The month of August

It's been so long I can hardly remember what E was doing two months ago. I do know that he got his first two teeth (July 28th & August 1st).

He started hanging on the gate located in the background, and banging on it like a monkey lcoked in a cage.

We got to take a trip to the beach house.

He got to build sandcastles with daddy. And get his first mouthful of sand. Here's the pic right before the dive head first into the sand.

John and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary at Patrick David's.

Seeing as Justin & Yuan shared our reception, we thought it would be fun to have them come celebrate with us. Then of course we couldn't leave out Jared & Shannon too, so we made a party of it. I think it was the first time John and I had a date night as Grandma watched E. It might have been our first date since he was born...And E also started driving around with a little walker everywhere he could go. And would pretty regularly get mad when things got in his way.

What have you been doing?!

THIS....

So this summer my dad, REX, came to visit and help us with (READ: practically do everything involved with) remodeling our bathroom. He spent two weeks here and we were able to demolish the entire bathroom, add insulation throughout the attic (making the upstairs once more a much more pleasing environment), put in a new whirlpool tub (ahhhhh), fancy tile work, new plugs and switchplates, move our lighting fixture and add a new one, paint (twice, I didn't like the first color, it made it look like you entered inside a cardboard box), tiled the floor, new cabinets, and put in the granite (actually someone else put this in, we're not that crazy).

Behold Before:

During:

And AFTER:

So see that fancy business on the base of the tub. That part was AAAAAALL me. You may close your mouth now. We still need to put up a mirror and the towel bars, but if I waited until that was done, you may never get to see our hard work. Until then, little man has to wait until we're in department stores to check himself out in the mirror.

Double your pleasure

Word on the street is this one is now over 17 lbs. p.s. he's only 2 months old

Owen

My nephew. Born on July 6th. He's going to be such a charmer.

Family Fotos

My dear friend Liz gave me the great honor of taking our Family portraits before hightailing it to AZ. We will forever be grateful. Family schamily. I still can't believe she left me. Who needs a 9000 square foot house anyway?

Onto the main delight. Of course E was the star of the show. Now you may see what a little gem we have (as if you didn't know already). We took these at the Shadelands rose gardens right at dusk.

And yes, I know that John's head is cut off in this one, but really, is his hair all that interesting? Use your imagination and plug it in. Liz is also highly entertaining, so we really were all laughing in this one.

I think this one could very well be found hanging on our living room wall someday. That is of course, when we have time to do pleasant things like decorate the house. We prefer to do the demolishing...more on that next time.

E loves giving his mommas kisses. And from the looks of it, he is definitely all boy. I don't think girls could be this rough at 10 months. It's a good thing he doesn't have any teeth yet.

The Kai Man

So my brother sent a few more pics of his new baby boy Kai, and they were so cute, I just had to share.

Fun in the Sun

I know I know! Three posts this month already. I'm on fire.

E and I decided to take advantage of Pammie's neighborhood pool this weekend. The summer seems to be flying by and we only have so long before she moves to Provo. (on a sidenote: She got into BYU and got a scholarship -- way to go Pammie!). So Jared, Shannon, Henry, Pammie, E and I all spent the afternoon enjoying the sun's rays.

E is taking after daddy in so many ways...

E took to the life jacket like I've never seen a baby. He just kicked back and paddled himself all the way around the toddler pool. He even threw a little fit when I tried to get him to sit up with me again. This boy loves the outdoors, especially the water.

Portland!

The beginning of this month John, E, and I headed off to Portland to satisfy many needs/wants. First off, we got to meet our newest little nephew, Kai. My younger brother, Justin, and his wife, Yuan, had Kai just last month. So we got to come see him only 4 weeks old and John got to participate in the baby blessing. It was awesome!

Secondly we got to visit with my sister and her fam. Always a joy to see her and Mark and of course the darling duo, Maddie and Timmy.

Third we got to celebrate many-a-birthdays! Yuan's birthday was the 6th, mine, the 7th, and Justin's the 11th (as well as E turning 9 months old on the 8th).

And last off all, we needed some much time off. I actually convinced John to take a day off of work! Hooray! I did such good convincing that we got to go for four days! Luckily he has a guy working for him now so he didn't have to close the shop. All in all, this was a much needed vacation and John even got to do a little fishing.

