Room to Stretch...

Gracie has finally graduated to the bathtub after five months of bathing in the kitchen sink. She loves the new space to splash!

Trick-or-Treat!

Boo.

We've heard that nicknames just happen. All of a sudden you realize that you've been calling your child some silly name that has nothing to do with the name you scrawled on their birth certificate. And so is the story of Grace's first nickname: Boo. I'd like to say that Jeff and I really love Monsters Inc. (featuring a cute kid named Boo) or that I talked Jeff into making a daily reference to my favorite book, To Kill a Mockingbird (Boo Radley). No, Grace's nickname was created because Jeff and I don't speak fluent Russian. Doesn't "babushka" sound like a synonym for "cute, cuddly BABY"? We thought so. We referred to her as Babushka, then it got slimmed down to Bushka, and then just plain Boo. We have since learned that we were calling our daughter GRANDMOTHER in another language. Foreign language has never been our strong suit...

Greenbluff 2008

Cousin Anthony the Skeleton, Cousin Janie the Pumpkin, and Grace the Cat




That sweet little skeleton, Anthony, belongs to Jeff's cousin Angela and her husband Ryan, and Janie The Pumpkin is the daughter of Jeff's cousin Jen and her husband Kevin.

We've been wanting to get a picture of the cousins and thought that Greenbluff would be the perfect background during this time of year. We had fun seeing the bluff with the family, hitting all of our favorite spots: Walter's Fruit Ranch (where Janie got to ride a pony!), Knapp's Farm (home of Punkin' Chunkin'), and of course Hanson's (best applesauce on the bluff).

G'ma Joan

We've gotten to see G'ma Joan and G'ma Caroline TWICE in the last five days! G'ma Caroline had an eye appointment here in Spokane last week and then my mom had an appointment on Wednesday this week. So we've gotten some good quality time in. I do have a picture of G'ma Caroline with her Cousin Millie--we met her for lunch last week--but Millie, who is beautifully 88 years-old, said she doesn't EVER want to see that picture, and though I don't think she is an Internet blogger, she's scared me enough to keep the picture on my camera. Ha! :)

Just for Uncle Drew...

...Baby Einstein likes DOGS, too. Although Grace likes to flip back to the cat page and GRIN, as if she can imagine Uncle Drew flipping out somewhere across the state...

Longview Weekend

We went to Longview two weekends ago to visit Drew and Annie--Jeff's brother and his wife. We took an extra day to drive over through Seattle, where we had a short overnight stay with our friends Troy and Lauren and their 13-month-old son, Caleb. We didn't have much time with them, but it was nice to visit for a few hours. :) Troy had night class, but we got to eat with Lauren and play a little Wii MarioKart until he got home.


Caleb loves Jeff! By the end of the evening there, Caleb was wanting to be carried around by Jeff and kept raising his arms to him. And then when we left Caleb cried when he had to let go of Jeff. It was so sweet and it REALLY made Jeff's day... :)


I realize we didn't take any pictures of Drew and Annie's house, but we took some at the farm that we visited on our way to Portland for the day.

Ducky Towel

I'm pretty sure it's impossible to have a baby that is NOT cute in a ducky towel.She's finally longer than the kitchen canisters!

Dad's Helper, Too!

She likes to help Dad enter grades on the weekends.

Mom's Helper

I think I should make a blog titled: "All-the-places-you-can-stick-a-baby-while-trying-to-get-something-done." This will be the laundry room installment...