Best Saturday

We had a perfect Saturday (April 12th). The weather was great for playing outside.

It started early, like every other day. Sawyer wanted to learn to ride his pedal bike. That took 5 minutes, and he was so proud of himself. It was awesome. He is awesome. I blogged about it here.

Then we decided to go buy chicks! There is a strange Florida law that you have to buy at least 6, so now we own 6 cute little chickees! It was kind of on a whim, so for now during the day they are living in a turtle sandbox in our backyard and in a cardboard box with heat lamp on our porch at night.

We then worked on projects. I sanded and painted a cute little table for the boys. And George worked on a chair we've been upcycling. When I'm brave enough to try upholstering, it might get finished :)  I loved spending time with my family. They are the best.

Here are some photos of the chickens. They are HUGE now. We got two each of the following: Silver Campine, Cornish Rocks, Pullets.

There they are!!

Sawyer holding Alfredo

Meet Nugget

And the rest of their names are Little, Giblet, and Pedro (we almost stuck to a theme, but Pedro slipped in there somehow). And you'll notice there are only 5 names. We think a hawk may have gotten one of the little yellow ones, after only having them for a day :(

Dido came to Florida for a couple weeks - he helped George build a coop. They built it out of pallets. Handy and thrifty!

The boys testing out the coop.

Every morning the boys help me let the chicks out and feed and water them. It's fun and helping them learn. Win-win.

Jack's Golden Birthday!

"Happy Birthday to MY birthday!!" He sang this to himself all day. When I asked him how old he was he kept saying either 1 or 3 laughing and teasing me, not willing to ever say 2...he still won't. Little stinker. He's been such a sweet boy these last two years and has been my little snuggle bug. The past couple weeks I've seen a little more naughty come through. Purposely teasing Sawyer and being defiant to directions from mom or papa. It's funny he used to call us "mapa" when both of us were around, and now he's resorted to using that only for papa.

Jack 2-year-old Stats

Height: 35 1/4"

Weight: 29 lbs.

Head Circ: 49 cm

I tried to do a little birthday interview with him and was semi-successful. I think the 'real' interviews will have to start when they turn 3 and up. Here's what I got from him this year though:

How old are you? '1' (I said no, you're 2!) Then he replied '3!'

What is your name? ME! (I said, Jack?) and he nodded yes.

Where do you live? Florida

When is your birthday? Today

What do you want to be when you grow up? 'My water, my grow up.'

Who is in your family? 'Jesus, me, you'

What do you like to eat? Cereal

Favorite

Color: Green

Toy: Train

Song: Twinkle Star

Animal: Bear

Book: Train

What does papa do for work? 'Work helicopter!'

What does mom do for work? 'Helicopters!'

Lots of other questions asked, but turns out interviews bore 2-year-olds.  

Jack has never really liked cake, so this year I made him an ice cream cake. It went over well, obviously the train candles did too :)

Family!

Birthday activities included leaping onto the lovesac. There goes Jack! He's a daredevil like his older brother.

We had a pleasant day and I think Jack enjoyed himself. It just so happened that our friends from Cedar were driving through on Jack's birthday so we got to celebrate with Jake and Dax too!

I also wanted to record a few things that my handsome 2-year-old is up to these days...

He LOVES dogs. He has the cutest little giggle/laugh thing he does when he gets a food/treat he especially loves, like ice cream. I need to catch it on camera. He's a sly child. He's patient and persistent. He's content for the most part. This kid LOVES to get read to and to look through books on his own. No adult will be left alone if they are sitting down. Jack will be there with a book saying 'Read it please?'

Look who unloaded the bookshelf...again. We've (kind of) convinced him to get one at a time now.

Probably one of his favorite presents - a shovel!

He still loves my hair. It's semi-torturous for me because he's always grabbing it and pulling on it. He also is sucking on that bottom lip still. He's a light sleeper like me (unfortunately). If you turn on a light or make a peep it will usually wake him up. Plus he doesn't transfer well from his car seat. And he's been able to climb out of his crib and playpen since he was 17 months so it's been a test of patience (still is) to get him to stay in bed. He'll come in to our bedroom at least a couple times throughout the night and want to get in bed with us. Since that means him pulling my hair and kicking George in the face, just this week we decided we wouldn't let him in our bed until 7 a.m. So when he comes in our room in the middle of the night we tell him he needs to go back to his bed. He actually does. It's so nice.

