Summer Days....

...and fun visits to Gram and Grandad's house!

Lovin's With the Goose!

I Need

this very much.

I found it on another blog I stalk and fell madly in love, and am considering buying it for my boys! Well, ok, mostly for me, but they can use it occasionally. :)

They both love music so much, and we often snuggle to one mellow CD in particular at nap time, so I think this will be a hit! Go listen to a few clips and let me know what you think!

Stuff

The First 7 Pictures Were Taken By the Amazing
Kells-a-Bells and Her Fantastic iPhone!!!
Thanks Kells-ee!

Yep, this coastal weather certainly seems to agree with me--
I only get prettier!
Stand back, lusty men...

Brian and Kelli came to visit...
Brian fits Byron's trike better than Byron does!

Beach baby LOVED seeing his favorite Auntie
and Uncle!!!!

He even helped Barney fill a bottle with
sand and Pacific Ocean for Eva!
(Brian's girlfriend)

-Beach Baby Yoga Part 2-

Who needs Bumbo?
Bury him in the sand and you're good to go!

And the best part?
It's ONE SIZE FITS ALL!!!

My sweet little boy has taken up an obsession with painting!
He and Teacher Debbie at school paint their hands and give each other
high-fives, a game he continually forces on her! :)

I love that he's really getting into artsy stuff--I always loved drawing, painting, coloring, all that stuff as a kid, so it's been a bummer the past few years that I couldn't get him interested. All he ever wanted to do was draw on himself with marker or chew the crayons and spit crayon-chunks all over the table/floor. Now he loves to color!!! So of course, we ran out and bought him some water colors and finger paints, and he's gone to town!

This rotten kid just gets more and more stubborn and ornery every day...
but he still melts my heart!!! Unfortunately, he knows it.

Byron loves pretending to "read" books to Ayden.
He is the only person who Ayden will hold still for to "read" a book
(Ayden still tears books right out of my hands and flips the pages like a wild man)



Wade is back at academy for 6 more weeks, and I'm already feeling his absence!!! I love our new home and everything about it, but I'm definitely missing the advantage of being able to walk outside and have good friends living on all sides of me! Not to mention packing up and driving out to Mom and Dad's house for the evening whenever I feel like it! *sigh*

Byron is a freakin' chatter box these days, to the point where I find myself thinking, "Will that kid ever shut his trap?!" Then I want to punch myself in the forehead, seeing as a year and a half ago I was always worrying about his lack of verbal skills at all! It's especially funny to listen to him talk to Ayden or himself. Some conversations or funny sentences I hear are:

"Ok, now where is that silver car? Oh! There it is. Naughty silver car."
"Ayden, hush! Be good boy. Ready to be good boy? Ok!"
"Chicken says 'bock-bock'. Rooster says 'Cocka-doodle-doo! Like Gramma says" (two funny things about his: he pronounces it "Say's" instead of "says" and the "Gramma says" part is because of a book my mom always reads to him when he's at their house!)
"Ooooh! That's DELICIOUS!"
"Ew, gross, that's so disgusting!"
"No feet on coffee table. No standin' on coffee table. Get owwie."
"Oh, hi! How are you? I'm alright, thank you" (pretending to talk on the phone)

and my own personal favorite:

"I love you VERY VERY much!"

He also does "This Little Piggy", "Patty-cake" and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" with Ayden, he's singing a bunch of new songs (he has always known the tune, but not the words to songs) like the ABC's, Happy Birthday, Stegasaurus Stomp, and much more.

