This year was all about the princesses. Paytyn loves to dress up as all her favorite princesses and dance around the house. So of course we had a princess themed party. Daddy found the Sleeping Beauty dress and “Princess” crown for her to wear. I had a blast making the Sleeping Beauty cake just for her.

Time has sure flown the last three years. Paytyn is definitely a little girl now. No traces of baby seem to be left behind. (though we still cling tightly to our blanket) I love watching her curiosity grow as she asks me ‘Why?’. Sometimes I even go ahead and try to explain slightly complex things to her. It’s awesome to watch the wheels turn. She is such a sweet, caring person. She loves her family, especially her little brother so much. She is definitely a girlie girl too. Wanting to wear skirts and dresses a lot. We can’t imagine life without our spunky big girl.

The house

This was technically Cayden’s second game but this time he got to dress in his jersey.

Paytyn posing with the Go Ducks bear and showing off her green and yellow painted nails.

Go Ducks!

*So they ended up losing. It was pretty sad. Nick was really upset and believes he’ll never again see this day. But I am trying to stay positive, they are a good team. We’ll see but we still love our Ducks.*

Paytyn was SO excited to help decorate this year. We have a lot of fun putting up the tree and getting everything out but to watch her excitement made it that much more fun.

Paytyn got to hang out with her Nana and Papa for a couple of nights while we were in the hospital and our first night home. Here she is at Lake Washington taking in the clam lights and the boats. She had a real fascination with the lights this year too.

We went into Seattle for a ride on the carousel again this year.

For Christmas we headed down to Oregon to visit with Oma and Opa for a few days. On Christmas Eve after the church service, we headed over to Nick’s sister Erin’s house. It was the first time Paytyn had a true sleepover. Her and Stella slept together on an air mattress in their sleeping bags. Let’s just say not a lot of sleep was had on Paytyn’s end. But the beginning of some great memories.  The next morning was fun with the girls opening tons of presents. This year princesses were high on the list.

Christmas jammies!

Greta, Paytyn, and Cayden in their Christmas jammies.

On New Year’s Day we headed over to my parents house for a little more Christmas fun.

The Boot. This boot has been in the family since my sister and I were little. My grandma (my mom’s mom) used to fill this for us with little gifts including oranges and fun little toys. My mom took over the boot after my grandma passed away and now it’s being passed on to our kids. The babies were just a little to young this year so Paytyn got to open it by herself for one last time.

We had a great Christmas this year. Each year gets more and more fun as Paytyn grows. We can’t wait until a little one year old can join her next year.

7 lbs. 9 oz and 20 1/2 inches long.

First bath in the hospital. He actually did like it despite what you see here.

First family photo. Paytyn was quite concerned about Mommy being in the bed and wanted me to get up. She wasn’t too sure about getting close to Cayden quite yet either.

Headed home

Pumpkin Patch

This year we traveled to a different Pumpkin patch that had more activities. There was the patch of course but they also had a little tractor ride for kids, fishing, petting zoo, corn maze and a huge pile of corn you could jump and play in. But we only chose the tractor ride due to the expense of it all and timing of naps. It was a great time though. We even took Auntie Tina and Greta, Nana and Papa with us too.

Daddy, Paytyn and Greta posing with the corn.

The church has a carving party every year that we decided to go to. They provide the space, and a spaghetti dinner and you bring the tools and pumpkins.  We had Aunt Erin, Aunt Elissa, and cousin Stella up for a visit and they joined us. Here is Paytyn and Stella cleaning out Paytyn’s pumpkin. I think Stella loved it more than Paytyn did.

Posing on Halloween with her jack-o-lantern.

Halloween 2010

This year was the first time we actually took Paytyn trick or treating. Unfortunately, Nick had to work so he didn’t get to join us but we joined him later that night. There is a towncenter just about 10 min. from our house that was having the shops open early in the evening for kids to come and trick or treat. We headed over there just about 5 and lucky we did. By the time we had walked up and down the street (which took about and hour) and were headed out, it was really crowded. But me and my princess Belle had a great time. I can’t wait for next year.

