April 2010

April was a great month. The weather was perfect for being out and about

I love spring. I love the birds and the budding trees. I love the new growth and the beautiful cherry blossoms!  We started the month out by getting some seeds going indoors for our attempt at a patio garden this year.  We'll see how that all turns out!

Jasper's new favorite place to be is in the laundry basket. He takes anything in it out and then climbs in. He'll hang out for a half hour or he'll push it around the living room and fill it up with his toys.

We decorated Easter Eggs (4/3) this year. We chose a 'tie-dye' kit and the kids really liked it.  It was fun because the kids would dot their eggs up with color and then put them in a bag to rub around the colors.  Some of the eggs turned out pretty muddied but we all liked the overall look and it was something new to try out.

Rebecca,  Josh and Tristan came over for Easter Supper and an egg hunt.  It was really nice to share the holiday with them!  It is the first time I've been able to spend a holiday (as grown-ups with families) with my sister.  

April also brought me a visit from my dear friends from back at Edwards AFB! We went into the city to see the sites with them. It was really nice.

It was fun to see the girls together. It's been about 3 years since we've visited together.  It was really fun to hang out together and watch the kids interact.

Jordan actually carried Jade on his back for a while because her feet were 'tired.' He was so sweet about it too.   I tried to get some good photos of the kids together under the Cherry Blossoms as well as at some of the monuments.  Myrna was nice enough to take a picture of me with the kids too.

It was a really warm day and we all ended up feeling pretty beat but it was worth going into town.  We loved seeing the cherry blossoms.  They were beautiful.  It reminded us of Japan in spring and made me homesick.  It was nice to get to see the city in the spring.

                                             Jeramis' new car... a beautiful 2010 Camaro... arrived! He is extremely excited. He works so hard for our family so it's great to see him get something nice for himself!

We've been enjoying the weather. The kids have been fascinated with worms and they enjoy looking for them in our garden.

Jordan had an opportunity to play his clarinet in front of a judge to get guidance and tips.  He did really good and she encouraged him to keep playing. She said he has good tone and control but he really needs to do a better job cleaning his clarinet!  (EWW!)

                                            Jasper has been so cute this month. He was really happy when Jeramis came home from being away for some training that he would follow him around and climb up next to him at the table or couch.  Jeramis had to have surgery and after that he wasn't able to pick Jaz up, which really made Jaz unhappy.  He would throw huge fits.  It was pretty funny.

I took the kids to the zoo. They wanted to go see the animals but we were disappointed because a good portion of the exhibits are under construction until 2011. So we aren't going to renew our membership.  Maybe once it's back up and running - we'll see.

Their favorite things this visit were the lemurs and the turtles. Although Jade was really happy to see the Lions awake.

Jasper has become interested in blocks this month and he likes to load and unload the block box.  He's been really funny to watch with them.






Jade's been having fun putting outfits together.  She saw this fake fur vest (and a 2nd one that's brownish) and she really wanted them.  So we got them for her and now they are staples for her daily wear. She's a hoot and I have to admit I love her style :)

This month was filled with soccer practices and games. We were at practices Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons and then we had games on Saturdays and Sundays! It has been insane. The kids are loving it and I'm glad that they are enjoying themselves and learning more about soccer (AND RUNNING LOTS!) but I must admit that it's been a bit of overkill for me.

Jasper hit 15 months on the 28th.  He's so cute. I took him out for a little photo shoot around the beach and at the park. He wasn't so good about holding still but I managed to capture a few photos and some personality shots. He loved the race car at the park and spent most of his time in it saying, "vvrrmmm vvmmrrmm"

He has also figure out how to open the trash - much to my dismay. He is interested in putting things in it and pulling things out of it.  On one day he decided to fish in there for his left over (by several hours EWW) Greek Yogurt. For those of you that have never had Greek Yogurt I should tell you that it's very thick and leaves a little residue behind that sometimes has to be wiped several times to remove.  So on this day, Jasper dug out the container he'd had a breakfast. He somehow managed to open up my bungee'd drawers and I found him painting my measuring cups, spoons, etc. with yogurt.

