We're Still Alive!

So sorry it has been forever since I blogged! I'm finding it hard to find time for this with watching Ian and my two boys part time, two families I babysit for on the side, spending quality time with Victor (it's been sparse lately), keeping my house somewhat clean and livable, having a social life and oh yeah, closing on a house! We are SOO GRATEFUL that Victor's parents are helping us achieve the goal of securing a house!! It is so perfectly ideal for what we want/need in a house and the location is perfect for me being able to keep and watch my boys as well! I have a feeling the next month is going to be very busy!! We have to pack, clean and move out of this house, while also, fixing, painting, cleaning, prepping and moving into the new house! Not to mention Ian's b-day is right at the end of January... it's going to be a a little crazy, but Victor is the one who will be working the hardest. My Mr. Fix it. Right now, my friend Andrea is in town so I'll be occupied having fun with her :) We're headed up to our friend David's cabin to try and find some snow with her.

What has Ian been up to these last few months?? Well, he has finally been going poopie on the potty again, it's not every time, but it's pretty often. He's also learned the colors yellow, green, pink, red, blue, orange, and white. He can recognize the letters A,B and C. He loves to sing songs! He absolutely flips every time he sees Christmas lights! He calls them Christmas tress... I never even taught him what a Christmas tree was! We pulled up to a store one day that had some in their window and he yelled "Christmas Tree!" So weird, but now he knows what snowmen and Santa Claus are too... We took away the binky almost a month ago. He doesn't ask for it anymore, but he sure takes much longer to fall asleep than he used to. Mommy misses it more than he does I think.

My sister, brother in-law and niece came out for Thanksgiving! That was a great visit and I'm happy Ian got to spend some good time with his cousin. I was finally able to talk about my sister's next baby on the way, because she told my parents once she flew out! I'm hoping for a girl!!

Anyhow, I will be posting some picture of Ian and the family from the last month or two in the next week!

Awesome Giveaways!!

Okay so I have to tell you guys about 2 awesome giveaways over at ThriftyNWMom.

The first giveaway is for a chance to win one of 3 $50 safeway giftcards! To enter go HERE.

The second giveaway is for a chance to win a $100 giftcard to the new amazon fresh! To enter go HERE.

Pumpkin Patch

This last Monday Victor and I decided to take Ian to the pumpkin patch by our house. We were told by our neighbor it was fun and had a free petting zoo, so we went to check it out and have a little family time doing something to celebrate the fall season. It was pretty cold, Ian had a red nose most of the time.

I told Ian that morning that we were going to go to the pumpkin patch with Daddy that night and ALL day he kept saying "pumpkie patch" wherever we went and screamed "pumpkin!" every time he saw one. (which there are pumpkins almost everywhere, so he basically screamed pumpkins all day long lol) Needless to say when it was really time to go, he was pretty excited!

When we were actually walking around the pumpkin patch, he didn't really know what to do. I got him to hold one and tried to get him to pick one for himself, but he just kept pointing to all of them and then got bored and wanted to watch the tractors. After we picked a small 2 pounder for him, we headed over to the petting zoo. He really liked it until one of the pigs we were petting tried to eat the rubber handle on his rain boot. He screamed and freaked out a bit, but still went to finish petting the other animals. After that we let him go climb on the hay bales for a while and then we bought his pumpkin and headed home. Enjoy the pics!

Pumpkin Patch

"CHEESE!" Face

I had to post these pictures! Every time Ian sees me with a camera now, he automatically says "cheese!" and makes this face...







He looks like he's in pain in some of them... These cracked me up and I had to post them.

Orca's!

This last Friday, Victor and I decided to go on an overnighter on the boat (before fall and all the rain comes). We launched at Nisqually kind of late so we headed straight to our overnight destination before the sunlight was gone. About 20 min after we took off I noticed a huge fin come out of the water. I instantly thought "shark!", then came to my senses and said no the fin's to tall... "dolphin!". Then I heard them spray water out of their blowhole and I freaked and and screamed "whales!". We were close enough that you could see the black and white on their skin. I rushed to pull out our camera and got them on camera for a few seconds. I was so excited I started shrieking and made Victor chase them for a little bit. ( Even though we were losing daylight) It's pretty rare to find them this far south in the Puget Sound. They migrate south every year, but you have to be in the right place at just the right time. The funniest part to me is that on Memorial Day weekend we went all the way up to the San Juans in hopes to see some Orca's and we end up finding them right here in Lacey. (I say that in the video too lol) I'm horrible at editing, so here's the whole video uncut. The orca's are only in the first 15-20 seconds and the rest is me babbling... Enjoy!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

A New Computer! I'm Back!

