Raising Jonathan

Treat

2011-08-23T17:11:00.000-07:00

I told Jonathan if he finished his lunch he could have a treat (Nathan and I made brownies last night). He said, "A popsicle?" And I said, "No, it's better than a popsicle... what IS better than a popsicle?" And he put up two fingers and said, "Two popsicles!"

Glasses

2011-08-18T15:03:00.000-07:00

First of all, wow. Last post was almost a year ago? Yikes. Well, skipping ahead to now! :)

For the past few years, I have been getting migraines. They just kept getting worse and worse, and I had NO idea what was causing them. I tracked my migraines, I tracked what I ate- everything was random! It made no sense. So finally I noticed that my eyesight just wasn't as good as it used to be (I used to be very proud that I had very good eyesight!). So I finally made an appointment a few weeks ago, and got an exam. Turns out, my eyesight was a lot WORSE than I thought! (Although still not as bad as it could have been.) And I have an astigmatism in one eye, which made my eyes work extra hard at getting me to see. The Dr. even asked me if I had been getting migraines or headaches, and wasn't surprised at all when I told her that I'd been getting some pretty bad ones. She said that once my eyes were adjusted to the glasses, I shouldn't have any more problems with migraines! Yay! :) So Rachel helped me pick some glasses out, and I just got them 2 days ago. It's awfully weird having to wear glasses all the time- so not used to it yet! My depth perception is a little off (It was way off the first day, so I'm glad it's getting better!) but I can tell my eyes are already adjusting to my glasses because when I take them off, EVERYTHING is blurry, and I can really see just how hard my eyes had to work to try and get me to see normally! Everything is oh so clear now! I just have to get used to wearing them :)

Jonathan is growing up fast- he's 3 1/2 yrs old ALREADY! He looks nothing like a baby anymore, and that's a little bit sad for me, but I love this stage he's in! These days, he's all about superheroes! He LOVES them! He loves the old superman movies (w/ Christopher Reeves), the old batman movie and tv show (which are hilariously lame, but I love them too!). His grandma Kathy bought him a superman and a batman shirt, and he never wants to take them off, and can't wait until laundry day when he can wear them again! My mom and aunt made him a little superman cape that he wears a lot, and he'll talk like superman- it is SO STINKIN' CUTE!

Jonathan has always been a very social boy, but lately he's going through a phase where he HAS to be with his Mama. Very clingy. The only places where he isn't clingy is at home, or at church. He'll go all over the church and play with his friends, but other times he may still be social, but he'll freak out if I'm not with him (such as if my mom is watching him or if my dad takes him on a 4-wheeler ride; he loves 4-wheeler rides, but he just can't stand that I'm not with him.) Hopefully soon he'll leave that stage and be okay with being around other people (without me!), but only for short periods (Ha!), because when I have to be somewhere I sure miss my little guy! :)

Update

2010-09-29T04:03:00.000-07:00

Ohh for the past week, I have been sick. Really sick. (I wish that was a good excuse for me not keeping up with my blog! haha....) Jonathan and I both got sick with colds, but luckily he was better in a couple days. However, its taking me a little bit longer to recover! I actually don't know how he got by without being as sick as I am, but I am glad for it.

Nathan got a part-time job at Western Oregon University, so he is attending school there as well. He just started on Monday. He is in his junior year, and I cannot wait for him to be done!

Jonathan woke up a couple days ago, completely grown out of his 2T clothes. It was amazing. Just overnight it seemed like his clothes shrunk! He is growing fast, and in his 3T clothes, he looks like such a big boy. I'm a little sad about it, but I love seeing him grow and learn about everything around him. Right now he LOVES dinosaurs and Dr. Suess books. His two favorite tv shows go along the same lines too. Dinosaur Train and The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That are ones he wants to watch everyday. And I let him watch those- He has learned a lot about dinosaurs just from watching Dinosaur Train. He can identify the Brachiosaurus, Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Spinosaurus, Stegosaurus, knows what herbivores and carnivores are, and can tell me which ones are herbivores. What a smart kid I have! ;)

Anyways, I am done with my update, and need to go back to bed. Being sick has made me not able to sleep much, hopefully I stop all this coughing soon!

What a GREAT Shopping Trip!

2010-07-29T16:38:00.000-07:00

I was so excited to go shopping today. Why? Because I got quite a few things for CHEAP/FREE! Last week, Rachel and I got rainchecks for kraft shredded cheese, because all the Fred Meyers were out. Theres a catalina that goes with it so I ended up paying a total of $1.50 for 15 bags of shredded cheese! (I know, I know, that sounds like a lot. But with the amount of cheese our family uses, and the cheap price-and knowing I can freeze shredded cheese- its a great price. Here's the scenario:

Buy 5 Kraft shredded cheese, 1.50 each
use (2) $1/2 cheese coupons
Pay 5.50
get a $5 dollar catalina
Roll the catalina to the next transaction, and pay $0.50 for the next 5 cheeses
After transactions, end up with a $5 catalina to spend on your next shopping trip!

I saved 56.85 with this deal.
For those of you wanting to save money on kraft items thru the middle of August, here is the Catalina information:
Buy 5 participating Kraft Items, between 7/19 – 8/15 and receive $5 on your next order

Kraft Singles
Kraft Parmesan cheese
Kraft Natural cheese
Kraft String-Ums cheese
Kraft Cracker Cuts cheese
Kraft Deli-Deluxe cheese slices
Philadelphia Cream cheese
Velveeta cheese product
Cracker Barrel Cheese
Cheez Whiz processed cheese
Breakstone’s sour cream
Breakstone’s cottage cheese
Knudsen Sour Cream
Knudsen Cottage Cheese

Target is also having a 75% clearance on their toys, so I got 7 items (for Christmas gifts, various kids birthday presents...) for 16.94. I saved 77.98! And a couple of the toys I bought were ones I had already been looking for, for Jonathans birthday or Christmas present. So that part of my Christmas shopping is done, too bad he's the easiest one to shop for ;)

Update!

2010-07-29T16:13:00.000-07:00

Once again, time gets away from me... at least its only 2 months this time! Anyways, thought I'd fill you in on whats been going on.

Jonathan has been in his big boy bed for a little over a month now! He hasn't had any problems with it, or been upset when switching; He was definitely ready. The only problem I have with it is that he likes to get up early, come in our room on my side of the bed and say, "Wake up!" and "Downstairs!" Luckily, he usually has no problem with me taking him back to his bed for a little bit more sleep. Because "Mama" needs more sleep lol.

Jonathan has been on a growing spurt these last couple of months. He is now 36 inches tall! :) He's getting so big; he's definitely not a baby anymore!

I am just about to start potty training him. Not sure how thats going to work, but he's interested. I wish I knew more about how to go about it so that it goes quickly (although I've heard with boys its a LONG process....). Anyways, he'll be starting in just a few days I think.

Nathan has been going to school this summer at OSU. He only has a couple weeks left, then he gets a month and a half long break! I'm excited about him not having to worry about homework or quizzes or midterms or finals for a little bit. I think we are going to try to go camping in LaPine during it. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll be making it to Boise. I wish we could go, but the longest amount we could go for is 3 days, and thats not long enough when you count travel time. When Nathans done with school, we should be able to get to Boise AND Ohio for a bit. That will be nice.

As for todays events, I will cover them in a new post. But I had an awesome shopping trip today :)

On another note, I think there are a few mosquitoes that had quite a lunch today, at my expense. And apparently they prefer right arms to left arms... Just an observation... (Scratch scratch scratch...)

Clean room

2010-05-28T13:28:00.000-07:00

Ok, so you would never know Jonathan liked a clean room if you looked in the living room, there are toys ALL over the floor. But, he HAS to have his bedroom clean (which is fine with me, I hope he keeps it up!). Before he can go to bed, all the small toys have to be put in his bucket, and the others put in the right spot. He did that today a little before naptime. But he missed one (a stuffed bunny). I had already put him in bed and was saying goodnight and shutting the door before I saw it. So I decided to leave it, and hoped he would go to sleep and not notice it. Nope... I went downstairs and soon heard over the baby monitor, "Put it away! Put it away!" So I went back upstairs, opened the door, and he points to the bunny and says, "Put away?" I said, "You wanted me to come all the way back here to put away your bunny??" And he smiled, and said, "Yes!" So I put it away for him and he laid back down, and is sleeping as I write this. What a funny kid :)

Experiment

2010-04-30T22:25:00.000-07:00

Today is day 8 of my silly little experiment- and so far it seems to be working! The past 6 nights when I put Jonathan to bed, I've been telling Jonathan he can sleep in if he wants to. (Obviously it's more for my benefit than his!) And he slept in each day till at least 8 am! (This is a boy who LOVES to wake up at 6-7 am.) Last night was day 7, and I forgot about my experiment. I had Nathan take him up to bed, so he wasn't told he could sleep in. And he didn't. So, I told him tonight he could sleep in tomorrow. I am hoping he does, because I love to sleep in, and those days (besides this last week) have been very few and far between! :)

(And I know this is a silly thing to track... but I am SOOO not a morning person, so anything helps!)

Couponing

2010-04-02T23:15:00.000-07:00

So I have been very serious about couponing since the middle of February. I can't believe I haven't done it earlier! (Well besides the fact that I didn't know how, till I read a few blogs.) I have been able to save a LOAD of money in just the month and a half I've been doing it. From what I've learned, its all about "stockpiling" the stuff you know you will need and have to buy anyways, but doing it when there are sales, coupons and/or catalinas available to save the most amount of money.

