Other goings on....

Enjoying a smoothie!

So just a few other fun pictures from our last couple of weeks. Jonathan LOVES any type of music, which is really fun to watch. He has found our guitar hero guitars, and loves to pull them out and "play" them. He even sings along with whatever he thinks he is playing. I did buy him a little ukulele in Hawaii, which he LOVES, however I don't have any pictures of it yet, sorry. He also enjoys that the guitar hero guitars have a strap on them. Anything with a strap gets hung around his neck and he walks around with it, my purse, bags, etc. Yes, I am careful and watch him :)


Guitar was a little stuck - but he figured it out.


Really talented - playing with his foot even


Guitar is on, and ready to rock out!


I love any sleeping baby pictures. This was sweet I thought, as he pulled his blanket over his head and fell asleep while we were driving.


Hmmm...weird, I don't know why when he got my cell phone from me he immediately went to his car and got on it and started talking on the phone!

Hawaii!!

So, maybe my last post was a little wordy, but ultimately this is also for me and my memories, so you, my lucky readers just get to deal with that occasionally. :)

So, a BIG secret that I'd been keeping for a couple of months was that I was flying to surprise my mom and grandma in Hawaii last week! My mom's brothers and her and her mom got together for a family reunion of sorts. I wasn't planning on going but through some careful, secretive planning with my dad, Jonathan and I showed up at their condo and surprised everyone!! The shocked looked on their faces were priceless. And I'm pretty sure I loved my brother's response the best, he came out front with my dad to meet us when the shuttle dropped us off and the driver opened the door: "What the crap are you doing here?" I could feel the love! :) Only a few people knew we were going, and my dad later even said he was impressed I kept the secret as long as I did!

Jonathan and I had a blast and it was so fun to be with the family there. I also got to spend some special time with my mom and grandma, and we even got in an afternoon of shopping together! Something we must always do! :) We spent the majority of our time at the beach, in an ocean or by a swimming pool, I even got to do some snorkeling which was a fun new experience. I loved getting to walk along the beach right in front of the condos in the morning, and overall the relaxed atmosphere. And waking up and putting on a bathing suit and heading to the ocean isn't a bad way to start the day! And Jonathan LOVED all the water time! He loved the waves splashing on him at the edge of the ocean and quickly learned that he would rather be in the hot tub than the swimming pool! And having so many relatives around was pretty great too! Grandma and grandpa, Great Grandma, Uncles, cousins, Great uncles and a great aunt! So much fun!

Cruising in style

Breakfast outside - loved that we could eat outside, and this at probably 6:30, as J had no desire to sleep past 6 on vacation, way too much to do!

And, snoozin' in style!

I do have a few pictures to share, however, I pulled my camera out very little, and will be relying on my mom's photos to eventually make my photo book of this trip, but will share the few that I do have.

Jonathan was also a great traveler. We had a six hour flight from here to Honolulu and then about 30 min to Maui. On the way down (which was during the day), he managed to stay awake for the ENTIRE flight! All but the last five minutes, literally, right when we landed! There were so many people to entertain and meet, and wanted to take full advantage of that opportunity. One nice thing I've learned is that people on an airplane don't tend to mind how friendly your child is, and they tend to quite enjoy the friendliness, as long they aren't screaming! So, I'll take friendly and not sleeping over screaming. Thankfully though, it was the opposite on the way home, which was a nighttime flight and he slept the whole way!

Me trying to get a pic with Jonathan and my lei, but he wasn't a big fan of wearing it!

A gorgeous sunset out our window - but they happened quickly, a little different than out three hour sunsets here!

Another cool sunset picture, this was right after we were leaving dinner. And although it looks like it, they really are not throwing him in the water, they were swinging him and catching him, which he thought was way too fun!

Jonathan enjoying breakfast outside.

this is June?!? and Garage Sale finds

Helping with laundry/searching for his blanket

Eating peanut butter off the knife - defiantely learned this from Grandma Bray! :)


It seems this happens every year! We get tricked at the very beginning of the summer into thinking its going to be gorgeous all summer long and one week later we are lucky to see the sun again! Oh well, I try not to complain and we are making the most of the decent weather that we do have! One of my big goals was to find an outdoor slide and little climbing unit, or something for Jonathan this summer! However I wasn't about to pay full price so was busy watching my nearby second hand kids store, Kid 2 Kid, and was able to take a Saturday and do some garage saleing. I had been watching facebook and driving by Kid 2 Kid often to see what they had available, once making a crazy turn into their parking lot when I saw a slide out front, only to pull up and see it was sold and once before that racing down there when a play cube was posted on fb, yet again to pull up as another woman was loading it up! However, that trip wasn't all unsuccessful as I went inside to look around and they had sitting there in great condition the double stroller I had been looking at! WIN WIN!! So that was exciting! Oh, and every single item I called on through craigslist was already sold. It was evident that mom's looking for outdoor play equipment for toddlers were a vicious type and I was ready to play...


