Weekend Update

Last weekend we went to a birthday party at the Santa Ana Zoo.  It was very fun and a great location for a party.  Jaxon rode the elephant on the carousel when we first got there and they seemed to be his theme for the day!

Cracking up in a cracked egg!

The birthday girl with her cute sparkly tiger face.  It was so sweet because after she got her face painted like a tiger all the other little girls wanted tigers too to be just like her.  What did Jaxon get you ask?  We knew he would NEVER let someone touch his face but thought he might be okay with getting a little pirate tattoo on his arm or something.  Think again!  Oh well, at least we don't need to worry about him running off with a stranger at this point.

Another elephant, these cupcakes were so yummy, by the way!

We knew he was picking elephants for a reason and were surprised he wanted to ride on one instead of just watching.  We couldn't believe how big this elephant actually was, and he was really well trained.  I started feeling really bad for him, but he only does these rides on weekends and for a few hours at a time.  That made me feel a little better.  :)

Shooting some hoops in Uncle Brandon's jacuzzi.

We would love to get a jacuzzi in our next place because they are soooo relaxing and a little less of a worry for young kids than a pool.  

Jaxon was "helping" me with the laundry when he decided to wear my sweatshirt as a dress!  :)

Another Day, Another Date

This morning Jaxon went with me to see the dermatologist.  I have noticed some hormone spots on my face ever since my last pregnancy and one of them had a dry skin patch in it the last few months that I wanted to get checked out.  It turned out to be pre-cancerous and the doctor froze it off.  I wish I could go back in time and FORCE myself to wear sunscreen when I was younger.  It didn't matter who told me, or how many times they did, I hardly ever wore it.  I wear it everyday now, but in high school and college, really up until a few years ago, I never did.  And let me tell you, I would lay out any chance I could get and bake myself for hours upon hours.    Not to mention the tanning beds I would visit if the weather wasn't right.  For some reason I thought I couldn't get "tan" if I wore sunscreen.  Anyway, the damage has already been done and in a few weeks I get to go back and have a full body scan.  Sounds like fun, doesn't it?

So after the appointment I took Jaxon to Fashion Island to go on the carousel and get some lunch.  He picked the zebra.  9 times out of 10 he picks the zebra.  At the end of the ride he always gives the zebra a hug and kiss.  Today he also said, "Bye, Zebra, I love you!!!"

Here he is when he had just turned one, on the zebra of course!  This might have been his first carousel ride, at least it's the first one that I have a picture of.

Then my favorite part, I took him to El Torito Grill, which just so happens to be one of my favorite mexican restaurants.  He was soooo good, and I was soooo hungry, so it was a perfect combination!   After several failed attempts in the past, I think I can safely say that we can go out more now.  As long as we eat quickly and bring some cars to play with that is!  

Starbucks, etc.

This morning Jaxon and I had time to stop by Starbucks before meeting Jason to go see a house.  We were having a great time talking and playing with his cars.  He was enjoying his milk and I was definitely enjoying my chai.  In the past Jaxon has not been the best at sitting still in a restaurant or anywhere else for that matter, so I was really impressed with his good behavior.  Just when I was thinking "We should really do this more often", he dropped his milk onto the floor by accident.  Luckily, the top stayed on, but then he got so upset that he slipped and fell off his chair backwards onto his elbow.  Ouch!!!  He is such a good boy and is growing up so fast!  I have a love/hate relationship with his growing up.  Onto meeting Jason to look at this house.  We have been looking for a house to buy ever since we moved here almost two years ago.  While we love living on the peninsula, it gets pretty crazy in the summer and isn't exactly where we want to be to raise our family.  Plus, most of the beach houses are tiny and not exactly affordable anyway.  We are happy where we are for now, but looking for a bigger place.  The house that we saw today is still out of our price range, but it is in a great location.  (Just up the hill) It is in a really nice neighborhood and we could still bike/walk to the beach whenever we want, but have our peace and quiet at night too.  The best of both worlds!  Here's to hoping it will come down hundreds of thousands of dollars more...  :)  It started at 1.8 and says submit all offers, so you never know!  For those of you keeping track, we have made 5 offers on different houses since we moved here and none of them have worked out for various reasons.  But in the meantime, prices keep coming down and in this market it's not such a bad idea to rent until the perfect place comes along.  Oh, this is the other one I really like.  It is in MUCH better shape and is in a great neighborhood as well, but just a little bit farther from the beach.  Not really walking distance, but you could still ride a bike for sure.  What do you think, could either of these be the perfect place for us???

