Kissing and Signing!

Kate's been making all kinds of progress lately that I thought you might be interested in hearing about. She is now hugging us when we ask for a hug. She will also attempt a kiss when we ask for one, but it varies between a lean forward with a wide open mouth and an actual kissing noise that goes along with the lean forward - either way it is too cute!

She also has finally begun to communicate using hand signs! This is a long time coming, as we've been showing her signs for "hungry" and "more" and "done" since she was six months old (that was 9 months ago!). Lo and behold she began to perform the "done" sign when a couple weeks ago and within the last week she's begun doing the sign for "hungry" (mainly when she is really hungry and trying desperately to get her point across) and she also is doing the sign for "more" half way through each meal. It was pretty rewarding for us to see the signs and I think it is thrilling for her to be communicating successfully with us.

The good news too is that she is also talking a bit. The words she can perform with various levels of proficiency are: mama, dada, nana, night night, doggie, coal, bye - I think that's about it.

Our little cutie is coming along and we're thrilled to see the progress.

5 Pounds Happier (and heavier)

The week of Thanksgiving is officially over and now it's time to get back to life, and the gym. We had a fantastic week-long trip to Milwaukee to visit my parents along with the rest of my sib's and their "lovers". We had a good week and Kate being the only kid in the bunch was spoiled rotten; we've had to endure a few crying fits since our arrival back in Denver to remind her that we don't indulge her as much as when there are grandparents, aunts and uncles at her disposal.

The highlights of the week included a gingerbread house decorating contest, of which the winner has not been determined - if you have a favorite, please vote in the "comments" section! Joe got all of us to pitch in to make firewood, each couple put on a family meal, we were "treated" to venison that was sauntering in the woods the morning before dinner, a 1000 piece puzzle was completed, ping-pong domination, and a cute little under-the-stairs closet for Kate to sleep in (very Harry Potterish).

My folks were nice enough to watch Kate one afternoon while Mike, Kristin, Jeff and I went to the Lakefront Brewery tour in Milwaukee. If you're ever in Milwaukee wondering what to do with an afternoon I highly recommend this tour - it was interesting, hilarious and complete with Kristin and I standing on the conveyer belt leading the group in the Laverne & Shirley theme song as Kristin dropped the rubber glove on a beer bottle - good times.

Have I mentioned the food and wine of the week? There's nothing like a week in Wisconsin full of pies, apple crisp, cinnamon roles, pumpkin bread, and your usual meat and potatoes to put on the couple of extra pounds I'm carrying around with me. Was it worth it, absolutely - I wouldn't trade it for the world. I figure that it took me one week to gain it, I get two weeks to lose it - now I'm headed to the gym! Enjoy the slideshow!

Halloween Tricks!

This Halloween was a particularly good one at our house, our friends Lisa and Mark teamed up with us to host a Halloween party at our house. A good time was had by all, there was a tie for the "best costume" between Jeff for his Dr. Phil impression and Keith for his Roy Munson getup. Here are some of the photos of the evening!

A Wooden Block and Half a Fry In My Shoe

Kate's latest and greatest hobby is to move things from one place to another. It can be anything, from toys to food to clothes. She LOVES helping with the laundry: she pulls every piece out of the laundry basket and then either hands it to Jeff or I or it goes on the ground (it never ocurred to me until right now that because they are on the floor they made it to the floor they probably aren't quite as clean...). This is all well and good until I was putting on my tennis shoe to go work out and as my foot smooshed a week-old french fry (which goes to show how long it has been since I worked out) I also bumped up against a wooden block - both were in my shoe. It did make for a good laugh.

Trip to the Pumpkin Patch!

We went out to the pumpkin patch last weekend and Kate was in HEAVEN! All of the pumpkins were close to her size, so she had tons of fun walking around and checking out all the pumpkins. Now we just have to carve them up!

On The Road!

There is a reason why I haven't been doing many blog posts, I have been traveling A TON for work. I feel like I've been living the Johnny Cash song: I've been everywhere man, I've been to Newark, Chicago, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC, Charlotte. I've been everywhere.... It's going well, but my time at home has been cherished so I haven't been able to write on our site very much. It has been very interesting checking out different parts of the company and I have figured out one thing for sure: my favorite time to fly is east to west during the sunset, it makes for a very thoughtful and pretty flight.

The Fruits of Our Labor!

