Last Trip to Seattle....

Whoa, this is a VERY late post, Jake and I took this trip more than a month ago! So, since my family is moving to California this summer, this was my very last trip there. It's sad because I LOVE Seattle, it's so pretty there, but I'm SUPER EXCITED that they are moving to Cali!!!! They won't be more than an hour 1/2 away, I can't even imagine how that's going to be!!! We haven't lived near family for about 2 years, and it's been hard at times, so needless to say, I can't wait for the summer! We had a fun trip, though, and we will miss Seattle. What I won't miss, however, is trying to keep Jake quiet and entertained on the plane! Whew ;)

We ate at this really fun Japanese (or Chinese??) restaurant, it's one that cooks the food right in front of you. Amazing!!

The zoo!!

Jake loved the chickens at the petting zoo part, tee hee.

Making messes is what he does best ;)

Aww how pretty.

We also ate at the Rainforest Cafe, and if you've never been there you HAVE to go! It's kinda expensive for the amount of food you get, but eating there is SO COOL with how it's decorated. Jake was very entertained, and he made a new friend......

Aww, hugs!

Jake and Aunt Sawah's favowite game! You just hit your head over and over again... sounds like fun, huh?? haha

Hoppy Easter :)

Yay, I'm finally updating this blog!! I'm waaaay behind, so bear with me! We had a fun Easter weekend this year, complete with egg coloring, lots of candy, good food, and General Conference! It was good to spend Saturday and Sunday at home watching Conference together as a family. Jake was very well-behaved during all the sessions on Saturday, but Sunday was a different story :/ I think he was tired of having Mom and Dad sit on the couch watching the TV....

But it was so good to have the Spirit so strongly in our home that weekend. I LOVE Conference, I look forward to it every time, because I know that I will receive answers to prayers, and I get to hear a prophet and apostles of the Lord speak to ME, and to the world, and bear witness that Christ is the Redeemer and that He lives! I love my Savior, I'm grateful for the Atonement, that He suffered and died for me. He knows what I am going through, and even at times where I may feel like no one understands me, I know that He does. I receive my strength through Him. "Two people can do anything, as long as one of them is the Lord."

But anyway :) I hope everyone had a FANTABULOUS Easter weekend!!! Does anyone still have candy left?? I know ours was gone about 5 days after Easter.... kinda scary!! But soooo good.

Dying Easter eggs!

All Jake was interested in after a while was putting the crayons in the holes.

Our b-e-a-utiful eggs! (not really) My favorite is the one that Jake scribbled so hard on that it cracked a big hole in it, and we couldn't dye it, hehe.

Oooo, basket grass...

And PEEPS!! And yes, sadly these are the only pics I got of the Easter basket madness. We were too busy eating the candy, I guess!

15 Months Already???

Our little Jake is 15 months old!! Well, as of a couple weeks ago. He just had his dr. appt. a couple days ago so I was able to get his stats! Steve and I LOVE being his parents, he is such a funny little boy. He keeps us laughing, that's for sure. He can be challenging at times, but we love him anyway ;) He is still a strong-willed, spirited child, and very independent. We're just crossing our fingers that these qualities will serve him well later on in life.... because right now they keep us on our toes! Jake's a great kid though, he's obedient most of the time, he loves to play and have fun, he's curious and a little chatterbox, he makes me laugh, and he's my little buddy all day long. We just love him, and we are having so much fun watching him grow up!!!

Don't you just love free entertainment??

HA! One night Jake kept walking around bent over with his hands on his knees, it looked so funny! I tried to get a video of him doing it, but of course he would stop as soon as I pushed record!

This is how much he l.o.v.e.s. yogurt..... Forget the spoon, man!

So I had opened the fridge to get Jake some more milk, and I left the fridge open while I was pouring it, and when I turned around to put the milk back in and this is what I found! Doesn't waste one second!

These are the shoes he picked out for us to wear one morning. And yes, that is a flip flop on my right foot, and yes, I am wearing socks. Jake just wanted to make sure I looked my best ;)

Height: 32 1/4 inches, 80th perc.
Weight: 23.11 oz, 40th perc.

He has 14 teeth, and only has his top 2 canines left! Well, until his 2 year old molars come in... yikes. At least we have some time until then :)

J Man's Favorite Things:

CARS and TRUCKS!! He is obsessed with anything that has wheels. He's been making car sounds for a while now, cracks me up!

