Jax : 11 months

 It's almost May and that means in just one more month my baby will be 1!! I am fairly certain he will not be walking by that time so that will make him feel like my baby for just a little longer. For some reason when I think of Jax being 1. I always associate it with the fact that it means he will no longer be a baby. I know some people look forward to their kids being older, I struggle with it. In fact if I could I would make the first year of a babies life last 2 years. I love the newborn sleepy snuggles, 2 month smiles, nursing all day and having him be completely dependent on me! I am still nursing him, I am going to stop when he turns 1 and can have whole milk but I just can't give it up. Even with the crazy track and work schedule I have had for the past 2 months I have not been able to force myself to give it up. Nursing him means he can't be gone very long without me and I love that feeling. The last month has gone by incredibly fast and poor Jax has been sick for pretty much the entire time. He has had colds, fevers and as of recently a double ear infection that is not giving up easily. He has not been his usual happy self which has been hard on everyone. Hopefully as summer approaches he will start feeling better. Here are some pictures and what Jax is up to right now:

• drinking from a sippy cup (I will try and wean him right to a sippy cup by about one year)
• crawling (finally on all FOURS!!)
• eating only table food (I would put his favorites but he has yet to turn anything down, even Colt was pickier than this!)
• pulls himself up to stand
• gives big, open mouth kisses when I ask for them.
• Responds to his name and knows the word "no"
• Says " Da Da, Ma Ma, Ball,  and Uh Oh"
• points to things
• Loves to be held and snuggled (especially from his mommy)
• two naps a day (about 2 hours each) and sleeps from 7:30-6ish.
• wearing 12-18 month clothing and size 3 diapers
• loves to hold, throw and play with balls
• laughs at Colt and loves to be silly
• had his first ear infection (at the doctor's office he weighed 22lbs 14oz and 30 inches )
• loves bath time and night-time snuggles in the rocking chair with mommy.

Breakfast with Dad

Dave took the kids to breakfast this morning before dropping them off at daycare. These pictures were sent to my school e-mail. I opened them up during 2nd period and it made me smile, I miss these 2 all day long but it made me feel so good to see their smiling faces and to know that Daddy took them to do something special today.

These two are big eaters, Colt had 2 pancakes and 6 pieces of bacon by himself and Jax ate 2 pancakes by himself. When Dave called after breakfast he said the kids ate more than he did. My grocery bill is going to be more than our morgtage by the time these 2 get to high school!!

Busy weekend

We had a busy but fun weekend. Saturday I had the Pasco Invite so Dave drove me over to Pasco with the kids and dropped me off at 9:00 then headed to his parents. Jax spent the day with Memah and Colt spent the day with Dave, Poppi, Andy, Taylor and Camryn. They took the kids shooting (apparently 2 year olds do great shooting guns:)), went out to lunch, visited me at the track and then back to Dave's parents to play. I got done around 7 and we went back to Dave's parents for dinner and then came home. It was such a long day but the weather was beautiful (about 78) and it was HOT. The track meet was awesome, I love the Pasco Invite and have been going to it with my dad since I was in probably the 3rd or 4th grade. Then I competed in it when I was in high school and now I am coaching in it. It was a long day though and I was exhausted by the end of it.

Sunday morning both boys woke up by 5:30. We had a family party in our bed, watched a movie and then Dave made waffles with strawberries and whip cream for breakfast (and coffee too!!). It was yummy! Jax took a morning nap, we did some things around the house and then when Jax woke up I took the boys to the park. It was beautiful out and hot. I decided to make a longer loop and run and then end up at the park. I only ran 3 miles but I am not used to that warmer weather and it felt hard!

The boys ready to go to the park, they both had a ball to play with while we were there and I lathered on the sunscreen and made them both wear baseball hats. Jax was trying to pull his off and after I told him no he had to wear it he listened and it stayed on the entire time.

Check out Colt's gardening gloves. Memah gave him those last year sometime and he found them and was so excited to wear them. I told him they were for yard work but he wanted them on (they stayed on until about 5:00 that evening!).

Jax and a ball, all he needs to be happy.

After my torturous run Colt wanted to play soccer which meant more running for me but it was fun and he loved it.

Yep the gloves are still on!

Jax had fun playing on the blanket throwing the ball to himself.

