We have officially survived what I'm calling Snowmaggeddon - Winter Ice Blast 2012 which is a combination of terms that I have heard on the local television news stations to describe such an event. They get pretty sensational when it comes to snow here. But it has been a pretty crazy weather week for us here in western Washington. The snow started on Monday afternoon and continued off and on until Wednesday. We took some time both Monday and Tuesday afternoon to take Soren out and play in the snow at the park down the street and in the back yard. On Wednesday the weather took a turn for the worse and the snow cranked up a level. More »

With a few inches of snow falling the past few days in our neighborhood Holly and I took some time during my lunch break to head to the park and build our first family snowman. We bundled Soren up in his snow gear and slowly shuffled to the park over the ice covered sidewalks. We arrived to find ten or so kids enjoying the snow. Soren watched them with great interest as they ran around him throwing snowballs and sledding down the hills of the park. A few kids kindly offered to share their sleds so I could give Soren a ride down the hill a few times. After peeling Soren from the sleds we all took turns rolling the large ball of snow to the correct size for our little snowman. More »

Today Santa visited Wildwood Elementary during lunch. Soren was lucky enough to see Santa and get a chance to sit on his lap. He even got a new toy truck before Christmas this year. Thanks to all the Wildwood Elementary teachers and staff for putting the event together. More »

Today was the debut performance of my barbershop quartet named 4.0. We were invited to sing a few songs at the Jet City Chorus fall Community Concert. It was great fun to be performing with my brother Tyson singing bass, Ted Chamberlain singing tenor, and Chris McMafferty singing baritone. I am excited to be singing barbershop and have enjoyed beginning to learn the style and technique. I look forward to more opportunities to sing with these great guys. Thanks to the Jet City Chorus for having us sing at their concert and thanks to our families and friends for their support. More »

Soren turns two this week and Holly worked and planned a fantastic Thomas the Train themed party. We had train balloons, plates, cups, sandwiches, wooden train whistles, Thomas the train cardboard costume, Train painting activities, train shaped cookies and an amazing Thomas the train cake. The cake was awesome and looked just like Thomas would if he was made of cake and covered in frosting. We had a great showing of friends and family on hand for the event. The kids played with one another with Soren and Cameron practicing some sharing. Holly thought up a good way to use the Thomas the train costume that we made for Soren for Halloween. More »

This afternoon as I was working from home Soren and Holly returned from getting some pumpkins for carving. Soren happily burst through the door and tripped passing the couch and hit his head on the corner of the coffee table. With lots of blood and crying we quickly realized we would need to take him to a Doctor. After the first ten minutes the blood slowed and we quickly rushed him to the Emergency Room at Valley Medical Center. We checked in and fed the little guy some crackers and cheese while we were waiting for the doctor to stitch him up. The nurse brought in stitching supplies including a mini stretcher / straight jacket to hold Soren down while they worked on him. More »

We arrived late to Mera Foster's 5 Year birthday party at the amazing Thompsson Family Farm (if you have not been go soon). Soren had been talking about riding a tractor all day and he was ready as soon as we arrived. The farm has a small pumpkin patch, tractor rides, a bubble table, farm animals and the list goes on. We spent all of our time between an old broken down tractor set up for the kids to sit on and play with and waiting in line for the tractor rides. Soren was super excited for the tractor rides but when I would ask him if he wanted to ride he would say "No". After watching several rounds of kids much older than him ride laps around the pasture he finally decided that he wanted to ride. More »

This weekend we took Soren on his first Carousel ride at the Super Mall in Auburn. We decided to take a trip there to get the little squirt out of the house on a rainy Saturday afternoon. Upon arrival he was mesmerized for the first five minutes by the spinning lights and horses of all shapes and colors but was after that was convinced that he must take a ride. Soren choose the horse that he called "Bambi" that resembled a decorated reindeer complete with a four point rack. Holly and I took turns riding with him as he grinned and smiled the whole time pausing at the end to demand "more more more" whenever the ride stopped. More »

For most Sunday mornings this summer at 10am you could find us at the Henry Moses Aquatic Center for the Splash and Play for 0-3 year olds. They open the pool up just for the little kids and their parents to give them a chance to swim and play without all of the camotion caused by the older kids. I have really enjoyed this time with Soren. He has steadily improved his skills in the water. He started being fearless and trying to run through the water which caused him to trip and fall face first. More »

For our 8th Anniversary Holly and I decided to take a camping trip on Cape Disappointment. I know the name of the place is a bit funny especially for an anniversary trip but we were not disappointed at all. We left Soren with Grandma and Grandpa Johnson and were on our way. Our campsite was 50 feet from the beach and we could hear the waves crashing into the shore and smell the salt in the air. To the north were several different rock formations complete with caves that we visited on our second day there. We spend most of our first afternoon hiking some of the short trails on the south end of the peninsula. More »

Here is some video of Soren sliding all by himself today and swinging with Mommy at the park in our neighborhood. He loves to slide again and again. Hard to believe he is growing up so fast. We have really been enjoying this beautiful summer weather.

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Yesterday Holly and I hosted our first Summer BBQ\birthday party. We had a handful of my friends over as well as our parents. The weather was cooperative and the sun even came out right as our guests starred to arrive. We had the swimming pool out for Soren and Cadence. Cadence spent so much time in tue pool that she was shivering and Kyle had to pull her out into the sum to get warm. Soren spent most of the time playing with his new bubble lawn mower that Grandma Johnson gave him. More »