Sorry for the last couple months of barely any posts. We've had computer troubles (again) so I was basically computerless until the evenings when Victor would bring home his work laptop. So, I finally coninced Victor that we needed to invest in a new, reliable computer. It took a month or two, but he was nice enough to see why we (especially I) needed one.

Since Becky's gone home, we haven't been up to too much. We've taken the occassional boat trip here and there, but that's about it. We were going to try and do the puyallup fair before it ended this weekend, but I don't think that's going to happen, we've been too busy! My new schedules between Oliver and Maika has taken some adjusting, but I think I'm pretty used to it now.

Ian has been growing in leap and bounds!! On top of his very high vocabulary for his age, he has been going poopie and pee pee on the potty occassionally! I definitely didn't think we'd get an early start on this since he was having so many poopie problems and absolutely hated the idea of being moved or touched when he went to the bathroom. But, he started wanting to sit on the potty like his girlfriend Gabi and his pal Jacob. Since then, he's only been doing better and better. He used to only go pee pee and only when I would ask him if he wanted to use the potty, but one day he got "the look" and I hurried him to the potty to try and poop and he did! He saw how very excited I was (plus he got chocolate milk) and decided this was a good thing. Needless to say, this week has been the biggest success since all 4 of his last bowel movement have been on the potty and the last 3 he has told me before he starts going that he needs to go poopie on the potty! I'm definitely not trying to fully potty train him yet(he's only 20 months), but we're sure on the right road. I'm so proud of him and can't believe how fast he's growing and how smart he's becoming.

Along with all the great things that are coming with him growing up, there are also A LOT more tantrums these days. He has been testing me in almost every way possible some days. This is definitely a challenge for me and my patience, but we are getting through it.

Here are some random pictures from the last month or so. I promise it won't be a month until the next post!

September

Our Summer, Thus Far

So, it's been well over a month since my last post! Sorry! Things have been a little crazy around here. I started watching a 2nd little boy part time in the house and his schedule is a little longer hours and I don't find out his schedule until pretty last minute. Becky came out for a visit in July, we've been boating whenever we have a free weekend, and we finally took Ian on his first zoo trip! Oh yeah, on top of that our computer broke, AC went out (right before a heat wave in the 100's) and my phone broke a few weeks ago and I lost all of my contacts... I can laugh now, but it wasn't so funny when they all kept breaking back to back.

Ian just got over a pretty bad case of croup, he had to get chest x-rays, medications, the whole ten yards. But, he is definitely back to his healthy tantrum throwing self. He still goes back this Thursday to get his lungs checked again.

It's been a busy but fun Summer! Here's some pictures of the last couple months.

Summer '09

Our 4th of July

We had a wonderful 4th of July this last weekend! Victor worked really, really hard to get the boat up and running so we could take our family and friends out. We took both sides of the family out for the amazing air show at the Freedom Fair in Tacoma. There were jets, this amazing trick pilot (he killled his engine a few times and free fell! it was crazy!), a huge B17 and even a harrier jet! Unfortunately, it was like 90 degress out with NO breeze, so we were all baking in the heat. Ian was really cranky because it was past nap time and the heat, but he fell asleep in the cabin with me for about half an hour. When the show was over we took the family back and Grandma and Grandpa Whittaker took Ian overnight! Then we ended up taking a few friends out for the fireworks show. Oh yeah, Victor had some "special explosives" he blew up out in the bay as well... After that, Victor and I stayed overnight on the boat. All in all, it was a great 4th of July. I am so happy to live in America and celebrate such an important holiday in our Nation's histroy!

July 4th '09

Awesome Giveaway!

