New Adventures

Life is moving too fast at our house. What I mean, is Kate is moving too fast! She is exploring the entire house including THE STAIRS! In addition to chasing after Kate, we are now chasing a puppy too. We adopted "Annie" the not-so-golden retriever a little over a month ago. She is very sweet and surprisingly calm for a puppy, but she either thinks she is a baby like Kate, or that Kate is a dog. They roll around on the floor together- Kate loves to feed Annie, and play with her toys. There must be some primal desire to have what is not our own (Annie seems to enjoy Kate's toys too!).

Long time no blog!

Oops! We kind of forgot that we have to keep updating the blog... in the back of our minds we had hoped that it would update itself. Alas, Google has yet to figure out that technology... hopefully not for long.

The last four months have been extremely busy. We are now living in Jaimee's parents' house while they are serving as Mission Presidents in the Washington Kennewick Mission. We will go back and back date some entries to cover the time in between. In the mean time, here are some cute pictures of Kate.

She loves to shower with Dad...


Kate learned how to pull herself up to the standing position this week! We are in trouble now!

Trip to Washington and Idaho

Here are some pictures from our trip to visit Papa and Nana (Paul & Liz Belnap) in Kennewick, WA, and Baba and G-san (Laurie & Joe Gabrielsen) on the lake in Cascade, ID.

More Pics

Here are three more pictures...

Kate enjoys mowing with Dad...



Kate has tasted adult food... and she LOVES it! She doesn't want to go back...

Happy Mothers' Day!

Happy Mothers' Day to everyone!

We had a fantastic day. We listened to Jaimee's brother, Josh, speak in church (he gave a beautiful talk!) and were able to spend the rest of the day with the Belnaps. Jaimee got a DVD player to go with the TV in our bedroom (I swear this was a gift that she wanted, and not something that I wanted her to have so that I could use it!.. unlike the weed-eater my dad is rumored to have given my mom one year). Jaimee is such a great Mom. We are fortunate to have good role models in our mothers (a.k.a., Nana and Baba). Perhaps Kate is the luckiest of all.

As for Kate, she has thoroughly enjoyed being able to eat from a spoon. She is now up to two meals a day of rice cereal mixed with pear sauce or applesauce. We still can't feed it to her fast enough, and mealtimes are filled with impatient shrieks in between spoonfuls. She loves to drink water from her sippy cup (and slurps water from my glass whenever she can). It may seem strange, but she seems to have matured a couple of months in the past few days... almost as if she is no longer a baby, rather a relatively immobile toddler.

Jaimee started her lessons to learn how to use her sewing machine this week. She seems to thoroughly be enjoying them. She has made a lot of cute blankets that Kate absolutely loves. I am continuing to work on my PhD... enough said. Life is great and we can't complain.

Hope all is well with all of you! Drop us a line sometime. We would love to hear from you!

Kate's First Bowl of Rice Cereal

Kate had her first bites (actually her first bowl!) of rice cereal today. She apparently has been ready for quite some time. A couple of weeks ago we noticed that she started opening her mouth and leaning forward each time we put food in our mouths. A couple of days ago she started to get mad any time anyone put food in their mouth. As we moved the spoon toward her mouth, she grabbed it by the handle and helped to guide it in. She opened wide and swallowed the entire spoonful on the first try. We couldn't feed the next spoonfuls fast enough, as she would scream in between them, as if to say "I want more, NOW!" She polished off the bowl (about 2 oz worth)! Not bad for a first semi-solid meal. Fortunately, she still got it all over her face.