Talking on the phone to grandma :)

So, out to the garage sales I went...I actually don't love garage saleing, although I love the idea of it. So, when there is a large neighborhood having one, that's my kind of garage sale, lots of houses in one neighborhood! I had missed two of the big weekends of the garage sale community already this year, so was excited to find out about one more. ~~~begin long sidenote: However, the weekend I did miss, didn't turn out to be all bad. i had mentioned to my mom that I was wanting another recliner - my current one has been living in Jonathan's room and I wanted to keep that there, but wanted one for the living room again. She shortly after found out her friend was selling two recliners in their neighborhood garage sale, and I got to go by and have an early look, put my name on one and picked it up when we got home from vacation! winner! I couldn't really justify buying another new recliner for this baby, but didn't really want a used one -weirds me out not knowing where it's been - but was so excited to buy it from friends! So, also that weekend, while Jeremy and I were in talkeetna, my youngest brother was going to check out the sales in their neighborhood and I mentioned that I was looking for a crib as well, so if he saw one, to text me a picture, not expecting much though. However, within about 45 min he sent me a pic of a great crib! I was able to set all the wheels in motion, got the money rounded up between my brothers and mom and they went and picked it up for me! Even better, it is a convertible crib and the mattress is in good shape, crib looks hardly used and I only paid $50!! woohoo! Truth is, I don't know exactly how it will be used, but do know there is a chance Jonathan will not be out of his crib by the time we need to move baby into the nursery, so am excited about the options this presented! ~~~~

Anyhow....then last weekend my mom and I got going early and headed out to see if I could find any outdoor toys for little J. After driving through the neighborhood with little luck we stumbled upon a great house! I think we were some of the first to get there, and it was ALL baby and kid stuff! I stopped first because I saw a slide, turned out to be $5!! woohoo! Funny story, I went to the lady to tell her I wanted to buy it, and she pointed to another lady and said "that's hers" I about panicked!! I thought "no"!! this is my slide!! What she really meant was it was two friends doing the garage sale, and it was the other lady's, so to buy it from her! haha Yes, I became a fanatic trying to find a slide. This house also turned out to have a little tikes playhouse that Jonathan thought was great, so we bought that, and two riding toys!! Yay! Success at last! The amusing thing was then trying to fit it all into the trailblazer, I ended up opening the back window part of the hatch and the slide was sort of hanging out of it, I felt like a hardcore garage saler then! The last find of the day was a pack n play, I've been borrowing a friends for awhile, but thought it time to get my own, since they recently had another child. I actually found what is a co-sleeper, but can be used as a pack n play, same size as, and actually sturdier than a pack n play, later found out they retail around $180 and I got for $20! woohoo!

THE House that we found! He loves it and has enjoyed playing in it so far!

So, all in all I've been pretty pleased with my garage sale finds, and am quickly whittling down on my list of things I need for baby #2.

I was cooking dinner, had my back turned for about 2 seconds, and he was on the back of the couch, and actually stood between the couch and window on the window seal! haha

Helping Daddy with his sit ups

Oh, you want to hear about Jonathan?!?! Hmmm....well he's climbing on everything!! and this kid is fast! It amazes me how quickly he can be from one thing to the next around the house. Jeremy was home all weekend and was great in spending extra time with him and at the end of the weekend he admitted that it is alot more tiring than he thought watching him all day, as he is quite quick and when he wants in something, he finds a way to get it! We invested in a family pass to the zoo this year, so we went on Saturday, so that was fun - well sort of, Jonatahn was way done, about half way through and it only takes about an hour to 1 1/2 hrs to get through our zoo - he was just super tired! Ok, well I will add some pics in of the little one.

Jeremy taking Jonathan, Miles and Clair for a walk

At the zoo - so ready to go home!

