Monday, June 27, 2011

Introducing New Things

I'm a bit behind. I have TONS of pictures. TONS! But I've been too busy to post. Well, that and the next book from my favorite author came out so I've been reading during my "free time." I put free time in quotes because that only happens after the kids are in bed and everything is picked up. :) Oh the joys of being Mommy!

The kids are doing well. I recently introduced Jewell to her new kid pool. It took a really long time (like 30 minutes) to get her to stop clinging to me, and I eventually had to get in the water in order for her to see that it was a fun activity. But, she did learn to love her little pool.






Jefferson is now eating cereal. I have tried Avocado with him and he just doesn't like it. But he needs more food. I'm not able to keep up with his needs with just my milk anymore. I was amazed with how much happier he now is. He LOVES grabbing the spoon too :).



I also taught Jefferson how to use the jumper. He is doing pretty well with it :). Ignore the messy pantry, I've already cleaned it since then.


And this picture is for my Mom. Jewell loved the dress her Nana bought for her a few weeks ago.


It's so much fun introducing the kids to new things. Each one adapts to things so differently. I'm enjoying learning the different personalities of my children.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

I Blinked

I never knew it would go so fast! I mean people would tell me. But I didn't expect it to be like magic. And now I have this problem, I blinked, and my little baby girl turned into a....kid. When I check on her at night she basically takes up her entire crib. It's so strange to see her running around, pushing her baby doll stroller, and trying to do things that we do. When did she grow up?

Jewell has grown up so quickly! She walks, and now runs pretty much everywhere. She loves playing with legos and babies. But, her all time favorite activity is still reading. She knows almost all of her letters (she still struggles with the letter u). We are still working on counting. For now she knows 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, and 10. Her vocabulary is basically too extreme to record at this point. I'm overall just so proud of my growing girl.

As for eating...oh eating... This seems to always be an issue with our little girl. I am happy to report that she's finally starting to eat things she refused to touch all of her solid food life. She loves hamburger (if it's dipped in ketchup or in spaghetti sauce). She refuses to touch, or eat chicken (unless they are chicken nuggets). Chicken just isn't her thing. And she will only eat pork if it's pork loin cooked in a crock pot. She knows what she likes! I've done my best with cutting out the afternoon snack now, and that's caused her to eat more things lately. So far so good.

I'm a bit anxious to start potty training her, but she's just not ready. She still hasn't mastered taking her clothes off by herself, and she's absolutely TERRIFIED of the big girl potty. So, we will continue to wait :).

Jewell has developed a fear in anything that has a running motor. If it runs, she's afraid of it. I can't even take out the vacuum or she runs to me screaming and crying. Yes, I have a GIRLY GIRL! But I love it.

I can't believe my little girl is 21 months old now. She's really growing up way too fast. So for now, I'm going to do my best cherishing each moment we have with her as a little girl, and of course, try not to blink.

How anyone can get bows to stay in a toddlers hair is beyond me.





Sunday, June 12, 2011

New Jeep

We had to leave both of our cars in South Carolina when we moved to Oregon. It just wasn't worth the money to transport the cars. We bought a little old car for Matt (it has great gas mileage) to take to work each day, and we waited for our cars in South Carolina to sell. It wasn't too bad not having a car to take the kids places really until last week. The weather all of a sudden turned into Spring/Summer and I wanted out. However, the Lord graciously sold our cars last week, and we were able to purchase a car for me yesterday. Praise the Lord.

It took us about 3 hours at the dealership yesterday where we bought our car. We were going to buy our car with cash, and the dealership didn't seem to understand why we weren't going to finance for the rest. Matt finally told the salesman that he preferred to not go into debt on something that was going to go down in value as soon as you drive off the lot. The salesman respected that and told us to keep negotiating with the manager. After an 1.5 hours of negotiations we got the car at the price we wanted. My husband certainly knows what he's doing.

We decided to buy a Jeep since Matt loves to drive in the mountains and off road. We even tested it off road and it was great! I have always wanted a Jeep, and it's my favorite color :). This car was definitely worth the wait.



Friday, June 10, 2011

No, Not MY Toy

Yesterday, I decided it was time to get out the walker for Jefferson. He's a little too short for it still though. He does love to play with the toys on it though :). Jefferson loves how it lights up and plays music.



