Penny all bundled to go to the beach Christmas day. It was tempestuous.

Merry Christmas

We hope you all have a Merry Christmas! Here's a picture from our Christmas card. We only sent a few out so don't feel bad if you didn't get one.

Some recent stuff

So Marnie gave me the assignment to make a new blog post that had "something cute". I'm picking up her slack until she gets some blog momentum back. How about a little random update, non-chronological:

1) Went Dirt biking after Thanksgiving in California City with the fam and some friends. Penny loved riding the little dirtbikes with me and would sit on them and make motor noises with her mouth. She looks pretty serious in the pictures, but she was loving it. Marnie loved driving our friend's buggy. I told her she can buy one.





























2) We blessed Ginger at church while Marnie's siblings were in town. My mom made Ginger's white dress for the occasion. Ginger didn't cry during the blessing like Penny did. In general Ginger is a better baby than Penny was. Penny was an angry baby. Ginger doesn't scream or puke as much.



















3) Ginger is really fat and learned how to smile. I just commented that "Hi Ginger" is probably the most commonly used phrase in our house these days. Penny says it all the time in a cute little, I'm talking to a baby voice that Marnie and I must use also.





























4) Seems like this month someone visited us every weekend. It was fun having visitors. I doubt this would have happened had we moved to Peoria, IL. We had enough visitors to have visitor statistics. For example if you visit us the chances of being seriously injured are relatively low at about 6.7%. Our little (800 sq ft) apartment was pretty much wall to wall beds.

Marnie's Dad came to visit us and I planned some fun activities for them, one of which was ocean kayaking. We went down to Leo Carillo, a beach down the PCH from where we live. It's a great beach with kelp beds for snorkeling and protected rocky coves and such. Dad and Judy took the kayak out together after some instruction by me. My instructions for returning to shore were essentially this:

1) Do not try to ride a wave in. It will flip you.
2) approach the beach and wait just beyond where the waves are crashing
3a) as soon as the last large wave of a set passes under you paddle furiously to the beach. This should allow enough time to get to the beach and get out of the kayak before the next wave comes.
-OR-
3b) Get out of the kayak, hold on the the back of it and push it into the shore from behind.

Additional intructions- you will get wet and should take your glasses off.

So, they started paddling back in and I say to Marnie, "Oh here they come. Get the camera and film this. This could be good." I edited the video (shown below) for brevity, but this is the dialogue that was caught on the original:

• Marnie- “Here come dad and Judy.”
• Stephan- “I predict… I predict catastrophe, potentially lost glasses.”
• Marnie- “Is dad wearing his glasses still?”
• Stephan- “Yeah I’m afraid so. Hey Jake will you hold Ginger? I’m going to be at the ready here.”
• Marnie- “Man that was a big wave!”
• Stephan- “WAIT!”
• Marnie- “Stephan you can’t stop their momentum now, they’re coming in.”
• Stephan- “Here we go this is it!”
• Judy- “Aaaahhhhhhh.”
• Marnie- “Oh no! We got it on camera.”
• Jake- “Oh lost glasses, oh gosh.”
• Dad- “I lost my glasses!”
• Marnie- “Oh no.”

So. There you have it. Unfortunately we never found Dad's glasses and Judy dislocated her thumb (I did find Judy's sunglasses). They spent the rest of the day at the hospital getting Judy's thumb fixed and getting Dad some new glasses.

I think it's pretty funny given the irony surrounding the whole event. I can't believe we got it on video. There's just no good way to say this, but, man did I call it or what.

Happy Halloween

We went trick-or-treating with some friends last night. Penny was Snow White, minus the black hair. If I'd thought about it more maybe I could have made some kind of black yarn wig. Not that I know how to make yarn wigs. Oh well--there's always next year. And, if she ever stops growing, she'll still fit this outfit next year when she's three (since she's as big as most three-year-olds.) My friend Ditte gave Penny the outfit. She is one of Penny's favorite people, she loves saying her name over and over.

Overall, I think Halloween was pretty confusing for Penny. She didn't understand what she was supposed to do on people's door step. She would say "trick-or-treat" only when prompted. A few of the houses scared her so bad she cried until we left that house. She didn't like the smoke and people jumping out at her with masks on and she didn't know why people kept reaching for her pumpkin basket. A few times as people would reach toward her to put candy in her basket, she would pull it away saying, "noooo," all bratty like they were attacking her. She kept saying "I scared" all night long. By the end of the street, Stephan was carrying her to each of the houses because she didn't want to approach any more houses alone. Poor girl.

Ginger had a pretty mellow evening. She slept the whole time inside the sling while we walked through the neighborhood. She's such a chill baby, most of the time. Last night she slept for five hours, which I hope is a sign of more sleep to come.

Penny's birthday photo shoot

Penny turned two last weekend. We tried to take some cute birthday photos before Church but didn't have much luck. Besides having an incredibly slow camera, Penny wasn't really into smiling for us. She looks ridiculous in most of them, as you can see.

