Point Defiance Park

This past weekend there was no rain! Woowhoo! So we headed out to run some errands, check out the new iPhone 4, and then decided we should enjoy the weather and go to the Zoo. We went to Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium. It was pretty nice to get out in Washington and do some sight-seeing. We thought Harlow would love the zoo and aquarium... But she was much happier sleeping in her stroller the entire time we were there. She was awake long enough to eat and poop... twice. She only woke up when we were in the parking lot to go home. Oh well, Pete & I enjoyed ourselves.

Finally awake, in time to get in the car to go home.

He looks so scary in this picture.

This is what you get when you ask a stranger to take your picture.

He was taunting the antelope with food.

Hopefully our next outing with be to a wild life park not too far from here.

How big is baby!?

She is getting so big! I feel like she has gained a ton of weight in the last 2 weeks. And shes getting fat rolls on her thighs, and her face is getting rounder and chunkier looking too. I love it!


She finally loves to lay on her play mat. FINALLY! She is so into staring at the monkey hanging from the top, and the mirror. She can lay on it for about 30 minutes just kicking away and making the cutest noises. She gets bored after 30 minutes though. But I'm able to get a lot done while she plays.

I started placing it by the window with the window open so she can feel the breeze. She almost took a 45 minute nap like that yesterday.

But she's not use to sleeping without her swaddle like she does at night. So when she sleeps on her back during the day to nap, she wakes herself up ALL the time! We are going to have to get this figured out soon or she'll be sleeping in a swaddle at night until shes 18!

But she naps for HOURS in the swing, no problem!

By the way, its been 75 and sunny the last 3 days. I almost can't
believe it!

She loves the shopping malls, just look at her face. She must have seen the Nordstroms too!

Lately she has been reaching out and touching my face and arms when I lay next to her. And she puts her hands in my hair and wiggles her fingers around in it. She loves playing with my hair.

And just yesterday she discovered her own hair. I've caught her petting her head like 4 times! This may be a hazard though... she also pulls her own hair now too.

She loves when Buddha chews on his toys and makes them squeak. Her smile gets so big :)

I taught her how to pet Gus Gus and her face lights up when I put Gus that close to her. Gus hates it by the way, she literally jumps out of my arms to get away. She is not into the baby one bit. But I did catch her laying on Harlow's play mat yesterday when Harlow was on it. But i'm sure if you ask Gus it was because it was next to the window she likes to sit under.

I love that she is awake all the time now.

And she has been sleeping from midnight until 7:30 again. We had a little lapse where she was waking up at 5:30. It is much easier to function at 7:30! Thank you Harlow for the extra sleep this past week!

Fathers Day 2010

Happy Father's Day to Pete!

Pete got to celebrate his first fathers day. If he looks a little tired in these pictures its because he has been working a lot more than usual. Their company is having a competition (and this guy and competitions is ridiculous) and he is determined to win the whole thing. I think he can, I just wish he could stay home more. He has been going out to work some days from 9am-10pm. See what I mean? RIDICULOUS! But he has beat everyone that he's been up against so far.

We really wanted to get out of the apartment and do something fun with Harlow. The zoo sounded like a great idea... and then we woke up Sunday morning and it was pouring rain...

While Pete was sleeping, I got up and decorated the living room so that when he walked out the first thing he would see was all the fathers day decorations and his card from Harlow. He was surprised for sure! haha.

We ended up just hanging out. Pete only had one request. Dairy Queen Blizzard. Easy enough.

We ended up deciding to drive to Tukwila just to get out of the apartment. We went to a HUGE mall and just hung out and looked at shoes. Pete loves shoes!

Decorations in the morning.

I made those tissue paper decorations myself and the banner, so easy. Thank you Martha Stewart for the great idea!

My favorite picture of these two!

Happy Fathers Day Pete!

You're an amazing Dad,

Harlow is lucky to have someone who works so hard to take care of her!

Can't wait to celebrate many more to come!

Shhhhhh! Don't Tell Pete or My Dad!

