i'm alive...but my blog is not!

here i am...giving some much needed cpr and electric shock treatment to my blog.  man, i have so many things i could have blogged over the last five (or more!) months...but life has been too busy.  the five minute version:

• in may we went to sunriver for a family wedding.  it was awesome...we always love to go and i see we have managed to make it every two years!  sunriver holds a lot of great memories for us - aa and i used to go there every year for a little getaway.  our first trip with kellen was shortly before he turned one and i remember that he learned to patty-cake there, including the "roll it" with his arms and he was so proud of himself!  that first trip we found a great tree stump along the bike paths to take a picture of kellen.  we have managed to find that same stump the last two times we've gone and now have a collection of photos of each of them on the same stump.  i hope that the collection continues to grow!  what a difference two years makes - look at my baby girl!

• a week after sunriver, the kids and i took a little trip to the beach with sarah (my sister in law) and the boys and jan (my mother in law).  we stayed two nights and it was really fun...but a little crazy (what do you expect with a 4, 3, 2 and 1 year old!).  between my sister's kids and these boys, bennett and sammy, my kids are rich in the cousin department and it's oh so fun to see them all together!

Sammy (1), Maya (2), Kellen (4) and Bennett (3)

•  for mother's day i woke up to breakfast made by aa and the kids...with two special leaves the kids had specifically picked out for my place setting! we then went on a nice 1 mile hike at the audoban society.  it was a perfect little loop with a duck pond at the beginning and end.  we stopped at the half way point and enjoyed some little treats we had gotten at elephants.  it would have been perfect, except maya decided to take too big of a bit and proceed to gag and then puke all over herself and the trail. yuck.  needless say we got out of there as quickly as possible after using the water from our bottle to clean as much as we could off of her and the trail.  we quickly forgot about it all when we decided to go to salt and straw, the best ice cream shop for a little four sample tasting board. yum.  the kids devoured it, crazy flavors and all. 



•  when you work backwards like this...some milestones are given away!  big ones, like first haircuts!!!  may 6, we finally took maya in to chop off her locks.  i'd actually been wanting to bob her hair for awhile and after seeing a picture that a friend posted of her looking like a wild cavewoman, i convinced her to go!  we'd been asking her for months if she wanted a haircut and she would always say no...when i suggested it that weekend she said yes, so i guess we were both really ready!  i do miss being able to put it up in cute pig tails, but the bob is so cute and so easy.  i actually think she looks more like a baby with the little short bob than with her wild head of hair, so that's a bonus too!  she was perfect - sat stoicly still and was thrilled to finally get a lollipop just like kellen gets when he gets a haircut!

nervously excited in her pink convertible chair!

first cut!  sniff sniff

the look on her face the entire time!

my sweet baby girl with her new do!



hooray for lollipops!



• our new(ish) house has three parks within walking distance - it's awesome.  here are some fun pics of the kids at the park.  kellen is in his pj's because he had a 24 hour bout of a stomach bug (we all actually caught it after him - LOTS of puking, ugh) and was finally feeling good enough to get outside, something we all needed! 

• i'll end tonight's five minute update on the tulip festival.  the kids and i met aaron's mom down at tulip festival on a beautiful sunny day in late april.  we stopped and got some picnic goods at whole foods and then went to enjoy the beautiful colors.  it was actually my first time there, so fun to see the fields of flowers and lots of fun activities for the kids.  here's a slew of pics from the day.

grandma and kellen in the cow train

miss thing thought she wanted to ride on her own...only to freak out at the last minute and climb in my cow!



i have to agree...it was way more fun with her on my lap!



pretty colors

this picture kills me...her sunglasses, the look on his face, his arm around her and their little hands.  i could die.

maya and grandma snuggling on the hay bales

sweet cheeks

tractor tire swing was a hit!

there are those pigtails i miss!

mama and her babies!

sniff

grandma helping with the rubber ducky races!



• any bets on how long it will take me until the next post?  that is the real question!!!

november catch up

just a had to share highlights from november...cause some good stuff happened!

maya moved from her mattress on the floor to her big girl bed (this may have happened at the very end of october...i can't remember)! it's been a seamless transition - she's yet to fall off the bed. i'm pretty sure since she spent the first two years of her life nestled in between aa and i, she was used to sleeping in one spot (meaning she never moved around in a crib all night long!). you can't see it here in this picture, but she actually uses her boppy as a pillow. i imagine she has lots of good association with that boppy and it also feels like she's being cradled in someone's arms (hooray for them not being mine all. night. long!).

