jude the swimmer

don't be jealous of jude's mad swimming skills......or the lack there of. sometimes i wonder if he really is my son. i was born to swim and i don't think i was ever afraid of anything except the dark (still am). jude is a bit of a chicken when it comes to the dare devil department. however, i deem swimming a very necessary skill. last years "mom & tot" swim lessons were a bust so this year i decided i would go the private route. the jury is still out on whether it was worth the $60 for 4 lessons, seeing as jude would not get in the water the 1st one.

i have to give him props though because by the end of his lessons he loved his teacher erika and he would get in the water. he can now put his head in to his ears, blow mad bubbles, use his monster arms, kick and swim holding onto someones arm, and last but not least jump in the water without being caught. we will continue to swim AT LEAST 3 times a week until the summer has left us so hopefully he will learn to love the water so i can claim his as my own.

it is so beautiful where i live.....

hells yeah jude!

bella fae williams

my brother brad and his wife vanessa welcomed their 2nd child into the world. bella fae williams was born june 28th 2008.

vanessa's water broke and i think it was like 7 hours from start to finish. some girls have all the luck!

the newest addition with her family

gabi and her daddy. i love my brother, he is such a wonderful man.
p.s. could he look any happier?

nannie and her 11th grandchild

grandpa and 22 (according to his numerology system)

gabi was so darling. she was so excited to meet her sister and when nannie was having a turn she just wanted her bella back.

jude and his red headed girlfriend

i love this girl. if it weren't totally unacceptable in our culture she would already be promised to jude, even if they are cousins. minie can be my red headed stepchild any day. look at her!

today they went on their first date on the big digger. look at mins, she totally knows how to rock it.

i love her mom too.
you don't always see brooke in pictures because she is always behind the camera. isn't she beautiful? she is such a great mom.

wall-e

yes, it was as good as i hoped it would be. jude did FANTASTIC in the movie and could be seen flying EVE & WALL-E throughout the movie. i am so glad we were ALL there to see it. however, i heard some people didn't like it, like it was too political. please! funny that i am protective of this movie like its my child.

being EVE & WALL-E flying through space..... i adore him
(photos stollen from brooke's blog, i forgot my camera. AS IF!)

ready. set. WALL-E

we can't stand the wait here at our house. tomorrow marks the big day.... WALL-E is FINALLY here. jude has his t-shirt and toys ready to take to the premier. we bought our tickets last week and have been counting down the days. my entire family is coming with us to the showing. they all want to support jude and his love for this adorable robot. i don't think they will be disappointed. it is destined to please.

word on the street is that its the best DisneyPixar yet. all i am reading about is perfection from reviews. i am predicting it to be the biggest movie of the summer (batman will be a close second). here are some reviews i have found. i'll let you know what we think tomorrow, if we can handle our excitement.

aint it cool
cnn
rotten tomatoes


p.s. would you all go see WALL-E already?

lawn mowing carnies

saturday was an extras fun day for our family because we actually did something. we decided friday night that we were going to go to the farmers market downtown saturday morning. we got up with the kiddies got dressed and we were off. the farmers market was great. we managed to buy a snowie for jude, kettle corn, and an absolutely adorable chinese parasol for me! we just got a feel for it and next time we will come without eating breakfast and with more money to spend.

later that day we went down to my mom's house with b&d for a barbecue. mmm hamburgers are delicious, ground beef is my favorite food. disgusting right? anyway, dinner was delicious and my parents had been slaving away in the yard all day like they were 18 year olds so i decided to help them by mowing the lawn. i have driven the gravely before but i am sad to say that this was my 1st time ever mowing a lawn. i did a pretty nice job if i do say so myself.

after the lawn mowing we went to the strawberry day's carnival in pleasant grove. the city of fun carnival is a traveling carnival and has been a staple in my summers since before i can remember. it is so white trash and so wonderful. i have out grown my days on the gravitron and ring of fire but no one out grows a carousel.

jude loves papa's "tractor" and his buzz phone (he is on it all the time)

jude helped me of course!

see how concentrated i am? i told you this was my first time mowing a lawn.....

the girls

there's that buzz phone again

p.s. still loving my stroller

have you ever seen him cuter?

carousel love

daddie and jude waiting in line for the slide

jude times

my favorite people
(this will be their life in november, sigh)

until next time......

the chillens

staying at home with their mommie my kids are never far from each other..

for some reason my kids get the hairstyle i like to call the "skullet" around 3 months. it's so attractive.

luckily for gretsie she can sport a headband & bow to cover hers up.

beautiful boy

if greta makes it to her first birthday it will be a miracle!!!!!!

