Jill, Tom, Sadie, Ashlynn & Brooke

Ashlynn turned two....and a polar bear ate her!!

2011-09-23T22:12:00.000-07:00

Ashlynn turned two yesterday. She is a very sweet, fun and smart kid. I love this video of her and Sadie.

Brooke's a big baby

2011-08-22T21:13:00.000-07:00

Jill took Brooke in for a check-up today. Brooke is the size of an average nine-month old. But she's only four months old. Let's ask Brooke what she thinks about that.

Brooke's Blessing

2011-07-08T22:34:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, some of my parents, sister Stephanie, brother Casey, and nephews Kyle and Hunter came into town for Brooke's blessing. They were only here for a couple of days, but we managed to pack a lot of activities into those few days. We went to a Padre's game, buried Hunter at the beach, and had a blast at Legoland.

Funny story. The day of the blessing, Brooke had been a little fussy. As I was getting out of the church pew to take Brooke up for the blessing, Jill slipped me a pacifier. Just in case. I smoothly cupped the pacifier in my left hand so no one would notice.

A fairly large group of family members stood in the prayer circle. I held Brooke with my right hand supporting her neck and head, my left hand under her back. Everyone else in the circle put their hands under mine, and we rocked her gently up and down. As soon as I started the blessing, Brooke started to cry. Scott started immediately rocking her more quickly, almost feverishly. I paused the blessing and somehow snaked my left hand out from under from under the pile of hands and popped the pacifier into Brooke's mouth. The pacifier worked its magic immediately, and I gave the blessing. As soon as the blessing was over, I quickly removed the pacifier and held my serene, beatific child up for the congregation to admire.

Later that day, one of the missionaries came up to me and told me how powerful the blessing was. He was amazed at how I had paused and let the spirit calm Brooke down. I thought about not telling him, but I had to confess that while the spirt might have had something to do with it, I had a backup plan, just in case Brooke wasn't in tune with the spirit.

On to the pictures. They are in no particular order, because it's late, and I'm too tired to rearrange them.

Pictures from Brooke's blessing.

Proof that Kyle can, indeed, smile.

Mom and Steph at Legoland

Awwww....

Hunter wanted to get buried.

At the Padres' game. Sadie and Ashlynn were very excited...

...as was Kyle

Video dump

2011-06-19T08:28:00.001-07:00

Since I got my android, I've been taking a lot more videos of the girls. The phone actually takes pretty decent video, and I've always got it on me, so it makes taking videos a lot easier. Here are some videos I've taken in the last month:

Sadie and Ashlynn are so sweet to Brooke. This video is of Sadie making sure Brooke is comfortable. Ashlynn does the same thing. Though with Ashlynn, I can't take videos because I have to make sure she doesn't accidentally smother Brooke.

We love taking the girls to the park. At home, they fight a lot over toys. But at the park, they usually play pretty well together.

Maybe this isn't impressive, but we were impressed that Ashlynn could swing on the big kid swing without falling off. (She's saying cheese because she thinks I'm taking a picture.)

Before Sadie's recital, Jill and Aunt Kim tried to help her practice. My favorite part of this video is probably watching Ashlynn, who knows some of the moves better than Sadie.

Sadie's Recital

2011-06-05T22:51:00.000-07:00

What a difference a year makes. The last time Sadie did a "recital," she got stage fright and didn't move the entire time. Here's the video. Even though I've posted it before, it's a family classic and worthy of another post.

This year Sadie did quite a bit better. Still, Jill and I suspect that dancing might not be Sadie's calling in life. Also, the other day, my mom asked me if Sadie was still obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine. Well, guess what that is she hands to her teacher at the start. We didn't even know she had it. She somehow snuck it up there. Sneaky bugger. (The camera work is a bit shaky in some spots. Sorry about that.)

And here are a couple of pics of Sadie in her outfit.

Sadie or Brooke

2011-06-05T07:59:00.000-07:00

Maybe all kids just look alike, but it seems to us that Sadie and Brooke looked quite similar when they were kids. Can you tell who is who?

Sadie and Ashlynn dancing

2011-05-28T08:17:00.000-07:00

These two just crack me up. If you turn up the volume, you can hear that when the music stops, they are supposed to freeze. Ashlynn, however, just puts her hands out in front of her. I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with how long Ashlynn spins before she finally falls down.

Brooke Elizabeth Proctor

2011-04-23T23:05:00.000-07:00

Brooke Elizabeth Proctor joined our family on Tuesday, April 19, 2011. She was a healthy 8 lbs 4 ozs, our biggest child yet. The delivery went smoothly, and Brooke is a healthy and happy baby.

Unfortunately, she decided to come while her two older sisters were fighting a really nasty stomach virus. It started with Ashlynn on Saturday and hit Sadie Sunday night. Neither girl could keep anything more than a little bit of water down. After a couple of days of no food and barely any liquids, both girls were just shells of themselves. We were beginning to worry about them getting dehydrated. Fortunately, Ashlynn turned a corner on Wednesday, and Sadie started feeling better on Thursday.

