Hello Mr. Sun

Getting ready for school

Mr. Jake and his new walker

The sun has been shining here in Spokane for two days in a row now and if you have ever lived here you know that means that the people here go straight from their winter parkas and right into their halter tops and flip flops. The people in my household do not participate in this crazy behavior, but the sun shine has rubbed off on us.

Lex playing on her swingset

"Oh yeah!"

"Whach how high I can go!"


Lex loving on Blue

We have spent the last three days outside enjoying the weather and catching some rays. Alexis has thoroughly enjoyed being able to go outside and swing until the sun goes down. Even Jake got in on stocking up his vitamin D.

Jacob getting some sun on his white head

Handsome
Uh Oh. We lost the bink
All is right in the world again

Okay, Okay, I realize that I have severely fallen behind on keeping up with this the last month. Sorry. I guess life has just sorta gotten past me these past few weeks. I cannot really pin point what has taken up my time, just that it seems like I never have a free second. UGH! As they say, there is no time like the present, so if you could all forgive me then we can move on to what you came here to see!

Since I have last posted there really hasn't been too much change here. Jacob is doing amazing. He loves to stand (with help from us of course) and is just about ready to sit on his own. He is finally discovering that his body, though little, extends further than his fingers and mouth. He is becoming increasingly more interested in his toes and is now in the habit of rubbing his right ear when he falls asleep. He is so cute. He still is willing to hand out smiles that melt your heart. His laugh is wildly infectious. His cheeks are getting chubbier, his belly rounder, and his hair is getting thicker! Speaking of hair, it is becoming more apparent that he is going to be a pale skinned red head. This should make summer camping/boating more interesting. I don't know how to take care of someone this, well, white. Either way, I could not have asked for a more perfect boy.

Alexis is discovering her talent in growing plants and helping Dad in the garage. At school she planted a sunflower seed and has been watching it bloom ever since. Watching her face light up while she realized what was happening was indescribable. She is about all things green right now. A sure sign that Spring has come to Spokane is when the tulips start blooming. Our tulips are starting to leaf out and she goes out every morning to check them. I usually get an "Oh mom! You have to come see this. These flowers are growing more than you can imagine!" I love when she gets so excited that her whole face lights up and her eyes sparkle. With snow FINALLY gone she has been spending her days out on the swing until it is time to come in for bed. Gene is rebuilding a Suzuki Samurai and Alexis wants to be involved in every step. In the pictures she is painting a hard protective coating on the floor. She still amazes us with her learning abilities picking up things like how to read and tell time.

In closing, I just want to say that I really do intend to keep up on this blog better than I have in the last month, so don't give up on me, I will be better!

Merrill Shout Out

It just got back to me that my east coast family has been checking into my blog. I cannot tell you how freakin ecstatic I am about that. So, while the photo up loader is down on this site I just wanted to say thanks for reading up on us and I hope that you continue to do so. I will try back to update and load some pics from the past month on here by tomorrow. AND I am also on myspace and facebook (Melody Young) if you want to check me out there! Hope all is well with all of you and hope that we can start writing and keeping in better touch!
Love

Jacobs Love to Bounce

One more fun thing about the four month mark is that we are now encouraged to let Jacob start building and work on strengthening his neck muscles. This means that the Johnny Jumper was brought in from the garage and introduced to the little monkey. I realize that my opinion is severely biased but I just had to show off how amazingly handsome he is!

Say Cheese!

I have mentioned before that Alexis is taking interest in taking pictures. We have handed her down an old digital camera and so far she has filled her 1g card two times. Most of the pictures she takes are very unflattering to whom ever she has in focus. I thought though, that I would share with you her creative genius. You be the judge.

"Alright already enough with the pictures"

4 months

Mister Man eating some rice cereal!

Yup, that is what I said. Four months already. We took him for his well baby check, which he passed with flying colors. He is staying on the 5% curve, which means according to the rest of the nation he is a very small guy, but to us he seems ginormous. He tipped the scales at 11lbs 11ozs. When talking about how much and how often our mister is eating Doc laughed and nicknamed him Jake "The Barracuda".

Gramma dishing up some carrots


The great thing about hitting this four month mile stone is that we are now able to feed him baby food and rice cereal. Now, most babies, when introduced to rice cereal make a face then sort of spit it out. Not our barracuda, he went at it like it was best meal in the world. Because he did so well with the cereal we brought in carrots the following day. The only problem is that you literally cannot get the food to his mouth fast enough to keep him content.

There are tears in his eyes but I assure you it was because I could not get it into his mouth at a pace that he agreed with, not because he didn't enjoy the meal!

He is our little man and we love him!

Birthday Girl

Alexis celebrated her 5th birthday last week! That's right, she is already 5. I really have no idea where all the time has gone. Bryan and Nicole were trying to match Alexis' silly faces
The most "regular" face Alexis has made in a picture isn SOOO long
Our big little man just hanging out

The celebration started off with my good friends, Bryan and Nicole, coming to visit her. While they were here went to Chuck E. Cheese for the after noon, then came home to celebrate with a confetti cake, and open a few presents.

"Oh Good! A singing Barbi"

Wall-E
The Vanity

The following Saturday she and three of her school friends had a little party at Teddy Bear Junction (think Build-a-Bear) in the mall. My family was there and Rhonda and Tom drove over from Seattle. Everyone got to pick out and make an animal and sing and dance. The party wrapped up with an ice cream cake from Maggie Moo's.

Limbo

Alexis(squared) doing the Chicken dance

Same
Braden was too cool for school

Time so sing Happy Birthday
Alexis was really into the singing
Airplane time

She made out in the gift department this year. She got enough books to last us for bedtime for a month or so, gift cards and money, clothes, blankets, jewelery, purses, Barbies, and activity books!

To wrap up the event I took a Costco cake to school with her where she got to give all her classmates a piece of cake and have everyone sing to her one last time for the year! Talk about Diva!