Little Jeffrey 10 Days Old

Jeffrey West

 Born 5/18/13 - Mount St. Helens Day

7 pounds 14 ounces

20 inches long

 

Siblings meeting each other for the first time on May 18th, a few hours after Jeffrey was born.



I loved this shot because Laura looks a little shell-shocked. :)

Tom and Jeffrey.

Hanging out in the recovery room together.

 Dancing on the floor.

 Little bird legs!

 Tiny little ears!

 This is what he looks like in his carseat.

 Grandma Stephanie - doing double-duty with our family and Kirk's family this week.

 Jeffrey and his cousin, Becca, who is about 18 months old.

 His favorite sleeping spot - his dad's chest.

 Handsome little man after his first bath at home.

 Squishy face!

 This is what we see a lot of during the day...not so much in the early hours of the morning.

 Kathryn and baby.

Happy Mother's Day!

Mom, we are so grateful for you. Here is something to enjoy when you have a moment!

One of the things we did today was attend the Spring Piano Recital where both Emily and Laura played the piano. Sadly, I didn't get Emily's on video (I was sitting off to the side) - she played really well! Maybe Kirk got it on his phone. I recorded Laura's performance (I awkwardly used my laptop because it's our best "video camera" right now) and hope you enjoy a flashback to the beginnings of my piano days...

Happy birthday, Kayden!

Springtime in the NW

The babies are coming! The babies are coming!

Just a few more weeks for both Lindsay and Kathryn. 

 Easter 2013

April 14, 2013

But, I wanted a SISTER!

You can actually see her mind processing her feelings about having a brother rather than a sister...then testing out a new reaction, and getting a good laugh out of it.

Happy birthday, Dad!

Happy birthday, Dad! We have been so lucky to have multiple visits with you this year. We wanted to wish you a very happy day and to say we are grateful you and Mom make such a great effort to visit when you can and that we have a great time with you when we're together. Thanks for being a great Dad and Grandpa!

Here's a little gift we made so you can enjoy a year's worth of visits again...

Capturing "a moment"

So, we are trying out iMovie for the first time EVER. My greatest accomplishment has been figuring out how to download old video, VHS, mini-DV analog video to digital video. Now that we bought the video capture gadget made by Elgato, it's smooth sailing with all our dozens of technologically-outdated recordings.

Click here to see our favorite 3 minutes from Christmas 2011.

Seriously. He went nuts.

Snowy Christmas

A post for our siblings and cousins and grandparents. Lots was happening in the midwest this Christmas. Here are some of our pictures from Kathryn's camera to share with you! We had a gathering of Kara & Chris, Kathryn & Tom, and Krystle & Nathan: 

The nativity cast, with our awesome narrator, Grandpa.

It is only Christmas Eve if there is a nativity play with the cousins in costume! (Look at the pitiful little lamb with one antler...) The angel is missing from this pic, and Jared (Roman Soldier) and Corbin (Shepherd) changed roles to Wise Men...

Laura demanded a chance to play the "wittle" violin that hangs on the wall, so Mom helped her out with a 5-minute lesson. That was just perfect. I have a picture of Mom doing this with Jared at the same age, so it's a fun shot.

 The frozen lake was a big hit. Jared found an awesome ice weapon...boy heaven.

 Kayden had fun with the chunks of ice and snow and was so cute posing for me as we walked around.

Our favorite cousins from the midwest! Claire!

Darryn!

Sweet Elise (the hug factory!)

 and tiny Audrey - the ideal sleepy and cuddly baby. Tom enjoyed his time holding her. How did we miss getting a picture of Krystle and Nathan? They provided so many fun cousins for the kids to play with, it'd be a shame not to have any pictures!

Laura on the stairs giving lots of goofy faces for the camera. It's amazing how many times the kids ran up and down the stairs in a day - maybe 300+?

 Watching "Brave" all together in the post-Christmas glow.

  One of Jared's favorite parts of the trip was discovering real icicles!

Tom is really good at holding babies! A natural. Good thing he'll get lots of practice before the real deal happens again.

 Jared and Kayden with the rest of us in the background out at the lake. Throwing rocks and ice chunks onto the surface made awesome sound effects. The favorite was the "plook" as they broke through or "chia-ch-ch-ch-ch-chew" as they shattered on the surface.

 Another gratuitous baby shot. See, he loves holding babies!

Christmas morning: Peeking through the railing at all the Christmas loot below.

Laura pulling a "happy" face with Jared's malevolence in the background (he is very proud of it and has put it together all by himself today!)

 Kara and Chris (gotcha!)

 Grandpa and Grandma with Laura.

 Laura running amok off the back path.

 Corbin out at the frozen lake with large rocks posed on the frozen surface.

Finally, a peaceful moment for Grandpa!

Scouts

A little cub scout fun for the night. We did the annual Christmas Caroling (with silly hats) night with Jared's wolf den. Jared is on the far left, with antlers. 

Only a few more days until Christmas and family time!