WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Monday, August 16, 2010
HaPpY bIrThDaY, Daddy!
Since Daddy can't be with us on his birthday tomorrow, Jansen and I wanted to be sure we posted an extra special Happy Birthday wish for him so he'd get it first thing when he peeked on the blog tomorrow!
Phew!
Jansen has been going diaper-less quite often lately for potty training and has been doing splendid, but occasionally I have a diaper on him for whatever reason and he no longer cares to sit in it after he's used IT instead of the potty! Here's how I know:
Play Date: Jumpy House
On Thursday last week we met Jimmy and Kristyn for our last playdate before school started. We went to a place here that has a bunch of those inflatable play areas and had a ball! Jimmy got tuckered out before Jansen so we stayed a little longer after they had to leave, but we were so glad to play with them one last time before school. The very best part was that Mommies (or Daddies) get to play with the kids on the toys too!! I'm not sure if the boys or Kristyn and I had more fun! The morning that we were there was just for kids under 5 too, so we didn't have the big kids mowing down the tots! AWESOME!!
"Come get me Mama!"
Jansen had the whole sports field to himself briefly. He looks even tinier than he usually does!
Slide 1.
Slide 2.
Jumping and running is tough to keep your balance on these things!
Basketball star... IF he can stay on his feet!
While in Montgomery, Daddy taught Jansen about water fountains, or bubblers to us Northern folk. At the jump place they have one that;s kid height and has a step stool for tiny tots, so Jansen and Jimmy had to try it out on their own!
OKC Zoo 2010
The week before Jansen's birthday we went to OKC Zoo with his Godmother, Laura. We met Laura's StepDaughter-in-Law and her kiddos there since they live right near by. It was really fun! Here's a bit of our trip:
We started off rough. Jansen had slept most of the way there (nearly a 2 hour drive) so he was still kind of groggy when we started out. We got to a cool water fall/splash park in the new childrens section and he wanted to splash so I took off his shoes and socks, set him down next to me on his feet and when he tried to lean on my leg while I dug out the camera, he slipped down my leg (it was hot so I had sunscreen on and was a bit sweaty, thus slippery leg) and face planted right into a boulder type thing. He cried and bled like mad. I had to get a picture of the initial battle wound, though it looked much worse as the day progressed and the bruising and scabbing set in. He had a bruise above his eyebrow, a big scrape that scabbed over really bad on his nose, a scrape on his upper lip, then he bit a gash in his lip from the front and the inside both which swelled, scabbed, and would bleed more every now and then. It looked AWFUL. I was nearly convinced by late the next afternoon that I was going to have to take him into the doc for antibiotics or something, but the day after that it was healing quite well and by the 4th day nearly gone! Amazing!
Jansen's hand compared to an orangutan. So TINY!
Getting a bit bolder, though quite secure with Laura's help! Great form though, do we have an up and coming gymnast?
Monday, August 9, 2010
Jansen's Second Birthday Party
Geez! Two already! What a wild ride this has been! We had some friends out for finger foods and dessert. Our theme this year was construction since Jansen loves trucks right now and well... Pu-Pop is a favorite so we decided to honor him, even though Mommy couldn't find a Roller Truck for the table and dirt was easier to make than asphalt! :oD
The food was: Homemade Chicken Nuggets, Petite Quiches, Pinwheels, Mini Cheeseburgers, & Fresh Fruit and Maple Dip. The Candle Cake was a Root Beer Float Cake and the Construction Zone had Chocolate Cake 'Dirt.'
Here's the pics:
The Road with the Construction Going on (aka the table with the dirt, cones and trucks)! Front View with Kristyn and Jimmy in the back ground.
Back View of the Table and Dirt (It's even in the loader and the dump truck) but the dirt came out super dark in the picture and you can hardly see the pile on the table!
The balloons were attached to little traffic cones for the kids as favors along with a little goodie bag. In pic: Kristyn, James, Olga and Jimmy's head at the bottom of pic.
