one

Happy birthday, Marie!  She is one year old!  We celebrated with a pumpkin extravaganza at the farm. Lots of Marie's friends came, ate cake, sang happy birthday, rolled around in the pumpkin patch, and generally had a grand celebratory day in honor of Marie's birth day.

Marie has been learning lots of new words lately. She now answers "what does the kitty say?" with "aaow" and "what does the doggie say?" with "woof woof". She picked up the latter while we were farm sitting last week and there was a dog. Some other words she says include touchdown (complete with raised arms), kitty, poop, mama, dada, toes, cow, moo, quack...

She also walks! She started taking steps a week or two ago, and yesterday took ~15 in a row. Watch out, Ginger kitty.

Here are some photos of her pumpkin birthday.  It is beautiful to be able to celebrate our precious daughter, and the whole year she has been with us. She is loved!

Our little pumpkin

What.. did you think we were joking about rolling around in the pumpkin patch?

They are all looking at the camera! Miracle! So many boys...

First cake in an overstimulated environment

Zoo and Ehli Family Reunion

What is that you say? The zoo and the Ehli family reunion were probably quite similar to each other? Why, you must know my family!
(Just joking, family!)

Marie squealed and waved to the baby snow leopards.

With Grandma (and still waving)

Our little family

Chasing Mingus

Everyone together! Amazing! I love this family of ours.
Happy 66th Anniversary, Grandma and Grandpa!

Marie's first camping trip

The men, each with their choice of weapon: gun, dog, baby.

What we have here.

What we have here is a beautiful 8 month old baby with one tooth.

 

Marie is delighted with swinging, and squeals and laughs at whoever is pushing her.

She is very interested in solid food, and loves avocado, broccoli and bananas. She will drink anything out of a cup - so much fun! That includes water, kefir, sauerkraut juice, the water I defrosted her peas in - really anything, I think. And Joel declared yesterday we should not let her drink lettuce soup anymore because it comes out looking exactly like it went in.

Marie loves baths and swimming. She finished her first course of swim lessons. She loves to kick and splash in the water and doesn't mind water getting in her face at all. She can go under the water and hold her breath the whole time.

She loves being on the ground, and can get pretty much anywhere she wants to go. Which is inevitably directly to the nearest power cord, or tiny piece of old stale food that fell on the floor.

On Father's Day, we planted a Staghorn Sumac tree for Marie. The tree is now growing with the help of Marie's trusty old placenta, which was buried beneath the tree.  The tree will have beautiful colors in the fall, right around the time Marie was born.

And what we have here is a case of sibling envy. I do believe it is the classic case of the older child wanting to be the baby again, don't you agree?

Six months!

Marie is halfway to her first birthday! Her first day felt like the first day of my life in such a new way. And indeed, we have been transformed by having this precious creature in our life. She is such a sweet girl, delighted by animals, entranced by hair - on the head or the chin, content with her feet as her only toy, happiest of all in the arms of someone who loves her.

Marie's First Easter

Marie mixed up the solemnity of Good Friday with the joyfulness of Easter. No smiles at picture time!
Meeting the Easter bunny, Abigail. So fluffy! So fun to grab the fur!
Grandma and Grandpa got Marie an Easter basket!

My cheeky monkey

About time for another photo! She is 3 months now, and last night she slept 8 hours without waking for a feed! We weren't even trying for that yet. She is totally ahead of the game. She must have read all those baby books on how to sleep through the night, and how to be a good baby.

Thanks to my Aunt Joyce and Unkie Coke for the adorable hat!

Thaigers

Oh my GOODNESS. Just LOOK what we got to do yesterday!

There are very few things left that I ask of life. This was probably one of the best 3 days of my life, including my wedding day and the day I gave birth to a precious baby (who did not get to pet the tigers).
Big tiger. Actually only 19 months old! She liked the belly scratch.
This adorable baby tiger was the same age as my little baby, and about the same size. They both have orange hair, and they are both so cuddly and adorable!!!!!!!! Can I take it home?? Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah I love it.

Growth!

This is my garlic! I planted it in October and since the winter, I've been entering and leaving the house from the upstairs front door and haven't been in the backyard much, thus forgetting about the garlic, and neglecting the worm bin. Thank goodness both of those are pretty forgiving during the wintertime. Today I succumbed to the overflowing compost bin on the kitchen counter and finally brought it to the worms to work on. While out back, I ventured to the far back corner of the garden, only to be pleasantly surprised that this whole garlic-planting adventure works! Before planting, this area looked like wilderness, really overgrown like most of the backyard, and I had put a lot of work into making it plantable. When I went back today, there were only a few weeds which I pulled! I guess this mulch idea works too. :-)

We planted Susanville and Chesnock Red, and I'm fairly sure the garlic on the right, which is growing much better, is the Susanville. Should have written it down I guess.
In other events, this is Ginger purring away in Joel's arms.

The early family Christmas

Promised photo of my mom's tree, up and decorated.My new niece, Maicie. What a cutie. She has stolen my mother's heart. Why didn't Ginger's entrance elicit so much fuss?
Look at that adorable little tail. I love the sausage body. Can't she stay this small forever? Oh wait, no, she's lab/german shepherd mix.
A portion of the beautiful Christmas present from Justin and Allison.

Ginger in front of our extremely realistic gas fireplace.

Farm out!

7 adults. 1 llama. The quest to find the perfect 11 foot tree for Mom's home. Oh, and the cheapest.
Allison, Justin, and Joel. Look at all that gorgeous red hair.

Is this THE ONE???!? Quite awesome. I think it was Joel's first choice.We found it! This is not a trick of photography: the tree truly is bigger than all 7 adults put together. My mom is not afraid of massive trees. Now... since we hiked miles into the forest to find the 'cheaper' trees, how to get it back down to the farm??!
How 'bout a homemade yoke? Look at those 2 oxen!
Happy Christmas Tree-ing to you and yours this season!

Whidbey Island

We spent the weekend celebrating with my parents on Whidbey Island - one of the many gorgeous islands in our beautiful Puget Sound. It is my parents' 32nd anniversary, and our 4th. A friend graciously lent us their Beach house, and we were once again reminded of how truly wonderful our home state is. We've gotten quite a few visits to the islands, water, and coast in this year already. One can never have too much.

We fit in a trip to the Knead & Feed for breakfast, a visit to the Coupeville farmer's market for pumpkins and other squash, and much beachwalking, wave watching, and knitting too! I also saw my first Columbo episode - how noteworthy.
Right in front of said Beach house. There are views to the Olympic Peninsula, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and Victoria, Canada.

The honored couple - 32 years of marriage!
From the Deception Pass Bridge. We saw a seal swimming around in the current. How adorable! He didn't even mind the rain.

Ginger is continuing her study of the church fathers.