Haley Turned 2

Haley’s birthday was just over 2 weeks ago, so I figured I should post some pictures from that.  I’m not a month or two behind right now with posting pics, so that’s a surprise!  Her party was on a Sunday and since our church didn’t have Sunday School all month, we ended up missing a lot of church and that particular Sunday I stayed home to bake cakes, since I had previous plans in the afternoon.  My wonderful husband took the kids to McDonald’s while I was decorating so that the kids wouldn’t be getting into all of it and trying to steal the toppings.

I went with a more simple flower theme this year so that I didn’t have to do all of the icing piping that I did last year.  It still took me a few hours to make all of these.  The green one was chocolate and the rest were vanilla, which I added strawberries to, so they kind of tasted like angel food cake.  They may not win any awards, except maybe on Cake Wrecks (the green icing just did NOT want to cover the chocolate cake), but they were all gluten free and tasted very good!  I bought cake mixes so I can’t take any credit.

We had Haley’s party at a park and when we got there it was FULL of Filipinos, like probably over 100 of them.  They were having some sort of wind-up there.  I didn’t think ahead about booking the shelter that I wanted to have the party in but thankfully they hadn’t booked it either, and they graciously let us use one of the long tables.  They were super nice and they ALL sung happy birthday to Haley when we started singing.  That made my whole day and it was great!

Jared chatting up on the hill

My sister-in-law in the black (who is also my cousin…go Mennonite community) was secretly pregnant here and we found out later that week!!  We prayed they would have a baby and God has answered and we are all SO PUMPED!!!!

Kiera loves the zipline

Haley loves to clean and also push things around, so my Mom bought Haley a present that is perfect for her: a cleaning cart.  Maybe she’ll be a hotel maid some day. ;)

I tried to get a good picture of her the next day, which was actually her birthday (August 12) but she either wouldn’t look at the camera, wouldn’t stop moving or had her hands up by her face.  That’s a 2-year-old for ya.

At least she is wearing pants in these pictures.  Every time I try to put shorts or pants on her she ends up taking them off.  All of my kids are not a fan of clothes but we do try. :p

My sweetheart is definitely 2 now.  She, like my other 2 kids, has her own ideas and she will let you know if she’s not happy about something or if you have different ideas that she doesn’t agree with.  Apparently I have 3 strong-willed children to varying degrees and I know that God has good plans for each one of them.  My Mom keeps telling me they will go far in life and I keep praying that they will be strong in their faith.  She is also very sweet and asks for “Ug” (hug), “Hiss” (kiss) and “Hi’s” (high fives) every time she either goes down for a nap or when either Jared or I leave the house.  We are trying to teach her about sharing toys, which she definitely doesn’t have a good grasp on yet.  Oh. my. word.  Blake likes to bug and Haley likes to react.  It’s me and my sister all over again.  I was the bug and she was the reactor.  I see how well we turned out, so there is definitely hope, ha ha!  Yes, God is good. :)

The Lake

On August long week-end, most of my Dad’s side of the family goes to the lake every year.  We hadn’t gone in 6 years since I was pregnant with Kiera.  We figured since we’re finally out of the baby stage now that we would go just for a day and see how it went.  It ended up being a FANTASTIC day and we all had a great time!

Most of the way there, Haley wanted to hold my Mom’s hand, which looked quite awkward.

I love how the scenery changes with rock on both sides of the highway.

After we turned off the main highway, the road was treed on both sides…I love trees.

This was right next to the lake.

Kiera went in the lake but then got cold, so she huddled in a tube for a while.

She liked being out on the dock.

We found out that Haley’s life jacket works very well as she fell into the lake!  Blake’s life jacket also worked very well when he fell into the lake, too!  I’m SO glad we made them wear them almost the whole time we were there.

In the boat with one of their 2nd cousins

A bunch of the kids went tubing…

…including Kiera!

My 5-year-old went tubing…she is way braver than I was at that age!

Blake waiting for supper…my cousins kindly let us use their cabin and we had a big fish fry/potluck supper with a bunch of family which was SO good!

Another 2nd cousin…there were a lot of them! :)

Kiera had so much fun with her and has been talking about her ever since, saying that she’s one of her favorite cousins…so sweet!

There is nothing like the sunset on the lake.  I love how God uses the sky to display His beauty and His glory.

When Family Came to Visit

So, it has been almost a month since my sister, brother-in-law and niece came to visit and I finally transferred my pictures onto the computer today.  Without further ado…

The night before they came, there was a gorgeous sunset behind our house. I sat on our imaginary deck and watched it (aka, I opened the door that will eventually lead to our deck and took pictures).

We went to my cousin’s wedding on July 20 and they handed out little bottles of bubbles, which Sophia enjoyed.

It had been a while since we took a sister picture.

Lookin’ fabulous!

Because tractor pictures are hot…

It had also been a while since we had done Mother/Daughter photos.

Ok, I promise no more windmill or tractor pictures.

The area outside where they got married was very pretty (the actually ceremony and reception were indoors)

Waiting for the reception to start

The head table

Caleb + Katrina

That was the most fun I’ve had at a wedding in a long time!  They had a dance afterward and it was just a blast!

It was very hard to get a picture with Haley of the two of us all dressed up for church, so this was the best one I got.

We went to the beach and as soon as we got there, the weather turned cool and when we left it was raining.  Oh well.

We went for supper to our favorite crepe restaurant and I thought these 2 were so sweet looking out the window side by side.

The last day they were here (they came on a Thursday and left on a Monday), my Grandparents came to my parents’ house for a visit.  Haley just woke up from her nap.

My Grandma is almost blind, in case you’re wondering about her sunglasses.

Right before they left, we went out for supper and shared a platter that included: one whole bbq chicken, a slab of side ribs, 1 pound of pulled pork, beans, coleslaw, corn muffins and fries.  SO good!  Their visit was short and sweet and we enjoyed our time with them immensely.  It had been exactly a year since we had seen them when we drove out to Washington.  I look forward to the next visit, hopefully at Christmas!