Merry Christmas!

We had a great Christmas, both on our own yesterday morning and with family yesterday afternoon and today. Lots of fun, presents, and great pictures - so check out our Picasa account! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Busy Halloween

This weekend, which is already half over, is looking to be pretty hectic. We went to a party tonight over in Port Orchard, which was fun - but a fairly long drive with the little ones. We actually took the ferry over, and then drove back; Gus did pretty well too, and Rose had a good time hanging out with her gal friends.

Tomorrow we have church in the morning, then we are hitting the Bellevue mall after nap for trick-or-treat, and then at night our church is having trunk-or-treat. After all that we have a friend coming for dinner and maybe a movie. It will be fun, I'm sure, but quite busy!

Ruby just had her first solid food tonight too. Rose has been breastfeeding, but of late Ruby has been needing to wake up multiple times at night to eat - so Rose decided it was time to try some rice cereal to see if that fills her tummy longer. She took to it like a fish to water, hating to have the spoon / food out of her mouth for more than a split second, and then filled up on 'mommy juice' to top off. She's just gone down, so I'm hoping for a nice long sleep.

Oh, one last thing: I just uploaded a bunch of pictures I've been taking on my phone over the last few months. They are on our Picasa account, under the various months they were taken - so go check 'em out! :)

Puyallup Fair

This past Saturday my mom took Rose and me, and of course the kids, to the Puyallup Fair. It was a lot of fun, and we saw all sorts of cool things for sale and neat projects people had submitted as exhibits. Rose particularly liked the quilts and other hand-made items, while I enjoyed looking at the photo galleries - not something I would have enjoyed much a decade ago, but as I've gotten more into taking pictures myself I have gained an appreciation for the art form.

Gus of course got to go on some rides, though he is still too small for most. We have pictures of the rides, along with some other things we saw, on our Picasa account. Not pictured there are the fun things we got to eat: scones, elephant ears, fried pickles, funnel cakes, and Hawaiian shaved ice. Bonus points to those who can guess which of us ate each of those items :)

We ended the day with a train ride. Gus has been *loving* trains recently, thanks in large part to Thomas & Friends and a little train set he got for his birthday. It was a nice end to a nice day.

Gus' Second Birthday Party

We celebrated Gus' second birthday today - a couple of days late, but weekends are much more conducive to getting folks together apparently ;). It was a little stressful getting ready for it, but a lot of fun. Thank you to everyone who came; to those who weren't able to make it: we missed you!

The party was held at West Fenwick Park, a nice mid-sized park a couple miles south of our apartment. I've posted pictures I took there on our Picasa account in case anyone is curious. Thanks go out to my mom for providing the cake and sandwiches fixings, and my lovely wife Rose for planning it all and not killing me when I went into overdrive trying to get ready for it this morning :)

Seafair - Pictures and More

Whew - it has been a bust summer! We've been kept up late a lot of nights with Ruby, who doesn't like to sleep most of the time... but she is such a sweet kid that I can't hold it against her.

Rose and the kids went to Seafair this past weekend, when it was free entry on Friday, and had a blast. There are bunches of pictures up on our Picasa account of it, along with some new general family ones listed under July and August.

My aunt and uncle are in town this week as well, and we had fun hanging out with them last night. I'll be taking my uncle, who used to be in the Army / National Guard, to play paintball this Friday after work - I'll try to take pictures to share, if I can remember to bring my camera with me. On Sunday we are getting together with some other family to celebrate a birthday (one of my other aunts) and have a big family dinner... I'll be posting some pictures from that as well!

Childhood Pictures - of William and Rose!

Short post today - I just wanted to let everyone know that I've uploaded some pictures of my childhood and Rose's to our Picasa account.

Some of you no doubt remember when these photos were taken, so feel free to talk about your memories in the comments on this post or on the individual pictures.

Have a happy weekend!

Ruby - 2 Months Old!

