Dear Daddy

S3, P2, Mimi and I are all in GA for a week. The trip got off to a rough start with a cancelled flight, but 23 hours later with only a few minutes delay we made it into the air and on our way to Atlanta.

Day 1: Arrived a cousin Kelly's house about 8am. Cousin Laura stopped by to drop Madeline off before a short day at work. S3 and Madeline loved playing with all the toys at Kelly's house. P2 even found some toys she liked. The girls took a dip in the pool until their lips were turning blue. Laura got off work at noon and it was great to get to hang out with both of my GA cousins for the afternoon. S3 finally crashed after an exhausting 48 hours and Slade, Kelly's fiancé, made it home from a hot day at work. The weather was in the triple digits for the whole weekend. After Mimi arrived, Kelly, Slade & I got to go to dinner together and enjoyed some kid free conversation.

Day 2: After a nights sleep on the floor with Samantha we woke up feeling more rested and ready to celebrate Kelly & Slade's engagement with her first Bridal Shower at Slade's mother's house. It was a great event and we had do much fun watching her open gifts. S3 meet Hailey and some kitties. She also found a drum set which she loved. After the shower we decided we needed some food and ended up at Steak 'n Shake, one of my favorites. In the evening Mimi watched the girls and Kelly, Laura and I headed to Peachtree City to pick up Slade's birthday cookie and go to dinner. Again, it was a great time hanging out with my cousins who I hadn't seen in 4 years.

Day 3: Slade's Birthday! After a little deception and a little delay we all meet at Longhorn Steakhouse to surprise Slade for his birthday. Family and friends all surprised him. It was so nice to hang out with everyone. Thanks to Dora S3 was able to survive the long trip out to eat. After lunch we left for Gainesville to see Aunt Jane.

Day 4: Our big exciting day! We took a short drive to Dahlonega, GA for lunch and a stroll through some cute shops. We looked for Daddy's fruit of the month but couldn't find anything Apricot. After ice cream we drove over to Cleveland, GA and Babyland General Hospital. I was so excited to take S3 here since she loves baby dolls so much. It was a magical experience. We saw 4 brand new cabbage patches born and got to help name 2: Ella Samantha and Riley Peter. When S3 got to hold Ella I was surprised she let her go. We ended up adopting 2 new babies Susan Florence and Petra Kirie. S3 loved all the babies and we stayed until the visiting hours at the hospital were over. We hear that Buddy and Tom arrived at our house and have been visiting with Daddy. We can't wait to see them when we get home.

Samantha is 2

I have to thank everyone who made S3's 2nd birthday extra special. She is one extra special two year old and we are blessed to be her parents.

We started off her birthday a week early with a party at Great Grandpa and Great Grandma's house. Grandma Tweety, and Cousins Brian, Robbie and Tasha along with our great friend Michelle were able to join us. They all knew how to please her with lots of Dora, a BIG pink bears, clothes and books.

Mid week her Buddy got into town from FL. He got to join us for a birthday party with some friends at Jump Planet, a trip to the Seattle Aquarium and many games of Settlers of Catan. We had a great visit and were sad to see him leave on her birthday.

We had her 3rd and final birthday party at Oldemor's house yesterday and were joined by all of her Great Aunts and Great Uncles who live nearby along with Cousins Kelli, Mike and Keagan. She got some new books, dresses, a castle and a bowling set and a special $2 bill.

S3 is getting so big as she is learning to say more words and starting to put 2 or 3 words together. She gives hugs and kisses, loves to play pretend and is usually nice to P2 and S2.

Happy Birthday Big Girl!

Happenings

It's February and softball season has begun. Last weekend the weather was beautiful (50's and sunny) until the sun went down and we quickly froze. Thanks to the sun the girls and I decided to make the 4 hour round trip drive to watch Peter play softball. We got to see the majority of 3 games, 2 from the stands and 1 from the car. Samantha had a great time playing with Tasha.

Penny & Joy watching from the Stroller

Samantha loved the bleachers

In addition to softball, Samantha and Penny are doing great and growing so quickly. Samantha has learned all of her colors and the numbers 2 and 3. She loves playing with her hopscotch in the living room. Her favorite toys right now are her baby dolls and her new doll house from Great Aunt Jane. She also loves to watch Dora, although Daddy prefers Veggie Tales: The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything!

Helping Penny make silly faces for Dora

Penny is hoping her head up really well and loves to play with toys. She has also started rolling over from her back to her tummy, but does not roll from her tummy to her back, but instead chooses to scream for us to come help her. She is finally starting to have a more routine sleeping patter including a couple of naps during the day, although she rarely sleeps more than 2.5 hours at a time. Peter is great at helping with her during the night so that I am not to grumpy after a day of work. We are just starting to introduce rice cereal.

