the maussketeers

Outtakes

2010-09-09T00:29:00.004-07:00

Annabelle totally loves smiling for pictures. Just kidding. She takes after her dad. She would rather make silly faces or smile in an overly cheesy way. Ha! I had to take a picture of her for preschool and I tried doing it two different days and took over 30 pictures. Oh bother. Up above is what I refer to as her coy picture.

This is what I call her "Why are you doing this to me?" picture.

This is the "Did you say tilt my head and shut my eyes? I'm almost positive that's what you said, mom" picture.

Sticking out the tongue and not making eye contact. Totally not what I was looking for.

I think she has a small percentage of troll in her blood. Just maybe. Hopefully it only comes out for the camera.

This was Trev's favorite. He said, "This one is Belle."

School days

2010-09-08T23:58:00.005-07:00

Annabelle officially started preschool last week! She is in a class with 11 other students and two awesome teachers that exude joy and have made her feel so comfortable in her new environment. We are so excited about where she is going to preschool and she is loving it!

After the first day of school the teachers sent all the parents a slideshow of pictures from the first day. Can I just say that was awesome?! It was fun to see what she did and be able to show her the pictures and talk to her about it. She loves dressing up and "getting fancy" so of course she found a lovely red leopard skirt and tutu to wear and at one point she was wearing a tiara too.

It looks like she was paying really really close attention during story time.

When she came home she told us she has one friend in class and I'm thinking it must be this little girl. She and Belle were next to each other in almost all of Belle's pictures. :)

Jack turned the Big 0-1!

2010-09-08T23:48:00.003-07:00

Jack turned 1 on August 28th! I still can't believe he is already one. Good job, buddy! We celebrated BBQ-style with family and a few friends in our backyard. A big thanks to all who came for celebrating Jack's birthday with us!

Lurk! Lurk! All the grandparents came up for the party! Woohoo!

The birthday boy enjoying a cupcake. He didn't go all crazy eating his cupcake. He ate a lot of the frosting and then crawled over the rest of the cupcake. Ha!

Jack with his friend Lily. Are they experiencing a sugar coma?

The birthday boy playing croquet. Doesn't he look like such an intimidating opponent?

Life these days

2010-09-08T23:40:00.004-07:00

This is the perfect picture to describe the current relationship between this duo. Annabelle is all about being in charge of her bro. She tells him no all day, tells him what he can and can't do, tries to hold him in place even though he definitely doesn't like it one bit (as seen above), and picks him up and moves him when she doesn't like what he is doing. I've been breaking up a lot of tifs between them these days. But every now and then I hear them playing and laughing together in another room and all seems well in the world. I love those moments.

Woodland Park

2010-08-25T17:25:00.002-07:00

A few weeks ago the kids and I headed down to the Woodland Park Zoo with our friends Alanna, Payton and Addelyn. I don't think Belle and I have been to a zoo since we lived in St. Louis! That is way too long. She absolutely loves animals and hanging out with her friends Payton so it was a win-win situation. Jack hung out in the stroller the whole time and slept A LOT! He seemed to be feeling under the weather and was just kind of zoning out all day. It turned out to be the beginning of the teething process of his first molar. It totally wiped him out for like 4 days straight. He was totally uncomfortable, but on the plus side he took 3 or 4 naps each day! Anyhoo, back to the zoo...

Annabelle and Payton ran around like wild animals all day at the zoo and Alanna and I were positive they would zonk out on the hour and a half car ride home. Alas, they were wide awake the entire time. ;)

Stinkin' cute meerkat.

A big ol' lazy hippo. He needs a pep talk. Okay, he probably wasn't lazy... just hot from the sun and bummed out that he lives in Washington instead of Africa.

Little Miss Ready-for-an-adventure

2010-08-25T17:17:00.003-07:00

These pictures just make me chuckle. While we were camping, AB put on her grandpa's hat (obviously too big for her), found a stick and stuck it down the back of her shirt and then tromped around like she was on an adventure.

Look at that look of concentration. I think she is trying to balance a pinecone on the stick. Or maybe she was preparing a pretend smore.

Plotting her next move.

Camping at Sucia

2010-08-25T17:11:00.003-07:00

My parents took us on a boat trip to Sucia Island in the San Juan Islands last month and we camped there for two nights. It is a beautiful place to camp. The island is in the shape of a funky H and we camped right in the middle of it on a ridge of land. When we stepped out of our tent and looked to the right there was a cove and when we looked to the left there was a small bay. We went exploring on the beaches, ate smores three times (once was just after breakfast!), went crabbing in the dinghy and relaxed. Belle spent one night on her grandparent's boat for a sleepover and the next night Trev stayed with both kids in the tent and let me enjoy an uninterrupted kid-free night on the boat. What a man!

Jack Attack fell asleep on Grandpa's while we were on a walk and kept napping on him once we get back to camp. He was tuckered out.

There were purple starfish ALL over the ricky parts of the beach!

Here is one of the sunsets we saw from our campground. Just beautiful.

AB played in the sand a ton! She really enjoyed being outside all day while we were camping. She thrives on playing outside and she was making the most of it.

AB playing fetch with someone else's dog.

Grandma and Grandpa tend to fight a lot, especially when there is driftwood around. We had to break them up a few times. ;)

Jack is uber concerned with how his hair looks. He really wanted to showcase his red locks and opted for a hawk one morning. I think it looks stellar.

More sand play. She couldn't get enough of it!

It was beautiful and sunny the whole time we were there... until the morning we boated back to Bellingham. Then it was overcast, chilly, WINDY and when we started our journey across the water it was so so so choppy. Jack slept in my arms the whole time and Trev, Belle and I all felt a bit nauseous by the end of the hour-long trek. I boated quite frequently when I was a kid and I think this was the first time I felt yucky from boating. That can tell you how choppy the water was that day!

Playing catch up - Part 2

2010-08-25T17:06:00.005-07:00

In July we went to Vancouver Island to celebrate Opa's birthday. Annabelle spent everyday at the beach playing in the sand, turning over rocks looking for crabs and yelling, "Lurk, lurk!" whenever she saw something exciting. By the way, "lurk" is how she says "look."

Bubble blowing!

AB riding her wee little bike (with training wheels for now). She absolutely loves riding her bike and is really good at stopping at every street to look for cars.

A couple of months ago Annabelle and I were eating breakfast together and she looked up at me with eyes crossed and said "Hi two mamas." Hahaha! I don't know how she learned to cross her eyes but I just cracked up when she did it. I give you the picture above so that you too can see her beautiful cross-eyed face.

One afternoon I gave Annabelle a paintbrush and a bucket of water and I let her "paint" outside the house. She painted the steps, the fence, the side of the house, the windows and...

... the mailbox. She went on a wild painting frenzy!

Our girl can have fun playing with anything. One day it was what she found in our recycling bin. She would go down the line she created and fill each bottle and cup with water. Seriously, we don't need to spend any money on toys when she's happy with used empty plastic containers.

Playing catch up - Part 1

2010-08-25T17:03:00.003-07:00

Here are my two little doinkers in a warm embrace.

In July we went to Lucy's birthday party at her aunt and uncle's farm. Lucy's cousin, Madeline (above) gave the kiddos pony rides. I asked Belle if she wanted to ride the pony and she said yes immediately. This was surprising since usually her first response is no when I ask her to try something new. She climbed right on and loved it!

We made cookies a couple of times since I last blogged. Sometimes I let her lick the mixer and she ends up with cookie dough all over her face and in her hair.

Jack Attack trying to steal my camera.

One of the things Belle most loves to draw right now is people. Since I took this picture she has started adding arms and sometime hair to her little people.

Peek-a-boo Jack

2010-08-25T17:01:00.002-07:00

Tulips

2010-08-25T16:59:00.004-07:00

In all my years living in Bellingham, this was the year I finally made it down to the tulip festival in Skagit Valley. Yep, I'm finally blogging about tulips. Tulips that bloomed in April. I'm excited to go again next year since this year we caught the tail end of the tulips and most of the fields no longer had tulips.

A little story

2010-05-06T23:37:00.002-07:00

AB decided to jump around on the bouncy ball in the back yard.

Things were going just peachy until...

... a slightly off-kilter bounce starts to throw off her balance. She throws her hand up in an attempt to re-balance, but...

... to no avail. She tumbles over...

... and over...

... and finally comes to rest.

Then she gets back on for another go around!

Twins born three years apart?

