Hello? Is it me your looking for?

Ami keeps prodding me to start posting again on this blog. I kept saying I was too busy. Well, I am not sure if it is the summer and kids being out of school but it has been a slow work week. I bring my laptop to work now. So, I thought I would update the blog.

The last post was from Christmas 2010. Wow. Just a few things have happened since then. We moved back to Texas. Bought our first home, in Austin. My brother got married. We went to Australia. The kids have grown. I was going to write "the kids have gotten bigger" but most of you know there is nothing big about Priya and Mira.  

I am limited to the pictures that have been downloaded to my laptop. They seem to be mostly cell phone pictures, so I apologize for the quality. Here we go.

About to buy some cheese curds in Carlton Place, Ontario. 

Priya and her cute hat at my cousin's wedding in Ottawa.

Mexican bumper cars in Sayulita.

Safe donut eating in Kyle.

Unsafe push car riding.

Priya and Daisy Duck during Priya's first visit to Disney World.

Priya and Mira with their Austin friends last July 4th.

Dancing at a concert in Vail last summer. The picture below was at a farmers market in CO.

Uncle Chris and Mira driving the electric boat on Lake Union in Seattle.

A picnic and artwork in a park in Portland last summer.

Halloween 2012

Priya going for a ride in Pappy's convertible. Her favorite car.

Ok. That is enough for now. Look for round 2 soon.

Christmas in Seattle

We spent Chistmas with the Wallace family in Seattle.  Grandmaman and Pappy flew up from Florida and we all stayed at my brother's new house in West Seattle.  Priya had a blast watching the ferries go back and forth between the West Seattle dock near my brother's house and nearby Vashon Island.  Luckily, we had one day where the clouds lifted and we could see the Olympic Mountains across the Puget Sound.

Priya had a hard time not opening gifts before it was time.  Pappy kept a close eye on her though:

Finally, it was Christmas morning and Priya set to opening everybody's gifts for them.  She was an unwrapping machine.  She would open one gift and then ask for another:  "Another gift!".  The only thing that stopped her was her new Dora the Explorer backpack:

Here she helps unwrap some more gifts while wearing her new hair clips that Santa brought her by way of the Mattas.

Mira was forced to look on from the sidelines - not quite ready for action.  By next year she will probably give her sister a hand.

Priya Sledding (Video)

Behold the grainy footage of Priya and I braving what must be a 200 foot mountain. You will notice as we descend our snowy perch we pass a cafeteria tray, which was our actual sled. The stranger working the camera was kind enough to force his young son to give up his real sled for one run. I am the best Dad ever.

Winter Boringland

We just returned to Portland from spending a week in the sticks - Hermiston, OR. It started to snow the night we arrived and it snowed everyday the rest of the week. The temperature didn't get above freezing until the day before we left and the low of the week was -2 F. Good times. We did get to take Priya sledding for the first time and I will post a video of that soon.


Between sledding runs, Priya loved playing in the snowy playground. She really wanted to build a snowman but the snow wouldn't stick together. Instead, she rode the horse.

Mira didn't know what the fuss was all about. She stayed nice and cozy the whole week. Below is a picture from the backstage party we crashed at the Yo Gabba Gabba show!

October 2010

October in Portland started out very nice with many sunny days. There were a few very rainy days sprinkled in there. Serious rain. Texas rain. Then another nice stretch of sun. Unfortunately, it seems as though the rain has returned and is likely here to stay for the next 6-8 months. Good times. Hopefully we will get some snow this year in the city.

In the meantime, enjoy some photos of what we did in the sun during October.

Well, this wasn't actually in the sun. This is Mira's first trip to the Temple.

The next group of pictures is from our trip to the pumpkin patch - one of our favorite activities of the year. Mira was there but didn't make it into too many pictures on account of being stuck in the stroller the whole time. Next year.

Cow train. I really wanted to go but I let Ami go with Priya.

Nana found a nice Priya-sized pumpkin.

Everyone jumped on the hayride, including Sona.

This is a real deal pumpkin patch. Pick 'em right off the plant!

This wasn't at the pumpkin patch but I had to include it. Priya insisted on wearing her glasses to school that day. Doesn't she look fabulous!

September and October 2010 - Mira and Priya

Wow. Having two kids is fun. Lots of sleep. Good times. Thankfully we have grandmothers. Here are some photos of Mira and Priya from the last month. It is scary how much they look alike as babies.

