He's Eighteen Months Old!

Yes, that's right. My baby turned eighteen months old today! So sad! He even went to nursery yesterday! It was a day early, but Pete was tired of dealing with Jaron in nursery, so when I came back from taking Shay to nursery, he was gone! I was a little shocked and sad! I thought I would be there when my youngest went to his first day of nursery. It was probably better this way, since he's kind of a mama's boy. He did really well and they didn't have to bring him to me once! I was amazed! Of course we'll see what happens next time when he knows that he's going to be left.

Jaron has started talking a bit. He says, mama, dada, diedie (Bye, Bye), nienie, Tatu (thankyou) and his favorite- high pitched screech meaning get me a drink of milk right now! It is fun to have him start talking so that he is able to communicate a little bit.

Jaron loves to sing! In church, it can be a little bit embarrassing, but it is so cute that it really isn't. He sings really LOUD! In fact yesterday, Shay was trying to get him to be quiet because she thought he was yelling when he was singing at church. I said, "It's okay he's singing," Shay looked at me like, "are you kidding?" It was pretty funny.

Jaron favorite thing to do is to play ball. He loves balls. Any kind of ball, football, basketball, pingpong balls. tennis, you name it he loves it! He comes up to you and throws the ball at you and then you catch it and throw it at him and then he goes and chases it. It's his favorite game.

Jaron also loves Elmo. All I have to do is sing, "La, La Lala, Elmo's World!" and he gets such a huge grin on his face. It is so cute. The only problem with this is that none of our other kids liked Elmo, so we only have one DVD and I am so tired of it! I am so excited for Santa to bring him a new one.

Jaron is such a joy! I am so grateful to be his mom. He is so sweet and cute! Happy eighteen months, Jaron!

Beacon Rock and Hood River

Last Friday, October 17th, Pete's brother, Paul and his wife, Inger and their kids came to visit us. All of our kids are around the same ages, so we have a lot of fun with them.

Thursday was Makenna's eighth birthday. So, we started the night out by having birthday cake and icecream to celebrate her birthday. The kids had a great time eating cake and icecream and goofing around with each other.





The kids played until late into the evening until we decided it was calm down time and we put on a video for them while we played Ticket to Ride with Paul and Inger. After the kids went to bed we decided to play one more game. The Farming Game. I am a gamer, but I hate this game! I was bankrupt within twenty minutes, so I spent the next two hours playing banker for everyone else. Paul and Pete really enjoyed this game, but it was a little long for Inger and me. We finally went to bed at two in the morning!

On Saturday morning we got up and had a big yummy breakfast. This is a tradition with our two families. We always eat a big breakfast when we go to Paul and Inger's, so Pete and I had to keep up the tradition at our house.

After breakfast we packed up and headed to Beacon Rock. We have always wanted to climb this, so we thought it would be fun to do with Paul's family. It is a BIG rock! I thought we would never get to the top! Shaylee was such a trooper and walked almost the entire way up and down by herself. Easton who is two was able to climb almost the entire way up. The kids were great and really had fun together climbing the rock.


Paul and Inger on SR 14 along the Columbia River Gorge.




At the bottom.


At the top!





See how little that road is? That's how far up we are.


We then headed to Hood River to their apple festival. There were tons of different apples and pears being sold as well as apple cider. They had samples so you could try them and find your favorite ones. Pete loves the Honey Crisp apples, so we bought a few of those. The craft part of the festival was disappointing. You have to pay five dollars an adult to get in and there was only one tent full of crafts. We thought there would be more. They did have a nice park by the river where you could see the wind surfers up close and throw rocks in the river. It was really neat.




One of the wind surfers. People come from
all over the world to wind surf in the Gorge.





Jaron loved throwing rocks in the river.

We then went to their free craft show at the fair grounds and we got a couple of Christmas presents. Hood River is a gorgeous little town and we loved driving through it and seeing all of the pretty scenery.

