Beautiful Shaylie with her baby, Bella:
Adorable Tycey:
Tyce and Shay are so quick on their bikes these days! They can also balance for quite a distance before putting their feet down on the ground, it's so much fun to watch :)
Tyce is becoming quite the slugger these days. This picture was taken after he hit a slow pitch (no tee) over the fence!
Tycen's first haircut at Lil' Snippers, he was excited to be able to drive the race car during his haircut :)
And here he is at Sports Clips, such a pro, doesn't need to sit on his mommy or daddy's lap anymore:
Checking out the new library, which is right across the street from Daddy's new office in downtown Vancouver:
Watching Daddy play in a basketball league game at our gym:
Practicing their ball-handling skills :) ...I'm actually surprised, though, T is quite the little dribbler for an almost 3 year old!
Lots and lots of time spent playing at various parks this summer:
Our little milk man...Tyce loves his milk! I always say that Tyce would drink a gallon of milk if I let him, pretty sure he'd come very close! :)
Shay, on the other hand, doesn't care for milk much at all. I've tried all different kinds: cow, soy, coconut, rice, oat, hemp...she doesn't seem to care for any kind. We give it to the kids for breakfast and dinner and she always asks for it, but she rarely drinks more than a few sips.
Kai and Oma stopped by one afternoon on their way through town:
Playing with cousin Gracie in the back yard:
Double Date Night!
Hanging at the new library with our buddies:
These kiddos really don't like the car wash. We've probably gone through it with the kids less than 5 times, but almost every time we drive by the gas station, the kids will say, "No car wash today, mommy." Too funny, I remember loving it as a kid.
Poor guy! In all fairness, though, he was complaining of having sunscreen in his eyes, which I why I think his eyes are squinted so tightly shut ;)
My little studly-mudly, wearing mommy's sunglasses:
More parks:
Scott was out of town and coming home late on a Friday night, so Emily met us at Pita Pit with just one of her boys (!) and we treated them all to frozen yogurt afterward. We had another friend come over after we put the kids to bed and had some nice 'mommy time' visiting with one-another :)
Emily and Christopher had their first sleep-over at our house. Both Emily and I had to work on Saturday, so they didn't stay long in the morning, but it was fun for the kids to have a sleep-over :)
It's so funny to me how much my kids love to play on these little cars, boats, trains, etc. They will often ask to go to the mall or another store that has one of these. At least they have an incentive to go shopping! :)
We visited Grandpa Jack one day and brought him to a really neat fountain park in Wilsonville, Oregon (where he lives). My aunt Peggy and cousin Mikey met up with us, too :)
Emily and her mom brought 'the boys' to the park, too, since M's mom lives in Tigard.
"5 little monkeys sitting on a ledge..."
After the park we went to Grandpa Jack's one and only pick of restaurants, Red Robin :)
We've hit a huge milestone...Tyce and Shay can tolerate church now and they even seem to have fun!!! We haven't been going regularly in the past ~3 years because it was always such a struggle to get the kids to go in the kid zone. I'm such a sucker and have the hardest time leaving them if they're sad. Finally, they seem to enjoy themselves at church! We are so thrilled to make this a regular routine again for our family!!
New Heights Church (West campus):
One week, when we were driving to church, Tyce was telling us how he didn't want to go. It was so cute because Shaylie kept saying in the most sincere voice, "Don't worry Tyce, I'll be with you. I'll look out for you, buddy." Awe, absolutely melted my heart. I told her how proud I was of her for saying that and she now says it to him pretty often, it's so cute :)
We like to go to Esther Short park and the farmer's market after church:
Uncle Mike was in town for a few days...even though we don't get to see him very often, Tyce and Shay love their silly Uncle Mike, he always makes them laugh :)
Me with all the Haij kiddos:
Love these pictures, taken during one of our numerous picnic lunches this summer:
One of our several zoo trips this summer:
Daddy's little UO ducklings:
This is what happens when you have a twin sister :)
This summer we haven't had very many family days since I mostly work on the weekends. Starting in August, I tried to schedule one weekend day a month (Saturday) instead of two full weekends per month. I found that it was too hard to be away from the family for the whole weekend even if it meant I would get a full weekend off the next week. Plus, it allows us to go to church as a family on Sunday mornings. After church, we've enjoyed taking the kids on a run along the Willamette River waterfront followed by some fun at the water fountain.
Fun at OMSI:
"Look Mommy, we're pregnant!"
I took the kids up to Olympia for the day in late August to spend the day with Gramps, Oma and Kai. After playing at their house for a while, we went to a local farm to pick blueberries. It was the first time the kids have done this (other than picking berries and veggies from Grandma Jan and Oma's gardens).
Definitely much more eating than saving....
I love how he has equal amount of green, red and blue blueberries :)
I couldn't get this picture to flip right-side-up, but it's still adorable :)
Tyce discovered this "microphone" at one of our favorite parks and now uses it to put on concerts. He's so funny and takes his performances very seriously, I just love watching him :)
Out to dinner (at Laurelwood Brewery) with our buddies:
Our good friends, Steve and Audra, had us over for dinner on Memorial Day. They are both amazing musicians (they sang/performed one of my favorite worship songs, 'I Can Only Imagine' at our wedding) and bless us with their talent whenever we ask them to :) The kids just love to watch and listen to Steve play the guitar and piano.
Our kids love to play with Dylon, who is exactly 3 months older than Tyce and Shay:
At the zoo with Aunt Rachael and Gracie:
Scott surprised me on one of our date nights with tickets to see Taylor Swift. We used to go to a lot of concerts before having Tyce and Shay and so it was fun to enjoy a night of good music with my lovey!
We had just made our way to the 300 level when this sweet man asked if we'd like to be upgraded to floor level.
In hind-sight, we probably should've paid-it-forward and traded tickets with one of the several thousand 'teeny-boppers' that were in the upper level. It was a great experience, nonetheless, and we look forward to taking Tyce and Shay to concerts like this in about 5-10 years :)
The band, 'Need to Breath' opened for Taylor Swift:
About half way through the concert she came to the back of the floor level seating and sang several songs on a little stage that was about 5 rows from our seats:
Playing dress-up at the store...the kids had such a great time trying on all these different costumes! Stay tuned for the ones they picked for Halloween!! :)
This dragon suit was one of my favorites, I liked the tail and wings on the back. I actually thought it was a dinosaur, which I preferred, but then realized it looked more like a dragon.
I loved this little Strawberry Shortcake outfit...
....and this monster outfit, too! :)
This little lady bug costume was Shaylie's favorite. I really wanted her to have a warmer costume, though, and something that was more similar to Tycen's.
My two little monkeys:
Tycen's birthday boy haircut at Lil' Snippers, he was pretty excited to be able to drive the police car :)
The day before the kids' birthday, I took Shaylie to get her first manicure (and we also got pedicures :).
Tycen went to work with daddy for a couple of hours and was really excited about "making some money." He did end up making $1 after helping daddy make some connections with realtors by doing a little networking and making the rounds around the real estate office. They also went out to lunch together and played at the new library for a bit before Shaylie and I came back to pick little T-man up.
My sweet loveys:
I know it's a lot of pictures, but the blog books I print every year are the best photo albums we have :) Plus, how can you have too many pictures of these kiddos?! Impossible.
