Growing up

How did this happen? Suddenly that tiny baby I brought home from the hospital can reach the sink in the bathroom all by herself. It's the little things that make you grateful for all the things.

You didn't think I'd ever come back did you? Well the truth is, we are a lot more boring in the winter than we are in the summer. That and I have extremely bitter feelings towards my camera. Seriously, for the amount we spent, we should be able to take better pictures than this right? Ugh!

Aside from that, life has gotten CRAZY BUSY. Like more crazy than normal!
We had a friend come visit for almost a week and we avoided anything that had to do with real life for a while. Now here it is Sunday and life is about to be a blur.
This week Jordan's brother and his family are coming for 1 1/2 days (not long enough!) and then it's my little girl's birthday! :-) Just a couple days following, on this weekend we're having a HUGE garage sale!
Like- 7 years worth of moving and carrying everything around and buying multiple things for the same thing and having 2 babies grow out of being babies and learning that I now love minimalism and outgrowing some old pieces of my heart and making room for more -kind of garage sale. It will be AWESOME!

So if you are in the Olympia Washington area, totally hit us up!
Happy St Patrick's day with some new/used/fun things!

THEN
Right after that we pack it all up again and MOVE!
That's right, summer is coming and we are on the move again.
I'd tell you more details, but then I'd have to kill you.

Life as usual... but somehow more chaotic.

Happy Sunday all.

Planes, Trains and Cars.

Jordan's parents were in St Martins (the lucky ducks!) during Oscar's birthday,

so we had a belated cake and presents at their house when they got back.

Jordan's mom is a MASTER at cakes (uhm... did you see my wedding cake? Or Mak's first birthday cake? A carousel!) and she recently got some mini cake pans in the shape of Disney's Cars characters! How awesome is that! It was after Mak and I got back from our trip and pre-big scary winter storm when we hopped over rather suddenly, so we told her not to worry about frosting them (she thought we were coming the next day) and I think they were SO CUTE! Just look how excited O is about them!

Makayla chose to eat the race car...

uhm yes I can't remember his name and I'm too lazy to look it up! Sorry!

Then Oscar opened his presents from Jordan's parents, it was Thomas the Train sets!

One of them is a little caboose with a button on top that plays a song. He LOVES it.

Like REALLY LOVES IT. He sleeps with it, and won't let anyone even touch it!

Very rare for a kid who worships his big sister and shares everything with her!

And THIS is how excited he was about the whole affair.

ie... really excited.

The boy loves his cake, ice cream and presents!

(a man after my own heart!)

I'm Dreaming!

SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And we couldn't be more excited! Even Jordan has had 2 days off this week :-D

The kids are so excited that when they go outside, they just walk in circles to see their foot prints! No really, and it's adorabley cute and hysterical!

Makayla is excited about snowball fights, but I think she may have to wait another year before Oscar will join in. Now he just goes "No Mah-tay-ta, no!" every time he is beaned with snow.

Luckily Jordan came out and had a snowball fight with her.

(p.s. the first year I don't buy snow suits for the kids and just look at what happens!)

We even built a very dirty snow man. There wasn't very much snow at first, but since we built the snow man we've had so much snow that Jordan didn't have to go to work! Which is good, because I'm not sure we could make it up the road, even in the truck! Cold, frozen slush anyone? And no salt or snow plow to be found!

But we are fine with that! We are working our way through depleting our food supply, and cozying up on the couch for movie marathons and every time we glance outside, we smile!

Happy Snow days!

2 point O

How did this.... grow into this....

People tell me this all the time

"Treasure what you have, it goes by too quick"

And that is FOR SURE the truth of it!

My baby is 2 years old? What?

Next thing you're going to tell me is Mak is going to turn 4 soon.... oh wait...

On Oscar's birthday we carried on the time honored tradition of having a party at Chuck E Cheese. Jordan's sister Nicole and her boyfriend got to come and it was a blast!

Everyone rode the horse in the big horse race...

The kids got to ride a roller coaster...

Oscar was more like "I have to do everything humanly possible here so I don't have time to actually sit through any one ride, just start one and move on to the next..."

So he ditched Makayla before the second hill climb.

And he really was into doing EVERYTHING there. I've never seen that kid so jazzed up!

He would run to the first ride, jump off, climb on the next, jump off... the only time he stopped for a moment was when Chuck came out to sing a song!

Makayla was actually big enough to play a lot of the games now.

It was really fun to see her actually tall enough and with good enough motor skills.

Oscar, just wanted to be in on everything. It was his birthday and he wasn't going to miss out!

