LIGHTS!!

Here's Casey hanging Christmas lights on our house today. We're guessing these could possibly be the first Christmas lights this house has ever seen. And below, the finished product! We're sure getting into the holiday spirit this year!

Thanksgiving in Bellingham!

We spent Thanksgiving this year with a group of friends dating back to my Lewis and Clark days. Jenn and Jason live in Bellingham and so we made the journey up for some great food and company! All the couples present have had babies in the past two years so it was lots of fun to introduce Gretel to all of the adults and babies too! Here is Gretel meeting baby Lucy for the first time. Gretel got to wear her new Thanksgiving outfit which Grandma Liz made especially for her!


The husbands and their babies. L-R: Casey and Gretel, Jason and Lucy, Dave and Neve, and Brendan with Kieran.

And then the mothers, who coordinated their outfits, quite unintentionally! L-R: Liesl and Gretel, Jenn and Lucy, Libby and Neve, and Senneh and Kieran. Did I mention we're lined up based on the age of the baby, so Gretel is the youngest of this crowd.

And here is Gretel with her Pops getting ready to head off to bed.

We had a great visit with these LC nerds and also had some wonderful visits with a few other friends that live in Bellingham, the Donnellys and the Lambs. Who knew we had so many friends in Bellingham??!!

Odds and Ends

Our Clivia is blooming, which hasn't happened in a couple of years, so I couldn't resist getting some pictures of Gretel with it.



Gretel recently got a package from Grammie Daisy with this hat and blanket in it. The blanket was made by Gretel's great great grandmother, Myrtle Warner, probably for one of my sisters. The hat was given to Grammie Daisy by a friend of hers in Cannon Beach back in the 70's. It's still a little big for Gretel but sure is cute, and really brings out the blue of her eyes! Both items are treasures to have, to be sure. Thank you Grammie Daisy!

And here's a random picture of Alistair stuck in the compost pile. He thought he'd hit the jackpot when he found a way in, until he couldn't figure out how to get back out!

Sitting Up?

Okay, okay, maybe her parents have been helping her out a little bit here and there, but Gretel really does enjoy being in the sitting up position. She's still pretty floppy though. If she's leaning forward she can stay erect for a good 15 seconds or so before taking a dive into the floor. She has been conveniently propped up in all of these photos...but she's still pretty darned cute!

Let's Play!

Gretel is all about playing these days. She plays in her gym, she plays in the bath, she plays at the piano, she plays at the table while we eat, she just plays everywhere! Here she is in her exersaucer, or her "office" as we like to call it. We think this contraption is a monstrosity, but she will spend nearly an hour at a time yanking on things, batting the toys, and yacking at them! Can't really argue too much with that kind of fun!


This weekend she discovered that trusty toy of generations - the cottage cheese carton!

She loves these squishy Pooh blocks that I got at a consignment sale too. Here's a video of she and Alistair playing hard!

Little Miss Blue Eyes

Casey and I are pretty sure these blue eyes come from Grampy Frank. We've got lots of hazel and green eyes in the family but his are the only ones we can think of that are this clear blue color. We think they might stay this way - we'll see!

A Day in the Life of Gretel June Deck

It's a typical day in Gretel's life. Mom and Gretel get up and after breakfast Mom kisses Gretel goodbye as she heads for work.

Gretel then proceeds to look cute for awhile.

Then Nanny Sara feeds her and Gretel takes a nap.

It's time for Gretel to play! The Johnny jump up is a favorite!

Pops comes home from work and takes over from Sara. They hang out in the kitchen and make supper.

Then Mom comes home and Gretel and Mom play the piano for awhile.

After that Gretel is getting sleepy so Pops reads her a bedtime story before she heads off to the crib.

Good night!

Sleep, Glorious Sleep!!!

Yes, this is the face of someone who is sleeping like a baby these days! Gretel's pediatrician recommended that we not feed her in the middle of the night when she wakes up. Instead we are to go in, pat her on the bottom, tell her we love her and go back to bed. We've been doing this for a week now and after a few nights she didn't even wake up! We've had 8+ hours of non-stop sleep for several days now and how wonderful we feel! Thanks Dr. June!

Four Months Old!

Gretel is now 4 months old! We went to her checkup yesterday and she's......

14 lbs 10 oz - 75th percentile

24 inches long - 50th percentile

WOW!

Gretel's First Halloween!

We had a spooky good time this Halloween! It started out with Gretel eyeing the candy.....

Then the Tappan-Pecks and the Hess family came over for tacos and trick-or-treating. Here are a hodge podge of photos from our evening.

Jenn was Mrs. Viola Swamp, Sid was a farmer,

Oscar was a monkey, and.....

Soleo was a monkey too!

Sally was an awesome Word Girl

Orion was a "superman" (he designed the costume himself and Sally made it)

Wednesday was a beautiful butterfly (with wings she painted herself!)

And these three characters' costumes speak for themselves! It was a great evening and we hope to make a tradition of it! (Notice the neat Halloween banner behind us - a gift from Grandma Liz!)

A Weekend at the Beach

We finally made it over to Grandpa Larry and Grandma Liz's sweet little beach cabin in Florence last weekend. Everything was a bit impromptu which made it really fun! We did some mushroom hunting with Larry and found a few pounds of chantrells. Casey and Larry went crabbing but didn't catch anything big enough to keep. So they decided to pick up 3 dozen oysters instead! We had quite a feast that night, with oysters, steak, chantrells and some great wine! Here are a few pictures Liz took of Gretel and family while we were there.

You can see the new porch going up in the background of this one. We got to watch the columns getting made and put up, etc. Pretty neat!