Even though Brooke came home from the hospital Wednesday afternoon, we kept the girls away from her until Friday evening. Jill's mom, Ann, came over to our house about 2:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning and watched Sadie and Ashlynn until Friday evening. When we brought Brooke home from the hospital, she took the girls to her house for a couple of days until we were sure they were better. Sadie and Ashlynn are back to their old selves again, and they were finally able to meet Brooke on Friday.

For those of you who live near us, you know how much Jill and I rely on Ann. But she really went above-and-beyond this time. Sadie and Ashlynn were in bad shape when Jill started going into labor Monday night. If you gave them more than a couple of sips of water, they would throw it up in 5 minutes. Ann came to our house, nursed our girls back to health all week, probably got only about 8 hours of sleep for herself last week, and also had our house professionally cleaned so that we wouldn't have to bring Brooke home to a petri dish. Thank you, Ann. You are amazing.

Here are some pictures of Brooke and the rest of the family.

Right after she was born.

First time Brooke opened her eyes.

Proud papa.

Beautiful mama.

Ashlynn is excited about her new baby sister.

Sadie playing with the new gift that Brooke brought her.

Ashlynn playing with her new doll from Brooke.

ring around the rosie at the beach

2011-04-11T23:26:00.001-07:00

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

They've got the "all fall down" part down pat.

"so cute!"

2011-03-12T06:48:00.001-08:00

Sadie really enjoyed organizing baby clothes with grammy.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

Ashlynn's First Steps

2011-03-05T21:57:00.000-08:00

Even though this is six or seven months old, I still deem it worthy of the Blog. Enjoy.

Stalling...

2011-03-05T21:41:00.000-08:00

Lately, Sadie has been coming up with some pretty creative ways of stalling when it's time to go to bed. Tonight, she said she needed to line up all of her trains on the track. Curious, I indulged her. She has quite a few trains. (They go all the way around the track.) This Thomas phase has been going strong for nearly a year. I wonder how long it will last.

My favorite video of Ashlynn

2011-01-25T22:38:00.000-08:00

I love this video of Ashlynn. If you're wondering what kind of kid she is, this will give you a pretty good insight into her personality. She's got a great laugh, is fun, energetic, happy, a little pushy, maybe a bit of a bruiser, and a cuddler. She's also slightly obsessed with her tummy, probably because we are all slightly obsessed with that little pillsbury-dough girl tummy of hers.

Thanksgiving

2010-12-05T21:09:00.000-08:00

We spent Thanksgiving at Jill's Aunt Barbara's and Uncle Marc's house. A couple of years ago, Marc had a serious stroke after an operation to remove a brain tumor. The cancer came without warning and grew so fast that by the time they found it, the tumor was already quite large. Marc's been progressing slowly but surely since he had the stroke. The last time we saw him was in August in Carlsbad, and it seemed to me that he had made some progress since then. I really admire grace and perseverance that Barbara and her two children have shown as they try to help Marc get back to full strength. We truly had a lot to be thankful for.

Thanks to my brother-in-law, Richard, who took most of these pictures.

Ann with Marc and his son Kai

Jill's family

It's a miracle. Both girls looked at the camera (or at least in its general vicinity).

Uncle Matt might be Sadie's favorite person in the world. Ok, there's no maybe about it.

"Check out my boots, Aunt Kim. Aren't they hot?"

I just liked this picture of Jill and Ashlynn.

The girls are very sweet to each other these days (usually). They are constantly hugging and following each other around. Sure, they will occasionally fight over toys or books. But for the most part they get along great. It's pretty fun to watch.

Visit from Tom's Family

2010-12-03T21:30:00.000-08:00

I'm usually about 3 months behind on my blog posts, so the fact that this one is only three weeks after the fact is pretty good. In mid-November my parents, sister Stephanie, and niece Taylor came out for a visit. They live pretty far away (Stephanie is in Arizona and the rest of my family lives in North Carolina), so it's always a treat to see them. I took a few days off work and had a little "staycation."

Thomas Comes to Perris

The highlight of my parents' visit (at least for Sadie) was the Thomas the Tank Engine festival in Perris, California that we went to. It's a pretty good racket this Thomas fella's got going on. Basically, thousands of people pay $20 a pop to ride a "Thomas" train for 20 minutes. Of course there's a lot of other stuff to do. They have trolleys and other trains you can ride. Sir Topham Hatt makes an appearance. There's a live band and jump houses. But the main draw is Thomas. Dora and Thomas have made someone a lot of money.

Belmont Park

We also went to Mission Beach and spent a few hours riding the rides at Belmont Park (a very poor man's Coney Island). I haven't done that in a long time, and it was really pretty fun. Sadie loved the tilt-a-whirl and carousel. Ashlynn didn't care for the carousel too much, which was unfortunate, since that was the only ride she was big enough to ride.

My folks, Diane and Alan.

Sea World

We spent a day at Sea World. Since Jill and I were chasing the girls around a lot, the best picture I have to represent our trip to Sea World is this one of a bunch of flamingos about use Sadie and Taylor to create an alternate ending to the movie "Birds."

We also spent an afternoon at Coronado Beach and took the ferry downtown to Seaport village and did some other touristy things. My family was only here for a few days, but I definitely think we made the most out of it.