More Trike Adventures

As you can see in these pics we are experiencing some foggy days where the marine layer never wears off at the beach.  We still manage to have lots of fun at the school playground, which is only a few blocks from our house.  Jason went to school here and hopefully Jaxon will too.  What could be better than a playground on the sand with an ocean view?  

This trike was well worth the investment, it provides entertainment for the whole family!  Hope everyone is having a great weekend, as soon as Jaxon wakes up from nap we are headed to his buddy Tyler's 2nd birthday party.  He is having a Cars party, Jaxon will be in heaven there.... or he will want to bring home everything he sees.  :)

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day!  We spent it mostly relaxing at home and on the beach- a perfect day!  Here are some pictures with my new camera.  I love all the action shots, he was running really fast across this bridge at the playground but I was able to capture the moment without blur, yay!  This next series of pictures I used the continuous release mode to see if I could capture the shot and it worked really well.  The camera takes 4 frames per second, perfect for action shots, just what I wanted.  (There were about 10 others in this series, but I tried to select the best ones)  

Jason and Jaxon surprised me with these beautiful flowers.  My neighbor is an amazing florist and she put this arrangement together.  This picture doesn't do it justice.

The best Mother's Day gift ever!

Last Mother's Day

My first Mother's Day, Jaxon was about 5 months old.  You can tell by his outfit that we still lived in Washington!

My Boys!  They look like they are up to something!

Happy Birthday, Jason!!!

The boys celebrated together this weekend by going golfing, one of their favorite pastimes.  Does this mean that in a few years I will actually get to have a few hours to myself while they go play a round of golf together?

These pics were taken with my old camera, we went straight from the range to buy the new one.  So far I love it, but there is still lots to figure out.  Plus, with all this camera talk I want to make sure I have some really good shots to post!!!

Thanks for the sign, Sara!!!  I can't believe I actually waited this long to give it to Jason, but I'm glad I did.  He loved it!

Goodbye, My Gym!

Last week we had our last day at My Gym.  http://my-gym.com

It was really hard to say goodbye because we have been going there every Tuesday at 4:30 since we moved here.  Jaxon was only 10 months old when we started and we have had lots of fun there.  Here are some pics throughout the year and a half.

When we started coming to this class he was one of the youngest and now he is at the top of his age group so it was time to move on.  Here are Holland and Cole spinning him as fast as they can, he loved it!

Here is Jaxon with Mr. Neil.  When we started he would not go to them at all, but now that we are leaving he was finally warming up to his teachers!  Oh well, we may rejoin another class later.  Between preschool, playdates with friends, disneyland, the playground, the aquarium, the zoo etc., we are always doing at least one activity a day and that is quite enough for me!  Yes, Jaxon has a very fun-filled life.  Hopefully he will realize this and be thankful for it someday.  We are thinking about getting a season pass to the water park for this summer too.  Oh no, does that mean I have to be swimsuit ready????  To quote one of my friends, "Maybe I will just wear a wetsuit!"

He has always loved the basketball hoops and would spend the majority of his time making "SLLLLAAAAMMM DUNKS" as he would say!  He also spends the majority of his time at home outside playing basketball too, he can never get enough bball time!!!  Thankfully, he got Jason's coordination skills instead of mine.  

I am in serious need of a new camera, right now I have a sony cybershot and it's ok in certain lighting and conditions.  What I hate about it is the delay, which is NOT good for action shots or kids in general when they only hold the cute expression you want to capture for half a second anyway.  Plus, the zoom isn't working.  Most of the pics I took at My Gym came out blurry.  Grrrr!  So, here is the camera I am thinking about getting.  Any comments or concerns?  My top two priorities for a new camera are fast shutter speed and I want one that can take videos too.  I am a little worried that I wont carry it around or take as many pictures because it is so bulky.  

Bubble Party!  This was always a favorite!

Circle Time (he might not look that different, but this was from about a year ago)

Here is Jaxon at about 10 months when we started.  He was still just crawling.  (This pic is from actually from Gymboree, where we also went for a few months, but you get the idea)  So Goodbye, My Gym, we will miss you!!!!