Happy (belated) 4th of July everyone! We had a good time celebrating with friends this past weekend - you can see pictures of Gus trying out some sparklers - and I really enjoyed having a three day weekend, as it is a rarity with my work schedule.

Today is Ruby's 2-month birthday, and I figured it was time to upload some more pictures of her. They are in both the June and July folders on our Picasa account.

My parents and brother are getting ready to take a trip to the Grand Canyon next week, so we'll miss them for a bit but I'm sure they will have fun. I look forward to seeing all manner of pictures, and hopefully being able to make a similar trek with my family when the kids grow up a bit. There are a bunch of places I want to take them: the GC, Yellowstone, the redwood forests of California, and many others. Here's to hoping Gus and Ruby like car trips... :)

June 2010 Update

Hey folks! I'm sorry I let a whole month go by since my last post, but we've been busy here at the George household. Ruby is 6 weeks old now, and Gus is closing in on 22 months; between them and our normal schedule it is hard to keep up with life.

Rose's birthday was earlier this month, and we had a nice dinner while my mom watched the kids. Our six-year anniversary was yesterday as well, and we are having a get-together with my family later today to celebrate 3 birthdays, 2 anniversaries and Fathers Day all at once. Whew!

Anyways, I hope you are all having a nice start to the summer. Here are some new pictures of the kids from this month as well.

More Pictures of the Family at Home

Its been a few days since I posted, but we've been busy getting used to having our new daughter at home. Rose's mom has been here since a little after she was born, and has been invaluble in helping us get settled in and taking care of Gus. I haven't taken many pictures since we got back from the hospital, but Rose has takens a few - which I just finished posting to this month's Picasa folder.

I think we'll be getting back to church this coming week, and we'll be looking forward to seeing all of our friends there and showing off Ruby. I'm also beginning the process of hunting for a new place to rent - something larger, hopefully a house this time...

Back home with Ruby

We brought Ruby home from the hospital today, and are all happy at home now. Rose's mother and sister flew up over the weekend to help us get all settled into the new routine of having two kids, and we really appreciate their being here. Nora (Rose's sister) also brought her son Jax who is just a little younger than Gus - the two of them have been playing really well together the last couple days.

I will be posting more pictures online shortly, so remember to check our Picasa account regularly.

Welcome to Our World

Ruby Elizabeth George was born this morning, at 4:21am. She was 8 lbs 10 oz, and 19 inches long. It only took an hour and a half from when Rose woke up with heavy labor till she was born, and we barely made it into the delivery room before she arrived. That was a nice change from the 18-hours of labor that Rose went through with Gus, and it was done without medication.

I don't have a lot of time to write right now, as I need to get back to the hospital, but I have uploaded a first batch of pictures to our Picasa account. More will follow in the coming days, along with further posts about her young life.

If you want to come visit us in the hospital, please call Rose or me and we'll let you know our room number and when would be a good time.

Just Another Update

I wanted to post what will probably be our last update before little Ruby arrives. Rose is down to a matter of days till she goes into labor, and has been keeping occupied with lots of sewing and cleaning. I'll be posting more pictures of her projects online in the coming weeks, and I've also added some more purses already (with more to come, as they are given out).

Gus has been giving us a little touble at bed time recently. He is finally tall enough to open doors in our apartment, and so he tries to escape from his bedroom. Sometimes he made it as far the table, all sneaky and stealthy. Anyways, we have been working on being consistent with him: putting a baby gate up so he can't get out as easily, telling him to go back to bed, and then ignoring him so he finally falls asleep. It has worked well the last couple days, but over the weekend there was one night where he took forever to go down... and when he finally did it was in his doorway rather than in bed. Needless to say, we got a picture.

Rose's Purse Pursuit

Rose is coming down the home stretch of her pregnancy, and to keep herself from thinking about it too much she has been spending a lot of timing sewing lately. Among her other projects she has made several purses, which I wanted to share some photos of. There are a few not shown there yet, as they are slated to be gifts in the coming months and we want to keep them a surprise. I will post more pictures of the other things she has been working on over the next few weeks.

