Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from a cute little 18month old elf.

Happy Bday Gran!

Gainfully Employed

This week I started my new job at Dartmouth Hitchcock Memorial Hospital!  The position is management of database systems that relate to charges coming out of the OR.  And no, I can't really explain it better than that because I think after 20 hours of training, I've only scratched the surface of the information I need to understand in order to do my job.  Some of it is definitely starting to sink in, so I'm feeling confident that I will understand it eventually.   I'm excited to get to the point where I am actually contributing instead of being a drain on the system.

I included a picture of the hospital at night because, when starting work at 6:30am, this is what it looks like! To answer other questions you might have: Jerry has been doing great with the morning parenting shift, getting the kids up and out the door.  Gwen stays with our neighbor, who is wonderful, until I get off at 10:30.  Except for Levi often waking up when I get up, the logistics have been working out pretty smoothly. 

Pteranodon sighting

If you were a birder, this one would be quite a find.

17 months

I thought Gwen looked noticeably older today. 

Big Dog

Gwen 15 mos

Summer in NH

It has been a glorious month of summer fun here in New England.  Ever since we returned from CA, we've done everything we could think of to explore the state.  We traveled north, east, south, and up (in elevation).   Here's a collection of our explorations along with some random kid shots.  NH really is a beautiful state.

Levi turned 5

Cake Adventures year 3: After the efforts I put in to make fire truck jello cake and shaun the sheep cupcakes, it was with some trepidation that I asked Levi what shape of cake he wanted for his birthday.  I was very worried he would choose Megalosaurus, and then hassle me over the details.  I was so relieved when he held up his hands to demonstrate and said "circle".  I gave him a high five and promised to deliver.  
I was up late the night before his party, thinking about how I could make a round cake with no round cake pan and decided to make a rectangle cake, then cut it.  Well... you see, I thought I had come up with a good egg substitution that would hold the cake together (cream cheese) but such was not the case.  That cake turned into a rubble of vanilla flavored crumbs immediately upon exiting the pan.  No rectangle, and no circle.  Improvising, I began to moosh all the cake bits together into a dense circle-ish form.  After that was accomplished, I added frosting and sprinkles and we had ourselves a cake!  Maybe next year we should just go for cookies.

The celebrations included 3 days of saying "this is for your birthday!" about every activity. See below:

A certain je ne sais quoi

How was the trip to Paris you ask? Here are some hints.

The kids were with my parents in California.
We spent and lived like aristocrats. 
Great weather.
Pastries at every opportunity.
Vivian and I celebrated our 3000 days anniversary.
Both Carrie and I celebrated a birthday.
Chris navigated the city and the language like a local.
Bikes were involved.

Jen!

Jen came all the way to NH to visit!  We had such a good time with her.  My kids love her and we had many good adventures.  Highlights include
-Being asked to pose for a picture for the website at sugarbush farm (no sign of the picture yet), and getting paid in cheese and crackers for our work
-While canoeing, we saw the Dartmouth crew team putting in their boats and I hear Jen behind me, "Uh, stop the boat."
-Camping right on the lakeshore
-Picking up Jen from the airport without any kids and eating some lunch, without any kids

One Year Old!

Oh what a difference a year makes.  Gwen Sophronia has grown so much since June 7th a year ago. Now she's crawling and standing and pushing around a pushcart.  She tells babbling nonsense stories.  She loves to slide and swing.  She will eat almost anything on her plate.  But will throw half of it on the floor anyway.  She gets excited to see animals, loves water, and likes to flip pages of books, especially the hymn book.  She still prefers her mommy but tolerates the presence of strangers.  She is a great sleeper.  We love you baby girl.

April/May

Just catching up on some recent pictures.

Milestone videos for grandparents

How do you get a resistant kid to ride a bike? Convince him that he's part of an undercover mission and that he'll have to practice in secret while dad is at work and never talk about it until one day he just hops on the bike and ride off. We went to the track so we could try out the bike and then he just rode away. I was surprised and Levi made sure I knew that it was all part of a secret plan to trick me. What else is he hiding?

