Vacation!

 What a treat it's been having Jimmy off school and taking a few days off work here and there.  We have been having a blast.  Love love summer...pretty much my favorite time of the year.  Our first adventure was camping, which was quite the dirty adventure.  The very first thing Logan does once on the ground...bee lines it for the fire pit and reaches in for a surprise.  We decide distraction is the best technique...so, you know those squeezy packets of baby food to aide in those without utensils and bibs.  We saw those in the store and thought this was indeed a clever idea.  What a better time to bring it out...  Logan loved the idea.  Initially it went really well...we got the tent halfway pitched and suddenly our son was rather quiet.  ALWAYS a bad sign.  The deed was already done...he discovered what a great tool it was to squirt across the tent and not only that, but let's include ALL over his shoes!  Ugh!!  Love camping...  Needless to say we did cut camping a little short.

Daddy consuming chocolate pudding off Logan's hand

He found it HILARIOUS

The next I hope posts well and it not a continuous obnoxious event while posted.  SO...of course I love the idea of burying my husband in the sand.  I thought Logan would love it too.  Come to find as we are burying his dad he suddenly looked at me with disbelief and was crying unconsolably.  His dad was losing his body it seemed to him.  Oh...it's so hard to describe his shock in his face that his own mom would do that to dad.  Of course, what a better time to pull out the camera.  The video is so short (thanks to drained batteries), but priceless.

Logan however is a fan of being buried...as
well as eating sand :)

It was beautiful weather at the beach, just eating it up!
When does this EVER happen in Oregon?!

Christina at her finest...stand in line boys!

Proof that we did have a big old beach BBQ with a wonderful crowd.

Which speaking of this BBQ who knew that bratwurst sausages are so amazing as hot dogs.  Never in my life have I had them until now, and honestly I wonder why I have not before.  Seriously think I'll be dreaming all year of those delicious hot dogs.  Makes my mouth water now...  good times.

Now, final super awesome story.  Work...well, to be honest I always have a story to share, but this one is worth sharing beyond this household.  My boss pulled me aside later in my shift, which always makes me a little nervous.  She stated that she had something to share with me that I would be entertained by and boy was I overjoyed.  To cut the story short, she relayed that there was a mistake in my pay.  When reviewing the raises for the year, she found my pay to be off.  Upon further investigation, it seems I was started out on LPN wages (licensed practical nurse aka less money), this led to her stating they are making it right.  PS. I am an RN (Registered Nurse) which typically means a couple more years of education.  Not only am I now getting the correct wage, but I am getting compensated for all the hours at work I have not made that appropriate amount.  Bottom line, we are getting a BIG FAT paycheck.  Woo HOO!!  Who does not love finding a secret savings account come to fruition.  SOOoo awesome.  We celebrated by purchasing furniture for our new home coming in around a month.  Pretty sure we're going to be counting our lucky tithing pennies.    Life is good!

Summer (birthdays, berry picking, swinging, bed time)

Wow, apparently if I take a million years to post something on here...a million picture accumulate to share.  Just a number of snapshots of our summer in Oregon!

at the duck pond...giving Jimmy homework time.

loving the bubble mustache and hair do!

Mmmm...brownie batter.

The windy beach

Never thought I'd like blueberries, but they are the easiest to pick.  No THORNS!!  Logan LOVES loves LOVES them.  He would help pick them as well putting all kinds in my bucket, eating unripe ones, not even phasing him.  It was quite the wild time!  We look good and tame at the beginning here...too bad we didn't take an after.  Had to strip that boy down!!

Yummy berry picking...mainly got TONS of blueberries.

29!!  He's officially in his "30th" year my mom has warn him, haha.  He has gotten to be rather old with a few more gray hairs popping out.  His greatest fear may be balding.  Got him some new biking shoes...which special in his size, means his 1 and only special present :)

coconut cake

Logan is learning he is a fan of birthdays

OUR BIG 1 YEAR OLD!!  How did we make it here??  It's been one crazy year and he has continued to be as wonderful as ever.  We love our little guy and can't imagine our world without him.  Our date nights we occasionally get just feel strange without our little man.  He means the world to us!!

