What we do.

I know I have put tons of pictures of the lake on the blog-but somehow, I never tire of taking pictures of water. Whether it be lakes, rivers, or especially the ocean, we love the water! I think both Bray and I are decided that, if possible, we will definitely live near a large body of water. The kiddos and I manage to go walk to the park by the lake nearly every day. On the really rainy days, I just look at the rain falling on the water through my bedroom window. As the kids get bigger, and a little more independent (they think a LOT independent!) we are doing more things we were not able to do even 6 months ago. When we go downtown, if we aren't going to be there for hours on end, we each just hold a hand of a kiddo-we don't always have to lug out the double stroller! Or, when we go to the lake, we can go down to the water and let them throw rocks and sticks in on their own. We still have to hold them back, and watch them closely, but they are becoming big kids! These pictures are from a cold, cloudy afternoon a few weeks ago, when we went to throw rocks in the lake. Bray, playing baseball with a rock and a stick-went pretty far, too!
Happy girl!
Madeline's interesting follow-through.
She hates the cold, but somehow did not mind picking the rocks out of the freezing water!
Enjoying the freedom of the beach, and feeling like a 'man' with his stick/sword.
Chasing the birds-his Daddy taught him this!

Gotta love that boy.

I just had to share this with yall:
Today during lunch, Madeline managed to tip her chair over and fall out. She was more scared than hurt, but cried quite a bit nonetheless. As I was comforting her in the rocking chair, Hobbes ran into his room, got Madeline's paci and brought it out to her. He then ran back 3 more times, each time bringing a different object with him: his Cars (the movie) blanket, 3 stuffed animals (including his favorite, Curious George) and his pillow. He then gave her a kiss on the head and went on his merry way. I love those moments! What a sweet brother for Madeline to have!

A sunny afternoon...

All set to play outside: fireman hat, grocery cart, big stick, and a piece of chalk. What else could he need?
Calling for Hobbes to come back-and using her touchdown arms to do it. She does this whenever she gets excited!
Picking the rocks out of the dirt, to throw on the sidewalk, and then to kick off the sidewalk...
Going up the hill by our apartments, just enjoying the sunshine!
Gorgeous afternoon!
Preparing to chase after Hobbes-she is almost as fast as he is now!

Crazy kids!

Daddy was being the horse-and Hobbes thought he needed a firehat to ride!

Few more Portland pics...

Love those cheeks!
Saying goodbye to Aunt Attie!
Hobbes decided Suzie would be his new movie friend-they watched 101 Dalmatians together.
Table shot!

Great Grandma:)

Grandma Garfield with baby Elliott.


As I was posting these pictures of my Grandma Garfield and 3 of her (almost!) 5 great grandchildren, I was thinking about how often we went to visit growing up-and how close we were to all of our cousins. We lived about 6 hours away, and made the trek at least 3 times a year. I have 8 cousins on my Dad's side, 6 of whom lived in Oregon. We all would meet at some holiday during the year, at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and we had fantastic times! I have wonderful memories of my times there-one of my favorites is the week Seth, Kathryn and I spent with my cousins Attie and Peter at my grandparents' house-minus parents! I am sure it was exhausting for my grandparents, but they always showed us a wonderful time. They took us around the city, to the zoo and museums, but what I enjoyed most of all was spending time, playing games with all the cousins, and eating one of Grandma's huge meals together at the table.

It is a huge blessing to live near family-and I am sad we are not closer to all our family, but it was such a treat to have one of Grandma's delicious dinners this weekend, and to eat it with at least part of the family! I am truly thankful for the godly family God has given both Bray and I-what a wonderful thing to pass onto our kids! I just hope we get to spend as much time with family as I did growing up!

Shelby was extremely trusting and let my little monkeys hold Elliott for a picture-they loved it!
Their favorite thing was his nose.:)

Grandma Garfield with 3 of her great-grandkids!
I love this one.

Little Elliott!

Snuggling up with Grandma Jill.:)
What a cutie!
Smiling at Aunt Attie!

I got to hold the little dude!

Fun at Aunt Jill's!

