coddington family

omaha!

2010-08-10T14:44:00.000-07:00

we had a wonderful time last week in omaha with brooke. the boys are still trying to adjust to life without aunt brooke at their beck and call :)

below are some highlights from the week.

1. playing in sprinklers and fountains: it was hot, very, very hot with the humidity. simon wasn't as excited by the sprinkler, but he enjoyed watching marcus run around like a nut-job while reclining on the hammock.

2. stalking the cats: since the boys are deprived of pets other than fish, they love it when they have a chance to "play" with cats. brooke's cats were not fans of the boys, they're a bit too loud and unpredictable for the kitties. however, after a couple days marcus managed to not send walter into hiding every time he appeared and both he and simon found a small place in raleigh's heart due to all the treats they gave him.

3. lots of good food: brooke made some delicious meals and a cake. we ate some tasty nebraska beef. we visited a number of local food stops-ecreamery, jones bros cupcakes (and they gave me 3 free cupcakes!), lisa's radial cafe, and sonic, because their cold drinks are absolutely perfect for a hot and humid day. (that's blood orange sorbet on simon's face.)

4. cuddling with brooke: all the kids got plenty of snuggle time with brooke. too bad we don't live closer so they can get it more frequently! even simon was climbing into brooke's arms for hugs, which is saying a lot!

5. the zoo: omaha's zoo is really great, and huge. we only got to a few exhibits during the 4 hours we were there. the boys loved it. marcus sang "i like to move it" to a group of lemurs who looked like king julian from "madagascar", but they didn't appear to want to move it.

if you want to see more pictures, here's a link to picasa.

thanks brooke for having us and giving the boys so many great memories! we'll be back soon!

july happenings

2010-08-06T09:44:00.000-07:00

marcus went to vacation bible camp at our church, overlake, during july. he had so much fun! the theme was "superheroes" and he spent a lot of time that week wearing his cape around the house and singing songs he learned at vbc. he also memorized two memory verses. quite impressive! in the photo, he's the one in the light blue shirt, with a mask on, to the left of the headbanded green shirt kid. he was a bit overstimulated by all the people and excitement, as were the other preschoolers, but he said he had fun singing "in the big church".(thank you to ramona, deanna, meagan, kara, and chris for coming to his performance during church. he loved knowing you were in the audience. brace yourself, there will be a ton of other performances in the future!)

one day while marcus was at vbc, simon went to a gymboree art class. he was super shy during the class and wanted me to be right next to him the entire time. fortunately elise slept in the stroller the whole hour. we also went to "the french bakery" in kirkland on day to have hot chocolate and chocolate croissants. you can see that he thought that was a great idea :)

it's amazing to watch elise grow. i'm more aware of all the developmental changes this time around. it's a joy to watch her learn new things and see her brother dote on her. she's going to be one spoiled little sister! she's now giggling all the time and is able to roll over and scoot a bit toward something she wants. she also has a tooth coming in. hopefully it comes in quickly since she's pretty miserable. i can't believe she's already old enough to have a tooth coming in! (photo by marcus)

for more july photos, here's a link to our picasa pictures.

skyhawks!!

2010-07-02T23:07:00.000-07:00

marcus spent the mornings this week at a skyhawks sports camp. despite being put in a class with older and more skilled kids initially, he loved the camp. he had a great time running around with other kids around his age and chatting it up with the coach. he said his favorite part of each day was when he got to play "cleanies and messies", a game where one team knocks over orange cones and the other team picks them up. he excelled in the knocking down end of the game :) he had such a good time that we may sign him up for another week later in the summer.

here is a series of videos from his time at camp and simon's time while marcus was at camp.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDDAwZ-Pyjo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdtzgyCIgN4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1Wrm54UgQg (marcus is the one running into place at the beginning)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgGPfIypRAY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjm2LCE980c

simon missed marcus so much while he was at camp. today we went to the lego store during camp and all simon could think about was which legos marcus would like. so sweet.

and here's a video of elise with a couple of her favorite things...a singing star on a playmat and a lamb blanket.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpPbOFZWAyY

i also updated our june and july photos on picasa.

videos

2010-06-23T17:30:00.000-07:00

the boys and i were checking out some older videos on youtube...you may have seen these before, but they seem even funnier now that they boys are older. enjoy, or re-enjoy!
where is puppy?
simon abuses roger

it's been a while...

