Christmas Eve 2008

So, I posted most of the Christmas photos from Christmas Eve at our house on Shutterfly. I will add more later. I didn't take as many because I got sick of experiencing Morgan's first Christmas behind a lens. When I am rich I will hire a Jehovah Witness to photograph the Holidays for us.

Here is my favorite photo from Christmas Eve. Morgan sleeping in front of our Christmas Tree after an exciting evening of meeting Santa and opening presents.

Movie Time

Steve made a quick little video of some of the footage we took over christmas of Morgan playing with his new toys...

Oh Christmas Tree...

So, last night Steve and I tried to get some xmas pictures of Morgan in front of the tree however he had other plans. Every time Steve stuck him in front of the tree he would start crying. Steve tried dancing, singing, clapping, even flinging poor Necrobutcher through the air all to no avail. I did manage to get a couple shots where he wasn't crying and the one above is probably the best one and still not what we would have liked. We even let him have a nap and when he got up and seemed happy we tried again but it was like a switch that immediately turned on the grump.

Last week we went out to the Skagit Valley to catch the sunset at this wildlife reserve so that I could take some pictures here are a couple that I took. The first time we were there two Bald eagles were on the beach and flew right over our heads to their nest in a tree right on the road by us.



Literally I took this first picture above and then turned around and walked 10 feet and took this one. It is amazing out there.

Merry Christmas!

Tuesday was Morgan's 4 month Birthday! I can't believe it. He is teething pretty badly lately his mouth is like a drooly faucet and his hands are constantly stuffed in his mouth. He now officially rolls over and scoots around on the floor. He has also decided to commandeer his bottle which has been interesting. He doesn't have complete control yet so it's been a struggle with little baby hands and finger death grips.

Today he had his 4 month check-up and vaccinations. He weighs over 15 pounds and is 26 inches long with a 17.5 inch head! His head size is literally off the charts compared to the national average of infants his age; I am hoping it's because he has a giant brain. He is also apparently really long which probably means he's going to be a big guy like his dad. He chatted it up the whole time at the Dr's except for the few seconds of crying after the shots which he recovered from really quickly this time. I braved it out and stayed with him and Steve in the room during the shots which was hard.

On a different note, I can't wait for Christmas it's going to be a lot of fun this year with my family and we are having a surprise guest which I am really excited about! Taking pictures with the little monkey is quite different now compared to just a month ago. Before I could just sit him in one place and that was it but not anymore he was rolling around, scooting away, and reallly really wiggly! I will now leave you with this last photo to ponder...


(Yes, that is a big puddle 'o drool below his face ;)

Thanksgiving 2008

This is my favorite shot from Thanksgiving so I had to post it first thing ;) Tracie please don't hate me!




Thanksgiving was a bunch of fun. Morgan did really good through the whole thing! There were lots of people to get attention from all day and I think he was in withdrawal for a couple days after. He got a little grumpy in the later evening but he was pretty tired. I didn't get a shot of him in his Thanksgiving outfit so I will add one later. Dinner was awesome one of the best as far as the vegetarian side goes. I made a Mushroom Barley Wild Rice stuffing which was delicious(tasted just like my grandma's except no giblets)and we had a vegetarian field roast which my mom called Road kill but it was really tasty. I heard the Turkey was good too.

Steve and I took a bunch of photos on our new little Nikon Coolpix so I made a new photo page on shutterfly.com to download them to since they are all point and shoot shots. Click the link and you can view the Thanksgiving 2008 photo album which has lots of funny shots like the one above of the fun we had. I am still adding to it so check back to it in the next couple days for more shots. I am super impressed with Shutterfly actually. It is a great way to share photos and make family updates at the same time I might just switch to that. Also, anyone can add photos to the photo albums on my site so if you want to share a shot you can. I am going to reserve my Flickr page for my nice cameras and keep the shutterfly.com page for family shots. I know it's getting confusing, right?!

I think my favorite part of our family tradition on Thanksgiving is at night. We always watch a movie and everyone spends the night. This year our upstairs is under construction so it was a giant slumber party in my living room. Every inch was covered in bedding, people, and dogs. A lot of the shots on shutterfly are of the preparation of the beds. Kevin brought a dollar store blow up air mattress thingy that you put in pools. He called it Brenda his blow up doll, I thought I was going to die laughing as they tried blowing it up. Anyway, I think the pictures tell the story. I really had a good time on Thanksgiving; I laughed a ton and got to spend it with my family. I feel very lucky.

Sea Kayaking

So, to get more active Steve and I decided Kayaking would be a good idea. I will admit more so Steve because I get scared of being in deep water. I guess it's the fear of the unknown..er..something. In theory it sounds fun I guess I will find out soon enough. We went in September to PT so Steve could go to the Kayaking symposium and while we were there Steve broke down and bought a Kayak kit after trying out several kayaks. Basically it is all the parts in their raw form with a giant manual. Steve has been making some really good progress and it is actually looking like a kayak now. :)
Here is the Before...



Here are a few photos of his progress...
Bow


Stern


Steve scraping off epoxy

3 months old!

Today is Morgan's 3 month birthday and of course he wasn't having anything to do with the photo taking so all I managed to get is this one blurry shot of him and Steve.


