Round and round

I just had to share something that Danica has been doing lately. It seems like whenever she is getting tired but refuses to admit it she starts going hyperactive. Those of you with kids know what I mean! Well... one of the ways she gets out her energy is by spinning around and around and around. So here she is!

Cake time!

Ok, so we kinda bagged on the party for Danica. A couple of people couldn't make it, the weather was crappy and we just didn't feel like it. But we still did let her have cake.

And just like her first birthday she wasn't too messy. She did seem to like the taste of the icing though.
She just kind of poked at it which was pretty amusing.
I love this picture! Great job Jason for getting it. She never did blow them out. Her little blows are very weak but adorable.

Happy 2nd Birthday Danica!

So...yesterday Danica turned 2! I really can't believe how fast the time has gone. She brings such joy into our lives it is unbelieveable. And for those of you who didn't know, yesterday was my birthday too. I have left my 20's behind and am embarking on the 30's. Since I had to work on our birthday we didn't really celebrate it too much. We went out to dinner and I got beautiful roses (thank you Jason!). We are going to have a little B-day party for Danica on Sunday but we let her open up one present last night as a warm-up.
Here she is starting to rip into the present. She caught on pretty quickly. She does love to tear the flaps out of her books!
She started getting excited when she could see what was in it.
And here she is feeding her new baby! Thank you Uncle Tim and Auntie Monica! She loves it. And I like the size of it. Not too big, not to small. I'll definitely post some from her party on Sunday.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a quiet Thanksgiving here today. Just the three of us hanging out. I had to post a picture of Danica eating here dinner and showing us her teeth! It is one of her newest things. Just say "Show me your teeth!" and she grins like the little ham that she is.

Tomorrow Jason's cousin Randi and her family are coming over for a belated Thanksgiving. Hopefully the kids get along as well as they did last time! Hope you all have had a wonderful holiday!

Happy Halloween!

I hope that everyone had a happy halloween! Danica got to go to her first halloween party. My friend Kelli decided to have a party for the kids on halloween. And grownups did not have to dress up. (thanks Kelli!) Jason had a cold (courtesy of Danica) and was unable to attend. However, Dani and I had a great time. Danica made for a very cute lion.

Here she is "pinning" the tail on the cat! I was surprised that she did as well as she did with it. It helped that some of the other kids went first and so she saw what they were doing.
After the party we went to Kelli's in-law's church where they had a trunk or treat night. It was alot of fun. Some people decorated the back ends of their vehicles. Many were in costume. And best of all you don't have to worry about the safety of the candy! Danica loved walking around with her bag. Yet she wouldn't "roar" once while we were there.
Sitting in the back end of Kelli's car with Larissa the Ladybug and Aliyah the Monkey. Dani kept trying to put more candy from the car buckets into her bag. She does like to sort things. Showing off her sucker that she got. She was wearing glow necklaces that she did not want me to take off her so that is why they are in every picture of her!
Sitting on the kitchen floor digging through her loot. She kept taking it out of the bag and then putting it back in the back and then taking it out of the bag..... you get the idea. And she finally "roared" for Daddy just before we took the costume off and put her to bed.

Beautiful day!

It is absolutely gorgeous here today. There was no way that I could have Danica stay inside all day so we went to the park. Dani was all for it. As soon as she saw the playground equipment she started running towards it. She headed straight for the slide.

This picture is at the top of the slide before she went down.
This one is after she went down. Notice the bark dust on her forehead and nose. She has dirt all over her hands and knees. Apparently her track suit was made ultra-slippery with the little bit of water on the slide. She flew off the end and landed on her hands and knees with her face in the dirt. She thought it was great! She tried to get some of the dirt off her hands (such a girl! hates dirt on her hands!) and ran around to do it again. The second time I caught before she flew.
I just loved the sunlight lighting up her hair!

She was very adventurous and would go across the hanging bridge. She would carefully get on and then do some test bounces to see how it reacted. She gets nervous when other kids run across but likes to be on it by herself. All in all a good day at the park! Until we went home clearly before she was ready to judging by her crying and screaming in protest.

Pumpkin Patch

It was beautiful here on Monday so my friend Rachelle and I took Danica to a couple of pumpkin patches. We went to one and didn't find any pumpkins that we liked so we stopped at another one to actually buy a couple of pumpkins. The sun was getting a little low for pictures because it shined right in her eyes but I managed to get a couple of good ones.

Danica enjoyed stomping around the patch looking at the pumpkins. Fortunately it wasn't too muddy in the patch.
The girl dreams big. What more can I say.
This is where we actually bought pumpkins. All nice and worm free.
Yes that is drool on her shirt. She has been chewing on her hands lately. I think that she is working on molars. Check out her first little pigtails! She wanted to go into the bounce house but Mommy was mean and wouldn't let her. Too many bigger kids and I had a feeling she would get scared. Maybe next year.

Snapshots in MN

So here are a few pictures from MN. I'm sure you will notice the bibs that Danica has on. She was trying desperately to cut a tooth (for like 2 months!) and had started drooling in earnest. And of course I didn't pack any bibs along for her so we got to go buy some. But finally the tooth is through and no more drooling! Well, at least alot less anyway.


Here's Dani sitting with her cousin RoseAne. I would have gotten a picture of RoseAne's sister Emmarie as well but that would have involved Emmarie sitting still with I think is actually painful for her to do! Both RoseAne and Emmarie love their "husin" Danica.

Danica enjoyed running around outside at her Grandma and Grandpa Ryther's house! She is very enthusiastic when she runs. Legs flying everywhere.