He'd already covered his face, hair and shirt.  I'd left him upstairs for as long as it took me to walk down to the laundry room, remove the clothes from the dryer and move a load from the washer over and start a new batch in the washing machine.  (Maybe 15 minutes at the most!)  When I came back up and found him he grinned at me and ran over to the trash to redeposit the yogurt cup.  As I walked around to the trash I discovered that he'd also painted the entire kitchen table bench, a large portion of the table, my two cabinet doors, a glass top side table, most of the shoes in our shoe basket, the lid to the trash can and I found several yogurt kiss marks and hand prints on the sliding glass door... then I went into the living room.  He'd also painted his slide and his ride-on lion and a few toys.  Needless to say, I grabbed the camera before putting him into the bath. Might as well put this on record for when one of his kids pulls a stunt like this, right? :)

Jeramis recovering and all in all the month has been really nice. :)
May's update will be coming soon :) I'm on a roll finally!

March 2010!

March was a nice month. The snow finally melted - although we still had some large patches left here and there for the first little bit.  Lots of areas still had some thick ice underneath.  

Jeramis came home from being away for a few weeks and the kids and I were so glad to have him back.  Jordan and Jade were such great helpers for me.  Jasper was so glad to have his daddy home he kept climbing up on his lap so he could read to him and play with him.  

Jasper's hair has really started to curl. At the beginning of the month he had this one errant curl that kept flipping up on top of his head but by the end of the month his hair was curling all over. 

Jaz has also decided he is a 'big' boy now. He prefers to sit at the table with the kids when they eat and he doesn't like to sit in his high chair at all.  But now that he has realized he's a 'big boy' he likes to get up on the table as well!  He's a bit of a monster :) 

Jordan and Jade love that he likes to climb up by them at the table. He watches them read, do homework, draw, etc. Unfortunately he also likes to pull and grab anything in his range and it has become impossible to eat family style or to spread out books, homework papers, etc.  So we're all adjusting to that.  

Jaz also doesn't like to be left alone. If one of us has to run downstairs to do anything he gets mad and runs to the gate on the stairs.  When we come back up the steps he reaches his little hand through and tries to grab us. He likes it when we touch our fingers to his, which brings him to giggles.  So now every time we come upstairs we play the finger in the gate game.  

Soccer games also started at the end of the month.  Both kids were very excited.  Jade scored the first goal of the season for her team, which thrilled all of us.  It was a great start for the season. 

Jade's top tooth finally started wiggling and by the end of the month it was out.  

Jasper likes to pull on Jade's hair. When I'm brushing it and styling it in the morning he tries to get in between us so he can reach her hair better.  If she isn't paying attention he'll sneak up on her and pull on her ponytails or braids.  He's caused her quite a bit of pain with the yanking and pulling... he doesn't realize that it is attached to her head. 

Jade's a little model - always posing. :)  

She and Jordan also love to drink out the milk carton. I don't know why but they think it is funny. I don't really like to let them do it but if they ask me I tend to give in!  

Jasper hit 16 months. He's all grins and giggles. He likes to run, climb, eat and bite.  We have to be careful with him because he is really quick to use his teeth.  He's such a cute kid that it is hard to get upset with him because he flashes such impish grins. We bought a little slide/castle thing for him to use in the house but in the beginning he was more interested in the box.  He liked it so much we kept it around for a few weeks and let him crawl through it like a tunnel. He would run around the toys, climb through the box and wait for us to "find" him. He thought it was very fun and it became quite the game for him and the kids.  He really liked it when one of us would follow him through the box as well.  That would make him laugh so hard that he'd have to stop crawling or running.  He's a crazy kid - perfect mix for our family of course :)  

Jeramis and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary this month.  It was so very nice to celebrate it. We are so lucky to be together and to have so much celebrate in our lives. :)

Another interesting and amazing thing that happened this month was that my grandmother turned 100.  We all think it's pretty amazing. She's an amazing woman though so I guess we shouldn't be surprised. 

So that's pretty much it for March. I'll try to get an update for April up soon.