Climbed onto the dishwasher door - another new favorite now that he can open it and pulled down the cookie scoop and was licking it out! can't blame him for that - although I'm not ready to share with him! :)

Oh and on the pregnancy side of things I am now 22 weeks and feeling all 22 weeks of this baby! I am definately feeling more pregnant like and I think this baby seems to be higher than Jonathan was and already am having a harder time bending over to tie shoes and silly things like that. We went in for an ultrasound about 2 weeks ago and baby looked very healthy so we were glad to hear that, and it is still a secret as to boy/girl. :) Last night baby I think was trying to escape from my belly I woke up a number of times getting jabbed and kicked and baby rolling around. Although, it sure is fun to feel baby move. :)

22 weeks prego

part 2

While I have time I am going to finish writing about the rest of our vacation. And really I use this as a way of journaling of sorts, since I do have a goal of printing this blog someday, I should do it sooner than later, but at least for now I am getting it down.

We are still in Talkeetna and Jonathan is having a great time with grandma and his uncles, I'm sure grandpa is disappointed he's out of town this weekend and missing out. Although this weekend turned out to not be what I planned, late Thursday night I realized that I left a bag of material and all my notions at home, so no cutting tools, thread, etc. with me. Very sad moment for me, but I'm making the most of the time I have here and enjoying the relaxed nature of this trip.

Helping Grandma with laundry

~~~ On to the trip ~~~

Excited to be going to Sea World

~ Sunday morning drove from Riverside back down to Sand Diego and spent the day at Sea World, Kelly came with us so was fun to still get to hang out with him.
~ Jonathan loved the dolphin show! There was a lot of activity so I think that captured his attention. It was really fun to watch him watch and enjoy the animals.
~ Kelly offered to watch J while Jeremy and I went on a river rapids ride - one where you are in a big round tube, with like 8 seats. Well, along the ride route spectators can pay .25 and spray water cannons at the riders. So, Kelly spent the best .75 of his life and let Jonathan shoot the water cannons, which I guess he LOVED pushing the button. And of course he got Mom and Dad SOAKED!! When we came off the ride he was all smiles and laughing, it was very cute actually!
~ the shark tank was another hit, he liked an area where we stood outside two panels of windows but he could see the sharks up close and got pretty excited about that.
~ We had to say good bye to Kelly at the end of the day, as he had to be back for PT in the morning, but not before dinner at Olive Garden.
~ Jeremy's conference started on Monday, so it was Jonathan and Mommy time. We actually had a great time together. I found a fun children's museum downtown and we spent some time there. I will post pictures of those from my camera later.


Jonathan playing at the children's museum

~ There was an area called Seaport Village right near the hotel so we spent some time walking through there Monday evening and again on Tuesday.

Where we ate along the bay for dinner one night.


Baby Belly - about 17 weeks

~ On Wednesday we got packed up in the morning and Jeremy's conference was over by 11:30, so we picked him up and went back to Sea World for a few hours - when we bought our tickets they were running a promotion that for the same price of one day you could come back all year. We probably won't be back this year, but was fun to spend one more afternoon there.

Waiting for the dolphin show to start

~ This time we were able to see the penquins, some beluga whales up close, a couple of polar bears, and the dolphin show again.
~ In the Arctic exhibit they had some sort of ice/snow caves to walk through, the coldness didn't seem to bother our Alaskan boy and he climbed all over the cold ice in his shorts!
~ It was time to head to the airplane after this. We had great flights home and Jonathan slept well on the late night flight this time!



Learning about moving walkways at the Portland airport - he thought this was great!

California May 2011

Well we got home not even 24 hours ago and Jeremy and I are off on another trip. This time Jonathan is with grandma and we are just about 2 hours north of Anchorage in Talkeetna. Jeremy had a conference to go to, so I came along and Jonathan is getting a weekend with Grandma and his uncles. This is our first time away from him for an overnight, it's a little weird leaving him, especially after such a full week together but at the same time I am already enjoying my time. Currently I am enjoying the free wifi and cable television :). And I brought along my sewing machine and a couple of quilting projects that I hope to make some progress on. But for now, I am going to talk a bit about our trip last week. I will try to keep it brief - but any reader of this blog knows I'm not too good at that :).

Hotel Yesterday in San Diego


Hotel today in Talkeetna - I think McKinley is behind the clouds somewhere.

We were able to make this very fun California vacation happen due to a conference that Jeremy attended in San Diego. This really was "how to go on a great vacation on a small budget" type of trip, this is how: Fly wife and lap child on companion ticket that comes with credit card, spend four nights at brother and sister in laws place, the rest of the nights in hotel provided from credit union, we then paid for rental car, tickets to Disney and Sea World, having a child makes eating at a super nice restaurant very unappealing, stayed at an Embassy Suites with AWESOME breakfast. So really it turned out to be an ideal situation for us. It was wonderful to go away for a real vacation as a family of three, the only time it will happen and will be memories that Jeremy and I will treasure for a while, and Jonathan can enjoy the pictures, as I'm sure he won't remember much of it, but it was fun for us to watch him enjoy new things and new scenery.

A few highlights...

~ we got an extra seat in our row for EVERY flight!! So took car seat on plane with us, so was nice to not have to hold him the whole time. oh and best part was if he was unbuckled he could stand up tall and flirt with ANYONE and EVERYONE who looked his way, however for first overnight flight did not sleep until literally the last 20 min of the 3 hr 20 min flight!
~ We got in to San Diego on Wed am, then drove to Riverside (a suburb of LA, where Kelly and Ashley go to school and live) and stayed at their place - unfortunately Ashley was gone on her choir tour, and Kelly didn't get there until Fri (he was in AK for a few days) - anyways we decided to tough it out and despite little sleep the night before go to an LA Angels baseball game. This was our only opportunity for a baseball game in the trip and decided to just make the most of it.
~ Got to Angels stadium and while standing in line for tickets a gentleman came up and offered us two tickets! yay! and giveaway at gate was free Angels hat - this vacation was starting out well! :) We didn't spend tons of time sitting with Jonathan in the seats, but Jeremy and he really enjoyed their time walking around and enjoying the ballpark. And Jeremy enjoyed getting to take his son to his first baseball game. Jonathan loved clapping along with the crowd and overall enjoyed his time.



