Marcie's Baby Shower

Isn't the arrival of a new baby so exciting?! That is why baby showers are so fun to me. I just love them! A bunch of us did a baby shower for our good friend Marcie and it turned out wonderful! She is expecting her 3rd - a sweet little girl and we are all so happy for her. A large group of us surprised her by remodeling her nursery (the way she wanted it) for a baby gift - I think she liked it! She cried...that's a good sign, right?! :) At the shower we had a sit down luncheon and it was a blast!That is cute prego Marcie on the left. I have no idea how I forgot to take a picture of her with all of us - duh! I hosted it at my house but I can't take credit for anything else. The other girls made the entire affair beautiful. We even had a video of the surprise nursery and Marcie's reaction that we showed everyone. It was so cute! Stephanie and Toni were really the inspiration behind it all... check this out: It was so fun. Thanks, Marcie, for having a baby so we all had an excuse to have a girly party!!

Last week

Last week was a full week! Full of crazy fun events, both day-to-day and special occasions.
Starting with the weekend: We had a baby shower for my friend Marcie on Saturday. It turned out so cute! And so much fun (of course) to spend time with girl friends celebrating the imminent arrival of a baby! *I have just decided that I have too many cute pictures and find the need to make the baby shower it's own post later... pics to come!*

During the baby shower, Cheryl and Eric took the kids to the beach. From what I heard of their adventure, it was a blast and the kids were in heaven! My sweet hubby included me in the fun by sending me a few precious pictures on my phone:

That evening Eric and I went to the Seattle Symphony while Cheryl kindly tended the kids for us. It was wonderful to have some grown-up time alone and getting some culture into our lives wasn't bad either! :)

Monday Gabe got to go to a horse farm for a preschool field trip. We bushwhacked through trails overgrown with spring growth in search of frogs and slugs and the-ever-interesting bugs! Gabe was delighted by our little farm friends - a cat and a dog that followed us everywhere we went. The cat was an aloof sort, curious enough about what we were up to but not particularly excited to see us. The dog, on the other hand, was adorably sweet and playful and loved the kids to death! They even had her swimming and diving for rocks they were throwing in the stream! (see her down below in the water?) The day was topped off by Gabe's opportunity to ride an enormous draft horse! Gabe has ridden horses quite a lot for a guy his age but I was still surprised to see how little he looked astride that huge beast! The rest of the week was filled with equally exciting events like Nyah discovering the fun of riding our own horse Denali :)...Nyah emptying out the bath toy drawer (a favorite pastime) but this time crawling into the drawer herself! Gabe came racing downstairs to tell me Nyah was in the drawer and lo-and-behold she was in the drawer! haha!!

Nyah teaching herself to go down the stairs (video of this but no pics)...

Nyah standing alone more and more. She is going to be up and walking any day!

Nyah copying every little thing I do during the day... and Gabe repeating everything I say all day! Wow I really need to be on my best behavior now! :)

Nyah has been reaching so many milestones lately. She grows and learns everyday and keeps us tightly wound around her little finger! Just today Eric said he wished she would have been an identical twin because then we could have had two of her! Of course he was kidding but I totally get it! Nyah, Nyah, Nyah. She is our feisty, little darling and Gabe is our funny, little man of the house. He is a complete sweetheart with her and is the best big brother in the world. He loves to play with her and hates her nap time. He almost always loves to include her (and when he doesn't love to include her, politely shuts her out of his room so he won't be tempted to push her over when she gets into his things! :) Something I have encouraged since it gives him space and avoids a lot of tears and frustration around here!) She couldn't have been given a better brother and I'm thrilled to see how much they love each other already!

princess hair 101

I am excited to say that we are officially entering the world of up-dos! Nyah's hair is curly, gorgeous and long (for a 13 month old) and just begging to be twisted, braided or otherwise beautified. And we have the added bonus of getting her hair out of her face and showing off her pretty blue eyes! I have tried the occasional pigtail in the past but I'm ready to take on the fun stuff. My friend (who is supremely talented in this area) introduced me to some fun new websites that teach new daughter-mommies how to create fun hairdos. I'll be honest, most of it is waaaaayyyy beyond my capabilities at this time but then thankfully Nyah's hair has a ways to grow before I can 99% of the ideas on there!
I tried a tiny french braid this morning... didn't work out so well. So we stuck with the two pigtails with a cute zigzag part! I'm so excited! Doesn't she look absolutely adorable?! I have to admit that I still think she looks the most precious with those sweet little curls clipped back with a simple hair bow but it is going to be so fun to try out all these fun up-dos!

Happy Bday Gabe!!

Gabe turned 4 this week, aaaaah!! My little boy is getting so big! I love it though. It is just a blast to watch him grow up. He is so smart, has a wonderful sense of humor (what a tease!), is so loving(Nyah adores her big bro), and has a gentle, sweet spirit that Eric and I treasure. It was so fun spending the week celebrating him... although he was a little confused and kept insisting his birthday was over after the primary sang Happy Bday to him at church, 3 days before his birthday! He's not old enough to know that the longer a birthday lasts, the better! :) We started with a fun friend party on his birthday and then his Grandma R got to come out for a visit over the weekend. While Grandma was here, we gave him our present... a boat sandbox! It was so exciting - he loved it! Just like I knew he would!! We had to drag him (and Nyah!) into the house for dinner that night. :) Ever since that evening, it has been raining nonstop but I can't wait for it to dry up a bit. I know those two will want to play out there all day.
Happy Birthday Gaber Naber!! I we love you bigger than the sky!!

