What a day

A candid shot of Allie after church today.

West Family Photo - Christmas 2009

I think this photo captures each of our personalities...OK, maybe just Allie's.

Sitting with Santa Clause

Opening Christmas presents

Allie, Jack, and Lincoln opened their presents together on Christmas morning. Jack, as he has done in the past, opened a couple of presents and wanted to play rather than finish opening the rest of his presents. Lincoln didn't need much help with his first try at unwrapping presents. He was pretty good at it. Allie had an all-around good time opening presents, playing a little, and opening more presents.

Sibling cuddles

Allie and Jack cuddled for a few moments on the couch today. As most of you know, they rarely sit still long enough by themselves, much less together, to have time to take a picture like this. As you can guess, they were staring at something on the TV.

Christmas jammies

The kids opened one present each on Christmas Eve. All three received the same gift, new jammies. They had already worn their new pajamas one month earlier for Thanksgiving, but had to put them away until Christmas.



And some pictures from Thanksgiving night:

Crawling update

Just wanted to give a video update of Lincoln crawling. You may want to check the original crawling post to see the progress he's made. Now that I think about it however, the video here was actually shot at the beginning of Nov 09. So, this isn't the most up-to-date crawling update possible.

Jack's 3rd Birthday

A few days ago Jack celebrated his 3rd birthday. His birthday started at midnight when he woke up crying with a raging fever. He didn't want to take any medicine, but after spilling it once, he finally took some very bubble gum flavored ibuprofen. He did go back to his room for the rest of the night, but it looked like he wasn't going to be feeling well for his birthday.

After he woke up, he complained that his throat hurt and because I currently have strep throat, we decided to take him to the doctor for a strep test. So, off to the doctor we went (Jack, Lincoln, and Adam). He had a 9:45am appointment and we arrived right about 9:43am, which meant we were technically late. So, we didn't get into the exam room until close to 10:30am and after a quick check-up, including a strep test, we were on our way. Jack tested negative for strep and other than a fever later that night, he hasn't show any signs of illness since.
Jack had previously received a birthday present when a few weeks ago, he and Jen went to see a real life Thomas the Tank Engine. I'll let Jen post the details about that outing (presumably in another blog), but Jack really enjoyed his Thomas experience.

So after the doctor's office, we came home and opened Jacks presents during the early afternoon. That way he could have time to play with his toys throughout the day, rather than opening his presents right before bedtime. Suffice to say, that Jack's favorite present was a talking and signing Thomas the Tank Engine book. While opening his other presents, which included more Thomas toys, books, a movie, some Spiderman underwear that he picked out, a potty-training doll and cards from family and friends, Jack seemed only interested in playing with his talking book. He has since discovered the joy of playing with the other toys he received, but for the rest of his birthday he had eyes only for the talking Thomas book.

For dinner Jack had requested cake, but we talked him into eating pizza, which is one of his favorite foods. He was still not feeling all that well and ate just a little bit of pizza and intially declined to eat any cake. So we thought that we would have cake the next day and gave Allie some ice cream instead. About 20 minutes later, Jack decided he could finish his pizza and then wanted cake. So, Allie swindled some ice cream in addition to cake (we weren't serving them together this time around).


Jack had a pretty nice birthday, after not initially feeling well. He is appreciative of his family and friends for sending cards and gifts.

Cleansing the throat

A few weeks ago, Allie and I were drinking some A&W root beer. She thoroughly enjoyed it and pretty much drank the entire can by herself. The kids rarely get to partake of soft drinks, so I think it was a real treat for her. About 30 minutes after we finished our root beer, Allie asked for a drink of water. She said, "Daddy, may I have a drink of water to get rid of all this alcohol in my throat?" I tried not to laugh and her request, and instead asked her about the alcohol in her throat. Of course, she thought that root beer had alcohol in it because of the word "beer." Pretty smart, although she didn't question it while we were drinking it.

Rolling Over

Here is some old video of Lincoln first rolling over (from May 2009). Again, sound effects added.

Driving the car

Last month, we visited Jen's parents. Jack and Allie were outside playing together and decided to drive the kiddie car. Notice the amount of time each spends pushing the other in the car. I've added a few sound effects near the end, so don't be alarmed...

Long Live Oscar the Dog 09-30-09

Oscar, my parent's dog, was put to sleep today. He lived a long fruitful life, but he is in a better place now.

ABC musician

The other day, Jack set up a keyboard for himself and started to perform. His first song was a good ol' standby--The ABC song. Sorry for the poor lighting.

Crazy Eyes

Jack having some fun with his eyes.

Lincoln crawls

Here is some video of Lincoln starting to crawl the other day. Sorry about the lighting, but you should still be able to see it. Also, he is pretty good at "Army" crawling, where he uses his forearms to drag himself along. You can see that in this video too.

New music added - Aug 2009

Just to update those who care to know, I have uploaded four new songs to my ReverbNation player (check the left side of the page). The other songs are still there, just pushed down the playlist a little.

The first song is a medley of hymns that I arranged for performance at a church meeting this past week (entitled "Sunset Valley..."). The second, called "Samuel tells...," is a Christmas hymn that I arranged for a performance at a church meeting last winter (2008). The third, "Atlantis," is a original song that may not appeal to all, but I've included it for those who may find this type of song interesting. The fourth, "Walking Song," was written by me when Jack was first learning to walk--I'd like to say it helped him walk, but I have no evidence to prove it. All of the songs are not in their finished, professional condition, but I thought it would be nice to add a variety of new music to the player.

Thanks for listening. Comments and feedback are always welcome.
-Adam

Allie's First Two Days of Pre-K

Last week, Allie started pre-kindergarten at the elementary school near our neighborhood. She previously experienced daytime schooling when she attended a 3-hour, 4-day a week type of pre-K last school year.