2010-06-12T11:53:00.000-07:00

so there's a lot i've missed posting about over the past year...

1. a new house

2. my sister's engagement

3. simon talking non-stop

4. marcus going to preschool, once a week

5. a baby girl! who thought that'd happen???

6. my sister's wedding

7. a niece on the way

8. and lots of time with family and friends

rather than try to give details about everything, which i will never get around to doing, you can link to our picasa site to see photos.

no promises that i will update this on a regular basis, but aaron and susan's new blog has inspired me to try again.

happy 15 months to simon!

2009-07-14T14:34:00.000-07:00

since i didn't do a post for simon's 1st birthday, i figured i should get on the ball and do one now that he's almost 15 months. i'll copy the idea for marcus' birthday and post a list of simon's favorite things...

1. marcus. he loves his big brother, and everything he touches. fortunately marcus is a tolerant big brother and dotes on simon. i'm sure it'll end someday, but for now it's really fun to watch them enjoying each other.

2. simon loves to eat, as is apparent by his size. his favorites are watermelon, quesadillas, smoothies, bananas, ice cream, and anything marcus is eating. he's not shy about what he wants to eat either. if he wants it and you have it, he'll snatch it out of your hand.

3. simon squirms all the time. he likes constant motion. the only time he is still is when he's sleeping, and even that's questionable. he has the jimmy legs when he sits too. he's quite the workout to hold since he's moving the whole time.

4. simon loves to snuggle, just like his brother. he's very content if he's being held or cuddled up with, even though he's usually still moving his legs.

5. simon enjoys being chased and cackles like a mad man if you tackle him from behind. it's great to hear such full laughter out of a little boy!

6. simon is pretty athletic for a 15 monther. he seems to prefer playing with sport related balls to other toys. he attempts to dribble a soccer ball and tries to hit a golf ball with a mini golf club. it's impressive.

7. simon loves hear his voice. he has a lot to say for someone with no understandable words.

8. simon loves to be held upside down. he giggles and tries to turn himself upside down again when he's righted.

9. simon likes to put things where they belong. he's fairly observant and knows what items belong to whom and where things are supposed to go. his really likes giving shoes back to their owners.

10. and to stress just how much simon loves marcus, we'll finish with another, simon loves marcus. life is great when marcus is around!

here is a link to our latest picasa photos for july. you should be able to see the older photos as well.

happy birthday to marcus!

2009-02-04T15:46:00.000-08:00

(marcus at the zoo yesterday with the jaguar)

marcus turned 3 yesterday. i can't believe he's already that old, where has time gone??? in honor of his birthday, i thought i should post a list of some of marcus' favorite things.

1. marcus loves turning our couch cushions into trains, airplanes, boats, cars, and spaceships. he can do this for hours. while on/in the various vehicles, he's usually going to target or costco.

2. marcus enjoys having very elaborate conversations with his aunt amanda, when she is not around. he talks to her while trying to not fall asleep, while playing, while at dinner...fortunately, he does also talk with her when she's on the phone or he sees her in person.

3. marcus loves reading. he has some favorite books but mostly he just loves to read.

4. marcus' favorite foods are blueberries, smoothies, oshinko, french fries, and sprinkles for his rice. when all else fails, he will eat these.

5. marcus likes to call me sally and tasha and kevin mater and tyronne from "cars" and "the backyardigans" respectively. he is lightening mcqueen and pablo. simon is austin, he doesn't have a "cars" alter-ego yet.

6. marcus loves his little brother. he decided that simon's crib should be right next to his bed rather than across the room (which really is pretty much next to his bed anyways, but apparently not close enough). they like to make each other laugh when they wake up or are trying to not fall asleep.

7. marcus loves to laugh and has a silly fake laugh that makes him really laugh.

8. marcus loves to see deanna. he gets very mopey if more than a couple weeks goes by without seeing her.

