Thank You!

Dear Everyone Who Sent Us Gifts For Sawyer,

It has probably come to your attention that you have not received a thank you card from us. Stop checking your mailboxes, I regret to inform you that there will be no thank you cards.  It's not that we did not appreciate your gift, we certainly did, but... well... here goes... it all started so innocently... this is my tale of woe. 

We began receiving gifts and I kept thinking how I had so much time before the thank you card statute of limitations would expire. Tons of time! I just had a baby! No one expects me to send out thank you cards yet! I lulled myself into this false security as the gifts piled up and then they just kept coming. And then I realized that I had forgotten who sent what. And then I got all freaked out about it. And then I gave up.

So here is my mea culpa. And my thank you. And maybe, just maybe, a super cute and smiley baby photo to atone for my thoughtlessness...

Happy Birthday Brent!

Brent turned the big three-one last weekend and we celebrated as any couple with two small children should- in the safety of our own home. Amberlee and Jonas came over and we attempted to recreate the memorable fondue that we had at Christmas. Let's just say it did not quite turn out, but that did not stop us from shamelessly dunking our bread and scraping hunks of solidified cheese off the bottom. Hey, wine and cheese is still wine and cheese. I blame the inadequate Fred Meyer gruyere selection...

When we were getting ready for our guests I had the revelation that this would be a good occasion to get some pictures of the adults for a change. We have just about a billion pictures of the kids and occasionally my arm or perhaps Brent's shoulder makes an appearance, but ask me for a picture of one of us or the two of us together and I just might have to go digging through the wedding photos.

So I placed the camera conspicuously on the table and instructed everyone that photos were to be taken of the adults only. Let's just ignore the cherubic toddler and the (finally) smiling baby. Let's focus on the grown ups for once. Ha ha. You know where this is going already...

Photo of birthday boy with Amberlee, check.

Wait! How did Jack manage to sneak into this one?

At last, the weary parents sans offspring!

And here's one for posterity. (Those cheeks! For the love of god- those cheeks! How could I not include a picture of those cheeks?) No pics of Jonas, though. Maybe next time.

Baby Brudder

Finally, some awake pictures of Sawyer. These are difficult images to capture since most of his awake time is spent screaming. He is a very different baby than Jack was and when the incessant crying first started we wondered what was wrong with him. The doctor basically said we just got lucky the first time around with Jack.

But he is pretty cute, so I think we'll keep him around...

Almost smiling!

Resting up in between crying episodes.

This one is the money shot. Anyone who has ever attempted to photograph a baby and a toddler together knows what I'm talking about. PS: Sawyer is not really cross eyed. See above photos as proof. Hmmm, I just realized that he looks cross eyed in the above photos, too. Well, take my word for it.

Before I Forget...

Before we had the whole new baby thing occupying our lives, we took a trip to the coast in honor of Jack's birthday.

Jack and Lily played in the sand and didn't seem to mind the cold wind and rain (but we did..). We went to the aquarium in Newport and saw all kinds of fun things. Jack, surprisingly, was not all that impressed by the sharks. 

Since it has been almost two months since the trip, my memory is a bit hazy. It seems to me that the other highlights included Jack receiving a soccer ball from Lily for his birthday, somehow managing to eat in each of the slowest serving dining establishments on the Oregon coast (don't those waitresses have kids?), Brent's mystery beer, and something about peanut M&Ms. Oh, and a really great Hawaiian band that will apparently be playing at Jeremy's upcoming birthday. Or was it Brent's?