\

He is very busy when he is awake now. He chatters at us constantly and wants to sit up and stand. He is very strong. His little hands are becoming quite useful to him now as he has figured out how to grab our faces and smack us a lot.

I have been working on my photography with my free time and I took a great shot of Steve the other day that I am really proud of. Technically it is damn close to perfect. Now if every shot would come out this good I would be so happy.

Explanations

This picture was taken shortly after I described to Morgan the impacts of the past 20 years of Republican economic philosophy, followed by the fact that tomorrow Americans may choose to continue down that path for another 4 years. He didn't really look bothered... until I explained that we would be expecting him to pick up the check.

Post-Halloween Post

So much for my Halloween post. Halloween turned out to be pretty busy between visitors and it being our 8 year wedding anniversary we had lots to do and I got sick. Also the day before was my mom's birthday which I spent a lot of time getting ready for. It went well except for the dessert which turned into Tirami-soup as Steve called it. Friday Steve's sister Fred came by with her boyfriend to visit Morgan and then later we got a surprise visit from Lance and Gypsy and their girls all dressed up. I also spent a couple hours taking Halloween Pictures of Morgan. By the end of the night I got really sick and stayed in bed all day Saturday.

Morgan's guitar that Tracie and Jamie bought him was officially broken in a bit by Fred's boyfriend Matt who is a classical guitarist and guitar instructor. He played the guitar for Morgan and he seemed to really like it. It was so cute.



And here he is looking a lot like Buddy Holly thanks to Matt's glasses...


Here is Aunt Fred and Morgan (I love this photo)


After they left I busted out the lights and costumes...





This picture below I am not happy with but after a hundred plus shots of him in this costume I gave up. It is still pretty good but you can't see the spiny back and it is just a weird composition. I think Steve and I both have a new appreciation for children Photographers like the ones at Babies 'r Us. I have no idea how they do it all day. Every 3 seconds he would either spit up all over, fall over on his side, or get upset because he was so hot in it under the lights. :)

His feet say Little Monster and I think he is a dragon or lizard thing...




I love this last photo because it was at the very end and he had definitely been ready to quit for a while. The look on his face is priceless.



Of course I have so many more pictures but it takes me like 10-20 minutes to edit each one. I will post some more soon.

Happy Late Halloween!

Sneak Preview

Here are some sneak peeks of the Halloween post I will put up on Friday...

He is so cute it kills me.

Pumpkins!

Saturday we went to Biringer Farm up the road from us and bought some pumpkins. Due to the bad season there were no solid orange pumpkins. So we had to get orange and green pumpkins instead. Oh well.















The one disadvantage to being the one who takes the pictures is that Morgan is going to have virtually no pictures of his Mom.

Introductions

Last weekend Morgan finally met the remainder of his family (the part we see on a regular basis anyway) when Uncle Jamie, Aunt Tracie, and Cousin Jaiden (of The Stipp Family Update) all came out to visit. Since they all recently moved to the other side of the mountains it has taken much too long for us to get together. Morgan immediately took to his Aunt and Uncle and seemed to especially take a shine to his cousin Jaiden. This was the first time that Morgan has actually interacted with another child, and he was quite happy. In a related note it's amazing how much Jaiden has grown since last we saw him! He was a blast to have at the house and I will admit it was a little intimidating to see the challenges that await us two years from now. Jaiden refers to Morgan as 'Baby Yorgan' which is adorable.

The major advantage of not being the first in the familiy to breed is the availability of hand-me downs of all varieties! :) Jamie and Tracie brought a giant box of clothes, toys, and books. The majority of the items were used but they bought a few items new, including a cute set of footie pajama's (with puppies on the feet) and a cool soft book. The books have been great and we have been reading to Morgan every day from them and showing him the pictures. He really likes the books, especially one they provided that features the faces of babies exhibiting different moods. When we show him the pictures he gets very excited, smiling and cooing and kicking his feet. The only problem so far is that I have trouble getting past the urge to editorialize in inappropriate ways while reading the books, which typically results in me getting hit by my wife.

The coolest thing by far that they brought over was a child sized, real guitar. Not only is it adorable, it is fully functional! The story behind the guitar is a long and complicated one. The day that Jaiden was born I brought him a football, keeping with a weird little family tradition started by my Grandfather when I was born. Jamie and Tracie astutely determined that for us the guitar was a much better gift that still kept with the spirit of the exchange. Morgan is a little young for it yet, but as soon as he is old enough we're starting him on playing it. In the meantime I tuned it up and gave it a quick spin, which I'm sure looked completely ridiculous to those watching.

Melissa took some pictures and while she wasn't happy with any of them she agreed to let me post them anyway. Looking at the pictures now I'm really struck by the familiy resemblance between Jaiden and Morgan, you can really tell that they are related.

At last...

Morgan met his Uncle Jamie and Aunt Tracie and Cousin Jaiden on Sunday. Morgan's face lit up when he saw Jaiden it was so cute. Jaiden who is almost three did a very good job of holding Morgan and here is the cutest picture ever of the two of them...

Steve and I bought Morgan a whole bunch of new clothes it appears he had a growth spurt and now doesn't really fit into the newborn clothes anymore. :( Today I bundled him up in his new hat and mittens and we went out and did a bunch of errands and shopping.

Here he is pre-shopping fun...



I couldn't decide which I liked better the color or tinted b&w so I did both...