After that crazy 5 days at the convention in Phoenix I flew to Eugene, Oregon.  My sister Heather and her husband Ryan and their  two-year old Sylvan live there and I was thrilled for the chance to visit.  I of course took tons of photos, and here are a few…

This first one is Sylvan on his glider bike.  A glider bike is a two wheel bike with no pedals.  It’s a great way for kids to learn to ride a bike without training wheels, as they use their feet on the ground to push themselves along.  I swear that last time I saw him he was a baby – and now he’s a little boy!  

Here he is in action…

Sylvan played his first game of Hungry Hungry Hippos and loved it!  It was so fun for me because I have fond memories of this loud and raucous game from my childhood.

We went to a party while I was there and Sylvan playing the fiddle was a hit!  A group of folks picked up their guitars and jammed.  (You can see three of them in the background)  Sylvan was so cute as he played his fiddle along with the group.  Now, don’t get me wrong – he isn’t a child genius playing The Devil Went Down to Georgia or anything, but he can make some music!  The fiddle was a baby gift he received when he was born, as his mother played the fiddle in a band up until he arrived!  I guess it runs in the family.

Happy New Year!  I hope that you all had a fantastic holiday.  I enjoyed spending time with friends and family.  I have quite a few photos I’m excited to show you over the next week.  

To start off, here are a few photos from my family Thanksgiving.

My mom and dad are so adorable.

My cousin Robin and her husband Scott with Scratch.

My cousin Adam with his girlfriend Rose.

I’m so proud of my family. For the past few years we’ve given donations in one another’s names in lieu of more traditional gifts. This year we are pooling our donation money together to purchase livestock from Heifer International for a family in need. We’ve chosen to donate a Llama to a family in Latin America. Here’s what that means to the family:

When resources are scarce, it’s important that livestock don’t use up land reserved for people. At home in rough, mountainous areas of Latin America, llamas are a blessing to families with limited pasture land because they can eat the scrub vegetation that other domesticated animals won’t eat. Llama droppings help fertilize topsoil — improving crops and reducing erosion.

Women weave their llamas’ fleece into warm clothing to wear or sell. They load them up with goods for market and trek with them across rugged slopes at high altitudes. As they travel, llamas’ padded feet don’t damage the fragile terrain and their selective browsing doesn’t destroy sparse vegetation.

Llamas and their kin, the alpaca, provide Heifer families with invaluable sources of transportation, income and wool, which is prized for making blankets, ponchos, carpet and rope.

Llamas are remarkably disease resistant and require little care; they can carry small loads for distances over rugged slopes at high altitudes.

I also wanted to do something to make a difference locally, so I’ve “adopted” a four year old girl through Salvation Army – I’ll be buying her toys and clothes for Christmas. Last year was the biggest ever when the Athens area Salvation Army “adopted” over 300 children. This year, with the economy in the ditch and people out of work, they have registered 3500 children. There are still hundreds of children who need to be “adopted.” If you are interested in participating, you may contact Tammy Mize at (email) tammyjmize@yahoo.com, (work) 706-613-3780, or (cell) 706-540-7994.

I’m involved in a few other projects as well. If you are interested in getting involved, contact me!

Enjoy your holiday – and remember to help others enjoy theirs too.

Back in June my sister and nephew visited the family here on the east coast. (See this post.) I realized recently that I had promised more photos of my adorable nephew and didn’t follow through. So on the premise of “better late than never” I bring you these two photos. I hope you enjoy them!

I know this is now my fourth blog post on Jake (Jacob), but you have to admit he’s adorable!
Jake made quite an early arrival into this world, so he spent almost five weeks at the hospital getting bigger and preparing for the real world (whatever that means for a newborn!) Jake was finally able to go home with his parents last Saturday. I visited on Monday and took some more photographs. He’s a beautiful baby boy and his parents – though exhausted – were glowing.

Here are a few more photos from my second and third trips to the hospital to visit Jacob. (You can see the other posts by clicking here and here.) He will be able to go home soon, but in the mean time his parents are spending lots of time with him at the hospital. He’s gaining weight and doing great – and oh so cute!

Here’s another picture of Jake, my God brother’s son. His mom watches as he’s being held by her mom. I plan on getting more photos this weekend!

My God brother and his wife had a baby boy on Friday night! I got to see him on Saturday and take a few photos. He came into this world very early, and is really tiny. But he’s doing great and his parents were able to hold him today. He’s off the ventilator and CPAP. I hope to get back to the hospital for some more photos tomorrow.

There is nothing cuter than baby toes!

I can’t believe I let almost two weeks go by without posting!  I feel like I have a great excuse, though.  My sister and her son Sylvan came to visit for 10 days from their home on the other side of the country.  Since they live in Oregon, I don’t get to see them nearly enough.  Also – if you’ve ever spent any time with a 21 month old you’ll know, they don’t like to let you sit at your computer and work!  Of course, as adorable as they are you don’t want to either.  

Anyway, I’m going to be busy busy busy for the next week catching up, but will try to post some photos as I get them done.  For right now, I leave you with one photo from Heather and Sylvan’s trip.  This is a self portrait taken by auto-timer with the camera on a tripod. (By the way, it is true that right before the click it is inevitable for at least one person to look away, close their eyes, talk, or do something else that creates the need for a do-over!)

From left: 
My mother Paula – aka Oma (grandmother in German)
Me – aka Cago (Sylvan’s name for me, don’t know why!)
My sister Heather – aka Mama
Sylvan – aka Baby (he calls himself baby)
My father Stephen – aka Saba (grandfather in Hebrew)
My aunt Bobby – aka Tia (aunt in Spanish)
*We hope that next year this photo will also include Heather’s husband Ryan (aka Papa) as he was unable to get the time off work this year!!

I’d like to introduce the newest addition to my extended dog family – Toccoa.
Toccoa is a doberman rescue, who is now the lucky baby of Dona & Bill.  I took these photos on his second day in his new home, and he is clearly one happy puppy! 

He knows how to work the camera!

And has the puppy dog eyes down to a science.

I might have gone a little crazy with the processing, but he looks so regal in red!