22 months

Hazel,
We have been so busy lately. There is so much to catch up on. You are growing up so fast. You love play dates with friends. Our OMSI membership has been awesome! We have spent good time with good friends in the kids play area. You love exploring the sand box, the blocks, the water toys, and anything else you can get your hands on. You are kind to other kids, but definitely know what you want! Ms. Trish says you are wonderful at daycare, but that you are growing up and testing new limits (like pushing friends to get what you want). Luckily you learn pretty quickly what works and what doesn't. We turned the dining room into a playroom, and you love it! You are so creative in your play, and you can play by yourself or with us for a really long time! Right now you love coloring, stickers, shopping with your shopping cart, feeding us food you have made in your kitchen, and playing with your trucks and dolls! As always, your communication is awesome! You are so good at using your words to get what you need. You regularly use three word sentences, and sometimes throw in words we didn't know you knew! You like counting too..."free, two, free!!!" You are so proud of yourself! The other big news is that we moved you into your big girl room, and you are sleeping in a big girl bed! You have done so well sleeping in your new bed. I think you really like your room!

You are going to have a baby brother soon, which we still aren't sure if you understand. You are very sweet and give my belly kisses, and say "Hi Fletcher" sometimes. As more and more stuff for Fletcher comes into the house, you seem to want it to be yours more and more. We'll see how it goes when he gets here! Considering you love other babies, I'm hopeful you'll love him too!

You are so fun right now, and it is incredible to watch you grow. We are so lucky to be your parents!

We love you,
Mommy and Daddy

GG's 80th

Hazel,
Last weekend we got to celebrate GG turning 80! She is so wonderful, and so special to us it was great to be able to celebrate her. You were the hit of the dance floor. You danced with anyone and everyone who would dance with you. You especially loved dancing with Nana and Papa, and Daddy too! We ate yummy food, watched a video of pictures of GG's whole life, danced, and took pictures in our photo booth. You were such a trooper and stayed up so late, and were even happy the whole time.

We love you sassy pants!
Mommy and Daddy

Sunriver: Snow, Sun, and Cold

Hazel,

We were invited to go to Sunriver with the Hortons and some other new friends, David and Marlo a couple weeks ago. We had such a great time relaxing in the warm house while it was super cold outside. Daddy went snowboarding on Saturday with the other boys while the rest of us hung out and played, went for a walk to Goodies to get some yummy treats. You had some gummy candies for the first time and loved them, but your favorite part of Goodies was all the stuffed animals they had on their shelves. You loaded our stroller with some. When we were ready to go I put them all back, or so I thought. About a block later (while using the restroom) I realized you put one in the basket under the stroller, so we had to do the walk of shame back to return your stollen goods! Gets even better since I found another toy when we got back to the house! Sheesh Hazel, we really need to have a talk about not taking things that aren't yours!

Everyone else left early Sunday, but we decided to stay until Monday. Daddy and I took you and Parker to play outside while everyone else was packing up. You guys had so much fun playing in the 1/2 inch of snow!  We tried to go for a walk Sunday afternoon, but as you can see from the picture below, you were so cold (so was Mommy) that we only lasted outside for about 10 minutes! Poor girl, your hands were so cold they were numb when we got back...sorry about that. All in all we had a great time with friends and with our little family. It was so relaxing to get away.

We love spending time with friends and as a family!
We love you,
Mommy and Daddy

Beach Family Fun

Hazel,
We started a tradition a couple of years ago of going to the beach with Nana, Papa, Aunt Al, Uncle Ty, and Aunt Hannah. We had so much fun then that we decided to do it again this year! We stayed at a great house right by the beach in Pacific City. The weather was mostly stormy (lots of sideways rain and wind), so we spent a lot of time inside cuddling, playing games, eating yummy food, listening to music, dancing around, talking, and playing with you! We did get to go for a walk on the beach when it wasn't stormy on the very last day. Although we didn't take many pictures of the rest of the trip, here are some from our walk. Such a great time to relax and be together!

I know the last one is pretty blurry, but it's a picture of all of us, so I'll take it!
We love you,
Mommy and Daddy

OMSI

Hazel,
The day after Christmas we went to OMSI with Aunt Al, Aunt Hannah, and Uncle Ty. You had SO much fun! I was a little nervous that the activities would be too old for you, but you loved it!! Everybody loved showing you new games and toys, and you definitely loved watching. You threw balls to watch them go round and round, you watched pop bottles be blown into the sky with air and water (Aunt Al's went the highest :), you helped Daddy and Aunt Al make sail boats to sail, and you climbed all over the crane and building station. At the end we went up to the little kids area. You were getting tired so we only had a few minutes to play there, but we will go back! So many fun games and activities that you would love!! We'll have to go back with some friends!

We love taking you new places and trying new things!
Love you,
Mommy and Daddy

Christmas Fun 2011

Hazel, we had such a wonderful Christmas this year. We got to celebrate both Jesus and Daddy's birthdays! It was so fun to watch you explore both wrapped and unwrapped gifts! You did a lot of ooh-ing and aah-ing. We still need to work a little on your gift opening face, but you sure did love the process of opening your gifts, and would say "tink-too" every time. It was pretty funny that you loved opening socks just as much as you loved opening big toys!! We spent the morning at our house, and then went over to Nana and Papa's and played and opened presents with them, Uncle Ty, Aunt Hannah, and Aunt Al. We even ate a really really yummy dinner to celebrate Daddy's birthday!

Such a wonderful time!
We love you,
Mommy and Daddy

Tree Hunting

Hazel,
We decided to find the perfect Christmas tree this weekend. We got all bundled up to go to our favorite little tree farm just down the street, only to drive by a completely empty piece of property. Turns out there were no trees there this year! We ventured on down the road a ways to find another little tree farm in someone's backyard! It was perfect for us. We walked around and you pointed to all the trees, stomped on some branches, and explored! Everything was great until we had to pack the tree in the car. It kind of cramped your style. You didn't exactly love the tree branches in your space!

 

We got the tree home and even got it decorated that same day. After crying the first few times you saw it in our house (pretty sure you thought we were going to put it in your crib or something), you loved looking at the pretty lights and ornaments. Every time you looked in the room you would say "ooh"! You'd even run in there just to check if it was still there, "mama, tree. oooh"! I have no explanation for the last picture. You found your sunglasses and the picnic blanket and wanted to sit with both! You are so silly and cute!

We love you silly girl!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy