Our Trip to California

Okay, I vented over the long drive...

Now for the good stuff...

Here are some pictures from our trip.

First of all, the whole reason why we drove down a wedding.

Aaron (Shawn's brother) and Carly. Aren't they cute?!?

It was a beautiful wedding and reception Here's Reagan with her Uncle AaronTarrah, Annie, and I... and yummy food!We stopped by and saw Aunt Bobby, who we missed a ton. The kids were on their best behavior, jumping on her furniture, touching her fragile decorations, running around the living room, and sticking their fingers in her fan... trust me Bobby, it could have been worse. I was able to catch up with Melissa. We even went out without kids! Doesn't she have the cutest belly? Actually, she hardly looks pregnant in this picture. She's expecting a girl in September, yeah! Here's her son, Ethan, and Reagan.... so cute! We enjoyed some California sunshine and went swimming. Ian recently got into the Air Force, and now he's training for the 'Special Forces'. Shawn gave him some pointers on swimming. Good luck, Ian!

And the very best part... the boys got to spend time with their cousins. These boys could not be separated. Jefferson is already looking forward to going home at Christmas. Riding in Grandpa's new tractorSleepover. Ben was dying to spend the night with Jefferson. They actually fell asleep, amazing!Reagan and her cousin TavenWe had so much fun. The week just wasn't long enough!

NEVER AGAIN!

I thought you might be interested to see some pictures from our trip to California this last week. So, here you go. Yep, this is what we saw for 12 hours. Oh, and there are more... many many more. I took 103 pictures total, all truck rear ends! Yes, it is true, people travel 12 hours OR MORE all the time. Some people even travel across the country....amazing! What makes our trip different from others is what is located in the back seat of our car..... Here's our back seat, empty. Yes, it is possible to fit 3 car seats in the backseat. Now imagine those car seats filled.... with 3 very tired, moody, needy, whinny children for 12 hours.... and you have just imagined our trip. Warning... I'm going to start complaining! It was a worthy sacrifice, we were going to Aaron's (Shawn's brother) wedding. But it didn't seem worth it around Medford (about half way). Reagan had an explosive diaper which we stopped to change. The restroom didn't have a changing table and I wasn't about to lay her on the ground. So, I held her in the air with one arm while I changed her single-handily trying to dodge any poop that might get on my clothes (I was successful by the way). I gave her a sucker to keep her calm which ended up knotted in my hair. She was so messy I had to bathe her in the sink. All of this is in the view of several people coming in to use the bathroom, embarrassing (and probably socially inappropriate)! Of course, our suitcase is lodged in the trunk with so much other stuff that we can't get it open to get her a change of clothes.

That wasn't the worst....

We're driving when we smell something horrible. At first we think it's farmland, it must be the cows. But then we realize that the smell isn't going away. I look to the back seat... "Did someone poop?!?!?!" (My tone was outraged because this was right after the Reagan incident). Grant says "I did!" Okay, simple, we'll just have to pull over again, change him quickly then be on our way. What Grant neglected to tell us is that he decided to take his diaper off (who knows when?). He literally 'pooped his pants'! I just shake my head. You can imagine what I went through with that one..... again, no clothes to change into.

It was an adventure to say the least! Grant has uncontrollable tantrums and wakes nightly at home. Now, strap him into a carseat and try to calm him down... impossible. All right... I'll stop complaining now. We had a great week with the family, which outweighs the drive (sort of). I don't think it's so much the 12 hour drive. I think it's the close proximity to each other. Tantrums, screaming baby, moody mom, sleepy dad, and a chatty preschooler crammed in a 6' by 7' square. Give me one of these and I don't think I'd be complaining! I could drive it any day!

Graduation Day

Jefferson graduated preschool last night. I couldn't believe it. He went to preschool last year, but this year is different because now he's actually going to Kindergarten. We were so blessed to be able to send him to a Christian preschool, with a help from my mom. It was so worth it! He flourished! He learned so much from this preschool, not just ABC's, but about manners and gospel principles too. It has been such a joy watching our little boy become a big boy this last year. He is SO ready for Kindergarten!!
The day of the graduation, he was so excited he couldn't stop talking about it. Which makes sense! The ceremony was adorable. The kids marched in through a door on the stage. Jefferson spotted us and started waving... and didn't stop waving. He was actually LEAPING across the stage he was so thrilled. To see our child this happy just made our entire bodies fill with joy, it is indescribable. And this was just preschool. The feelings are just going to intensify from here! I can't imagine how I'll feel when he wins at sports, graduates highschool, goes on a mission, GETS MARRIED!
My camera broke 2 days ago so I had to borrow one from a friend. These pictures didn't turn out like I had hoped, but anyway... Here are some pictures of Jefferson ECSTATIC!!! He's actually on his tippy-toes in this picture. He can't contain his happiness, I LOVE IT!Here is his after receiving his diploma. The kids were supposed to stand near the teachers and pose for a picture. But Jefferson couldn't stand still. He ran back to Shawn and I to show us his achievement. There was a celebration afterwards with the families. It was sad for us to look around and see Grandparents and other family members, while we just had our little family there. I am still getting used to this distance from family :-(
During the year the kids got to take a teddy bear home and spend the week with them. This is a picture of Jefferson's poster about his week with "Tea Time Teddy." Jefferson is standing next to two ribbons. The blue one was his height when he started preschool. The red ribbon is his height right now. Here is his with his teachers, Miss Kandy and Miss Kim. They are both the sweetest ladies, and I am thankful for their influence in Jefferson's life this past year. I can't say enough about how must Jefferson has changed this last year. He has really become a pleasant little guy. He carries on conversations very well and talks my ears off most days. His is thoughtful towards others, especially his family (Reagan mostly). He has a huge heart! He has learned to write his first and last name and recognizes all the letters in the alphabet (we're still working on the sounds). His teachers comment on how social/talkative he is in class. She told us how he likes to entertain the other kids with stories and songs which make the kids laugh.

