Monday, December 20, 2010

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Backseat buddies

I love that Cole and Anna can now entertain each other in the backseat. The latest is holding hands, which is beyond adorable. If there was a sound track to this photo it would be:

Cole: "Anna, Anna" (in a high pitched voice) "Boo!"
Anna: (giggles)

Thursday, December 9, 2010

GG Billie

Recently we went to visit GG Billie. We had a nice visit and she was happy to see the kids. Cole played with puzzles, Anna dazzled her with her smiles and coos. Even though Billie's memory isn't there, her personality still shines through. We need to get over there more often to see her ... a new years resolution.



Play date

It had been way too long since Cole had a play date with one of his favorite friends, Quincy. So he was more than excited when I told him we were going to spend the afternoon at the Toy Factory with Q and Santiago. Love this photo of the three of them.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Snow day!

It started snowing last night around 9pm. Cory told Cole that he would wake him up if it snowed, so keeping his word, he went up and got him out of bed, brought him downstairs, and we seriously couldn't wake the child up! I thought that all kids bounced out of bed at the mention of snow! Not Cole. He was happily surprised when he woke up to see the white blanket of snow covering everything this morning. The neighbor boys were out sledding by 8am and we weren't far behind them. It was good that we did it when we did, because the snow didn't last long, but it was fun while it was here.

Cole and Connor loved riding the sled down the hill.

Ms. Anna wasn't so sure about the cold weather, but she was a good sport about it.

Sitting up

This week Anna has been working on her sitting up, and she's getting pretty good! She can definitely hold her self up well, its just when she gets excited that she tends to tip backwards or sideways. She's happy to be that much more connected to the action.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Love this photo

It's always fun to find surprise photos on your camera! My mom took some photos of Anna today while she was watching her and I love this one for some reason. Maybe its her adorable little lips. Or her eyes. So sweet.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Crazy hair day

Some hair days are better than others for Anna. Today was a particularly crazy hair day, as you can see. Oh, and she is drooling a ton these days, as you can also see.


Cole's photography work. Pretty good, huh? And fun for me to have a picture of me and Anna as I'm usually the one behind the camera.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Suttle Lake

This weekend we were invited to join Dave, Narda, Perry and Levi at The Lodge at Suttle Lake. We've always wanted to stay there, so we were excited for the opportunity. They had reserved on of the cabins and it was super cute and perfect for our crew. It was mostly cold and rainy, but it held off enough for us to get outside and explore a little. We visited the head of the Metolius River and then went to feed the fish at the Wizard Falls Fish Hatchery, which Cole loved. Lunch in Sisters. And then lots of time hanging at the cabin, playing games, watching football and having fun.

Unfortunately I forgot my camera (again!) so here's what I have from the weekend.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Swinging in the sun

Cole, Anna and I took advantage of a sunny day and headed to the neighborhood park. Anna is big enough now to sit in the baby swing and she can sit happily in there for quite a while. She likes to swing, or just sit and watch Cole play. New super cute hat courtesy of Grandma Klinkhammer. Perfect for the chilly weather.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

A place at the table

We've started putting Anna in the highchair during dinner so that she can feel a part of it all. She is not a girl who likes to be left out! With the help of straps she is able to stay upright and enjoys being able to see what's going on. Mostly she likes to keep track of Cole, her most favorite person. And he likes to have her across from him, too. I bought some rice cereal the other day, so we'll probably give her a taste sometime soon. Stay tuned for the fun first-food pictures!

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Belly laugh

If you want Anna to laugh, just start dancing. She thinks dancing is hilarious, especially when its kids dancing - Mom is not quite as funny. So as you can imagine she was in heaven this weekend when Mia, Alex and Cole decided to throw a dance party right in front of her. I snapped this photo on Sarah's phone. Next time I'll have to get video. A baby laughing really is one of the cutest things ever.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Election night

I had the pleasure of working on Julie Manning's mayoral campaign and was happy to celebrate with her and the rest of the campaign team this week when she won! Here is Cole with the new Mayor of Corvallis.

MAC photo shoot

Anna joined me for a couple meetings at Madison Ave Collective last week, one being a photo shoot for the MAC website and a few promotional pieces that we're doing. She was one of my "props" :) More photos from the shoot (without Anna) are here.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Tummy time!

Anna has been spending quite a bit more time on her tummy these days and her neck is getting so strong!

Halloween weekend

It took a while before Cole could settle on what he wanted to be for Halloween - his costume ideas were all over the place, seriously. From a carrot to a ghost to a knight. So we waited until the last minute and then went to the store to see what was left. Cole's one requirement was that he wanted it to be scary. And he got lots of use out of it, as you can see! Apparently when Halloween falls on a Sunday it becomes a weekend long event.

We didn't have tickets to the OSU vs. Cal game, but we went down for the pre-game festivities.



