Visitors!

Dan, Karen and Crystal came to visit us from California. They couldn't have picked a better time - the weather was incredible, and we had so much fun spending time with them!

J had so much fun with "Buba Dan"

Sarah merely tolerated him.

Crystal pushing J in his car.

Story time!

Boys are so silly!

They brought birthday presents for J! He loved all them, but especially likes his Iron man and playdoh.

Playing at the park.

Sarah seemed pretty content with Crystal.

And finally warmed up to Karen!

In other news, Jeremiah's doing really well with the whole 'no diapers' thing. In addition to that, last night he and Shawn decided that he was done with his pacifier. So he dropped it, cold turkey. He asked for it at bedtime and seemed worried that we were going to take away his blankets, but we reassured him that those weren't going anywhere. It took him awhile to fall asleep but he slept all night. He should be napping right now, but he's not - but really I'm okay with him not napping. He plays well by himself and likes to help me do things. I am feeling a little sad - it just seems like he's become so big in the last month - the bed, the potty, and now no more binky - not that I wanted to keep him a baby but really, what's next? Driving?!? :-(

Sarah is funny. She thinks it's cute to answer 'no' to questions that she should be saying yes to - for instance, she recently went down to one nap a day. At 1230pm, I usually ask her if she's tired, and she shakes her head no. But once I put her down she goes to sleep without a peep. She thinks she's pretty funny! She also is very stubborn, likes things done her own way, and doesn't like being told no. Surprise. She loves to cuddle and will lay/rest on my chest sucking her thumb, and it's one of my favorite things to do.

Do you know what this is the face of?

That is the face of a little boy who is done with diapers. DONE. I can't even say how happy I am.

Lovely day

This morning we packed up and headed out to Schnepf Farms, located in the far off land of Queen Creek. (It's about an hour drive for us!) They are having a peach festival, where you pick all your own peaches. We did NOT do this, simply because it involved waiting in several lines - lines to get on a hayride, a line to pay for the peaches...Shawn and I are not line people.

Sarah doing her thing...


On a swing (the kids play area there is great!)


On the train (can't beat 2 & under for free!!)


Sarah and I. (I introduced 'the leash' today. She didn't care for it...)


Since J's still technically 2, he rode all the rides he could for free. He was on this plane ride all alone! He did great, I was very, very impressed.


Then he went down this slide a few hundred times all alone. No fear.


Sarah patiently waited in the stroller during J's rides...as long as she was well fed.


The "bee ride" with Daddy.


J & I rode the swings. He absolutely loved it. You can't really tell in this picture but...


...if you squint you can see his big smile in this one.


He wanted to ride the little roller coaster there so badly, but you have to be at least four feet tall to ride (he's probably only three feet). Maybe next year. It was a fun time, and we spent less than $10 (brought our own snacks and water).

phew

I had one of those mornings where I took the kids grocery shopping with me. I would have liked to run screaming from the store at one point, abandoning my cart (and children)! It was rough. But then we got Panda for lunch, came home, and things slowly wound down. I'm still considering calling my doctor to discuss permanent sterilization options :)



It's 2 minutes long, sorry, but it's all cute. I promise.

These kids

They just are so cute. Sure, they're naughty, don't listen, sometimes make me mad but all I have to do is remember a sermon I was lucky enough to hear a few weeks ago at church. It was about righteous vs. unrighteous anger, and I realized that I get unrighteously angry a lot! So I've been facing my anger head on, and when I start to feel upset I ask myself if there's a good reason or a bad reason for it. If it's not a righteous type anger (where I'm upset over an injustice, etc), then I surrender it to God. Sometimes this happens multiple times before I calm down. But it's working, and I'm able to appreciate the time with my children more. (even when they're driving me crazy!)

J feeding Sarah a blueberry. Sweet brother!


Sarah up after a nap. She's doing great. I finally have her on a great sleep routine - she's usually in bed around 6p and awake at 630am. She takes great naps, usually 2-3 hours. Still no intelligible words yet, but she picks up on signs quickly and uses them. She now 'nods' her head, but really it's her whole body. She's been very funny lately, loves to be chased and tickled. (If you tickle her and stop, she'll grab your hand and sign 'please' or 'more'!) She really, really LOVES Daddy lately, which he loves because she was only interested in me for so long.


Jeremiah sleeping. Ashamed as I am, yes, he still has a binky. That will be next to go, trust me. This picture was taken after he decided he didn't need to nap, but then threw a fit so I put him in his room with his light on and fan (white noise) on. He screamed and shouted for awhile, then got very quiet. All on his own he'd turned off his light and gone to sleep. Amazing. I'm still working with him to actually come out of his room by himself in the morning, I should be thankful he doesn't, huh? His language is taking off, today he was telling me about when "Buba Dan" visited last July - he remembered going out to eat at Applebees, and swimming at the hotel! I was amazed. He talks a lot and loves to play on his own. His imagination is fantastic and he's always playing with some imaginary friend. (Favorite is Caillou!)


He wanted to put his shirt on by himself. He did alright.

Moments and memories

Today was a typical Tuesday. We went to the park with playgroup (friends we've been meeting with since J was about 2 months old!), then since it was close, headed to In-N-Out for lunch. The kids and I went through the drive thru and piled in the backseat to eat together.

But it felt like one of those moments, you know the ones, something I might look back on and remember about this time in my life in 10, 20, 30 years. It felt so unimportant and important at the same time, unimportant that it was just me and the kids having lunch, like we do every day (although not usually in the van). Important because my children are sweet, good people and sometimes I forget that. Jeremiah's a little gentleman, helping Sarah eat. It was just fun to hang out with them and eat our (delicious) burgers.

I just wished that our moment together would have lasted longer - all too soon they were done eating, J was running up and down the little aisle in the van...but I wanted to blog about it so someday I'd be able to look at this post and remember things like Sarah sneaking bites of J's cheeseburger every time he put it down, even though she had her own in her other hand, J asking to sit next to Sarah instead of me (like in the picture) even though there was almost no room for him over there. Sarah taking her shoes off as soon as I sat her down on the seat, just like we do when we get home. It was so...mundane...but so special.

Changes

We took the plunge and took the front off J's crib. He spent his 2nd night in it last night and did great. He hasn't figured out that he can get out whenever he wants, I think, which is ok for me.

I also wanted to post about a new blog I started, if you're interested in reading. It's main focus will be food (I'm trying to change the way we eat), reducing our impact on the environment, and organizing my crazy house. If you're interested, it's here: our journey.