We spent a little time at the end on the slides but it was warm out and Colt kept asking me to "blow on the slides" because they were so hot. We headed home, fed the boys lunch and then Colt went down for a nap. He only napped an hour, then Jax went down and the 3 of us spent the next 3 hours doing yard work. I mowed while Dave worked on putting up our new fence and pulling out old bushes. We are really wanting to do some bigger landscaping things with our yard but will have to do it slowly so we can pay for it along the way. Finding time has also been a problem. Dave started with tearing out the old fence that was their and putting up a new one. I wish I enjoyed yard work, alot of people find it enjoyable I find it annoying. I told Dave this and he told me I complain too much. Well he complains about running 5 miles and I complain about yard work. What's the difference??
This morning started off with Jax waking up sounding like he was having an asthma attack, he was wheezing so hard and could hardly breathe. Dave quickly diagnosed it with croup and I sat in the bathroom with the hot shower running for 10 minutes then took him outside in a blanket for 10 minutes to try and break it up. I was ready to take him to the ER but my sensible and calm husband knew just what to do. I was sitting in the steamy bathroom holding him and praying so hard. It was really scary for me and I started to almost panic. After I brought him in from outside he sounded better but he is still pretty wheezy. Hopefully he does alright at the babysitter's today. I wanted to stay home with him but he seemed to be doing better. Colt woke up with a green snotty nose too. We literally just got healthy last week, I am hoping part of it is just the change in weather and they are healthy again soon. We have a busy week ahead of us with work and track meets (I have 3, all of them are out of town this week). It will go by fast I am sure!

Something in common...

Both of these boys love the outdoors and love to throw, catch, shoot and kick balls around. I have a feeling this is something we will be doing a lot of this summer!

The weather here has been beautiful this week! It supposed to hit 80 in the next couple days which has been great for my attitude. It's light in the early morning and since I have been feeling better this week I have been getting up at 5 and going on a run. It's amazing how much being sick has taken out of me, I feel so weak when I am running but I know it will come back soon. Marni and I have some half marathons already on our plate for next fall and Dave and I have a triathlon this summer in Chelan so its never too early to start training! We are all just about over this nasty bug that hit our house for 3 weeks, Dave is the only one still feeling kind of yucky but he never complains about it and the only way I can even tell he doesn't feel that great is that we go to sleep at the same time each night. The kids have hardly been to daycare in the past 3 weeks between spring break, sickness and then our babysitter was on vacation for 3 days this week. This is their first full day back since March! Dave's mom came over on Monday and Tuesday, stayed the night with us and watched the kids during the day and cooked and cleaned for us in the evening. I am seriously ready to have her move in with us, it was beyond amazing to come home after working all day at 6:00 and dinner was ready (and a delicious dinner at that) and then after dinner she would clean everything up! For 2 days it was pure wonderful, and then she left and we all miss her! My mom stayed with the boys yesterday and they had a wonderful time with her as well. The weather was really nice yesterday so they got to play outside alot and Colt loves that! We are so grateful that our kids have such great grandparents that are willing to help us out even when its not always convenient for them.

I have about 6 weeks left of track, I love coaching but it is exhausting and I am looking forward to spending more time with my boys. Only 40 teaching days left and I am counting down every single one of them. I like my job, I just like my kids more! It will be much easier when they are in school all day and I know I am not missing out on so much of them. We have some fun trips lined up for summer, a beach trip in June for my Dad's 70th birthday with ALL of my sisters and nieces. Then a 2 week trip to Chelan in July, the first week with Dave's family (we will miss Travis though!), we rented a huge house with a pool and enough rooms for everyone. Colt and Cam are going to have a blast, those two fight like brother and sister but they also love each other and talk about each other non-stop! Then at the end of that trip Dave, Andy, Katie and I are going to do the Chelan sprint triathlon. The following day we will meet up with our good friends from college and their families. Their are only 4 families this year (we will miss the Kerlee's!!) so we rented 2 condos next to each other in Chelan. We are so lucky that we get to do these things, the memories are always amazing!

40 days and counting!!

Bow Hunter in Training

If someone would have asked me when Colt was born how old I thought he should before he got his first bow I would have said six.

But here he is at 2.5 shooting his bow and doing it better than alot of six year olds! He got a bow for Christmas from his Poppi and he mastered that very quickly, it was also a play bow and he used it so much that eventually all the arrows broke and we could never find any to replace it without having to buy a brand new bow. Last time we were in Kennewick he was talking about it so much that Dave's dad took him back to Ranch and Home and picked him out another bow, only this one is real. Real bow, real arrows, real dangerous!! Well, not really dangerous but this is not one that he gets to keep inside! Dave is really good about teaching him safety and making sure he is safe while shooting it, which I guess is all I can ask for.

Dave has gotten really into archery too so he has a couple fake targets (a turkey and coyote). When we get home at the end of the day Colt always tells me he wants to go shoot the turkey.

The kid is a decent shot too and he loves it! It is really all he talks about and what he wants to do everyday!