2010-05-06T22:04:00.002-07:00

My bonus mom, Lori, pointed out the ridiculous similarity between these pictures this last weekend. Annabelle (above) at 6 months old and Jack a couple of months ago right around 6 months. Same huge cheeks. Same facial expression. Same dark brown eyes. I'd say they're related. Lots of folks say they think Jack looks like Annabelle. Just in case you don't, now you probably do. :)

Jack Attack

2010-03-08T15:26:00.002-08:00

I can't believe that Jack is already 6 months old! Well, obviously I believe it, since it happened, but it is just crazy! He is such a joyful easygoing little guy. He is mostly sitting on his own these days. A few tips and crashes every now and then. I've noticed an exponential relationship... the longer he sits on his own the more often he falls. The first few minutes he is steady and strong and then he must be getting tired or lazy or whatever because he'll start tipping over more frequently. I'll prop him up and he soon falls again, then I'll help him up and pretty soon he is tipping over almost immediately after I help him up! He loves playing with a little piano we have. He gets pretty stinkin' excited. He can roll around all over the place. He is sleeping 11-12 hours straight each night. What a champ! And boy oh boy do we love that. He started shaking his head no this week. Seriously? Seriously. How do they know "No" so early? Example: I'll be feeding him and all of a sudden he'll stop eating, move his head back and start shaking his head. If I try to keep feeding him he is totally disinterested. It's like he's telling me, "Mom, I just told you no, I don't want anymore. I'm full. Please stop."

He is still being attacked by his sister on a daily basis. They are all love attacks, but attacks nonetheless. Annabelle loves to try and make her brother laugh. Half of the time she is successful. The other half of the time I think her method is not his style. It involves getting all up in his grill and making loud noises. His expression is usually one of worry rather than joy.

Other random facts about Jack:
- He likes putting all sorts of things in his mouth... toys, stuffed animals, blankets, my fingers, the drawstring on my sweatshirt, oh and the other day he put a stick in his mouth.
- He regularly takes 2 naps a day and sometimes a quick little catnap in the evening.
- He still likes to screech like a pterodactyl every now and then.
- As long as someone is holding him or looking at him he is usually pretty content.
- He loves his exer-saucer. I'm loving and taking advantage of these days that he doesn't mind being in it all the time. I know one day, in the not too distant future, that he will realize he can moved around on his own and that being constrained in this contraption will no longer be enjoyable for him.
- He has a seriously bad case of cradle cap. I've tried a few different tricks of the trade but nothing has made it go away. Sometimes it will leave, but within a few days it is back. If it had a voice, it would be the Terminator voice saying the classic line "I'll be back." And I know it will make good on its promise. Not that I want it to.

Well, in the middle of typing this post he woke up and Annabelle's quiet time came to an end, so there is not much more I can say. Jack is in his beloved exer-saucer at the moment but his happiness may be short-lived since it is getting pretty close to feeding time.

And in my best Schwarzenegger impersonation: "I'll be back." Hopefully sooner rather than later.

Finally getting around to the solid foods

2010-03-08T15:09:00.003-08:00

They say you can start feeding your kids solid foods between 4 and 6 months. So of course with Annabelle I was so excited that I started her on them a few days before she turned 4 months. I just couldn't hold back my patience any longer, I was too excited! With Jack, I waited until he was almost 6 months. It is still within the range but it just seemed like too much to try and start a couple months ago. He definitely seemed ready since he was clawing at my food, bowl, plate, and utensils whenever I was eating. He took to it immediately. I don't know how babies can stomach eating the rice cereal, but I suppose anything that isn't just a liquid seems like the coolest thing in the world to them! He has liked the peas and squash I've given him too. Next in the lineup... carrots!

He's got some mad cup-flipping and balancing skills and he seems totally unimpressed with his own talent. Or maybe he's just concentrating.

This was taken the very first time he ate the rice cereal. See... he loved it!

A little R&R

2010-03-08T14:51:00.002-08:00

My parents were out of town last week and said we could stay at their house for a little rest and relaxation if we wanted. So we did. We spent the morning at Point Defiance where we went on the five-mile drive through the woods and explored all over Owen Beach. AB loves to explore so she was throwing rocks, climbing around, playing in the sand and running after daddy. I think she was having so much fun exploring she didn't really notice that I took a bajillion pictures of her. Haha! The one of her above totally reminds me of a senior portrait.

Here she told me she was playing kitchen. Maybe she was making sand cookies or sprinkling spices over a hunk of meat. Who knows?!

Somebody had built a nifty fort out of driftwood and branches.

Oh I just love this picture. Trev giving his sleeping boy a kiss on the forehead. Of course Jack fell asleep just a few minutes before we got back to the car. Who needs real naps?

Baker

2010-03-08T14:13:00.002-08:00

2010-03-04T20:48:00.000-08:00

Friends

2010-02-11T23:43:00.003-08:00

Here are some shots of AB and Levi, one of her good friends. They are quite the buds. I took these pictures a couple of weeks ago as they were wandering around the yard and exploring. Okay, okay, so I did make them stand at the fence for just a moment so I could get a good shot and then I just followed them around.

Yep, that is AB rockin' the skirt over the jeans. That is totally her style these days. I think its pretty cute. A few seconds after I took this picture it was no longer fun to move the rocks with their feet, but instead grab a handful and throw them in the air. Look out!

The mailbox is actually pretty fun to play with. It opens, closes, opens again, closes again... you get the point. I think they hoped that something would eventually be in there. :)

"Are you sure there's nothing in there? Should we look a little longer just to make sure?"

We're alive!

2010-02-10T23:36:00.003-08:00

We really are alive, despite what you may think from our lack of blog posts. I can't seem to stay on top of the blogging lately. Here's to another try at more regular postings. :)

Our Jack Attack (as Annabelle most often refers to her bro) is growing steadily and quite the easy going chap. He's usually pretty happy as long as someone is looking at him. He's a great eater and sleeper and is rolling around a lot these days and is taking a great interest in trying to sit up and is always reaching for things, such as food, earrings, clothes, toys, blankets, your face, and the list could go on. He is in the stage of wanting to explore and touch everything around him. Jack is just over 5 months old now and his hair is as red as ever. It is so fun to have a little redhead. His hair gets noticed by someone on most of our outings.

Here is our sweet Annabelle blowing bubbles. She is really into bubbles these days and especially loves blowing them herself. We've got plenty of space for bubble blowing in our yard and she takes full advantage of it. She love love loves her brother! She frequently tells Jack, "You are my best friend forever and ever." She loves wearing dresses over her outfits. I shouldn't say dresses because she loves one dress in particular and I will be sure to take a picture of her in it one of these days. Honestly, everyday she asks if she can wear her flower dress. She almost always has it on while we are at home. It's like a comfy pair of slippers you always want on... except it is a dress. We are letting her embrace her very feminine side. She also loves playing with K'nex and Duplo blocks, building towers and animals and the like. Belle also loves coloring and often asks us, "What do you want?" and then proceeds to draw what we ask. Well, sort of. She says it is what we wanted her to draw but mostly it looks like circles, lines or the letter V. :)

Belle specifically asked for a picture of she and daddy like this. Of course I said yes.

AB playing in the back yard.

This was a possible contender for the Christmas card. We're just a bunch of silly monkeys around here.

Sunrise

2010-02-10T23:33:00.002-08:00

About a month ago I awoke to this beautiful sunrise so I snapped this from our front porch. Simply beautiful.

AB hearts Jack

2009-12-15T23:58:00.003-08:00

Annabelle really really really loves her little brother Jack. Sometimes when we tuck her in at night she asks if Jack can lay next to her. Boy is she excited when he is next to her. She'll shower him with kisses and laughter and he seems to be pretty happy with the sisterly love.

Occasionally in the morning we will let AB lay next to Jack in his crib (with adult supervision of course). All of a sudden the crib seems so much cooler to her after months and months of not having to sleep in it.

2009-12-15T23:42:00.004-08:00

Our handsome little man sleeping soundly.

One of Belle's favorite things to do is put on shoes way too big for her. Yesterday she was walking around in a pair of Trev's crocs, up above she is in my snow boots, sometimes she wears my slippers or any other shoe that is out that looks kind of fun to walk in. She makes me laugh.

One of her funny Belle-isms she does these days: She leans back while sitting or standing and then says "Whoooooaaaa, the wind is pushing me!" Of course she only says it when we are inside and there is no wind.

Another common phrase: "I'd like to take a break from my nap." This of course is often said when we're driving around in the car and she isn't even supposed to be taking a nap.

Oh how I love our little Annabelle. She is a joy to be around. We love you, AB!

Okay, so I know this is a really random picture. AB and I were playing with playdough today and she was naming things I should make. So I made this caterpillar and elephant. I was kind of impressed that I could tell what they were when I was finished!

Ooops! Has it been almost 2 months?

2009-12-15T23:26:00.002-08:00

We had our first snowfall a couple of days ago. AB kept running to the window and looking at it. She and I even went on a walk to the store while it was snowing. It didn't last long but it was beautiful to watch while it was here.