Our garden has been going strong and it has been so exciting to see all the delicious fruits and veggies coming up! Here's a shot of the loot from one of our big harvest days:


Here we have tomatoes, raspberries, cucumbers, zucchinis, jalapenos, green peppers, and green beans! We also had lettuce and spinach earlier in the summer. We are now nearing the end of the season now, but it's been a good go for the year! I love having a garden :)

Walkin' the Line

Well, Kate has officially crossed the line from crawling only to walking and crawling. Her record of steps taken without the help of a wall, furniture or an adult is about 10 or 12 steps; that being said she does sometimes just take one or two steps and plop down again. Here's some video footage of some of her first steps

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY KATE!

Saturday marked the very first birthday of Ms. Katie Harper. We sure had a good time celebrating and Kate LOVED her cake. She had her own cake to do whatever she wanted to with and then I made a different cake for everyone else. We had friends and family here to celebrate with us and she loved seeing everyone and had fun playing with some new toys too. Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate, you made it a fun day!

Climbin' On up!

Well, the latest and greatest on Kate is that she's learning how to climb things. Jeff discovered this the other day when he went to check on her in our one "baby-proof" room and there she was sitting on top of our side-table next to the couch! She's had several more incidences of climbing since that day and I was lucky enough to get on on camera today. Enjoy the footage!

This Old House!

Well, here we are - Friday night with an hour to myself, unbelievable!! As I think back I am very unclear of what exactly has been keeping me so busy. Oh yeah, maybe it has been the house remodel project, Kate, working, cleaning, laundry, etc.

ANYHOW.... Uncle Matthew just came by for week or so on his way from Portland to State College, PA (I don't envy him that drive, especially in the 1980's minivan he's driving these days). We did have a great time:



And we are making progress on the house remodeling. I keep encouraging Jeff to do a blog post about the project, but I know he's down to less free time than I between working, Kate and the project. Basically Jeff (with VERY minimal help from me) has added new lighting to the kitchen, done some drywall work, textured walls and the ceiling, taken out most of the old flooring, laid down sub-floor planks and now we are finally seeing some of the hardwood floors go in!


Within the next two weeks we expect the new cabinets, sink and hopefully counter top to arrive and magically get installed (by Jeffers). I'm really crossing my fingers that we have a functioning kitchen sink for Kate's first birthday party over labor day! I'll let you know how that pans out...

So, I think we have some work ahead of us!! It'll be a busy couple of weeks. Wish us luck!

The Days of Summertime!

Here we are and Kate's over 10 months old. I'll go ahead and tip my hat to cliches: time is sure flying by! What have we been up to? Well, mostly hangin' out with Kate and working on our house remodel (who am I kidding, mainly Jeff's been working on the remodel...). That and our garden is doing great - we've been eating spinach, lettuce, and radishes and we are looking forward to zucchini, cucumber, peppers, cherry tomatoes and green beans!! I'll take a photo or two for the blog when the garden is at its peak!

Kate's been having a blast hanging out at least once a week with her good friend, Landon. They've been getting along swimmingly, especially because Landon can't yet tell Kate to quit being so overbearing with her enthusiasm for him!:

We also had fun on the Fourth of July with Lulu, Poppy and Andy in Buena Vista, CO. Complete with a flag-style outfit on Kate for the never-ending Fourth of July Parade.

The following weekend we celebrated my birthday by taking Kate to the Cherry Creek Reservoir swim beach for a picnic and a swim. It sure was fun and Kate loved the sand once she figured out that it doesn't taste very good!


And today we gave Kate her 2nd official haircut. Here are two before shots and one after! Before with damp hair which turns into curls:

Before in the highchair as I pulled out the scissors:

After the haircut!

Kate is crawling like crazy and we're expecting her to walk shortly. She walks around the house holding onto walls, etc. and she walks really well when we are holding her hands so we'll let you know when she really goes for it and starts walking on her own. My mom's quote was, "you think she's fast now? Just wait until she's walking" - so we have that to look forward to!!

She's a Performer!

Here's a video of Kate showcasing her current talents!

It's all shortening up now, well at least until the Winter Solstice...

Happy Summer Solstice, everyone! You probably know that it was last Friday, and for us it marks the weekend of the summer that we have our annual Celebrate The Solstice party here in Denver.