9. marcus loves playing with his legos and cars (from "cars"). we are exploiting this love by bribing him with cars and legos if he uses the potty...so far he only wants to talk about what he'll get if he does it.

10. marcus loves a good snuggle with both his mom and dad, the best is if he's between us.

so there's a bit of marcus. here are some links to january photos, february photos, and videos (this links to one of the videos, if you can't get to the others from there please let me know). enjoy!

the holidays

2009-01-11T21:15:00.000-08:00

we're finally beginning to slow down after the holiday rush. it was wonderful to spend so much time with all our family. we were in richland for thanksgiving (where marcus became obsessed with rock band).

we then celebrated multiple christmases in seattle, reedley, and folsom and were back home again for new year's. the boys were amazing in the car on our driving to and from california, though i doubt either of them were thrilled with the near 40 hours they spent traveling. they however completely enjoyed all the spoiling they received.

simon showing his gift opening skills

marcus and his box of legos

marcus is getting excited about his 3rd birthday. he decided he wants to have a fire truck cake but does not want to wait 3 more weeks to make it. we may have to do a test run to give me some peace. simon is busy pulling himself up on everything he can, and just being busy in general. we're expecting him to walk any day, marcus has no idea how his world is going to change!
here are links to our picasa photos:
november
december (thank you aaron, laurie, and jeff for the photos! they are far better than mine would've been.)
january

october

2008-11-03T21:49:00.000-08:00

JUST A QUICK REMINDER...DON'T FORGET TO VOTE TOMORROW! (t-shirt by amanda)

marcus' dream came true, amanda and steve came for a visit! he's been asking when amanda would come on a plane to visit him for months. he was so giddy the day before that he didn't sleep well at night, and then hardly took a nap the day amanda came. he loves his aunt amanda! while they were here, we went to the seattle gymnastics academy's indoor playground. marcus was a bit hesitant in playing until he discovered the foam pit.

we had a hard time getting him out when play time was over. simon snuggled up next to amanda while we were there. he was very content.

we also went to the zoo. marcus bonded with steve, and as a result, lucky steve got to read many stories to marcus.

for halloween, the boys dressed up as animal rescuers. marcus was diego and simon was baby diego. we weren't sure if marcus would actually dress up. for several weeks he'd been saying he either wanted to dress like mommy or not dress up at all. we talked up diego and made animal rescue items for his rescue pack and finally he agreed that it'd be fun to be diego outside of the house. we only went to 3 homes and got more candy than marcus will ever need.

the boys each reached special milestones in october. simon began to eat solid foods (well, severely mashed foods). he loves everything and squeals while being fed. he's definitely enjoyable to feed! marcus has discovered the fun of imaginary friends. he often talks with alicia (diego's sister and fellow animal rescuer) and princess. we're not really sure where the princess came from...this past weekend he wanted a barbie princess book he saw at the book store. our only guess is that he thinks the princess is aunt susan, he's been calling her a princess since her

and aaron's wedding.

and the last highlight from this month...chelsea and randy welcomed madison frances into the world on october 30. yeah for a super cute little girl! congratulations!

here are links to the latest photos posted on picasa: october and november

six months, already????

2008-10-18T17:00:00.000-07:00

can simon be 6 months already? he had his wellness check up on thursday and weighed in at 21 pounds, 6 ounces (95th percentile). he's 27 inches long(75th percentile), give or take, considering all the squirming. yep, he's huge. he has 2 teeth now, and we think he's working on a few more...there's been a lot of drooling and fussing lately. simon's already attempting to crawl. right now it's more of a forward wiggle, but it is very effective. soon he's going to get it figured out and take off. he also is able to sit unassisted for a while, until he gets excited and tips over.

marcus continues to amuse us with his silliness. lately he's been having in depth conversations with imaginary people or stuffed animals or toy cars. he loves going to the zoo, i think he'll be sad when our zoo days are less due to the rain. he also loves helping in the kitchen. his "help" usually includes emptying all the spice containers from the cabinet and making piles on the floor. marcus is still a great big brother. he enjoys trying to make simon laugh and even shares toys without being prompted.
here is a link to our photos on picasa. and here is a link to our videos on youtube.

