The holidays are coming!!

Seems like the summer whizzed by, and not we're thinking about the holidays. How did that happen? We'll such is life, and the faster it goes, the more pictures we have. Check it out. . .


Finley is eating solid foods now. She went past pureed stuff really fast and has a deep love for bananas.
We made a trip down to LA to see Great Gramma and Great Grampa, and a bunch of other family that was there too. The flight was Finley's first, and she did a good job.

She did attack the camera, however. . .

Finley and Great Grampa had some fun scaring each other.

Uncle Bob got some Finley time too. This is rare, so save this picture in your archive.

A little girl time with cousin Jamie.

An all ladies picture to show off some girl power.

Aunt Tina abusing me. Yeah, I'll get her next time :)

Cousin Allie and Christine. They've got the glowing skin cause they drove in from Arizona. They make Finley look a little pasty, huh?

And Stephanie and North got into the act too.

Jessica was able to stop by too. They were all smiles about some conversation, but I didn't get the details. Girls are like that . . .

Great Gramma keeps the XMAS tree up all year. How cool is that. We played with some of the ornaments.

And, once we got back to Seattle, I let Mom and Dad chauffeur me around in Finley's stroller. Hey, I take what I can get.

Then it was time for Halloween. Mom made this food tray for the occasion with all edible ingredients. She is good like that.

We had a kids party, and the neighbors brought over their bounce house. Man, I love those things.

And, that Friday after a busy day, I fell asleep in my chair while eating lunch.

We went to the pumpkin patch too, making sure we got dibs on some of the best pumpkins.

Finley hooked a ride with a wheelbarrow. She's getting pretty good sitting on her own now.

Our friend Jack did a little puddle jumping. I applaud his style.

Jack's big brother Ethan is my best buddy. We like to hang.

Just another picture of Fin. But, from her look, you get the sense that she has something determined in mind . . .

And, a brother and sister shot.

We carved pumpkins one Thursday night with Uncle Ian and Aunt NayNay. I really liked my pumpkin.

And I took special care to carve it right, with 10 eyes and everything.

Jenny and Ian took pride in their handy work too.

And, when it was all said and done, we had some nice pumpkins.

I had to get in a cameo appearance too. Can't just show pumpkins without me. . .

I was Dash from the Incredibles for Halloween. I grew some muscles for the event.

We had an evening at my pre-school where a bunch of people decorated the backs of their cars and we went from car to car in the parking lot: "Trunk or Treating".

And, right before the big day, Finley found her way into the candy bucket.

Feed me CANDY!!!!!

Finley was Tinkerbell for Halloween. I thought we made a good pair.

Mom and Dad were Waldo and Wenda. Cute or ridiculous, you decide.

Feed me CANDY!!!

I had to take a ride in the candy bucket too :)

Finished pumpkin product on the front porch . . Trick or Treat!

Tinkerbell on the night of Halloween, strutting her stuff.

And me in my costume. How much candy would you give me with my winning smile?

And, once it was all said and done, Finley got a package from Great Gramma with a new doll to play with. If you can't tell, that's a happy look on her face.

Oma wanna play?

Now, Oma came to visit a while back now and it took us almost 5 weeks to get the blog post up. Sorry Oma, just a lot of late night partying with Finley I guess. We don't have a lot of pictures from the weekend, but I can tell you we had a good time. We played a lot! And, we made it to the aquarium too. . .
Finley was in a good mood that day seeing all the fishies, and I had an eel painted on my cheek.

Hey (says Finley), let's go check out the octopus!! That thing has lots of limbs to stick in its mouth, and I only have 4 :(

Oma and I managed a glamour shot on the big otter. I think we look like Abercrombie models, except we're wearing clothes. . .

And, after the aquarium, we went to lunch. It was one of the first time Finley sat in a high chair by herself. Of course, right after this picture, Finley took a header right into the side of the table. Dad felt guilty, but she recovered quickly.

Bottom line, we miss Oma. But, we'll be in Chicago in December to see her and Opa again :)

Where did the sun go?

Hello Everyone,

Can you believe its already October 24? Where did the summer go? Finley is almost 7 months old now and we've been keeping busy all the while. I'd love to be able to give a nice, linear accounting of the last couple months, but turns out this blog is a Google product and is making uploading pictures chronological really hard. At least, Dad says it's Google's fault :)

In mid-September, we were lucky to have Gramma and Grampa come visit for a weekend. I had just gotten a nice new outfit that I had to model for Gramma.

Finley was sporting a pink getup too, and looked very nice if brother is allowed to say so.

For Finley's 6 month "birthday", and Jenny and Ian's 6 month anniversary, I made them both a 1/2 cake.
Finley was really excited about the cake. We think she'll get really excited when she gets her 1 year birthday cake.

Turns out that Auntie Naynay really liked the cake too. They make a good pair, huh?

I started to get into the pictures too. Not my 1/2 anniversary of anything, but I'm just irresistible. . .

Finley is starting to eat solids too. Well, that depends on whether you consider pureed peas real food. . . She seems happy enough though. She rejects everything but Mum Mums and bananas (whole bananas, not pureed).

And, earlier in the summer, we tried Finley in the jogging stroller. For the first time out, we took it really slow, but had a good ride nonetheless.

Let's ride!!!

Okay, Dad and Finley can come too.

I honestly don't remember this day. I think I smiled so hard that it deprived my brain of oxygen.

Okay, I do remember, it was my first day of school. Mom made a bunch of cupcakes for the occasion. I could read a lot of the letters, so I was questioning whether I really needed to go to school. I like it there, so we'll keep going for now. . .

Cheese!!

And, before the first day of school, Mom and Dad took us to the circus. Even though I had a little bit of a melt down after some sugary snacks, this day rocked!!

Did I mention the sugary snacks? And before that, Finley turned 5 months old. What can I say, she's cute. She gets a lot of attention, but honestly, can she talk/walk/add/spell? I've got her for now. But, this could get rough. . .

Hey, when does Finley get sugary snacks for her birthday?

Heaven on Earth

So, two weeks ago on a Friday morning, I thought Gramma and Grampa might have stolen me. We went on a ride in the car and ended up on a ferry.

At time I felt like an animal in a cage.

But, I do love them, so I decided to trust.

And it turns out they were taking me to heaven! I can only imagine that the natives called it Useless Bay (on Whidbey Island) to keep the uninformed main-landers away.

I played hard for the morning and then tucked in with Gramma before taking a nap.

Then, later in the afternoon, Mom and Dad and Finley showed up as well. "Gramma-in-law" Christie took a couple turns with Finley. At time s Christie looked like a pretty good "Finley-whisperer".

The first night's sunset was awesome. I saw Dad out on the deck watching the whole thing go down with a glass of wine in his hand. We were staying at Bob and Christie's place on the island (aka Heaven).

Just magnificent.

The next day, Ian and Jenny showed up and we all had a great day together. Finley had on her safari hat, in pink of course.

After a long walk in the morning, we went out on the sand flats after the tide went out. "Run Daddy!!"

Run!!!

Look at the Jones lady clan. Naynay, Mommy, and Gramma, plus Finley makes 4.

But we did have the boys too.

That night we went out to clear the crab pots to see if we could have stone crab for dinner. With a decent catch, we had crab two nights in a row :) As we looked back from the boat, we could see the house where we were staying.

Yeah, men on the hunt. Come here crabbies!!

Hey Bob, keep the line commin' in and I'll coax the crabs up with my boyish smile.

And, once we were all full on crab and soaked with sun, we went home Saturday night and knew we were fortunate to have visited Heaven.

And, for a bonus, we took a video of Finley just recently. She like tummy0-time.