A New House for The Dowd Crowd

Yep, that's right. We're moving! We bought a home in Folsom and will be settled in by Christmas. And with extra room for guests, we hope you'll come and visit! We have absolutely loved the home we've been renting for the past 18 months, so we depart with some sadness, but it was foreclosed upon and change was unavoidable. So by God's grace and our parents' generous assistance we took the plunge... let's hope we won't be needing the plunger (or worse) too much though!

It's a great home in a fabulous neighborhood. We are so blessed!!

Nature Hike

A few weekends back we spent a brisk morning on a nature walk... we can't quite qualify it as a hike, although for Caelyn's short legs it could very well be! The kids experienced lots of mud and colorful leaves... and loved every minute of it!

Caelyn's First Birthday

Last month (Oct 13) Caelyn celebrated her first birthday. She has already changed so much since then, including mastering walking. But I didn't want to leave this precious day off the blog. She is our delight and treasure!

Fall, my favorite season...

We've been having loads of fun these past few weeks. We celebrated Caelyn's first birthday, visited a pumpkin patch, held a field trip to my parents' dairy in Galt and enjoyed some Halloween fun. Throw in other daily adventures and I'd say life is good! Plus the leaves are changing and the air is crisp... what more could you ask for?

To make the slideshow bigger, simply double click the image and it'll come up on another screen (you may need to allow popups and then double-click again).

Life in Dowd Land

Two months and no entries. Shame on me! These kids grow too fast to let that much time go by! :)

Really, they are going through some spurts these days. Last week Caelyn took her first series of steps and each day she seems a bit more stable and confident. She still prefers crawling, but I'm sure once she realizes that she's walking she'll never look back. While all this has been happening Timothy has decided to be a "Bigger Boy" (his term) by using the potty regularly. I have not changed a #2 Timothy diaper in a week! Hallelujah!! He is very excited about his new skill and will gladly chat with you about it if you are so inclined.

In other news, we have (somewhat unexpectedly) entered the wide, wide world of buying a home. Many options lay before us, some complicated, but all exciting. Hopefully we'll have more on that in the near future! In the meantime, please keep us in your prayers.

The kiddos and I get together with friends regularly each week and Timothy loves his weekly swim class (about which he will also gladly chat...there's actually a long list of favorite topics at the moment, potty talk taking first place of course). We've also gotten pretty involved at Oak Hills Church, in particular with their Missional Living team (i.e. international ministries, etc.) We're really thankful for the great people we've met there and growing community life, including a weekly guys beer night. We also welcomed this summer the arrival of my dear old college friend, Katie (Wolfe) Paulsen and her sweet hubby Jeremy. They moved to Folsom this summer and I am incredibly glad to have her here.

Last weekend we visited Apple Hill, which is a group of apple farms and country shops near Placerville. We picnicked and picked (and ate) apples with Ryan and Bridget and the kids for what turned into an awesome day! It happened to be William's 3rd birthday, too. It was truly heartwarming to see how Timothy and William played together... they were happy to see each other from the first minute to the last. Such sweet cousins!

So here are some pics. Caelyn is now 11 months old and will turn ONE on October 13. Timothy will be 2 and a half next month.

Sizzlin Summer Fun

Summer is flying by and we're flying high from all the fun. Here are some pics from the past few months. Enjoy!

New Family Additions

I just wanted to share with the world pics of our new nephew, Mattox Garrett Van Leeuwen (Born May 19 to my brother Anthony and his wife Mallory) and niece, Kira Nichole Dowd (Born June 5 to Brian's brother Dan and his wife Jackie). We're so happy for our siblings. On the Dowd side, this makes Baby #6 in under 3 years!


 
 

Smell that Dairy Air!

We visited Grandpa and Grandma Van Leeuwen's dairy earlier this week. Timothy was excited, to say the least. He especially loved meeting "Johnny Tractor", the main character of one of his favorite books who happens to "live" at the dairy (thanks to John Deere). I have been hearing tractor noises and all about cows since then. We'll need to come back for another visit soon!

The Blooms of May...

We enjoyed our first roses of the year this month, and it seems as everything blooms in our yard so does our life here in Folsom. We are doing more and more things with people, some of whom we can say are moving from acquaintance to friend. There are tons of young families in our community and so I have had no shortage of playdate buddies. As far as activities go, on Mother's Day we visited Clarksville, a local ghost town that held an "Old West" living history event. The kids and I have also been enjoying the start of "Thrilling Thursdays", which is a weekly fun activity organzied by our friend Emily for the summer. We've been getting out for lots of "regular" things like jogs by the lake, little dips in the pool, playing at the park, etc. We even hosted a Memorial Day BBQ with 8 adults and 8 kids bringing tons of life to our rockin' back yard!

