Four Days of Birthday Celebration!

Thanks to all my family and friends who helped me celebrate turning 32! Friday night I met up with my very good friend Ang for dinner and drinks. Even though we only live 5 minutes from each other, we rarely find time to hang out. We had a great evening!

Saturday night I got to hang out with another best friend, Stacie. Delicious food, awesome atmosphere, and really great people! Thanks Stacie for having us over, we had such a good evening! Also, thanks Aunt Jody for watching Aayla boo for us!

Sunday (my actual birthday) Don, Aayla and I enjoyed breakfast at Biscuits and then headed up to North Portland to take part in the 1 st ever Portland Parkways event. Despite cooler and wet weather, we had a great time! Aayla had fun listening to live music, playing on the slide, seeing tons of dogs and bicycles, and kicking around balls...

Monday the festivities continued with a picnic at the park with my sister, mom, and the boys. How wonderful it is to be surrounded by the people who love you most. Thanks again everyone for an amazing birthday weekend!!

Take Me Out To The Ballgame...

Don and Aayla went to a Portland Beavers baseball game last night at PGE Park. They had a blast! Aayla was in great spirits and especially liked the Max ride downtown. They couldn't have been a happier pair when they arrived home! By the way, Portland Beavers won Tucson Sidewinders 4-3 in extra innings. :)

OMSI Adventure...

Aayla and I met my sister, mom, and "the boys" (my nephews Jadon, Lucas, and Owen) over at OMSI today. We had a blast! We visited the dinosaur exhibit, ate some lunch, and played for hours at the "science playground". I can't believe we haven't visited there yet... this place is AWESOME!! Tons of great stuff for toddlers!

Here's the one and only picture I managed to get of all the kids together. Much respect to the professional photographers who can get more than one child looking and smiling at the camera in the same picture!!

Here's Aayla enjoying one of the many stuffed dino toys.




Time to play in the stream with boats and animals.




More water play with fish, boats, ducks, and water pails...




Here's Aayla checking out some real fish...




Three of the most handsome boys: Jadon, Lucas, and Owen...









Grandma Carol and Jadon...



Here's Jadon and Aayla (and A's hand)... (this one cracks me up!)



Me and my sweet little lady...



Last but not least... one HAPPY gal!!

KING FOR A DAY

We had a great father's day at the Jensen household! Don started his day with a round of golf with the men's group. He won low gross! This is good. Good golf game=Happy Don. After kicking everyone's a** he enjoyed a lengthy afternoon snooze. Then, he got to watch Tiger tie the US Open!! To top it all off, he got to spend the rest of the evening with his beautiful daughter and wife! It was a good day.

A Triumphant Morning!

We have officially entered the world of potty learning! We have had Aayla's potty chair in her bathroom for about 6 months now so that she could get used to seeing it and to spark discussion about potty use. She has even used it a few times! Up until now, we have kept potty use pretty casual and up to her. I've decided to put more effort into the training over the next few days. So, on the second "sitting on the potty" session this morning, Aayla peed in her potty! After much celebration (mostly me, she didn't seem to care too much), Aayla got to put on her big kid undies. She's so cute in her little Elmo underwear!!

Yeah!! One small step forward for us!!

Weekend Fun!

We had an awesome time with the McKinstry Fam! The 6 of us (Katie, Seth, Ella, Don, Aayla, and I) had a fun night Friday hanging at our house. On Saturday the husbands babysat the girls so that Kaite and I could go to our friend Farrah's wedding. Congrats to the newlyweds! Unfortunately, my camera battery died before I got any pictures from the wedding! It was a really great night though!

It was so fun to see Aayla and Ella together. Aayla loves her! I believe she said the word "baby" at least a hundred times! Ella seemed pretty taken with Aayla as well!

This is my favorite picture (below). Aayla loves kissing EVERYTHING right now (except momma and daddy, of course!). She was so sweet giving little Ella kisses...

Baby Ella is such a little cutie... she smiled pretty much the whole weekend! What a happy little gal!! She will have many adventures on her new music table...

Aayla also loved Ella's purple bumbo chair. Of course she didn't like her own when she was 6 months old! But she couldn't get enough of this one. She liked moving it from place to place... what a strong little lady!!

We also enjoyed watching Ella eat her oatmeal. Solids are relatively new for Ella, but she sure likes em'!! More! More! More!

Thanks Katie and Seth for a really great weekend! Hopefully we'll see you this fall in Spokane!

Happy Happy Friday!!

Our friends Seth, Katie and baby Ella, are on their way to Portland right now!! They should be here later this afternoon. I'm so excited to see them! On Saturday Katie and I are going to our friend Farrah's wedding, while Don and Seth babysit the girls. My cousin Tammy is traveling here from Calgary this weekend as well. Unfortunately it doesn't look like I am going to be able to visit with her as we have the wedding Saturday night and her schedule is pretty busy. Sorry I'm going to miss you Tammy!! I hope your band does well and you enjoy the Rose Festival!!

Cheers to all! Have a great weekend!!