This year we featured a badminton tournament - we had 8 teams participating and the grand prize went to myself and our good friend Mark Digan! I must say, we made a great team and I was hugely impressed by Mark's badminton skills. It's a good thing that it was the Summer Solstice because the tournament went on until we could barely see the "birdie" as it was flying around. The whole thing was really fun and I think we'll continue on the badminton tournament for years to come! I only wish we had taken some photos to post up!

The party wound down around midnight and I think Jeff made it into the sack around 2:00 - all of which are surefire signs of a good party! Kate stayed up until at least 9:00, which goes to show how much of a partier she is too! Here's a photo of Kate in her Rolling Stones onesie - she's a true "rocker".

Like Sands Through an Hourglass, These are the Days of Summertime...

Ahhhhhh, here we are - summertime! There's nothing quite like 90 degree weather in June to make you realize that summer is officially here! Kate is a happy camper with her new crawling skill - even though her little knees have rug-burn all over them from cruisin' around... We've had a few more exciting events happening in our house recently, within the last week Kate began successfully pulling herself up which we discovered after a nap one day:

She also has began to hold her own milk bottle, and have I mentioned that her two bottom teeth are coming up now more and more everyday? I also discovered that a top tooth is coming in today! We recently started swimming lessons for her:


And over the weekend it was 90 out, so we made it over to the pool, which Kate did enjoy, but it took a bit for her to get into it. Here are a couple photos of her progression:



So, yes - we are enjoying summer so far and Kate continues to be great fun!! Oh, and did I mention that is always amazes me how well you get to know your neighbors in the heat of the summer (I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing):

A Milestone for Kate!

Our anticipation has finally been met!! Kate decided to put it all together this morning and crawl in several consecutive motions. For months she's been rolling around and lifting her hands and knees, but today for the first time she used all of her skills in coordination to crawl from point A to point B!!

A big thank you goes out to Papa Joe for the crawling training regime that he and Kate endured when we were recently in Wisconsin - all of that hard work and training has finally come to fruition!! Here's a video of some of the highlights from today:



The only disconcerting part is that the "toy" Kate wanted to crawl to was the TV remote!! She has been practicing her new skill all day and we're realizing how much baby-proofing needs to be done around here and how much busier our lives just became.

The Price is Right Footage

Finally!! Here is a quick video of The Price is Right episode that I was an audience member for. I am two rows from the back in a dark pink shirt. The second half of this clip shows a guy being "called down" who is sitting just two seats directly in front of me, then he runs right by me and behind me... Enjoy it - I know I did!!!

Photo Update

Here are some photos of Kate - mostly from our recent vacation to Wisconsin. Enjoy!

We're Ba-ack...

Greetings! We just got back today from a trip back to the Midwest "homeland". We were there for about 10 days and had an absolutely fabulous time that included 54 holes of golf, several dinners out, two days on our own while Kate hung out with Nana K and Papa Joe, plenty of wine, beer & cheese, the it's "cooler by the lake" weather of Milwaukee, a classic midwest flea market, a nice visit with my Grandma Cash and plenty of late nights. It sure was fun! I did drive through Iowa in the heat of the storms and tornadoes last night, during which we actually had to pull over and take shelter for an hour or so of the drive. So, we were glad to arrive home safe & sound this morning after a bit of a hectic drive back. Not surprisingly, Jeff has now officially sworn off Iowa on the list of places he wouldn't mind residing (I don't think there has been a single time we've drive through Iowa without hitting severe weather).

I'm hoping to load up current pictures and videos of Kate this week and post them up for you to look at. I hope all is well with you!

While We Were Out

Well, between visitors, sicknesses and traveling for work the last couple weeks have been busy ones! I apologize for the lack of posts - but this is truly the first free night I've had in quite some time.

About two weeks ago we had a long weekend that entailed a Branch invasion (I think I may have written about the anniversary celebration we did while everyone was here). Well, when everyone was here Papa Joe swore that he'd have Kate crawling by the end of the weekend! Here's a video clip of some of the "training" activities that ensued that weekend. Kristin is also in this clip coaching Kate (and Jose!).



