Walks

This is one of my favorite pictures of all time.  Not only does it capture all three loves of my life (yes, my dog is one of the loves of my life) it also captures one of my favorite activities in the whole wide world, going for a walk.  It is an easy way to spend an afternoon, you simply put one foot in front of the other and you are on your way.  I think when I am at the other end of my life and looking back, these are the types of moments I will treasure the most.

2012 is sick!

2012 has been a whirlwind so far.  Most of our time has been spent with a sick baby.  The first year of J's life he was as healthy as a baby gets.  He must have been saving up all of his sick cards to cash them in a week after his first birthday.  A few days after his birthday party, he caught a virus and had high fevers for about eight days that led to an eye infection which put him in the hospital for three days!  Sheesh.  Here are some pictures from our hospital adventure.

Poor baby.  I didn't include the pictures of when his eye was really swollen because they are awful.  

We didn't get our best sleep in the hospital. And don't let this picture fool you, J slept most of the night with me in my "chair bed".

By the third day we were so ready to leave!  The doctors woke us up around 6:00am to check on J and told us we would be leaving in the morning.  We didn't end up leaving the hospital until 7:00 PM!  It was a loooong day.  Hooray for Harry Potter movies.

Since our bout in the hospital, J has had the stomach flu twice and a cold.  I swear it is something new every week.  I will say, Scott and I are becoming excellent at cleaning up throw up in the middle of the night.  I know how to quickly get it out of carpet, sheets, hair and yes...my mouth.  The joys of being a mother!  

There have been some healthy times in the past two months which we have taken full advantage of.  Luckily we live in a place with with 80 degree February's or Februaries....wrong but feels right.  J has discovered how much he loves walking on grass (he's easily entertained) and so we go to the park across the street as much a possible.  Here's some pics of our park goings.

The best way to go to the park is with a Philly Cheese Steak sandwich.  Oh yeah, I like bringing J too.

We force J to wear this sailor hat which he hates.  Sometimes we compromise and flip the front flap up.  This however does not protect his face from the sun.  It's good logic.

Swing Fail.  J didn't really like the swings the first few times we tried.  These pictures are at least a month old and I'm happy to report that now J dominates the swings.

The good news is that we have had more park days than sick days as of late.  I think we might be in the clear for awhile.  I heard on the news that February is the sickest month of the year.  March, it's so good to see you.

It's Fun Turning 1

Today we celebrated J's birthday with a big party at my mom and dad's house.  I have been looking forward to this day for a long time and it did not disappoint.  It's been a really rewarding year that has been a lot of hard work and blessed our lives more than we could have ever imagined.  This little guy has taken over our hearts.  Happy Birthday my sweet boy!

Getting ready for the party was probably as much fun as the party itself.  Scott gave me a Cricut for Christmas and as you can see, I went a little crazy!

Birthday Boy

J didn't know what to do with the giant cake placed in front of him.  I was dying for him to dive into the cake and get messy but that was the last thing he wanted.  Instead of diving in, he hand-picked all of the sprinkle stars on the top and ate them one by one.  Then he cried because his hands were dirty.

Distinguished Guests

J loves both of his Grandma's!  Grandma O. and Aunt Jamie drove all the way from Santa Barbara just to come to his birthday party.  He is a pretty lucky little boy to have such wonderful people in his life.  Aunt Jamie leaves for her mission in one month, we sure will miss her!

J and his friends loved his new toys! Not to mention the sweet kicks he scored!

C and J didn't totally appreciate the hats I made for them, but this picture was very important, it will hang on their dorm room wall one day!

It was a great day filled with animal crackers, no afternoon nap and extreme attention.  There was only one way to end a day like that....a hot bubble bath.

Happy Birthday Boo Boo!

Christmas 2011

I almost can't believe that Christmas is over.  December is officially the fastest moving month on the calendar.  Scott and I did our best to continue family traditions and to start some new ones.  We braved crowds, rain and at times bad moods but we did everything on our list!  Here were some of our favorite Christmas memories from 2011.

Church Christmas Party

Jungle Bells 

I gave dad a giant box of chocolates for Christmas.  This should last him until next Christmas.

We spent Christmas in Santa Barbara.  There were 16 of us in the same house and it was a lot of fun. We called it Camp Christmas and we were all happy campers! 

This was a typical day, spending the afternoon at the beach, enjoying the amazing December weather!

Of course we had to play Dance Central.  This was the best photo of the evening. I'm pretty proud of my husband's jazz hands!

We had a surprise visit from Santa on Christmas Eve.  I'm pretty sure Santa was as much of a treat for the grown-ups as he was for the kids.  He dazzled us with a song on the ukulele which we are pretty sure was Silent Night....not positive.  He also let us know that he was taking ukulele classes at the local city college. We think Santa forgot that he lives in the North Pole....the kids didn't seem to notice.

Christmas morning. We are spoiled!

The many looks of a mustache.

Classy or Tacky?  We drove around Santa Barbara looking for Christmas lights.  And guess what...we found them.

Paul and Christine Come for a Visit

The week before Christmas, Uncle Paul and Aunt Christine stayed with us for a couple of days.  As always, we had so much fun with them and J loved waking up his new friends at 6:00 am every morning!

 Safari Park

This was the most amazing moment of the day and thanks to Christine, we caught it on film.  It's probably for the best that J had no idea there was a bird on his head.

Christine took some photos of J while she was here and they turned out so cute.  Here are his glamour shots!

Soooo Big!  

    

It was great having Paul and Christine around and we can't wait for their next visit!