We ate dinner with them at Arby's and then they headed back to her sister's in Aloha. We enjoyed being able to spend time with them and we LOVE to have visitors. It's so fun when the kids can play with their cousins and get to become a little closer especially when we live so far away.

I'm Esme!

I got this off my friend's blog. Very fun! Of course I'm Esme, the mom!


Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

I am unique! My quirks make me unique!

Nicole tagged me to list six of my quirks. I have been reading everyone else's and kept thinking what are my quirks? I was glad that I wasn't tagged so I didn't have to worry about it too much because I couldn't think of very many. Now that I have been tagged I've been discussing them with Pete and it's hard to decide what is a quirk and what is just "normal". So I will just list what I think my quirks are. Pete helped me think of a few.

1) I hate cooked fruit! I like most fruit fresh, but I hate it cooked. Actually I should go even further and say I don't like fruit in things. Like in icecream or in a salad. Gross! I know I'm weird!

2) I hate tomatoes by themselves! This is just the opposite of my fruit quirk. I love tomatoes in stuff. Salsa, ketchup, soup, etc. YUM! I know I'm weird!

3) When I take a nap on my bed, the bed must be made! Pete thinks that's so strange. Why don't I get under the covers? I like to nap on a made bed with my soft blanket covering me.

4) I don't know if this is unique, but I love a mopped floor. If my floor is freshly mopped I am a very happy girl!

5) I am a carseat natzi! My family coined that phrase for me! When Brandon was born I read everything I could get my hands on about carseat safety. I figured as a mother I should do all I could to make sure my baby was safe in the car. All those who carpool with me know that in order to ride in my car, children must have a carseat until they are eight years old. It is the law!

6) I Love accessories! Purses, shoes, jewelry! You will rarely see me without earrings in, or a purse on my arm.

After doing this I decided that a person's quirks are what make them unique. Wouldn't life being boring if we didn't have quirks and we were all the same? So these are six quirks that make me unique!

I think everyone in our ward has been tagged so I will tag my sisters- Gina, Cindy, and Debbie because they have to love me know matter how many times I tag them, my cousin Kelly and his wife Melanie because they are also stuck with me and have to love me know matter what! and my college roommate, Emily because I used to know a lot of her quirks and wonder about how much she has changed!

Parents Day!

Today was Shaylee's parent day at preschool. I got to go for the last half hour of her school day and see what she does at school. They did their roll call, calendar, reviewed vowels, shapes, and colors. Then they sang a couple of songs for us and then we went into the big room and they did an obstacle course. It was very cute to see all these little ones enjoying being together and see them start to understand a routine. It was such fun! Even though she had a rough start to preschool she is doing very well now and really enjoys preschool.


Here Shaylee is pointing out a shape


Singing time!





notice a theme? no singing from Shaylee, just hands in her mouth!

Obstacle course

Shaylee was great on the balance beam!

Weaving through the cones!

walking on top of these circle things

crawling on the mat

Walking along the river

On Sunday October 12th we decided to go walking along the Columbia river because it was such a beautiful day and who knows how many more of those we will have before the rain sets in! We thought it would be fun to invite some friends to go along. We invited the King's since they are new to the area and have never been to the river. It was a lot of fun and the kids had a blast throwing rocks in the river, collecting sticks and leaves and running up and down the walking path. We love this walk because it is so beautiful and in the summer you can see all the boats going along the river. It also has a great place to picnic and a rocky beach that's great for skipping rocks. I'm glad we were able to have one last fun outing before the rainy weather begins.

A conference morning tradition!

Our first conference in this house five years ago, the Jackson's, our next door neighbors, invited us over to their house for breakfast on Sunday morning. For April conference we invited the Jackson's over to our home for breakfast and our Conference Sunday morning tradition was born! It is a lot of fun and the kids love it! We switch houses every conference. We eat a yummy breakfast and then watch the Sunday morning session. I always make butterscotch balls and Jon always makes smoothies. I love traditions and this one is a keeper!


You gotta love Kenyon's hair!




Yummy butterscotch balls!