July so far...

July has been fun for us so far, we went to the Annual Rummage Sale & Auction, one of the highlights of living on Bainbridge. We got some pretty good deals on stuff...the best buy had to be this lawnmower I scored for Nics for $2!

The island has a great old fashioned 4th of July parade. Mir looked great in the parade in her VARSITY cheer uniform, yay!!
At the parade, we had a great spot in the shade & Nico was so cute, he scored a ton of candy (he only got to eat one Tootsie Roll) & lots of other stuff like a little flag & a tennis ball:)

Filipe was really busy at work the end of June & the first part of the month so he took a few days off & spent them at home with Nico...he had a good time but decided he wasn't interested in being a stay at home dad anytime soon, he almost went to work on Sunday just to get out of the house!

The weather has been awesome, we have been to the park & beach a few times, Nico loves to throw rocks in the water. As long as he is outside Nics is pretty happy, he loves to kick around a soccer ball, take little walks around the neighborhood & swing (he picked up the sign for swing in just a couple of times after seeing it).

The other night he helped me water the plants on the back porch, it was pretty cute:

Drop it Like it's HOT!

Nico LOVES to dance, any time he hears any sort of beat he just can't help himself. He loves to watch concerts on TV, beat on his drums & play with the band set he got for his birthday. But, the thing he loves to dance to most is when Mir either dances or does some cheers & he joins in, it is too funny, I caught some of video last week & thought I would share:

Shocker: MORE videos of Nico!

At the request of my father, I took some time this morning to get a couple more videos up.

First of all, Chris and Mercedes got Nico a magnetic chalkboard/whiteboard. With some mild encouragement (and applause), Nico learned that the chalk could make for a whole lot of attention!

Here is Nico practicing his animal sounds. He can do a few animal sounds, but he seems to focus on one at a time no matter what other animals we bug him about! But fish, tiger, and turkey seem to be his favorites.

And now a pic from a recent dinner time. What a goof!

Happy First Birthday, Nico!!

We all had a very happy day for Nico's birthday, my parents, Lexie & Kayd flew in on Thursday to spend the weekend with us. We had a great time & I think Nico enjoyed his big day vary much. These pictures are all over the place, I usually try to organize them, but it is too time consuming so here are some pics of the day...more of our great weekend to follow:)

He got lots of presents, including his very own drum set from mom & dad!

Having some cake:

Nico wasn't to sure of our visitors when they first arrived, but was quick to warm up to them (he cried as I took him from Kayd at the ferry on Monday when they were leaving).


Licking the frosting beaters, Grandpa called him a lunker every time he picked him up:)

He got lots of great presents from everyone!


After everybody left yesterday I took Nico for his 12 month checkup, it was miserable since he had 3 shots & a blood draw:(( He is super healthy, weighs 22 lbs & is 28 inches.

We love this kid so much, he has the funniest personality & makes us smile every day....we look forward to many more birthdays!

Jay-Z would be proud!

Just a few videos from the last couple of weeks.

First, Nico making his dad proud!

Next, Nico is sooo close to walking (we're hoping it happens before his birthday next weekend) and he's loving walking behind things and pushing them, including Pop-Pop's Christmas present, his three-wheeler, cardboard boxes, the barstools, the high-chair, and especially his own strollers!

And, lastly, Nico is obviously a big music lover. Anytime a song comes on, he's bobbing his head. Well, I've tried to introduce him to music on tv, so he can see people playing instruments. Some things captivate him, some don't. But, when a concert by Beyonce was on, it has his full attention. This clip is all I captured and it was toward the end of his attention span, but for a few good minutes he was enthralled and clapping and bobbing his head.

Leaning to Drive & Walk!

Miranda is taking Driver's Ed this month & thought it was pretty funny that we have one child learning how to drive at the same time the other one is learning how to walk. She is so excited to be able to drive & Filipe has been so good to take her out & let her get some practice.

