A Birthday and a Babe

Today is Jeremy's birthday, and yes, he is a babe! Have you seen him lately?! Well I haven't either, but he was sure a babe when he left town for Arizona! Anyway, the babe I was referring to was our babe, Jordan. I'll get back to him in a minute.

Jeremy is 33 today. Happy Birthday! I wish we could spend it with him. We will have a party for him when he gets home. He thinks they will be done next Friday, then he will drive home, which would put him in Vancouver Saturday night, maybe Sunday the 5th. He will be home a week then off to another job. Either Tri-Cities or Texas this time. It will be a good week. We are looking forward to spending time with Dad AND my sister and her kids will also be in town visiting!

Back to Jordan. He is 7 1/2 months old and only 15lbs. 6oz. and 27.5" long. He is still long and lean. The other two boys were the same length, but almost 18lbs at 6 months. He actually dropped down in the charts, so I've been trying to feed him a little more. He has been burning a lot of calories lately army crawling all over the house! He still tries to get on all fours, but ends up on this tummy. Just today he has started going from an army crawl position to sitting up! I see him crawling around, then the next thing I know, he is sitting up! He is also pulling himself up on things to this knees. Maybe he will be like his Dad and walk at 9 months! I hope he doesn't figure it out that quick. He also got his first two teeth on the bottom. They both came in at the same time. You can kind of see them here:


Here are some more pics of the Babe...

I think my lens was dirty here, but I thought the cheerio in his mouth was funny :)


This was his first time sitting in a highchair at a restaurant. He loved it!


Here is a video of Jordan crawling on all fours in the grass. I don't he wanted to get on his tummy in the grass...

This Man...

This man is many things....

This man is a friend, uncle, brother and a son...


This man is a husband...


This man is a college graduate...


This man is a U.S. Marine, who joined looking like this...

...and now looks like this...


This man is brave and strong. This man loves his country. This man is a veteran who fought for his country. This man is willing to sacrifice his life to protect you and me, his family and his children.


This man is a leader...


This man is a HERO...


In our house, this man is our very own super hero who saved the world.

This man is a hard worker, who knows how to build or fix anything...


This man is a jack of all trades...


This man is an amazing cook. This man can do dishes and laundry...

This man has at least 8 tattoos...


This man has big, strong hands...


This man works hard to provide for his family. This man sacrifices for his family. This man loves Jesus.

This man...is a FATHER...


This man is ADORED by his children...


This man is my man, the father of my children. The boys and I can't get enough of him and miss him terribly when he is gone.

Happy Fathers Day Jeremy! We love you SO MUCH! Thanks for being the best husband and father you can be. Thank you for working so hard for us. Our life is so much better with you in it.



~~~~~~~~~~~~
Happy Fathers Day to the other two men in my life...

MY Father, the most selfless person I know, who taught me so much and supports me in everything I do...



and Father-in-law. Love you both!

~Happy Birthday Ashton~

3 YEARS ago I pushed for nearly 3 HOURS before our sweet Ashton was born, and man was it worth it!

Ashton is the middle of three boys. He is the middle child just like me. Surrounded by siblings of the same sex. He is lucky to be the middle child I think. Having older AND younger siblings.

Ashton is so passionate about life. He is up for anything and always so excited about it. I hope you never loose that passion and excitement. I hope the world does not damper that.

Ashton is a typical newly 3 year old who wants to do everything himself - "My do it!" He is strong willed and does everything on HIS terms. Including using the toilet. He is still in diapers full time. He loves his brothers and ever since Jordan starting 'crawling' around he can't get enough of him.

Ashton loves his Daddy. He is always so excited to see him, even if it is for the 5th time that day. When Dad is gone he is still always thinking of him and making sure one side of his pillow is left free for Daddy at snuggle time.

Our Ashton is one of a kind and we are so blessed to be his parents. He turned 3 on June 19th. We had a birthday party for him on the 13th so that Jeremy could be here to help celebrate before he left town again for work (it will be one week so far on Sunday).

I love this picture of Ashton and I because I feel like I never get pictures of myself with the kids because I'm always the one taking the pictures. He is so cute. He has the squishiest cheeks I just love to kiss them! Many times I get this reaction: "No, don't kiss me!" Sometimes I just look at him with his red hair, pure blue eyes and milky white skin and can't believe how beautiful he is. He is not a big snuggler, so when he is up for a good snuggle I cherish ever minute of it.

Since we already had his birthday 'party', I still wanted to do something fun on his actual birthday. I stole a great idea from my friend Elizabeth and took Ashton and Kevin on the Amtrak train to Portland. We have watched the trains down at the train station MANY times, but never rode on a 'real' train before. It was a great adventure...

The horn on the train was pretty loud!

The real life conductor punched our tickets just like they did on the Polar Express movie!

Getting cozy. It was so quiet on the train. I think everyone on the train had been on it all night and were still waking up. I felt like we had to be really quiet. The man in front of us even moved seats so he didn't have to be near two excited little boys. He must have not gotten a good nights sleep :{

Union Station in Portland was just a few blocks away from Jamison Square park in the Pearl district. We had a couple hours before our returning train ride, so we walked there for some fun. (another great idea from Elizabeth). I knew there was water there, but didn't know how much. I intended to bring a dry pair of pants for the boys just in case, but I of course forgot. So we rolled up the shorts and I tried to encourage them to not get TOO wet since I didn't have a change of clothes for them. Yeah right, that waterfall is so fun I wish I could have gotten in it! I did roll up my pants and got my feet wet however. As you can see below, they started out with good intentions, but ended up fully submerged in water. It was one of those moments where I had to just let go and realize they would survive, even if they had to go home in wet clothes. Sometimes you just have to let go. Let your children be children. And let go yourself! That is something I hope I can continue to get better at.

After their 'swim' they climbed around the sculpture and we played a little soccer...

Before heading back to the train we stopped at a near by coffee shop for a treat...

We ended the day by going to Red Robin for dinner with both sets of grandparents. The preschool gives the kids a free kids milkshake there for their birthday, so it was a good excuse to do something fun and different for his birthday dinner.

Happy Birthday Sweet Ashton!

Now stop growing, because I know I'm going to miss this sweet little toddler face when you are all grown up!

I will leave you with this cute video of Ashton when he was first walking at 13 months old. I just love those squeaky shoes! I can't believe this will be Jordan in 6 short months!