A Visit with Steve and Kate

One of Kyle's good college friends Kate, her husband Steve and their kiddos recently moved from California to Everett, just over an hour south of us.  Their two kids are very close in age to Annaliese and Haleigh and they've never been up to Bellingham so they came up here last weekend for a day. We were hoping to be able to get outside and go on a hike or something similar but it turned out to be a pretty chilly day. 

Making her own craft!

After letting the kids play outside for a short while, we decided to go out for lunch downtown and then go to the Whatcom Museum. The drive downtown was made a little more complicated due to a St. Patrick's Day Parade that we didn't know was going on! Once we finally made it around the parade route and found a parking spot, we decided the restaurant we had picked out was too far of a walk and grabbed lunch at the museum cafe. It was not a place designed for kids, but they did make them peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! It was good food too...I enjoyed a provolone and olive sandwich with a cilantro lime dressing...not something I would ever make at home! 

Once everyone was done eating, we headed into the museum. They had a few extra activities going on for St. Patrick's Day (which again was unexpected!) so that was fun to take part in. 

Haleigh and Addy (1 1/2 yrs old) changing the music and the lights to create different shadows!

Addy planting a garden

Jed (4 yrs old) milking the cow

Haleigh, Jed, and Annaliese making their own 'Marble Run' game with pipes

Painting a rainbow with a pot of gold at the end!

Kyle and Steve also having fun! Checking out the color wheel

Thanks Steve and Kate for making the drive up to see us! It's always fun to be able to catch up a bit with friends!

My little 2 year old!

This morning at church we brought Haleigh to the 2-year-old classroom instead of the nursery. She came home with a craft...and she was so excited to show it to us! She is turning into such a little girl! Just over the past few weeks she has seemed to change so much! Maybe it's because she is getting taller or her hair is getting longer or she is starting to show off her personality more. Whatever it is, it is fun!

Here is a quick recap of Haleigh at 2 years old:

Sleeping: Haleigh is sleeping in a toddler bed and usually goes to bed between 7:00-7:30 pm. About half the time she falls asleep immediately. The other nights she gets up two or three times and quietly walks into the living room and just stands there watching us; once we notice her, she gives us a huge smile and quietly says 'hi.' It's hard to resist! She sleeps with her purple bunny and still sucks her thumb. The girls also have a sound machine and a night light on every night. The past few weeks she's been waking up somewhere between 6:00-6:30...not exactly sure when or why but it is way too early if you ask me!

Nap time varies from day to day based on our schedule, but Haleigh usually naps once a day. It typically falls right after lunch and can last 1 1/2-3 hours, depending on how tired she is! Lately, I've been waking her up at 4:00 if she's still sleeping then.

Eating: Haleigh will eat just about anything but can be extremely picky at the same time. Favorite foods vary from day to day. She has a tendency to get cereal out of the cupboard and eat it straight from the box if she is hungry in between meals; other snack favorites are cheese crackers and fruit snacks.

Clothes: Almost everything Haleigh wears is 24 month/2T at this point. There are a few 3T shirts that shrunk a bit that she wears and a few 2T pants that are too big in the waist still. Shoes are sz 5.

Teeth: We finally have all our teeth, including the 2 year molars! Thank goodness...we had quite a bit of drooling happening for awhile!

Activities: Haleigh loves to follow Annaliese around and do whatever she is doing. They like to 'doctor' each other, build trains, go camping, and play with the flashlights. She also likes to color, although we have limited this because she prefers to color on the cupboards instead of her paper. I have found that when she is alone, she plays amazingly well and loves the toy truck and the toy octopus that we have.

Since we celebrated Haleigh's birthday early and I had to go to work on her actual birthday, it was a rather uneventful day. To make it a little more fun, the girls got to make their own 'brownie-in-a-mug' dessert...I think they actually had more fun mixing it all together than they did eating it!

Auntie Sarah sent Haleigh a happy birthday message from Reed and Kieren and both Annaliese and Haleigh loved it! We watched it over and over and over again!

Her vocabulary is slowly expanding but is still very limited. She can clearly say 'apple' 'thank you' 'no' 'mama' and 'dada' and then has a few other words like 'marble' 'I ewww' (I love you), 'eese' (please) 'oose' (shoes). Thankfully, she is pretty good at getting across what she needs and can usually understand what we are asking her to do. I must admit, though, that it will be nice when she has a few more words!

Good times with Grandpa Jay and Grandma Kelley

It's been quite awhile since we've seen Grandpa Jay and Grandma Kelley, but they were able to make a trip up here at the end of February for a few days. Kyle and I were both able to get the majority of the time off work and the weather cooperated so we were able to fill our days with lots of fun activities!

They arrived on Thursday morning; Haleigh and I picked them up at the airport and then quick dropped their stuff off at home before heading to school to pick up Annaliese. Kyle came home from work around 2:00 and I headed in to work.

Annaliese watching t.v. while Grandpa and Grandma took a quick little nap!

Friday was supposed to be a fairly nice day so we headed up to the Salmon Ridge Sno-Park to do a little snowshoeing. There wasn't any fresh snow (or really much snow at all) which ended up working out quite well for us. Annaliese did a great job for the first little bit but then complained that her legs were tired and she didn't want to wear her snowshoes anymore. She was able to run on the path in her boots without any problems and ending up having a great time. We were also able to get Haleigh into the snow a little bit more than previous times; she did great until Daddy through a snowball that hit her in the neck and went down her shirt!

Saturday we met up with the rest of my family at Point Whitehorn. It's a 3/4 mile walk down to the beach. It was a bit windy and the tide wasn't as far out as we had hoped so we didn't stay for long, but it was still a nice walk and good to get outside and get some fresh air.

Sunday morning we all went to church; Annaliese was pretty excited to show Grandma and Grandpa her classroom and to have them pick her up afterwards! Once we came home, we got things ready for Haleigh's birthday party. Everyone showed up between 11-12:00 for that and stayed most of the afternoon. It's always so fun to have all the family together and to watch how all the cousins interact with one another!

On Monday, Kelley and I went for a wonderful run at Lake Padden and then we all decided to check out Larrabee State Park. Once again, it was a bit breezy by the water, but we were able to enjoy a picnic lunch and hung out for quite awhile. Several large freight trains went by while we there and they are always fascinating to watch!

 "Mom, I can see the whole world!"

Grandpa and Grandma had to pack up and head home on Tuesday afternoon, but I think we all enjoyed their time here and Annaliese is already asking when we get to go to their house in California!