Wednesday, July 28, 2010

CA Trip Part 2- THE BEACH!!

Once again it's been a while... we have been a little busy lately. More on that to come later. Anyways, I can't go back home to So Cal without making a trip to the beach. I grew up spending the summer at the beach. So many fun memories with my family there. And though both my boys were hesitant about the sand at first (both at about 18 months old), they are learning to love it now though! Jackson jumps right into it all and had a blast, complete with a scary moment of him almost getting pulled out by a powerful wave. Thank goodness for good life guards. He just isn't afraid of the water at all! It took Baron some time on the beach towel and in a chair before he ventured out and would stand up on the sand on his own. We had a great time though and I can't even tell you how good it felt to soak up some sunshine!

As soon as we got there, Jackson ran straight for the water!
He had lots of fun with Uncle Colby






This is how Baron spent the first hour or so... safely on the towel
The sand castle we all built

Jackson and Deacon had fun running up and down the beach together with Papa and Uncle Colby
That's Colby in the middle there riding a wave, about to get crushed
Bear finally would stand on the sand on his own, but really didn't like it when any sand got on top of his feet
But no worries... his cousin Deacon was there to cheer him up

Making lots of progress.... Bear had a lot of fun by the time we left!


But still wasn't sure how he felt about the sand on his hands and feet
King of the mountain
Just hanging out with Papa, watching some waves...
and getting run over by the waves!

It was a GREAT day! We LOVE the beach!!!

Thursday, July 1, 2010

CA Trip Part 1- The Wedding

We are back from a quick, but VERY fun and VERY busy trip back to my hometown of Orange, CA in Southern California. I took Jackson and Baron with me, but John of course had to stay home and work a ton as always. The reason I went down to So Cal was for my cousin Kurt, who is my age meaning I grew up with him and we hung out with a lot of the same friends and were really close. Anyways, he got MARRIED!! Yeah!! He married Vilate Morgan, who is from the same Stake down there! So it was fun to be with all the Baron clan and I got to see a lot of friends from growing up! The wedding was beautiful (Newport Beach Temple- LOVE it!), and the reception was lots of fun, and the bride and groom were SO in love!! At the reception they had a candy table (Baron family tradition) AND an ice cream bar along with a dessert table. My kids pretty much devoured sugar all night. They danced and played with bouncy balls on the gym floor (thanks for those Aunt Burtney, aka Aunt Brittany) til way past bedtime. It was a lot of fun!! I should have all these amazing pictures from it all, but unfortunately I didn't realize until the day after the wedding that there was a huge smear on the lens of my camera. So almost all my pictures are blurry. LAME. I was SO mad. I will post some of the anyways though so you get the gist of our day!

The favorite "Aunt Burtney" as Jackson says, or "Bitney" as Bear says.
Fruit snacks... the best bribe there is

These 3 were inseparable and had so much fun together over the weekend.

Friends and cousins from High School days

Baron cousins with Grandpa Baron (minus a few who had left already or couldn't make it)


Jackson danced the night away at the reception.
All of the following pictures were taken by other people that were there and e-mailed to me. Thanks guys!!














Tuesday, June 22, 2010

1 1/2 & 3 1/2


BARON

Baron had his 18 month Dr. appointment last week. He is a healthy boy and the Dr./ Nurse were very impressed with his talking (that's what happens when you have a big brother), and the fact that he is running around like crazy and very coordinated- what can I say, it's in the blood!

Anyways, here are his stats:

Height: 34"- 91% (where in the world do our boys get this heighth?????)
Weight: 26.5 lbs. - 53% this was shocking- he only gained like 1 pound in 6 months. He sure feels heavier, but I guess all that running around has slimmed him down!
Head circum.: 19 1/2 " - 89% Lots of brains in there!

Baby Bear (though he's starting to become Little Bear since he's not much of a baby anymore!) is still so much fun to be around. He is always smiling and trying to be funny. One of my favorite things he says is "Dat Funny!" or "Watch me" or "Look", usually followed by something goofy.

He is infectious. He's already got quite a few offers for arranged marriages and lots of the little girls in our ward at church have big crushes on him, calling him, "My Baron".

He still LOVES food. He also loves candy and "Nacks" aka fruit snacks as every other kid does.

He is really into playing with cars right now, and doesn't care much for TV or to sit and watch a movie for more than 5 minutes tops. (which is SO opposite his brother). He is way more content to be off exploring or making a complete mess.

He is half the time in a big boy bed, and half the time still in his crib (John puts back on the side when he is being a stinker about not staying in bed).

On rare occasions of exhaustion will cuddle up and fall asleep on you and it is SO fun to cuddle with you when he does!

He still absolutely LOVES his big brother and copies everything he does. It is so cute to hear him say, "Where's Jackson" every time he loses sight of his brother for more than 5 seconds

He loves to sit on your lap and read a book- his favorite being The Wonderful Things Mr. Brown Can Do (such a cute/fun book!).

He loves to be thrown into the air and has the most infectious giggle when tickled you've ever heard.

