He is 2!

Happy Birthday Patrick!

We love you so much. Everyday we are amazed at the little man God is transforming you into. We love how you love people and like to cuddle with them. It may take you awhile for you to warm-up to them, but once it happens you are so sweet. We love that you are learning how to smile into the camera, so far squinting isn't quite what we have in mind, but you will get the hang of it. You love to help Mommy with all kinds of tasks, I am grateful, but continue to be patient with me as I try to orient them to your 2 year old capabilities. Everyday you are more like your father, concentrating hard on one task and so full of joy. We hope you never give up your love of trains and Legos! We are grateful that you love books and will happily sit yourself in your chair and read. Hopefully soon you will remember to say please and thank you when you make requests. We are also grateful for your 20 min running sessions around your room when you have been inside all day. We are grateful that you are such a wonderful eater even if you don't like chicken. We pray for you daily that God will call you into His Kingdom and that you will be a man that desires to fear the Lord. We love you our little monkey!


Love Mommy and Daddy
PS. I will post b-day pics later!

November 2008 and a little of Dec

In November my sister-in-law threw us a shower for CJ. It was very lovely and most of my family and friends were able to attend. We were so blessed by all of the gifts. There wasn't much that we needed, but it was nice to be showered. One of the greatest things was that she also held a raffle for all of those who brought diapers in addition to their gifts, so now we have probably a 6 month supply of diapers, what a blessing.


My sister drawing a baby on a paper plate, she was competing with my step-mom in a tiebreaker.



This onesie is specifically in honor of Steve. His mom found it and couldn't pass it up. So cute!


The spread, great food for brunch.


Thanksgiving this year was at Steve's parents house. Unfortunately, I got a really bad cold 5 days before and so we came late and left early. I thought the food was great, esp. since it had been the first real meal in a few days. There were lots of family there, we were a bit crowded to say the least.


With dinner a little crazy this was about the only photo we took the whole night. Steve's parents house is a grandchild heaven. They have almost every toy you could want.

After Thanksgiving we started to decorate the house for xmas. It was really great to get all of our stuff out, we hadn't seen it in two years! We got our first live tree, which was almost a Clark Griswald moment. After some trimming and rearranging of furniture we were able to make it fit. A new addition to the decorations this year was a motorized train for the bottom of the tree. Growing up my Dad always had one around the tree. This one is mostly for PJ, but I admit it feels more like xmas to have one running around the presents.


Our mantle, I love it. The only thing I am dreaming of is matching stockings. They weren't really in the budget and our family may not be done growing yet, so maybe in the next couple of years.


PJ is very unhappy that he has to wait to put up the train. Poor guy.


Sheer delight as we unpacked the box and he got to touch and move the train cars.

The first weekend of December we had the cousins over to decorate cookies. This may become a tradition, it was lots of fun. Kya (who is the oldest) is a great artist and very creative. Aliyah (Kya's sister) was happy to mix red and white to make pink. Ivy was very calculated in her movements and only really loved to decorate the star ones. PJ...hmmm... he loved to make a mess. His frosting became brown and camouflaged, I should have made army men cutouts. He also loved to eat the icing the most.


The table is all set for the little ones to make a mess!


Ivy concentrating hard on spreading the icing.


Some of their finished creations.


Just cause Kya is so cute!


PJ and Aliyah having some fun with frosting.

If you have made it all the way to the end, congrats. Obviously you love us very much. Now that I am all caught up hopefully I will continue to update the blog. I will be posting a Christmas letter soon and PJ turns 2 tomorrow! Crazy.

October 2008

October was a little more exciting.

We took a family vacation to Southern CA to visit our friends and to enjoy some warm weather. It was really great to see some wonderful friends that we hadn't seen in almost a year. They threw us a surprise shower for our soon to be newest addition, Christopher Jack. We realized the depth, height, and width of love that PJ has for his wooden trains. Me being a silly Mommy did not pack any to take on our trip (though I did buy some new toys to keep his interest on the plane), well after two days at the Calvi's he started doing a room by room inspection to see where some choo-choo's might be. After 20 mins he started to cry when he realized there were none there. Thankfully, the Calvi's were able to bring home their stash from the family bookstore for him, he was in heaven. PJ learned many things while at the Calvi's since they have 6 older kids, he learned that a bib in his world was no longer necessary, cereal really does need to be eaten with milk out of a bowl (again I am such a silly Mommy) and he doesn't need to sit on a booster seat (this one we have been able to curb since being back home!) Halfway through our stay we moved to the Lee's where all of his new tricks were reinforced, their youngest is the last of five and is a few months older than PJ. Thankfully, he did not learn how to drink out of a cup with no lid, (I had to put my foot down somewhere, I can only take so much change at once!) While in CA Steve and I were able to make it out by ourselves a few times, which was a real treat. Steve was so awesome in taking PJ and letting me rest and relax on the trip.


Playing in the Lee's pool, though it wasn't being heated we still had fun finding leaves in the rocks.


Photo op with Christie Lee at her husband's 40th bday party!


Feeding the horses with Dave Hinrichs, where we used to live.


Playing choo-choo's at the Lee's - so serious!

We also managed to get our family xmas pics done in Oct. Cards are coming, but we are sending them with the announcement of CJ's birth. I will show you some close winners.







Halloween rounded out the month. PJ was a monkey, which is very fitting for him. He loves them. We walked down the street to the church on the corner where they were having a little carnival. Which does not compete with the one Faith Bible Church in Spokane does every year. Anyway, he wasn't really understanding what was going on till we let him have a piece of chocolate, then he understood. His favorite kinds of candy, Nerds & Dum-Dums.


Playing a game with Daddy!


Scouring the loot!


Mmmm, chocolate!

