Like Mother, Like Daughter

Sunday morning Ryan and Payton ran to the store to get some groceries and get me a latte from Starbucks. Payton loves to have chocolate milk for a treat and a couple of times before the barista has made Payton her own special one on the house.

These pictures make me smile..

It's so funny how anytime we drive past Starbucks, Payton says "Mommy coffee?" or if I go in to Haggen by our house and Ryan and the girls are in the car waiting, she'll ask Ryan if Mommy is getting coffee. I think I have a habit that might need to be broken. Nah, forget about it. :)

May I help you?

Two months left..

Only two months left until our little coconut is one! (If you could see me, you would see my lower lip hanging out!) Gracie is now ten months old. Where has the time gone?

This picture was taken while she was holding on to my knees and I put the camera down in front of her. Gracie climbs on and over and up everything. She walks along the ottoman in our living room or from the sofa to the ottoman. She now crawls up the stairs, but thankfully waits at the top to be helped down. Gracie loves to bounce and tries to dance (while she's holding on to something or sitting).

She now has eight teeth and is drooling everywhere. I've been trying to put a bib on her so she doesn't soak through her shirts.



Gracie is such a sweet little girl. Her smile is contagious, laugh is infectious, and you can't help but want to cuddle her. She loves everyone, especially her big sister. When Gracie wakes up I'll set her down on the floor and she'll immediately crawl into Payton's room to look for her. She also reaches out for Payton to hold her if someone she doesn't see often is holding her. It's really cute.

We had a weight check for Gracie on the 15th and she has gained over a pound since last month!!!!!! This was very exciting news for us! She now weighs 16.9lbs. We didn't have her measured, but she is now in the 6% up from 3 1/2%. Ryan and I were very excited that she didn't drop percentiles. This is a first for her since she was born, since she had been steadily dropping percentiles. For it to go up, that was a welcomed surprise. Dr. Haugen wants us to come back again in one month, for another weight check, to make sure this continues.

Easter Day

Easter morning we all got up and headed downstairs (after I went and quickly filled them, because Mr. and Mrs. Bunny forgot to do it the night before.. oops!) so the girls could look for their Easter baskets. Payton's was on her chair and Gracie's was on her little table.

I'm sure to some, what was in their baskets seems a little weird. Payton received Hershey syrup (she loves to make chocolate milk), chocolate pudding (she loves to have that as a treat), pink baseball glove and ball, candy etc.
Gracie received a new sippy cup, Puffs, new socks, snacks, sunglasses, and few other goodies.

Gracie showing off her new shades.
After they checked out their baskets, Ryan and Payton made waffles with strawberries and whipped cream and some maple sausage. It was oh so yummy! It was a wonderful morning with the four of us.
After breakfast, we all got ready and headed over the pass to Cle Elum to celebrate Easter at my Uncle Chris and Aunt Leslie's house.
Uncle Chris, my cousin Josh and his girlfriend Vanessa, and my cousin Brianna's fiance Ryan, and Brianna hid Easter eggs for the kids.

Each child got to hunt for fifteen eggs. Since Trent and Kaden caught a glimpse at where the eggs were being hidden, Payton got a 30 second head start to begin looking.

Payton and I counting how many eggs she found.

Everyone out watching the kids

Ryan and I

My brother Ryan, Trent, Ryan, and Payton

Kaden

Payton opening up an Easter present.

Gracie playing with Payton's eggs

Easter came and went fast this year. It felt like it snuck up on us. It was wonderful being able to spend it with some of our family. Of course we would've loved to have been able to see everyone, but we didn't plan well enough. Hopefully next year. We hope everyone had a wonderful Easter as well and was able to spend it with the ones you love!

Easter-eve at the Zoo

On Easter-eve, April 11th, our good friends Craig and Elesha (and their two sons, Jack and Crew) invited us to join them at the Woodland Park Zoo for their annual Bunny bounce Easter Egg hunt.

http://www.zoo.org/bbounce/bbounce.html

We had never done it before, but had heard that it would be fun! We got up early on Saturday morning and got the girls all bundled up and headed to the zoo. They were holding the Easter Egg hunts every half hour until 2, but it was a first come first serve basis.

