This Past Year

Touch Down! Husky Cheerleader

Take That Cougs!!

You always watched the washing machine

when your blanket and toys were in there

and would say..my blankie...then when you'd

walk away you would always be dizzy..lol

August when I was pregnant with you

In Vegas at our Wedding Reception

At Heather and Nick's Wedding Rehersal when I was

Pregnant with you. Daddy took really good care of me

Watching a movie with E-Mom and Papa's famous

popcorn after you pulled your pigtails out

Papa Jeff's first deer

At Heather and Nick's Bachelor/ette party. I was designated

driver because I was pregnant with you

RIP Uncle Cyndi

The room I lived in for a month before you were born

We had it all decorated for Christmas. This was a foreign

exchange student PJ had

Aunt Cyndi who we lost this year to cancer at the age of 40

You REALLY wanted that bottle...lol

We lost Grandpa Cal too, along with his sister Mary and her

husband Jack

At our reception, we expect you to smash the cake in

your grooms face like we did, no cute bites, give him

all you've got..I had cake in my ear and nasal cavity

but it was sure fun!

Your Aunt Randi and Great Grandpa Jim

(Daddy's real Dad) She owns Potpourri Floral

I don't even know where to start, to talk about how much you have changed in just a short year. At the beginning of 2, you would talk gibberish, and then one day you started talking sentances out of nowhere. To our amazement you could count your whole ABC's and count up to 30 with very little instruction from us. You also developed a "Diva" attitude and sometimes when people would try to kiss you, you'd give them the cheek. You really kept your Mom and Dad on our toes. Mom had several surgeries this year, so Daddy stayed home to take care of us girls, and the two of you bonded very closely...sometimes it made Mommy sad to see how close the two of you were. We tried to put you in pre-school 2 days a week, and when we'd walk in the door the first thing you'd want were "Tob and Lam" your dogs, and you would cry the whole time...we were trying to expose you to different kids and get a little bit of the seperation anxiety under control. You only lasted a couple months and then we pulled you and signed you up for Kindermusik which you loved. This summer we spent alot of time with Tessa, who you called Seta and got to go to Lakefair, Thurston County Fair, Lattins, Chuck E Cheese, the Zoo, Shopping and some other fun places...plus we went to the Puyallup Fair with E-Mom and Papa. That was the other funny thing, we all wondered what you would call your grandparents, we never thought E-Mom would be what you would call your Grandma's. We have named you Bossy Bessy, and Sassy Sally because you try and call the shots all of the time, and you generally win.

We lost alot of loved ones this year including Grandpa Cal, his sister Mary and her husband Jack as well as Papa Jeff's dad, whom you got to visit in the hospital. We also lost our beloved Aunt Cyndi (E-Mom's Sister)to cancer at the age of 40. She left behind Jacey who is a teenager and Adrian who is older.

Again, some of the things I don't want to forget about this age are, and I am sure I will add to this list before the book is published:

1. How you would yell through the halls "Jeramy, get back here" at your Dad

2. How you were the pickiest eater ever, and a stubborn potty trainer

3. How you would tell Papa Ned and Mom, to go take a nap

4. How you would pet other kids on the head like you do with Toby and Lami

5. How we got Anna the Rabbit on our Anniversary

6. Where you'd learn things on TV and need things like your "wiggle wrench"

7. How when anyone had to dicipline you you'd either say "Daddy Coming" or "Emom Coming" 8.How you LOVED pickles

9. How infatuated you were with mirrors and looking at your reflection

10. You were very skiddish about alot of things, and would hang onto us like a Monkey

11. How you loved feeding the Goaps

12. How you'd always keep us to it, if we said maybe we can go feed the goats, you never forgot

13. How you liked to say Baby Carter and Baby Floyd, even though they were twice your size

14. You still did "the face" on command and "too close kiss" and "silly kiss"

15. You still slept in bed with your Dad and would always say your tummy hurt to get him to rub your back

16. You still used your "Bink" when you slept and your special blanket

17. Somehow you would always know what road we were on and what to look for like Heather and Nick's house

18. How you loved to Skype with people

19. How somehow every time you got on my computer you reprogramed it or got to the exact program you wanted, where I couldn't even figure it out

20. You still LOVED going to Cabelas with your Daddy and had the run of the place

21. Your favorite TV shows were, Wow Wow Wubbzy, Dora and Diego, Max and Ruby, Team Umi Zoomi, Curious George, Miss Spider's Sunny Patch, Franklin, Little Bear

22. When you would call Alvin and the Chipmunks the "Skunks" I want to watch the "Skunks"

23. How you knew Uncle Wayne, Uncle Dusty and Uncle Jared whenever they came over and always wanted to talk to them on the phone, and say, "What You Doin" Hunting? Did you get a big one?

