Wow, the time does fly!

It has been over a month since my last update, and I apologize! We've been busy with the kids and my work, plus Rose has started going to Bible Study Fellowship and is leading up the crafts team at her MOPS group. We had a great time last week with Thanksgiving at my parent's house, and earlier that week it snowed a bunch. That is rare for Seattle at any time, but was especially odd so early in the year; it isn't even winter yet!

I love both our kiddos dearly, but they give us a hard time at night. Gus will put himself to sleep eventually, but gets up a few times first to turn his light on and start playing with toys around his room. Ruby on the other hand will simply *not* put herself to sleep at night. She does fine at nap time during the day, but somehow she seems to sense when it is time to sleep overnight and she refuses to do so. We've pretty much only been able to put her down by feeding her or patting her till she drops off... and then sometime in the night she'll wake up and need the same treatment again.

Our church is doing the Advent Conspiracy this year, which is a really neat program that encourages us to take the focus of Christmas off consumerism and buying bunches of presents, and instead to focus on spending less but giving more important, relational gifts as well as reaching out and loving everyone around us. For that reason, along with trying to get our finances in order, we have drastically cut back on presents this year - and it takes a ton of pressure off, which is a nice break given the other hectic activities we have going on.

I'll try to post some more pictures soon, but Rose keeps up better on that over at her Facebook page. Check it out if you have not done so! (free Facebook membership required)

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! :)

Mid-October Update

Hey ya'll, its been a little while so I figured I'd chime in with an update. We are all doing okay, despite most of us having a bit of a cold. It started with Gus, I think, and then I got it - now Ruby has it as well. So far Rose has gotten away without it, and I'm hoping it stays that way: when momma ain't happy ain't nobody happy!

On top of the cold, Ruby has also just gotten her first tooth... so she is in a bit of pain from that as well. Those things, combined with her increasing mobility, mean she hasn't been sleeping very well of late: she no longer likes to be swaddled, but hasn't mastered putting herself to sleep yet either. I just let her cry it out for evening nap time, though, and it only took about 30-35 minutes - so I guess there is hope :)

Rose and Gus are out at the store making a grocery run, which has left me some time to sit and think. I may add some more pictures to our Picasa account shortly, and I'll probably post on a couple of my other blogs as well. I've been doing some writing for work too; I've done a fair amount over the years, actually, but a lot of my friends and family probably haven't seen any of it. If you are interested in computer stuff feel free to check out our company blog and hardware articles.

Oh, we are also leading a home community group from our church this year. It has been a little bit of a stretch for me - I had wanted to lead a men's Bible study, but we've switched formats over to home community groups so the pastor asked us to do this instead. Not quite what I had been expecting, but we've got seven people attending already so I'm guessing God had His own plans :) Please be in prayer for our group and our church as we work to reach out to the communities in which we live for Christ!

Rollin' like a Ruby

Its official: Ruby is mobile! She has been rolling over for a while, from her back to tummy, but now she is rolling onto her back as well and has discovered that repeated rolling can get her places :)  Unfortunately, furniture and other obstacles to rolling have become her nemesis...

Long day!

We had a long day today, but it was (almost entirely) a good one. We had two birthday parties to go to - one in the late morning for Elijah, a friend of Gus' from MOPS, and then one on the afternoon / evening for Chelsea. Both were fun, and included good food, but that meant we were out of the house from 10am to 10pm!

Given the circumstances, both kids did great. Ruby slept through the whole first party (the hour we were there, anyways) and the trip to Olympia for the second. She also napped a bit at Jason and Chelsea's house. Gus only slept for a short time on the way down, so he didn't get his normal 2-hourish nap. He was actually a ball of energy at both parties - and I had a hard time keeping up; lets face it, I didn't fully keep up... and it was a good thing there were others there to help out!

They did both finally give up on the way home: Ruby cried most of the way while Gus took off his shoes and socks, wiggled half-way out of his carseat straps, and then knocked our leftover dinner all over the floor of the car. We took a quick break in Tacoma to deal with those things, and that was a little stressful, but all things considered it was a lot better than it could have been with those two.

Anyhow, I wanted to give everyone who reads this a little insight into how things go these days. I didn't take any pictures to link to today, but Rose and I will keep posting photos as we have chances to - so check in from time to time on our Picasa account as well as Facebook.

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!

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.