Wednesday, December 19, 2012

fall activities & thanksgiving

one of the highlights of the fall was ben and william attending the byu vs. san jose state football game with the harricks. first stop the tailgate and meeting cosmo. 
they stayed through half time and william made four new best friends with the harrick kids.
we've made a few trips to the park and william learned the joy of throwing leaves. he's also perfecting how to say 'cheese'.
of course lucy has kept us busy, but overall she has been a fantastic baby.
for thanksgiving we hosted the forrest family. it was a full house but we enjoyed a great meal and wonderful company. 
thanksgiving afternoon we all ventured down to monterey for the night and spent the following day at the monterey bay aquarium.

Monday, December 3, 2012

lucy at 1 month

since i tracked williams monthly development over the course of his first year i feel obligated to do the same for lucy.
for her first month lucy has pretty much been a dream baby. she sleeps and eats well and when awake is happy. she pretty much goes with the flow. and so far william has been a great big brother. he's not to interested in her but does like to kiss her head and tickle her hands.
here she is with her elephant which will track her growth. at her one month appointment she weighed 8 lbs 3 oz and 20.5 inches, growing nicely!
we love lucy and are so thrilled to have her in our family.

life with two

the first month with two kids went better than expected. lucy pretty much sleeps and eats and we had a lot of help from family so we were still able to get out quite a bit. grandma shafer stayed with us awhile and took william on endless walks and bike rides.
grandma shafer also accompanied us to filoli gardens where we found williams bench again.
another warm day we went to lemos farm in half moon bay. william loved the train ride and pumpkin hunting.
he didn't initially love his first pony ride, but slowly warmed up to it. he kept a death grip on the saddle the whole time.

lucy has also received a lot of love. it took a lot of encouragement to get william to hold her, not so with cousin madelyn, she's a pro.

lucy received her first bath. she didn't love it, but has warmed up to them recently.
and since we've had the camera out a lot these days william has been perfecting his 'cheese' smile.
i think we just may survive as a family of four.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

halloween

william was blown away by the concept of halloween. he loved that all he had to do was say trick or treat and people would give him candy! he also got a kick out of being dressed liked a lion.
we participated in three trick or treating outings. first at trunk or treat at church, then downtown los altos and finally actual halloween night. william wanted to eat each piece of candy right away. he only collected a few treats and then was done. playing in the leaves with josephine was more exciting.
the neighborhood kids had a wizard of oz theme going. william as the cowardly lion, josephine as dorothy, wesley as todo, and mackenzie as the monkey turned panda bear.
i'm sure this will be the last halloween when three houses is all that it will take to satisfy william. and lucy slept through it all. happy halloween!

Saturday, November 24, 2012

welcome lucy forrest

one week before my official due date our little girl decided to join the forrest family. we weren't quite prepared for her early arrival and made a mad dash to the hospital after dropping william at the neighbors. i'd been laboring at home for about 5 hours without realizing it was labor. if i hadn't needed antibiotics she would have arrived within 30 minutes of our arrival, but they slowed me down and she was officially born on october 2 at 11:24pm. here we are moments after her arrival!
she weighed in at 6 lb 13 oz and 20 inches long. she also came with a head full of dark hair. we named her lucy.
grandma shafer was invaluable help during our first week with two kids. she and big brother william were our first visitors. 
william wasn't too interested in lucy but did hold her with help for a brief moment. he was really interested in the trucks she gave him!
grandpa shafer, aunt katie & uncle kurt also visited us. we love being close to family.
she was even chosen as stanfords baby of the week. we love our little lucy and are thrilled to have her join our family.

Monday, November 12, 2012

summer wrap up

our first summer in california treated us very well. among all our travels we also had lots of local outings. we ventured to various parks in the area at least a couple times a week. one time a 'dig dig' was visiting and william couldn't get close enough.
we also became members of the oakland zoo so we made frequent visits. it was fun to watch williams interest in the animals and exhibits grow each time.

the best thing about california may be being close to family. william loves playing with cousin jacob, especially when it's at grandma and grandpas house and involves water.
near us is an aviation museum we decided to check out one day. william cried lots of tears when we had to leave.
another day we went up to san francisco, over 'the big red bridge', to the bay area discovery museum.
william also has lots of friends his age and we love getting together with them at local attractions. happy hollow and claire are favorites.
and because summer lasts a long time here we went to the beach with claire and jabe on october 1, the day before lucy joined our family.
yeah for summer!

Friday, November 2, 2012

lake tahoe

post labor day the shafer family all gathered for a week in lake tahoe. it was my last summer trip before baby #2. we did a lot of relaxing, game playing, eating, and chasing around little boys. i loved seeing the cousins become close friends. some highlights from the week included beach visits to lake tahoe and fallen leaf lake.
william and jacob weren't too interested in getting wet, but cal would have crawled right into the lake had cory let him. he was in heaven and provided lots of entertainment.
another day we took a beautiful drive to visit emerald bay.
we also took the gondola at heavenly ski resort up the mountain. the views were impressive.

grandma spoiled the boys, as always. here she is sharing treats - they all gathered around like little chicks begging for food.
other activities included bike rides,
the fastest round of mini golf,
nervous airplane flying,
and lots and lots and lots of running around with cousins.
 
thanks mom and dad for organizing a great trip! i hope we can make lake tahoe a tradition.