Baby's Photo Op

For Kroon Day Allison received a little necklace with the letter 'A' on it and a star from her Auntie Brittney. She loves the necklace and wears it as often as she can. Last Sunday I decided to try to get a picture of her wearing her necklace for Auntie Brittney. Allison decided Baby needed to be in the pictures, too. You should have heard her coaching Baby during these photos....

We did get a picture of Allison showing her necklace. And Baby was so well behaved, looking right at the camera! Or close to it at least!

Allison was talking to Baby about smiling - and about to take Baby's pacifier out for the picture. Unfortunately, that didn't go so well, so Allison had to hold baby and console her on the loss of the pacifier. It is rough what we have to go through for pictures sometimes!

Allison eventually decided Baby was hungry, that was why she was crying. At that point I asked her if we were done taking pictures. To which she replied. 'Yes. Thank you so much, Mommy.' I think I'm up for that anytime!

Bike Season 2012

After the crazy spring snow the weather cleared for Saturday and it was a beautiful 65 degree day with sunshine! We decided to make the most of it and head up to Salem for errands along with a family bike ride. This was a momentous ride - Allison decided she wanted to ride her own bike. She made it about a 1/4 mile & back. And it was painfully slow for Mark and I but we're excited to see her wanting to ride! When she was ready for a break she rode in the chariot and we explored the park as much as we could - following different paths until we got turned around due to flooding. We're looking forward to many more rides. No pictures with the bikes this time - I was trying out a new toy - a tripod I just got. I actually found the freebie light weight tripod they included works great for this sort of trip! We enjoyed the spring flowers - and patches of melting snow.

Snow Day Round 2!

Last Thursday morning we woke up to about 6 inches of snow in our yard. I know that is minuscule compared to what has been falling in Alaska but it is an awful lot for us around here! School was cancelled (and therefore daycare as well). Mark ended up taking the day off of work and I worked from home for the morning before heading in for the afternoon. We were up and out to enjoy the snow bright and early at 8 am. It was a beautiful sunny day!

We took a walk to the park. Allison eventually rode in the sled but not without trying to pull Daddy to the park herself!

Mark & Allison cleared the snow off of the driveway. Allison carried her little garden shovel around all morning. Shoveling snow became her favorite thing! She sat for a long time just dumping snow into the stream of run off running down the road.

Allison was in the middle of shoveling snow and helping Mark every step of the way!

Yup, she loves her now!

Snow Day Round I

Last Tuesday Mark mentioned there might be snow on Wednesday night. Imagine my surprise when I woke up Wednesday morning to see about 2 inches of snow covering everything! And it was currently snowing. It continued snowing all day (which is rare around here) although not much else accumulated during the day. When we came home Allison was really excited to get out and 'squish' snow - she loved stomping around in the front yard. And much to her delight the snow continued to fall into the evening and started accumulating again overnight....

Odd

Allison has a tendency to like to put things in odd places. She's been hiding her vitamins behind the nuts in the pantry. Along with a headband. And a book. I found two empty toy containers from the dentist tucked into separate compartments on my shoe rack. I think I might have finally figured out where she gets this trait from....I found this in my kitchen. It took me awhile to figure out what it was. Can you guess what is going on here? My husband is softening butter to make cookies by propping butter up in a mug rack stowed carefully under one of the under-the-counter lights in our kitchen. It is a good thing he can make amazing cookies!

St. Patrick's Day Recap

I was pretty excited to have St Patrick's Day fall on a Saturday this year - it meant we could celebrate in style. We began the day with Lucky Charms for breakfast. This was Allison's first time eating Lucky Charms. They were a hit. Especially the marshmallows. Except she left a little pile of marshmallows when she was done. That must have been the Curtis side of her....a Kroon could never leave them behind!

After breakfast and a lazy morning we headed into Corvallis to accomplish two things: buy some sort of Irish bread for dinner and get a new bike helmet for Allison. We picked up bread at Great Harvest - who was also offering a free cookie to anyone who would dance a jig. Allison started to jig but then realized a bunch of people were looking at her. Apparently she was cute enough they decided to give her a cookie anyhow. It was a big cookie. So I had to help her with it - it was tough but I took one for the team!

