A Glimpse of Play Time

Jay will line up these toys and move them around this table and through the barn many times throughout the day.

Notice the tongue that he sticks out when he's really focused and concentrating...

Quality Dad & Jay Time Together

The last few weekends have been great quality time together for us as a family and especially for Matt and Jay. Here are some photos to prove it.

Above: President's Day Weekend at PopPop and Nana's house
Below: Last Saturday at a neighborhood park

Below: Saturday afternoon returning from retrieving the mail

We took a walk around the big park close to where we live Sunday afternoon. Jay enjoys playing in the rocks, of course. Boys will be boys!

Tonight he decided to try on Daddy's shoes and walk around the house in them for a while. He sure loves his Dad!!

President's Day Weekend

This past weekend we took off Friday afternoon for a weekend in Oregon to see PopPop, Nana, and Uncle Mike, Aunt Shawn (Matt's sister), and our nephews Alex and Josh. Love, love, love you guys!


Alex and Josh are both involved with the Upward basketball program January through March. For the third year in a row we were able to be there to watch one of their games. Josh's team played first (at 10:15 a.m. on Saturday). Josh is the one shooting the basketball in the photo below.
Mike is one of Josh's coaches. Here is coach Dad giving some pointers to Josh during the game.

Point guard Josh taking the ball down the court.

Here is the gang of onlookers/fans from left to right:

Randy, Ken, Matt, Shawn, Mike's Dad Fred (from Ephrata), PopPop Jim, Nana Carol, little Jay, and Alex. (I sat next to Alex.)

We had an hour and a half "break" before Alex's game was scheduled. We used that time to grab a bite of lunch at the nearby McDonalds. The three cousins enjoyed some play time together on the free video game consoles there.

This is Alex's last year with this particular Upwards basketball program since he "ages out" next year. His age group keeps track of the score. His team won this past weekend.

Alex playing "Big D" against the opposing team's point guard.

We all gathered together at PopPop and Nana's house for a FABULOUS Valentine's Day dinner Saturday evening followed by a fun game of Ticket to Ride using the 1910 expansion I received from my sister this past Christmas.

We had a GREAT time this weekend. Thanks for hosting us again PopPop and Nana! We sure love you!

Fun with Aunt Molly

Thanks to my sister Molly, Matt and I enjoyed an early Valentine's Day date last night. (We enjoyed dinner and a movie out.)

Molly pulled out her camera and captured some moments with Jay. He generally only gets to watch DVDs on long car trips and when a babysitter is here at home. Last night he chose to watch "God Made Me," a baby faith DVD put out by the Integrity Family, so that is what you can hear playing in the background.

This first video clip you get an idea of how busy he is these days. He LOVES climbing.

This second video clip is Molly's and our favorite. We love the "Ta Da" moment at the end.

Super Bowl Sunday

This past Sunday afternoon some of our Sunday School class families gathered together at church to watch this year's Super Bowl football game. Turns out the college group was gathering together too, but the room they were going to use at church didn't work out for them to watch the game so they "crashed" our party. We didn't mind at all! They had pizza, pop, and snacks and our group had chili, cornbread, chips, dips, and cookies - we combined our "eats" and enjoyed watching the game together as a larger group.


There are quite a few kiddos in our Sunday School group and all the kids had such a fun time playing together. Here are a few photos of Jay's activities on Sunday...

Above: Jay took the time to precisely line up these matchbox cars on the play rug (a typical thing for him to do)

Below: One of the family's that came was wise and brought along their computer with a VeggieTales movie. The kids would wander over to this corner of the room from time to time to watch a portion of the movie until their attention span waned.

Below is a video of Jay loving to pull this toy bus around on its string. He and I were playing a mini game of "chase" as I tried to capture his joy on video.

What a fun Super Bowl game to watch this year! We had a great time visiting with our friends and we went home with full bellies from all the good eats.

Park & Aquarium

Yesterday afternoon was a gorgeous day and Jay and I capitalized on it by taking a fun walk to our nearby park (located about 5 blocks from us). Jay really likes pushing the stroller, pausing from time to time to point out the running squirrels, pointing up to the sky to tell me about a passing airplane, watching a dog or dogs pass by, etc.

