Brotherly Love

Jordan and Jackson love each other so much. They're both so excited when they see each other. Here's a cute video of them together.

More Weeding

Doug did some weeding the day after I started working on our backyard... I've been meaning to show how good of a weeder he is, but I kept forgetting to take pictures of his work. Today I finally took a few and can now show what our backyard currently looks like. Doug did a much better job than I did. He even got rid of the moss on his section. Here is what Doug did:

See Doug's side looks much better than mine. He even pulled some more weeds on my side that I didn't pull... well really they weren't weeds, they were strawberry plants, but it looks better without them. They weren't ripe and we probably wouldn't have eaten them.

Here's what we still have to do:

We're think of putting either grass or cement in after we finish weeding... What do you guys think? We're leaning towards grass but we're not sure it's really worth it since it's so small and we'd have to mow it and take care of it more than we would of cement. We also are planning on planting vegetable plants in the pots. I just need to learn how to do it first... any advice is welcome and would be much appreciated.

The Photographer

I went upstairs to put away some laundry and came back to find Jackson with my camera. I didn't think he actually took an pictures but when I was loading the pictures onto my computer I found that he did take some. Here are his masterpieces...

Camping

We went camping this last weekend with my sister and her kids and my parents in Florence Oregon. My family went there when I was pretty young and had a great time but I don't remember it. We had a pretty good time. We found out though that camping with a 5 month old baby is harder than camping with out one. We went to the ocean, a lake, Doug went sand boarding and road on a sand dune tour thing, the kids and I went shopping with my mom and sister and her kids, and we hung out at our campsite. We were supposed to get to Florence on Wednesday but my sister called and said it was raining there and so we stopped and stayed in Portland with my other sister Michelle. We went to a place called Out of this world. It had big bouncy toys and lots of other fun things for the kids to do. We left for Florence the next morning and stayed until Saturday morning.

Jackson riding a scooter at Out of this world. He loved riding it.

Jack going down the slide.

This is how Jordan felt about Out of this world. He was tired and sad while we were there.

Jack and Jordan holding hands on the way to Florence. Aren't they cute?

Doug and Jordan at the Ocean.

Jackson at the ocean. Right when we got there he ran down to the water and walked in and got knocked over by a little wave. My brother in law pulled him out of the water but Jackson was soaked. He started shivering after a little bit so I had to put him in some warm sweats.

Jordan and Doug at the ocean.

My mom and Jordan sitting in front of out tent. This trip was the first time we've used it. It was huge inside. We fit an air mattress, portable crib, bassinet, plus our luggage inside and still had a lot of room to spare. It also was good at keeping the sun out in the morning so it didn't get too bright too early and we were able to sleep in some.

Grandpa, Jackson and Allison floating in the boat. Jack and Alli loved riding in this thing. They probably could have spent the entire time we at the lake in it.

Doug sand boarding.Jack and Kimber sand boarding. (They're sitting on the board)

Roasting marshmallows at the campsite.

Doug sand boarding:

The Olympics

Beach Volleyball

Hurdles

Soccer

Horseback Riding

Running

Gymnastics

Our big boy

Jordan has been five months for a few days now. I wanted to celebrate his 5 month birthday by showing some cute pictures of him. He's still getting bigger. His head is still flat on one side. He still can only roll over from his tummy to his back. He wants to be able to move all over the place. When he gets on his belly he kicks his legs and moves his arms trying so hard to move, but doesn't succeed. And because he can't move around like he would like to be able to he loves to be held most of his waking hours. We also want him to start crawling or scooting soon. I think he'll be much happier when he can. He likes to get out of the house and is usually happy when we're most other places as long as there are interesting things to looks at. He's starting to like to play with toys. He likes to play roll the ball or roll the ducky toy with Jackson and me. He also enjoys playing peek a boo. It makes him laugh. He absolutely loves Jackson and gets so excited when he sees him. He doesn't like loud noises and gets scared and cries when he hears them. For example, when I was changing his diaper at church on Sunday I got two paper towels to lay him on from an automatic paper towel dispenser that you wave your hand by to get a paper towel, and the sound scared him and he started crying. Then while I accidentally waved my hand past it again and he started crying again. He likes to eat baby food. His favorites are banana and sweet potatoes. He also likes the other fruits he's tried, but doesn't seem to like other veggies quite as much. He's a very cute boy and we love having him in our lives!

