Merry Christmas!

Jasper, with his cousins Johnny (born 5 days after him) and Jimmy, encounters Santa Claus (impersonated by Uncle Jim) for the first time.

As well as he does as Santa, it looks like Jim couldn't fool them from the start. Merry Christmas!

The fun begins!

Jasper's new favorite thing is to get into the cupboards while I'm cooking or doing dishes or cleaning. It doesn't really bother me. In fact, I enjoy sharing the kitchen with him. He's really polite about scooting out of the way when I need to get into somewhere. I say "excuse me" and I can tell by his noises and his facial expressions he's saying the same to me when he needs into a particular cupboard.


We are still trying to figure out this whole transition into solid foods. I really have no idea how much I should be feeding him at this point (he's eight and a half months old). He's enjoying everything we put into his mouth now, so I guess that's a good sign. Jasper is such a fun baby. He's so pleasant to be around and spend time with (I hope I can say the same in 16 years!).



See the tie dye he's wearing? I made it! If any one is interested in tie dyeing, tell me. I LOVE tie dyeing!

Seattle Gingerbred Houses and Carousel

Last night we went downtown to see the gingerbread houses and ride the carousel with some friends from our church. We had a really good time. The gingerbread houses are works of art! They were incredible. Jasper had his first ride on a carousel (honestly, he didn't seem to thrilled about it). We ended at Starbucks for hot cocoa and a big, fat rice crispy treat!

Our Christmas Elf

My friend Carob gave Jasper the cutest Christmas outfit last night. He kinda looks like an elf in it. Very cute.


We had Carob and her husband, Adam, and the Hadleys ( a new couple in our ward) over for dinner last night. We had a really good time having them all over.

Brooke, I think the "Future Soil Scientist" onesie is getting too small for Jasper. I put it on him a few days ago and he looked very constricted. I'm really sad to retire it. I think it's my very most favorite piece of clothing of Jasper's. Here's a photo where you can see how tight it is around his chest and his arms:

Holiday Birth Class Party

We had a party at our place last night for our birth class. It was so fun to see all the babies! They are all around 8 or 9 months old and super-duper cute. Seriously, this is the best looking bunch of babies ever. There were only three girls born from our class of about15 babies, and the rest are boys (it seems like there have been way more boys born this year than girls). All the babies are starting to crawl and babble. The parents from our class are really cool and it was nice to see each other again. We ate really yummy food and had a gift exchange. Here are some more photos:

I made a stocking!

I made a stocking for Jasper tonight. It was so easy! I actually didn't make the STOCKING part (I bought it a Jo Ann's), but I decorated it. I just got some felt, cut out his name and a crooked Christmas tree, and added rickrack and sequins. It was really fun and very inexpensive (the entire project cost less than $3- the undecorated stockings are on sale right now for $1.99).

I actually bought six of these stockings because I want to make them for all my kids someday and I don't know how many we're going to have and I want to be prepared. I know many of you are thinking "She's crazy! Six!" and some of you are thinking "Oh, that's so smart!" because who knows if I'll ever be able to find these exact stockings next year. So think what you will. Maybe I'll only have Jasper and be stuck with 5 undecorated stockings for Rob and I to fill for one another year after year...

Jasper 8 months old!

Jasper is changing everyday. I feel like he's changing more from day to day right now than ever before. He is really crawling now, from room to room within minutes. His eating, sleeping, communicating, and temperament has changed so much in the past week. He is wanting to nurse a lot at night, and eat more solids during the day. He doesn't want to be rocked or nursed to sleep anymore. He is making lots of new sounds and new faces. I feel like he's starting to realize he's not just an extension on me, that he's his own individual. It's really exciting to watch him grow and learn right now. Go Jasper, go!!

Chistmas Decorations

We opted to not get a tree this year. I'm a little sad about it, since it's Jasper's first Christmas, but is didn't really make sense to have it up for only two weeks. We leave in a week and a half for Corvallis and we'll be there through the holidays. Another reason we didn't buy one is because we are having a reunion for our birth class this Friday and we thought it would be a little too crowded in our 2 bedroom apartment for a tree and all the guests.

I did put up decorations. Here are some photos:

Washington DC!

Just returned home today from Washington DC (Rob actually flew back yesterday). We had a great time. We got to stay with Anna and James and their two adorable boys. We had such a fun time. I hadn't seen Anna for a year and a half!! It was soooo great to reconnect, chat, stay up late, play games, go shopping, and talk about our babies. Anna is so much fun to be around. She cracks jokes, makes me laugh, and I just feel so completely comfortable around her. In high school we were obsessive Goodwill shoppers, and to this day, we are still loyal thrift store frequenters. We went to "The Country's Biggest Thrift Store" and spent five hours there scouting out every nook and corner. We both found some great things and the kiddos did surprisingly well.

We stayed up late, two of the nights, playing games with our good friends the Bohns. I also got to visit my old stopping grounds at The National Arboretum and show off Jasper to all my friends. We walked through the Asian Collection and saw the fall colors, which was really nice.

