Easter Egg Hunt 2008

Here's footage from the Easter Egg Hunt in Des Moines, WA...

Play Toy

Whew! There are many parts to the Costco Play Toy.

Why adults need coffee and kids don't

The Spaghetti

Sonny

I haven't posted much about Sonny so here goes. He likes to sit in his Jump & Go... and jump... and jump... and jump... and go to sleep. Here's some footage of him trying to go to sleep in his Jump & Go...

Merry Christmas Santa!

Here's this year's Santa photo of the boys. I think it speaks for itself...

Reid's 2nd Birthday

Wow!... 2 videos in less than a week. We just celebrated Reid's 2nd birthday. Since the actual day fell on Thanksgiving this year, we decided to give him his own special day for a party. I'm still in awe that a Reid has only witnessed other kids blowing out candles and figured out what to do and when to do it.

Everything is great as we get ready for Christmas. Santa pictures are happening today. Stay tuned.

Tennessee 2007

Ok... so it's been over a month since I posted some video... better late than never. Here's our recent trip to Tennessee at the end of October...

Do the Puyallup!

We did the Puyallup a few weeks ago... Here's the proof.



The Fair from psbracing on Vimeo.

Anderson Family Updates

Life moves fast... Here's what has been going on. I left Starbucks after 15 years to work for REI... that is going well. Jen is balancing the family and her mortgage business... she is well. Hudson is now 3 months old... that is going well. Reid is growing up into a little boy... that is going well.

We've had family in town... that went well. We're planning a trip to Tennessee to see the rest of the family... That should go well.

Here's a little video from Labor Day weekend. I started running again (and I'm documenting it)so I just incorporated it into that project. More kid-centric videos to come as I sift through the last 2 months of footage.

3 Weeks goes fast

Well, 3 weeks has flown by and probably because every second was full of things to do. Hudson only gets up 3 times a night so he's getting predictable. Reid exposed us all to a stomach flu of some kind... poor guy. He's getting used to Hudson being around all the time. Hudson is becoming more alert and aware and Reid got a haricut.

For Jen and I... Jen is back to her normal self just about. 123lbs again... must be nice. It'll take me forever to lose my pregnancy weight. I need to start riding my bike again. I didn't touch it once in 3 weeks. Oh... I did some artwork for Hudson's room as well...

The Chair

I've written about The Chair before. Now we have a new modern spin on it. Enjoy.






The Favorite Chair from psbracing on Vimeo

Video Update

I think this tells the story a little better than before.






Hudson Barnett Anderson from psbracing on Vimeo

Hudson Barnett Anderson

Hudson Barnett Anderson entered the world at around 9:30 am on May 30th, 2007. He weighs in at 8lbs, 7oz. He's 19 inches long and has a 14 inch head.

Mom and baby are doing well and we'll be out of the hospital by Saturday. More to come as I get some time to post video and such.

Oh... Reid met his little brother for the first time today. His first words were"Baby!!!!"... and then he kissed his head.

Photoshoot 2007

We had some photos taken by our friend Keri before Hudson arrives. Here are the results.

CLICK HERE

Spring Easter Egg Jam 2007!

OK... we have some updates. 7 or so weeks until Hudson is here... We have completed about 30% of the projects to be done before he arrives... and Reid did an Easter Egg hunt down in the Waterfront park by our house. Des Moines' events tend to be a little hokey, but this one... as you'll see... was not poorly attended or badly organized. I'm trying to say it was pretty good. I threw together some magic so enjoy the show.

Easter Egg Jam 2007!

Sunday, we went to Gradma and Grandpa's house for dinner and to relax a bit. More to come... as I'll be getting ready to document on a daily basis the arrival of Hudson. I'll also have some more Reid video up that just needs some creative flair added to it. To throw out a teaser... Reid has been dabbling with VLOGS (video blogging).

Kids Music and stuff

Here's a little snappy song for the kids

Ignored but not forgotten

Man... it's hard to keep these things current. We've been busy and the boy is growing like a weed. Jen got her first taste of putting on a bike race a few weekends ago. It's probably the first thing we've done where we we're so closely aligned with making it a success. Everyone did their parts. Someday Reid (and Hudson) will help out as well.

Here's a little vid of something cute that Reid does that I finally managed to catch on film.

More Reid Hallwalker

Been a little busy lately, but since it's SuperBO! weekend and I'm not much of a football fan... I made some time to put together Episodes II and III of Reid Hallwalker. Reid is getting to the age of figuring things out on his own. He's also developing quite a little personality. He says "I don dis!" (I want this) and "Duk" (milk) and "meemee" (mamma) On top of the language skills developing at a rapid rate, he's also making sense of how things function. Door knobs for example. He grabbed my keys last week and tried to put them in the door knob. When he couldn't get the Truck key in the door... he looked at the keys and located the cylinder key for my bike lock... round... round... nice work son.

