Sarver Family News

Halloween 2008

2008-11-08T10:51:00.002-06:00

A couple pictures from Halloween this year. Aurora was a butterfly, Aaron a ghost, Finnian a pumpkin and I was a queen. :)

For those of you not in Minnesota you may not be aware of the Halloween costume rule for kids that says that all costumes must incorporate fleece and/or long underwear.

Earlier in the day Finnian reprised his role as a cutie cow.

Jessica and Theo as beekeeper and bee, Ciel as a fairy (minus the enormous wings).

New crawling video and new format

2008-06-21T12:04:00.004-05:00

Finnian has really progressed in his crawling skills and is now all over the place. We just a new Flip Mino video camera so here the first video in the 'new' format:

Right-click HERE to download and then view the video.

(When I do this at home it launches Windows Media Player when I double-click on the file.)

Finnian's first crawling video

2008-06-13T11:12:00.010-05:00

Our house is in count-down mode for Aurora's upcoming birthday (10 days if anyone else out there is counting). Aurora chose a fish theme this year and made all of her own party invitations.

So BIG!

A requisite part of the so big game - giving yourself some applause at the end. :)

Standing up and balancing while holding on to some supporting hands or the coffee table is another favorite game.

While I was in California for work, Grandma and Grandpa Sarver came to visit and they helped inspire Finnian to start crawling. Here's Finn taking a reading break with Grandma with the kids' new wagon in the background.

Here is our first video of Finnian's 'army' crawl just a day or so after he first starting doing it. Click HERE to view the video. It may take a while to download and you'll need a program such as Quicktime installed. An alternative that may be faster for you is to right-click on the link and save the file to your computer first and then play it locally. Gotta love the smile at the end!

Last weekend Finnian got his first ride in the bike chariot when we all went on a family bicycle ride to Minnehaha park. Aurora has been enjoying the royal treatment every dry morning on her way to summer camp.

New clips and crawling news

2008-06-02T17:19:00.002-05:00

Hi Everyone,
Just a brief post to let people know about a new feature on this blog, the Clipmarks widget on the right ---> It's a fun tool to clip and highlight other articles, blogs, etc on the web. You can scroll through the clips at the bottom.

In Finnian news, he can now do a 'combat crawl' forwards (on his belly using his arms and pushing with his feet)! He is (of course) very proud of himself and definitely taking advantage of the ability to move where he wants. Pictures and maybe even a video clip coming soon...

Cheers,
Anne

Carolyn's Going Away Party

2008-05-16T16:32:00.000-05:00

On May 3rd my Mom flew to India to start the next phase of her life/journey/exploration/work/fun. To celebrate, we threw her a surprise party and boy was it a surprise! Here are a selection of photos taken at the party by Doug Nelson. As always, you can click on any of the smaller images to see the full size picture.

Bon Voyage Mom!

Easter 2008

2008-05-16T10:11:00.000-05:00

Hi Everyone,

I've found a much faster way to upload pictures to this blog so (hopefully) this means there will be a lot more postings! The previous method (via blogger) took a really long time (up to 5 minutes per picture) and so it really put a damper on posting lots of pictures. So, new method much faster but currently I realize I've got all the pictures full size so I'm going to have to go back and shrink them so it doesn't take forever to load. If you set your browser to 50% zoom you can see the pictures without having to roll right/left. I'll try to get smaller sizes up soon.

Here are the pictures Jessica and I took before Easter. Cheers!
-Anne

Finnian's first tooth!

2008-03-16T11:19:00.000-05:00

Happy News! Finnian's first tooth made it's appearance on Monday. It was quickly followed by tooth number two on Tuesday. They'd been worrying him for a while so he was one happy boy after they came through. :)

Santa visits and Finnian's first "solid" food

2007-12-16T22:06:00.000-06:00

Tis the season for Santa visiting and Aurora got things started last Saturday with a visit to our local San Carlos Santa. On this day Aurora was hoping for lots of princess things and lots of kitty things.

This evening we went to the local fire station to visit another Santa. Finnian got to meet the man in red too.

The firefighters let Aurora try out the fire engine (being a firefighter is one of her favorite role playing games).

These firefighters really went way out and rolled out the snowy carpet for Santa. We got to see snow in San Carlos tonight!

Here's a photo from a couple of days ago... Sometimes a boy just gets too tired after playing and needs a little nap. Finnian had been quite fussy, tossing most of his toys, we tried the pacifier (partially successful) but as soon as we gave him his giraffe he just put his arm around it and fell asleep.

Finnian has been staring intently at us as we eat for the past few days. Tonight at dinner he was sitting in his swing and near the end of dinner starting making a lot of noise. It was pretty clear that he wanted to try what we having! I made him a little bit of baby oatmeal cereal and after one little cough he just ate it all up! Of course I didn't give him very much but he ate everything I made and would have kept going I think. I got a lot of smiles and when I went to refill the spoon he would lean himself forward and make little noises. I think it is safe to say that he likes it!

