April

A flower for sissy.

We are loving the spring sunshine!

This is why I get hit or kicked in the face if she sleep with me.....

Mommy and Daddy had a weekend away!!

It brought out our goofiness....

And reminded us that after 11 plus years of marriage we still like each other ;)

The garden is ready! 

Jaxon loves Sierra's trike!

He also loves her pink sunglasses.

Sierra and I went to a birthday party for her cousin in Portland.

We were late but the second we got there she ran in and joined the group!

Matching aprons for Easter Egg dying.

Happy Easter!

Our Zoey girl turned 15 this month!  She's almost deaf and has slowed down A LOT, but we hope she is around for a few more years!

Spring!  We've seen sun!  Oh happy day!  The kids have loved being able to frolic around outside.  And for the first time since Sierra was born, I'm actually able to get some stuff done outside!  Jaxon is old enough to not eat dog poop, or mud soup, or fall on absolutely everything, so while they are cooking up some lovely inedible concoction, I weed the nearest flower bed, or wash the nearest window.  It's glorious!  I sitll cannot let Jaxon out of my site or he'll take off on his own down the driveway, but I don't have to carry him around or hold his hand every second either.  We are all enjoying our freedom, even if it's only for 10 minutes at a time.  Sierra is also old enough that I can let her go outside for a few minutes before Jaxon and I head out, or come in a little bit later.  She knows she just has to stay near a window so that I can peek out at her frequently.  My babies are growing up so fast!

Jesse and I took a trip to the coast (Garibaldi) for the weekend by ourselves this month!  Jaxon caught a cold a few days before we left so I was really paranoid about leaving him, but he did great with his Grandma Shelly and PopPop.  I ended up getting sick the very first night of our weekend away, but it was a pretty mild cold and we really enjoyed our time together.  We went on a hike to a waterfall, went to garage sales, enjoyed samples at the Cheese Factory without a single worry about nap time!  Again, glorious!

We had a very low key Easter this year.  We didn't go to any egg hunts or do much of anything except with our family.  The kids both loved finding eggs in our yard and enjoyed a few pieces of candy.  We still had some Halloween candy left from trick or treating (yah, my kids are not big candy eaters) and a few pieces of that may have found their way into the Easter eggs.  That may be wrong on lots of levels, but it didn't seem to bother the kids.  :)

The day before Easter, Sierra, GG, and I drove up to Portland together to go to a Frozen themed birthday party.  It was at a dance studio and part of the party was dance lessons.  We were about 30 minutes late and all the kids were already lined up and dancing but Sierra didn't even stop to take her shoes off and she ran right up beside the birthday girl and started to dance.  I LOVE that about her!  I was/am not like that at all.  She had fun, made new friends, and got to sing along to her favorite Frozen song.  Quite a busy day!  She passed out on the ride home which I will admit made the drive much quieter.

We are looking forward to the warm months ahead and planting the garden is right around the corner!

March

Sierra wants to have a sleepover with her Grandmas and get sparkly tattoos!

Futon vacuuming day = an hour of fun.

"Mommy!  There's sunshine coming in through the window!  Do you want to lay in it with me?"

Sierra learned to roll her tongue!  She was beyond excited.

She's also excited that she is getting close to turning 5, which means she gets to go to school. 

Sunshine!

Sierra's first fishing trip!  She caught two beautiful trout on her pink fishing pole :)  Daddy and Pop Pop had as much fun as she did!

New toy that Jess purchased on Craigslist.

I wasn't real excited about it, but they sure have had a blast!

Her outfit of choice.  Luckily we didn't venture out on this day.  She sure is something!

SO excited that Aunt Amy came to visit during Spring Break!

Serious concentration.

Jaxon already tries to play tackle football. 

Sierra was thrilled that Jaxon let her dress him up!

Sierra's favorite thing to draw - kitties.

After the horrendous February cough, we were well in March!  The sun came out a few times and we got to play outside too.  Hooray!  Jaxon had his 2 year well baby checkup and weighs in at 29.5lbs and is 35.5 inches tall.  He's met all his developmental milestones right on time and is way ahead of the game in the fact that he knows all of his letters and numbers.  What are the appropriate 2 year old milestones?  Well, he likes to yell and throw, he jumps and his feet actually leave the ground and is learning to catch.  He doesn't like to share with his sissy anymore and he's learned to blow bubbles but sometimes eats a little bit of the soap.  He's a pro at block stacking, can scoot on Sierra's scooter, doesn't like to pedal his tricycle but scoots around on it too.  He still wears a diaper to bed, but does well on the potty during waking hours.  He still sometimes waits until the last minute to tell me needs to go, so I do a little less laundry if I take him every once in a while. 