The first few days of pre-K were only half-days in order to help the children acclimate to going to school every day. This week, however, is full-day pre-K (well, they finish in the early afternoon). Upon arriving home after the first day of class, Allie reported, in typical fashion, "It was boring." The next day was not so boring, but she did indicate that she is "tired of going to school." Later in the week, she did indicate that she is having fun and generally likes her school class. More reports to come, but we wanted to at least post a few pictures.

Allie's first foray into "swimming"

Tonight, Jen had a pool party with the young women from church. The party was at an apartment pool of one of the leaders and it was first come first serve. So, Jen and the kids got to the pool at about 5:30pm to "reserve" space for the 15 or so girls that would be coming later in the evening.

When I showed up to the pool at 6:00pm I saw that Jack and Allie had adhered themselves to a group of two young couples who were lounging at the pool. Allie latched on to a girl named Nicole, although every time she was asked what the girls name was, Allie couldn't remember. Allie was wearing arm floaties to help keep her from sinking under the water. Allie and Nicole played around for quite some time, all along Allie wanting to swim out into the middle of the pool by herself.

I finally wrestled the kids away so that the young couples could continue their lounging uninhibited by our children. The kids and I went to another part of the pool and wanted me to pull them around by their arms so they could be "swimming." I did this for a while and eventually Allie remembered that her new friend, Nicole, had told her to kick her legs if she wanted to swim. So Allie started kicking her legs like she was "riding a bicycle" (her words). She started to trust that the arm floaties would help keep her buoyant and kept kicking her legs. By this time I had let go of her and was sitting on the pool steps while Allie and Jack hung on to the sides of the pool. Allie eventually pushed herself away from the side of the pool, all of the while still kicking her legs and the next thing I knew she was in the middle of the pool..."swimming."

Allie was quite excited and started to swim laps around the pool. Oddly enough, she complained that her arms were tired, but that her legs were not yet tired. A few minutes later I caught Allie jumping off the side of the pool and bobbing back to the surface of the water after temporarily going under. I thought she would take a big gulp of water or something, but she did not. I was a bit surprised at Allie jumping off the side of the pool, but I guess I should not have been. She can be quite the daredevil with her body.

Anyhow, I just wanted to pass on a short story of Allie and her new found swimming technique. The kids are slated to go swimming again tomorrow at a friend's house, so Allie can continue practicing her "swimming."

I want some...

Yes, this was from a couple of months ago...notice the long hair on Jack.

Jen's new church responsibility

Jen has a new church calling (responsibility) as the Young Women's President in the ward. While it was in the works behind the scences for a number of weeks, I had to hold off telling her about it until the official word came down. In fact, her name had surfaced a few times over the past few months for similar callings, but each time it didn't work out.

As Young Women's President, she'll have the opportunity to work with all of the girls ages 12 to 18. Of course, she will help mold these girls into upstanding adults. Then she can come home and work on the rest of us.

Jen is really excited and until recently has been clamoring for a calling in the Young Women's organization for quite sometime. She really enjoyed working with the 8 to 11 year old girls and told me that her days of wanting a calling with the young women were over. No less than a month later she is now working with said young women. Funny how things work like that.

Hi

Just wanted to say hello.

10 hours

Just a little follow-up for Lincoln's sleeping through the night. Last night he went to bed at 7:00pm as normal. I fully expected him to wake up to eat at 11:00pm or so, but other than a little fuss, he did not make a peep until later in the early hours of the morning. He continued to make some peeps here and there and did not wake up until 5:00am! So, there is again hope that he will learn to sleep through the night regularly...

Sleeping through the night

It has taken almost 5 and 1/2 months, but Lincoln finally had his first "sleep through the night" experience. He has been on a pretty regular schedule of going to bed at 7:00pm, maybe waking up to eat at 11:00pm, waking up at about 2:30am to eat, and then waking up at 7:00am for the day. While it has been a nice schedule, it still involves at least one wake-up to eat time. Well, last night he went to bed at 7:45pm and did not wake up again until 6:30am. Wow! What a night.

The night, however, was not full of sleep for the caretakers. About every two hours, Lincoln would start crying in his normal "I'm waking up, so feed me," manner. By the time an adult (Jen) would get up, put on glasses to see, and make it out to Lincoln's bedroom (the pantry), he would be fast asleep.

We don't really expect the sleep-through-the-night routine to last. The past couple of days, Lincoln has been a little more fussy than normal and just not quite himself. So, he could either be not feeling well or experiencing the myriad of other things that babies make babies uneasy (teething, growth spurts, loud siblings). He was really due for a long night's sleep, because his daytime naps have been pretty short or non-existent for the past few days. So, let's hope that (1) he gets to feeling better and (2) continues to sleep through the night (at least every so often).

Jack's first big-boy haircut

It you haven't seen Jack lately, you may remember that he can at times look like a shaggy dog. We were worried that his shagginess would cause him some overheating troubles this summer because he breaks out in a sweat (on his head) after being out in the sun for more than 30 seconds. With his wispy, thin hair, we didn't quite know how to trim it...should we simply buzz it all off or just cut it shorter and less shaggy? Well, yesterday (Wed, June 24, 2009) we enlisted the help of a professional hair stylist from our ward and the results are below.

Before front.


Before back.


Getting ready.


Lincoln trying to get a bottle in his mouth...


and after some help, Lincoln gets the goods.


Prepping the hair.


Making the first cut.


The first locks lost.


Trimming the bangs.


Having a great time.


Not having a great time.


Still not having a great time.


Allie decorating herself with combs.


Inspecting the final cut.