Luke Pics - 9 months

what's up? I'm 9 months old.

can you see it? That lone tooth is getting big, and awfully lonely.....

You can't hear it, but Luke's making a loud "AAHH" noise here. He's into yelling now.

Luke likes bath time....but Ella absolutely loves it when her brother joins her in the tub

Portland Trip

We spent President's Day Weekend in Portland OR. We have really missed the city and our friends there. Our drive to and from were so much better than we expected....Ella and Luke did great in the car. The Jensens were brave enough to let us stay with them... with sleeping arrangements changing each night. Thanks Don, Jenn & Aayla for putting up with us! Actually the kids slept pretty well, but we felt the need to try to perfect things every night I guess. We had a wonderful time catching up and it was so fun to watch Aayla and Ella really get to play together for the first time. They're so similar - it's really funny! We had a couple meals with Ryan and Bianca..... of course. There always seems to be food involved when we meet up with the McCarthys. We were also able to spend an evening with the Taylors at their new house. It was so fun to catch up with everyone! Hoping we can make it back to Portland more often than we have in the last couple years..... Thanks friends for the hospitality! Love you!

Luke and Jenn

Don, Jenn, me & Seth.... not too bad for a group self-portrait

Aayla, Liam and Ella - best toy ever = mesh bag. Everyone grab hold & spin!

Ella & Aayla....sitting still. Didn't last long.

Aayla and the kitty who loves her, Millie

Aayla had no trouble making Luke happy!

a quick stop at a McKinstry favorite - Cousins - on the way home, in The Dalles. HUGE choc chip cookie brings big smiles.

Our New Nephew

Seth's sister, Maia, and her husband, Steve, welcomed their baby boy into the world on Friday. Silas James Rauer was born on Friday, February 18th. He was a little early, but is happy and healthy, and all reports from Maia and the rest of the family are good. We wish we could be there to meet him too.... hopefully a trip to Denver in May. From what we can tell from pictures, he's completely adorable!!

Welcome to the family Silas James!

A new tradition?

Growing up in Endicott, WA, you know sausage. OK, that sounds weird, but as long as I can remember we always had smoked pork sausage in the freezer. For a few years now my brothers and Seth & I have talked about making the famous Endicott sausage on our own - for ourselves. Yum. Until this year it hadn't happened. But in true Zac fashion, he decided he wanted to do it, and made it happen. He built a smokehouse - amazing, right? Then he got all the necessities together and gathered the family and we made sausage. Really good sausage by the way....stinky, but really good. We'll see what happens around this time next year, and whether or not a tradition will take hold......Thanks Zac for all your time and effort in making it all happen.

just the beginning..... cutting and grinding the pork

My Mom had the fun job. Washing the casings. You don't want to know......

Stuffing the sausage

just a very small sample of all the sausage made last weekend

Kristen cutting and twisting the sausages to then smoke and package

closing up the smokehouse to smoke the sausage

Busy February

We've got lots to do this month.... Super Bowl party at Z & K's this weekend, sausage making at Z & K's next weekend, and then we are heading to PORTLAND for the President's Day Weekend. We haven't been for way toooo long, and are so excited. So all you Portlanders, we plan to get to town on Friday the 18th and leave on Monday the 21st. Hope we can get together with as many of our old friends as possible. We are also on the final 30 days of the Baby Rauer countdown - Maia is due the first week of March so we will have exciting news about the new guy in the next month or so too! Looking forward to a fun, busy month. All the activities should help make time fly by,which will help get winter out of here and bring spring in!

And we have a tooth!

Luke's first tooth broke through on Sunday, or at least I noticed it for the first time on Sunday. He was using my finger as a teether and I noticed something jagged in there - one of his bottom fronts. You wouldn't know it by the way he was acting....didn't seem fussy at all and not much drool to speak up either. A surprise attack!