2 P's as in Ptarmigan

June, July, and August!

noreply@blogger.com (Deanna) — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 22:35:00 +0000

Hi there! We had a busy summer having lots of fun. Grandma Shook retired and we had a big party for her in June. Then, we had a vacation in Kauai with the Gampp family and enjoyed the beach and pool and relaxation. Max is still not walking, though very close - he goes all around while holding on to our fingers. He's saying more words every day, up to about 15 by now, so we're quite proud! He loves his "books", and his "button" which he shows proudly to his friends. He always has lots to say, telling stories and having conversations without speaking a word of English - right now we like "Koke", and "Kow", and "Bwee". I'm sure they mean something important. Enjoy the pictures! http://picasaweb.google.com/dgampp/MaxJuneJulyAug

Max is 1 year old already!

noreply@blogger.com (Deanna) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:20:00 +0000

Hi everyone! We've been having lots of fun in May with Max's birthday and our trip to Ohio to visit the Gampp and Maxwell extended families. Max also went to his first Rockies baseball game, and it didn't go too well - every time we made a good play or hit a home run and the crowd cheered, he started crying hard! Too spooky. Plus, no room to explore, even though we brought toys to play with. So we'll probably wait until another couple years before we try that again....

Max's birthday party was a huge success, so much fun. It was perfect weather outside, and he loved the ice cream more than the cake! Didn't get messy though, boo. He got a whistle from Gma and Gpa Andrews that he loves to blow on, and all kinds of noisy toys that Mommy and Daddy just love!!! He also likes to play in the pool, as long as the water is warm enough. We're having all kinds of fun. No walking yet, but he's pulling to standing so it will come soon enough.

Out trip to Ohio was also lots of fun. Max got to ride the tractor at Baba's house with Uncle Russell, and had his first taste of Hickie's burger, which is Daddy's favorite place to eat. The only bad part of the whole trip was flying home - this child is a champion fighter at not going to sleep, so he screamed and fought three different times until we just got the toys back out and he finally gave in about 30 minutes before landing - of course. So next time you're on a plane with a screaming baby who won't fall asleep, have sympathy, they may also be champion fighters. :)

Click here for pictures.

An Update on Maxwell.....

noreply@blogger.com (Deanna) — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:39:00 +0000

So here we go again - more pictures of Max. Yes, we do other things, but they seem to be quickly forgotten when trying to keep up with this little guy! He loves going to the park and swinging in the swing, and the day after my previous post, started crawling to beat all other crawlers before him. He's super fast, and sometimes it's a race to get the doors shut (office, bathroom, other off-limits areas). He also started making the silliest face like a big Cheerio when we were taking his picture - of course doesn't do that anymore, but it was fun while it lasted! He also likes watching daddy play soccer (okay really, playing with his pals Brett and Lillian are higher priority), and had a great time on his first Easter Sunday at church with us. It's nice to look at these pictures of him totally happy today, because right now he is cutting his first top tooth and not happy at all. Hopefully he will be back to normal in time for his big birthday party coming up on Saturday!

Hope you enjoy these pictures, just don't drool on your keyboard.... click here.http://www.flickr.com/photos/9755477@N05/sets/72157605059409291/

Trip to Georgia, more fun at home

noreply@blogger.com (Deanna) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 21:19:00 +0000

Hi everyone! Max and I recently took a long weekend trip to Georgia to visit great grandparents and aunts. Max's great-aunt Sue turned 60, and we had a great time celebrating. Our little guy is getting bigger every day. He's just started crawling a couple knees, not cruising all over the place but we're sure that will happen soon. We put up the gates so we're somewhat ready. He's also learning what "no" means, and not liking it one bit! He still melts our hearts every day.

