Family Time =)

We are in the middle of Garen's two week break between semesters.

We had all of last week with him and all of next week,

and we are loving it.

 

Here's some of what we did last week:

 

 

We went to Bass Pro Shop again,

hoping to see the mermaid again

but she wasn't there so we just had fun

looking at all the big fish and animals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went to see the movie Epic it the theater

and I think if I were about 10 years old I would have loved it,

but I'm not, and neither is anyone in our family.

Still a super cool adventure movie though!

 

 

 

We had the week off and found a REALLY good deal on

Priceline for one night, so we took a quick two-days-and-one-night trip

to Californ-i-a! We spent an afternoon at Newport Beach,

and the next day at Huntington Beach.

 

Lainee was deathly afraid of the ocean waves

and moving water, so we didn't end up doing too much swimming

and splashing like I'd pictured but she still thoughtit was cool

and we had lots of fun in the sand, and collected some shells!

 

Jace was kind of REALLY excited about the beach altogether

and if he'd have been a little bigger, he would have had more fun than any of us.

 

Garen spent pretty much the entire time body boarding and

seemed to really enjoy himself too!

 

We even saw some dolphins swim by a few hundred yards away!

 

We all came home pretty tired and red-

in fact, Lainee has deemed Garen "Tomato Face."

 

All in all- a GREAT trip!

(for a great price.)

 

 

I only wish we could have stayed longer.

 

 

 

Tomorrow we head to Washington for more hot weather

and water sports and family time!



6 months old!

Baby Jace at Six Months:

 

*has been rolling over for 3 months now

and is a pro "speed-roller" ;)

 

*can sit really well on his own but

still gets a little tipsy sometimes

 

*can get into a crawling position on his own,

but for now he's just a "speed army-crawler."

(put a phone or a marker or something else he shouldn't have

in front of him, and he can scoot on his elbows and knees

half way across the room in seconds!)

 

*Started eating baby food about 6 weeks ago and

can't get enough of it. We'll just call him a "speed-eater" too.

One night he was pretty hungry at dinner time and

we just couldn't shovel it in fast enough,

so Garen picked up the baby food to let him drink it.

Garen was half teasing, but Jace was not. He drank

the whole 3.5 oz (like you would from a cup)

 in less than a minute!

 

*Also loves to stand up with help even though

he's pretty wiggly. He can't get enough of doing

what Big Sis does. A few weeks ago,

 Garen taught him to "walk"

while we hold his hands!

 

*Enjoys "swimming," splashing, and being in the water,

especially because Sister is so fast and funny in the water.

He loves bath time even more because he can splash naked!

 

*Thinks Lainee is the coolest, funniest girl alive.

He is always trying to touch her hair,

or play with whatever toy she has,

or just really wants to follow her around.

If she is playing with him, or in the same room with him,

he will sometimes sit/roll around playing with toys

for  very long periods of time (and Mom loves this).

 

*Gets excited when he hears Mom or Dad's voice

(especially if someone says the word "bottle")

 

*Loves his Bumbo, plastic chains, rubber bath book,

and- just recently- Lainee's doll, Baby Gabby.

(Ssshh, don't say anything to Garen.

He hates it.)

 

*Is growing like a weed!

As you can see in the above pictures,

his clothes are all getting very snug!

 

*6 month stats:

17 lb 1 oz - 40 %ile

26.5 inches - 42 %ile

Got a few shots but everything's

looking good!

 

 

 

 Yesterday was the actual day he turned 6 months so

this picture in the grey shirt is from June 14.

 

 

Don't grow up too fast baby!



That feeling you get when....

......when your child is out of your sight for

more than 3 seconds and your heart stops

until she walks back into view.

 

OR

 

When you lock the key in your car at the post office

WITH YOUR 6-MONTH-OLD BABY

in 107 degree weather!

 

Yes this happened and yes I panicked

with a big fat capital P!

