Breakfast with Jack

Last night Grandma Annette sent Jack home with his own set of table and chairs in hopes of finding a spot for Jack to eat. Standing on our high stools at the island was not the best of plans for my uncoordinated child! After refusing to sit in his highchair the entire day long as soon as I tried to fold it up and put it away last night he had a fit. He demanded he get in his highchair and eat a peanut butter sandwich. All I could do was laugh at the little monster. So since he slept in today until nearly 10 am I had his highchair completely hidden before he woke up. I got him dressed and he scurried down the stairs and hopped up to his new table and waited for his breakfast. So far so good with the new set up but the one BIG disadvantage I've come up with so far is that now Pax is at the perfect level to get a bite directly off of Jack's spoon! I suppose this saves my floor from the food getting thrown on it and our dog is quickly learning to eat with silverware!

Lunch With Jack

As of recently Jack has come to the conclusion that he is way too grown up to sit in his highchair. As a result this makes for some interesting mealtimes. Today I whipped up a delicious and nutritious meal of Ramen Noodles and capri suns. I know, I know not the best meal but some days it works in a pinch. Besides, on rare occasions I actually crave them and the memories they bring back of college and jr high of lunch at the Stimpsons. (I loved going to your house for lunch Amelia!) So here is a step by step of our lunch today from Jack's perspective.....

Ahh.... lunchtime. My favorite part of the day.Mmmm.... this is good. A little difficult to eat with my fork but I'll give it a try.Ahhh to heck with it...I'm using my hands.Now that's grubbin. But I can't quite shovel it in fast enough.I'm just going to pour it in straight from the source! (notice Oakland's disgusted look in the background and Jack's overalls filling up with noodles!)
The end result.... Not too bad for an amateur!

Little Fishes

Avery, Jack and Rylee-

Yesterday Mistie, Lynly and I decided to take the little rugrats swimming at the rec center. We haven't been for awhile and it was fun to go on a playdate. I wasn't all that excited about trying to squeeze into a swimsuit at this point in my life but I thought I'll just hurry and get in and nobody will see me. Unfortunately Jack had other plans. (So if you saw me at the pool yesterday I apologize.... I know it wasn't a pretty sight!) I had to chase that little turkey all around the pool. He had so much fun going down the slides and through the tunnels that we stayed for almost 2 hours! So much for the playdates where we could just sit and gossip. All 3 of us pregnant moms were exhausted from chasing our little rugrats all over the place!

I know they aren't the best quality of pictures but I'm a little leary of bringing my expensive camera to the pool!

Spoiled already?

A girl can never have too many pairs of SHOES- right??? right????
AM I RIGHT????
This little girl has 5 times the amount of shoes that I have and hers will only last her a little over 6 months! Luckily most have been hand me downs from Avery but we haven't been able to resist adding a few new ones to the mix.
After Mistie and I got done making bows on Monday she probably has enough of those to wear a different one each day for her first 6 months too!
Grandma Annette surprised us with this fun new ensemble last week and I love it! I can't wait to see her using all of it! And won't it look so cute with one of her new headbands and bows?Just one more look a this spoiled little girls shoe collection. She is going to literally have the cutest feet in town!

It's a hippo? It's a blimp?....

It's a whale???.... oh wait.... it's just me at 31 weeks pregnant! Almost had you fooled though didn't I!

She's really starting to poke out there.....only 9 weeks to go~!

What a Surprise!

Yesterday Mistie and I were making bows at my house when we got a knock at the door. To my surprise and delight there was a package from the UPS man. First thing that goes through my head was.... crap... what did I buy? But we found a package from my friend Beth who owns a children's store in Nantucket. She had sent Jack some fun new clothes and some for the new baby too. But the most exciting thing was that there was a new Vroom Vroom in the box. Jack has enjoyed playing with his new recycling truck for 2 days straight and I'm very relieved to say that it has replaced the popper! (or it could be that I hid the popper from him in the pantry- don't tell him though!)
(The contents of our package.) Thanks Beth, we love everything!

Bouquets and Babies

We had a great anniversary and can't wait to celebrate many more! Ryan surprised me with a beautiful flower bouquet and we went out to dinner together at Kneaders! It's so nice to go out without Jack sometimes- it's amazing how enjoyable it is to actually be able to chew your food and not have to just "inhale" so we can get out of there before he destroys the place! Ryan also took Friday off from work and after my Dr's appt. we went to a matinee. I made him go see Bride Wars much to his dismay, but I really thought it was a great show and I think deep down he thought it was cute too! (he will never admit it though!) Saturday morning Mistie called and said she was going to Idaho so Jack and I hurried and packed our bags and hopped in! I am so lucky that even though my family lives far away I get to see them very often!

