Long overdue update

I realized the other day that it has been over a month since my last update. We've been very busy and a lot of new things are happening! Clover was invited and attended her first kids birthday party. Her cousin Aresa turned 5 and had a fairy party. We took our first trip over the mountains to Sandpoint, Idaho where Michael's family lives. It took us roughly 5 1/2 hours each way and Clover did great! She was on her best behavior the entire trip, we are very proud. Clover is also speed crawling everywhere, pulling up on everything, cruising along coffee tables, benches, even the walls. She has recently started hovering a few seconds without holding on before sitting down. She'll be walking before we know it! Between her curiosity and this new level of mobility, Clover is certainly keeping us on our toes. This is a long post, so make sure to scroll all the way down so you don't miss anything!

Clover discovered the fun of toilet paper while Mommy was taking a shower.


Clover was excite to be at her Cousin Aresa's 5th birthday party and loved being included in all the games with the other kids.



She received her own pair of fairy wings and was proud to wear them!


Being silly with Daddy. It's fun to watch Clover start to mimic what we do.



This is what I wake up too every morning. Not a bad way to start off the day :) Clover is always in a great mood when she wakes up - smiling and jumping up and down when we go in her room to get her.





Still playing with her fairy wand! It's one of Clover's favorite toys right now....she is such a girly girl.


Big girl now, feeding myself!!


Pushing my new wagon around the yard! This used to be Cousin Aresa and Eliot's and now they gave it to me. Thank you!



Looking for a snack on my own in the fridge.....who need Mommy and Daddy?


Working hard on the laptop....just like Mommy and Daddy do it! This probably makes Grandpa proud :) ......maybe I'll need my own laptop soon Grandpa!



.....just being silly in the kitchen while Mommy gets my breakfast ready.


This is my wild-naked baby before bath time. Clover gets all wiggly and silly when she's naked.




Clover's first trip to Idaho was a lot of fun. She becomes less attached to Mommy and Daddy and more social with others everyday. This makes Grandparents and Great Grandparents very happy!

A day of firsts.....Clover's first time out to the cabin and her first time seeing a horse! Clover met Nick and Dancer - Grandma Kay and Grandpa D's horses. She didn't really know what to think of such a large animal, but she seemed to like them!

We saw Grandma Kay's huge garden and she showed us everything she was getting ready to harvest!

We spent time with Great Grandma and Papa Kinney too! Clover liked to cuddle with Grandma Kinney.....I'm pretty sure it went both ways :)

Doing something she's gotten very good at....showing off! Clover loves to be the center of attention and entertain a crowd.

Our good friend Matt Blaine, A.K.A. "The Dude", drove over from Spokane to visit during our trip. Here's Clover and The Dude reading the Sunday paper together.

Clover is 7 months old!

I can't believe how fast Clover is growing up. Only a few more months and she'll be 1! She is doing all kinds of new tricks and showing us more of her personality everyday. As you can see from a few posts down, she is crawling! It's been fun to see what kind of things she gets into. Clover is so curious about everything and will spend a good 5 - 10 minutes examining something like the stroller wheel, haha! She really likes to figure out how things work. Her favorite toys right now are the doll house and her Leap Frog learning table. She's also a huge fan of kitchen utensils! She still loves baths....or any water for that matter. We've retired the baby tub and put her straight into the big bathtub now. We fill it up a few inches and she kicks around on her belly like a frog....it's very cute! Clover loves to be outside playing in the grass or trying to eat the flowers. She's also started pulling herself up on everything. It started with pulling up on her knees, but just today she started pulling all the way up. She is very proud of herself :)

Clover dumping out all of her toys from the toy basket. She also loves Charlies bed, which she's using for a chair in this picture.

First slice of watermelon on a hot Summer day. She loved it!!

First time in the lake. We went to the beach with my friend McKenzie and her son Jackson. Clover loved sitting in the water and splashing in the little waves.

She liked the sand.....playing it and eating it :)

Peeking at me while I work on the computer. This was the beginning of trying to pull herself up on things. She got the hang of it pretty quickly

Standing up proud and showing off her awesome ponytail!

A family picture taken in front of our giant Sun Flowers that are about to bloom. This was taken on our 4 year Wedding Anniversary after we got back from dinner. I'm sure the restaurant was glad to see us go. Clover was all over the place and grabbing at everything. At one point she got a hold of the salsa dish and in the process of getting it back Michael spilled his coke everywhere. Lovely!

Here is the after math of Clover feeding herself lunch one day.

Megann's Wedding

A couple weeks ago one of my best friends Megann got married!! The wedding was at a beautiful beach house on Fox Island in Gig Harbor. Michael, Clover and I spent the whole day at the house on Saturday while all of us girls got ready. Here are some pictures from the big day! My friend McKenzie, who is an amazing photographer, also took some pictures of Clover that turned out really well.

Clover's first Coke! Well, not really....but she sure did like the cold glass agaist her gums.

This was taken down at the beach the night before the wedding. Megann (the Bride) is in the middle. Even Clover got in on the jumping :)

I just ordered this picture to fill the 16 x 21 inch frame we have above the fire place.

I really love this picture of us. I think I need to get this developed too!

Clover's Crawling!

Clover has been doing an army crawl for awhile now, but has officially mastered a proper crawl! She loves zippin' around the house finding new things to get into. One of her favorite things to do right now is crawl over to our drum table and bang her hands on it. She also likes to chase Charlie! Here is a video of her new moves :)

Rattle Snake Lake

We took Clover on her first hike up to Rattle Snake Lake with our friend Greg. Clover loved it and actually slept part of the way up the mountain. It's not a very long hike (only 4 miles round trip), but we weren't really sure how cooperative Clover would be in the backpack. Now we know we're ready for big hikes.

Water Baby

Clover is a true water baby who loves splashing around with the hose and in the pool. During a record high of 109, we spent an afternoon at her cousins house, where she spent much of the afternoon happily kicking around in their kiddie pool. Since we don't have AC and there was really no escaping the heat, I knew we had to get our own pool for the house. Unfortunately, everyone in Washington had already had this idea. After 2 hours of searching with no luck, I finally found a water play mat. It's smaller than what I was looking for, but it gets the job done and Clover seems to like it....at least for this summer. We'll upgrade next year :)

This first set of pictures of Clover playing in the hose happened while I was watering the plants one morning. It was so hot out that Clover was slipping out of my arms because we were both so sweaty. I sat her in the grass and laid the hose down to grab a few things and this is what happened. She entertained herself for 45 mintues and would have played longer but we were already late to meet a friend.

The next set of pictures are of Clover playing in the play mat I finally found at a little toy store in Gilman Village. She spends hours (broken up of course) playing in this most days. As you can see we started the first day in diapers, but after going through so many every time she uses it we decided to dich the diapers and go all natural.

She spent a while trying to figure out how this chair worked :)

Daddy's Girl!

It's been great having Michael home for the summer. He has really gotten a chance to bond with Clover, who is now a huge fan of her Daddy and just about anything he's doing. Clover spends a lot of time out in the shop keeping Michael company while he prints shirts. She even goes on trip with him into Seattle to drop off and pick up orders. Michael especially likes this because he can drive in the Carpool lane :)

Michael with his little Weebit

Michael with both of his weebits!

Clover hanging out in the garage with Daddy while he prints shirts.