The rest of September

Since I have been so uninspired to blog (though I am constantly checking everyone else's) I need to do some major catch up. In September we finally made it to Woodland Park Zoo with Steve, PJ graduated from the highchair to a booster seat at the table and the cousins celebrated their birthday.


PJ and Ivy playing at Kya and Aliyah's birthday party, we gave the girls tutu's (so cute).


Eating his most favorite food on graduation day; spaghetti!


Playing on the tractor with Daddy!

3:1 - Here comes another one!

We had our ultrasound today and found out that we are having another boy! Things are looking very healthy with him and we are so happy to have a healthy boy. So far he has not been as active as PJ was, so maybe he will be a little more like me? Though we wanted a girl it will be nice for PJ to have someone else to rough house with and a great best friend. I guess this just means we will have to try in the future for a girl!!! Here are some pics of the new baby boy!


Profile of him!


His feet.


Leg - chunky thigh!

Pioneer Days with Friends

Playing in Daddy's work boots!


4th of July, Parade in downtown Bothell. He had the TIME of his life looking at all of the chaos that passed by, we were amazed he enjoyed it so much.


First time sitting on the potty, with a Truck book of course. We haven't tried since and he wasn't successful, but a start is a start.


Riding a pony for the first time, he did not enjoy it!


He did enjoy the gymnastics area though.


He had great balance going across the beam.

On Sat we went to the Lake City Seafair festivities with some friends from church. All of the kids are roughly the same age. PJ had lots of fun just being out of the house. He likes to be in the car and look at all of the other cars on the road.

He is starting to assert his wants and desires more lately. He is starting to ask for different foods while eating. One of his most FAVORITE things is the movie "Cars" and anything else related to it. I think that he really enjoys Mater. Though he will only sit and watch 10-15 mins at a time.

Happy 1/2 Birthday!

Today PJ is 18 mos. Time has come and gone so fast. We have been loving him more and more as he grows. Right now he is starting to put words together, "Hi Baby", learning new ones lightening quick, newest is gecko. He is a lover of all things that have to do with babies. A couple of examples, in Nursery at church they combined his class with the infants and where did he hang out, on the blanket with the babies. At his party this weekend there were 3 babies on blankets, he was around all of them while all of the other kids his age were blowing bubbles and chasing balloons. He likes to pick up and put away his toys. He is LOVING trucks, buses, cars and anything that moves on wheels. His feet are huge, size 7! He likes his music loud like Daddy! We are starting to enter the clinging to Mommy stage. He still loves reading books. He received some Duplos for his bday and loves them more than the Mega Blocks (Steve is very excited to raise another Lego lover). He is a wonderful eater and has recently discovered juice! He also loves to be outside, esp when he can follow Daddy with his bubble mower.

We threw him a 1/2 bday party this weekend. We have decided to celebrate his birthday like this for awhile, at least until he understands the difference between his bday and xmas. The party was lots of fun. We had every make their own personal pizzas for lunch and decorate their own cupcakes. Everyone was outside because the weather decided to act like it was at least spring. PJ was much better at opening presents this time around and kept close while I "helped him". We felt so blessed to have family and friends around.

Tiring last few weeks

This pregnancy has hit me harder than PJ did. I have been more turned off towards food and had lots less energy. Maybe it is chasing after PJ. My sister-in-law said that PJ has lost most of his "babiness" and is starting to look more like a little boy. How did that happen? Where was I? He is still a baby to me.

We have had lots going on as usual. One Saturday Steve built a fort for PJ with the couch cushions - great fun! Another weekend we headed over to Spokane to meet up with some old friends, it was a great time to reconnect. We also went to the Aquarium with the Hjertagers. This weekend we are prepping the yard for PJ's 1/2 b-day party that is happening in two weeks. Here are some pics.

I'm the Big Brother!!

We are overjoyed to announce that we are expecting again! I am 5 weeks along and my EDD is Jan 16th! The babies will be a little over two years apart! If you are family and are reading this and have not been notified, we are sorry, we were taking advantage of the glorious weather by playing outside and going to the zoo!



This peacock was at the exit of the zoo. Isn't he lovely? Well he was until he charged at us with his feathers spread open. PJ was fascinated by him!

PJ is catching up!

We went to the doctor for a check up on Tuesday. He is now weighing in at 25 lbs and is 32.25 in long. So that has moved him into the 50th percentile. His head is still in the 94th percentile - not really a surprise to me! He is very healthy and the doctor didn't have any concerns for him. Praise God for a healthy baby!

Say goodbye....

to PJ's lovely hair

We did it we gave him a buzz cut. I have been wanting to buzz it, but I thought the best time would be when Daddy was getting his hair cut too! Well today Steve was like "Honeybear, can we trim my hair?" I was like "oh,...sure" (in head, not ready to say goodbye to PJ's fun baby hair) I think that he looks older and I do like it. What do you think?


After (he did pretty well during the buzz)


Before

Busy couple of weeks

We have had lots of stuff going on. We had some wonderful friends from CA in town, some friends from Spokane visited, we went to downtown Seattle, and visited the tulip fields up north with my Mom. I was also able to squeeze in some time at a community garage sale where I was able to pick some great stuff for PJ.


PJ learning how to climb up his new chair and table, we got this set for $10!


PJ playing on his new slide, I scored this for a whole dollar!


Family pic at the tulips!


Looks at those fields and the mountains, amazing!


Mom and I by the daffodils. So pretty!


PJ seeing the tulips for the first time.




PJ's new favorite toy is his crib! What a monkey!




Downtown Seattle


Flowers from Pike Place, can you believe that they only cost $10, and they lasted over a week!


Parker's over for dinner!


Baby Karston from CA, PJ loved him sooooo much and did very well with him around. PJ is bending down to give him a hug.