A few weeks ago, I bought enough cereal for my family to last awhile (months!), and bought some for my sister, brother and parents too! I think the total I ended up buying was 70 boxes, and got them all for $4 (cost of buying coupons on ebay) -.05 cents. How did I do that you ask? I used A LOT of coupons, combined with doubles (at Albertsons), and a catalina to boot! I spent 3.95 for the first transaction (5 boxes of cereal per transaction), then got a $4 catalina back, which I just kept rolling till I got the amount of cereal I wanted, and ended up with a $4 catalina back to spend on something else I needed (hence the -.05 I wrote earlier. I ended up with .05 cents more than I spent!)

Another sale I just did was at walgreens. I would never ever buy dove products without coupons or a sale- the brand is just too expensive. But this last week the store had a GREAT sale. Buy shampoo or conditioner for $4, then get $4 back to spend on your next shopping trip! So basically the shampoo/conditioner is free! Plus, if you have coupons and use them, your spending less out of pocket! (I paid $2-2.75 for the shampoo and conditioner I got, and received $4 back on each. The only difficulty with the sale is that you have to have the ability/time/patience to do a bunch of transactions. After I realized how much I'm saving, I definitely have the patience to get back in line for more transactions! Oh and the body wash was 2/$12 and when you spend 12 dollars you get $4 back, so with coupons it makes for a great deal. I'll write down all that I bought at Walgreens, and you tell me if it was a great deal or not! (I don't think I bought one item without a coupon!)
2 dove shampoos
2 dove conditioners
4 dove body wash
1 deodorant
24 pack of bottled water
After all coupons and adding back the catalinas that I received I spent a total of: $2.83. For all of it!

So now I will stop bragging (haha) and just let you know, from time to time I will mention a few things I saved on, and I hope I can show you how easy it is to save money, especially where you might not think you can! (Geesh I sure sound like I'm selling something huh?) Anyways, now its getting late, and I need to sleep! Tomorrow Jonathan and I are going to a birthday party for a friend of ours (Isaac, he's turning 2!). Today Jonathan and I bought him some hot wheel cars, Jonathan picked them out. But even though I explained (over and over!) that these were for another boy, he still bawled when I started wrapping them tonight. I am sure that Jonathan will be glad to "help" his little friend play with the cars at the party! Ok, now I'm really stopping. And hoping to get to bed before midnight for once! :)

Stairs

2010-03-29T20:46:00.000-07:00

Today I found out just how well Jonathan could walk up the stairs. Usually when we go upstairs, he holds the banister, and I walk behind him just in case he falls. Today he had his play phone, and he was holding it with both hands. I thought he'd let go with one hand to grab the banister, but he didn't. He just started walking up those stairs, not holding on to anything! And he climbed the stairs the whole way like that. Its just crazy how big he's getting, and see all the things he's able to do now!

Rachel came and got him this morning and hung out with him in Salem for a bit. I came in later to pick him up. I don't know why I haven't gotten Rachel to do this earlier! It was so nice actually having a bit of daytime to myself for once! He had fun too; she took him to get hot chocolate, then to the park/carousel, walked around for a bit and shopped. I think it was good for Rachel too, sometimes when I'm around he just wants me, but without me there she had a lot more quality time with him.

Whoa!

2010-03-16T21:31:00.001-07:00

So.... I lied, apparently I didn't keep this updated... I can't believe the last post was dated last October! But, instead of boring you with 5 months worth of old news, I will just update you quickly.

Jonathan turned 2 years old in December, and he is talking A LOT! It is so fun to just watch him. He gets excited about the littlest things, and a lot of the time he is the happiest kid I have ever seen! He absolutely loves going to the beach, always wants to go see his "papas" and "Chull". He's nervous around Matt, but he's fine as long as he can keep an eye on him! I'm sure by the time harvest comes around, Jonathan will want to be on that combine riding with him. :) He also really loves church. He's bonded with quite a few people there and is always excited to go see them.

He is learning a lot about where he lives, and about different animals too. I got him some flash cards with wild animals on them; we go thru them and he can tell me what a bunch of them are. One of his favorite animals is the manatee, don't ask me why! But he also knows bobcat, snake, mouse (actually kangaroo rat, but I'm letting that slide lol), deer, skunk, wolf, otter, chipmunk, whale, alligator, beaver, bear, blue marlin, and cougar! (And those are just from the flashcards, there are many other animals that he knows that aren't included in the flashcards!) I go through a lot of things with Jonathan and I think its just amazing how much he learns, and just how much it sinks in so that he remembers it. He is such a smart kid! Not to brag or anything ;)

Jonathan got his hair cut about 2 weeks ago; it was getting so long and unmanageable lol. But I took him to the barber, and told him not to give him a buzz cut, and guess what he got? A buzz cut! I was not very happy, but his hair will grow out, which I'm waiting for haha... then we'll just go somewhere else... or I'll try my hand at cutting it!

Ok, I will TRY(!!!) to keep this updated more often! :) The picture below is not the most current one, it was taken in early January when we went to the beach with Kathy (Nathans mom). It is however the most current one on my computer!

The almost perfect fall day :)

2009-10-20T17:26:00.000-07:00

Today was a great day (minus one thing). It was a perfect fall morning, a little foggy, a little chilly, but not too cold. Jonathan and I met up with our friends Elizabeth and her son Isaac and went to the pumpkin patch. They had so much fun! They were able to go on a hayride, pick out a pumpkin, go to the apple orchard and pick out an apple, go through the corn maze and play on a bunch of stacked hay bales. After that we went over to the little petting zoo, Jonathan petted a sheep, and Isaac got liked by a baby cow. Jonathan danced in front of the cage of chickens, saying chicken, chicken, chicken! And Isaac laughed at the pigs snorting around. :) Then, after washing hands, we all went over and received a cider doughnut and some apple cider. They were both SO yummy!!!! If you haven't been to EZ Orchards, go! I will need to go back I think, they have a market too where you can buy what they make. Its great. Jonathan and Isaac really loved their food too. After that we went home, all the way looking at all the colored leaves falling alongside the road. What a great fall day! Then in the afternoon, my mom asked if we wanted to go with her into Dallas. So we went and ran a few errands, and then went and got some ice cream. Jonathan ABSOLUTELY LOVES CHOCOLATE! And I'm saying that in all caps, because it was very VERY evident lol. After each bite, he'd close his eyes, smile, then dance around in his seat before he'd say, "More!" And you could tell exactly when the sugar hit his system. :) He ran around Dairy Queen for awhile laughing, and then we went to the park and let him run there, and play on his favorite piece of playground equipment, the slide. He had so much fun today!!!!-IF it hadn't been for one incident. I still feel sick about it. He dirtied his diaper, so I was changing it in the car, when I was done, I let him out (there was no one around at all) and he went over and looked in the drivers window where my mom was sitting. I was cleaning everything up, wasn't paying attention and closed the door, not realizing his fingers were where the hinges of the car door was. So I smashed his fingers! Luckily my mom was there, because I think I would have absolutely freaked out. But she said his fingers would be okay. So we went to Rite-Aid to get one of those cold packs that you break and can use immediately. Except they didn't have any of those. But the pharmacist was SO nice and gave me a cold pack from their freezer free of charge. (By the way, where can you get those ice packs I was looking for? Anyone know?) Now he's napping, and I'm hoping that when he wakes up he'll forget about what happened to his fingers and we can have a perfect evening to this almost perfect day :)

Still here!

2009-09-27T22:36:00.000-07:00

Wow, its been a long time since I've blogged. :) Too long! And I'm not going to write much here, except to tell you that Jonathan has been growing and VERY active, laughing and learning lots! He is growing up so fast!

I will soon be able to write more, now that Nathan will be going back to school (starting tomorrow) and I will have the computer back ;)

Also. If anyone has tips on what things are fun to do with a two year old (more places to go than things to do at home) let me know! Now that he's getting older, I want to try to get more of a project/event schedule together for him. Hopefully you understand what I'm getting at. Anyways, thanks for reading my blog, I will definitely be continuing it!

Mud Puddles...

2009-06-05T16:51:00.001-07:00

Today we were all outside, enjoying a little of the cooler (and wet) weather. I was helping my sister load up her car, so Nathan decided to walk out to the shop with my dad and Jonathan. After a few minutes of helping my sister, I look out towards the shop and see Jonathan by himself standing right in front of the shop, facing it. I assume that Nathan and my dad are inside, so I think nothing of Jonathan being by himself. And then I see him start to stomp. And I was wondering, why is he stomping like that? And its a little too far away to really see what he's doing. So I decided to walk over there. And then I saw... a little boy, playing in a mud puddle, stomping around and LOVING it. I was a little irritated, because I had put his "going to town" shoes on him... which are now his "outside play" shoes. :) But it was really funny to watch. His pants, at least halfway up him were covered with mud and water. His jacket was splattered and so was his face a little. And you really can't tell what color his shoes started out to be! Here is a pic of Jonathan my sister took after he played in the mud puddle. And holding one of his favorite toys in the world. A spray bottle lol.

To sleep or not to sleep...

2009-05-25T07:38:00.001-07:00

The other day, we went out to eat at Wallerys Pizza in Salem with my parents. Jonathan LOVES going there because there are so many people to see. We were sitting there, and a waitress was cleaning up a nearby table. Jonathan noticed her and immediately tried getting her attention. He'll practically do anything to get the attention of a waitress. :) So he's sitting there staring at her, making loud noises and laughing to get her attention. And then when she'd look at him and smile he'd turn away suddenly and laugh hilariously. Then after a few seconds, he'd look back and get her attention all over again. He would do that again and again, it was REALLY cute!

