Walking with Dinosaurs

During the summer I purchased a groupon for tickets to see "Walking with Dinosaurs" at the Tacoma Dome.  Yesterday the time finally arrived for Abe and I to go!  We didn't tell him about it until the day before.  And boy was he excited!

I really didn't know what to expect, but the show was pretty cool.  There was this Australian paleantologist who told the audience random facts about the dinos and a bunch of dinosaurs that were mostly mechanical.  A few of the smaller ones were lifesize puppets.

Abe's favorite part: The dinosaurs fighting!

 The T-Rex!  Unfortunately we didn't get to see the full feature of the performance, because Abe had to go to the bathroom right when he arrived.  But it was pretty cool.  All the kids like hearing her roar at the audience.

1 Month Already!

I can't believe Teddy is already one month old!  Time has gone so fast--and he has grown so much.

We tried to get a picture of the kids together for our Christmas card, but it turns out that they aren't very photogenic--at least not all three at the same time.  Oh well.

Check out those chubby cheeks!  Sorry Teddy, I couldn't figure out how to rotate the picture.

 This week we've been working on making Christmas cookies to give to neighbors and Maryan (they're kind of famous among her family).  Here are a few pics of the adventure in sugar cookie making.  No, it is not bedtime.  Mei Li insisted that she wear her pj's for her nap.

Cutting out the shapes.  Mei Li's favorite was a little hedgehog.

 Sampling the frosting.

 Decorating!

Growing boy

Teddy's doing really well.  He had his 2 week doctor visit this Wednesday and she said that he's growing like a champ.  He's already gained over a pound from his birth weight, which is quite remarkable for breast fed babies.

Abe and Mei Li continue to have moments of enjoying his company.

 Practicing tummy time in his heart jammies.  Check out the cute hedge hog quilt from Great Auntie Nance.

 Cute little santa baby!

Happy Thanksgiving

 We had a good first thanksgiving with Teddy.  Mei Li helped make our pumpkin and apple pies (wearing only a sweatshirt and apron).

We gave Teddy his first bath in the kitchen sink.  He seemed to like the warm water.

 On Saturday we went to a gingerbread making workshop in Bellevue.  It was a pretty fun event.  They had a giant table with a bunch of candy laid out.  We managed to put together a pretty neat looking house, but then just as we were getting up to leave it got knocked on the floor.  Pretty sad, but we recovered by taking home some more candy and icing to re-decorate our now leaning house.

 Here's the final product before it met its demise.  One of our first family photos of the five of us.

Meet Teddy

It took having another kid for us to update this blog!  On Sunday morning we welcomed Theodore Scott HiuZai Hoff into our family.  We're all doing well.  So far Teddy seems pretty low key.  He's a great eater and pooper.  Both Abe and Mei Li seem to be excited to have a little brother.  

 The happy family!

 Teddy was born at 3:33am.  He weighed 8#12oz and was 20 1/2" long.  

In keeping with family tradition here is Teddy's first of many Banjo pictures at 5 days old.  

Clamming

Last weekend we drove to ocean shores to go clam digging.  We all had fun, although no one will be eating clams for awhile.  Everyone who ate them seemed to get sick afterwards.  Mei Li and I were fine--since we didn't eat them.  (I got sick in the fall when we had razor clams, so I already had an aversion to them.)  The weather was fine, and it was fun to run around on the beach.  I think Banjo had the best time of us all.

The littlest clammer: