This sweetie little boy is now a three year old. Holy smokes. It was a simple and sweet little party in the backyard with a couble decker cookie cake and a tableful of presents.

I am one lucky lucky mom, and I realize it everyday.

My sister and her clever husband are in town so we are pretending to be on vacation and enjoying Hawaii like tourists. I’ll check in once we’re back to real life next week.

xo
elle

There seems to be no limit to the things that you know how to say and do. You’ll repeat any word or phrase that we ask you too (this morning it was, “rolling with the homies”, “alright stop, collaborate and listen”, and other funny rap songs. You’re always astounding us with your new vocabulary and your Dad and I have had to start spelling things out to one another so that you don’t know what we’re talking about. Current catch phrases include, “that’s funny right there”, “that’s not funny right there”, “breakfast? yucky!”, “going to school? yucky!”, “it’s my birfday? yucky!” (everything is yucky sometimes), “gigi, not nice. not nice gigi.”, “where dada go? Dada at work?” “rub a back mama”, “mama, nuk a’dis!”, “you do it”, and in increasing frequency, “I do it myself”. Your skill set has improved by leaps and bounds. You can undress and mostly redress yourself. You are part Spiderman because you can climb things rather quickly (a 5 foot stack of pallets in 15 seconds and the stove with the help of a chair are examples of recent feats) and you love being so tall when you’re up there. When you’re done with a meal you know to put your dishes in the sink and with each little accomplishment you want to inform us and celebrate. We always comply. We are so proud of your abilities and your curiosity.

You are pretty much a Mama’s boy- you like having me around and can’t really go to sleep without me tucking you in half a dozen times. I don’t really mind. Although- sometimes you do call me into your room after bedtime (and several tucking-ins) in a panicked tone and then quietly say, “rub my back” when I arrive. You know what you want. You also adore your Dad and often ask me where he is if he’s not with us. You like to do what he’s doing. You love to be involved and help in the projects that we’re working on and you insist that we explain what we’re doing as we go along.

You are a picky eater, and I wish that I could blame it on you, but it’s really my fault for using cheerios and fish crackers as the first reponders to your toddler cries. Foods that you will eat: pizza, crackers, cookies, cereal (you always demand milk and a spoon), cake, candy, popcorn, nuts, cheesy roll ups, chicken nuggest, fries, dired fruit, raisins, yogurt, peanut butter sandwiches, donuts, cookies, and most recently fresh pineapple and apples. Everything else you usually reject without hardly a glance. We’ve been blending fruits and veggies into smoothies for you to give you something healthy for at least half of your life.

For a three year old you have lots of hobbies. They include putting stickers and band-aids on yourself, watching “nudies” (your adorable name for movies) on Mom’s iPhone, playing with cars and trucks, and figuring out how things work.

And you love the trampoline. We went to visit Grandma and Gramdpa (you know them as grammie and gram gram) last summer and played on their trampoline everyday. When we came home we bought one too. You spend some time out there almost everyday and love pretending to be a dinosaur. This might be a good place to tell you that you’re kind of a wimp too. I mean, we knew that we were jinxing you by naming you Danger- but we could never have forseen this. You’ll climb on things and run fast and fall down and not cry- but if Ginger leans on you, you’ll fall over sobbing that she’s hurting you. If she holds onto your shoulder to stabalize herself you’ll turn red and in face and cry. If she falls on you on the trampoline you’ll lay there under her, not moving, shouting to me for help. I guess your little sister is your kryptonite.

We feel so lucky and blessed to be your parents and it is exciting to rediscover the joys of the world with you. Here’s to another hundred or so years cute pants.

ps. As requested, I am now going to the kitchen to make your HUGE HUGE cookie in place of a birthday cake.
pps. look how far you’ve come! When you were two, one, and the day you were born

love you a million times over, and more.
xxxoooooxoxoxoOOOOOOOOOOOxxxoxoo
mama

Jack’s birthday fell on a Sunday this year so we got to church early and took some photos and they had a party for him in nursery (with treats!). He woke up from his after-church-nap cranky but he perked up rather quickly when he realized that he got to open presents and eat cake. Speaking of cake- I really wanted to do something special because my Mom was the queen of great cakes and it was something that I always loved as a little kid about my birthdays. I am not really equiped to bake here (no mixer, flour, cake decorating supplies, baking pans…….) but I still wanted to actually bake the cake so I bought a really cool Wilton pan and boxed cake mix and canned frosting. I LOVED the results of the cake and it was so easy (and pretty!) with the Wilton pan. Jack got lots of awesome presents (a ukulele, working disco ball, fisher-price record player, noah’s ark, and lots of rad (and needed) clothes.