Again, so sorry for leaving the same old blog post for almost 2 month. Yikes! That is way too long. Do any of you ever feel like you can't quite catch up? That's how I've felt lately. With being a wife, a mom of two, packing up one home, unpacking in another, helping with our church and the holiday season upon us I can't seem to keep on top of it all. Unfortunately the blog has been sliding lower and lower on the priority list. But the good news is it moved to the top tonight! Why? Because I can't do my Christmas shopping at 11pm (since I don't do much of it online) and I also can't take a Christmas card picture because I am the only one still awake. Maybe I'll try to start tackling those tomorrow. Maybe. ;)

Check out that red hair

2009-12-15T23:12:00.002-08:00

Zoo

2009-10-23T11:22:00.002-07:00

When we were down in Tacoma we also went to Point Defiance Zoo with grandma and grandpa. We had so much fun! They have really improved the zoo since I went as a child. They had a great kids play area and some wonderful exhibits. We say a tiger, elephants, camels, penguins and more!

Grandpa John, Jack & Grandma Kay

We brought the stroller for Jack to use but Annabelle wanted a ride (in the infant seat!) and I could resist the photo op.

The big 3!

2009-10-18T11:57:00.002-07:00

Annabelle celebrated her 3rd birthday on October 3rd. I can't believe she is 3 already!! She is growing so much! She knows all of her letters and most of her numbers (we don't practice those as much). She LOVES puzzles right now and is really good at them. She loves loving her brother (sometimes a little TOO much). She throws tea parties for her animals and babies and is a really good host to them. She likes playing with other kids but also enjoys playing by herself. She likes dressing up in her lady bug wings and running through the house yelling "Fly, fly, fly!" She sings A LOT! She'll sing about anything, really. A few weeks ago she was singing about us all being buckled up in the car. It's pretty funny. She likes taking baths, except for the part when I pour water over her head... she doesn't like that at all. She loves bedtime stories and wants daddy to tell her one every night. She loves being outside. And we love her!!!

Another things that AB is interested in is trains, the real ones on the real tracks. She's not so interested in playing with train sets. Whenever we here a train going by she gets so excited and a few months ago we told her that sometime we would take her on a train ride. Well that made her really excited so we decided to take the Amtrak down to Tacoma for her birthday party. The week before we went all she could talk about was the train she was going to take and eating her birthday cake. Those were about the only two things on her mind. Train, cake, train, cake, train, cake.

We ended up having such a fabulous time on the train. I don't know who loved it most- me, Trev or Belle! Jack didn't think much about it as he slept most of the time. Annabelle loved looking out the window and we rode by a pumpkin patch and beautiful waterfront. We enjoyed time to read, play with stickers and just talk to each other. It's so fun not to be strapped to a seat for the entire time, which I think was Belle's favorite part.

Daddy and daughter enjoying the train ride

Checking out the sites.

We stayed at Grandma Kay and Grandpa John's while in Tacoma. They surprised us by having a beautifully landscaped backyard! It was amazing! And of course I didn't get any pictures of it as a whole. When we were there a month before it was all dirt so it was amazing to see the transformation. Annabelle really loved it because she could run around and play in it, which wasn't as fun to do when it was all dirt. In the picture above I think she is taking in the all the beauty of the yard from atop one of the rocks.

Some family and friends came to a little party we had for her. Above are AB's friends Caitlyn and Charlotte. The girls played together for hours that night and they all got along so well. Quite impressive for a group of 2 and 3 year olds. ;)

Happy Birthday sweet girl!

Candy Land and more

2009-10-18T10:44:00.003-07:00

We recently introduced Belle to Candy Land and boy does she like playing it. It is such a great game for her age, especially since she knows her colors. The first time we all played together she won, no joke. We've played about 5 times and I think she has one four out of the five games! She's on a Candy Land winning streak! The best part about it is that we will find some sort of candy to put at the end of the game that the winner will get to eat. The lollipop above is from her first win (we don't always have candy that big as the prize, haha!). Now she is always asking to play Candy Land.

Playing with a water thingamajig at a children'suseum type play area in Bellevue. Oma took us there on our last visit. Oma and I were so tired by the time we left and we weren't even the ones doing all the playing!

This picture cracks me up. None of us are looking at the camera, but I still like it. :)

Ping Pong Tourney

2009-09-15T22:22:00.003-07:00

Christ Church Bellingham hosted a ping pong tournament tonight at Nick & Andi's place and we had a blast! We started the evening feasting on ribs and watermelon and some yummy desserts (provided by Andi and Pure Bliss Desserts, of course) and then the games began. Nate ended up the victorious winner... congrats! It was definitely a fun way to end the summer. Although, summer doesn't want to seem to end and I am okay with that. We continue to have beautiful sunny weather with temps in the 70's here in the Northwest. A wee bit strange, but welcome nonetheless.

Nick and Ryan using their awesome ping pong skills. Note the band on Ryan's head - now that is one serious ping pong competitor.

AB drumming with her new bud Rhiannon

Jack's first ping pong tournament. He was awake almost the entire time the games were going on. Future ping pong champ? I think he was taking in all that he could learn about ping pong before he even has the motor skills to hold a paddle.

Nicole & Ada

Sweet sleep

2009-09-15T13:50:00.002-07:00

Our little red head sounds asleep... he does that a lot these days.

2009-09-15T13:43:00.002-07:00

Annabelle wearing her pink ballet tutu while following along to a DVD ballet lesson she got from grandma. One day we'll put her in an actual class. :)

Belle got this funny hat months ago and hasn't really shown any interest in it until the past couple of days. It is supposed to be a pot with flowers in it. She has worn it around the house a bit for the past few days and it cracks me up because it is so huge!

Flowers

2009-09-10T16:22:00.003-07:00

Hovander Park has a beautiful flower garden and I can't help but love taking pictures of all the bold colors and interesting flowers.

Hovander... still catching up

2009-09-10T16:12:00.004-07:00

So I am obviously still playing catch up on the blog with pictures from before Jack joined the family (outside the womb, that is). In an effort to stop thinking about being almost 6 days overdue with Jack we headed out to Hovander Park one evening to check out the animals and the sights. It is a beautifully huge park with some farm animals, a toy for kids to play on, a short path to see the river and lots of open fields.

AB getting a flip from daddy.

Talking to the goats.

The bunny trying to escape from his cage.

The fields with Mt. Baker in the distance.

Make a wish!

Me and my girl!

Another round on the monkey bars!

Tired of riding the swing normally, she switched to pushing herself on her stomach.

City Park

2009-09-10T16:04:00.003-07:00

Before Jack was born we ventured out to City Park in Lynden for the first time since they redesigned the park. It is such a great park! They have a side for older kids and one for younger kids. It is completely surrounded by a fence so you feel safe letting your kids run around the whole place. There are slides, bars, nets to climb, ramps to run up and down, a tire swing, swings and more! Annabelle actually enjoyed playing on the side for bigger kids. They even have a tunnel slide which Trev said was pitch black inside for at least half of the ride, but Belle had no fear! She just kept going down the slide whether dad was going with her or not.

Belle is quite the climber. She usually wants to try and climb anything around her... whether it is a net, a toy, a person, a chair, etc.

Crossing the monkey bars with a little (okay, a lot) of help from dad.

2009-09-10T15:39:00.002-07:00

One of Annabelle's favorite things to do these days is playing in her fort. It is pretty easy to assemble - throw some blankets over the dining room table and VOILA - a fort! She'll bring all her animals in with her and throw them a tea party. It keeps her entertained for quite awhile.

Trev and I on our 5th anniversary. Woot, woot!

AB playing at the park. She LOVES going to the park.

On the chairlift swing with Grandpa John and drinking a smoothie. What could be better?!

What all can we pack into a week?

2009-09-03T15:58:00.003-07:00

It has been one crazy week and we are finally settling into life as a family of four. It started with our sweet little boy being content to stay in the womb days past his due date (I guess that is why they refer to it sometimes as a due month). We were going to try and let the little guy come naturally but our plans are not always the plans the Lord has in store for us. We found out last Wednesday that my Grandma Bernice passed away, whom we loved her dearly and will really miss. It is something that we knew would happen in the coming months, but was still a bit of a shock when it actually happened. Obviously, I wanted to be able to attend the funeral and what added another twist to the events was that Trev would be officiating the funeral service. My dad had asked him months before if he would be willing to do this when my grandma did pass and Trev was honored at the request.

We decided the best option was to induce labor. We would then know when we were having the baby and would give us a few days after having him before we would need to head to Tacoma for the funeral. We went into the hospital on Friday morning at 6:30am to start the induction. We waited around for a few hours for another mom to deliver so we would be assured a room and a nurse. They started me on petocin at about 10am and we delivered our sweet boy just before 4pm that afternoon. It was a fairly smooth delivery and I only had to push for about 20 minutes!

