Fun in the sun

Jackson went swimming yesterday in our backyard. I had my lap top outside and was checking e-mail. When I looked up he had decided it was a good idea to put his "happy day ride" into the pool (this is what he calls his new 3-wheeler. He got the name from his cousin, Boston, who has the same one and calls his this too.)

Hanging out at the Cabin

Melinda and the kids spent a few days last week in Island park at her sister and brother-in-law's cabin. Jackson went on a 4-wheeler ride with Uncle Andy. I was surprised he went because he has been scared of the noise in the past, but he loved it! Here are a few pictures of him with his cousins on the 4-wheelers (they were only just posing for pictures, the little kids didn't go riding by themselves).

Jackson with cousins, Silvia and Jeb. (also - here is a good picture of our new car in the background)

Vroom, Vroom! Here I come!

Another Pic with Jackson and Jeb.

Also, I decided I better get a video of Abigail doing her "army crawl" before she figures out there are better ways to get around than that.

New member of the family

We got a new car a couple of weeks ago, complements, in part, to the government Cask for Clunkers program. It is a 2009 Honda Odyssey in slate (you can see part of it in the last picture). It is the first new car either Aaron or I have owned. I haven't quite adjusted to the van/ soccer mom mentality yet but I am getting there. It is defiantly nice to have all the extra room and it so much easier to get the kids in and out of the car. Plus, Jackson actually has some leg room in this car.

To try out the new car, we went for a drive up to Mesa Falls the Sunday after we got it. Here are a few picture at the falls.

Jackson posing for a picture with the falls behind him.

The whole Family with the lower falls behind us - someone offered to take a picture for us.

Melinda and the kids with the upper falls behind us.

Jackson looking at the upper falls.

Abigail having a drink of juice back at the car.

Jackson's 3rd Birthday

Jackson had his 3rd birthday on August 8th. Here are the things we did to celebrate his birthday: We went to the Idaho Falls zoo 2 days before his birthday. I had been telling him we would go for a little while since he liked the San Diego one so much. My parents came along with me and the kids. Jackson surprised me by getting out of the stroller at one of the first animals we saw and then walking for pretty much the rest of our several hour stay at the zoo. Unfortunately, one of his sandals gave him a blister towards the end of the trip. He really enjoyed seeing all the animals and especially liked following the free-roaming peacock around when we sat down for lunch. I forgot to take my camera and have not yet got the pictures that my mom took with hers, so no pictures to post of this outing.

On the day of his birthday, we had a BBQ and birthday party for all of our family members that were around and could come. Jackson knew just what to do with his presents this time around and he made quite the haul. I tried my luck at making a dragon cake, since he is really into dinosaurs and dragons right now. I was worried that it might not be very good, but I surprised myself with a quite a good looking dragon both inside and out! Jackson loved it - which made all the time spent on it worth it.

The dragon cake I made for Jackson's birthday

Aaron posing by the cake

Jackson blowing out his candles

Jackson with all his presents

Here are a few Things about Jackson at age 3:

1. He loves Dinosaurs - as mentioned above. He usually has to sleep with one of his plastic replicas each night. I have been telling him all the names of the different dinos and he is actually really good at pronouncing their names. For example, he can pronounce every syllable correctly of "Acrocanthosaurus" - which happens to be his favorite one.
2. He loves to read.
3. Things he has done for the first time this summer are: ride a jet ski, ride a 4-wheeler, go camping, and start pushing the peddles on this trike.
4. A few of his favorites:

• books - The Berenstain Bears and the Bad dream, Lama Lama Mad at Mama
  
• meals - couscous, rice, peanut butter sandwiches
• movies - Wall-E, Cars
• TV show - Elmo (Sesame) Street
• songs - Popcorn popping on the Apricot Tree, Incy Wincy Spider
• fruit - pears
• veggie - beans and broccoli
• treat - fruit snacks, granola bar
• toy - plastic dinosaur - Acrocanthosaurs

Here are Jackson's stats from his 3 year check-up:

• Weight - 36.6 lbs (90th percentile)
• Height - 40 in (95th percentile)
  

(yes - he is a big boy, I frequently get asked if he is about a year older than he is. Hard to believe he started out life as a preemie!)