catching up-part 3

2008-08-20T16:42:00.000-07:00

april
marcus started learning how to use chopsticks in april. his skill level with them is pretty comparable to a fork, and he has more fun. (thanks deanna for the sticks!)

april brought simon into our lives. while attempting to encourage him to be born, we went to the museum of flight and malls to walk. i figured the more i walked around, the more likely he'd be born on time or early like marcus. he proved me wrong.

and just to prove that i am not a total whimp, this is how awfully huge i was a week before simon was born.

as kevin's post below says, when simon was ready, he came out in a hurry. the only photos we have of him from the 1st hour or so after he was born are on our cell phone, there was no time to get the camera from the car.

grandma and auntie deanna came to our rescue by taking care of marcus, and us, for a while after simon was born. thank you!

catching up-part 2

2008-08-20T15:19:00.000-07:00

february

marcus turned 2 on the 3rd. we had a curious george themed birthday party at grandma nakashima's house. he enjoyed playing with the balloons much more than opening presents. aunt amanda and steve came up for the big day too. marcus was very excited to have amanda around!

february also brought marcus' first caucus experience (and ours too). he became a crazy obama supporter. in fact, the other day he told me "Barack Obama is coming to our house...for dinner!" i do not lie, he honestly said that without any prompting.

the newly engaged uncle aaron and soon to be aunt susan came for a visit over president's day weekend.

we went to snoqualmie falls with them. it was one of those beautiful winter days. aaron and susan introduced me to boulee macaroons while visiting, delicious!

march

marcus and kevin colored easter eggs in march. marcus didn't quite understand that eggs are fragile...as he found the eggs in the basement, he chucked them in his basket. good thing they were cooked. marcus worked on his art skills. typically he doesn't like to get his hands messy, but he does make an exception when it involves paint.

catching up-part 1

2008-08-20T14:10:00.001-07:00

so, obviously, it's been a very long time since we posted anything. i blame it mostly on the fact that i was pregnant and generally in a bad mood. kevin actually worked on an update a week ago but when he tried to preview what it would look like on the blog, it disappeared. i will make no promises, but i am going to attempt to blog at least once a month.

here's a brief summary of what we've been up to since the last posting:

november
we took a long weekend trip to folsom to visit grandpa jeff and grandma judy. during this trip, marcus discovered that he loved cats...well, really, tormenting cats. he also discovered tents and flashlights.

us at the folsom zoo
marcus cornering a cat

grandpa jeff, marcus, and kevin...marcus comes by his silliness honestly

december

we spent christmas in washington. grandpa larry and grandma vicki came for a visit a couple weeks before. marcus entertained them and was rewarded with toys, he's pretty smart.

we went to the tri-cities for christmas day festivities with the cousins. marcus had a great time following logan everywhere. he and landon even managed to enjoy each other a bit.

january

marcus moved into a toddler bed to start preparing for the invasion of his little brother. we figured that we should get him out of the crib a few months before simon was born just in case it was difficult. fortunately he took to the toddler bed quickly, though he did enjoy some late night/early morning wanderings until we got smart and put up a gate in front of his door. just the threat of the gate being closed was enough to keep him in bed. marcus is a wild sleeper, and likes to bring buddies (or "the entourage" as we call it) to bed with him. here are some photos to prove it:

nice use of the belly to hold the book...and yes, we do have a heater, marcus is just silly

Coddington, party of four

2008-07-28T20:09:00.000-07:00

ooh! i found kevin's post!!!

July 28. 2008

It's been a while since the last post. This is mostly due to the arrival of our newest family member. Simon Aaren Coddington was born on April 17 at 12:11 am. He was eight days late but once he decided he was ready, there was no stopping him. Xandy delivered the 9 pound boy in a whopping 2.5 hours from the time of the very first contraction to the cutting of the umbilical cord.

He and his big brother have been keeping us pretty busy as you can imagine. As we are finding out, life with two kids is much different from one. They are still taking turns napping and Simon is still making sure that Xandy wakes up at least once or twice per night.

Simon is growing like a weed and is now over 16 pounds. He is also developing nicely and learning new skills daily. Just in the past week he drank his first bottle of formula, rolled over and also laughed for the first time. He is currently working on wiggling his way across the floor. Marcus doesn't realize how much his life will change yet again as soon as Simon perfects the crawl.

