Playing at the park

As I mentioned in my previous post, playing at the park is now a favorite pasttime of ours. This shot opens with Gillian summoning up the courage to go down the slide, then engaging in a rousing game of peek-a-boo with Mommy, after which she hurtles herself down the slide again. After that, you'll even get to hear one of her patented phrases as she doles out a "hi" to a passing car.

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Catching up

Since I have not updated with pictures or videos in quite some time, I decided to put together a bunch of our favorites from this summer and early fall. As you will see in the video, we've done lots of fun things. You'll see plenty of playing at the park (one of our new favorite hangouts), some shots from the ballpark, pics from visits with both sets of Grandparents...also watch closely for Mommy and Gillian watching fireworks, along with Daddy and Gillian at Sara and Jason's wedding in the Rockies....

Learning to pray...

Michelle and I have said nighttime prayers with Gillian since we brought her home from the hospital. More recently, we have begun sitting down in her room before she goes to bed and making it a point to fold our hands and say our prayers. We had noticed that she was starting to get more into the bedtime ritual tonight, so we grabbed the camera and were able to snap these 2 great pictures of her folding her hands.

Milestones...

I hadn't put much about what Gillian's up to these days, so I thought I would post again today and see if I can recap just a little bit of what she's been doing...

As anyone knows who has seen her lately, her favorite word is puppy. To her, everything that walks, breathes, sniffs, and pretty much exists, is a puppy. Hi and buh-bye are still pretty common words that she uses, but they've taken a backseat to puppy. She also uses the word baby rather frequently when pointing out that there is a small person nearby. She has a few other words that she uses, but those are her favorites right now....

A couple weeks ago, Gillian took her first unassisted steps, and is growing more independent by the day. Just yesterday, she took off for the middle of the floor without something to walk to, which was a first.

She loves to give kisses, and usually does so fairly indiscriminately. All you have to do is ask!! Right now, her favorite food is bananas. She must be Michelle's daughter. All of that late-night cantaloupe during the pregnancy must have morphed into an affinity for bananas!

Happy 1st birthday Gillian!!

Hard to believe, but Gillian Grace turned 1 last Saturday. We hosted a party with all of our closest friends Saturday to celebrate. A mid-morning thunderstorm nearly derailed our grilling plans, but we had a few people come through in the clutch to save the day. Eric (neighbor) loaned us his sun tent to put on the deck in the event that it would be 90 and hot. Well, that didn't exactly happen, as the skies opened up around 9:30 before the 11 o'clock party. As it started to rain, we were able to get the tent up and functional on the deck, so I could still cook lunch for everyone.

The party was just getting started....after lunch, Gillian had a great big cupcake and daintily picked at the icing (as any polite little girl should), before sticking her icing-covered hand into her hair. Expectedly, she was not too terribly interested in the cake portion of the cupcake...but moreso in the delicious frosting.

Thank you so much to everyone who attended, and for those that weren't able to join us, thanks for the warm thoughts. The first year of Gillian's life has been incredible, and Michelle and I continually count our blessings for all of our friends and family, and the impact you have had on our family.

Aunt Abby was able to get some great pictures of Gillian on Saturday, so I've put in 2 of my favorites. There are plenty more, but once again, I'm working on getting them all put together.

What's going on with us...

Over the weekend of the 4th of July, we hopped in the car and drove to Tulsa to spend time with Michelle's parents who (on July 6th) celebrated 40 years of marriage. After spending a couple days in Tulsa, we drove an hour and a half east to Ozark, Arkansas for my cousin Brad's wedding. He married Kendra Nelson on the 4th of July. Congratulations to them as well. I have pictures, but I'm working on organizing them, so I will get them up when I get a chance (seems like I always have something like that to say...) Every night after work last week, we worked on the deck so it would be done for Gillian's first birthday (I know, can you believe it??). When it came right down to it, I needed to take Thursday and Friday off of work so that I could get everything all finished up. In the end, it was all worth it, because I was able to get the deck all done before the big party.

I have pictures of the deck as well, but I'm saving the suspense of those pictures for later. It'll be worth the wait, I promise.

Deck progress

In addition to Michelle's birthday, this weekend we starting working on the deck. Saturday morning, Nana and Pops came up to help out. They were able to stay through Sunday evening, so I had Pops' help throughout most of the weekend.

On Saturday we set another couple posts in the ground and deconstructed the existing deck. We also attached the anchor board to the house. Sunday we made some real progress and were able to get several floor joists in. I took some before and after pictures. Here they are....

I keep forgetting, but I'll try to get pictures of our completed fence project too. We were able to get that done so the dogs can be outside most of the time. So far it's worked out perfectly.

Before (Saturday morning)...(hey Dad)
Mid-project...(last night)

Happy Birthday Michelle!

Michelle's birthday was Saturday, so we were able to get together with some friends and celebrate Michelle's milestone birthday that actually occurred last year. Since she was pregnant last year on her birthday we postponed the celebration until this year.

We all made it out to Matsu (sushi bar in Westport), where we all got to try new things :). Michelle tried sashimi for the first time. She was a trooper and knocked it out pretty easily, though I'm not too sure she'll ever eat it again. She also tried onagi (eel). Interesting....

After that, we headed to Ernie Biggs, which is a dueling piano bar in Westport. It was a great time. The highlight of the night for me was when the pianist played some song from the Little Mermaid and Michelle belted out every last lyric (spot on, I might add), complete with hand motions. Simply phenomenal. A quick search of google tells me that the song I'm referencing is called Part of your World.

Us at the sushi bar...

Michelle and the sashimi....

Kool and the Gang reprise

I know I promised a dancing video of Gillian, so I have delivered. It was not the original that I had in mind but this one was made last night after she got out of her pool. Mommy was working in the yard and Daddy working on the deck when we caught her having her own personal dance party on the blanket. If you watch closely you can see her pick up her stuffed puppy dog and hug him midway through. Watch out Ginger Rogers.

In case you missed it...

I haven't given an update on Gillian lately and what she is up to now....so that's what today is going to be about. She is not walking yet, though we think she is very close. She will walk all over the place as long as we're there to steady her :). Her vocabulary is growing as well. She now (somewhat distinctly) says puppy and baby, in addition to her now famous "hi there" and "buh-bye". Occasionally when she is upset, she'll throw in a Mama or Dada, but usually only then.

Since the Enos family visited, we've also had Catherine (Michelle's youngest sister) visit for a week and then Michelle's parents came to visit with Gillian over last weekend. Also last weekend, Gillian and Mommy helped me to celebrate my first Father's Day. It was releaxing as we mainly hung out around the house. I got a brand new grill for the new deck that we are planning on building...I can't wait to use it! This weekend brings Michelle's 1st anniversary of birthday number 30, so we're having a small get-together with friends on Saturday night. Happy birthday Michelle!

I have some video of Gillian and her new sweet dance moves that I will get uploaded as soon as I can find the cord to the video camera. Until next time....buh-bye.