Pictures of Baby Tru Eating

Crazy, good times

Hey everyone,

We have been crazy busy. Here is a quick rundown.

We closed on our new house on January 25th. As soon as we got the keys we got busy repainting and tearing down wallpaper. We were completely moved in by the 31st. Big thanks to everyone who helped with the move, we couldn't have done it without you.

On February 7th we flew to Oahu and then to the Big Island for my brother Ted's wedding. We had a fabulous time and are so happy to have Jill and Jordyn Meadow as new members of the family. The wedding was incredible and we had a great time dancing and drinking (ED):) jk Another big highlight was seeing Lis and Ed and the Kona Chinen's. Little Hilly was also there newly sprung from NZ and she loved getting to see her new nephew.

We then flew back to Oahu to spend about a week with Mom and Uncle Glen. It was so fun to see the family and for Baby Tru to get to meet everyone.

We were really bad about taking pictures during the trip. Sorry!

Baby Tru has been amazing as usual. He started to roll over (almost 4 months old) on Ted and Jill's wedding day, Fab 10. Now we really have to watch him because he can quickly roll from one side of the room to the other. He landed his face in a heating grate the other day and was not really pleased. At his 4 month appointment he was 16 pounds, matt weighed him yesterday and he was 18 pounds. He laugh's and giggles all the time and is really showing his personality. We started him on a little rice cereal tonight and we will give him poi tommorow.

I promise we will be posting more often. I had 2 stomach flu's and one really nasty cold in Feb. Then we all got a nasty cold in March!!! So forgive us and enjoy a couple of pic's of Baby Tru in all his glory.

Love,
Colleen, Matt and Baby Tru

ps: check out the way cool outfit from Aunty Lisa in Everett. It's great because it keeps him really warm when he is rolling around on the floor.

We bought a HOUSE!

Crickey!
Crickey!
We can't believe it. It's a crazy miracle! We are buying a very nice duplex with Lael and should get the keys tomorrow. We were fortunate to qualify for Section 184 Housing (Native HUD housing) and our getting a great deal on a house with a big yard for baby Tru to play in. We are so blessed and our going to paint this weekend and move in completely on Sunday.

The other great thing is that BOB is moving in downstairs!!!! WAHOOOOO!

It just keeps getting better and better.

We are busy moving and baby Tru is doing well. He has had some tummy problems recently but according to the Dr. it's nothing to worry about. He is enjoying tummy time for about 10 minutes and then he is through with it and wants to be on his back where he can observe and supervise the action.

Keep praying and thinking of Mentasta Village there have been two deaths there recently and one little girl, Jessie in the hospital with lukemia. If you want to visit her she is at Children's in Seattle.

Matt has been doing amazing design work and recently did a new website for RW Anderson Construction. It's his first website using flash. Check it out at
www.rwandersonhomes.com
I know I am his wife but I really think he is wonderfully talented. Not just with the technical stuff (which he taught himself) but his eye for design and knowing what will look good - I think that is the real gift!

Lots of love!

Lots of December Pictures

Brothers

Mom and Dad on their anniversary

Cousins

Pictures from December

Tummy Time

Doting Grandparents

Happy baby meets Upit for the first time!

Time Flies!

Sorry for the long gap in our posts. We had an extremely busy holiday season and I didn't have much time to post. Although we did take some great pictures that I will add!

Quick recap of December!

Jen and Andrey Sawchenko
Our lovely friends (who we shared a house with in 2003) visited from Thailand! Baby Tru was thrilled that they could take some time off from their very important work in Chang Mai to spend some time bonding with him. We had such a good time catching up and hearing about the work they are doing. Andrey is the director of the Thailand office for International Justice Mission, http://www.ijm.org/and Jen is working on the Thai/Burma border. It was amazing to hear the stories of how the Creator is using them to love and serve the poor. It was also a major highlight to briefly see the King and Queen of Narnia, Lou and Marilyn (Andrey's parents), we have spent a lot of time at their house in Canada and it was great to see them again.

Two Months = SHOTS!
Oh, the dreaded shots! It was an awful experience. We had absolutely no fun getting Baby Tru's 2 month shots. I wasn't prepared when I went in to the Dr.'s office and I was a bit stunned when the informed me that Baby was to receive not 1 but 4 shots. He did okay with the first shot but by the time the 3rd and the 4th was administrated he was FURIOUS at the injustice of this world. I felt really horrible and though more than once that I was a terrible mother. Baby was sleepy and grumpy for about 3 days. Why wasn't I warned?

Echohawk Invasion
Mom, Howie, Lis and Ed all arrived on the 22nd. We had a gloriously fun time. Christmas day we went to Ted and Jill's house and ate enormous amounts of food. We had prime rib, turkey and ham. It was delicious and really great to finally see Ted and Jill's new house in Tacoma. It's an amazingly huge house and it was fun to see Jordan in her element, we also met Jill's mom, brother and sister-in-law, who proved to be very nice people.