The things that Jonathan says...

2009-04-30T17:00:00.000-07:00

I thought I would write down the words that Jonathan can say now. The list is slowly getting longer and longer :)

Mama or Mom
Dada
hat
Orange (orag)
kitty
banana (nananana...etc lol)
Hi (his new pickup line for waitresses, cashiers... lol)
outside (side! side!)
home
woof
hot (when I tell him something is hot, he'll say it back to me, but he'll whisper it lol)
eye (as he pokes me in the eye lol)
ball
peas (peesh)
shoe
juice (jui, sounds like jew)

I probably forgot a few lol. Its interesting that he can say only these words so far, but he understands probably everything that we say to him. Its actually amazing to me! He will go to the refrigerator if he wants his milk, but if its in the living room already I'll say to him, "Your milk is in the living room," and he will run in there and find it. I'll tell him "lets go upstairs," and he knows exactly where to go. I dare not say the words, "out" or "outside" unless I'm actually taking him outside because he LOVES to go outside! If I say, "say hi to ______," he will wave (eventually lol). And when we are outside, and I tell him, "Grandma and Grandpas house," he will take off across the driveway to see them. :) We went to a sandwich place today and they had a train that travels around the room. I showed him the train and told him what it was once. After that, all I had to say was "train" and he would look for it right away.

I love seeing him learn so much and grow from being a helpless baby to a very (VERY) energetic little boy!

23 billion things that have happened in the past couple of months...

2009-04-17T21:04:00.001-07:00

I think I need a accountability partner for blogging. Lately I have been so busy, that I just don't think about blogging. And SO many things are happening lately that I would have wanted to share!

For the past 3 weeks, my mother in law (Kathy) visited us. It was really great to see her, although it took a little bit of time for Jonathan to warm up to her. One whole week of her visit was taken up by Jonathan being sick. Ohhh, what a horrible week that was! The first Sunday she was here, we were gathered around the kitchen table playing a game. Sharlee will be jealous when I say we were playing Skipbo... :) Anyways, Jonathan was sitting on my lap and I was sitting a little away from the table; all of a sudden, Jonathan leaned forward really fast (he is always wriggling and "dancing" in my arms so I should have been prepared) and he hits his head HARD on the edge of the table. Immediately he gets a huge goose-egg on his forehead, starts crying A LOT, and I just feel horrible! We tried putting ice on the bump, well as much as we could with a 15 month old not wanting it on his forehead. It looked so awful that I called the pediatrician. He's had little bumps and falls before, but nothing as bad as this. According to the pediatrician Jonathan was fine, as long as he didn't throw up more than once, and was acting normal (which he was by that time). He did throw up in the middle of that next night, so we were watching to make sure he didn't throw up again. Monday he was cranky, and Tuesday he started acting pretty listless; he's a VERY active little boy and normally is running around, playing with his toys. But on Tuesday all he wanted to do was sit on our laps, or lay on the floor, and started taking longer naps. I was SO worried that he was acting like this because of the bump he had two days before, so I called the pediatrician again. The nurse thought he was coming down with something, but asked if I wanted him checked out anyways. I thought it was a good idea, so we took him in to see the dr. The dr. made me feel so much better about the bump on his forehead, and said he was most likely coming down with some sort of virus. Sure enough, that evening he seemed really hot, I took his temperature and it was 102.8! It was very high considering he's never had a temperature over 100, and has only been sick once with a cold. Luckily the fever went down with Tylenol, and over the next day or so it went up and down, and Jonathan slept a lot, he threw up again (luckily I wasn't at home for that, I was in town getting pedialyte for Jonathan- If I was there I probably would have been throwing up too!), and he had diarrhea. Poor baby! After a couple days he seemed a lot better, and then I noticed he was getting a rash that spread over his entire body! I was thinking, "Oh my goodness, what next?!?!?!" lol. I called the Pediatrician again, and they assured me it was just the last of the virus and it was nothing to be worried about. I didn't know that kids can get rashes when they are sick with a virus. Luckily he was over it by the end of the weekend, because there were some really nice days coming up and we wanted to take Kathy to the beach and to Mo's! :) By that time, Jonathan was back to his normal happy self- which was nice! We all had so much fun going to the outlet stores, eating at Mo's, and walking on the beach!

At Mo's!

Me and Jonathan

Kathy, Nathan's mom

Jonathan and his first time walking on the beach :)

Jonathan, me and Kathy

Jonathan and Nathan

My mom and I also took Kathy to the capitol in Salem, to see all the cherry trees blossoming. It was very pretty. But we also spent a lot of time playing games, just visiting, and, well, eating. lol :) Oh, and we went to the carousel at the park, and Jonathan rode on it!

Kathy and Jonathan having fun on the way into Salem.

Jonathan and Kathy under a cherry tree...

My mom and Jonathan

Cherry trees at the capitol...

Jonathan...

The capitol

Jonathan on a carousel horse!

What a CUTE boy!

Jonathan giving his grandma a kiss!

Easter was a lot of fun too. We went to our church Easter breakfast and service. After that my mom had made Easter dinner and we ate over at her place. I had dyed eggs for Jonathan to find, and he went on an easter egg hunt (indoor, since it was raining). He almost got the idea of what to do. He wanted to hold all of the eggs in his hands at first. He only used the basket when he came to the third egg and realized his hands were full! Thats when he finally used the basket, but then he had more fun throwing them in the basket and making them hit the others and hearing them crack!

At the Easter Breakfast at church.

Jonathan trying to lean in for a kiss lol... (with Chloe)

What a handsome little boy!

Hunting for Easter eggs!

Saying goodbye to Grandma at the airport...

Scary...

2009-02-16T19:14:00.000-08:00

Jonathan loves to be scared... Nothing makes him happier than him going into a room and someone (sometimes me, most of the time Nathan) jumping out at him trying to scare him. It is almost impossible to scare him now! He just giggles and laughs hilariously, then is off trying to get us to chase him. :) Today, Nathan was playing with him and its fun JUST to watch my boys play and hear Jonathan laugh. That has GOT to be the best sound in the world! He will try to scare us too... sometimes we'll hide and he'll sneak up on us. Which also makes him laugh a lot when he finds us! At lunch Jonathan had his sippy cup in front of him on his highchair tray. Nathan bent down so the cup was blocking his face from Jonathan; Jonathan kept moving this way and that trying to see Nathan, and then he suddenly grabbed his sippy cup to move it out of the way and tried to scare Nathan. He is just so darn cute! :)

Pictures!

2009-02-07T17:39:00.000-08:00

I tried to start these pictures from about the beginning of January. The ones at the bottom are the most current ones...
**** by the way, the captions are below the picture for them. The blog kinda messed up when I published it.****

Jonathan playing with his balloon from Trader Joes :)

He loved the balloon! Now he squeals everytime he sees one!

Nathan left his shirt on like that after it was a little stuck

He liked it for a little bit, but then tried to get it off his head...

What a cutie!!!!

Playing with a spoon in the kitchen while I made dinner...

Slightly pouting about something...

Very happy! He's like that most of the time... (Note all the pepsi cans on the counter... LOL)

Sometimes he just does this... lol :)

He looks like a football player in this picture...

He was having fun playing in his toy box. Look at his hair...

He was trying to roll around while in it.

He loves wearing Nathans hats... then taking them off... then trying to put them back on again... :)

Jonathan all ready for bed!

He was trying to be cute. He doesn't need to try very hard! :) This is a "before" shot as well. He got his hair cut the next day but I didn't get a before picture right before we cut it!

This will serve as the "after" picture. Cute haircut huh? Nathan cut it while I held Jonathan. We tried the highchair but that didn't work...

What a cute kid!

Playing in the kitchen

Playing outside... and apparently checking out his hand :)

He stayed on the sidewalk the whole time, he was too afraid to walk on the grass.

Playing with the dog and Grandma (my mom) making sure to hold her (Lucy the dog) back.

Jonathan and I reading together...

Jonathan looking at one of his favorite books.

The camo shirt I got him while I was pregnant with him. He can finally wear it! lol

Just playing and laying on the floor!

More playing...

Getting ready for bed again, in his newish cute pj's :)

I love his smile...

This picture is even better of him!

I'm not a fan of myself in this picture, but its worth putting the pic in this blog because of Jonathan! He was being really cute!

Trying to get a nice close-up of him, but he wouldn't smile this time lol.

But he DOES smile in the bath because he loves to splash!

He was watching Nathan who was trying to make him laugh.

Splash splash splash! I usually have to have a towel in front of me, otherwise I get splashed on too!

I cut myself out of this picture. lol.

Here's me and him :)

Eating chicken noodle soup without the soup...

A very sick baby in need of some cuddling... :(

Poor baby...

He was VERY fussy this night...

Feeling a bit better... you wouldn't know he was sick in this picture!

Yes the bathroom in our newish place is pink. That will be remedied soon... :)

Jonathan reading with his aunt.

He loves having his aunt come and play with him...

Cute!

Rachel stuffing him in his toybox. Jonathan LOVES sitting in boxes!

Playing with his MegaBloks...

Playing with other blocks...

His shirt soaking wet from drool... he has gotten more teeth!

He likes hiding partially behind walls and playing peek-a-boo...

Just relaxing with Daddy.