Payton and I on the carousel
Payton "hunting" for eggs.
They had a hunt for little kids under 3 in one field and another for kids 3-8 in another field. We put Payton with the older group For the safety of the animals, the eggs were empty and you would collect the candy as you left the zoo at the end of the day. The field was a large grassy area that they took large branches and scattered them randomly so the kids could "hunt" for the eggs. Mainly there were a lot of piles of eggs for the kids to grab and put in their baskets.

Jack, Elesha, and Payton going up to a beautiful Peacock who was displaying their feathers.

Little Crew enjoying the scenery

Gracie hanging out in the stroller

Double dad's pushing Double Bob Strollers.. what an advertisement.

Craig's Mom, Jack, Me, and Ryan and Craig pushing the strollers.

Throughout the day the zoo would give some selected animals their own Easter baskets. They would have designated times on when they would receive a basket. Here is one that we got to see. The Sloth Bear. The kids were so excited to watch the bear look for his basket.

Gracie got sleepy with all of the excitement.

Payton, Ryan, Craig, and Jack- growling at me for the picture.

The Ostranders

Elesha, Craig, Craig's mom

Crew and Jack

The Zdeneks

Me, Gracie, Ryan and Payton hiding (she didn't want her picture taken)

We all had a great time at the zoo. It was a wonderful day, chilly, but so much fun. Thank you Craig and Elesha for inviting us to go with you!!

Run, jump and play for Payton

On Friday the 10th, Ryan had the day off (due to Easter being on Sunday, Costco gave him another day off since we get paid for Easter). On Fridays Gymagine has a toddler play time that starts at 9:15. I had promised Payton that I would take her to play on that Friday morning, but I woke up too late, so Ryan took her instead! Payton was so excited to go and burn off some energy.

Auntie Brittany and Payton on the parallel bars

I have a feeling we are going to be enrolling Payton into gymnastics sooner than later. Payton absolutely loves it and we have so much fun watching her!

Baby Shower for Natalie

A couple of weeks ago on April 4th, one of my friends Amy and I threw a baby shower for one of our best friends, Natalie. Natalie is having her second baby, a girl, who will be here May 23rd (so soon!). Her other daughter, Jordan, is one of Payton's best friends.

Amy was sweet enough to open up her house for the shower. The invitations for the baby shower were pickles and ice cream, so Amy and I went with that for our theme. We tried to incorporate pink and green throughout the party and have ice cream or pickles as well.

Some of the food and also the diaper cake that I made Natalie.
The favors were watermelon salt water taffy.

One of the games that we had was "Guess how many pickles are in the Jar" and the other was "Celebrity baby Names". One of the prizes was an ice cream scoop, hot fudge and caramel. The other prize was two ice cream dishes and pink and green sprinkles. Amy and I had fun trying to come up with different things for the shower.

Me and Natalie

Amy, Natalie and I

All of the guests at the shower. Natalie's mom took the picture. Thank you Kathy!

The shower was so much fun and Baby Girl Shapiro got some nice gifts! We're all looking forward to when she arrives and we have a new baby to snuggle.

Our beautiful little flower girls

Friday the 27th, my cousin Brianna came over and brought the girls their flower girl dresses. Brianna and her fiance Ryan are getting married August 1st, and Payton and Gracie are going to be in the wedding. I had the girls try on the dresses and they looked so cute! Thankfully they still quite a bit of room to grow in both dresses.

Both girls were still wearing their leggings and socks under their dresses. Of course those will not be there during the wedding.

Also that day, Brianna had brought over dozens of tulips and roses so my sister-in-law Rachael could help make centerpieces. Brianna wanted to do a trial run to see how they would look and get a good idea on how many flowers were going to be needed for the day of the wedding.

All the flowers

Rachael making a centerpiece.

The finished product. I think Rachael did an excellent job! They decided that they are going to add some Hydrangeas and some greenery as well.

Brianna was playing around with making a bouquet. She did a beautiful job as well. We're all looking forward to the wedding day to be here. It's going to be fun!