A family shot, obviously Jack was cooperating.

This is what happens when you take too long to start reading a book. Somehow he got both legs and a book into one of my hair ties. Impressive, haha!

Testing out the giant sand feet at the zoo.

I started this post the beginning of April. I'm happy to report he now transfers well when sleeping! It's so nice because it seems like he frequently falls asleep in his car seat. He just graduated swimming again this year. He took a refresher course and is confident in the water doing the swim-float-swim sequence. It's so fun to watch him!

He does the cutest copycat. Whenever I say 'That's what I'm talking about!' He repeats it, perfect accent and all. 

He decided he wants to use the potty this week too! I wasn't really ready, but unofficially started up and his first day he got the important one in the pot!

He loves his older brother and for the most part they get along well. If Sawyer is sleeping, Jack has a hard time leaving him alone for too long because he wants to play with him.

Passed out, barely hanging on to the couch.

Hanging out in the tree. He's a climber.

I hadn't even put them in their swim gear because it was a cool day and I didn't think they'd get in the water...wrong! They had so much fun playing with each other.

A fun day at the beach before it got too hot.

This was during a phase where he refused to nap - fell asleep on our 6 p.m. walk.

Jack loves to wear hats and glasses. He put on the goggles all by himself before he got busy sawing the cardboard box.

Jack's version of smiling for the camera. They like to play and picnic up in their tree fort.

Whenever Jack hears a motorcycle, he runs outside yelling PAPA. So happy papa is home from work :)

Yes we did. We ALL hopped on the motorcycle for a ride around the block. Haha!

We love this little guy SO much and are thankful he's part of our family!

Kishe ne Shqiperi

I still feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to serve a mission in Albania from July 2003 through January 2005 for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The church is growing, and in March the first stake was organized in Albania. Here is a great video that was put together. Listening to everyone speak Albanian is music to my ears, and of course it was wonderful to see so many I know in the video. O Shqiperi!

My Diagnosis

As many of you know I have been ill with flu-like symptoms since December. Consisting of nausea/vomiting/aches/sleep issues/overactive bladder/lack of desire to elevate heart rate/etc.etc. Well I went to the doctor last week and was diagnosed as being 'with child'. We also found out Baby Bates #3 is a boy! We're more than halfway there, less than 20 weeks to go. We're so excited to have this little guy in our family. He's bound to be cute (and rambunctious) like his older brothers. They're very excited about 'Koala'...baby #3's 'pre-name' courtesy of Sawyer.

We found out the morning we were leaving to drive to Colorado for Christmas (December 20th). I surprised George by quickly hanging another stocking up with the pregnancy stick poking out.

Not to be a 'Debbie Downer', but pregnancy is awful. I've never liked it. Yes it's a miracle, but I'm always amazed at just how terrible something so miraculous can feel. Zofran has helped. I actually went two weeks without throwing up, and then lost it again last week, dang it. But overall I've felt quite a bit better the past couple weeks. The nausea comes in waves instead of being constant. I was very blessed to spend most of January in Colorado surrounded by wonderful family that played with the boys and cooked. My sister, Abbie, made fresh loaves of sourdough bread almost every day. Toasted sourdough bread with honey. Mmmm.

I have my concerns about surviving a Florida summer while pregnant. Not sure if we'll be able to afford our power bill since I already have the a/c going...it was almost 90 one day and I was dying of heat stroke! Heaven help me.

The u/s tech kept commenting how cute he is and kept hitting print, haha.

Stretching out his long legs.

Here is his sweet face.

Ummm first time taking a 'selfie'. Awkward, ha! Documenting 20 weeks with #3

So excited for our cute little guy to be joining us the end of August. Due date is August 29, but according to the ultrasound could be August 19th. I'm planning on September just to be on the safe side.

Sawyer's Big News

We had such a fun Saturday. It started bright and early with Sawyer's big accomplishment of learning how to ride a bike! He's been great on his balance bike for about a year now. I picked up a pedal bike for him and the transition was a breeze. I still can't believe how fast he took off. We're so happy for him, and he's quite pleased himself :) He's not even 3.5-years-old yet...always amazing me! This makes him even more fast and mobile now. I'm in trouble!

Sawyer is BIG time now.

A quick pre-biking interview.

There he goes!!