Shoes. Big shoes, little shoes. He loves putting shoes on, taking them off, and then putting them back on again. And since he isn't very good at putting them on himself, it makes for a very "fun" game for Mom ;) But a few weeks ago, I was organizing Jake's clothes and came across some tiny, adorable newborn booties, and of course J had to put them on, and he got frustrated when his big toddler feet wouldn't fit. Made me a little teary eyed... he is just growing up too fast.

His Little People Garage.

Stuffed animals and real animals.

Phones.

Sunglasses.

Giving kisses :)

Throwing his diaper away. He knows that the diaper trash can is out on the deck, and he eagerly reaches for his wadded up diaper after we change it and holds it high above his head like it's a trophy or something and bee-lines it for the trash. Love it!

Being outside.

Slides.

Books. His #1 fave right now is called Millie Moo, about a cow who loses her barnyard friends. Don't worry, she finds them ;) When he brings me the book for me to read it to him he says, "Moo, moo." But it sounds more like, "Mo, mo." hehe

Words he knows:

Well, not a whole lot yet! But he DOES say, "Wha sat??" and "Wha sis??" to anything and everything, for reals. He's totally gonna be that annoying kid that says, "WHY??" all the time. BAH!! Well, at least he's curious, right? :/

He loves to say "No," yep that's a fun one.

Hey

Drink= din

Shoe= see-oo

Cheese= cheh

Sign language: more, thirsty, hungry, all done, thank you.

Animal noises: elephant, dog, mouse, cow, bird, monkey

Things he can do:

Go up and down the stairs with one hand holding on to the rail, standing up. This is one of my FAVORITE things he can do, since we live in a 2nd floor apartment!

Run

Kick a ball

Stack blocks

Feed himself with a spoon, but only if the food is kinda sticky, like applesauce, yogurt or oatmeal, things like that.

Blow kisses

Point to body parts

Fold his arms when we're saying a prayer

Throw fits. Yep. also a fun one ;)

WE LOVE YOU JAKE!!!!!

Life

I figured I'd take advantage of Jake sleeping in this morning and update the blog! It's way overdue, but HEY, life happens :) There's really nothing overly exciting to post about, except for life is good!!

Even though for the past month Jake has been cutting molars, which has NOT been pleasant for him, or his parents. I wish they would all just come through at once, but instead they have to make their grand appearances one....at....a....time.... and speaking of which, he still has one to go. "Teething Jake" is hard on me because he is clingy and cranky and irritable, which is the opposite of "Normal Jake." I'm so excited for him to be talking and be able to tell me what is wrong with him instead of me trying to guess, or get impatient with him because he won't stop tugging on my leg and wanting to be held all day. When he does this I should just be more sensitive to him and recognize that he must not feel good. I've just been spoiled with a kid who usually is content to just do whatever, and who doesn't need my attention all the time. So my new goal is to be more patient with him the next time he gets clingy, and remember that for him to be like that, he probably is not feeling his best. But for the time being, I get to enjoy "Normal Jake," until those darn teeth start making their way through again!

But life is good, and I feel very blessed to have Steve and Jake with me. The weather is perfect here, and with it getting darker later, we've been able to enjoy more time outside together and it's been so much fun. I'm SOO excited for summer, to be able to take Jake swimming every day and have lots of BBQ's with friends and go camping and get a tan, and for a family reunion with Steve's side, and for my family to move only about an hour away from us!!!! That's the thing I'm looking forward to the most this summer, I'm SO EXCITED!!! It was a totally random thing, my dad is just relocating for his job, and it just so happens to be an hour away. :) It's just so funny because Steve and I NEVER saw ourselves living in California, but now that we're here we don't want to go anywhere else, we love it!! And my parents never saw themselves living in Cali either, but here we all are! And I know they are going to love it. I'm looking forward to free babysitting..... hehe ;)

Anyways, that's really all I have to say! OH, except that Jake is turning 15 months tomorrow, and he is just such a funny kid, I love him!!! I'll update on that after he has his Dr. appt. in a week or so, but he's growing like crazy, as all kids are. When did he turn into a little boy?? **Sigh...** Well, speaking of Jake, he's awake and ready to go, talking to himself in his crib ;)

Bring on the day!!!!