Fathers Day is coming up fast and I want to do something special for Pete's first Father's Day. So Harlow and I had a mini photo shoot. I also did one for my dad too for his first Fathers Day as a grandpa. We sent it out in the mail already. She was in such a good mood and really likes being in the Bumbo.

I also have a few ideas planned for Pete on Sunday. We (I, Harlow watched) made a banner that says Happy Father's Day and then put some tissue paper to some good use as decorations. I think I'll decorate while he's sleeping in the morning so he can wake up to it all. I'm leaving it up to Pete on what he wants to do on Sunday because we always end up doing what I want on Sundays, dont tell him I admitted to that though. No pictures of the decorations just yet, they are currently in hiding. :)

I also used a couple of peoples recommendation to check out Blurb.com to put together a book of all of the newborn pictures Stephanie Ryan took. It was a little pricey but I was so impressed when it arrived in the mail only 5 days later. I got a large square book and I was a little apprehensive to order it because I was afraid the quality of the pictures wouldnt be that great once I enlarged them. But I was so WRONG! I'm so glad I got the larger book. The pictures came out great!

We made little mini books for our dads for father's day too. The same as our book but the smaller version and less pictures/pages. They each have a picture of them with harlow in it. So cute! Sad I forgot to take a picture of them before I sent them off in the mail.

For Ojiichan (grandpa in Japanese)

For Pete!

We haven't been up to much this past week. This last weekend was actually really pretty and sunny (for once). But then Monday brought the gloom back and it has rained every day since. I don't like to go out and about when it rains with the baby so we stick around the house (apartment, bleh!). Plus, this way my boredom doesnt get expensive (shopping).

BUT

I lied, I did go shopping one day, I found a mall called the Super Mall that has a Nordstrom Rack (Me=happy) and some outlet stores. It not only had a NRack but a Gap outlet, Carters outlet, Children's Place outlet, Gymboree, Marshalls, and VS (I went for their semi-annual sale of course). I was a happy girl.

I tried to explain to pete, that yes, my pre-pregnancy jeans are wearable, his exact words when I showed him I could get them zipped was, "look, they fit you dont need to buy new ones." What he doesnt understand is that just because I could get them zipped up doesnt mean they "fit". That last 2-3lbs that wont go away hangs out right at my waistline of my jeans. Making for a not so cute muffin top look. ack! Thats the worst, I even cringe when I see other people's muffin top. So I bought a new pair of Seven's at NRack, BUT it was destiny! Someone must have returned a pair that had already been hemmed. So not only were they at a NRack price, but then they were discounted on top of that because of the hemming. And when I tried them on... THEY WERE HEMMED TO MY EXACT LENGTH! They were meant to be mine. This was my justification :) But not only were they on sale of a sales price, I saved $20 by not having to go out and get them hemmed :) OH THE LITTLE THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY! :):):)

I hate cooking. Last summer I got so bored out in Virigina that I brushed up on my cooking skills and added a couple of things to my recipe book (my memory, I always forget to write this stuff down). This summer with so much rain my boredom has caused me to once again test out my cooking skills. Not bad, if I do say so myself. Who knew there were so many different ways to cook fish and chicken!

There has been talks of going to Yakima, about 2 and a half hours from where we are now, so Pete can work that area for a few days. I'm NOT excited about this. Traveling and living in a hotel with a baby = no fun! If it were sunny and nice I would be a little more excited about this. Oh well, one more adventure I guess. Like taking a 3 week old all the way to Washington...

10 Weeks Old

Harlow has been up to some pretty cool things lately.

-She can lay on her tummy and push up and hold her head up for a really long time. She just checks everything out.

-She loves to have her feet played with. She likes to have them kissed and blown on and to have you play patty cake with her them. Weird, I hate having my feet touched. She didnt get that from me!

-She hangs out awake for a lot longer now.

-She eats way more each feeding, but feeds less often.

-She has still been sleeping about 7 hours a night (knock on wood)

-She smiles ALL the time

-She loves being outside

-We went out today and bought her a bumbo, and she sat up and looked around all by herself for about 10 minutes today and loved it.