The day before they left I came down with a cold that lasted several days. Then the work week took over our lives, as it usually does, and by Friday we were overjoyed as the weekend came into view. Jeff and I had an amazing opportunity to attend the Rockies' game on Saturday night to celebrate of our good friend Matt's 30th birthday. Originally Jeff was going to go and I was going to hang out with Kate, but instead our friend's Jesse and Amy (who gave birth to Landon two months ago) were having Jesse's mother, Kathy, come over to watch Landon for the night and she was SOOOO generous to offer to watch Kate at the same time - what a wonderful woman!!! We couldn't wait!! So - we took Kate over and got her comfy (along with two bottles of milk, a pacifier, portable crib, an extra outfit, diapers, wipes, toys, her bedtime toy and favorite blanket - not to mention a jar of jam and a batch of cookies for Kathy to say THANK YOU!) and we were off!! What a night! 6 whole hours of freedom and adult conversation and an opportunity to relax. It couldn't have been more fun. We returned to their house and found out that Kate behaved herself and Kathy claimed she was "great" - what a success!

The weekend really couldn't have gotten any better, until I woke up in the middle of the night severely ill with what I could only believe was food poisoning from the brat I had at the stadium. It turns out that is was a 24 hour stomach flu, because Jeff was lucky enough to get the same thing Sunday night. I had plans to travel for work on Monday, so when I woke up Monday morning feeling much much better I was incredibly grateful - but Jeff and I were both so worried that Kate would get sick. It turned out that Jeff was feeling almost 100% back to normal by the time I had to leave Monday night and so off I went. We both were crossing our fingers that Kate wouldn't get nearly as sick and Jeff and I did. Sure enough, there is something to that crossing your fingers technique because all she wound up with was a touch of diarrhea - thank you thank you thank you!!!

Now I'm back home from my trip and everything is getting back to normal. That is until next Tuesday when I head our for another work trip to Seattle!

Don't forget!!!

Don't forget to catch The Price Is Right tomorrow!! I'm sitting about three rows from the back in a dark pink sweater. If you miss it www.cbs.com has the full episodes available for about a week. Let me know if you catch it!!

We got nothin'...

Sorry for the lack of new posts lately - I can't really say that we have any great excuses. Well, other than the fact that much of my immediate family was visiting for 5 days starting last last Friday (1.5 weeks ago now...) so we were busy hanging out with them and then I came down with a cold the day they left town and started feeling better by last Friday (2 days ago). Otherwise, there just really hasn't been much going on.

We did have a great celebration of our 5 year wedding anniversary last last Saturday - we had a total of 10 adults at our house from our two families over for dinner and we drank a 3-Liter bottle of wine of the same variety that we drank at our wedding (not to mention the four or so other bottles we flew through...) It sure was a good time and a fun party!

What else is new.... um.... not much I guess! We put some seeds in our garden this weekend and I can't wait to see the veggies start growing! Jeff's started working on our "kitchen remodel" project, which amounts to lots of demolition work for now.

Kate's doing great - still not crawling, but she's getting closer and closer everyday! We did finally get a highchair for it and she loves it - I think she thinks she is the queen of the house in her thrown when she's sitting in it! She had so much fun seeing Nana Karen and Papa Joe, Aunt Kristin & Mike and Uncle Mateo over the weekend - thanks to everyone for all the love and help with Kate while you were here! She's woken up at 4:30 AM the last two nights for no apparent reason, so we keep saying that she is obviously teething (that being said, we've been claiming that she's been "teething" for about 6 months now and still there are no teeth in her mouth)!

I now have accounts on both www.linkedin.com and www.facebook.com - maybe that's what I've been doing.... So look me up if you're on those sites at all.

I hope all is well and hopefully some events that are blog-worthy will happen to us so that we have something to write about! But for now, we've got nothin'!

Kate Joins a Swingers Club!

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Okay so it really isn't a club but she has developed quite a liking to her newest toy, an outdoor swing. While Stacey and I are slaving away breaking our backs tilling soil, moving landscaping rock and just generally getting far too much exercise, there is Kate swinging away and loving every minute of it. Much to Stacey's dismay and chagrin, Daddy dearest really enjoys pushing the limits of the swing (that being said, it is entirely safe). The higher she goes, the smiles and the laughter get bigger and louder. Which is turn only provokes and motivates Daddy dearest to continue pushing the envelope. The older Kate gets, the younger I feel. I can only hope that this trend continues. Enjoy the video, as you can tell Kate certainly enjoyed when the camera started rolling.

(This post contributed by, Well mostly Jeff)

Pedicure, Anyone?

