Verde Valley and Prescott

On Saturday we once again got out of Dodge (or Phoenix, if you will) to head up north for some cooler temps.

First we went to Verde River Days (I think?) at a park in Cottonwood, Az. Jeremiah loved, and I mean LOVED the Civil War Battle re-enactment.

There was lots of shooting and canon blasts.


I thought for sure J would be scared...nope! You can't see but he's signing 'more' and would keep signing every time they stopped shooting. And the canon blasts were very loud!!


Watching a band with Daddy


After we left, we stopped for lunch @ Sonic and ate in the car. It was so much fun - here was our 'table.'


J enjoyed his popcorn chicken.


After leaving Cottonwood we headed for Prescott through Jerome (89A South?) It's a beautiful drive, it's through Mingus mountain and if you've never done it before, I totally recommend it!
The view looking towards Sedona once you pass through Jerome - beautiful!


There were some scattered rain showers.


J figured out this made me laugh...so yup, he kept doing it. Oops!!


Finally we made it to downtown Prescott.


Daddy helping J.


After J ran off some pent-up energy, we got ice cream then headed back out on the road towards home.

Home Sweet Home

It's so nice to be back home! I almost cried when I saw Shawn waiting for us after we got off our plane - J was pretty whiney the entire flight home, didn't sleep at all. Luckily, he loves strangers and let pretty much anyone and everyone hold him. He was fine as long as it wasn't me holding him, which I was also pretty fine with.

Just a couple pics from today...
He loves his magnet thingy from Bubbie. I hear a lot of "cow, mooo, cow, mooo, cow, moooo" during the day, but he has fun.


He woke from his nap with crazy hair.


And his new 'trick' - climbing onto the toybox..




Success!!

Our last day...

We leave tomorrow (tuesday) afternoon to go back to hot Phoenix. We both can't wait to see Shawn - I miss him big time and I know Jeremiah does.

Today we had some fun - we went to the Microsoft museum.


Sitting at the computer...amazing how I didn't start using a computer until I was in college and he'll grow up with one in the house!



Playing outside.


J driving a car



Having a great time with Caleb.

Seattle Day 3 & 4

Day 3 we didn't do too much - it was rainy most of the day, so we just shopped a little and hung out at home. J found a fun cabinet to play in... Then we headed to the first ever Costco store - pretty awesome historical spot. J & Caleb in their giant carts. (Today, Sunday)Playing at home... J and Ken AKA "Papa" Caleb and Shawn's cousin, Randair The three boys J & his vacuum Lindsay and J Finally! A pic of J & I at Wood Lawn park - it was lots of fun. More leaves! Running down the grass hill J and Caleb on this crazy swing A very happy boy... He did this constantly...ran up and down the hill over and over again. He was so worn out but didn't want to leave, surprise.

Seattle Day 2

This morning, we started off the day with Starbucks (because, really, what else would you start your day off with in Seattle?), then headed to Anita's employer, who just happens to employ...um, a few people in the Redmond, Washington area. We found a fun toy - it's called the "Surface" and I'm not sure if it was legal to or not, but I took a video of Jeremiah playing with one of the many fun games on it. It is a big touch screen that is built into a table and I am pretty sure Bubbie and I had more fun with it than Jeremiah did.



We had lunch on the campus and then J had a nap. Afterwards, we headed to U-Haul to pick up a moving truck - Shawn's sister Jenn is moving this weekend so Bubbie picked up the truck. I had to take a pic of her driving the giant thing for Shawn.

J and Bubbie played a little.

Then, while Caleb and Bubbie headed out to pick up pizza, J and I played outside in the backyard. J has never seen one of these before.

After dinner we tried to get a pic of the three of them...it was difficult.

And, of course, a couple minutes before I was going to start getting J ready for bed, Caleb and he suddenly found a game they could play together - chasing. It was hilarious and adorable, Jeremiah had the best time and they were both sad when it was time for J to go to bed. (bedtime is 630pm...last night he went to bed at 730pm and you'd think he would have slept later...well...he doesn't work that way...he was up at 430am and wouldn't to back to sleep.)

Pics from Seattle!

