Monday, July 26, 2010

Birthday Fun

On Saturday we had a big family birthday party for Trip at my parents' house. Many of my grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins were able to come, which made for a great time to visit with family.

Mom helped me make these super cute monkey cupcakes. We made banana snack cake (a banana-chocolate chip cake that is a family staple) and chocolate cupcakes that we decorated with Nilla Wafers and chocolate-sour cream frosting. They each had their own personality. We also made a small cake for Trip to dig into. I didn't get a picture of the rest of the table, but there were lots of other yummy treats like spinach dip and veggies, cheese ball and crackers, grapes, homemade cheese crackers, roasted nuts, a relish tray, and more.



Trip got shy while everyone was singing to him and was looking down at the floor.


He wasn't quite sure what to do with his cake. The ear was the first thing to go.


Exploring the frosting


Finally digging in


Aunt Tammi and Cooper got to join the party via Skype. It was nice to have them there!


A family picture! Thanks, Beth for making sure that we got one.


After the party we had to pack up and get on the road so that we could be home and rested for church on Sunday. Trip slept for part of the five hour drive home and ate Nilla Wafers for the rest of the time. Not really, but they were the only thing that kept him happy toward the end.

We saved a cupcake for today so that Gram and Great Grandmama could watch Trip enjoy it over Skype since they hadn't been able to join us on Saturday. He was sure excited to see them and had a great time making a big mess.


Thank you to everyone who helped make this a great first birthday for Trip!

Fun with Grandpa and Noni

As always, Trip had a great time with Grandpa and Noni. He enjoyed being at their house and having a new place to explore. He of course found lots of things to get into.

Here he is playing in the sprinkler with Grandpa. As you can see, he loved it.


Noni was very gracious to share her food with him (after he didn't eat his own dinner, of course).


One of the big benefits of Trip and me getting a few extra days in Albny is that we got to do one of my favorite summer activities, berry picking. Trip fell asleep on our way to Andersonblues and slept for a while, which allowed Mom and me to pick 26 pounds of blueberries.


Another day during his nap I went out and picked some raspberries. I only got 8 pounds of those, but it will be enough to make some freezer jam.

The other thing we did quite a bit of while in Albany was shopping. Since our shopping in Lakeview is limited to Safeway and the next closest stores are 100 miles away in Klamath Falls, there were quite a few things we needed. I especially enjoyed going to Corvallis to Trader Joe's and Winco.

Watch Me Grow!

We're having a hard time believing that it was just one year ago that we met our sweet baby boy. In many ways it feels like he's always been a part of our lives. For his birthday party, I chose a picture of him with his monkey from each month of his first year and made a banner. It turned out great and it was so much fun to look back at the pictures and see just how much he has changed.



Just a couple of hours old

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

10 months

11 months

12 months and enjoying some cake!

Happy birthday, Trip! You have brought so much joy to our lives!

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Unexpected Fun

We were hugging Rachel goodbye after her visit and looking forward to seeing her again in just a few days since were were headed to Albany last Wednesday. Suddenly I realized that we should have made plans for Trip and me to go home with her and get a few extra days with family (now that we have to schedule everything around Sundays and Kirk couldn't leave early). She said "Well, you could still come with me. I'll wait for you to pack up." After some debating and a call to my mom, I decided to do it, and an hour and a half later we were on the road.

One of the best parts about the whole thing was that we got to surprise my mom's side of the family by showing up to some birthday parties that we thought we would miss.

My mom and her sister Lisa became grandmas just ten days apart last July when my cousin Matt and his wife Beth had their son Lucas and then we had Trip. Unfortunately though, since we have lived so far away, Lucas and Trip had never met. Lucas's first birthday party was on Saturday and I was thrilled that we were able to make it and that we finally got the boys together.




Aren't they cute? I can only imagine the trouble that they will get into together in the future!

By the way, we were trying to figure out what relation Lucas and Trip are to each other. Second cousins? Cousins once removed? After some research and a very interesting article on Wikipedia, I discovered that they are second cousins because they share great-grandparents.

After we celebrated Lucas, we also got to go out to dinner to celebrate my mom's bother John's 50th birthday. It was so fun to have an unexpected and joyous day with family!

Sunday, July 18, 2010

A Fun Week

Trip got to enjoy time with both of his aunts this week. On Monday, he ate lunch and hung out with Aunt Tammi on Skype. He had a great time making faces at her.


A little later that afternoon, Auntie Rachel arrived to spend a few days with us. She brought Trip this wagon that she had decorated for him.


Trip loved having Auntie Rachel around. One day, he decided to lick her feet. He kept looking away and then doing it again. We were all laughing hysterically!


Auntie got lots of opportunities to chase him around and keep him out of trouble. We had to get a lock for the screen door because he has figured out how to push it open.


Here he is helping us do laundry. (He climbed in all by himself!)


Thanks for coming to see us, Auntie Rachel (aka our most faithful blog reader and commenter- your trophy will be coming soon!). We sure had fun!

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Cabinets, Drawers, and Shelves, Oh My!

It is officially time to baby-proof the kitchen. Trip has figured out that it is a very fun place where he can open cabinets and drawers, find lots of treasures, and make a huge mess. The problem for me is that we have so little storage space in the kitchen that I can't spare a cabinet or a couple of drawers to fill with things that he can explore.



If I need a few minutes to get something done, I can usually buy myself some time by putting the books and stuffed animals back on the shelves in Trip's room. He will often stay there until most everything is on the floor.


Daddy's guitar case is a favorite toy as well.


This box has been a fun distraction in the last couple of days.


And finally, just for good measure, a cute picture of Trip's first experience with raspberries (that came special delivery from Grandpa and Noni's backyard). Yum!

Monday, July 5, 2010

Happy 4th of July!

Grandpa and Noni got to come down for the weekend and celebrate the Fourth with us. They arrived on Friday evening with lots of fun stuff.

Here are Noni and Trip with a truck that his great grandparents sent him. We wished we had been able to capture the look on his face when he first saw it. He is eyes were so big!


Playing with Grandpa's tool box on Saturday. We spent plenty of time keeping him out of Grandpa's tools!


Dad and Kirk worked on lots of projects on Saturday and Sunday. They built a gate for the backyard, cleaned out the drainage pipes under the house (which had gotten blocked and were creating some yucky problems inside), installed new light switches and outlets, put in the kitchen faucet that we brought from our old house, fixed the leaky pipes under the sink, and more.

Dad and Mom brought us the wagon that Rachel and I had when we were little. We thought it would be a fun place to get some pictures of Trip in his 4th of July outfit.


He loves to move those legs!


Standing up! Yikes!


About 15 pictures in and we still couldn't get one with both of us looking at the camera.


We live very close to the fairground, so we invited people over Sunday night to watch the fireworks and eat s'mores.


Trip fought sleep most of the day but was still able to stay up long enough to see the fireworks. He seemed to enjoy them.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Eleven Months

It has been getting quite difficult to take Trip's monthly pictures and get any that are good! He is so wiggly these days. Plus, he likes to try to launch himself off of furniture. This is what most of this month's pictures looked like:


A little better


The best one


We are amazed at how much Trip has learned between ten and eleven months, and really since we've been in Lakeview. He is now army crawling and working on crawling on all fours, clapping, pulling himself up, and sitting up on his own. He is into everything and pretty much requires constant supervision since the things he's not supposed to get into are his favorites.

These shelves in his room are where he likes to pull himself up the most. I had put some books on a shelf and he wanted to pull them down, so he stood up to do it. Pulling all of his books down to the floor is one of his favorite activities.