EPISODE II


EPISODE III


You'll notice that I followed the Star Wars protocol for how to set up your film. 20th Century Fox riff, then your "A long time ago..." phrase... A blast of Star Wars, the angled pre-script set up... and mood setting music. Now I feel like I need to go back to Episode I and redo the intro. (holy crud... now I understand why Lucas has "remastered" his films) Of course, I had to spend some time on some branding for the movies... I'll add Hudson in once he's born.

Reid Hallwalker

I've told you that Reid can walk and I've promised that I'd post video... and being the person that I am, I can't just post videos without setting them up properly. The inspiration for this comes from Star Wars... and since I'm a fan and all... here goes. Enjoy the Force. I present... Reid Hallwalker

Hudson Barnett Anderson

Ready for the big news... it's a boy! We're at 20 weeks via the ultrasound. During that ultrasound they figured out pretty quickly that it is a boy. Of course being the planners that we are, we have the name Hudson Barnett Anderson picked out.

Next steps:

• Create GANTT chart and project plan
• Sand and refinish his floors
• Organize his room (currently the Craigslist, eBay and Reid's old stuff room)
• Paint it pastel green
• add closet doors and organizers
• trim it out
• create special "Hudson" artwork that will incorporate bicycles or bicycle products in the design
• Deliver Hudson somewhere around the May 22nd timeframe

Why the name Hudson?? #1 because we have a pretty common last name. How many John Anderson's and Tom Anderson's are there? #2 Jen and I could agree on it. #3 "Reid and Hudson" rolls off the tongue like "Turner and Hooch". It's all in a name baby!.. here's some stats on the popularity of the name Hudson... we wanted to get in on the ground floor, as you can see, it's rising in popularity.

Big News

I'm not saying what right now, but on Wednesday night I will post big news here. BIG NEWS! Just you wait.

Doodie

HA! You think I'm gonna blog about poop again. No, this is a little story about a dog with feelings. His name is Mac... but we call him Doodie.

Doodie joined us the same year Jen and I got married. I had been talking about getting Willard (our female boxer, Seville) a buddy. We were convinced that she was lonely. But enough about Willard... this is about Doodie.

After much research at various dog rescues, I found Doodie at a rescue shelter in Emmett, ID. He was too much for his first and 2nd owners to handle. He wasn't potty trained and he just loved dogs more than people. So, Willard and I drove the 8 hours to Emmett, ID to go bring Doodie home (he was 8 months old when we got him). He immediately liked Willard and she could care less about him. I didn't care... I liked him from the start. He was all puppy and still is... more than 3 years later. He immediately hopped up inthe front seat of the truck and took charge of the passenger's seat. Willard and I didn't hear from him the entire way home... he just slept. Until I got off of I-90 and started to get on 405... that's when he puked on my pillow. Then he went back to sleep.

Lots of stuff has happened since that day. Doodie has grown to love us and especially Reid. Him and Reid have a special bond that only a boy and his dog could have. Reid pokes his eyes, pinches his skin, pulls at his nubby tail and tugs at his ears... all Doodie wants to do is lick Reid's face... Doodie knows that Reid is his boy and he is Reid's Doodie. When Reid stirs in the morning, Doodie comes down to let me know that he's up. So, I'll share this last thing... a little video of the boy with Doodie.

The New Year! Welcome 2007!

It's time to take this BLOG into 2007. But before we do that, let's look back on the milestones for 2006 in the Anderson household... in no particular order.

Mommy and Daddy turned 35 (last official year of "early thirties")
Reid learned to self-feed
Reid learned to walk
We built a huge deck (Daddy did actually... by himself he adds)
We built out the office space (to code)
We had family stay with us
Reid started daycare
The great heatwave that prompted us to buy an AC unit
The great windstorm that prompted us to think about getting a generator
We're pregnant again
Reid weighs 30lbs and is getting taller
Reid is talking to us in a conversational manner... once we can figure out some of his words, we'll be golden

A Vision of the Future for Seattle

Wouldn't this be great if our kids could inherit this?

We haven't forgotten about you

Yes... we're still around after the holidays... We're just trying to recoup and reorganize so we can entertain you with Holiday photos and stories... just sit tight and stay tuned

Frustrated??

So our power was restored on Monday and not a moment too soon. We'll have a better plan for next time.

So following the theme of "frustration", I put this little clip together from some footage I shot on Monday... So when you think that you have it bad at your job or at home... when things just don't go your way... refer to this to put it all in perspective. It could be worse...

Kris Kringle gonna get you! Part III - Santa's Ho

Hey Son...