We are so thankful that Jack has joined our family and Annabelle is quite taken with him. She always wants to check on him when he is sleeping, hold him, hug him, kiss him and help burp him after he eats. We praise the Lord for our healthy son and for seeing us through this past week. Trev did a wonderful job speaking at Grandma Bernice's funeral and it was great to see many family and friends and introduce them to Jack when he was only 4 days old. Thank you to everyone who was praying for us. And a special thank you to my mom who spent a few days with Annabelle loving and caring for her while we were in the hospital. Thank you!

Oh, and did I mention that Trev also started his class for seminary last Thursday and he is speaking this Sunday night at our church? I think Trev wins the prize for most things to do in one week in our family. We spent a lot of time in prayer this past week and we praise the Lord for answering our prayers and helping Trev prepare the funeral service, complete some classwork, prepare a sermon and welcome a son into the world and take care of his wife and daughter! I love you, sweet husband! You're the best!

Introducing...

2009-09-03T15:51:00.002-07:00

Jack Stephen Mauss

Born: Friday, August 28th at 3:51pm
Weight: 7 pounds
Length: 20 3/4"

Showers!

2009-08-02T15:39:00.004-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I had two baby showers in one weekend! Actually, one was a "sprinkle" (my friend Anne Marie came up with that) that included dinner at a favorite local Italian restaurant and dessert (made by Andi at Pure Bliss). It was called a sprinkle because it wasn't a full on shower with games and such but an evening out for ladies. Of course, I was totally not on top of it and did not get any pictures at the sprinkle. Oops! However, I did get a couple shots at the shower the next day. My friend Angela, who I have worked with at La Belle for the past year is also having a baby we are due within a week of each other. It has been so fun to go through the process with her at pretty much the exact same stages. Anyhoo, our other good friends from work (Rish, Tonya and Mary) put together a double baby shower for us and they did a spectacular job! They had a delicious spread of food for us and made the fancy diaper cakes (pictured below). We certainly felt showered! In the picture above, Angela and I are in the middle (with the bellies of course) and our other friends/co-workers are Melinda, Kelly, Rish and Tonya. Thanks to all you ladies who planned and attended the sprinkle and shower!

Marina

2009-08-02T10:02:00.002-07:00

My parents have been on a boating trip the past few weeks and have docked at the marina here in Bellingham a few times. It has been so fun to visit them on their boat and be able to see them so much! I've also had fun taking pictures around the marina in the beautiful weather we have been having.

Captain Belle and First Mate Baby

Need a barnacle or two? Or three hundred?

A weekend at the farm

2009-07-29T21:31:00.003-07:00

A few weekends ago we house-sat for some good friends of ours who live out in the county on a farm. We took care of their goats, cow and dog and watched their amazing gardens grow. It was like a little vacation for us. It ended up being a (mostly) beautiful and sunny weekend, so we were able to run around on their property. Belle LOVED being outside so much and enjoyed visiting all the animals. I also had fun practicing taking tons of pictures with my new camera. We were able to relax a lot and read and eat fresh veggies from their garden. Thank you, Seibrings, for letting us enjoy your home for a weekend!

The goat kept looking at me like this. I really wonder what he was thinking.

And sometimes I wonder what Belle is thinking. Haha! At least it makes for some good photo opportunities!

And other times I know exactly what Trev is thinking. "I am a man wielding a knife! I cut my food right from the earth and down it whole!" Okay, so he didn't eat it whole, but he did enjoy cutting the zucchini and then we added it to a delicious salad for dinner. ;)

One of Belle's favorite things about being at their farm was this toy car. She probably spent a few hours over the course of the weekend driving this car around the carport. She would take her baby for rides and just drive, drive, drive!

Here are some pictures from around their place...

Thanks for the camera!

2009-07-29T20:35:00.003-07:00

Thanks to my wonderful hubby and all my parents I got a new camera for my birthday! A Pentax SLR camera which I have been playing around with and learning about the past few weeks. On my birthday we did some drive-by shootings, of the picture taking variety. ;) I wasn't feeling that well so it was nice to be in the car most of the time. Here are some of the shots I got on our adventure...

These seagulls were chasing the eagle around. Maybe he stole the fish they were about to eat.

Then we drove by someone's house where there was just a deer hanging out in the yard and eating their flowers.

A big thank you to my family for my new camera... THANK YOU!!

We found a new walk

2009-06-28T21:31:00.002-07:00

Trev & I recently heard about a new park in Whatcom County called Point Whitehorn Marine Reserve. You walk through the woods for about 3/4 of a mile and then head down to a very rocky beach. We played on the beach for a bit where we threw rocks in the water, waded just a little into the water and played baseball with rocks and wood we found on the beach.

Daddy & daughter tromping along the rocks

2009-06-28T21:24:00.002-07:00

Belle & I went to Old Navy recently and while we were there I found her holding the mannequin's hand. I was cracking up! Who needs to walk around with mama when you can hold onto a mannequin's hand?

So this is the first belly shot I've posted. It's not because I haven't wanted to post one, I just don't think to take one. And you don't even see my face in this one! But who needs to see my face. I know what you're really interested in is seeing the belly. ;) So here it is at 30 weeks along. As of today I am 32 weeks and 2 days along but I don't have a picture from today. Less than 8 weeks to go until Baby Boy Mauss makes his arrival! Crazy! Now all we need to do is come up with a name. Hmmm. So many options.

Lake Padden

2009-06-28T21:15:00.002-07:00

A few weeks ago we had some amazing weather, especially for mid-June in northwest Washington. We went to the lake a few times and I was reminded how much Annabelle loves the water. I think she could play for hours!

She was working really hard at transferring water from the lake to her bucket to the beach and then would do it all over again.

Oh, how cute. :)

Spokane

2009-06-28T20:24:00.004-07:00

Over Memorial Day weekend we visited G'ma and G'pa in Spokane. We had a great weekend filled with delicious feasts (which included my favorite cranberry salad) and fun times. We spent a few hours at Riverfront Park...

Annabelle & I on the gondola ride over the falls

Spokane Falls

AB & G'pa looking over the bridge together

AB & Daddy on the ginormous Radio Flyer wagon... there is a slide at one end, which Belle went down a few times with dad but it was super hot so she didn't want to go by herself. I really wonder who it is that decides to have metal/aluminum slidesin parks. I mean, the sun hits it and it gets HOT! I'm a big fan of the plasctic slides, as is Belle.

At Riverfront Park they have this metal goat that eats garbage. No joke. We had brought some pieces of bread to feed the ducks but decided not to since there were signs posted all over the park saying not to feed the ducks. Haha! So we fed the bread to the metal goat instead! You just press a button and it sucks up garbage through its mouth. It was kind of loud so I thought Belle might be a bit scared of it but she loved it! She couldn't get enough of feeding it! She would even stick her hand and part of her arm up into its mouth. It was pretty entertaining to watch.

Action shot of Daddy & AB on the carousel.

Annabelle & their new cat Shelby. Shelby was quite the trooper with Belle around. AB was always interested in where Shelby was and what she was doing. Belle was trying to share her little piggy with Shelby here.

THanks to G'ma and G'pa for a wonderful weekend!

Girl's weekend!

2009-05-16T22:03:00.002-07:00

Trev finished his finals for the semester this week and then was invited to a Men's Weekend at Malibu, a Young Life camp up in Canada. We were so excited that Trev would be able to have a few days of vacation with some great guys. So Belle and I have been having a delightful girl's weekend! Some good friends of ours helped me out by watching Belle on Thursday and Friday morning when I had to work and AB and I have spent the rest of the time together. We've gone to parks, visited the library, seen some friends and more! This morning we went out to Hovander Park. They have a few animals to look at, a small park, trails to walk and is right next to the river.

AB ran around with this little girl for at least 15 minutes. They would run and look at the geese, then run about 100 feet and look at the bunnies, then back to the geese, then bunnies, then they would mix it up and look a rooster or sit on a bunch... and then back and forth between the geese and bunnies again. It was pretty funny to watch.

When we first saw these pigs they were digging their snouts in the dirt. Apparently that took a lot out of them. Haha! I thought it was pretty funny that they were cuddling and its foot was in ist food. They're probably not grossed out by that. I mean, it can't be much worse then the dirt they were eating earlier. ;)

We can't wait to see daddy tomorrow, but we are having fun together in the meantime!

2009-05-16T21:54:00.002-07:00

Date night!

AB was reading next to Trev as he was studying. They took a quick break for a quick toast.

Parks!

2009-05-16T21:16:00.002-07:00

It is that time of year again. The sun is making regular appearances, you don't have to wear a jacket and we are spending A LOT more time at parks. We've found a new waterside walk and park at Lake Samish - beautiful! The photo above is on one of the docks at Lake Samish. They had fun dipping their feet in the water.

As I said, AB loves loves loves slides!!

