Mothers Day

Hello all! I had a wonderful Mothers Day. We got up early (well we get up early everyday, my kids don't like to sleep in!) and went to the beach. This may seem odd to some, but this was the first time we took the kids to the beach. We have a pool in the backyard, why pack up everything and go to the beach? Anyways, the kids had a blast! As did Mike and I! The bonus was they took great naps!

We started burying their feet...
then went from the waist down! They thought it was great!

As of Easter, Jake no longer goes to soccer. We were just done with the pain it caused. He talked about it all the time, how much he liked it and how fun it was. When we got there he refused to go on the field or even pay attention to the game. He would wander the fields. He just didn't care about the game. What he did care about was the snack after the game. We think this is what kept him there in the first place. So we now have snacks at the house on Saturdays instead of at the soccer field!

Jake has been very testy, defiant, stubborn...(you name it) lately. We decided to implement a drastic discipline approach, and it is working!! He has been really good lately! We are so proud of him for doing well, and our sanity is as well! He wouldn't pick up a bowl I asked him to, and I told him I was going to take away his toys then he came over and picked up the bowl right away. He took the VERY long way to the sink, but the bowl made it there. Before he would have just screamed and ran away. Progress.

Jake's latest love is monster trucks. Mike has taken him to a couple of monster truck shows and he loves them. We got a monster truck video at the library the other day and he asks to watch it 1oo times a day.

He has been so good we have even planned a weekend in Disney in 2 weeks. That has got to be one of the best parts of living in Florida. We are 2.5 hrs from Orlando. We can go up there whenever we want. Mike loves Orlando and Disney even more than the kids do so we end up going quite a bit.

He wanted to be swaddled like a baby one day.

Princess Ashlyn on the other hand is coming into her own! Her favorite word is "no." When she says it she tilts her head to the said and uses a really sweet and mater of fact voice. She is starting to learn what time-out is. She is into hitting. Jake rarely says anything about it, we usually catch her in the act. If she is not hitting him or us, she is hitting herself. Jake use to do that too. She does learn from Jake, but I don't think she is going to be as stubborn as him.

She always picks the shoes she wants to wear. I say great pick!

I found her hiding in the closet one day.
Does it get any cuter?

These are the headphones that we go Jake to go the the monster truck show. She thought they were great!
She was ready to go with Jake's school bag and crooked sunglasses!

Latest happenings

I am trying to update weekly, but our computer got a virus and was in the shop for 5 days. You don't realize how often you use the computer until it is gone. I am glad we got it back!



Jake had a soccer game Saturday. Not much different. We go to the field just before the game started. He was actually on the field when the game started, but only lasted about 30 seconds then promptly put himself on the bench for the rest of the game. We think he continues to come to the game and stay because he knows at the end of the game he will get a treat and a juice! My parents (Jake calls them YaYa and Paul Paul) are coming in town this weekend. Jake is so excited that YaYa is going to come to his game (Paul Paul and Mike have plans). I asked him if he was going to play and he said "nope!" Not sure how my mom is going to watch him play if he doesn't go on the field. He has team and individual pictures as well on Saturday so that should be a treat too.



Mike is DYING to go to Disney (I think we go for him, not the kids!) and I refuse to go...because Jake is being so bad! He is just being so defiant, not listening, talking back...you name it. We are trying everything, but he continues to try our patience!



Jake does have good times too. Every day when Mike gets home Jake runs to him and says "Daddy, Daddy I missed you so much!" It is the cutest thing! He is constantly telling me the things I do for him are "so sweet of me" and when Ashlyn does or says something he says "Great job Ashlyn!" in a very energetic supportive tone. He is always great at school. I get NOTHING but positive feedback from the teachers. I tell them not to let the cute face fool them!



As rotten as Jake is being Ashlyn is being equally as sweet. She is just a happy, loving, smiley little girl. Her hair is growing out and I can put it in pig tails! VERY cute! She is talking up a storm. She is also starting to climb on everything. I was getting dinner ready the other night and she is behind me saying "eat eat eat," I didn't look back I just said "I know, dinner will be ready in a minute." In a very calm, like nothing was going on voice, Jake says "Ashlyn is up there." I turn around to find Ashlyn has climbed up her high chair and is trying to climb onto the counter! Jake was never a climber so this is all new to me.



