Had to Share...

I just can't get over how much Sadie looks like her Daddy!

You can't really see her chin dimple in this picture... but it is there!

Newport Bay Aquarium

While at the coast for Lantz's birthday, we took Sadie to the Aquarium...

She LOVED it!

Her favorite was the "Puffer" Birds! She was giggling, pointing and calling out "splash-splash" as she watched the birds play in the water. I think she could have stood there all day, if we would have let her.

She got to see Sea Lions, Otters, Starfish, Jelly Fish, Humuhumunukunuku Apua'a and other tropical fish, Tiger Fish, Eels, Turtles, Sting Rays and Sea Cucumbers as well. I am sure I missed something, but that is all I can remember for now. Plus we visited the Under-Sea Gardens with Sharks. She had a great time in the dark under the water. She even had to check the map to make sure we were still on track. :)

(I think she may have been trying to figure out how to get back to the Puffers!)

Upon leaving the Under-Sea Gardens, you exit into a small Gift Shop (convenient for the Aquarium) and Sadie found the stuffed animals, which she has taken a real shine too in the last month or so. Anyway, she proceeds to want to pick up everything and gently lay it on the ground... turtles, sharks, sting rays, jellyfish, etc... that is until she found the Puffer Bird. She picked him up and bolted for the door! She must really love those birds. Lucky for her, her Daddy is a push over and can very rarely say no to this little face...

In all fairnesss... Who could?? Really??

So she got to come home with her very own stuffed Puffer Bird.

I know that Lantz, Grandma Cook and I truly enjoyed watching Sadie at the Aquarium. She ran from one exhibit to the other with a huge grin on her face and laughing all the way. There were a few times she got over excited and would trip and fall in her rush to see the next thing. We can't wait to take her to the Oregon Zoo in a few weeks!

Lantz's Birthday

Well... the day has finally arrived. Lantz feels old! He just turned 40!

He has had a hard time turning 40. But we made it a nice weekend. His parents were able to fly up and join us for this special birthday. We rented a lovely home on the coast that was able to comfortably accommodate us and both of our parents. Sadie even slept in a "big-girl" bed. She will not sleep in a pack-n-play so we just let her sleep on the twin bed in a room near ours. It had beautiful views of the ocean and surrounding mountains.

We were able to spend 4 days and 3 nights. We enjoyed eating in, visiting the Tillamook Cheese Factory and Newport Bay Aquarium. (Pics of that to follow soon.)

We watched a little "Look Back" video of what was happening in 1969 on the night of his birthday after Sadie went to bed. He was spoiled and got home made ribs, fresh corn on the cob, and a chocolate cake with my special chocolate cream cheese frosting! He's lucky I like to spoil him! Unfortunately, the cake must have looked too good, since I forgot to take a picture. I remembered about the time we all finished our piece. :)

Sadie LOVED helping him open his presents! :) She is such a cutie! She has no idea what he is opening, but her little expressions says that it is exciting!

Sadie's 2nd Birthday

So I am a bit of a slacker. Her birthday was a few weeks ago, but I have had issues getting the photos off the camera. We had a very low key event this year for her birthday. We invited the next door neighbors and close by family. The only real splurge was her cake. Her Grandma Cook made her a great Barney Cake.

Lantz and I hit Toys R Us at the perfect time during a sale and was able to take advantage of some great bargins and get her an art easel, art pad, chalk and crayons. She has enjoyed this everyday since her birthday. She loves to color!

She was not too sure she enjoyed being sung "Happy Birthday" to, but she did like her cake. She knew immediately that it was Barney! Kuddos to Grandma Cook for doing a great job!

All in all I think she had a great day! She had lots of fun opening presents and playing with her cousins. It is amazing how fast they grow up!

Rose Garden

We also went to the Rose Garden after hitting the Rose Festival to see the garden in full bloom! It was truly spectacular. Lantz and I have been numerous times, but never when all of the roses were in bloom. It was absolutely gorgeous and smelled FABULOUS!

I got a little carried away at the Rose Garden taken pictures... these are just a few of the best, and believe me... it was hard to decide.

Rose Festival

Well... we finally did it! We finally went to the Rose Festival. We have been her 10 years and my parents were the ones to convince us to head out and brave the crowds. We actually were very smart. We took advantage of the festival, the fleet tours, and the street vendors all during the parade. This allowed for all of these events to be low key and for the most part uncrowded, because everyone was watching the parade.

Here are just a few pictures from our US Battleship tour of the Destroyer Shoup...

Sadie's First Bike!

I wanted to get a tricycle, we have all been looking for weeks! Even our neighbor has been helping search, but I could not bring myself to spend $50 + on a trike that she would ride for one summer. Well... today, Lorinda, our neighbor, came running over right after she got home from work to let me know that she saw a little bike for sale and a yard sale about 2 miles away. So... Grandpa and I loaded up Sadie and went down to take a look.

She LOVED it! She broke into tears when I took her off it to load it in the truck and come home. She cried almost all the way home. As soon as we got her and it out of the truck, she was all over it. She calls it a 'cuck' (her version of truck) which right now anything with wheels is called a 'cuck'. If you ask her which is the car, tractor, motorcycle, she can point them out right, but when you ask her what they are, she says 'cuck'. So I guess she has a new 'cuck'!

She had a great time playing with it this afternoon....

Playing in the rain...

We had an AWESOME Thunder Storm the other day.

I let Sadie play in the rain. She thought it was one giant sprinkler!

She had a GREAT TIME!