Then we pulled her bike out - and lo and behold she was willing to wear her bike helmet. She had been refusing for a few weeks now because we tried to put it on one day over pig tails and apparently it was adjusted too small so it 'hurt.' But on this particular day it was fine. So Allison rode around downtown where they were getting ready for a 15K race. She loved all of the excitement and was not happy to leave the party when it was time to head home for a nap.

After nap time we had friends over to enjoy corned beef and cabbage (I used this recipe), green jello, Irish potato bread, spinach salad and green cupcakes (of course). I couldn't have asked for a more fun day! And thanks to my friend, Natalie, we had a mini history lesson over dinner - where we were reminded St Patrick was actually not Irish - just captured and enslaved by Irish pirates - and he wanted to go back and share the gospel with them. That is definitely something worth celebrating!

Stylin'

Allison absolutely adores her buddy, Bekah. So it wasn't surprising that when Bekah asked if she could do her own hair Allison followed her behind the closed bathroom door. Allison was absolutely enthralled with watching Bekah do her own hair. For some reason she doesn't find me this exciting. I can't imagine why not? Eventually Bekah asked to do Allison's hair, too. Allison sat very quietly while Bekah combed her hair. It was pretty cute to watch these two!

And for anyone who is curious, within 10 minutes of getting home Allison was asking if she could do her hair. Thankfully her skills are no where near those of Bekah so she loses interest pretty quick!

Spring Sledding

Our good friends, the Wagners, invited us to join them for a weekend in Sun River. We were pretty excited to go and see all of the snow which had been coming down in recent weeks. The snow conditions were less than perfect on the day we went sledding but we still had fun. And we enjoyed a snowy drive home (or at least I did, since I wasn't driving). Here are some of my favorite fun in the snow pictures.

Allison liked trying to pull people in sleds....it started with Bekah...

We found a fun little snow tunnel Allison liked to slide down and then climb back up again. It took her awhile to get into the sledding so we spent a bit of time here.

Allison started getting into the sledding - she wanted to ride with Miss Jodi & Mr Nate for starters! Jodi is quickly becoming one of Allison's favorite people. Especially after this weekend where they were car buddies.

Ah yes, and then Allison tried to pull Jodi up the mountain. They didn't get far....

So Bekah tried to help!

Eventually Allison started sledding on her own. Face first. Then backwards. Our girl is quite the dare devil!

Happy sledding girl!

Mr. Brent's Wedding

Saturday was a very special day around here! Not only was it Kroon Day but our dear friend, Brent, got married. We couldn't have been more excited for Brent and his new wife Ronda. Especially a certain 2-year-old girl who was their flower girl. She loved every minute of it, especially the dress (which was made by Ronda's Mom, isn't it perfect?!?).

Here is a behind the scenes look at the glamorous life of a flower girl...killing time between pictures and the ceremony. Do you think she could have gotten any closer to the screen?

Mark was in the wedding as well. I of course had to get a few pictures of the coordinating Father & Daughter. I do love these two. Dearly.

Allison was thrilled to have her cousin Logan in the wedding with her. He was the ring bearer. I'm pretty sure they helped each other get down the aisle. They walked up together so well. Logan was Mr. Responsible and took his job very seriously. He managed to stay up on stage a bit longer than Allison and was definitely less distracting.

At the end of the day Allison took it as a personal responsibility to wave goodbye to all the guests while we waited for Mark & the other guys to gather up their rented vests & ties. Yeah, she won just a few hearts this way!

And when cars & people were not coming by she took ever opportunity to twirl - nothing like a perfect twirling dress to make a 2-year-old happy!

All in all it was a wonderful day celebrating some beautiful people. And chasing a crazy 2-year-old who thought she owned the place and loved every ounce of attention she got!

Happy Kroon Day!!!

From our donut loving family to yours! Don't know what Kroon Day is? Read all about it here.

February Snow Day

We finally had a free weekend over President's Day weekend. I was determined to find some snow just incase it was our last chance for awhile. We drove to the top of Mary's Peak and found a few measly inches....not much to get excited about....unless you are 2 or 4 like Allison & Logan. The kids had a great time and we enjoyed getting out of the house & rain for a bit!

Logan loves snowball fights...until his Mom and / or Aunt peg him in the face. But he was a good sport about it all!

At the top of our (very) small sledding hill).

Cousins riding together!

Allison loved it!

Mark going for a ride!

He made the best of it!

Mark eventually ran up and down with Logan a few times to let him go 'faster' - much to his delight!