Vacation 2011 -- Washington

Stephanie's brother Nathan returned a few days ago from his mission in Anchorage, Alaska. For the first part of our spring/summer vacation this year, we drove out to the Seattle/Tacoma area to spend some time with the family.

Coincidentally, my brother Stephen and his wife flew out at the same time to do some house hunting. We saw them twice while they were here: an unplanned meeting at the Seattle temple, and a planned visit at the Coleman's for dinner last night.

We've really enjoyed our visit and can't believe how quickly it's going. Here are some pictures.

Visit to the cool breezy Washington coast.

The entire clan.

I doubt we're going to be together as a whole family again until someone else gets married. We'll see how long that takes...

The fam.

My hunny bumpkin.

Obligatory sappy shot.

Heather had a great time.

Joshua with his uncle Isaac.

Duuuuuuuude...

Happy Mother's Day

Flowers, earrings, and a new chest freezer don't adequately say "thank you" for all the good Stephanie does for our family. She is a great mom and wife. I did my best to make it a great day for her: I made breakfast (pancakes) and dinner (ham skillet pasta), and I did the dishes twice. What she wanted most, however, was to be with her family. We went to church, had a photo shoot, ate lunch, took a nap, enjoyed a short afternoon walk in the beautiful breezy 80-degree weather, and then chatted with the folks in the evening it was a great day.

Well, we won't bore you with the details of our Mother's day: we'll just share the results of the latest photo shoots. Enjoy!

Heather and Joshua doin' their thang.

Yep, he's related to his mom.

A close up of that money-maker.

Seriously, we did have some cute pictures of him not smiling, but how can you resist these?

Mom with her fan club.

Heather saying "Happy Mother's Day" in the most precious way possible.

My two favorite girls.

Josh is one lucky man.

Josh is much more of a cuddler than Heather was!

Duuude...

Heather got into the coat closet put this hat on, and said "Duuuude!"

This is her whole stylin' look today. :)

Finally!

Josh gave us some smiles for the camera today! Here they are:

Big yawn!

Heather has recently started pulling the couch cushions off and jumping on them. Yep! Takes after mommy...and daddy.

After all the hard nights, and long napless days, it all seems worth it when your baby looks at you and smiles! Or when your tot obeys the first time, and sings primary songs with you in their sweet, happy voice. That's what I love about being a mom. It's the little moments that make me smile, and make my heart happy, and make me feel that it is all worth it!

Lately...

Lately, we have been a little busy (as you can imagine). Heather has needed a lot of extra attention and has started acting out a little bit. Also, she has become a lot more emotional. For example, she used to always run into nursery and not look back. But now, she has been crying for Daddy multiple times a day. I was even in there last week with her, and she went to the door signing and crying for daddy. She also has a hard time when daddy is doing the bedtime routine (which he did on a normal basis before Josh was born) and cries "dit mommy, dit mommy!" It makes us crazy! Will it eventually go away after she is more used to Josh, or is it always going to be like this?

On a happier note, Heather has been learning so much! A couple weeks ago as she was coloring, she started saying "e" (sounds like "eh") over and over again. I went in to see what she was doing, and she had figured out all by herself how to draw/write an "e!" I was super impressed. I got it on camera, and posted it just for you grandma! ;) Since then, she has noticed letters in her scribbling, but she has not been able to reproduce them like she can "e." It's amazing, and I don't know what we did to teach her.

Although Heather has had her rough moments, she continues to brighten our days with her laughter and overall cuteness. Here is a video of her doing her new water trick. (There is also a snippet of Josh at the end.)

An explanation about the eye: We have no idea what happened! We got home from church on Sunday, Daniel and I were in the kitchen getting lunch ready, and Heather ran into the front room to play. Immediately, we heard a big bang followed by crying. I ran in the front room to find Heather lying on the floor crying. I am pretty confident she hit her head on the window sill going full speed. What it looked like to me is that she tripped on Molly (a little person, and the only thing on the floor at the time). Anyway, it looks really bad, and I'm a little embarrassed to take her out in public, as anyone that doesn't have kids will probably think I am abusive (those that do have kids will know that kids just have a lot of bumps and bruises a lot anyway...still it is pretty bad). Here's a close up:

Still our "happy girl"!

Josh smiled (for real) for the first time yesterday. I tried to capture it, but this is what I got:

"feed me"

"Who is this weird lady, and what is she trying to say?"

half a smile

I promise, I am done blabbing now. :) We love you all and hope that you are all well and safe!