This month Caelyn also crossed the threshold of mobility, which has gotten mixed reviews from her Big Brother as she is continually following him and wanting to play with his toys. However, when she's doing her own thing he tends to gravitate toward her and join in whatever she's doing. "I can't live with or without you".... As for me, I don't know what I'd do without those two Munchkins!

On another note, we are thrilled to announce that my brother Anthony and his wife Mallory are proud parents of a new baby boy, Mattox Garrett, who joined our family just last week!

Timothy's First 2 Years

This is a slideshow of Timothy's growth over his first 2 years. I thought it would be fun to see how much he's changed. Boy, is it a LOT!!

Brother and Sister

Ummmm... notice any family resemblance? The first pic is Caelyn at 6.5 months eating avocado. The second pic is Timothy at 6.5 months eating sweet potato.

 
 

Chilling Video

Timothy and Brian enjoy their nightly bathtime routine. Click the image to pull up a video. (Pardon the nudity)

From May 09

The Faces of Caelyn

Caelyn shared some fun faces today for the camera... I thought they were worthy of a post.

Timothy's 2nd Birthday Party

We celebrated Timothy's 2nd Birthday (which is actually on Apr 23) with a CHOO CHOO bash. We invited his play group, church friends and family members to join us for a ride on the local light rail, meet a train conductor (my dad) who gave them their very own hat, and then party with food and cupcakes at the park. It was fun to observe the anticipation in the kids' eyes as they waited to climb on board! Timothy is currently obsessed with all things trains, including Thomas the Train... so it was a given that Thomas would also make a special appearance at the party in the form of plates, napkins and balloons. There was no shortage of little boys joining in his excitement, to be sure. We had a wonderful day and are grateful for our blossoming relationships here in Folsom. It was a surprisingly huge turnnout which made us so happy!! Here's a slideshow that captures the day... a bit long, but I didn't want to leave anyone out.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Dedication

We had a wonderful day last Sunday when we did a dedication for Caelyn at our home. She wore my (Amber's) baptismal gown, which was made by my mom and grandmother when I was born. We did a ceremony led by her Godparents, Kavi and Taylor Simpson, and everybody shared some beautiful letters of blessing for her. We finished off the day with a great meal and lots of fun with 4 crazy toddlers and 4 babies roaming about our place! It was fantastic to have so much life lighting up our home! Enjoy this slideshow of that special day.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Our Pal Mason

I watched our friends' (the Hooeys) son Mason today and snagged a few cute shots.

 
 

Caelyn's Latest

Yesterday we fed Caelyn her first "solid" food... very watered down rice cereal. I can't say she was especially thrilled with the experience. She's also getting ready to sit up, providing a much-welcomed view of her brother whom she finds quite entertaining.

Is it true that the winter season is almost over? It's unbelievable how quickly time flies! We are full of fun and activity these days... check out the hodgepodge of pics below to see the latest. Timothy keeps chattering on and on. We're so proud of him! Right now he's into counting, naming his shapes and colors, identifying opposites and copying just about everything we say. Sometimes it feels more like we have a parrot than a kid! :) He also loves to jump off the ottoman and throw any and every ball within reach. Caelyn is growing so much-- she's pretty tall (89 percentile) and is already wearing some 6-9 month size clothes. Yikes! She loves to roll around, grab for toys and coo about all the things that make her happy. We love to coo about her too! I (Amber) have been busy with a playgroup through Sierra Moms that I recently joined, a women's Bible study at Oak Hills, and hanging with my dear friend Emily and her boys Josh and Mason as much as possible. Brian has been working hard getting ready for the launch of The Masters Program in the East Bay, which we are praying will be a huge success! He also celebrated a birthday last week, which we were able to celebrate with a picnic by the lake and then out to dinner with NO kids! Hope you are well and much love from us all!

Christmas Memories

Here are some pictures from our Christmas season. We spent time with Brian's family in Reno and then Oakdale with Amber's. A few days later we were blessed by a visit from our dear friend Shawna from LA!

The Many Faces of Timothy

Timothy sure makes us laugh when he pulls his funny faces!