-next she'll be doing cartwheels! Or running for President, in no particular order :)

Blogs I Stalk...

So for the last 6 months or so I've been stalking a couple of blogs (by couple, I mean a ton!). I really love craft blogs and home design blogs, and remodeling blogs. Thought I'd share with everyone the great blogs that I've found over time. And there are many...

Enjoy!


U Create

http://www.u-createcrafts.com/

Frugal Fashionista

http://frugal-fashionista.blogspot.com/

Hostess With the Mostess

http://www.hostessblog.com/

Tangled & True

http://www.tangledandtrue.com/

Room Remix

http://roomremixblog.blogspot.com/

Ohdeedoh

http://www.ohdeedoh.com/

Little Birdie Secrets

http://www.littlebirdiesecrets.blogspot.com/

Living With Lindsay

http://livingwithlindsay.com/

Make it and Love it

http://www.makeit-loveit.com/

Bless Our Nest

http://thedavisfamilynwa.blogspot.com/

Tidymom

http://www.tidymom.net/

Better After

http://betterafter.blogspot.com/

Someday Crafts

http://somedaycrafts.blogspot.com/

Desgin Dazzle

http://www.designdazzle.blogspot.com/

Tip Junkie

http://www.tipjunkie.com/

Shanty 2 Chic

http://www.shanty2chic.blogspot.com/

Craftaholics Anonymous

http://diaryofacraftaholic.blogspot.com/

The Creative Crate

http://www.thecreativecrate.blogspot.com/

The Shabby Nest

http://shabbynest.blogspot.com/

The Blessed Nest

http://theblessednest.blogspot.com/

Susie Harris

http://www.susieharrisblog.com/

Just a Girl

http://j-a-girl.blogspot.com/

From House to Home

http://fromhousetocozyhome.blogspot.com/

Its The Little Things That Make a House a Home

http://itsthelittlethingsthatmakeahouseahome.blogspot.com/

Joys of Home

http://joysofhome.blogspot.com/

Recaptured Charm

http://www.recapturedcharm.com/

Imperfectly Beautiful

http://imperfectlybeautifulms.blogspot.com/

Life in The Fun Lane

http://www.inthefunlane.com/

Brown Paper Packages

http://brownpaper--packages.blogspot.com/

Unnecessary Necessities

http://amber-unnecessarynecessities.blogspot.com/

Thrifty Decor Chick

http://www.thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com/

Knock-Off Wood

http://www.knock-offwood.com/

My Insanity

http://meandmyinsanity.blogspot.com/

How Does She?

http://www.howdoesshe.com/

The Pleated Poppy

http://lindseycheney.blogspot.com/

Blue Cricket Design

http://www.bluecricketdesign.net/

Russet Street Reno

http://www.russetstreetreno.com/

Blog 'n Tell

http://blogntell.blogspot.com/

Emily A. Clark

http://emilyaclark.blogspot.com/

Young House Love

http://www.younghouselove.com/

All Things G & D

http://www.allthingsgd.com/

Crafty Sisters

http://craftysisters-nc.blogspot.com/

Drab to Fab

http://gorgfabgoodies.blogspot.com/

Remodelaholic

http://www.remodelaholic.com/

Future Fresno State Cheerleader

JUST LIKE MOMMY!

I figured she better wear this outfit before it gets too small. Even though this is a little boys onsie from Baby Gap, I had to buy it to support our bulldog Buddha as her big brother and Fresno State of course! Too bad this outfit probably won't fit by football season. :( Now all she needs is a uniform and a set of poms (and maybe some stunting and tumbling lessons from mom).


PS: I know Buddha's eye looks gross, he's gone blind in that one eye. So sad for the poor guy.

Getting So Big!

She's getting bigger than Gus Gus!

2 Month Old Pictures

I tried to take Harlow's 2 Month Old Pictures today but they didnt turn out as well as I had liked. I'll have to re-try them another day when there is more natural light and she isnt as tired.

Buddha decided to crash our photo shoot. He was feeling a little left out.