Be prepared for the on-slaught of pictures. Sorry there are so many and I’ve been bad about updating the blog. But you get to see the extreme cuteness all at one time!

Picture from last night- Ryan making a huge mess with his dinner

Ryan has learned to climb up and down the step stool. Everytime he would climb up he would say “dool” and then when he wanted down he said “down”

Here are the boys having a blast at a friend’s house on their huge waterslide.

We took the boys to the library. Drew loves going to the library since its the same thing Curious George does in one of his books.

And finally here are pictures of the boys helping us while we were painting.

Ryan just LOVED the “bammer hammer” (as Drew calls it) and every time Ryan would hit the floor with it he would say “bam”. When Drew is “hammering” he calls it “bamming”. Ryan also LOVED pushing around the huge orange level and would throw a tantrum if we took it away from him.

Whew! I think that’s it for now!

We have finally begun the task of getting our new house decorated the way we want it. We started off by re-painting the master bedroom and bathroom both of which were ugly green colors. Ick.

Bathroom Before:

Bathroom After:

I still have some more decorating to do like the flowers for the bathroom, put up the pictures, and other odds and ends but I love how bright the bathroom feels now. Although you cant tell from these pictures since I didn’t turn the stupid light on. Sorry.

Bedroom Before:

(This is the picture we took of the bedroom before the previous owners moved out. So that is their furniture)

Bedroom After:

Again, we still have some other decorating to do in the room but Im just glad to be rid of the green! And you wouldn’t believe how hard it was to finally find a brown that we liked.

Drew’s room:

(I dont have any before pictures but it was just plain white)

So other than some curtains for the window we are done in Drew’s room. Im really pleased with the shade of blue that we chose.

Next up is Ryan’s room and then we will paint the downstairs half bath. I’m still trying to find a picture I like for our living room and the process is not going too well.

Well, Ryan’s 13th and 14th teeth just broke through. And yes, he has been cranky and impossible during this time as well.

Ryan went in for his 15 month appt (1 day before he turned 16 months!) and he has grown alot! He weighs 25.9 lbs (60th perctile) and is 33″ long (90th percentile). At his year appt he weighed around 22 lbs and was 30.5″ long. In contrast, at 3 years old Drew weighs 29.5 lbs! I do believe that Ryan will out grow Drew pretty soon.

A few new words Ryan is saying:

ma- moon

li- light

no - oh yes he has learned the word no instead of his usual grunt.

ssssss - he says this back to us when we tell him to “shhhh”

So I can’t remember when I updated the blog last with the things that he is doing. But he is saying alot of words now and is really trying to test our limits too.

Some of the words he is saying:

dat- cat

da- dog

nigh-nigh- night-night. He also calls a blanket a nigh-nigh
bu-bye

ga-ca- cracker

ffffff- woof (when we ask him what a puppy says)

ba- book

nana- banana

lala- love you

buh- button

duh- Drew

to-to- thank you

When we tell him to go roundy-round he starts spinning in circles.

He can throw a ball pretty well and has also learned to kick a ball.

If I ask him if he is hungry he immediately goes to the refridgerator and tries to open it up.

He also uses a spoon or fork and tries to feed himself.

This child is so stinking smart and he talks so grown up. Here are some of the things he has said lately:

~raisin graham (raisin bran)

~lasterday (yesterday)

~ sesame street - he says this instead of “open sesame” if we have him locked in our arms and he is trying to get out.
~”I think thats a good idea”- he says this to us if we tell him something that he wants to do. For example: Lets go outside and play in the swimming pool. Drew- “I think thats a good idea!”

~”Hi everybody”- a few weeks ago he ran into our room after he woke up and yelled this. It was hilarious.

~”my tummy is full of xxxxx”- this morning he had 2 glasses of strawberry milk and came in and told me that “his tummy was full of strawberry milk”.

~ “sesame street”- he says this instead of “open sesame” if we have him trapped in our arms and he wants to get out
A recent conversation:

Peter: “Drew when we get home we are going to brush our teeth and put our jammies on”

Drew: “is mamma going to brush her teeth?”

Me: “yes and dada is going to brush his teeth. What about Lucy- is she going to brush her teeth?”

Drew: “noooo silly,  Lucy can’t brush her teeth because she doesn’t have a sink!”

Another recent conversation:

We were in Home Depot and Peter mentioned that he wanted something to drink from Sonic. Drew overheard and was so excited. As we were checking out the boys started fighting and I told them to stop and Drew folded his arms and sat back in the seat in a tiff. I told him that since he was acting ugly we weren’t going to Sonic. He started crying and said “Dada, we’re not going to Sonic”. Like Peter didn’t just hear me say that.

So we start walking to the car.

Drew: “I’ve been a nice boy. Can we go to Sonic?”

Peter: “maybe”

We get in the car and start driving off.

Drew: “where are we going mama?”

Me: “I dont know where do you think we are going?”

