A New Member of the Family Coming Soon

My family is expecting an arrival come this August... and a very special arrival at that. We are adding to our family by having another baby. My sibling is due August 27th (though the doctor says August 24th after doing an ultrasound - Of course, Mom is going with her own estimation) so Mom is just three months (or about 14 weeks) along now.

We are all pretty excited about the new baby and I am starting to understand more and more what this all means. I often ask Mom to show me her tummy and I point to where the baby is growing. I also tell people I have a baby growing in my tummy and say, "It's getting bigger and bigger!" As for Mom, she is doing great. Still a bit tired, but the nausea has pretty much all passed and she is looking forward to moving into the second trimester.

We'll keep you updated as exciting events come up throughout the next few months, such as finding out the gender. Mom is thinking we need another girl around here, mostly because she and Dad can't agree on a boy name (Mom likes Everett and Dad likes Atticus - probably neither will become a winner). We'll see what happens at our ultrasound in about a month. :)

Cousin Cameron Visits

We were lucky enough to have my second cousin, Cameron, visit this weekend. Cameron and his family moved from Mexico to Nampa, ID just a couple weeks ago and he came up to Portland to interview for a teaching job in Japan. Although he was only here for a short time, we had a great time during our visit with him. I especially loved having him here. Cameron has a son, Dominic, who is just a year younger than me, and so naturally he knows how to have fun with kids. I was sad for him to leave, but hopefully we'll see him again before he moves out of the states again.

We had Mom's family over for dinner while Cameron was here and later Dad broke out the Wii for everyone to play. I even got a turn with it and amazed everyone with my running and tight-rope walking skills on the Wii fit.

Sorry about the lack of pants in the next photo. I guess I didn't feel like wearing them after I had used the potty.


Thanks for coming to visit, Cameron! We hope to see you again soon!

My Sweet Valentine

Today is Valentine's day and I thought I'd take a minute to share some special thoughts about my valentine, Kate. Any time I get to spend with Kate is just magical. Whether we're having fun at the park...

or just out for a walk...

out on the town...

working on a project together...

or enjoying a quiet evening at home...


I feel lucky to have found such a wonderful person to spend my days with. Happy Valentine's Day, Kate!

Hope you enjoy this little video our friend, Marisa, made for us.

Portland Classical Chinese Garden

My Aunt Carrie came to visit this past weekend so we decided to visit the Portland Chinese Garden. None of us had gone, but had heard it was a great place to visit and we were all glad we did. We got there just as a lion show was starting and although I thought it was pretty neat to watch from far away, I was not interested in seeing those lions up close. At one point, one danced over to where we were and I kept saying, "I'm a little bit scared. I'm a little bit scared," but he soon left.



Here we are by the amazing rockeries. They are configured to appear as mountains and clouds from a distance. Wish we had a better picture.

I also got to color my own dragon to take home.

Here I am showing it off.

This was a fun entrance.

And here's one of our little family in the Knowing the Fish Pavilion.

Thanks for coming to visit us, Aunt Carrie!

We Love Dad

This past month, Mom and Dad celebrated their sixth anniversary and my dad also celebrated his 27th birthday. So, I thought I'd give a shout-out to Dad and tell him and everyone else how much we love and appreciate him.

Reasons we love Dad:

You love me very much.

You love Mom too and remind her often how you two are MFEO (made for each other).

Wedding Day 2003

You are highly motivated and hard-working, but have put family first on many occasions.

You enjoy cuddling on the couch.

You are a super fun dad!

You took Mom and me to Europe this past year for your fifth anniversary.


Okay, I wasn't really there, but I got to spend a whole week with Nana and Papa, which for me was even better.

We love you Dad! You are one in a million!

Our Local Community Center

Over the last few weeks, I've been able to check out a few of the activities available to me at our local community center. They have an indoor play park that I've been to a few times and on Monday mornings there's something called, "Art Park," where they have a variety of art projects for kids my age to participate in. Mom and I met Kate and Sara for "art park" this week and had a great time making lots of pictures with stencils, stamps, paints, glue and glitter. I even did a little finger painting though I was not so sure about getting my hands all icky. :)



Kate and I also signed up for a gymnastics class at the community center. It's been fun playing on the all the equipment. They have a couple trampolines, slides, bars to swing on, balance beams and a few other things to use.

I spent most of my time today working on my somersaults. I am getting pretty good!

I can't wait to go to class next week!

I Love Friends

The last few weeks we've done some fun stuff with friends and rather than blogging about each activity separately, I thought I'd put it all together in one.

The first activity I'll tell you about is Zoo Lights. Last year my family and I went to zoo lights and had a blast so we figured we better go again since I like lights so much right now. I've noticed most people have taken down their Christmas lights so whenever we go driving after dark I say sadly, "There are no more Christmas lights." Anyway, every year our Oregon zoo puts up thousands of lights and lets the community come see the zoo after they would normally close. It usually runs up until the New Year, but this year they extended it a week later due to the snow storm. We didn't get to see too many animals (only a few are still out for viewing), but I did get to see my favorite animal, the baby elephant Samudra. Isn't he so cute?

My buddy, Bodhi and I also had fun riding the wooden animals. Thank you, Marisa, for remembering your camera!

Last week my mom took me to Chuck E. Cheese's for the first time. We met up with my neighbor friend, Audrey, and her mom, Kristi. I thought it was a blast but I think Mom got tired of chasing me around the place. I was really excited about all the neat rides and games!
I was a little scared of Chuck E. Cheese, so Kristi held me while I got my picture taken with him.


This was my favorite game to play. I wanted to ride the horse all night.

We've had a lot of rainy weather these past few weeks so Mom and I went with Sara and Kate to the Jantzen Beach carousel for something else to do. Kate and I loved picking out our horses and can't wait to go again!


Here I am showing off what I call my "cute face."