Night of Serenity
It has been SO divine to have Ojichan and Grandma Cathy living in Seattle! We are very greatful to know that baby Tru will have at least one set of grandparents who live so close. We celebrated Christmas at their house with Josh, Ben, Court and the kids the night of the 22nd. Cathy made her world famous Christmas cookies, it was aserene, peaceful and sugary Christmas night that we all immensely enjoyed.

too cute

More Pictures

funny kids

Yesterday Noni (Hiro's three year old cousin) was watching baby while I was doing laundry and I heard Hiro sneeze 2 times. Noni came running for me and proclaimed, "Auntie Colleen, Baby True is blushing!" He is so hilarious. Miguel is so gentle with baby, he stares at him and sings, "twinkle, twinkle Hiro star" What a cute kid.

Here's a pic of Miguel taken about a month ago. He took Uncle Eddie to school and Uncle Ed gave him a moko (traditional Maori tattoo). http://www.tamoko.org.nz/

I am also adding a pic of Auntie Lis and baby True, because he misses her so much.

HIRO Update

All is well in Hiro land. We have been doing very well and Hiro continues to be a deliciously good baby. He is gained quite a lot of weight and we are guessing that he is around 11 pounds. He's grown out of all his newborn clothes and has moved on to 0-3 months. He is sleeping 5 to 6 hours a night and it makes a huge difference in our energy levels.

It snowed the last few days in November and we were housebound. Matt made it to work via the buses but otherwise we hunkered down and waited for it to blow over. Seattle School's closed down for 2 days because the road's turned into pure ice and no one here knows how to drive on them. It's a bit funny to me, growing up in Alaska the only reason the schools shut down was when it was negative 50! Crickey! We took a couple of pictures of baby in the snow but they did not turn out very good. Sorry Auntie Lis!

We are looking forward to Christmas! Auntie Lis, Uncle Eddie, Uncle Howie and Grandma Yvonne get here on the 22nd and the revelry will commence. When we get together we have the most FANTASTIC times and conversation, I can't wait. We (Echohawks) always go a little overboard on presents and we are trying to hold back. We will have lots of pictures and maybe video to put on the blog.

Take care everyone and Merry Christmas.

He Smiles

Baby True is a smiling happy boy. As you can see from the picture he recognizes mom and dad with big smiles. He is ridiculously cute. He had a well child visit today and is now 9 pounds 2 ounces and is in the 25th percentile for growth, which according to the Dr. is great considering he was 3 weeks early. He got his Hep B shot and cried for about 15 seconds and then fell asleep immediately! That's an Echohawk trait - if stressed, sleep.

Thanksgiving was great. We had around 20 people over. I ended up roasting and smoking the turkey. Matt had to take my cousin, Danger to the ER, he has this nasty flu and had gotten dehydrated. So I smoked, cleaned, fed baby and mashed 5 pounds of potatoes (which by the way were pretty good, I was thinking about doing something fancy like adding garlic, parsley or cheeses but decided to stick to 2 sticks of butter and about a cup of heavy whipping cream.) Both Turkeys were proclaimed delicious but I think the roasted turkey was a little better. Because of my poor smoking skills the smoked turkey was a little dry.

I forgot to take pictures while everyone was at the house. I did take a pic of the table before the hoards descended. Marisa and Galen set and decorated the table,
i thought it turned out really pretty.

Colleen

Camoflauge Baby on the eve of T day

Auntie Lala bought this way cute outfit. Baby True loves it. We took Baby to the doctor today and he weighed 8 pounds 12 ounces. We were a little worried that he wasn't getting enough to eat. According to the Dr. his growth is excellent and we have nothing to worry about.

Tommorow is Thanksgiving and we are having around 16 people to the house. matt and I are having a competition on who's turkey will be best. I will do the Martha Stewart roasted turkey with herb infusion/whitewine butter bastings. Matt will put his smoker to good use. Last year mine was the best but Matt has smoked some EXCELLENT chicken recently. Our friend Ammie can't get enough of it. We will report on the turkey cook off in a future post.

Baby True takes a bath

AUNTIES are cool!

Baby True is very blessed to have a wonderful assortment of gorgeous aunties. Here are some pictures of Auntie Lala, Lis and Courteny. Enjoy!

Grandma and Grandpa Glen + Uncle Timmy and Auntie Tina

The Hawaii grandparents just left to Canada to see Everett. We all got a nasty cold's but otherwise had an AMAZING visit. Baby True loves all the attention and Mom and Dad enjoyed all the help around the house. Grandma organized all the baby clothes and Grandpa Glen did acres and acres of laundry.

We were also blessed to get to spend time with Matt's brother and fiancee (Congratulations!) Tim and Tina. We had so much fun just hanging out. Josh and Charity also came down and hung out for a couple of days. It was fun and we wish we could see more of them.

Auntie Nancy also was here from California and brought Obachan to here new home.

Here are a few pictures.

new pictures

Aunt Suzie and Uncle Merle

Aunt Suzie and Uncle Merle came to visit the new baby (and the favorite nieces). Baby True was excited to receive more important visitors especially when they brought him presents. Baby can't wait to get big enough to fit into the super cute denim overalls. Until then he will make do with this outfit!

Pictures!

Gotta keep the grandparents happy.

Miguel's Birthday - 6 years old!

Auntie Lis and Uncle Eddie flew in from Scotland to suprise us. We are having a great time with them and had a fun birthday party at Chris and Abi's new house. Enjoy the
pictures.