Giving her to the Lord

Sunday was a special day for us. We dedicated Kyah to the Lord at church. We were happy to share it with our family and friends.

We committed to raising her in the instruction and teaching of the Lord.

Here we are on stage in front of the congregation. There was another couple dedicating their youngest too.


Here we are praying for Kyah and giving her to God.




Notice the outfit Kyah is wearing; it's the same outfit Abby wore when she was dedicated.


God has truly blessed us with a special girl. What a cutie.

A Terpening-wald family Christmas tree?

Nope, not this year. No Terpening-wald family Christmas tree. Can you believe it? This year, we downsized significantly to a dinky 9-foot-tall tree. We haven't had a tree this small since the first year we were married and living in an apartment, way back in 2003.

I know you're all dying to see what the tree looks like, but you'll have to bear with me while I walk you through the story of this year's tree.

We decided that since we had a three-month old that it probably wasn't the smartest idea to go tromping through the mountains looking for a beastly tree to chop down, so we stayed close to home. We drove to a tree farm less than 15 minutes from our house. The short drive was really nice, actually, and we were still able to cut the tree down ourselves.

It was a sunny, but very chilly morning, so we bundled Kyah up to keep her warm. Isn't that pink outfit cute?


We spent less than 15 minutes searching for the perfect tree, mostly because the wind was blowing and it was 30 degrees out. Even with the warm clothes on, it was still cold for Kyah. We quickly cut the tree down and loaded it on the Subaru. It's amazing how much easier a 9-foot tree is to move around.


From start to finish, the whole trip took maybe an hour and a half. That's less than half the time it took to drive up to the mountain and cut down a tree. The time saved was really nice. We were only gone for a short period of time, but it was enough to wear Kyah out.


The tree also took very little time to set up. I didn't even have to rope it to the wall, to make sure it wouldn't fall and crush someone.


We're enjoying our decorated tree, with ornaments to boot. In year's past, we weren't able to decorate with ornaments because the branches were too flimsy.


What have our trees looked like in previous years? Well, like this 20-footer.


This year's tree is a Terpening family Christmas tree, sans the Griswald. This year's tree only cost me $5 more dollars; saved me several hours of driving and labor; and made my wife happy, which we all know is priceless.

Exciting new achievements

You see this! She's playing by herself with her hanging toys. She is now three months old and is intentionally reaching up and playing with them. Totally exciting, right?!


Of course, when you play hard you also sleep hard. : )




I love how snuggly she is when she gets tired.

The last couple weeks have been a blessing for me. I've had the privilege of staying home and caring for Kyah. We spent a lot of quality time together. Time that I will always treasure.

It's hard to believe she's three months old already.

Date night

Abby and I escaped for a date night a couple weeks ago for the second time since Kyah was born. We went out to sushi in Seattle with a bunch of friends to celebrate James' 30th birthday. We had a fabulous time celebrating James.

Seriously, look at my wife, doesn't she look amazing. And to think, she just had a baby 3 months ago. Smokin' hot!


Mmmmmmm sushi!


The big 3-0!




And sticking with tradition, the guys went and played basketball afterwards.

Fire and snow

Kyah and I decided to rock by the fire for a bit today since it's so stinking cold outside. It's actually snowing and has been for a hour or so. The flakes are super tiny though because it's a chilly 23 degrees outside. There's nothing quite like a fire "in the dead of winter" (as Abby refers to it).

It didn't take Kyah long to fall asleep in my arms. I'm sure a little bit had to do with the fire, but I'm pretty sure she just likes sleeping in my arms. : )

We're having a blast together at home while mommy transitions back to work. I get to be a temporary stay-at-home Dad while Abby finds out what it's like to return to work after having three months off.

Photo of the day

This was taken from my phone since Dustin had the camera today. Sorry the quality isn't the greatest - but you get the idea!

Kyah loves her Daddy

I love it when Dustin gets home from work. I think Kyah loves it even more.


These 2 just love each other! They have so much fun together.


And whoever said that Kyah looks like me obviously hasn't seen Dustin's baby pictures! She looks just like her Daddy! Aren't they cute?

Kyah and Abby

I figured it was time we got an updated picture of Mom and daughter together on the blog. We took this picture on Sunday. As you can see, Kyah is decked out in her Seahawks gear for game day. (Thank you, Kevin and Becky, for the awesome outfit.) She's still growing into it.



Can you see a resemblence between the two? Abby's folks always say how much she looks like me. Regardless of who she looks like more, I'm blessed to have these two beautiful women in my life.

We had her Mariners outfit on a couple weeks ago to celebrate the end of the season. We're looking forward to a better year next year, hopefully. (Thank you, Peter, for that outfit.)

