We're Moving! Again...

Yup, that's right...for the 4th time in [almost] 5 years as a married couple we're moving again - but only 2 miles away and to OUR OWN home! I think most people have Facebook so you probably saw a few posts of mine over the last month talking about the home buying process and as of 7pm tonight we will be signing our lives away to our 2nd home-ownership! It went SO FAST! We decided to house hunt 1 month ago today, I saw this house with my realtor on Aug 8th, offer accepted on the 9th, Dellas' stamp of approval on the 10th (yes, I bought this house without him seeing it because there was another offer about to be presented and I couldn't pass it up) and now 17 days later we're closing!

We approached this process much like our last home purchase in Idaho: something that suits our needs while we're in it, but can then become a great rental whenever Kiewit chooses to move us. So the Maple Valley house is a few years older but about 300 sq ft bigger than the Meridian house. We plan to immediately change out the carpet (it's only in 3 of the rooms), update the baseboard/trim and slap up some paint. Then over time we'll update the 2nd bathroom, change carpet in the den, update a few fixtures, and other misc projects.
So be prepared to see lots of fun "remodel" blogs; assuming I have time seeing as Baby G is coming in 9ish wks!!

But here's a little tour of "before":

"formal" living area at the front of the house (like the pink carpet??)

Kitchen (a little small, but efficient), to the left will be a "playroom" to the right is the family room, pic taken from dining room

"Playroom"

Family room

Dining room (as seen from doorway to playroom back to the front of the house)

Dining and den, as seen from family room (playroom & kitchen on right, hallway to bedrooms on left)

Den/Craft room off the dining room (next to playroom)

2nd bathroom

Master Bedroom

Master Bath

Bedroom #2 of 3 (will be nursery), next to this room is its mirror image (Jax's room)

Can't wait to get into it this weekend and begin some work! I wish I could be more helpful to Dellas, but being 31.5 wks preg makes it difficult. I'm going to pitch in wherever I can tho!

18 Month Milestones

(OOPS! I originally posted this as "16 Month Milestones" what was I thinking?? He's almost 19 months now! Pregnancy brain and mommy brain at their finest!)
I've realized lately that I've been really bad at writing down Jaxson's milestones. I feel like once he reached 1 year the baby book got pushed to the back of the shelf never to be seen again.  I also feel like he is changing so much every week that it's hard to answer when people ask when he started saying/doing certain things. Here's all the most current highlights I can think of:

*Says somewhere between 15-20 words now including: hi, bye or byebye, wawa (water), cook=book, coke=toast, up, dada, mama, nana, papa, kitty, car (his FAVORITE word), grape (kinda), nana=snack, and also his version of "outside" that only I pick up on, shoe (kinda), fish (kinda)
He's adding to it all the time too! Sometimes I'm the only one who knows what he means because he doesn't quite get the right sounds or consonants but he's trying!
*Blows Kisses
*Gives real kisses and hugs
*Beeps noses and now makes sort of a "beep" noise when you press his
*LOVES climbing up the back of the couch to sit in the window behind it
*Likes looking thru his books
*Kind of a picky eater - mainly is just leery of new things but usually takes to them eventually
*Still an amazing sleeper
*Is getting into 2T sized clothes and size 5-6 shoes
*OBSESSED with sitting in the car - messes with all the blinkers, buttons, wipers
*Says "vroo vroo" in association with cars
*Likes music and sometimes swings and throws his arms around to dance but gets embarrassed if he sees you watching
*Says "hi dada" "hi mama" or "hi" anything a LOT
*Has LOTS of teeth! Last I checked I think there were 14, only 6 to go

Well, I think that's about all the main things I can think of. He's always doing weird new things and has such a little personality that it's impossible to list it all!

Time Flies!

Oh boy I can't believe it's been 2 months since I've updated this! I'm sure so much has happened I can't even remember it. However the most important thing (that most people, if not all of you know) is that we're expecting baby #2! Yup, and it's a complete deja vu because Jaxson was due on October 31st 2012 (although born on the 16th) while this one is due on October 27th! So these two will be exactly 2 years apart! I'm about 14.5 wks along now and doing pretty well. "Morning" sickness didn't hit quite as hard or for as long as it did with Jaxson, so that was nice, so that means so far this pregnancy is going a little bit smoother.