One cute thing. As I was driving, I heard the boys talking in the back seat. Jefferson said to Grant, "Did you know that when I look at one thing I can see everything else around it. Like when I look at that car (points), I can see the other cars around it, even though I'm not looking at them. I don't know how my eyes do that, but they do. I must have some very special eyes to be able to see everything." SO CUTE!

Day at the beach

Shawn was hired back at CSK Auto for the Summer, thankfully. But they never scheduled him to work, for almost 2 weeks! It was great for me and the kids because we got to spend a ton of time with him, but hard because we did need money (I just hate money, a whole 'nother topic). Anyways, on the day before he started work, we took a trip to Seaside. It was a beautiful day, a little windy though. The beach is only a little over an hour away, we LOVE IT! It was almost completely empty, we had the beach to ourselves, lovely! Here's Grant, standing alone on the beach, see, no one there, just our stroller in the background. I did bring shorts for the boys, but they didn't get put on in time. Jefferson got completely drenched. This crazy boy was running into the frigid water like it was a 100 degree Summer day. It didn't seem to bother him. Jefferson's favorite thing to do is to throw his toy boat into the water and catch it as the waves wash it onto the shore. Here's a video. I love how he puts both his hands up in order to "stop" the water from coming further, hilarious.

Our family is completely divided whenever we go to the beach. Jefferson and Shawn spend most of the time right next to the water. Grant, Reagan, and I stick to the sand. We have to bribe Jefferson to come away from the water. Obviously I can't take the kids to the beach by myself! Grant isn't interested in the water at all, he feels saver on shore, for sure.

The beach we went to had swing sets in the sand, SO COOL! Luckily, there were so few people there that day because Reagan was all over the place. She was chasing seagulls and walking every which way. I'm sure she was enjoying the freedom, and we didn't mind. Jefferson is more protective of her, though, and was always worried that she was traveling too far away. So, he took it upon himself to track her down and carry her back. It sort of became a game.

Shawn, enjoying not having any responsibilities or upcoming tests.

Grant spent all his time working on sand castles for his knights. He takes this work very seriously. He arranges the "Good Knights" around the "Good castle" and the "Bad Knights" around the "bad castle". Then they battle. The good knights always win, and they bury the bad knights in the sand. I think we may have left some hidden knights in the sand as we were leaving. Grant couldn't remember where they were all buried.

Jefferson took these pictures of Shawn and I.

I thought this one actually turned out looking pretty cool.

It was an awesome day. We found out that Seaside is where Lewis and Clark ended their expedition, pretty cool. We got ice cream for 75 cents a scoop, even cooler. We had an entire loaf of bread stolen by seagulls. The kids got a huge collection of broken sea shells. We stopped by a shop that had 170 flavors of salt water taffy. And we had tons and tons of fun!

I LOVE SANDY TOES!Here's a cute video of what Reagan has to put up with, daily. She's a pretty tough girl!

Recent projects

This last semester of school, Shawn had been staying up until almost midnight every night, he's crazy I know. Even crazier is that I stayed up with him, doing projects. What's sad is that he's out of school and doesn't stay up as late anymore, so I haven't been doing anything. But I was able to finish these off recently.

Reagan's quilt. Out of nowhere we decided to take down her crib and put her into her toddler bed, at 15 months old. It didn't faze her at all. We got her ready for bed as usual and told her to "climb in bed" and she did exactly what we asked and went right to sleep, AMAZING! Well, this meant I just had to make her a quilt for the bed.... I followed THIS PATTERN online for a baby pinwheel quilt, but adjusted the dimensions to fit the toddler bed. She started to play with it after I put it on, so she must like it :-)Two special moms got these table runners for Mother's Day (sadly I wasn't one of them). Maybe Reagan will make me one for Mother's Day some year in the far off future. For this table runner I used THIS PATTERN. I really do love the modabakeshop. They have the darn cutest patterns and explain them so well!
This quilting thing is so much fun! Love it! I have more stuff in the works, but like I said... not much time to do it anymore. This is my new passion, so sorry if I keep posting about my projects. I seriously need a sewing buddy!