Sierra is ready for school!  How can it be?  I had to fill out the paperwork to apply for kindergarten at our local charter school.  It is on a lottery basis and even though we are miles down the road, she didn't "win".  I'm feeling devastated because it was a very small class, close to home, and only half a day.  Now I'm trying to figure out where to send her.  Part of me wants to keep her home for another year since she will be one of the youngest in her class, but she is ready.  I'm trying to be. 

We are on the Philomath/Corvallis line so our options are between Philomath and Adams Elementary in Corvallis.  Philomath is closer, and where Jesse and I graduated from, but I just want to do the best thing for her.  I still am not sure I know exactly what that is.  Being the social child she is, I'm sure she will be fine wherever she goes.  But this will be the first time she has ever been away from me on a regular basis, and I want to send her somewhere that builds her up and creates a love of learning.  I realize a large part of schooling is also parental involvement at home.  She will have that, but I'm hoping to find a teacher that helps her soar.  I don't necessarily mean excel in school, but to continue to be the confident, social, kind child that she is.  Prayers would be appreciated!

February

I tried everything I could think of to get rid of this poor girls cough :(

We didn't have power most of Jaxon's actual birthday and he was sick too.  Instead of cake he had a bowl of whipped cream.  That was all that I could muster.

Sierra's Valentine to her daddy

A few days after Jaxon's birthday we celebrated with an ice cream cake

Snow!  Sierra was finally starting to feel better and spent about 30 mins out in the snow.

She didn't enjoy it at all.

When all was said and done we had about 18 inches.

Jaxon's birthday party consisted of our family and grandparents

My sweet baker!

Fun times!  It's the perfect time of year for a swimming suit too.

Zoey had an injured paw for about a week.  Sierra was very concerned and gave her lots of love!

Oh winter!  Why must you treat us like this?  Sierra, Jaxon, and I all caught a miserable chest cold right off of the bat this month.  Sierra had the worst cough we've ever had in this house!  There were several days where I swear she didn't even have a 2 minute break from coughing.  She spent about 5 nights in our bed because she would wake up coughing and not be able to stop and sometimes throw up.  It was horrid.  Jaxon waited until Sierra's first night in her own bed before he started coughing and ended up in our bed.  I felt crummy myself and it was a miserable couple of weeks. 

Also during this time we got snow.  The most snow that I can remember in my lifetime.  And it was COLD.  We were sick so we hadn't really planned on going anywhere, but it's nice to have a clear road to drive your child to the Dr if you need to.  We ended up losing power for about 5 hours the day before Jaxon's birthday but it came back on and I started to do dishes and plan dinner when it went out again.  This time we had a feeling it would be all night, so we packed up, had the chains on our car, and headed to Jesse's parents to stay the night with power.  It took us over an hour to get there (usually takes less than 15 minutes).  On the way Jesse had to call 911 because a downed power line had caught a tree on fire and sparks were flying on the side of the road.  Yikes!  We went a different way and made it.  The kids handled the drive very well even though it was dinner time and they were hungry.

Jaxon ended up being super sick on the day of his birthday and we didn't have power come back on until after the kids took their nap.  So he didn't get a very special dinner, and I didn't make a cake.  The popcicles in the freezer were melted and so I ended up giving him a bowl of whipped cream.  I felt terrible but he called it ice cream and took "big bites".  Poor boy was sick, didn't get a party, and got whipped cream for his birthday.  Luckily he's only 2 and will not have memories of the day.  We did celebrate several days later with his grandparents.  

After his cold, Jaxon has been terrible about going to bed.  He's always been such a good boy about bedtime.  He was only 7 or 8 months old when we started putting him in his bed and he would go to sleep on his own.  Staying asleep through the whole night is another story, but he's always been so good about going to bed.  But after this cold, it would take up to 2 hours some nights to get him to go to sleep.  If I tried to put him in his crib and leave he would scream.  After several weeks of this, Jesse had success putting him to bed without a fit, and so I made him do it for the next 10 days or so before I tried again.   He was extra clingy before his nap too and I had to make sure he was VERY asleep before putting him in his bed or he would wake up and cry when I put him in bed.  I have no idea if it had something to do with his cold or the fact that he turned 2.  Whatever it is, we are still trying to get back to normal.

Some of Jaxon's new phrases are "I scared."  "Let's see."  "What you doing?"  and if you ask him how or what he is doing he says, "I don't know."  He sings along to songs on the radio and is starting to successfully connect dots to make letters (L, T, I, H, letters with straight lines).  

Sierra also struggled after being sick with sleeping in her own bed.  She enjoyed the safety that sleeping with mommy and daddy brings.  So we had to send her back into her room many times when she started getting better.  It's been exhausting!  

At the end of the month we took Sierra to her very first movie at the theater!  We watched Frozen.  Sierra still takes an hour nap most days but can go without.  The movie ended up being during her nap time, so she was kind of sleepy and spent half of it on my lap instead of in her chair.  But we all had fun and she slept really good that night.  It has felt like a LONG month but Spring is coming!