Xandy has adjusted to being a stay at home mom, and Marcus seems to really like it as well. Aside from sleeping in later, she has taken the boys on numerous trips to the zoo and the museum of flight, as well as to the park and of course that very special place called Target. It's interesting how many more strollers you apparently need when the second kid arrives. We now have approximately 26 strollers at our house, including the borrowed double pictured here.

We have also been busy with the usual traveling. We just returned a week ago from a trip to California. We spent time with family, went to the beach and also visited Legoland and Disneyland.

Next up on the travel schedule is Los Angeles once again for Aaron and Susan's wedding. We're looking forward to adding a sister to the family.

dead beat parents

2007-10-06T13:26:00.000-07:00

marcus has deadbeat parents...sorry for the lack of postings recently!

marcus is becoming much more independent. he's discovered that he doesn't really have to do what we tell him to do. he's also become well versed in the words "no" and "mine". despite this streak of independence though, he is still a really easy kid. he's sensitive so usually feeling like he's made us upset or sad is all it takes to get him to change his tune, though sometimes a tantrum is thrown first for the added drama.

marcus is obsessed with buses lately. every time he hears one go past the house he shouts "BUS!!!", and this is quite often. he likes to sit at the dining room table and look out the window watching for them while dinner's being fixed. kevin said the bus action is fast and furious on the route to daycare, i'm surprised he's not horse by the time he gets there with all the shouting. he also likes to leave the book he has with a bus open to the bus page.

below are a couple links to photos from the past month.

trip to reedley (photos courtesy of lauren and laurie since our camera died-if anyone else has photos from our weekend, please send them to us!)

monkeying around

sexy back video (the lighting's poor, but you can still see the moves)

legos

2007-08-19T19:49:00.000-07:00

marcus has discovered he loves legos, just like his daddy. it's been amazing to watch him figure out how to build towers. over the past week he's successfully mastered a couple techniques, and he's quite proud of himself. though he enjoys building, his favorite thing to do with legos is dump them out of the box on his head...that must be a coddington gene.

in preparation for the start of college football, we've been working with marcus on making the touchdown signal. we think he's got it down now, but it'll be a sign of loyalty to see who he listens to more during the ucla/uw game this fall.

click here for more lego photos

monkey boy

2007-08-12T19:47:00.000-07:00

marcus has turned into a monkey. he's learned to climb on the couch, slid off our bed, and create an obstacle course with a chair and coffee table. he's constantly trying to climb over the baby-gates or into the bathtub too. we've been going to a playground a couple times a week in the evening and he loves it. there's a slide that he's becoming comfortable with and he loves bouncing on the suspension bridge. he also enjoys the sand, he spends about half the time there picking up and moving sand with his hands.

at day care, marcus has been getting bit on a regular basis, lately it's been once a week. about half of the kids in his room are biters, either out of frustration or excitement. fortunately he's not one of the biters, none have broken the skin, and he doesn't get too upset when he's biten. he usually goes back to playing right away. last week was a double bite week, the second time was because he was hugging another kid and the other kid got a little too excited/freaked out. at least we haven't had a scabbies breakout this year at day care, bites are a little easier to deal with and don't involve pesticides :) marcus is going to be moving to an older toddler room at the beginning of september. he'll have new caregivers but will stay with most of the same kids. he's pretty shy at first, but hopefully he'll warm up to the new women quickly when they start transitioning.

here's a link to some new photos...

