Silverwood

My mom and 13-year-old nephew came over for a visit this past weekend.  It was so nice to see them both.  Nick (my nephew) is living with my parents for the summer and Howard just adores him.  Nick breathes, and Howard thinks it's funny and cool.  ;)  On Sunday last weekend my mom and I took the boys to Silverwood.  The lines were long and the weather was great.  We were so thankful that Brian kept Hazel at home.  She would have had a LONG day without much time to get out and play.  We spent most of our day at the amusement park and an hour or so at the swim area.  The best part of the whole trip came when on our way home, Nick was making funny faces and noises in the back with Howard and Howard said, through laughter, "Nick, stop my cheeks are hurting from laughing so much".

Howard's favorite ride was the bumper boats.  Once he figured out how to steer them, he was in hog heaven.  He went to the part of the ride where people standing on the sides can pay a quarter to shoot water at the bumper boaters.  Several strangers enjoyed spraying him and he enjoyed spraying them back.  :)  Nick loved the log ride. Mom and I enjoyed watching the boys have fun.

Hazel is 1!

What? What?  Hazel is 1 already?  Yes, that is the thought going through my head Saturday, August 6th when Hazel graced our family with her presence.  My baby girl turned 1!  This is Hazel when she was just hatched.

And now, my big 1 year old girl has reached so many milestone:
* She has 7 1/2 teeth (that one on the bottom keeps popping up and down).
* She's standing on her own, taking 2-3 steps at a time and still most comfortable crawling.
* She has BEAUTIFUL hair, lots of it and big natural curls.
* She has her mama's blue, blue eyes.
* Her big brother still adores her as much today as he did 1 year ago.
* She LOVES to have books read to her.
* One of her favorite things to do first thing in the morning is to sit with Howard in the rocking chair.
* She says a few things, like "whatstha" (what's that), "da da", "ma ma" and "hi".
* She knows how to wave hello and good bye.
* Her favorite game is peek-a-boo.

We had a small, intimate birthday celebration for her with mom, dad and Howard.  She had her first taste of cake and hated it.  She did love the feel of it between her fingers.  She was not into eating any of it.  We sang Happy Birthday to her and had cheese pizza (one of her favorites) for dinner.  She was beyond mad after she smeared cake in her eyes.  We cleaned her up and threw the cake away as soon as she smushed it in her eyes.  She had several very nice gifts and her favorite was a baby doll that Grammy Carol got for her.  The doll goes to bed every night with her.  We have since found a 2nd one to have as a back up.  Here's pictures of Hazel on her special day.

What a weekend!

We have had such a fun and busy weekend.  Friday Howard went to Silverwood with one of his preschool buddies and his mom.  Howard had never been to Silverwood before and had no idea what to expect.  We looked at some pictures online to see what they had, but he really had no idea....  As we were driving to Grayson's house, Howard asked me, "Mom, have you ever been to Hollywood"?  Hollywood?  What is he talking about? I wondered.  I told him I had not been to Hollywood, but I had been to some cities and towns around Hollywood.  Then he asked if he'd ever been to Hollywood with Grayson when he was littler.  Then it dawned on me...  Hollywood = Silverwood.  I told him several times it's called Silverwood, to which he would reply, "that's what I said, Hollywood".  :)

On Saturday Howard and I went to Riverfront Park to meet up with my ex-brother in law and my niece.  He drove his 1950's Corvette from Everett to Spokane for a car show.  I went to pick Ali up to help keep an eye on her so she wasn't stuck at a car show all day.  Not that it wasn't awesome to see all the Corvettes, it just isn't fun for a 5-year-old to spend her whole Saturday at a car show.  The kids ran through the fountain, at ice cream and rode the carousel, and I forgot my camera.  Other than Howard getting a wasp sting or bite, we had a great time.

Today (Sunday), the neighbor kids were all out.  There's 4 houses right together with kids ages 4-10 and all of the kids play so well together.  We've all been taking turns buying slip and slides for the kids to slide down on one of the neighbors front yards.  We have been through 8 or so slip and slides before they tear up.  One of our neighbors had the best idea today.  He bought a role of painters tarp and cut it in half.  It's the best slip and slide we've had all summer.  SUPER sturdy and slippery.  I think it will last the rest of summer.  The slip and slide ended just before a huge mud puddle.  The kids loved sliding into MUD! 

Hazel is starting to take some steps here & there - so exciting!  She will be  a year old in 5 days!  This weekend I had a cup of water on the couch with me.  She kept trying to put her hand in the water, I kept taking it away.  Finally I let her put her hand in.  She was tickled pink!  She'd put her hand in and laugh, so cute!

Hazel has been eating and exploring a whole bunch of new foods.  She LOVES fruit, especially watermelon and blueberries.  We're trying hard to get her off her bottles with a little success.  She's on all whole milk now, just 3 or 4 bottles a day.  She also eats a ton of food at all 3 meals.  She's a growing girl!