Jansen started out shy so he had to eat where he could see, but felt like he wasn't being seen until he warmed up a little.
Guest chillin' in the living room converted to a climber fun house for the party. In pic: Chris, Laura, Will's feet, and Olga.
The gathering place, or where the food is! In this pic: Kristyn, James, Me, Jansen, Laura, Chris, Patrick. Kendra is the photog in this one and Olga is being our child entertainer in the living room on the toys!
I didn't feed Laura fast enough, I guess. She looks like she's gonna take a bite of the birthday boy!
After unwrapping all the toys, the most excited he got was when he got the gift card from Kendra, Patrick, Will, Houston, and Trip! Too cute! He also got his first Bible from his Fairy Godmother Laura, a folding canvas chair from Papa Chuck so he can chill with the big guys (complete with sippy cup holder), new bath toys and a Crayola basket from us and of course his cards with some money from those of you that sent that! Great day and thanks so much to everyone!!
. 
Jansen was wiped out when everyone left! I was putting dishes in the sink and he just laid down on the floor next to me flat out on his back, hands at his sides, eyes closed and sighing heavily. When he heard the camera turn on he moved a little, but it was so cute!
It was an awesome day! Thanks to everyone who celebrated with us either by being here or thinking about him on his day or both! I'm still in awe that two whole years have zipped by!
Second Birthday Party: The Chase
Olga is such a blessing to us! She helped me with EVERYTHING getting ready for the party, starting from the night before even. She's also AWESOME with the kids and was our resident entertainer for the party. Sorry about the video starting sideways. I forgot that you had to keep it level at first and I was one-handed at the time!
Thursday, August 5, 2010
July 2010
So to continue with the summer of travel and family theme, Jansen and I spent the majority of July in Montgomery, Alabama with Daddy as he started his second round of Reserves JAG training. We couldn't really stay too much longer because I have to start school soon and haven't really been home to do much around here this summer on my break, so I had to come home and prep for going back to work as well as get Jansen's daycare situation lined up. It was really hard to leave Daddy there again and come back here just the two of us for so long, but we are getting by and talk to Daddy at LEAST once a day. We've also got great friends helping to fill in the time so we can get through a little easier than Daddy probably is.
Montgomery was HOT and much smaller than I had anticipated. There were several really cool things to see and do, but a good deal of what they have to see charges admission and so it could potentially be an expensive visit as a tourist if you were trying to get all the sights in. There were several things to do that were inexpensive but with Jansen's and My alternative being to sit in a tiny hotel suite for two plus weeks or get out and do something the nickel and diming was going to get costly unless we got creative! We tried going on walks at first, but by 9 am it is so sticky and hot that we couldn't really get far or take up much time doing that. We were limited to what we could do on base because I didn't have a military ID, which you need to use ANY facility on the base. I had thought originally that Jansen and I would spend the days at the pool, but that wasn't available to us. I sought a couple of malls to walk even though I'm not a shopper to get in some cool air and some exercise. The first one I got us to was one of those that had a series of 'strip malls' with all outdoor enterances. No mall-walking there, just having to actually go in to stores and look around. It did get us out of the hotel for an afternoon, but we were sweat-drenched and didn't go back to that one again. The next day I found the indoor mall so we headed there after nap time to spend the afternoon in the cool air conditioning walking the mall and getting exercise. That one was really small and we walked the whole thing in 15 minutes. Boo! We did a couple of days grocery shopping at WalMart Supercenter, Took a nice LONG walk in the park that housed the Shakespeare Theatre and the Museum (VERY hot afternoon for us, but we got out anyway), and ventured up to Tennessee to see Mel, Meg, Bri and families for a few days!! Gosh it had been about 9 years since I had seen them all so it was really spectacular to get to spend that time there!!! While there we met at Mel's and played for a while, spent our evenings at Meg's, met everyone for a fun filled day in the park, swimming, and family dinner complete with smore making and from scratch peach cobbler! Bri somehow managed to avoid the camera and we forgot to do a cousins' photo of us, but at least I got ONE of all the little kids together (Eli looked away at the wrong time though). We went back to Alabama and got in a few more sights with Daddy, then came back home. Seems so short now that we are home and Daddy's still there. :o(
Anyway.... here's our July!