So there is a place there called Horning's Hideout, which, by the way, John says he wants to retire and own a place just like it. It's a small pond/lake that has little mini-docks and a place to rent the poles and see wild peacocks and basically just get to enjoy the day without all the hassle of carting all your own junk there. Oh yeah, and did I say that the lake is stocked so I have a little better chance of getting a fish, which usually makes for a happier girl.
While we were there we tried out my sister's backpack for little man. Oh did he love it. I don't think he stopped grinning the whole time he was in it. And that's without any naps, so that really is saying something.

And only once did E almost pitch into the lake. Not bad.

E didn't even mind it when daddy had to get the hook out.

The proud fisherman/woman. John and I caught a grand total of 11. John also caught the biggest fish of the day. With Timmy a close second. Timmy, mind you, just turned three, however it was just heavy competition. He has a cars fishing pole. Don't mess.

John, thankfully, cleaned all of our fish. Actually my sister helped. I was in charge of the photodocumention and could not get my hands in on the grime, saldy. Luckily there were instructions on site. Please note the use of the phrase, "poop hole." Don't you see why John wants to retire here?

E also particpated in the action.Then we went back to Jami and Mark's to enjoy our catch of the day smoke on cedar planks.The aforementioned Maddie who kicked our trash at Wii bowling. And we weren't even being nice. This kid can bowl. This game she didn't even have any open frames. All strikes and spares. E had a few firsts while we were there. One of which was pulling himself to stand up. And then even letting go, so he could play with Timmy's car.
We went on a fantastic walk to the nearest park where E had his first try in the swing.
Here we are just having a little mommy time.on the way back he fell asleep in the backpack.And our sweet little Asian babe -- Mr. Kai, and proud little Yuan. Thank you fam for such an excellent vacation. Can we do it again next month?

The haps of May...

Yes, a-post-a-month-Tara is my new nickname. At least I'm consistent. And really, that only rarely happens in my life.

And in the showcase today we have one fantastic new set of shoes. Bought and paid for by yours truly. Can you not see what a dream come true these shoes are? I mean besides the worn-in kind of comfort from day one that you would expect from a pair of house slippers, these beauts seem to bring on the sunshine whenever I where them. I think of summer, lemonade, butter, sunshine, Popsicles, and all things good. In fact, I think I wore them everyday this entire month. Which is hard to say about just any shoe. I'm quite pleased with my little pockets of pleasure.
Here is the little mini dreamboat on his 8-month birthday. Seriously who could get tired of this grin? I know I only post happy pictures (which will be remedied in just a matter of moments, but I won't give that away...) This kids just keeps getting cuter. This month was full of a lot of firsts. E can sit up from a crawling position. He now uses a sippy cup with setup. He sleeps in his crib for his naptime (before he would only sleep in mommy & daddy's bed for naptime).
First mother's day. Well as a mom I should say. I technically wasn't a mom last year because E was just a mini fetus, actually I think we found out he had boy parts about a year ago, so he was a little bigger than mini, but anyway. If the government doesn't give me a tax rebate for being pregnant, or letting me ride the carpool lane because I'm pregnant, than I don't think you can count mother's day then either.
E had his first cheerios, which I did in fact video tape, but it had a somewhat anti-climactic ending, what with all of them ending up on the floor. He managed to get one in his mouth and then shook his head "no" and spit it out. I call it a success though. At least he can say "no" now.

Here is a big first. E is now creeping. Not crawling, but more inching along. And don't let him fool you for a second in these videos it's more of a sauntering along. At our house, on the even ground this guy can cover some distance.

I clocked him going 20 feet per minute on the carpet.


E also got his first haircut, given by daddy(5/27). We opted for using the beard trimmers. After much discussion we both were putting money on the fact that should we use scissors, E would be one eye short going through the rest of life, and we decided that wasn't good odds.

* please note no babies were harmed during the making of this video. Nor were they maimed.

E was just being a little dramatic and by the end of the haircut he seemed to be warming up to the beard trimmers after all. I think he was just sad to lose his surfer locks. Me too buddy. Me too. Daddy was just getting concerned about the soon-to-be mullet look you were heading for.

It's all a matter of distraction.

And for the grand finale. As promised. The little cricket himself. If I could figure out how to do it, I would put this video to the music of Billy Joel's "We didn't start the fire." Also if you listen very carefully, you can hear my "grandpa laugh" in full force. It's worth it.