To see pictures from that trip and more, click here.

smart mama

noreply@blogger.com (Deanna) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:52:00 +0000

Woo hoo, I am now doing a blog post for the first time on my very own. I've decided part of my mom duties include updating this with pictures of Max, instead of constantly bothering Josh to do it. hee hee. So here are the ones we took in January - not too exciting, just playing and eating. He started clapping a week ago, which is lots of fun. He also loves smacking the table, so we're trying to learn "high fives" by sneaking my hand there on the table when he's smacking it. Seems he just decides he wants to do something though, and doesn't need training. Still no teeth yet, and no crawling yet - we're getting tired of saying "He's so close!" - it's been that way for over a month now. But we are having lots of fun every day and trying to remember these moments since they go by so fast. He also loves the fireplace - so much that when Josh blew out the candles for his birthday, Max got really upset and started crying.

Some other things he's doing are playing with the carpet in the kitchen (pulls it back and scratches underneath) while I'm fixing his food. I put on a Baby Einstien video (I know, I'm poisoning my child, whatever) and surround him with toys so he's entertained while I get some stuff done around the house, and he doesn't even touch the toys, he's just mesmerized by this video! It's pretty funny. He loves looking at the camera, so if I want to take a picture of him without him looking, I have to be really sneaky. Otherwise he just stops what he's doing and just stares.

Click here for Max's pictures from January.

Merry Christmas everyone!

noreply@blogger.com (Deanna) — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 20:31:00 +0000

Well we had lots of fun this year with our adorable bundle of joy here to join in the fun. Max was a perfect little boy on Christmas Eve with Grammy and Papa Gampp, and then again on Christmas Day with Grandma and Grandpa Shook. He loved all the attention from everyone and playing with the paper and bows! We just watched him all day and couldn't get enough. Seems like all of his relatives are crazy about him too.

We also had fun in November with Max turning 6 months old (now he's 7 months old, we just can't keep up), so here's an album with all the pictures up until now. Enjoy!

Pictures of Max

Pictures

noreply@blogger.com (gampp) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 02:18:00 +0000

We never seem to have time to update the pictures, so you're getting a bunch at once. Click the link below for pictures of the little man.

Max Pictures

We're lame

noreply@blogger.com (gampp) — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 02:10:00 +0000

I'm not even going to try to make excuses for not posting, we're just lame. Below are two picture galleries of Max. One is just some various pictures while the other is pictures of his first trip to Georgia to visit great-grandpa and great-grandma Andrews. He did great on the plane and behaved himself at grandma's house.

Max Pictures

Max's trip to Georgia

Sorry for the delay

noreply@blogger.com (gampp) — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 03:03:00 +0000

I know that many of you have been waiting for more pictures of Max, so I'm finally back to give them to you. Max turned 3 months old yesterday and is growing like crazy. He's been sleeping really well at night, which has both Deanna and me thrilled. Great-grandma Willsey came out for a visit and you'll see a number of pictures of her with Max. Max's cousins James and Desi came out for a visit as well and we got a couple of good pictures of them with Brenna and Reid as well as with Papa and Grammy. We have more even more pictures for your enjoyment, but we left our camera at Papa and Grammy's house and don't have it back yet. I'll post those pics when we do.

Max Pictures

More Max Pictures

noreply@blogger.com (gampp) — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 02:36:00 +0000

As you'll see from these pictures, Max has learned how to smile. He somehow also keeps getting cuter. Pictures at the link below:

More Pictures

Wedding and July 4th

noreply@blogger.com (gampp) — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 22:35:00 +0000

Max has been busy over the last couple of weeks. In addition to growing a little every day and learning to smile, he attended Kirk and Annie's wedding and had a July 4th party at Nate and Leanne's house. On the 4th, he went out for his first hike with Mom and Dad at the Garden of the Gods. All pretty exciting for a 7 week old! Pictures linked below:

Youngman Wedding

July 3rd/4th

More Max Pictures

noreply@blogger.com (gampp) — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 00:00:00 +0000

We have a few more pictures of Max (and some of his new friends) to share.

More pictures

More pictures of Max

noreply@blogger.com (gampp) — Wed, 23 May 2007 17:26:00 +0000

I've managed to wake up for long enough to get some pictures of Max posted. Click the link below:

Max pictures

Maxwell is here!

noreply@blogger.com (gampp) — Mon, 21 May 2007 03:32:00 +0000

Maxwell Robert Gampp was born on May 18th at 3:57 PM. He weighed in at 7 lbs and 11 oz and is 20.5 inches long. Mom and baby are doing great. More details to come, but I wanted to get a couple of pictures up.