Thanks for the note yesterday... It was a surprise to hear you talk like that. I had nothing but the best intentions for getting your picture with Santa. Now I know you were scared... cuz when I was a little boy, I got scared of Santa too. So as your Dad, I feel it's necessary to give you all of the angles on things. Like when I told you that formula tastes good now, but soon you'll start to like milk... and how it was o.k. that we had to get you bigger diapers and it doesn't mean that you're getting fat it just means you're growing up.

Well, this is one of those times. You see, we have it pretty good here in the good ole US of A. In other countries, their "Santa" isn't as well thought out or even as well-groomed as our Santa. Yes, people in other countries have it worse off than us. Let me share a little about the scary holidays that Italian children have to face.




La Befana is one of Italy's oldest and most celebrated legends. Each year on January 6 the children of Italy awaken in hopes that La Befana has made a visit to their house. This is a significant day to Italians because it marks the end of the Christmas season and the day that the three Wise Men arrived at the manger of the Christ child. Over the years the Epiphany has been a more celebrated holiday for the children of Italy than even Christmas.

As legend has it the three Wise Men were in search of the Christ child when they decided to stop at a small house to ask for directions. Upon knocking, an old woman holding a broom opened the door slightly to see who was there. Standing at her doorstep were three colorfully dressed men who were in need of directions to find the Christ child. The old woman was unaware of who these three men were looking for and could not point them in the right direction. Prior to the three men leaving they kindly asked the old woman to join them on their journey. She declined because she had much housework to do. After they left she felt as though she had made a mistake and decided to go and catch up with the kind men. After many hours of searching she could not find them. Thinking of the opportunity she had missed the old woman stopped every child to give them a small treat in hopes that one was the Christ child. Each year on the eve of the Epiphany she sets out looking for the baby Jesus. She stops at each child's house to leave those who were good treats in their stockings and those who were bad a lump of coal.
Make sure to keep those stockings hung by the chimney in hopes that La Befana will soon be there.


So the truth comes out... Santa offloaded his gift giving duties to some old lady. I guess even at Santa Corp. LLC they have turned to outsourcing in the Middle East. So, I hope this has given you another take on the Santa experience so that next year you can be a big boy and smile nice for your mom and I... Oh and one more thing. try not to think about the Boogie Man in your closet.

Love... your Dad

Kris Kringle's gonna get you! Part II

Dear Dad...

I know you think you're cute and all... making me pose with that red-suited freak with the white beard. I know you think it's funny to watch me cry and turn red and mess my diaper. I think you might have even enjoyed the enormous wait in line, with that kid who kept steppping on your heels and bumping into you... and the lady with all the perfume on. I'm here to tell you that I didn't think it was one bit funny at all... I was scared as hell. That Santa dude is creepy... and he smells of liquor and olives. We may have caught him just after his 3 martini lunch. That holiday, pepperminty, B.O. didn't help matters any either.

Now I know you think you helped ease the pain by easing me into Santa... standing by Santa and talking to him so I would get comfortable, but I'm not that easy. You must think I'm some kind of chump to fall for that. I think the problem with that Santa guy (besides the smell and the liquor) is that he has nothing to offer a kid my age. He's all about the scare and the intimidation. Then he thinks he can draw you in with his drug-dealer, candy-cane, "the first one's free" nonsense... He should think about handing out toys to little kids my age or something. I think that might improve his image. He may want to lose some weight as well. I think it could be traumatizing for a little kid my age to have to watch the Santa dude clutch his chest and collapse in front of a mall full of people. Besides... I seem to remember some story you were telling me about coming down our chimney or something on Christmas. I don't think so... You've been up there... you've seen that little 8X8 entrance into our stack. Anyway... I just wanted to get this off of my chest before I forgot and moved on to watching the Wiggles. Oh... and we're out of those cheesey fish crackers... pick some up on your way home.

Sincerely, your son,

Reid

Kris Kringle's gonna get you! Part I

I figured this would happen this year... and next probably. Awareness of that holiday villian... Kris Kringle. You know... the one that scares little children with is big white beard, booming voice, angry, red garments of terror. He goes in for the kill right at the moment the flash goes off... then he canes the little kids... candy canes that is. YES, my boy is officially afraid of Santa Claus! I kinda knew it was coming when our lovable singing Santa figure came out of the box yesterday. I pressed the button to see him sing and sway... the holidays are here. Reid was a little less than enthusiastic about our holiday toy Santa. On second thought, he does start out the song with "You'd better watch out..." Yes, Reid was terrorized by our singing Santa.

I saw a commercial on TLC that I thought was hilarious. There's a boy out cleaning up the yard, the dad comes out and says "You'd better get those drill bits organized in the garage, when you're done there." kid says, "Awwww Dad... but.." Dad says, "Who doesn't like a whiner?" kid says, "...Santa (all dejected and sad)" Dad says, "That's right, Santa doesn't... Santa doesn't."

You'd better watch out... Happy Holidays!