Ocean Grove Beach

James at 8 Months

Mowing with Daddy

Gregory and James

My cousin Gregory and James enjoying a family birthday party.  (Why do I love photos of crying babies so much?  They are just too cute!)

My Brother Brian

 Found these cute pictures of my brother and me.  I may be stretching things a bit but I think Alma looks like my brother and James looks like me. 

Little Eater

Simon and James

See those dirty knees ... he's been crawling worming across the lawn.  And Simon may still be waiting patiently for James to throw the tennis ball.

Happy Anniversary: 6 years!

Here we are at Golden Gardens park in Seattle back when we were first dating.  I love the joy in our expressions.  Even though we don't get much time with just the two of us to be this schmoopie, the feeling is still there.  I'm so grateful that what I see in these pictures -- the silliness, the closeness and the love -- is what I still feel, even if it isn't what I have the opportunity to express and demonstrate as often as I would like.

Alma's Purple Room with a Castle

 Alma always refers to her canopy bed as a castle.  James loves hanging out in her room.

Pastor Maritza's

A great evening of running around with new friends, passing out on Daddy's shoulder, and eating good foods.

Miss Ali

 This summer we had a great babysitter, Miss Ali, who came a few hours each week to hang out with the kids while I would go to the library to work.  She was a great sport and rolled with all the transitions the kids went through this summer.  James went from a little baby who could barely sit up on his own to a crawling, eating playful little boy.  Alma went from the kid who screamed when I left to someone who would scream with joy when she saw Miss Ali's car pull up.

Unfortunately, James would still cry when I came home as he realized that he missed me.  Here we are trying to snap a picture after I came home and James wanted more hugs from me. 

Changing the name of this blog ...

... to "Awful Quality Cell Phone Photos of My Children Accompanied by Bragging."  Has a nice ring to it, right?!  But James is so cute in this picture I just had to share. 

He is officially on the move with crawling. Worm style, baby!

Family Photo

My parents recently moved into the area and the last two weeks we have been going to their house for Sunday night dinner.  Here's a quick camera phone picture of the four of us in front of their house.  We had just come from a church service at a retirement home where Joshua gave the homily. 

It has been awesome to have my parents living closer to us.  Not only the Sunday night dinners, babysitting so we can go out for a night of Musikfest, inheriting loads of stuff from their downsizing, the pool at their rental community, but just getting to see them so often.  It's great and I'm excited for our relationship to grow ever stronger.

Camping at Locust Lake

Accomplishments of the Day

James got himself to a seated position after commando-crawling across his room.

Last night, Alma "read" the entire Angelina Ballerina book to me without missing a word.  We knew that she had memorized some parts of the book but never realized that she knew the entire thing.  She told me with pride "I'm a great reader" when she had finished.  

Sweetie Boy

Post-Dinner Screeching