Hawaii!

noreply@blogger.com (gampp) — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 04:37:00 +0000

We decided to take one last pre-baby trip to Hawaii in February. Rick and Allena joined the entire Gampp (and Simmons) crew for a week on Kawaii. Despite some swollen feet for Deanna on the plane rides, we had a great time and it was very relaxing. On a side note, for the first time since I can remember, I don't have any trips planned. We'll see how long we can hold out before taking Lando on his first big trip. Pictures from Hawaii can be seen by clicking here.

It's a boy!

noreply@blogger.com (gampp) — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 17:45:00 +0000

I'm extremely late with this post, but we had our 20 week ultrasound done about 5 weeks ago and found out that I was correct in using "he" in the previous posts. We were worried going in that we wouldn't be able to tell the sex, but Lando wasn't afraid to show his business to the world. Below are two of the ultrasound pictures. The first is a side view and the second one is the spread-eagle money shot.

16 Weeks

noreply@blogger.com (gampp) — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 19:34:00 +0000

So we're 16 weeks in and there's not a whole lot to report. Deanna has been pretty tired and felt consistently sick for weeks 8 - 14. She's feeling better now, but her body still shuts down around 8:30 pm. She goes to bed around 9:00 and I stay up to play Nintendo Wii (the new Zelda is fantastic). I'm sure I'll look back on this time and marvel at wanting to stay up to 1 or 2 in the morning playing games. According to BabyCenter.com, Lando is now the size of an avocado. So far, we've had a sesame seed, a lentil bean, a raspberry, a kidney bean, a grape, a kumquat (exotic!), a fig, a lime, a jumbo shrimp, a lemon, and now an avocado. Apparently, they write these updates before lunch. We had a doctor appointment last week and got to hear the heartbeat. Either Lando is developing rapidly, or he's already out of shape like his dad, cause the heartbeat was flying. We don't go in again until mid-January, when we hope to find out whether Lando will like the name or hate me forever. At this point, I don't have a preference as I figure he'll hate me either way when he's 16 anyway.

(I'm using "he" instead of "it", because "it" sounds so impersonal and "he" is one less letter than "she". If he winds up being a girl, I'll come back and change these so it looks like I'm psychic)

The Ptarmigan is now all Lando, all the time

noreply@blogger.com (gampp) — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 21:04:00 +0000

As many of you are already aware (you are still out there, right?), we're happy to announce that Deanna is pregnant with our first child. While we don't yet know the sex of the baby, we've already decided to call it Lando. No need to ask us about the names we're thinking about, it's Lando. If it's a boy, Lando is a cool name. If it's a girl, I probably won't have to worry about too many boyfriends asking out a girl named Lando. Seems to work either way. Anyway, we'll try to use the Ptarmigan to keep everyone up to date on the pregnancy, birth, and development (come on, left-handed) of little Lando. The first ultrasound picture (taken at 8 weeks) can be seen below.

Deanna's first 14er

noreply@blogger.com (Deanna) — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 01:20:00 +0000

Woo hoo, I am finally posting my very first blog, I feel so technological! I love technology....
So last Saturday I achieved one of my lifelong dreams of climbing a 14er. My friends Shawn and Jaime from work went with me, so I was in good hands. They took me to Mt. Sherman, which is supposed to be a good one for a first-timer, and they were right! It was lots of fun, especially towards the top when I couldn't think very well for lack of oxygen. Just thought, don't lose your balance and fall waaaaaay down that mountain. Of course, Shawn couldn't just take me up Mt. Sherman though, we also had to summit Mt. Sheridan next door at 13,700 feet. Lovely. Here are the pictures from our perfect day!

Ohio Update!

noreply@blogger.com (gampp) — Tue, 30 May 2006 21:23:00 +0000

We made it to Ohio and are now up in Amish country with Mom and Grandpa and Grandma. The drive out went surprisingly well and we had a great time at both baseball games. Wrigley was pretty cold as we were under the overhang and the wind was blowing. The game in Cincinnati was completely the opposite as it was extremely hot and I was sweating by the end of the first inning. We're 1-1 as the Cubs lost their game, but the Reds hit a game-winning home run in the ninth to cap off an exciting win. A few pictures below.

