Fun with Family

Last weekend we had a really good time having Ryan's parents over as well as his sister Bethany and her husband Chuck. Jake had not spent a lot of time with his Aunt B and Uncle Chuck and so it was so much fun watching him warm up to them. Although I really think it helped when Uncle Chuck put chips in Jake's dinner...a way to any boys heart. :) But we had a really great time and we will miss them now that they are on their way to their new home in North Carolina. But here are some great pictures to remember the weekend by. :)
Jake and Uncle Chuck playing with cars and the slide...

...and then just playing with cars...who is having more fun? :)

Daddy was out watering a plant and started to throw drops over to Jake...he LOVED it!!!

"This is just too much fun"

Jake and his Aunt B...soooo cute :)

Grandpa giving Jake a little driving lesson...I am not sure Grandpa approves of his skills ;)

And I just took this picture this morning...very cute, but I could not get over how big he looks in this picture. My adorable little man. :)

1 1/2 Year Portraits

Wow...so on Friday Jake turned a year and a half old. I still can't get over that. When did my little baby boy turn into this little kid. Time is passing so quickly...I just want it to slow down. :) But he is at such a fun age right now and I am enjoying every minute of it, even with him getting seven teeth in the last 9 weeks. :) But on his half birthday we took him to get new pictures. It was a fussy day but we still managed to get some good shots. Hope you enjoy. :)
Ahhhh...such a cute boy

Jake with his beloved Patrick. This is not his sleeping stuffed animal but his favorite playmate. :)

Yey...new family picture. Jake's aunt Bethany and Uncle Chuck happened to be here too on their way to moving to NC, and so we got to get this great family pic. Jake was laughing at the photographer for trying to get him to smile.

We call this Jake's GQ picture. :)

Ah and a normal moment with Patrick...the hat is often in the mouth these days...could be all those new teeth coming in. :) And this one is too great not to share. Jake somehow has learned to share this wonderful smile every time we ask him for a "cheesy grin" The photographer loved it and was even asking to see it after we were done taking pictures. My adorable little boy.

Hope you have enjoyed and I do have many of our own pictures to share...hopefully I will have them up soon. Have a great week everyone.

Fun with a Toddler

Oh I love my little boy..and that is what he is right now, a little boy. He is getting so big and independent and we are just loving watching him develop his own personality...which includes brushing his teeth for like 10 minutes at night to stall going to bed. :) But he is a big boy now walking, learning to run (very dangerous as he learned Sunday when he lost control and ran right into a pew at church..funny now but he made quite the boom), sitting in a booster seat and the table and eating big boy food and even occasionally working on drinking from a cup. It really is amazing how much he has grown up in the last couple of months. But here are some really fun pictures to enjoy :D
Were going through his hats from last year to see if any of them fit and he thought it was hilarious. This was one of the few that did fit and he loved putting it on himself. hehe

Cute boy sitting at the table and eating. He hit a point where he was so fussy eating and we did not know why. Then one day I was getting his dinner ready and when I looked over he had climbed into a chair and was sitting at the table with his sippy. I got out his booster and he has been happy ever since. :)

Grandma and Grandpa (my parents) came over last weekend and Jake had a great time just hanging out with them.

Here Jake and his Grandpa were getting very excited over a cartoon...probably Mickey. :) He sure was a Grandpa's boy that weekend. It was really cute.

Ahhhh...the first time he used a fork. So much easier than a spoon right now because he loves spearing the food and he has not really figured out the fine art of using a spoon yet. :) Thank you Bonnie for this wonderful tip. :)

Too cute

However very often the fork gets abandoned at some point in favor of the hands. :)

Jake, Grandma and Piper...everyone looks so happy :D They had all just come back from a walk.

Mom, Dad and Jake all in their jammies. :)

And oh Jake's favorite part of the weekend. We had been bad about getting Jake's little pool out this summer and so we finally got it out for the first time. He was not too happy about it until Ryan thought to put his slide going into it. He instantly wanted to go down the slide and loved splashing into it. Often taking a dive into the water at the last instant. Way to go Dad!!!!

This is too much fun!!!

Making the plunge. But that is us as of now. Hope you all are enjoying the last bits of water and fun and looking forward to some nice cool weather. :D

A Fun Weekend in Sacramento!!!

A couple of weekends ago we took a trip to Sacramento for our friend Meliss' baby shower and we had such a blast getting together with friends. A bunch of us stayed at the Gruenholz Bed and Breakfast which also included our friends Troy and Becky. It was so much fun to see our three kids playing with or around each other. :) Its the third time they have all gotten together (although the first time Jake was still in my tummy :) ) and its so much fun to see the changes with all of them at every step. So here are some fun pictures to enjoy :D
Oh yes, Jake's favorite hobby these days...pushing the laundry basket around. Here he is in action. hehe

My happy little Angel. :D Jake has gotten into wearing hats again which is really awesome in the hot sun around here. He can even put them on himself...although the hat rides high and at angle but its really cute.

And here we are in Sac...I just realized that I never got any pictures of all of us adults. lol Can tell where our priorities are. :) But here Jake and Kadence are giving us some tunes. :)

Here Kadence, Emma and Jake are having a good time playing.

