And so it begins...

heeheehee....poor Honey doesn't see it comin'...

Hilarity is...

...getting out of the shower to hear the dogs barking so you wrap up in your towel to go see what it is and there is a squirrel trapped on the porch and staring at you like "GET ME OUTTA HERE!" and so you get your camera to take a pic and then the little bugger stops being cute and goes for the trash bag you set outside the door to be taken to the cans on your way to work later and then starts ripping at the bag so you BANG on the windows which only momentarily stops the squirrel but drives the dogs bonkers so you put your snowboots on so that when you open the door a crack to let the dogs out to scare off the squirrel the little bugger doesn't slip in the house and attack your bare feet and so you open the door and the dogs run past the squirrel, scare the little bugger, it screams, they run down the stairs (you think after the squirrel), run into the yard to do their business and then take off down the road and you're trying to get their attention without having to re-open the front door and let the little bugger who's still out there IN and so you go to the sliding glass door in the dining room to yell at the dogs to come back, while in your snazzy towel and snowboots, and the door is locked and the lock is stuck 'cause it's so stinking cold out and you bang on the glass to try to get the dogs' attention as you watch them frolick down the road...without their collars on (that have their ID).  The miracle?  Michael slept through it all...

Edited later to add BIGGER miracle: they came back on their own!!!  Phew.

Michael

My lovely sister took some shots of Michael while she was here over Christmas break, and while he wasn't super-smiley that day, he's still super-cute!  ;D

 La-la-love this little guy's grin!

 Trying to figure out just WHAT Mommy and Grandma are doing! 

 (We were dancing around trying to make him laugh...)

 He's *thinkin'* about laughin'...

...

...

Oh, man, I love this kid...

All photos taken by and copyright of Colleen Nugent (Thanks Lenny!) :)

A-B-G-D :)

Michael has been practicing his consonants and sounds and has lately become very emphatic with b, g, and d...  Gallagher once joked about the first 4 sounds in the Greek alphabet being the first sentence...alpha, beta, gamma, and delta - a, b, g, d - a ba ga da - have a good day!  ;D  Michael's been talking all along!  He just speaks Greek!  ;)  heehee....

A B G D...

Have a good day!  :)

*So I had a really cute video of him speaking Greek, and it's been 4 hours and it still won't load...we'll try again later...*

My Little Man...

Michael, Son, Son-o-son, Nomnom, Pippin, Thor, Buddy, Mr. Sweet Cheeks, Snuggle Bug, Toots, Little One, Super Baby, Mr. Mister, Peek-a-choo, Squishy, Stinker, Baby M, Sweet Soul, Kiddo, Jorge (thanks, NNS kiddos!),  Buckets (also Drool Bucket, Fuss Bucket...), Cutie Patootie, I love you!
Happy 8 months today, My Little Man....
What a blessing you are - so funny, so smart, so darn cute!  ;)

Now take your nap, Bebee, so we can play!

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,
         The fruit of the womb is a reward.

-Psalm 127:3 NKJ

Herdy da herdy da vur...BORK BORK BORK!

LOVE the Swedish Chef!  (Clarification: the old school Swedish Chef...)  And Michael seems to be enjoying my endless attempts at impersonating the chef...in the kitchen, at the grocery store (we Swedish Cheffed our way through the store last night), and even in the bathtub...I mean, let's face it, if you're gonna throw what's around you up in the air while singing, you might as well be in the tub where it doesn't make a real mess...  ;)
Just thought I'd leave you all with some laughs for the day...  (There are sooooo many funny Swedish Chef episodes...picking a favorite would be hard indeed...what's your fave?)

Second silly pic...

Our family tradition of several "serious" pictures followed by one silly picture was broken this year when we took a second silly pic.  :)  And, for your viewing pleasure, here it is:

It's a bird!

It's a plane!

It's...

SUPER BABY!  ;D

I also wrote earlier that I would include more shots of Christmas day in a later post...that later post is now.  And here are more shots:

Michael sitting up - an easy task nowadays! 

Daddy nuzzles!

 Zoning out before church (on Christmas Eve)

 Tired behbeh boy...

Michael & his new toy 

Super baby! 

So so so cute... 

All tuckered out...

*Photos taken by Colleen Nugent & Tricia Nugent - thanks sisters!  Great shots!  ;D

Start the new year off right...

Witta buncha good naps...  ;)

...

Grandma's hand...sleeping baby's hand...  So sweet...

 Naps with Grandpa - always so relaxing!  Ahhh....                                                                                              

...NOW I have my second wind!      :)

Love you kiddo...

Had a holly, jolly Christmas...

What could be better than ALL the family members in town and together for the first time in years??  

(You're waiting for an answer, I can feel it....  That was a rhetorical question up there...)  ;)

Here, Michael is being taught how to use a camera effectively...

Some family (oh, just some random family...heehee...) during gift opening - we draw names so that families aren't overwhelmed by cost or gifts, and most of the gifts are homemade goodies, so stuff we feel good about giving...  :)  

Sean's gift - an original Bradley Nugent carving of a penguin!  :)

 My dad (holding an original Joshua Nugent origami owl), Brad, and Jeff...  :)

Ashley and her cousin...  Michael and his cousin...  :)

ADAM!  What a natural...  (Just funnin' ya, Ad - we're so glad you're back!)

 2 Michaels...AND the famous Alaska Baby Salute!

 Again, the famous Alaska Baby Salute, demonstrated by Ashley!  :)

Auntie Colleen and Uncle Dan ready to take their little nephew out for a round o' golf...  ;)

And, the family shot!!!  Wait, this one's a little funny...

HERE we go!!!  ;)  Now we got it right...  ;)

*More pics to follow!*  (We're missing some peeps here...)

Photos taken by Jessica Aagaard, Tricia Nugent, and Colleen Nugent :)

Nothing I could do, total eclipse of the moon

On December 20, 2010, us lucky folk here in Alaska got to experience a total lunar eclipse - the only one in 2010...and the first one I've seen since I was a wee one...  My amateur photographer self thought it would be cool to try to capture this on camera, and despite the glare through the window, I was able to come up with a few shots that weren't too blurry.  :)  

When we got home that night, we all camped out on Michael's floor and watched...

The window glare starts to take over... 

 ...but I didn't want to suit up and brave the below zero temps when I was so cozy inside...

 I like that you can see stars too...

 ...

The eclipse wasn't quite finished at this point, but Michael was, so we had to transfer him from floor to bed and call it a night.  I know right now he doesn't understand what we were watching that night, but hopefully someday we'll get to see another one, and he'll get to enjoy it (and ask LOTS of questions, I'm sure)...  :)

God is good...

All photos taken by Jessica Aagaard, 2010