Rachel

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Christmas in Wenatchee

Here are our pictures from Christmas in Wenatchee with Nana and Papa. Enjoy!

2008.12.24-27 - Christmas in Wenatchee

I love Nathan!

My brother wrote this blog entry a couple days ago and I loved it so I had to share.

By the way, my brother Nathan is probably one of my favorite people on the planet and although we don't talk nearly enough, I love him and thank the Lord for him.

I love you El Presidente and I will always cherish and remember our Thursday night dinners at CPK. Love ya Nay.

Snowed in....still.

We have been stuck in the house (except for a crazy trip the the grocery store, church on Sunday and Ryan going to the office a couple times) since last Thursday and I am going a little crazy! The roads aren't too bad near our house now but our hill is a mess so we've been parking our car at the bottom of the hill and making the trek down if we need to go anywhere.

Here are the highlights of our snow filled week:

• Got to know a bunch of our neighbors.....which is something we've been praying for, Praise the Lord!
• Were invited to a neighbors house for a drink as a thank you for all of Ryan's shoveling work. Had my first hot buttered rum because it was the drink offered......pretty sure there was a lot more rum than there was hot or buttered. Sipped slowly and tried not to make a face every time I brought the drink up to my lips. Yuck! Neighbors were great though and we look forward to getting to know them better.
• Went to Fred Meyer (grocery store) along with what appeared to be all of Issaquah. Got the last cart available and fed James his lunch while waiting in a line to check out that almost went out the door. Pandemonium!
• Made soup.
• Made cheese biscuits.
• Wanted to make cookies but discovered we are out of butter! Thought about asking Ryan to go to the store for butter and then remembered our previous Fred Meyer trip plus the crazy blizzard outside and thought better of it.
• Braved the roads to go to church on Sunday along with about 25 other folks (normally there are more like 500+).
• Watched James feed himself Puffs (aka baby crack) for the first time (after a little coaching from Ryan) and was genuinely amazed by my growing boy. Ryan was excited because it appears that James is more coordinated with his left hand than his right which I am told bodes well if he is ever interested in a career in baseball.
• Waited all Sunday for Ryan's sister's flight to come in only to find out that she got stuck in Las Vegas and can't get home for Christmas. Ryan and I searched the internet for 2+ hours looking for another way to get Meghann home..no luck. She's back in Dallas today. :-(
• Writing this blog.

So there are the highlights...oh and I think James is getting his top teeth this week.....all he wants for Christmas are his two front teeth.......

Ryan in his element

The crazy weather that we're having (18-30 degrees, ice, snow etc.) seems to bring out the best and worst in people and today I have seen both.

The sun has been shining all day and although it is still pretty frigid outside we thought it might be possible to make it to a store or two and get out of the house. The problem is however, that we live on a hill that is covered in snow/ice and we weren't sure if it was drivable. So Ryan and his constantly cautious self said that we should slowly creep down our street and stop at the end before descending the hill to assess the situation.

Well we found out pretty quick, by the three to four stranded cars, that we would not be driving any further. We also found a few nice neighbors that needed help......and one not so nice neighbor who wanted to get off the hill in his big SUV and was frustrated with the stranded folks.

If you know Ryan at all you know that he loves to help people and possibly more than that, he loves to help people if it means wielding a shovel or any other manly type of tool. So as the pictures below show you, as soon as we saw one of our neighbors stuck in the snow and scared of sliding down further Ryan grabbed his shovel and got another neighbor to join in on clearing the road. (By the way, he didn't know I was taking pictures or that I am writing this blog right now since he is still out in the snow helping other neighbors to free their cars and clear the road.)

Ryan has been outside shoveling the street for about 2+ hours now and last time I checked there was an almost clear path from our street to the bottom of the hill. A few other neighbors have joined in so James and I brought them a big jug of water and cups and they are plugging along.

I love my husband and I love the way he loves people. Thank you Jesus for giving Ryan a heart for others.

James and Mommy watching the action.

Snow! Snow! Snow!

Take a look at our photos from yesterday. James in our snowy neighborhood for his first glimpse of snow since he was three days old.

Snow!

Fuzzy Wuzzy

James got a package in the mail today from his Nana and here's what was in it:

Thank you Nana B! James will be warm and cozy this Christmas.

Nappy Boy

With all of James' new accomplishments I forgot to mention a few weeks ago that he is pulling himself up on everything and specifically standing up in his crib. This means every day I am welcomed by this cute little image when I pick him up from a nap....although sometimes tears are included.

Hi Mommy!

What's with the camera?

Hey...what's goin' on here?

October wrap-up

Being that it's almost Christmas, we thought the time was right to post some videos of James wrapping up his first October on the outside.

The bar was set high. (Recall the early days of October were action-packed!) But James continued to deliver. Additional major break-throughs included swinging, (for-real) crawling, and the highchair equivalent of jumping into a puddle.

(SEE BELOW!)

Hopefully this tides over the Gigi and Nana types until the November clips are polished and ready for posting.


A swingin' good time! (Oct. 15 at Ebright Creek Park, Sammamish)




James knows how to crawl for real now... (Oct. 24 at home)




A water slappin' good time! (Oct. 26 at home)

James' favorite basketball player

Howdy fans & fam!

Here's a brief article on James' favorite college basketball player, UW's Jon Brockman (#40, pictured above). It illustrates why Brockman appeals (to James' rugged sensibilities).

Enjoy!

~Dad Singletary

Cozy

James got a new winter hat and some gloves yesterday. He's not so sure about the gloves but the hat seems ok. Here are some pictures of the little muchkin:

Weekend with the Hendoos

This weekend the Hendrickson family (Kyle, Ann and Daniel!) came to visit and spend the night. Much fun was had by all and although James did try to attack their sweet little Daniel a number of times, everyone got away unscathed.

Here are some shots from the weekend.

Weekend with the Hendoos

Today

I know it's kinda mean to take a picture of someone when they're crying but today James was just too cute to not capture on film.



Here's another goody from today, after the crying had stopped.

James in November

Here are a bunch of photos of the boy in November.

November week 2-3

Cry Baby

I was blowing my nose today and out of nowhere James started crying. I thought it was a fluke but when I blew my nose again later it happened once more. So apparently nose blowing terrifies my son and makes him cry, here are some other things that make the little guy burst into tears.

1) Loud and unexpected laughter.
2) Loud and unexpected noise of any kind.
3) Shawn Stinson (see #1 & #2)
4) Harmonicas, the noise that they make.
5) His car seat. He used to hate it, then he didn't mind it, and now he hates it again. Bummer.
6) Barking dogs. Especially when there are four of them barking at one time......like at his Gigi and Bapas house last week.
7) Diaper changes. Although this one induces more roaring and yelling than actual crying and tears.
8) When I leave the room.