Happy Birthday Todd

Happy Birthday to Todd. It's a really busy time of the month for Todd so we didn't get to do anything really big for Todd's birthday but we had fun together as a family on Saturday and then on his real birthday we had all of his favorite things to eat, including his new favorite of berry and rhubarb pie. We also celebrated a little that evening and watched a movie together. In honor of his birthday we did a daddy quiz where I asked Hailee 31 questions about her daddy.

1. What is something daddy always says to you?
I love you

2. What makes daddy happy?
When I give him hugs and kisses.

3. What makes daddy sad?
I don't know.

4. How does your daddy make you laugh?
When he surprises me.

5. What was your daddy like as a child?
He liked to watch transformers.

6. How old is your daddy?
Thirteen. You know mom a 1 and a 3. (He's actually 31)

7. How tall is your daddy?
About 20 (She said she is 10 so I guess that is about right, twice as tall as her)

8. What is his favorite thing to do?
Play with me.

9. What does your daddy do when you're not around?
Work.

10. If your daddy becomes famous, what will it be for?
Basketball (I don't know that she has ever seen him play basketball, but that is one of thing she wanted to get for his birthday.)

11. What is your daddy really good at?
Soccer

12. What is your daddy not very good at?
Baseball

13. What does your daddy do for a job?
Intel work

14.What is your daddy's favorite food?
Chocolate

15.What makes you proud of your dad?
Getting me food (no idea where this came from....Todd is never in the kitchen)

16. If your daddy were a cartoon character, who would he be?
Prince Charming

17. What do you and your daddy do together?
Cuddle

18. How are you and your daddy the same?
We both like chocolate

19. How are you and your daddy different?
I like ketchup and he doesn't.

20. How do you know your daddy loves you?
He says "I love you" a lot

21. What does your daddy like most about your mom?
She hugs him a lot

22. Where is your daddy's favorite place to go?
Sports places

23. What is your daddy's favorite color?
Red

24. How many kids are in your daddy's family?
Four, because they adopted DJ from Korea

25. Where did your daddy grow up?
Korea (if you can count a mission as growing up I guess she is right)

26. Where is your daddy's favorite place to visit?
The zoo

27. What languages does your daddy speak?
English and something else

28. What is your daddy's favorite music?
The Killers

29. What does your daddy watch on TV?
Soccer

30. What is your daddy's favorite animal?
Horse

31. What is your favorite thing to do together?
Play games

3 months old

...and what a happy 3-months it has been. So far we've had great luck and we haven't had any sickness or any other problems. James has been happy and healthy. He is eating well and for the most part sleeping well. He is learning new things everyday. He is starting to enjoy playing with things other than his dad and sister. He has one particular rattle that he is very fond of. He will laugh for us now and is very ticklish. He always has a ready smile for anyone who talks to him and most of the time is very happy. We have been so blessed to have him in our family, we all adore him.

James getting burped. He always has a smile ready, just not always when I get the camera out.

So far he's kept his blue eyes, although Hailee kept her blue eyes until she was 18 months old, so there is still plenty of time that they can change.

James also has been enjoying tummy time.

James and Dr. Penikas, the doctor who delivered him.

I think he might have dimples on both sides...at least it's starting to look that way.

Mr. Square Eyes

James trying to watch the game.

We have really enjoyed watching the US play in the Confederation cup in South Africa this past week. After just squeaking through the first round the US was set to play Spain. For those of you who don't follow International Soccer, Spain is currently ranked #1 by FIFA and are the reigning European Champions. They are unbeaten in 35 games (they have not lost a game since November 2006) and are on a 15 game winning steak (both of which are records). To say that the US were the underdog was a huge understatement. I sat down Wednesday to watch a bunch of amazing players and was just hoping that the US would play well, fully expecting them not to win. What a huge surprise when they came out and actually scored first the the 24th minute and even more surprising that they hung on to that lead and ended up winning 2-0. Spain out shot the US 29-9, the US's back line and goalie deserve the MVP they were amazing, but the whole team played well together. Now we just have to get through Brazil on Sunday in the final. Should be another good time.

I was making dinner for the first little part and Todd had James in the bouncy seat. He was a little annoyed to not be able to see the game. When I was changing his diaper he moved his head so he could watch. At this age Hailee could have cared less about what was going on the TV, but James is turning out to be quite the square eyes.

Happy Father's Day

We had a fun father's day. Hailee LOVES picking out presents for people and Todd was no exception. The day we were going shopping Hailee was taking a long time to get in the car and I told her that we could just go without her if she didn't want to come....to which she replied "Mom, I am the one that definitely knows what my dad likes." She decided what he needed was Transformers the first season of cartoons. Hailee has loved watching it with him. I imagine she doesn't watch it quite like a little boy would. Instead of comments about the fighting or cars or whatever else little boys would think are cool, she makes comments like "Megatron has the best angry face and the cutest little cheeks." Too funny. They watch an episode or two at night before bed. Hailee was really excited when I had a meeting last night because she got to watch as many as she wanted. Todd has been busy with work so he tries to find little ways to spend time with the kids during the week. Transformers has been a good time with Hailee and I'm sure James will love it soon enough.

