Rainy Day

They are few and far between, especially compared to Oregon, but we do sometimes have rainy days. In our house, those are days to celebrate. The kids love the rain as much as we do and like to watch it out the windows and run outside to play in it.

 This time we also had hail.

Playing Around

These two are two peas in a pod.

 Mary's favorite thing to do with her fake bugs right now is to cook them up in a pot and then serve them to anyone brave enough to eat bugs.

Picnic at the Park

 We had a little family picnic at the park. Mary and David thought it was pretty fun to sit on the table during lunch.

Spring is in the Air

 Spring is already here, and the trees are beautiful. We saw these on a walk around the Nickells' neighborhood.

Campfire Kickoff

We kicked off resuming Wednesday night dinners at church this week with hot dogs from Taylor's and s'mores around the firepits.

 The kids loved the s'mores, but my favorite part was the campfire songs.

Blueberry Bushes

 We had a great time picking out blueberry bushes at Luis' Nursery. So many tempting plants.

Valentine's Day

I got in the holiday spirit by making a few sugar cookies over the weekend.

Joshua went to work a little later than usual so he could have pink heart-shaped pancakes with us for breakfast on Valentine's day.

 We finished the day off with a dinner date and creme brulee at home, but the festivities didn't end there because the following day we had our love day lasagna from the Nickells.

Goodbye Redwood Trees

We had someone come take out the redwood trees in our backyard on Friday. It was sad to see any trees, especially redwood trees, go but I wanted to take them out before they got any bigger.

It was interesting to watch the process.

Dad and Mom came over to have breakfast with us and take home the tree trunks.

The kids had fun climbing on the pile of logs.

I was surprised how much bigger and more open the backyard felt with the trees gone. I like it.

 We didn't waste any time planting more trees back there, this time fruit trees. It was challenging to dig the holes with all the tree roots still left in the ground, but we got it done.

Around the House

I got a phone call in the middle of prepping dinner, and David managed to run off with the green pepper.

Mary figured out a new trick.

 We went to visit a new friend from church and each kid got to bring home a beautiful flower from her yard.

Two Years

David is two now and just as fun as ever!

He is a boy on the go and loves to be included in everything. He still loves to climb on anything he can.

His range of facial expressions is amazing.

David is sweet and good-natured. He loves playing with Mary and being held.

He has almost 15 words and seems to be on the verge of an explosion because he's been making new sounds and repeating more complicated words and even phrases.

He likes to help around the house and watch me cook food so he can sample it.

He gives big squeezes and likes to pretend to eat things.

David is a delight, and we love him so much!

Birthday Buddies

David turned two! We had birthday dinner and cake at home on his birthday.

He was excited to blow out his candle and try frosting for the first time. He also enjoyed opening his present and exclaimed about the whole thing.

We made a quick trip up to Modesto to have birthday lunch for David and Amari on Friday.

Heather got party decorations for our double birthday dinner on Sunday.

 It was a good batch of celebrations.

Isaac's Birthday Celebration

We celebrated Isaac's birthday on Sunday. 

I got to make the cake.

 We had a bit of trouble getting all the candles lit and accidentally set one of the paper decorations on fire in the process, but it was festive and fun to celebrate with Isaac.