Random pictures

2010-11-07T07:17:00.000-08:00

I've been pretty lazy about updating the blog, so here are a bunch of random pictures to show how the girls have been growing.

Ashlynn turned one a couple of months ago. I didn't really get any picures from her b-day, so she's stuck with this flattering pic of her going to town on some ice-cream cake.

Ashlynn is our very blonde, blue-eyed, gap-toothed baby. She's been walking since she was 10 months old (currently 13 months) and recently mastered the point-and-grunt language. It's incredible how effectively she communicates using this technique. Ashlynn is a climber. She is also a squealer, a cuddler, and good copy-catter. She likes to share her food and to push toy strollers.

Sadie is still obsessed with trains and (to an only slightly lesser extent) her neighbor Jay.

Sadie is also very fond of her babysitter, Katrina, but I don't have any pics of Katrina. It's a little sad, but Sadie would much rather sit with Katrina at church than with her parents. Actually, it was a little sad the first week. Now, it's kind of nice.

Sadie is (for the most part) a delight. She loves her little sister and let's Ashlynn play with her toys, as long as Ashlynn doesn't try to play with Sadie's favorites. She started pre-school this fall (the next pic is her first day), and she recently graduated from her toddler bed to a big-girl bed. This was a big deal. I still think she's too cute for her own good, but she's started whining more, which helps negate some of the cute factor. But she doesn't whine that much and there's just too much darned cuteness to negate.

I think the two of them are going to give me a lot of heartburn when they get older.

A little stage fright?

2010-08-21T09:21:00.000-07:00

Sadie's been doing a summer dance camp this past week. Yesterday, they had their "recital" for the parents. There's our little Sadie-bug, front and center. According to Jill, she made a lot of progress during the week and was following directions well. When it came time to perform, though, she froze. Maybe dancing isn't her calling in life. But I still think she's pretty cute in her little tu-tu.

(For some reason, videos get cut off on the side when I post them on the blog. Right click on the video and click "watch on youtube" to see the whole thing.)

Ashlynn's our new water baby

2010-08-18T21:52:00.000-07:00

Sadie used to be so brave. The past two summers, when we would go to the ocean, she'd run right in. Now, she runs in to her ankles and then runs away from the "big waves." As you can see, those waves are massive.

Ashlynn, however, is another story. She's not afraid of those big waves. In fact, we can't get her out of the water.

She's a cutie, but a handful. Ashlynn's a lot of work too.

Sadie's birthday

2010-08-12T21:35:00.000-07:00

This post is only a month overdue, but we had a birthday party for Sadie's third birthday. How quickly they grow!

She's so independent already. I can't wait for her to become a teenager.

At any rate, the Sadie Bug is really into Thomas right now, so we had a Thomas the Train party, complete with jumper and everything. (By the way, I am officially converted to jumpers for little kids' parties.)

So the jumper was in the front yard, and in the back yard we had a bunch of Sadie's toys strategically set up for the little kiddos to play on. I think it was a success. Just look at how much fun those kids are having.

Nice job ladies!

Sadie certainly enjoyed herself.

I hope that's cupcake on your face!

Ashlynn had a good time too. That's her "I'm having a good time" face. Or maybe it's her "I've got a very special present for you, daddy" face. I get them confused.

Of course, the highlight was the Down by the Docks set that Jill and I got Sadie as her present. We really hit a homerun with that thing. She'd play trains all day long if we let her.

"I'm going to play with my trains all day long, and you can't stop me. Hahahaha!"

Ashlynn's a mover and a shaker

2010-05-31T21:46:00.000-07:00

Ashylnn is eight months old. She started crawling at around 6 months. She's been getting around with ease for the last month. Now I'm just curious to see if she'll walk sooner than Sadie did. She's got a month. Here's some video's of Ashlynn's progression.

She started off doing what we liked to call the "plop and scoot." She'd just sort of plop forward onto her stomach and use her legs to scoot forward.

Then she got a little more confident and got up on all fours.

Now we've got to really keep an eye on her or she'll crawl right down the street. Luckily, she loves this tunnel. We can stick her in there, and she'll just go back and forth from one side to the other.

We'll see if she starts walking soon. I think she's pretty close.

2010-05-13T20:57:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty impressed with people who post on their blogs on a regular basis. By the time we get the two girls to bed and pick up the house, the only thing I want to do is go to bed or watch a little house hunters or deadliest warrior (love those shows). Well Sadie didn't get a nap today, so she went to bed a little earlier than usual, leaving me a little extra time tonight. So I thought I'd post some random pics of the girls that I like. Here they are.

We're baaack...

2010-03-15T20:51:00.000-07:00

Only two weeks behind schedule. Not too bad considering all the last-minute changes we made. The back yard is still a disaster, but at least we were able to move back in this weekend. Thank you, thank you Ann and Scott for letting us stay with you the past four months. I hope you know how much we appreciate everything you do for us. Especially you, Ann. I don't know what we would do without you.

Time to play more catch-up from the holidays.

Between Christmas and New Year's we spent some time in Idyllwild with Jill's family.

There wasn't too much snow at the cabin.

But a short drive up the mountain, and there was plenty of snow.

