My friend Sarah got me a mini waffle maker and it is really fun. The best part is that the waffles are just the right size to pop in your mouth. Pretty soon, you’ve eaten, well, a lot of them. We made some blackberry sauce from the berries we picked to go on top. Yummmmm.

Then, we Jim woke up, we wanted to make sure he could relax and watch football. (This is his goal every Saturday, and it almost never happens.) We put out food and made a sign: Jim’s Football Couch. Haley got on board with the idea and snuggled right in.

She was wearing her new Alabama shirt that comes fresh from Alabama. A big thanks to cousin Bevin for doing our shopping from across the country and for mailing us the clothes for Haley to wear. She was all out! Haley calls this her “Roll Tide shirt.”

Meanwhile, JT helped me make a fruit salad. He cut all of the strawberries’ tops off, and then in quarters, by himself with a real paring knife. He was really proud of his work, and it was his first time using a real kitchen knife like that. He did a great job!

We decided to take a trip to the park after workout this week to test the cargo space in the XC90. I loaded in the stroller and JT’s bike without so much as a wiggle. It was awesome! (In fairness, this probably would have fit in the car we had, but definitely not as nicely.) We ate sandwiches – okay, Haley ate cucumber and pretended to eat sandwiches – and then played before we went home to see Jim before he left for work.

Bike at the park!

WOW. I had quite the weekend. Where to begin… the kids went camping in the motorhome with Grandpa and Grandma Keene, and that’s pretty much what made most of this possible.

Friday was movie night for Book Club. (That’s a long story. Anyway.) We watched Temple Grandin, a fabulous HBO movie with Claire Danes that I first watched with the Cole girls over a year ago. Everyone loved it!

Then on Saturday we went car shopping. I have been hoping for a vehicle with a third row since we traded in the Explorer three years ago. Then we bought the Volvo S60 two years ago and were introduced to the world of Volvo, which we like very much. We loooooove our car. But it was really time to get something that fit our family better. JT’s growing feet kept getting smashed behind the driver’s side seat, and when we went away overnight we had stuff crammed everywhere. Plus, I am the field trip coordinator for preschool. Clearly we need more room. 🙂 We said we’d wait until we paid off the car to buy something else, so…

Saturday we went to three dealers and looked at six different Volvo XC90s in different years and colors. I have been dreaming of a white one and was hoping for a 2009. We came home with a 2010 and it is absolutely my dream car. (Jim says I should shoot higher for “dream car.” I told him I want to hug this one.) It is so nice to drive! It’s quiet and smooth and solid, but it handles like the car. I honestly wake up and think, guess what I get to drive today? And already I’ve put the capacity to use: at church Wednesday night I was able to help out a friend by taking three of her kids home. Love it!

We did our car shopping on the Harley and had a nice breakfast out before we started, but even so Jim was very happy to relax on the couch and watch Alabama crush Arkansas when we got home. Roll Tide.

And then Sunday, I ran a half-marathon. I’ve been training since June when I ran the Antioch Adoptions 10k. Special thanks to my friends Elisa and Michelle, who told me I could do it, and to God, who made it happen. (Psalm 73:26) I finished five minutes under my first-timer goal time of 2 hours 10 minutes, which puts me at a 9:33/mile average. That is a full minute under my normal time for a long run, so I am very happy with that. I finished 55/80 but 8/14 in my age group. I finished well and passed quite a few tired runners in the last three miles. It felt great!

Then we packed up and went to pick up the kids, followed by dinner and boating with our friends, the Bonnells. Katie wanted to get one more ski in before winter, and we are always happy to give someone a tow.

Somewhere in there I managed to clean, do laundry, and cook meals. I think we’ll slow down a little this weekend…

It happened! JT had his first day of preschool. It was pretty awesome. 🙂 They read The Kissing Hand and he came home bursting with a raccoon puppet, a hand print with a kiss in the middle, and a sort page with day and night activities glued on to a T chart. He was so excited to go and had a great time. Woohoo! We took a couple of photos (um, of course) and these will go in my School Days album… a 8×11 scrapbook where I will print the second photo below in 8×10 size for each kid from each day of school for the next… 17 years. (Oh, my.)

This year the Puyallup Fair’s theme is Get Your Happy On. And we did! We went with the same friends as last year, and I think this year was even more fun. We ate burgers and fries and scones and elephant ears, saw the animals, watched the kids ride rides, and loved every minute of it. We didn’t get a whole group photo but I did get one of all four kids.

Haley rides the tractors

Krusty Pups for dinner!

In the dog barn, they had Saint Bernards pulling carts. Really. And then Haley and Tyson were too little to go by themselves, so the gentleman there offered for Jim to go with them. Jim said he didn’t want to weigh down the dog and the gentlemen said that the dogs can pull up to 3000 pounds. I did not accidentally type too many zeros. Isn’t that nuts?

The men giving their daughters shoulder rides.

Haley had a great time enjoying the fair for the first time, really. She ate an entire scone. She wouldn’t even hand it to me to hold for her at first, and when she decided to trust me she preempted it with: “Don’t eat it, Mom.”

She also got to go on rides for the first time. She was so excited to go along and she was barely too short for the line… she stood below it straining saying “I tall nuff?” The woman said she could go on the canoe as long as she was right at the line, so I made the call and said she was. Haley missed the first canoe headed out but went on the next one all by herself without blinking. She doesn’t look happy in the photo because she was pretty serious about the whole thing. She got off pointing to the next ride she wanted to go on. 🙂

JT was really brave and went on the dragon roller coaster all by himself. Gracie had wanted to go up until the very last minute (as children will do), so JT stayed and manned the front car all on his own!

