Random Picture

 

Apparently the morning sun was just a little bright for Emily while she was eating breakfast. Birthday pictures coming soon!!

Best Buds

 

Brady loves to sit (or lay) on the back porch with Ranger. I think they sit there and dream about the day when we'll have a real yard :)

Sometimes this is how I feel

Poor Brady!

We had a great day at the park yesterday, which got even better when a nice family and their Boxer dog showed up. While chasing the friendly dog (I think that will be our next dog) Brady and Emily discovered a mud puddle. Then the inevitable happened.....



15 baby wipes later Brady was semi-cleaned up and chilled in his diaper for the walk home. Thank goodness for our wierd heat waves that give us 80 degree days in November! P.S. Thank you to our personal paparazzi Heidi who captures these great moments for us!

Farm Days

This weekend Brady went to his cousins 2nd birthday party and he had so much fun. It was a barnyard theme, which is pretty easy to do when you pretty much live on one! All of the kids wore little cowboy hats and bandana things (don't know what they're called) and it was adorable. Brady had fun chasing the goats around, but his favorite part was when they brought the horse out for the kids to ride. He had so much fun and wasn't even scared a bit. When he was riding he kept saying "Wee-haw!" Thanks for the fun party Erin & Travis!

 

 

 

 

Tagged

tagged...
10 years ago I...
1. Was running cross country in high school
2. Started dating Jon
3. had a tan
4. Got my braces off
5. Was just loving being in high school

Things on my "to do" list...
1. Clean up the kitchen
2. Fold laundry
3. Go through Brady's clothes to give away
4. Take a nap (I'm allowed to, I work nights!)
5. Whatever Brady wants to do (This will end up being #1)

Snacks I enjoy...
1. Fresh fruit
2. Sour granny smith apples with peanut butter
3. Original Ruffles with ranch dip
4. Cold cereal
5. Graham crackers with vanilla frosting

If I were a millionare I would...
1. Buy a house
2. Hire a full time cook
3. Travel a lot
4. Buy Jon his dream car
5. quit my job and volunteer/work for the Red Cross

Places I have been...
1. Sydney, Australia
2. Niagra Falls
3. New York City
4. Boston
5. Grand Tetons National Park

Jobs I've had...
1. House-cleaner
2. Babysitter
3. Sears sales associate...oh the stories!
4. Bank Teller
5. Registered Nurse

I tag...
Whoever wants to do it!

What's in a name?

I was sitting at the computer tonight looking up the meaning of different baby names. One of our top choices WAS Mallory, until I found out it means ill-omened. I try not to be too superstitious, but since she will be the 13th grandchild in Jon's family, we're still name searching!

I then decided to look up the meaning of my name and was quite elated when I found out Cheryl means "beloved". My head started inflating as I started to tell Jon how wonderful my name was, even though it is mostly held by women over the age of 50. I then looked up his name. Yea, I got knocked off my high-horse real quick as Jon started dancing around the room with glee.

Jonathan means "God's Gift".

IT'S A ..........

We are super excited to be expecting our second baby!! If you couldn't tell by our new pink background, IT'S A GIRL!! She will be making her arrival in the beginning of February.

So for anyone who feels like they were a little in the dark, don't worry you are not alone. We decided from the beginning that we would keep it a secret (from EVERYONE) until we found out the gender. It was hard at the beginning, but then it actually became fun sharing this little secret just between me and Jon. Yes, it was a long hot summer full of lots of throwing up and telling people I was just tired because I work the night shift. All this along with keeping up with my wild monkey Brady, Jon's busy schedule and working full time about did me in, but somehow we survived and everything with the baby is going great.

I (Cheryl) was pretty sure it was a girl from the beginning, mainly because I was throwing up daily since week 5, and I wasn't craving all the salty food like I did with Brady. Jamba Juice has been my best friend this summer, and I think I may have only one flavor left on the menu to try :)

So here are some pics of our little girl....enjoy!

Temper Tantrums

My neighbor and I were talking today about how fast our kids were growing up, yada yada, and also about their changing "behavior". It reminded me of a funny story from a few weeks ago so I thought I would share.

Brady and I were at Wal Mart picking up a few things. He HATES to sit in shopping carts as he would rather turn the store into his own personal maze and run up and down aisles. When Jon is with me it is manageable, as one of us shops while the other one chases. (Can you tell we only have ONE kid??) Well, on this particular trip I was alone and I let Brady stand beside me while I made the life altering decision of what type of shampoo to buy. In the meantime, Brady gravitated to the nasty broom fixed onto one of those pillars.....not a new broom, but one of the store maintenance ones. He proceeded to start pushing it around. So I think, "whatever, he's happy". But then it was time to go and Mr. Janitor FLIPPED OUT when I tried to take the broom away. He started screaming, kicking his legs, and basically went into complete body convulsions as I tried to gather him up. I always told myself that MY kids would be well behaved and I would never be one of those moms carrying their kids out of the store screaming without buying anything. Well my friends, that was me. Cart in one hand, screaming convulsing child in the other. It was so bad I could no longer push the cart and control him, plus there was a long line, and we ended up just leaving without our precious toiletries!!

