Hale's iphone interest

Since before he turned one, Hale has been amusing us with his interest in Landon's iphone. Well, ok, maybe if I'm a little more honest, we've been amusing Hale with the iphone. He's a busy little guy and sometimes we just want him to be still while riding in the car!

In any case, we were a little shocked when we realized that, at fifteen months, he was not "accidentally" unlocking the phone but sliding his little finger across the bottom of the screen with a determined purpose. He quickly developed the skills to navigate the phone's programs - and that's when the real fun began!

Hale is regularly changing Landon's ringtones and other phone settings. So, to distract him, Landon downloaded some toddler apps for him - little games that teach him shapes, colors and counting. He enjoys the toddler games but has also learned how to play the other games Landon has on his phone. He is amazingly good at playing pinball (well, better than me anyway). Landon downloaded "Oregon Trail" for his iphone, just for old times sake, so I occasionally look over Hale's shoulder and see him fording the river or hunting squirrels.

I think Landon is pleased that Hale shows so much interest in electronics. And imagine my joy when we were flipping through the camera roll on the phone and discovered that Hale is also experimenting with photography. Or, at least, we're pretty sure he took these. What do you think?





In his jammies...



You could call this one "Family Roadtrip" since it has his two feet and Landon and my elbows.



He does seem to be improving somewhat - recording events! I believe this is Hale's view of Rocklyn's birthday party.



And I kind of like the composition here- plus he managed to capture a person - his dad driving the car!

Hale update

I took a few random pictures of Hale in his room yesterday. I thought I would share them along with a few facts.

This is Hale waking up from his nap. He suffered a burn on his wrist in November that we are still covering until it is fully healed. He is really proud of his bandage and shows his "ow" to me first thing in the morning and before he goes to sleep at night. He also shows it to absolutely everyone we meet, so I've had some awkward moments trying to describe the story to people while moving through the line at the grocery store.



Here's Hale playing with his new train set. It is a wooden set complete with a table on which to set up the tracks. He's not that great at putting the tracks together, but he does a terrific job of taking them apart.



Hale has become a fun companion to hang out with during the day. He is quite a ham and loves to get a laugh. His favorite trick is hiding under his crib and then springing out from under the dust ruffle. It's actually pretty amusing - especially since he is so quiet under there that I genuinely start wondering where he is. You'd think I'd remember to look under the bed.

Some new words this week were: duck, broke, cold, wet, Hale, watch and wash (though the last two sound the same)

Outside in January

It's been a wonderfully mild January so far! Last week, it was still 60 degrees at 6 o'clock in the evening. We joked that, if it hadn't been so dark, we could have eaten dinner on the deck!

Hale and I have been out enjoying the weather almost every day. It's been a little damp to play in the yard but I decided to let him run around in the grass (and ivy) after our walk today.


Knee deep in the ivy


Moving sticks


After we lost the sun it got a little cold so we put on his heavier jacket


Which made it hard to bend over...


but we still managed to find some cool stuff - like little daffodils. I think they are being a little optimistic. Winter's not over yet!



A happy face while eating his snack inside...

Rocklyn turns two!

We didn't have to feel depressed about Christmas being over this year because we had another reason to celebrate! Rocklyn turned two and we a great time celebrating what a special girl she is.



Modeling some new dress up clothes.



Uncle Kohl got Rocklyn's new bubble gun going and the kids had a blast with it.



Of course, if you know Hale, you know that he is kind of into iPhones so the kids played with that for a while too.



Hale knows his way around this phone but Rocklyn has one at her house too, so she had some tips for Hale.

Christmas 2009 Part IV: Christmas Day

Christmas Day started out back at Mim and Poppa's for stockings. We look forward to this tradition every year. Mim has a stocking for everyone in the family - almost 40 people! It is a very full fireplace.

Greeting Maggie at the door.



Hale proudly showing off his new slippers.



Karl with Tyce - another one of Hale's cousin friends. Mim has so many pretty things in her house. This tree had a little electric train inside of it and the kids were fascinated by it.



Hale playing hard with his protective eye gear on.



Later in our day we headed to enjoy a feast with the Kroontjes. Yum.



And some games too - like musical chairs.



A fun day with family - we were very blessed.

Christmas 2009 Part III: Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was spent with Landon's immediate family. The evening kicks off with a photo by the tree that we do as a group (though some of us reluctantly) every year.



Hale tearing into one of his first gifts.



Dad and Grandpa helping Hale try on his new slippers!!



I think Hale felt a little bad walking on such cute puppies. He kind of just wanted to snuggle them so he kept rolling onto the ground so he could pet them.



Rocklyn and Hale sporting their new vests from Grandpa and Grandma.



Grandpa and Grandma really hit a home run with this cool Hummer. They took turns driving it on the patio but even with cool new vests it was a little cold.



So somehow it was decided that it could come in the house for a while. Watch out for the Christmas tree!



Hale was a little bit of a scary driver for at first. He's got the hang of it now.

Christmas 2009 Part II: more pre-celebration

We celebrated Christmas a little early with the Van Dyk side. The kids had a great time with their other cousins.

Hale caused a little mischief (as usual).



Rocklyn bonded with the older girl cousins



Here is Cole - a great little friend to Hale.



Rocklyn and Tarelle listening to Mim's annual Christmas reading



We also did a little family celebration early in the Christmas week. Hale discovered that the boxes under the tree were not just there to make it easier to reach the ornaments...



...but actually had really cool stuff inside them. I'm very glad that he didn't figure that out until it was actually time to open them.

Christmas 2009 Part I: pre-celebration

Here's the start of my Christmas posting - try to ignore the fact that it is January.

We did a lot of fun activities the week of my birthday. The men in Hale's life generously took care of him so that I could run off shopping to Seattle TWICE - it was awesome! Unfortunately, the week's grand finale was a family-wide bout of a quick-onset stomach flu, but I can give you those hilarious details later...

Here are some pictures taken in Bellevue during one of the fun shopping trips with Susan, Tarelle and Aunt Rosie.

Grandpa Bud's Christmas Gift

Despite my lack of posts, I've actually put in many photoshop hours during the past few weeks. We went a little calendar crazy this Christmas and I thought I would post the images from a calendar we made for Grandpa Bud.