Jackson is such a great kid to have around these days. He usually has something to say or to do that brings a smile or laugh to his parents. We are so glad he came into our lives 3 years ago!

Bath time

Both of my children LOVE their bath time - as I think most children their ages do.  Anyway - I had Aaron snap a few pictures of them in the tub together.  It is hard for me to get any most of the time because I am typically the one bathing them.

Abigail's 1st Birthday

Abigail had her first birthday on July 15th. Hard to believe my little girl is already 1 year old and won't be a baby for that much longer. Although, she just barely started doing the "army crawl" in the week after her birthday and she is on the small side, so she still seem like a baby to me. At her 12 month doctor's visit a little over a week after her birthday her stats were:

• weight: 17 lbs, 3 oz (5th percentile)
• height: 29 in (50th percentile)
  

I was surprised that she had gained less that a pound since her 9 month visit.

Abigail's 12 - month picture

A few things about Abigail at year old:

1. Her favorite thing: mom (the person and the food source - she is proving a little more difficult to ween than her brother)
2. She loves to eat! Even though she is tiny, the girl can eat. She especial like sweets (like ice cream) and demands that she gets some whenever we are having some.
3. Favorite toy - stacking cups and stacking balls.
4. She has the cutest little girly laugh and her daddy and brother can get her laughing the hardest.
5. She a very good little sleeper and has been sleeping through the night since about 4 months.
6. More often than not, she dislikes being put into her car seat and arches her back and screams until finally giving in.
7. She has never taken a pacifier. Instead she prefers to suck on her own tongue ( hey - works for mom and dad, at least she can't loose her tongue in the middle of the night).
8. At the time of her birthday, she had cut 5 teeth and loves to have them brushed.
9. She really likes to stand and frequently will refuse to sit when I need to leave her. So if I can't get her interested in something enough that she will sit, then I have to just lay her on her back, which she doesn't like.

On the day of her Birthday, we spent part of the day at the the Idaho Falls Aquatic center's outside wadding pool with Grandma Bendixsen. Abigail had fun there and ended up taking a nap in Grammy's arms, while her big brother played a while longer.

Abigail swimming in the wadding pool at grandma's feet.

I invited our family that was around and could come to a birthday party that evening. Of course, a 1-year-old doesn't get into present opening all that much, but she did enjoy her birthday cake very much. I made 2 identical "present" cakes, one for guests and a smaller version for Abigail to dig into herself. She ended up being very dainty with her cake. She just picked at the frosting with her index finger, until her uncle Nick and myself helped her brake into the cake part. Then she continued to mostly pick at small cake pieces with her thumb and index fingers. In the end, she did end up being pretty messy but it took her a while to get there and she didn't smear it all over in her hair like some 1-year-olds do.

The 2 "present " cakes.

Abigail trying to grab the candle.

Abigail at the end of eating her cake (she didn't eat all the red fruit-by-the-foot ribbons, some cousins gladly helped)

I took this picture a few days after her birthday when I had her birthday present from mom and dad assembled. She looked very pleased with herself to be sitting on her new horsey.

pictures with daddy

OK - so I have been slacking and have a lot of catching up to do on my blog. Here is the first of hopefully several posts. These pictures are from early to mid July.

Here is a picture of Abigail grinning on daddy's shoulders

We were hanging out with Aaron's brother, Nick, and his wife, Whitney, in her parent's back yard. Jackson got brave enough to take a ride on the jet ski with uncle Nick. He really liked it and talked about it for quite a while afterwords.

Jackson LOVES to read. In fact, he will go up to Aaron in the evenings after dinner and tell him, "daddy put your phone away and read to me." He won't stop until Aaron does read to him. He has even taken to bring books out to home and visiting teachers to have them read to him.

This night, Abigail was getting a kick out of putting a ball in and out of daddy's mouth. She has such a cute little girly laugh. It is so different from what Jackson's was at her age.