I wonder what this sweet girl is thinking.

2009-04-19T22:49:00.001-07:00

AB loves to slide these days. She'll go over and over and over and over and over and...
you get the point. :)

Annabelle dancing with our buddy Josh. This was after Josh built an amazing tunnel adventure in our living/dining room using the dining room table, all the chairs, sofa cushions and lots of blankets. Belle loved the adventure of crawling through all the tunnels and Josh was a trooper and went through all of them too! All I heard was her giggling. Thanks Josh for being such a great friend to our little girl.

Annabelle with her Grandpa John. They are sitting on a swinging ski lift chair! Grandpa and Trev took an old ski lift chair that Grandpa had and turned it into a huge swing in the back yard. It is pretty cool and Belle got to have the inaugural ride.

Siblings Weekend!!!

2009-04-19T22:47:00.003-07:00

A few weeks ago we had our second Sibling's Weekend. J and Wink came up for the weekend and we had a fabulous time together! Trev and I created a list of 20 things to do in Bellingham, which included some of our favorite places to eat, local parks, fun things to do (like watching a movie and eating pazookie - a HUGE chocolate chip cookie with ice cream on top) and silly things like going to the nursery next to where we leave and buying a commemorative plant or going to Build-A-Bear. They didn't choose either of those last two options. Haha! We did go to three different parks, ate at a few different Bellingham favorites, and watched some movies. Belle absolutely loved hanging out with her aunties and so did Trev and I. We love you girls!

Wink & AB (and some random guy in the background)

AB steering the big toy and crazy Auntie Jj making a face (totally didn't know she was making a face at the camera until after I took the picture)

The three siblings on a walk at Hovander Park. This was our first adventure and turned out to be somewhat disappointing. Our favorite place to walk there was closed due to flooding. Ho hum, hopefully another time.

Where's Trev??! He's not hiding! He's just basking in the sun on this huge rock.

Tobi & Christian

2009-04-19T22:46:00.003-07:00

At the end of March we celebrated my good friend Tobi's wedding to a wonderful man named Christian! Tobi was truly a beautiful bride. It was such a joy to see she and Christian and their love for each other. We had a great time seeing friends and family and feasting on the good food. Tobi even decided not to have a traditional cake but serve donuts instead (one of her favorite treats!). It was a great idea and they were scrumptious.

Daddy and daughter, so alike. And then there is me, looking off into the distance at who knows what. Ha!

Our friends Ashley, Erin & Caitlyn. There son, Ashton, was there as well but still in-utero. He made his grand debut just last week! Congrats Riggs family!!

Annabelle was quite the dancing fool. Okay, she wasn't a fool but she did really enjoy dancing. She probably danced for close to 45 minutes straight!

Congrats Tobi and Christian!

Vancouver, Round 2

2009-04-19T22:45:00.004-07:00

At the end of February we made another trek to Vancouver to stay in Opa's condo and have a little getaway. This time Belle came along for the ride! It definitely made the trip quite a bit different. We had to plan for nap times, earlier bed times, faster meals at our favorite creperie and not as much walking around downtown. We still had a good time, but it was a lot more work!!

One of the highlights of the excursion was going to the Vancouver Aquarium. We kept going back and forth over whether or not we should go and finally decided to bite the bullet, pony up the moola and go. It was well worth it! We saw dolphins, belugas, octopus, some really huge fish (can't remember the name now), snakes and so much more! We were able to watch them feeding the dolphins and saw them performing some of their tricks. We spent a few hours there and had a blast.

The second highlight of the trip was swimming in the condo pool with Annabelle. She seems to have an ever-increasing joy for swimming and being in the water. She has always seemed to enjoy being in the water but this time she was SO excited. We spent about an hour swimming and she jumped in so many times that I couldn't keep track. She also loves to try and paddle around and kick her feet as we hold her. She was laughing and smiling the whole time! On the day we were leaving we were going to take her swimming and when we went down we saw the pool was closed for cleaning! Eeeek! What a disappointment. She was so excited to swim again and it was hard to explain to a 2-year old that the pool is closed for cleaning. We decided later that week to go to a family swim at our local aquatic center in Bellingham. I think she got over the original disappointment. ;)

How is it that sea otters are so darn cute. Seriously. I love 'em.

Correctness

2009-04-19T22:38:00.002-07:00

Annabelle is all about her name lately. We switch back and forth between calling her Annabelle, Belle and AB. She definitely knows that her name is Annabelle. Sometimes I call her other names like sweetie pie or bubs and I am quickly told, "No, mama. I'm Annabelle."

But this is my favorite....

A few weeks ago we were down in Tacoma visiting Gramma Kay and Grandpa John. Annabelle was lounging in a chair in the family room. My mom was conversing with Belle -

Gramma Kay: Are you comfortable?
Belle: No. I'm Annabelle.

I don't think she has learned what comfortable means yet. :)

It's a.....

2009-04-19T22:29:00.002-07:00

Boy! A little baby Mauss boy! We had an ultrasound a little over a week ago and it seemed pretty obvious that we were having a boy. The ultrasound tech didn't even tell us but told us to guess. I looked over at the screen and said, "That's definitely a boy." Annabelle came with Trev and I to the ultrasound and she had fun watching it on the big screen. I think she thought it was a movie. Up above is a profile shot of our little boy. Don't worry, he does actually have a forehead (just a wee bit of a bad angle). We're really excited to have a little boy come August! We can't wait to see Belle as a big sister.

Return to the blog

2009-04-19T21:35:00.002-07:00

Have you grown tired of looking at our blog and seeing the play date pictures over and over again for the last two months? I mean, they are cute, but it probably gets old. We've been really busy with things like solving the world's problems, developing new quantum physics models, studying the dictionary and things of that sort. Ha! Or not. Maybe we've just been busy with normal day-to-day life. I guess that is probably more likely.

Well, we're back! Here's hoping that we post regularly and don't leave you waiting 2 months in between posts.

Playdate

2009-02-21T15:23:00.004-08:00

AB had a playdate with her buddy Solomon a few days ago and it certainly looks like they had a blast! Solomon's mom, Bekah, was kind enough to look after Belle while I went to the doctor. Recently, Belle has been going through some separation anxiety when we leave her in the care of others, but she certainly seemed to recover quickly that day! Belle and Solomon rode around the house together...

Ate lunch together...

and started a band together!!

Don't they seem like really serious musicians?!

Thank you, Bekah, for watching our little girl and thank you to Solomon for being such a kind and fun playmate! By the way, all these photos were taken by Bekah. :)

Valentine's Day

2009-02-21T13:35:00.003-08:00

Just in case you didn't know how wonderful my husband is, let me tell you. On Valentine's Day I awoke to a gorgeous bouquet of almost a dozen red roses on the dining room table. It was one shy of a dozen because Trev had pulled out one of the roses and put it in a single vase by itself as a special Valentine to Belle. Awww, how sweet. He was also in the midst of cooking us a special breakfast - scones fresh out of the oven, orange juice and raspberries!! Raspberries are my favorite fruit, which made it an extra special treat to have that morning. He also made an itinerary for the day (pictured below) with all the activities we would be doing. The day's activities began with breakfast, then an outdoor adventure, a surprise spa pedicure for me at the Chrysalis (what a relaxing way to spend a few hours!), playing one of our favorite games while Belle was napping, then dinner and ice cream while people from our church babysat Belle and finally we came home and watched a movie. It was a wonderful day and I am so blessed to have such a loving husband. He definitely knows how to treat a lady. Thanks, Trev!!

AB Sings

2009-02-20T17:14:00.003-08:00

Larabee with Daddy

2009-02-19T17:54:00.002-08:00

Trev and Annabelle went on an adventure to Larabee State Park this past week. They played on the rocky beach, looked out at the beautiful water view and played on the playground.

Belle even got to go on the stage and run around! Belle LOVES her outdoor adventures with Daddy!

Life with Annabelle

2009-02-19T17:28:00.003-08:00

I thought I would give you a glimpse of what life is like with Belle these days...

Belle loves to play with her stuffed animals. Red Bear (above) is still the top dog (err, bear?) around here, although she has high regard for her other animals as well. Recently, AB has taken great interest in making sure her animals are well-clothed. She has graciously let Red Bear borrow her hat, scarf, jacket and boots to make sure he is nice and warm. Now this is quite the treatment for Red Bear, which is most commonly seen in a simple light blue onesie.

AB also loves tea parties with her friends! When I say friends I mean all of those pictured above, which were invited to her tea party. She even holds the cup for them and helps them drink. These are some of her favorite toys these days: her spud buds, Dora and her crew, Piggy and the Little People. She will set them up all throughout the house!

One of Annabelle's Christmas presents from us were these lady bug wings and antennae. She loves them! She'll put them on and run back and forth down the hall saying, "Fly, fly, fly, fly fly!" I definitely think she is hoping to fly by doing this. She is certainly our cute little bug.

