Favorite Winter Picture

This is my favorite picture from winter this year. It was taken at Victor's parents on there patio when all the snow hit. Ian didn't really want to touch the snow at all, but he liked looking at it.

Job Update

Victor went in for his interview this morning and said it went good. He said they should contact him in a day or two to let him know if he has the job or not. Thanks for your prayers.

Christmas 2008

Wishing everyone a late Merry Christmas! I hope you all enjoyed the holiday and it was fairly relaxing. Okay, well I know it probably wasn't too relaxing, but at least entertaining and eventful!

We started our Christmas on Christmas Eve over at Victor's parents. We ate a yummy Christmas dinner with ham and roast! Then we opened gifts or should I say Ian opened gifts ha ha. Ian got spoiled rotten as usual! I decided I would let Victor open his Christmas gift that night. (Even though we said our trip to Whistler was our gift to each other I had already bought him an expensive gift) When he opened it, he didn't really believe I got him a camera! He thought I put a different gift in a camera box. He absolutely loved/loves it. (I got him a Nikon D80) Well, he also surprised me and went out and got me some gifts as well. (socks, gift cert., clothes, a blanket, slippers!) We ordered both of the Grandma's photo books and made both of them cry when they opened them. Vic and Doris both gave Victor and I $100!! After presents, we put Ian down to bed and played some poker! It was a great night, we only wish the roads weren't still so snowy so great Grandpa could have made it.

The next morning we woke up and let Ian open the couple gifts we got him. (soccer ball, pj's and socks) To really embarrass him when he gets older we put him in a Santa suit!! It's horrible I know, but Grandma Danielson bought it for him and I thought it was too funny. Then, we headed over to my parents for a second round of spoiling for Ian. My mom got Victor and I a whole new set of dishes and a very needed set of new towels. After presents, Victor and I went to go pick up my girlfriend Kelley and Ian's girlfriend Gabi, to spend Christmas dinner with us. It was so much fun having the both of them there! All together, we had a wonderful Christmas! Here are probably way too many photos of our Christmas fun. Not to mention it was Ian's 1st Christmas!

Drop Box

Prayer Requests...

Hey Everyone,

I have two prayer requests. The first, is for my Grandma, apparently she fell yesterday and she might have broken her hip. She's in a lot of pain and I just pray that the Lord heals her completely. The second, is for my wonderful Husband Victor, he is going in for a second interview for a job tomorrow and we are praying He gets it and that this is where the Lord wants him to be. Thanks so much! I'm going to post some Christmas pictures and stuff shortly!

Christmas Season!

Even though I'm very disappointed about not having a Christmas tree this year and not decorating the apartment, it really feels like the Christmas season! Mainly, because of all the snow falling outside! I LOVE IT when it snows in the city up here. That's because I never got snow when I was kid for Christmas in Cali. Even though it's a frigid 27 degrees outside, I'm loving it. It's so nice to just sit inside and look through our big windows at the snow falling outside. (sipping hot cocoa, one of my favorite drinks!) Also, I made a gingerbread house for the first time in I don't know how long! I even got Victor help me make it! (I think he felt sorry for me when I couldn't even get the first two walls up) Oh, and I did get a Christmas tree up, just not a real one. Kelley,(mom of Ian's girlfriend)knew I was bummed about not having a tree and we were talking about having at least a little tree, like the one on Charlie Brown's Christmas movie. So, she decorated a baby fake tree and matching wreath for me! She is so awesome! Although the decorations are sparce, I'm having a wonderful Christmas Season so far!
I only got one picture of Ian in the snow, because he hand got snow on it and he did not like it one bit! When I was holding him though, he loved the snowflakes falling! He kept pointing to them. (He loves pointing to things now!) I hope everyone is having a blessed Holiday season so far!

Christmas Season

Ian Loves (and needs) His Baths

Ian knows how to get messy when He eats(don't all babies?). Which is fine because He LOVES his bath time. Thought I'd post some cute pics of him all dirty and having fun in the tub. His teeth really poke out now, so you can see them easily these days.

