Miscellaneous

Some random photos from the past few days:

Here's Owen contemplating how yummy beets are. The attempt to get four kids looking happy for a family picture. Let's see, Libby is uber smiley, Kaiya is curious why Henry is crying so hard, Henry is crying real hard, and Owen wants to get the H-LL out of dodge.

Cousins watching Best of Elmo 2.

Henry playing, while I like to think, Owen is reading a book to him.

Owen, Libby and Kaiya watching Elmo... BobBob taking a nap.

Cute boy. If you look close, his shirt says, "lock up your daughters"

First bite

Henry got to try his first bites of "real" food today. I suppose it's only real food, if you count watered down rice cereal... but it's a start. He was quite good at opening his mouth, accepting the food, and even sometimes helping guide our hand towards his... he was NOT good at swallowing. Ah, that's what practice is for right?

"What's about to happen?" Official first bite.

More out than in. "Dad, you see what mom's trying to pass off as FOOD?!"

He probably shouldn't be in charge of the spoon yet.

And what first bite blog would be complete without the first bite video?

Quote of the Day

Owen and Lucas were driving by a train today. Owen started saying, "big sticks. BIG sticks" Sure enough, the train was carrying logs. He was so excited!

Cannon Beach

Lucas got the day off work, so we went to Cannon Beach with Amy, Allie, Libby and Kaiya. It was a typical cold Oregon day at the beach. But I think we all had fun anyhow... at least until it was time to leave the beach. Then Owen kept saying through chattering teeth, "too cold" as his arms and legs were a crazy shade of purply-pink. But, with a wrap of a blanket being carried by Lucas, he was fine by the time we made it back to the car.

He's just so funny!

Me and my boys. Me and my boys, again.

Lucas and Owen.

Lucas took about 39 pictures of Henry today. He was just so handsome laying on the blanket, smiling and having a great time. I don't think he even minded that we were all in the background building castles!

I'm in love with this little man!

And this one too!

Libby started with two sweat shirts, long pants and a hat. Then she was in shorts and a T-shirt... then her swim suit. Here she is making mud pies for anyone willing to try one.

Here she is demonstrating a "mud bath". This was a great idea until it was time to walk to the car...

Owen, with Libby running up behind him. Behind Libby, is Lucas... way back there.

String cheese smile!

Mimi and Henry.

Henry also turned a pretty shade of "cold blue" but he never complained... maybe just snuggled in a little closer on the walk back.

Party

We had a little get together at our house yesterday. It's amazing when we say little party, it ends up being 12 adults and 8 kids under the age of six. But, Lucas loves to cook and entertain, so it's all fun.
Here's Owen running in the front yard. One of many group pictures. I love this one because you see four of the kids.

Future love? Liberty and Brock.

They were so cute. We joked that we always knew where Libby was, because she is quite loud. The kid we would "lose" was Owen. He love to watch everyone. He knows when he is getting overwhelmed and will just walk to another room, and play by himself. So sweet.

Hop-scotch.

Libby on Bob-Bob's bike

Aunt Allie

With Allie in town, Henry has officially met all of his aunts, and all of his cousins. He has not met ONE of his uncles! (Come on Doug, Matt and Nathanael, who's going to be first!?)

Here's Allie and Henry. Henry is in LOVE with Allie... I like to think of it as she looks a bit like daddy, but is a girl like mommy. But, well, who wouldn't love Allie! Add Owen...

Add Kaiya...

Add Libby.

And just a cute picture of Lucas and his boys.

Cousins

Allie and "the girls" are in town... which means Lucas and I and "the boys" are spending a lot of time over at Bob and Amy's. As always, it's great to get all the grand kids together.

Here are some cute toes... And their owners. Kaiya and Henry. They are the same size, but Kaiya is about five months older. She is crazy fast, pulling herself up... it makes us feel Henry is slow... but then we remember he's only five months old! A small giant compared to petite Kaiya.

Lucas and Henry: self-portrait. Sweet Kaiya.

Beautiful and serious Liberty. (She'll be six in just a few weeks)

Mimi and Owen.

Mimi and Kaiya.

This blog was very black and white... somehow the color photos were just sub-par to the beauty of black and white. I'm loving this new camera!

Floor time

Henry is spending time on the floor this afternoon, "reading" a book. It's such a good book, you can tell by the amount of drool he has on his arm!

You never know

You never know what a self-portrait will look like until you turn the camera around and look... but I suppose when Owen was saying "NO" to a picture, I should have believed him!

Blocks

Owen is getting really good at building block towers. He'll sit for quite a while building. Occasionally you can hear him saying, "please, please, please" as if willing and pleading with the blocks to stay on top of one another. He gets a little mad when they fall, but will say, "again" and start all over! Look of concentration!

Cautious Kid

Yesterday on our evening walk, Owen got his first skinned knee. It's more of a scrape than a full out skinned knee, but there was a little bit of blood. He was running, then he fell. I didn't say anything. He just was there for a moment, as if assessing the situation, then stood up and started running again.

I suppose at 25 months of age, he has learned if you fall, you just get right back up! But, he just is such a cautious little guy, we were both so proud he finally skinned/scraped a knee!

MAX

While I would love this blog to be about us meeting my cousin's baby, Max, for the first time, this one is about Portland's MAX. (aka train according to Owen). We thought it would be a fun afternoon outing to ride the train for the first time with the boys. Owen is always so excited when we see it crossing our path.

So, we got to the station, and bought our tickets. I hit the wrong button on one of the tickets so one was the normal $2.30 fare, the other was $11.00 (all day ride). Now, we were anticipating a $5.00 adventure, easy to turn around if Owen hated it... but for $13.30... we were going to ride for a while. He didn't care for it as much as we though he would. He started saying "out, out" as soon as we started moving... but he hung in there. And, when I say hung in there I mean he HUNG on to Lucas' arms with all his might. We ended up travelling in about 30 minutes in each direction.

He liked looking at the train going the other direction. But did NOT want Lucas to put him down. Self-portrait of me and Henry.

Us and MAX.

Lucas and Owen saying "bye" to the train we got off. We then walked to the other platform and waited for the ride back to the car.

Owen did seem to like the fact that we were in a tunnel.

Listening and waiting for our train to arrive.

Me and the boys. I was looking at the camera, Henry was looking at Owen, and Owen was looking at Lucas wanting back in his arms.

Artistic picture by Lucas.

A picture of our return trip. (Notice the grip Owen has on Lucas)

Henry just looked around and studied his environment. He had a good time.

Artistic picture by Lucas. (me and Henry were great models!)

Artistic photo by Marla. (not too shabby)

We had a fun time, but I don't think Owen will be begging to go on any train rides again very soon.