Ashlynn got to hang out with Grannie Annie while we played in the snow.

A few weeks later, we went to North Carolina to visit my family. Our visit just happened to coincide with the coldest week they've had in about 50 years. And as luck would have it, the girls got sick. But they still enjoyed playing with their cousins, Nana, and Papoo. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera everytime we spent time with Casey, Rachel and their girls. Casey, do you have any pics of the girls playing?

Nana with her two cutest grandkids (just kidding everybody) (but not really;)

Didi and Isaac

Taylor was great with the girls.

Roger's brood

And then on to Puerto Rico where Jill's best friend got married in Rincon, a sleepy surfing town on the west side of the Island. It was pretty surreal going from the teens in N.C. to 80-degree weather in P.R. Let's just say it did wonders for the girls' colds.

Sadie had the pool all to herself most of the time.

That hair just never goes down. It's hilarious.

Hot mama!

Ann flew out to help with the girls while we were at the wedding. Thanks Ann!

"Hey, what are you looking at, buster!"

Jill's teammates

Rachel and Chris. Congrats!

Getting Very Close...

2010-03-07T11:03:00.000-08:00

We have been out of our house for nearly 4 months. We were hoping to move back in this weekend, but that didn't work out. I am optimistic that we will move in next weekend. We'll see. Jill's parents have been incredible, letting us stay with them for the past four months. Thank you, Scott and Ann.

During the time that we've been gone, I have not done a single post. A lot has happened over the last few months. I'm not going to try to catch up all at once. But I will try to do several posts over the next week or so to hit the highlights. We'll start with Christmas.

The girls had lots of chances to tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas. It seemed like he visited our little community quite a few times in the weeks before Christmas. (Don't be fooled by Sadie's face in the pics. She loves Santa. She just hasn't gotten the whole "smile" thing down yet.)

Jill also got to dress them in lots of cute christmas clothes.

We got to spend time with Jill's family

And presents.

Addition

2009-11-22T16:19:00.001-08:00

We started work on the addition to our house this week. If we were having any second thoughts, there is no turning back now. Here are some pics before the construction started and one-week into it. I'll post others as the project progresses. I was sad to see the patio go, but we need the extra space more than we need the patio.

Tom's Family

2009-11-22T15:36:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in the last post, my parents, sister Stephanie, and nephews Kyle and McKay came into town for the baby blessing. It was great to see them, and we got to do some touristy-type things that I don't usually do.

The first thing McKay wanted to do was go to the ocean. I told him it would be cold, but he didn't care. He's 9. The water was freezing, but he was undeterred. He got in the water on three of the five days they were here. I went in once.

We also went to the Midway Museum. I've lived in San Diego for three years and never done that. I thought it was fascinating. Well worth the price of admission.

Sadie's favorite things on the Midway were the big pot that she hid in and the helicopter that had seatbelts. She must have tried on every seatbelt.
We also went to Sea World...
...where Kyle and McKay were the only people to sit in the "splash zone." Those two are nuts.

We also spent a lot of time just hanging out at my house. It was pretty cute watching Sadie interact with the older boys.

Ashlynn's Blessing

2009-11-22T15:23:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday (November 15), we blessed baby Ashlynn. My parents and sister, Stephanie, came into town for the blessing. Two of my nephews, Kyle and Benson, also came for the blessing. Ashlynn was sound asleep, until I stood up to take her to the front of the chapel. She then proceeded to cry through the entire blessing. The first picture is appropriate.

Halloween and some pics of big little ashlynn

2009-11-02T21:39:00.000-08:00

For Halloween, Ashlynn was a cat.

Sadie had two costumes. She started off as a ballerina...

...but after she fell and ripped a hole in her tights, we went with the back-up plan. A giraffe.
After Sadie filled up her little pumpkin with goodies,
she had a good time passing out candy with daddy.
And here are some non-Halloween pictures:

Little Ashlynn's not so little anymore.

Jill's looking pretty good for someone who just had a baby.

I can't get over how sweet Sadie is to Ashlynn. I thought the change would be tough on Sadie. But she has embraced her little sister from day one and is loves being a big sister.

Sadie loves Ashlynn

2009-10-14T21:14:00.001-07:00

Sadie the Scholar

2009-09-27T20:35:00.000-07:00

I'll put some more pics and videos of Ashlynn up soon. But I've had these videos of Sadie that I have been meaning to put up for a while, and I finally uploaded them. For her birthday, Sadie got this cute toddler princess couch from my mom. We put it in a corner of the living room along with a container full of lots of her books. Recently, Sadie will go and sit on the couch and "read" her books to herself. She has memorized quite a few of them pretty well. It is very cute.

And here are a couple of other videos of our little scholar in action.

Welcome Ashlynn Diane

2009-09-24T07:41:00.000-07:00

On September 22 at 1:54 p.m., we welcomed Ashlynn Diane Proctor to our family. Ashlynn and mommy are doing great.

Picture post update

2009-07-14T22:34:00.000-07:00

We have been having a fun and busy summer. In the past couple of weeks, we celebrated Sadie's second birthday, went to the water carnival at the rec department, visited the zoo, and hung out at the beach. Here are some pictures of our summer. Warning--this is easily the longest post I've ever done.

