Victory Dance!

A little laugh coming your way.

Here's Mac's victory dance!

It cracks me up every time.

Midweek surprise!

Is this hilarious or what?

The kids like bathing together, and a couple days ago decided to try tandem belly time.

I was laughing so hard. They didn't even notice because they were having too much fun together.

I love it!

oh, their cute little tushes.

Adeline really likes to copy everything Mac does, which thankfully, he finds funny.

Happy middle of the week!

Adeline

This girl...This girl has completely stolen our hearts!

She turned 22 months old on Saturday and keeps us laughing, playing and generally feeling incredibly blessed to have her in our lives.

She:

* loves blueberries.

* loves her ducks and usually carries one down from her crib in the morning and after naps.

* loves her blankets (thankfully she has three, so we can actually wash them)

* has decided that she is the "director" and that we are the actors in her play - and we need to sit, eat, lay down wherever she tells us. She's not upset about it when we want to do something else, just very persistent. Since she can't talk much yet, this is done by pointing, hand guiding, grunting, head shakes and simple words. Like today at REI: Adeline goes into a tent. Curt squats down by the door. Addie points to the middle inside the tent and says "Dada". Curt tells her he's right here. Addie shakes her head no and says "Dada!" while pointing to the middle of the tent. So... Curt goes in. And we do this all day long... it's fun until we have to do it differently and then do the tears pour down her face!!

* likes to read as much as McKinley does! Every night, there are tears when books are over. It used to be that eventually, she would hit her limit, head to her crib for her blanket and we'd move on to lights out. Now, we go back and forth negotiating. We really try to follow her lead about how many books to read, but lately, she just never wants to stop and then then time dictates stopping. But it's funny, when books are over, I'll get her blanket, she's crying and saying and signing "book! book!" over and over as if I don't understand, and she'll be so sad, but then after a couple minutes of crying, she'll point to her crib, snuggle in and be completely calm and usually asleep within minutes.

* bath has become loooooooooonnnnnnnnngggggg. She went through a phase of not liking her bath, and now she's swung the other way. She loves it. She plays on her belly. She washes her baby. She fills up all the bottle with water and dumps them out. She tries to blow bubbles. Sometimes Mac is with her, but it really doesn't matter. Tonight, she tooted in the tub, laughed and then looked really upset and wanted out. She immediately got out her little potty (she's been showing interest without results for months) sat down on the potty, tooted again and then freaked out when I thought she was done with her bath and tried to dry her off. No way. She only wanted to sit on the potty and then she got back into the bath for round two. Hilarious!

* She is an outside girl. We moved the little play house to "the woods" (as McKinley calls the trees at the back of our yard, much to my heart's delight) and Adeline can't get enough. I am usually messy and trying to keep them both safe, but somehow I need to get a picture of our sweet little rugrat after she's been playing in the sand box, hiking through the trees, hanging on the trapeze, splashing in the dirty rain water in the swimming pool and digging in the garden - all while wearing a pretty pink dress with ruffles. It is so cute!

* facial hair is scary. Yup. Not so sure about those men with facial hair. She has made strides in realizing that not all men with facial hair are scary because we have numerous friends who currently have facial hair. She is in love with McKinley's buddy Garen, and Garen's dad (Alan) has a beard. But Addie really likes Garen and Garen really likes his dad... so Adeline warmed up to Alan and even went for a short walk with both of them when we were out with them the other night, then wanted Alan to pick her up. At some point I told Adeline that we could ask Alan if it would be okay to touch his beard. Alan said yes, and Adeline stuck out one finger and touched it. Then she realized he was wearing a puffy down jacket and she really liked that too! Ahh... sweet moments of progress!

* have I mentioned that she likes purple? oh, yeah... getting dressed in the morning is a chore because most of the choices are "blah!" (seriously... she says "blah!" if she doesn't like it and there is no way to convince her to put it on. none.) so we go through the choices. Purple is usually the winner. Thank you to The Children's Place for selling lovely plain purple girls clothes. oh... and shoes are a big deal (atta girl!)