~~~ agh I was trying to make this bullet points! haha!! ~~~

~~ Thursday went to Huntington Beach - Jonathan LOVED playing in the sand, and mostly loved that there was so much room to run around in! Enjoyed a walk along pier and I got myself sunburned - I sun screened everyone but myself :(

~ Did not take Jonathan long at all to adjust to the warmth, at K and A's, he loved to go out on their patio and play in the sun!
~ Fri we picked up Kelly from the airport and headed to Disney Land. This was a very long and fun day. Of course it seemed like Jonathan fell asleep at all the wrong times, like when we could go on a ride that he could go on, but oh well.

He seemed to enjoy all the people and a couple of the rides. He particularly liked the Buzz Lightyear ride where you get to shoot a laser gun and can spin the car you are in.

~ Walking through the New Orleans district in Disney Land we saw Stevie Wonder - not sure what he was doing there, but he was there.
~ Another favorite at Disney Land was Goofy's Play House - there he could play around on a slide and run around, which was great as he was tired of being restrained all day. There was also a piano just his size, which was a big hit!! He even got possessive and tried to push some other kids off - not a proud parenting moment, but humorous at the same time :)
Playing the piano


This hat was left behind in Disney somewhere - was cute while it lasted though.


Checking out a Mickey Mouse pretzel - no, he didn't want to eat it either, he tore off a chunk and threw it on the ground.


Waiting in line for the Nemo submarine ride

~ We didn't leave DL until 11:40 pm!! yikes! We went back in after dinner at espn zone to watch the fireworks show and then were able to get on a couple of rides quickly, so it was worth it! It was a long day and we got to sleep in the next day.


Trying on Mickey Mouse ears - they stayed on for about 2 seconds, so decided this wasn't the time to buy them :)


I even was going to let him eat some cotton candy but he didn't want it!


Even got our picture with Mickey!

~ Saturday we went to a farmer's market in Riverside (on my list of things I wanted to do, not anyone else's :) ) - but i got some awesome cherries and oranges!
~ We also got to explore Riverside and Kelly showed us around their school (California Baptist) which was great to get to see his life in CA - we also went swimming in outdoor pool at the school! I cannot remember the last time I was in an outdoor pool! So great!


Captured a yawn - this is right after swimming outside, yes he fell asleep shortly after in the car.

~ WOOHOO Oklahoma City Thunder just won!! series tied now!

Ok, I think I'm going to end there for now. And these are only pictures from my phone! It's going to be hard going through all the ones on my camera! I feel a photo book being made soon! :)

A few things....

I've been reminded this week of a few things, not things I didn't already know but that I guess I needed the reminder of...