(we're going to be in reedley over labor day weekend. if any of you valley folks are planning to be in the area, let us know if you have time for a visit!)

fun with the cousins

2007-07-29T21:01:00.000-07:00

we went to richland over the weekend. marcus had a great time playing with his cousins. (can you tell which boy lives in seattle???) marcus and landon are already beginning to compete for grandma's attention, and i think she's loving it :)

most of the day saturday was spent splashing in the water and making sure all of grandma and grandpa's flowers, and rocks, were well watered. the boys were exhausted from playing so hard...logan slept in until after 8 on sunday, landon crashed on the couch this afternoon, and marcus slept through the night for the first time in 2 weeks! enjoy the photos!

basement project

2007-07-20T13:09:00.000-07:00

kevin's been working on our basement tirelessly for about 7 months, and now there's finally a light at the end of the tunnel! soon marcus will have a carpeted area to run around in. see below for some photos showing the transformation...

the old furnace/beast

basement framing

new furnace and painted drywall

silly boy

2007-07-10T21:04:00.000-07:00

marcus has been entertaining us with his silliness. enjoy!

tri-cities weekend

2007-07-02T19:27:00.000-07:00

we went to the tri-cities this past weekend. marcus enjoyed paling around with his cousins. he'll be keeping up with their pace in no time!

marcus got to spend some quality time cuddling with grandma saturday morning before she headed off to potholes for a week of camping. we had a mini-birthday celebration for grandpa jeff and landon saturday afternoon. marcus spent his time at the celebration cracking himself up and trying to make his aunt johnna laugh, conning his aunt jenna into walking around with him at the park, and getting grandpa to put him on the slide.

we saw the tri-city dust devils play the spokane indians in the evening. fireworks were scheduled for the end of the game, but we decided to leave at 11pm after the 12th inning...the boys were troopers sticking it out that long! for those who haven't been there, the photo above of field shows about what there is to see in the tri-cities...lots of flat desert land with a few hills. we seattlelites were having a hard time with all the bright sun, but we completely enjoyed the warm weather!
sunday we went to the "playground of dreams" in kennewick. the playground is quite amazing. marcus had fun playing in the water after he realized it wasn't too scary.

on the way home sunday afternoon, our tire blew out just east of seattle. kevin put on our spare tire only to find out it had gone flat. fortunately we were able to renew our AAA membership over the phone and a tow truck was out to help us about 5 minutes after we called. even more fortunately, marcus was fine just hanging out in the car the whole time despite only sleeping for about an hour on the ride home.
needless to say, marcus was exhausted after his full weekend...he took a 4 1/2 hour nap monday afternoon!
click here to see more photos of the weekend

windsor photos by aaron and laurie

2007-07-02T15:04:00.000-07:00

as promised, here are some photos from windsor taken by more artistically inclined family members...
link to aaron's: http://www.ucla99.com/sonoma.html
link to laurie's

windsor vacation

2007-06-18T20:49:00.000-07:00

i'll start out with a link to the photos...click here (i'm planning to steal aaron and lauren's photos too and add them to picasa, their pictures are far better than mine)

we had a wonderful vacation in windsor, lots of relaxing and some site seeing. windsor is in sonoma county, about 70 miles north of san francisco and 30 miles east of the ocean.

here are the highlights of our time there:

amanda met us at the condo and helped us get set up for the week. rather than doing anything real fun, she went with us to costco, target, and trader joe's. unfortunately she could only stay for the night since she had to be responsible and go back to work. but she got the marcus-fix she came for, he couldn't take his eyes off her!

laurie, lauren, and camille came to visit for a few days. we drove around the outskirts of windsor and healdsburg and admired the vineyards everywhere. we went to the hop kiln and korbel wineries. marcus had a great time playing with the girls and occasionally cuddling with his gg.
we met up with jeff, judy, their friend georgia, and their dogs (rooster and bonnie) for a day at wright's beach. camille drove with us to the beach and made it 3 whole minutes without talking-we were impressed! it was beautiful day, but really cold at the beach. laurie and the girls headed home after lunch. we went to old town santa rosa with the coddington gang after deciding it was too cold to attempt sticking it out at the beach. it was about a 40 degree temperature change between the beach and santa rosa!

marcus had his first swimming experience. he enjoyed himself completely...he thought it was a big bathtub where everyone splashed all the time. he carried around the bag of swim diapers as much as possible.

we went to see the "world's largest petrified trees" outside of calistoga. it was interesting to see the petrified wood in a natural setting, but probably not anything we'd go to see twice. it was based out of a family member's home, which had been turned into a gift shop/museum. we tried to see another natural wonder, the "old faithful geyser of california", but it was completely surrounded by a huge fence and very large trees. clearly the "owners" were out for profit, not preservation. the admission fee was $8, to see the geyser spout every 20 minutes. oh, and there were supposedly fainting goats too, that must justify the charge... we opted to not go in and wait to see a geyser at yellowstone. kevin thought the neighbors needed to tap way down in the earth and create a man-made geyser and take away some business...if we ever move to calistoga, you'll know why!