Valentine's Day!

Ok, so this has nothing to do with Valentine's Day, but I'm just SOOO excited about the fact that our house has been free of bottles for about a month now, YAY!!! Jake is finally starting to like (or at least tolerate) milk from the sippy, so all is well now ;) Another milestone DOWN!!

Flashback: Steve and I on Valentine's Day 4 YEARS AGO in 2006, wow...

Ok, back to the present :) Steve got me the COOLEST bouquet of flowers I have ever seen. The picture does NOT do it justice! He found it at a Farmer's Market and they said the flowers are from South Africa.

Some of the flowers had feathers around the edge, SO COOL!

We went bowling, which was something we hadn't done for SOOO long, and it was really fun! While we were waiting, we played some arcade games and we got a little squeaky frog for Jake with the tickets we won, hehe. It kept him busy at church for about 2 minutes.... ;)

Ok, so this will probably never happen again, but...... I BEAT Steve the first game, YEAH!! Just don't laugh at our scores, haha.

And then..... I did even worse, and Steve almost doubled my score.... typical ;)

So, Steve got a video camera case and a movie, I got some new shirts, and Jake got a little basketball hoop set for the tub! I think Steve has more fun with it though.. Oh yeah, side note: we left Jake with a babysitter, and unfortunately he did not have a good report :( I guess he was pretty crabby and didn't go to sleep very easily. But I have to cut the little guy some slack because he did have 2 molars break through 2 days later! Anyways, we hope everyone had a FABULOUS Valentine's Day, or as Steve says, "Happy Love Day."

Our Home, the Hotel :)

We have had quite the busy house lately, but we have had a BLAST!! In the middle of January, Steve's parents and sister, Gina, came to visit from Idaho (Gina got picked up in Utah). They stayed for a week and then 2 weeks later, my sister Emily and her hubby David came from Provo to visit us for a long weekend! We love living in a place where people can come and keep busy with all the AWESOME things to do around here! However, it helps when California weather cooperates, which it does most of the time, but when our visitors were here it ended up raining a few of the days :/ We still had fun, though!!

There are some really pretty trails just 15 minutes away, and the weather was beautiful (on this day anyway, haha) so we just HAD to check it out! Here are Steve's parents and Gina, and Jake in the backpack :)

The weather was still perfect the next day, so we ventured out to San Diego, and visited Coronado (currently our FAVORITE beach to come to).

Beach baby!!

Ha, yeah so by the end of the day, Jake was SOAKED from the water! Steve was walking next to him and a wave came that was stronger than he thought and it totally knocked Jake over into the water.... it was sad but really funny :) Good thing I had a change of clothes for him!

Last day of sun... So we went down to San Diego again and went on a 3 hour whale watching cruise! It was actually awful at first because it was really windy and the way the boat was rocking back and forth made us a little woozy. A little girl about Jake's age kept throwing up, actually, it was SO sad. And really gross!! Anyways, after the first hour the boat slowed down so we could see the whales, and it was fun again, thank goodness!

This was the best shot I got of the whales. See that little tiny white splash in the water?? That's it! Haha... kinda pathetic ;)

Later that day we went to Balboa park to go to a Train Museum, which is a big hobby for Steve's dad, and Steve is pretty into it, too.

This train set-up is made totally from Lego's! So cool!!

Balloon animals! Daffy Duck, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Belle, The Hulk, Little Mermaid and Mario!!

And then the rains came.... this picture is worth 1000 words, seriously!! We tried venturing out even though it was raining, and we ended up going out to lunch to a place we had never been to, and it was pretty much a shack with vinyl shades that were NOT good at keeping rain out! The shade next to Steve kept blowing from the wind and was pretty close to hitting him in the head a few times! It was cold, and windy, and we were getting wet, and the food was terrible and expensive! I don't really know why we stayed, but we now have a good story that we can laugh at, I guess, haha.

Ok, so that's the end of Steve's family being here :( ................ but then we were ready for Emily and David! It rained when they were here too, unfortunately! But we went to the mall around here and Carlisle from Twilight was there!! That was the first celebrity I've seen in person, it was kinda cool. And he looks WAY younger in real life than he does on the movies.

Jake's "Cheese" face again, hehe

I love you guys, thanks for coming!!!!! It'll have to be LONGER next time and hopefully it won't rain :)