These are all normal things for an almost-four year old to say, but seeing as he was barely talking a year ago, this is a HUGE accomplishment for this smart boy! He's pretty stinking amazing! It's been incredible watching him learn and grow the past few years. It's like he's a whole new kid (though the rotten part is still familiar...he he!). His shyness has definitely improved, where before it could take him hours to warm up to someone (unless we were at home), now it only takes minutes. But no matter what anyone says, the "terrible two's" were nothing compared to the "torturous three's". I keep hearing that 4 is an amazing age, so let's just HOPE AND PRAY! :)

Ayden still copies everything big brother does, down to the way Byron drives his cars and trucks on the coffee table to the way Byron pretends to talk on the phone. He is such a funny little kid! He's copying more sounds as well--right now he's working on "all done" (which just sounds like "ah-dah") and "uh-oh" (sounds like "uh-uh"). He loves giving kisses still, and will just randomly walk up to you and plant a slobbery one on your mouth. He grew in one more tooth, so he has 8 now. He's still not skinny. But he's gorgeous!

Byron's also come down with a fever today that won't seem to go any lower than 101 (and that's after Motrin; before medicine, it's over 102)--it's starting to make me nervous how often he's been getting sick. Just a few weeks ago, he ran a random fever and threw up all over at Wade's dad and step-mom's house when we stayed a night. It seems like at least once a month this seems to happen, or at least every other month. And it only lasts for a day or two at the most each time. Is this happening to anyone else? Thinking back, Byron has always ran these mysterious fevers throughout the year or gotten sick all of the sudden, but now it seems like it's happening more often. Along with all of his weird food sensitivities and allergies, Wade and I decided we're going to see about finding an allergist to figure out exactly WHAT all he's sensitive to! We can't seem to pinpoint much other than sugar (he is obsessed with sugar, but within half an hour or so of having it, he becomes an angry, untameable, evil beast!), milk, and some breads (the higher "all-wheat", the more his stomach bothers him and he breaks out!). I'm starting to wonder if he has a gluten intolerance or something, but it would suck to have to deal with a gluten-free diet!!! Argh! Next step: quit being indecisive and choose a pediatrician for these kids!

Stuff We've Been Doing...

A whole lot has happened since my last post over a month ago!!!
We’re now officially Oregon Coast dwellers

and we LOVE our new home!!! The house is adorable, the yard in back

and front is HUGE (which is a nice change for my very-outdoorsy little boys!),

our neighbors are rad (Hank and Sue are fabulous! We love you already, if you’re reading this!), and Wade is already back to work. The weather has been unbelievably great almost every day --it's incredible! Our neighbors thanked us for bringing the sun with us ☺ And much to my happiness—thunderstorms! I LOOOOOVE thunder! My amazingly rad parents stayed the first weekend to help get us moved in and settled, and all I have to say about that is this: I have THE best parents ever. Seriously. You all may think that your parents are the best, but you’re wrong. Mine are. I love them and wish they would give up their entire lives in Springfield and move here. Across the street. Please, Mom? Dad? Come on, please?

Byron was zapped right into his new preschool immediately and has adjusted ridiculously well—he thinks he owns the place, and is already more than comfortable telling Teacher Deb “no, thanks” when she utters the forbidden words, “Ok, gym time is over, it’s time to go back to class”. Such a funny, sweet little boy, we are so blessed! After picking him up from school one day, he was trying to convince me that we needed to go to a park. I told him no, that we needed to go home so I could get dinner started. He immediately started yelling, “NO GO HOME! NO GO HOME! Go to NEW house!!!” It made me laugh, because he still wasn’t thinking of our new house as home yet! But he definitely has decided he likes this new house better, so I’m sure it won’t be long…


Wade graduated DPSST on May 22nd

and is already working full-time with his coach and enjoying it immensely—he's been driving the vehicle and managed to get up to over 130mph during a chase, which he promptly had to brag about. He’s so funny, and TOTALLY a guy! Driving that fast would leave me with a wet pair of undies, that’s all I can say. He really likes everyone he works with, which makes me incredibly happy for him, and we’re already invited to two separate bbq’s in the next few weeks! And one of his coworker’s wives has been a HUGE help to me as far as finding doctors for all of our needs—pediatrician, GP, dentist, etc. And she would know: she has quadruplet three year olds! Four of Byron? I can’t even IMAGINE!!!

