Our Pacific Northwest Adventure!

My sister Nicole got married on July 5th up on Whidbey Island and our entire family flew up to attend her wedding. It was our 2nd family wedding in the last year! (My youngest sister is the only sibling left to tie the knot.) Traveling with 2 under 2 yrs old is quite an adventure, which is far from a "vacation", but looking back I'm still glad we were brave enough to try it! It was great seeing my parents, my sisters (and sister in law) and my brother again. We also took a road trip down to Portland, OR to see Nathan's extended side of the family (great grandparents, cousins, etc). Plus I got to meet my favorite blog friend, Jessica and her adorable boys, Eli and Chase! (She's the only person I know of that has 2 boys that are almost the exact same age as my boys. Pretty cool!)

Okay, here are Hunter & Hayden's highlight pics from our trip...

Red, White and Blue Canoes in Alkai Beach, Seattle on July 3rd.


The boys against the Seattle skyline


Baby Chucks in Seattle


Hunter and his sunglasses (it was sunny in Seattle - imagine that!)


Trying on Daddy's glasses


Alkai Beach, Seattle at sunset


Hunter's Art Studio - Whidbey Island, WA


Happy baby


During my sister's wedding cermony


Big brother hugs


Family of 4


Taking a break from running on the golf course


Hunter's first ferry ride


I took over 500 photos on the trip! We printed out 150 for our photo album at a total cost of $25.00 - so glad for digital cameras! I remember back in the day when I had to buy roll after roll of film, pay for the photo developing, and hoping that at least a FEW of the photos were worthy of putting in an album!

Belated July 4th Pics!

I'm just now getting around to posting July 4th pics because we were on vacation last week in Seattle and Portland. Traveling with 2 little ones is lots of work and I'm still recovering from the trip! While we were up there, Hunter turned 20 months old and Hayden turned 3 months old! Both have grown up so much in the last month, it makes me sad to think about it. I remember last year when Hunter turned 3 months old and now he's a few months away from turning 2 yrs old...

My little firecracker...



The boys playing (yes, we packed the baby E gym and took it with us on vacation!)



"All American" Hayden


I'll post more stuff from our trip this weekend I hope!

"Just like Daddy"

Now that summer is here in full force, our lawn is growing like crazy! Poor Nathan has to mow at least once a week to keep our backyard short enough for Hunter to play in. We bought Hunter his own mower since he's become so fascinated with everything Daddy (and Mommy) does. I've never seen a more excited look on his face than the day I was assembling his new bubble mower. Yup, he's a boy through and through! Hunter "mows" the backyard several times a day now. I bet Daddy is wishing that thing had real blades on it so he could get a break!

ETA: The pictures below were taken with Daddy's mower off - he was just pushing it so Mommy could snap some photos for the blog!

Testing out his new bubble mower (sans bubbles):








Taking a break from the yardwork:



And a couple new photos of the boys:

Video: Kisses and Hugs!

"Kisses and Hugs"

Hunter giving his brother hugs and kisses!

Happy DahDah's Day!!

Happy Daddy's Day!!, originally uploaded by blogtography.

To my husband, my best friend, the man whom God chose for me, who gave me two sweet and adorable boys, who plays "peeks" with Hunter (think of the peek-a-boo game on steroids), gives kisses, cuddles and hugs often, thrilling wagon rides, wears Hunter on his back (ergo baby carrier) during lawn mowing, does 100% of the nightly bath-and-bedtime routine with Hunter each night, lays with Hunter as he falls asleep, is quick to respond when Hunter cries, rocks him to sleep without hesitation, and the list goes on. The look in Hunter's eyes when he sees his "dahdah" walk in the door each night is priceless. Hunter adores his daddy. It's really sweet to watch them together.

It's so true, the saying, "Anyone can be a father, but it takes a special man to be someone's Daddy". You've grown so much as a father over the last year, especially since the addition of Hayden to our family.

So... "Happy Daddy's Day" my dear! I love you!

Baby Einstein Play Gym

Our Baby Einstein play gym now has it's second occupant in 2 yrs - Hayden! He absolutely LOVES it and spends about an hour a day (3x day at 20 min per time) waving his arms, kicking his legs and cooing at the musical star at the top of the arches. For anyone wondering what kind of play gym to buy for their new baby, I highly recommend this play gym. It's kept 2 baby boys very happy and gives mommy a much needed break too!

Soooo happy! (Hayden - 10 weeks old)


Cooing at the star


Staring at the toys hanging from the arches


Hunter sharing his doodle pad with Hayden


Hayden and the doodle pad :-)

Drawing Balloons

I've been giving Hunter crayons and a blank sheet of paper everyday while I make him breakfast/lunch/dinner for about a month now. He's always asking me to draw balls "bah! bah!" (I draw him circles and he thinks they are balls.) This past weekend I showed him how to draw a line from the balls to make "balloons" and now he is so proud of himself that he can make balloons out of the circles I draw for him.

For a boy who only says 5 words (ma, da, bah, uh oh and his word for balloon "vaaaa") - we have a new talent to add to his baby book!