As a side note for those who've been wondering: Penny had her two-year check-up and is the height/weight of an average three-year-old. Penny is officially gigantic, but still cute as ever!

Pumpkin Patch

I took the girls to a pumpkin patch this week. We went with their cousins visiting from Arizona and the cousins who live here, along with Grandma and Grandpa. It was way too hot for me, but Penny seemed to have fun running around with her cousins. She always starts screaming and acting crazy when she gets around other kids.


Penny's totally oblivious that she's smashing baby Ginger's face in these pictures. Her hair makes her look even crazier than she really is.


Ginger hasn't quite figured out how to work both eyes at the same time yet, hence the partial wink. But she has figured out how to eat, check out her chubby cheeks.

How can she tell?

Why is it that I can be swaying Ginger in my arms while standing and she peacefully falls asleep but the second I sit down, she wakes up? How can she tell that I've sat down? Especially when I'm doing the exact same thing with my arms sitting down that I was doing while standing. It seems like all babies are like this. I remember Penny driving us crazy. We'd get her asleep in our arms and then sit down and she'd instantly start stirring and making her annoyed grunts and squirms. Ginger does the same thing and it's driving me crazy. Even our fancy swing with its six speeds and 10 music/nature noise options, including a heartbeat sound, doesn't do the trick.

I know there are already tons of baby contraptions out there but if I could figure out how to imitate a standing parent holding a baby, I could make millions. It could be the next boppy or bumbo or bouncy chair. Everyone who has a baby has these items and my invention could be the next baby must-have that past generations some how survived without. So, keep your eyes open. Maybe one of these days you’ll see the human holder device for sale at Target next to the rainforest bath center and swing combo. I’d have to work on the name of course, no one would buy a “human-like holder.” It sounds freaky.

Despite all these inventions, I must say I'm glad I'm irreplaceable as a mother. And, as much as I may complain about having to stand with Ginger, I'd rather tend to her than some kind of freaky machine. It's humbling being a mother.

Penny pictures

Penny has her moments where she actually likes holding Ginger. Most of the time she doesn't really care what Ginger is doing. Even when she does hold Ginger, it's a hands-free hold, as you can see.


Penny loves feeding Mr. Bear. Apparently he likes goldfish crackers. His snout gets pretty messy after lunch.


Penny's cousin, Chloe, sent her this stool. We've since painted it a fun blue color but even with out paint, it's Penny's favorite thing right now. It's tall enough for her to push up against the kitchen counter and "help" wash dishes or make dinner or whatever she wants, which sometimes gets her in trouble. As you can see in the photo, she also likes to just stand on it in the middle of the room. Thanks, Chloe!


Penny's grandma got her this dress with a matching dress for her doll. Grandma also got her these shiny gold shoes. Penny's really into carrying a purse around. She insists on taking it everywhere with her and here she is all ready for church with her purse and doll. Necklaces are another favorite accessory, this one from her great-grandmother. I never imagined having a girly girl but Penny certainly likes shiny things and jewelry and purses and I have to admit it's pretty cute.

Beach babes

We took the girls to the beach yesterday. We figured Ginger should get acquainted with the sound of the ocean early on in life. Some say crashing waves sound like the inside of the womb so hopefully she liked that. I always wonder how they know what the womb sounds like anyways. We went with some friends who had their baby the day before us, Jeremy and Ditte. Stephan and Jeremy went surfing for a bit while we breastfed the babies. Their son Wyatt and Penny, who happen to have the same birthday but a year apart, played in the sand. The weather was perfect and it reminded me why California is a great place to live.

Welcome, Ginger

Ginger Faye
Friday, 26 September 2008
2:17 p.m.
21 inches long
8 lb. 6 oz.

Penny's first meeting with Ginger. It's hard to tell in the photo, but Penny is waving at the "beebee."

Penny's summer recap

I finally started a blog. With the upcoming birth of another babe in the family I decided I better do it before the baby's actually born, otherwise I might never do it. And, this way I can post all of my cute Penny pictures from the summer without any competition from her little sister.

For those who want a family update, Stephan finished his master's degree in April. We moved to California in May for a new job. We're expecting baby number 2 this week and I guess that's about it. I stay home with Penny. Not much else has changed for us other than location, and I guess vocation, too.

Enjoy the photos!


Here's a beautiful California sunset.




Here's Penny's fluffy hair, finally getting some length to it.




We took a little family canoe ride through the harbor and Penny loved to help row. She also kept trying to climb right out of the canoe. She would just throw her leg over the edge while we were paddling out in the middle of the harbor. She must have a lot of faith in her life jacket.




Most of our pictures are from the beach this summer. We spent lots of time digging in the sand and running in the surf at the beaches. Penny loves throwing the sand, digging deep holes and destroying sand castles.




By the end of the summer, her swimming suit barely fit her but it lasted long enough.


She loves wearing Daddy's sun glasses, they must make her feel so cool.