Now all we need to get her is a Sounders kit and she'll be set.

Lots more smiling

The new game now is to see how many times we can make her smile. It's so much fun. It's like winning the lottery every time she smiles. It's addicting and you just want to keep playing. Yesterday, Abby and I played the game a lot, and we won the "lottery" a lot, too.

It almost looks like she's laughing in this one, huh? She's not laughing yet...


Take special note of what her shirt says. : )






What's the hardest part of the game? Catching the smiles on camera. For everyone one smile caught on camera, there's about 20 that need to be deleted.

Smiling's my favorite

For the last couple weeks Kyah has been smiling, and let me tell you, it's so much fun when she does. We get so excited when she smiles. I mean seriously, what's not to love about this smile?



It's not happening very often yet, but one or two times a day and for a short period of time, she'll smile with you. I'm not talking about the smiling-while-falling-asleep or just-filled-my-diaper smiles either. These are the eyes-open-I'm-learning-to-smile-back-at-you smiles.

Let's see, off the top of my head, I can recall her smiling for Steve, Abby's Mom and Kayli within the last week.

Marion family comes for a visit

Abby's family made the trek to Bellingham on Sunday to spend a little time with us. We all know what they really came for - snuzzle time with their precious granddaughter (and/or niece). And snuzzle they did.

Grammie and Grandpa with Kyah

Rocking with my girl

I walked in the door today after a hard day's work, went up stairs, took Kyah off Abby's hands, and rocked her for 15 to 20 minutes. Seriously, it just doesn't get much better than this! What a great way to relax after work.



I've probably said this before, so you'll have to bear with me as I say it again. One of the things that I most looked forward to after Kyah was born was being able to do exactly this - relax with her napping in my arms. I'm pretty lucky. God has blessed me with two amazing women.

6 weeks old... already

We had fun snuzzling with Kyah on Friday evening.





It's hard to believe our beautiful baby girl is already six weeks old. As you can see from the photos, we're having a blast with her.

Matchmaker matchmaker

A little more than two years ago, Abby played matchmaker and set up two of our friends, Tim and Jessica. I'm happy to report that Abby's matchmaking was successful and on Sunday, Sept. 5, Tim and Jessica said their vows and rode off into the sunset together. Way to go, Honey, way to go.


Looking back at how it all started, I had my reservations and really didn't want to be too involved in Abby's ploy. I mean, Tim lived in Bellevue and Jessica lived in Bellingham - there was the whole distance thing to contend with. Tim had said repeatedly that he didn't want to date someone that didn't live in the same city. Some how, though, Abby got him to come around to the idea after months of pestering him about this girl he had to meet. She was finally able to get both Tim and Jess in the same place when we had a 4th of July party in 2008.

As another one of my best friends, Peter, recalls it, when Tim first saw Jess at the party, he said, "Who is that girl, she's hot?!" Aren't you glad you came to Bellingham for the party, Tim?

Here we are at the Bellingham waterfront waiting for the fireworks show to start. Tim, don't sit too close to Jess... be sure to leave a little space... don't act like you're interested. You could have parked a semi between those two.


After a very successful first day/meeting, Abby kept the ball rolling and scheduled an impromptu putt-putt golf exhibition the next day.



We/they ended up spending the whole day together. By the end of the day, Tim was changing his original plans for the weekend. He had only intended to spend one night in town. Now he was planning to spend another night just so he could spend another day with her. Come Sunday morning, Tim was hitting me up for clean clothes because he hadn't brought enough for multiple nights. Hahaha. And poor Peter, who had carpooled with Tim to Bellingham, was at the mercy of Tim's changing schedule.

The best part of the weekend was when it came time to say goodbye: Tim walked her out to her car (at our house) and spent quite a bit of time out there saying goodbye. When he returned, we asked, "Did you get her number?" His response, "Well... errr... uhhh... no." For the love, do we have to do everything for you, Tim? Apparently, he didn't want to send the wrong signal to Jess and seem too pushy or something. Who knows what was going through his head. So, Abby had to take action again to ensure that this relationship got off the ground. Abby worked her magic...

Guess who came to visit the very next weekend? Yup, Tim was back in Bellingham seeing Jess again. This time, though, they didn't need us chaperoning. Tim did need a place to stay. We kindly offered him a key to our house and a room and bed to sleep in on weekends. He came to Bellingham quite often, but we didn't see him very often. : )

In 2009, we traveled to the Cayman Islands together.


It has been an amazing experience to be a part of their relationship and watch them grow together. We are so happy for them and pray that God will continue to bless them in their marriage.