in early november aa and i took a much needed weekend away sans kidlets. this would be our first time away from maya for more than one night (she had done that a few times when we moved and for our last anniversary). we hit the road mid day on friday so we could get down to the beach with enough time for a little happy hour at the salishan lodge, another beer at the salishack (a sweet, coasty dive bar) and then dinner at the side door (with our favorite pan fried oysters to start!). we basically did nothing the rest of the weekend but lounge, nap, catch up on magazines, watch movies or football (including an awesome duck win over stanford), snuggle on the couch and eat good food. oh and we did make it over to the lodge for a couple of swims/hot tubs. it was incredible to have some one on one time with each other (something that is SO hard to find with two kids...but SO important). the weekend was not quite as relaxing for the grandparents...sadly both kids slept terribly and were up multiple times in the night. much fun was had, but it might be awhile before we get another weekend away! :(

kellen and i raked (played in) a lot of leaves - the con to living in a neighborhood with LOTS of trees! truth be told, kellen and i rakes some leaves and aa raked a LOT of leaves! ;)

my gram was in town for a couple of visits and my kids had so much fun with "drammy". it brings me such joy to see my kids loving my gram so much. i can remember (and still do) loving my gram and grandpa so much that it hurt...literally, we'd SOB after leaving their house. i only wish my grandpa was still alive, cause i know they'd have so much fun with him and he'd love loving on them too.

kellen wrapped up about six months of semi-private swim lessons at the farber swim school. he grew so much in those six months and i was so proud to see how far he'd come. he's much more confident in the water now (although still doesn't love his face to go under water) and we're hopeful that when we start up again in the spring that he'll step right back where we left off. poor maya was demoted to playing in the hot tub...we couldn't seem to get a schedule with the instructor and our swimmate that aligned so we could do a mommy and me class while kellen did his lessons - hopefully that will also happen when we start up again in the spring!

maya potty trained this month! this girl was actually ready to potty train in july/august (going potty on the toilet 3-4 times a day without being asked), but with the pending move and because she wasn't even two i didn't think it was possible and was too afraid to make the plunge! after we settled into the house, she was no longer so eager...but during the first week of november, her interest peaked again and i took the opportunity to say goodbye to the diapers. she was diaper free for a week before spending the weekend at her grandparents (nov 12/13), but that wasn't really fair to ask someone else to forgoe diapers in her first week, so she wore diapers that weekend. once we got home that sunday, i packed up the diapers and we haven't looked back. she basically trained herself and is practically night trained as well. i can't tell you how happy we are to no longer change/wash diapers. now if we could just figure out how to get them to wipe themselves we'd really be set! btw, her favorite undies are these pink ones pictures - those are apples on them and she calls them her "undies apples". she'd wear those undies every day if she could! as soon as she takes them off she says "wash my undies apples please mama!". she also has "undies stripes", "undies flowers", and "undies swirls".

and this post is suddenly WAY too long and i haven't even hit on thanksgiving!  i think i'll end on potty training and come back for a little turkey and pumpkin pie.

fail.

aye aye aye...big time fail in the blog department! what can i say, moving, the start of preschool, two kids, a bit of work, life, birthdays and halloween has all taken precedence over blogging. i have such good intentions, but just can't seem to make it to the computer to bang out a blog post. so here is a big dump...

we moved! it's already been seven weeks. yikes. the house is slowly starting to feel like our home and not a vacation house that we are borrowing for a week. the odd, not our smell of the house is going away and it's starting to feel familiar. i'm becoming less nostaglic for our old house - in fact was over visiting our old neighbors and didn't even pay too much attention to our old house (other than to see if they were keeping up the yard work!). it's feeling comfortable. now if we could just get ALL the boxes unpacked, ALL the pictures on the walls, some decisions on more paint colors, and buy a few (or more) things that we need...we'd be in even better shape!

the kids have adjusted really well. especially maya who...HALLELUJAH!!!...is sleeping in her own big girl bed. it was a thousand times easier than we anticipated, considering she slept every single night of her almost two year life in our bed and practically in my arms. she more often than not sleeps through the night and if she does wake up, it's best if aa goes in to get her settled as he can be in and out in a few minutes (as long as he doesn't fall asleep on the floor!). she prefers us to lay and snuggle her until she is asleep when going to bed, but aa and i both now snuggle her for a few minutes and then tell her "i'll be right back" to leave her on her own to fall asleep. i actually have to tell her that i need to brush my teeth and i'll be right back and that will somehow alleviate any tears. i won't lie...sometimes i miss her...but i couldn't be more thrilled to have our bed back. it's such a treat and my back and neck are happy too! kellen has been pretty good, although the combination of a too scary halloween story and a new house with new noises and shadows has had him a little fearful and calling out for us to make sure no one was coming in and that the shadows were nothing to be afraid of...err. just when we get one sleeping better the other has trouble!


i took a picture of each of the kids in their bed before we moved and then a shot of each of the kids fast asleep in their own new rooms on their own new beds (really mattresses on the floor at the time!).