Superbowl! And Jonathan playing with an unopened can of pepsi...

Still playing with it... he also was pretending to drink out of it :)

I took this picture right after Jonathan tried to rip Rachel's eye out :)

Rachel holding a tired Jonathan who wouldn't go to bed...

Just playing with his toys and trying to get well.

Poor baby fell into a wall and got a little knot on his forehead :(

Another view... he was okay, but I was worried for a little bit...

He LOVES playing with spray bottles! So I had to get him one that DIDN'T have toxic chemicals in it...

Nathan with Jonathan

Jonathan mad at Nathan briefly lol

What a ham! :)

Checking to see if its okay that he plays on the organ....

Jonathan playing with his new rubber boots!

Playing.... I can't stop taking pictures of him!

Running around in just a diaper this evening :)

Loving his stuffed cat!

More playing...

We can tell he's tired when he goes over to his giant stuffed penguin and lays down on it...

Another picture of daddy and son

Venturing outside just the other day.

Nathan helping him on the gravel.

OHH such a cutie!!!

Nathans current favorite pic of Jonathan...

And my current favorite pic! I absolutely LOVE this picture!

Jonathan and I as we rode on the kubota... Nathan was driving it...

Our 6 or 7th attempt at a family picture on the kubota lol.

Checking out the inside of a tractor tire :)

Walking around near the trucks...

Hope you liked the picture blog... would love to see comments on what pic(s) were your favorite! :)

Sickness...

2009-02-03T10:00:00.000-08:00

Last Wednesday, Jonathan finally got his first cold. Not that I was waiting for it! He started getting a weird cough. I didn't actually know it was a cold till the next day when he had ALL the symptoms. I have felt so bad for him this past week. I'm grateful that he hasn't gotten sick before, but I also think that I could have handled it better if he had gotten his cold earlier. There were a couple nights when he didn't get much sleep and he just wanted to cuddle (yay!), except when we cuddled with him, he didn't actually sleep, so he was EXTREMELY tired. After a while I figured that cuddling wasn't helping him as much as sleep would, so I reluctantly put him back in his crib. Where he cried for awhile. Poor kid. There was another evening where he was tired but couldn't sleep and it seemed that for him NOTHING was going right! He just stood there bawling, and then he tried walking around at the same time. Of course he wasn't able to see well while crying and bumped his face on his toy box and bit his lip. After that he was really crying and needed some cuddling then too. He was just so miserable. And then I got the same cold, which I tried to avert by taking Zicam (which really works! As long as you start taking it as SOON as you get symptoms...). So lifes been fun lol. Anyways, I sure hope his cold goes away soon! I hate seeing him feeling miserable!

In the next post I will put up some recent pictures of Jonathan... I would now, but I don't have time since he just woke up! :)

One Month Later...

2009-01-23T08:17:00.001-08:00

Wow, I can't believe its been over a month since I've blogged last. We've been so busy with things, blogging just hasn't been on my mind. Thinking back to the last time I blogged (Dec. 22nd), I look at Jonathan now and realize how much he's grown in just a month. He's walking very well now, only crawling a little bit. Almost running! Which is great when I'm carrying him in a store, and my arm needs a break from holding him! :) Not so great when I put him down, and he rushes off to see how many things he can find and knock off the shelf lol. Its just so weird to see him as he grows up, and somewhat sad.

He now is off formula and onto drinking whole milk in a sippy cup intsead of a bottle. He is eating lots of new different kinds of food for him, but his favorites still are cheese, graham crackers and goldfish. He loves bananas too. I keep wanting to try peanut butter, but I'm paranoid that he'll be allergic so I keep putting that off... He is continuing to develop his great personality; is always smiling at everyone and laughing all the time. He is a very good-natured little boy, and such a big flirt with all the ladies! :)

His favorite toy right now is a spray bottle. Yes, he LOVES spray bottles, unfortunately there is poison in almost all of them lol. So I got him a cheap empty spray bottle and he carries it everywhere with him. Its cute, but kind of weird, lol.

Right now, I don't like the stores that have balloons near the checkout. Because all I hear is "EEEEEEEE!" and "OHHHHHH!" because he has realized the fun of a balloon. :) My sister and I went to Trader Joe's in Portland a couple weeks ago and the cashier gave him a balloon. He walked around everywhere with it, and wouldn't let it out of his sight. I was glad it lasted until Jonathan went to bed; in the morning he had forgotten about it. But he still lets out excited screams and yells when he sees balloons in the store. :)

The only thing that Jonathan does that I don't like (right now lol) is he likes slapping me in the face. I don't know why he does it, but its usually only me that he slaps. Sometimes I think he is just playing, and that he doesn't know that it hurts people, and sometimes it seems like he's mad at me and slaps me then. We have tried all kinds of things get him to stop and nothing works. If anyone has any thoughts on this, I'd like to hear it. I just don't want him hitting me, or anyone else!

The last cuddle?

2008-12-22T08:51:00.000-08:00

Last night I got to cuddle with my son. He woke up screaming and crying, so I went to see what was wrong; he was acting like he had a bad dream (I'm not sure if they can have dreams yet at their age-I've heard they have to be able to speak to dream, but thats what it seemed like). Nathan made him a bottle and I held and rocked him- he seemed like he just needed to be held for a while. I was all for that, since he never really wants to cuddle anymore. But last night he was content to just lay in my arms, and watched a little tv with me, and slept a little. :) I finally decided that he would sleep better if I put him back to bed, so as I walked up the stairs, carrying him close to me in my arms, I went as slowly as I could- trying to make the moment last a little longer. And as I'm writing this now, I want to cry because I've missed cuddling with him and I'm not sure if there will be many (or any) more chances to hold him like I did last night.

1st birthday party!

2008-12-14T11:32:00.000-08:00

Jonathan had a great party yesterday! He seemed to have a lot of fun, even though he was a little tired (he wouldn't nap before the party). It was mostly family (My mom and dad, Rachel, Matt, Ron and Linda), and my friend Vanessa came too! It was nice because there was a lot of visiting as well as being there for Jonathan! Nathan helped Jonathan open presents first, and everyone gave him some really cute toys, books and clothes. Then we sang happy birthday to him, and my mom helped him blow out his candle. I had made Jonathan a bear cake (which didn't turn out to be up to my standards, haha. I'm not the best at decorating cakes...) Then we cut the cake... and gave Jonathan his frosted cupcake (the real cake had chocolate and butterscotch chips that I didn't want him to choke on). He LOVED it! And he made a mess, but it wasn't as big of a mess as I thought it would be.

The Bear cake. Not the best cake I've ever seen HAHA!

The table decorated for the party...

His highchair ready for the mess!

His banner....

The party hat that came with his kit... I didn't make him wear it for the party :)

People! Dad, Linda, Matt and Nathan

Vanessa- I caught her off guard lol :)

Matt and Rachel....

Mom, Rachel, Vanessa, Dad, Matt, Linda and Ron

I don't know who took this but me and Jonathan....

Nathan and Jonathan opening presents!

Toys and clothes!

And a bag!

Ribbon and more toys!

A book!

Matt playing with one of Jonathans toys :)

A winter hat!

Linda and Vanessa watching Jonathan

Playing with his toys...

Jonathan, Rachel and Mom

Nathan and Jonathan, and Linda, Vanessa, Dad, Ron and Matt

Singing Happy Birthday to Jonathan!

Mmm a cupcake!

He LOVES the frosting!

Savoring the taste! One of my favorite pictures!

He has a hold of his cupcake :)

Trying out the ice cream as well as the cake!

I think everyone had a great time and I was glad that they came to help Jonathan celebrate his 1st birthday! :)

A month gone by...

2008-12-05T21:25:00.000-08:00

I can't believe its almost a whole month since I've written last. I was trying to wait till we got highspeed internet back, because dial-up internet stinks- anyways, it doesn't look like we're going to get it for awhile, so I figured I would just write. It has been a busy month. Before she passed away, my Grandma asked Nathan and I if we would live in their house- to keep it in the family. The rest of the family (immediate and extended) were ok with it, so we have been in the process of moving. We are mostly moved in now. There are still a couple of rooms that still need a lot of work (We are needing to clean out the house as well as move our stuff in) but thats okay. It is a bit hard living here, I will look in a room and imagine my Grandparents here and what they would be doing if they were still living, such as my Grandpa sitting at his kitchen table looking through all his mail... my Grandma working on her latest Jigsaw puzzle... or them both sitting in the living room watching the Lawrence Welk Show. I miss them a lot, sometimes I wish I could go back in time and just give them one more hug and tell them I love them just one more time...

On another note, I hosted Thanksgiving this year. My parents have been off on a cruise- in fact they will just be getting back in a couple of days. So they missed Thanksgiving this year, but I'm sure they needed a vacation more. Anyways, my sister and brother came over and I made turkey (for the first time!), mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, corn and rolls for dinner. I also made a fruit dip and fruit tray, and made a cheeseball (homemade, NOT storebought!) to eat with crackers. Dinner was so good- if I do say so myself lol. I know i'm bragging a little bit, but I'm meaning too! lol. But seriously, I was kinda doubting that I could pull it off, but I did pretty good for the first time.

Jonathans birthday is coming up, or rather his birthday party. His 1 year birthday is on the 18th, but we are celebrating it on the 13th. I'm going to try to make a bear cake for it, unless I chicken out and just buy a cake... :) I think I'm going to try though. I'm very much excited to celebrate his birthday and then Christmas soon after!

