Friday, December 5, 2014

Santa, Turkey and Crabs

It's been a while, so here are the highlights...



Zoe enjoyed some Seahawk smack down of the Santa Clara 49ers after munching on Turkey and Pie (not literally)




And the next day we took her to Bass Pro Shop (Yes Litterally), to meet Santa for the first time!



She didn't bond instantly with him, however she wasn't screaming so I call that a win


On Saturday we decided to go after some winter Dungeness Crab on the Hood Canal


It was cold, but we had good spirits. Zoe decided she wasn't going to join on the boat



Lee and Alicia getting ready to soak a pot


Buoy away


A little half time refreshment at nearby Alderbrook Resort while we let the crab pots soak


Two days later, back in Portland, Zoe got ready for her first day at school (aka Day Care)


Lets do this!

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Fall-Time Fun!

  Congrats to Matt and Abby Lake, Owen Matthew Lake made his entrance today!

Tutu and her Seventh Grand!



Zoe's First Pumpkin

Zoe has commissioned me to create her first Pumpkin, I think her design was executed quite well, her grunts seem to approve. We have been busy visiting other states, introducing Zoe to relatives and friends and trying to establish a sustainable sleep schedule. 

Our recent travels started with a Trip to Puyallup so that Zoe could meet a few Aunts, Cousins and Friends at Alicia's "Welcome our Lil Pumpkin" baby shower. After a short layover (a few hours) we packed up the Grandparents and hit the road, Missoula or bust. We busted in Spokane (pre-planned), got some much needed rest and woke up to a nice waffle bar. Fueled and recharged we hit the ground running and "made great time" to Missoula.

In Missoula we played Frolf (aka disk golf), drank a lot of local beer, fly fished, hiked, sampled local ice cream and had a great time visiting with the Montana Flecks.  


Blue Ribbon Trout Stream and Beautiful Fall Colors, The Rock Creek. A few trout were caught and released, one by me a few more by Greg. Apparently I came on an off day or I just have no clue how to attract the 7000 trout per river mile. 


Aunt Anne gets some quality snuggle time with her favorite niece. 


Aunt Martha shows her skills as a Baby Whisperer, I took notes on the powers of a face down hold. 


Dinner time at Anne and Pat's house, Uncle Greg gets his Z time.

Four days of having a great time enjoying and doing what we can to go full tilt (as full as Zoe allowed) didn't leave a lot of time for taking photos. Trust me it was beautiful and a lot of fun. 

Back in Portland Zoe got to know a few more people and tried to make friends with her four legged future partner in crime. 
  

Theresa has the baby magic. 


Ky's work buddy Teddy brought her kids over, Elliot loved meeting Little Z, unfortunately getting a good picture of a young child and a baby simultaneously is very difficult.



Zoe tries to convince Kona that she will be worth the noise right now with all of the food she will start dropping in a few months and the play time to follow down the road. 


I don't think they came to an agreement.

Also visiting Kona and Zoe were Ky's work Friend Dena and her kids Axel and Sloane. 


Kona thought that Axel was good people


Axel gives Zoe a few tips on proper parent management. 


Axel does a great job with Zoe.


Sloane, future Baby Sitter extraordinaire! 


We topped off the week with some Pumpkin Carving and a photo shoot, you've already seen the Pumpkin and here is ours.


Lil Pumpkin Zoe.



Our Future Pilot, class of 2036.


She already has a 4.0 GPA in cuteness!


Wednesday, October 8, 2014

1 Month Old

Hard to believe Zoe is already a month old...it's been two weeks since my last post and we have done a bunch of stuff. Well as much stuff as you can reasonably do with a very needy infant (as all infants are). Along the way I have tried to keep photographic evidence, maybe I will come up with something that I can blackmail her with when she is sixteen and a total brat (as all teenage girls are). In the meantime we are working on developing a sleep and feeding routine, I am hesitant to call it a schedule. And I must say, we have nailed down a pretty solid cuddle time. For the benefit of when Zoe goes off to daycare we have begun doing a bottle feed once a day to acclimate her to that.  And now what you really came here for, the photos.

Unfortunately Tutu's time in Portland came to an end all too soon, especially since we had to do her birth announcement still and I needed all of the hands I could get. I have a new appreciation or the corny newborn photos that I have seen. While that is not what I wanted to shoot, I now see how difficult they are to create and how time is of the essence Fortunately Aunt Sheesh as I call her came to town the next day to help out and spend time with her favorite niece.

So here are some of the photos that didn't make it onto the birth announcement, which is in the mail soon. I will try and digitize that to the blog one of these days.

My lighting prop

A pacifier does just that

Babies go Cross Eyed quite a bit

Yawn!

Skateboard Zoe

Hippie Chick

Yes her eyes are still blue

Fast Forward a week and we decided to make a trip to Hood River with Ky's parents who shall be known to Zoe as Grammie and Papa Lee (My parents are Tutu and Pop Dan for those of you keeping score). The mountain was out and the sky was gorgeous, a perfect fall weekend in The Gorge. We had wine tasting, beer drinking and apple picking on our agenda.

The view from Phelps Creek Winery / Hood River Golf course (or whatever the real name is) 

 Zoe picked out the most expensive bottle, but daddy had to say not this time

 Group shot

Grabbing the perfect apple, did you know there are more than just Red Delicious and Granny Smith apples!?! Okay I joke, I was probably able to name less than 10 different types of apples before this trip. There are some pretty incredible and exotic apples available in hood river. Have you ever seen a Hanner Apple, it is bigger than a baby's head, I measured. 


Sipping some wine at Mt Hood Winery, great way to end the day.

Cheers!

Today we spent a few minutes after I got home from work taking Zoe's one month photographs. If you are not aware, apparently the thing to do is take a photo every month with a new sticker on the Onesie proclaiming the month age of the newborn. 1 down, 11 more to go.


 Cute kiddo if I do say so my self

Chill'n in the crib

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Two Weeks Old

Little Miss Zoe is two weeks old already! Time is already flying by and Zoe has been a busy girl for being 15 days old. She has been seeing visitors, enjoying Sunday Funday brunch, meeting her Pediatric Doctor and enjoying her first dinner out.





A joint visit from the Willis and Graff/Kennedy-Darling household.

Katie says Hello

Matt and Molly say Hello

Nicole also came by to meet Zoe

Ky and I enjoyed  a nice sunny Saturday afternoon and took Zoe to checkout the scene at Bi-Partisan coffee shop. She seemed to ejoy the sights sounds and smells of the Hipster / Barista scene.
Ky trying out her new Solly Baby wrap 

Latte time


Zoe had her two week check-up and met her Pediatric Doctor. She is a healthy baby and is already in the upper echelon of being a baby. She is already growing in length, head dimension and putting on growth weight. She ranks in the 97th percentile length and head size. 


Chillen for her shots and measurements



Zoe was not so thrilled for her first bath outside of the hospital, here are a few of her non-screaming photos.
Zoe says what are you doing to me?

A head rise is okay

So fresh and so clean

Good smelling baby