aaron and susan vacationed with us at the end of the week. susan and i taught the boys how to play scrabble (at least that's how i remember it). we spent plenty of time lounging. we also hit the wineries. aaron is a bad influence, i haven't drank that much wine since brooke and i were in germany. we went to the francis ford coppola and ferrari-carano wineries. the grounds were amazing at both, and the wine pourers were too. both wine pourers gave us more than was on the list, and susan and i didn't know to pour out some of each tasting. we went to downtown healdsburg to visit a bakery and a couple small wine tasting rooms (i learned to pour out some wine and did much better there). we also did a food and wine pairing at the kendall-jackson winery (where i promptly forgot to not drink all the wine poured). we all felt a bit more educated about wine after the pairing and appropriately used the term "legs" many times.

marcus warmed up to susan after a day, he even sat in her lap for a story one night. he wasn't as sure about aaron holding him, though he fell asleep once in aaron's arms. i'm waiting for marcus to learn to say "uncle aaron, i want you to get me", just like logan did to kevin a few years ago. kevin spent hours chasing logan, it's only a matter of time until marcus decides to wear out aaron. get your rest while you can aaron!

valley racism

2007-06-07T14:33:00.000-07:00

amanda sent me to a blog regarding an act of racism in the central valley. i am sad that a church would be this unaware and insensitive to the continual effects skits like this might have on the people in their church and the community. intentional or not, acts like this foster racism. the religious community as a whole should be fostering reconciliation, not creating further divisions between people of different races, ethnic groups, economic backgrounds, etc. i could go on and on, but this is supposed to be a website about marcus, not my frustrations, so i will leave it at that.
i am planning to voice my concern to the church and ask that you do the same if you feel compelled. i have their contact information, as well as the other blog, below.

here's link to the blog: http://urbanknowledge.blogspot.com/
here's the contact information for the church:
Riverdale Assembly of God
Postal address: PO Box 547 Riverdale CA, 93656
Email: rag@rivdal.org

lake kachess camping and pirates

2007-06-02T09:41:00.000-07:00

lake kachess camping

the annual freeze out wasn't as cold as last year and it only rained a little. the big boys were fairly well behaved, though christopher did manage to stink up the campfire area multiple times and craig was nowhere to be found during his designated meal cooking time. logan kept the boys busy playing baseball or going fishing.

marcus was trying to make sure that either a) he doesn't go camping again until he's 10 or b) he never has a sibling. we stayed in kenny and ramona's trailer rather than pitching a tent. we figured it would be warmer at night and marcus, and we, would sleep better. well, he had other things planned for us. the second night he decided that it would be great fun to be wide awake between 11pm and 3am. he couldn't decide if he wanted to play or fuss, so he alternated between the two. kenny and ramona said it wasn't a problem and that they slept okay, but i'm guessing they're liars and don't want us to feel bad! we'll see if our next reservation at the nakashima trailer gets mysteriously lost...

click here to see more photos (thanks for the extra photos chris!)

results of the pirates of the caribbean survey
only one person completed the pirates survey and she happens to be an expert in the field of all things piratey (seriously, she is. she taught a course on pirate literature this spring.) and she's a fan of johnny depp. so if you want to get someone's opinion on the movie, you couldn't ask for a better one. according to the survey, here's what she has to say about the movie:

-the cast and costumes are excellent

-it's totally believable and true to life

-it's clever, funny, suspenseful, and unique

-she felt "amused and happy" after seeing it

-it's not for people under 12

i'm still not sure if we'll see it in the theater, but it'll definitely be on our netflix list as soon as it's out!

on another note, it looks like marcus may have inherited a bit of his mom's ocd tendencies. he's taken to rearranging things and pushing the swiffer around.

survey says...