Jimmy made this all by himself...scored and all ;)

and how to get a 1 year old to blow out a candle....

We practiced blowing bubbles, but that ended up always with eating the wand.  Jimmy had to hold this guys hands down.  He eventually just got his head so close a nice breeze from his breathe got that flame.

loving the balloons...

showing off his new toy that shoots out little balls.

quick!  take a picture in a white outfit.  love the outfit!
my grandparents got it straight from Thailand.

He loves bedtime with Daddy!

In fact, it's gotten to the point....no one but Jimmy can put him to sleep.  We get almost all the way there and suddenly as you think his eyes are closing...they POP open!!  "Dad"...."Dad!"..."dada".  UGH!  I often have to call Jimmy from homework to do the last 5-10 mins to get him to fall asleep.  He loves his daddy singing him to sleep.  No one can match this great man!!

the first time on the swing together!  We're both fans!!

Summer has been absolutely wonderful!  Our main project is getting our own separate space.  As I may have mentioned previously we are moving to the "shop".  It's a separate building that is getting entirely renovated with all the trimming of a regular apartment.  We will be there throughout Jimmy's schooling.  Life has been working out great here.  We are continually finding the best balance for our family, but bottom line is we are happy and would not change a thing!  Well...aside from magically making it so ALL our family lives closer :)  As for new things Logan has learned...he has learned how to smell the flowers.  SUPER cute!  He has learned spitting pureed food is naughty, but gets Mom to laugh.  It's really hard to stifle laughing at things you don't want your children to do.  He has started dancing to music.  Good times!!  Hope everyone else is having a great summer as well!!  Soon to come...summer vacation!  Hooray!!!

10 Months

Yup, pretty sure this is in fact my new favorite age.  He is SUPER cute.  He has learned his new tricks.  He's quite proficient at clapping at everything.  He's started pointing at everything he seems to find cool.  He attempts to say words like, "kitty"  "doggie"  "fishy".  He wants to eat EVERYTHING you are eating and he shares anything he is eating/half eaten.  He comes and gives you these wonderful hugs snuggling into your neck.  I think he is the most darling thing ever...then suddenly a big ole chomp is taken.  He has discovered his teeth and he has not quite understood everywhere is not appreciated to be bitten :)  He's quite charming and I am in love with this little man.

One of our early morning walks he clearly enjoys!

Haha...we're promoting sugar intake.
Life is always better with chocolate chip cookies!

We had a neat little mini-vacation to Silver Falls National Park and the Oregon Gardens.  It was super fun even for an overnight adventure.

The Hobbit door

Logan attempting to grab all the greenery.

LOVES water.

Our hike...

I will mention I thought this hike was 6.8 miles, turns out I was dislexic (sp?) it was 8.6 miles and was a killer.  Jimmy ended up doing that heavy lifting with the babe.  I forgot to pack a bottle and we knew it early on enough, but too late to turn around...meaning we were left booking it back in time to avoid a cranky child.  It all turned out well despite our absentmindedness :)

A fellow passerby offering to take a family photo.

The waterfalls are super neat because you get to see them at EVERY angle...amazing!  So...if you look close you can see the people able to hike behind the waterfall and obviously we are in front, but you come out initially from on top of it.  I forgot how amazing this hike was.   Love mini vacations!!

On of the waterfalls.

Proof that this little guy is crawling.

Yup...baby proofed the house and learning quickly what is not baby proofed, but needs to be.  Had our first call into Poison Control.  This little guy was at my feet while putting make up on.  The next moment I look down he managed to grab a can of powdered Comet and tilting it back as though he was chugging it.  When I took it away he of course cried and then proceeded to lick his lips like it was the best stuff ever.  He faired just fine...amazing babies make it out alive really.  They seem to be a magnet for anything that in a room that would be the worst thing for them to get into.  It gets us learning that part of our parenting role QUICKLY.

