Little Ballerinas

Today was the first of three Halloween parties the girls will participate in this year. We had a costume party at the indoor park that we attend every Tuesday morning. It was so much fun seeing all the kids dressed up. Of course, Erika and Laurel were the cutest ones there! Need proof?

Perfect little ballerina.

Who loves to twirl. Sometimes into tables or chairs.

Eating snacks at the party. I wisely agreed to feed them after they got their pictures taken. We had a professional photographer come to take pictures of the girls. Erika and Laurel's picture turned out so cute! Hopefully I'll receive it in the next couple days to post.

Hungry after all the dancing.

Going to have to wash her costume before she wears it again on Friday.

Pumpkin Time

Alas, it is that time again to drag the kids to the pumpkin patch to get some good fall pictures! We visited a local pumpkin patch on Saturday. It was the same one we went to last year, and once again, Erika loved all the attractions they had! Both Erika and Laurel loved the hay ride out to the field of pumpkins. The farm also had a little hay maze, large bales of hay to climb on, a swing set, and a few farm animals. I think we'll let Erika paint on her pumpkin today since she obviously can't carve one yet. Let the holiday fun begin!

Friday Tidbits

-I can remember when it took me about 43 seconds to leave the house once I set my mind to it. Now, I have to start getting everyone ready 15 minutes before we have to be out the door. Perhaps those days will return.
-On our way home from the grocery store this morning, Laurel was getting fussy. Erika tried appeasing her by saying, "Laurel, we can't go to the park today because it's raining. Maybe tomorrow!"
-Speaking of the store, after running through the pouring rain to the car, I left my cart behind my car while I struggled to put two kids in their car seats. Some very kind woman saw me getting drenched and put my cart away for me, saving me a trip to the cart return. How sweet!
-Laurel woke up at 5:20 this morning and then decided to skip her morning nap as well. How is she so alert while I feel like I'm sleepwalking through the day?
-The girls' Halloween costumes are almost done....just a few finishing touches. They are going to be so cute! Just you wait and see......

Good morning

Now that Laurel is pulling herself up on everything, she is standing in her crib if she is not sleeping in it. Well, Erika has taken that action to mean that it is playtime. We have had a few naps and night times where we have to go in to the girls' room to chase Erika back into her bed. She likes to get out of bed and climb on the outside of Laurel's crib to talk with her. It's cute, but also a little annoying when she wakes Laurel up to have their little midnight talk session.

Here is how the girls and I get to wake up every morning!

In other cuteness, Laurel has taken a liking to the little toy car. She can scoot herself backwards, but hasn't gotten the hang of going forward yet.

I got my pom-poms out for Erika last week because she has been seeing cheerleaders a lot lately with our college football viewing. She asks if she can be a cheerleader and loves when I do cheer moves with her! My favorite part is when she asks her daddy if he wants to be a cheerleader. He politely declines.

ER

I'm pretty sure Laurel will be the first Hammar girl to go to the emergency room. She spends most of her days either:

Pulling herself up on the bookshelf. Sometimes the books fall on her.

Really, pulling herself up on anything!

Playing with Wyatt.

Climbing up and trying to rocket off the side of the slide.

Lincoln City

We were able to spend Saturday in some beautiful weather on the Oregon Coast! My grandparents and their siblings had a rental house last week in Lincoln City. We took the girls and spent some time on the beach as well as running a muck in their house. We could not have asked for better weather! As soon as we arrived, about 11am, we went to make sandcastles in the sand. There was no wind and the sun was out and it was awesome! Erika loved dumping the sand out of the buckets. Laurel kind of enjoyed watching, but she really just wanted to get down and crawl around in the sand so the beach wasn't her favorite place to be. After visiting with our relatives for a while at the house, we went back out to the beach once the wind picked up. We flew Erika's elephant kite and made more sandcastles. It was such a super fun day! And, with the beach being only 1.5 hours from our house, we decided we need to visit it more often.

Sandcastles! Or, unidentifiable mounds of sand.





I want out of this silly backpack!

Doesn't everyone need a fur hooded jacket at the beach?



If I could just reach all that sand.....

Laurel more enjoyed spending time with her "greats".

And taking naps.

In other adorable updates, Aunt Sarah bought the girls matching shirts. Too cute! Their first matching outfits.

Smarties

Time for some Mommy bragging!

I've been teaching Erika how to spell her name and working a little on writing it as well. I hold her hand with the crayon and write her name with her. Yesterday, after I wrote her name with her, she told me she wanted to do it. She only wrote the letter 'E', but it is pretty impressive!

I wrote 'Erika' and she wrote the 'E' by herself!