Future Troops in Training
(or so Wade and his Lieutenant both claim)

Recruit Trooper K and Chunky Tuna Wife
(Good Lord I need to lose at least a quarter of that chubby face)

Wadely had a super long day a week or so ago—he ended up working a 15 hour shift, so when he was getting ready to go to work the next morning, Byron woke up and told him “Stay home, Daddy”. Poor little Byron, he’s got his Daddy’s heart on a string, I think. So Wade promised him a “special treat” when he got home, and that’s what I got to hear about the rest of the day from Byron! Wade goes back to Post-Academy on Father’s Day (ugh) for 6 more weeks, then he graduates at the State Capitol on August 1st (it’s a special graduation since it’s Oregon’s 150th birthday!!). He’s pretty pumped for that—this is THE graduation that he’s proud of, wants his family and friends to come to. So be expecting invitations!

Ayden is now over 13 months old, and he’s hysterical! I love watching him and comparing him to Byron at the same age—they are such different kids! Byron was always so mellow, easy to please, happy to play by himself for a while, and occasionally stubborn (this has all changed since babyhood went bye-bye, believe me). Ayden is incredibly happy and bubbly, but he’s more high-maintenance, sensitive, gets his feelings hurt, wants to do whatever Byron’s doing and gets bored on his own pretty quickly.
He wants to be entertained! But Byron is the perfect big brother for this: he adores Ayden and they love playing together! Chasing around the house, wrestling, playing with cars together, running around outside and popping bubbles, whatever.
And unlike Byron’s simple stubbornness when he was touching something off-limits (when told no, B would give you the “mean face” and slap whatever it was he wasn’t supposed to be touching, then run off), Ayden is more devious. He’ll give me a rotten little half smile and stare at me while he continues doing what he’s not supposed to, daring me to do something about it. He continues doing it repeatedly until I physically remove him or the object! Unfortunately, it’s so cute that I have a hard time doing much other than turning my head and laughing. I know, really effective.

He’s like a little sponge the way he’s picking up on stuff. We have a “shoe basket” by our front door that I keep all of our shoes in so they’re not laying all over the house, and Ayden likes to walk around picking up stray shoes and putting them in the basket all by himself. He likes to clap for himself constantly, and he has decided his “stranger danger” stage is miraculously over. He now waves at everyone non-stop, to the point that people don’t even know how to respond after saying “hi” to him a million times. It cracks me up! And he’s so ridiculously proud. He also digs a good tantrum when I tick him off, which is often, unfortunately. He has now progressed to shrieking at the top of his lungs and slamming his arms against his sides over and over before throwing himself on the floor. He then usually whacks his head or some other body part on the nearest piece of furniture or wall and it turns into real crying. I then have to struggle with whether I should comfort him or not, since it was his own tantrum that produced said injury. This kid is going to be trouble, and I thought Byron was bad!

With Byron learning all these new songs at school, Ayden now has plenty of dancing and singing material during the day. The boy loves to sing and dance, and it cracks Byron up, so Byron’s always singing to him. My boys are an endless source of entertainment for me (even if I occasionally daydream of selling one or both on Craigslist for the highest bidder)!

Wade’s three day weekends give us plenty of time to explore! We decided to head to the beach our first Saturday here (and every subsequent weekend!), and were happy to find it took barely 15 minutes to Bastendorff Beach! We spent a few hours there, enjoying the beautiful weather and letting the kids play in the sand—they have officially become beach babies.
One of my favorite pictures of my sweet boy!

Byron begs to go to the beach every day now! We enjoyed it so much that we decided to go back the next day with an early picnic dinner of fried chicken and biscuits. The boys were over-joyed! Byron’s still a little nervous about the water (which is more than fine by me, Miss Paranoia), but Ayden ISN’T! He would walk right into the water, then promptly lose his balance and fall in. And never mind swimming trunks or a diaper—as soon as sand got in his clothes, he got pissy until we let him be naked.
Then, and ONLY then, was Ayden free!

