Fall Fotos

At the Pumpkin Patch on Sauvie Island...










We got to go on a hayride at the Pumpkin Patch... Sierra LOVED it.



The lady taking this photo kept calling Sierra "Little Man"... until I informed her that Sierra is a girl. Then someone asked "Oh, well did you dress her up for the World Series" to which I replied, "No." I wanted to put Sierra in a costume and this was all I could find.



At Woodstock Park...



The St. John's Bridge... my favorite bridge in Portland


Halloween!





Sierra is obsessed with all things SOFT...


With Daddy...


Yogurt face...


It's getting cold here. So I made THESE for the babe...

Baby Model...

Halloween Pants!

I made some Halloween pants for Sierra and her cousin Frankie... matching! They are super cute and fit around bulky cloth diapers nicely. The design came from a book called Simple Sewing for Baby. It has 25 easy projects and patterns for baby items. Happy Halloween!

For All the Photo-Hungry fans out there...

Aaron's folks visited us the week of Sierra's birthday and we had a marvelous time... mostly hanging out around the house but also a few outings.

Sierra: jubilant.

All of us on sierra's birthday.

I recently sewed Sierra this onesie from an old band shirt from Aaron's band in high school: Incomplete Thought. We've got a ton of these shirts (adult size) if anyone wants one...


At Laughing Planet restaurant, Sierra gets attacked by a dinosaur.

Daddy sings to baby.

Sierra's new rain coat. Thanks Dillon and Megan!!!

In downtown Portland.

Opa reads to Sierra.

She loves to pull hair.

We got to go out on a date... without a baby!

Sierra gets the wild look in her eye...


These photos are from more recently. We have been hanging out around the house mostly, because Sierra has had a little cold. The weather has changed and it is definitely fall now in Portland... complete with colorful and falling leaves, an icy breeze, and rain spurts.
Sierra rips Mommy's Christmas Book cover apart.

At the park on a cold day.


Waking up from a nap and crawling off the bed.


We have also spent some time working on getting our home in order... more baby-proofing, projects, and tidying. Progress is slow but it is looking good. We have been enjoying some special fall foods, like pumpkin bread, apple bread, acorn squash, and soup! I think it is important to eat fall foods when you can. I have some sewing projects that I'll be working on soon, so more posts about that later. Happy Fall!

Sierra's Grand Ball

Sierra turned one year old and so we had a party! It was lots of fun, and we all dressed up! We Choates were kinda matchy-matchy, embarassingly. I made enchiladas and gingerbread cake, and Oma and Opa helped decorate with streamers and tended the front lawn in preparation for the party. We had lots of adults and 6 or so babies show up (try to count the babies in that one photo shot). I also made some people wear nametags... and I made a couple of lame speeches. We chatted, hung out, listened to music, played, and had a good time. I think it was a successful first birthday party. Sierra is reaching new milestones now that she is so old. She mimics our words/sounds, says uh-oh, climbs on the table, eats more solid food, walks when we hold her hands, and spends a lot of time looking at her books and playing with Little People farm animals. She makes us laugh all the time. We are so blessed to have her! Congrats, Kid!

September

Greetings! Our camera has been broken, but now it is fixed! Sierra is almost one year old! We have been very busy around here. Here's some photos from lately...

My mom visited. This is at Multnomah Falls...



The Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood



Thanks for the awesome professor sweater Grandma!

Sierra trying on party dresses for her upcoming birthday party. We did not choose this one.

Sierra in her high chair.


Look at those new top teeth!

Playing with the pumpkin.

This is our new bike trailer. Sierra loves to play in it. It also works as a double stroller.

And this is how Sierra climbs down off things... head-first!

Check out these dance moves!

Bumper Stickers

All the time I think about how much I dislike bumper stickers. They usually make me feel very uncomfortable and they give the impression that the driver's main concern in life is a particular political or moral issue. By the way, if you are my friend and you have a bumper sticker (or several), I still like you; however, I probably don't appreciate the sticker(s) on your car.

BUT, there are a few bumper stickers that make me smile. For example, "Visualize whirled peas" was a good one. I also liked "I did it at home" (referring to homebirth).

I often think about if I had a bumper sticker, what would it say? So far I have two slogans in mind. The first one would be in response to the plethora of "Baby on Board" stickers. I think it would be more appropriate to say "Human(s) in Car" because are not all humans important and worth not crushing? By the way, does anyone know any rear-ending statistics about cars with "Baby on Board" stickers vs cars without them? Do the stickers make any difference in the baby's safety? Also, babies are not aboard like on a ship or train, they are just in the car.

The second bumper sticker I would love to have actually, and it is a Lord of the Rings quote, by Gandalf the Grey: "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!" I think that would be great!

Update

Hey everybody! So we are still doing well and loving it here in Portland. We had a major heatwave here this summer and I am actually looking forward to winter! We have been doing some fun summer activities though, including swimming, movies, the zoo, parks, food, dates, etc. Sierra and I have hit the mall a few times and perused some book stores as well. We also have had many visitors stay with us, which has been fun. Sierra is very social and likes when there are more people in our home.

Sierra is almost 11 months old. She is close to walking, but not quite doing it yet. Two top teeth just poked out the other day, and she has started enjoying eating small amounts of solid food. She likes avocado, blueberries, tortilla chips, bread, applesauce (sometimes), and basically whatever you give her that she can hold in her hand. Sierra crawls like a maniac and likes to do everything on her own as much as possible. She hates getting her diaper changed or being put to sleep (oh well!). Her demeanor is generally very happy and content, which is fine with me! Even when we drove to CA and were in the car for 13 hours, she just slept and played in her carseat... amazing! We have been blessed with a very flexible child, which has made our move to Portland possible and almost easy.

I just started watching another baby 3 days a week at my home, so we will have another friend to play with and I will be double baby-busy. I have also been in a baking frenzy, so yum yum. I watched Twilight the other night, because so many people have raved about it, and I loved it! While the vampire concept is very stupid, the movie is pretty cool. I recommend it.

We really like our church (www.imagodeicommunity.org) and have made some good friends there. Aaron is doing fine... enjoying his job ok and is biking a lot. He planted a garden in our backyard and yielded some tomatoes! We have gotten to go on a couple dates lately as other people watched Sierra.

If anyone wants to come visit us in Portland, you are welcome to stay at our place! We live only 3.5 miles from downtown. You will probably like it here.

And on a final note, Sierra pooped out a rubber band the other day. Oops!