Adventures of a Family

Hey-We're snowed in, and Michael and Jonah took full advantage of it. As most of you know, we live on a pretty steep hill. What a delightful sight to see Michael and little Jonah sailing by our house on the sidewalk, Michael and Jonah sitting on the snowboard, both of them with a smile from ear to ear. They were too quick to catch in action, but I did manage to photograph them right before they took off down the hill. And by the way, they're saying that this is the most snow Portland has gotten since 1968. We all believe it!

How I love this gentle, beautiful, curious and happy girl.

This event started out in the bay area by some wonderful friends of ours. When we moved up to Portland we realized that we would sincerely miss this holiday event and so began our own our first winter here. This is our 3rd annual now and has brought lots of our friends together. This year was the first year that we had the cook-off in late afternoon to allow us to enjoy the celebration with the many kids that are populating the lives of our friends lately. The Interactive Nativity included make your own speech bubbles along with a whole host of angels and action figures.

Well, our friends Amy, Eric and Mary came over, brought us dinner and hung out about a week ago. I was hoping to have a marriage contract drawn up at that time between Mary and Jonah because she is just soooooo cute. But it was rejected. I even offered our fabled Goat tree. It produces goats each spring. Here is a picture of the marriage offering. And here are the beautiful ones smiling on cue.

Mae's groovy hairstyle..nice tuft! Look at that face..already filling out!

What a whirlwind since this little girl came into our lives. I said to Michael one day "this little thing just eats, sleeps, and poops, but look what change she's brought to this household!" And change there has been. I finally came out of my post-delivery, hormonal, on another planet funk about a week ago, and have even had four or so days of taking care of both kids AT ONCE! And- NO ONE DIED, OR WENT HUNGRY, OR EVEN HAD MUCH TO COMPLAIN ABOUT!! I felt so accomplished after those days were over. I think my greatest challenge is Mae's crazy appetite. If she's not sleeping, literally she's eating. She does have a couple 10- 15 minutes increments a few times a day when she's just staring at me, or hanging out in her little bassinet, but beyond that, it's all about being on Mommy. So often times as I'm preparing Jonah's meals, I've got Mae attached to me while I'm running around the kitchen getting food ready with one hand. I'm sure it

This morning, While searching the kitchen for food to fill my lunch bag Our friend Ryan Knocked on the dining room window I opened the door and was handed a plastic container Fresh turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy He thought we might enjoy the food .

Jonah has been taking "messy art" class through two local rec centers and, though he doesn't enjoy getting his hands messy, he does love crayons. Here is his first major installation.

Our little Mae is quite the cutie and succeeded in gaining 12 ounces in 7 days. Her secret? Constantly feeding. Here is a rare moment when I didn't find her face smooshed against Hallie's breast.