Just look at the happy kids. Adrian (another cousin) and Danica were watching a movie while the moms and dads finished getting ready to go out to breakfast.

This was in the garage where the pinata was. Unfortunately you can't see the 4 or so other kids that were running around chasing balloons and each other. I challenge anyone who has a camera with any kind of delay to get a good picture of that! Danica was so excited. Balloons are pretty much her favorite thing right now. Maybe we'll have to take her to see a hotair balloon, she would freak out!

Gigglin' Girl

So to give a little background on this video clip... One afternoon, while in MN, Danica woke up from her nap in a really crabby mood. Like if anyone talked or tried to touch her she would start wailing. Well, it was her cousin Adrian's 3rd birthday that day and there was a pinata for all the little kids to enjoy. My father-in-law Don took Danica out to the garage to show her the pinata and see if it would cheer her up. Hilarity ensues.


And in case anyone doesn't know, "bonk" is what Jason and call it when we head butt Danica (gently of course).

I know, it's been awhile.

So I know that it has been forever since I have posted anything but I've been busy. Partly getting ready for our trip to MN and then actually being there. I'll have to break up everthing that's been going on into multiple posts or it would take me forever! That's what I get for putting this off. So to recap the past month... early in Sept. Jason was in his first triatholon out in Lincoln City, pictures and short story to follow in a future post. Danica got an ear infection 2 weeks before our trip, was declared "all clear" a day before we left and a week later, in the middle of our trip had a fever for 3 days so a quick trip to a Dr (out of pocket no less, $$) and we had a stronger antibotic that smells gross but she seems to enjoy. We went to MN to see my brother Tim get married to his lovely wife Monica! The wedding was beautiful and I have a new sister! Jason and I left Danica with my parents and went up north to Duluth, MN for 3 days and 2 nights (officially the longest we've ever been away from Danica). It was a welcome rest. We came back down to the cities to a happy little girl who had behaved wonderfully (at least that is what Mom and Dad told us). Two days later I took Dani to the Dr for her ear infection. Saturday we had an open house at the Ryther's (Jason's folks-for all of you who only know us and the Ryther's) and spent the afternoon and evening with members of both sides of his family. It was nice to be able to see everyone without having to do alot of driving ourselves. We spent the rest of the time in MN just hanging out with our families and celebrated Jason's nephew Adrian's 3rd birthday. We got back to Oregon on Thursday Oct 4 and have been getting back in the swing of things here. So there is a recap and I'll post some pictures with more stories soon.

Bless you!

This was too cute so I had to share. And of course I missed it because I was at work. Danica was having a hard time getting to bed on Saturday night. Some due to not wanting to go and some due to neighbors with loud car stereos. Jason was getting ready for bed but could hear that she was still awake at 9:45. So he was down in our bedroom and he let out a couple of sneezes. And then he hears "B'ess oo" coming from down the hall. How cute is that! She almost always says bless you if you sneeze and sometimes when you cough. She also wants you to say it to her when she sneezes, or fake sneezes. And since she has a little cold right now the sneezes are frequent and yucky. But I would rather her have the cold now than when we are in MN.

Grandparents visit!

Ok, so I know that these are about a month old but I had to share some pics of when Danica's Grandma and Grandpa Sturm came out to visit.

This is Danica enjoying her first all-by-herself icecream cone. She liked it so much she wasn't about to let it go. And she did finish the entire cone.

Enjoying some beach time with Daddy. She definitely liked the beach alot more this year than last. She doesn't mind the wind at all!
Danica loved to walk down the beach holding Grandma and Grandpa's hands! She especially liked going down by the water's edge with Grandpa and seeing the waves come in.
One of Danica's favorite activities is reading and Grandpa was always had a willing lap for her to sit on. One thing that we had to do was ride the carousel at the Riverfront park. Danica is really starting to enjoy riding the horses. It used to take her a warmup round before she would start to like it. Danica very quickly got used to having Grandma and Grandpa around. She was very cranky for a few days after they left.

Playing with Kasen

Last week we went to dinner at Jason's cousin Randi's house. They have a little boy Kasen (I hope that I spelled that right) who is a month older than Danica. The two of them got along really well and enjoyed playing together! Kasen was really good at bouncing on his ball.
Danica sure liked trying to bounce! But she didn't quite get the hang of it. More practice is needed.

First Camping Trip

So two weeks ago, Jason and I took Danica on her first camping trip. We decided to do just one night because we didn't know how she (or us!) would do. For the most part she did really well. We went up to Mt. Hood and stayed at a nice campsite. And by nice I mean they had an outhouse and a well for water. These are two important things (at least when I camp)! Danica was having a blast runnig around the small campground. She is definitely not going through a shy faze because she would run up to the other campers and give them hugs. She also enjoyed playing "football" with the other kids. The families were all really nice and thought that she was adorable. She even slept great in the tent! (unlike her mom who got an altitude headache) Dusty came with and did better than expected. She was staked to the ground and just kept watching Dani run around with the other kids and wishing she could too. Of course Dusty did not like laying on the ground because she is a prissy dog and doesn't want to be in the dirt.

Danica would not let go of her sippy cup while we were there. And of course she has a Nalgene one!
Sitting in her backpack looking at the view of Mt Hood with Daddy!
Sitting around the campsite reading with Mommy. Next item on the list is a Danica sized camp chair! She collapsed this one trying to get out it! Bit of a scary moment for her (and Mommy too!)

Here goes nothing!

Okay everyone. I am going to actually attempt to blog. I don't know how long it will last but I gotta give it a try. Hopefully it works out well for sharing more recent pictures and stories about Danica. I guess we will see!