Daddy and kids

Jill took this picture of the three of us and I realized that there aren't too many pictures with both Evan and Alexis together with me so I thought I'd share it.

Evan's Heart

Evan came home from preschool last week with a stuffed heart that he sewed. He was really proud of it and Jill and I were both impressed as well both for how well he sewed and that he completed a project that took a long time. It's very soft and Alexis likes touching it.

Alexis at Three Months

Here's your three month Alexis update. She's smiling a lot now and loves to look at herself in the mirror. She has a little red red monkey toy that she loves playing with. She plays on her play mat a lot with me in the evenings and reaches up and grabs a hanging parrot and holds onto it. She is in to sucking on her thumb/hand -- that's something Evan never really got into. She uses a pacifier sometimes but really seems to prefer her hand. She coos and makes different sounds. You can get her to say "hi" to you if you ask nicely (see the video). She LOVEs Evan - she's constantly smiling at him. So all's well in the world of Alexis except that for some reason she hates riding in the car now and cries constantly. She doesn't have a problem with her car seat so far as I can tell, just once she's in the car and moving. Everyone, especially Evan, is hoping that she gets over this real soon.

Enjoy the pictures and video!

Train Show

There was a model train show at the Seattle Science Center last weekend and the four of us went to check it out. There were big displays but there were also small tracks where Evan could control the trains. He loved touching all the knobs and buttons.

There was a small outside train ride too - and here's Jill and Alexis waiting for Evan to finish his ride.

After our time at the museum we grabbed a quick lunch in the Center House. It was fun getting all of us out to a fun little event like this.

Tired Dinosaur

Evan got a big dinosaur named Spike for Christmas. One afternoon I came into Evan's room and saw this...

He said Spike was tired so he covered him with Sea Creature Blanket, put Peep on top of him and gave him a pacifier. I laughed too loud and I guess I woke Spike up.

Alexis' Baptism

For our first trip as a family of four we headed out to Philadelphia and to see Jill's parents, brother, sister and my parents for Alexis' baptism. The flights were relatively uneventful to our surprise. Evan played on his i-pod and watched Dora and Diego and Alexis slept the whole time. We were proud of Evan for using the airplane potty several times, keeping his underwear dry for the whole flight.

On Sunday, January 10 we got Alexis baptized. Uncle Jeff did a great job as her godfather. The service was wonderful and Alexis tolerated water being poured on her head. We were thankful to Aunt Jennifer who distracted Evan during the sermon. Mostly we were thankful that both sets of grandparents got to be there for Alexis's special day.

Here is Alexis in her christening dress:

Here we all are at Jill's church:

We went to brunch afterward and Evan found a chocolate fountain. Needless to say he enjoyed it.

We also took a trip to Longwood Gardens to see the fantastic lights and plants. There was a new kids section with a bunch of fountains, which of course Evan loved.

We got a bunch of good family photos for once so I thought I'd post them.

It was very special having everyone together for this one visit. Can't wait to do it again soon!

Holding up her big head

Alexis gets stronger and stronger as each week passes. Now when she's having "tummy time" she is able to hold her head up and look around for a while. It'll still be some time until she sits up but I'm always amazed to see each little bit of progress.

A very late Christmas post

I guess things just got so busy over the holidays that the posts just stopped. Not to worry, I didn't stop taking pictures. Here's my recap of our Christmas.

Evan was real excited about Christmas. Here he is in front of his calendar counting down the days...

This was our first Christmas in Seattle. On Christmas Eve we went to an early kid friendly church service. Then we took Alexis and Evan out to a fancy Christmas Eve dinner. Evan did really well sitting and eating his food. Alexis was a little fussy but we still enjoyed our dinner. We came home and exchanged family presents on Christmas Eve night. Then Seth read "Twas the Night before Christmas" and Evan set out cookies for Santa. Choosing which cookies to set out was a big highlight for Evan who continues to be obsessed with food. Here's Evan happily opening one of his many presents.

Evan and Alexis woke up Christmas morning to a massive pile of presents, and one dinosaur with a bow around his neck.

Evan tore into his gifts and also helped Alexis open up her presents. Some of his favorite gifts this year were Spike the Dinosaur, a doctor kit, Candyland, and Oliver the Seal. Here is Alexis with one of her presents- a white seal.

Christmas night we went to a friend's house for a potluck. It was nice to have some adult time while Evan ran around with his friends. It was an exciting and tiring few days. We're still dealing with the aftermath of organizing new toys and giving away old ones, but things have begun to settle down now, and for that Jill and I are both grateful.