Ahh, and the diaper mess. For two days this week, Belle decided that she didn't really need a nap. She played quietly in her crib most of the time and we occasionally heard her talking or singing to herself. Finally, we decided to get her out. As we walked in we noticed this pile of diapers on the floor! There were also some diapers in her crib. Upon further investigation we realized that she had also found her baby wipes and and pulled out every single one and had those strewn about the room as well! It was pretty funny! Moral of the story: move the diaper-changing basket out of her reach. Done.

Press Release

2009-02-07T20:07:00.005-08:00

We have two new things to report:

#1: Trev is a student again! After much prayer and consideration, more prayer, the support of others and answers to prayer, it is official: Trev is a student at Covenant Theological Seminary once again! You might be thinking to yourself, "Does this mean that the Mauss family is packing up again and moving halfway across the country?" Nope! Trev is taking a couple of classes by correspondence from the comfort of his own living room, dining room, local coffee joint or anywhere else he can use his computer. We are thrilled for him to continue his education and we praise the Lord for making it possible! He is just about two weeks into the semester and is excited about everything he is learning. The picture above shows Trev working on his studies and Belle imitating her beloved Daddy by reading in a chair next to him. Awww, precious. :)

#2: Well... Belle says it best:

Her dreams of becoming a big sister will be coming true this August!! That's right! We are expecting our second little bundle of joy around August 21st. We are all really excited and can't wait for Belle to be a big sister! She likes to point to my belly and say "baby" and the phrase "big sister" usually follows close behind. Our new baby will be so blessed to have Belle as an older sister. She takes such good care of her bear and other animals that we are sure she will be a loving older sister.

I am currently about 12 weeks along and am starting to feel pretty good. I've been surprisingly nauseous for the first trimester of this pregnancy. It's so surprising because with Belle I had practically no nausea! It's true what they say - every pregnancy is different, even if its the same person. :) Even though I have felt more sick this time around I always remind myself that there are many women who have it much much worse.

Praise God for this wonderful blessing! We can't wait to meet you, little one. :)

2009-02-07T16:00:00.001-08:00

Grandpa John and AB

Me and Grandma Kay

Winter

2009-02-07T15:34:00.002-08:00

Okay, okay. I know quite some time has passed since our last post. So long, in fact, that here are a few pictures from December. Yep, December. The one above... is from the week before Christmas when we received record snowfall here in Bellingham!! It was certainly a beautiful sight. We went on many a snow walk and made sure we were all well bundled up! Belle is showing off her many shades of pink!

G'pa, AB, Great Grandma Bernie and me at Christmas

Belle on her very own rocking chair... thank you, Great Grandma Bernie!!

These are a few of her favorite things...

2008-12-24T15:03:00.003-08:00

One of Belle's favorite things to do these days is to read her little Bible to her animals. Red Bear (on the left side) is ALWAYS in attendance, as well as any other animals she can find and bring out and pile on the couch beside her. Sometimes she will even put a blanket over them to keep them warm. What a sweetheart. Then she will open up her Bible and say, "Now where were we?," because that is what we say when we read to her. She will then start at the beginning and flip all the way through the book and point out things that she knows, such as little girls, frogs, baby, water, etc. It is a precious site to watch.

One of Annabelle's other favorite things to do is to get a hold of my camera and take a bunch of pictures. This is her classic foot shot! I think I found about 15 or so pictures on this picture-taking-extravaganza. Some were of just carpet, others had her feet in the shot and a few had a blurry finger over the lens. Haha! I think she is really trying to improve her technique!

Thanksgiving for 26 please

2008-12-02T19:19:00.002-08:00

We celebrated Thanksgiving this year at my parent's house in Tacoma. There were 26 of us total!!! It was the biggest group I have enjoyed Thanksgiving with and it was wonderful. The party included almost all of my bonus dad's family... his siblings, him mom, his kids and his grandkids. We even had a kids table where 8 kids ate their scrumptious turkey dinner. Annabelle was a big hit with her cousins and you can tell that she absolutely LOVED hanging out with all the kids. She was running around with them and letting them carry her. For some reason, all her cousins wanted to hold her. She didn't seem to mind at all. What a trooper. The above picture is all the kids with Grandma Loretta. It was so great to see Loretta!

The only mishap was that my parent's fridge stopped working... it ceased keeping things cool! Perfect timing, eh? John and I emptied the fridge and the ice from the ice maker at about midnight and John even headed out to the store for some bags of ice. We didn't get to bed until about 1 am or so.

We are so thankful for all of our wonderful family. Praise the Lord for giving us such loving families.

AB and her cousins Hannah and Stella.

Belle apparently needed some quiet time from all the running around with her cousins. At one point in the night we found her in the back room sitting with this guitar and singing. She would strum once and then sing either "Holy, Holy, Holy" or "Alleluia". I will try and post a video of it. It was pretty darn sweet to watch and listen too.

2008-12-02T18:57:00.002-08:00

Annabelle has successfully used the toilet twice now! We haven't spent much time training her. Every now and then I'll remember to have her try and use the bathroom. The first time she went was just after she had taken a bath. I finished drying her off and she walked over to the toilet and said, "Tinkle." I set her up on her special seat and gave her some books to read. She read books for about 4 minutes and then said, "Here it comes. Here it comes." I thought that was pretty funny, even though nothing happened. About a minute after that she actually went "tinkle", as she likes to say. We both looked at each other and got really excited!! I think she was most excited that she was able to use the toilet paper, since that is usually off limits. She was also excited to flush the toilet! Oh, the small things in life. She has gone one other time since then, but mostly she is content just sitting on the toilet reading her books and not actually going to the bathroom.

Daddy's Hat

2008-12-02T18:54:00.001-08:00

Fashion show with Daddy's hat. Go Cards!

I love this one!

Hodge Podge

2008-12-02T18:46:00.002-08:00

AB and Lizzie having some bonding time.

AB helped unload the groceries and organized them on the floor for me.

Such a sad face!

AB and her buddy Levi.

The Mrs. Potato Head glasses are still around! It looks like they have become reading glasses.

Oh what a wonderful weekend

2008-12-02T17:32:00.002-08:00

Trev and I were blessed to spend a weekend alone in Vancouver while Oma and Opa watched Belle. Opa has been working in Vancouver a lot lately, so his company has provided him with a condo to stay at when he is up there. They said we could stay at the condo for a weekend and they would watch Annabelle. Hmmmm... a free place to stay and free babysitting. Count us in!! We had such a delightful time in Vancouver. We parked our car and didn't get back into it until it was time to leave. We could walk everywhere! It was so fun to be able to walk around instead of always getting in the car. We found a creperie a few blocks away, which had the most delicious crepes! We went there both days. We couldn't help it. It was just so good! We walked a lot, watched movies, read books and spent lots of time just hanging out and talking. We had such a great time and hope to do it again.

Here is a shot from Stanley Park, across the harbor from where we stayed.

Here is the building that we stayed in. 19th floor! We were vacationing in style!

Trev using his majorly huge biceps to lift a tree.

Me performing a victory dance for my strong hubby that uprooted a tree. ;)

Bowling

2008-12-02T16:38:00.003-08:00

A few weeks ago Trev and I had a fun date night! Yes, I know it was a few weeks ago and I am finally getting around to blogging about it. That is how far behind on blogging I am. But I am determined to catch up! Anyhoo, our dear friend Missy watched Belle and we went to dinner and then bowling. We had not been bowling in a LONG time and felt like doing something active rather than passive on our date. While we were waiting for a lane to open we played two games of air hockey, both of which I lost (insert sad face here). We bowled our first game and I lost again. I didn't even get above 100, which I was not happy about. My goal for the next game was to at least get above 100 and if I beat Trev then that would be a bonus. He was ahead of me for most of the game but I bowled numerous spares in the home stretch and ended up winning by 2 points! I was really excited! Trev was pretty bummed that I beat him. I kept reminding him that he beat me at 3 out of the 4 games we played that night, but it was a hard loss to endure. However, he will have his chance at a rematch this weekend. My work party is this weekend and this year we are setting aside the normal formal dinner and going bowling instead. Here's to strikes and spares!!

Here is the proof. Trevy likes to call me Beauty.

Halloween!

2008-11-18T21:35:00.003-08:00

This was the first year that we took Belle trick-or-treating. It was so fun! She dressed up as a little dalmation pup. Her Oma made the costume for Trev when he was two years old and now his sweet daughter wore it over twenty years later. AB was pretty shy when we went to the first couple houses, but about five houses into it she was doing this...

