Cute, but a little disconcerting

Tonight John and Gregory were building guns out of Duplos (the big Legos for little kids) when William picked one up, pointed it, and started making a "shooting" sound. It was kind of a "th" sound with his tongue sticking out. It was unbelievable. Among other things, he also knows how to point the remote at the tv, and talk into the telephone. What am I teaching this baby?!

Linda and Robin's trip to San Diego

My mom wanted me to post these for her. Looks like the "girls" had a good time!

Cute at Home - Stressful at Restaurants

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! It is that time of the year again. Always one of the nicer holidays. As we are getting closer to Christmas, what dates are people planning to be in San Diego? Trying to figure out my travel plans and curious what everyone else is thinking?

xo,

Naima

thesis

Hi. I'm sending the rest of my revised thesis to matt for approval. I've renamed ch 2 as "The Gothic's Black Heart: Radcliffe, Lewis and the Logic of Networks" Who wouldn't want to read that??

the biggest thanks to dad, without whom i couldn't have finished this!!!!!!

William R. and His Cake

Total Domination?

On the third game of backgammon, I took all my pieces off of the board before my wonderful sweet, dear, loving spouse took off any pieces. Is there a proper term for this? Any takers over the holiday?

happy first!

And happy first birthday to William!

I like William because:
He such a beautiful baby
He's very photogenic
He likes chocolate chip cookies
He's a mellow kid

And I can't wait to actually meet him at Christmas!!

Oh to be 29 forever!

Happy first 29th Don! Hard to believe you are in Denmark.

Don is great because:

He has a great sense of humor
He is very smart
He does a great dog barking impression
He is fun to talk to
He has 2 great boys
He married really really well
He has a healthy perspective on life
He can do great magic tricks
He has great fashion sense
He loves talking NBA Hoops
He loves the Y
He is a great walking-home-from-swimming buddy (you can commiserate on Chicken Casserole with him)
He is a great dancer
He is fun to be around

We miss you and your family Don! Hope you have a great year. We are so excited to see you all in December!

Halloween and the Wii!

Out little cowboys and of course, the dashing Obi Wan. Don got the costume from a rental place nearby but it came with a mediocre lightsaber. Joe came to the rescue and lent Don one of his amazing lightsabers that was a big hit at Don's office.

I got Will's costume a few weeks early so he would get used to it before Halloween came. I asked him several times to try it on and he always either refused or hated every minute of it. We tried to prep him by talking up Halloween and told him he'd have to wear his costume to get candy, and lo and behold, the day of our ward party, he was really excited to put on his costume and gave us no problem at all. We got him to say "Howdy, pardner" when he went to the doors to trick or treat. It was pretty cute. He keeps asking if we can go to another party. He loved to share his candy with everyone, too. He'd always come up to me with his pumkin and say "What do you want, Mom?" Even when he only had 2 pieces left. Burke is still at the clueless age a little bit and I don't think he even knew he was dressed up, though he looked adorable.

Last week I turned on the bath water and Burke was standing at the edge of the bathtub. He started to lean over to touch the water and fell right in the tub in his pj's! After a little shocked look, he got all happy and started splashing around in the tub, pj's and all.

Don, Joe, David and my brother Alex playing tennis on Joe's Nintendo Wii. We've had a ton of fun playing with this system the last couple of months, thanks to Joe. I hear he's planning on bringing it to Wenatchee for Christmas, so everyone get prepared for the fun!

Cookie Monster

C is for Cookie that's good enough for me! Wait! C is for chocolate chips cookies, and those are even better for me!

Halloween in Beaverton

We had a great Halloween. Nathan was an Army Ranger, Katie started the day as an Animal Doctor and later transitioned to an Animal Doctor's Assistant, Gregory was Spiderman, and William was Woodward the Teddy Bear. The kids came to my office and trick or treated in the cubes. We then went to the Trunk-R-Treat with our church group. Trunk-r-Treating is when people bring there cars to a spot and open the trunk (maybe even decorate it), and then kids go from car to car. We then trick or treated our way home. The best neighbor of the night gave each child two King Size candy bars.

Obligatory Doorstep Portrait

Trunk-r-Treating
William at the Park

Angel Face

Paisley Court Trick-r-Treaters (L-R: Aaron Xanthos, Anthony Xanthos, Nathan, Katie, Greg, Christopher (aka Bub) Xanthos