A New Baby

We currently have a new baby around the house. She's 11 weeks old, 1 1/2 lbs, brown hair, and half mini doberman pincher and half chihuahua. That's right, we have a puppy! Her name is Coco. We are not 100% sure if we are going to keep her yet though... Here's how we got her.
Saturday night was Victor's company Christmas party. At the party his carpet vendor he uses (Jim), was selling raffle tickets to raise money for the Strong's Kids Foundation. They were selling tickets for a 42" Plasma, a Wii and some puppies. Well when she exlplained all the raffle tickets she said a wee dog and I thought she meant a Wii dog. So I told Victor go for the plasma. Well I found out a little later it was an actual puppy! So I was just enthralled with the puppies (there were three) and tell Victor he has to get a ticket and he got me one. (we ended up getting a couple more from people leaving early) Well on the second puppy we were 3 numbers away! We didn't win a puppy. So I talk to jim after the raffle and asks what happened to the third one. He tells me someone from a Christmas party across the hall bought her for five hundred dollars. We danced a little, then said our goodbye's and left. Around the corner from my Mom's we get a call, it's Jim. Apparently the people never showed and they had one more puppy left. Jim told us to come and get her, so we turned around went back and picked up little Coco. I have to add that we carpooled with Victor's good friend Megan and her boyfriend Scott and they really wanted a puppy as well. Which is why she will go to them if we decide not to keep her.
She is the sweetest little thing! She loves to cuddle and follow me around the house like mother hen. I'm currently potty training, which is going a lot better than I expected. She's really good with peeing on the newspaper, but not as good with the pooping. The hardest part I've found with having a puppy right now is night time. She cries and cries until someone gets her out of her kennel (and believe me she is very loud for such a small puppy). Other than that it hasn't been as hard as I thought with a puppy around. Ian and her get along fine, she loves him, but he is not very interested in her. She jumps on him or licks him and he just pushes her away. Thought I would share our current new addition with you all. I'll keep you posted.

Coco

Whistler, Canada

Last weekend Victor and I got to go to Whistler, Canada! This was our Christmas present to each other. Not only was it a baby free weekend, but it was my first time in Canada! The whole town of Whistler is like victorian/bavarian style and so unique. The drive up there is absolutely stunning. Unfortunately for me it was very foggy and rainy, but I could still see a glimpse of how pretty it was. It was a very relaxing weekend, we slept in both days and took a 3 hour nap on saturday afternoon! (something that would never be done at home on Ian's schedule) Even though there was hardly any snow and half of the lifts were closed, it was still an awesome weekend with fun skiing (and snowboarding for Victor). Most of all it was so nice for Victor and I to enjoy each other and spend time alone with each other. Enjoy the pictures.

Whistler 08

Teeth!

So here is the only good picture I have taken of Ian's teeth. He is so not happy, but when he is happy his tongue tends to cover them and if I try to pull his lip down he tries to lick or eat my finger. So I saw my opporunity when he was crying in his carseat last week.

October News

Last month was a busy one! Ian is doing so many new things everyday it feels like I can't keep up! He's crawling and into everything! He smiles for the camera when he sees the red light come on. He loves to put things in his mouth like a dog and crawl around. He's starting to furniture walk. His favorite thing to do right now is open any drawer or cupboard and pull everything he can get out of it. But, the biggest news of all for last month is...

October 29th Ian finally got his first tooth! The following Monday he popped his second tooth! I was so relieved! He had been teething horribly the weekend before he cut his tooth and on top of that I was miserably sick with the flu! It was an awful weekend, but I was so happy when I found that tooth a few days later!

Ian was a lion for Halloween. He was pretty stinking cute. He kept reaching up to his mane and ripping out the fur, but he lost interest in it after a while. We went to our Church's harvest festival with Grandma and Grandpa Danielson and then to a friends house for games, junk food, and a costume contest.

Ian and I also went to a pumpkin patch with his girlfriends. Even though he slept most of the time it was still cute to get their photos with all of the pumpkins.
So there are a ton of photos in this slide show, but they are much overdue! Until next time...