And the three musicians plus Becky the helper...she had to lift Jake up and was amazed at his weight. hehe But hey he IS probably half her weight. :D

Music seems to be big with these three. :D

Jake and Kadence reading books and enjoying their sippies at the end of the day. Yes they are 6 months apart in age...hehehe.

While we were there we also got to see our friends Paul and Bethany which was awesome as they used to live less than a mile from us and now they live in Sac. Our boys are 7 weeks apart and so spent much of their first year of life together. Now both boys are walking and so it was so much fun to see them together again. And they seemed pretty excited to see each other too. :) Here Jake and Stevie and playing and reading.

We went out to lunch and since the pizza place was empty we let them explore a bit after eating. They really seemed to enjoy themselves.

And of course....Daddy and Jake being goofy together. These days Jake loves to cuddle with me which of course I adore. But with daddy...he loves to play. :D

Our Little Toddler

Well maybe not little. :D But wow...in the last few weeks Jake has really seemed to make the transition from being a baby to a toddler. He is now walking around a little although still prefers to crawl as he amazes people with his speed. But he is just learning so much and so quickly. His vocabulary is growing as he truly knows the word ball and nana (banana) now. And he now has two molars, well they are still working on breaking through but we have 2 1/2 points through on both so we are getting there. But I love our little man so much. Anyway, here are some more pictures that I promised. :D
A last play day at the old house before we moved.

Jake loves his "dada"

Lately Jake loves talking on his monitor...he really thinks its a phone. (yeah had to get him off the couch after this photo though :) )

Awww...you have not had many pics lately...so had to get a new picture of the cheesy grin.

This weekend we took him to the pool for the first time this summer. I had been wanting to do it for a long time and we finally were able to. He was not too comfy at first but he got a lot better as time went.

Swimming Jakey (with mom holding on of course)

Ahhhh Dada loves

"I'm flying"

He loved going in circles and splashing the water.

Too funny :)

Look Grandma (who was taking pics) I am holding on all by myself!!!

This little monkey was not too happy to get out of the water...but we had a ton of fun and it was time to go home.

Hope you are all enjoying the rest of your summer. Will talk more soon. :D

The Mobile/Walking Jake

OK, as I practically got jumped on Facebook...here is one of our first videos of Jake walking. :D

As some of you know Jake has had the ability to walk for some time...just not the interest. He is just too darn good at walking on his knees and he is the fastest crawler in the west. :) But on Thursday he started to try it out more on his own...away from furniture which he had been cruising around for quite some time. We are so proud, but between that and the crazing climbing this boy does...wow are we in trouble. :)

And also as a little bonus. The day before he learned to climb on his ride on truck which he loves and we find him doing all the time now. :) Now he just needs to learn how to go somewhere on it. :D

And I have more cute pictures...I promise that once I have the time I will get them uploaded. :D

How Time Flys

Wow, its amazing how fast the time goes. But it is for good reason, as many of you know we will be moving soon and so our lives have been really crazy. We are moving to a bigger home in Rosamond and renting out our current house and should be moving within the next week or two. Last weekend our wonderful parents came down and helped us paint the house which was an amazing help and now it looks great. Now as soon as the new carpet is put in we can start moving in. It is going to be so hard for me to leave this house, so many great memories...we brought Jake home to this house. But the new house is awesome and it has a much bigger backyard which Jake will love as he gets older. He is not walking yet but he has become quite the monkey and loves to climb on everything. But as a result of all of this I have not gotten the chance to blog in quite some time. So here are some pictures that I downloaded a couple of weeks ago that are quite cute and some were big occasions.

What is new with Jake, well lets see. He has begun to walk on his knees...and he does it constantly. Even has created little callouses on his knees. hehe His favorite word is car which is says quite often...but never on command. He loves to play tug-o-war with Piper and is often chasing her around the kitchen. He has 5 teeth and more on the way. His favorite things to eat are yogurt and cheese and we are down to one bottle a day at night-time. Ryan and I are having such a great time watching him grow up as right now it seems as though he is constantly learning new things.

But here are some new pictures. Hope you enjoy.
Jake's first ever bubble bath. He was a bit confused at first but now really likes it. :)

Are boys programmed by God to love the remote control? I mean Jake is 15 months old here and he already knows how to use it.

....and he uses it well...you can see that he found his favorite show. Jake adores Mickey Mouse.

Jake colored for the first time making his daddy a father's day card all by himself. :)

I know this sounds crazy but a few weeks ago Jake met his Great Gram and Great Gramps for the first time. It was a great occasion and he really showed off during his visit. Here is is being held by his Great Gram. :D

And here Jake and Great Gramps are checking each other out. I really thing that Jake wanted to take off in his wheel chair...he kept looking at it with awe. :)

Jake and his Moma...just enjoying the day.

The great game of Tug-O-War. It is so cute to watch as Jake often gets the giggles. Piper is so good with Jake and I think they both have a good time.

And Jake's new skill is that he climbs on top of some blankets next to our ottoman and then climbs up on the ottoman itself. He really is our little monkey. I though kids were supposed to walk before they climbed????

But I will get you more pictures and videos soon. Enjoy your week everyone and I hope you all had a wonderful 4th.