Drew: “hmmmmm. To get something to drink.”

Me: “From where?”

Drew: “From Sonic, silly!”

~ Last week Peter took the boys to Chik-Fil-A for lunch while I was at a doctor’s appointment. Peter said Drew was going up to all of the kids in the playground telling them that he was going to get a slide from Home Depot. (we are buying him a playscape from home depot and wanted the other kids to know this)

I flew to San Jose last weekend to attend a laptop crop AT Adobe HQ!

I was part of 2 small focus groups that got to meet with some product managers who work on Photoshop! We got to go in *THE* room where Photoshop is discussed! We got to talk with them about things we as digital scrapbookers would like to see in future versions of Photoshop! HOW COOL IS THAT?????

We walked in a bridge connecting 2 of the Adobe buildings and this is the view from the bridge looking down at the entrance of the building.

Basketball court for the Adobe employees

Rene, Amanda, and Meg livening up the crop with an impromptu rendition of “Dancing Queen”.

The croppers enjoying their show!

My computer and junk!

Scrappers hard at work!

Hand dryer in the bathroom. Only a scrapper would actually take a picture of this!

Crop attendees group picture

Cool picture of all of the crop attendees standing outside of the Adobe building. Lauren put this really cool picture together!

DSP team members at Adobe!

Ok…before I get *REALLY* behind on the blog I better get these pictures up!

Ryan is hitting the bottle early!

Drew was mad at me for some reason….but he didn’t stay mad long!

(I think he was saying “Hey mama, dont take my picture”)

I must have said something funny!

This is his cheesy grin face!

Drew sucking on one his “night-nights” and Ryan trying to get in the basket with him. Just seconds before Ryan pushed Drew across the tile from the laundry room!

We were outside waiting for the space station to flly overhead. Drew is wearing his new Thomas jammies!

Ok…that’s all for now.

yes…he made toast. Or something that resembles toast:

Here is a project that my mom helped me with for Drew’s room. We used her Klick-N-Kut to cut out all of the train shapes and I used a digital scrap kit for the sun and clouds. I think this turned out adorable!

There is not many but I got some pics of the kids with my niece.

Drew is wearing his jammies, swim goggles, and Peter’s socks that are rolled up. Yes- he is a dork!

Hi, Peter here again.

A couple weeks ago I travelled to Germany for work (I was teaching a class to some HP employees there). Most of the week I didn’t have a car and I was busy working anyhow, but I did take a few pictures to share, mostly from the first day I was there. As always, click on the picture to see a higher-resolution version.

Enjoy!

Here was a small town southwest of Frankfurt. I was struck by the mixture of old (architecture, church) and new (wind turbines). There were wind turbines everywhere. I believe (but am not sure) that Germany and France both get their power 100% from nuclear and wind sources. Also near the town was a vinyard (lots of those in this area) and in the distance you can see the bridge/viaduct of the Autobahn I was taking.

Speaking of the Autobahn, here is proof of about how fast I was able to sustain:

(That’s about 115 miles an hour. The BMW I was in didn’t feel like it could go much faster than that. And it was starting to get a little faster than just about all the other drivers at that point.)

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Since I had a car for the day, I drove to Baumholder “on the way” from Frankfurt to Stuttgart. (I also drove past Ramstein Air Base - literally a couple hundred feet under a C-17 Globemaster III coming in for landing.) I went to visit a “family business:”

This is the Bier Blacksmith. The translation on the plaque loosely reads:

Historical Bier (Hoof and Wagon?) Blacksmith / Built in 1840 by Carl Bier. Passed in 1870 to son Christian, then in 1902 to grandson Karl and in 1937 to great-grandson Karl. / After 133 years, the fully functional (master and?) family business was closed in 1973. / “Westrich” Homeland Society
(If someone can help me with the translation, let me know.) I don’t know if this is my great-great-great grandfather or not (I think not…my mom will know).

Carl’s house was across the street:

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Most of my trip was in and around Stuttgart, which is a nice enough city (all of Germany is pretty nice, neat and clean) but not much of a touristy town. It is the home of Mercedes, Porche, IBM and HP among others, though. Here’s a picture of the train station. (Note the Mercedes logo on the clock tower)

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Finally, a first for me - on the way home from Frankfurt we were bussed out to the plane and loaded out on the tarmac. I had walked to small commuter planes before but never something this size (comparable to a 777):

(Watch that engine intake! At least the stairs were covered - but it wasn’t raining that day anyhow.)

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Finally, on the trip home we paced another plane for a good hour over the Atlantic, very slowly overtaking it. This was a picture out my window somewhere between Ireland and Greenland:

That’s all! Thanks!

Hi, Peter here! I was recently “reminded” that I never posted pictures from the last couple of days I was in Europe last February. So here they are. Except for the first one, these are all from my side trip to London. I was pretty busy working the last few days I was in Paris and so I didn’t really get many pictures, and none of them were “blog worthy.”

