First Game of One-on-One Basketball

Pics from 8/11/08.

After a hard days work in the yard and sandbox, nothing's better than the first game of one-on-one basketball. Jaeden also made several baskets, I just didn't get any pictures.

Just a side note, this red mickey mouse ball is courtesy of joel and whitney. They spent about an hour throwing rocks at the ball in a tree. It was in the playground tree across the street from Whit's. They climbed the tree, but could not reach the ball from where they climbed. The ball was finally poked out of the tree with a broom stick. It would have been much quicker if the broom stick idea had come up sooner!!!! But it was a fun afternoon whitney!!

pics 8/1/08. I think she's feeding Jayce some chocolate. She definitely knows the way to my kids' hearts.

Olympic Training

Pics from 9/15.

Here is Jayce training for the Olympics!! He enjoys hanging from almost anything, but nothing's better than annoying the older brother by hanging from his chair during lunch!! There is a bar under the chair by his feet, but he doesn't use it to get into that position.

Jayce's words at 16 months

9/15 : Jaycer playing hide-n-seek in his favorite pretzel cabinet.

So, my mom has always said that babies can only develop one skill at a time, either walking or talking. It takes too much brain power to do both together. My boys have definitely proven this. Jaeden was saying/signing 40 words at 13 months. Yes we made a list and counted! And he didn't walk til one week before he turned 15 months!! Jayce has been the opposite. He started walking at 11 months, and has finally started to increase his vocabulary this past month!!! Thank goodness, because "anh, anh, anh" gets very annoying, very quickly.

Jayce's words: mommy, dada, ga-ga(jayce), dog, duck, quack, ding, ball, bell, emma (grandma), jump, go, jaeden, cheese (when smiling for pics), bang, thanks (which he says almost every time he's handed something), baby, and he signs candy, more, and he did milk for the first time today.

9/16: Jaycer-Racer signing "candy". To really sign candy, you place your index finger on your cheek and twist the finger/hand. Jayce usually places his finger directly in his ear and twists. Of course while trying to take this picture, he decided to sign it correctly. So this picture was the closest to having the finger in his ear. Also, to note - his right ear is not normally that large or red. He was bitten by a mosquito that day, and his ear was EXTREMELY swollen and red, especially from behind. It took 3 days for the ear to completely recover.

Jayce and His Pretzels

Pics from 8/24/08

So I got tired of buying a bag of pretzels EVERY week at the grocery store, so I bought the big pretzels at Sam's which have lasted for quite awhile and are still being enjoyed. Jayce loves the preztels and brings them to me almost every day. The pretzels and animal crackers are the only food he can reach by himself, but he does LOVE his pretzels. The pictures show him at the cabinet, sliding the pretzels all the way across the kitchen floor and carrying them to me in the living room.

Surviving Hurricane Ike

Sept 13, 2008 The first pic is a look down our street towards I-45, and the second pic is our front yard shortly after the passing of Ike. Hurricane Ike arrived shortly after midnight with heavy rains and wind. We lost power at 4:30 am, and I know the time because we were previously awakend by the loud winds. We were very fortunate to not have a tree fall in our yard, as many neighbors in our area had trees on their house or in the yard. Ike's path really seemed to go straight up I-45 from Galveston, and yes, we are the 5th house from the freeway. We were truly blessed to have power restored 45 hours after losing power!! Most of our neighborhood including those across the street from us are still without power 8 days after the hurricane. My parent's just had their power restored yesterday. Their power return was delayed because of a tree that fell on power lines across the street from them.

Hopefully, it will be another 20+ years before a major hurricane hits Houston again. The last major hurricanes were Alisha in 1983 and Carla in 1961.

I have much to blog from this past month - our trip to Branson and then Ike have hindered my blogging this month.

Yummy, watermelon!

Pic 7/6/08

This summer we enjoyed many hours of swimming and watermelon at Grandma Junie's house. Jaeden is definitely a little water bug. He would live in the pool if we let him. He is a fairly good swimmer with floaties, and he'll be signed up for swim lessons early next summer!! He was able to swim across the pool by himself with floaties by the end of summer!!

Jayce doesn't always love the water, but he was much better at getting in the pool at the end of the summer. Jayce's favorite part of swimming was the watermelon snack!! He definitely inherited that trait from Grandma Junie, who also loves watermelon. Jayce could out eat almost anyone when it came to watermelon. I frequently found him eating the white and green rind with no complaints, he just kept on chewing!!!

"Daddy called me names"

Pic 8/24/08

Lately, Jaeden loves to perform. He is often an "entertainer" as he calls it. As an entertainer, he sings and dances, and makes everyone clap at the end of the song. He loves finding stages or creating a stage - on his bed or the couch or the living room floor. He also enjoys being a chef, a sonic waiter, a skater, and various animals. This picture shows Jaeden getting some major air while singing 'Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam'.

When Jaeden is pretending to be something, he makes you call him by that name - entertainer or chef, etc. The other day, Jaeden was the entertainer as usual. Joel sat down on the couch (or entertainer's stage), and Jaeden went to ask him to move. All of sudden Jaeden ran to me crying. I asked him what happened, and he said while crying "Daddy called me names!" I asked what did Daddy call you, and he said "Jaeden" So, we now know to never call him Jaeden when he's pretending!!!

Jayce has recently started to jump. He is not consistent at getting both feet off the ground, but he has managed a successful two foot jump several times over the past few days. He jumps very well while standing and holding on in the crib. He's trying to follow in his brother's foot steps and jump just as high.