I love these birthday things. Can’t wait to celebrate them at least once a year.

She was born early the morning of August 23rd, a short 30 minutes after we arrived at the hospital- no epidural, hospital gown barely on, my Doctor making it in just in time for the final few pushes. It was ideal.
She has long eyelashes and dark dark hair. Sometimes she looks like her brother but most of the time she looks like Ginger. We spent our entire time in the hospital trying to pin down her middle name and hastily “decided” on darling when the birth certificate needed to be filled in- it is possible that we may change it.
She has long skinny toes and feet and heart shaped lips. She sleeps and eats and burps and yawns and messes her pants and then repeats that cycle. We are in love with her.

so. much. more to come

xoXXXOOOOxoxo
elle

*subject to change

I know that all ya’ll already know that Mr. Jack celebrated his first birthday (really, it’s his second, his birth day was his first birthday, right?) this weekend. We all spent the whole day together as a family. We visited the Gulf Breeze Zoo and it was bigger than I thought a little regional zoo would be- and the spider monkies were so awesome! There was a little baby spider monkey that I just couldn’t get enough of.

Afterwards we went home and had a little party out on the front porch. Jack really wasn’t all that interested in eating his cake or opening his presents (or wearing his party hat). He had a few bites of his cake and watched us open all of his presents. Then we all went inside and watched Toy Story. He really wasn’t interested in that either, but we wanted to watch it since his favorite bedtime story is about Buzz Lightyear.

If you’re a hardcore Jack Danger fan, stick around for the tiny video Garth took.
Here’s to dozens and dozens more.

xo
elle

happy birthday! It was just a year ago that we were preparing the house for you and awaiting your delayed arrival. You were not in a hurry to leave your comfortable home- but you arrived a mere 2 hours before your visiting grandparents had to leave to catch their return flight. You were such a teeny tiny thing then! You were born at Pensacola Naval hospital at 3:48 in the afternoon.

And since then you have grown.

And grown…

And now, you are a little man. You are expressing yourself more than ever. Besides saying “mama” and “dada”, we have also heard you say your own versions of dance, shoes, and toes. You also use the baby sign for “more” whenever you want anything- especially jelly beans. You are curious about what everything is called and we wander around the house or the neighborhood telling you the names of things as you point to them.

Your Father has spent the last two months modeling the chicken dance for you while humming the accompanying song. The rewards of his diligence can be seen a dozen times per day. You do the dance on cue when either of us hums the song. You do the dance when anyone says the word “dance”. You also use your sign for “more” and then do the dance- which is your way of requesting that we hum the song. The chicken dance has brought more joy to this household than any other polka tune I can think of.

You like to be chased and often wander off around the house just so that a concerned parent will follow. You love to open and close doors, and get so excited when your hands are held and you can walk- although if you really want to get somewhere, you’d rather crawl. You’re not too adventurous with food still- if something has a texture other than crunchy or pureed, you generally just push it right out of your mouth- cheese and bananas included. The mess you’ve been making when left to your own devices with a tray full of food and a spoon are exquisite. My next task is to teach you which end of the spoon we use for eating.

Sleepy time is still not your favorite thing, although most nights you’re ready for it when it comes. A few nights a week you still like to wake us several times a night to check to see if we’re still around- and it’s not uncommon for you to think that 3am is the perfect time to be awake. You get rather upset when we remind you in our sleep-walking state that it’s still night time. You just can’t believe that the whole world isn’t ready to play.

You are such a social little man. When we are out in public you often insist of waving to every person that walks by- starting from the point when you first see them, which could be dozens of yards away. You will try to get their attention by saying things too if they don’t notice your hand waving in the air. The majority of people out there can’t resist your little smile and will stop and say hello, which just makes your day. You love talking with and seeing people face to face.