12 wk ultrasound

Let's see...other than just a couple fun family outings (on to the Seattle Aquarium and another to a Mariner's game) not a ton is happening around here. We've had beautiful weather this week so Jaxson and I have been getting out most of the day every day. He has been having fun playing with the sprinkler a bit.

 

 

We enjoyed a nice Easter weekend at my parent's house as well. Weather cooperated and allowed us to have a semi-sunny egg hunt which was fun since it was Jaxson's first "real" hunt. I quote "real" because we still did all the hunting, he just enjoyed carrying the basket and throwing the eggs, haha.

 

We're going into the season of travel plans, and I love it! Jaxson and I have a trip booked to Boise for about 4 days the end of this month. My best friend will be having her first baby any day now and I can't wait to see her and meet baby girl!

Just a few weeks later all 3 of us will (finally!) be heading to San Diego for about a week. It has been almost a year and a half since our last visit so we're very excited to see everyone! We even get to catch a Padres vs Mariners game while we're there!

I'm sure we'll have more trips to report as time goes and we do more planning but we're excited for these 2 so far!

Tornado Jaxson

I decided to take a few videos of Jaxson while he's happy for those of you who don't see him often!
I just bought him the little play tunnel today and he loves it!

He's also starting to say a few words. He consistently says "dada" and knows it's Dellas he's talking about. He knows "car" now too but pretty much thinks that anything that moves is a "car," like airplanes, boats, trains and birds haha. But he definitely knows a car when he sees one! "Uh oh" has been a favorite word for awhile too.
The other day he tried to imitate me when I was teaching him what noises animals make and so far only "pig" has stuck. Watch in the next video...

Lastly, everyone asks me how I keep my house neat with a toddler. But honestly, it's not always neat and I'm constantly picking up after "Tornado Jaxson" to try and stay on top of the damage haha.


Hard to see, and only a fraction of what it can be!

Hawaii with the Vance Family

 As usual, it's been awhile since we've updated! Honestly, not much had been happening around our household until our recent trip to Kona, Hawaii with the Vance Family. We went a couple years ago to the same place and loved it so much the entire family wanted to go back; same house and all!

I was nervous about the plane ride with a 16 month old but he did awesome, both ways! My main concern was him getting a nap because he's not good about sleeping with lots of commotion around him and always fights me when I'm holding him. But once he got tired enough I rocked him for just a couple minutes and he was out! He slept for 45mins there and about 1 hr back; not his usual 2hr nap but I took it! I was even able to lay him on the floor on the way back.

Cousin Bret letting Jax look out the window

 

Panoramic view from the Dolphin House

 The first couple of days were mainly for relaxing. Since we'd been there before, we didn't feel the need to get out all the time exploring which was a relief with Jaxson. We spent lots of time in and around the pool.

Getting used to the pool again

Floatin around

Jax lost his footing and went face first but Del's quick reflexes saved him lol

 A short walk up the beach from our house there's a small beach called Keiki Beach (AKA Baby Beach) which was PERFECT for Jaxson. There's lots of sand for lounging and playing plus the lava formed a fairly large lagoon-type area that's shallow and WARM. Jaxson even took a few face plants into the water but got up laughing (usually).

Splashin'

 

 On Thursday, the family (minus Mom and the 2 babies) went on the same dolphin excursion as we did last time. We had a blast last time, but little did we know we were in for one of the BEST experiences you can get doing one of these excursions!
At the beginning we started out like last time, boating down the coastline in search of dolphins and whales and ran into a few momma whales and their babies. We stopped a few times and followed them a couple times. We saw a few breaches from a decent distance and lots of spouts and tails but got word that the dolphins were settling down in the bay near downtown Kona so we bee-lined there.

I don't have many pictures of the dolphins from the boat because well, we were in the water swimming with them for a solid couple of hours instead! We got on and off the boat just a couple times to follow them around the bay until they finally settled completely down and were making their rounds. It was AMAZING to be literally just 2-6 inches from them more times than I can even count. While they're sleeping they stay low in the water but about every 5-10 mins they'd come up for air a few times before going back down. I figured out that I could keep up with them while they were down low so I'd swim directly above them and just in front of them so that when they were ready to come up, they would come up RIGHT around me. One dolphin even got a little playful and went nose first straight up toward my sister (right next to me) and narrowly missed her. She thought for sure she was getting gored by it lol.

 

We literally swam around with the dolphins so long we were all tired and hungry so we got back on the boat to eat and whale watch. Not long into relaxing we heard some spouts near us and watched a mom and baby breach a couple times probably 50 yards from us (pic below).

