Art Give-Away

Peeps,
I know that I don't blog that much, but I felt a dire need to fill you in on some important facts!

1. My wife is an awesome artist.
2. She has a sweet art blog.
3. She is hosting a give-away contest.

Go to her blog, http://bridgetsartworld.blogspot.com, and check out her artwork. You can enter 6 times, and you get to choose a work of your choice (if you win that is). So what are you waiting for?! Get off yer keester and go win some art!!

-Dane

just for fun

7 Months Today!

And this one goes out to all of Lynlee's gangstas out there

Hiking with the fam at Snowqualmie

Dane strapped Lynlee on his back....

Leslie strapped Will on hers....

And we all made a nice little trek into the woods to see a pretty waterfall!

Yep!  Leslie and her kids hopped into the car and met us in Snowqualmie Pass to go for a hike.  It was really fun to see her and her kids were aMAZEing on the hike!  Her she is with Molly, left, Will, on her lap, and Annie on the right.

I think the hike wore out the little ones the most. :)

Oh, and P.S. I got a haircut :)

Camping at Mt. Rainier

We just got back last night from one of the most wonderful vacations.  We have spent the last 10 days up in Washington and Dane finally took me camping at this beautiful place:

I know.  It was wonderful.  We dropped Lynlee off with Grandma and Grandpa Smith, who were thrilled to have her all to themselves for 3 days, and had a wonderful time.  Here are some of the highlights:

At the parking lot of Paradise.  Just after we ate lunch and locked our keys in the car (but didn't know it yet).  Luckily we had left the window cracked so we could break in. 

Looking down Box Canyon

The mountain from the parking lot at Box Canyon

reflection pond

On our way up to a waterfall at Paradise.  Click and you can see it bigger :)

We made it to the waterfall!

Hiking up to see Silver Falls from our campsite at Ohanapecosh

Silver Falls

Keeping warm at our campsite

On a beautiful hike up at Sunrise, the opposite side as Paradise. (again, click to see how awesome it was!)

And this is the little guy we got to watch hang out in a meadow for a while towards the end of our hike at Sunrise.  Cool huh?!

garden harvest

We have had an interesting time growing our garden this summer.  There are a lot of things that I have learned how to and how not to grow certain plants, which ones I think I could do again, and other I would be fine to continue buying at the grocery store.  Like herbs, for example.  Not worth it.  I couldn't seem to keep them under control.  Any advice on how to use them all summer with out them bolting out of control?  I trimmed them before they got to flower but after a while seemed like I had trimmed away the entire plant.

Anyway, here are a few things that did work VERY well that we have been excited to harvest so far:

broccoli!  This is from one of the 3 plants.

tomatillos!  These babies are going crazy!

Also not pictured: lots and lots of yummy, sweet cherry tomatoes!

look-a-like contest

I have been looking at some old photos of Lynlee and some of her relatives, and thought that I should share.  First of all, everyone asks us who we think she looks like more, me or Dane.  I personally, don't see either of us in her, she just looks like Lynlee to me.  But if I look at baby pictures, she for sure looks a lot more like Dane did than I did when we were her size.  

So here is Dane at 6 months:

 

They don't look completely the same, but I see Lynlee's eyes and long face in this picture, don't you?

This weekend, Lynlee's cousin, Ella, and her mom (Dane's sister, Abbie) have been staying with us.  Ella is now 3 years old, and so Abbie and I were looking  back at baby pictures of Ella when she was Lynlee's size.  They definately have their own look, but I thought they looked really similar.  Same shape of head, same Smith eyes.  This is Ella at 6 months:

And last but not least, here is Lynlee about a month ago so you have something to compare:

6 month check up

6 month check up today.  All in all, it was great because it is always nice to have a professional tell you that your baby is growing well and doing everything that she needs to be doing.  However, there were shots at the end, not fun.  She was a trooper, though and by the time we were home, Lynlee was her happy little self again. 

So, the stats are:

wight: 15 lbs. 12 oz (42th %tile)....she has gained 9 lbs since she was born!
height: 25.7 inches (44th %tile)...same %tile as last time
head: 16.9 inches (63th %tile)...up 20%tile! 


And another picture for smiles