Heading out

noreply@blogger.com (gampp) — Wed, 24 May 2006 15:37:00 +0000

What's high in the middle and round on both ends? That's right, Ohio (one of Grandma Gampp's favorite jokes). Deanna and I are hitting the road tomorrow for an old fashioned cross-country drive. We'll see baseball, we'll see family, we'll see wheat and corn. I'm bringing the laptop, so you may get some pictures and updates if you're lucky. Especially pictures of Kansas. I can't get enough of that beautiful topography.

Finished!

noreply@blogger.com (gampp) — Tue, 16 May 2006 21:24:00 +0000

Well, it's finally over. Last Saturday, I officially graduated with my MBA from CU-Denver. I don't know what that means for the future, I'm just glad to be done with the whole thing. It was a long three and a half years of working full time and going to school part time and it's nice to know that I don't have to give up a couple of weeknights and one weekend day every week to work on school work. Maybe that means I'll update the website more often, but I doubt it.

In other news, I managed to squeeze in a two week visit to the great country of Australia since my last post. I was on the Gold Coast working, but we got a little time in for play while we were there. My co-worker and I spent a couple of days on the beach and took the train up to Brisbane for an Australian Rules Football game, which was a lot of fun. I also got a free upgrade to Business Class on the way home, which made the long flight much more bearable.

Deanna and I are planning a trip back to Ohio for my aunt and uncle's 50th wedding anniversary at the end of the month. Instead of flying, we've decided to spend all of the money that we have on gas and drive out. It gives us an excuse to see a few more baseball stadiums. We're going to a Cubs game at Wrigley and a Reds game in Cincinnati on the way out and to a Cardinals game at the new Busch Stadium on the way back. We're looking forward to the time off of work.

New Record

noreply@blogger.com (gampp) — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 04:05:00 +0000

Despite popular demand for a return (thanks Nick), I've been quiet for two months now. This may just be the lamest site ever. I'd spend some time trying to catch everyone up on what we've been up to, but I can't really remember what's happened since the 5th of January. A few highlights:

I turned 30 on January 29, which may help explain why I can't remember to update or what's been happening. Getting old sucks I guess.
Beth and Austin welcomed little Steven Reid into our proud clan on January 30. You can see pictures here.
Deanna made a work trip to Nothern Ireland and left me homw by myself. I am getting my revenge at the end of March when I head to Australia without her. You can see pictures of her trip here (now with captions).
We spent this weekend scraping the "popcorn" texture off of our downstairs ceiling. It seemed like a good idea to begin with, but turned into a huge project with a rediculous amount of dust. I'm sore everywhere.

I'm not promising anything, but I'll try to post more often. As mentioned above, I'm headed to Australia at the end of the month, so there may be another installment where I try some disgusting flavor of potato chips. Gripping stuff, really.

Holiday wrap-up

noreply@blogger.com (gampp) — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 18:54:00 +0000

I'm terrible at this blogging thing. I think what I've really learned is that I'm only clever (and motivated) enough to update this thing about once a month. I could resolve to do better, but I'm sure that I'll fail. I find it's better to be realistic with yourself. Anyway, the holidays flew by and all we did was go to Germany. Deanna and I spent 10 days in southern Germany visiting Christmas markets and relaxing. We had a great time and couldn't believe how fast the time went. After getting home, we had a quiet Christmas at home alone, spent the day after Christmas with Deanna's folks, and had a few friends over for New Year's. Nothing like being back at work trying to figure out why it feels like you never left. Anyway, we took a few pictures in Germany and you can see them HERE if you're interested.

Suicide Fever

noreply@blogger.com (gampp) — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 19:59:00 +0000

I don't know why this took me so long to post. Even Wen beat me to posting after I sent it to him via email. Anyway, the guys at FormalFriday.net have created perhaps the best "mash" of two songs by combining the theme song from MASH and Pac-Man Fever. I can't stop listening to Suicide Fever.