Happy Birthday Caelyn

Our little girl is 2!  She is a crazy wide-eyed one.  We love her that way.  She loves to sing and dance.  Caelyn loves to play with her babies & cook in the kitchen with mommy.  I don't think she ever stops moving.  Here are pictures of her birthday.  She had 3 parties.  The first was with Dan, Tabitha, Matt & Sarah when they came to visit for Memorial Day.  I learned that Caelyn doesn't like frosting or sprinkles.  I had to cut the top off of her cupcake so she could eat the cake part.  Here are some pictures.

Testing the Water

First Bite

Showing Her "Big" Smile

Frosting-less Cupcake

"Mommy, Me Messy"

The second was with MeMe, PaPa, David & Tia (Natalia) on her actual birthday when we went to get our family pictures done.  She also had a doctor's appt. that day.  We were told no shots, they lied.  However, she took it like a trooper.  Nothing a Strawberry Frapp from Starbucks couldn't fix.  I am still working on getting the pictures from my parents, so they will be coming soon.

The last was the day after her birthday.  We only brought a couple presents with us to see my parents, so we opened the rest of them the next day and finished off the cupcakes.  We put candles on her cupcake, which she wasn't too sure about.  We had a fun day.

Voicing Her Opinion on the Candles

Picking off the M&Ms, she still wouldn't eat the frosting

Making Sure She Gets Them All

Reading

We love to read!  Caelyn has a love of books and has them tucked into every corner of our house.  However, she likes to "read" her book first and them place them in a pile for me to read next.  We have a shelf of books that she isn't quite ready for or I don't want to keep in her room, but when she remembers that they are there she likes to sit and look at the pictures. Here is what Saturday's reading session looked like.

"Mommy Read?"

Babar

Spot's Giant Treasury

Arthur's No Good Very Bad Day

My Reading Stack

About 5 minutes later

I am so excited that my little girl has an appreciation for reading and books.

Out Cold

We stayed out too late on Sunday night.  So Monday at lunch time this is what we ended up with.

Pig Tails

Caelyn's hair is finally long enough for pig tails.  If you ask me, I think she looks pretty cute!

Zoo with Nate

Nate is Caelyn's best bud.  They have so much fun playing together.  Today we went to the Norfolk Zoo, it isn't a very big zoo, but it just the right size for two toddlers in 80 degree weather (not to mention a pregnant lady).  The zoo is really well done and you can get fairly close to the animals, which was really fun for Caelyn & Nate.  Right next to the zoo is a playground where we ate a picnic lunch and played for a few minutes.

Buddies

Caelyn Charging the Way

Bongos (I think)

Watching the Elephant through the Glass

Coming Out Into the Yard

Fascinated by the Elephants

Caelyn Loved the Cow and How Close She Could Get

Swinging with Nate

Trying to Hold Nate's Hand

Riding Together

Passed Out After a Day of Fun

Big Girl

We are working towards the transition to a "Big Girl Bed."  I bought Caelyn a small pillow to put her head on and of course, with a pillow comes a blankie.  The one she is sleeping with was made by Grandma Great Gifford (Phil's grandma on his dad's side).  It is pretty cute to see her cuddled up with her buddies taking a nap.

Ohio Visit

We took a week and went to Cleveland, OH for Phil to attend the Basics Conference at Parkside Church.  The beauty of it is his parents live not too far away so we get to visit with them during the week.  It is also a plus for Caelyn and I, we don't have to stay home alone or be cooped up in a hotel room.  The conference is always the week after Mother's Day so we get to spend it with Phil's mom.

This week was unusually cold and our plans to go to the Cleveland Zoo were thwarted by below 50 degree weather and high winds.  Here are some pictures of the fun we did have.

Basketball with Grandpa

Digging Up Earthworms

Bubbles with Grandma

Stomping Bubbles

Little Helper

Caelyn is a great little helper and is going to make a great big sister.  Here is her helping her daddy do dishes one morning.

Strawberry Picking

I LOVE strawberries.  I could eat them any time of the day and when they are in the house I do.  Today we went strawberry picking at Wood's Orchard in Hampton.  We had so much fun!  We started out on a hayride out to the field and spent a good while picking berries.  It took Caelyn just a few minutes to discern the difference between green and red, and once she did we were off with a bang.  She is a very good helper and will make a great big sister.  About half way down the first row she figured out that only did we pick them, but she could eat them.  She was the messiest kid in the bunch when we were done.  When we were done picking and sampling Caelyn went over and started helping Tiffany, a task she took VERY seriously.

I got 7 pounds of strawberries, partly to freeze for when it is no longer strawberry season.  I am excited about all the possibilities to come :)

Here are some pictures of Caelyn's strawberry eating adventures.

She shoved the whole strawberry in her mouth the first time around.

Looking for her next sample.

Shoving it all in there.

I squished it mommy...

Still good though

A Trip to the Beach

We LOVE to go to the beach.  The good news is we have two little beaches about 20 minutes from us and I have friends that love the beach as well.  This is the third time I have gone to the beach with friends, but the first time I have remembered a camera.  Caelyn loves to play with Nate and occasionally they share their toys.