Ashlyn is such a cuddle bug. If you sit down she has to sit on your lap. If you lay down she had to sit on you. When I get home she runs up to me screaming and laughing. I pick her up an she hugs me and puts her head on my shoulder. She is quite the lover. She had grown so much lately. I am trying to hold on to my little baby, but I fear she is long gone.

I will update soon with pictures.

Soccer, week 2 - Getting better all the time!

Week 2 of soccer was this weekend. We weren't even sure if Jake was going to go. Friday he was coughing all day long. No runny nose, no fever, just a dry cough. Saturday he woke up and the cough was gone...but he barely had a voice. We immediately thought he couldn't play today. As the day went on, he acted fine, no coughing, said he felt fine just didn't have a voice. We figured why not, lets go.

We have been talking about soccer all week long. We practiced in the front yard and he seemed to be liking it. On the way to the field he even seemed (should I say it...) somewhat excited. We got to the field and the practice had just started. Jake grabbed him ball and went right out on the field and started kicking the ball! Mike and I were in total shock. We couldn't get him on the field let alone kick a ball! This was great. He kicked the ball around the whole field during practice. When I say the whole field, I mean through the other team practicing, around the back side of the goal, through his own team practicing. He never really joined any of the kids on his team to practice, but he got out there and kicked the ball. Once practice was over all the balls had to come off the field except for the game ball. He came off the field with his ball. I think he lost interested when he didn't have his own ball. That was the last time on the field, but he got out there. Much better than last week. Next week should (hopefully) be better than this one. Here are a few pictures and videos from the game.

Here is Jake doing his best David Beckham pose before the game.

He was actually out on the field kicking the ball!

Jake on the bench during the game with Mike.

The assistant coach trying to get Jake out on the field. He started to walk out there, but decided against it.

We played Aidan's team. Aidan and Jake go way back. Aidan's mom, Lucinda, Aidan's team mom. This is Jake walking through the other teams practice to go talk to Lucinda!

Here is Jake practicing on the field!

Aidan, as Jake, has yet to make it on the field. This is a great video of the two friends playing soccer together. (Aidan is the one laying on the ground in the video!!) I hope you like it Lucinda!! :-)

Soccer...oh what fun it was!

This is how preparations for soccer started. I DREADED putting shin guards on. He loves them! I think great, this should be go well then. Please keep reading...



We get to the field. Problem #1: You have to walk past the playground to get to the field. Problem #2: For opening day the soccer league got 2 bounce houses, they set them up right next to the field Jake was playing at. Problem #3: Jake.

He didn't want to take off the shirt he wore to the field to put on his jersey. He wanted to play on the playground. He wanted to play on the bounce house. It pretty much went down hill from here. Practice starts, and he just screams and cries and wants to sit with us. We get him out on the filed (with one of us) to meet his coaches.


That was the longest he was on the field. He came back over to us crying, so we took him back on the field. He stood in the middle of the field while the other kids practiced. See next two pictures...

He wouldn't do anything that involved the soccer ball. He sat on the bench the entire time the game was going on except for about 2 minutes when he walked across the field (while the game was going on) telling us he didn't want to play. While he was doing this the ball did hit his foot, so technically he got to play in the game. Please continue down for a great picture of Jake on the bench (he is in the middle of the two ladies on the bench) with the team mom and a comical video of him.

Hopefully next week will be better.

Happy 3rd Birthday Jake!

Jake's birthday party was a hit! There were load of people there (we never seem to be able to have a "small" party.) If you know Jake at all, you know the theme of the party was Cars! Here are a few shots from the party.

Love this picture!

Notice where Jake is in this picture. Notice what Jake is doing. Notice that there are other kids opening his presents. Once Jake opened the second present and found a Mater book, all he wanted to do was read the book. He didn't even care that I was letting the other kids open his presents! Another kid would open it, I would hold it up and say Jake, he would look up, smile or say something like cool, then look back down at his book! What can I say, he likes to read!

Just being silly

Jake and cousin Kaden relaxing before the party.

Can anyone say update??