There she is going solo! She would go up to the door and knock and wait (we would usually have to do a knock too because her knocks on the door didn't make much noise). She would then say something that kind of sounded like "Trick-or-treat" and would then reach towards the candy bowl and take a treat. One of the houses gave her a little treat and then gave Trev and I EACH a king-size Snicker bar! Sweet! Belle worked really hard collecting all her candy and Trev and I have eaten almost all of it! It is all in an effort to keep her little teeth healthy... right?

Check it out! This Abba-Zaba is one of the candies she got that night and it even has her name on it! We thought that was pretty cool. ;)

Maritime Heritage Park

2008-10-23T20:37:00.002-07:00

On Sunday we ventured down to Maritime Heritage Park in downtown Bellingham. We walked around on search fro salmon in the river and enjoyed the sights along our walk. We love our weekend family outings!!

Climb, climb, climb!

Tossing leaves with Daddy.

The beautiful sights.

Pick a, Pick a Pumpkin!

2008-10-23T20:28:00.003-07:00

We made our way out to the Young Life pumpkin patch last weekend to search for some, well, pumpkins of course!! AB somewhat enjoyed marching through the field. She loved pointing to the pumpkins and saying "punkin", but as you can see, was not a fan of actually touching the pumpkin.

AB checking out our pumpkin purchases.

By the time we got to the car she had become a huge fan of the pumpkins and rode with this one in her lap the entire ride home. She even taste-tested the stem! She loves pointing out all the pumpkins we see and even wants me to draw them quite frequently on her chalkboard. She'll keep tapping the chalkboard, handing me chalk and asking, "Pumpkin? Pumpkin?"

Satruday morning trail walk

2008-10-23T20:23:00.000-07:00

After much shagrin...

2008-10-09T22:56:00.002-07:00

Behold, it is I...Daddy. After many personal attacks and threats by you the reader, I have decided to make my first post. I even took these pictures...I know what you thinking. Trev, I thought you were incompetent. Well I'm not. After many days, I have learned to train my brain to connect my eye to my pointer finger to the silver button on the peaks of the capturer of photos. It might have taken longer to figure out than the average person, but I am not your average person. People with superior brain power simply take longer for everyday tasks.

Check out the grains on that log.

My little girl longs for the day when she will be able to hold her breath under water for days, and so do I.

I told Belle a joke, and she was embarrassed that I am her dad. I thought it was funny.

If you look closely, you can see the many water ferries that accompanied us on our afternoon out. They were waiting for Belle to step out on the water so they could carry her (for she is royalty-daughter of the King) to far off treasure bearing coves, but our stomachs told us we needed turkey sandwiches. The cities of little taste buds in our mouths won out, but we will be back. Oh we will be back.

Oh, Kitty!!

2008-10-09T22:40:00.002-07:00

The Mauss Family is cat-sitting for a few months! Let me introduce you to sweet Lizzie. She belongs to our good friend Anne Marie who is traveling in Italy for a couple of months. We've had Lizzie for almost a month, so I am a wee bit late on posting something about it. I grew up with cats and was pretty excited for the chance to have one around for a bit. Trev never had any pets growing up, but was excited for this new adventure. Belle didn't really know anything about it until the night that Anne Marie dropped Lizzie off. That very first night Belle was scared of Lizzie and kept jumping up on the couch next to daddy anytime the kitty got close to her. The days following were the exact opposite. Belle was quite intrigued with Lizzie and kept running to her yelling, "Oh, Kitty!" and "Oh, Lizzie!", while Lizzie developed a fear of Belle and hid behind things to get away from her. Haha! Over the past few weeks Lizzie has become more comfortable with Belle and it almost seems more like a game when Belle comes after her. Belle will see her under the table and will crawl towards her. Lizzie will let her get all the way to her and maybe even let AB pet her a few times and then will dart off to another part of the room. The she'll stop and wait for Belle to come to her again, then dart off again, but never fully hiding from her. It's actually pretty funny to witness.

The other night I snapped these shots... rarely seen footage of Belle and Lizzie sitting side-by-side. Lizzie even let Belle pet her for a few minutes. I think it was a real breakthrough in their friendship. :)

Look at how close they are! What progress!

Pizza & Smoothie Party

2008-10-09T20:04:00.004-07:00

On Saturday we had a Pizza & Smoothie Birthday Party for Belle. Pizza and smoothies are two of AB's favorite things! We wanted to honor her by filling her special day with the things she likes the most... pizza, smoothies, family and friends! What could be better?!

AB carrying her little Dora, Swiper & Boots dolls. I think they have made more appearances on the blog than I have. ;)

The tower of cupcakes!!

Her buddy Levi enjoying the party.

A crazy picture of Auntie Wink! I just couldn't resist posting this pic. Haha!

Our good friend Nick who made balloon animals for everyone. Thanks again Nick!

Playing with her new tea set.

When Belle was down for her nap and only family remained we played Catch Phrase (Go Team 1!) and then had a shooting contest. You had to try and make a shot while sitting in the chair, best out of five. Opa and Anutie JJ made it to the finals. It was a fierce battle, but Opa came out the winner after a few final rounds. Go Opa!

The festivities begin...

2008-10-09T14:19:00.002-07:00

Annabelle turned the big 0-2 on October 3rd!! Happy birthday, Annabelle!! The festivities began early on Friday. Trev cooked her up some special birthday pancakes and made her a breakfast smoothie too! I took the afternoon off of work and Trev, Belle and I enjoyed delicious pizza at La Fiamma's and then met Gramma Kay and Grandpa John at our place. They showered Belle with love and gifts and cooked us up a scrumptious salmon dinner. Mmmmm, good! One of the gifts they gave Belle is an easel, which she loves. She immediately started drawing on it with Grandpa (above). Sometimes I'll catch her in her room just drawing on her chalkboard by herself. She is really good at repeating vertical lines. ;)

Playing with her new blocks.

Another amazing sunset at Boulevard

2008-09-29T20:32:00.003-07:00

Big Mauss, Middle Mauss & Little Mauss gallivanted around Boulevard Park this fine Monday evening. What a way to spend an evening. We got some exercise, witnessed a gorgeous sunset, played with Belle on the playground and enjoyed each other's company. Again I say... what a way to spend an evening. :)

Chatting with daddy.

Seriously. We are blessed to see this beauty in the town that we live in. Amazing. Look at the orange hues!

The Sewing Itch

2008-09-29T20:16:00.003-07:00

About a month and a half ago I bought some fabric to make an Amy Butler Frenchy Bag. Right after that I started working full time. I definitely had the sewing itch and wanted to start sewing it right after buying the fabric but I didn't seem to find much spare time in my schedule. I finally cut out all the fabric about a week or so ago and on Sunday I started sewing! Woohoo! I tried to make the most of Belle's nap time, but assumed I would only get a few steps into the project. By the end of her nap I was already three-quarters of the way through!! Now I just couldn't get that far into it and just put it away for another day. After some dinner and some family time outside I hunkered back down at my sewing table (aka my dining room table with sewing stuff strewn all across it) and finished my Frenchy Bag!! It was my first sewing project that I've ever done 100% by myself by just following a pattern (besides pillows and coasters, which require no patterns and minimal thinking). :) It is so gratifying to be able to make something and then use it. Ahhh.

Behold the finished product...

Leisurely Sunday Morning

2008-09-29T14:34:00.002-07:00

On Sunday morning we decided to go to the late service at our church, which gave us time to enjoy a delicious french toast breakfast and a walk in Zuanich Park. This is one of our favorite parks to visit because it has a beautiful view of the bay and the marina, as well as a playground and lots of room to run around!

So cool in her cool shades

One of Belle's favorite things to do is pick flowers... especially dandelions. She'll make a little bouquet in her hand and carry it around for a while.

Babe in a box

2008-09-26T15:26:00.002-07:00

Annabelle loves sitting in things. Boxes, laundry baskets and anything else she can find to climb into. Notice Dora and Boots in her hand? They hardly ever leave her hands. When she tries to carry even more things, at least one of them she will stuff next to her neck and hold with her chin and chest. We usually let her only bring one of them when we leave the house. For weeks now we have been missing the Swiper figurine. A couple nights ago I was searching for Boots in the car, when, lo and behold, I found Swiper!!! I brought it inside and set it down for Belle to find. When she did, she held him up and yelled, "Biper!". That's what it sounds like when she says it. :) She was so excited and kept saying Biper all the next day. Now when we tell her she can only take one of her toys, she always brings Swiper.

2008-09-26T15:21:00.001-07:00

Nature!

2008-09-06T20:58:00.001-07:00

Saturday Outing

2008-09-06T20:50:00.002-07:00

We usually like to go on an adventure each Saturday morning. Today we headed out to Hovander Park and Tenant Lake in Ferndale. Tenant lake is more like a marshy swampland, with an elevated boardwalk that meanders throughout. You can hear some animals that are living in the foliage, but you hardly see any of them. Our only glimpse was of a tiny mouse that came out of the grass for a moment and then scurried back into safety. We also went to Hovander Park where there is an old barn and some small animals to look at. It was great to be able to walk around, breathe in the fresh air and spend time together as a family.