Mobius

I just LOVE Mobius in the summer time!  They have some great camps for kids of all ages.  The last Thursday of each month, they have an hour or hour and a half Lego camp for kids ages 4 - 10.  Howard thinks they are the best thing since pop tarts.  Every month is themed.  The facilitator spends a few minutes talking about the theme and then the kids build!  This month, the theme was City Build.  Catherine (the facilitator) talked to the kids about what things they might need for their city.  I saw some pretty cool creations, but nothing quite as cool as Howard's building and airport!  Check it out.

Hazel is just starting to enjoy the padded toddler play area.  She has so much confidence climbing the little stairs, rolling around and playing with the toys they have there.  She had the whole play area to herself today!

Standing tall

Eeeeks, Hazel turns 1 in just 2 weeks!  The question every parent asks themselves when a birthday rolls around... 'where did the last year go?'  Really, I can't believe it's almost been a year since Hazel graced us with her arrival!  She has started just today, standing by herself, without holding on to anything.  She only does it for 5 to 8 seconds before she sits down.  She is bravest when she over tired, taking risks and chances to boot.

Howard just had a nice summer hair cut.  We went to Great Clips because Barber Joe's had too long of a wait.  We LOVE Barber Joe and so do a lot  of other males.  He's located just off Dishman Mica, near Spokane Discount.  He works in a shop by himself, cutting mens hair.  He doesn't offer many other services, as cutting hair keeps him busy (very few, if any, shampoos, shaves, ect).  He always asks Howard the same series of questions - How is your buddy Jacob? (Jacob has his hair cut at the same place.)  Are you married yet?  Do you want me to trim your mustache?  It's awesome.

This time around we went to Great Clips in Liberty Lake.  The gal spiked his hair after she was done and he thought that was COOL!  After we were home, he came out with his cool shirt and sun glasses on.  He said with this cool shirt, sunglasses and spikey hair, people won't know it's Howard, they will think it's a guy named H dog.:)

 

Happy to be home

It's been almost 3 weeks since we got home from Maryland.  As much as I enjoyed traveling, I'm so happy to be home.  The weather has been great, neighbor kids have been out and playing with Howard and we're starting to really enjoy summer.

Brian had a bad case of pheumonia that had been coming on for a couple of weeks (started with a cold when we got back from Maryland).  It turned UGLY during the 4th of July weekend.  He wasn't moving from bed, had a hard time taking in fluids and wasn't eating anything.  After 2 trips to the doctor, a chest x-ray and a couple of different prescriptions, he is finally getting better.  Other than low energy, he's doing much better.  We did not like having a sick Brian/dad around.  He looked and sounded miserable.

In the middle of Brian being sick, our washing machine started leaking.... bad!  We had water going down through the floor into the garage coming out through the light fixtures in the garage.  We could see the problem was that the seal inside the machine was torn.  We called to have it fixed and was told with ordering the part and a weekend, it would be 5 days before it could be fixed.  5 DAYS!?  Hello... do these people not have families.  If I skip laundry for 1 day it takes work to get caught up!  The kids and I packed up with our dirty laundry and headed to my mom & dad's house for a few day to do laundry and allow Brian time to heal without the pressure of taking care of and playing with the kiddos.

 My parents have 2 houses.  The "lake house" is located near Lake Wenatchee State Park.  My dad used to work in construction, so anyone with a parent/spouse in construction knows that a house is never finished.  My dad built this house before my brother was born (almost 30 years ago) and it's been a work in progress ever since.  In the most recent remodel, there's a small hole in the floor that lead to the crawl space under the house.  When Howard & my niece, Alice visit, a mouse comes to visit them through the hole.  The mouse looks an awful lot like my dad under the house pushing something furry through the hole.  While we were there this past weekend, my dad caught the mouse!!!  This time, the mouse looks an awful lot like a finger puppet, but Howard and Alice KNOW it's the real McCoy!  Papa keeps "Mousey" (as they have named it) in a special, secret cage where he feeds it and takes care of it.

 Also at my parents lake house is an old vine maple tree that Alice & Howard have dubbed "The Monkey Tree".  I think they call it this because they can swing like monkey's on it.  They take turns climbing and swinging from it.

 As the house that it's in constant remodel mode... my dad is working to put some rustic tree trunks in the living room and kitchen around support beams.  I went out with him to haul 2 12' trunks and 2 9' trunks.  The mosquitos were THICK, but I LOVE  being the woods cutting wood.  When I grew up, we had wood heat only, so we spent all fall collecting and cutting trees for heat all winter.  It's one the things I miss most about living at the lake.

When I grow up...

Howard has informed us that when he grows up, he wants to be 3 things - a ninja, a race car driver and a store worker at Wal-Mart because they make a lot of money.

Hazel started making the "uh-oh" sound yesterday.  She dropped something and I said, "uh-oh" and she copied me.  It's her new favorite sound.  She also started putting her hands up when we say, "so big".  We've been working on this one for a while.  2 milestones in one day - pretty cool!