Kate: 2 Years Old

 

That itty bitty baby of ours is somehow a full-blown toddler! Here's a little about Kate at 2:

• Somehow, in the last few months she transformed from being our baby to being one of the kids. She is growing up too fast.
• Her baby mullet is slowly growing in. She has the cutest blond curls on the back of her head and bangs that all grow straight down over her face. 
• Definitely our craziest toddler. She particularly loves jumping off of things, which can prove dangerous. Somehow we have avoided any serious injury so far. 
• She LOVES watching song videos, specifically Super Simple Songs (which she calls Happy Songs) and Little Baby Bum. She spends most of her day singing variations of Twinkle Twinkle or the Alphabet Song. 
• Quite the talker. She has been speaking in full sentences (and using them to yell at her siblings) for quite some time. 
• She is a great eater. Favorite foods include chocolate peanut butter smoothies, granola bars, hamburgers, pizza, and cereal with milk (which she eats quite successfully by herself.)
• Loves to read books and snuggle.
• Obsessed with blankets. Always wrapping herself in a giant blanket, which often causes frustration when the blanket doesn't cooperate. Her favorite blanket to sleep with is her fuzzy princess one, which she stole from Sarah.
• Loves all of the neighborhood kitties, although they don't always love her back. She isn't the gentlest with them.
• One of her favorite games is to play kitties with Sarah, which mostly involves Sarah making her a "kitty bed" on the floor with blankets and pillows. She does a great meow. 
• She is a big fan of living 1 block from Grandma's house. We had to put up a fence when we moved in so she would stop trying to run away to Grandma.
• Wants to be part of everything the big kids are doing, often to their frustration. 
• While she is generally a happy kid, Kate has amazing death glare skills, which tend to be directed at strangers, as well as Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Amy for some reason. Uncle Jeremy finds this hilarious and has spent the last several months winning her over. She actually left Grandma to snuggle with him the other day. (Although I'm pretty sure she still refused to look at him.)
• She is a very sweet, snuggly girl, with a silly little personality that is starting to come out. We love you, Kate! Happy birthday!

Matching birthday outfits with Sarah. Kate loves unicorns. 

Unicorn bows! Of course, she ripped one of them apart before her birthday was even over.

Her birthday dinner had to be pizza. She gets very excited every time we announce there will be pizza for dinner, and often eats more than either of her siblings. Hawaiian is her favorite, but she will eat most any kind.

A little help was needed blowing out the candles. Sadly, when you are 2 and your sister's birthday is the day before yours, you get stuck with leftover birthday cake. Kate didn't mind.

Kate got a Rapunzel doll, a mixer, and a Frozen jewelry box. All big hits!

Happy birthday, Kate!

Sarah: 7 Years Old

 

Our beautiful Sarah is growing up! Here is a little about Sarah at 7 years old:

• Loves learning, both at school and at home. We have been so proud of how she has dealt with all of the madness of being a student in 2020. She has been to school both in person and virtually at two different schools this year, and she has excelled in all of it. Her attitude has been amazing. For first grade, she is attending Haines elementary, and her teacher is Mrs. Belding. 
• Moved for the 3rd time in her life (although the first one she can actually remember.) When we told her that we would be moving not once, but twice, within about a year, her response was, "I get to make all new friends twice! Awesome!" She has already made lots of new friends at her new school. 
• She was lucky enough that her best friend, Lucy Snow, moved from Fruitland to Baker City at the same time we did, so they still get to be besties!
• Still spends most of her life dancing, singing, and pretending.
• Learned to read, and is reading chapter books all on her own.
• Sarah is a great big sister, and especially loves helping take care of Kate.
• Her favorite place to be is Grandma's house, which is only a block away since we moved. She particularly loves days when her cousins get to come play.
• All of the neighborhood cats have adopted Sarah. The neighbor's cat, Piper, runs over as soon as she sees Sarah come home. Other cats we have nicknamed Lurky, Snuggles, and several others also love Sarah. She is absolutely loving it. 
• She loves to draw pictures and write stories. She and Daddy wrote and illustrated a book of bedtime stories this year. 
• Learned to ride a bike without training wheels.
• Started piano lessons.
• Sometimes, she is 7 going on 27. Her eye rolling skills can be impressive.
• Favorite foods: shrimp, curry, yakisoba, hamburgers
• Favorite TV shows: Angry Birds, Brave Wilderness, The Octonauts
• She is still our silly, crazy, creative, spunky girl, and we love her so much! Happy birthday, Sarah!

Sarah had a super special 7th birthday! It happened to fall on parent teacher conference day, so everyone had the day off of school. She started the morning by opening her present from Nana. It was a chocolate pen, which we put to use later in the day!

Colorful, fancy-shaped pancakes, a traditional birthday breakfast around here.

Her birthday was mermaid themed this year, so of course we needed mermaid pancakes.

Notice the oyster pancake, complete with pearls.

