Alexis is 11 months old

Eleven months already?  Believe it!  One more to go until the big o-n-e.  Alexis has continued to get stronger and do new things this month.  She can climb up an entire flight of stairs (keep those gates closed!).  She can pull herself up and balance for a few seconds now before falling back over.  I think she now knows her way around the house.  She can navigate to things she wants to do and she can follow our voices to come and find us.  Her favorite place to go is into Evan's room.  For some reason little baby Demsey's love The Peep and Alexis is no exception.  She loves to sneak into Evan's room and hug him and laugh.  She's gotten real fast at crawling too.  She can really scurry down the hall in a hurry if she wants to.  We've got to remember to keep all the doors closed so she doesn't get into anything she shouldn't be around (like the toilet).

Alexis loves playing with us too.  She plays peek-a-boo all the time and laughs when she shows herself to us.  She also has picked up an instrument -- the kazoo -- stay posted for video on that one!

With almost one year of Alexis under our belt I can say it's been amazing be a part of her development.  I can't wait for her to talk to me!

Alexis and the bean table

Jill set up a table filled with black beans and lizards and snakes for Evan's birthday.  After the party was over though Alexis turned out to love it.  She'd put her hands in the beans, throw them all over the floor, and eat them.  It's great to be a baby.

Evan's Birthday Party

We decided to have Evan's birthday a week late with all his friends this year and the rain decided to remind us that doing things in late September in Seattle is risky.  Jill had it all under control though.  We moved the furniture out of our upstairs, blew up the bouncy house and had a party!  There was a beanbag toss, digging for bugs, sand art, a sand table, trains, cars and trucks, and even fishing! The rain even decided to let up and bubbles were blown too.

We made cupcakes for the party iced in some of Evan's favorite colors.

Super yummy.  Evan had a great time hosting his friends and celebrating his birthday and we had a great time having them over.  We're so lucky to have so many good friends.

School's back in!

It's that time of year again!  Evan's back at the co-op for his next year of preschool.  Here's your customary beginning of the school year picture.

Alexis loves balloons

Happy 4th Birthday Evan!

The years are rolling by so fast!  It's hard for me to believe Evan is already 4.  We had a small family party for Evan on his birthday.  When he walked downstairs that morning there was a smile on his face from ear to ear.  Jill decorated the house and laid out all his presents.

As we've done for three of Evan's four birthdays we went to the Puyallup fair.  He had a blast with the animals.  He LOVED the sheep.

He rode rides till we made him stop.  The roller coaster and the big slide were his favorite.

Alexis got in on the fun and touched the animals and played on the drums

Evan even had his first ever cotton candy (a huge winner).  There was lots of napping on the ride home (3 of 4 were asleep) -- and that was a good thing because we had dinner, presents and cake yet to come!   Evan opened all his presents and loved them.  He galloped around the house on his "stick horse".  And check out this smile when opening Grandma's card that played the chicken dance.

Smiles from ear to ear.  The cake was a hit too of course.

What a fantastic, busy day.  And to think -- we've got another party with his friends in a week!  Happy Birthday Evan.