greta's MRI

greta's MRI went over as well as can be expected. the worst part was the sedation. in order to do the MRI they had to sedate grets which meant they had to give her an IV. i don't know whether we had a semi-retarded nurse (debatable) or if it was just because it was friday the 13th but it was NOT a good experience for anyone involved. it took them 5 times and 30 minutes to get the IV in right. they tried every limb and were finally able to get it in on her hand. anyone that has had an IV knows that they are painful. poor grets screamed the whole time and by the time they were finished there was blood on the cot, floor, and wall. it was horrific. after they finally got it in greta fell fast asleep from exhaustion.

after the IV was in they took us over to the MRI area to get her prepped. i was lucky enough to be there while they strapped her in. while the MRI was taking place nannie and i were ordered out. we went and visited my cousin rebecca who works as a nurse in the trauma neurology ward and then got some lunch at the cafeteria. when we got back from lunch they had just finished greta's MRI. she was to sleep for AT LEAST 2 hours after the procedure. apparently they cannot wake up before then or there could be problems. after about an hour and a half sweetums started to stir. poor little baby was starving because she hadn't eaten for 8 hours and needed some food in her belly. she took her bottle down like a champ and after a little more observing we were out of there.

needless to say i hope she never has to do this again. also, if i never have to go back to primary children's again it will be too soon, its so sad there. alas, we will be back there in september for jude's surgery. i am just glad this is day over with. we should get the results (if any) back next week sometime.

the 2 beautiful pamela's (pamela dawn & greta pamela)

trev couldn't come because he has no time off at work. :( so of course nannie was there, she wouldn't miss a thing like this for the world. i can always count on her. i love my momma.

the sedated greta.....

nostalgia

i don't know where the time has gone. greta is no longer a newborn and i don't know how i feel about it. while i was changing her diaper today i really noticed it. she doesn't have her newborn wrinkles anymore, they have turned into little rolls. i forget how fast this stage is over and i am sad that it is. gretsie is still pretty little, maybe 10lbs. jude was 13lbs at 2 months so although they look a lot alike, grets is a smaller version. she is smiling and cooing off the hizzy and its adorable (of course not for pictures). i love this little one so so much. i am, however, excited to have a little girl. i hope she grows to be feisty and fabulous. i can only imagine the adventures we have to look forward to.

i want to remember a few things about jude at this stage in his life. he is 2 1/2 and so fun i can hardly stand it. he is super demanding and a crazy but i love every inch of it. sometimes i want to sell him for profit but most of the time i want to kiss his gibbering face off. the bishopric came over tonight and i think they may regret it. jude talked their ear's off and kept interrupting by saying "guess what bishop!?". i had to laugh because he used to be so reserved. things jude loves right now:

1. wall-eare you ready? 17 days until wall-e and jude couldn't be more excited. really, we have been counting this down since FEBRUARY!!!! he happened to see a wall-e trailer on apple when we were living at my mom's while our kitchen was being remodeled and there hasn't been a day that has gone by that we haven't' discussed it. we watch the trailers constantly and you can bet your bottom dollar we already know all the characters. we have all the books (went to barnes and noble the day they were released), we even have the toothbrush, pajama's, and band aids. we are patiently waiting for the toys to come out, we check target every 2 days. all i can say is june 27th will be a holiday at our house. waaaaaaaaaalllll-eeeeee!


2. the happy bearsabout the time i had greta, jude started watching the berenstain bears on pbs. we watched it a few times and enjoyed it but somewhere in between the time i had grets and when we were back on our feet jude became obsessed. it's the biggest comfort to him. he transitioned well into the role of big brother and i really think it is mostly because of this stupid show. he LOVES it.

the funniest thing is that he calls them the "happy bears". he knows that they are in fact the berenstain bears and will call them that when singing the theme song but refers only to them as the happy bears when speaking of them. they really are some pretty happy bears. the hierarchy of comfort goes binki, silky, juice, and then happy bears. not only does he love the tv show he loves the books too. we have to read one berenstain bear book every night and watch at least 4 episode every day. whenever he is tired or feeling sad you will hear "i watch happy bears.". all i have to say is thank heavens for comcast on-demand!


3. mack song
i made jude a cd of some of his favorite songs and it may have been my most foolish move yet. mostly because i am going to lose my mind if i have to listen to it one more time. jude mostly wants to listen to the "mack song" aka "life is a highway" by rascal flats, from cars. trev and i know every word to that song and luckily its catchy enough that we don't get that sick of it. the best part is jude now sings along and it may be my favorite and my best. i love it. i love the words he thinks it says..... for a good time ask him to sing it for you.


4. puzzles
i am not the mother that thinks their child is brilliant, in fact i am the opposite. i think my kids are average and i want them to be average, somewhere in the middle is perfect for me! one of my pet peeves is parents who do think that their children are "gifted" and let you know it. with that being said jude's ability to do puzzles is a little bizarre. he puts puzzles together like its going out of style. he loves to do them and brings them by me and has me watch him put them together. these aren't baby puzzles either, they are 24+ piece puzzles. like i said, a little bizarre but whatever. it amazes me. don't you worry though, he is average at everything else ;) !