The Birthday Girl

Mom, she loved your presents...

...especially the princess couch/bed. As soon as she got it,

she gathered a bunch of her toys and took a little cat nap.

Sadie's grammie has been taking her to swimming lessons this summer,

and it's paying off

just give her a little push,

and off she goes

the new elephant odyssey at the san diego zoo

she liked the panda bears

This is Sadie's frown face...your guess is as good as mine.

Her favorite thing at the zoo may have been the carousel.

I know I've said it before, but she just loves the beach.

Look how big she's getting!

Have I mentioned she's taking piano lessons?

Ok, no she's not. But she does make some very pretty "music."

Silly girls!

ABC's

2009-06-30T22:15:00.000-07:00

Today was Sadie's birthday. It is hard to believe that two years ago today Jill and I were hanging out in the hospital just learning to change little newborn diapers. We were watching the video earlier today that we took right after Sadie was born. It is truly awe-inspiring about a newborn. She was so tiny, fragile and completely dependent on us. Jill and I feel very lucky that we have this little doll in our life. She just makes everything brighter. We love you Sadie!

I took some pictures and video of her birthday, but haven't downloaded them yet. (Hopefully) I will do that soon. In the meantime, here are some cute videos of Sadie saying her ABC's. She's been working on this for a while, and a couple of weeks ago she said them all the way through. It seems like everytime we would try to get her on camera saying them, however, she got distracted by something else. After several attempts, we finally got it. Turn on your volume.

(The second video is my favorite. Sadie is somewhat obsessed with band-aids right now. She looks for any excuse to say she has a boo-boo and needs a band-aid.)

It's been two months?

2009-06-03T22:54:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that it's been two months since my last post. We've been busy as usual. Probably the funnest thing that we've done was our vacation to Maui with Jill's family. I'd say the best thing about Hawaii is that the warm ocean water. Sadie loves to go in the ocean. Here in San Diego, I feel like I'm going to get frost bite chasing her around in the freezing ocean. By comparison, the water in Hawaii feels like a hot tub. Here are a few pics from Maui and a few others.

Did I mention how she loves the ocean? I mean, she really loves it. Just look at that grin. She's practically delerious with love.

Don't they look cute in the morning? This was our first morning in Maui. Sadie was still on California time and woke up around 4:30.

Sadie's still not very cooperative when we try to do family pics. This was the best we could do. At least she's not crying!

A friend from church gave us a pretty big wading pool last fall. I hate it. It turns my backyard into a swamp for three days every time I empy it. But little Miss Thing here loves it - almost as much as she loves the ocean. She especially when I spray her with the hose, which is what I'm doing in these pictures.

Sadie is very helpful around the house. It's like we've got our own little Cinderella.

A couple pictures of Sadie's Easter outfit.

When will they run out of leaves?

2009-04-07T22:33:00.000-07:00

We've got a couple of avocado trees in our back yard. In December, some leaves started falling off. They haven't stopped. Every weekend, I'm out there raking them up. It's been four months now. It's getting old. At least the kid enjoys it.

(And yes, for those of you keeping score, that was two posts in one day. See you in August.)

Nice shades! (and some bonus pics)

2009-04-07T21:29:00.000-07:00

For about the last year, Sadie would never wear hats, bonnets, headbands, sunglasses or anything else that you might try to put on her head or face. Recently, though, she will let us put them on her - at least for a few minutes. We've bought her several pairs of sunglasses, and this Sunday she actually wore one of them for a while. Actually, most of the time she just wanted to put them on top of her head instead of on her face, but that was pretty cute too.

"This is how you rock a pair of sunglasses, dad."

And for the bonus pics...

The little stinker's cute, and she knows it.

Just a couple of pictures

2009-03-24T21:30:00.000-07:00

It's been a while, so I thought I would do a quick picture post.

Sadie's new favorite game: "Where's Sadie?"

Practicing her karate moves. Hi-ya!

(Actually, she was just catching her balance. It didn't do her much good. She still fell. For a kid who's been walking since 9 months, she can be a little clumsy.)

Off to church

Running for the water

Notice how no one else is in the water? That's because it was freezing!

Some Beach Pictures

2009-02-22T21:17:00.000-08:00

These San Diego winters are pretty rough.

Santa

2009-01-01T20:43:00.000-08:00

Sadie really likes Santa. She met him several times before Christmas.

The last two are from a "breakfast with Santa" that we went to. Afterward, we got some pretty good pictrues of Sadie by the bay.

Christmas

2008-12-29T22:32:00.001-08:00

It's been almost two months since my last post. We've been very busy, and when that happens, blogging is one of the first things to go. I'm sorry mom. I will try to do better.

Anyway, Sadie just keeps getting bigger and more fun. She will be 18 months old tomorrow. So far, this is my favorite age by far. She is just a delight to be around. She is learning so fast. She doesn't talk, but she knows a lot of words. When we read, I'll ask her to point to different things in her book, and she knows almost all of them.

She's becoming more social and loves to play. When she gets really excited, she shakes her head from side to side, pumps her legs up and down, and lets out a high-pitched squeal. It is impossibly cute. She also likes to help out around the house. She helps me put laundry into the dryer (on the rare occassion when I do laundry), and I've even taught her to throw away her poopy diapers.

