A surprise for the wives!

Such a wonderful husband I have. It has been busy and tiring (and fun) adjusting to two babies. Spencer and two of our close friends, planned a surprise wine tasting day for us! We showed up to meet our friends for lunch, that is all I thought we had planned, and then pulls up a huge limo. Spencer told me the surprise and our friends Matt and Tracey and John and Andrea were coming to join. They have become such great friends as we have watched our kids grow up together, they had little girls in August too. We then were whisked away for a tour in the Applegate. A great way to show how much the Dad's appreciated the Mom's. We sipped wine, ate good food and enjoyed a day 'off'. I am a lucky girl, and I will say that over and over again!

Poolside

We got to go swim ming yesterday with my Sister-in-law and nieces. We had so much fun! Claire is a rockstar in the pool, just swimming all around by her self with her lifejacket. Here are a few picks of the girls enjoying the sunshine!

Father's Day

I always knew Spencer would be a great dad, but he outdoes himself always. He comes home from a long and stressful day at work and is ready to be 100% Dad! Claire jumps up and down when she sees him, usually running to the car to greet him. Immediately asking "Daddy fly me (swing her around in the air)!?". Her face lights up every time she plays with him. He is always ready to help me out after my day with the kids and he never complains. He may be tired, and not always excited about "flying" Claire around, but you would never know. That little girl knows with her whole heart how much her Daddy loves her. Spencer tells me all the time coming home is the favorite part of his day. Henry loves his Daddy too, giving him big smiles often. Henry also LOVES to fall asleep with Daddy, not so much me. So I enjoy the nightly hand off, Here you go Spence, a full baby who needs to fall asleep. Spencer loves these moments and you can see how he truly cherishes them. How lucky am I?

We spent Father's day with a low key day at home. He had just come home from Shasta with the church youth group so he was tired! We set up the kiddie pool and him and Claire played Barbies and had a serious gigglefest in there. We had our coffee and breakfast outside watching Claire play while Henry relaxed in his bouncer. We eneded the day with a BBQ with my parents and sister. Dad and Spencer enjoyed a game of Cornhole, I think the final score was 41-7, my Dad. Ha ha!

Fairy Wings

Claire LOVES fairies. She watched all 3 Tinkerbell movies more times than I can count. Her Aunt Dawn taught her the reflections on the ceiling ARE fairies. So every time Claire sees one, she yells "A fairy! A fairy!". Grammy and Poppa even bought her a flashlight that when it is lit up, shows a fairy wherever it shines. Before she had her own wings, she would immediately put on her cousins each time we went to her house. My Godmother saw this in action and decided Claire needed her own fairy wings so she sent Claire these from Seattle. As I went to put Claire to bed this night, she insisted on wearing the wings! I indulged her during story time, but we took them off before sleeping. Needless to say, when she woke up at 6:45 am the next morning, she was waiting for me, her flower crown on with fairy wings in hand asking me to put them on her.

McGregor Park

20 minutes up from our house there is the most wonderful little park! McGregor park is close to the fish hatchery, is jammed pack with nature trails, a little park for the kids, lots of shade and wildlife to see. There is a vistor center that is open 7 days a week, 10-5 and it such a great place to take kids. It is very hands on and totally kid friendly. I can't wait to invite friends out for playdates here. Claire and Henry got to go here with BOTH Grandmas (Sher-Sher and Grammy). It was a wonderful day! I encourage you to check it out ASAP!

Mr. Man

Here he is! 7 weeks old and starting to smile. Oh he is just the sweetest thing. A perfectly cuddly baby!

A day with Brynn

We had Brynn (my youngest niece) for the day today! It was so much fun. I set out every outside toy we had so the girls could enjoy the sunshine. We were outside at 8 am, after a breakfast of pancakes and fruit. We played playdough, dressup, in the pirate ship, on the bike, on the quad, with sidewalk chalk, with barbies, with the dog, on the rocking horse, had snacks, watched a show....I think we covered it all! We are very blessed to have Claire's cousins just a couple minutes away.

A "Creamy"

I remember how much fun blogging is! Not having internet at our house has been a struggle so my updates are sporadic, but here!!
This weekend we enjoyed some quality family time. We have been all over the place these last few weeks, I've been working weekends, our car broke down so we have been shuffling kids and car seats between borrowed vehicles. It has been hectic! We were just hanging out on Saturday afternoon when I heard the ice cream truck. I had heard it days earlier on a walk with my sis in law! Spencer didn't believe me, he grew up in the Cove and didn't believe an ice cream truck out here possible! And it even came down OUR road! If you know where we live, you understand how awesome this is! A little dead end dirt road and here he came! Claire and I ran outside, quarters in hand. She got a little shy until she saw the pictures of all the "Creamy's" (her word for ice cream) on the side of the truck. After we picked it out, she happily sat in the sun eating her ice cream. I went inside and Spencer was in charge. Next I hear Claire crying and she comes running to me! "Daddy ate creamy!!" Spencer quickly followed and explained while she was eating, she wanted to get up and "Wash hands", so she went in to do so and left Daddy with her "creamy". He misunderstood and just ate what was left. Needless to say she was quite shocked when she came back to find her "creamy" all gone!! Spencer had to apologize and hopefully she learned a valuable lesson: Never leave your ice cream (aka Creamy) unsupervised!

Popsicles on the Boat

Despite an algae warning at the lake, we are still taking the boat out!! We can't get enough! We took Spence's mom and husband out for a dinner cruise. It was nice to enjoy the warm summer evening and food just tastes better on the boat for some reason! Sher (mom in law extraordinare) brought popscicles on the boat, how cool is that! Claire was pretty impressed!




Such a proud poppa Claire has. Her Daddy loves her so! She is quickly becoming quite the flagger, which means Spencer can board anytime now!!

My Cute Kids

We went to the park the other day and had a great day. A picnic and walk around the trails at McGregor park. If you haven't been, it's a must. Absolutely beautiful. We took Grandma Sher-Sher, looked for butterflies, found all kinds of wildflowers and intersting plants and listened to the birds. What an afternoon.



Henry has been spending more and more time awake and shared his first smiles with me on Sunday(6/5). I have yet to capture a smile on camera, but the day is fast approaching.

So grown up!

I'm not sure where the time went, Claire will be 3 in August already. She is so much fun, so sweet and loving. Having her little brother around has made her more affectionate towards everyone. I love her spunk, her independence, her creative personality, her silliness, her morning snuggles, how she says "Pupule (purple) juice please Momma!" all the time and how much she LOVES playing with her Daddy. She brings such joy to us and every night when we say our prayers together, I continually thank God for her presence in our life. She spreads joy, that is what she does the best. I am thankful I get to have some of that joy daily! I tell her all the time she will never know how much I love her until she has a daughter of her own one day. She makes me laugh so hard, like how she told me the other day "Momma, Barbie tooted!". Seriously, where does she come up with this stuff?