This past weekend we decided to go to Portland to visit my extended family. My cousin, Matt and his wife Shelby had their first child back in December, and we had not met him yet! We headed out after Bray's rehearsals on Saturday, and, several potty stops later, we made it to Portland. We stayed at my Aunt Jill's house, and were able to see little Elliott quite a bit (he is such a cutie!). My Grandma came over and made us all a delicious Sunday lunch, so we had a wonderful time! It was great to see everyone (Jill, Attie, Grandma, Matt, Shelby, Luke, Suzie and of course Elliott) we only wish we could do it more often!

Jill has a great little room on her top floor that she has made into the 'grandkid' room. She did a fabulous job of redecorating it, and it is just darling! Madeline really loved playing by herself near the window while we were there-I think she wouldn't mind her own little room, eh?Daddy was taking pics of Madeline playing by the window...

Hobbes loved wearing this hat while we were there. Funny boy!

'Photo shoot' for Mimosa

As most of you know, Kathryn has an online flowers business called Mimosa. They also sell products like napkins, tablecloths and aprons, and for Christmas, my mom gave Madeline one of the aprons. Kathryn asked if I could get a picture of Madeline in it for their website, and so I decided to try yesterday. I gave her a bowl with some flour, and I had eggs out for dinner-probably not the best combo with a toddler, but I was trying to keep her distracted while I took pictures! It turned out to be a huge mess, but these are the pictures I got! Hopefully one of them will work!:) Having fun, 'making' stuff!
She managed to break an egg right off the bat!
Still working...
Stirring whatever she was making...
Showing off the apron-best 'apron shot' I could get!
Getting all cleaned up!

Big Girl!

Until we get the kids' bunk beds, I decided to make the crib into the toddler bed by taking off the side rail. This now means Madeline can get in and out of bed on her own-and she thinks this is the greatest thing ever! After a few days of several escapes from bed, along with finding nearly every book they own in her bed one morning, she has adjusted quite nicely, and loves being a 'big kid' like Hobbes! I have to admit, when I saw her get into her bed by herself the 1st night, I was a teensy bit sad. But I love my big girl!

Bye Aunt Carolyn!

Finally got a picture of Carolyn and Hobbes-he looks a bit sleepy, but still cute! We had fun!

Rainy Day at the Zoo!

On Carolyn's last day here, Jennie Owen (Kathryn's sis-in-law) asked us if we wanted to go to the Seattle zoo. We thought it would be a fun idea, as this is one of the better zoos in the country, but we of course picked the rainiest day of the week! Although we all ended up being soaked, we managed to see quite a few animals and even got to touch some! The zoo was, obviously, not crowded at all, so we took our time at some exhibits (especially the night exhibit-but the bats were creepy!) and then had lunch before we headed home! Altogether a fun, wet exhibition!
The mean-looking gorilla!
Carolyn, Hobbes and Madeline checking out the huge gorilla-he actually had a cute face. The other one-well, let's just say I didn't want to get too close!
Hobbes touched the snake! (and so did George and Madeline and me:(!) This is the boy who freaks out at the mechanical animals at the store...but yet he was actually trying to persuade the zoo lady to let him hold the snake all on his own. Thankfully, she said no!
Hobbes and George led the way-and managed to go through every puddle! They were both soaked from head to toe by the end!
In the bird area-Hobbes was pointing some bird out to George-they really loved the rope fence!
I wanted to get both little girls looking at the snake-they were fascinated!
Walking the jungle drawbridge with Aunt Carolyn!
Celia's face sums up how all the kids felt about our rainy day adventure-happy! (although they were all ready to get warm and dry!)

Flashback!

I was recently reading a friend's blog, and she does these 'retro' days, where she does pictures from years earlier. I thought it was a fun idea, so I found this video I took of Madeline nearly a year ago-how much she has changed! She has always adored her brother, so it's no wonder she said his name before anyone else's!
See below to see them playing together!

Ring around the rosie

Sorry it's a bit dark-the kiddos love playing this together, and so we had to get it on camera! Ignore Hobbes' knocking Madeline over at the end:)!