We've got lots of pictures from Christmas, and I don't have time to post them all now. (Mom, I promise I will post more within the next week.) I'm going to start with some pictures from when Jill took Sadie to play in the snow that somehow miraculously fell in San Diego.

Hey, what's all this white stuff?

I don't know, but I think I like it.

She definitely liked it.

Sadie's bull face

2008-11-02T22:19:00.000-08:00

I taught Sadie to crunch up her face and blow out of her nose like a bull. It is hilarious. I thought I had some video, but I can't find it. These pics will have to do for now.

Halloween pics

2008-11-02T21:12:00.000-08:00

Sadie still might be a little young to really enjoy Halloween, but I think overall she had a lot of fun. One thing's for sure. She sure was one cute fairy

Playing Around

2008-10-26T07:15:00.000-07:00

Sadie's at a fun age right now. She's steady on her feet and loves to play. Here are some videos of her playing with Jill and me. As you might notice, she really likes her little slide.

Sadie has very subtle ways of letting you know when she wants to go outside.

She's so proud of herself.

The high five is something she seems to have only learned for a few weeks. She doesn't really do it anymore. But I've got this feeling she still knows how, but she's just being stubborn.

I love the way she runs. You can't really tell from the end of this video, but her whole body sort of shakes when she runs. It's sort of an up-and-down run instead of a just-move-forward run.

Spinning is a relatively new trick for Sadie baby.

A few months ago, I posted a video of Sadie dancing. She's learned some new moves since then.

When Sadie and I play, it consists of her chasing me, or climbing on me.

Finally, a new post

2008-10-22T21:25:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been more than two months since my last post. Those of you who are reading this probably already know that it's been a hectic couple of months for us. The main reason we've been so busy is that we bought a house! We loved our condo and would have been happy there for another year or so, but when we found a house in the neighborhood where we wanted to live long term, we decided to make an offer. Since then, everything's been a whirlwind. There was a ton of paper work. Moving was a much bigger chore than I imagined. I had no idea how much stuff we had. You wouldn't think a 2 BR, 900 square foot condo could hold so much. Now we've been here for a month, are pretty much settled in and couldn't be happier with our home. And Sadie loves having a backyard. (She also loves having a grandma close by who stocks the backyard full of toys. Thanks Ann.)

Speaking of Sadie, she just keeps growing into a little girl. She'll hit her sweet 16 month-old. birthday next week. At her 15 month dr.'s appointment, she was 32 inches tall (95%) and 26 lbs (90%). No shrinking violet, our Sadie. She's also got a lot of personality, by which I mean, she's pretty stubborn. I'm convinced she gets that from Jill, since I'm just about the easiest-going guy I know. Sadie definitely prefers her mother to me. For a while there, I kind of struggled with that. But now Sadie gives me kisses. She doesn't really give Jill kisses, so I've got that on you Jill. Ha!

Well, I'm done feeling so chatty. Here are some random, cute pictures of the kiddo.

The girls at the fall festival. Jill, you don't look so festive!

The fire station open house. Sadie loved the hat.

Sadie has figured out how to turn off the cable box.

For some reason, she always shuts it off when I'm watching a game. You little stinker!

Our back patio--a.k.a., Sadie's Play Place (not pictured, Sadie's arts and craft table)

She climbs up her slide all by herself...

and slides down by herself too.

She's also an avid reader...er, page-flipperer.

Texting. "OMG, my dad's phone is soo lame."

This one's a couple months old. I just love this pic, though. Steph, do you recognize the toys?

I'll post some other random pics later this week. Promise.

2008-08-17T17:10:00.001-07:00

I thought this was hilarious. The resemblance is eerie.

Laguna

2008-08-17T10:29:00.000-07:00

This past month has been very hectic, which is why I haven't posted anything in a while. Last week, however, we finally got away for a few days. Every year, Jill's dad, his brothers and their families get together in Laguna Beach for a family vacation/reunion. It was definitely nice to relax for a few days. Here are a few pics. Video to come later.

We found out that Sadie likes having her legs buried in the sand.

She also likes to pour sand on her head.

Fun in the pool.

Our deck had a pretty nice view. Sadie doesn't seem too impressed with daddy's haircut.

All tuckered out. She slept better at Laguna than she does at home. I guess the beach is a good way to wear the little ones out.

Lots o' Videos

2008-07-09T20:44:00.000-07:00

As you may have noticed from some of these posts, Sadie is a messy eater. She always leaves us plenty to clean up. Tonight, she had just gotten out of her bath and was chewing on a beanie that she'd grabbed, when she saw me wiping up the floor. She came over, and started wiping in the same spot with her beanie.

She's been doing lots of little random, cute things like that lately. We've gotten some of them (ok, a lot of them) on video, but I just hadn't gotten around to downloading and editing them. I finally did that yesterday. Here they are.

This is probably my favorite thing she started doing in the past couple of weeks. She charges blankets like a bull charging a matador's cape. It's hilarious.