One of his favorites at our park are the ducks. There are lots of them all the time all year around. Yesterday afternoon when we went they were all on the lawn snacking on the grass.

He loves climbing up to the top of the kids' slide at the park. He posed for these pictures below, but he decided that it would not be a day that he would actually slide down. Crazy kid. Notice the toy Percy train engine...couldn't leave that at home. Percy needed to come along for our walk, too.

Today we enjoyed an extra special outing thanks to my good friend Katie and her daughter Audrey (who is 1-1/2 weeks older than Jay). We visited the Seattle Aquarium using guest passes they received. We all had a GREAT time!

Here are a couple photos with the otters. Boy, I'm looking really pregnant in these! I guess it doesn't help that I'm holding Jay in my arms and it is a "side-view". Ha!

Jay watched some other people pose for photos like this, so he decided to do the same!

Jay loved the touch pools. The water was really cold, but that didn't seem to phase him. He liked splashing in the water most of all.

Jay also enjoyed walking through the circular tank filled with moon jellies.

Thanks again Katie and Audrey for a fun, adventurous, and educational day!

Pacific Coast Weekend Get-Away

We got away this past weekend to Seabrook, WA located on the Pacific Coast (about a 3 hour drive from where we live). We had never been there so it was an adventure for all of us. What brought us to Seabrook, you may ask? Matt's friend "Knox" and his fiance Vanessa's destination engagement celebration...that's what!

Seabrook is a new town/community that a visionary owner has been developing since the early 2000s. All the homes being built are owned and there are a certain number that are available for rent throughout the year. We decided to stay in a 4 bedroom, 4 bath home called "Anchors Away" for the weekend that was not only beautiful, comfortable, and wonderful for adults - it was kid-friendly with amenities such as a high-chair, portable cribs, kids toys, a Wii, and kid-friendly DVDs.

Matt's parents know Knox, too, and graciously agreed to drive up from Oregon to spend another weekend with us. What a double blessing to have spent the last two weekends with them! And a couple single guy friends drove to Seabrook on Saturday morning and spent one night at our rental home. There was a separate "carriage house" that came with this rental home which was the perfect space for those guys. (Two rooms, bathroom, mini-kitchen, Wii, movies, etc.)

We bundled up and took a walk down to the ocean beach Saturday morning. Jay had a great time running on the sand. It was definitely CHILLY and we certainly didn't even consider dipping our bare feet in the freezing ocean water, but it was still lots of fun.


Above: Caption for this pic would appropriately be, "Mom, I'm cold. Let's go back!"

Below: We set up a portable crib in this kids room upstairs for Jay. Jay LOVED the bunk beds and had a great time playing up high (with our supervision, of course). He insisted I join him for some play in that upper bed and Matt grabbed the camera as evidenced in the following photos.

Jay really enjoys playing with the wire and bead toy things (what do you call them?) that we often find at doctor's office waiting rooms and occasionally at friend's homes. Since we don't have one at home, these hold Jay's attention for lots of good play time. Following are photos taken with PopPop (Matt's dad) and Matt. Everyone in the house took their turn sitting close by Jay as he played at some point during the weekend. (He likes company!)

Below is a picture of friend Jeff, PopPop and Nana all relaxing in the living room Saturday afternoon. (The front entry door to the house is in the center of the picture.)

And these two are the reason we all gathered in Seabrook this weekend - a picture of the newly engaged couple, Vanessa and Knox!

We drove back home Sunday afternoon. Monday morning I decided to fix a batch of pancakes for breakfast with the leftover cup of buttermilk I had in the fridge. I had to capture Jay eating a pancake. He LOVES them and ate two big pancakes yesterday morning. FYI, he is an equal lover of waffles, too.

Monday afternoon Matt and Jay enjoyed a quick game of "soccer" in our condo hallway (see video below). We notice that Jay always uses his right foot to kick the ball. When he throws a ball, however, he almost always throws the ball with his left hand. We're still not sure if he'll be a righty or a lefty.