Jess, Marleigh and I decided to go on a fun drive last night to break up our normal stay at home routine during the week. We swung by Starbucks, grabbed some holiday drinks and drove around to look at some Christmas lights.

We saw some good displays… But we found a hidden gem.

Here are some videos of the display in action. Turn on your speakers!

If these don’t work, view them on YouTube. Links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b98klbnBCFY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDh1eTVkngI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGE5TMjznUI

Trying the iPhone app. Might be easier to add pictures this way!

So we still have a month left in 2011… but man, what a year it has already been.

First and foremost: the birth of my daughter – Marleigh Frances Bullock. Born on November 5th weighing in at 8 pounds 7 ounces. I would be remiss to say that this hasn’t been a life-changing event. However, it’s definitely has been for the best.

A big yawn coming from Marleigh!

Aside from that, Adam and I were thankful to attend our good friend’s wedding in Washington, D.C. where we were both called upon as groomsmen. That was a whole heck of a lot of fun and gave us the chance to visit the East Coast a bit.

Also – Jess and I bought a house! That happened on our wedding anniversary of July 13th. Here’s a recent picture with our Christmas lights up:

Our house with lights put up by Christian, Dad & Father-in-law

Jess graduated from Portland State University with a Master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology. She loves it. She was also able to present her website Spectrograms For Speech at a conference down in Salem. I came along and am happy to report she did an awesome job. She now has a job in Camas Public Schools as a speech-language pathologist at a couple of schools. She believes it’s her “dream job” and is having a great time.

So yes, it’s been quite a year. My hope (maybe it’ll be my resolution!) is to update this blog more frequently with, yep, pictures of Marleigh and the like. We’ll see!

“Winter is coming.”

Oh really, Eddard Stark? I disagree – looks as if winter is HERE! Check out the snow on BullockSquawk.com! The Bullock households (all two of them) have a roaring fire and warm nog for those of you shiverin’ in yer boots.

I’d just like to mention that Jess’s website Spectrograms For Speech is all about articulation therapy for speech. She has some really great content about the history of spectrograms as well as a page about where to download WaveSurfer as well as tutorials on how to do so depending on your operating system.

Anyway, check it out if you haven’t already!

We’ve decided on a date to come home. We are leaving Sun City on May 11th an should be home the night of May 12th. Hopefully mom can deal with 22 hours in the car. We considered taking an extra day but that would be too rough on the cats. Anyhow we are anxious to get home and see you all again,