After breakfast, we headed to Grandma's house for a fun day of birthday preparations and celebrating. The girls helped make all of the chocolate decorations for the cake, as well as mermaid meringues and mermaid punch. Sarah and Anne had lots of fun planning the party on Pinterest. 

Our masterpiece! I'm not a fancy cake maker, so I was pretty proud of this one. 

We all painted ocean scenes for our party activity.

Mermaid punch!

Rainbow inside too!

Present time! Someone was very excited about her makeup kit.

Sarah truly does leave  a little sparkle wherever she goes.

Everyone got makeovers, including Kate. 

When your birthdays are 1 day apart, you get matching birthday outfits!

Halloween 2020: Different, but Great

 This Halloween (heck, this whole year) had to be a little different than usual due to Covid-19. The usual Halloween parties, trunk-or-treats, and neighborhood trick-or-treating were out, but we found plenty of ways to make memories with new and old traditions this week. I think it is a Halloween that our family will remember fondly. 

We kicked the week off with sugar cookie decorating for family home evening. Always a popular activity.

On Wednesday, we carved pumpkins with Grandpa. Carving pumpkins and dying Easter eggs are Grandpa's favorite activities of the year. We were excited to do it with him this year.

Chris requested a kitty cat. It is Piper, our favorite neighbor hood kitty. 

Sarah requested a unicorn with a witch hat. Kelson delivered!

Matching Halloween outfits!

Earlier in the week, we had jack-o-lantern pumpkin pancakes for breakfast. On Halloween, we had jack-o-lantern quesadillas and grilled cheese for lunch. 

Since big Halloween parties were out, we had a little candy hunt with cousins. We had Jack Skellington, two witches, a ghost, and a black kitty. 

At first, I was sad that I wouldn't get to make Sarah a princess dress this year. Then I realized that this was essentially a black princess dress. Cutest witch ever. 

This mischievous black kitty had no interest in smiling for the camera. She was very happy with her kitty costume, though. She spends half of her life meowing and being a baby kitty for Sarah, so this was a very appropriate costume for her. 

Chris had a major nosebleed just as we were getting ready to leave. Good thing that this is the one holiday where it is okay for your outfit to be covered in blood. 

Jack the Ghostbuster chased down Chris the ghost.

Cutest kiddos!

Fun time hunting candy with cousins!

We finished out the evening with mummy dogs and classic Halloween cartoons. It was a great week!

Chris: 4 Years Old

 Chris is 4!

These two photos definitely capture the essence of Chris at 4: the cutest little angel with a rascal inside (and a popsicle face) 

Chris at 4:

• Favorite foods: chocolate peanut butter smoothies, yogurt, pickles, chicken noodle soup, hamburgers, french fries
• Favorite TV shows: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Baby Einstein, Thomas, Angry Birds
• Chris loves that we live 1 block from Grandma & Grandpa. He would live there if he could. 
• Board games of all kinds are his favorite. He wants us to play games with him all day. Some of his favorites are Suspend and Sequence for kids. 
• He is very attached to his morning routine. He is almost always the first one up, and he crawls in bed for snuggles with Mommy. Then he relaxes in Mommy's bed to watch his show, drink his chocolate peanut butter smoothie, and eat some dry cereal (usually raisin bran). Life is always better if we don't have to interrupt Chris's morning.
• He is the sweetest little snuggly angel who can also throw some fantastically epic tantrums. Hoping that the terrible 3's are going to be a thing of the past soon!
• He loves to build: Legos, trains, puzzles, blocks. They are all great. He builds some very impressive things all by himself, but he loves it if Mom or Dad will build with him. He doesn't really like to play with his creations after he builds them. The joy is in the building. Once it is built, we crash it and build it again.
• Mommy's little shadow. He is a great helper, especially with shopping. Chris loves going to the store. Wal Mart and Costco are his favorites. 
• Started his first year of Preschool. He hates getting dressed in the morning but loves school once he gets there.
• Chris is a tender little soul, and we love him so much!

Chris's birthday started as most Chris days do: dry raisin cereal and a chocolate peanut butter smoothie in Mommy's bed. Then he went to school. He chose sugar cookies with pink frosting and sprinkles for his birthday treat to take to his class.

After school, Chris helped me make his birthday cake, and we went to the grocery store (one of Chris's favorite activities). His requests for birthday activities were to go to the park and eat dinner at Grandma's house. We started with the joy of rolling down a hill at the park. 

Since Daddy had class that evening, we switched things up and did cake and presents before dinner. Grandma met us at the park for his little birthday party. 

Chris has some amazing facial expressions lately. 

For his birthday, Chris got Magformers, a bath time boat, a wipe-off book (another current obsession) and some awesome dominoes. 

We had hamburgers with Grandma and Grandpa and played with Chris's new toys. I thought about having cousins over for a party, but Chris really didn't care. He was just happy to spend the night at Grandma's. Happy birthday, Chris!