Party Animals

One more hot, exhausting, wonderful morning at the zoo.

Watch our world, Caden is leading the pack!

Motoring

Natalie's finally getting used to driving this little 4 wheeler. I have to say, I don't really appreciate vehicles without power-steering either, so I think she's doing great, all things considered. It really was more of how adorable she looked in the hat she decided to wear than anything else that made me run for the camera. I could just squeeze her cuteness all day.

"This hat says I love my Daddy. I love my Daddy." Boy does she ever.

Sutton Paul and Caroline Brixey

Our friends, the Fields stayed with us a few weekends ago and with the Field's comes baby Brixey. She is such a doll and Sutton loved playing with her. We're still working on being gentle, but he really was mesmorized. We think she's pretty special too.

I couldn't resist getting a picture of this new baby yoga pose: Sucking Toe.

Define Irony

Natalie truly is One Smart Cookie. So when she came down the stairs, so proud that she'd dressed herself, yet again, I could only smile at her accomplishment.

Potty Rewards

Natalie would like the world to know that she now wears big girl panties "like Mommy and Granny." :) Instead of a panty picture (one could come later, you never know) I decided to put in a picture of her doing the activity she chose for going poop on the potty: The pet store with Isabel. I must admit, this potty training business wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, but then, we're still wearing pull-ups at night, so I guess it's not 100%! That, and I still have another child to train in the future. Oh well, Natalie is doing great and I couldn't be more proud! Petco, here we come.

Mother's Day

I got back from my 6 day trip away from my babies on Mother's Day. What a great day to be reunited. We were all so happy to see each other. I nearly squeezed them to death on that first hug, but no one was injured. :)

Granny K took a picture of them in their church clothes so I could see what they looked like on Mother's Day. Very thoughtful and I loved it. They were adorable, of course.

This is them shopping for my gift with g-dad and granny. I got a tree for our yard. Yay!

Making my wonderful, well-taped card.

Next year I will spend ALL day with on MY day! :)

While We Were Out

Mommy and Daddy went on a vacation to Canada all by themselves and left Natalie and Sutton in the ever-spoiling, but extremely capable hands of Granny and Grandaddy Kling. Here are some photos from their adventures (Notice all the sad faces and tears over how much they missed their mommy and daddy).

The Park, a favorite. Now EVERY time we go to this park, Natalie wants to ride on my shoulders and "watch out for those leaves."

If you've not operated a drill while in Grandad's care, then you haven't really been with Grandad.

Riding the horsey, anytime you want, for as long as you want.

If it's not Fox News, it's the morning paper.

Looks like the horse may have tired, or gotten a new do.

A mother likes to see that all precautions have been taken to avoid the risk of sun exposure. Great job Granny and Grandaddy!

And to make sure she wasn't spoiled too much, she had to earn all those berry berry sundaes from Sam's Club.

Quite the crew.

Another day in the park.

Devotion time.

Thank you, Babysitters Extraordinnaire! You are worth WAY more than we paid you! :)

Vancouvermoon

At the beginning of May, Nate had a conference in Vancouver. I got to join him after it was over for some time with just the two of us. It was incredible. And because there were no children there, I made it a point to get some photos of us together.

Probably my favorite photo from the trip. Our last sunset in Canada. We watched one nearly every night together. I highly recommend it.

Biking around Stanley Park. We (and our near wrecks and uphill peddling) were a sight to behold.

Sea Wall.

Lovers Lane. :)

Capilano Suspension Bridge. The speck in the middle is me.

Treetop adventure course.

Reminders of Natalie and Sutton were everywhere.

A really tall douglas fir tree.

Totem poles.

Nate on the bridge, checking out the canyon beneath.

Another sunset. Beach, mountains, sunset....wonderful.

This is how we could sit and watch the sun set for hours. The view was always changing.

Rocks on our favorite beach, Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island.

Bald eagle scouting was one of Nate's favorite pasttimes.

Oh, and whale watching. We actually saw some while hiking by the ocean.

The view from our room.

Another huge, 800 year-old tree.

Had to take at least one photo of my kids. I was going through withdrawals.