P.S. His hands were throughly disinfected with hand sanitizer and baby wipes once we got into the car!

Beach Day

"Digging in the sand is hard work, so leave me and my Cheetos alone!!"

 

So we found the most awesome and somewhat undiscovered beach spot that is PERFECT for little kids. It is actually part of the bay. Clear water+ lots of sand+ not crowded= PERFECT!!! I'll have to take more pics next time of the area. Brady had lots of fun digging in the sand.

P.S. Don't try to take the Cheetos away....it's not a pretty sight!

Take me out to the ballgame...

Here are some pics from our adventure to the Padres game a few weeks ago. We only stayed until the 5th inning because we got tired of chasing our little monkey around, and it was past bedtime anyway. :)

Brady on his first trolley ride. He insisted on sitting in his own seat!

 

We enjoyed a highly nutritious meal of nachos and hot dogs...

 

...and Sprite

 

The weather was great! We love San Diego!!

 

Can we say "Toddler Bed"?

I have no words. Nothing surprises me anymore these days. My child has mutated into a monkey. I put him in his crib for 2 minutes in an attempt to pick up the living room really quick without him pulling out everything I was putting away. (I'm sure anyone with small children can relate).

When I walked into his room and found him like this, his precious little baby voice just said, "Hi. Hi.". Of course, being the safety-saavy mom that I am, I left him there for another few seconds so I could grab the camera!!

 

Watermelon Smile

Brady is loving watermelon this summer. Here he is at great-grandma Madsen's house where he ate two whole slices!

 

Sea World

We decided to give the zoo a break this year, and instead we got Sea World passes! We have been having lots of fun and Brady loves it there. However he still doesn't understand why he doesn't get to swim with all of the sea life!


Here he is with one of the horses. He wasn't so sure about it...

He likes them better when there are metal bars separating him from them!

Dad and Brady petting "Rocket"

Dad and Brady with the starfish

This is seriously the look he gave me right before he attepted to jump in! I'm not kidding!!

Little Monkey

Brady has decided that his toy rack is his new jungle gym. He removes (aka throws across the room)the buckets and climbs to the top. Thanks Heidi for bolting it to the wall for me - we knew this day would come!

 

And sits there.

 

Safety first! Good thinking Dad!

 

Children's Pool

We took a little trip to the Children's Pool last week. We decided to stay off the beach in order to avoid being harassed by the "silent" protesters who stand there with their signs like they own the place. Anyway, Brady loved seeing the seals and pointing them out to us. We still got a pretty good look at them from the sea walk.

 

 

 

 

Happy Fathers Day

Happy Fathers day, we love you!

 

Let Freedom Ring

This is the happiest day of Jon's life. Finally, the 3G iphone with GPS has been released, for a price that doesn't rival our rent. Jon has since been resusitated after his heart stopped from pure joy and excitement and is recovering well on the couch, with his laptop, watching the commercial online over and over again. July 11th can't come soon enough.

 

Nursery

Brady went to nursery at church for the first time today and he was SO CUTE! Jon stayed with him the whole time, but I peeked my head in to see him sitting in the front row of the little chairs with a bunch of other kids singing "popcorn popping". He didn't do the hand motions, but he just sat there with those precious big brown eyes staring at everyone.

I am having a hard time with this whole growing up thing! Jon first started trying to help me come to grips with this a few months ago when I wanted to buy this super cute (and very baby-like) outfit made from the softest cotton in baby blue that said "Baby Boy". Jon said "He's not a baby anymore". I replied "If it comes in his size, yes he is!!". He won, and we left without it. Brady since has added ballcaps, converse sneakers and t-shirts (goodbye onesies) to his wardrobe.

Wee Ride

We got this cool bike seat to go on our bikes called a Wee Ride. Our neighbors have one on their beach cruiser, and I took Brady on a ride on it one day and he loved it! I'd never seen anything like it before, but I found one on Amazon.com and now Brady and I go on rides everyday! I like it because he is right in front of me and I feel like he is more secure that way. Our first ride together was in the morning when I got home from work. He was still in his jammies but I didn't care, I was so excited to ride it. We only went down the street though....my balance was not so sharp after being up for 26 hours!!

 

 

Bookworms

 

He doesn't do mornings....

I think this picture captures what Brady's mood is in the mornings.....not so great these days. He usually wakes up relatively happy, until he realizes 5 seconds later that he's gone 10 hours without eating and he is hungry NOW. He then chooses a finger on my hand to dislocate as he attemps to drag my tired rear end out of bed. If the finger doesn't work, he goes for my hair. Smart kid, he knew that would get me up quick!!

 

Goodbye Hair, Hello Summer!!

I've gone back and forth about wanting to cut my hair since it's been long for about 3 years. It's nice to have long hair for the things you can do with it..but lets face it, I RARELY wear it down....it's always in a ponytail and I was just getting bored with it. So I went short again! It's a super cute a-line cut. Now if I can only figure out how to style it as cute as the sylist did.....