Under the Sea ~ Gabe's 4th B-day Party!!

Gabe turns 4 years old! HAPPY BIRTHDAY GABE!!This year Gabe had his very first friend birthday party! He requested a "fish and boat" party so I elaborated a bit and came up with an Under the Sea Party for him. It was so much fun to host a real birthday party for Gabers this year. He still didn't completely get the whole idea (he's never been to a b-day party either!) but he was thrilled to have all his friends over and play games, eat cake, and best of all open presents! As the gift pile grew, Gabe kept asking me about "those packages"! :) He loves packages - he gets a lot of those with both grandma's living so far away - haha!! He couldn't wait to open them (literally) and was thrilled with the gifts he received. It was such a fun time!

Playing the fishin' game... fishing for prizes!Opening presents - woohoo! Lunch time: sandwiches cut out in fish shapes, fruit, fishy crackers, and blue Gatorade with gummy fish frozen in the ice cubes!
a few of the moms...Gabe's flashy fish cake!! I had fun making this! Plus some pics of the underwater sea creatures Gabe and cut out. He helped me with the coloring!

I sure love my birthday boy! How on earth could he be 4 years old already??!!!

catch up

I just haven't been my usual blogging self lately. Maybe it's a writing funk, more likely it's due to a happily busy spring. Who knows, but I'm ready to catch up and jump back in!! The kids have been so fun lately. Gabe is flippin' hilarious and Nyah is growing by leaps and bounds, it's crazy! Here are a few pictures of our little doll in March and April: Early March I walk into the room to find Nyah STANDING in her crib for the first time! Yay baby! :)Just before her first birthday Nyah started crawling up on things! Reading her new birthday books from Grammy and Papa while kneeling cozily on the stairs - a new and exciting conquest, by the way. (Navigating the stairs, that is!)

Now Nyah is pulling herself up on absolutely everything - my favorite being my legs while I'm trying to cook! That is really fun to have a swaying baby looking up at you with big, hopeful eyes while you're juggling pots and pans! She is even practicing walking with the aid of anything pushable, the kitchen chairs being a favorite! She will push around the little walker but it tends to move a little too fast and she inevitable ends up on her face over and over. It usually doesn't stop her though - she will keep on trying... albeit crying every bit of the way! The drama really never ends around here anymore. :) I have a funny video on my iPhone of this that I would love to post here (if I can ever figure out how to download my videos onto the computer!)

Now Gabe is growing up just as fast as Nyah. I can hardly believe that he was once her size! He is getting so tall and handsome. He asks "why?" to everything imaginable. When I heard of this preschooler habit, I laughed and thought it sounded so cute... well Eric and aren't laughing anymore! :) I'm just joking! For the most part it's a ton of fun talking with our little man and analyzing and discussing every last thing he hears or sees!!! haha! Here's a few funny pics of him the past month:I was cleaning the bathroom and I'll admit the fumes were a little strong but I cracked up when Gabe came stumbling through the doorway with his backpack over his head, declaring that he couldn't smell anything anymore! Obviously couldn't see anything either by the way he kept running into things! It was too funny! {I have to add that the other day we were laughing about something and Gabe said "you're cracking!" then he tried again: "I'm cracking you!" Then I finally helped him out by saying: "you're cracking me up!!" It was sooooo cute!!}Gabe's new favorite thing is boats... he can make boats out of just about anything and on this day it was his bb's all lined up on the floor. Then he proceeded to load the boat by placing just about every toy he owns onto the blankets. I come upstairs to see our entire toy closet emptied and everything neatly piled up, ready for a voyage. At least it isn't in massive piles, helter-skelter, like when he was in the garbage truck mode! Everything in the house was trash (from my toiletries to dvds to silverware) and ended up in large trash heaps... much to my delight. Well, all I can say is he has got a great imagination and I'd rather him be doing this than watching TV. *sigh*

Gotta love these kids!!!

Alki Beach with Mom and Dad

One of the first days Mom and Dad were here we took them to West Seattle to enjoy the sunset from Alki Beach. There is a great boardwalk to stroll down and lots of sand. Very cold water and tiny waves but Gabe still gets very excited to be at the beach! It's fun to be by the bay... even though, I have to admit, I much prefer waves crashing on the surf. Smelling the salty air and seeing that great expanse of water feels good though. {Last time we were here we got a special treat - there was a tiny baby harbor seal sleeping on the beach while it's mother presumably was fishing! No luck this time though - just squawking sea birds!} After we lingered on the beach for awhile, enjoying the view of Seattle in the distance, we went to Pegasus Pizza for dinner. One of Eric's favorites - yum! It was a really fun evening - sharing one of our "normal" outings with Grammie and Papa!
Gabe making a sand castle with Grammie! Not the best picture. I was trying to get the pretty skyline... obviously I am no photographer! :)Grammie and Gabe checking out the waves - they splashed pretty big on those steps! Exciting stuff!!Nyah was desperate to play in the sand - kept lunging out of our arms to get down and cried piteously in the stroller. What could I do but let her crawl around in it?! She loved exploring this new world and was absolutely devastated when it was time to go to dinner! :)