We finally got him to come to the table when we offered him some presents.

He got a few new dress up stuff from Jordan and I, so he wouldn't have to just dig through Makayla's dresses and scarves so much. The Buzz Lightyear wings are my all time favorite Goodwill find! Seriously, Buzz Lightyear wings! And when you push the buttons, THEY TALK!

He also got a really cool Lego book and Oscar shirt from his Aunt Nicole.

When you ask him who's on the shirt he says "Me"

(cracks me up every time!)

He also had a few other presents from his other Uncles and Aunts that couldn't make it.

We are having another dinner with his Grandparents when they get back from their vacation.

(to the tropics... ahhh... sun and beaches!)

Chuck E Cheese himself came out to say hi!

Oscar was so intent on only talking "through his wings" so he kept showing Chuck the buttons instead of smiling for the camera. Oh well... successful birthday present!

Here are some things he's doing right now.

We are working on potty training him. (after I swore to never potty train before 2 1/2!) BUT we started because every time he uses his diaper, he comes to me and says "I pooped my pants" and then leads me to the bathroom and sits on the toilet (all self-led) So I thought, maybe I should help him out a bit. The thing is... even though he hates to have even the tiniest drop in his diapers... he could walk around all day in wet undies and not care! What is up with that?!?

After the first 2 days he has yet to actually go in the potty again, but he still wants to sit on the potty every time I change his diaper, so we are just taking it slow and letting him feel like a big boy until he finally goes in the toilet.

He is in the "why" stage BIG TIME. He also asks "What happened" a lot too. It sounds more like "Wha Hippo, Mama, wha hippo?"

He loves to follow Makayla around and wants to be just like her. They play dolls and dressup and trucks and dinosaurs together all the time. I love that Oscar and Makayla flow through all types of toys together!

He is THE BEST at cleaning up! I have to beg and plead Makayla to clean up, but when you tell Oscar it's time to clean up, he just goes to work! Pick up a toy, put it away, pick up a toy, put it away. Like a machine, till it's all done! I LOVE IT!

He tries to get himself dressed, and 90% of the time it's upside down. Not sure how, it just is.

He can climb in and out of his booster seat at the table all by himself. And if he likes what he's eating he'll hold the fork in one hand and dig in with his other hand. But he hates mashed potatoes. (which we feed him all the time because we think it's hilarious how he takes the first bite... like he forgot he hates them... then starts gagging on them... yes I know, we are bad parents! But it is so funny and cute!)

He LOVES bananas, like LOVES them! When I have a lot of shopping to do, I just buy a banana right at the beginning and give it to both kids, then go shopping and they are both happy as clams to eat their bananas till I'm done!

Oscar loves watching "Wonder Pets" and "Little Einsteins" and "Spiderman".

He falls asleep saying "wa-wa pets" wakes up asking for "li-li i-ti" and spends the rest of the day pretending to be "bi man" by waving his arms around and then "spraying" us with his web.

He was in trouble for kicking his sister during a play fight so I said "Oscar Gary Paxton!" and he said "no, I bi-man" then he sprayed me with his web and ran off... I was too stunned to pursue.

He gets into everything, climbs on everything, yells no, loves sharing food and toys with his sister and adults, but anytime a little kid is near him he gets VERY possessive. Even of his sister and especially of ME!

He loves his Daddy, unless he knows he's in trouble, then he prefers me (yes, I'm a softie!)

He loves football, baseball, any ball really.

I could go on and on and on about him because as I type I'm laughing about all the little stories that are popping into my head. He's talking a lot better now so we can understand him almost as much as Makayla. We love our little guy so much! I am so grateful he joined our family!

Happy Birthday Little O!

American Girls

Jordan's Mom made reservations for us at the new American Girl's store in Seattle.

It was so much fun! The kids had a blast going around and looking at all of the dolls and accessories! I could seriously buy EVERYTHING in that store! So much fun!

They have a little cafe attached to the store, so you can have lunch or tea with your dolls!

They even have cute little high chairs for the dolls to sit in, along with small tea cups too!

Oscar took this picture. I love it!

Jordan's sister was there too with some of her American Girl dolls from when she was a kid!

Makayla made sure that all the dolls were eating too. She went around the table each time making sure each doll had a drink. Once when I was helping her, she said

"Mom you poured it into her nose! That's so silly"

After lunch we had dessert! Little baby fondue!

The kids thought it was so neat! They loved dipping things in chocolate!

A really BIG thank you SOOOOOOO much for taking us!