I think I have rambled on for long enough! For those of you who have blogs that I usually read, I am sorry to have missed so much of yours. When I get highspeed internet I will try to catch up as quickly as I can! I am looking forward to reading all that I have missed!

Grandparents' obits...

2008-11-07T10:47:00.000-08:00

I basically just wanted to save these so I'm putting them in here.

Keyt, Evelyn V.
Evelyn V. Keyt October 30, 1919 - November 4, 2008 AMITY - Evelyn V. Keyt was born in Turner, Oregon to Warren and Anna Hatch Pitman. She was the fourth of five siblings. She grew up near Florence, Oregon. She graduated from Oregon Normal School (WOCS) and taught elementary school at Perrydale. Evelyn married Kenneth Keyt in Monmouth on May 30, 1943. She became a special education teacher and superintendent of Special Education for Yamhill County. She was a member of the Amity Church of Christ, Perrydale Goodwill Club, and Polk County Historical Society. Evelyn was preceded in death by her husband, Kenneth on October 19, 2008. She is survived by her sons, Keith of Tacoma, Ron (Linda) of Salem; and daughter, Nadine (Tom) of Perrydale; many grandchildren, great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild. Viewing will be from 2 to 8 p.m. Friday, November 7 in the Dallas Mortuary Tribute Center. A graveside service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, November 8 in the Bethel Cemetery in Amity followed by a memorial service at the Amity Church of Christ at 12 p.m. Arrangements by Dallas Mortuary Tribute Center.
Published in the StatesmanJournal on 11/5/2008

Keyt, Kenneth Klinton
Kenneth Klinton Keyt November 25, 1915-October 19, 2008 AMITY - Kenneth Keyt was born November 25, 1915 to Henry and Lucia Keyt. He was born in the same house where he lived the rest of his life. Ken had three sisters, Frances, Lucille and Ruth. He began farming after his graduation from Perrydale High School and spent his life farming that land. In 1943, Ken was married to Evelyn Pitman and they had three children. Ken served as a member of the Perrydale School Board for a number of years, as well as several farm organizations during his life. He was a loving father and grandfather and a friend to many. Ken was well known for his honesty and integrity, and a longtime member of the Amity Church of Christ. Until just the last few years, Ken and Evelyn had the opportunity to travel to many different countries. Kenneth Keyt is survived by his wife, Evelyn V. Keyt; their three children, Keith of Tacoma, Wash., Nadine and her husband Tom of Perrydale, and Ronald and his wife Linda of Salem; numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren; and one great-great-grandchild. Graveside services will be held on at 1 p.m. on Saturday, October 25 in the Bethel Cemetery with a Memorial service to follow in the Amity Church of Christ. Service arrangements are under the direction of Dallas Mortuary Tribute Center in Dallas, Oregon.
Published in the StatesmanJournal from 10/22/2008 - 10/23/2008

Grandparents...

2008-11-06T21:24:00.001-08:00

I'm not sure how this blog is going to turn out, but I will try it.

This last month has been a rough one. My grandparents were in a horrible car accident on October 10th. They were trying to cross a very dangerous highway near where they lived. They didn't see a car coming and tried to cross, and that car hit them. They both went to different hospitals. My grandpa went to the Dallas Hospital, and then to Corvallis Hospital. He was paralyzed from the neck down and had to be on a ventilator. My grandma was taken to the Salem Hospital with badly bruised ribs and a contusion on her heart. They both were in the hospitals for about a week and a half. My grandma had an angiogram done and we found out that she had just weeks to live. There was almost 100% blockage in her heart. My grandpa, who was able to mouth words after getting a trachea put in, asked and was told about how my grandma was. He asked to be taken off the ventilator after he found out she wouldn't live much longer. He didn't want to spend the rest of his life paralyzed anyways, that's not who he was. He was always a very active person. We all got to say our goodbyes and our "I love yous" and on October 19th they stopped the ventilator. He was 92 years old. By the time we had the service for him, my grandma was out of the hospital and in a private care facility. She would never be able to go back home, needing 24 hour medical care. Last weekend she started refusing to eat, and got really weak, and she had more and more problems. It seemed like she had given up. She had told me before that she just didn't want to live anymore. If I was 89 and my husband of 60+ years died, I would probably feel the same way. She died this last Tuesday, November 4th. The service will be this Saturday. I loved my grandparents very very much. They had good long lives, and they loved and helped many people. I have learned so much from them. They were the hardest-working people I knew, and devout Christians. They were the type of "Christian" that you don't see everyday anymore (unfortunately). They LIVED it. Its so hard to believe that they are gone, I miss them so much. I thought I would post some pictures of them as sort of a tribute, though they deserve much more.

My Grandparents:
Kenneth Keyt (1915-2008) and Evelyn Keyt (1919-2008)

Episode 4: Ohio Trip- Monday and Tuesday

2008-10-08T08:05:00.000-07:00

Monday and Tuesday was kind of a blur... :) Monday morning we hung out at home for a bit, and then went to Bob Evans for breakfast. If you have never been to a Bob Evans, you need to try it! It is a really good breakfast place although they do have a lot of lunch and dinner stuff too. Unfortunately I think they are only on the east coast... and possibly only Ohio- but I'm not sure about that. Anyways, it leaves Ihop and Denny's in the dust; its so great! After that we went by target to grab some diapers... I thought that 40 for the trip would be enough, apparently not! Then we kinda lazed around for a bit and Matt had to go to work. Beth had wanted me to come see their house renovations so we all went over there and visited for a bit, and then later that evening we went to the Kohlers to say our goodbyes. Tuesday morning we left for the Pittsburgh airport at 6 am. I was up around 4 am packing, that was lots of fun... :) We got to the airport and waited to board. We were finally just settled on the plane when a flight attendent came and asked us if we were the Brake family. We said yes, and they said they had overbooked the flight to San Francisco. They asked us if we would like to get to Portland a half hour early and get two free rountrip tickets to anywhere in the US (besides Alaska or Hawaii). So we decided to do that, so instead of San Fransisco our layover was in Chicago. It ended up being a good thing because from Pittsburgh to San Fransisco the flight was going to be over 5 hours. From Chicago to Portland was 4 hours and Jonathan was so bored on the flight (He would not play with any of his toys) and wanted so much attention from everyone on board that it seemed like we got to Portland JUST in time! :) On the flight to Chicago Jonathan slept the whole way, and on the flight to Portland he slept for 2 hours. So that was nice. We all were cranky this day so we were just all glad to be home! But we had a very good time on the trip!

Jonathan playing with his toys Monday morning

Playing with the Rockband drum pedal (he kept trying to play with that and with the rockband guitars- I guess he really wanted to play lol)

Cute overall outfit! :)

Playing with Matt (He looks sad or mad in this picture, but he wasn't lol)

Matching hats!

Mmmm!

Kissing or biting Matt's hat :)

What a little stud!

This has got to be one of my fav pictures of Jonathan! What a cutie!

Hehe, I like this one too! :)

At Bob Evans, playing with a crayon (with me watching closely so he wouldn't eat it- which he tried to do! lol)

Cute!

Eating applesauce

Jonathan playing with Jamie :)

And Jonathan inspecting her face and teeth lol :)

Nathan playing around with a motorized cart at target. Jonathan had fun lol (as I'm looking around to see if security is coming! Haha!)

Jonathan

Cute video of Jonathan climbing on coffee table

Megan and Jonathan at Beth's house

Kaylee, Beths daughter

Kathy and Jamie

Nathan playing with the boys, Ryan Jr. and Tyler...

Ryan Jr. and Tyler

Kathy and Jonathan watching Nathan and I play Rockband (again! lol)

So cute sleeping!

Gwenna (Robins daughter) and Robin in background.

Jonathan playing with and eating the xylophone at the Kohlers

How cute!

Still cute!

More cute! HAHA

Grace and Jonathan. She was really cute with him- you can tell in the following video :)

Me and Jonathan at the Pittsburgh airport early in the morning lol

Jonathan sleeping on Nathan on the way to Chicago. He slept the whole flight (1 hr 15 min.)

Jonathan wasn't the only one who slept the whole flight lol :)

Chicago, the city I want to go to the most to visit and sightsee...

Chicago! I really want to go back!

On the flight to Portland

And we're home! :)

And that concludes Episode 4 and our trip! :) Finally lol!

Episode 3: Ohio Trip- Sunday

2008-10-04T12:27:00.000-07:00

On Sunday we played at home in the morning, with Jonathan and also with Rockband... that game is very addicting! :) Late morning and afternoon we went to this "Safari" thing that was about 5 miles away. It was pretty fun. I got a lot of pictures while there but here on this blog only put up pictures of our group and some of the more exotic animals. There were a lot of goats and deer and cows and pigs and such. But Jonathan seemed pretty interested in it until he got tired :)

Jonathan loving playing with his little stacking cups! :)

He started sitting really well from a crawling position while we were there in Ohio.

Kathy loved seeing Jonathan and being able to play with him

Jonathan knocking down stacks of cups. He loves this game :)

He is such a cutie (and I think he knows when there is a camera pointing at him!)

A tired Jonathan

Jonathan playing with Matt's face

He always has such cute poses!

Jonathan helping Nathan play :)

Jonathan has fun listening to the Rockband music, helping to play guitar and now drumming! :)

At the safari. Matt really liked holding Jonathan.

Matt and Jamie and Jonathan

Matt tickling Jonathan

And more tickling :)

Matt, Jamie and Jonathan on the safari wagon

Kathy on the safari wagon

Nathan and I on the safari wagon :)

Jonathan was excited to go!