We followed them once or twice then my sister heard another one spout behind us. So we all watched as another momma and baby surfaced a couple times about 100 yards behind us...headed RIGHT for us. They worked their way towards us and the baby surfaced about 20 ft from our boat and we all nervously waited to see where momma was going to come up! My sister and I were so nervous that she was going to come up too close for comfort but about 30 seconds later we saw her come up probably 30-40 ft from us on the other side of the boat. It was quite obvious that her path had been RIGHT under us!
The boat crew was just as excited as us about the entire 4 hr excursion! One of them was born and raised in Kona and said he couldn't remember the last time he'd been that close to whales and said the dolphin action ranked way up there on his list too.

The VERY excited, but exhausted, crew!

 I don't know that we'll be doing that excursion next time since it probably won't every top this experience!

On our last full day most of us went to Hapuna Beach for some good boogie boarding. The waves were perfect, not too big, not too small. The boys spent ALL day in the water.

Nephew Bret in the middle and Del on the right

 Jaxson was a little cranky that day so he spent more time in his beach tent than exploring, but I still managed to get him out a few times.

After our beach day the family got dressed up for our "Aloha Dinner" which also happened to also be Valentine's Day.

Headed to dinner at the Fish Hopper

 The morning of our last day my sister, nephew and I had to get in one last adventure before heading to the airport. We had tried to go up near Hapuna the day before but plans got messed up so we HAD to get this in. We got to the beach at about 8am for an hour of stand up paddle boarding in Kamakahonu Bay; the same bay we snorkeled in with the dolphins. We didn't see any dolphins, but it was still the perfect way to end the trip.

 

 

It's bitter-sweet to be back home...we came back to nasty wind and rain! But it was a fabulous week and we're all already talking about 2016!



Almost 14 Months Old...what??

I feel like it has been a little while since I did much of an update on Jaxson so here goes:
He has become quite the little clown! He's constantly running around the house making all sorts of weird noises, growling, laughing, and playing. He loves listening to music and will sometimes stop and dance to it.

The "rockier" it is the more he seems to like it, but he still loves just about anything!

He's also a little bit of a picky eater. I guess at this age it's common for them to stick to foods/textures they know so it's hard for me to introduce new things...although I try and try! Most kids you can't get them to stop putting things in their mouth, but my kid won't even taste something that looks unfamiliar.
He has learned to "give kisses" and has started randomly coming up to give me kisses, which I LOVE! His version of a kiss is his mouth WIDE open haha. Sometimes he'll say "mah" afterward but usually I just get slobbered all over.
He's started showing more separating anxiety too. I recently joined a gym with a daycare and some days he does ok but most days he starts crying as soon as we walk in there. Luckily, there's usually a great daycare person to take him and distract him. Last night he actually cried and reached for me when Dellas picked him up - first time ever! Poor Del.
I think he's finally starting to get who "mama" and "dada" are but isn't 100% consistent yet.
He signs "eat," "night night" and "all done."
Lastly, he loves it when I sit on the floor with him. Even if i'm not totally paying attention to him he just likes to show me toys, sit on my lap or next to me and hang out.
He's a very sweet baby, getting more social, and I can see him learning new things ALL the time!

Craft Crazy

Lately I've been getting into a very "crafty" spirit and been enjoying myself!
First thing I started doing was "alphabet photography."

Such as this!

Someone on one of my buy/sell/trade sites posted that she was in search of a local place that sells alphabet photography. About a year and a half ago I got inspired to make my own for our last name, CLARK and went in search of letters around our house and quickly found them. So I let the gal know that I had done my own and could help her out if she was interested. This offer soon grew into selling her, her friend, my neighbor and now another gal all the letters they needed. It was perfect timing too because I got a new camera as an early xmas gift from Del and my parents!
I now have quite the collection going so if you or anyone you know is interested, let me know!

Next, I got into making ornament wreaths. I came across a super easy way to make them so I made my own:

Of course, this then turned into my mom and sister wanting one so I offered to make them:

Mom's

Jeni's

But I'm not done yet, because then someone on my buy/sell/trade site offered me a box of free ornaments so I made my 4th one that I gave to a friend of mine! Still not done...after posting pics of all of these, another friend of mine asked me to make her one so I'll be doing wreath #5 here shortly! Anyone else? :) Sorry, I don't ship hehe.