The weather in London wasn’t the best (it was February) - kind of cloudy and drizzily - but I still got around pretty well (not bad for 5 hours, I think).
Enjoy!

Train station in Paris

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Leaving the Underground in London at Piccadilly Circus
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Walking down Piccadilly; in the left picture (among other things) is the Royal Astronomical Society (two former presidents: William Herschel and Arthur Eddington) and an icon London Taxi. In the right picture is “the” Ritz and an equally iconic British phone booth.
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I ate lunch at the original Hard Rock Cafe. Among the memorabilia were some outfits worn by the Beatles and a gold record by Bob Dylan.

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The London Underground (”The Tubes”) - Mind the gap!

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I walked down to the Thames and London Tower (the Castle/Fort structure). Then I walked across the Tower Bridge (and back). The cool looking building in the background of the middle picture is the “Gherkin” - it’s an office building.

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One for Charlie

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I then went over to Parliament. The lamp posts have gold-leaf crowns on them. Here are some pictures of the clock tower (aka Big Ben) and the Houses of Parliament (aka Westminster Palace).

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Just around the corner is Westminster Abbey. I have several pictures (didn’t have time to wait in line to go inside).

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Here’s St. James Park. The building at the far end is Buckingham Palace. Westminster Abbey is about two blocks behind me. What I didn’t realize at the time was that Downing Street was right behind me, too. Missed visiting #10.

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Buckingham Palace. I saw the guards marching but the famous “Changing of the Guards” only happens once per day (I think at 10am) so I didn’t see it. The Queen was in the Palace (the flag was flying on top).

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An old-fashioned double-decker bus! This model seemed pretty rare; I saw lots more of a much more modern model driving around.

That’s all! Coming soon - pictures from my trip to Germany!

Here are some pictures of the boys from out in the backyard this evening:

Drew had a blast kicking the ball around the yard. I think we might put him in soccer this fall!

Check out Drew’s face as he went into the water!

Ryan’s cheesy grin.

Yes…Drew has his head in the water.

He is so proud that he got his hair wet. Well….at least the front of his hair.

Ryan starting to get mad that he cant walk off with the water hose.

Ahh..the full blown tantrum.

He just splashed water in his face. He didnt like it…AT ALL.

He had a BLAST playing with the water hose…..UNTIL…

he splashed himself in the face with the water. He did this quite often. You would think we would learn after the first 2 or 3 times.

Just lookin cute!

Here are some pictures of Ryan tummy surfing down the stairs.

Drew always wakes up before us and I’ve told him that if he is hungry he needs to come tell us so we can get him food. Well….. he is Mr. Independent now and decided he wanted pudding. This is what we came down to:

And then we opened the fridge…..

yes…he “made” pudding. That is just the pudding mix in the bowls that he put in the “fridgeator”. We got a good laugh out of that this morning!

Yesterday we went swimming in our community pool with Blake, Elicia, and Taylor. Drew had a BLAST! We put floaties on his arm but he wouldnt go off and swim by himself. He held onto Peter most of the time until he got into Ryan’s float ring and discovered that he could go off by himself with the ring AND the arm floaties. Then by the end he was swimming with just the arm floaties by himself! Ryan didn’t have as much fun as the rest of us did. He wanted to run around the outside of the pool rather than being in the water. This was the first time he had been in a big pool so he was scared but hopefully he will get used to it!

And… Ryan has now learned to come down the stairs by himself. But instead of backwards crawling down the stairs, he backward tummy surfs down the stairs. Its too cute! And his new work is “bonk”- like if he hits his hands on the table or his head against our heads he says “bonk”.

So Drew is Mr. Independent right now. He will NOT let me help him get dressed. And he pulls out many outfits before he decides on which one to wear. And he has decided that he has “light time jammies and shirts” and “night time jammies and shirts”. Its quite annoying actually. This morning he was putting on the jammies that he wore last night and I asked him if he wanted to wear something else since those were dirty and he said “No mama, these are PERFECT for me”. LOL!

And the big news from Drew is that he poopied on the potty for the first time today!!!!! We are so excited! We called Dada, Bebe, and Grammie to tell them!

Ryan just cut his 12th tooth. He has also learned to climb up the stairs but refuses to try and come down on his own. He said hi now but it sounds like “ya”.

Here are some of the thigns that Ryan learned to do:

throws the ball

drinking from a straw

tries to use a fork or spoon to eat but all he really does is dips it in the food and then licks the fork or spoon.

mimicks talking on the phone.

climbing on sofa

climbing down from sofa

words he is saying: wow, da (dog), ba (ball)

He also just cut his 11th tooth last week but that goes under his 14 month milestones!

Here are 2 short videos of Ryan. I have more but they are too big to upload.

sorry I cant get the videos to post. Will keep trying!

Last week Ryan had a blast playing in the sprinkler while Peter was watering the lawn: