Our Last Sunbeam

In January 2014 Holly began attending Primary at church. That means she "graduated" from the toddler nursery and into the "big kid" class. The littlest big kid class is called Sunbeams.  Those three-year-olds are always the most wiggly children in the room, but they bring a lot of cheerful light--just like real sunbeams.

Holly took a little bit of time to warm up and stay with her teachers (some weeks more than others), but she really did love being in her large class with many of her friends and was always happy to wave to her teachers, Sister Slaugh and Sister Peters, when she saw them elsewhere in the church. 

(I have to make a note on this hair of Holly's. It's like feathers, I tell ya; thin and wispy. On this day, I think she had a pony tail that was falling out by the time the photos were taken.)

And here are just a few snapshots of Holly from January 2014:

Learning time on the iPad, for sure.

A cutie-pie shot of Holly waiting for everyone else to finish at a museum:

Finally, an action shot of Holly riding her scooter to preschool at her friend Max's house. During the 2012-2014 school year Holly and I participated in a co-op preschool with 5 other moms. We took turns teaching preschool at our own homes two mornings a week.

This photo prompted my mom to ask, "Think she has enough patterns on?" It is a pretty colorful and cheerful ensemble. That's how I would also describe Holly's personality. She adds a lot of color and cheer to our family. 

December 2013 Moments Not to Be Forgotten

I got my first smartphone in November 2013. While I sometimes felt like the last person to finally get one, I really knew that I wasn't. I'm typing this in February 2015 and Damon is still a hold-out.

Anyway, once you always have a camera on hand, the photos multiply. It's so easy to quickly snap a photo of those cute and funny things your kids are doing. It's so easy to make a record of so much. It's a treasure and a great resource for remembering the past--a gift to a tardy blogger like myself, but it can also be a little overwhelming. How does one create a post, a story, for each one of these adorable, silly, creative, fun moments? Answer: One doesn't. One just lumps them all together in a post that can capture a dozen individual (or small group) moments.

Holly as Hello Kitty, as rendered by big sister Maggie:

We finally said goodbye to our trusty red wagon, a hand-me-down gift from our White Salmon neighbors the Andersons. It was warped and troubled after too many times being out in the rain and too many trips loaded full of kids, blankets, rocks, dirt, patio pavers, or rummage sale donations,

Three cute kids all dressed up for church. (Not sure where that 4th cute kid was.)

 You've heard of a jack-in-the-box? How about sisters-in-a-box?

If I remember correctly, she fell asleep in the car and then transferred to the Jo-Ann's shopping cart.

I made these baby Jesus crafts with Holly's preschool friends:

And these paper plate Santa masks:

Silly Holly, all wrapped up in our Christmas blanket:

In early December, we visited the annual Christmas Creche exhibit. It's a display of hundreds of Nativity scenes donated to the event by people in the greater Silicon Valley area. It is hosted by the Menlo Park Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in partnership with some of the neighboring stakes, including ours here in Sunnyvale. We were not permitted to photograph the many wooden, ceramic, glass, metal, and other scenes. It is an impressive collection set up in several beautifully decorated rooms throughout a church building. Small musical performances are on-going in one room and there are concerts by local choirs and musical groups in the chapel each evening.

We were allowed to photograph in the children's room, where a marvelous tent was set up with dress-up clothes, I believe with the intent to recreate characters from the Nativity, or at least from Bible times. My children loved it, especially Adah. She didn't want to leave, and when we returned in 2014, she made a beeline for the dress-ups.

 

OCD? Nah!

When she got started, I was a little worried that Holly was a bit OCD. But, as you can see, she started mixing up the colors a little.

 Cute, funny girl.

Our Own Fancy Nancy(s)

In so many ways, Holly and Maggie are really just two peas in a pod. They both love pink. They love twirly skirts and bows, princesses, unicorns, butterflies. You know, all that girly stuff. I think every little girl goes through this stage around age 3 or 4. Adah did, but she grew out of it. Maggie has progressed a bit, but never moved all the way past. And now that she has Holly, she's got a little doll to dress up and cohort to go along with her.

Here's one of the latest fashion creations of Miss Maggie. There are three small bows attached to the headband. She's wearing fluffy pink chiffon hair scrunchies on her ankles. Notice the lanyard (typically used for name badges or work IDs) holding up the skirt.

 

It was attached (or accented?) in back with a large pink bow.

Hmm...it appears that in this picture Holly was a less-than-willing accomplice. I think she was ready to change and I made her pose for one more photo.

I love watching these sisters together.

Holly's Haircut

Holly has the most perfect shade of blonde hair, but it really won't grow and thicken worth beans. We tried to grow out her bangs this summer, but finally gave up. There were just too many different layers and lengths and it required too much daily effort to keep it out of her eyes.

 

 

It was getting fairly long in the back, but it just looked scraggly all the time since it's so thin. So, we decided to go back to bangs and trim the back to be the same length as her front layer.

Before:

After:

Pretty cute, eh?

Now she actually looks like someone cares about her, instead of just being a little rag-a-muffin every day.

 

Bottom Bunk for Holly

When we returned from our trip to Utah, Damon had the bunk bed all set up in Gunnar's and Holly's room. I took pictures of Holly on her first night in her truly big-girl bed. Up until now she's been in a toddler bed.  

I didn't realize until getting ready to do this post, however, that it was also Gunnar's first time in a truly big-boy bed! He's also been in a toddler bed all these years. In fact, it was his height that prompted me to finally make the switch and get them out of those toddler beds.  Still, the night we were back from Utah we were still one twin mattress short of having enough for all four kids, so Gunnar was sleeping on the top bunk, but on an undersized crib mattress! Now I wish we'd gotten a photo of THAT. If you look carefully, you can see that the bed above Holly is not quite right. 

And now, just to show what a sassy little grown-up girl she is:

 

Our Little Lady(bug) Turns Three

This fuzzy little girl turned THREE at the end of May!

Her birthday was on a Saturday, so everyone was in their jammies for opening a few pre-party presents. In fact, they stayed in their PJs until after lunch. Knowing that they'd be putting on swimming suits for the party, I just couldn't convince them to get dressed any sooner.

Holly LOVES Hello Kitty. This is a MegaBlocks (like Legos) Hello Kitty schoolhouse that we gave her. It was a big hit.

. . . as were the other fun things she got later at her pool party. Her Wangsgard cousins & uncle and her preschool friends' family came to our neighborhood pool for swimming, hot dogs, corn on the cob, watermelon, and birthday cake. I was apparently too busy swimming to take any pictures of the pool or any of the party-goers.

Well, here's one of Holly's buddy Danielle watching the gift-opening. Here Holly was opening an Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked DVD from Grandma and Grandpa. That movie got such serious playtime in the weeks following her birthday that at one point I had to ban it until July! The kids all love it.

Holly loves ladybugs, so I made her a ladybug cake. (If I remember correctly) I baked three 8-inch rounds and used two layers for the body. Then I cut the third cake in half and trimmed it to make the 2-layer head. I found chocolate-dipped Oreos for the spots and covered the head with crushed Oreo crumbs. Marshmallow-and-mini-chocolate-chip eyes & straw antennae finished the job.

Oh, and the frosting was a regular buttercream that I colored with a little food coloring and strawberry freezer jam. So, the cake was chocolate with a strawberry frosting. Yum! And, it was the perfect combination of three things Holly loves: chocolate, ladybugs, and pink.

The birthday girl blew out all her candles, & we all had a wonderful time celebrating our little Holly.

 

Coast Camping Trip: Coastal Treasures

From our campsite at Plaskett Creek Campground we could hear the ocean waves. It was just a short walk out of the campground, across Highway 1, through this meadow, 

and down this trail to get to the ocean. (Gosh, I guess that didn't sound short! Really, it wasn't far.) 

 

We spent a couple of hours down near the beach exploring on the sand . . .

. . . and on the rocks.

I spent a long time just sitting in the sun on a rock and the children kept bringing me the interesting rocks, shells, seaweed, and parts of sea creatures that they found. I felt like a queen being presented with gifts. Damon kept telling me to get up and look around, but I told him I didn't have to since they were bringing everything to me!

Holly loves ladybugs right now and she was in heaven because they were everywhere on the rocks and sand. I'm sure she spent much of her time at the beach with a handful of 3 or 4 ladybugs, always reluctant to let them go.

I found this one creeping along the sand when I did take a stroll down the beach.

I knew that we were near a place called Jade Cove, so we spent a lot of time trying to find green rocks that could be jade. We're not sure whether or not any of it was genuine, but we did find a lot of rocks with green veins in them. Gunnar found this big rock with so much green in it that he wanted to keep the whole thing and carried it all the way back to our campsite! He's a strong and determined little boy.

I always love seeing how much my family enjoys being at a shoreline and can entertain themselves for so long when surrounded by water, rocks, and beautiful landscape.