After a few minutes of playing on it Jewell noticed what was happening. She immediately walked over to it and started playing with the toys. She kept telling Jefferson no when he touched things she was touching. Then, she was putting her hands under his arms and saying up, up. It was so funny. I just kept laughing and laughing. Jewell definitely knew that Jefferson was in HER old toy.



I loved having the walker out for Jeffers to play in. It really helped me keep him entertained while I was playing with Jewell outside. Jeffers just sat in the walker at the doorway all content to be looking around and playing. Boy has he grown up already!




Sunday, June 5, 2011

Horses

Our family enjoys taking walks in our cute little neighborhood on Saturday's. This week we decided to take the camera with us. Jewell has finally learned how to identify the horses at the end of the street, so we thought we'd let her spend a little more time observing them with Daddy this week. She just loved saying, "hoooorse, hooooorse." It was very cute. We only got one horse to come closer this week. Maybe next week we'll be able to see 2!




Friday, June 3, 2011

Mr. Chubbers turns 4 Months

Wow, has June 1st already come and gone? You have got to be kidding me! It's a good thing I remembered to snap a picture of Jefferson that day :). Boy has he grown.


I'm not exactly sure what all the stats are for him at this time. As soon as a I get my new license I can prove that I live in Oregon so we can get health insurance. So, hopefully in the next few weeks I can give a full health report. I do know that I'm definitely not worried about weight gain with him! Hence the nickname, Mr. Chubbers (that's Mommy and Daddy's nickname at least).

Jefferson has reached a few milestones. He can sleep 10 hours now on a regular basis. Sometimes 11 hours. We are currently working on pushing it to twelve, but he's still young so he has plenty of time. He is napping about 3 times a day. I wish I could say those were always 2 hours, but he ranges from 1.5 to 2 hours most days (for at least one good nap). He is still eating every 3 hours during the day. He has gone 3.5 hours a few times though. I have hope that it will come soon.

Jefferson can roll from his tummy to his back. But he will only do that when you are playing with him. NEVER, when upset. Silly boy! He tries to go from back to tummy, but usually gets stuck on his side. He also pulls on his toys now when laying on his play mat. His biggest accomplishment this month is supported sitting. He seems to really want to sit on his own, but doesn't quite have the balance. Every time he's in his car seat or bouncy now though he picks his head up to look at things better. So I know it's only a matter of time. Jefferson is also getting much more curious of his surroundings. I have to try and find a quiet place for him to eat in order to get a full feeding in, or else he's looking around and laughing. Have we really hit this stage already? I love it!

Jefferson loves laughing at Jewell. I can't wait to enjoy watching them play together when it actually makes sense. And of course, Jewell loves calling Jefferson, "her baby." Too sweet.

The little man was introduced to the swing (don't worry, we didn't really push him much) yesterday. And I may or may not have had fun dressing him up with Jewell's sun glasses. Poor kid, he'll really like it when I show his future girl friends one day! :)




Thursday, June 2, 2011

Memorial Day Weekend

What an amazing Memorial Day Weekend! I think it was the very first Memorial Day Weekend we've had in the last 4.5 years of marriage that Matt wasn't working a freelance job. We truly had a blast as a family. I'll let the pictures explain it all :).

We bought Matt a grill!





We were sent a gift card by Matt's old company. I wanted to use it for a cheap swing, but Matt did NOT like the cheap ones. So, we decided to use the gift card for a kid pool, swings, and a water table (on order still). Which meant, he wanted to BUILD us our first swing set. Jewell thought this was great, and tried to be Daddy's little helper all weekend.










Daddy! You need my help!!!!!


She loves doing what Daddy does :).


And she's also a girl, she got distracted easily!





The kids really needed a bath after the first evening of cutting the wood.




Jefferson enjoys trying to escape.





Day 2 of building!




And here it is all finished! We purposely left the end sticking out. We aren't sure what we want to put there. We will probably let the kids decide as they get older.


Matt would have made is Dad so proud!


Jewell has a new obsession to swinging. She did not stop laughing!





The total cost of our nice wood swing set: 100 dollars! I hope to add on to it as the kids get older and our family grows. You did a great job Matt!