We took the grandmother to the beach for her birthday.  She really wanted to take a hike as a family, and she wanted some photos of her and the grandkids.  These are the photos I took that didn’t end up being 365 photos.

I love this photo. We were ate Devil’s Punchbowl, and we were out investigating the rocks in the area that have been carved over centuries by the ocean and the weather.  Did I mention we had the dog with us?  It was quite an active day.

The weather was beautiful, and we got a chance to play in and around the water. I tried to convince Jared to toss Cyprus in the air so that I could get a good photo.

He loved it so much that I ended up handing the camera to Jared to get a photo. Cyprus gets air when I toss him!

Daphne got to spend time with her grandmother. Honestly, I don’t think either of them could have been more happy about that!

The menfolk decided to head on up the mountain for a nice climbing challenge.

Did I mention it was an active day with the dog?

Daphne even humored her mom and let me horse around with her.

Of course I loved showing the beach to Cyprus.

And Yaya got to hang out with Cyprus for a bit even!

Didn’t I say it was a gorgeous day?

Don’t they look great together?

Happy Birthday Yaya

While I was out visiting family in Eastern Oregon, I was able to convince my grandmother to make a batch of cookies with the kids and I.  I have been making cookies at the side of my grandmother for as long as I can remember, and I enjoyed doing it as an adult while the kids helped.  She is still using the same mixing bowl, which makes me smile.

Daphne got to help measure out the ingredients.

Once the cookies made it into the oven, there was no haulting the excitement of the cousins waiting for the treats to be done.

And yes, I even got excited about the baking cookies, and I sat in front of the oven with Cyprus watching them cook to perfection.

I know you see photos of my kids all the time, but I have these two extras to share.  Aren’t they just amazingly cute?

I finally decided that this hat is too small for Cyprus.  I have since passed it on to Beckett to use.   I will miss the hat for sure, but it is just a sign that I need to make another one, pronto.

I snapped these photos while I was out visiting my sister in Eastern Oregon.  Daphne was so cute when we went on a walk.  She wanted to help walk the dog, Sydney, whenever she could.  She did a good job helping out,a nd I really loved the photo op that it made.

After Cyprus was born, a lot of focus shifted from Daphne onto him.  There was a point that I was feeling really annoyed with her, but I then had a revelation.  Daphne is still changing and growing and if I do not figure out how to balance everything, this precious time in her life is going to pass me up.

Currently, Daphne is doing a really, really great job.  She is starting to see and learn that she cannot get everything the way that she wants all the time.  She is willing to be helpful with dinner or with her brother.  She has learned that the more helpful and sweet that she is, the more time that is left over for us to play with her.

There was so much hope for all the fun that we would have when she was a baby.  I remember thinking that having a baby was so boring because they couldn’t talk or reason.  I wanted to be able to do science experiments and go for walks.  I GOT my wish!  Now I have both a baby an an older kid, it truly is the best of both worlds.

I started this post a while ago with lots of different photos of Daphne because I wanted to show off her incredible spirit of play!  She is so silly and goofy, and I admire so much her excitement at exploring the world.

She was looking through a miniature slinky trying to show me how “see-through” it is.

Apparently, looking through things is popular!

I took this when we were out at a local park in Mcminnville called Discovery Meadows.  There are so many things to do and see there.  Daphne is excavating this giant sand pit.

One day, Daphne thought it would be fun to wear her daddy’s shoes.  Doesn’t she look like a silly clown?

This was another trip to Discovery Meadows before it got too cold out.  They have a water fountain at the park that is designed to be played in and run through.  Daphne took off her pants and spent as much time as she could stand running around in the fountain playing.

Here we are at another park playing around.  Daphne is a big fan of swinging, and would prefer that she got to spend 24 hours a day being pushed in the swing.  Aww… look at how small Cyprus is here!

Daphne and her cousin Eli were running around this big tree in the park.  Look at how excited she is here.

I love this smile, and those EYES.

Daphne is a huge fan of playing with babies.  Right after Rouge was born, we spent some time at her house playing around.  Daphne practiced being a mom to Copper’s baby Daisy while Audrey took care of a real baby.

Pockets are so important to keep things in.  Toddler law states that if there is a pocket available that it must be in use at all times.

Daphne decided she as going to read (and write on) the newspaper one morning.  We still have to work a little bit on which way the newspaper goes, but at least she is interested in reading.

Here she is working on a project cutting up snowflakes to decorate our windows during the holiday season.

We recently got our guitar back from being lent out.  Daphne discovered it and realized that it was an amazingly cool thing.  She took to trying to play immediately.  She is actually pretty good at making nice music.  It is so big for her, it looks like a bass here.

On Christmas day, we had some friends visit with their new baby.  Daphne decided she was going to help with the baby, so she spent time wrapping up this changing pad and putting it away in the bag only to get it back out again a minute later and start all over again.

No matter what, I look at Daphne and remember that I should always appreciate her childhood innocence. Her spirit of play and love makes me remember the only thing that should matter to us on this earth.

Just before bed time Melissa Bowling and her son Jack were here hanging out. Daphne started to get a little bit wild, so I told her to calm down or go wait for me in her room for bedtime.

She pulled out her pretend phone and had a conversation that went like this:

“Hello, Yes. Uh-huh. Yes, I would like to order a new mommy. Yes, I need a different mommy. I’d like to get a mommy that doesn’t have so many grumpies. A different mommy would be great.”

Melissa and I were cracking up at how hilarious it was.

When she finally “hung up” the phone she told me that they were fresh out of new moms.

Guess she is stuck with me!

I was having trouble getting my shoe on my foot correctly today. Daphne asked me what was going on and I told her that it didn’t feel right when I was walking in shoes with bare feet.

She thought about it for a while and said, “You have bear feet? I have Daphne feet.”

We have had some balloons kicking around the house for a long time that I decided it was time to get rid of. I gave Daphne a pen and told her to poke the balloon. She decided that the balloon would make an excellent writing material. To my surprise, the balloon survived quite a bit of abuse.

I was taking a bath with Daphne tonight, and I was tickling her. She stopped me and pointed to her ribs. She told me, “I have bones in my body.” I played the devil’s advocate and asker her how she knew she had bones in her body if she had never seen them. I told her to prove it to me and show one too me. Her response was, “Mom, they are sealed up too tight on the inside to see.”

Daphne has been having a bit of a hard time working out her opposites, and it is quite the source of confusion.

She was throwing a fit the other day about her food because she wanted it “cooled up.” We couldn’t figure out what she was talking about until she pointed to the oven. She wanted it WARMED up, not cooled up.

In the car, the straps to her car seat sometimes get tight. She doesn’t like it and screams out, “It’s too loose, mom, you made it loose.”