He's been to nursery for about a month now. The first few times he cried when we left for about 30 seconds and then was fine. Last time, he walked right in and played with toys and his nursery leaders said he was great the whole time! LOVE IT!!



JACKSON


Jackson is now 3 1/2.... don't want to forget about how much he is growing too!

Jackson weighs about 38 pounds and is still super tall and looks like he is about 5 1/2.

He is really into every sport you can imagine. John had the Nascar Race on the computer one saturday. He sat and watched almost all of it while yelling, "yeah!! GO GO GO!!" and laughed when they sprayed milk at each other at the end. He also loves watching The Greatest Game Ever Played and will then get his golf clubs out and practice his putting all day.

He still, 3 years later, loves playing with cars. Lately, he is really into the race cars and will pick all those ones out, line them up, and tell us those cars are "in the pits" making a pit stop.

He LOVES sunbeams and primary. He also is really loving learning primary songs. His favorite ones he sings all the time are Book of Mormon Stories and Follow the Prophet.

He still hardly eats any food. I just don't know how he keeps growing so darn much! We recently had to shop for him for pj's in the little boy section because he no longer fits into 5T pj's. He is growing way too fast!

He loves to run, climb and play "pretend" at the park. He is also very excited to build a sand castle at the beach when we go in 3 days!

He also loves his little brother. They make quite the pair. He always makes sure Bear has what he needs and that we don't forget him.

He has been potty trained for a year and half now and keeps his underwear dry at night about 95% of the time now! (We can always tell when he's going to wet the bed.... those days we are at a party or a friends and he drinks way too many liquids too late in the day!)

He is SO sweet and caring. He is the first one to notice when I have on a new necklace or earings or shoes and will say, "You look beautiful Mommy!"

I sure love my little boys!! They are THE BEST!! Everyday I feel so lucky to have these two little guys to keep me smiling and laughing!!

Jackson watching Nascar in my office



They did this on their own and couldn't stop giggling about it:




Monday, June 14, 2010

Exciting Posts to Come!!

I know, I know, it's been a MONTH since I've last blogged. I keep sitting down trying to come up with something to blog about, but the truth is, we don't really have anything new or any pictures to blog about just yet. BUT, we will have some exciting posts coming.... promise! Blogs to look forward to:

** Some great DIY projects currently under construction- look for some great before and after shots! I will post as soon as they are done! (crossing my fingers they turn out!)

** A Southern California trip for my cousin Kurt's wedding in just 10 days!! Pictures to follow!

** Baron's 18 month check-up stats coming later this week- his Dr. appointment is this thursday

** Camping with family during the 4th of July weekend!!

Until then we will continue to be busy with work for both of us (John's work has been ridiculously stressful and busy lately and mine thankfully is slowing way down), new church callings- I am back with the Laurels now(I was in Laurels for a little bit in one of our previous wards), but have been pulling double duty with still teaching the 13 year old Sunday school class for a few weeks on top of teaching/working with the Young Women.... that is until I put in a complaint/request to the brand new Sunday School President- John, for some new teachers so I can be released from that! haha. He was shocked to get that... we thought he was just going to take my place teaching the 13 year olds, not be the president. :) So yes, we are being put to work and are busy, but doing well. Sorry, no pictures today, but look forward to the ones coming soon!!

Friday, May 14, 2010

My new little big boy


I have been thinking a lot lately about how I do not like that Baron is growing up so fast. What scares me the most about it is that each age and development he surpases might not ever be replaced by a younger brother. Don't get me wrong, we still hope to have another child or 2 join our little family in a year or two, but what are the chances of having yet another boy? (unless we have another 10 kids.... which lets just say is not going to happen). If I could have one wish... I wish Baron would stay the age he is for a few extra years. It's fun having Jackson grow up and discover new things and turn into a boy, so why not have both? One who grows up a little at a time and one who stays my little baby boy? And really, I just don't want him to ever grow out of these cute pj's:

or have him grow out of doing hilarious things like this:

He loves to sit on the potty (even though he never actually goes to the bathroom in it... it's more of a wanting to do what his brother does type of thing! And yes, that is one of my headbands he found and put on himself. Also note the whole roll of TP on the ground... even though it's more work for me, it still makes me laugh when he does crazy fun things like that!

Here he is making good use out of the laundry hamper I got for the boy's room... as you can see all the socks were thrown outside of it for a much better use.

And lastly, just this week, John converted Bear's crib into a toddler bed. Sigh. Can he be any bigger?? He hadn't been going to bed too well lately (he throws his blankets and stuffed animals that he can't sleep without out of the crib on purpose and then cries for them so we have to come in and get him). So one night while I was gone, he decided once again not to go to sleep, but throw his blankets out instead. John decided the best solution was to take off the one side of his crib and see how he did with that. The result: he loves it! Every night and nap time since he has gone right to bed with a big grin! He doesn't even try to escape! He absolutely loves feeling like a big boy. It helps too that he can climb back on if he does get out. It always takes me off guard when he walks out of his room after his nap or in the morning and says, "Mommy!" It's taking me a while to get use to him not being so dependent on me.



In conclusion I have one thing to say/demand: "Baby Bear, please stop growing up so fast!!!"