More rides

Who let these crazy kids loose?

Haley’s favorite: the pink carousel!

Fuzzy but love the smile.

Aren’t they cute? Same picture as last year. 🙂

JT lists Gracie among his very best friends.

Ending tradition: elephant ears.

I can’t believe we’re already on number nine. The year is flying by! Once again, we were blessed by perfect weather for our date. We saw the Mariners play the Red Sox and they won. It was a great game! Jim got awesome seats in the Hit It Here Cafe, where you face the field sitting in comfortable bar stools. There is no one obstructing your view and the waiter brings food and drinks. What’s not to love?!

The view from the good seats

The view of the nachos we ordered. (!)

A great day for a ball game

On the way home we stopped in Issaquah at a favorite spot and ordered brownie sundaes. We asked for extra large and this is what we got… we were comatose by the end but managed to finish. We didn’t eat again the rest of the day!

JT had orientation today. It was fun. Jim and I both were able to go. We listened to a presentation from the director, bookkeeper, and service organizer, and then we were off to the classroom with Mrs. Tina, JT’s new teacher (who gave me permission to post her picture!). JT got his preschool shirt, checked out his cubby, and made his snack mat.

Before we left JT and Asher got to play on the playground together. They are in different classes but will have recess together. So fun!

We did it! The other day Jim caved. He said, “Okay, even it up.” The back was getting so stringy and crazy. And now it’s a little better. He vetoed any cut more than an inch, so we begged for 1.5 inches and evened up the bottom two layers at least. Haley did a great job for Mrs. Mindy, my stylist, and sat very still. We decided not to touch the sides or bangs… Mindy said it would just make us wait longer and she agreed that we should grow out her bangs. So here she is!

Side view of the even back layer

When Haley was done, Jim got his hair cut too. A family event!

Our family has this growth stick. Well, not this stick. A different stick. See, the real stick is at my brother’s house in North Carolina. But my mom made an exact duplicate of the stick for our family as a surprise. 🙂 So now we have our own, but I keep forgetting to measure the kids for their birthdays. Finally, I did it. Here they are, recorded along with the rest of the family and cousins.

There is a small controversy around the stick. Here you see pictured “Becky 8/84.” That means I was over 4 years old at this mark. For years, my brother’s family has claimed this cannot possibly be accurate and my mom keeps reminding everyone how little I was. Haley is extremely small for her age, right? She is wearing 12 month clothing in this picture. And yet even she is much taller than the supposed 4-year-old me. Hm. Love you, Mom, but we’re going to need more proof.

Haley turned two last week in an uneventful-type day. She, however, would never be called uneventful. Haley is cheery and full of energy. She is daring and funny and loves kitties. Her favorite color right now is probably orange. She loves milk, berries, green vegetables, and – newly – ice cream. Her word count is soaring in the hundreds, as she is speaking in sentences of 4-6 words regularly and surprises us every day with new multisyllabic vocabulary that we don’t even remember saying, like pillowcases. She has recently  conquered the tricky “am” and “do” verbs, which she throws around with sass: “Yes, I do!” and “Yes, I am!” ,

I am abundantly grateful that God gave me a daughter, who will compliment my “pretty shirt” and notice when I paint my toe nails, and who will tell me every detail about something that happened while her older brother ends the conversation with “it was fun.” Haley has been very focused on being “old enough” for things like treats and facing forward in the car. Now that those things have been delivered, she is thrilled and informed me the other day she would be old enough for coffee at age 3. 🙂

On the big day, I had to work. I planned ahead and made homemade strawberry ice cream but when I woke Haley up, she requested cake.

If you didn’t catch that, she said, “Have party. Eat cake.” And so I came home from work and whipped up a confetti cake with pink buttercream frosting. The kids helped.

Finished!

We had homemade chicken strips, sweet potato fries, corn on the cob, and fruit for dinner – all things that Haley loves. (Although she is not a picky eater, she is not a big eater. She did clean her plate that night!)

After diner she got to open a few presents. We already got her the new tricycle and the movie Tangled at her other birthday events, but we wanted her to have a few little things on the actual day. She got a new purse that is yellow and sparkly, some Hello Kitty stickers, coloring books, and new crayons, and some new kitchen pots, pans, and utensils. (She has really been interested in cooking lately and does a great job stirring the eggs for scrambling.)

Then we had the cake and ice cream. She did a great job with candle #1 but couldn’t quite get #2 without help. This video is only for grandparents, who have the patience and loving hearts necessary to wait for a two year old to blow out a candle.

Haley had no qualms about picking up the entire piece of cake and chowing down. We reminded her to use a fork after that.

Haley just had her two-year checkup yesterday. She weighs 21 pounds and is 33.5 inches tall. That puts her well below the 3rd percentile for weight, as usual, but her growth curve is continuing nicely and that’s what counts. Her doctor was pleased to see her maintain and pointed out that someone had to be at the bottom, or we wouldn’t have a 3rd percentile at all. She is in the 30th percentile for height, which is her all-time high for any measured size. 🙂 Woo hoo!

We just love our little girl. Jim said she is ready for her first hair cut, and Haley agreed. I’ll post that when it happens!