Eliza’s Blessing Day {March 2}

warning: picture overload.

We were pretty lucky to have some family members join us when Nate blessed Eliza in Sacrament Meeting on March 2. I’ll do a separate post with some of the adventures with our parents, but we were excited that my parents, Nate’s mom, and my sister Jessica and her family could all come up for the weekend. Nate gave a beautiful blessing and we are feeling very lucky with our little family of 5. A few (ok, a lot) pictures from the day (Eliza had a MAJOR blowout a couple hours after church – fortunately I got most of the pictures in before it happened, and it all came out of her dress so I could take a few more later :)

   

Bennett Turns 5 {February 16}

We can’t believe Bennett is 5! I still need to do a little write-up of him at 5, but for now, a run-down of the celebrations:

Bennett’s birthday was on a Sunday, so we didn’t do too much that day. He was excited to be sung to in Primary at church, and per his request, we had Bagel Bite pizzas and spaghetti for dinner (random combination!). I asked what kind of cake he wanted, and he said shaped like a 5, so I improvised a little and did something pretty simple :) He thought it was great though – at least, until he tried it, said he didn’t like the cake and asked if he could have more ice cream. The rest of us enjoyed it :) He had a fun day talking to family on facetime, and opened some presents throughout the day. He was excited about his coloring books, legos, walkie talkies, and golf clubs. We had wrapped the golf clubs up in a huge bag that you couldn’t see through, and really couldn’t see the shape of what was in it, but we had my parents on facetime when Nate brought it in, and as soon as Bennett saw the bag, he said “I think it’s some new golf clubs”. No idea how he knew that. But he was out all afternoon the next day practicing his swing.

 

We had a fun Olympics-themed party for him the next Saturday (it was during the winter olympics). We went to the gym at the church and had a few families join us for a biathlon, hockey shootout, figure skating, obstacle course, and a medals ceremony at the end (no actual judging & winners, but they did all get a medal). The kids each had a bib and got to choose a flag for the country they wanted to represent. We ended with pizza and oreos & ice cream. Since Bennett wasn’t fond of the cake on his birthday, we went with homemade oreos with the Olympic rings in the middle. Much bigger hit. It was a fun party with fun friends! Bennett loved it.

   

Two Months

This little cutie is 2 months now (+10 days or so). We love to see her cute smiles. She is overall a pretty mellow baby (except for some squawking that has earned her the nickname ‘angry bird’). She is usually a great sleeper and at least half the time sleeps for 7-9 hours in a row at night (the other nights she just wakes up once, although it sometimes takes a while to get her back to sleep). Not too much else to report – she eats, sleeps, and hangs out looking around when she’s awake. We love having her in our family!

2-Month Stats:

Height: 24.5”, 98%

Weight: 12lb 11oz, 75%

Head: 16”, 90%

 

Tummy Time

On Friday, I put Eliza down on her blanket for some tummy time while I read the boys books and got them ready for naps/quiet time. She was upset while I was reading books, but I left her there because I’m not great at making sure she gets time on her tummy every day. I took the boys up, and she was quiet when I got back down – just hanging out looking out the window (or at least towards it). She eventually fell asleep just lying there so I got my camera back out and got a couple sleepy ones. I can’t believe how old she looks in these pictures! (I should have put her bow back in, it had fallen out and her hair looks pretty funny).    

Dragon Parade & Super Bowl Parade

Bennett had a cute dragon parade at preschool this morning to celebrate Chinese New Year. They all walked around the playground repeating “Gung Hay Fat Choy” or however you spell it (that may be the phonetic spelling). It was freezing cold and Eliza was screaming (she was close to being ready to eat) so I didn’t get great pictures, but it was fun to see their parade.

 

(Bennett’s actually not in the 2nd picture – someone was standing in my way – but it shows the general idea of what the dragon head & parade looked like)

After the dragon parade, we went and met Nate for lunch at work. The boys are always excited to go to the “box restaurant at daddy’s work” – aka Whole Foods, where they have a hot food bar and to-go boxes. Ryan always goes for the Mac N Cheese, Benett was a little more adventurous and had rice, some sort of maybe Indian chicken, corn, & broccoli.

We were too late to catch the Seahawks Super Bowl Victory Parade (on purpose…I didn’t want to brave the crowds, the traffic, or the 25 degree weather with 3 kids), but saw plenty of fans walking around. As we were walking back to the van, a West Elm employee ran out and asked if the boys wanted balloons. He was the same one who chased us down and gave the boys Halloween candy when we went to see Nate at work on Halloween. They were pretty excited about their blue & green star balloons! It was a little tricky to get them and the balloons in the picture with the wind blowing them everywhere, but I actually think it turned out kind of cool. Go Seahawks!

Sunny Saturday {Jan 25}

Last Saturday, we didn’t have anything going on and sunshine was in the forecast, so we got a picnic lunch ready and headed to a “beach” park on the lake. It was beautiful and sunny…until we went down the last hill to the lake and realized the fog over the water hadn’t burned off yet. We had our picnic in the cold, then drove back up the hill to a park we had passed on the way. The boys had fun playing baseball, frisbee, and tag, and playing on the playground. We went back down to the lake and had fun walking out on the path that goes over the water. It was great to be out in the warm sun!

the view from a golf course we stopped at on the way up – Nate had taken the boys to the driving range the week before and we went back so I could see the sunny-day view – that’s downtown Seattle in the distance

   

our “froggy” (as ryan would say) lunch

      

 

Hopefully it’s not too long until our next sunny day!