Tomorrow night we head for Minnesota. Happy Holidays everyone!

Sarver family photos

2007-12-16T21:58:00.000-06:00

Here's Aaron, Aurora and Finnian on their wonderful baby blankets made by Grandma Sarver. See any family resemblence?

Who's the tallest and who's the shortest? I wonder who will be in 20 years...

Not much doubt the three of us are related. :)

Three generations of Sarvers!

Gerry and Finnian.

Our latest family photo!

Finnian and Aurora at play

2007-12-15T16:11:00.000-06:00

Finnian has gotten very good at using his hands and loves to manipulate toys and chew on them whenever possible. We have to stick to the soft toys right now so he doesn't bonk himself in the face too hard. :)

Saint Nicholas via G&G Sarver paid a visit to our house and left oranges, candy and a few surprises! Aurora was adament that she didn't want to leave her shoes out for a strange person to visit but she did finally agree to put out her rain boots. The next morning she was glad she did!

Great-Grandma Faythe Cochran passed away recently and she will be dearly missed. Auntie Sarah picked out a few pieces of jewelry for Aurora to have to play with and remember her by. Aurora loves to dress up and wear her new bracelets. She especially loves the earings!

It's been a lot of fun to see Aurora and Finnian start playing with each other. Finnian is facinated with Aurora and loves to talk with her and watch her play.

Baby Sean's birthday and other happenings

2007-12-11T20:14:00.000-06:00

November 29th was officially declared Baby Sean's birthday this year. (Baby Sean is Aurora's main teddy bear). For the occasion Gerry and Aurora baked two cakes, one for the adults and one for Aurora & Baby Sean to share.

Since Aurora is 3 years old it was decided (by Aurora) that Baby Sean is 2 years old. No birthday celebration is complete without singing and blowing out the candles!

Meanwhile Finnian is trying hard to roll over. He turns his head waaay back and looks like he is getting close - if only that arm wasn't in the way!

All that playing can make a baby pretty darn tired, he might just fall asleep for a few minutes.

Whew!

November pictures

2007-11-24T13:40:00.000-06:00

Here's a few pictures from the past month. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Our crazy kids!

One of the favorite card games at our house right now is Crazy 8's!

Aurora with her school list and sandals (look carefully).

After Thanksgiving lunch we all went on a hike at Edgewood park to look for mushrooms and salamanders. We found lots of mushrooms and here is Aurora holding one of the little salamanders.

Finnian's first time in the exersaucer. The mirrors were a big hit along with anything that makes noise (even better if he can get it into his mouth).

Finnian checking out the toddler/baby swings at the playground. Seems like fun but not entirely sure...

Halloween 2007

2007-11-06T10:34:00.000-06:00

After some technical difficulties here are all the Halloween pictures, just in time for the end of Thanksgiving weekend! :)

Aurora's costume of choice this year was a skeleton.

Ready to bounce! A jumpy house is the highlight of any party.

For the Halloween parade at school Aurora channeled her inner kitty.

Finnian, our little cow. MOO!

Aurora and her best friends at school, Eliza, Lucy and Ethan.

Ready to go trick or treating!

Baking Halloween Cookies

2007-10-29T11:55:00.000-05:00

To get in the Halloween spirit, Aurora and I baked some Halloween cookies this past weekend.

The bakers!

Mixing our eggs and butter.

Pouring in the sugar and flour.

This is what happens when you leave freshly baked cookies alone in a room with a three year old. Notice that three of the cookies have little bites taken out of them. Each of the cookies was carefully replaced in the same spot...

Decorating the cookies.

Our finished creations.

Enjoying the product of all that hard work. Yummy!

Finnian's first trip to Minnesota

2007-10-25T11:56:00.000-05:00

Since I'm still on maternity leave for a couple more weeks, Finnian and I decided to take a last-minute trip to Minnesota.

Here's Finnian telling Grandma Hodges all about his first plane trip and how excited he is to be visiting Minnesota for the first time.

Although the midwest has been having a lot of rain this fall the weather was very nice and sunny for most of our visit. Here we are checking out Grandma's garden.

Visiting with cousin Ciel at my sister's 100 year-old birthday (!) party for her house. I learned lots of interesting tidbits about life in 1907.

Chatting with Auntie Jessica. Finnian has lots of smiles and loves to chat!

The happy plane traveler.

Aunt Sarah comes for a visit

2007-10-16T22:28:00.000-05:00

We've had a lot of fun over the past week. One highlight was that Aunt Sarah came to visit for a couple of days. Here are some photos from the last week.