She also likes to stick the blankets on her head. We don't let her do this anymore. She's had a couple of hard falls. She bit her tongue when I was watching her alone one night. Kind of freaked me out to see blood coming out of her mouth. I think it also freaked Jill out when I called with Sadie screaming in the background and told her that she was bleeding. Luckily, the bleeding stopped within a couple of minutes. But the second time it happened, we stopped letting her do this.

The doctor told us to give Sadie whole milk instead of formula. Sadie--she's got other ideas.

She did this for about 20 minutes one night.

It's fun letting her chase you.

It's also a lot of fun to take her to the beach. She loves getting in the water.

Bath time is always fun.

Sadie is her own biggest fan.

She'll dance to anything--even the washing machine.

Mom, she really likes her puppy. She dances to him to, but everytime we try to get it on video, she stops. We'll get her eventually.

And of course, eating.

The cake never stood a chance.

4th of July and some cute pictures

2008-07-05T14:36:00.000-07:00

We stayed pretty close to home for the 4th. In the morning, we went to our church breakfast and then watched the Coronado parade. After that, we spent the rest of the day relaxing at Jill's parents' house.

4th of July baby

No, she's not pooping. It's just one of the funny little things she does these days.

Watching the parade

We found out Sadie likes blueberries...

a lot.

Birthday

2008-07-05T13:40:00.000-07:00

Sadie turned one on Monday. It's pretty wild to think back on the past year and how much our lives have changed and especially how much she has grown and developed. The first year is really incredible. Those first few months, she couldn't really do anything. She just ate, pooped and slept. We were so excited when she rolled over. Then she sat up, and it was the coolest thing anyone had ever done. Pretty soon, she was crawling, and I couldn't figure out how it didn't hurt her knees to crawl around on our hard floors. But it clearly didn't, because she crawled all over the place. When she started walking a couple months earlier than baby-centersaid she would, we were convinced our daughter was a prodigy. While we now know that its not that unusual for a baby to walk at nine months, we still think our Sadie is pretty special. One things for certain--she is a cutie-pie. Here's the proof:

She didn't know what to make of her cake at first

but she quickly decided

that she really, really liked it.

"I really, really like this cake!"

"See, I told you it was really good."

Time for presents!

Here's the kitchen set that she loves...

and here's her singing puppy. She wasn't sure what to make of him at first either,

but she quickly decided he was pretty cool. That's her, "he's pretty cool" face. Promise.

Beach Baby

2008-06-22T07:58:00.000-07:00

Like most kids, Sadie really likes the beach. Here are some pictures from when Jill took her on Friday without me. But that's ok, because I took Sadie to the beach yesterday without Jill. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures becuase every time I turned my back for a second, she went straight for the water. Even a couple of face-plants in the surf couldn't deter her. I really wish I could have gotten a couple of her splashing in the ocean. Maybe next time. For now, here are some pics of the cutie-pie that Jill got on Friday.

So excited to go to the beach. (Actually, she was chasing the cat, but she was excited when she finally got to the beach.)

See, I told you she was excited to be at the beach.

Mmmm...yummy

I think she could get used to this:)

Kim Sonne is now Kim Hyde

2008-06-01T18:16:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday (May 24), Jill's younger sister, Kim, married Richard Hyde. All I can say is, it's about time. Now Jill's mom can start pressuring someone else to make her more grandbabies.

Seriously though, the sealing and reception were both beautiful. Jill and I haven't had the chance to go to very many sealings since we were married. Our wedding day is little more than a blur. About the only thing I remember is saying "I do." So it was nice to just sit and listen to the sealer's words as he sealed Kim and Richard.

As you can see from the pictures, Kim was beautiful, Richard cleaned up well, and Jill and Sadie threatened to upstage them both.

The girls

Jill's family

Kim and Sadie

Hooray for me!

Carly (Sadie's second cousin?)

Unfortunately, Sadie wasn't cooperating when I tried to get a picture of the three of us. These were the best two I got.

I know the hat doesn't match, but I thought this was pretty cute.

Funny flowers.

Really cruising now

2008-05-15T20:38:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, Sadie took her first tentative steps. Actually, they weren't so tentative. She really went for it. Her reckless abandon, however, led to a couple of hard falls. After that, Sadie didn't walk for about 3 weeks. We tried to get her to, but she would just take a couple of steps and sit down.

Then, last week, she decided she was ready to walk again. From what everyone tells me, Jill and I are really in for it now. Here's a couple videos of Sadie strutting her stuff. I apologize for the shaky camerawork.

And here's are a couple of other clips that I thought were pretty cute. (Turn on your sound for the last one.)

Virginia Beach

2008-05-15T19:12:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago, Jill and I went to Virginia Beach to go to Katie Gilman's (now Katie Davenport's) wedding. Katie is one of Jill's former Duke volleyball teammate's. The wedding was beautiful, and the reception was a lot of fun. Of course, Jill was very excited to get together with her teammates.

It's too bad we couldn't take a couple extra days off from work. It would have been nice to kick back and relax for a few days. Of course, I don't think Jill would have been able to be away from Sadie for an extra day. We left her with her Grannie Annie for the weekend. It was the first time we've left her over night with anyone. That's a pretty big step. But we knew we had nothing to worry about. Ann always takes great care of Sadie. Here's a couple of pics from the wedding.

