Talented Ladies

Here are a couple of pictures from Siena's Zeroeth Birthday (her due date: October 13, 2008). She weighed in at 7 pounds, 8 ounces, by the way. Watch out world!







Luke Steidlmayer joined us for breakfast on Sunday morning before heading back to law school in Santa Clara. He held Siena like a natural.




Siena's latest trick is playing the piano... with her feet!




After our Bible study wrapped up on Monday night, Siena's Aunt Sarah came over with Poppy and Baba (my dad and mom). Sarah wowed us all with her bicep strength. Those are 10 pound dumbells and she's repping them out. :)

Apple Hill

We spent a good chunk of today at Apple Hill with friends. It was sweet. Literally and figuratively.

Here's the Apple Hill Gang in video:



Sam, my beautiful bride and Siena's mamacita...




Jen found Siena an apple that was just her size... as you can see from the picture, Siena was not very grateful - something we obviously need to work on.




Jen getting her baby-holding muscles in shape for when her (and JJ's) baby pops out in (hopefully) April...




Jenna and Cob making eyes at each other...



Applying the critical eye to make sure we only had the best apples in our bucket. :)




Cob and Jenna Armstrong needed to get picking at this point, but they got to it...




Katelyn was probably thinking about the ice cream and apple pie she would be eating shortly...




Jess is a natural apple-picker. She picked a good hubby, too (Craiger!).




Here's her hubby, caught mid-apple-hunting.




Jess is checking out Craig's apple. Apple-picking is a team sport.




Katelyn being very outdoorsy. Chuck did a nice job picking, using his height and recklessness to his advantage, but he was easily distracted by fallen apples. He used his soccer skills and the steel toes of his dad's old boots to destroy them. Talk about kicking them while they're down...




Jess's college friend joined us and climbed up a tree. That may have been against the rules, but she doesn't weigh enough to break a branch... besides, high apples needed good homes, too.




Focused on how good those Arkansas Black apples are going to be in future pies/crisps...




Paying the piper for the apples... great deal!




The whole crew in a pic:



Jen, Jenna, Cob, and me (with bad posture).




Siena missed out on tasty apple doughnuts, berry dumplings, etc. My mouth is watering just writing down those words... they were soooo good.




It is hard for Sam NOT to blink in pictures, but she's still cute. :)




Jen, Cob, and Jenna again.



Grubbing down at another cool spot, with a fun country/bluegrass band playing in the background.




Craig was great with Siena. He and Jess need to get on it. :)




Katelyn got what she came for...




Chuck Modesty caught eating sweets (actually a rare occurrence)...




Now, let the baking begin!!!

Miller Time

Good friends from SoCal, Craig and Jess Miller, came up for the weekend. We enjoyed hanging out with them, the Warnes, and the Smiths at the Smith pad on Friday night. Here are some videos and pictures.

The crew:




I'm still trying to teach Siena the joy of being tickled. Here we are "practicing":

No News Is Good News

Here are some fun pictures from the last week, with a video at the end...

Sam and Baby doing what they do best (snuggling):





Siena has some big yawns for such a tiny girl:




Jeremy is training for fatherhood (distant future) while modeling the haircut I gave him:




Siena hanging out in her crib, looking cute in an outfit she hasn't quite grown into:




Jen and Natalie finally got to throw the baby shower they had planned. It was originally going to be on September 20, but Siena crashed the party!



Bronwyn, Carie, and Bethany at the shower:




Happiness:




Cousin Shanon came for a cuddle sesh. Siena liked her a lot, even though Siena was a little self-conscious about being so white. :)




Justin, also training for fatherhood:




At one of Sam's showers, the ladies decorated diapers for Siena. This one was very on-point:




This is a typical shot of Siena lounging in bed in the morning. She is getting quite used to the Cal King(!):




Siena enjoys the quilt Kindall Keefer made for her:










We haven't had much to update lately because Siena does what just about every newborn does, we think: She eats (VERY frequently), she sleeps (especially during the day), and she poops (non-stop).

A few highlights in her almost one month of life:

1) She got to try out her first few cloth diapers because we thought we had run out of newborn-size disposables. (gasp.) The trendy bumGenius diapers looked ridiculously cute on her tiny body, but the leg holes still require legs with a bit more girth. This allowed for escapee excrement and extra loads of laundry. Fortunately, an infrequently-opened drawer provided hidden treasures -- an extra pack of mini diapers! It's going to be a tough transition...

2) Siena has become a real sports fanatic, already attending 3 football games (Davis High vs. Pioneer and two at Woodland Christian) and 3 of Shiloh's city league softball games. We're not sure she yet grasps all the rules of the game since she either eats, sleeps or poops (requires lots of concentration) through most of them, but she'll have plenty of time to observe the games as intramurals start up this coming Sunday. (Feel free to come watch and hold a baby on the sidelines!)

3) Hiccups still plague Siena at least once a day, but we don't mind because they make her look really cute. :)