Oh, Rose also got some nice shots of Gus this morning. I've put them in a new folder on our Picasa account for May, as I think that organizing by month - along with some special occassions - may make this easier to keep track of.

Gus - Asleep, but not all the way in bed

Gus occasionally falls asleep in odd places: in front of his bedroom door, on the full size guest bed in his room, etc. Last night he fell asleep part-way off his bed, with his leg dangling. It was pretty cute, so we snapped a picture on Rose's camera before hoisting him into a better spot for the night.

Gus at Play & Rose at Doc

This morning Rose had a doctor appointment, so I stayed home with Gus. It was overcast, but at least not raining, so we spent a while at the playground here in our apartment complex. We've done that before, but this time I took my camera with me and got some shots of him having fun. Click on that link to see them if you want - I'll probably add to them over time as we go back (especially if a sunnier day comes soon).

Rose's appointment went well, by the way. She has been on light bed rest for a few weeks, after concerns about moderately high blood pressure, but it was really good today so she doesn't have to go check in again for two weeks. She has also been doing a great job of maintaining her weight, and I am really proud of her.

Tonight she is leading her weekly women's small group at church, and Gus and I are hanging out at home watching Finding Nemo.

Easter 2010

Happy Easter everyone! Praise the Lord for His love for us, and his resurrection from the grave!

We had breakfast at church this morning, followed by a small Easter egg hunt there. It was a lot of fun, and then since there were a fair amount of young kids in the nursery Rose and I stayed down there to help out (Gus being among them).

After church, we headed over to my parents for an afternoon of family time. We had a great dinner, and then celebrated my aunt's birthday (a little late, but my family tends to lumb birthdays and holidays together since we only meet up a few times each year). I have put more pictures online under the Easter 2010 category on our Picasa account.

Gus & Daddy Weekend Trip: Museum of Flight

Gus and I took off this morning to the Boeing Museum of Flight. In hindsight it may have been a little above his head, as none of the planes move or make noise (unlike animals at the zoo), but I think he enjoyed it. We got some cool pictures too.

Rose stayed home and napped, but I think that was good for her. She is getting closer every day to having our next child, and letting her have a rest from watching Gus all week is beneficial.

Easter Comes Early

Earlier this week a package arrived from Rose's father, full of Easter presents. Among the items were a pair of bunny-ears for Gus, and Rose got some good pictures of him with them on last night. I wanted to share them with everyone, in advance of the coming holiday. Check them out in our Easter 2010 album.

Zoo Weekends

So, long time no post! I am very sorry, as there have been some cool things going on in the last half year. We had Christmas of course, which was a lot of fun with my family. Rose and Gus also took a trip to Texas in January to visit her side of the family - which was good, but a bit exhausting (Gus can be a handful!). Also, for those of you who may not have heard, Rose is pregnant again... with a girl this time :)

Anyways, last weekend Gus and I went to Woodland Park Zoo, and had a lot of fun, but I forgot to take my camera. This week we went to Point Defiance Zoo, and I remembered to take my camera and get some pics. I have uploaded a selection on our Picasa account.

Gus had lots of fun both times, and it was good to get out and let Rose have some time to herself. She has been busy with lots of baby showers (something like seven women at our church are all pregnant right now) and taking care of Gus while I work during the week.

I'll try to post more regularly on here, and keep ya'll up to date with things - especially as we get closer to the arrival of our daughter.

Gus' First Birthday

Gus' first birthday is tomorrow, the 26th. We had a party last weekend with a bunch of friends and family, and the ~200 pictures I took have been posted to our Picasa account (link on the side). For those of you who weren't there it was a lot of fun, and Rose did a great job of setting things up and making the snacks :) For those who did make it, I hope you had a good time!