Vacation!

We saved our summer vacation for fall. The main reason is we are hoping that Laurel will be a good car-rider now that she is a bit older and can be handed a cracker if she gets cranky. Also, the hotel we booked and then canceled could not give us rain-check reservations until this weekend. But, alas, we are headed out of town! Hooray! We are leaving Thursday afternoon and driving to Yakima to spend the night with my grandparents. On Friday, we are finishing our driving to Coeur d'Alene and staying through Sunday. I'm super excited to see all our friends there and for them to see Laurel and Erika, who is considerably different from the last time they saw her a year ago. I just pray the girls are good car riders and hotel sleepers. Or it might not be much of a vacation and more of a nightmare!

In other Hammar news, Erika now enjoys a new reading location.

She took her book in with her the other day and announced to me that she was going to go read. Silly girl!

Six Incredible Years

Six years ago today Matt and I chose to love each other, respect each other, submit to each other, and glorify God together for the rest of our lives. How blessed I am to have the most amazing man to be my husband and how lucky are the girls to have the best daddy! I love you Matt!

So, I was thinking back on the past five anniversary celebrations. On our first anniversary, we drove six hours from Moscow, ID to Fernie, B.C. We spent a wonderful weekend at a beautiful hotel, hiked through yellow and red, fall leaf lined paths on gorgeous mountain bases, ate at fancy restaurants and had a relaxing massage. For our second anniversary, we drove 3 hours from Woodinville, WA to Olympic National Park near Port Angeles, WA. We stayed at a rustic cabin in a hot springs resort and again hiked, ate at super good restaurants, and relaxed in the hot spring pools. For our third anniversary, we were living in Coeur d'Alene. We had just bought a house and I was pregnant with Erika. Instead of traveling anywhere, we went to Cedars in Coeur d'Alene, walked along the dock by the resort, and spent a relaxing night in our new home. On our fourth anniversary, we were visiting my mom in Seattle for the weekend so she watched Erika for us while we went out to a local restaurant. Last year, we had someone watch Erika while we drove 15 minutes to Red Robin to eat and then to a movie. And today, after six years of being together and two beautiful girls later, we drove to a sandwich shop on the way home from church, went home to put the girls down for a nap, woke up and went to Target where we bought clothes and little presents for the girls and ended the evening with take-out Panda Express. It was the most wonderful anniversary day ever! Although the way we celebrate is considerably different then how we celebrated 5 years ago when we had no kids, no mortgage, and were students, I wouldn't change it for anything. As long as Matt and I are together and happy and completely in love, any celebration is perfect!

Cake

I love baking! My dream is to own a bakery someday. Or just work out of my home to make desserts for people. Cookies, cakes, pies, other sweets, I'm not particular....I love them all! This past week, I was able to practice my cake-making/decorating skills. I helped host a baby shower for a friend from church and her sweet, adorable baby daughter, Emma. I was so excited to make this cake, but first I did a bunch of research to make sure it was not a disaster! I went to my friend, Carolyn, for help since she makes cakes quite often for people and has taken the Wilton cake decorating class. She has a ton of cake pans, decorating tips, cut outs and all the colors of the rainbow in food coloring gel. I found a mock up of a cake online and fortunately Carolyn had all the necessary supplies. The finished product looked like this:

The cake was a triple layer, white cake with white, whipped frosting. I just used a cake mix for the cake, but made the frosting from scratch. I also made fondant for the flower cut outs and the name. It turned out so well...I was quite pleased! And, to top it all off, it was super yummy! I am looking forward to the next opportunity I have to make and decorate a cake. Even if I have to just make it for Matt and I to eat!

Cuteness

Is there anything cuter than a little baby? Especially this little baby!

Laurel is starting to pull herself up on things. Like this slide!

She loves Goldfish!

I love how she sleeps! Look at the little folded feet.

Making a silly face at the indoor play park we attend.

Hilarious

Apparently, when people take Laurel's food, she thinks it is the funniest thing in the world!

In other Laurel news, she now has two bottom teeth! She is thinking about pulling herself up to standing. She'll get to her knees and figure that's good enough for now and just kneel for a while until I either pick her up or help her stand upright. She continues to be quite the little princess...I'm excited to see if she will be similar to Erika in her personality or have a completely different one!

Quotes

My favorite quotes from Erika this past week:

-"Up me, please!" Which, of course, means pick me up

-"No, my sister Laurel doesn't talk." To the check-out lady at Fred Meyer when she said hi to Laurel.

-"Mommy, you have a big tushie." Always nice to hear.

-"When I grow up, I drink Diet Coke like Mommy." Good news.

-"Mommy, can God come to my house?" Super sweet!

Amazing Eurosealer

My mom loves infomercial products. We always tease her about how many items she has in her house because the commercial says they are the most fantastic thing around! Growing up, my siblings and I would make bets about how many new items Mom would buy at the Puyallup Fair, which has an entire building devoted to amazing, must-have products! I can remember coming home with a power juicer, Shamwow, the Miracle Blade, a magic mop and probably some other things that I can't remember now.

While Sarah and I were helping Mom move into her new place this weekend, I stumbled across the best infomercial product we owned....the Eurosealer. How many times have you run out of chip clips or clothespins to close your chip or cookie bag? Well, with the Amazing Eurosealer, you never have to worry about that again! It somehow heats the plastic-y chip or cookie bag in a line to reseal the bag. It also has a built-in razor blade to reopen the bag at the next desired snack time. And, if that wasn't enough, it has a magnet on the back so it conveniently sticks to your refrigerator! I love it! Yes, I am slowly turning into my mother.

And I want the Magic Bullet.

Chocolate

Can this be my chocolate-loving daughter? She won't eat a chocolate chip cookie, but she loves to lick the brownie batter! Must have a few of her daddy's genes in her!

Weekend

The girls, Sarah and I spent the long weekend in Seattle helping my mom move into her new apartment. We had a great time! After we put the girls to sleep, Mom, Sarah and I spent a lot of time laughing and generally not getting a whole lot accomplished in a timely manner. But, by the time we left, the apartment had a lot less boxes in it, Goodwill had some lovely new items, and the dumpster at the apartment complex was full.

Erika and Laurel loved exploring a new house and playing with toys they had not seen in a while. You can always count on Grandma to have the toys that Mom and Dad don't allow in the house because they are way too annoying/messy. Like the mini-keyboard that is super loud. Or the markers. Or the wreath of dried flowers.

This is the wreath and flowers Sarah and I wore in my cousin's wedding when we were 5. When we wore it, the ribbon was in the back. Erika has her own fashion sense.

We attempted some family photos this past week. We got some really good ones of the girls, but trying to get a family picture was a nightmare. The girls were pretty much done with pictures by the time we got to ones with the four of us.

Below this bridge, in a little creek, there was a beaver making a dam. Watching him worked really well to get Erika to stay in one place and be still.

The best part of this picture is the random lady walking in the background. I love background people!

Laurel with her spiky mohawk!




Matt and I have started the college group ministry at our church for this school year. We are super excited about it! Already we have a 400% increase of the amount of students coming to church than we had last year....granted we only had 1 student last year! Anyway, tomorrow at George Fox University, the college here in Newberg, there is a church connection fair. We will have a booth with information about our church and our college group. Please pray that God is glorified in this ministry and we are good servants for Him!