The rest of March and April

Much of the rest of March, I spent sewing. I was working on making baby blanket sets that I presented to the two MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) groups at my church. Initially my goal was to make 25 of them. Then I thought maybe 30 would be better. During that month, I sold 6 sets prior to the presentation so I ended up making 36 blanket sets that month, which for me is quite a lot. I was fortunate to have help watching Courtney. My mother in law watched her in the afternoons during their visit and my mom came out a few times a couple of weeks later so that I could get more sewing in. I was happy to achieved my sewing goals. The presentations went well and helped me get my name out there if nothing else. Oh and now I have some ready to go inventory should anyone order the patterns I already sewed. It's been fun having a little hobby to do from time to time, but I am thankful that it is not too overwhelming or consuming.

At the beginning of April, Christopher left for 10 days for his annual real estate cruise. It is interesting to see how differently Courtney reacted this year, which I expected since there is a huge difference between a 5 month old and an 18 month old. She asked where he was more and got to learn a few new words in the process like 'boat' and 'bon voyage'...she had a bit of trouble saying that one though. She handled it well, but boy was I exhausted and ready for a bit of a break by the time he got home. Courtney had gotten sick near the end of Christopher's trip and ended up having a fever for 12 days. It perplexed her pediatricians and became a bit disconcerting (it never seems like a good thing to perplex dr's). After 4 visits to the dr and various tests, they still couldn't come up with much so they opted to give her a shot of antibiotics to see what would happen. Within 24 hours her fever was gone. Apparently her tests results indicated that shouldn't have fixed the problem, but we were very glad it did and that no hospital visit was required.

At the end of April, we enjoyed a few visits with Gigi (Courtney's great grandma on my mom's side). Courtney really enjoyed her time with her and has since included Gigi in her prayers every night. While I say nearly all of the prayer, she always reminds me to pray for Papa, Gigi, and sometimes daddy too (although I do pray for other people as well, this is apparently her current 'list'). Courtney's vocabulary has been growing by leaps and bounds and her personality seems to be coming out more and more. She is a sweet, funny, helpful, and detail oriented little girl. It is so interesting to see the characteristics that she has from both her dad and I. Here are some pictures of the things she is into lately.

Still loves, loves, loves reading

 She has a thing for scarves...and drama ;)

 Playing with her hair or my hair. She does this really often especially when she is tired.

Sitting or standing on anything she can.

Dancing...she has come up with some new arm movements.

Climbing :-O

She loves her baby

Back in March

In March, Christopher's parents came out for a visit. During their trip, we took Courtney to the zoo for the first time. She was less interested in the animals than I had hoped. I think she called most of them 'doggy'. Since we bought an annual pass, she will get a chance to learn to love it though. She certainly enjoyed being with all her grandparents that day.

Her sunglasses for the 2 seconds that she wore them

I don't get what the big deal is with all these weird creatures

Cruising around with grandma and grandpa

 She loves her daddy

Love that little face!

It's all about the snacks.

Clearly I love when she wears Papa's hat as I seem to take a lot of pictures of it. My little cowgirl.

Walking with Nana and daddy. All done for today!

I may be the worst blogger ever

How is it that my last post was almost 5 months ago now??? That is like an eternity when your kid is nearing 21 months old. Sigh...how to catch up on the last few months. Well I will write a few separate posts on things that have happened in the last few months and hope that will suffice. I will also have to set an alarm on my calendar to remind me to post more often. It is so hard to not just get sucked into the every day life stuff and take time out to document it. At least I have been doing decently with taking pictures and videos.

So back to February...at the end of January my whole family met up in Union, Washington. My parents booked a place through their timeshare and we were able to book an additional unit for the time we were there. With the kiddos there are now enough of us that there is no way we were all fitting into one place. On this trip, my brother and his fiance Kristin announced their engagement so the family continues to expand. The trip was lovely and didn't scare me away from Washington in the winter at all. It did rain some, but not excessively. We were able to go on a hike in what I felt like was an enchanted forest. It was gorgeous. Unfortunately Courtney wasn't too happy with being cold so she and daddy didn't hike as long as the rest of us. She also caught a cold from cousin Caleb on the trip and then I caught it from her, so we were slightly miserable by the time we came home. However, the time we were there was great just spending time with family. Makes us miss them all the more once we come home.

See what I mean by enchanted forest?

 Jon and Kristin :)

 

I was sad Courtney and I had to miss the little road trip around town, but we weren't feeling well that day. The scenery looked amazing!

Sad these are both a bit blurry, but Court enjoyed wearing Papa's cowboy hat.

 These girls love their books!