I got lucky enough to capture this impromptu moment tonight between my wife and her baby boy. The camera angle was not intentional, just incidental. But as I recorded, I realized that I didn't even need to see their faces to experience the joy that they were sharing. I'm blessed to see this relationship in action every day, and this candid moment just gave me a deeper appreciation for the gift of being a husband and father. For those of you who also love Becky and Jack:

Our joy...

It's no surprise to anyone who knows me...but I am a competitive person. I'm sure it's obnoxious from time to time, but I always want to do well at whatever I'm doing. Ever since my last Nike+ competition ended, my running has tapered down to once a week or so. It surprised me how quickly my motivation waned in the absence of external pressure...hmmm...I guess maybe I don't love running as much as I love competing. So with this knowledge, I joined another challenge with my friends at work. We've got a 44 day timeline (yesterday through New Years Day) and a goal to pack in as many miles as possible.

Since the competition spans Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years, I named it the New-chris-murkey-trot. And, of course, had to design a little mascot!

It's going to be interesting, since the weather is turning here in Oregon, and I'm not a fan of running on a treadmill. But I guess with the proper motivation, I'll be able to keep it up!

As usual, we had a great visit in Wenatchee last weekend. I took a few days off, so we really got to stretch out our time. I guess I was having too much fun and didn't get the camera out much, but I did get a few.

Brad and I went on a quick hike, right out the front door. 30 minutes later, and this is the view. How cool is that.



On the way up the hill.

Jack had a great time playing with the boys. It was sure fun to see him up on his feet interacting with the big kids. He seems a lot older than 11 months to us. Special shout out to Elliott, Wesley and Spencer for playing so well with Jack. They did a great job of looking out for him!



Of course, the weekend was FULL of Wii time. We had some special bowling moments, but luckily, this time, Brad didn't hurt his arm.

I'm sure the Bjournal will have some updates soon as well!

Here's our little monkey (thanks for sharing your costume Ethan)! We had a great time last night having pizza at mom and dad's house and then heading to BCC's Harvest Party. We've gone before with all the kids, but it was sure fun to have our own guy to take this year. We even managed to get them all on the couch for a little picture. We missed the pictures with Sydney the peapod and Abigail the bunny- they were both adorable- so head to Jen or Sarah's blog soon for some pics.

Jack has made a shift in the last week. Instead of crawling all the time with a few steps in between, now he walks almost 100% of the time when he needs to get somewhere. He's really good at getting up, he doesn't even use his hands most of the time. Here's a little video of the new skillz...plus his current favorite phrase, which is "ducka-ducka-ducka-ducka."

The girl's Cousins' Closet sale is a big hit! They've had 2 days of selling now, and are getting tons of traffic. They're making a lot of money for a lot of moms...its really cool. We're expecting a big crowd tomorrow for the final day...mostly because KGW Newschannel 8 came out and did a story on them today! Jen called me and left a message and said, "Channel 8 is here and they're interviewing your wife!" Crazy!

Here's the story:

I'm so proud of the girls! They quadrupled the size of their business since the summer sale and have done a great job organizing the whole thing. We've had some amazing help from friends and family...shout out to Nina, Jen, JoJo, Steph, Katie!

Oh yeah...and our last name is Bunch...not Brunch. At least they spelled it right.

Oh yeah...and how about that lady who tripped...so sad.

We've been a little wrapped up in the girls' Cousin's Closet prep, so haven't had much time to blog. Still don't, so this is short, but thought I should at least get a few pics up!

Last Saturday we had a great trip to the "Punkamin Patch" for the Thompson's 10th annual Harvest Party!

Jack got his first introduction to chicks (the furry almost-chicken kind). We were a little scared he would go all Lenny from Of Mice and Men on them, so we supervised carefully. Steph endured some chicken pee on her hands for the whole thing...thanks Steph!



Jack loves his Grandma JoJo!

Bapaw and Jack checking out the patch on the hay ride.

Don't worry Dad, I got these two!

This Sunday, I headed down to the nursery to pick up Jack and as soon as I got there the workers were shouting, "Jack walked across the nursery!" They also informed me that he was stealing graham crackers from the other kids....oh dear! Now we have a walking, graham cracker stealing boy on our hands and we couldn't be more proud of him. Here's some video of Jack's progression into walking. The first part is from early last month when he was just at one or two steps, the middle is from a couple of days ago, and the last part is from today.

...the Bunch Bunch

Becky and I decided to paint the bathroom a while ago. At work the other day, I got the inspiration to take out this nasty old heater that we never use, since it's basically just an eyesore and temptation for Jack to play with.

I did all my research on how to deal with the electricity, how to put up the new drywall and finish off the project. Then I went to Home Depot. A couple days later, we've got a clean, painted wall with no evidence of the ugly heater! I'm very proud this is the most complicated home-improvement project that I've tackled.

