Grace's Birthday

Little Grace turned 1 year old on December 20th and Dad, Mom, Dagney and Paige attended. Grace had a wonderful Mickey Mouse themed birthday party and Grace exhibited her charming smile and beautiful birthday dress.

Mom and daughter getting ready to have cake!

Grace thinking about eating cake...

Grace eating cake...

Grace now completely focused on her cake.

This was the first time Dagney was able to be an active particpant at a birthday party and she made the most of it by getting a finger full of cake just before Grace sat down. The crowd was aghast, but Dagney being the good listener she was ceased all cake-fingering activities and waited her turn. When she got her turn to eat cake, the took full advantage.

Old Friends

It has been a hectic month and we are going to try and catch up on some lost opportunities to blog.

A week before heading to Washington State for Thanksgiving, I had an old friend from Virginia Beach come visit, yes Justin Gartman. We were so excited for Justin to come stay with us, we watched the Redskins and the Cowboys game on Sunday night and Justin tried giving fatherhood a test drive. It was evident that Justin is more than qualified to be a father (don't get too excited Grandma Bev), though he is still being patient in finding the right woman. Unfortunately my fatherly responsibilities prevented Justin and I from trying to find that right woman for him over the weekend.

Justin, Paige and Dagney.

Justin exclaims, "This is cake!"

A Gift for Mom

Although I am a big supporter of PCs, much like 95% of all Americans, my wife has signed a deal with the devil and is an adamant supporter of MACs. I tried to help my wife see the light by pointing out all the shortcomings of a MAC, and even explain how to her that PCs are far more hip and superior. She would not listen. So I did some research and found this factual testimonial to give her a second, non-partisan opinion.

My wife would not acknowledge her oversight, which left me no choice but get her a new MAC for Christmas so she could learn the hard way. We expect her simpleton computer to arrive by Saturday, so expect blog updates to wane as we try to resolve all the 'technical' difficulties of owning a MAC.

Dagney's Special Gift from Dad

Well I [Daddy] could not wait to get a gift which I suspected was slightly outside of Dagney's age ability, but I could not resist after our trip to Ocean Shores in November.

Dagney was exhausted from opening gifts and I think she was slightly aghast that she had another gift. After pulling a little paper aside, it did not take Dagney long to realize this gift was a new riding toy.

Dagney jumped on top of her new Barbie trike...

and made a b-line for the front door, pajamas and all!

After quickly bundling up, Dagney was off to the races!

Merry Christmas Dagney!

Paige and Lauren

Brenda, Garry and Lauren came over Christmas Day for some turkey and here are some pictures of Lauren helping her cousin Paige open some Christmas gifts.

Paige started off opening her gift from Lauren. If you have recently spent time around Paige you'd know that Paige LOVES crinkling paper! To no surprise, Paige was fascinated with the blue tissue paper.

Paige and Lauren...

Relaxing with a full belly on Christmas day...

And back to gift unwrapping, Paige opens her gift from Daddy which was her first purse.

Christmas Morning, '08

This year we made a point to videotape Christmas morning for our far away family and friends who could not be here. The consequence, we learned, is that we took fewer photographs.

Paige was so excited to get her own lovie named "Bunny".

Dagney also got a rocking horse from Ohma. She took to it right away and had no problem climbing on top and rocking [picture missing, :-( ].

Dagney loves her Winnie the Pooh bean-bag chair. At first she loved sitting on Winnie but by the end of the morning she was dragging Winnie around as her new BFF.

Here is Dagney playing with her new play fruit from Santa. One could argue Santa has taken an interest in advanced occupational therapist oriented toys.

Ohma also got Dagney her own little Melissa and Doug play table with two chairs. Dagney must have sat at her new table with her BFF Winnie the Pooh and played with fruit for at least 45 minutes.

There are still more gifts to open so stay tuned...

Santa Came, Santa Came!

Low and behold, we went upstairs to put the girls to bed and when we returned 90 minutes later, we found Santa had already visited our home in New Jersey and dropped off a load of gifts for Dagney and Paige! We didn't open any gifts to see if there were toys or lumps of coal, but from a first glance it appears Dagney and Paige were good girls after all.

Thankfully we had already left the milk and cookies out and Santa clearly enjoyed them!

Dagney and baby Paige are going to love these wonderful gifts! I wonder what the big gift is in the silver wrapping paper?

...and a Winnie the Pooh bean-bag chair!

And here is the Bunkers' family first Christmas ornament in the front of the tree.