Ian in October

Too Long!

Over a month since my last post! Shame on me! Well, I've been quite busy schedule wise and Ian has kept me busy every second I'm home with his teething and crawling everywhere. Plus we lost our internet a couple weeks ago and have yet to get it hooked back up...

Bad news - I somehow accidently deleted the few vacation photos I had off of my camera while trying to download them! So now the only thing I have from vacation is a video of Kate putting Ian's binky in his mouth for him.

Good news - I have the most adorable photos from Ian, Kate and Great Grandma's photo shoot! Though it seemed impossible to get them to smile in the same photo, they still came out great! So without further delay here they are.

Ian Kate Grandma Photo Shoot

Ian's First Crawl!

We were on vacation with my family last week at Lake Chelan. What a beautiful lake! I will tell more about it when I post some pictures in the next few days. While on vacation Ian had been sitting in crawl position and wiggling back and forth. (so close to crawling!) Just about every one of us tried to get him to crawl. He would move one arm and then lunge or sit back on his bottom. No luck.

This morning Ian was playing on the floor with some toys while I was vacuuming and he really wanted the vacuum. I shut off the vacuum and set it far enough away from him that he would have to crawl to get it. I encouraged him as he got into crawl position to come and get it. Then, he moves one arm, his other arm, a knee, another arm and another knee and lunges for the vacuum and makes it! It was so exciting! I was way more excited about it than he was. He was just happy to get the vacuum. I called Victor right away to tell him about it.

He started to do his wiggle maneuvers again and I was sad Victor wouldn't be able to see him do it. Victor came home about ten minutes later and tried to bribe Ian with the vacuum and sure enough he did the same thing for Daddy! Victor was just as excited as I was! He's growing up so fast it makes me happy and sad. Thought I would post the good news on the blog!

Pictures of Ian

I haven't posted anything in a while, so I thought I would post a bunch of random photos of Ian. He's growing up so fast and getting such a funny personality. I love him so much! (He's so cute though who couldn't?) Enjoy the photos.

Random Ian Photos

Long Lake with Grandpa

Last Friday it was a whopping ninety five degrees! So, we took the boat out of course! Grandpa was all by himself that day (Grandma was in Texas, Sam was at camp, and Ben was at a friend's house) so, he took the day off work and joined us for some wakeboarding and swimming on Long Lake. He tried wakeboarding for the first time! After a lot of trial runs to get out of the water, he got up on his last run! I wish I got a picture of him doing it, but Ian was falling asleep in my arms so I couldn't get the camera out.
Ian swam in a lake for the first time. I got him a little crab floaty thing and him and I went floating. Here's some pictures from our day.

Long Lake w/ Grandpa

Our First Night/Day Alone

Victor and I had our first night alone in 6 1/2 months! We actually had a full 24 hours without little Ian. Grandma and Grandpa Danielson (well Uncle Sam and Ben too) watched him for us while we had an overnighter on the boat.
Last Thursday we drove the boat up to Blake Island for his company event. A few of his coworkers came with us for the ride up. When everyone else when back to Seattle, we took to boat and headed up to a cool little Norwegian town everyone was telling us about called Poulsbo. It was a really cute town, with neat little buildings and some really cool bakeries. When we first pulled into the marina there were about 15 seals laying out and almost half of them were little baby seals! I was totally enamored and started snapping tons of photos and Victor pulled up really close. We got about 5 feet away from them! Then we docked the boat went into town and bought sunscreen. We were both already burning and had no sunscreen. Then we roamed the little shops on the strip and got an ice cream waffle cone! mmm... We also got Italian Sodas, that made us a little sick from all the sugar haha.
We headed back to the boat and drove to a little cove on the backside of Bainbridge Island that we had stayed at before and really liked. We anchored down and pulled out our mini BBQ and made some burgers for dinner, played a game of uno (which I won) and then went to sleep for an entire 8 hours of no interruptions! It felt really weird, but awesome, not having to get up once during the night.
The next morning we headed back to Grandma's to pick up our baby boy! We both admitted we missed him, but we still enjoyed every second of our little getaway. Here are some photos of us and the town of Poul

Trip to Poulsbo 08

sbo.

