Home!

I've avoided blogging much about our home search so as not to jinx us or cause undue excitement. But I think I'm safe in announcing...that after much searching and 2 moves, and years of planning and saving, we got a house! Not just any house, OUR house. I took a little video with my iPod so show friends and family. (If you're neither of those then don't feel obligated to watch it)

Here it is!



Seriously, I'm a little jealous of myself. :)

What I mean is I never thought we could have gotten a home this nice. We feel so very blessed. It hasn't come without sacrifice. We lived in 1100 square ft for the last 4 years in our lovely little 1973 mushroom house. And I had to keep telling myself, "be grateful for what you have, you could be living in a grass hut with no running water!" We've loved our little home and have been so very grateful for the wonderful people we met and became such good friends with in our time there. In fact if we'd had more room we would have stayed longer. But this move has been a long time coming. It feels like we've been talking about it for years. Our patience paid off. We'll be moving in a couple weeks!

I'll give you a hint, it rhymes with Honey and Chair

Can anyone guess who we're supposed to be?

Our good friend Kevin is an incredibly talented professional photographer. You can check out his work here (kevinwinzeler.com). He's used us in some shoots here and there and recently gave us some pics he's taken of us - including the one above that was taken at an Omniture Halloween party a few years ago.



Here are a few more that I had to post:

Ella and Dave bikin'

Frustrated Meg
Tired Dave

Sour face

Poor kid...we scared the poop out of him for this sequence...i feel bad...but it's kind of funny...

In other news -baby's heart is still beating! We heard it again today. 16 weeks down!

Christmas 2009!

Hey, Better late than never, right?!

My kind mother in law sent me all her pictures so we had something to document the year end. Just a few highlights...enjoy!

Christmas Eve...

We tried to get pictures of the kids in their jamies by the tree. So many wiggles! This was the best we got.

Mike and Brandie
Nay Famiy
We opened presents...
...and were wowed by presents
We ate yummy food!
We (the guys) hung out in our "Max Hall Hates Me" t-shirts, thanks Lisa!



The next day, Christmas Morning we had a great time opening presents...very slowly. Sol wanted to sit and play with everything he opened. It took 2 hours to open presents!
Sol opened his new ornament for the year first, a little penguin. He LOVED it. He even danced with it. He got this little chair from G&GW. Its still a favorite!

Sol tried on mommy's new vest.

Daddy got a bunch of new back country gear.

Sol got a new puppy friend! A fake one- the best kind!!!

Our real puppy got a little jealous.


Thanks for a great Christmas to all those we were able to share it with!

Photo Booth

Since we've been sans-camera I decided to use the Photo Booth program on our computer to take a few shots of our little man. Enjoy!

Heartbeat.

Baby's got one!

We all got to hear it. What a sweet sound. Sol was squirming all over the place but as soon as the doctor came in he sat on Dave's lap, still as could be. What a good boy.

On another note... (pun intended)
Does this song not totally rock!? And I LOVE the video. It's so happy and sunny and warm and fun. All good things to take you away from a cloudy cold January day.



How can you not dance to it?! Watching this video totally makes me wish I was there in the street with the drummer guys, shaking my pregnant booty.

Happy Monday!

Haiti: What can YOU do?

I'm astonished at the devastation in Haiti. I don't think I've personally witnessed such an incredible tragedy in my life time. The the amount of those who died is mind boggling. My dear friend Jean Marie sent me this email about what more we can do outside of a cash donation. I thought I'd pass it on to you.

Dear friends,

You know the need-you've seen the photos and most of us have already responded with a donation. Good.

Now, HOPE+ wants you to do something more than just give money.

We want three things 1) your time, 2) your friends and 3) your ideas.

1st Your Time - Below are some ways to take action right now, to help - both immediately and long term:

Drop the Debt Petition - Sponsored by ONE for immediate cancellation of Haiti's $1 billion debt and ensure that any emergency earthquake assistance is provided in the form of grants, not debt-incurring loans.

'Micro projects' - Led by The Extraordinaries, you can to help sort and tag disaster photos, match the missing to sorted images and search the image database for missing persons.

Volunteer in Your Community - Check out All For Good, search for the key word "Haiti" along with your zip code and find volunteer opportunities in your community.

These may seem like small things, but small things add up, and so much is needed in so many ways.

2nd Your Friends - In the next 24 hours, reach out to 10 of your friends and ask them to get involved with HOPE+, sign up and do what they can to help Haitian relief efforts. Click here to tell your friends about HOPE+ right now.

3rd Your Ideas - What special project do you think we as HOPE+ should do? You've seen other ideas and projects online, check out our blog and give us your best ideas.

HOPE+ is brand new and this is our first big opportunity to do something new and different. Even if it is a small project, what is something special that we could do? Once we hear from you, we'll turn your ideas into action and results on the ground in Haiti.

HOPE+ is about more than just giving money, it's about giving you the resources to get involved in a personal way, along with your friends and to turn the best ideas out there into real action.

Haiti needs YOUR action now.

This is what HOPE+ was made for, but we can't do it without you. I hope you'll step up to join us right now to take action. The real long term impact of this disaster is yet to be seen, and our fellow global citizens in Haiti urgently need our help.

Please do something NOW.

Thanks,
The HOPE+ Team

Also, see how The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is sending aid in all forms here:

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/church-aid-continues-to-arrive-in-haiti

Your baby can read!

Let me preface this post by saying, I really hope this doesn't come off as self-righteous.

You've seen those comercials, right? Where the 9 month old is reading words like "ambidextrous" and "antidisestablishmentarianism". Your baby can read by watching these videos! It kind of makes me sad for the poor kid that is expected to be reading before he can wipe himself. Most kids learn to read, why push it on them at such an early age....

I had kind of a surreal moment today as Sol and I were looking at books. This is easily one of Sol's favorite books. Its full of colorful fish and sea creatures. He loves to look at it and read it over and over. His favorite page is where the fish swim round and round. We all have to say it, "Round and Round" over and over.

The last page of the book says "Hello Mom! Hello Little Fish! Kiss Kiss Kiss, Horray for Fish!"

Tonight as we turned to this page Sol recited the whole thing by himself!

Its the first time he's ever 'read' or rather recited words on a page. I was thrilled, not that my baby could 'read' rather that he was learning to comprehend and remember a story.

I don't tell this story to brag (well maybe a little cause I'm his mom) but point out that there may be a little more to teaching your kids to read than planting them in front of the tv while they watch several hours of flash cards. Just a thought.