I forgot to take a picture of the joint compound/drying stage. I hope you'll forgive me.

sleepy baby!

So...after the avocado picture, we realized Jack's hair (although cute) was getting a little out of control :-) We love the curls, but they were getting a bit too long. Today we decided to give him his first haircut (we're not counting the rat-tail that we cut off when he was 2 months old).

Here's the before:

the during:

and the after:

...by the way, you can see Jack's first tooth in the last picture.

...and by the way Steph and Sarah, Becky has already had a few tears :-)

Avocado Anyone??

Jack had a busy play date yesterday, and it apparently wiped him out. I was working away at the computer- getting ready for our Cousins' Closet sale and I looked back to find this:


When I said something to wake him up, it just startled him enough to move and turn on the animal sounds and lights on his jumper- didn't phase him a bit!

Later...I was trying to feed him dinner and just at his last bite of carrots this happened:

We decided it was a day to head to bed a little early.

:::::EDITED BY AUTHOR:::::

Boy - I was TOTALLY WRONG! That's not Steph. But I'll bet if she donned Treky makeup and hair, she'd look just like that!

:::::

For those of you who don't visit the world of Facebook...I just had to share this with you. Yes, folks...this is Stephanie Marr.

that is all, Peaby.

As Jim blogged, we had a great 4 day / 3 night backpacking trip leading up to Labor Day weekend. We tackled a few tough hikes, but reaped the rewards of solitude, natural beauty, and accomplishment. Seriously, this was one of the most perfect backpacking trips I've been on. Even the sprinkles in the night on Friday were just light enough to be pleasant. I took my friend Kristen's awesome wide-angle lens with me, and I seemed to develop a pattern in my shooting. I'm glad Jim and Jason had cameras too, otherwise all the photgraphic record of this trip would be:

Lake 1:

Self Portrait 1:
Lake 2:
Self Portrait 2:
Lake 3:
Self Portrait 3:

It's been a fun few days. Mike is out of town backpacking (we miss him) so Jack and I have been keeping busy. Wednesday night was the kickoff for choir at church, Thursday we spent some time shopping with my mom and I got to hang out with Henry that evening (what a cutie), and yesterday we got together with some friends to go swimming. It ended up being quite an adventure with a padlocked pool, 5 kids in swim diapers that only hold so much, and the hot sun beating down. Are you picturing the scene? There is just no turning back once you get kiddos pumped up for the pool so thankfully we found some fellow swim enthusiasts, made a phone call, and were able to get into the pool with it all to ourselves. It ended up being a great memory and a good lesson in determination. Today our adventure lies in berry picking. I've wanted to go all summer and today is the day. Since I didn't take any swim pictures for you...you can rest assured I will be taking berry pictures- you don't even have to tell me...I know you were hoping I would.

So with the hope of berry pictures to come, I leave you with some pictures taken last month of Jack enjoying the sand for the first time. They were from our annual beach trip with the Posenjak gang. We had a great time and miss them already.

Getting ready to dig into the sand...

Mom's best attempt at stopping the eating of sand...

that obviously failed....

Some very sandy feet....

So here it is...my first blog post. I have enjoyed the benefits of simply visiting my favorite blogs without having to do any of the work, but my time has come. I can't promise I will be a consistent blogger, so bumming off of my hubby's site seemed a good place to start- plus THE BUNCH BUNCH....I mean does it get any cuter than that. :)

Some might be asking themselves...what inspired this decision to blog??? I'm sure you've figured me out, but my big inspiration - my boy Jack. We get to hang out everyday and the idea of sharing more pictures and video of him (in addition to the ones my wonderful husband shares)...well a mom can never get enough. So if you were thinking you would be getting your knot-tying instructions here - you will be very disappointed (sorry Jen, but because I love ya...here is a website you can check out for all of your knot-tying needs http//www.realknots.com/knots/index.htm. You can tie your shoes extra fancy and people will be amazed!). So if you're into hearing more about the Bunch fam - this is the place for you. And now....

...onto the fun. Jack has been talking a lot lately. Here is some video of him talking with his cheerios. Sorry it's a little long..I'm working on my video editing skills.

Well...as you can see, there's been a coup! The title mmm...Peaby has been usurped! theBunchBunch has taken over this blogdom!

But don't worry, you'll still be exposed to the random thoughts and feelings of Peaby...but now you'll also be getting wonderful insights, knot-tying instruction, political exposition, box score analysis, and NASCAR highlights from Becky! Actually, she'll probably leave out the NASCAR stuff and instead post pictures and stories about JACK!

Stay tuned for her first post! (hint, hint, Becky)

Peaby