Both kids loved chasing the black birds and seagulls, and Ayden decided that sand tastes fantastic. Literally, he wouldn’t stop eating it and would scream at Wade or me if we tried to make him stop. So he’s had a few inner exfoliation-type poopy diapers, but it doesn’t seem to bug him!

Needless to say, the beach is going to be a big favorite of ours on the weekends! At least until the weather turns back to normal *cold* Oregon coast weather. We drove as far as Sunset beach and the flower gardens beyond, and have decided the gardens are definitely going to be a future day trip soon! When my little sis and big brother came to visit, we went to Sunset beach for a few hours, which was nice. The water is extremely glassy and calm there, and the beach's whole set-up is definitely geared toward families. So it was busy, but definitely nice!


So, to end this loooong post, we are settled in. We LOVE it here already, I’m actually figuring out where things are ON MY OWN (I am, in fact, directionally challenged), and even though I miss my family and all of our good friends, I already can’t imagine NOT living here!

Pictures Galore!

Two new posts, with an unbelievable amount of pictures! Sorry, all! Ayden's birthday and then his birthday PARTY!!! Hope you enjoy!!! More posts to come in regards to the latest antics in the life of Byron and baby brother Ayden! :)

Ayden's First Birthday PARTY!

The Invitation!

The cake!

The Party Table and Grammy's house!

Mooooooo!

My precious Birthday Boy!

He melts my heart.
No child should be so beautiful.

And then there's this one.
How did I end up with TWO ridiculously gorgeous babies?!

Two Gramma's Making Him Smile,
With a very Chunky-looking Mama Looking On.
Remind me never to wear that sweater again--bad idea.

Opening presents!

Singling out his favorite chick in
the midst of all the party guests!
And her kind, non-jealous husband :)

Getting help blowing out the candle from Brother.

Ooooooh! CAKE!

MMmmmm! Num num num num...

Hm? What? Were you talking to me?
Sorry. Busy.

Grubby mits. Not nearly as messy when
the cake is decorated with fondant frosting!

A chat with Uncle Matt.
Does he want my cake?

Grandad and Byron blowing on the wind mill!
I just thought that was too cute!

Finally getting the chance to play on his new toy...
big brother and cousins took it for a long test drive!

Just about partied out...

Baby Cakes is ONE!!!

How did it go by so fast?!

Pictures of Big Guy's day ARE FINALLY HERE!!!

A Documentary.
Very official-like.

8:14am
First Diaper Change of the Day

8:45am
Breakfast

9:29am
Lovin's on His Favorite Chick

10:43am
Happy Birthday Phone Call From Aunt Kells

12:48pm
Playing with first birthday gift of the day,
Thank you Steph(an)ie!

12:52pm
Really enjoying birthday gift from Stephie!

1:14pm
Naptime for Birthday Boy

3:23pm
Enjoying the sunshine after a good nap!

3:44pm
Goodbye lovin's forced upon a reluctant just-woken Dallen

4:41pm
Birthday kisses from big brother Byron!

6:53pm
Happy to see Daddy!

6:56pm
Happy that Daddy drove all the way home
from Salem to spend a few hours with me
on my first birthday!

7:44pm
Daddy gave me my first cup of OJ
and my first icecream Sunday!

7:55pm
Saying goodbye to Daddy again
so he can (reluctantly) head back to Academy.
Daddy wanted to stay with me and Byron and Mama!

8:13pm

Officially tuckered out.
Being ONE is a whole new level of grown-up!

*Side note: Ayden decided a mere 4 days before his birthday that it was time to give up this crawling business and settle on that walking thing that the big kids do. That is, when he's not in a hurry to be somewhere. Then, of course, it's only natural that he should drop to all fours. But only when he's in a hurry. Only then.