Wow, has it really been almost 4+ months. I have a post I created for Ashlyn's birthday and when I was adding pictures I realized I deleted ALL the pictures I took from her birthday. I was so pissed about it, I didn't even look to finish the post. Anyways, it's finally finished. On to now...

Things are moving right along here. I am still working part-time at Mike's office. It is going well, believe it or not. We don't work together a lot so I think that helps! We moved to a bigger office at the beginning of February, and things are starting to gear up for the company.

Jake just celebrated his third birthday. (I will make a separate post for that) He is such a big boy. He has full on conversations with you. He tries to negotiate everything. I say "2 more minutes and we are going inside", he says "how about five." He sure knows what he wants. He talks so much now and repeats so may random things. It is so funny. The other day he said "mommy, guess what?" I said "what?" He said "Chicken butt!" and laughed!! I have NEVER said that to him before. I asked him where he heard it and he said "from Goofy!" I couldn't even blame it on a kid in his class, he got it from a show I let him watch! It is so cute how he is getting a sense of humor. I will give him a drink or a snack and he says "mommy is that for me? Oh, that is so sweet of me" He is such a little lover. He gives Ashlyn a kiss before bed and nap everyday. Most of the time I night I ask if he wants to give her a kiss and he says "No, I want to give her 2 kisses" He is just a sweetheart.

We signed him up for soccer. His first game is Saturday. We have really been talking it up to him. We got him a ball and have been reading books about soccer. I was not looking forward to getting him shin guards. I went and got them last night and tried them on him this morning and he liked them! I was so happy that we didn't have to battle about that. I will be sure to post pictures and movies of his first game. The game lasts a total of 30 minutes. They play 10 minutes, have a 10 minute break, and play 10 more minutes! I hope he enjoys it.

Ashlyn is just crazy. She is a happy, loud, crazy, smiley girl. She ADORES Jake and everything about him. She loves cars and trucks, but isn't afraid to wear cute shoes, rockin sunglasses and her hair in a pony. She actually LOVES shoes. She will bring you random shoes throughout the day to put on. Sometimes they are hers and sometimes they are Jake's. She could care less whose they are, she just wants them on. Jake has a pair of cowboy boots that he outgrew. I colored all the thread in them pink and glued rhinestones on them for her. She thinks she is hot stuff. She wakes up in the morning so happy. You get her out of the crib and put her down. She runs into the living room and yells "HI, HELLO" with the biggest, cheesiest grin ever!

Ashlyn is talking up a storm. She says dada (a lot), moma (not a lot), Jakie, shoe, bird, ball, car...I can't even think of everything she says. She makes all sorts of animal noises, which is pretty funny sounding.

She is never far from Jake. She really is a pain to him sometimes, but she just wants to do what he is doing. She still SCREAMS all the time. I can't wait until she really can talk and hopefully the screaming thing will stop. Jake doesn't help the situation either, because he just screams back at her!

I am going to upload some random picks from the last 4 months. I will be back to add some movie too.

The first few are from out last trip to Disney in December.

They both had these 8 inch popsicles. I think Jake looked forward to going to the parks so he could get a popsicle.

Ashlyn and I were outside playing. I was sitting taking some pictures of her. She came up and tackled me and started makes faces at me! She is too funny!

This is the face we get in the morning.

How sweet is he!

They love to do things together!

Ashlyn got this hat for Christmas. I wasn't sure how much she would get to wear it. She loves it so much, she puts it on when it is like 80 out. Thanks Aunt Donna for the hat!

Happy Birthday Ashlyn!

November 7th was Ashlyn's First Birthday! She is such a spunky kid. She had hit every milestone 10 times faster than Jake and continually impresses me with her ability to do things. She wants to be right by Jake and do everything he is doing. She loves to read and dance. Dora and Blue's Clues are some of her favorite shows. She is a horrible napper (always has been) and a verocious eater. She knows what she wants and will let you know. She has been walking so long she can now run (pretty fast) and walk backwards. She doesn't like to hold hands and walk, only likes to run free like the free spirit she is! She is happy as long as she is not hungry or tired and always willing to give you a hug, well if she is in the mood! I can't believe she is a year old already.