2007-05-25T14:22:00.000-07:00

so i found a website today that generates surveys (yeah, i'm a geek). please take this survey if you've seen "pirates of the caribbean-at world's end". i will post the results in a later blog.

http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=WEB226JFQ3WPNS

take me out to the ball game

2007-05-22T20:23:00.000-07:00

we went to see the mariners play this weekend. marcus happily made it through through the whole game, probably because auntie deanna and kara were there! he ate most of deanna's edamame and was after her coffee too. marcus stayed awake for most of the game, taking the occasional catnap to restore some energy since the game was during nap time. he's still a bit confused by the cheering and booing. however, he did manage to clap along a couple times. we didn't get up on the big screen. i'm thinking that's a good thing since they started adding captions...one man and his daughter were on the screen a bit too long and the caption "bad dancer and offspring" showed up under their image...

patti and craig jacobson (aunt patti/grandma patti and uncle craig/grandpa craig to marcus...i don't think they've figured out what they want to be called yet!) stopped by for a brief visit yesterday on their way home from their niece's wedding in vancouver, b.c. marcus fell asleep on patti's lap and she looked like she was in heaven! unfortunately i didn't think about taking a picture until after they left.

kevin's project in the basement is starting to come to an end, though there's still a ways to go. this weekend he finished up the drywall. now comes the "fun" with mud and tape, even craig admitted that this was nothing to look forward to. someday soon though we'll have a little family room down there where marcus can run around on carpet and fall without hitting the hardwood. we're very excited about this!

that's about it for our latest excitements. we're planning to go camping this weekend with the nakashima clan so keep your eyes open for some more photos and at least one story about the boys (meaning kevin, brian, craig, and christopher) causing trouble.

also, i added a new link to the right...amanda forwarded it to me and i thought it was very interesting.

click here to see more photos and videos of the little man

sing us a song...

2007-05-14T16:05:00.000-07:00

marcus is quite the pianist! he "played" for about 30 minutes the other day...sometimes gently, sometimes not so gently.

click here to listen to his music

confessions of a blaker girl

2007-05-11T15:08:00.000-07:00

for all you who love blake lewis but are ashamed to admit it (who doesn't love someone who can beatbox to bon jovi and sound good?!?), here are some photos i took today from work.

he performed at the park across the street from westlake center for the american idol "hometown show". being part of the management department, i was able to get on our balcony and take photos.

unfortunately he was facing the other direction most of the time, but at least i didn't have to get in with the rest of the crowd!

sir mix-a-lot and pat monahan from train were also there. apparently they did "baby got back" after i left (i had to be responsible and meet kevin and marcus at the doctor's office for marcus' check up...), though it was probably a good thing i left before i had a chance to embarrass myself in public with my dance moves...

my boss braved the crowd and took this photo-that's me in the background on the balcony. (admit it lauren, you think i'm cool!)

pirate party

2007-05-07T13:40:00.000-07:00

the dread pirate logan is 6 years old!
we went to liberty lake this past weekend to celebrate at his pirate party.
marcus' favorite part was the balloons.

landon and marcus spent most of the weekend competing for grandma's attention.

we also got to see logan in action at his soccer game. he scored one goal, and made an assist (though we won't mention which team the assist was for).

logan warming up

logan in action

coach brian

marcus and aunt jenna

photos from april

2007-05-03T14:01:00.000-07:00

at the ballard locks

amanda and steve

belated birthday party

after the cupcake

easter egg hunt

after an egg cracked...

no autographs please

a bit of a daredevil

all work and no play at grandma's house!

going for a ride with grandma (thanks for the shades uncle aaron!)

blogging attempt

2007-05-03T13:46:00.000-07:00

we're going to attempt to become cool kids and keep a blog! hopefully this will be an easy way to keep our family and friends up to date on the big happenings in the life of marcus. i can't make any promises as to the frequency of posts, but i'll at least give it a shot!

at the side of the page is a section where i'll put links to other websites and blogs...if you have a blog and would like to be added, just let me know. right now, the only link i have is for the interrobang-amanda introduced me to it and now i'm a bit obsessed.

(a special thanks to stef and gene for inspiring me to give blogging a chance...i'm always anxious to read a new posting from amsterdam!)