After years of begging and pleading for Jeff to join me in the absolute joy and fun of getting a pedicure, he finally gave in! We went yesterday after work and sat in the pedicure chairs of the local "NAILS" salon, Kate was very well-behaved and enjoyed her time watching the ladies working on our feet. I happen to believe that a pedicure is one of the more enjoyable treats around and after Jeff got one too, I think he is in agreement!!

When they asked Jeff if he wanted any polish, he said - well, I've come this far I might as well go all-out. "Big Apple Red" was his color of choice and I have to say that he can pull it off much better than I could with his skin tone! Don't our feet look good?

Don't Come on Down, Stacey Harper!

This week I attended a small team meeting in Los Angeles with the Western 1/2 of the the work team I am a part of. While my job is like most, far from perfect at any given time, they do throw me a bone once in a while to be sure I'm still interested. So, this week we not only went to opening day at the Los Angeles Dodgers game, but we also talked my boss in to a trip to watch a taping of THE PRICE IS RIGHT!!

OHMIGAWD - it was so much fun. We had to wait for several hours amongst the typical Price is Right crowd, which made for some superb people-watching. Once we got in the whole experience was quite surreal. First of all, the Price Is Right set was VERY small, I'm guessing the auditorium only fit about 200 people (which isn't very many for a "theater" sort of setting). Secondly - it was super dingy and not glamorous at all, very 1970's-ish. On the plus side, as we all took our seats they were playing great music to get everyone's energy up. Before ya knew it I found myself dancing next to my dancing boss to "I Will Survive" and the Jackson 5.

Now - as the taping began, let me just say I was so completely convinced that I was going to be called up to be a contestant. Afterall I was looking pretty cute that particular day, the interviewer seemed to be very friendly with me and I am a fairly well-spoken individual with a funny joke to crack once in a while. It was really hard to hear the names being called though, so every time they called a name I was so worried that I didn't hear my name (because of course they were going to call me up!) and that I would look stupid not reacting to my own name being called. Well, lo and behold we made it through the whole hour of taping and they didn't call me up (they didn't realize what they were missing out on with that choice), which is probably a good thing because my knowledge of the Price is Right is very limited and I would've put way too much consideration into the guesses on the pricing of items.

All-in-all the taping was super fun to go to. Our group of 5 was definitely the most conservatively dressed group this show has ever seen in their audience (we were donning business-casual from our meetings earlier in the day). The people-watching was amazing, which included an apparently low-income cross-dresser hugging Drew Carey during one of the commercial brakes. Drew Carey was a great host, he was talking to the crowd during commercial brakes, cracking jokes and singing, etc. He really did seem like a very nice guy.

To cap off the evening we ate at the Maggiano's right across the street from the CBS studios and apparently Queen Latifah stopped by while we were there, but didn't stay for dinner because her dinner companion was a vegan and so they needed to go somewhere else for food. We really didn't have any celebrity spottings, but the inside scoop is that Ryan Seacrest has recently invested in butt implants - I was searching for him everywhere we went so I could check out his new butt!!

Anyways - it did occur to me that it is pretty fun to watch tapings of shows you enjoy (not that The Price is Right is my favorite show), so maybe we'll try to go see Ellen or something the next time we're there! Oh, and I did get a picture or two of me wearing my name tag and in line outside of the studio, but I can't figure out how to get the photos from my cell phone to my computer. If I figure it out I'll edit this post and add them.

PS - The show we attended is being "aired" on April 30th, for those of you that have time to watch game shows during the day (I'm the cute one in the pink shirt towards the back of the audience!)...

Jump! Jump!

Kate's jumpin' with excitement on her new Johnny Jump Up! I have heard rumors that these exciting toys have been recalled (if that's true it must be a result of user-error), but apparently if you live in a small mountain town you can find it in the local variety store! Thank you, Lucy - Kate loves it!

Kate's Sleepin' at the Table!!

Here we were bragging about our homemade baby food, at look what kind of response we get...