Nico is almost walking, he drives his cars all over the place & since the only noise making cars he has are a firetruck & a police car, he makes the siren sound when driving any of them - it is adorable. He also enjoys being outside & loves to play in the flower bed & with all the pots I have.

The weather was nice last week & so we got outside for a few days to do some planting:

We have the most beautiful trees that line our neighborhood, they were blooming for the past couple of weeks, it made for a lovely walk.

Nico cannot get enough of his sister "Nana", he loves to play with her & she is awesome with him. He loves to wave goodbye to her in the morning & in the afternoon we sit in the front window & he starts squealing with excitement when he sees her coming down the sidewalk.

He is all over the place now, up & down the stairs & EVERYWHERE in the house, he doesn't hold still for a second. We are having a blast watching him figure things out, here are a few recent pics....

Skyler & Emma both turned one & I was so sad we weren't with them on their birthdays. I love & miss everyone & cannot wait to see some of you next month!!

Videos I tried to upload and failed previously!

Nico navigating the stairs Sunday morning:

Nico swinging in the park last weekend:

Nico playing at Dad's work 2 weeks ago (no wonder he spends so much time there!):

I'll have to remember that my phone creates a format that I cannot post directly from the phone to the blog — have to convert it through the web. So only photos from my phone to the blog for real-time updates from now on! - Filipe

Old Ironsides

Out for a walk this weekend in Nico's favorite stroller.

Sunday Swingin' 2

Well the sun came out for 12 minutes so we ran down to he park for a stroll and a swing. Of course the sun was gone by the time we got here, but we still had fun. And Alex was a good sport to sit with the strolled during the swingfest.

Heading to the city and looking goooooooood!

Dancing & Doggy

Nico a.k.a Freeko, Freak Show and Freeky, went for his 9 month checkup this week, he is 28 inches long & weighs 19 pounds 6 oz. pretty much in the 25% for everything. He is so dang smart...he knows how to sign for milk & doggy, can wave bye bye, shake his head yes & no (when he is doing something naughty he will shake his head no while he is doing it - he is also a bit of a stinker!) He can dance like only a white boy can, especially when Mir is doing some cheers for him. He still hates riding in the car, doesn't like to hold still for more than a half a second & fights like a madman before a nap. He loves the doggy, bathtime, string cheese, and destroying anything that is within his reach.

For some reason I can't upload any photos so here are some videos - he love to "help" with the dishes:

Loves, loves, loves Alex, Al is not so sure about him but is VERY tolerable of the love...

And, here he is dancing while Mir is doing some cheers - he got his moves from his dad!

Happy Birthday!

Miranda turned 15 today, I feel so lucky that she is my daughter. She is a true sweetheart, she makes us laugh & cooks dinner for us all the time - what more could we ask for!!! Miranda can make Nico dance and laugh better than any of us and he loves seeing her in the morning & when she comes home from school. School was out for President's Day so we spent our 5 day weekend redoing her bedroom for her birthday, it is now a lovely shade of pink with shabby chic decor. She has cheer leading practice tonight until late so we had cake & opened presents last night.

Happy Birthday Sweetie, love you so much!

Our January

January is almost over, the weather up here has been miserable so I am glad to see it come to an end. We have a couple of huge trees in the backyard and during one of the storms I thought I heard an explosion in the middle of the night. When we woke up we found that it had actually been a huge limb falling off one of the trees. It was about 30 feet long and we were so lucky that it did minimal damage to our fence and missed Nico's play set. The only good thing about the crappy weather was the snow days, Mir and Filipe both got some days off.
Nico is a little machine that just goes all the time - he is into EVERYTHING and keeps us on our toes. He is a happy little guy, but is very stubborn and know what he wants. He is curious about everything and seems to be learning something new everyday.

At Mir's school they have finals at the end of the semester that count toward a huge chunk of their grade. They were last week, she studied hard for them and did really good this term. So to celebrate we went over to the Seattle Center on Friday, it was Nico's first trip to the Space Needle.
He was a little trooper - the weather was (again!) terrible but he was pretty good most of the day.