Finnian finally smiling for the camera.

More smiles.

Hanging out with Daddy.

Aurora and Auntie Sarah.

Family photo.

Aurora water painting.

Whew! All that playing made us tired and ready for bed in new pajamas! :)

Welcoming Finnian Andrew Sarver

2007-10-14T16:52:00.000-05:00

We were very happy to welcome Finnian Andrew Sarver to the world on August 14th. In honor of his 2 month birthday today I'm posting a set of pictures of him from the past two months.

Aaron, Aurora and Finnian on his birthday.

Aurora and Finnian on day 2.

The tee-shirt says it all!

Day 3.

Taking a nap with daddy.

Finnian with Grandma Hodges back at our apartment.

Getting his first 'sponge' bath at home and not very happy about it.

Finnian's first time in the sling.

Aurora and Finnian at 2 weeks.

Look at that tall skinny boy! He's put on a few pounds since then but is definitely taking after his father in terms of height I think. :)

A little less than a month old and just a little bit bigger than 'baby Sean', Aurora's teddy bear.

Aurora and Daddy giving Finnian a bottle, this boy loves to eat!

Finnian taking a nap with Grandma Sarver.

What a big yawn! (1 month old)

Finnian disguised as an alien perhaps?

5 weeks old and smiling (although a nice smile at the camera has remained elusive).

Almost 2 months old!

What we did last summer (part 3)

2007-10-05T12:07:00.000-05:00

Here are some other highlights from July and early August...

Aurora loves playing games and reading books. One of her favorite games of the summer was Cooties (you take turns rolling a die and assembling a plastic bug).

Aurora is rarely just "Aurora", usually she is a also a teacher, a doctor, a firefighter or a lion...

No summer would be complete without playing with friends. Here is Aurora riding a giraffe with Vinny.

We recently had to complete an "About Me" poster for Aurora's new classroom at school. Her favorite places to go are "the playground" and "camping". A highlight of any playground is of course the sandbox.

Aurora also spent a lot of time on her bicycle! Every Monday at her preschool was 'bike day' and we had quite a few 'bike play dates'.

Of course, a big part of this summer was getting ready to welcome a new member of the family (more pictures on that soon). The soon-to-be big sister in August:

What we did last summer (part 2)

2007-10-03T15:22:00.000-05:00

Early in July we also spent a fun-filled day at the San Jose Children's Museum. Here are a few of Aurora's favorite activities:

Driving a fire engine:

Blowing bubbles (recipe for extra large bubbles at the bottom):

Running the traffic light switchboard:

And the face painting!:

Big Bubble recipe:
* Add 1 cup of dish soap (Dawn, Joy, etc) to 10 cups water in a large pail or tub
* Add 3-4 Tbsp of glycerin
* Stir gently, remove any froth from the top with your hand before making bubbles
* Enjoy!

What we did last summer (part 1)

2007-10-03T11:31:00.000-05:00

Now that we are officially into fall here is a look back at what we did this summer.

Our first big event was Aurora's third birthday party (see previous post), which was lots of fun and kicked off Sarver birthday week. We continued the birthday celebrations with lots of cake and a trip to the pool.

On the fourth of July we watched fireworks from the roof of our apartment building. We are in a great location and were able to see fireworks from several different cities up and down the peninsula.

Aurora's 3rd Birthday

2007-06-25T21:26:00.000-05:00

On Saturday we celebrated Aurora's 3rd birthday!

Here is the birthday princess herself.

Ready for cake!

Yummy!

The obligate belly shot.

Karli delivered her baby the next day, welcome Magnus Cole Grigsby!

Now that the blog is working again I look forward to being able to share more photos and news with you soon.

-Anne

Testing :)

2007-05-26T20:54:00.001-05:00

Testing to see if text posting is still working!

Aurora's 2nd Birthday Party! (part 4)

2006-06-25T22:26:00.000-05:00

[If you're just starting here on our homepage you can use the Archive posts lists on the right to skip back to the first in this series of postings and see Aurora's 2nd birthday party from the beginning.]

It's a guitar!

Thanks again everyone for your well wishes. :)

Aurora's 2nd Birthday Party! (part 3)

2006-06-25T22:17:00.000-05:00

There was a lot of cake eating and playing and then...

It was time to open presents!

What could be in that oddly shaped present? Find out on the next page...

Aurora's 2nd Birthday Party! (part 2)

2006-06-25T21:55:00.000-05:00

Cake time!

Happy Birthday dear Aurora... Happy Birthday to you!!

Aurora blew out the candle all by herself! I hope you get your wish Aurora...

A big happy birthday hug from Amy.

Time to dig in and enjoy the cake.

Yum! Do you want some too?

On the next page ... more cake and present time!