Big Brown Bear

"Hey Paige'e - mush, I have a surprise for you!" said Dagney. Dagney turned her back and began shuffling some items around. Paige was clearly skeptical: 'Could this be the first of many agonizing pranks I will be a victim of?' Paige would like to take this opportunity to seek out any advice younger siblings may have for her.

"Paige'e-mush, this is one of my favorite books, 'Big Brown Bear'. I would like to read it to you", Dagney said. As Paige contemplated the pictures of different animals, she began to realize maybe this was not a trick after all.

"Brown Bear, Brown Bear...what do you see?" Dagney enjoyed reading the Big Brown Bear book to Paige and Paige enjoyed listening. After the book, Dagney gave Paige a big kiss.

Paige is still skeptical...

Dagney-Mush and Cole'e-Mush

The snow started this morning about 9:30ish and by 4:00 p.m. we had about 8-inches. Dagney and Cole bundled up and headed out to play!

"THE BLIZZARD OF '08!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Dagney checking out the snow:

Cole checking out the snow:

Here Dagney and Cole chuckle at the snow on each others heads.

Cole was so pumped, he decided to bang out some quick push-ups to impress Dagney.

Dagney also got some advice from her favorite Canadian Uncle, Dave, as she taste-tested the white fluff..."The snow might taste good Dagney, but don't eat it if it's yellow."

Feeding the Brain

The last few nights Dagney has really taken to reading books. She cannot get enough of them. Our bedtime routine has always been to read a few books before going to bed, but this week her enthusiasm reached such a fevered pitch that I thought about cutting out the book reading time altogether because she was getting way too excited before bed. Dagney would slam her fist into the chair in anticipation of us sitting down to read books. She would jump up and down, scream and point at each book. Consequently we ran out of books which could hold Dagney's attention.So today I decided it was time for Dagney and Daddy to go to Borders and pick out some new books. I kid you not, this was my expectation:

...We walk into Borders hand and hand...father and daughter. We stroll to the back of the store and sit down together. We go through a variety of books and Dagney lets me know with some sort of simple hand gesture and a nod if she is interested in reading a particular book or not...

I don't know what I was thinking.

Everything went well when we entered through the first set of double doors at our local Borders store. Dagney's excitement was palpable as she looked over the few clearance books there in the vestibule. We opened the second set of doors and Dagney took off like the wind! She was in a full gallop, going from section to section; fiction, mystery and home improvement, pulling book after book from the shelf. Dagney was so charged by the colorful covers she could not contain her enthusiasm as she whipped them onto the floor. I also didn't realize how many toys, stuffed animals and colorful writing accessories Borders kept in stock and at arms reach for a toddler. Dagney found all of these items and proceeded to taste each one.

In the end, however, we found some new books and Dagney and Daddy had a wonderful time.

Dagney running through the store...

Dagney looking for a new aisle of books to deshelve...

Dagney by-passing the books for the toy shelf...

Dagney discovering Dora...

Good ole Sandra Boyton...

"Ebony and Ivory"

Paige has really taken to Dagney's toy piano, which was a gift from Ohma. She loves pressing the keys, hearing the sounds and seeing the lights. Without a doubt it is her current favorite toy.

One thing we are really noticing about Paige is she is more sensitive to loud noises (will cry) and really seems to enjoy the instrument toys more than Dagney.

"Better watch out Lauren, here comes Paige!"

Vikings Win! Vikings Win!

After the Vikings stomped the Houston Texans 28-21, Dagney was anxious to show off her giant finger and let everyone know who #1 is.

Dagney's Tricks or Treats?

While Trick or Treating, Dagney sucked on a butterfinger candy bar for the last half hour. She apparently bit through the packaging with her eight teeth and sucked on it as she went from house to house. The next day we elected to give her a healthier alternative - one of two popcorn balls she got and she loved it! She even came up with her own word for popcorn:

"Pa-pa!"

"More pa-pa, yummie!"

Halloween 2008

For Paige's first Halloween, just as her birthday on May 27, she brought us sunshine again as she dressed up as a Sunflower!

"Are you kidding me? I'm dressed up as what??"

Dagney was so impressed with the Goats during Pumpkin picking, we thought it appropriate she dress up as one this year, so here is "Dagney the Goat!"


And of course our adopted son Cole! Janelle and Dave dressed Cole up in an authentic Don Cherry costume!
The highlight of trick or treating was a scary house up on the hill. There were animated tombstones, scary music and an automated evil talking witch from the Wizard of Oz on the porch. Dad was actually a little timid about approaching the house but Dagney proceeded to go stomping through the yard!


"So until next year, Happy Halloween my fellow ghouls and witches!"