Aug 2016-Mar 2017, Genevieve turns 3

These past.... 7? months have gone by in blink. We cared for our friends' baby, Kiera, from September to February, Mon-Fri, roughly 7am-4pm, and it didn't leave us with ANY extra minutes in the day. It was a task we originally agreed to take on for one month to help our friends until their daycare spot opened up and then we were given the option to keep doing it until February, and after some serious thought we said yes. It changed our lives completely. With Zach's schedule, the family time we normally have is in random weekday moments, and so we didn't have that anymore. Zach does much of his work at home while caring for our girls, but wasn't able to do that with a small baby, so he was up many nights into the wee hours, in order to get his work done. I was back to the days of being unable to go outside to put laundry in, unable to start dinner early, unable to take the girls places right after school as we had to be home for Kiera's pickup. It gave Genevieve a chance to develop her character and not always be the baby or the one with most urgent needs. It gave Juni the chance to be a big girl helper and watch over the baby or help her sister with tasks I was unable to get to. It gave Zach and I the peace and comfort in knowing, without a doubt, two children is our happy place and we are stopping with our family of four, something we had been contemplating for the past year. We saved the money we made and booked a big blowout vacation at Disneyland over Juniper's Spring Break in April, the week before her 6th birthday. We are thankful for the time we had with sweet Kiera, and Genevieve misses her daytime friend, but we are now settling back into our groove and having more fun than ever focusing on us.

 Behind Juniper are the cucumbers and cantaloupe we planted in the pots by their playhouse, never thinking they would produce. We ended up getting one very small cantaloupe and quite a few delicious cucumbers!

 Genevieve with a lemon she picked off the tree. This girl and her expressions. Love.

 This was the first time Genevieve drew a picture and told us it was something other than circles or hearts. She did it quite a while before we took this pic (and tossed the cardboard it was on) but I wasn't sure if I shared it, so wanted to be sure it was recorded somewhere.

 After asking the girls what they wanted to do one day, they replied make a birthday cake. It wasn't close to anyone's actual birthday, but they agreed it would be a cake for Genevieve, so she picked out all the flavors and they had so much fun making it! Chocolate orange cake with chocolate chips inside, almond flavored buttercream, with mini marshmallows on top!

 Every year Juniper's school has a multicultural night and each kid makes a paper-doll representing them and their culture and then they are hung up all over the school. I took a few quick pics before we turned it in, thinking we would get it back, but we didn't :/ so these will have to do!

 She decorated the clothes, a pink shirt and a yellow skirt, with flowers on it, of course. Then we made her two flags, one Danish and one Swedish, and then sheep at her feet to represent the Sorensen sheep farmers.

 In the first several weeks of school Juniper was eager to share with us that her school had a recognition program called Paden Pelican Awards where students would sometimes get a small sheet of paper from a teacher or staff member when they were being extraordinarily safe, kind, or responsible, the three school rules. She kept coming home with more and more stories of the Paden Pelican Awards she was collecting. Her teacher puts them all in a jar and then draws out names periodically for special prizes and the whole school collects them into two Tupperware bins to see which group of grades will collect the most and earn a movie. But back in the beginning of the year, just 3 kids were called up on stage in front of the school to be congratulated for basically collecting a mass of awards in the first several weeks. Juniper was the first name called and she received this pretty pink eraser she is displaying on her head. Proud girl. Proud mama.

 These two. Perfection. Happy Halloween 2016.

 Bat-Jamma even came to help us celebrate! Hooray!

 This is the face I got when I asked her to take a pic with Grandma. Ha! Not today.

 In case you forgot how handsome my hubs is.

 Tea party time. Genevieve is using the teacup from her great grandma's tea set. She was proud, and careful.

 Grandma Susie came to visit just days before Thanksgiving, so we got into the Christmas spirit a little early this year.

 Last year we got these ornament advent calendars on clearance at Starbucks. They were filled with little chocolates that the girls would eat each day. This year I filled the ornaments with small toys and stickers and chocolates so it was a surprise each day. Juni loved the surprise and was happy with whatever she got. Nevi was furious if she opened it and there wasn't chocolate inside! Ha! "No! Me want chocolate right now!" Juni ended up getting some of Nevi's stickers that she refused to accept, though she did hold on to the little toys. Little stinker. The girls loves her chocolate.

