Finally, a rare photo of Lauren and her mom (Rare only because I'm usually the one behind the camera lens).

Above is Mark and my Christmas gift to each other. I have enjoyed brushing up on the pieces I used to play and Mark has been taking lessons (he's a natural!). Even Lauren has enjoyed banging around a bit, and the dogs join in by laying beneath the piano while I play. (And yes, that is dust all over the piano bench... ugh!)

Mark has been keeping busy. Over the New Year's holiday he installed, framed and painted these "built in" book shelves. We now realizes how few books we have - whereas before it seemed like we had way too many.

Next is our little Deuce. He turned 1 on January 6th and has grown into such a beautiful dog. He's spunky and fun-loving, always picking on Vegas and can always be counted on for a kiss.

Realizing we've named our Blog "Savitsky 5" it seems a little odd that the only thing I have been writing about is Lauren... so, I'll attach a short update about the rest of us... Pictured here is Vegas, still his Mama's #1 friend. He sleeps in the chair next to my desk while I work. He loves his brother Deuce and is so sweet and gentle with Lauren.

With the new year arriving Lauren decided she should learn some new tricks. The first is shown in the photo above. Realizing she could stand and bouce in her crib, Lauren stops for a moment for a photo op and a wave to her fans.

Waving "bye-bye" is the second of her new tricks (which she does only when her Daddy is present). Prior to this month Lauren has been crawling every where possible, but we were wondering if she would ever really sit up straight. This past week she made it clear that infact she could sit, she was just far to busy getting to new places to take the time for such leisurely persuits. In her old age she has taking to sitting up nice and straight- which rounds out trick #3.