* I could go on and on all night! She is a delight and brightens our days. To watch she and McKinley exploring the world is difficult to describe. How amazing.

Happy 22 month birthday Sweet Adeline!

May so far...

It's been a fun month so far... here's a few highlights:Adeline discovered the pegs...

we released our butterflies!

Gearing up for summer!

I got a new kayak for Mother's Day! woo hoo!

Mom sent me an Edible Arrangement for Mother's Day - yummy!

Testing the kayak on the Tualatin River.

Feeding the Lorikeets at the Zoo.

splashing in puddles in Spokane.

Riding the Carousel in Riverfront Park with Papa.

Mac rode three times!

Addie wasn't so thrilled.

Playing world class baskteball with Papa and Nana with a little kid over-the-door hoop.

Adeline was in it for the celebration!

Mom's visit: We had a great time with my mom a couple weeks ago. I'm just a little behind getting them on the blog.Adeline loves sunglasses, playing in water, and wearing her brothers new hat.

She also loves bubbles.


The kids, my mom and I stayed at the beach one night and McKinley had a great time feeding the seagulls from our balcony. I had a great time attempting to photograph them!

It was sunny on the beach, but windy and cold. Not that it bothered the Sander kids! The love the beach!

"Mom! This is my heart-sun for you!"

(I like to think of it as "heart-son")

Addie loved climbing on these rocks.

Note her abundance of purple, including purple flipflops.

The girl loves purple and thankfully, has a purple jacket or she would never wear a jacket.

Mac wrote his name in the sand for the first time!

(He writes the letters in the correct order, just backwards.)

Thes big long strings of sea grass entertain him for hours!

Wooden Shoe Bulb Company, Woodburn Oregon

We love their annual tulip festival, complete with Cow Train.

There's no pictures of the cow train this year because my camera battery died. Some of these were taken with the camera on my phone, so the quality is not the greatest.

Mac and I rode the cow train, Clarabell, again this year, through all the muck and mud. SO fun!

Hilarious! That's my mom on the left, then Mac, then Adeline.

Mac loved these water pumps!

Holding some sort of fried Mexican chips.

Looking at the spiders in the window of the little windmill.

Happy Easter!

We actually got a picture of the kids with "the Easter Bunny!"

Mac told me that he's not afraid of the Easter Bunny with a painted face.

Addie, clearly, is still not so sure.

real eggs, hidden outside!

Easter breakfast - bacon, deviled eggs, apples, and Easter waffles with peaches, marionberry syrup and whipped cream.

A littel Easter walk.

The kids got new Keens from Papa and Nana and they love them!

Spring Fever

We have some serious Spring Fever around here!

We went to our favorite nursery and picked out some pansies.

Then, we started digging.Found a couple of worms.
Then the kids cleaned the playhouse with baby wipes.


Curt and McKinley built some new supports for the raspberry bushes.

Addie was in some serious "hat training" and not at all happy about it.

I am determined that she will learn to wear a hat so I don't have to smear her head with sunscreen.

Thankfully, she has a ton more hair than Mac did at 18 months.

Remember how bald he was?

And, of course, McKinley had to get naked.

"Mom! I'm too hot!"

Clothing removed.

"Ahh... now I'm on my deck in just my boxers. Much better."

Note the double bandaid on his belly. Tree climbing accident earlier in the day.

And what good almost-Spring day would be complete without ice cream?

Thanks to Papa and Nana, and the Valentine's gift certificates that McKinley has been reminding us about every other day, we finished off our day of yard projects by having some ice cream.

YUM!!

Addie "shared" mine.

That won't happen again.

A girl deserves her own ice cream cone, right?

I thought she wouldn't eat the whole thing.

Silly me. She about had a fit every time I tried to take a bite.

Thankfully, she quickly realized that not only was I giving her licks, but so were her brother and her dad, so she was happy.

oh... and if any of you are now feeling like you are missing this glorious weather in Oregon, it snowed at 500 feet last night and rained a ton this afternoon. Think it maybe hit 40.

I am hoping the newly-transplanted pansies make it!

Happy Almost-Spring from Oregon.