Mud Masks and Crawling

We've been LOVING the nice weather outside.  We get to be outside an lot and have no complaints about that.  Life is good!  Enjoy the pics.

Me with a mud mask, kinda creepy...

Whitney with a mud mask, looks kinda like a zombie

Logan and I reading books

Splashing in the water

One of Logan's classic faces

Loving the new pool

Bath time

Eating grass

Utah & Easter

Here are all our fun photos from our trip to Grandpa & Grandma's.  It was a super quick trip, but absolutely fun.  It was so fun to see the grandparents.  Grandpa Chris taught Logan how to high 5, now he does it all the time.  

Side note:  it's funny hitting this age, it seems you treat your child in a sense like a dog.  You teach them a trick (such as high 5-ing) and you get all excited when they remotely do it right (much like giving a treat).  Now it has progressed to working on patty-cake and waving.  We love our little dog...uh, I mean child :)

Taking a bath with Grandma

Getting ready to figure out what chickens are

Do you recognize where we are at?

Yup, if you couldn't figure out that lovely carpet...the airport.  It sometimes seems you've spent so much time staring at that ground at times the memory could never leave your mind :)  He was an absolute joy (wink, wink) hence the hanging upside down.  Anything to peak interest to keep his mouth from jabbering on about everything new around him surely.  Honestly though, we could not have asked for a better plane trip baby.  He was perfect.  Although our trip home the guy sitting next to us had two mini bottles of Gin...so maybe not that perfect.

Ahh...meeting Naomi again

They last saw each other when Logan was 2 weeks old.  Logan new something exciting was happening, but I don't think he knew quite what.  Naomi seemed quite skeptical of him and all Logan would do is smile away at her.  Scared the poor thing :)

and a big reason we went to Utah

How lucky was I to be able to see this wonderful lady get married.  It was priceless.  She was beautiful, the weather was gorgeous.  It could not have been a better day!

soaking in this wonderful weather, tongue and all

the long awaited intro to Aunt Janae...they're friends :)

And Easter weekend....

We dug out the bike trailer...he looks like he's done this forever!

This was a first for us, biking all together.  I have yet to try out a road bike until this moment.  It felt like a mini vacation.  It was just so wonderful outside with the beautiful weather.  Logan was soaking in every moment and life was just perfect in that moment.  We have the best cutest perfect little family and have no desire to change a moment together.  If only we were never required to work and could just have constant vacation time together :)  Life is good!

Coloring Easter Eggs together

A rare family photo, compliments of my mom

Taking Pictures

No one tells you how hard it is to take pictures of a baby until you are trying to get pictures of your own.  I kept seeing all these darling photos of others children and thought I definitely wanted some of my own.  SO...I went to etsy and bought this cute lion outfit and could not wait to bring out the camera and have my husband help in the process.  What a process it was...

Jimmy had to take the back drop (the sheet from out bed and hold it up high in the background.  Then magically I was in charge of getting the said cute picture.  You focus on one concept then you lose another.

A good start

Look!  He held still...and he clearly is thinking about smiling.  I was so proud and knew this was going to go real good.

Haha and downhill we go

He got the smile, but apparently smiling does not mean he's going to be still enough for our camera to get the shot.  Then the background got messed up with all that moving.  It COULD have been real cute :)  I just needed all the planets to align.

Yup, and eating the tail.

Creeping up to grab that camera to eat it.

Needless to say after this photo shoot I went straight to the internet and scheduled him for a photo shoot with JCPenney.  We did it this past Friday and it was worth every penny.  He could not get him to smile like we could, but hey I am not upset we are his parents after all.  Who wouldn't laugh at our goofy faces?  I guess from now on I know to leave the photo shoots to my dad or those paid to do it.