The Christmas Tree

This weekend we went to get our Christmas tree. I had intended on cutting our own but after finding out I had to pay someone $40 to cut my own tree down I had second thoughts. After a bit of hunting we finally found a reasonable place and picked out a tree. We though we got a small one but as the branches began to drop we were left with a very wide tree. Oh well, it is pretty and the price was right. Here are a few pictures from picking it out and decorating it.

Meeting Santa at the Tree farm and ringing the bell.

The annual Untangling of the Lights.

The tree up and decorated.

Hiking in Devil's Hopyard

Yesterday, Amy and I took Everett and Napolean hiking. Here are a few pictures we took along with a video of us swinging on a vine.

Everett gets a Big Boy Bed

So we found out we are having a new boy, which means we don't have to buy much in anticipation. We decided we wanted to have the boys share a room (for a lot of reasons) and so we bought a toddler bed for Everett - the crib would be for the baby. We figured we would just let it stay in the room for a while before we switched him over, but he was soooo excited, he just went for it. He yelled "bed" (sounds like beh), climbed in for story time, laid down and slept, all on the first night. Nap time was a bit more interesting because mommy put him to bed before he was really tired enough to sleep (he was too excited about being in the bed) and he escaped a few times, just to giggle and run back to bed. So it has been a few days and he still yells "beh" every time he sees it, and shows all the visitors his new digs. And I thought this parenting thing was going to be hard....kidding. Here are some pics.

Love, Amy

One More Halloween Picture

This year, Everett went as a monkey and it was his first year walking to houses. He had a great time. Here is a quick picture.

...and here he is with his first piece of candy, a lollipop.

Everett's First Pumpkin Carving

This past week my parents came up to visit and one thing we did was carve pumpkins. This was Everett's first experience with this and we thought he would dig right in. It turns out he doesn't like to get his hands gunky so he used a spoon the whole time to hollow out the pumpkin. At the bottom you can see the finished pumpkin, a Super E, just like last year. I think it has become a tradition.

Everett Uses Tools

Check out this video shot by Amy the other day. Here you can see how well Everett uses a spoon to eat some cheerios. Make sure you listen for the question at the end.

What did I do???

So, I decided to cut Everett's hair while Daddy was playing his new favorite sport - wii golf. At first the clippers worked well, but then there was a fatal error and they buzzed his head. There was no turning back....
Gasp!

Homecoming

Everett had a blast at homecoming and got to spend some good quality time with his Godparents Ali and Brian. We hope we can see more of them soon. Pictures speak best, so enjoy! Love, Amy

On second thought, maybe we should reserve visitation until he is a bit older....

Updates

As you can see from the ticker on the right Amy is 15 weeks along now. Everything is going well. She is healthy and the new baby is healthy and growing. I was able to feel it move a little for the first time the other night. Amy has been feeling it moving around for about a week and a half now. She says it feels like there is a butterfly in her belly. We haven't made any progress on names yet but we haven't gone any deeper into it than just shouting them out and immediately shooting them down.

Everett is getting bigger by the minute. He is adding more and more words to his vocabulary. He has become very good at mimicking sounds so he can repeat most things we say. His newest words are CAR and UH OH. He says PLEASE now whenever he wants something (sounds like PIECE) and he also grabs us by the hand to take us to what he wants.

We have successfully gotten rid of the pacifier for all but when he is in his crib sleeping and sometimes in the car. We have also switched him over to cloth diapers to preserve the environment a bit.

This weekend Everett's Godparents, Brian and Ali will be visiting from Florida. It should be a lot of fun, pictures to follow.

Latest Ultrasound and Info

I guess it is about time I stop letting Everett dominate this blog and start writing about his younger sibling to come. Last week Amy and I drove down to Yale Medical Center for her ultrasound. This is still one of the coolest things I have ever seen. I have posted the pictures below. It looks like everything is going well, the baby is perfectly healthy, about 5 inches long to the tip of its tail, and genetically at very low risk for any nasty diseases. All in all it was a great visit and we got to see the new baby. Now this ultrasound was done at 12 weeks so they tell us that they are not really sure if it is going to be a boy or a girl. I must say that we have all been thinking girl for the last number of weeks but we saw something here that just might mean we need to take another look at our boy name list. I guess we will know better at the next ultrasound, at 20 weeks.

Disney

I broke in to post a blog since Clint is busy. I wanted to post some pictures of our Disney trip in August with the Venn family. What a blast!! Disney is pretty tiring....so much so that Everett fell asleep on the haunted mansion ride.

Pictures and More Pictures

The Journey in Fatherhood Continues

March 19. That is when Everett was born. It seems March runs in the family. I am March 10, Clare is March 14th, our dog is March 9th, my brother in law is March 15 and Frank is March 30-31(2 days, long story). So it is no surprise to me that we have another date added to the calendar...March 21, 2009. This is the estimated date that we will become a family of four.

That's right, by now most of you know that we are once again expecting that stork to fly by the house and drop another bundle of joy (it would be nice if it was that easy and peaceful right). At this point we do not know if it will be a girl or a boy so we could use some name suggestions.

I will once again do my best to post updates to the blog. There will probably not be pictures of Amy's belly growing (they don't seem to like that) but I will do the best I can.

Please leave a comment, throw a name out there, we would love some ideas.

Play That Funky Music White Boy

This past weekend Everett and I flew back to Ohio for my cousin's wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony and a beautiful reception complete with a waterfront tent. Everett got a chance to meet my cousin's little girls and practice his dance moves. Here is a video of him in action.

Dancing Baby

No not this one: This one:



He does that any time we put music on now, and he definately has his favorite songs.

14 Months

Everett has hit 14 months in May so I thought I would just post a few pictures so you can see how he is doing. He loves doing all little boy things.

Here he is learning to play Go Fish. He is good at picking a card but not so good at giving them up.

Here he is trying to climb up on the table.

This is cowboy Everett in Daddy's hat.

Going out to play in the rain.

Getting muddy in the back yard and picking up treasures.

Climbing a tree.

Everett Discovers a Marker

The other day when Amy was home alone with the brood and Everett and the two dogs were giving her a run for her money Everett stumbled upon a new toy. I think the resulting picture says it all.

I consider this a right of passage, much like having to shave a bare spot in his head when he will undoubtedly get gum in his hair. The funny think about this is we were only hours away from getting his professional 1 year portraits done. Luckily it washed off.