Unhealthy Ramblings

The last two weeks have been tough and make me look forward to summer break even more! I have been pretty sick and did not go back to work until Thursday this past week. Colt was complaining about his ear so I took him to the doctor on Tuesday and sure enough he had an ear infection. I think that was the first one he has ever had and he did great at the doctor's office so that was nice. I was not feeling that well myself and I had both boys with me so I was hoping it would go smoothly and it went fine. By the time I was feeling well enough to return to work, Dave started to feel sick and then Jax woke up Friday morning with a 101 temperature and threw up all over me right as I was getting ready to go to work. Dave stayed home with both the boys on Friday since I can't really afford to be gone anymore especially since I have no sick days left, every day I miss means I don't get paid. I had a track meet Thursday night in Pasco and then another one on Friday at home. Both nights I did not get home until after 9 which made for a very long day. We are still feeling pretty yucky today, I think Colt is probably the only one that feels completely normal. Dave threw up a couple times today, Jax still has a fever and just wants to be held and I still feel exhausted and achy. I am so ready to feel healthy again, I have hardly worked out in the past 2 weeks which for me means I really don't feel well. In the past even when I was coming down with something I would normally always find time for a workout but I can hardly get myself motivated to even get out of bed these days. This has made me realize just how grateful I am for my health and the health of my family. It is something I have taken for granted and I need to do a better job of getting rest and slowing life down a little bit.

Happy 30th Birthday Dave!

Dave turned 30 today. 

I had some fun little surprises planned that I was going to be working on over Spring break and then I got sick and as the week progressed I got sicker and sicker. Anyway, the fun surprises didn't happen but I hope he still knows how much I love my 30 year old husband and that he doesn't look a day over 29 to me! He has struggled a bit with turning 30, I think he feels like his carefree days are over. Now he is stuck with a wife, 2 kids and a mortgage. I reminded him that he has been stuck with the wife and mortgage since he was 22 but that didn't seem to help the situation. Dave has done a lot in 30 years, alot more than most 30 year olds. He bought our first house, sold that house, moved to Walla Walla, started his own business from the ground up (literally), bought another house and became a father X 2!! He is an amazing husband, father and friend.

Happy Birthday you old fart!

Easter Egg Hunt

After our brunch we headed outside so Colt could do a little Easter egg hunt. He had no competition today and I think he enjoyed that. He had a lot of fun!

My mom had made egg hunt signs with the numbers 1-9 on them. My dad, Marni and Dave placed them around my parents house outside and around each sign they put that number of eggs. So at this sign Colt had to find 5 eggs. He had fun counting the eggs too. It was a neat idea and made it that much more exciting for Colt.

Marni being the ultra competitive person she is put some of the eggs she hid in tough spots that Colt couldn't even see, so she had to do some lifting so he could reach all the eggs.

Jax enjoyed sitting on the grass and watching. Next year he will be right in on the action.

 Colt's easter basket full of ALOT of eggs. He found every one of them!

 Jax was all about crawling after the eggs and trying to smash them with his hands. We finally had to give him the plastic ones.

 What baby doesn't put EVERYTHING in their mouth.

Easter 2010

Colt woke up on Sunday morning and went outside to see that the Easter bunny had brought him a new sword and Jax some new balls. Ever since we went and saw "How to Train a Dragon" he has been telling us he wants his own sword.

Daddy wanted one too but he had to settle for Colt's bat. Colt now wants to bring the sword EVERYWHERE!! He started crying when I told him that he couldn't bring it to his babysitters on Monday (trust me Heather you would have killed me!).

Jax loved his gift. Three balls that fit perfectly in his hands. He was thrilled!

He kept looking at the balls in his hand and then at the football between his legs and squealing because he didn't know how to pick them all up at the same time.

My boys and their toys.

We went to church and my parents and little sister joined us their. It was awesome, Pastor Brad gave a great sermon this year and I was so happy to have my family with me! Afterwards we headed over to my parents for brunch. Marni got both Colt and Jax easter outfits but this is the only picture I got of Colt in the outfit.

Jax loved the eggs too!

We had Easter brunch with my parents and Marni. My mom prepared a ham, egg casserole, sourdough blueberry pancakes, fruit tray and the yummiest cinnamon rolls ever! It was so tasty and so much fun.

These were the centerpieces.
My mom gave one to each of us as we left, it had a hard boiled egg in it that Colt had dyed and then a chocolate bunny from Brights Candy.

My dad surprised my mom with an Easter basket. It was pretty cute, he had all sorts of little things in there that my mom always uses. It was such a nice morning getting to go to church with my entire family and then spend the rest of the morning together. I wish I would have felt better so I could have enjoyed it a little more but I know the boys had fun!