Okay... I know I have been the world's worst blogger this month. My parents just left this past Sunday and we had such a nice time visiting and being together that I didn't want to waste time being on the computer. So now I'll take a post to play catch up with all that we've been doing this month. Is anyone else in shock that 2011 is already half over??
Independence Day...
Phil did some flyovers in the morning, so my mom and I took the boys outside and let them ride bikes, play with the hose, and eat popsicles.
I kept cutting off my mom's head because I was looking at Reid to get him to smile.
Our small-town 4th of July parade, which is usually held in the morning, got moved to 5 P.M. this year and we had every intention of going. But as we were leaving Phil realized that he had left his wallet on the front of the minivan and my mom had driven the minivan to her parents' house that afternoon. We drove back to her parents' house and searched for it on the way, which put us really close to the start of the parade, so we decided to skip it. My uncles (who were staying at my grandparents' house) drove back towards our house and got out of the car to look for Phil's wallet, and lo and behold... they miraculously found it on the side of the road! What a relief!! We were so grateful to them. Instead of the parade, Phil and I and my mom and the boys went to Fred Meyer and bought Jackson's birthday gift (which sweet Phil spent the rest of the evening putting together) and then came home, grilled out, put the boys to bed, and my mom and I shared a bottle of wine. :) No fireworks or anything this year for us, but a fun day nonetheless.
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**Oh, and just for posterity's sake I have to mention that we spent one night camping at Shasta Lake again on July 3rd (and I have NO pictures of the entire trip!). We camped on a friend's property and spent the whole day out on the lake. We had another wonderful, fun day with our friends and the boys had a blast playing on this huge floating island-raft thingy that our friends had. My mom had offered to stay home in KF with Reid for the night, and I was so very grateful to have a little break from him! (sorry, Reid... I love you!) Unfortunately for me, I ended up with a very painful chest from not nursing all day (which just got worse and worse until I finally got home and was able to nurse again), and we had to deal with Emmett having a night terror at 1 A.M. Ugh. Luckily for my mom, Reid was an angel and ended up sleeping from 8 P.M. until 5:30 A.M.!!! I found that whole situation very unfair! :)
Jackson's Birthday...
He celebrated on his actual day by going out to McDonald's for breakfast with Grandy (that boy loves his McD breakfast... he always eats a burrito, sausage biscuit, and hash brown) and to Fred Meyer to pick out his very own Razor scooter. Then that evening Phil and I took him to see Cars 2 in the theater. We shared popcorn and he seemed to like the movie, but got a little bored during the slower parts. He even said at one point, "Mom... I need to go home and ride my scooter!" He did get to ride his scooter for a little bit when we got home and then we sang "Happy Birthday" and had cake. I'd say it was a pretty good day for a newly-minted 4-year-old boy!
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Oh, and I almost forgot about the part where he woke up from his nap and we showed him his present that Dad had spent all of July 4th evening and part of the next day putting together... a trampoline! J was a little shy about it at first... he didn't want to jump much and kept asking where Emmett was. He wanted to share the fun with E, but E was still sleeping. The shyness has worn off for sure by now! He and E go out there at least twice a day and have a ball jumping together.
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More Camping...
The next weekend we went with a group of people from our squadron and camped closer to home up in the mountains. It was so nice and cool and the area was just gorgeous. Our campground was right on the shore of a lake amongst these huge evergreen trees. Jackson even got to go fishing with Phil, which he has been asking to do for forever. They caught about five fish and J was thrilled! Again, no pictures of the fish from me, but our friends did take a few. I drove over to Medford with Reid on Saturday to do some shopping and pick up my dad from the airport. Dad spent that evening camping with us and got to enjoy some early-morning hiking and Phil's gourmet breakfast the next morning. Yum!
This is our friends' super sweet daughter, Avery. She loves the boys and always plays so nicely with them whenever we are camping together. Jackson and Emmett just adore her!
Reid...
In the almost 4 weeks that my mom was here, Reid learned how to roll to both sides, pick up and pull things (even tiny things) to his mouth and chew on them, jump in his jumperoo, suck on an icecube (in that mesh thing-y... it is wonderful to be able to give him things to entertain him), blow little raspberries, and he is
almost crawling. Yes, crawling. He pulls his knees up and uses them to push forward to get something he wants. It really is unbelievable how quickly and how much he's changed. The only thing that hasn't changed much is his night sleep! He's getting close, though. The past three nights he's gone from around 10 P.M. until 5:30 A.M. without eating. He still wakes up sometimes, but is able to put himself back to sleep. He's a stubborn little bugger about sleep... he loves seeing Mommy in the middle of the night (or maybe it's just having some warm milk or formula). Here are some pictures of my sweet baby boy...
He loves to grab his feet! He was sitting in the swing like this the other day with his legs completely spread. It was funny!
This picture was taken around dinner time the other afternoon. R was laying on the floor playing with toys and when my mom checked on him after a few minutes he was on his side like this sucking his fingers and totally asleep! I love how his hand is over his eyes like he just can't take it anymore. :)
He woke up for a second while we were taking pictures, but then went back to sleep!
I love this series of pictures of Reid and Phil...
Reid is just the absolute sweetest baby. He smiles and laughs all the time and is just so patient and good. I could just eat him up!
This next thing happened while I was in Medford taking my parents to the airport. Phil had put Reid in the jumperoo and obviously left him there a little too long! R decided to take matters into his own hands. :) All of these "sleeping wherever" pictures just kill Phil and me because neither J nor E would sleep anywhere but their cribs for so long!
I had put Reid on the floor the other day with a baby ball toy to play with and when I looked over a few seconds later he had "crawled" over to a Nerf gun and was playing with that! You can see the abandoned baby toy off to the side...
He must know he's got two older brothers to keep up with. Gotta learn how to use this gun ASAP!
I've had this sweet white outfit since Jackson and finally took the tags off so that Reid could wear it. Oh, he looked so precious in it! I just had to take these pictures...
Then I took him out to the family room and laid him on the floor to play. I came back a few minutes later and, of course!, saw this:
Ugh. It never, ever fails to happen when he has anything white on! :)
I will try hard to be better about keeping up with the blog this month!
