Bartlett Beach Trip 2014

A few weeks ago, the last weekend of Spring Break, we headed over to Lincoln City for a little vacation with the Bartlett side of the family! This was the third time in the last four years that we have gone. It's always a great time! This year, there was lots of UNO playing, beach walking, treasure hunting, outlet shopping, Mo's eating and fun!

So excited we made it to the beach!

 Checking the out the ocean with Papa Don

 Playing some dominos with Lizzy

 Blake's UNO face

{he learned how to play UNO!}

Sharing some Mo's chowder, yum!

 Walking on the beach

{we had to take advantages of any break in the rain to get out on the beach!}

 It was definitely rain boot weather

Mama and Lily

Looking for treasure!

 Found the treasure!

Blake and Aunt KK

 Can't go to the beach with out getting some DQ!

 Stories with Nana before bedtime

 Playing play-doh with Papa

 Building sandcastles 

 Saying good-bye to the beach until next time!

The weekend was so much fun, that they both slept the whole way home!

Lily: 18 Months

She's definitely a toddler now! 

I can hardly believe she is one-and-a-half. 

Lily's 18 month stats:

She is almost 22lbs {not sure on her exact weight}

She has a mouth full of teeth. Four up top, four on bottom and 4 molars.

She can say, mama, dada, more, bubbles, uh-oh, no, Bade {aka Blake}, I know there is more... she tries to repeat us a lot, but it doesn't always sound like it should.

She loves to sing, and will sing with us at night when we sing Jesus Loves Me.

She does a great job feeding herself. Partly because there came a time when she refused to let me feed her.

She can throw quite the temper-tantrum. It's not pretty when she doesn't get what she wants or if her brother takes something from her.

She sleeps about 7:30-8pm to 7:30-8am she still wakes up occasionally at night, but it's usually worse when she's teething or sick. She will sometimes take a morning nap if she wakes up early or if we are in the car and she falls asleep, but usually it's just one nap from 1-3ish. 

She loves, playing outside, climbing on things, playing with her brother {most of the time}. Her favorite book is "Moo, Baa, La la la". 

She is growing up too fast! We LOVE you Lily!

{Blake's 18 month post}

A 3.5 year-old and 16 month old

So I've been meaning to post an update on both kiddos. I missed Blake's half birthday and Lily's 15 month post and so I kept thinking I'll do it when Lily turns 16 months. Then today I get the email from Baby Center that says "Your 16-month-old: Week 3". And I thought WHAT?! 16-month-old: Week 3?!!! How in the world did that happen?! I swear she was just 16-months!

So here is a quick little update on my 3.5 year old and 16, almost 17-month old.

Blake:

I can't believe he's just four short months away from turning four!

He is such a fun, loving, full of life little boy! 

He loves to do anything outdoors, or anything that is active. 

His favorite foods are, mac n cheese, hot dogs, quesadillas, pizza and most any fruit. Still not a fan of any vegetable. 

He had been going through some major separation anxiety stuff. Like wouldn't want me to leave him with anyone except Russ. If he knew we were going to church or somewhere where he would be in child care he would start crying before we even got out the door. It went on for several months and I think we are finally, almost over it. {thankfully!} He has started a bad habit of coming and crawling into our bed at night {this is an almost every night occurrence}. 

He still naps about 1.5 hours everyday, but can do without it if we are busy. 

He goes to bed around 8pm and wakes up between 6:30-7am

He can spell his name! And is starting to recognize letters!

He's taking a soccer class right now {although we have yet to be to one yet because we were in Medford on week and it snowed the next}

Here are some pictures from over the last couple months:

 Christmas morning Santa brought a helicopter!

He loves his hot cocoa from Dutch Bros.

 Christmas Tree

I often find pictures like this on my phone.

 Blake and his buddy Luke, meeting Benny the Beaver!

Checking out a fire truck!

Blake, you are a caring, thoughtful boy and a great big brother to your little sister. I am proud to be your mom and have loved watching you grow! Mommy and Daddy love you!

Lily:

16, almost 17-months! Where has the time gone?! Seems like yesterday she was just a little baby! Now she is a walking, kind of talking toddler! Geesh, they grow up too quick!

She weighs 19lbs 5oz {5th percentile} and is 30in tall {25th percentile}

She loves to read books, sing {she'll sing Jesus Loves Me with me when I sing it to her before bed, I can't understand anything she is saying, but it is seriously the sweetest thing ever}, dance, climb on anything and everything and take any toy her brother is playing with ;)

Her favorite foods are yogurt, cheerios, bagels, mac n cheese and hot dogs {like her brother} and most any fruit. Oh, and she has a sweet tooth!