Besides the important things in life (i.e., family, church....) there aren't many things Todd enjoys more than a Men's National team Soccer game. This past week the USMNT has been playing in the Confederations Cup in South Africa. Sunday they were playing their last game of the first round and after loosing so badly to Italy and Brazil there was such a small chance they would be moving on to the next round. But the biggest surprise was they won 3-0 to Egypt and Italy lost to Brazil 3-0 which just barley put them into the next round. It was a fun Father's Day activity and even better that the US had a good game. Hailee loves watching and even James kept turning around to watch, we love spending time together as a family watching soccer. It's been nice having DVR so we can record them and watch them together.

In other Todd news, he's started doing gentamicin treatment that seems to be helping. After surgery he still has a little bit of balance in his bad ear. For the most part it's been okay, but still troublesome at times. This new treatment should take care of that. After the first injection he had some balance problems, but not vertigo, so it seems like it's doing what it's suppose to.

Other than the ear issues Todd is doing great. We can't believe we've been here almost 10 months now. Work is going well and he is enjoying what he does and the people he works with. It keeps him busy, but it's been really good experience for him and in the evenings he can work from home, so it doesn't seem too bad for us. He gets to be around in the evening and Hailee enjoys chatting his ear off while he works. (Boy can she chat someone's ear off.) I hope Todd never doubts how much his kids love him, they just can't get enough of spending time with him.

Strawberries

A friend invited us to go strawberry picking the other day. Todd had a doctors appointment so we got there a little late, but it was still a good time. Hailee and I ended up picking seven pounds of strawberries. It sure seemed like a lot while we were there, but once we got home and Hailee figured out how to wash them so she could eat them there aren't a lot left. I did get some stored away in the freezer, but I think we need to go at least one more time before they are done. This time I think we'll try to pick more and for $1 a pound you can't really beat the price. I am looking forward to making jam and I want to try to make syrup this year as well.




Baby James was super pleasant. I really can't complain at all about this little guy. First we drag him all the way to Portland for Todd's doctors appointment then off to the berry patches where he just sat happily in his stroller. We are looking forward to the rest of berry season.... blackberries, raspberries and blueberries, I can't wait.

Little kidlets

The other day I was in my room getting ready for the day when I hear an excited Hailee telling me she just found a new game to play with James. I came out to discover the new game. Hailee dangles her hair in front of James and he grabs on to it and pulls away. They both thought this was an entertaining game.


James has quickly discovered what it's like to have two girls with him all the time. This was his car seat after running a few errands the other day. He had with him my cell phone, Hailee's cell phone and camera and his own little toy. It's no wonder that when Todd gets home he is so happy to have another guy in the house. As soon as he hears Todd's voice he is moving his head around tying to find him.


Most of the time we have the happiest most content little guy. He rarely cries and is a great little sleeper. I really don't know how we got so lucky with him.


I was recently talking to my Grandma Colleen who had two kids spaced just like I do. She told me that for her kids the first few years were great. Her oldest little girl loved helping and playing with the baby. But then as soon as she got older and the baby got older and was wanting to tag along everywhere then things got crazy. So far they are both sweet with each other. We'll she how things are in about 5 years. Hopefully they will stay just as sweet as they are now, but I'm sure they will have their fair share of being annoyed with one another.

The Birthday Girl

Well our little girl is officially five and Todd and I are still trying to recover from our 2 hour birthday party in the park with 12 five year olds. If Hailee could have had her way there would have been 30 kids at the park with her, but we had to limit to her church class and a few friends from preschool.


When the little party guest first showed up we had them decorating their treat bags.

Hailee getting turned around so she could shoot her ball in to the goal.

Next it was game time. Right after her 4-year-old party Hailee decided she wanted to have a soccer party for her 5-year-old party. She never changed her mind so with the help of Dad we came up with some fun party games. The first one was a twist of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey. We blindfolded the kids, spun them around and had them shoot a ball into the goal. The next game was a relay race of kicking the ball back and forth on the two teams. After that it was trying to head a blow-up soccer ball into the goal. Then to finish things off a game of ball-ball-goal instead of duck-duck-goose.

Alex heading the soccer ball into the goal.

For three years in a row now we have had a piñata at Hailee's party. It is getting harder and harder to find a pinata that doesn't have the pull strings. Maybe it's the mexican coming out in me, but pulling a string and seeing if candy comes out is not nearly as fun as whacking a piñata around. The mexican store was the only place I could find one without the pull string and they were just too big for what we were planning. I found this one and decided to try it out with out using the strings. It worked pretty good for a little kid party, I don't think it would have worked for an older group, it wasn't too hard for them to get it open.

