Look Who's 2!

Josie is so much fun at this age! She talks up a storm, is quite social and loves being a big girl! She even managed to potty train herself starting around 18-20 months and now we're diaper free! She's a great sleeper and overall happy child - a mama's dream!

She loves playing with Kelsey and the two of them are getting along quite well now. They love to play pretend, dolls and dress up together. Its so wonderful to see them becoming so close! She has also started making her own friends in the neighborhood and with Kelsey's friends' siblings which is so cute to watch.

Josie knows her ABCs and can count quite well. She used to go in order up to around 17 but lately she counts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 18, 17, 21, 39! We always end on a very excited pronouncement of 39 :) Everything always costs "tirty nine cents" too when she's playing pretend :)

She picks up on music like nobody's business - we really have to watch the song lyrics these days! I hope that her love of music will continue as she grows older - maybe we'll have another band geek in the family ;)

Josie is quite an active girl and a bit of a daredevil. She has mastered her plasma car with little trouble and we often have to watch her extra careful as she tries to sneak off down the hill at full speed! Eeeks! She loves playing with any sort of ball but especially soccer. She's getting quite good at aiming her kicks directly where she wants them too! Aside from her sporty side she is also a true girly girl. Put her in a shoe department and she's in heaven! She loves shoes, purses, jewelery, anything sparkly (especially shoes!), dresses/skirts, etc. I think our bank account will be in for it during the teen years! :)

She's quite the personality and I can't wait to see what this year brings!

Catching Up - June

Playtime - The girls play (nicely) together quite a lot. This is one of their "forts" they created :) Kept them busy for a good hour!




Summer Fun - The weather finally warmed up enough (for toddlers) for the pool and sprinkler. Oh happy day!





Gymnastics - The girls took gymnastics all year and LOVED it! As you can see in the video Kelsey was quite good with flips!

Blankie

Josie is VEEEERRRRRYYYYY attached to her blankie. Its a sad day when it gets washed!

Catching Up - May

Mother's Day - For Mother's Day this year we headed up to Whidbey Island. We took the scenic route home through LaConner. It was a great day!





Relay For Life - This was my seventh (?) year of doing the Issaquah Relay for Life event. I had been growing my hair out since Josie was born and decided to donate it this year at Relay. It's been nice having my short hair back! :) The event raised over $250,000 to help fight cancer!





Seattle Center - We took the girls to the Seattle Center for the first time. We did the fountain, Science Center and Monorail. They had a blast! I think the cotton candy that we got to snack on was the biggest hit though ;)





Last Day of School - Such a big girl!

For My Mom

Geeky but true. Thanks Mom for all that you've given me :) Happy Mother's Day to the world's best mom!

Happy Easter!

We had a lot of fun with Easter this year. Both girls were able to participate and Josie caught on quite quickly. She somehow knew the "eee-eee ehhhhhgs" were filled with candy immediately. We let them have at it on Easter morning - we started our day with peeps, lollipops and chocolate bunnies.

That afternoon we had Nana's side of the family over for Easter dinner. The girls were spoiled again with more Easter baskets and gifts from all of the relatives. Thanks everyone for helping make their Easter even more exciting!



Don't you love our new smile?






Notice Kelsey is shaking each egg before deciding if she gives it to Josie or not. I think she thought she was giving her all empty ones :) It was sweet of her to at least share though!


At least I was able to get one of the girls in their Easter dresses - thankfully Josie doesn't have too strong of opinions on clothes yet. And when she does she tends to like things that are fancy and twirly so this fit the bill!


Kelsey semi-cooperated and put on a dress. That was as close as I could get her to dressing up. That girl has a mind of her own I tell ya! ;)

The Party

Kelsey's birthday party was quite anticipated this year. She asked all of the time when her party was, what the theme was, who was coming, etc. She had decided on butterflies early on for her theme so that's what we went with - even though she tried numerous times to convince me to change (after everything was bought)! I think the funniest thing was Kelsey's actual birthday was about a week before her party so she thought that she was turning 5 at her party since it was the next celebration. Poor thing thought she was going to start Kindergarten soon!

Thanks to everyone who came and spoiled our little girl with wonderful friendship and presents! We're so lucky Kelsey has such wonderful friends in her life!


The excited birthday girl in her new butterfly shirt


Mommy's attempt at creative cupcakes - I was quite surprised/happy at how well they actually turned out!


Josie enjoyed them too - at least the chocolate wings :)

FOUR!

Kelsey turned four years old today. How is that possible?? She has grown up into such a beautiful little girl who we couldn't be prouder of.

Currently she LOVES her gymnastics class and has gotten quite good at it. She can already do cartwheels and headstands and can flip around on the bars without help. She is also getting good at riding her bike around the neighborhood with all her neighborhood pals. At home she likes to play dress up, restaurant and house. Her best buddies are Matt, Tehya, Claire and Emma. She and Calvin are still inseparable when they're together but she doesn't typically request playdates or movie nights with him like she does all her other friends.

At school she has finally worked up the courage to do a trick in front of her class during the trick song (only took 6 months!). She loves doing the zoophonics alphabet, dancing during circle time, doing the daily art project and playing in the dramatic play room.

Her favorite foods are mac and cheese, apples, honey nut cheerios and crackers. For some reason she prefers to eat frozen foods still frozen - waffles, peas, corn, etc. Up until very recently pink and purple were her favorite colors but lately she's been saying red and blue are her favorites. I can't keep up ;)

I can't wait to see what 4 will bring. Today she seems to think of herself as "bigger". Before dinner I was asking her what she was going to order and she decided on a corn dog (this was shocking because 1. she ALWAYS wants mac and cheese and 2. she's never had a corn dog!). I asked her why the change from mac and cheese and she said "I think its time I try something new now that I'm 4". Love it! And while she did change her mind back to mac and cheese she did order her own dinner (a first!)


New playhouse for her birthday


The girls were so excited to play they went outside in the freezing cold in their jammies while I cooked breakfast :)


The requested breakfast - purple heart pancakes (purple was quite hard to do so we went for light lavender)


Jamba Juice treat with Mommy


Red Robin with Matt (who also shares the same birthday)


Birthday dessert!

Balloons

Grandma and Grandpa got Kelsey (and Josie) balloons and teddy bears for her fourth birthday and I received some gorgeous flowers for my birthday. As you can see from the video - they were a BIG hit! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!!

Skiing!!

Papa took Kelsey and me skiing up at Stevens this month for our birthdays. It was Kelsey's first time and my first time in about 8 years. It was so much fun getting back on skis! Kelsey seemed to have a lot of fun as well, even if she did only do one run. A big thanks to Nana for making the drive up with us to watch Kelsey while we skied!

I took a lot of time emphasizing to Kelsey how the gear wasn't going to be super comfortable, how it'd be cold at the mountain, how the magic carpet would work, etc. Basically covering all bases so there'd be no surprises for the skiing portion of the day. I forgot to mention the hour long drive up there. When we got home she told me she wanted to go again but "lets go somewhere closer next time" :) Ooops!


Super excited to get started




Up we go!