We think that a turkey's face looks like it blew up. Gross.

Quality Time

2008-09-05T23:26:00.002-07:00

Since I started working three weeks ago, I am obviously not able to spend as much time with Belle as I used to. I decided that we would have a mother-daughter date on Labor day because I had the day off work. We went to Woods down on the waterfront and enjoyed some hot chocolate and a big chocolate chip cookie. Belle has a sweet tooth like me, so we obviously both enjoyed our sweet treats. :) We also walked around the park for a bit, threw rocks in the water and played on the toy boat. It was a pleasure to have some quality time with Annabelle. She is such a sweetheart and I love her so dearly. I think being away from her during the day really makes me even more grateful for all the time I spend with her now. I love you AB!

** I think I said something really funny to her before I took the picture. Okay, probably not. She just likes to smile a lot. :)

Freeway sunset

2008-09-05T23:24:00.001-07:00

This was the sunset we saw driving down I-5 to Tacoma last weekend. Gorgeous!

2008-09-05T23:11:00.002-07:00

Last weekend I was able to spend time with my good friend Tobi. We've been friends since 6th grade! Woohoo! We met for dinner on my parent's boat. By "we", I mean Tobi, her fiance Christian, her sister Tamara, her brother-in-law Chris, her niece Sierra, my mom and bonus dad, Trev, Annabelle and... me of course! We feasted on salmon and enjoyed one another's company. Tobi ended up taking a TON of pictures of Annabelle. AB was such a ham that night! I think for at least 90% of the pictures she was giving her crocodile smile. Even when we had her make a different face, the second the bright light hit her face, she would immediately give us the cheesy smile. It was pretty funny.

** Sorry these pics are a bit small. If they are any bigger, they are fuzzy. **

Sierra and Tobi

The men-folk... Chris, John, Christian & Trev

And the crocodile smile.

Crocodile smile

2008-09-05T22:59:00.003-07:00

Congratulations! You have now been exposed to Belle's cheesy crocodile smile! It all started with a book we read to her that says, "If you see a crocodile, SMILE!" Apparently, this is what she thinks a croc's smile looks like. She has decided not to reserve this smile for the book, but has extended it into everyday use. If you ask her to smile, this is the face she makes. If you are about to take a picture and the reddish-orange light (that shines from most new cameras) hits her, she immediately smiles like this. It cracks me up!!

(Aunt Trudy, thanks again for the cute PJs. They fit her now and they are oh so cute!)

Hangin' with the Smiths!

2008-09-05T22:33:00.004-07:00

Our friends Tyson, Tracy and Kai visited us a few weekends ago. We had such a great time with them. We really hope they end up living up here one day soon. That way we could see them all the time! Trev and I enjoyed all our time with Tyson and Tracy - hanging out at Boulevard, taking the kids to a park on a rainy day and more. By the way, even though it was already sprinkling out we let the kids play in the water park for a bit. By the end Kai was completely soaked!!! I mean drenched. He is such a boy. He would just put his full face into the stream of water.

For dinner one night Trev decided to make a meat salad, which sounds kind of weird, but it was essentially a meat platter. He BBQ'd it up real nice! Delicious! It was such a joy to get caught up on what is happening in their lives. Kai and Belle had so much fun together!! AB kept saying Kai's name all weekend and liked to copy things that he did. Kai really loves to run in place really fast... Belle is still doing that.

Pound it!

Picking out the perfect rocks to throw in the water.

We pulled out the not so trusty air mattress for Tyson and Tracy. Not so trusty because it deflated both nights. Looks like its time for a new one. :) Anyhoo, we put it down for the kiddos to play on before they went to bed. Here is some video of it:

Us

2008-09-05T22:32:00.000-07:00

Visit to the Fire Station

2008-09-05T22:25:00.004-07:00

We visited Art at work a few weeks ago. He showed us all the engines and aid cars and even gave Belle this nifty hat! At first she was kind of nervous and didn't want to look at anything. Once we put her on the old fire truck they use for parades (below) she came around and was interested in everything! She was content sitting on the truck and steering the wheel for quite some time.

Addition by addition

2008-08-26T20:45:00.003-07:00

85-100 degree weather + lake + family + lots of good food + 80 games of Sequence + the Olympics =
one great vacation week!

Seriously, we had such a great vacation! We are so grateful to my dad and bonus mom for inviting us out there. It was so relaxing and a nice break before I started working again. We had delicious food everyday, we swam, we watched Michael Phelps win 8 gold medals, we played boys vs. girls Sequence all week (girls lost for the 2nd year in a row... we really need to revise our strategy), and we had a plain 'ol good time hanging out together.

This shows what we did all week - AB playing in the sand and Trev floating in the lake

Movie star pose!

Belle's new best friends! She carried Boots and Dora everywhere! She is really into Dora right now. She also has a Swiper figure, but she would often leave him behind somewhere in the cabin. I think she recognizes that he is naughty. Haha!

We had a purple sunset one of the nights. Lovely!

My apologies

2008-08-26T20:30:00.002-07:00

I am so sorry that I have been such a horrible blogger lately. Life has been crazy! I will do my utmost to remedy the situation. Here is the biggest piece of news in our family:

- Trev quit his job a couple of weeks ago. A few hours after he quit, my good friend Anne Marie offered me a job at the company I used to work for. She has been the executive assistant to the CEO at La Belle for almost five years and is now leaving to travel in Italy and live in another city for time (hopefully just for a time... I, of course, want her to end up back here in Bellingham eventually). Anyhoo, Trev and I prayed about it and decided to swap roles for a bit. I am now a working woman again (outside of the home, that is). I will be working full-time, but will be part-time in the office and part-time working from home. Trev is taking care of Belle right now until I have a regualr at-home schedule and then he will also be looking for some part-time work. Crazy! Totally not what we expected or planned, but definitely a blessing from the Lord. I mean really, he quits his job and later that same day I am offered a job??!!! Not just coincidence. Now we are just adjusting to this new schedule. So far, so good. :)

2008-08-05T19:35:00.000-07:00

Awake ye timbers! Now is not the time for slumber!

Hiking

2008-08-05T19:23:00.004-07:00

The three Maussketeers hiked to Fragrance Lake in Bellingham this morning. It's only about 5 miles round trip, which actually feels kind of long when you are hiking with a babe on your back that weighs close to 30 pounds. Trev is my super cool strong man and carried her all the way up the trail and I was semi-cool and carried her back down.

Apparently it is quite exhausting to be carried around. AB fell asleep briefly on the way up AND on the way down.

The lovely lake that awaited us at the top after all our hard work. Woohoo!

Putt-putt

2008-08-05T19:14:00.003-07:00

We played putt-putt in Leavenworth!! I really like playing mini golf. They even gave Belle her own little pint-size putter and ball. Most of the time she just carried them around proudly instead of actually playing with them. We split up into two teams to make it easier to get around the course. We had a lot of fun and all played pretty well too!

The other team: Ryan, Andi, Levi (in the stroller), Jess & Nick

Haha! On this hole you had to hit your ball up the ramp and then it would come out the bottom. Trev's ball got stuck so he had to crawl under to find it. Art insisted that Trev play the ball from where it was, because those are the rules and they are unflinchingly rigid. It was pretty funny!

I really like this picture because Belle looks super tiny. Our little mini person.

The Leavenworth Hat Shop

2008-08-05T15:43:00.003-07:00

Leavenworth is the little Bavarian-like town we visited while we were camping. I used to go to Leavenworth every summer. The place I remember most was The Hat Shop. It is filled with all sorts of hats and wigs for all ages. Of course we had to stop there! Here are some of our modeling shots...

AB kept this hat with her most of the time we walked around the store.

A future Jack Sparrow?

I've gone blond!

Camping!!

2008-08-05T13:09:00.003-07:00

A few years ago I bought a tent for Trev. This last weekend was the first time we used it! We went camping with Art & Diana, Nick & Andi and Ryan, Jess & Levi. The camping trip was to celebrate Art and Nick's birthdays, which are both this week. We camped near a river in Leavenworth and we had such a great time! Belle did a pretty great job camping, except for not sleeping well the last night... but the rest of the time was great! We ate smores, sat around the campfire, visited the town of Leavenworth, visited the river numerous times and much more!

Diana, Andi, Jess & Levi

AB borrowing mama's coat

Nick & Andi

Trev was most excited to go on a river walk. He and Art are scoping out where they think they should cross.

AB the photographer

2008-08-04T16:11:00.004-07:00

Annabelle took this picture of my cousin Katie and I a few weeks ago. What skill! What talent! I think she meant to cut off the top of my head. It was an artistic decision.