 

We had taken the stroller in so kids would

sit still while I finished taping boxes and

sent our father's day gifts off.

We were in the PO for like 5 minutes,

and walked back out to the car to find

that I had accidentally left the back door

still open when we went in.

(So I pressed the lock button on the keychain

as we walked away to go inside but left the door open

without realizing it.)

 

So I just grabbed Jace in his carseat

(with my car keys and phone still on his lap),

buckled him in, shut the door, and

walked around to put Lainee in.

Her door was locked. Huh.

So I pulled on the front door.

 

 

I'm thinking "crap, the keys are in there and

we'll have to sit out here and wait forever."

BAM
".....................Jace is in there!"

 

I frantically RAN around the car pulling on ever handle

several times and then started to cry.

Lainee was like "Mooom, why aren't we getting in?"

Pulled it together enough to ask to use someone's phone.

As soon as I said "Can I use your phone? My baby's locked in the car!"

I started to lose it again. Cried as soon as I heard Garen's voice.

 

LUCKILY we just purchased a 2nd car the day before

so Garen was able to hop right in and come get us.

OF COURSE he had to stop and wait 5 extra minutes for

a freaking train to cross!

(HELLO TRAIN, my baby is locked in the car!!!)

 

We waited. Jace was content the first half of this wait,

playing with his plastic chains, and looking at me out the window.

After a while he must have realized how hot he was

and that we weren't in there with him yet so he cried,

then screamed. Everytime I looked at him I tried not to bawl too.

Lainee kept saying "oh baby. Get my baby out."

 

I was sooo so relieved when Garen showed up

but then totally lost composure when I pulled my

sweet boy from his soaking car seat.

He was bright red from head to toe and

sopping wet in his own sweat.

 

Who would have thought locking a kid in the car for 20 minutes or less

would be so scary? I guess now that I live in such a hot place,

it's a new paranoia I have to add to the list.

 

I am feeling very blessed to have my perfect children today.

 

Moral of the story:

Make sure you shut all your car doors when you lock it,

and definitely don't shut any doors until you know you

have keys in your hand.

 

(Lainee was immediately taught to unlock the car door

from the inside for future precautions.)

 



Sweet Summertime

I don't know about you, but

when I get behind on journaling or the blog

I like to just sum up the big events,

or just post what pictures I happened to take.

 

 

So just to sum up the last few weeks,

here are some fun pictures of summer so far...

 

 

Jace is getting better at sitting!

 

(so is Tiger!)

 

Swimming!

 

Perfect pic for this week with Father's Day coming up!

They love their dad.

 

Learning to hopscotch.

 

Kicking the couch is Jace's favorite form of exercise.

(try it sometime...)

 

My poor baby had an allergic reaction

and we still don't know what to.

(possible a cashew but we're not gonna

try it out to make sure.)

 

 

We tried

 

to take

 

some pictures for Father's Day for

 

Dad and our Grandpas, but

 

we just can't sit still... oh well!

 

A huge caterpillar crawled onto our doorstep!

 

...so naturally we had to pick it up...

 

"Mom! I'm braver just for caterpillars and lady bugs!"

 

Mom didn't have time to go to the pool so

I filled up some buckets and bowls

with nice cool water and sent them out to the patio

(where they didn't even need sunscreen,

and would have to try pretty hard in order to fall in!)

 

I left the door open and did the dishes.

It was great.

Jace lasted half an hour, and Lainee stayed out a whole hour!

 

Garen had a birthday and turned 28!

So old!

 

We had friends over to swim Saturday night.

 

He opened our gifts Sunday morning.

June 9.

 

and we made him a big breakfast!

 

With a cute camo banner!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY LOVE!

 

Our little fish.

Mad cause the life guards won't let her back in.

 

 

Anyone else see a similarity

to the little Coppertone girl?

 

 

 

Even though I still think summer is slightly too hot here

and definitely lasts a little too long,

I still have to say

I JUST LOVE SUMMER!