24. How you adored your Uncle Sean and would climb on him like a jungle gym

25. Tonight when you had a blow out diaper up your back and Daddy was changing you you said, "Do you want to see it, Do you want to see my poopy Mommy" Daddy and I couldn't quit laughing.

26. When we put our Christmas tree up and had the Angel on top, you asked us why the tooth fairy was up there.

27. When we say "thanks for being such a good kid" you always said "no problem"

28. How you would hold your finger up and wiggle it and say "No No No" when we weren't singing the right song.

29. You loved singing itsy bitsy spider, twinkle twinkle, and running through the house screaming EIEIO

30. How when we tried to teach you duck duck goose, you decided "No No No" It is Quack Quack Moose, so that is what we went with.

Let it Snow

These are the very skates that Jeramy learned to skate on.

She is actually quite good, way better than her mother.

Seta and Sage baked me a cake for my Birthday!

At the fair with E-Mom and Papa in her favorite
Bob Marley T-shirt, she ALWAYS asks for "Bob"
in the car, my little reggae baby

Trying to catch the snow with her tongue

This is the famous Fireplace picture we have done

since we were kids. It is kind of funny now that we are

adults and sitting on laps.

This picture was from Thanksgiving this year, with Scott

sitting in for Andrea

Making her first snow man with
Alexandria

This is for you Robin! :) This year we were so excited to wake up to snow. We bundled Sage up and went to Donna and Dave's because our cousin Casey and Scott who live in Hawaii were there for the holiday (talk about a temperature difference). I was so excited to have our family there and Sage loved playing with her cousin Floyd and outside with Alexandria! Every year since the 80's we have done this cousin photo where we sit in the same spot, and on laps and as we have gotten older it is getting funny. This year since Andrea wasn't there, Scott filled in the gap.

We took her to her 3 year well visit and everything seems fine. She weighed 25 pounds and was tall for her age. He said if you took 100 kids, she would be right in the middle, which surprised us since she is so skinny for almost 3 (most of my cousin's kids are 25 pounds before their first birthday. He also said the 2 biggest challenges this year will be her eating and potty training, and it is! We have tried everything, stickers, M&M's, prizes, potties in every room, pretty panties, pull ups, cold turkey (in which she refused to go and ended up REALLY constipated), setting a timer every 30 minutes, her watching me and how to do it, emphasizing how big girls do it...but she is so stubborn, we started around 2, and have slowly let her lead us. And that is one of the things the Doctor noticed, eating and potty training, she calls the shots, but we are easily manipulated by her, as is everyone else since she is the only baby over here, that everyone caves, and she knows it. All in all, except for the shots, things went great. I also got my biopsy back and it was negative for cancer..yeah...but if I would have waited longer, it would have turned into it, so I am glad I went when I did!

We are trying to get back into the groove of things...with Mommy being sick, she has TOTALLY become a Daddy's girl, almost to where it hurts my feelings. We signed us up for Kindermusik so her and I could bond...it is so funny because with her having 2 dogs and a rabbit, she always goes up to the kids and pets them...lol...we have to work on that one.

Some of the things I want to remember about this age: How she calls her Grandma's E-Mom, where she got that, I don't know...how duck duck goose became quack quack moose, she still does the face, and we have dubbed her bossy bessy or sassy sally because she thinks she rules the roost. This year when we asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she said a Big Tree, when we asked her what she wanted for her birthday she said, an Old Tree...lol..She is really into play cooking and dinosaur's for some reason, not dolls. Also, my Mom and I have been taking her to Saint Martin's church, and surprisingly she sits through the whole mass, even though there is no place for kids...she even does the "forehead, belly button, armpit, armpit" as she calls it. I even get to see some of my old monk professors which is kind of cool. Each monk usually has a job on campus like a mailman, barber, teacher etc. Well, there is one guy who is like 90 and his job is to cut and split wood, and as a punishment you would have to go down there and do it, and when I was in college I ended up down there a few times as punishment...and even sometimes just to help after that because I couldn't believe he could do it, because lifting an ax over your head when you are older, seems impossible.

On a sad note, we lost our beloved Aunt Cyndi on Monday to brain cancer (the same day the pathology report said I didn't have cancer) She was only 40 years old, and had 2 daughters, one in her teens. But she is in a better place now and not hurting anymore so that is a blessing! It is always harder for those left behind, but so much better for her, even though it is going to be tough, Jeramy has a strong family that will get through it!

I am saving alot of pictures that I haven't posted because I used alot of them for Christmas presents, so after XMAS and her birthday, I am sure there will be a flood of posts, since I usually turn this year's blog into a book for her so she can look back years from now and remember all of the things she did and we did growing up. 3 is going to be a hard age because we have to potty train, get rid of the night time binky, get her in her room, and not let her call the shots...it is just as much training her as it is training us, because we cave into her so much (and she knows it). Dr. says 4 will be much easier...we will see.