June 2016 pics

Rua

Kneading bread dough!

That face:)

Running with her babies

Abby

Beautiful ballerina!

Birthday girl!

 SD Childrens Museum

Cousin Katie came to visit! Rua and Katie really hit it off.

Sister love

This picture is just precious to me. Rua woke up from her nap and all she wanted was Abby.

June - K & E Anniversary

Seven Years! Seven wonderful amazing years. Love you Eric! Happy Anniversary!

We even got the first paid babysitter that we have ever had to go on an anniversary date. It was so nice. Dinner and a walk. Simple, but it was just us!

Abby is 4!!

Written June 7, 2016

Abby turned 4 today! The girl has been counting down for weeks (even made a paper chain count down) and was beyond excited for her birthday this year.

It was sure a fun-filled day for her! I know I am sure exhausted after it all!

Homemade donuts for breakfast

Birthday dress to wear for the day made by Mom. I used this tutorial.

Zoo with friends
And Jessica, mom to Remi, brought a dozen donuts to share. She knows Abby's love of donuts, so Abby sure got her fill of donuts today!

Museum with friends
Abby really wanted the zoo and the dinosaur museum, and her birthday just happened to fall on the Tuesday that the Natural History Museum is free so that worked out perfectly!
No pictures here, I happened to lose my phone while in the zoo. :( Thankfully I got it back just a couple hours later. Someone turned it in and they gave Eric a call. We were still in the area (the museum is right by the zoo) so picked it up on the way home!
We had a small picnic after the museum and Emily, mom to Oliver, had made a cookie cake and everyone sang to Abby. She loved it, and I definitely was not expecting it! So nice and thoughtful!

Costco dinner
One of Abby's favorite places to go is Costco, and to her eating there is such a treat. We never eat out so really eating anywhere would be a treat, but Costco is just amazing in her mind. And it's inexpensive so it was easy to acquiesce.

Cake and presents!
Abby wanted pink cake with pink frosting with chocolate in the middle. So I made this strawberry cake with a ganache filling. Turned out great, albeit with a breakdown on my part when the cake layers where slipping and sliding (Didn't let the ganache cool enough before adding the second layer), it was a mess. Thankfully Eric came home right at that moment to help relieve my stress, or at least take the girls out while I calmed down. :) Abby was so sweet though, and came in to where I was sitting on the kitchen floor, put her arm around me and said, "It's ok Kiersten, it's ok." "It's still going to be a beautiful day." Love that girl.

Abby requested lots and lots of presents. I told her this was not going to happen, and she said, "well just a little lots of presents, then." This is the first year that she is really conscious of presents being a part of birthdays and I worried about her putting such importance in getting presents. Tried to talk to her about how getting presents wasn't the most important part, that birthdays are a day for us to celebrate her and show her we love her. But she just wanted presents.

Here is what she got: A couple of books and an outfit from Grandma and Grandpa.

And a doll house! Her 'fun' present and an amazing Craigslist find. Rua had the best reaction though, she let out the cutest squeal when Abby uncovered it.

When I asked her that night if she loved her birthday and the presents she got, she said yes, but that she wanted more presents. Oh dear, we'll keep working on it.

June - Abby 4 year birthday party

We had a small party to celebrate Abby turning 4. She was so excited to have all her friends come, eat cupcakes, and open presents. Other than some meltdowns about the wind blowing away her balls and the crafts, she had a great time!

We had cupcakes and simple snacks, balls to play with, a cupcake craft table (building cupcakes with paper scraps), pin the candle on the cupcake, and just running around fun.

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Craft table

May birthdays - 2016

Three of the four of us in our little family have our birthdays within just over a month (and then our new little one will me within days of Rua's so we won't have spread out birthdays at all!), so it makes for a fun, busy few weeks.

Kiersten's birthday;
Eric took the day off (yay!) so we were able to go for a family hike up Cowle's Mountain in the morning. Such a great start to the day!