Tuckered Out!

All tuckered out... This pic was taken the day she had her low blood sugar attack. Woke up lethargic, and quiet... not her normal self. Pediatrician said to give her juice and a small snack. Well... she drank too much too fast, then threw up... then ate some more and was her normal self, except got tired sooner and faster... fell asleep on Grandpa about an hour before her normal nap time.

Gotta LOVE those Baby Blues!

Just two adorable pictures that really show off those gorgeous eyes!

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a great time at the Coast for our Memorial Weekend. We headed out on Saturday morning and came home late Tuesday morning to avoid the traffic. We were able to rent a little house just a block away from the beach. We had lots of BBQs on the deck, and family breakfasts in the mornings. We played at the beach, visited the outlet mall, and wandered little trinket and souvineer shops. We were able to go out to a fancy place for Seafood, and hit Pig'n Pancake for breakfast on the morning we were heading home.

Sadie slept in a "big girl" bed for the first time. She absolutely went biserk when we tried to put her in her pack-n-play, so I just pushed the full bed that was in her room right up next to the wall and rolled some blankets up to put under the comforter to create a barrier on the other side. Not that I expected this to keep her in bed, she is just a mover and a shaker when she is sleeping and I wanted to make sure she knew she reached the end of the bed. She did tremedously well! I thought for certain it would be a nightmare keeping her in bed, especially at nap time, but she stayed in bed even in the morning and waited for someone to come and get her.

We hit the beach a few times and got Sadie her very own sand bucket and shovel to play with. She loved digging in the sand!! It was a little chillier that we expected and somehow, her jacket that I had grabbed before we left, did not make it into the car. So we bought her a new jacket at the Tanger Outlet Mall in Lincoln, City. It is two sizes too big, but I figured I would prefer it to fit this fall and perhaps even next fall. Roll up the sleeves one time and viola!

Hiking adventures....

We got a couple of cute shots of her at the trinket shops. One she is with a little "pirate boy" and a few of her piloting her very own ship!

Good-Bye Home...

Well... we have moved out of our first home. (Pictures are on a slide show on our blog) It was sad to leave, but we have already started browsing for our next home. Considering it took us over a year to decide on our first home, I hope we have started early enough. :) Right now, we have moved in with my parents. With the housing market being what it is, we did not want to look at new houses until we sold our own. And now that we have, we want to wait for the housing market to STOP dropping. It is expected to drop another 10% + so we want to wait and get the best price possible. For now, we all seem to be getting along living with Grandma & Grandpa. Sadie has turned into a Grandpa's Girl during the day. In fact the other day she was a bit sick and took her nap with Grandpa in his lazy boy. Anyway, there are a few great things about it. I no longer have to clean up after dinner... that is Grandpa's job. I just get to prepare the meal and then Lantz and I start Sadie's bed time routine after dinner while my Dad cleans up. Yay! I love to cook, I have never enjoyed the cleaning up afterward. And my Dad hates to cook, but does not mind the clean up part. So best of both worlds. Plus if Lantz and I want to run an errand while Sadie is napping, there is someone always at home on call. :)

We miss our home, but we are looking forward to our next one. And the new home owner's are just like we were when we bought it. So it is nice to leave her in good hands.

St. George Trip

So my posts are a bit our of order, but with the move, life has been very hectic and I have not had time to post anything. Our St. George trip was before Easter, just a few days after we received an offer on our home. Ironically, we hesitated in booking the trip back in February, because we were afraid it would happen right in the middle of our move. And that is just what happened...

Sadie was a pefect angel on the flight out and actually received a few compliments from the flight attendants.

I was a bit afraid of our car rental arrangements when we got there, because I forgot to take my discount coupon with me. But it all worked out. Not only did the honor the coupon for a free double upgrade, they were out of the "premium" cars and set me up with a sweet H3!

We rented a house in St. George, just so we did not have to worry about sharing a room with Sadie. She can be quite particular when it comes to sleeping. She falls asleep fairly easily, but also wakes up fairly easily, but as long as she is by herself when she wakes up she puts herself right back to sleep. So it is best that she has her own room. Plus this allowed for us to spend more time with the family. They could come over after she was in bed, and we could still visit.



We visited 5 homes,6 if you count our rental, over 300 miles and got to see the whole Stringham Clan. We had a great dinner and duel baby shower at Alicia's. The baby shower was for Alicia and Shandia. Since our trip and before this post Shandia has given birth to an absolutely adorable baby girl, Gabriella. We received a birth announcement the other day and I could not believe how wide eyed and alert she was for just a few weeks old.

Anyway, I digress... we were also able to visit out great friends Dennis and Trish and were able to spend some quality time with them as well... Grandma and Grandpa Stringham watched Sadie for a little while we were visiting them.

We had a great family Birthday dinner and Brett and Candace's. It was to celebrate Brett's, Devon's and Saxon's Birthdays. I actually have pictures for this one! Sadly I do not have pictures of everyone in attendance, nor did I get pictures of the other family events, but we had a great time! Despite the absence of pictures. The H3and the house were taken on the morning that we left. As for the other pics, those were sent to me by Dad Stringham. Thanks Dad! And Thank you to EVERYONE who provided us fun, food and entertainment!! All of you help to make it a great trip!
Sadie and her cousin Kensie!

SOME of the Cousins....
Saxon, Bergan, Abbey and Ashley...

DA' BOYS! Lantz and his brothers....
From Left to Right (oldest to youngest)
Lantz, Brett, Weston, Devon and Vincent...