a christmas letter for 2009

Dear friends and family,

Please bear with me as I write our first-ever Bagley Family Holiday Letter. Every year I tell myself, "it's a good year to write a letter to update the family," but every year I run out of time, energy, etc. etc. This year I had the grand idea to just blog it and send out the link to all who get our card and beyond, so...

The biggest news from our house this year was the birth of Emmett James on April 2, 2009. Owen became a big brother and we became a family of four, which is still quite a trip to think about but alas, it has happened. Emmett's been a great addition to our family and we love his enthusiastic, joyous smile. He has gone from a newborn blob in April to a crawling, cruising, moving, and shaking little guy. We can't believe how fast he's grown. He loves it when we wipe his hands (random, I know), turn on the music, and play peek-a-boo. Owen is a great big brother who does his best to tolerate Emmett snatching his toys to chew and slobber on.



Owen developed quite an interest in swimming this spring and has moved up in his swimming classes. He loves jumping in the deep end, swimming unassisted, and his super fun teachers at the Mountlake Terrace Pool. Owen also started a new preschool in the summer where he made a new best buddy, Caden, to add to his already burgeoning social group (of which Ryan and Cameron are already some of his best friends).

Elliot finished out the last of his time at the former Washington Mutual/now JP Morgan Chase by Halloween and is now working with a company in Bellevue doing systems administrator work. It was hard for him to be one of the last to leave the company, seeing all his co-workers and friends depart into the murky world of unemployment. He hopes to settle into something more permanent after the new year, at the current company or elsewhere.






I began my last year of my master's (at Seattle University) in September by starting my clinical internship at an agency called Center for Human Services in Shoreline. I'm in the family counseling department doing therapy with a range of clients who are mostly children and teens. So far it's been extremely rewarding and a great learning experience. I will finish my degree and internship in August 2010... we all can't wait!

Over the year we've stayed close to home because of Emmett's arrival, but we managed to make some small trips. In May I took the baby to visit my grandpa Al and his partner Ruth in Phoenix, Arizona. We went camping with some other families in August at Dosewallips State Park. Both kids did great and we are excited for more camping trips next season. In November we made a trip to Great Wolf Lodge near Olympia to play at their indoor waterpark. Owen put all his swimming skills to use and had a great time. Maybe next year he'll be big enough for some of the bigger slides, though. For Christmas this year we'll stay close to home as usual and visit with our families in celebration of the holidays. We're counting down until January when we take our first vacation in a LONG time to Maui... Elliot's never been to Hawaii and Owen asks every day, "are we going to Hawaii today?"

Here's a link to our photo site where you can keep up with what we're doing: http://picasaweb.google.com/lindsay.bagley

Merry Christmas and have a happy new year!

Love,

The Bagley Four

the leaves have fallen...

And another month has flown by. Emmett is now 7 months old (seriously, why does time go so fast when you have kids?) and crawling around the house. In October Elliot took the kids to the pumpkin patch with Owen's preschool and we all weathered a mild cold. Owen was a ghost for Halloween a la Charlie Brown's The Great Pumpkin... Owen loved all the spooky Halloween stuff again this year. Here are some pics for your viewing pleasure.

pumpkin fun

We carved pumpkins this weekend (which means we all watched while Elliot carved... and I deep-fried donuts). The last pic is the two boys playing together in E's crib... I always have a hard time figuring out who is more excited about stuff like this because Emmett appears to be bursting with excitement just like Owen. Hopefully this nice brother phase will last... ;-)

for fun, a few more pics of E

six months!

I spaced out and ran out of time to post about Emmett's 6-month milestone last week so here it is. This guy is still such a sweet, laidback baby for us. Even the pediatrician commented on how relaxed he was during his exam this week. She may have even said it was "weird." Hmmm... won't read too much into that.

Anyway, in September he started rolling all over the place and pivoting around on his belly. He loves to play peek-a-boo and his favorite song is "wheels on the bus." Makes him smile every single time. He started sitting up well just as he hit 6 months.

I'm still wondering where the last 6 months have gone, and our time as a family of three is a distant memory. So distant it's almost nonexistent. I feel content when I hold snuggly Emmett and watch Owen play and imagine new things. I'm extremely exhausted at the end of the day, which is a change from when it was just Owen. Yes, I was tired but now it's fatigue multiplied by two (or three, some days). My internship began a month ago and I feel alive when I'm a party to someone else's life, pain, change, and growth. My cup is full and life is good.

preschool!

Owen had his first day at big boy preschool this morning so I thought I'd post a few pics from all his first days of preschool. He wasn't cooperating with the annual "table shot" I've done each year since he was 1, so that's just what you get. He's 3! The first two photos were taken on his first day of co-op preschool; this year he's at a new drop-off preschool that he loves (so far).

and the last of the photos

Note the pic where both my doc and I are fussing with our hair in preparation for a photo together... like that was really going to make an impact on our appearances after 1) I had just given birth to a baby and 2) she helped deliver said infant, which requires the handling of much blood and goop. But I think it's funny.