Today we went to the OSU vs. Stanford volleyball game, which was so fun. Makes me wish that we had gone to more games this season. They had a Monster Mash at half time for all of the kids that were dressed up. And of course Cole was excited to get to see Benny up close and personal.



Our neighborhood is perfect for trick-or-treating. So many kids and lots of houses with spooky decorations. Here the kids are all ready to go! I love the giraffe outfit. So cute and cozy.

Friday, October 29, 2010

Week at Johnnies

Some pictures from this week at Johnnies ...


Cole and Snowball the cat

Pumpkin painting

Making cookies

First wagon ride

Now that Anna can sit up a little bit better she can enjoy things like rides in the wagon, of course with the assistance of big brother Cole!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Snuggling with Grandma

Anna is a great sleeper at night, but during the day she still takes little cat naps. I'm hoping that eventually she moves to taking two longer naps, but for now the only way that she will do that is if someone is holding her. Which makes it hard to get anything done! But there really isn't much sweeter than holding a sleeping baby. My mom has been getting lots of snuggling time with Anna recently.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Rolling

Tonight we were sitting in the family room - Cory on the couch, me and the kids on the floor. Anna was rolling onto her side over and over again and then all of a sudden she was on her tummy! We were all cheering for her, Cole especially was excited, which made her smile although I'm pretty sure she was confused as to what happened. She just did it once, so we'll see if she can repeat it again soon! Looking back at the blog post from when Cole rolled over for the first time he was just about the same age.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Cole is 3!

We celebrated Cole's 3rd birthday a little early since we'll be in California on the actual day. Gelato before dinner - what could be better? Thank you to Krista for taking such great pictures! To see the whole album, click here.




Thursday, October 7, 2010

Anna + Jonathan

Our good friends Kristen and Scott welcomed Jonathan into the world on August 13. Anna and I took a trip to Portland last week to meet the little man and visit with his mama. What a sweet baby! Super mellow and easy going. And he looks just like his daddy! We had such a nice time. They live in a great neighborhood in NE Portland so we hung at the house and then walked to a nearby cafe for lunch. The kids were both in good spirits the whole time and were happy to hang out in their matching Moby wraps while we ate. Anna's first little boyfriend. :)


Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Beaver home game

This past Saturday we took the kids to the Beaver football game - it was Anna's first and Cole's second. We opted out of season tickets this year, so this is the only game we actually have tickets for. And it ended up being a beautiful day! Almost too sunny, actually, since I was a bit worried about how warm it would be for Anna. She slept through most of the pre-game activities (tailgating with some friends by the stadium) but woke up just in time to eat and get some wiggling time in on the grass before kickoff. Our seats were perfect - in the endzone with a bit of shade. Anna was awake the whole first half, happily sitting with me and Cory, taking it all in. She is such a mellow baby, especially when there's a lot of activity around her. She loves action and people. Cole loved the loud cheering and talked me into getting him this foam claw. Which he traded in later for a foam finger. We stayed for the first half and then watched the second half on tv at a friends house. Overall a great game experience! Looking forward to taking the kids to at least one volleyball game this fall and maybe a soccer game or two.


Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Apple season

I love, love, love this time of the year. And apples are one of the reasons. I have stopped eating apples except for when they are in season so it is even more of a treat to go down to our local apple stand to pick up a bag. Here's Cole with his first apple of the season from Brooklane. It's a Gala - yum!

Back to work

I started back to work this week after a couple wonderful months off. I feel so fortunate to have had two really awesome jobs fall into my lap. Yay for my network! For the next few months I'll be working primarily with OSU Extension and the Majestic Theater with a little bit of work here and there for a couple smaller accounts. We are going to try and keep Anna home (not in day care) for as long as possible and have got an awesome team of people taking turns watching her - me, Cory, my mom, and our new addition Stacey (who we met while she was working at the Toy Factory - go figure!). They say "it takes a village" and it really does! So everyone gets a little Anna time and I get some work time.

Here are a couple photos from one of my mom's afternoons with her this week. We've had some awesome weather so they were heading out to enjoy it.


Monday, September 27, 2010

Dentist

This morning was Cole's second visit to the dentist. Dr. Sparks said that his teeth look great and Cole was a perfect patient!

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Detroit Lake

Just got back from Detroit Lake, where we spent the weekend with our friend Dave and his two kids - Perry Jane (PJ) and Levi. Lake house + boat are now both on the dream wish list! Detroit Lake is beautiful and we had great weather. Perfect for exploring and fishing.

Our rental house

The backyard

The view

Friday night - the boys build a campfire in the backyard for smores


Saturday morning - ready to fish!


After just 10 minutes in the boat, Cole caught his first fish! A brown trout.

They ended up catching four fish in total. Cory cooked them up and we ate them for dinner - yum!

Anna and I checked out the lake from the shore.

PJ and Anna - she's a natural with babies! Can't wait until she can babysit.