happy birthday!

greatest hits, december and january editions.

A couple videos of our two cutie pies, from December/January. Enjoy!

this week

We watched some Duke basketball, tried to convince Noah to actually take a nap during the day longer than 15 minutes in duration, played at the park, painted, went to see Grandma and Grandpa J, visited family friends, worked on potty training Benjamin (it's working pretty well so far!), cleaned, worked on planning Benjamin's third birthday party, figured out some of the things I needed to pack for NC, tried to convince Benjamin to take a nap, and of course took bunches of photos. Here are some.

DC

A few weeks ago Tim was in DC for a math conference. He got to see this:
and I admit I'm a little jealous. But in two weeks I'm coming to North Carolina to visit my friends (and all the new babies!) and introduce you all to Noah, so I guess we're even. I can't wait!!

first food!

Noah's first rice cereal meal was today...

This weekend has been fun - on Saturday we drove up to Santa Barbara to see Rachel and Nathan, and were so excited to find out that they're expecting their own little one in July! I'm super excited about this little one, and I know Rachel and Nathan will be fantastic parents. :) Benjamin played with Nathan's trains:
Noah standing...his new favorite thing to do...he'll be walking in no time! (Yikes!)Then today my friend Allison and her husband Matt came to visit for pizza and football (well, Allison and I played with the boys...). Al & I have known each other since we were babies but haven't seen much of each other in the past several years, so it was fun to catch up!!

four months old

Noah is four months old today! We celebrated with a visit to the pediatrician. Fun, right? His latest stats: he weighs 14 pounds, 6.7 ounces, is 25.5 inches, and his head is 40.6 cm.

Things he likes these days: being read to, laughing, smiling, mom acting silly, blocks with bells, his exersaucer, sitting (with help, of course), his "fuzzy bee and friends" book, being held and walked around, being outside, blowing raspberries at mama, kicking, grabbing toys, drooling, putting things in his mouth, flying like superman, being smiled at/talked to, watching his big brother, eating his hands.

Things he doesn't like: being on his tummy (but he'll only sometimes roll over to escape), his carseat (unless he's sleeping in it while we walk), sleeping later than 6am.

We're fortunate that Noah is a good sleeper - he goes down around 8pm and sleeps until 6am. Hopefully that 6am business will turn into something a little later, but at least I'm not up at night anymore! He's a generally happy little guy, but will let you know when something isn't right in his world. Or if you're sitting when clearly, standing is the way to go. ;)

Some of my favorite Noah shots from the past few days:

best of '08. (i tried really hard to keep it to one per month...)

January: Beginning. We spent the morning of New Year's day playing at Victoria Gardens and found this cool wall on the side of Hollister.
February: Two! This was taken on Benjamin's second birthday.
March: Risen. We managed to take this of ourselves on Easter using the self-timer. I love it. I remember that the word "worm" was cracking Benjamin up at the time, so we said that just before the shutter clicked. It's hilarious!
April: Friends. This is Lori and her little guy Grant. He and Benjamin were playmates when they were brand new up until they moved away from NC. I miss you!! Come visit us!! :)
May: Muscles. We had just taught Benjamin how to flex. He thinks he's hot stuff in those robot jammies. :)
June: New. This is Kalina, my dear friends' firstborn. She was so tiny, and I can't wait to see how completely different she is when I visit in a month!
Also June: Love. Tim took this of my 28 week belly.
July: Adoration. I love that you can see it in both our faces. Tim's getting good at this!
August: Joy. This kiddo was collecting rocks and leaves on some steps at Pepperdine, and looked up at me with this absolutely thrilled face about his piles of treasures.
September: Welcome. Baby Noah's birthday. I love this shot.
October: Toes. It took me forever to get this, since baby feet like to kick. Rings were flying everywhere, but I LOVE this.
November: Great. This was the boys' Thanksgiving visit with their great Grandma.
December: Jolly. Like the reindeer antlers??
There you go. These aren't necessarily the best artistic photos, but they evoke some happy, happy memories. I can't wait to see what I capture in 2009.

One year ago today, and one year from now*

One year ago today, we found out we were expecting our second child. We were staying in San Diego, where Tim was attending the Joint Meetings and doing preliminary interviews for jobs. He had already met the Pepperdine faculty, and was hoping that was where we would go.

One year from now, our baby Noah will be nearly 16 months old, and Benjamin will be closing in on FOUR YEARS. (I can't believe that!) We hope that we'll be living on campus in Malibu, giving us the opportunity to make new friends easily and get involved in campus life, and I hope to see my photography business grow in this next year.

Live is good.

*Not my idea for a blog post - I stole it from here

Happy new year!

We spent New Year's eve at Grandma and Grandpa J's house, where none of us stayed up until midnight. But we had a tasty new year's breakfast, then went to Victoria Gardens to meet up with more Oxy friends. It was nice to catch up with Jen and James and their little guy Joey!

2008 was a great year, bringing us our second little boy and a big move to California. We can't wait to see what 2009 has in store, but we're sure it'll be great. Love to all of you!