Loving the sunny days we are starting to have here in the GNW!

One of our sealing presents goes up on the wall

{107/365}
We took Isaiah's parents to Red Lobster for their anniversary.
Kaylee wanted to pet the lobster.

{108/365}
Play date at the Grondels' with a huge Easter Egg Hunt.

{109/365}
Driving to school on another sunny day!

{110/365}
Play date number two for the week. Marcus and Marlia met us in the park for some running around and lunch.

{111/365}
I made these for Isaiah to take to work.

{112/365}
A sunny day for Parker's 1st birthday!
Kaylee had a blast eating her delicious cupcake outside in the warm spring weather.

Birthday week!!
Yep...thats right....closer to 30 than 20 now :)

{86/365}
Happy 26th Birthday with a super cute church outfit

{87/365}
We had our friends over for a little celebration of yours truely
Yummy pulled pork sandwiches, mac and cheese, and carrot cake!

{88/365}
My calendar looks like a rainbow exploded! School starts on Monday :)

{88/365}
This picture was of the next day but I just LOVE what she wanted to wear. She is a little fashionista already!

{89/365}
Waiting at the doctors office. My lasting sinus infection was beyond anything over the counter.

{90/365}

After a great workout at Stroller Strides!

My drive home from work actually included sunshine!!

WOW!! What a weekend!!

It is Monday night at 10pm and I just finished editing ALL of the 1000 or so pictures we took over the span of four days! CRAZY!!
I sometimes wonder what moms did before digital photography.
I can't imagine what life would be like without my SLR, my point-and-shot, my handy camcorder, or my cell phone camera.
I really have no excuse but to film my daughters ever waking moment :)

So hear goes....
I'll break down the Birthday Weekend for ya...

(since there are SOOOO many pictures I put them into collages.
If you click on them they will enlarge for better viewing....your welcome...haha)

SATURDAY!!
Time to party!!

So as a disclaimer... I LOVE TO PLAN!!
I think it has something to do with my type A personality. I love to dig deep and find my frugal yet sophisticated Martha Stewart side and go with it.
As you probably know already Kaylee's favorite Nick Jr show is Yo Gabba Gabba. If you don't have kids around this age you probably have no idea who Foofa, Brobee, Muno, Plex, and Tootee are. Kids go crazy over these characters!! It is fascinating!


The Gabba Party:


We were so lucky to have a gal that Isaiah knows made this amazing cake and cupcakes!
We put out hats on and the party started!

As soon as the food was accessible Kaylee had her plate and her mouth filled with strawberries and Cheetos. Crazy combo but she loved it!
As you can see her face was covered with food the entire time.
Being that it was a Gabba Party I wanted to have the show playing in the background. Since Kaylee's TV time is limited at home, her eyes were glued to the TV for most of the party.
She did take a moment to make sure that EVERYONE had a Gabba sticker. She is obsessed with any kind of sticker! She will take an entire sheet and put them all over her body. The other day I was changing her diaper and when I moved her shirt out of the way she had them all over her stomach.

Time for Cake and Ice cream!
She even blew out her candle by herself!
(my little girl is growing up...)

After cake it was time for presents. It was hard trying to keep her attention on opening them. Once she opened one she was ready to play.
It almost seemed like Christmas in high speed.
All in all it was a FABULOUS weekend! With friends, family, and lots of love there was nothing more I could have wished for.
Thank you to everyone who made this weekend special and thank you to all of our family and friends who sent their love on Kaylee's special day!

Up next.....
THANKSGIVING!!!

(ps.... Isaiah already put up the tree! Crazy man!)

With Kaylee's 2nd bday fast approaching I am filled with such excitement and happiness and then a little sadness. Sad that ALL of the people who love her won't be able to share the day with her. See now that we are back in the Great northwest ALL of my family is now long distance. I am SOOO excited though because my mom and dad (Grandma and Papa Conner) are making the drive up from Redding CA to spend the weekend with us for her birthday. It means the world to me when my family comes up and visits. :)

So this "flashback" is dedicated to ALL of Kaylee's great grandparents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles far away who aren't able to be here next weekend!! :)

WE LOVE YOU ALL

What an eventful week this has been so far!

FALL IS OFFICIALLY HERE!!

This really is my favorite part of living in the great northwest. The trees start to change colors and the air starts to get crisp. The hoodies and Uggs come out of the closet and school once again starts.

Aww... SCHOOL!! I wish I could go back in time when school was EASY!! Not so much anymore.
I started hitting the books again this week and man is it going to be a LONG 10 weeks. With Anatomy and Physiology and Technical Math I am going to see some early mornings and some late nights. I am really excited to finally be learning something that is going to really benefit my nursing career. However, I could do without the 3 hour labs!!


We celebrated Isaiah's big 3-3 on Tuesday! Unfortunately with my head in the books I completely forgot to take pictures of his big day! We did however sneak up to Puyallup to enjoy a little bit of the fair before dinner.
These were worth the 30min drive!

For his birthday his mom made his favorite dish:
Beef Stroganoff
and his favorite cake:
Cherry chip cake with cream cheese frosting and maraschino cherries
She has pretty much made this cake for him for the last 33 years so I didn't even want to attempt this yet :)

Kaylee has developed a love for Princesses all of a sudden. One day we were talking at the table and she said
"I love princess"
Now I know she has seen a few disney movies but I really didn't think she was catching on. It is amazing to me how little girls gravitate towards gender specific toys. She is obsessed with her babies right now too. I broke down and bought her a baby set today at Costco.

The Costco version is similar to this. It is so cute to see her playing mommy!
She melts my heart! :)

Kaylee's phrase of the week
With Kaylee starting to talk so much now I am going to try and document some of her latest phrases

"Oh no Daddy messy car"
"No hit we hug"
:)

Lastly.... Kaylee helped me do a little baby sitting last Thursday with
this little guy... Parker Ray... or in Kaylee's world
"Pepper"(Again... impossible for me to take a picture of her looking at the camera. Something out the window must have been way more important at the time.)

(ps.. no babies were harmed in the attempts to take a good picture. Notice I am multitasking with one hand snapping pics and the other holding the baby. Parker was actually hamming it up the entire time. Maybe his camera skills will rub off on my daughter)

At the end of August we ventured the 8hrs south to Redding California to visit my parents and my grandma Jean. Surprisingly we had a great car ride. I was really worried how Kaylee would do but for half the trip she slept and the other half she read her books and watched her shows. I do have to say that I broke down and took the portable DVD player.

I remember before I had Kaylee I thought... "Why do the kids need TV in the car too.... can't they find other things to do...we didn't get to bring a video player when we did our long car rides when I was a kid." Then I realized whoever invented the portable DVD player must be a parent.... and my new bestie. :)

We had a great time in Redding. It has been almost a year since my family has seen us. The best part..... we relaxed the entire time. Kaylee loved playing in the pool!
We enjoyed some really great food too! John is a pro at the BBQ and wow was it good!! Kaylee loved "Dem Bones"