In other news Gwen is almost 1 year old. She can pretty much stand on her own and walk with some assistance but she spends most of her time crawling instead. Is she just trying to trick me too?

Snapshot

Gwen 10 months

10 Month Update: At 10 months, baby Gwen is becoming a more interactive member of our family.  She is good at emptying boxes of toys and throwing food on the ground. When Levi jumps with her on the bed, she laughs so hard, she snorts.  She gets excited whenever she hears the video chat ringing.  I would call her mobile, although she isn't technically crawling, much to her chagrin.  She has 7 teeth poking through. She stayed with a friend today for 30 whole minutes without crying.  I'd call that progress.

One more

Big cheeks in a little stroller

Some photos bear repeating.

Wintertimey Fun

This winter has earned a "mild" classification thus far. The temps have been in the 20s and 30s and not much snow. But the really nice thing about this time around is when it does snow, it is actually warm enough to go play (as opposed to last year when it was frequently well below 20). I've also been collecting more indoor play ideas which make the inside days much more fun. Here's a sampling of what we've been up to.

Times like these

Beware the small side of the force

January Project Wrap Up

 It seems like after Christmas I always find myself with a void of projects, events, and general busyness.  Put that together with the cold weather and January can be a pretty slow month.  Having remembered this from years past, I decided to pick up some new projects and try to learn a few things.  Here they are:

#1- Wrap skirt: Inspiration- picture below that I saw on Pinterest.

 How I did it: Found a remnant at the fabric store for $1.30 and used every inch to make this cute thing that she will fit for a long time.

 #2- Master Yoda

How I did it: Foam and elastic from craft store, $2.25 for tan sheet and $0.75 for brown pillow case from thrift store. Oh and don't forget the connected marker saber.

 #3 Apron Dress: Inspiration-This unbelievably adorable dress that Carrie bought for Gwen.

 How I did it: Leftover fabric from my table (humming the sound of music in my head), liner from a skirt I don't wear, front of a shirt I don't wear.

 

#4 Table redo: Inspiration- I had/have an ugly table and asked Dad and Kathy for some ideas.  They gave me the idea to cover it with fabric. And I found this one online.

How I did it: Fabric on sale from store $5, shower curtain $5, borrowed an electric screwdriver and staple gun from a friend and went to work.  Still have to do something with the bottom part of the table and the chairs (dumpster find).  You may be able to see in this picture that one of the chairs and one of the table legs are sanded. 

 #5 Pinwheel painting: Inspiration- I'm not sure where I first saw this, but I liked it a lot and knew I could do it.

How I did it: My biggest budget project so far as $25 for a large piece of stretched canvas and $9 of paint.  I drew out the lines lightly with a pencil then filled them in, going in and out of the lines. It is finished, although I like this picture of me working on it.  I still need to cover it with something like polyurethane or some other finisher to protect it from jedi fights.

#6 homemade pizza.  Some people do it well, I do not.

How I'm doing it: this one is a work in progress.  I've tried 5 times with 3 different recipes and 3 different pan preparation strategies I've gone from one end of the soggy spectrum to crispy cracker pizza on the other.  I think I've got a few more miles to go on my pizza quest.

#7 Another ongoing project is this high chair.  I found it for $10 and it took some serious work to get it to this stage. I removed lot of old crusty lace and also recovered the tray the same way I did the table top.  I think I need spring to come so I can take it outside and give it some new paint.

 So there you have it, the january wrap-up.  Next up: Finishing the table, decorating the toy room, more pizza, more costumes.  Hopefully I won't have to wait until next January to do some more projects.

Human Genome

Attention please, it has been determined by a very reliable test that these two children are in fact related.

Hey Baby

Nov/Dec 2011