our little life: 2012

Blackberry Picking

We like to get together with my dad about once a week. We often walk to breakfast near our house, but one day in August we decided to go peach and blackberry picking... baby girl LOVES her some fruit. Look at her... SO CUTE, RIGHT?!

With the evidence of her consumption all over her face - such blue eyes!

Yumm!

Somehow my dad and her always end up with the cutest pictures... SOO happy!

She loved the wagon ride... we definitely need to invest in one!

Roseburg Trip

After the flury of July and working on the backyard we decided to take a few weekend trips at the end of August - first up was a trip down south to visit the Newtons in Roseburg. Amazingly, I didn't get ANY pictures of all of us or any of Edrie and Maddie together! Looking at these it looks like we were alone! We had a great visit minus that whole food poisoning thing...

We took a little hike in the beautiful weather!

"Let's go papa"

Walking holding one hand...so close!

I LOOVE this picture - sunlight, bonnet, trees, apple, colorful romper - LOVE!

Yum.. apples

Olive had a great weekend playing with Jack and chewing on sticks! Hope to see you guys again soon!

Backyard Overhaul: The Finished Product!

Remember our backyard and all the work it still needed?? Well here is what they did...

Next they hauled, layed, and cut a bunch of sod. And we watered and watered it to keep it alive. Looks so awesome!

Then they built me TWO raised beds out of cedar... heart them so much!

When Dan was here he helped Grant dig a trench to put our rain gutter in. He also hung a swing for Edrie! Such a good guy to do manual labor on vacation!!

Then they laid a TON!! of weed barrier and spread mulch in all the beds and gravel everywhere else. I didn't take any in progress shots, but can you just imagine how much work that was?! We were lucky that a neighbor cut down an 80 year old tree while we were making our yard over... we got some of the stumps for our firepit! I need to take another picture because the swing isn't in this and I planted flowers in that figure 8 bed, too!!

These are mostly the same... I need to take a few more pictures, but you get the idea... its WAY nicer than it was!! Can you even believe its the same yard?

Pretty, sweet huh?!! Thanks Tim, Mom, and Grant!! It turned out so nice!

11 Months

Oh Man! She is NOW 13 months, but I want to take a step back to be sure all these monthly pictures are up here. CAN SHE BE ANY CUTER?? Love her too much!

I'm just going to put up my letter to her because it is a good update of all that she was upto at 11 months. The main thing is saying "what's dat?!"

Baby Girl,

You are SUCH a joy! Gosh you are at such a fun stage! You are adding words and skills daily - stunning your papa and I! We are constantly looking at each other in awe and secretly thinking we have the smartest kid in the history of the world. Every time you do something new I try to make a mental note to write it down so I don't forget... I'll try to get down as much as possible in this note.

Let's start with your words... A few weeks ago you started pointing at things and saying 'whats that' It is your FAVORITE phrase and do it constantly. I think when I tell people you say that they don't believe me, but then they hear you and are amazed. You want to know what EVERYTHING is. You are just absorbing the world around you. You are also really good at copying what we say - you have repeated 'pretzel' and 'shoe' and 'papa'.

One of your other tricks I like to show off is your animal noises... you LOVE dogs. LOVE THEM. everytime you see them you start squawking and woofing. You like to make the 'woof' 'woof' noise. Its so cute! You are also really good at making monkey noises. At first we weren't sure you were correlating the noise to the animal, but you have done it a few times out of context. Like if someone says 'Edrie you are being a monkey' you will start going oo oo ee ee. Or the other day there was a squirrel on tv and you thought it was a monkey so you started making the noise. Today you were practicing meowing like a cat - you have almost got it down.

You are getting better in the car lately - we have a CD of nursery rhymes that you really like. It seems to help calm you on longer drives. You especially like the songs that we sing at the library storytime we go to - wheels on the bus and row row row your boat and itsy bitsy spider. You LOVE those songs.

