Work Party and Yard Sale

Yesterday we had a work party and yard sale. It started as normal, with Grace waking up to Holden expressing his unhappy opinion about waking up hungry.

We finally gave up on that terrible structure on the back porch. We decided the house would be improved more by simply removing it than putting work in to making the structure look nicer.

We moved massive amounts of sod. Here's Jaime helping out. (He initially didn't want to help - "I'd like to help, but I don't like work" were his words.)

Here's a picture of Katie and Milt shortly before Milt worked himself to complete exhaustion.

Grace was entertained all day by playing with her friend, Peri.

Here's Eric posing in front of his truck. There's 1,400 pounds of sod in that truck.

Meanwhile, Aimee kept the yard sale moving forward... slowly. We didn't get as much business as we hoped at the yard sale - but we did get rid of a few things.

Sitting on the couch with babies

Dad sitting with his baby, Holden; his daughter sitting with her baby, Keaton.

Happy Baby

Here is Holden in one of his ever-increasing moments of happiness. He's smiling at the antics of his big sister.

Yard Work Day

Michele, Nelson's sister-in-law, came over to help hold baby Holden so we could get some yard work done around the house and prepare for next weekend's garage sale.

Adoption

Tonight's Simpsons rerun was about adoption. Grace wanted to know what adoption was. We explained to her how some children, because of financial or other reasons, didn't have mommies and daddies. And then other parents would come and adopt those lucky little babies. Those babies would become their children. You could almost see the light bulb of illumination flash in Grace's head - and she said, the Universe having revealed one of its nagging little mysteries, "Is that what happened to me?"

April 2007

You can look at the photo album for April 2007. You can also click on the new pictures below.

With Tuppence for Paper and Strings

You can have your own set of wings! With your fist holding tight... to the strings of your kite.

Grace has been begging to the fly her new kite for the last several days (in between Easter Egg hunts she gets bored). Today it was windy enough to fly the kite at the local park. Grace ran in circles shrieking and laughing at the kite.

Holden at 2 1/2 months.

Here's a recent photo of Holden, taken last week. He is a very even-tempered baby, and is going to be a little quieter than Grace. He is still very much attached to his Mother and doesn't like to be away from her during the evenings.

Baptism

Holden was baptized on Easter Sunday by Pastor Jami. Our friends Anne and Amy sponsored Holden. Grace got a front row stool to stand on and watch the proceedings.

The Great Easter Egg Hunt Marathon

Grace got to participate in three separate Easter Egg Hunts. All you could hear when the kids were looking for eggs was Grace narrating the entire event at the top of her voice. "An egg! Another egg! Look, an egg!"

New pathway

Over the last two years, since we installed our new porch and new front door, the path between the sidewalk and the steps turned into a mud trail, which didn't add to the house's aesthetic appeal, unless you were a deer. With the help of Nelson's parents, we put in a new broken concrete path.

Talking About Kidney Stones

I had a kidney stone that lasted six days. On Thursday, 10 days ago, I went to the hospital with extreme pain in my stomach and back and extreme dehydration. They said I had a kidney stone and gave me pain medication and injected me with fluids. The stone passed into my bladder last Tuesday, but I still feel a little sore today. That was the most painful thing I have ever felt. Aimee believes I was going through "sympathy pains" for giving birth to Holden two months ago.

Today we went out to eat at Snappy Dragon. Grace came in and sat down at the table and said to the couple beside us, "My Daddy peed out his kidney stone." I acklowledged this as truth, and thanked Grace for sharing with our neighbors. The man said that this sounded like news worth celebrating with a dinner out.

Dent

Coming out of Safeway this evening, Grace noticed that the car parked next to us had been in an accident. The entire back left side was crumpled. Two people were sitting in the front seat. She walked up to the car and said "Excuse me, excuse me. You have a dent in your car." The ladies in the car thought it was hilarious.

Grace's 5th Birthday

We celebrated Grace's 5th birthday with a dinosaur birthday party at the Burke Museum. I have posted some pictures of the birthday here. You can also see a couple pictures of Aimee's Dad, Bill, from his visit to meet his grandson.

The Indestructible Dinosaur Pinata

For Grace's birthday party we bought a very well-made dinosaur pinata that the children had no chance to break, and then equipped the children with a tiny stick. The results are in this video:

Why not just use a net?

Grace was expecting the fishing to be quick and easy. Throw in a line and the fish bites it. After a few minutes of holding the bamboo pole with no action from the fish swimming in the large tank, she asked why we didn't just get a net and scoop the fish out of the tank? I didn't have a good answer for that.

From February 2007

From February 2007

Children's Combat Fishing

We took Grace to Monroe for the Sportsmen's show - there was a children fishing pond and she wanted to go fishing. It was combat fishing training for children. Here is a picture of combat fishing in Alaska and the Washington children's combat fishing training ground.

From February 2007

Ash Wednesday

On Ash Wednesday, at Grace's bedtime, I was sitting on the couch. I had the cross in ashes on my forehead. Grace came up to me, looking at my forehead, and said, "Daddy, can you get off your ash and come read to me?"

Family Pictures

Here's some pictures from the last week.

From February 2007

From February 2007

From February 2007

New Photos

You can find some new photos of the family by clicking here.