These two pictures aren't both of Jordan. The top is Jordan and the bottom is Jackson. They're about the same age in these pictures. I wanted to show the size difference between the two. Look at how much littler Jack was than Jordan.

90 Degree Weather

Yesterday it was pretty hot. It was supposed to be in the 90's. which is hot for here. And instead of joining Jackson in his cold swimming pool, I decided to weed. Our tiny backyard definitely needed it. It had started to look like a jungle back there. I'm not completely done, but it looks so much better.

Before:

During:

Jackson helping me out wearing his "golf clubs" (I don't know why he calls gloves golf clubs... maybe he's really saying golf gloves)

After

Don't you agree it looks much better?

Oregon Trip

We went to Oregon last weekend to visit my sister and her family. We were able to see their new house, play outside, see their really cool garden which has a lot of vegetables growing in it, eat out and ate yummy homecooked food, watch the olympics and just spend time with them. Jackson loved playing with Makenna and Makenna seemed to like having him there. One of my favorite moments was when we came down Saturday morning (we got there late Friday night and missed Kenna). Michelle told Makenna to go see who was coming down the stairs. when she saw us she was so excited and started saying "Gacky, Gacky, Gacky!" It was so cute. We think she was combining Jack (or Gack, in Kenna language :)) and Stephi, because she's never called him Jacky (or Gacky) before. Thanks for a fun weekend Michelle, Richard, and Kenna!

Jackson and Makenna went swimming in their little pool in the backyard even though it was a little cold.

Kenna relaxing on the side of the pool. She also likes to ride the pool like a rocking horse.

Michelle and Richard

Jordan
Michelle and Makenna

Here's a cute video of the kids playing with Grandpa. (He and my mom were there visiting until Saturday afternoon.)

Weekend Away

My sister watched Jackson and Jordan for the weekend for Doug and me. We had fun sleeping in more than normal and sleeping all through the night without having to wake up to put a binky in a baby's mouth or feed him. On our way to my sisters' house we bought a bumbo. I've been wanting one of these for awhile because Jordan seems to want to sit up a lot. But I haven't wanted to pay the 40 dollar price for one. So I've been looking on craigslist to find one. After emailing several people who had already sold theirs I finally found one for $25. And it came with a tray. Here's Jordan enjoyng his bumbo. It's great for feeding him. Much better than his rocker that would get covered in baby food but wasn't quite as easy to clean.
On Saturday night my parents gave us their Mariners' tickets so we could go to the game. We went early and walked around the stadium a little. We had fun even though the Mariners lost...
Here's Doug after the game.

and me....

Then the security guard saw us taking pictures of each other and offered to take one of us together with the big Safeco sign in the background.

We picked up the kids on Sunday morning before church. We came home, got ready for church, and went to church. We came home, Jack took a nap, I made dinner, then Ashlee brought her kids over for me to watch until tonight. So Jackson has a lot of cousin time the last few days; only a few hours without them.

Sam, Kimber, Jackson, and Allison. They were supposed to be showing off their gum I just gave them. But instead Jackson swallowed his. It was only his second time having gum. But the first time he didn't swallow it so I thought he would do ok this time. Superbabies Alli and Jackson on their way to their naps. (which they really needed...)

During nap time Kimber, Sam, and I made "snickerdoodlebops" (as Sam calls them) which are also known as snickerdoodles to the rest of us.

A lefty?

A couple days ago Jackson started swinging the bat left handed and has a much better swing now... Maybe his future baseball playing days will be as a left-handed hitter.

Learning new things

Jackson learned a few new things while we were in Utah. He learned how to jump in to the big pool. He loved doing it. The whole time we were at the water park he just wanted to go into the big pool and jump in. At first he would jump in completely by himself and I would catch him before he went under the water. But then I was helping his cousin get back safely to the wall when he decided to jump in. I was standing right there next to him and the wall, but I wasn't really watching him. I didn't think he'd jump in with out me knowing. But he did. And he was completely under the water when I caught him. He didn't seem to have swallowed any water though because he wasn't coughing when I got him out of the water. He was only under for maybe a couple seconds. After that happened I made him hold my hands when he jumped in and didn't take my eye of of him. Here he is jumping in before the holding hand rule.

Jackson also learned how to make a funny face. His cousing Alli taught him.

Jack and Alli making funny faces to pass the time on the long drive home.

Another funny face. I think he's improved since the car ride home.