Dressing Joy in Penny's jacket and wearing Momma's hat.

The girls calling Mimi from Samantha's toy phone.

Gifts

This past weekend we got to celebrate Josephine's 2nd Birthday. It was a blast and Samantha had a great time climbing in the Burger King Playland with Josephine's Daddy and the other parents that were there. Thank You for letting us celebrate with you.
Again, Peter and I worked together to complete a fun project. I really hope she likes hopping on her hopscotch mat.

Here are directions to make your own Hopscotch Mat, we used a painters canvas dropcloth for a low cost base. Since we have laminate floors we made Samantha's Hopscotch grid out of scrapbook paper and painters tape applying it directly to our floors. She loves to use it for identifying and naming colors and we are starting to work on some numbers.

Home Projects

Over the last week I have gotten the chance to catch up on some projects around the house. Our house remodel has been 'done' for about 2 years now and we finally decided on how to finish our kitchen back splash. You may have never known it was not done since the white primer was not to far off from the off white colored walls, but I had grand dreams of using metallic ceiling tiles to finish it off. We decided to go for a much more time and cost effective solution and used some coordinating paint that matches our curtains and a stencil done in paint just a shade lighter. Really we just added some white acrylic paint to the back splash color. It was a fairly quick project with us both working together. Here is the final product.

My second kitchen project required a little sewing and no help from Peter except for the final thumbs up.

Hanging towels! The top fabric is the same as our kitchen curtain. I got the pattern from here.

SNOW!

The snow is finally here! The bright part of winter in the great Northwest. Yesterday we went out for the day and came home to over 2 inches of snow. We got more snow overnight and during the day today. They say we are going to be getting more!! I'm really hoping it does not affect the school schedule as we have to make up any snow days in June at the end of the school year.

Today, Samantha and I made our first snowman.  Samantha still does not like walking in the snow, but she enjoyed sitting on the front steps with her blankie and Cuddles the bear.

S3's Command Station

Momma doing the cold work

Before he got dressed

All dressed

Our Masterpiece

Being a Big Sister...

is a tough job!

S3 is adjusting very well to being a big sister to P2. It has been 5 busy weeks so far.

 Mimi left the morning after P2's arrival, but I didn't miss her for long. Five days later we flew to FL where she greeted us at the airport. I got to see Great Great Annie, Great Granny, Buddy and all the people at Mimi's work and eat grilled cheese sandwiches. I hear they are momma's favorite from Mimi's work.

I got to spend the weekend with my Papa and Grammie while daddy played softball. Then 5 of my cousins (Elli, James, Rachel, Matthew & Carolynne) all came to visit with Aunt Heather. Momma and Dada showed up and then Uncle Jeff arrived. It was a crazy full house at Papa's, but it was fun. My favorite toy at Papa and Grammie's house is the Lego Dog.

We took an exciting adventure to Tacoma to visit the Glass Museum, but realized it was closed the day we went there so instead I took a much needed nap in the car and Momma and Dada drove around Point Defiance. I think we will be going back there next Summer when the weather is nicer. Point Defiance is a HUGE park with walking trails and scenic over looks, a long driving path, a zoo and an aquarium.

I got to go on a Daddy date to Baskin Robbins last week. We got confetti birthday cake ice cream. 

Grammie got brave and watched me all by herself for a couple of hours this week. We had lots of fun playing with toys and I took a really good nap while I was there.

I am becoming a good communicator using signs and many words too! Here is what I know:
Words- momma, dada, mimi, up, down, more, all done, thank you, please, no, yeah, milk
Signs- flower, baby, dog, bird, milk, thank you, please, all done, more, eat
Sounds- dog, cat, pig, horse, bear, bird, duck, car, airplane, train

I'm also really good at following directions and I'm learning to get what I want. Daddy is such a sucker.

Here are some pictures to show you what I have been up to!

Sleeping like a sick Queen in the big bed in FL

Teaching Buddy how to wash the car

Teaching Buddy how to water the flowers

Petting the Gator

and the Cat

and the birdy

Throwing the baseball

At the Pumpkin Patch with Micah and all our friends from MOPs

Riding in my shopping cart?

Cousin Elli was super excited to meet my sister

Talking on the phone

Sisterly Love

Yummy! Watermelon

Please don't cry. I'm trying really hard to take good care of my little sister.

Eating my rice

We all love to watch Dora.

Swaddling my baby doll.

Swimming in the Bathtub

Making sure my sister is ok.

Giving her Loves

Taking a walk with Daddy. Aren't we cute with our hoods up and holding hands.

Is she asleep? What I can't touch her?

Telling her stories.

 

Daddy came to MOPs to help in the daycare. Thanks!