On our way over to the animals

Looking out at the animals coming to get fed...

A cute photo of Jonathan :)

Jonathan watching while Kathy fed the animals

A camel...

Kathy petting the camel

Nathan and Jonathan looking over the edge at the fish in the water

Feeding the animals

A lot of the time when they are wanting to be fed the animals open their mouths pretty widely and it is kinda nasty that you can look all the way down to their throat sometimes :)

Jonathan and I looking down at a deer who decided he wanted some of the food on the floor of the wagon :)

Jonathan looking intently at the animals

A really dirty elk, I think it is, wanting to be fed :) I think he should have washed up a little in my opinion... haha

Another cute picture of Jonathan watching the animals.

More of feeding the animals...

Haha, he has sort of a surprised/concerned look on his face...

I LOVE this picture of him with his grandma!

A zebra...

And a baby zebra! :)

Our attempt at a family photo lol

Feeding more of the animals...

Jonathan started getting tired...

Wanting to cuddle with his daddy...

And then saw the camera! :)

Me feeding the ostriches. They were pretty aggressive and it was a little scary holding the bucket so close to their beaks!

Jonathan staring at the ostriches...

Matt wanted to hold Jonathan again

And Jonathan went right to sleep in his arms!

Safari ride was over and we were going to go on a little hayride- minus the hay, and do an apple toss thing which was pretty much just throwing the apples over the fence for the animals...

Matt and Jamie and Jonathan on the "hayride"

Jamie holding a sleeping Jonathan

Me and Jonathan :) As you can tell he was passed around quite a bit; he's a bit heavy to carry him for awhile...

He woke up in time to see the goats in the petting zoo (although I wouldn't have called it a petting zoo! They had warnings about how to feed the animals on every fence and cautions about the animals biting lol)

At home again, Jonathan playing with Matt

And playing with Jamie

Apparently he wanted to sing! ...or had something to say lol

Jonathan and Jamie

Gabe and Brad came over to pick up Gabe's pick-up, and stayed to play Rockband, yes, Rockband! Hahaha! Bet you didn't think that was coming up again!

Gabe and Jonathan...

Brad

Gabe and Jonathan again :)

The group playing Rockband! Jamie, Brad, Nathan and Matt...

Oh! And I think it might have been this day, where Jonathan stood for the first time for about 5 seconds. He did that again for about 30 seconds the next day but hasn't done it again after that. I hope he will again soon!

And this wraps up Sunday, and Episode 3! There will be at least 1 more episode and maybe 2, I don't know yet... But keep tuned for the SHOCKING CONCLUSION!

I'm just kidding, there's no shocking conclusion really... :)

Episode 2: Ohio Trip- Saturday

2008-10-03T06:35:00.000-07:00

Saturday was one of the biggest days of the trip. I was going to see my college friend Missy and her baby at the mall, and then come back for a get-together party that Matt and Jamie had planned for us. Seeing Missy was great! I hadn't seen her for awhile, and this was the first time I got to see her baby Daniel, and it was also the first time she got to see Jonathan. They are only about 4 1/2 months apart in age, Daniel and Jonathan. I didn't get any pictures at the mall, there were a lot of things that distracted us... like me thinking I lost my phone and going all over the mall trying to find it, then finding it still in the car. Or when we were leaving (Missy was coming to the get-together party for awhile as well) Missy had forgotten to turn off the lights on her car and her battery died. So we spent a full half hour, maybe more, blocking a whole parking lot aisle of a very busy mall trying to jump her car. That was fun lol. Just more evidence that once you have a baby your brain goes out the window... on BOTH our parts lol.

Missy and I

Missy and I and Daniel

Missy and Daniel

Daniel

The get-together was so great, it was nice to see all the family we had missed. And it was great that they missed us too as evidenced by them running to hug us and oohing and ahhing over Jonathan! It was fun to be able to visit everyone. I'm so glad that Matt and Jamie decided to have this get-together at their house!

Brad (cousin)

Yolly, John (Nathans uncle and his wife) and Grace (cousin)

Jonathan with his Grandma :)

Jonathan and Matt (Nathans brother)

Doug and Janet Kohler (uncle and aunt)

Julie (cousin) and her daughter Jasmine

Megan (cousin)

Robin (cousin) with her daughter Gwenna

Janet with Jonathan

Beth (cousin)

Beth and her husband Ryan

Grace (cousin)

Dougie and Robin and Gwenna (cousins)

Pregnant again! Robin due in Jan. and Julie due in a week!

Gabe (cousin) and Kathy (aunt)

Goofball Becky :) (cousin)

Ed (uncle)

Jody (aunt)

Rachel (cousin) with her niece I think, and Janet and Brad in the background

Later that evening Nathan and I went over to the Kohlers for a bit to visit a little more. That was fun to have a little extra time to see them since we are pretty close to them.

Ryan & Beth, with kids Tyler, Ryan Jr. and Kaylee (cousins)

Beth reading to her son Tyler

Ryan holding a sleepy Tyler

Marshall & Julie and Jasmine (cousins)

Gabe (cousin)

Megan (cousin)

Doug and Janet (uncle and aunt)

Greg (cousin)

So it was a very very busy day but lots of fun too :) And that wraps up Episode 2! :)

Episode 1: Ohio Trip- Thurs. and Fri.

2008-10-02T07:07:00.001-07:00

On September 25th we got up VERY early to get to the airport. We left by 2:30 am; my sister drove us to the airport. I was so worried about getting thru they security checkpoint, but I shouldn't have been. I had water in some bottles just in case Jonathan was hungry before we got to the airport and I was going to dump them before we went thru security, but I forgot. The tsa people were actually really nice (for once lol) to us and said we were fine. Apparently we didn't look like the terrorist type! Oh and there was no line so we were sitting there for at least an hour and a half waiting to board. Jonathan did so well on all the flights.

We had a layover in Denver and then went on to Pittsburgh where Kathy (Nathan's mom) and Becky (cousin) picked us up. Then we drove to Matt and Jamie's (Nathans brother and sister-in-law) house where we were staying for the trip. Truthfully, I can't remember what we did that evening. Jamie got home from work and we all just sat around and talked I think.

Nathans' cousin Greg was coming into town from Tennessee that evening too, so Nathan went with some other cousins to pick him up. Jonathan had a little bit of trouble adjusting to sleeping in a play pen rather than his own crib, so that was fun... :) The next day, we hung out for a bit.

Cute close up of Jonathan!

Matt and Jonathan playing

Jonathan with his Grandma

Playing with the air vent

He loved the air blowing on him!

Then Kathy wanted to watch Jonathan and Matt, Jamie, Nathan and I went to Mespotamia to the End of the Commons amish store and to the B&K Salvage store which is also an amish store.

I took pictures and stole the souls of some amish people... (Thats what they believe; they don't like their pictures being taken. But I had to take a few!)

I can't believe I didn't get a picture of the actual store. Oh well. I love that store though, you can get a lot of things there you wouldn't be able to get at a regular store, and a lot of the things in there are cheap. There are also a lot of tourist type things you can get there, from magnets and shot glasses to pure maple syrup and candy, to little toys and amish dolls. One of my favorite things to get there (but were out of when we were there) are bags of Lucky Charm marshmallows, you know, from the cereal. But its just the marshmallows. Oh I must say that they buy things in bulk a lot and then repackage them in smaller amounts, thats how they can be cheaper than other stores. We were talking about those bags and marshamallows and Matt was saying that they have an little amish boy in the back taking out all the marshmallows from the cereal and putting them in bags. It was a funny thought! :) And my favorite thing to get at the B&K Salvage store is cheddar cheese powder to put over popcorn. YUM! And its hard to find that stuff anywhere else. Although when I came back home with it, my sister said you can find that around here too... I will have to look, but if not, I can always get my Mother-in-law to send me some! :) After we went to these amish places, we decided to go to the mall and look around. Matt and Nathan only got as far as the video game store, so Jamie and I decided to abandon them and look around at the rest of the mall. Its not a big mall, but it has some interesting stores in it. They have a Steve & Barry's store there. I really like that store, it has cheap clothes and jackets there. But the nearest store from Salem is in Seattle Washington. I think there is one in Nampa, Idaho too. But anyways, I think we spent an hour just looking around, and found Matt and Nathan in the other video game store. They were playing the same game in both stores (Rockband), even though Matt has that game at his house! We finally left the mall and went to get Kathy and Jonathan and go out to dinner. We went to the Olive Garden. It was good. I didn't know that when they give you salad and ask you to tell them when they've put enough cheese in it, you can just wait, and make them put in A LOT! Yumm! That was the best salad! She had to go get more cheese to grate too. But our whole group loves cheese so everyone was happy.

Jonathan with Matt

Jonathan with Jamie

Jamie and Nathan

Matt and Jamie

Kathy eating...

Jonathan- He is really good at restaurants!

Jonathan being goofy!

Leaning way back to drink his milk

After Olive Garden, we went back home and Matt and Nathan played Rockband and the rest of us watched. I played, or rather sung, later on the trip. Jonathan really liked listening to the music!

Nathan and Jonathan playing with the rockband guitar

Jonathan trying to help Nathan play :) So cute!

Jonathan sitting on Grandma watching the boys play Rockband

So that is the end of "Episode 1" of our Ohio trip. I will blog about the rest of the trip later today or at least in the next few days!

1 day before our trip to Ohio!

