Spring: Evidence

Spring is definitely here! It seems so early but I think that's because I kept waiting all winter for it to get really cold, and it never did! (Oh darn...) I love seeing all the evidence of spring all around.  Trees are blossoming everywhere and flowers we didn't even know we had are popping up all over our yard.  Hooray for spring!

Outside our dining room window:

 Front yard:

 (don't mind the weeds surrounding this one...oops)

I love these little blue flowers. Anyone know what they are? (Debbie?)

 Backyard, these are my favorite (hyacinths, right?)! This is the only one though, and it got a bit trampled :(

 Outside my kitchen window.  It's a rough life.

There are a bunch of daffodils ready to pop open any day and more trees ready to blossom.  I love it! Our hydrangeas are finally coming back to life and our grass is growing like crazy again. Welcome, Spring!

Another Family Fun Day

I feel like we did so many fun things when we first got here and then winter came and we kind of went into hibernation.  I'm not sure why, seeing as this has been the warmest winter of anywhere we've lived since being married, but I guess that's just what happens in winter sometimes. Anyway...we finally emerged last week. We've been going to the park more over the last few weeks and then last week we had lots of sunshine and therefore dry days, so went on lots of walks, went to both of our neighborhood parks, and then on Saturday, we went to a beautiful state park near our house.

I had my eye on this state park for awhile, and I'm so glad we finally went!  We'd been planning on it all week, and then Jeremy had to go into work on Saturday morning for a few hours, but luckily we still made it that afternoon.  It only took us about 15-20 minutes to get there and it was gorgeous!  The weather was perfect - mid-60s and partly cloudly - and we did a nice little hike and then went and grabbed some dinner.

We of course took waaay too many pictures, but this is my blog, so I can post however many I want. :) Hehe...

 Trillium, which made Jeremy nostalgic for his childhood home:

  Half the time I was running to keep up with the boys. It's nice they're getting older and have more stamina!

 A trillium trio:

 












We love when the ferns are growing ON the trees. :)

 

 This little girl thought she was big enough to walk the trail herself.  She was right!

 Eli likes to be the leader. I love all the spring green Indian Plums all around. I didn't get a close-up of them, but they have tiny white flowers and they were everywhere along the trail.

 Anna liked the view from up here too:

Jeremy having fun doing close-ups :)

 Just a couple minutes from the park is Lake Oswego (the lake, inside the city of Lake Oswego).  We went out to eat at a little outdoor mall by the lake.

We're going to miss this beautiful place! Only three more months until we're on to the next adventure...sniffle...

Birthday Girl

I have been really lacking the blogging bug lately, but I wanted to make sure I posted about Anna's First Birthday!  It's crazy to think she's a year old already, but at the same time, SO much has happened since her birth that it's crazy it's ONLY been a year.  It's been a year of changes, challenges, blessings, and adjustments.  It's also been a very fulfilling year with our wonderful Anna in our family. She is so much fun and brings happiness to all of us!

We actually spent most of the morning on her birthday doing some spring cleaning and organizing (it was March 1st, after all).  She took a nice long morning nap, which allowed us to do that, and it felt so good to get some of that done.  In the afternoon we ran a few errands, went out to dinner (that was my gift for keeping her alive for a year, hehe), and came home and let her open her presents and eat some cake!  She, like her older brothers, had little interest in the cake, but that is totally fine with me.  We had a fun time celebrating and starting off our "birthday season".  Connor's birthday is in 2.5 weeks and Eli's is the end of next month.  Yea for spring babies!

A few fun facts about Anna right now:

• She is an excellent walker and really looks like an old pro at this point
• She LOVES to be chased and wrestled (do you think she has 2 older brothers?) and giggles and giggles
• She loves people and is happiest when she has someone's attention and will do whatever it takes to get it!
• She is still very orally fixated and puts anything and everything in her mouth
• She has 10 teeth!  She had 8 by eight months, but then two molars just recently broke through and two more are on their way.  We're having lots of fun over here, I tell you!
• She is a flirt.
• She LOATHES having her diaper changed or being forced to lay down/sit still at any time (church is really fun these days)
• She likes to climb, open and empty drawers and cupboards, play in the toilet, get into the bathtub head first, etc. - you know, normal busy 1-yr. old stuff
• She is a great eater and lets you know when she's done because she starts dropping everything off the side of the highchair onto the floor
• She has a good set of lungs and knows how to scream, but she is generally a very happy baby!

 B-day breakfast of french toast and raspberries and blackberries (we still have a few left in our freezer from last summer!) and balloons below. I went to a RS activity the night before and they had extra balloons they told people to take - perfect!

 New book

 Fancy new dress from Grandma

 Puzzle from Grammy

 Flower-shaped Banana Cake (and I'm feeling proud of my homemade no-artificial-food-dyes frosting; I colored it pink using some of the juice from the raspberries we thawed for our breakfast! oh yeah!)

 We were singing to her in this picture.  She loved it!

 And...she's done.

 Until Jeremy started smiling at her.  She loves her daddy!

Happy Birthday Anna!