August

Sometimes when I see her fast asleep and hugging blanky close, I tell myself that she is still a little girl and isn't growing up in front of my eyes.

Camping in the living room!

Sierra's block version of Grandma and Papa's river house.

Camo and a pink baby doll go together quite nicely:)

Sierra's potato harvest

Jaxon loves to draw!

Helping with Daddy's birthday cake

Jaxon  walked right up and stuck his whole hand in the cake.  Then, shocked at the frosting stuck to his hand, proceeded to shake it all over Grandma Shelly and PopPop's carpet.  Nice.

Celebrating Anniversary #11

Tiny "helpers"

They "help" by taking all the clean utensils and drumming with them!  Hey, I was able to finish unloading the dishwasher!

A Portland visit!

Sierra loves the fair!

A friend from High School visited with her two kids.  Sierra and Austin became fast friends!

First time holding a kitten!

Jesse came home and I told him I needed 30 minutes to myself to shower and paint my toes.  This is how it went: Sierra sat on the edge of the shower and asked me every 30 seconds if I was done.  Then, when she saw me get out the nail polish she decided she wanted her toes painted.  After her toes were beautifully painted and dried she bounced on the bed while I tried to paint mine.  That's how my half an hour of "alone time" went.  FYI those are my toes above.  Toe nail painting fail.

Silly!

Such a sweet bubby!

She loved her friends 4 wheeler.  I tried not to have a heart attack!

And we are in training pants.  They may be hand me downs with little flowers  - but still, TRAINING PANTS!

Car work is a family affair.

August was a busy month!  We spent several days at the fair, Sierra and I had an overnight trip to Portland, and we started working on potty training Mr. Jaxon.  He's about a month younger than Sierra was but he was acting ready.  He'd squat down and look at his diaper when he was peeing and would hold his poo until the second we got home from town.  So I started putting him on the potty after his bath and after a couple of days he peed on the potty.  So we just worked on peepee after bath time for the first couple of weeks.  Then one day I put him on the big potty and he pretty much peed every time I put him on it that day.  From that point I felt like there was no turning back!  He doesn't really want anything to do with the little potty, he prefers the big one, and he will go anywhere we go.  At someone else's house, the store, etc.  Poopoo is a different story at this point!  I remember that taking a lot more time with Sierra too.

It's been a big month for Jaxon!  He says "shhh" and holds his little fingers to his lips, says uh oh every time he drops something (whether it was on purpose or by accident), said his first sentence, "there it is", says brrrr, calls Sierra "rerra", and has many other words that he starts using more frequently at the end of the month.  He's also going through a yelling phase and will yell for fun, but also if I tell him no, if Sierra tells him no or takes something away.  I mean yell until his face turns bright red!  He also enjoys doing this in the store because it sounds different.  Shopping is so fun with two!  Whew!

Sierra loved the fair and was such a brave girl this year!  Last year, she was afraid to go on the rides and luckily one of my friends showed up with her kids and they talked Sierra into going on a few rides.  This year she went on them by herself and had a blast!  Amy and Ben came down and we all went on the bumper cars and the big slide.  We ended up staying at the fair until almost 10pm!  It's the latest Sierra has ever stayed up but we all had fun and she was a super good girl (my parents stayed at home with Jaxon and put him to bed).  Jesse worked over 70 hours during fair week, so we didn't see a lot of him at home.

Sierra and I also made the trip to Portland with my parents to visit her Aunties and Uncles this month.  We stayed with Ben and Amy who graciously gave up their bed and slept on an air mattress.  I was super thankful in the middle of the night when Sierra was laying sideways in the bed.  That's manageable in a king bed without getting kicked too many times.  We visited the children's museum the next day and then headed home.  Jaxon and Jesse had some good one on one time without us girls too.

Jesse had some more testing done at the end of July down here in Corvallis with his Gastro and went in on his birthday to get the results.  I was nervous about the appointment being on his birthday.  It would be terrible to get bad news on your birthday.  I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't think about the fact that good news on your birthday would make the day even sweeter.  He did in fact receive excellent news!  All the biopsies they took of his now healthy colon and small intestine showed no signs of Crohn's, cancer, or colitis.  He also tested negative for Celiac's disease.  His chance of having Crohn's now is less than 2 percent.   His Gastro said that everything looked so good that he doesn't even need to come back in five years to be rechecked!  He won't need another colonoscopy until he reaches the normal age for routine ones!  Such wonderful news!  We're slowly getting past the fear and worry of the last year.  What a great thing to celebrate on your 32nd birthday!

A total change in subject but some other big news this month!  Sierra asked Jesus into her heart.  We'd been reading a story and right before her nap she asked to pray.  She said she wanted to be one of God's children forever and wanted him to be a part of her life.  I wish I had written down her exact words.  They were so eloquent for a four year old!  There was no prompting on my part.  We've obviously talked about Jesus a lot, we've read Bible stories, and we pray every night before bed, but this was something she brought up on her own.  I was so proud and inspired by her prayer.  But I'm proud and inspired by her daily and I try to let her know that.  I hope that both of my kids always know how proud I am of them.  I sure am blessed to be their mama!