Truth be told, here's the story. Kate always takes a really good nap in the afternoon. She is pretty much borderline on if she needs one in the morning or not - somedays yes and somedays no. So, yesterday she started getting fussy and it was only about 20 minutes before her normal mealtime of 10:00 AM, so Jeff went ahead and got the meal ready-to-go and started the whole process. Well, apparently she was more tired than hungry - he said she actually feel asleep with the spoon in her mouth!! And we thought she was so excited to be eating solids... ;)

Adventures in Pureeing

Well - I hate to admit it, but one of my most prominent and current hobbies is making baby food. We started out with Bananas, Avocado and Sweet Potatoes (this picture shows some "glops" of avocado and sweet potatoes just before entry into the freezer):

With Kate getting past the 6 month mark, we've delved into much more variety now! She LOVES apple sauce, she's tried pears and peaches and is in heaven! I've never seen a baby eat with so much gusto! This weekend I blended up both peas and green beans for her. I was really doubting the idea of her liking peas at all (neither Jeff or I are fans), but lo and behold - she's a HUGE fan of the peas!!  We'll try green beans later this week and I'm guessing she'll get along really well with those as well.  It seems that her all-time favorite is still sweet potatoes, and it sure shows on her pretty little face!

Happy 40th Anniversary!!

To my wonderful parents, Happy 40th Anniversary! 

My lovely parents, Joe & Karen, aka Jose & Mom, aka Papa Joe & Nana K, recently celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary - how about that, huh?!? I couldn't have grown up with a better example of two people who truly love, respect and care for each other and they drive each other nuts for only a small percentage of the time! Not only that, but they're fun too! They are always doing fun things including extensive travel (ie a trip to Afghanistan about two years ago - yes, some people do call them crazy!). So, what did they do to celebrate their 40th, you ask, - they went to the Galapagos Islands!! Who does that???? Apparently my folks do. Not only were they celebrating their 40th anniversary, but it was the first vacation since my dad's full retirement. Apparently he spent the entire trip reciting the line "I'm a recovering lawyer" when anyone asked him what he "does"!!!!! Here are the only two pictures I've seen from the trip - pretty cute!!

6 Months!!

Here we are - 6 months after the day Kate made her grand appearance. Boy, has she come a long way since that time. In this time she's gone from sleeping for 3 hours at a time to doing 12 hours a night(thank goodness), more than doubled her size (evidenced by her pediatrician calling her "roley poley"), and her little personality is sure making its debut - sense of humor and everything. She laughs more than she cries and we smile with her more than we console her. She marked her 6 months with the new ability to sit up without our support, which is exciting to see her become a bit more independent. Look how far she's come!

Kate's Very First "Ladies Luncheon"

Last week Kate went to her very first "Ladies Luncheon" - dressed to the hilt!! She and I met up with some of my colleagues for lunch and one of them brought her 8 month old. Kate and Alli had fun looking at each other and being held by some of the other ladies. It was fun and she sure got plenty of attention for being so cute!

It's The End of a Lambeau Era

May all cheeseheads unite in our grief and sorrow to see Mr. Brett Favre make the decision to end his career with the Packers. To say that there is a depression amongst Packer-lovers everywhere is an understatement. I'm not going to list off all of Favre's stats, records, amazing accomplishments, etc - those are being broad-casted across most airwaves and frequencies to a point at which we should all know them by heart.

I was reading the USA Today this morning and it mentioned that most high-schoolers in Wisconsin know of no other quarterback. Quite honestly, I haven't seen another quarterback start for the Packers since I was a sophomore in high school (god, that was a long time ago). I really have no recollection of any other quarterback at good ol' Lambeau Field. His energy and excitement for the game will surely be missed throughout Green Bay and Wisconsin.

It is clear that the Packers, Favre and Wisconsin were a menageatois made in heaven and it will be some time before Wisconsinites everywhere feel anywhere close to "normal" again. I do know that many of you think that the Wisconsin "normal" is not the same "normal" that the rest of the country identifies with, and you're probably right, but believe me - I'm proud to be a part of that group.

I did have the pleasure to grieve a bit with a fellow cheesehead this week and I did hear grumblings of a small Wisconsin town in which a funeral home is planning to partner up with a local bar to host a memorial service for our dear "Favre who art in heaven".

Kate was even upset to hear the news. Here are some before and after the news pictures:












Rest in peace, my friend, you will be missed.

Oh, and Brett - in case you're reading this, I haven't forgotten when you and I met at the Milwaukee Country Club in the summer of '97 and if you'd still like to "hang out later" just let me know!

The Madness is Almost Upon Us!

It's that time of year and if you want to get into the March Madness bracket pool that Jeff and I always participate in you're more than welcome! Mark Wetherell sent the password and links below and I told him I'd do a blog post on it in case anyone would like to join it. If you'd like to join you'll want to sign up with http://sportsline.com/ and then come back to this email, click the links and go from there. The brackets are all filled in online, etc.