 Juniper lost her first tooth at school, while at recess and has no idea where it went. The tooth fairy still brought her an origami butterfly made out of 2 $1 bills. Her second tooth she lost at home when she felt it just rolling around in her mouth. She was happy the tooth fairy didn't need her tooth and left it behind for her to examine.

 A year long goal for the Kindergarteners at Paden is to learn 100 sight words. Juniper was the first student this year to reach that goal. The girl is on a roll. She's now reading books on her own and is a part of a special reading group at her school on Tuesdays and Fridays to stretch her reading skills since she is above the average of her class. She loves reading group and gets so excited when she realizes it is Tuesday or Friday and she will get to go.

 Aunt Clancy and family sent the girls some fun holiday activities and this little silly putty snowman kit was Genevieve's favorite gift of the season. She is still! in March! playing with it nearly every single day! We've lost one button, and one eye got replaced with a simple googly eye, but she can't keep her hands off it just the same.

 Silly Papa.

 Christmas morning in their shirts Mama picked out for them.

 Happy New Year, 2017!

 Juni got 2 Paden Pelican Awards in one day!

 So. Cute. I. Can't. Take. It. This girl has got a remarkable developed sense of humor for a child just turned 3. Her jokes make me belly laugh. She shocks me sometimes with the maturity of her jokes. Sometimes I have to look at her for a minute just to be sure she even understands, and she does. So funny.

 Grandma is back for Genevieve's birthday. Paint with water to Genevieve from Juniper for the win!

 Dazed but enjoying her homemade popsicle.

 Dinosaur party time!

 This squirrel keeps showing up around our house, eager to take food from us. It ate some almonds and took others and buried them down at the end of the fence. We are sad Juniper was at school when he came, but Nevi was loving it!

 This girl is growing up! She is learning letters and numbers and loves quizzing us on colors and shapes. Her personality continues to be fierce. Fierce boundaries. Fierce love.

 Our dirty hands aver revamping the backyard plants and planting more seeds.

Bedtime reading.



We didn't take too many pictures with our nice camera these last several months. It has been finicky lately and the lighting in the house hasn't been so good through all the weeks and months of rain we've had this year. Zach has taken many photos on his phone when we have had adventures out and about and the iPad gets used a lot in the house. I will try to sort through and load those another day soon. XO

8th Anniversary for Mama and Papa, Mama is 33 years old, Summer is here and gone again, Kindergarten starts for Juniper!

This summer came and went so fast! We tried to pack in lots of fun before Juni started Kindergarten, but Genevieve was still taking long afternoon naps until late into the summer, so we never seemed to get too far. Looking through the pics, I see I took about 5 pictures while we were in Nebraska :/ Whoops! Well, we made some memories!! Here's a little look at our summer fun....

 No picture, Mama!

 Papa is behind me getting her to smile :)

 Tattoos all over and ready for the water!

 When the little pool is full, these girls just can't keep themselves out of the water!

 Happy 8th Anniversary!

We went out to a winery on the old base (on the island), but didn't even drink any wine! Ha! We just ate the yummy food they sell there and enjoyed the view of the San Francisco skyline while the girls ran around in the big open concrete area. That night Zach and I went out to dinner at a nice restaurant in Alameda, while Mike and Maura watched the girls. They watched them for our last anniversary, but since then, only once for a quick meeting about Juniper starting Kindergarten, so it was a really nice treat for Zach and I to go out to dinner alone.

 She had so much fun cutting out shapes and things and then I told her she had to pick up all the little pieces. That didn't sound like nearly so much fun!

 Sidewalk chalk paint with Grandma at her house! Hooray!

 Getting ready for a tea party! We love tea parties!

 Trying to get a picture for Grandma of them in their dresses, but neither one of them are having it. :/ Stinkers.

 I wish I had gotten a picture of her with her little quilt over the top, but she would make her own turtle shell like this so she could have time to herself.... that was way more fun than just going to her room. She would do it often while I was cooking dinner so she could still be near me. Sweet girl.