2008-09-24T07:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I did the rest of our laundry and started packing. I started with the diaper bag and my carry-on bag. It took me over 2 hours just to get those packed! I never realized Jonathans' stuff would take up so much space! I'm trying to squeeze all our clothes and everything we need into 1 big suitcase, 1 little suitcase and 2 carryons. I don't know if we're going to be able to do that though... but I think taking even another small suitcase is just too much! Even if the trip is 5-6 days long. :) Jonathan and I are sharing the big suitcase... and before Jonathan I could fill a big suitcase up all with my own stuff! So i've really had to cut back and pack smart. Its a good thing we'll be able to do laundry while we are in Ohio! I'm still so nervous about the flight, but hopefully it will be okay. Since we are leaving tomorrow at around 3 am, this will probably be my last blog till after the trip. Wish us luck! :)

On another note, Nathan gave goldfish crackers to Jonathan for the first time yesterday. And Jonathan LOVED them! It was so cute to watch him eat them! He's getting so big now and babbling a lot (esp in church lol). He's always wanting to stand and try to move around the furniture. I don't know what I'll do when he can run LOL....

Monday...

2008-09-22T07:27:00.000-07:00

By the way, Jonathan is fine after his throwing up incident. The next day he was well and eating again. I'm so thankful for that, I felt so bad for him!

So... my pictures from JC Penney were not great. I won't be going to JC Penneys again, and I will be writing them a letter (which I NEVER usually do, so you can kind of understand how irritated I am with them). I don't think that he will be getting any more "professional photos". Its just too much money for them to look just ok or iffy.

I just went to the store yesterday to get some toys and snacks for the flight to Ohio, to try and keep Jonathan occupied. Its a whole day of flying, so I don't know really how it will be. I have to do laundry and pack tomorrow and wednesday, so it feels like today is my only free day before we go just to try to relax! :) I'm still nervous for the flight, I think the only way i'll be less nervous is to actually go on the flight and see how Jonathan does.

We were given a couple of pop-up books for Jonathan before he was born, so we read those to him the other day, and Jonathan LOVED them! I would hold on side of the book, and Jonathan would hold the other side and open and close it over and over again to see the animals. It was really cute! :)

It looks as if I'll be having to dig thru some of his 18 month clothes to see if any of those will fit him. A few of his clothes seem to be getting a little small (mostly a couple of his sleepers). He's getting so big! Although at church yesterday I saw a 2 year old and couldn't believe how big the boy looked. I can't even imagine Jonathan walking well and looking that big. It doesn't seem like that should happen for a long time! But he's definitely getting there...

Throwing up... and other things...

2008-09-17T23:26:00.000-07:00

Last night Jonathan threw up. A LOT. Nathan was still up around midnight, and heard him heaving, so he went in there to see what was going on. While he was checking on him, Jonathan puked again. Vomit was EVERYWHERE- all over in his crib, and he was also drenched! This was the first time he has ever puked so much and the first time he ever heaved while doing so. Nathan and I were both worried about him. It didn't seem to faze him though. He was more upset that we were cleaning him and his crib up! He went right back to sleep. This morning he decided to boycott all babyfood and most tablefood. My mom suggested that he would eat again when his tummy felt better. He was still drinking his formula, so that was good. He was active most of the day, crawling around and playing like usual. Just every so often he would be fussy for a few minutes, then he would be acting like normal again. I have no idea what caused it, but as he didn't throw up again I figured I wouldn't call the doctor. I'm starting to wonder if all this is due to teething, although I'm not sure he would throw up because of it... He has his 9 month check-up on Friday anyways, so I'm going to talk to his doctor about all this then. In the meantime, pray that we don't have another midnight cleaning up to do!

On another note... I pick up the "professional" pictures from JC Penneys tomorrow afternoon. I will probably post a blog tomorrow either sharing them or venting about them! LOL :)

And I just realized that our trip to Ohio is NEXT WEEK! AHH! I'm excited to go, but really nervous about taking Jonathan on a plane (not just there and back, but 4 flights!)... My friend Anna recently went on a trip with her son, and she kind of eased some of my fears about going on this trip. I just hope it goes well. I'm also a little frustrated because there are so many things to do before we go, but not many things I can do now. It all has to wait till probably a few days before we leave. Anyways, this trip could be very interesting...

Sunday at the Park

2008-09-16T14:37:00.000-07:00

On Sunday after church, Nathan, Jonathan and I went to Bush Pasture park. We had fun, just relaxing and taking some pictures. I thought I would share a few. Jonathan was really good for most of the time, even though he was getting tired. He posed really well for me too, a lot better than for the "professional" photographers! :)

One of the best pictures that was taken of Jonathan that day :)

Another good one, in my opinion :)

Our best try at getting a family photo with only the 3 of us there!

Nathan and Jonathan- SO CUTE!

Jonathan and me

Another cute pose!

Cute! :)

Unhappy Photo Shoot

2008-09-06T12:01:00.000-07:00

This last Thursday, I took Jonathan in to get professional pictures taken. We are going to Ohio at the end of this month, so I wanted some pictures that we could give to family over there. But the pictures didn't go so well and I was very disappointed. We went to J.C. Penney's. I had heard lots of good things about them, but maybe the day we went was just an off day. I know I am not the best photographer. But I seriously could have done a better job than the photographer did this day. She made him cry by making these really loud sudden noises. He cried, and so she took pictures of him crying. Which I really didn't want. He was fussy throughout the rest of the shoot. Which by the way, wasn't very long. That also got me annoyed. She didn't take very many pictures at all. If I was the photographer I would have tried so many things to get him to smile but she didn't hardly try at all! And I don't really know what got into Jonathan because when I take pictures or even someone else does, he poses or hams it up for the camera! And he's always smiling, so I don't really know why he didn't smile except for that she scared him. So when the photo shoot was over, she said to come back in half an hour and the pictures would be ready to look at on the computer. So after an HOUR AND A HALF LATER and a very unhappy Jonathan.... I finally got to see the pictures. A lady who was apparently new, or didn't know what she was doing was enhancing the pictures- had I realized thats what she was doing the whole time, I would have told her I only want to see the regular pictures. I have never gotten professional pictures before. And later she told me that while with the coupon I had I could get 3.99 sheets, if I chose any of the enhanced ones (even if they were just black and white) they would be 14.99 a sheet. That is ridiculous. I'll scan them on my computer and enhance them myself lol. Anyways, she went through all the pictures with me, needing to tell me everything that Jonathan was thinking in every single picture. That was REALLY annoying. And then she tried to get me to buy all these pictures that I didn't like. I ended up only getting a few. They were okay pictures. So the whole process of pictures took over 2 hrs, I didn't think it would take that long. And Jonathan was very fussy for most of that 2 hrs which is VERY unlike him. The only good thing that happened is that Jonathan spit up on her nice black shirt when she decided to hold him. And then he laughed after he did it. :)

Jonathan's Smile

2008-09-03T21:15:00.001-07:00

I just had to share; I LOVE this picture! He was in a very good mood, and was having fun posing for the camera. I'm a little sad that he's growing up so fast, but its exciting to see him become more of a little boy and less of a baby. I love him so much! :)

Pulling up...standing...falling!

2008-08-28T13:51:00.000-07:00

The pulling up is no longer cute! Well, I guess its still cute, but Jonathan doesn't know how to get down after standing. He will pull up on everything and stand up. But when he's done standing, he doesn't know how to sit down, so he'll just fall over like a tree! Face first! I don't know how to teach him to "fall correctly" lol. I have to be right next to him all the time so he doesn't get hurt, but I think now he's relying on me to catch him. I've countlessly tried to show him to plop down on his behind, but the next time he's up, he just tries falling face forward again! If anyone has ANY ideas of what to do, let me know :) Please!

8 months old!

2008-08-20T06:45:00.000-07:00

So Jonathan is 8 months old now... its almost unbelievable lol what a big boy he's getting to be (and I know at 8 months he's not THAT big, but still! Its hard to believe that he used to be IN me lol)! I haven't blogged for a bit, so I need to list the new things he can do! He has started pulling up on everything and standing! He still doesn't have very good balance, but its so cute to watch him figure out how to grab onto things and pull up to a standing position. He's a strong little boy! He sometimes also takes a few steps when standing. He also is crawling more- and faster! If I put him down, within seconds it seems like he's where he's not supposed to be lol. And now he has 4 little teeth- two on bottom and two on the top, although the two on top are slower to come in than the bottom ones. They still are barely thru. Jonathan seems like he's changing everyday, growing more and more in lots of different ways. His face is constantly looking more and more like a toddler and less like a baby. When he smiles, its different. It's hard to explain but he grins more I guess. And most of the time he's a very happy baby- which is nice lol. :)

This past weekend, I took Jonathan to my parents house. They bought a little kiddie pool for him, and I wanted Jonathan to be able to wear the cute swim trunks and matching hat that my sister had bought for him before he grew out of them. Well as it turned out there was no need to worry, the trunks were a little large lol and kept falling down! But I got some really cute pictures of him playing in the water. He loved it! But he didn't stay in very long. I'm sure he would have stayed in the pool longer if someone had been in the pool with him, but I still don't have a swim suit that fits my post-pregnancy body lol :)

Joking around...

