Smith Turned 2!!

Is my baby really already two years old?!? He brings our family so much joy.  He is extremely strong willed and feisty.  But at the same time, he's incredibly sweet and loving. He's irresistibly cute and cuddly, but also wants to be independent.  He wants to walk without a hand to hold, run with his big brother and sister, figure things out on his own. But when he gets hurt, a kiss from Mommy still solves it. He is such a handful and so much fun all at once! I can't imagine life without him.

What a sweetheart!! 

We had one evening celebration, just with our family on Smith's actual birthday.  We had a fun dinner and then cupcakes for dessert. 

After we sang and he blew out the candles, he thought about it for a second, and then said, "AGAIN!" So we sang a few times and he enjoyed it every single time. 

 Then, a few days later we invited some family over to celebrate with us.
He wanted us to sing a few times then too, so kept asking for it again and again.

 

 Opening gifts
I loved watching Zane and Emmy get to excited and happy watching their brother open the gift they picked out. It's so sweet.

 And we had to have a Lorax party. He's been obsessed with the movie and songs from the movie all year long.  The big kids helped think of ideas to decorate.
Nellie and I made the cake together - she did all the decorating of course!!  I love the Truffula Tree cake pops. What an artist. :)

 Our own Truffula Trees

 Thanks for the picture, Zane!

 We went on a bike ride that afternoon too. :)

Oregon Trip

My best friend Tammy moved to Oregon several months ago.  We have been friends since our first day of high school almost 20 years ago!  She has 3 sweet kids and her two girls are Emmy's best buds.  So we decided we needed to go visit our friends.  Just Emmy and I flew to Portland to spend 3 days with Tam and her family while Zack stayed home for a boys' weekend.  It could not have been any better.

Here we were at DIA waiting for the plane.  Talk about EASY traveling with just Emerson compared to all 3!!

 
 She found her friends, Ella and Abhi at the airport and they were off!

 Saying hello to Miller in the car...

 We headed straight to the Children's Museum from the airport.

 Clay!

 Then we got to go hang out at home, in their city of Lake Oswego.

 Later that day, Emmy joined the girls at their dance class.  She got to borrow a dress to wear.

 Oh these 3 are so cute together!!

 The second day we headed to Cannon Beach.  It was beautiful and perfect weather.  It was completely worth the 2 hour drive to the coast. So fun!

 They were a complete mess after playing in the sand and water for about 4 hours, so we changed clothes and then walked around to get some ice cream.

 Finally, the last day we went to the town's Farmer's Market. Again, they were having sunny weather after it had rained for weeks before we got there.

 We got to try some new foods together and eat while we listened to a band play.

 Watched the ducks...

 Peaches!

We love our awesome friends and hope we can visit them again another time. :)

Fall Projects

Emmy and I get to spend every afternoon together while Zane's at school and the babies (toddlers now) are napping. We are loving it.  Sometimes we just rest and watch TV or read or color.  But a lot of times, we do projects together.  Here are a few pictures at the very beginning of fall.  

Pumpkin Lady

 Trying on some costumes...

 We went out and grabbed leaves to make a "Leaf Woman"

 Rapunzel running through the trees.

 She ended up making a whole family

 Her and Zane colored and cut out these Yo Gabba Gabba characters to decorate with.

 Pumpkins!