There is an awesome give away over at Joy's Hope right now for a $25 dollar gift card to A Window Into Whimsy ! They have some amazing handcrafted things over there! She has some beautiful patchwork bags I would love to get like the one below!



You should definitely run over and enter before the deadline comes!!

Shooting Hoops

Ian just got a gift from his Auntie Erin this week. He got his very first basketball hoop! He absolutely loves it! I ask him to show me a slam dunk and he'll go put it through the hoop.
When Victor comes home from work Ian loves play basketball with him. Victor will dribble around and Ian will run around laughing and then say "please" to get the ball back and run it over to the hoop.
Here's a video of him making "slam dunks" on his first day of getting it.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

BBQ Anyone??

Well, if you like BBQ sauce to cook with, grill with or dip your fries in (yes, I love to do that) Then you should head over to Joy Unexplained and enter to win some delicious BBQ sauce! There are tons of ways to gain some extra entries too. I am pretty lazy and entering blog giveaways, but I saw this one and it was too easy not to enter :)

Praise God for Insurance

Well, we heard back from our insurance adjuster on the boat today with an estimate of how much they'll give us to repair the boat. We were really hoping for like $4,500-5,000. He said it will be about (after deductible comes out) $6,491!! Yay!! That will be more than plenty for Victor to get all the parts and do the repairs! Prayers were definitely answered on that one. Thanks for anyone who read this and prayed!

On top of that, I totally forgot to blog about Ian's insurance! Yes, he finally has insurance! Not only that, it is through the state of Washington's DSHS for only $30 a month! We tried a few times last year when we lived in Tacoma to get on the insurance with them and for whatever reason we did not qualify. (Victor made less last summer then he does this summer, how does that work?) As upset as I am that we should have been on this insurance for a year now, I am soooo thrilled that we are on it now! Ian and I have not had medical insurance for 3+ months, scary I know. When Victor started his new job benefits wouldn't kick in for 90 days and on top of that the monthly premiums were almost double what we were paying at his last employer!! No way were we going to pay $1,000 a month plus a $750 deductible EACH! That's craziness. So for the time being, Ian is completely covered! I am still without, but I'm not too worried. God is providing.

Our "Relaxing" Weekend

Where do I start? Saturday we left Ian with my parents for the weekend. While, Victor and I took the new boat out for the first time up in the San Juan Islands to fish for some halibut and hopefully see some orca's... We drove to boat about 1 1/2 hrs and saw our destination for the night, a cove on Sucia Island called Echo Bay. The water was pretty smooth, minus some small choppy parts where all the currents meet up. As we were going through that choppy section we heard a huge "thud" and the engined revved really high. We killed the motor and right away Victor knew we hit a dead head. (floating logs that sink and rise)It literally knocked off our outdrive and it was dangling to the side. Somehow, (well not somehow, we know God was protecting us) we were not taking on water. A piece called the drive boot (just a small rubber hose) was still attached and if that came loose, we would have started taking on water. So, not even 2 hrs into our "relaxing weekend" we were dead in the water.

We called coastguard and because we weren't in immediate danger, they weren't going to come help us. They said we should call vessel assist or a private boat tow company to get a tow back. We called them... they wanted $250/hr to tow us and a tow back to where we came from would have been at least 6 hrs! No way we were going to spend $1,500 for a tow!! We flagged someone down who was nice enough to tow us into the Echo Bay so we could anchor and stay the night.

We made lots of calls the next day and Vic (Victor's dad) was helping us figure out options too. Well, by about 3 on Sunday Vic calls us and said there's a guy who will tow us for $100 plus gas costs! So, he came out and got us and towed us back to a place called fisherman's cove. It's a small town that the commercial Indian fisherman use on their reservation. They were the most helpful people!!! Praise God for them, the world needs more people willing to help like they all were! They towed us back (2 hrs) and used a boat crane to get our boat out of the water. They also found an old trailer to park the boat on until we could figure out what to do with it. On top of that, one of them drove us back to our truck at La Conner Marina (over an hr away). We got back to our truck at almost midnight on Sunday... so we got some dinner and stayed at an Inn overnight.

