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."