Mir and her friend Mo were excited to see the Harry Potter Exhibition, they had a ton of the stuff from the movies on display, they even got sorted by the Sorting Hat:)

We met Filipe for dinner and then Mir took some pictures on the ferry on the way home.

Raspberries and Crawling!

I can't believe that Nico is over 8 months old and Mir is half way done with her Freshman year of high school - times flies! We have been busy since Christmas and all of our company....Nico and I found a couple of playgroups to meet up with every week and we go to baby story time at the library. Freako is now a crawling machine, he pulls himself up onto everything and can walk along the furniture and walls. He has four teeth and can say mama, dada and waves bye-bye. He loves going for walks, having a bath and playing with a full laundry basket. He is a great little guy, I know I say it in every post, I just can't help it - we love him to pieces!

Mir is studying this week for finals this week and has been super busy getting ready for cheer tryouts next month. She is a great girl to have around and Nico can barely contain his excitement when she comes home from school, she can get Nico belly laughing the best out of all of us - he just loves her!

Here is a little video we took of Nico the other night, he loves blowing raspberries and does it constantly while he is playing. He is a little chatterbox and is always making some sort of noise. He is hard to video tape or even take a picture of him these days - as soon as he sees the cameras he thinks he HAS to have them!

Our December

Things have been great and very busy up here. Nico is almost crawling and Mir was happy to get back to school this morning after her winter break. We had lots of visitors and the house is a little too quiet for me this morning since everyone has left and Filipe is back to work.

Carl came up the first weekend in December, he wasn't here for very long but it was fun to have him come up and see Nico.

Nico LOVES to sit on the counter while I am in the kitchen cooking or doing dishes - he is getting very quick at grabbing stuff and dumped a whole box of cornstarch all over himself before I could stop him, he had a great time playing in it while I finished the cookies.
Every year the fire department drive a truck around the Island neighborhoods and play Christmas carols - we haven't ever seen them in years past but this year they came through our cul-de-sac. It was really cute, they stopped in front of the house and passed out candy canes - Nico thought the music and lights were awesome!
After the fire truck left & the rain let up for a while we bundled up and went for a walk through the neighborhood, we have a few Griswold houses around us. I love our house and the little neighborhood we live in.

Christmas morning was so much fun, we had Mir with us this year (her first Christmas not in Utah) and it was so nice. We played games on Christmas Eve, slept in on Christmas morning and spent the day in our PJ's. It was a great day.

Mir scored an IPod touch and clothes this year & Nico got lots of toys, including this push car from Pop-pop & Granny he loves to be pushed around on it - it even has a vanity plate that says Frk Sho on it:)

The Thursday after Christmas I spent the day looking out my front window waiting impatiently for our next visitors - my mom & dad came up with Lexie, Mikah & Kayd. They brought us up our Christmas present (a beautiful antique China cabinet my dad restored for me, I LOVE it and it looks so nice in the dining room).

Friday we bundled up and headed over to the city, thankfully they brought Nics this awesome monkey hat so he would be warm:

My mom got us some delicious crab at Pikes Market & we had a fabulous New Year's Eve dinner.

Saturday the boys had to help Filipe with a small project; to move the play set I got for Nico to the backyard - no problem that the thing was taller than our garage, in 3 huge and very heavy pieces and that they had to take down a section of our fence to do it. I love these guys so much, they would do anything for me and Nico will be so happy when it warms up & he is out there swinging!

I loved having everyone come to see us, we always have a blast when we get together. I loved watching them get to know Nico and showing them the new house. I didn't have to do any laundry or dishes the whole time they were here, they did everything for me. We cooked and ate really great food and had some pretty fierce rounds of Rummikub and Five Crowns - so much fun!!

I love you guys, thanks for everything - can't wait until next time!!!!