to make things really exciting...the week we moved was also kellen's first day of preschool! it was a big day and i won't lie...i felt a little emotional, but let's face it...i dropped him off at stringer (the nike child development center) for 9-10 hours a day, four days every week for 2 full years. but, we had been home together for the last full year and it definitely seems like such a milestone! we chose a great, play-based preschool called small friends. it's pretty hands on, as the parents volunteer in the school once every 4-5 weeks (which i really love) and the teachers seem wonderful (have been there for 15 and 20+ years). he is loving it and i think we both wish it was either a little longer or at least one more day per week. right now in the younger class he goes just tuesday/thursday from 8:30-11:45. he will often ask us if it's a school day yet! here are some pics from his first day:


big preschooler - ready to tackle the first day of school...after the first night in our new house!


little sister getting in on the picture taking action...notice the lock box still on the door and maya's pj's and crocs!


getting comfortable in the classroom with dad at the potato head table


maya running through the halls of kellen's school!

in other news, aa and i both turned 35 in october...sounds sorta old, but we really don't have time to dwell on it. and i honestly don't have any problem with getting older (at least yet!). definitely feels like a milestone...so much closer to 40! we talked about taking a little trip - maybe to sf...but it's looking like we'll take a kid-free night or two to the beach and save our pennies for the house. it's crazy to think that when we met we were 19 (nearly 20) years old...and yet here we are, solidly in our mid-thirties, with two little darlings and a lot to be thankful for - especially each other!








...and how could i even mention my birthday without mentioning our big TWO year old??? i'm sure this deserves a post of it's own...but let's be honest, if i wait it might not happen! ugh. october 21st is really about my girl. i can hardly believe she's two...it's flown by and yet feels like she came into this world just yesterday. she's the sweetest, fiestiest thing ever. she weighs 21 pounds 10 ounces...actually up to 24th percentile on the growth chart, but still quite a peanut. her height is 32 inches (and i didn't catch the percentile on that one...typically second child slight!). some of her favorite phrases are: "me do it" or "maya do it" (and watch out if you don't let her!), "how about me" (or how about maya/nellen/mama/dada...the girl is always looking out for her fam!), "no, nellen" (her second version of kellen...at first it was nennen) and "go duckies!". she has very strong opinions about almost everything...especially what she wears and what she eats. she talks up a storm, loves her big brother, is both a mama's girl and daddy's girl...but at different times. her favorite books in the last few months are: 10 little dinosaurs, my car, baby faces and baby born. her two year molars have yet to make an appearance. she loves to eat protein (chicken, turkey, salami, eggs, peanut butter...straight from the jar!) and isn't a huge fan of whole grains, although rice is pretty good. she's a total junk food junkie - chips, candy, cookies, chocolate, cupcakes, ice cream...you name it, she doesn't seem to have ANY problem eating any of those options. she LOVES babies...and will randomly name off her favorite babies - baby tato, baby adelynn, baby molly, baby nammy, etc. she doesn't however love baby dolls or really anything very "girly". anything her brother loves - she loves. for example, thomas the train, lightning mcqueen, etc. she'll push trains or cars around in her little doll stroller all day long. when given an option to do anything, she will usually ask to play trains and build tracks...just like her nellen.

all she wanted for her birthday was ime meam (ice cream) and bawoons (balloons)...so because I did nothing for her for her first birthday (well a little family party...but nothing with any friends) and since we had just moved...we invited some of her favorite baby friends and some of my favorite mamas over to a playdate birthday party...complete with ime cream sundaes and a balloon animal making clown. the clown was a hit with most of the kids...although it did frighten a couple of them! it was utter chaos with 19 children 3.5 and younger, but loads of fun. maya wasn't sure at first, but warmed up right away. and after talking for weeks about wanting balloons...was too overwhelmed by it all to want one when it was time.




and here she is...hiding behind the couch, not so certain of what is going on with the clown!


"two!!!" ...and those are rice crispy treats, orange because of the strange pumpkin marshmallows the kids picked out!

on sunday, we ended the birthday celebrations with a family birthday lunch...full of paninis, homemade soups and ice cream cake with yummy toppings!


topping choices, minus the gummy bears...which were devoured on friday!


enjoying every last bite of her ice cream cake with papa!


this year she had NO problem getting into the present opening!


enjoying some fun times with uncle bry...otherwise known as "oh bry!"

as i said on my facebook update on our birthday...my baby girl decided to make an early appearance and surprise me on my birthday. at the time, i wasn't totally thrilled. today (oct. 21, 2011), i think it's the greatest thing ever and can't wait for all the birthday celebrations to come.

it's true...i truly hoped she'd hold off until oct. 22 that night, but nope...11:57 pm she was pulled outta me and i really couldn't believe it. and now i feel so lucky to share the day with her. i envision mani/pedi's, shopping sprees and many more exciting adventures as she gets older for our big day. and with that...i'll try to post halloween pictures/updates before december arrives! no promises though...clearly that would not be worth betting on me for that!