Here we are on the airplane...like I said, J did really good on the plane.

Playing....

Then sleeping all by himself - I'm so thankful we had the row to ourselves!!


Out to lunch with Bubbie...


Taking a walk - when we landed in Seattle, it was 55 degrees and overcast. It stayed that way for the rest of the day, it was beautiful.


He loved walking in the grass.

A little video.


Then Aunt Jennifer and cousin Caleb came to visit. Awesome glasses.


J & Caleb playing.


J also rockin the glasses.


Jenn & J posing


and playing.

Howdy from Seattle!!

Jeremiah and I flew to Seattle this morning to visit Bubbie (Shawn's mom) and other lovely relatives. We got here safely and J did great on the plane. I'll try to post pics soon. We miss Shawn big time, I know J does and I for sure do!!

Out of Africa!

A couple of weekends ago, Shawn, J and I along with Grandma and Grandpa G headed over to the Out of Africa Wildlife Park which is in Camp Verde. We had a buy one adult ticket, get one free...and Jeremiah's already free, so we figured why not! It was so much fun.

Unfortunately, I didn't bring the extra camera battery and ours died while we were there, so I only have a few pictures.

J & Daddy on the bus..a little warm. (it was "only" 97 outside)


Stinky giraffe who got up close and personal with our bus (we got to feed him later, too!!)


These zebras were not afraid at all.


I mean, not afraid at all!! I was trying to plan out how exactly I'd protect Jeremiah if a crazy zebra boarded our bus. They're not nice like horses, I hope you know!


We also saw...(not up close and personal, thank you very much!) lions...


Tigers...(we actually saw them being fed raw meat by a worker...yikes)


And bears!


These are grizzly bear cubs wrestling.


Here is a grey wolf being fed raw meat. He acted so much like a dog I'm not sure if I'd be afraid of him if I saw him in the wild. (he whined, scratched at his cage, etc when he saw the lady coming with the bucket)


And just for fun..I found this hat at the dollar store. I call it J's "pimp hat" yes, that's awful, I know, but what else could you call it?


I told him to "smile" - yikes.

Official Announcement.

Horrible MS Paint job? Yes. Cheesy? Yes. But it gets the job done, right? You can't imagine how hard it is to find a "Big Brother" shirt in any size smaller than a 3T.

Okay, for real: We are expecting baby #2!! We are thrilled beyond words and feel so incredibly blessed. I had my 12 week appointment this morning (yay for leaving the first trimester) and was able to hear our little bean's heartbeat. Beautiful - I have also had an ultrasound, around 8 weeks but for some reason our scanner isn't working so I can't post the picture here. I'm sure my brilliant husband can figure it out, though. Otherwise we'll be having another one in about 6 or 7 weeks to find out if we are pink or blue.

Okay, details, probably more than you need! I found out on July 19th, which was also the last day of Shawn's CFP exam. I took the home pregnancy test while Shawn was taking the test, figuring that if it was positive, I wouldn't be able to tell him and therefore distract him from the big test. Honestly, though, I wasn't expecting a positive at all, so when it showed up, I was shocked, scared, thrilled, excited, laughing, crying, all at the same time. I've wanted to tell most all of you in person...but it's hard to bring up. "So, Holly, how is Asha doing in Pre-school? Oh, and by the way I'm pregnant." I just didn't know how to do it being awkward.

More details: Due date is March 27th, 2009 (according to my Dr's office - it was June 27th, 2007 with J and they were pretty accurate, I would say!) If this baby is as punctual as his/her older brother, then they will be exactly 21 months apart. I'm doing okay, "morning sickness" is my 24 hour companion it seems, and I have lots of headaches as well as being tired constantly. Emotionally, I'm kind of a wreck, I'll cry at the drop of a hat, a ball, a block, a sippy cup - whatever. I waiver between "How am I going to love another baby as much as I love J?" and "What am I going to do if this baby is just like J?" and "How in the world am I going to handle TWO of them???"

Since we gave J a nickname in the womb (that had nothing to do with his 'real' name), I decided it was only fair to nickname this one, too. He/She shall be called "Baby B" from now on.