Happy Birthday Mom and the Fourth of July!

Hopefully more to come...

Sunny Days

Summer seems like it is finally here...as I say that I know its supposed to start raining again at anytime, but we have to take advantage of it when we can.

Life has been going good. We are still busy.

Gregg has his 27th Birthday yesterday. Unfortunately for him, it was also the day I had all four of my wisdom teeth removed. The top ones were already grown in, but the bottom ones were under my jaw bone, so I had to be but under to have them removed. It has actually not been as bad as I thought and Gregg has been amazing taking care of the house and the boys in the mean time. We celebrated his birthday Tuesday night, so we could actually go out to eat and have a party without me all drugged up from the surgery. We went to MacKenzie as usual and then came to our house for a homemade Ice Cream Chocolate Chip Cookie Pizza Cake. It was delicious (of course because I made it). But really it was cookie, ice cream, chocolate and carmel syrup and m&m's so how could it have good wrong. My hubby is getting old. He is in his "late" 20's now :)

Payton is growning up so much. Everyday I am shocked by the things he says. Right now everytime you show him anything neat, his response is "wow thats cool." Which is so funny to here him say. He is also into telling us his emotions "I am so happy, sad, scared, mad etc." He especially uses this as one of his stalling techniques for naptime. He has been very loving as usual and will ask to cuddle or sit on lap and says "I love you so much" a lot. His potty training has been still going well. He has only had one accident in the past month or so and even on our car trip when we made him wear a pullup, he didn't go in it and we only stopped every few hours. He is even waking up when he needs to go at night. He loves the warm weather and wants to spend his days roller skating, riding his powerwheel motorcycle, blowing bubbles, drawing with sidewalk chalk, working in the gravel with his trucks, playing any kind of sport and playing with his brother.

Kellen is getting so much bigger too. He is a speedy crawler and can stand up pulling up on anything. He can cruise all over the place and has been standing by himself a little bit too. He cut his first tooth a few days ago but it is still barely in. He prefers adult food over baby food, so now we give him steamed frozen veggies, chicken, rice, noodles, yogurt, fruit, cheese, cereal among many new things everyday. He hasn't been nursing well during the day because he gets so distracted, so we have been giving him some bottles during the day and he still nurses before bed and naps and in the morning. I would have liked to exclusively nurse him until around a year like Payton but I am happy his is still nursing some. He is still such a happy baby and watches and copies Payton with the adoration only a little brother can have. Payton tries to teach him stuff and always is asking if Kellen can do whatever he is doing with him. I love watching the two of them together.

I was downloading some more pictures but for some reason they didn't show up so I will try them again tomorrow if I get a chance. For now the first one is Payton on the roof top of the place Gregg's Aunt Sharon had her wedding.
This one is Kellen in the yard. I was trying out some of the stuff I learned in a photography class I am taking at the Nazerene Church. I love how it turned out and had it blown up for my dad's office for Father's Day along with a picture of Payton mowing the lawn.

Trip to Washington

We went to Chehalis, Washington this past weekend for Gregg's Aunt Sharon's wedding. It was a fun trip! The boys got to meet a lot of Gregg's family that they had never met, including their Great Grandparents, many Great aunts and uncles and a lot of little boys! They had a blast. I haven't loaded all of the pictures on to our laptop yet, but here is a picture of Payton and Great Grandpa Jones that I thought was too precious not to post!

Canon Rebel T2i

Here are some pictures with our new camera. Its a Canon Rebel T2i and it takes awesome pictures. I need to spend some time working with it to figure out all the cool things it can do. Enjoy!

Payton's Lawn Care - He has been working very hard the past few days because we finally have grass!

Silly brothers taking a bath Baby boy

Story time

Cheese

MAY!

Payton wanted in bed with Kellen the other morning

Our attempt at a family picture on the timer :)Once again I am way behind on the blog and have way too many pictures to post...but I guess that is better than having all the time and nothing to post. I remember when I was pregnant with Payton, and even when I had one and I could post long posts about all the new things that were going on and I tried to post once a week, but those days are gone for a few years because we have a better kind of busy.

This week we are finally putting the sod in the yard. We have been waiting and waiting for grass in our yard, but the process (along with the weather) proved to be more difficult then we accounted for (imagine that!) Then all we have left is putting up the play set and having the house painted! I can't wait for it to be finished.

Payton trying out his new birthday paints from GG and GrandpaOrganizing all of daddy's controllersThe boys have changed a lot in the past month. Payton I am happy to say is completely potty trained! We have only had one accident in a week and now I don't have to ask him all the time, he will just go on his own. This has been wonderful and we are using a lot less diapers :) He also has been talking like crazy. Now he can say pretty much anything and his sentences get longer and longer. He is particualarly excited about Kendra and Gavin moving to Whitefish. The other day I told him that Kendra got a teaching job here like Grandma and so they were moving here and would live in Grandma and Papa's house for a while and he so "No, Kendra live at our house" I asked where they would sleep and he said "Kendra sleep in Payton's bed." When I asked where he would sleep he said "with Kendra in my bed!" He loves his Auntie!

