Painting 9.10.13

Happy 34th birthday to Quent this day!  He spent his birthday working on Prince of Wales, so no birthday cake/dinner for him until a couple of days later.

And Jeralyn celebrated by painting.

Annika 9.7.13

My friend Sarah asked if Quent and I would take her daughter Annika's first year photos at her birthday party.  We said yes and that's exactly what we did, although Quent did most of the work.  Here are a few we took at the party.

Here is Annika! (Nicki, this is Sarah Kamyszek Haynes' daughter).

Jeralyn

My friend Samantha's daughter, Abigail.

Sarah and I talking before the party began.

Jeralyn enjoying a pre-lunch snack.  We purposely skipped her nap this day--she did great!  She was a little wild at the end, but not bad.

Annika enjoying her cake.

And Jeralyn enjoying cake.  She doesn't mess around!

Cat in the bag 9.3.13

Tigger was helping me unload the groceries.  Silly kitty!

Train Puzzle 9.1.13

I've had this puzzle for years.  It was so fun to bring it out for my girl.  She had fun helping me put it together.  I would ask her where the different things were, such as strawberries, turtles, and balloons.  And she would look for them and say, "here they are!"  She also figured out how to put the pieces together all by herself--with some help at times.

Little Cutie! 8.31.13

And here's our little cutie!

Bump! 8.27.13

So....

I'm pregnant!

Hee, hee!

And here I am at 11 weeks.  Comparing this photo to the photos we took when I was pregnant with Jeralyn, I look like I'm 4-5 weeks farther along that I did with her.  Of course that's not really all baby there, that's just the baby pushing everything up.  Ha!   Anyway...

I'm due March 18th!  We find out gender on October 22nd!

Messy Face 8.27.13

I cannot remember what she was eating here, but I do know it was breakfast.

Jeralyn's 2nd birthday! 8.24.13

We had Jeralyn's birthday party on her actual birthday!  She had a blast!  It was a theme of purple, green, and white, and turtles!

My friend Jamie and her kiddos stopped by before the party.  They couldn't stay but came to say 'happy birthday' and brought a gift for Jeralyn.

This is the turtle pull-apart cupcake cake I made.

We had dinner (soup, bread, salad, taco dip with chips, and a fruit salad), and then Jeralyn opened gifts.

She was SO excited when opening the cards and gifts.  She did this funny excited shaking thing.  Too funny!

Jeralyn and Olivia (our neighbor who Jeralyn just loves!).

I don't know what was so funny, but we had some good laughs!  The couple in the center of the picture is Olivia's dad and mom, Dan and Kimberly.  They are the best neighbors ever and often our baby sitter.

And the couple to the left of this photo are our other best neighbors, Jill and Denny.

Interestingly, Jeralyn didn't even eat the cupcake, just the ice cream.

And because of our rainy weather and timing, we didn't get a chance to take Jeralyn's official birthday photos until a few weeks later.

Happy birthday to our little sweetie!  It's so hard to believe she's already 2!  Everyone says that it goes by quickly and they certainly weren't kidding!  She brings so much joy to our lives.  I've heard people say over and over again how she's so interactive and social...and she really is!  She lights up so many people's day with her smile and "hi!"  She's just so happy and goes along with just about anything!  

We had her 2 year old wellness appointment a few days after her birthday and she's in the 90% percentile for weight and height.  She's always been on the higher end for both.  A lot of people think she's older than she is because of her social interaction, height, and vocabulary.

She loves to go shopping, playing with Duplos Legos, pushing Shelly around in her baby stroller, hiking, walking, going to the pool, dancing, and singing "rain rain go away".  She loves watching Elmo and VeggieTales.

She's been potty-trained for 7 months now and just switched to a big girl bed last week!

We love our little girl!

Early birthday 8.20.13

Oops, I forgot these photos!  So these are actually the last of our photos from our time in Michigan.  On the last night there we celebrated Jeralyn's birthday with my dad and family.  Kelly bought a chocolate cream pie from this really amazing pie shoppe.  Here is Jeralyn during the birthday song:

Sneaking some licks before the candles are lit.

This is her "why are you all singing?" face.

And some more sneaks!

Mmmm!

Family August 16-21, 2013

Well, I see I am getting behind on posting pictures, so I'm digging deep for some motivation to do so.

Here are some photos that captured our time with my dad, Kelly, and younger siblings when we were in Michigan.

Katie and I waiting outside at an outside mall in Rochester Hills.

My sisters and I at the beach.

Jeralyn LOVED the beach!  I think she really enjoyed playing in warmer water (compared to Alaska).  She kept on asking about starfish, which was cute!

Uncle Jacob and Jeralyn playing a game together on the iPad.

Aunt Amanda and Jeralyn riding "donkeys".  This was all of Jeralyn's idea of pretending they were riding donkeys.  Hilarious!

On our last day in Michigan we went to the mall Great Lakes Crossings.  They have a play area in the middle of the food court and that's where we played for awhile after lunch.

This was taken more in the beginning of our stay at their house.

Both of my sisters are in swim.  This was Amanda at practice.  I love watching her swim!

My dad, Jeralyn, and I watching Amanda swim.

After swim we went to a playground for a little while.

Everyone was playing!

Amanda, Katie, and Jeralyn shucking corn.  After Jeralyn shucked her corn she started eating it raw.  It was hilarious!  She ate almost the whole thing!

And that, my friends, is the last of the photos of our trip to Michigan.  Jeralyn and I traveled back home in one day, our longest flight being 4 hours.  A very kind lady switched seats with us so Jeralyn could sit in the empty seat beside me.  What a blessing that was!  Now she will have her own seat when we fly...whew!  She did great with flying, but it sure was exhausting for this mama!

Lost & Found July 20-August 1, 2013

I don't know how I missed these photos, but I found them today in RAW format.  So I edited and here they are fresh off Photoshop:

7.20.13: Aunt Natasha reading Jeralyn one of her favorite books: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

7.22: Lots of silliness between these two ladies!  Oh, and Shelly!

7.24: Playing with rice and her animals in a sensory bin.  I have come to the conclusion that this is a messy endeavor that ends with lots of sweeping.

7.27: Jeralyn colored on the wall with a green crayon.  I was in the room when it happened, but I was so focused on what I was working on that it took awhile for the 'coloring on the wall' sound to register in my brain.  Good thing for Magic Erasers!  She was happy to wipe down the wall!

7.29: Apparently, Jeralyn doesn't like having her teddy bear in her backpack.  She said, with tears, "All done teddy bear!"

7.29: Jeralyn visiting Tigger while he was in his carrier on the porch.  He still doesn't really appreciate her poking her fingers in there, but he's becoming more tolerant.

7.29: She likes to dump water on herself while playing with her water table.

7.30: Testing out her headphones for our travels.  I wanted to make sure she could stay focused on the video and keep her headphones on.  Success!

8.1: When she eats a snack, she knows she has to sit down while eating.  I can tell she was in mid-play before asking for a snack this day.