Last night in Momtgomery with Daddy
The night before we left Montgomery to come back home Daddy was trying to have some special play time with Jansen before bed. Jansen was kind of wild that night, so we decided to see if we could get a little video in!
Montgomery Museum of Fine Art
Montgomery has a really nice FIne Arts Museum. It shares grounds with the Shakespeare Festival Theatre and Shakespeare Gardens. The theatre was closed (bummer for this Theatre Geek), but we did get to walk the Shakespeare gardens... or should I say it was so blistering hot that Richard laid down on a bench while I wandered around to see that a Shakespeare Garden is quite simply where they plant things from mentions in Shakespeare's works. Nothing was really in bloom of the flowering plants at the time and much of the rest is herbs. It was cool for me to see, but didn't make for many interesting photo ops for anyone else.
The museum, was really nice in general, BUT the Children's area was really awesome! They had so many captivating things that we spent most of our time playing WITH Jansen in it and totally forgot to snap some pics. Here's a couple though:
At the center that taught about aesthetic balance Jansen created this perfectly balanced work of art completely on his own. Richard and I tried to get him to stand next to it for a picture, but he got all shy on us so Daddy tried to coax him into the pic if he was there too. Not exactly a successful move, BUT we did get our little Dali with his first ever museum art display!:
Jansen and Mommy playing in the light projection display. He really had a good time in here, but the video is short because we remembered the camera at the end... like I said before, we were playing too!:
Downtown Montgomery
So the last Saturday that we got to spend with Richard in Montgomery was also a major studying day for Richard. By the time we got to actually get out and about lots of things were closed/closing that we had hoped to see, but we still got in a couple of really nice sites!
Richard really wanted a picture with him by the church that Martin Luther King, Jr. preached at. The map they give you of the downtown sights is rather tricky so here is RIchard's first shot at the church. We were at the wrong church, but I just couldn't waste the pose!:
Richard at the Southern Poverty Law Center:
We also went to the Civil Rights Memorial. It was a really neat set of water fountains. This is a flat-topped cone slab with water that flows across the top and then down the sides and into a base. All along the circular top is a time table of the civil rights movement. It is really pretty powerful. I thought this pic of the top was cool because you can see Richard's shadow on it too:
The second fountain is a curved wall of flowing water over granite that is carved with the quote by MLK, Jr.:
OK, so it's sappy but this place actually had some extra special meaning for me personally... well, Montgomery in general, but the memorial in particular. Since we are a multiracial family it is really moving to me to be where so many people came before us, and so very recently in historical terms, to fight to make that possible without persecution in our society today. I love my family and appreciate all that came before us to make our lives acceptable and easier. Wow! To have this picture of our own little guy putting his hand on that wall is really special to me.
Mel's: Smores
At Mel's we made smores! Yummmmmmmy! I haven't had a great burnt marshmallow smore in ages before this! It was Jansen's first time roasting anything on the fire.
Jansen tried to direct Mel on how to do it properly even though he's never roasted marshmallows before:
Guess he figures he should just get in there and help her do it since he knows better how it's done:
Mel explaining her strategy for burning my mallow to perfection:
Alas! The perfectly burned mallow for me!
Yes I'm spoiled, but it is the birthright of the eldest cousin... wait, I just 'aged' myself.:.. The 'coolest' cousin is what I meant... the one that bullies everyone into doing her bidding... wait, the sweetest, most deserving cousin... you get the point! :oD
Jayson supervising while Meg had smore construction duty:
"Dude, That was AWESOME!"
Meg's Pool
We all spent some time in the pool at Meg's after sweating it up at the park!
Pool Take Over! With all of us in there, the apartment complex had a full pool that day:
Middle-ish - Betty
Bottom - Meg, Sherman
Betty with the swim rings:
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