made our final stop before our destination, McDonald's in Tulsa. Had to have a playground after two days in the car.

Within minutes of arriving at Bethany's parents' home cousin Liberty was holding her favorite baby cousin. Thanks to Aunt Mikayah being on snack, toy and pacifier patrol, Bethany was able to arrive sane.

Cousin Liam had to have his turn with Baby Mall Mall (his name for Amalia). Liam loves babies.

A little swimming in Abba and Ima's front yard with the cousins.

What Amalia did for most of the trip to Oklahoma. See her incredibly dry, excema ridden skin. It's a constant fight, but we have come to manage it with hydrocortizone and Aquaphor.

Gareth playing baseball with Ima. Photographic evidence of Ima playing an outdoor sport.

Liam giving Aunt Bethany the thumbs up. He is incredibly charming and very athletic.

A little night night story with Abba and the cousins.

Crazy how big Gareth is compared to Amalia!

The Cherry Girls. Both were wearing cherry apparel and therefore needed a picture.

The boys, waiting to dig in at our shrimp boil.

Amalia spending some quality time with her younger cousin. He should arrive in October.

Amalia's first visit to Ted's Escondido Cafe in Oklahoma City. It's fantastic Tex-Mex.

We traveled to Texas for a wedding and spent a little time in the hotel pool. Gareth has decided he doesn't like pictures taken of him. So that's why he always looks glum.

Gareth and Amalia with their first cousins (Liberty and Liam) and their second cousins (Anna and Alex). We had lunch with them on our way out of town during our Texas weekend.

Bethany with her sisters, brother-in-law, cousins, and the above.

Bethany's parents, aunt and uncle (mom's side) and the above.

Liberty and Liam are quite a team. Smart and sometimes sneaky :)

Gareth with a Sonic ice cream cone. The Sonic near Abba and Ima's has a playground and volleyball courts.

Had to hit the pool with Abba.

A girl has to sleep a lot to keep up with this crew.

Liberty is a reading girl, introducing Amalia to the wonders of the written word.

Amalia meeting her Great-Grandpa and his wife Sherry. We had lunch with them on our road trip back to home.