Hot (literally, we were sweating) Mamas

Last Thursday, my friend Lindsay and I, along with our kiddos, went on a fun hike in the Cascades up to Boardman Lake. It is a short hike but it was beautiful as always to be in the woods, smell fresh air, and see only a handful of people along the way. I wanted to just camp out there or at least keep hiking to yet another lake.

The kids are so cute together and they both did awesome. Jackson was a hiking pro even though it was his first time as was his mom who looks to be carrying twice her weight. :) We made the hike to the lake, ate lunch, played in the water, waited around for the occasional glorious sun break. It is so awesome to have a friend with a toddler the same age as Lucia. Lindsay's friendship is priceless. I don't know what I would do without her!!! God definitely brought us together at the right time!

All packed in the car with two car seats in the back.
Heading up the trail with the kids...kid #1
kid #2....
My little blonde explorer
Swedish Fish dance....such a cutie!

Lindsay, Jackson, me, and Lucia by the lake
The mamas!
Sleepy kid #1...
Sleepy kid #2

Lucia's First Kiss

Could this be any cuter? I think not! Our little buddy Jackson is so sweet with Lucia and gives her lots of hugs and kisses. This was definitely the best moment so far and Lindsay got it on camera! Two little sweeties!

Little Learner

It has been so much fun watching Lucia learn lately. It seems like she is learning constantly and hilarious things surface as she figures out her surroundings.

She has a few new words to add to the list:
"Highyaya"- Hyena (there is a hyena in the Goodnight Gorilla book that we read)
"Oiyon"- Onion
"wayway"- Raisin (She absolutely loves raisins and goes through handfuls every day)

We taught her to "wink" at us. She smooshes both of her eyes closed and scrunches up her nose.

She calls her belly button "baby". She made that one up completely on her own.

She likes to brush my teeth and, being the mom, I let her stick her slobbery toothbrush in my mouth.


Oh, and did I mention that she is just crazy cute!

Things I Love

Lucia's new words:
"babul"- bubble
"ousigh"- outside
"zee-zee"- Lindsey

Here are some of her words and sounds though it is hard to get her to repeat them while the camera is rolling. She is a busy baby.


She says "caw, caw" to the crows...and only specifically crows

In the morning when she is feeling especially cuddly, she will run full speed into me when I have my arms open and then bury her head into me.

She gives us tons of kisses and blows kisses as well. She blows me kisses when I put her down for her nap and when Pat puts her down for the evening.

She kisses the laptop screen when we skype with Grandma Janice or her Aunties Kaitlyn and Lindsey. Criag's beard has not received a kiss yet. We must work on that.

She carries one baby with her literally everywhere. She sleeps with her, the baby watches her eat from the table, she carries her around as she plays, the baby comes on all of our errands. She takes good care of her baby.

She feeds her bottle to all of her stuffed toys and makes and chomping/sucking sound as she is doing it. The other day we were reading a book that has one animal per page and she fed each animal including the snail and the starfish. I tried to capture it on video. This is the best that I got.


I was putting together her new table and chair set using an allen wrench. She watched intently. When I finished with the chair, she picked up the allen wrench and spent at least 10 minutes working on one of the screws.

She is a sorter. Yesterday, she played with a box of crayons for 30 minutes. She would take all of the crayons out and then put them all back in...over and over again.

If you ask her where her belly button is, she will lift up her shirt and push her fat baby belly around until she can point to her belly button.


I was outside playing "in" the baby pool with Lucia and had to run to the house and yell up the stair to Pat..."Grab a diaper quick. Lucy is trying to poop naked in the backyard." That was a nice little treat for the neighbors.

She tries to put our shoes on.

She did hose rock band with her buddy Jackson. And, yes, they were dancing while these pictures were taken.