A Game of Peek-a-Boo

Today Ian and I were playing a game of peek-a-boo and he was loving it! He was in his jumperoo and I would pop out from the hallway and he would bounce and screech with a big smile. It was too cute. These are the times I will miss when he's grown up. So today I cherish the moments we had in our fun game of peek-a-boo.

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- the first frame of the video is whacked out again...

Sitting Up

I know this is my third post today, but so much has happened this week. I thought I would show how Ian is mastering the skill of sitting up by himself. He still tumbles here and there, but for the most part he is sitting up by himself. Crazy where the time goes!

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Baby BBQ and Poo!

So Sunday we had a BBQ with some friends of ours. It was going to be a family/baby BBQ, but we invited a couple other friends to join as well. Ian's girlfriend Gabi came and his other friend Sabina. We took a bunch of photos of them and hand a blast just hanging out with our kids.

Baby BBQ

A highlight (as some might say) of the BBQ happened while I was changing Ian's diaper. I was changing Ian and folded his dirty diaper underneath him. I was waiting a few minutes to see if he was going to go any more poo poo. As he was laying there I was filming Gabi smacking her lips together. Ian was kicking my leg and as I looked down there was poop everywhere! He had silently finished his job and then smeared it all over his legs and my pants!!! As I was freaking out and laughing, Kelley grabbed the camera and started recording... It's too funny not to share lol.

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Rolling, Rolling, and More Rolling...

I recorded Ian a few days ago rolling back and forth in the living room and LOVE the video. He was acting so silly with his facial expressions and totally showing off for the camera (for once). He also pushes himself up with straight arms a few times. Enjoy!

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Walking the Trails

Walk w/ Gma Gpa

While Victor and I went out for our Anniversary last night, Ian was walking on the trails with Grandma and Grandpa Danielson. Here's a few photos and a video of Ian talking away. They had a good time (and so did we on our date!).

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Our First Anniversary!

Today Victor and I have been married a year! What a first year of marriage it has been. Welcoming our son into the world on Victor's Birthday and watching him grow (nonstop) these past six months!

Putting a child into the mix of your first year of marriage is not the easiest thing to do. Instead of the focus being on us, it's all about our child. Which, in your first year of being married and living together, comes as a huge change! Having God in the center makes all the difference. But, what a wonderful change it has been to watch our beautiful baby boy growing up before our eyes!

I am so blessed to be married to Victor! He is everything I could have prayed for in a husband and more. He is an amazing provider for our family and the best Father to Ian! I am excited to watch our marriage grow in the upcoming years and have many more wonderful Anniversary's!

A Picture Says 1,000 Words

This is one of the most precious moments I've caught on camera with Ian and his Granddpa Whittaker. It's one of those photos I'll always look back at and remember the moment I took it and how sweet Ian was being with his Grandpa. I'll probably look back at it and cry. It almost makes me cry now. This was just to special not to share with everyone.

Having Fun

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Here's video of Ian jumping around in his jumperoo and rolling over. It seems like he's doing something new or getting better at something everyday! For some reason the frame is Erin and Kate when they came to visit last year... I tried to fix it, but I must be computer illiterate.

Ian's 6 Month Doctor Visit

Thursday Ian went in to the Doctor for his 6 Month visit. He weighs 16 lbs and 12 oz and is 26 inches long! Where has the time gone??

He's getting quite the personality. I can tell now when he throws a mini tantrum when he's not getting what he wants. It's cute sometimes and not so cute at other times. I am in so much trouble when he gets mobile! He's such a squirmer and wiggler now and he can hardly even sit up. He's going to be into everything!

Well I thought I would post a bunch of my favorite random photos of Ian from the past month or so. Enjoy!

Favorite of Ian

Mom's Birthday Gift

I edited this photo of my mom discovering that her Birthday gift is a concert ticket to go see her favorite singer of all times, Randy Travis! She's always loved his voice, so she's very excited to go see him for the first time in concert. haha I just had too much fun with the editing...