Snuzzling with the grandparents

Grandma and Grandpa T came for a visit on Saturday. They just can't get enough of their first granddaughter/grandchild. Kyah even smiled for them while they were here and Grandpa got it on camera. What a shining moment.



It was nice having them here for many reasons - one of them being I got a break from diaper patrol. Grandma did a number of things around the house that I haven't had time to get to like sweep and mop the floors. And Grandpa helped me assemble my trailer for the Subaru, which took most of the day.

Grandma snuzzling with Kyah.


Abby and Grandma couldn't resist putting this hat on Kyah and taking her outside to enjoy the sunshine.


Worn out from a day full of snuzzling.

Many people have asked how Abby and I are doing. Seeing as how this is our first baby and we don't have another reference point, I think things are going quite well. It was a little rough at first because of the csection; Abby was extremely limited in what she could do. I was running around providing for both of my ladies... I didn't mind it during the day, but I will say it was pretty difficult at night. Now that Abby is moving around more and can help with a few more things, it seems to be getting easier. It also helps that Kyah has been eating and sleeping like a champ. Nine times out of 10, she goes right to sleep for a three-hour nap following feedings. That makes sleeping at night pretty easy. If I had to guess, I'd say we're amassing anywhere from six to eight hours of sleep a night. Mind you, that's amassing and not consecutive. I think we've been in bed for 11 hours the last couple nights. : ) All in all, we're truly enjoying being parents. God has blessed us immensely.

We sure made some memories together

It's sad but it's true; I sold my truck. It took me a few years to warm up to the idea of selling it, but I finally got there and sealed the deal two weeks ago. I sure loved that truck.



I know, it's just a truck... It was much more than just a truck to me, though. It was my first vehicle; it was my independence. I poured a lot of sweat and blood into it.

There are a lot of lessons to be learned in high school, and I learned many of them with the truck by my side. It's hard to recall all of them, but some of the great memories that come immediately to mind (and in no particular order) include:

- Day trips to the coast with my girlfriend and future wife. I proposed to her on one of those day trips - the rest is history.

- Night trips to the the Auburn drive-in movie theater with Abby.

- Sanding it down and getting it repainted.

- Skipping school on Abby's 18th birthday and taking her for a ride to Seattle via the ferry system.

- Driving with the sunroof and sliding rear windows open.

- Driving with Abby next to me on the bench seat.

- Our claim to fame: My truck and I were extras in the movie Ten Things I Hate About You.

- Driving away from our wedding and reception in the truck!

It wasn't the newest or the nicest vehicle out there, but I sure thought it was great. Together, we made a lot of memories. I'll miss you, my truck. May you go on to make more memories for others. Thank you!

Daddy's girl

Initially, there was some debate about who Kyah looked more like, me or Abby. It was clear to us who she looked more like when we opened my baby album. There are a lot of similarities between me and her when I was her age.

(I'm on the left and Kyah is on the right.)

Granted, I am a few weeks older in my photo than she is in her's, but I think it's still pretty clear that we look a lot a like. Would you agree?

Oh, and my hair was slightly tinted red when I was born. It turned blonde pretty quickly. Hers seems to be more red though. We'll see what color it ends up as.

Milk coma

This is what it looks like to be in a "milk coma."

I have to say that Kyah is a feeding and sleeping champion.

Videos - Sleeping and awake

I thought you might enjoy a change of pace from the pictures, so I've uploaded two short videos of Kyah.

Here she's awake...


And here she's making the cutest sleeping noise ever.


Instead of going back to sleep while Abby was feeding this morning at 4 a.m., I decided I'd stay up and post these videos. Enjoy.

The feeding is all done, and I've got both Abby and Kyah put down. It's my turn to shut my eyes! Nighty-night ya'll. (It's 5 a.m.)

More photos - I couldn't resist

Here are a few more photos of Kyah; she's just so cute that I couldn't resist sharing them. Thanks for indulging me.

One side note: We want to give a HUGE thank you to everyone who has e-mailed, texted, called and/or visited us while we've been in the hospital. We really appreciate all the love and support we've received. As our neighbor Jenn said, "It takes a village." It's true.

She loves to pull one hand out of her wrap and put it either above her head or in her mouth. She's got her thumb in her mouth in this shot.




Meet the Terps.


This is our last night in the hospital and then we're headed home tomorrow morning.Yah!

And voila, a baby is born

After nine months of hard work on Abby's part, our bundle of joy arrives. Watch the magic happen in this "flip book."

7 weeks


11 weeks


15 weeks


19 weeks


23 weeks


27 weeks


31 weeks


35 weeks


38 weeks


And after 39 full weeks, a miracle is born unto us. Wow - so precious!