 Normally Tiffany I take turns bucketing water up from the beach for them to play with in a hole we have dug.  Neither Nate or Caelyn are fans of the cold water.

Fortunately this time Nate realized how much fun it was to splash in the water in the bucket, which lasts must longer than the water in the sand.

Nate had a watering can in his bucket of toys and Caelyn spent most of the time watering the sand or the sand molds.

Watering the bucket.

Showing Nate how it's done.

We had a wonderful time and can't wait to do it again.

Breaking News...

Not so much, as most of our friends and family found out yesterday.  However, if you don't know...we are having a boy!!!!  We are super excited.

On another note, my sweet friend GiGi posted this stick figure drawing of our family on her blog today.  It is so cute!  Take a look at her blog for other cute things she has done & rack your brain for cute things she can do for you.

Vacation

Today is the last full day of our vacation.  Sad to say, I don't think I took a single picture during the entire week.  We had lots of fun though.  We started the week with my dear friend Marianne coming to visit.  Marianne was my college roomie and we always had a ton of fun together.  It had been over 2 years since we last saw each other, but it still felt like no time had passed at all.  Marianne is also a history teacher, so we had a fun time exploring Yorktown (my favorite) and Jamestown (her favorite).  I was sad to see her leave on Thursday, but as soon as we dropped her off at the airport we headed off to Lynchburg to see Phil's family.

We stayed with Matt and Sarah at their new house, which is totally cute!  I am excited to see what Sarah will do with it.  We took a visit to Grandma & Grandpa Great's house and took them out for ice cream for Grandma Great's birthday.  In the midst of all this we realized Phil left his suitcase sitting on our bed at home and it never made it to the car.  Fortunately, Lynchburg has a Target that supplied all our needs.  The next day we began our day eating breakfast with our dear friends Tom & Connie Nylander.  Tom & Connie were my family while I was at LU.  It was great to get to see them, hopefully we will get to see them more this summer.

Part our visit was so Phil could visit the library to get some research for his paper.  Once there he found out that his LU account was still active and he could check out books free of charge.  Now we just have to figure out how to return them :)  We also went to visit Sarah at work at Starbucks several times, as most people know Phil loves his coffee, especially Starbucks.

Saturday was our last day in Lynchburg, we headed back over to Grandma Great's for a WONDERFUL breakfast and a fun time of fellowship.  After that we headed out to run some errands, a quick lunch, and then headed home.

It was great to be home, we found Phil's suitcase right where we left it and our house a welcome refuge. Caelyn was excited to sleep in her own bed that night, as were Phil and I.  The next morning we headed out to another church in our area.  After Caelyn's nap we headed out to Sandy Bottom and let her explore the playground.  She was extremely bold and did the smallest steps and slide all by herself.  Near the end she decided she wanted to go down the tall twisty slide, the first time she wanted Daddy up top and Mommy at the bottom.  After that she wanted "My Turn" and would tell Phil, "No Daddy, My turn" when she wanted to go up the steps by herself and push herself down.  This made Mommy very nervous, but Daddy was not too far off from Caelyn.  We then headed off to a delicious dinner at IHOP, where kids eat free after 4 pm, which was wonderful news.

Today we went and visited my parents in Moyock.  We had a wonderful day laughing with my brother David, and his wife Natalia.  Caelyn had a ton of fun playing outside with Mimi.  David recently purchased a Wii and we had fun bowling, rowing, and playing tennis and frisbee golf.  I realized my hand eye coordination is not built for such things.  Now we are at home, taking a few minutes to relax from all of our travels.  We had so much fun and look forward to the next vacation...whenever that may be.

Spring Time!

We have had some WONDERFUL weather the last few days and we have taken full advantage of it.  Caelyn loves playing outside with her sidewalk chalk, bubbles, balls, or just plain running.  Here are some pictures of our outside adventures.

Coming Soon...

We are excited to announce that in September we will be adding a new member to our family.

Valentine's Day

We don't do a lot to celebrate Valentine's Day.  Our anniversary is 3 weeks before, so we don't do a lot to also celebrate Valentines.  However, I do have three good memories of Valentine's Day.

The first one is my (first) Senior year at LU my parents came up to surprise me for Valentine's Day.  My boss tricked me into staying in the office until the arrived, which I didn't mind missing my class too much.  My dad walked in the office with a big cute stuffed bear.  I had already made plans to go to dinner with a bunch of other single girls, so my parents tagged along.  My dad stopped and bought roses for each of the girls, my mom & I included.  At the end of the night without telling us, he picked up the bill for I think 11 in total.  To me it was a sign of generosity and love that is supposed to be shown on Valentine's Day.

My second memory is the first Valentine's Day Phil and I were dating, we were both traveling that weekend.   I was in PA and Phil was in NC.  However, he managed before the weekend began to slip a card to a friend of mine.  So, Valentine's Day morning she presented me with the card.

My third was formed this morning.  After church when Caelyn saw her daddy, she got the biggest smile and ran to him.  She embraced his legs with both arms, it was the sweetest thing.  She even ignored the bag of M&Ms being given to her to run to her daddy.  I hope this memory is as lasting to me as the first two.