Bedtime journal

I have mentioned this to many of you, but I finally acted on it. Jenna has started a bedtime tradition of making up stories, from the events of the day. They are the sweetest stories and I've wanted to write them down so I don't forget them. A friend shared the idea of having Jenna illustrate the stories, and then I saw on another friends blog this notebook:

It's the perfect notebook. It has a space for writing and drawing. So yesterday we picked one up at wonderful Target, added a few personal touches and ...... The finished product!
(We used felt, buttons and ribbon in case you want to make your own)
So last night we recorded Jenna's first story. The excitement on her face was priceless as she watched me write down her own words. So much excitement that she told an extra long story to see how many pages she could fill up. So we decided to give her a 2 page limit! Then we read her story back to her which she giggled and laughed at like it was the first time she had heard it. So cute. Then today she'll get to illustrate it.
Well, as you can see I am so excited about this. A big thanks to all my wonderful friends for the creative inspiration.

funny sayings of the day

- This morning, after going outside to tell Emily good morning, Jenna quickly came back inside saying "That is one crazy dog!"

- On our short drive to preschool, Jenna saw a large patch of dandelions off the side of the road and said "Look Mom, that's a lot of wishes!"

Fun little note: Sat. we were on walk on a nearby trail and there were a lot of "wishes" around. Jenna would run from one to the next blowing them apart. On one such incident she inhaled a little too big and came running over with little pieces of it in her mouth :) thankfully we were able to pick them all out.

Jenna's reading corner

We have newly discovered the adventures of Ladybug Girl and Pinkalicious. They have quickly become some of Jenna's favorites. If you haven't already read them, we highly recommend you check them out!

Ladybug Girl by David Soman and Jacky Davis

Pinkalicious by Victoria Kann and Elizabeth Kann

What are some of your children's favorites? We love book recommendations.
Happy Reading!

spring break

Now going back to April. Jenna's preschool follows the school district schedule, so she had her first spring break. Jenna and I drove over to Spokane for the week to celebrate :) We had a family picnic at a park, went to Jump and Bounce with Brooklyn and Bailey, had an easter egg hunt, and best of all spent a lot of time with G&G, Shannon and Connor. It was great!

Here are Brooklyn and Jenna on the slides at the park.

This one makes me laugh. What sweet cousins!
Right before the eater egg hunt at G&G's.
Searching for eggs.

I just love their expressions in this pic. They just found out that the eggs are toy filled. Thanks Grandma for the fun eggs! Some were filled with costume jewelry, rubber bugs, bouncy balls and of course jelly beans.

Connor is such a wonderful Uncle to the younger kids. They just love him! And I can't forget to mention Aunt Shannon. She was very nice to let Jenna play with all of her jewelry. Fun times!

Going back to March

Here are some pics from my sister Lexi's wedding. She got married on the 28th of March. Also included are pics of my new little niece, Bailey Claire Hillman. She was born on March 19th, so just over a week old in the pics. And my sister, Gretchen, looks amazing for just having a baby! (I thought I would help her out in posting pics of Bailey since she hasn't updated her blog in a long, long time!! Love you sis!)
A big thanks to Aunt Rosie for making the girls little bouquets. They loved them and it made them feel so important. Jenna still has hers, we dried it :) Enjoy!

A work in progress

Here is what I have done so far on Jenna's quilt. I still have to add the border fabric, but it's starting to look like an actual blanket. I am now in the process of sewing together the other quilts squares. I am making 2 matching quilts for Jenna's bunkbed. I'll keep you all posted. This has been a slow process, because I have only been able to work on it a little every day. I'm getting excited though to have them both finished.

Emily update

Emily is getting bigger everyday. Jenna continues to spend every waking non rainy moment outside with Emily. It now takes me a good 10 min. (at least) to pre treat Jenna's clothes before washing. Every item of clothing she has is covered in dirt and grass stains. But it is worth it for all of the memories she is creating. Here are some pics from a few weeks ago. (Next to Chad you can see part of the dog house he built for Emily)

Blowing bubbles out on the deck. Emily would run around trying to eat as many as she could. Not too different from Jenna, except for the eating part. Jenna loves to run around catching the bubbles in her hands :)
We had a few warm days where we filled the kiddie pool. Emily thought the fish designs were real and tried to eat them. She would put her whole face in the water in hopes of catching one. Jenna had a great time pouring water onto Emily. Everyone was soaked by the end of the day. Side note: notice Emily's hot pink collar how it looks big on her. It now fits perfect and we have had to make it larger to fit her. I am so curious to see how big she will be.

Weekend fun

My sister Lexi, her husband Joe and baby Talan came to visit this last weekend. We visited the ever popular Pike Place Market. Then due to the rain, spent the rest of our day at the Supermall in Auburn.

Here's the group at the Market.
This picture is worth a thousand words :) Actually, she did love holding the huge umbrella all by herself, but was so tired from all of the walking.
At the Supermall on her favorite ride. She always chooses the Zebra, sometimes the Dragon. This mall is one of our fav. places for rainy days. It has a great play area and of course the Carousel. Plus it has outlet stores, bonus.
Talan had fun watching the carousel go round and round. He is 9 months old now, and crawling around like crazy. What a cutie!
This is another pic that says quite a lot. Jenna just couldn't get enough of Talan. It was probably enough for him though :) She was always rubbing his head, giving and taking away his pacifier. She always had to know where he was and what he was doing. At mealtimes she'd scoot her chair right next to him, it was really sweet to see. She could get him to laugh pretty easily so that was also fun, Talan loves other kids. The day after they left, she was so sad baby Talan wasn't there to play with. It was fun spending time with them and getting to know Joe better. Lexi and Joe have been married for about a month now. I will hopefully get some pics up from their wedding soon.

Thanks Lexi, Joe and Talan for visiting, we look forward to seeing you guys this summer.