Currently... we are waiting to hear back from our boat insurance to see if this is all covered under insurance. It should be, but you never know... we also are going to have to buy a trailer by next week to go get our boat out of their boat yard (which they are nice enough to let us keep it there for a week). We already were going to get a boat trailer in the next few months... but now, it's on rush. Please be praying that everything gets sorted out and goes smoothly. We're not stressed about it anymore, we know we have a big God. If everything works out, this will actually be a huge blessing because we were going to be replacing the outdrive next year. Granted, it wasn't the entire outdrive, but it was something we were going to have to do. So, if the insurance covers it, we will only be paying a deductible and won't have to spend all the money ourselves on the outdrive.

Whew... So, even though it was the exact opposite of a relaxing weekend, we had a few relaxing times in between the stress. It was beautiful up there and we saw a few dolphins and seals. Though it was also very expensive, God seems to be providing ways to save money right and left. We're home safe and still figuring everything out and will keep everyone posted.

Pool Time

We have had some great weather this last week! By great, that means 75 or higher in Washington. Ian was sick for most of last week, but that didn't stop us from having fun! Victor went out and bought a little plastic pool last Saturday to put in our "backyard" for Ian. We put a little water in there, a few bath tub toys, lathered Ian down in sunscreen and pulled out the popsicles! He had a blast and we had a blast watching.

This last Saturday, I took Ian to Tolmie State park. (Victor had to work to make up for the days he took off when he was sick) It's a great little waterfront park with lots of sand, seaweed, crabs, clams, fish and sand dollars. We packed a lunch, ate on the beach and played around in the water. We tried to go Sunday after church with Victor, but when we got there the park was full and there were no parking spaces, so we were turned away. We went to a different waterfront park near by and it was not the best experience... It wasn't very sandy, it was muddy/mucky and kinda stinky. The mud would just stick to your feet, it grossed Victor and I out. Ian didn't mind much. Until, he fell in the water and got a little in his face and mouth. He was pretty much done after that.

So here are some pictures from pool time and our Tolmie day. There's also a video of Ian in the pool where he is speaking some of his usual words very clearly! Enjoy!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Ian in May '09

Victor's Fishing Trip with the Family

So, I'm pretty behind one blogging about this. Victor went fishing in Eastern Washington with his parents the last weekend in April (opening fishing season weekend). We did this two years ago with them and didn't have the best luck that year. This year though, (of course the year I don't go) they did amazing! They went fishing in Deep Lake and caught their limit the first day in like 2 hours! Not only that, but they were 21 inch trout! For those of you who don't know much about fishing, that's a great sized trout! Here are some pictures from their fishing weekend.

Fishing April '09

What We've Been Up To

Well, it seems like we've been kind of busy. That's because we have been! April was a busy month! I had 2 mom dates, we celebrated Easter and two Birthday's, I took Ian to the Children's Museum in Olympia, we all went to Tumwater Falls park, Victor went fishing in Eastern Washington, we bought a boat, and I'm sure there was more I'm just not thinking of at the moment. Also, Ian has taken off with learning and saying words these last few weeks! He has learned 3 new ones today alone! (Truck, Daisy, and Boots)Here's a little breakdown of what he can say right now:

Dog - Daa
Juice - Joo
Daddy - DaDa
Grandpa - PaPa
Grandma/Mama - MaMa
Ball - Baa
Gabi - Bee
Baby and Binky - BeeBee
Trash - Sha
Fishy - She
Daisy - Daydee
Boots - Boo
Truck - Traa
Bubble - Bubble (he says it very clear)
please - slee (he signs it too)
Thank you - you (signs it too)
Help - Ha (signs it sometimes lol)

He's also doing really well at eating with utensils. He needs a little help with scooping, but he uses a fork pretty good.

Here are a bunch of photos from the month. Most of them are from the children's museum.

Daddy's Car, Museum, and Play date

Ian and the Mirror

I bought a Mirror for the living room yesterday at Wal-Mart,brought it home and propped it against the couch until Victor hangs it. Well, when Ian woke up from his nap he was absolutely enthralled with it. He gave himself a big kiss, waved and laughed at himself. It was pretty funny. The first few pictures are from that morning. Here are the pics.