The newlyweds

The team

Tom and Jill

Weekends

2008-04-27T16:57:00.000-07:00

Both Jill and I have demanding jobs that require us to work long hours. Like most people, we really look forward to the weekends. Yesterday, we grabbed a blanket and some toys and took Sadie to the park. Here are a few pictures, narrated by Sadie.

"How cute is my bonnet? Very. "

"This isn't very fun. Which way is out?"

"Pretty bubbles."

"Hmm, it doesn't look too fresh, but I bet it's still edible."

"Hey! Gimme that leaf!"

"No mommy. Let me kick it."

"All that soccer makes me tired."

She's Walking!!

2008-04-06T13:52:00.001-07:00

April 6, 2008. Sadie is 9 months, one-week old. Today, she took her first steps.

Measurements

2008-04-02T19:17:00.000-07:00

Sadie had a doctor's appointment this morning, so Jill and I made a little wager about her weight. I guessed 26 pounds, and Jill said 27. So who won?

Let's put it this way, if we were competing in the Showcase Showdown, we would have both lost! She barely topped 20, weighing in at a measly 21 and a half pounds, which is in the 85 percentile for 9 month-olds. I guess she hasn't been eating as much as we thought. She is also 30 inches long (97th percentile), has two bottom teeth, and is finally growing some hair (second picture).

UPDATE: Her head is 46 cm, which is the 95th percentile.

Some cute videos of Sadie

2008-03-25T23:29:00.000-07:00

These are just some random video clips from the past few weeks. The first one is of Sadie chasing Puff on Easter. Granny Annie says that Sadie loves to chase her cats, but this was the first time that I got to see it. The second clip is of Sadie "reading." She's gettting better, though. Usually, I can get through at least three pages before she rips the book out of my hands and starts gnawing on it. The third clips is a good example of another one of Sadie's favorite things to chew on--her shoes (or flip-flops, in this case). And finally, Sadie is now a crawling machine and loves to go exploring.

Sadie's First Easter

2008-03-24T21:07:00.000-07:00

Sadie celebrated her first Easter yesterday at Granny Anny's house.

Her first Easter basket.

The pretzels were her favorite present...

but the unicorn wasn't far behind.

We were very impressed with how many eggs she gathered.

Ok, she might have had a little help.

Almost walking

2008-03-10T21:20:00.000-07:00

Sadie just started crawling about a month ago. It didn't take her long, though, to decide that crawling is boring. She wants to walk. She can't walk by herself yet, but she's getting pretty good at walking if you hold her hands. So here are some videos of her struttin' her stuff.

She loves to play with other little kids. Unfortunately, she can't really do much except pull other kids' hair. But I think she's going to be good at playing tag.

She's got this little walker, but it goes way too fast on hardwoood floors. So we try to keep her on the carpet.

This is what happens when she doesn't stay on the carpet. (She must get her coordination from Jill.)

Did I mention she's pretty aggressive?

cooing and squealing

2008-03-01T22:02:00.000-08:00

I finally figured out how to edit my videos, so I'll be putting up shorter clips from now on. Here are a few clips of Sadie making some very cute noises. The first one is my favorite. That was a few weeks ago, and she was just talking up a storm. She hasn't had an outburst to match it since. We have no idea what she was saying, but she was definitely saying it.

I'm still learning how to use this site

2008-02-28T20:11:00.000-08:00

Something happened when I was trying to publish this post and now the pictures are all over the place. The pictures are pretty self explanatory, but I'll explain them anyway. The first two are to show off Sadie's big, blue eyes. Almost everyone who meets her for the first time comments on them.

The one above is of my two girls looking pretty--like always. This one to the left is Sadie and I in front of our little Christmas tree. Our place was too small for anything bigger. (But we did eventually put more ornaments on it. We just hadn't gotten around to it when we took this pic.)

Some happy videos of Sadie.

2008-02-26T19:31:00.000-08:00

The first is of Sadie laughing at me. It was taken a couple of months ago. For a while, she thought I was hilarious. Now, I can still get her to smile, but it takes a little more work. The second video is of Sadie eating apple sauce for the first time. She really did not like solids at first, but she liked the apple sauce pretty well. (Be sure to watch the last 10 seconds of the second video for some very cute squeals:)

More pictures

2008-02-25T21:30:00.000-08:00

Here are some more recent (i.e., past two months) pictures of Sadie.

First time getting her feet in the sand.

Cute gals!

Rockin' the shades

"Do these tights make my legs look fat?"

Some early pictures

2008-02-23T22:31:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of Sadie. (I should rename this "Sadie's blog.")

One of the very first pictures.

Proud Parents

She was so little.

We had no idea what we were doing.

Grandmas

Baby blessing

First Post

2008-02-23T11:08:00.000-08:00

I've been reading Joe Lowry's blog (blog.spotd.net) and have always enjoyed it. So when my 8-month old daughter started crawling this past week, and my mother on the other side of the country asked if I could put some video on the internet, I decided to give this blog thing a try. Mom, here you go. It's a little long--and she doesn't do all that much crawling. She was just learning.