Shredder!

Maybe Gunnar should dress as the villain from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles this Halloween. Here he is working his way through a box of paper I brought home for the chicks. This after he had worked through 2 rolls of tp at bath time:

New Beginings

Spring is trying to make her appearance here in the West and Nick is more than ready! He has begun his starts in the green house and baby chicks just arrived today. We are brooding our chicks plus additional for our friends with the neighbor. We are trying out black sumatras for our new layers and the broilers are some sort of red chicken. They sure are cute when they are little.

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Field Trip!

Last weekend Gunnar and I ventured out to the Portland Children's Museum for some indoor fun since spring has yet to come to the northwest. We had a blast!

He was one of the youngest kids there but there was still plenty for him to do and I think all the walking youngsters was a motivator for him.

Here is Gunnar in awe of the waterfall:

Enjoying the toddler pen:
Having fun with the water slide:
Playing in the waterfall:
And last but not least, meeting Curious George!

Londons have Landed

We have been very blessed this past week by having Nick's mom and dad in town. Gunnar is thoroughly enjoying being the object of so many individual's affection and Nick enjoys the extra hands.

Here is a pic of G before bed catching up on the latest farkle score:


Here he is enjoying his new ride. It is a push or ride toy and his favorite is definitely to RIDE! He has really improved on staying on as well as his dismount. Next will be mastering how to get on it!

By Candlelight

Yesterday afternoon the London clan set out to run a few errands in town. We went to Goodwill to drop off a few items and peruse and then made our way to Fred Meyer. In Fred Meyer the lights were flickering. Odd, it wasn't even raining when we came in. Then we passed by the front doors and it looked like a HURRICANE outside. Sideways rain and the big evergreens bent nearly in half. Luckily Fred Meyer had back up power so we dawdled for a while and then left after things had quieted down. On the way home there was half a tree across highway 26 so traffic was snarled for miles. Apparently the top had broken off and hit a passing SUV on it's way down. Scary! We finally made it to Brightwood and there was a tree down across our road so we had to backtrack and approach from the opposite side. Luckily there was no damage to our home but the power was out. It stayed off until about 6 this morning so it was a long night with Stinky who misses his white noisy terribly!

Here are some pics of me and G holding down the fort as night approached:



What you can't see in these pics is that Gunnar has broken his third tooth! He has been a bit of a pill lately so it is nice to have something to blame it on:)

Also, hard to make out but Gunnar has his first pair of shoes that fit! His girlfriend Chella outgrew here lizard Robeez and not he gets his chance with them. They fit great and boy is he even quicker with those puppies on!

A Baby and His Dog

I can't stress enough how much Gunnar enjoys our pets and also how amazing they are with him! Even the cat just stretches out while Gunnar pulls fistfuls of his flesh to get into his mouth. I have to admit though that I think the Gunnar-Truck bond may be the most special. Part of it is that Truck knows how much I love this crazy baby and the fact that he is constantly feeding him Cheerios but whatever the cause they are BUDS:

Redo

We have a couple of Vanagon projects in the works right now. Last weekend I hit an icy patch in Windy and sent her into a small ditch. Everyone was fine including Windy, minus her beautiful bumper that Nick had spent approximately 12 hours fiberglassing. It is now in three or four pieces and he is working to get it back together again. To help make up for it I am in the process of sewing curtains for her. This will be so nice since although Gunnar hates his car-seat in general, he really hates it when you put up the sunshade. Honestly, he would rather squint. I don't know how this kid got to be so stubborn! They are coming together nicely and kudos to Nick for finding the fabric all by himself. In true dirty hippie fashion it is even made from recycled soda bottles!

Baby Treadmill

For those of you who just come for the cute Gunnar pics. Here are some to tide you over. Gunnar has become such a little tornado these days. All day he wants to be crawling and pulling and rolling and generally getting into. We had two outfit changes yesterday because Mama wasn't fast enough and he decided to splash in the dog's water bowl. It is exhausting for all involved! Nick is a genius and he discovered that if you put Gunnar at the end of our hallway it actually takes him a while to explore and crawl his way to you in the living room. And of course then you can repeat as needed. here are some shots of him making his way and then stopping to explore.

Spoiled

Things have been so busy around here the past few weeks I have not had a chance to post. I owe an enormous shout out to all the people who have been spoiling me...

My father-in-law. Nick's dad was here for a week and in addition to helping out with Gunnar he and Nick plumbed my dishwasher! Around Christmas the dishwasher in my company's kitchen broke and long story short, I was able to sweet talk my way into it. Nick repaired the broken rack and I have been using it, draining into buckets since then. Can you guess what Gunnar's favorite kitchen play toy became? Needless to say, the buckets had to go and there was no way I was giving up my dishwashing robot. Now it is fully plumbed and they even tied in the washer downstairs that has always drained into a slop sink.

They also made some headway on the bathroom fixture plumbing and moved the woodworking tools to the barn.

Both Nick's parents will be here in a week or so and he already has the task list running for this visit as well.

It was my birthday on 2/22 and although I was ready to let this one slide away quietly my friends had other thoughts! My co-workers decorated my desk, gave me candy, we had donuts for breakfast, cake for lunch and I got roses. Amazing! One of my dearest girlfriends sent me a yummy snack box from Whole Foods which was amazing.

On my way home from work I decided to treat myself to a haircut. It had been a year and a half so I thought I deserved it. You know you were in bad shape when afterward the stylist says she wishes she had taken a before picture! In case anyone is in the area I went to Bellissimo salon and spa (next to Mt Hood Athletic Club) and Shannan was my miracle worker. Go there!

Later that evening after stinky was in bed Nick and I went to the Rendezvous for dinner. It was so wonderful to be able to talk and truly focus on one another over a meal. We had escargot for the first time. Yum! Nick had the tomato basil soup and fried oysters. I had the spinach pear salad and mushroom ravioli. Thank you goats for paying for dinner!

Life gets crazy and it is hard to take it all in so here is mu absorption post. I am very, very blessed and want to say thank you!