Anna did a really good job covering all the highlights of the trip on her blog http://fowlerfam.blogspot.com/

Here's a little run down of the WHOLE trip: I arrived two weeks ago, spent five days with Anna, then Rob flew in, we rented a car, drove to Tennessee, spent five days there, drove back, stopped overnight in Roanoke to see the Lubecks, then back to DC for three days! It was so great to see the Lubecks brand-new baby boy, Jackson. He's a little piece of heaven, so cute! We had a good time seeing them. We love the Lubecks so much.

When we got home today, Jasper seemed to be totally disoriented. I don't think he remembered that THIS is our home! He got really excited when we walked into his room and he saw his parlor lamp, though. It's good to be back but I'm really missing my sister tonight...

Tennessee Thanksgiving

We just returned from a trip to DC and Tennessee. We spent Thanksgiving in Bristol, Tennessee with Rob's brother's family and Rob's sister, Kim. Rob's brother Scott and his wife, Jenny, have four kids - K, A, D, S. They just moved to Tennessee four months ago, bought 12 acres of land and a 1930's farmhouse. They have goats and a barn and lots of room to run around and explore. The kids have grown up so much since the last time we saw them a year ago. It was great to see them. We really enjoyed getting to see Kim too. She brought her Wii which provided us with hours of brain busting exercise.

Thanksgiving dinner was fabulous. Sadly, I took no pictures of the feast! The menu included turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, green beans, baked sweet potatoes, homemade rolls, Egbert cranberry jello, and Egbert pumpkin custard. It was delicious!

The day after Thanksgiving we took a trip out to Great Smoky Mountain National Park. We hiked to Hen Wallow Falls, which was really nice. The odd thing about it was that the sign said "2.2 miles" to the falls, but we all felt like it was a little bit further than that. Jasper had a rough time on the hike back. We didn't really dress him appropriately and his legs just about froze off. Rob and I felt really bad about it. Poor little kid...

Bristol, Tennessee is a nice place to live. The Tennessee Egberts seem really happy there. We look forward to visiting them again soon!!

Cutest boys on earth

You can't blame me for putting this picture up on our blog. I just look at these two boys and my heart swells up with love and adoration. They are both so cute! It makes me want to sing that song "Let's hear it for the boys... Let's hear it for my ba-by". I know it's kinda cheesy, but that's how my heart feels right now. Look how big Jasper is getting!

You gotta check this out

My dear friend Brooke had this one her blog. It's called the Faces of Meth, a project the Sheriff's Office of Multnomah County, Oregon put together to document the physical impacts of meth use. It's kinda gross, but really interesting too: Face of Meth

Anza and Scottie's B-day Party

Jasper attended his first birthday party last week. It was Anza and Scottie's joint 1st birthday. It was quite a blast. All the kids were so cute together! Jasper gave his friends "The Monster at the End of This Book: (Starring Lovable, Furry Old Grover)" which dad helped him pick out. Jasper was quite the part animal, and fell asleep as soon as we put him in the car. Here are some shots from the party:

Jasper's new noise

Jasper is learning to crawl right now. He is working SO hard at coordinating his body. Once he's got himself in the crawling position and trying to remember what to do next with himself, he starts to make this high-pitched screaming noise. It makes me giggle because it's kinda un-human and funny sounding. I mimic the sound back to him, and he replies even louder! This week, he's gone from just kinda scooching to push-ups to army crawl to regular crawling (although he's only doing one or two crawls and then falling on his tummy). Go Jasper, Go!!!

Melodius Sunday Evening

Another movie to see

Rob and I just finished watching The Battle of Algiers, which is another one on our must see list. It was released in 1966 by Italian filmmaker Gillo Pontecorvo with an excellent soundtrack by Ennio Morricone. It depicts the Algerian fight for independence against the French, who occupied Algeria in the 50's and 60's. In 2003, the Pentagon held a screening on the film, just months after the Iraq War was officially declared to be over. There seem to be many parallels and similar war tactics between The Battle of Algiers and the Iraq War, so if you are interested in learning more about these issues especially the current debate on 'Enhanced Interrogation Techniques', watch [shameless Netflix link] this movie!

Saturday is a special day...

Today we went to the Woodland Park Zoo to watch animals devour pumpkins. It was pretty great. We dressed Jasper up in his frog halloween costume for fun. He got so much attention that we've decided it's the only outfit he gets to wear from here on out. Later on, we went to trunk-or-treat in our church's parking lot. We ALL dressed up like frogs. We ate way too much candy, and then ate more when we got home, and we are still eating more now....

Woodland Park

Jasper, Rob and I have been having fun enjoying this fall. Last Friday we walked around the Washington Park Arboretum with our good friend Chris Muratore. Saturday, we enjoyed an afternoon at the Woodland Park Zoo. Monday, Jasper and I played at Discovery Park with the Schmidts, where I learned how much Jasper enjoys pulling up grass! Today, Jasper and I played at Woodland Park and enjoyed the absolutely beautiful weather. Jasper is growing up so much! He has been crawling/scootching backwards for about a week now, and today he went forward! Way to go Jasper!