A "grand" weekend!

We had a grand weekend filled with fun activities but mostly because Hallel's grandparents were here. Josh's dad and mom drove down from Portland, OR for the weekend just to visit us well, mostly Hallel:)

We started out Saturday morning with Hallel's first ever fun run/walk. They gave her the number 25 for the stroller in honor of her birthday. It was very cute. It was a beautiful sunny day and we all had a great time even on the Seminary hills!









































Then we all took naps and set out for a trip to Cascade Falls in Mill Valley. The fall, singular, was about 1/8 of the size of Multnomah falls around Oregon but it was still pretty cool. There is someting fasinating about water falling off of rocks. We hiked all around the falls and saw some pretty amazing Mill Valley homes.

We then topped off the evening with dinner at Askew Grill, thanks dad and mom, a great place were you order different kinds of skewers. Scrump scrump!!!

On Sunday we went to church and Josh was leading the Bible Study on 1 Peter 3 about husbands and wives in the context of fearing God. It was a great discussion and nice to have Josh's parents give experienced wisdom.

After church we all had a picnic and watched Josh's softball game.
We were sad to see them go after such a good time but look forward to seeing all of our families this summer!

Hallel waiting for the weekend!














Shy baby














I love my grandma














Race day-too early to be in the stroller:)

This blog's for you Shannon

I was put up to a challenge by my pro blogger friend Shannon Cunningham and Carsyn her baby. These two are totally photogenic and Shannon has an awesome photography business. So here's the deal, Shannon has challenged us mommas to take a picture of our baby and us every week. Well, most of the mommas on campus are amazing photographers so here is my valiant try at "Project 52". Feel free to spontaneously laugh at my cutie pie and me:)

The roll over minutes

No, I am not talking about cell phone minutes! Ha. Josh has been playing with Hallel and teaching her all kinds of things. So one evening when we put her on the floor with her "friends" she decided to kick them with her feet rather than grab them with her hands and try to eat them. We both were suprized and grabbed the camera. Then the next morning she kicked those cute little chubby legs up in the air and rolled over onto her side! Again, we were so excited and grabbed the camera to document the phenomena. I thought oh I wonder if she will remember this tomorrow. Since I read in my baby book that her memory is about 7 seconds long. Sure enough she rolled right to her side, and has been happy as a clam to spend most of the day practicing when she is not devouring her fingers. We even caught her sucking her thumb. Yikes, she is changing so fast! Josh is now trying to get her to go all of the way to her tummy. We will keep you posted...

Bring out the fans!

It's one of those days where you wake up to the cool fresh air coming through the window and the sun is already shining and filling the air with its warmth and you know it is gonna be a hot one! I love these days. Yesterday it was so beautiful and we took advantage of it by hopping in the car when Josh got off work and took Hallel on her first walk to the beach. There is a 1.5 mile trail that takes you down to the beach called Tennessee Valley Road. Since we are still figuring out how to do activities with a baby we took a lot of stops to make sure Hallel was in the shade. But it was still a lot of fun! Today it is supossed to be 95 so we will proabably spend most of the day inside. But we sure do have fun sitting out on our porch eating Josh's yummo bar-b-que in the evening when it is cool.





























Easter morning all set to go to church



















My two favorite people

Splish, splash my baby loves her bath!

Hallel LOVES her bath time! She gets so excited when the diaper comes off and she is totally free! It must be reminiscent of the womb:) She just can't get enough of the water and kicking those little feet. She has even started holding her head up for me when I wash her hair. It is so cute and I hope that she is always a water girl. Now a days she loves playing with the towel almost as much as the water, ha.

Who says the simple things in life can't be a party! Especially when you are 4 months old.

Hallel LOVES to grab things now

I used to hear other mothers say that they couldn't believe how fast their babies grew up and changed. I used to think that was just an old persons thing to say because time seems to speed up the older you get. But what do you know they were right. It is crazy how even though you spend every day with this little person there is so much change happening right before your eyes. Its like time lapsed photography in person. Well the most noticeable change is that Hallel is ever growing! I have been worrried about her rapid growth at times especially when people tell me she looks like a 6mo old. but after seeing some of my baby pics this weekend I realized that she takes after her momma. Only I was a little more round and stout at three months. the best prize of watching her grow is that her precious personality just gets sweeter and sweeter every day. She is kind of shy but also loves to "talk" to us too. She loves schedule and she LOVES to smile!

Last weekend my sister and her family came to visit us over their Spring Break and it was so fun to have them here with us. It is so special to have Hallel's cousins and uncle and aunt play and interact with her.

Kacy, Signe's daughter who is four, was practicing Hallel's name so that she could say it right when they got here. She pronounced to Signe before they came mom I can say, "Hello's" name. Signe tried to tell her that her name was Hallel but she was confident that she had figured it out to be Hello. kids are so sweet!

Signe made this adorable tooth fairy pillow out of one of my old sweaters and cute ribbon, I love it!

Two buddies napping