Ian and the Mirror

Egg Hunt & Easter

On Good Friday, Ian had a playdate with Sabina and Gabi. Kelley was great enough to put together an egg hunt for them! She put crackers and treats inside plastic eggs and scattered them all over her front yard. We gave each of them a basket and encouraged them to get the eggs! Sabina went right at it, while Ian just stood and watched for a while. Then, Gabi figured out there were treats inside and just wanted to open them all. It was so much fun and I think they all loved it.

On Easter, we went to the Sunday morning service with my family and then went back to their house for Easter dinner! Ian got an easter basket with bubbles, books, socks and even a DVD! We tried to get an family picture and every time, Ian was uncooperative. (aka would start crying) So, we gave up haha. Oh yeah, we celebrated mine and my Dad's Birthday, since it was his Birthday and mine was the next day.

I hope everyone had an amazing Easter! I am so grateful for that day Jesus died for all of us and then three days later rose from the dead... the most important day in history. Enjoy the pictures.

Mommy Day Egg Hunt

Easter

The Last Month or Two

So I wanted to post a bunch of pics of Ian from the last month or two. He's growing so fast and doing so many new things it's hard to keep up! Enjoy the pictures!

Ian in April '09

"Toy Box" Fun

Ian was playing yesterday, while I was putting some of his clothes away. I turned around from his closet to find him diving head first into his box of toys. (which is the moving box we used to move his toys, it's his temporary toy box) I though it was pretty funny so ran and got the camera and started snapping.

toy box

Yes, I did it!

What did I do? I attempted and fairly successfully cut Ian's hair! I was thinking maybe I was a little crazy to think I could cut my 14 month old's hair, but to my surprise it was a lot easier than I thought it would be.

I bought a whole kit from wal-mart. I figured, if I botched it too bad I would go to a professional and put that kit away in the closet. Not to be seen for a long time. The best place to carry out my crazy plan I thought would be in the bath tub, so he is fairly distracted. Victor, thought for sure as soon as I turned the clippers on he would be moving like crazy. Again, to our surprise it didn't even phase him. He just sat there and let me comb through his hair with these buzzing, vibrating clippers. His hair is still pretty fine so the clippers didn't do everything evenly, but I went over with some scissors and think I go it pretty even. Anyhow, here's the before and after picture!

What? It's My Birthday?

Yesterday, Victor tells me he bought my Birthday present and will "have to" give it to me early. Which I was by no means going to complain about! My head was reeling with ideas of what he could have gotten me. I was just looking at keyboards on craigslist, but how could he know which one I would like... There's no way I'm getting a puppy yet... Why does he need to give it to me early?...

When he came home from bowling that night, this is what I got...



Awesome, isn't it?! These cost like $400.00!! Victor did not pay that much! That's the main reason he had to give it to me early, there's a nice mail in rebate that due by the end of this month.
It is so great, I was so excited I made a batch of peanut butter cookies last night at like 11pm. This has so many things you can do with it, it's not just a mixer. You can get a pasta maker attachment, Ice cream maker bowl, ravioli maker attachment, food grinder, grain mill and the list goes on! Anyhow, thought I would show everyone!

Gabi's Sleepover Pictures

So here's the pictures from our fun filled 2 days with Gabi! They were the cutest and always so happy to see each other when they would wake up from naps or bedtime! We had such a blast and want to do it again soon!

Gabi's Sleepover

Two Babies!

So I get to have two babies this weekend! That's right, I get to take Gabi for 2 days and 2 nights! Ian was so happy to wake up and see Gabi. We've had a lot of fun this morning already. Eating breakfast together, chasing each other around the house (and the cats), and sharing our snacks with each other! Gabi likes to feed Ian. I can't wait to post some photos tonight!

Oh, and in case anybody is curious I've already earned two swagbucks. hehe

Swagbucks!

So, I just joined swagbucks. I was reading Aimee's blog about how she won 20 swagbucks by searching the internet, which in turn can buy her a $5 starbucks giftcard. I was intruiged and had to check it out, for joining I got 3 swagbucks to start. She earned hers in two weeks, so I'm going to hope I'll earn some of my own! Click the link above if you want to join too. (by you joining on this link I'll earn swagbucks too)

Playground Fun

Ian is such a big boy! We go to the playgrounds in our neghborhood(since we have 3!). He can't do a whole lot by himself and he mainly enjoys walking around, rather than playing on things, but He still has a good time. Here are some photos from when we went with Victor.