Laurel is also impressing me with her standing ability. She can pull herself up on anything. Sometimes she only makes it to her knees, but the majority of the time she actually goes all the way to her feet. Yesterday, she climbed the two small steps on their play slide to get to some toys. She is also "talking" a lot more, which means just babbling, but she says something that sounds like da-da. She hasn't quite connected that sound with the fact that da-da is Matt, but she's working on it! Laurel goes for her 9-month check up today and both girls are getting the flu shot as well. Let's hope the appointment goes well!

I like my new found mobility!

Whenever there is a camera, there is an Erika.

Showing Laurel just how high one can climb.

Home Again

We had a super fun vacation this past weekend! It was great to spend time with our family and friends and revisit some of our favorite places in Coeur d'Alene. The weather was perfectly fall - crisp and sunny. Erika and Laurel did really well with all the driving and visiting we did. They were off their schedule for four days so we are still somewhat recuperating, but it could have been a lot worse!

We arrived in Yakima Thursday night and spent the evening with my grandparents. The girls were really excited to get out of the car and quickly ran/crawled off their energy in Grandma and Grandpa's spacious house. We spent the night with them that night and Friday morning as well. We tried to time our driving adventures to coincide with naptime so we left for CdA shortly after lunch. The girls actually slept for about 2 hours and were only awake for the last little bit of the trip, which made it nice for me and Matt! After checking into our hotel, we drove to the park down by the lake to let the girls again stretch their legs after being in the car for so long. When we lived in CdA, we would take Erika to the park often we had to stay right with her as she climbed because she wasn't totally stable. This time, however, she was able to run around all on her own! Laurel also loved the swings and slides at the park.

Erika at the park.





Laurel loves to swing!

That night, we had a bit of trouble putting the girls to sleep since we were in the same hotel room with them. Matt made Laurel a little tent-like structure around her pak-and-play to reduce the light and noise we were making. Erika got to sleep in her own bed, but would not go to sleep unless Matt and I were silent and pretending to sleep as well. So, the entire family was in bed by 9pm. Kind of different from previous vacations pre-children, but still nice!

Inside her tent structure.

Laurel's tent/cave.

Erika reading a book before bed.

On Saturday morning, Erika and I went shopping while Matt stayed with napping Laurel in the hotel room. Then, we took the girls to the fun toy store downtown and walked around. After lunch at McDonalds and playing at their playplace, the girls took a really good nap in the hotel room while Matt and I watched football. That night, we stopped by the house that we still own to check in with our renters. We are so blessed that they are taking such good care of it! It looked great! The rest of the evening was spent at our good friends house where our old church Life Group all met so we could visit with everyone. It was so good to get together with our friends and let the girls play with all their kids. They really enjoyed it! We have greatly missed our friends from CdA so it was nice to catch up.

Sunday was spent going to church and showing off our girls to our friends there. After church, we drove back to Yakima to spend the night with my grandparents again.* About 30 minutes into our trip, I got a call from my friend, Alyson, letting me know that I-90, the freeway we were on, was closed between CdA and Yakima due to blowing dust with white-out conditions. Fortunately, we received her phone call before we were out of Spokane so we detoured south toward Colfax and tried a different highway to get back west. We had to take a second detour about halfway to Yakima because the highway we were on was closed as well! What a nightmare! But, we only added on about an hour and a half to our drive, so it wasn't too bad. The girls weren't happy with it, though. It is tough to ask a 2.5 year old and a 9 month old to sit still for 5 hours in their car seats! They were really excited to get out at Grandpa and Grandma's! Laurel had a little cold when we left Newberg and it got progressively worse while we traveled. So, she went to sleep pretty early that night while Erika and I went to visit my aunt and uncle for a while.

Laurel loved the little shelf that she could climb on.

With great-grandpa and great-grandma.

Making Laurel laugh.



Erika with the tail end of Spike. She loved him!

We came home Monday and our 4 day vacation felt a lot longer than that. It was fun and I loved it, but I am really glad to be home! It's nice to be in our own beds on our set schedule. The next extended vacation we are taking will involve an airplane instead of a car which I am hoping will make it a lot nicer!

Erika celebrated coming home by eating some ice cream.

*Funny story from the weekend:

After church on Sunday, we went to Pita Pit for lunch. We ate in the restaurant and on our way out the door, Erika had a bit of a head-on collision. Matt had Laurel in her car seat and was holding the door open for Erika and I to walk through. I was walking behind Erika and noticed that she was walking toward the window next to the open door instead of the open door itself. My hands were full and she was walking pretty quickly so I couldn't grab her in time to pull her toward the door. Just as I said, "Erika!" she walked directly into the window! It was hilarious! She didn't slow her stride at all, just walked right into the window. I have never seen anything that funny! She was fine, a little stunned, and maybe a little embarrassed, but she didn't even get a bruise on her head. I wish I was filming it because then I could relive it over and over!