Dirt, Rocks, & "Neighs"....

...a few of Jaelyn's most favorite things!

This girl LOVES to play in the dirt! She received some sand toys for her birthday and has used them pretty much daily! She is most content digging in the dirt...finding worms & other bugs...and making piles of the dirt on the steps. (Daddy isn't too excited about the piles he has to clean up daily!)

Making her piles of dirt!

Another daily routine is taking a stroll through our neighborhood to find the "neighs". Jaelyn will climb into her stroller all by herself and yell at me, "neigh". That's my cue that she is ready for her walk...and wants to find the horses. We have 6 horses that we know of at this point...but I'm sure there are more horses around.

Jaelyn & Rusty. On this day Rusty was too busy eating...but most days he comes up close to say hello!

And then there are rocks. If there is a rock laying on the ground...it must be either kicked or thrown!


Looks like we have a tomboy on our hands. No bows in the hair for this girl. I've tried numerous times to put a cute clip in her hair, but she immediately takes it out. I won't give up quite yet...the clips are just too cute!

A Beautiful Day....

..At the Zoo!

With the sun shining & not a cloud in the sky we met up with Kathy & Sophie at the zoo for the morning. This zoo membership is great!

Our little navigator...which animal do you want to see next?

I think we've got a monkey on our hands...no fear! She scaled up this thing without any trouble!

Jaelyn & Sophie (hmmm....Sophie's not a big fan of this gorilla!)

One of Jaelyn's favorite animals to watch. They were in their "cage" today so we got to see them really close up. They are huge animals!

Birthday Girl!

Look who turned 2 years old today?

Today we spent the morning at the Woodland Park Zoo with cousin Elisabeth & Auntie Sarah as well as friends from church (Kora, Celia, Benjamin & Dylan...plus their mommies!). Jaelyn enjoyed seeing the animals...especially the elephants, gorillas & giraffes. We have a membership at the zoo this year, so we'll definitely be going back many more times!!

A tired little girl....hippos sleeping in the background.

One of the few pictures I have of Jaelyn at the zoo. Note to self: make sure camera has battery life before you go on an outing...I was only able to take a few shots at the beginning of the day before the dreaded: "change battery pack". Ahhhh!

She must have known it was her birthday because she only slept for ~30 min. in the car...from the zoo to the park n ride where we dropped off cousin Elisabeth & Auntie Sarah...oh well. Birthday girl didn't want to waste her special day sleeping...plus it was sunny outside & close to 60 degrees....so we went on a walk to find all the "neighs" in our neighborhood & putzed around the car & yard once Daddy came home.



One random phone call she received today was from her pediatrician! He called to wish her a happy birthday...he was calling all his little patients who shared his birthday...how sweet! What a great doctor!! We ended our day with a Chipotle dinner & cupcake dessert...mmmmm!! What a fun filled day! :)

2 year stats:
Height: 36 inches (95%)
Weight: 27.2 lbs (55%)
We LOVE you Jaelyn and can't wait to see the adventure you'll take us on next year!!

Party, Party, Party!

We had a birthday party for her on Saturday night. I tried to keep it simple: Hello Kitty themed stuff (she love's her "meows"), marinated chicken on the grill, my mom's hot vegetable dish & mandarin orange/strawberry salad (which were both a hit!), rolls, & of course the homemade cake.

Here are a few pictures from the party:

What a difference a year makes...this year she blew out the candles all by herself!

One of her favorite toys...thanks Papa!! :)

She is super excited to open up her gifts...love the smile & eagerness to get it open!

A fun...but noisy guitar! She's had lots of fun "playing" it & dancing to the music already....thanks Aunt Nancy! :)

Had to get a picture of the cake I made for her. It turned out great! Chocolate cake with bavarian cream filling....yum! I used the left over icing I had from my cake decorating class...and decorated this thing in ~15 minutes. I learned a trick to icing the cake without having issues with crumbs....freeze it before icing! Ahhhh...makes life so much easier & less of a hassle. I'll definitely be doing this from now on.

Easter

Before church we gave Jaelyn her first Easter basket. She thought it was great...because a couple things that made it's way in there were of Elmo! Boy, does she like Elmo for some reason. :) Another hit were the plastic necklaces...the girl likes to accessorize!

Hmmmm...a sticker book full of Elmo!!! Yeah!

We hosted Easter lunch this year....it's great to have a house you can entertain in! The table was ready to go before church. I love...love tulips!! Also, this is kinda pitiful...but after almost 8 years of marriage we finally used our china for the first time!

While the food was getting ready, we had the girls go on an Easter egg hunt! This was Jaelyn's first time at it...she quickly got the hang of it and came away with a bag full of eggs/candy! She ate a bit too much of the candy before lunch because she didn't really put a dent into her Easter lunch....oh well!

Can you tell she's having fun?

I found one!

Eating her loot already! She takes after her mommy!!

Elisabeth, Kora, Celia & Jaelyn

Cake #3

Here is the final cake I made at the cake decorating class I took. Boy...roses are a pain in the butt to make if you don't have the right consistency of icing! At least I know how to do it...now it will just take practice to get good at it.

I'm eager to eat this cake: chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling....yum!

The class was fun to do...to learn something new...but I'm looking forward to a week where I don't have to prepare a cake, make all the icing from scratch, etc. :)

Seattle Adventure

On Tuesday Jaelyn & I (along with Auntie Sarah & Elisabeth) drove into Seattle for the morning. The Seattle Aquarium was having a special promo going on...$1 admission! We couldn't pass up that deal (nor could the thousands of other mommies either!). We had a lot of fun looking at all the fishies...but the highlight was getting our hands wet and touching the starfish and other crazy looking water creatures! Jaelyn may have had more fun just splashing and getting her sweater soaking wet! Oh, well!!



After we were done with the Aquarium, the sun was out so we decided to venture up to Pike's Place Market...for lunch & to eat the famous doughnuts!

Love seeing the daffodils all in bloom!

So colorful!!

Eating her doughnut...life is good!