Hot Summer Days

Ian and I went to a picnic/party for my friend Liana up at a park in Seattle on Sunday. It was 90 degrees and there were three babies there including Ian. My friend Kelley brought an inflatable ducky tub that we used as a little pool to keep them cool. Her daughter Gabi and Ian were having a good time in the pool. Except, Ian kept trying to take any toy that Gabi would pick up. I hope this isn't a sign that he will be one of those children that always wants the toy the other kid has.

Well, after three hours of being up Gabi and Ian both passed out at the same time. So we laid them down in the shade and of course saw the "kodak moment" and took a picture of them. It was very cute. They both did so good for such a long and hot day! Summer has officially arrived here in WA and I can't wait to keep enjoying it!

Dad's A Grad!

This last Friday my Dad had his graduation ceremony! He earned his Master's in Business Administration! I am so proud of him! I can hardly believe my Dad has an MBA. He's worked really hard these last three years being a Dad, Husband, Grandpa, student and now finally a graduate! Way to go Dad, I love you so much!

Ian's Rainforest Jumper

New Toy

Here are some new photos. Yay! These are of Ian playing around in his rainforest jumper Grandma and Grandpa Whittaker got him. He'll last a little while by himself playing around, but then he tends to get mad and want out. He has quite the cute facial expressions in some of these. He's really starting to do some quirky stuff and develop his little personality. It's crazy where the time goes!

Poor Ian...

So I don't have any pictures to post yet, but I borrowed my mom's camera and have been taking pictures. I just neglected to get the computer cord that puts the photos on my computer. They will be here soon I promise!

This last week was a rough one for Ian though... About 2-3 weeks ago I started solid foods with him. He's had sweet potatoes, squash, a little bananas (that's where it all went wrong), green beans and prunes! I've also been making his food which is kinda neat and makes me rest at ease knowing there's not a drop of preservatives in this stuff. Well, I gave him an ounce of bananas one day and another ounce the next day and I noticed his pooping pattern came to a halt, so I layed off the bananas. By that time it was too late. He had some major constipation. He worked and grunted and cried so hard and nothing would hardly come out. So we introduced prunes to help flush out his back up... and a couple days later we had success! Poor guy had a miserable week, but we're past it now and poop all sorts of smelly stuff again. (yay)

We also went on our first mini camping trip with Victor's parents to Eastern Washington a couple weeks ago. Ian went in a pool for his first time too! I'll get the photos on here soon!

M.I.A.

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while, but my camera seems to have gone missing! When Becky was in town I took it with me when we went to seattle, we didn't use it and since then I haven't been able to find it! Which I really hope it didn't get lost in Seattle somewhere because it had the only good photo's of Ian's Dedication on it! So I am trying my hardest to locate it and will put those photos up when I find it. (hopefully)

Rice Cereal

Big Boy Food

Last night was my first attempt at giving Ian some rice cereal. Ian's Doctor suggested I try and give him some rice cereal at his night time feeding to help him sleep through the night longer, since he seems to need to eat every 3-4 hrs still. As where he used to go 5-6 hrs at night. Because He was born so big He's probably going to start needing some solids sooner. I think he only got 1/4 - 1/2 of the small serving I made him. The other 1/2 + was on his bib and face. It was definitely funny to watch his face scrunch up the first time he had it in his mouth.

Froggy Talk

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Ian is very communicative to his frog in this video. As you can see he's very good at getting to his side and he's so close to being able to grab things! Shortly after shutting my camera off he rolled from his back to his tummy for the first time!! He always seems to perform after I shut the camera off! Well, I just thought this was too cute not to share.

Motherhood

I could try to explain this picture, but trust me you wouldn't have time to read my post. This sums up motherhood for me. My mom at my side the moment I became a mom. I don't think it gets more beautiful than that.


5 minutes for mom is doing a photo contest of what mohterhood means to you. If you win you receive $1,000! So give it a shot and enter your photo!