You are getting really good at scooting around on your butt, but are very particular about when you are in the mood to do it. If I'm in the kitchen and you are in the living room you tend to just squawk at me until I come check on you and then you insist I pick you up. I usually try to lure you into scooting, but you are a very determined girl and (probably too) often get your way. Your nana came to visit a few days ago and she was chasing you around the living room - you were giggling and smiling so much and scooting REALLY fast! I wish I had gotten it on video. You would scoot and then look back to be sure she was still playing and then you'd keep going.

You are also dangerously close to walking. You could do it if you wanted to, but you are a bit nervous. You hold onto one finger and toddle all over. You think it is the best thing EVER. Tonight your Papa and I sat across from one another a few feet apart and had you go back and forth between us - you took 4 steps unassisted! We were SO proud - cheering you on and scooping you up for cuddles! You are growing up! A walker! Oy! I can't wait for you to have the independence of walking. Since you haven't ever crawled and don't like to scoot all that much I think you are going to really be happy to be free of us. I know you'll still want to have us close, but you won't need us for every little thing. You can explore more on your own and I can tell you are ready for that. It will be more work for us, but that is totally ok!

What else??? You are just the best thing ever. We love you so much. I just die seeing you with your papa. He can't get enough of you and your glorious cheeks. The same goes for all your grandparents and your mama. And all of our friends. Everyone comments on what a happy, social girl you are.

We love you little girl - Its almost been a year! WOW!

xoxo, mama

She laughs so hard now - we were playing peek a boo here and she was CRACKING UP! I can't remember exactly what is in the video and I'm in a coffee shop so I can't hear it, but I KNOW its cute!

Farm Tunes

We spent a few summer nights this year at Kruegers farm for farm tunes and OH MAN IS IT AWESOME! I really feel like it is the quinessential summer experience - string lights, music, beer, good food, blankets, lawn chairs, kids everywhere, dancing. Its just so good. We hope to make it a summer tradition!

The Bratt's Come to Oregon

In early August we were super lucky to have Dan and Lainey come to visit from Missouri - baby girl in the belly came along too! I was SO happy to be able to see my dear friend in all her pregnant glory - she looks great, huh?! Its taken me so long to post - her baby girl has already arrived safe and sound! We spent the time they were here on a little tour of Oregon and Dan even helped in the backyard a bit! Lainey had a conference to attend for a few hours each day. The above picture is of them seeing Edrie for the first time since she was 7 weeks old! Quite a different little being!

We took Dan to Washougal on one particularly hot day.. the water was refreshing after a VERY long car ride with a crying babe and no air conditioning!

Ergo = favorite nap spot

Then we drove up the Gorge to Mulnomah Falls - such beautiful views!

THEN we drove to Cannon Beach - they are very brave souls for riding in the car with our hates-the-car kid. There was way too many renditions of wheels on the bus (her favorite song) and reviewing the sounds that animals make "a dog says woof woof, cow says moo... "

It was Edrie's first trip to the Oregon coast too! She was not the hugest fan of the sand and it had us cracking up!

So fun to introduce our girl to one of our favorite places on Earth and on such a beautiful day! She LOOOVED the water... totally all about it!

"come on papa"

Her little legs!

The pic of Lainey and I didn't turn out - my eyes were closed, but MAN was it awesome to see them... we were so very fortunate to make such great life long friends during our time in Missouri. Now I'm DYING to fly out there and meet their baby girl! love you guys!

Janelle and Maddie's Visit

This post is going to be a major picture overload, but I just love too many not to share!! Most are from J's awesome camera... such a good photographer she is!!

Janelle and Maddie came for a visit at the end of July/ beginning of August (yes its been that long since I blogged...). It was a quick visit, but SOOO good to spend a few quality days together. I love seeing our girls together - can't wait til they are even more interactive!

How surreal was it to have our two kids in the tub together. Seriously, Weren't we just driving around Milwaukie rocking out to *NSYNC and talking about the hot guys at school?! It was like a blink and we're wives, mama's, ADULTS!