It’s hard to see but this is her first piece of halloween candy, a snickers.

My beautiful Belle.

The loot.

This year the high school group threw a party for some kids in a poorer part of town. We got to join them after we trick or treated and have pizza and watch them play games.

Enjoying her piece of that multitude of candy. Also note, that dress is still being worn a lot. She loves dressing up as a princess.

And what Halloween season isn’t complete without our traditional pumpkin shaped pizza.

My precious little niece. Greta Marie DeKoker born September 18, 2010. I can’t believe she has been here for a month already. She has changed so much already but is definitely showing her personality. But we absolutely love her and can’t wait to watch her grow.

25 weeks preggo

30 weeks

33 weeks

I can’t believe we only have about 7 weeks left. I can’t wait to meet this little guy but I am getting a little anxious. I feel we have so much to do still. A lot of organizing needs to happen too. Maybe that’s just me

About ready to go out and enjoy some of the summer sunshine. She pretty much wanted to wear this dress every day this summer.

A little water fun at the Everett Children’s Museum.

Paytyn got really into wanting her nails painted this summer. She was told that for us to paint her fingernails though that she had to stop sucking on her fingers. We had tried that once before but it was such a comfort for her that she couldn’t do it. This must have been the time for her cause she stopped one day and hasn’t sucked her fingers since. This is her with her nails painted for the first time. I actually miss the cuteness of her sucking her fingers. My baby feels so grown up.

Another great opportunity to get her face painted at my work picnic.

Second appointment with the dentist. This doesn’t even look like the same patient. She did amazing! She let them polish, floss and even paint fluoride on her teeth.

And of course we had to have several Starbucks dates. Hot chocolate with a cranberry orange scone and coffee for Mom. The best of times with my girl.

This summer sure did fly by. I was really excited to get outside and do some fun things with Paytyn this summer. Well, we did some but it seems like we missed summer. The weather here was so so. We had a few days that were nice and allowed us to get out but then others were quite a disappointment. More on that in another post.

We did get a chance to go camping once and had another trip planned but ended up hanging out at Oma and Opa’s (Nick’s parents) house for a week instead. Which worked out even better. We took some day trips to the beach where Paytyn got to make her first sandcastle. The days were very overcast but Paytyn, our little fish could care less and wanted to play in the water anyway. We also took her to her first fair. It was very small town which was great actually. She saw a lot of animals and even got to pet some baby rabbits. She didn’t care too much for the smell of the cows. Definitely a city girl We also thought it would be great to take her on a ferris wheel ride. Thinking it was the least crazy of the rides, it would be harmless.  She LOVED it. Mom and Dad on the other hand….crazy how you can remember something so fun as a kid but then as an adult it all changes. We made it through ok even with a pause at the very top. Not sure I want to do that again though. Paytyn even got into having her face painted. (for some reason this photo is last) and matched the painted butterfly with some butterfly wings from the balloon clowns.

We took quite a few walks around Astoria, the small coastal town where Oma and Opa live. We got to see the Coast guard ships, lots of freighters and enjoyed some of the shops. We also toured on of the bunkers at Fort Stevens. We topped it off with a visit to the children’s museum. Paytyn had fun in the fire truck and manning her own ship.

It was a nice time to get away and just play for a week. Next year we just hope for a little more sunshine. Which they had plenty of the next week. Haha just our luck.

You’ll notice in the previous post Paytyn is wearing her purple long sleeve shirt. She really loves this shirt. But with the weather getting nicer, it’s just too hot to wear that sometimes. So I got her a few new things for summer. I thought she might like to have a few other things in purple. Yesterday she picked out her own clothes. All purple. Including a purple headband to match. She was so proud of herself. She even told me, “Mom, I’m the president of the purple club.” I guess right now her favorite color is purple.