She start walking right after Christmas and hasn't crawled since! 

She can say, mama, dada, more, yeah, uh-oh, B {is Blake}, ball and water.

She sleeps 7:30-7:30 generally.

She takes one 2ish hour nap a day. Unless she wakes up supper early or isn't feeling well, then she'll do a short morning one and an afternoon one.

Just about a week and half ago she was diagnosed with bronchitis for the second time. She had a slight cold {with a pretty bad cough} and started doing this weird breathing thing, and the doctor didn't like the way her lungs sounded so he gave her a prescription for prednisone and it cleared right up. It could also possibly be asthma related.

She has learned that if she doesn't get her way she can scream, or if Blake takes something from her. I'm ready for her to have words to use ha!

Here are a couple pictures of her from the last couple months:

Christmas Eve when she turned 15 months

She's a walking girl!

Getting sleepy during lunch

First pigtails!

{Gah! She looks so grown up in this picture!}

Lily, you are growing up so fast! You aren't a baby anymore and I can hardly believe it! I love watching to learn and grow. Mommy and Daddy love you!

Snowpocalypse 2013 & 2014

So back in mid December we had a week of snow here. It snowed several inches and wouldn't get warm enough for it to melt! Schools were closed for a week! It was crazy. 

Fast forward 9-ish weeks and boom, we get hit with snow again, this time 14+ inches!!! It has been insane! It snowed pretty much non-stop for 2 days. I'm not sure where we live! This is so unusual for us! Ok once a year maybe, is normal, with one or two days of the schools shut down and not much happening in town, but not going on eight, yes, EIGHT snow days {not in a row, but total}! Oh and on top of the 14 inches of snow we also got freezing rain! Thankfully we didn't loose power.

Watching the snow come down.

Our house day 1

Our house day 2

Our street

Its hard to read, but that tape measure says 14.5 inches and that's in our backyard!

Lily wasn't into it.

She liked it a bit more after a nice neighbor shoveled some of the sidewalk.

Sliding!

Crazy icicles hanging from the roof

Freezing rain pounding on the window

And that leads us to today. It was finally starting to warm up and the layer of ice was starting to melt so we ventured out to play in it for a bit.

I'm starting to wonder if this snow was just a once-in-a-life-time type thing, or if this could be more of a common occurrence every winter. If it's going to happen more often, we need to invest in some good winter clothes {and perhaps a second vehicle that can drive in it}!

If you have/had snow where you are, hope you had fun playing in it and aren't suffering from cabin fever!

A Weekend Away

This year for Christmas Russ surprised me with a weekend away! He had booked two nights at FivePine Lodge in Sisters, Oregon and arranged for his parents to come stay with the kids. This was the first time I have been away from the kids overnight {except for Blake; when Lily was born and when we were in the hospital with Lily, when she had pneumonia}. I was looking forward to the refreshing time away, but also a little nervous about how Blake was going to do {Blake has been going through some major separation anxiety lately}. We wait till right before we left to tell him we were leaving. It broke my heart to see him process what we were telling him. I felt like it was best to wait to tell him so that he wouldn't dwell on it and get too worked up. He cried when we left and then a couple times while we were gone but overall did pretty good!

The little cabin in the woods we stayed in.

The first night we enjoyed at glass of wine by the fire in the lodge and then headed to dinner at Three Creeks Brewing which is right next to FivePine. After dinner we headed across the parking lot to the movie theater. We saw Saving Mr. Banks {I think it was maybe the third movie I've seen in a theater since Blake has been born! That's 3.5 years ha!}

The next day we got up {amazing how fast you can get ready without kids!} and headed to Sisters Coffee {one of our favorites} and then into Bend for the day. Again, amazing what you can do without kiddos! I forgot what it was like to not have to worry about nap/meal times ha! We did some shopping and had a nice lunch at 10 Barrel {another favorite} and watched some snow fall. It was a great relaxing time!

Sunday we headed home through the snow. We had to put chains on to get over the pass but it really wasn't too bad. It was great to get away with Russ and have sometime without the kids to reconnect. Thank you, Papa Don and Nana Pam for watching the kids! We really appreciate it and are thankful!

I'm already looking forward to the next getaway, hopefully not in another 3.5 years!