Janie at 22 month!

Another month... Wow!  I can't believe that our sweet baby Janie Caroline is only 2 months away from her second birthday.  It feels like between beach trips, weekends away, having Grandma in town  the past month has been in turbo speed and that I was just posting her 21 month photos!

What a sweet little girl our Janie Bug is becoming!  She really has a nurturing spirit and is very affectionate.  She loves to feed her babies, and us.  If given a cookie she seems just as content feeding it to us as she is eating it herself.  She likes to give and receive hugs and kisses all the time and continues to like to cuddle and be held.  Most of the time I love this!

Janie talks mostly in sentences and is very willing to tell us specifically what she wants, and in some ways she can be particular.  She likes routines and things a certain way.  At bedtime, has an order she likes her songs and will correct us if we deviate, she likes to hold her blanket just so while we read our stories and she even wants us to make sure and set her binkie on the corner of the changing table while she has her cup of milk.  She makes her requests demands in such an adorable way, it is hard not always to give in! 

Most nights Janie is sleeping through the night, which is AMAZING compared to where we were not all that long ago.  She gets thrown off when she is teething or sick which have both happened in the past 2 months.  Most days she goes down for her nap easily, sometime even telling us she wants to go to sleep AND she has slept away from home, even in a pack-n-play a few times!  Progress!

If given her way, Janie would like to read books on Mommy or Daddy's lap for hours on end.  She has expanded her group of favorites, but at the moment is loving on a book of nursery rhymes which she calls "Humpty Dumpty."  Janie and Clara play more and more together every day.  Lately they like finding  place to hide out, like the space behind the love seat to kind of set up a mini fort.  They haul some toys over to it and have so much fun hanging out together in this space. 

They both have also been into art more lately and Janie seems to have a lot of attention for taking the cap off a marker, drawing a few marks and going on to the next color.  She will get on a roll naming her colors and then other times seems like she doesn't know any of them. 

With our backyard project underway, both our sweeties have had a lot of time outside helping out Daddy.  They both like playing in the dirt, digging up rocks, picking leaves of plants and running around the yard and into the woods behind our house.  The girls really enjoy playing at their water table and our Janie is usually wet within a few minutes of being outside. She is always up for whatever game Clara wants to play, and has a bit of a hard time understanding when Clara wants to play by herself.  For the most part, Clara stays really tender with Janie and tried to help her out or teach her new things.  Janie adores her sister and has started saying, "I love you, Clara," even in casual contexts, and kissing her on the top of her head.  It is the BEST feeling as a parent to get to watch these moments!!!

Coupeville Weekend

Our friends Melanie & Tim have a cabin in Coupeville and she invited some mamas on a girls weekend at their place.  We had a relaxing day on Saturday and decided to it would be fun to have our families join us for the day on Sunday. 

Like most of our summer so far, it was not warm & sunny, but while it was pouring in Issaquah, the rain held off most on the day on Whidbey Island.  Clara and Janie had a blast exploring this rocky beach with their pals from the neighborhood. 

The Dads did a little crabbing and were very successful - YUM!

We capped the weekend off with a round of yummy S'mores and some hyper kids for the car ride home! 

Manzanita Girls Trip!

Less than 2 weeks after our family trip to Manzanita, the girls & I had the opportunity to go back with Grandma Carol.  It was fun to have a girls trip!  Having just been there the girls were tunned into the house and loved playing up in the crows nest.  Their sleeping went much better and the weather was even nicer than it had been. 

One day we made a trip into Seaside to meet up with Auntie Sherri who was in town with Ashley and her dance team who were competing at the National Tournament there.  On our way out of town a few days later, we were able to catch some of Ashley's performances and the girls were both captivated by the routines!  Together we did a little shopping and enjoyed yummy ice cream!

We made several trips down to the beach.  The view was breathtaking!!  Despite the weather being warmer, the wind was crazy and over the dry sand it was sometimes hard to keep it out of the girls' face.  Unfortunately, our trips to the beach didn't last very long and I therefore captured a lot less photos.

Janie indicating that she had had ENOUGH!!

One of my favorite parts of going to Manzanita beach is when you are walking over the dunes and you first get a glimpse of the water -- AHHH!  Breathtaking!

4th of July at home in Issaquah!

With the 4th of July on a Wednesday this year, it was an easy decision to stay close to home instead of treking to be with one of our families as we have done in the past.  We joined up with some other local families to be a part of Issaquah's fun family parade. 

Although Clara is hiding her enthusiasm in a few of these photos, she did have a lot of fun passing out candy and taking in all of the festive decorations. 

The Karr family also was in the parade with us.  Dads got wagon pulling duty...

Janie liked riding in the wagon!

I may have gotten a little carried away with these matchy bandana shirts for Clara & I but there were just too fun for this sort of an occasion!

The Red, White & Blue Candy Crew

The Karr Family 

The Michael Family

After the parade there were all sorts of booths and fun kid activities in the park.  We stayed for a little while and then headed home for naps. 

In the afternoon we went over to the neighbors house for a fun block party.  It was really low key and super fun for all the kids! 

Someone brought corn on a stick and J Bug was in heaven!

 Brooke made chocolate covered frozen bananas - such a hit with all the kids!

Courtney & Landon

Clara's first sparkler - she was concentrating really hard here!

Later, some neighbors let off a few fireworks and this was Clara's reaction to them!  After getting the kids and bed, Kev & I snuggled on the couch and watched the Space Needle display on TV. 

Manzanita!

Oh how we LOVE Manzanita! 

What a great trip our little family had down to the beach house this past June.  We we not able to use all the days that we had reserved so we had Grandma & Grandpa Stevens enjoy it for a few days and then had a morning of fun on the beach with them before they headed home. 

Since Janie had just started to crawl during out last trip down, we were so excited to see how she received the beach, sand, water and sea life.  As expected, Clara LOVED being in the water and making things in the sand!  Both girls were getting over spring colds while we were there and the runny nose seemed to hamper a bit of Janie's fun at times.  She often melted down once she got wet and sand stuck to her hands, but all in all it was a blast to have some sunny days on the beach together. 

Our handsome Daddy! 

Janie bug with her binkie!  We have not even tried to get her to give it up yet, but hopefully soon!

This trip we did a lot of relaxing back at the house insted of trying to cram in day trips every day to neighboring towns.  We never went further South than Manzanita and it one of the few times we have passed up on The Blue Herron & Tillamook Cheese Factory.  Instead we played puzzles, took walks, watched a few classic movies and just really enjoyed one another.

One tradition we did not pass up on was getting ice cream! 

It was fun to see our sweeties explore the new enviornment. Clara's immagination was in fine form and Janie got some fun thrills experiencing things for the first time. 

We spent one morning over on the bay while the tide was out and couldn't help but remember our trip down with the family just two years before. 

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We are so thankful for our wonderful memories of that trip with Grandpa! 

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Absolutely beautiful!

Manzanita is a very special place for our family and look forward to many more fun trips in the years ahead!