Playground

Ian is getting so smart!

This morning I was sitting in the living room and Ian wandered into one of the back rooms and came back with a pair of my socks. I watched to see what he was going to do with them. He walked over to me on the chair and placed one sock on the top of each of my feet! He then pointed to me, as if to say, "put them on mom!". I was laughing and shocked that he knew exactly what to do with them! So I put them on and he went over to play with one of his toys. I cannot believe how fast he is growing up and figuring things out... I love him so much!

We Moved, It Snowed, Ian and Victor had Birthdays, and Ian has 3 more Teeth!

Oh my... So it has been way too long. Well, God found us a beautiful house to rent in a great neighborhood with 3 playgrounds blocks away, and in the price range we were looking for! This place actually said no pets when we looked at it. So we emailed the landlord explaining we only have 2 declawed indoor cats and he said that would be fine. Thank you Lord.
Shortly after we moved here we had the second and probably last snow storm of the season. It was much smaller than the previous one, but we got about an inch that lasted a couple days... Ian had fun on the back porch playing in it.
Victor has started his new job, he was very discouraged his first week of working there, but he is more encouraged as time goes on and we are just trying to find God's will for him in his new job.
On January 23rd, Ian and Victor had their Birthday's! Ian turned one and Victor turned 30! We celebrated at home on their Birthdays with a spaghetti dinner and chocolate cupcakes. The pictures of Ian with the spaghetti everywhere make me laugh every time... Then, they (mainly Ian) had a Birthday party with friends and family the next day. It was jungle themed and Ian got spoiled rotten with presents... too many. I feel like our house is a toy store. He would only play with his cake at first and poke holes in it. I smashed his hands in it and my mom licked one of his fingers to show him to eat it and the light clicked! He dug in like there was no tomorrow... he ate almost half the cake before we took it away. He even licked his plate clean!! That was hilarious!
The Wednesday after his Birthday Ian got his 1st top tooth, followed by the 2ND a few days later. Just last week in the bath tub I realized he got his 3RD tooth on top and is getting the 4TH any day now...
Oh, Ian has been sick since Wednesday... He had a high fever and a really nasty barky cough, but he seems to be getting better. He has no voice right now, Victor says it sounds like he's going through baby puberty lol.
Anyways, that's all the stuff to get you up to date for now!! Here's all the pictures.

Ian's Birthday and Feb

Funny Boy

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, we've been looking for a place to live and packing and so on and so forth. Oh the joys of moving... Ian is getting so big, he just won't slow down. His new record is 21 steps! He is going into a phase I am not liking very much though. He has learned to throw tantrums! He's not even one and throws tantrums!! I need to find new patience everyday and have no idea what course of discipline to take at such a young age... I'm little stressed with all the things going on, but God is providing and guiding us into this new place in life. Anyhow, I wanted to share this funny picture of Ian I took the other day. He was trying to get to some toys in a box, and fell in and then thought it was funny.

Video of Ian Taking Steps

I finally caught Ian taking more than 2 steps on camera! Thought I would share it. Enjoy!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Lots of News (and Happy New Year)

Okay, so there is a lot of good news this past few days and a little bad news. The first good news is Victor got the job he applied for. Some bad news is we went to look at the apartments that we might live at on his new property, and they were pretty cruddy. Although the property has a pool, a new playground and updated exteriors, the inside was completely outdated(they didn't even have base boards) and a decent amount smaller than what we have now. So, we got really disappointed and a little discouraged. We're looking for renting an affordable duplex possibly, but are praying we get put in the right place.

More good news, I totally forgot to tell everyone that Ian took his first 4 steps on Christmas and he took 6 steps the next day for Victor! Then, just last night he took 8 steps and this afternoon he took 11!! I am so excited and scared. He's going to be running before I know it. Victor and I both think he'll be walking fairly stable by his 1st Birthday in three weeks.

Please pray that God shows us the path to take in these next few weeks and for protection wherever our future is headed!