It's a winner takes all pool with a $10 entry. Mark is the coordinator of it, so please send him your $10 by 3/19/2008!! This should be ample time!! He plans to remove your bracket if he doesn't have your cash by the stated deadline. His contact info is below.

Mark Wetherell
7495 E. Quincy Ave #305
Denver, CO 80237

The pool's link is:
http://tdm.mayhem.sportsline.com/e

Our Group password is: ncaa64

Good Luck!

Welcome To The World, Landon Jay Berchem!

Our new friend, Landon Berchem, made his grand entrance into this world on Monday, February 25th and he is so lucky to have chosen our good friends to be his parents, Jesse and Amy Berchem! Congratulations to all three of you! We stopped by to see him today and he's a cute little munchkin! I know it sounds cliche, but I don't remember Kate being that little!!!

A WII Bit O' Fun!

We decided that we'd spend the $$$ we won from the "Losers" NFL pool we participated in and invest in some good old video-gaming fun(after all we need to do our part to keep the economy on the up & up). After weeks of searching, we got a hold of Costco on a morning that they had just received a new shipment, ran right over and put our money down!! Matthew happened to be in town the day we got it, which was an added bonus and fun in getting to try out our new gaming system. We're pretty psyched about it - the gaming system we've been using is a Nintendo 64 that is nearing its 10 year anniversary with us! Don't worry, there's no way we're getting rid of the 64, after all it still offers us MarioKart, Diddy Kong and Dr. Mario!

Anyhow - it's been fun so far, but I absolutely HAD to put up this video of Jeff and Matthew in one of the very first boxing matches on our WII. Enjoy!

Kate's First Haircut

It was time. We were trying to let it just grow and be "natural", but it just got to be too much.

Let me just say that this was a very difficult decision. It was pretty much one of our very first parental decisions that embodies a basic value. Should we just let it go and she can be "all-natural" or do we cut it and attempt a more maintained and possibly cuter look? We wrestled with the decision for quite some time and it recently got to the point where she had become a decent representation of a mix between a 1970s rocker, a hippie with dreadlocks (the back of her head we affectionately call the "rat's nest"), and the quintessential mullet sporting kid. While we generally pride ourselves in doing our best go all-natural whenever possible (which inevitably turns into spending way too much money on organic and all-natural food), we caved on this one and administered the very first haircut (or should I say I caved, Jeff was hoping for the "natural" look).



Jeff and I both agree, the cut is pretty cute - although I have done some refining after this video was taking... I guess a cute haircut is a work-in-progress, much like current trends in haircuts. The mullet is probably coming back "in" soon and I'll regret having cut it!

Uncie Mafflew is a Runnin' Fool!

Hi everyone, this is Uncie Mafflew guest blogging again. I'd like to write some funny things, and maybe I will, but this blog entry is actually about a very serious topic. About a month ago, I signed up to run a half-marathon in Portland's Race for the Roses, which is in early April. While I am excited to be training again (as long as my Branch feet hold up) the main reason why I did it is to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I've pledged to raise $1310 (which is $100/mile that I run... yikes!) in order for them to help fund research for cures to blood cancer and other problems. I decided to attempt to raise more than the minimum ask in order to lower their overhead so that more money can go to research.

But I need help. Well I need lots of help in a lot of ways actually, but for this I mostly need your monetary help. A donation would be most helpful to the cause. You can donate a set amount or by the mile (but you'll have to do the math, it would be whatever amount you'd like to donate per mile X 13.1). If you are at all interested, I suggest checking out my fund raising page at:

http://www.active.com/donate/tntor/MattBranch

If you are more comfortable sending money the old fashioned way, please feel free to drop me a line at mjbranch@yahoo.com and we can discuss your options. Remember that this is a tax-deductible donation and you will receive a receipt from Team in Training.

And just so there is no confusion, this race for the cure thing is not the type where the winner gets the cure, its a benefit to try to find the cure. It took me a couple of weeks to figure that part out.

So on behalf of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, thank you for taking the time to read about this, and any donation would be greatly appreciated. And I too, would appreciate it, because if I don't raise the money they said they were going to take me out back, which does not sound positive at all.

Warmly,
Uncie Mafflew

ps. feel free to tell your friends!