Visiting Grandparents & Rolling Over

Great Grandpa + Grandma Grandpa

On Saturday we went down the Lacey to Visit Great Grandpa Whittaker and Grandma and Grandpa Whittaker. Great Granpa's health isn't doing very well, so we are trying to go visit as much as possible. The other baby boy in the photos with Great Grandpa is Ian's 2nd cousin Jesse who just turned one.

I love the last photo with Ian sticking his tongue out and tasting his Grandpa's shoulder.

Oh, some other very exciting news is Ian rolled over from his tummy to his back last night for the first time! He did it twice and Victor was there to catch it all too!

Better Photo

 

I thought this was a good photo to show his new dew.

Opening Day of Fishing Season

trout fishing day

Last Saturday was opening fishing day here in WA. Seeing as how Victor and I both love to fish, we went out to Hicks Lake (a very coincidental name) and tried to catch some fish. Now, the plan was to be out on the lake by 6:30 am, but we had some friends over friday night and we didn't get to bed until 2:30 am. We didn't get out on the lake until 11:30 am... Even though we got out there late and the fish weren't biting, it was a nice day to just relax on the lake and soak up the sun. Our friend David Rummel came out with us and he got 2 fish on, but they both got away. Victor took his bob off and started casting and reeled in a 2 lb trout! Sadly, that was the only catch of the day. Victor had 2 more fish on, but they both got away. (I didn't even get a bite!) Ian was really good during our 4-5 hrs on the boat. He slept the whole last half. If you notice in all of his many face shots, he got a haircut! Yup, I cut off the combover! No more Donald Trump hair... These days he's sportin' the faux hawk!

Whittaker Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

His First Giggle

On Wednesday Ian giggled for the first time! Well, technically he has laughed once before, but it was in his sleep. This time he was wide awake and it was completely adorable. I was tickling his legs and talking to him and he was laughing away. He did it about 3 times in a row and by the time Victor came in, he wasn't really laughing anymore. I was very sad He didn't get to experience the moment, but I have a feeling there will be many more to come.

Tummy Time

I can't believe what a few minutes of tummy time, a couple times a day does! It seems like Ian has gotten so strong in a matter of days! I get so excited to see his improvements, but it makes me a little sad at the same time to know he's growing up. Yes, he's only 12 weeks old, but even now the time just seems to be flying by...

Getting too strong!

Ian's First Boating Trip

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Last Saturday was Ian's first boat trip in the Puget Sound! It was a perfect day for boating, 82 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. To make things even more fun we invited our friend Kelley and her daughter Gabi (Ian's future girlfriend) to join us.

Ian managed to almost sleep through the entire boat trip. He was awake the whole trip from Tacoma to Lacey, the entire time we loaded up the boat, and the whole time we launched the boat. But, as soon as he got his diaper changed, sunscreen and lifejacket on, he passed out. He tried eating the corner of his lifejacket for a minute or two and then he was just too tired to care. So I thought it would be funny to put my sunglasses on him and then we added Gabi's hat turned inside out. It was too funny.

Gabi on the other hand, was wide awake when she had to put her lifejacket on, and she was not liking it. Once she got the chance to figure it out though, she didn't mind and decided to take a nap herself.

We stopped at the sandbar on McMicken Island that comes out at low tide. Then we decided to head back in to the dock. Later, that night we met up with some friends to go bowling and got some cute shots of the future couple. A long and adventurous day for both Ian and Gabi!

Ian's First Easter!

Well, Easter 2008 was Ian's first big Holiday! We started the day by going to church with his Grandma and Grandpa at Northwest. Ian did great and fell asleep in his Grandma's arms during the service. After Church we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house and Ian got spoiled with an Easter basket with pj's, a soft bunny, some cute hangers for his room and a book about Thumper's Fluffy Tail. Then, of course we changed him into his adorable bunny outfit that said "My 1st Easter" for some Easter photos. It was so cute, it even had a little fluffy tail. He may hate us for it later, but the outfit was too cute to pass up! All in all, the whole family had a great Easter and next year Ian will get to eat some candy!