2008-08-07T21:00:00.000-07:00

Jonathan is such a happy baby and he is starting to really be able to joke around. Its so funny! Tonight I was trying to get him to relax to go to sleep and Nathan started playing with him. Nathan does this a lot; he'll take Jonathans' pacifier and put it in his own mouth. When Jonathan sees him with it, he just has to take it back. But then tonight, after he took the pacifier from Nathan he would laugh (a lot) when Nathan opened and closed his mouth a bunch (to show Jonathan he was trying to get the pacifier back)! And then Jonathan would look like he was going to give it back to Nathan, and then take it back at the last second. After that he would laugh and laugh and laugh! It was so hilarious to hear him laugh so much! And it didn't seem like a baby laugh, it seemed like a little boy laugh. Nathan and I laughed so much with him too! Nathan and Jonathan played like that for at least 10 minutes, laughing the whole time :) It was really really cute!

Dancing...

2008-07-31T19:47:00.000-07:00

Lately Jonathan has started dancing to any music that he hears; its so cute! And when I say dancing, for him its jumping as much as he can and as high as he can to the beat. I love watching him get excited about music. His favorite songs so far are any song by America (of course! HAHA), the theme song for Between the Lions (as well as other songs in the show), and since I watch the tv show Reba sometimes, he also dances to the theme song of that tv show. But really he seems to enjoy all music! Oh although he doesn't seem to enjoy slow quiet music as much :) Jonathan is definitely starting to show his personality a lot!

7 Months old

2008-07-19T13:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Jonathans' 7th month birthday. I can't believe it, time has been flying by! So I took some time yesterday and had a little "photo shoot" with Jonathan. Its getting harder and harder to take pictures of him because everytime I sat him up he took off crawling, or rolling or moving out of the picture! But it just seems that he gets cuter and cuter every single day! And he's getting bigger. It just stuns me that my little baby who when he was born was too small even for newborn size clothing, is wearing 12 month shirts now!

America

2008-07-17T16:19:00.000-07:00

I have to have a blog in here about America. As most people know, my favorite music is from the 70's band America. I am very passionate about their music and love hearing them in concert! So I decided to put the pictures of the band that I have gathered and taken and put them all in one place so ya'll can enjoy them as well! I only have a few pictures on my computer, I will try and add pics as I find (or scan) them.... I only hope that my baby will grow up to love their songs too!

Fun days...

2008-07-15T21:35:00.000-07:00

The last couple of weeks had been frustrating at meal time... :) Jonathan decided that he was going to be picky and eat only baby food that had banana in it. He didn't want applesauce, pears, peaches, nor any sort of veggie. Every time I tried to feed him something without banana, he would turn his head away, shut his mouth tight, and/or (I think this was one of his personal favs...) let me put the food in his mouth and then he'd lean over the side of the highchair and spit it out on the floor, or turn to me and spit it at me. So that has been lots of fun... lol. Luckily he's decided to try some different foods again. Lately he's again had pear, applesauce, sweet potato and squash. Maybe if I just give him the simpler ones (not the combinations of foods or blends)for awhile he'll be more interested in eating things other than banana!
Yesterday Jonathan decided he was not going to sleep for longer than 15 minutes at a time. He would just not go to sleep! It was an exhausting day! He's been exploring our home more and I think he was just so excited to be able to get where he wants to go. Yes, yes, he is crawling! Actually, some of the time he is crawling. Other times he pulls himself across the floor with his arms and drags the rest of his body behind him! Its funny to watch and SO cute! And we realized we need to BABYPROOF! Everytime I put him down on the floor, he immediately goes towards our tv or our dvd player! Right now, I'm wondering why I decided having our dvd player on the bottom shelf of our bookcase was a good idea! I think we're going to have to change some things around soon here. We decided to get the Superyard XT today. :) Its like those gates that you put across doorways, except there are 6 panels that enclose to make a playpen for your little one. We tried it out today, and its nice that he doesn't need me to be on the floor with him to make sure he doesn't get into anything! Our living room is VERY VERY small! It only takes him a few moves to get somewhere he shouldn't be lol. At the end of the day yesterday we found out that he had a little rash on his tummy! :( He had gone the day with only a diaper on because it was so hot, and got a rugburn. I felt so bad for him. Luckily it was gone by this morning! He'll have to wear a shirt until he can learn to keep his belly off the carpet when he crawls!
Today my sister watched Jonathan and my friend Vanessa and I went into Portland to the Clackamas Town Center. It was so much fun, and a much needed trip! I don't get out of the house much without Jonathan (which is largely due to the fact that I don't like being away from him very much!) but I've needed a day where I could go somewhere new! I haven't ever been to the Town Center before (I don't recall anyways), and there were a lot of interesting stores there. But it was good to be back and see my little boy- I had missed him a lot!

The past few days...

2008-07-09T08:02:00.000-07:00

This 4th of July was great, compared to last year! At the end of last June, I had to have surgery (in my 4th month of pregnancy) so that 4th of July I was stuck in bed recovering. I remember laying in bed hearing the fireworks and wishing I could be watching them. This year though was much better than I could have imagined; because now I have a baby to enjoy things with me, and its so exciting to have him experience new things and see the look of amazement on his face! We went to my parents and set off a few fireworks. It has been awhile since I've even bought fireworks; they ones that you can buy here in Oregon are a little lame, haha. Ahh well, Jonathan seemed to enjoy them! It was a fun day, although a very long day. We had such trouble getting Jonathan to sleep that night because of all our neighbors setting off their fireworks- He kept waking up when each was set off! So it ended up being a very long night as well.

Saturday morning was fun. Jonathan apparently got enough sleep (I don't know how that happened, because I certainly didn't!) and was very happy. He cuddled a lot with me and gave me lots of kisses! :) It was nice, considering that as he gets older, he's starting not to want to cuddle as much. And I think I'm REALLY going to miss that!

Jonathan is sick now. I think he must have gotten a cold at church on Sunday. His nose is really stuffy and he sneezes a lot (which he must think is hilarious because he grins after every sneeze!), and he has a poor little cough. I feel bad for him, but I know we pretty much just have to wait it out.

Last night, after Jonathan ate, I put him on the towel covered floor and proceeded to give him a haircut... and he proceeded to fall asleep... :) It's usually hard for us to get him to sleep for the night, most of the time Jonathan fights it! But not last night. I wanted to give him a haircut, because he was getting a sort of wild look with his hair. So I just trimmed it a bit. I was worried that I would cut too much and his hair would look awful. I've never cut a baby's hair before lol. But it actually looks pretty good, if I do say so myself... :) Anyways, I was almost done giving him his haircut and by this time he's laying down rather than sitting (he kept moving around- it was hard cutting it!) I looked over at his eyes and they are closed... I couldn't believe it! I told Nathan and he looked over and couldn't believe he just fell asleep on the floor like that either! It was really cute. And he was so tired he didn't even wake up when I carried him to his crib.

To sleep or not to sleep?

2008-07-03T10:09:00.000-07:00

So... yesterday evening, Jonathan took a longer nap than usual, so when he woke up, we fed him and he was NOT tired at all. He wanted to stay up! So he watched part of So You Think You Can Dance? with us. :) And he loved it! I recorded him watching it; thru parts of the show he was trying to talk to the dancers, and smiling/laughing, and trying to dance himself! It was pretty cute! His normal bedtime is around 7:30-8:00 pm, he finally went to bed about 9:30 pm; he was tired enough by then.

Sorry the video may be a little dark and hard to see... Jonathan's so cute though!

This morning Jonathan woke up at 5:15 am. Neko (our cat) decided to push open Jonathans' bedroom door and she laid there right beside his crib. Now Jonathan will wake up and go right back to sleep throughout the night; it's usually not a problem. Unless there is a cat right beside his crib. So he started trying to talk to the cat. I had to go in there and shoo the cat away and give Jonathan his pacifier. LUCKILY.... he went right back to sleep, so I got one more hour of sleep.

I think I'll add a picture from yesterday, he was so cute rolling around on the floor :)

Eating meat

2008-07-01T13:28:00.000-07:00

Jonathan is so funny! I've been feeding him baby food meats lately. Today he just tried apples and chicken. I have to heat it up otherwise he won't eat it. (Who would want to eat meat cold?!?) Anyways, I started feeding him, and I'd get a spoonful and blow on it so it wouldn't burn his mouth. Apparently he thought that was hilarious! He would laugh a lot every time I did that.

Starting to blog...

2008-07-01T09:44:00.000-07:00

Yep, thats right! I decided to start a blog. It does seem like a great way to share Jonathans' antics with our family and friends! We'll have to see how it goes...

So, what to write now?

I should say that Jonathan got his first tooth yesterday! It was so exciting! We were in church, and I had just asked Dottie if her daughter had been very fussy when she got her first tooth. (Chloe is almost a year old, so I always ask Dottie what I can expect with Jonathan!) She had said yes, she was pretty grumpy. Then Jonathan, who was sitting in my lap, grabbed my fingers like he does a lot, and shoved one in his mouth and kind of bit down on a finger. Thats when i felt his first tooth! I was so surprised!

And he seems to be doing so many new things in addition to getting teeth! He just started sitting up by himself as well. (Its so nice to be able to put him in a highchair when he eats, both at home, and when we go out to eat!) He also is eating finger foods better! I was crunching some gerber puffs for him, mostly because I was paranoid about him choking and partly because he had so much trouble putting them in his mouth himself. But the other day, I held one out for him and he just took it from my hand and put it in his mouth! And he looks like he's going to start crawling any day now. He's up on his hands and feet rocking back and forth, and scooting. Its kind of funny to watch, he's so cute! But he is growing up so fast...

And with that thought, I think I will end this first blog. Pray that I learn the ropes of blogging quickly! :)