Last night Ryan and I were able to go to the hospital for a 3D ultrasound of the new bambino. What a special treat it is to get to see her before she actually gets here. I asked Ryan if now that he's seen her if he thought of a name that suited her. He quickly stated yes and said that we should name her "Alien." So I know you are all on the edge of your seats to see some pictures of our little alien so here you go..... enjoy! (P.S. She was smashed against the placenta so they aren't the best pictures but we'll keep her anyway!)

And just for reference this is a picture of our first alien Jack. I just wanted to give you hope that they actually do come out cute regardless of what these pictures look like! (I know it's not the best picture- I'm looking for the actual original ultrasound photos so I can get a better one!)

Oh NO-

I've officially turned into one of those mothers who will buy their kid anything to avoid a fit in the store! Last night we went to kid to kid really quick to see if they had any cute headbands for the baby. (by the way- they do sell brand new ones that are cute for cheap!) Unfortunately we didn't have the stroller which equates to not a fun shopping experience with Jack. He did quickly though key in on one of those little push toys that make the pop pop pop annoying sound. When it was time to go he insisted that it was going with us. He had a white knuckle death grip on the thing and I think the people at the store already hated me because I had let him push it around so we just bought the dang thing. I would have preferred to just pay a few more dollars at a regular store and get one that wasn't all scratched up but Jack had other plans. So we are now the official owners of one of those toys I swore I would never let my kid have! It's so annoying and he won't put it down- it has to sit next to him at the table and he drags it up and down the stairs wherever he goes! But oh well anything to avoid that kicking and screaming fit leaving the store that I used to think " Gosh, can't you control your children." So I have officially joined the ranks and it's great to be a member of the team!Now isn't this just the biggest smirk of "ha ha I got it!"Eating his lunch with his new toy parked right next to him!Just a few more pictures that I have been meaning to post.Jack and Avery on our trip to Idaho. I know I was crazy to attempt driving three hours with these two but they did great and this is how they traveled most of the way!Jack loved playing play doh at Emily's house yesterday! Thanks for having us over!

Our little "peeping tom." Better watch the crack when you're going to the bathroom when Jack's around!

And one last thing- We went out to eat last night at Cafe Rio and Jack was pulling the funniest faces while he was eating a lime. Of course by the time I got my camera out he was done but he did give us some good "cheeses." Oh how I love this little turkey!

Here's to #4 and many many more!

Thursday is our FOUR year wedding anniversary (ya that's right-we've made it four years to all you skeptics out there who think you should date more than 6 weeks before you get engaged!) I wanted to take a few minutes and post some pictures over the last four years. You never know from day to day if I will get a chance to sit at the computer so i'm going to do it today just in case I don't get to it on Thursday! We have had many great times, hard times, fun times and times when we could almost kill each other but I wouldn't change one minute of any of it. Okay maybe just a few minutes but we won't go into any details!:)

Our Wedding Day:
January 8, 2005

We both look so young and yet at the time I thought I was so old to just be getting married!
Ya that's Ryan punching me on my wedding day. (Or just trying to get me back for smashing cake in his face!)On our honeymoon at Disneyland. I wish I would have known that it was probably the ONLY time I will ever get him to go there! (apparently when I was making honeymoon plans he didn't know me well enough to argue with me yet about the location! If he had his way we would have honeymooned up American Fork Canyon in a 6 man tent!)Ahhh, the days before my husband would need a crane to pack me around!

Our first born baby- Pax (doesn't he look just like his father?)

The days of being newlyweds when we had time to just sit and cuddle! If you only knew how much complaining I had to endure to get this picture you would appreciate it as much as I do!
Just days before we found out we would be adding Jack to our family. We tried to pose with our "children" for a christmas photo but all we ended up with is this and a huge scratch on my chest from the cat!One of our greatest accomplishments together- come back to see the other around March.
I know not the most attractive picture - I look like i've been hit by a bus but you try pushing a kid out for two hours! But I still love it-one of our first family pictures!

Honestly though I am amazed everyday at how great of a father Ryan is to Jack and how much I am in love with him. Even though he may not have a romantic bone in his body (refer back to the christmas post about the hot tamales) he lets me know everyday that he loves me and that's good enough for me! Love you baby and can't wait to spend many more years together!

Success

So last night we officially moved Jack into his new room and he took the change like a champ. The last thing we had to switch over was his crib toy that was a hand me down that he is way too old for but he just loves it. The little birds spin in circles and sing songs and he loves to listen to it. But anyways Ryan took it off of his old crib and Jack marched it proudly into his new room and went and put it right next to the crib where he wanted it to hang. So he officially spent the entire night in his new room and I am so happy that we finally got it done! Here are several pictures so Shawnae can see how it turned out. (She helped me paint all the fun stripes!)
Here he is..... the proud owner of the new room.... contemplating what he can do to destroy it first!