Holden's First Letter

Here is Holden napping next to his first letter: The U.S. Social Security system welcoming him to this world by officially assigning him his own 9 digit number. His social security card was included - signature needed. Holden is required to return this card whenever they tell him to turn it in (the letter does not indicate why they would ever ask for him to return the card). None of these new complications seem to faze young Holden.

Happy Valentine's Day

Grace, in her self-picked Valentine's Day outfit, holding a card for her friend Annie. For some reason, this particular pair of pants were Valentine's Day pants.

When she woke up, she said, "Daddy, it's not red." "What's not red?" I asked. "Teacher Alice said Valentine's Day is red. Why isn't it red?" Apparently, the day itself was supposed to be red.

Dad and Children

Nelson, Holden and Grace, on the couch.

Proposed Present for Holden

Grace leafed through a Babies R Us catalog, and then suggested that we buy this for the baby.

Holden's First Trip to visit relatives

Moms and Babies

Outside of the UW Hospital - Mom and her new baby Holden in a sling; and Grace and her baby Keaton in a sling.

Holden and big Sister - 1 week old

Grace Tap Dance Video

Nelson is taking Grace to tap dance class on Thursdays while he's home on paternity leave. Here's the video of Grace in class:

Holden Video

I have a quick video of Holden you can view -

Holden Alexander Appell

His name is officially Holden (Meaning "kind") Alexander (Meaning "defender of mankind") Appell (Which is close to the French appeler for "to call").

I uploaded a few more pictures - click here.

Tap Dancing

In all the excitement of a new baby, life goes on - Grace is taking a tap dance class on Thursday mornings (a gift from Grandad Bill). This is her new dance dress and new tap shoes.

New Baby Boy

The new baby boy Appell was born yesterday at 7:54am at the University of Washington Medial Center - 6lb, 5-1/2 oz, 19 inches. Premature, but healthy. I'll be posting pictures here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/nappell/NewBabyBoy

Snow

It's snowing today in Seattle. Nelson and Grace went to the park with our neighbors, Max and Ken. Pictures can be viewed here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/nappell/SeattleSnow

Christmas Pictures

Christmas was great. Santa came, saw and conquered. You can view our pictures by clicking here.

We're Back

I've been away from the blog for awhile. I have a new method for sharing photos. These have the photos of the September Birthday parties, Halloween, Peri's Birthday (Peri is Grace's good friend), and some photos of our new floors we installed.

Alligators

These silly alligators kept the kids happy and busy the entire weekend! Who would have thought?

Apocalypse

On our last day in Holden, ash from the Flick Creek Wildfire started falling on us - a very light dusting of snow. (The fire was miles away on the other side of the lake and no threat to Holden.) Loud picked up his guitar and made up songs about the Apocalypse as he played cards in the ashfall.

Holden Pictures

To say we had fun would be an understatement. Grace and her buddies played with rubber toy alligators for two straight days in the gardens. The alligators had lively conversations. Each evening, a Mama deer and her twins (Feline and Bambi) and sometimes a Daddy deer walked through the village.

Holden Village

We just came back from our annual trip to Holden Village. This year we took 5 days. Here's a picture of Grace, hiding, before we got on the boat to Holden.

Friends

Grace's friend Little Foot, her troublesome dinosaur companion, will not stop eating from our garden. Grace is constantly asking us to tell Little Foot to stop eating the garden.

She doesn't have a brother or sister to fight with yet, but today she asked us to tell her imaginary friend, Mr. Q, to stop following her. So instead of actual fights we're refereeing imaginary fights between Grace and six inch tall girl named Mr. Q.

Cucumber Egg Hunt

We pulled up the cucumber plant today with all the remain xxxx-large
cucumbers attached to the vines. After Nelson tossed them in the yard
they looked like Easter Eggs, so we hid them and then Grace pretended
the Easter Bunny came and we had a cucumber-egg hunt.

Last Day of Class

Reading a book called "The Dragon Machine", they built a Dragon Machine to lead the baby dragon back where all the other dragons lived. This is just another typical imaginary adventure for Grace.

Grace Picture

Grace composed and took this photograph.

Grace's New Bed

A picture from Grace's first night in her new bed in her new room. (She loves her new room. So do we.)

Sleepy Airplanes

Grace, upon waking up this morning, said to Aimee: "Where do airplanes sleep?"

Also last night, Grace reports the following dream: Mommy was there, and Grandad was pretending to be a ghost, and he poked his head out of the sheets, and then we all went to Isabel's house, and Isabel's house was right next to our house.

Thumper Told Me

Grace offers many explanations for her behavior, or how the Universe
works, by prefacing her comments with "Thumper Told Me."

New Room

Our big project this past weekend was removing everything from Grace's room, painting it "Blue, like the morning sky", and putting in a new light and a new big-girl bed. She is now sleeping in her new room!

Self-portrait

Grace has figured out how to take pictures.

Life Lesson

We went to the zoo/  On the way home Grace had a bag of chips.  Aimee asked for the bag and Grace gave it to her, and then when Grace wanted it back, Aimee said, "Just a minute, I'm eating a few more chips."  Now, I started to joke about the lesson Grace should be learning from this: namely, never give away your bag of chips to somebody sitting in the front seat of the car.  Aimee said she was learning patience.  The debate was soon settled.  A few minutes later Aimee wanted some more chips and asked Grace for the bag back.  Grace, having learned her lesson, gave her the chips one at a time and kept the bag safely in her lap.