Link to the Hurtt blog

Hi all,

Thought we should link you to the Hurtt blog so you can see the pictures of Aidan and Maren. soooo cute.

http://chrishurtt.blogspot.com/

Take care

Happy Birthday, Enya Sabine Hurtt!

Sheila gave birth this morning (over 3 weeks earlier than expected) to a baby girl, Enya Sabine Hurtt! All is well with Mama and Baby, and I'm excited to meet my new niece!

Here is a link to Sheila's and Chris's blog with beautiful photos of their newest family member:

http://chrishurtt.blogspot.com/2009/09/enya-sabine-hurtt.html

All About "Papa"

Maren says "Papa!" anytime she sees a man with gray or white hair now. We have a subscription to Time magazine, so she has thought these distinguished gentlemen resemble Papa:


What do you think?

Maren and Gavin

We visited Joli and Gavin one day last week. Maren and Gavin get along really well together, jumping on the bed or playing on the slide.





Gavin just turned 2 years old! His birthday party was last weekend. I think Maren liked "helping" him play with his new toys - James is encouraged that Maren enjoyed the dump truck and garbage truck toys, so he can buy some that he'll get to play with as well!

Maren also liked the cake!

The kids took a bath together after the birthday party. We put Maren down to sleep in a pack n' play and hung out for a few more hours, then drove home and transferred Maren to bed pretty easily. All in all, a fun day!

Birthday!

Sept. 8 was my birthday, and I received these beautiful flowers from Marga and Pops - thank you for the lovely surprise!

James came home from work a little early for my birthday, and we took Maren to City Park.


Maren loves the swings!

Labor Day Weekend

Sheila, Chris, and Aidan drove up from Portland to visit us from Thursday to Monday, and the kids had so much fun chasing each other around the house! Aidan is really good at sharing for an almost-3 year old, but one toy was a major source of contention between Maren and Aidan: a little toy stroller for baby dolls. Whenever one of them wasn't looking, the other would take the stroller, leading to a chase through the house with mostly-happy screeching at the top of their lungs! Once in a while, the fight over the stroller would lead one of the kids to break down and cry or pout, but overall the cousins really get along very well. They took baths together in the evenings.

Unfortunately, it rained off and on almost all weekend, so we didn't get to spend a lot of time at our local parks. As an alternative, Sheila and I took the kids to the indoor mall play area one afternoon, and Aidan had a blast climbing on top of the ferry boat toy.

Aidan on top of the ferry, with Sheila standing beside him, and Maren making a new friend


On Saturday, Sheila, Chris, and Aidan drove to Whidbey Island to pick up my parents. They brought them back over to our house for lunch and to celebrate my birthday with cheesecake. On Sunday night, James grilled ribs and corn on the cob, and he made me another birthday cake!

The Hurtts left fairly early on Monday morning to get back to Portland and settle in for the week. We spent Labor Day in traditional fashion - relaxing and grilling hamburgers.

We just got this cute little pink sweater from Gammy, and it's already one of my favorites on Maren. Check out those ringlets! James and I swear it looks like we put Maren's hair in rollers!

Peanut Butter & Jelly!

Thankfully, Maren has not shown any type of allergic reaction to foods, and she seems to really like peanut butter. She does not appear to understand the concept of a "sandwich," however, and takes the two pieces of bread apart to eat each one and its attached spread separately. And gets really messy in the process...


Maren talks about her Daddy all day long, and loves it when he reads her books before she goes to bed. We have been trying to wean her from the bottle and only give her sippy cups during the day, but we still give her one bottle of milk before bedtime as a comfort thing. She sees the bottles on the countertop and asks for them all the time, though, and it's clear that she'd prefer more bottles!