Wagon ride!

My brother Reed and his wife Jamie moved back to Texas (they lived here right after they got married and moved right after we moved here) a few weeks ago. Emily and Jacob have really enjoyed having them around. They are a lot more fun (and a lot less grouchy) than mom and dad. Tonight Uncle Reed gave Jacob and Emily a ride in the wagon. They had a blast! They wanted him to keep going and going, and they finally wore him out.

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The saga of Maleficent....

Emily has loved Sleeping Beauty for awhile now and for some reason, Aurora is her favorite princess. I'm not sure why because I never liked that movie as a kid. I always thought it was kind of "dark." If I had to pick a favorite princess, it would be "Belle" or "Ariel." But...to each their own, and Emily is definitely an individual.

For her birthday, she got Aurora and Prince Phillip dolls from her Aunt Andrea, Uncle Jeremy, and cousins Ally and Kaitlyn. She also got a Barbie doll that she decided to name "Maleficent" (who, if you are not up on Sleeping Beauty lingo, is the "bad guy" in the movie). Since then, (and Jason's mom can attest to this from the time she was here), we have spent countless hours re-enacting Aurora being led up the stairs in the castle and pricking her finger on the spinning wheel.

Today Emily decided to shake things up a little and decided to throw a birthday party for Maleficent. I know what you're thinking....a birthday party for the bad guy? I have no idea where she gets it from! She went to a birthday party earlier today for a friend from preschool and decided that everyone, even bad guys, deserve a change to have a birthday party. I guess I should just be grateful for the change in story line!

Jacob and cars...

I remember distinctly when Emily said her first "real" word (both kids said "momma" "dadda" and "bye bye" for a long time before they said other words and so I didn't really "count" them). It was on our move from Utah to Texas. I was sitting in the back seat of the car with her and had been reading her a book about puppies. She pointed at the ball and said, "Ball."

The other day Jacob said his first "real" word....CAR! Over the past week or so, he has fallen in love with cars. His favorite right now is Lightning McQueen and he wants to carry it everywhere with him. The cars were actually all Emily's which caused a bit of a problem at first, but thankfully we had a stash of extra Lightning McQueens from when Emily went through her Cars phase. When he gets his cars, he will run them along the floor and make this little growling noise as he moves them.

It's very cute because he will crawl (he still hasn't decided to walk on his own....he will walk holding on to our hands, but will only take a few steps on his own....I honestly think it's because he is so on the go and can get wherever he wants to go a lot faster crawling) into Emily's room and head straight to the bin with the cars in it saying "car car car" over and over again. He's had a language explosion this past week and is trying to say more and more words. It's so fun!

Jacob says NO WAY to tuna!

I was just telling my mom the other day that I have yet to find a food that Jacob won't eat. We have given him tons of different foods so far from veggies (squash, broccoli, grean beans, potatoes, carrots, etc.) to fruits (melons, strawberries, peaches - HE LOVES those!, etc.) and even meats. It's such a change from Emily who is my picky eater and would eat hot dogs, chicken nuggets, or macaroni and cheese every day if we'd let her. I guess I spoke too quickly! Finally, today, I found something that he wouldn't eat. (For some reason, my pictures are coming out really blurry. Click on the actually picture and you get the full effect of how unhappy he was!)


Emily wanted tuna sandwiches. I fixed the plates for the kids and then was getting my own lunch ready. I turned around and he had tuna all over him - in his hair, on his face, all over his clothes - and he was crying hysterically. I thought maybe the pieces of sandwich were too big, so I tried breaking them up and feeding them to him, but he just spit them out. I guess he's not a fan of tuna. Of course, it could be that he's getting three new teeth right now and hasn't been a very happy little guy in general today.

Summer is here!

I know that it will not officially be summer for about ten more days, but my summer started when I finished work last Friday! One of Emily's favorite places is Pump it Up (that's where she had her birthday party) and they have a Pop in Playtime where the kids can go and play a couple of mornings each week. She has been begging to go back and I got a free coupon in the mail last week, so we went on Monday. (It's kind of hard to see in the picture above but Emily is laying at the top of the stairs)

I figured Jacob wouldn't do much, but he really got excited and was climbing all over the place and having a great time. They have a smaller area for toddlers and it has a small slide. Emily went down the slide with him several times and they both loved it.

Then, I decided to take him down the "big" slide. Climbing on inflatable stuff is not as easy as it looks and I definitely got a work-out! The kids had a blast and were totally worn out for naptime, so it was well worth it! (Of course, Emily is already asking when we can go back again!)

(Here's Jacob ready to go down the big slide again!)

Summer fun!

Summer for me officially will start on Friday, but the kids got out of school last Friday and I finished my district check out today. Now all I have to do is pack up and clean out my office. I'm ready for summer and Emily is ready, too! She keeps asking me how many more days until I can stay home with her and Jacob.

We've had some pretty warm days lately and the kids have loved playing in the water. We have a small blow up pool in the backyard. Our subdivision also has a pool, but we haven't made it there yet. Emily started swimming lessons this week and she is my little water baby. She will take lessons every day for two weeks. I am amazed at how much they can accomplish in such a short amount of time. Emily has no fear at all. She had no problem putting her face in the water and blowing bubbles, floating on her back, going underwater, and today she slid down the slide into the deep end and then jumped off a structure in the middle of the pool.

Jacob wasn't very excited about the whole pool concept initially, but he warmed up to it pretty quickly and was having a blast in no time. The place where Emily is taking swimming lessons offers parent/infant classes, but the waiting list is really long. We've been on it for 2 1/2 months now and still haven't gotten in to a class! (by the way, we finally decided to "buzz" his hair this weekend....I didn't realize how long and thick his hair had gotten until we started cutting it!)

This weekend was my brother Reed's 30th birthday (the time sure flies!) We had a get together at my parents house complete with a pinata. Emily was very excited to help try to knock it down.

We're looking forward to a fun-filled summer and now that I will be off work for awhile, maybe I'll be a little bit better about keeping up with the blog!