After some brief last minute babysitting in the afternoon, we headed out to Ocean Beach where we had some pizza and then walked out on the pier. We realized that it's been years since we've been to that pier so it was great to go again, so pretty.

Then some cake, of course! This recipe, yummy!

Eric's birthday!

Eric loves shells and looking for shells so we went to his favorite spot, Bird Rock, which is a large rocky tide pool area. We've had some good times there and found some great stuff in the past. I stayed up with Rua since I didn't want to risk a slippery fall on the rocks being pregnant and Rua just wanted to run across the rocks and wouldn't let us hold her, accident waiting to happen too. So we strolled in the beautiful neighborhood above the beach to a little park that Abby and Eric would end up at. Turns out Eric and Abby were the ones who tool a slippery fall, but thankfully came out with only a gash on Eric's leg and some sore spots. Definitely a bit scary though for them!

Then of course, cake, or in this case - pie! This blueberry pie.

Abby, who was soo excited for pie, when it came time for it had a huge melt-down. I think it was that her pie was kind of breaking apart as she tried to break a piece off with a fork. 

We'd been telling Abby for months as she asks repeatedly how soon her birthday is that Mom's comes first, and then Dad's, and then Abby's. After we got those first two out of the way, Abby was ready to start her count-down.

Next up, Abby's birthday!!

Letter to Abby at 4

Dearest Abby,

Well, I'm sitting down to write this after one of your worst tantrums in a long time. That was rough. But you are sleeping and peaceful now. Thankfully, over this last year, those awful tantrums are becoming less frequent for which I am sure grateful. You have grown into a loving, caring, sensitive girl and I love the person you are becoming.

Last week we had a little scare where we lost Rua for several minutes at a summer concert in the park. It was just you and me because Dad was in China. You looked all over with me and you were so worried and scared that we had lost Rua, you were in tears and really nearly hysterical. And in the days since then you have been even more watchful and loving to Rua, making sure she is ok and taking care of her. You love your little sister and I love to see it. Last Sunday Rua woke up from her nap and all she wanted was you, to sit in your lap. She didn't stay there as long as you wanted her to but she sure loves you too.

You are also very loving and affectionate to your mom and dad, especially Mom. You tell me several times a day, completely out of nowhere, "Mom, I love you." Melts my heart every time. I love the time I get to cuddle and sing songs and read books to you.

Oh books, another love of yours. You've always enjoyed reading and that hasn't changed a bit. We always come home with stacks of books from the library and read them over and over. Your favorite book right now is what you call your "body book." It's a lift-the-flap book that teaches all about your body - anatomy and how things work. It fascinates you.

You have become increasingly independent in your play and it's fun to watch as you now do 'pretend play' much more. Your favorite toys are your little cars. You drive them around for hours, taking them to the library, museum, etc. You got three doctor kits from friends for your birthday so you are now spending lots of time taking care of your animals and baby. Every now and then you pull out some dress up clothes and want to do ballet and dance, but those moments are rare, mostly you'd love to just play with those cars.

Along with your pretend play, you make up songs and sing all the time. It so fun listening to you. Sometimes you ask me if I want you to teach me a song. Then you sing a line at a time of a song you are just making up on the spot and then have me repeat. (guess you are learning from how they teach you songs in Primary!) You also talk a lot more than in past months, like constantly talk. That can be exhausting to listen to

You love to do crafts, any kind of craft. You really like going to 'class' every week (just a home based little preshool with some other kids from church). I wish we could afford to send you to a nice preschool with lots of kids and lots of activities, you would love it.

You'd also love to do swimming lessons. Which we have put off til next year for budget reasons. But you are quite confident in the pool now and love that you can go by yourself in the water with those floaty things.

You are getting so good on your bike! It's so fun to watch you!

You are so helpful in the kitchen and enjoy putting on your apron and baking with me. Your favorites to make are cookies and treats, of course. Mondays are probably on of your favorite days because we get to make a treat for FHE.

You are just such a fun, special, amazing , beautiful little girl.

I love you so so much Abby,

Mamma