He isn't a big fan of getting his picture taken.
Feeding the ducks

I have been so proud of how he is growing up. He is so obedient and it is so easy to take him and Kellen shopping and out because he is such a good helper. The other day we were at the store and there were these little kids going crazy, taking things off the shelves and running all over and he said "Mom, I obeying. I just look!" It made my heart smile and I told him how happy that made me.

Kellen is starting to pull himself up on everything and is all over the place. He is the smiliest little guy you have ever seen. He has started "walking" when you hold his hands and tries to step when he is holding onto something. He is also learnin to clap. We are having so much fun going through it all a second time and remembering Payton doing it and seeing the similarities and differences. He is such a joy! He says mama and dada (sometimes at the right times!) and tries to say kitty. No one can make him happy and laugh like Payton can. WHAT?Kellen trying out Payton's raining boots we found at a garage sale

So big

We are still trying to figure out what color his eyes are going to be.

Kellen taking a ride in the new backpack. Now we have one for each of the boys and we can go on family hikes

Payton turn 2!

The past few weeks have been full of a lot of fun. Payton had his second birthday and he loved it. Since his friend Olivia's birthday in February, Payton has been talking about his birthday. When he woke up Friday morning, Kellen and I gave him his Elmo balloons and he said, "I love it!" I have no idea where he got that from but it made me laugh. A little later I asked him do you know how old you are? and he said "five" and held up five fingers. I said, "no, your two" to which he replied "no mom, I yellow!" hmm... I finally convinced him he was two.

On his birthday we went swimming in the morning before Gregg got home from work, then we went bowling and to Pizza with my family, Gregg's mom and Patti and Jerry.

The next day was his friend's birthday party. Everyone came over for a Pizza Party. We made little english muffin pizzas for dinner, I made an ice cream cookie pizza for dessert and we played pin the pepperoni on the pizza. It was a good time!

Now that Payton is two it seems like his vocabulary has gone through the roof. He can say pretty much anything. He is saying really long sentences now too. One of the cutest and most frusterating is the never ending "WHY." and one I would love to break him of its, "Mom, I want it right now!"

We have been taking the boys swimming a lot and he is starting to be able to keep his head above water without any life jacket. He loves jumping in and swimming under water. With his life jacket on he will swim all over the pool and wants everyone to watch him while he swims with his face in the water. Kellen has a tube he can sit in that has a mesh seat and he will float all over the pool as happy as can be. I will be sad when our two month membership to the pool is up but it is too expensive for us to continue it after the promotion. Hopefully it will be warm enough to start doing more outside soon.

Here is a nice day in the middle of a bunch of rainy ones. We had to try out our new b-day toys including the cool motorcycle powerwheel from Grandma and Papa.

Here is Payton opening his presents from G.G and Grandpa. He loved his Handy Manny Truck and swim stuff

Here are the boys just being cute brothers. Kellen is getting pretty good at army crawling around the house and will be crawling on his hands and knees in no time.

Easter and California and then some

Here is my little brother, Keaton and Triana before prom.

The last month has been crazier than most...which is saying a lot. The weekend of March 20th, we went and visited our friends, Mason and Lindsay, Tim and Ashely and their baby Aiden in Couer d'Alene. It was so fun to hang out with them and meet Aiden. He is a month older than Kellen and all the boys had fun together.

We got home Monday night and then on Wednesday, Payton Kellen and I, along with my parents and brothers flew to California. We met Kendra down there and it was so good to spend sometime with her. While we were there we stayed with my grandparents and my Oma and Papa. They all got to meet Kellen for the first time.

Unfortunately Payton woke up with a fever the last night we were there which continued for the next 6 days. A few days into it, he had blisters in his mouth and a few on his finger and he was diagnosed with Hand foot and mouth diease. It was a horrible virus. Most nights his temp would got up around 104. He hardly ate anything the whole time. Thle good news is once you have had it you can't get in again and Kellen didn't get it. He finally started feeling better the last few days and I am so happy about that.

Here are a few pictures from all the craziness.

We started feeding Kellen more different foods and he loves everything he has tried. He can roll and scoot all over the place. He can hold himself up on his hands and knees and is so strong.

Here is Payton on his Easter Egg hunt in Grandma and Papa's yard. He had a blast even though he was sick and wasn't really interested in eating the candy.

Our attempt at a family picture on the camera timer.

The boys in their Easter shirts.

Kellen at Mimi's with Oma and Papa.

The boys with GG and Grandpa.

Uncle Keaton and Payton playing at the playground.

Auntie Kendra and Kellen at the bowling alley. Kellen got so spoiled while we were gone it took him a few days at home to adjust to not being held and played with all the time.

Kellen, Payton and Aiden at the "cabin"