After the games and the piñata we ate pizza and blew out the candles. To go along with her soccer part she had to have a soccer ball cake. And of course she wanted her soccer ball to be pink. I decided to try and make the cake myself. After all I told myself it shouldn't be too hard. I bought a ball cake pan and thought things were going to be so easy. At 12:30 am Saturday morning I was seriously regretting my decision. By 2 that morning things were looking better and although the cake didn't look professional it worked for my little girl.

In the end everything went fairly smoothly. The only problem we had was the weather. The last couple of weeks we've had beautiful 80 degree weather. We planned the party from 10:00 to 12:00 because we didn't want it to be too hot. As you can tell by the pictures the warm weather decided to take a break and we got normal Oregon spring weather....cold and cloudy. Other than that things went really smoothly and by the end Todd and I were ready for bed.

Hailee had such a good time with her friends. She has been missing preschool and it was fun to get together with her friends again.

Hailee says....

I just love all the things that Hailee says, here are some of the ones I can remember of recent days.

One day I was in my room after feeding James and we were "talking." Hailee came in and asked what I was doing. I responded, oh I'm just listening to James jabber. To which Hailee said..

Hailee: "Mom, it's called communication. Babies don't know how to say words but they can still communicate. Dogs communicate by barking and wagging their tails. Gorillas communicate by hitting their chest (demonstrating it for me)."

Then on the way home in the car I was telling Todd about our conversation, she told him all about "non-verbal communication." She told him about the dogs and gorillas, but we were both a little confused when she told us about the 'crew-cots'.

Hailee: "...and the crew-cots spread their feathers like this" (demonstrating with a swish of her hands).
Todd: What is a crew cot?
Hailee: You know dad, they spread their feathers like this (demonstrating again with a swish of her hands).

Todd and I were both a little confused as to what a 'crew-cot' was. Luckily after watching her dramatic swishing of her hands for the third time figured out it was a 'peacock.' I think she learned about 'non-verbal communication' from Sid the Science Kid, I am so surprised that she applied it to the way James communicates.


One evening Hailee was talking to Todd. She was following him all around the house telling him the virtues of recycling. This conversation had gone on more than five minutes saying things like, "Dad if we don't recycle the whole world will be filled with garbage." She told him everything we could recycle and how to reuse things. While she was filling him in on everything she knew about recycling (which was quite a lot) he was emptying a package of diapers to the place we keep them and then handed her the plastic wrapper. Then he said "Hailee can you put this in the garbage?" She was so surprised that her dad would ask her to throw something away especially when she had just informed him of the importance of recycling. So she went on to inform him of the importance of recycling to which he would always tease her with "That's nice Hailee, will you put that in the garbage." She continued following him around trying to impress upon his mind how serious of a problem this is. She didn't want the whole world to be covered in garbage. Finally fed up she said "Dad you can recycle cans, bottles, and paper," then shaking the empty plastic diaper package at him said, "THIS IS SOME OF PAPER, IT NEEDS TO BE RECYCLED." By this time Todd couldn't help laughing. Her little speech on recycling was just so funny and she was just so serious.

Day to day

It's the day to day things I don't want to forget 20 years from now when all the kids are gone. We have such sweet times together. They just say and do the cutest little things. Last night Todd had to work late so while we were waiting up so we could go pick him up Hailee decided we needed to have a photo shoot. After she took about a million pictures of her brother and I took a million more of her and her brother she decided we needed all three of us. Well trying to get all three of us in the picture was quite entertaining (at least to us since it was a couple of hours past bedtime). It's weird to me because looking at this picture I can't imagine life without my two little munchkins. I have so much fun with them each day.


I never want to forget these little smiles. I think he has dimples on both sides. Hailee and I just have dimples on one side, but when he smiles really big I think I can see them on both sides.

I think James is getting a little sick. This morning on the way to take Todd to work he sneezed and we hear from the back,, "Mom James has snot on his face." Now Hailee absolutely hates anything that comes out of a nose, even her own nose. She refuses to blow her nose, because she doesn't want anything to come out. She will only use a tissue one time and she will just wipe her nose. Needless to say when she gets a cold we go through boxes and boxes of tissues. So you can imagine the reaction I go when I asked her if there was a tissue in the back. We heard a "No" with a sense of panic and fear. Lucky for her dad could reach back and wipe up James' nose. If it would have happened on the way home she would have had to do it, either that or James would have had to wait until we got home.


On the way back she informed me that James was hungry. When I asked he how she knew he was hungry she told me that he was making his hungry face. I knew exactly what she was talking about, but I was just surprised that she recognized it as well. The she asked me if I was "full." What a funny girl. So we got home and I fed James and she fed her baby. Now James and baby Avery and happy and sleeping. Now it's time for breakfast for Hailee and I.