Mira's first real bath. She does not seem to like water as much as Priya. She also turns as red as a lobster.

Priya and Uncle Chris watching the Vaux Swifts that roost in the chimney at the local elementary school:

Mira content with her Nani.

Mira content with her Grandmaman.

Mira Marie Wallace

Mira Marie was born on Tuesday, September 7th at 5:03 pm. Although Ami had to be induced, the delivery went incredibly smooth. Ami only had to push for about 20 minutes and not very hard at that. Mira was as pink as cotton candy and got to lay with Mommy for a good long time (unlike Priya who was blue and rushed to the nursery to brighten up!).

After Daddy cut the cord and Mira spent more time with Mommy, they got around to measuring up Mira: 7 pounds 11 ounces and 20.5 inches. She weighs 9 ounces more than Priya did and Priya was 10 days late (Mira was induced 1 week early).

About an hour after she was delivered, Grandmaman brought Priya to visit Mommy and Mira. She was super sweet with her little sister. Priya wanted to immediately hold her.

It was great having both grandmothers in town for the birth. They were both beaming when they got to finally meet Mira. We couldn't have done it without both of them - especially with Priya and Sona (the dog) around needing love too.

Priya finally got her wish as we sat her down the on the couch and let her hold Mira while Nani and Daddy hovered closely, ready to catch. Priya celebrated by stealing Mommy's water.

Everybody is happy and healthy. Mira looks exactly like Priya did when she was born. We will head home tomorrow and introduce Mira to Sona. Then the fun begins!

Back in Room 362

We are back in the same hospital and actually the same room in which Ami delivered Priya. We even had one of the same nurses last night - and she remembered us! Ami is being induced a week early. She had gestational diabetes and her OB didn't want the baby to get much bigger.

Things are progressing slowly with induction. Ami eagerly awaits enough progress to warrant the epidural! It is cloudy and wet outside. Hopefully we will get some sunshine and a rainbow like last time when Priya was born.

More details to come....

Random Spring/Summer pictures

Time for some updated pictures. It has been a busy month of July. Ami and I spent a week in Whistler while Priya hung out with Grandmaman. That was great for all involved. Other than that we hung out. These pictures are from late spring and summer. They are in random order. The first one is Priya helping us pick out vegetables for our summer garden. She loves wagons.




One of my favorite things about summer in the NW is berry season. Sauvie Island is about 15-20 minutes from our house and you can pick any kind of berry you could imaging. Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, boysenberries, marionberries, and blackberries! Pounds at a time. I thought Priya would be somewhat helpful this year. Not so much:

Mommy and Priya went to the park in late spring and Priya wanted to take pictures. That is not quite how it works, but she is getting there. I think that is the last time that camera worked properly (seriously).

Back at Sauvie Island. This time picking snow peas. There is no way to tell if this was the same trip or a different day from the berries as this is her favorite pajama top and we often go in the morning after she wakes up to avoid the crowds.

This next one is from the spring in Hermiston. I just never downloaded it until now. She was playing in the camping chair. I love this picture:

I started this blog a month or so before Priya was born and if I remember correctly, the first pictures were of Ami pregnant with Priya. So, with just a month to go before daughter #2 arrives here is a picture of Ami pregnant again. Keep in mind that this picture was taken in Whistler in mid July when she still had two months to go!

Like I said, less than a month to go. We still don't have a name picked out for her. Hopefully one will come to us soon.

July 4th Parade

I hope everyone had a great time on July 4th. We joined some friends for a neighborhood parade and picnic. Priya wore the patriotic dress Nani bought her. She was having a hard time guarding her wagon and trying to steal the neighbor's ball before the start of the parade:






The parade started and we were off down the hill. Priya started out in the wagon but quickly wanted out. She loves to walk Sona now. We had to make sure Sona didn't take off after something. Luckily she didn't.

The park at the end of the parade route was full of all kinds of fun things. After playing with her wagon a little bit, Priya went and got all messy playing with the bubble soap. She doesn't care much for the bubbles themselves as much as the soap. She was covered with soap when we left - inside and out!

She loved the fire engines. She was second in line for the huge ladder truck and I basically had to pull her out. Then she took a turn in the driver's seat of the hose engine. She loved that. She wanted to push all the buttons though and who knows what those buttons might do.

We had a great time. She made it about 1.5 -2 hours past her nap time without having a meltdown. She simply looked at me from the bubble soap bucket and said "Home". So, home we went.