 The morning we got our hair cut

 The afternoon we got our hair cut :) I saved our ponytails to donate, but I still need to mail them in. One day.

 My birthday. We were out all day and then Genevieve fell asleep in the car on the way home. She didn't even wake up when Zach carried her in, which is VERY unusual for either of her girls. I can't even remember a handful of times it has happened. I really wanted a family picture on my birthday, so we just pretended we were all asleep. I love this memory.

 We had our friends over for a BBQ and they brought with more fun sidewalk chalk paint!! Billy played with the girls and the adults just enjoyed the beautiful afternoon!

 Laurel came over again later in the week to bring donuts for my birthday. Juni took the opportunity to hold baby Kiera all on her own. If you can't tell, she is over the moon.

 Juni loves her horses and ponies and Genevieve does too, but she also love dinosaurs, so, they all play together!!

 I think I need to work more iron-rich foods into our diet, because this girl goes gaga over giant bowls of broccoli! She loves it! So thankful for her willingness to eat the foods that are so good for her body.

 Our planter boxes have been falling apart, so we've been collecting any free pots we can to put in that space. Although the dirt has lost all the nutrients it once had, Juni wanted it to be her "chore" to move the dirt to the new pots. I explained it all to her, showed her the bags of potting soil. She still wanted to go ahead. I said go for it! They both had so much fun digging in the dirt this day. The novelty of dirt in an expensive Bay Area neighborhood.

 Beautiful girl.

 Beautiful girl. :)

 I found this little motorized ATV for $10 on the Alameda parent swap page. The girls have been having so much fun with it. Nevi is still learning to steer ;)

 June is SO happy her cucumber seeds and zucchini seeds from Grandma are doing so well!

 As a sort of right of passage, I took Juni to Japantown in San Francisco to have afternoon tea a week before she started Kindergarten. She gets SO excited when she can wear matching outfits with her sister, so I surprised her, and wore a matching outfit to her this day. She was over the moon. It was such a special time with her.

 Papa took Genevieve to go get some sushi and look around Japantown while Juni and I had tea.

 Juni's perspective :)

 Our seeds and plants are doing so well this year!

 End-of-summer-fun-tie-dye!!

 A couple more tea time pictures (from my phone)

 The last week of summer I tried to take them to a new park each day. They were loving this little airplane!

 Juniper was so thankful for all the special things we were doing she told me she was declaring this day Mother's Day :) and she snuck the card with a bracelet inside into my work bag. I may have cried... the whole way to work. :)

 One day we went and built a big sand castle compound at the beach. I think they were more excited when they got to stomp it out.

 ...out of order... still cute as can be!! ;)

Nevi and Papa enjoying Japantown!

 First day of Kindergarten! In her "lawn chair" as she calls it (when she scoots the two together)

 Juni went to the PTA ice cream social on Friday night and met this little girl Bella who asked to play with her. And then they found out they would be in the same class. We also went to a K picnic on Saturday, where she got to play with Bella again. She was so excited to see Bella again this morning and to already have a friend! ....and Bella was wearing a sparkley unicorn shirt and had a unicorn lunch box, just like Juniper!

 Getting ready for opening ceremony to start. Juni's school does this each morning on the yard, to build community with the whole school, grades K-5, and the parents back behind, then they enter their classrooms 10 minutes after.

 In Juni's right hand is Aundrea, a girl she met at the picnic on Saturday, in her left hand is Bella, her friend since Friday. No fear. I had told her I would tell her goodbye at the door after opening ceremony, but she was marching right in with her friends and not looking back! For my own self, I had to sneak through the crowd and plant a kiss on her head before she was gone through the door! :)

 at pick-up, by the back door of her classroom

Welcome to CA with outside doors on the front and back of classroom. The kindergarteners exit out the back door of their classroom, separate from the rest of the school.

She was happy and excited from the moment we woke her and was still that way when we picked her up. So thankful to have this smooth transition for her and so thankful for the activities the PTA and K teaches planned ahead of time to facilitate that. It made a world of difference for my girl!

....and she asked me to take another one because I didn't get the whole rainbow in the first shot. LOVE her! XOXO