You’ve been fascinated recently with light fixtures and fans. You want to touch them and watch the fans spin. You’ve also been fascinated with your toes, and continue to be curious about all manner of dangerous things. If there is anything within a 10 foot radius of you that can cut, smash, choke, or bite you- it’s the one thing that you want to play with. Your continued fixation with eating paper, and chewing on the bottoms of our flip flops, has me sighing on a regular basis.

And, you also could spend hours in the bathroom opening and closing the sliding shower doors. Last week I watched you crawl down the hall and by the time that I made my way down to find you, you had opened the shower door while your Dad was taking a shower, and you’d been soaked from the falling water.

We are so blessed to be your parents and get to be the ones to witness your sweet life. We can’t wait for all of the wonderful and challenging things to come.
xoxo
mama

Also- you share a birthday with your cousin Samantha Jane- happy 4th birthday girlie! We love and miss you!

Garth is 31 today. He is such a super person, and that makes me one lucky girl. He woke up this morning on his birthday, made Jack a bottle, then let me sleep in and brought me hot chocolate in bed. Gosh, if only everyday was his birthday!

love you, Mr. Awesome.
Mrs. Awesome.

Miss Kaitlyn like to take pictures. This summer she would borrow my camera regularly and snap photos of the family and the lovely time that we were having together. There are Uncles and cousins blurily waving at the camera and photos of feathers in the dirt and toes on the playground. My favorite photos were when Katie turned the camera on herself. They are so sweet and Katie-like and just plain honest.

Little Miss Kaitlyn is turning 5 years old today.
I can’t hardly believe that it was five years ago that we were all lounging in the hospital waiting room, eager to meet the newest member of our family.

We love you muches Kaitlyn. Hugs to you from Aunt Laura and Uncle Garth and slobbery kisses from cousin Jack

Hope your day is filled with all of those things that you love.

Especially sleep and pizza.

ok, it’s what 29 and 352 days looks like since I took it last week. But I pretty much haven’t changed too much since then. I almost posted this one, but then I though, “dang Laura! You’re 30! Don’t start getting all serious now!“. So here you have it: my 30 year old kissy face.

So what did my 29 year old self look like? I went and dug up some older photos of birthdays past for you (but mostly for me!).

Last year I woke up on my birthday in the middle of the wilderness with a whole bunch of Young Women from my church. Ahhh…girls camp! The evening of my birthday, Garth rode his motorcycle into the center of our campground (while all the young ladies swooned) and celebrated with me by bringing me a vegetarian hot dog.

In 2007 I was newly engaged to Garth and we took the opportunity to chaperone the Senior class of TPHS to Disneyland for the day. I got a sub for my classes and spent the day at the happiest place on earth! The super kids from my 4th period class called me on my cell phone and sang happy birthday to me while I was waiting in line for the teacup ride.
p.s. This is a photo that Garth took because the day after this my darling Canon D30 was swiped from off of my desk at work. All of my Disneyland photos were on the CF card. It still irks me to this day. Gr.

I spent my 27th birthday painting a mural for the Spokane Valley Red Robin and missing someone who wasn’t around. 2006 was the year that I recorded a video journal everyday, but rather than share that 7 minutes of pining about sailors who don’t call and midnight singing, I’ll post the process video of the mural.

My 26th birthday? I had a film camera and haven’t transfered all of those over yet- but from my journal I was able to glean that I spoke in church, and my Mom helped me pack up my Everett apartment before taking me out to lunch at a mexican restaurant so I could get a chimichanga. I love those.

In 2004 I photographed myself leaving the house every morning and noted the time and where it was that I was headed. This photo was taken on my 24th birthday at 8:19am and I was on my way to Veteran’s Memorial Arena to attend my college graduation. I had just completed student teaching the previous day and the San Diego Rock ‘n Roll marathon the previous weekend.

It’s enchanting for me to see how much life has brought me each year. Blessed am I. Perhaps tomorrow I can show you the real real 30.

till then,
laura elizabeth hawker plouzek