...I am appreciative of the fact that we have two cars, sharing is hard...
...I am so so so grateful that I don't work outside our home, Jonathan has been sick this week so he has spent a few mornings with my mom so I could go to the commitments and appointments, and it is hard leaving him...
...I love that I have brothers interested in helping their sister get her car fixed, they replaced my radiator this week!...
...I am a homebody, I need my time at home to be energized, my schedule has been way too full this week and I am so excited about not leaving by 8:30 tomorrow morning...
...I am giddy to be in the sun and warmth next week...
...I love maternity clothes, I was mortified the first time I went shopping for pants when I was pregnant with Jonathan with the huge waist bands and all, but this time I am so excited to get to wear them again, to not have a band cutting into my waist is great! ... If TMI - too bad :)
...I don't know why I'm doing the "..." thing, it just seemed right...
...I will backup my iphone regularly now, since it had been about a month apparently and when my phone freaked out on me and went in recovery mode, I lost all my pictures and videos :( ...
...I was smart enough to have my family that I send photos to to text them back to me, so I at least got a few back...
...Hearing the heartbeat of my growing baby is so amazing and just doesn't get old...
...The only reason I had crazy energy on Monday was because I had a latte/mocha freeze thing from Costco that evidently had way more caffeine than my body could handle, I was awake until past midnight, but did get a lot done during the day...

I know there were other things to be added to this list, but for now this is all that's coming to mind. So I will allow you to enjoy a few cute pics of my little boy :)


Our little climber, although I don't think he actually wanted into the play pen, it's more fun to climb on the chair.

Uncle Rob came over for lunch and they sat on the couch drinking their juice together, it was very sweet.

I thought we tried to stop eating in front of the tv before Jonathan was too impressionable, but he brought his bowl to me, asked "Please" - which his sign is he rubs his chin, which is super cute - for it to be filled and then I gave him a snack in it, and he took the bowl and sat in his chair next to the tv to eat his snack. When he was done he came to get more. :)

And this series of pictures was taken Monday night, Jonathan was super tired and was ready to go to bed, but he knew it was bath time first, while I was starting the water, he behind my back got into the tub with his clothes fully on and went straight to the faucet and sat under it. He loves to sit under the running water. He was so tired I couldn't even get him to stand up to pull his shorts off!

Exactly 17 months and 16 weeks...

The age of our two children .... just a small tidbit for any readers :)

Well I am now 16 weeks into this pregnancy and I think that I am getting to the more manageable part of it. I am trying to wean myself off the nausea medicine, mostly to just see if I can make it without it, or if I still need it. It seems to be day to day. I go in tomorrow for my check up and am looking forward to hearing this little one's heartbeat. I have even gained a couple of pounds since the last visit, so the medicine must have been working :).

I am getting very excited about this next month. Next Tuesday night Jeremy, Jonathan and I are leaving for a vacation down to San Diego and will also spend some time in Riverside (Kelly and Ashley live there) and Anaheim (Mickey lives there!)!!! Jeremy had to go down to SD for a conference for work, so we just used our Alaska Airlines ticket and Jonathan and I get to travel with him. We are very excited for a fun week of relaxation and not too much planned. I am looking forward to spending some time walking the boardwalk areas near our hotel and being outside with Jonathan during the day and just for a different trip than what we are used to that is full of visiting family and going from place to place - which we do love too, but I am looking forward to a small change. :) And it is a well timed trip as it is the week after our 6 year anniversary and Jeremy will complete the last of his classes for his Master's before we leave!! woohoo!!

AND did I mention it is in the 80s and 90s right now!?! I will probably die! I'm thinking about what to pack and seriously can't remember the last time I considered what clothes to wear in that type of heat, it was probably when we lived in Texas and that was 8 years ago? This poor white Alaska skin hopefully will hold up in the heat!

And to top it off when we get back Jeremy has another conference in Talkeetna (about 2 - 2 1/2 hrs north of here I think) so I will actually go with him there and Jonathan gets his first weekend with his grandparents! And most exciting for me is that I'm looking forward to taking my quilting and working on some projects that have been stashed away for a little too long now.

WE have been fighting colds this last week and Jonathan still is, so that's never fun to be dealing with, but he's a trooper. Best way I could tell that he was getting sick is he is quieter when he "talks" and was actually standing still the other day - he is usually constantly moving, even if standing in place is swaying or bouncing. And his run turned into more of a walk. However, he continues to be busy, I'm just able to keep up a bit more :).

Oh and speaking of 16 weeks pregnant I think that I am finally getting some of my energy back and am not counting down the minutes until my next nap time :). I still need rest but not quite as bad. AND I have actually gotten some things done around the house, even mulitple tasks in one day! Like yesterday I did laundry AND folded it. And swept AND mopped! woohoo! it's the little victories in life! Well, off to get Jonathan up, he's awake and thinks that there are things to be doing other than being stuck in his crib! haha Oh and sorry, you made it to the end and no new pictures - My only updated pictures were on my phone and it went into recovery mode or something today so I had to restore it all and it doesn't appear to have recovered my most recent pictures :( I guess I should download my pictures more often. But if I find them I will post some.