Birthday Weekend in Oregon

It's been a stressful couple of months and I've been itching for a break, so we decided to do a very last minute trip down to the Oregon coast, since we still have never been. We stayed in an adorable little town called Gearhart in a beautiful condo for my birthday weekend. It was fabulous. I can't believe how much Jackson can enjoy a vacation :)

Running around like crazy, giggling and shouting "don't take a picture of me", while rather obviously posing for pictures. Would you believe he was crying and begging to go home just 5 minutes earlier?

I will never get enough of those eyes...

Showing off the belly button at Haystack Rock

Pretending to be asleep because he doesn't want his picture taken (this was the 5 minutes earlier when he was insisting he just wanted to go home)

Driving the golf cart

I love the way Jackson tries to copy everything Tyler does when we go golfing. He really does want to be just like his dad.

Playing Trivial Pursuit by himself at the condo. He didn't really get it, but he insisted on playing it anyway. He basically just sorted the cards and moved the pieces around for a while.

The beach in Gearhart right in front of our condo was one of the prettiest places I have ever been. Tyler and I decided it was like putting Island Park right next to the beach. Thick gorgeous forests and amazing ocean. We loved it.

Trying to smile into the sunshine

I usually think it's kind of silly when people take pictures of their food unless it's for a recipe blog, but the birthday breakfast that Tyler made me was so pretty and so delicious I couldn't resist. Blueberry waffles topped with fresh strawberries and homemade caramel syrup, my breakfast of choice every Mother's Day and Birthday :)

Oh... and blah, blah, blah, something profound about how I'm 25 now.

Zoo and Pregnancy Brain

I'm pretty sure I can track Jackson's growth while here in Seattle entirely in zoo pictures. I love that we go a lot though. It's just the perfect place to spend a morning.We went yesterday, and I had a panic-moment. I said to my friend, "Did Jackson just run around that corner? He was going so fast I didn't even see which way he went." She looked at me, glanced at my stroller, and tried not to laugh while she pointed out that he was riding in the stroller I was pushing...

Pregnancy Brain is legitimate, right? I'm not going crazy, right? The picture below is out of focus, but the smiles are so cute I'm posting it anyway. And these pictures are actually from a previous trip to the zoo, not from yesterday. Yesterday was gorgeous and sunny and warm and required sunscreen instead of jackets. I'm already loving summer.

Family Photos... sort of

Today was nice and not overly sunny, so we decided to head up to campus and take some self-portraits. It didn't go very well. I wasn't expecting anything professional looking, but it ended up being so frustrating. It turns out that taking pictures with a tripod, a self-timer, and a toddler is basically impossible. Especially if that toddler trips and gets a fat lip after the 2nd picture. My 2 favorite pictures didn't turn out because of Jackson eyes being closed and the picture being out of focus, which are both impossible to control without being behind the camera. And none of them are properly exposed, which is my fault, although it's still hard to control when you aren't behind the camera. Oh well, live and learn. Anyway, here's the ones that turned out okay.

Whale Watching

After how excited Jackson got about Shamu at Sea World, we decided to take him on a whale-watching tour. The whales were a lot more difficult to spot, and they didn't do any fancy tricks, but it was still fun to spend an afternoon out on the water. Jackson got bored with trying to spot whales, but he enjoyed exploring the boat anyway.

Some silly pose that Tyler came up with. Jackson loves being his little side-kick.

Enjoying the view from the docks It was really cold. This hat was my present from Tyler's Peru trip.

Finding hiding spots on the boat was way more exciting than waiting for whales to pop up.

I love his giggling smile

The only picture from the day of all 3 of us. Taking a self-photo with a DSLR doesn't work very well, but Tyler always insists.

Blankets, Jam, Play Dough, Easter

Easter was a lot of fun this year. We invited 3 families to join us for a big Easter dinner. It was the biggest group I've ever prepared a holiday meal for, but it was great. Everyone brought delicious food. Our apartment was a little cramped, but the kids had so much fun together. It's nice to have good friends when you have to spend holidays away from family.

Jackson at the Easter Egg Hunt for UW Family Housing. He was in heaven. Enjoying the Easter package from Grandma Trish. No, I couldn't get him to put the Peep down and smile for a picture. Great-Grandma Boyd also sent an awesome Easter package. Jackson is so spoiled :) Baby Stuff:

I'm starting to feel like myself again. It's nice to have a little energy and be able to feel excited about this little baby boy, instead of spending every day worrying, which is what I did the first 4 months. We were thrilled with our ultrasound results. I healthy little boy is exactly what we were hoping for :) We've been clearing out Jackson's room. He has been sleeping in a queen bed, which he loves, but it just didn't allow a lot of space for a baby crib in the same room, so we sold his bed and we've been shopping for a bunkbed. We've also been going through tiny little Jackson clothes to get them ready for baby #2. It's been an exciting couple of weeks and I'm starting to feel a little more prepared.

To add to the excitement, my friend Robin made an adorable baby blanket. It was so sweet of her and I absolutely love it! It's baby #2's first possession, since most of his stuff will be inherited from Jackson.

The other day, Jackson said, "Mom, I have something really cool to show you. It's beautiful!" He ran into my room, found this blanket, and brought it to me. Sometimes he spreads the blanket over my tummy and says that his little brother is cold. The other day, I found him watching TV with his arm around the blanket, but it wasn't like he was using the blanket. It was like he was protecting it for his brother or something. He's so cute and SO EXCITED! It's fun to have him understand and be so involved.

The last few months, I have been feeling a little discouraged about myself as a mother. I'm sure part of it came from being too sick to do very much. And part of it came from the fact that I'm just not a natural stay-at-home-mom and sometimes I worry that I'm failing. So a few weeks ago, when I was finally feeling energetic again, I decided to do some of the "typical mom stuff" that I don't always make time for.

Jackson helped me make strawberry jam. He was really good at sneaking strawberry bites and dipping his fingers in the sugar everytime I turned around. (Also, notice the 3 little tupperwares on the counter? That's the homemade play dough I made. Jackson has become obsessed with playdough. He will sit and play for at least an hour. His favorite shape to make is a snow ball. He's pretty good at making them)

We also dyed easter eggs (the Tuesday AFTER Easter). It was a little late, but we still had fun.

Baby Brother

This post should be a lot more creative, but I spent my day washing & sorting boxes {and boxes} of Jackson's old baby clothing, and cleaning/selling Jackson's queen size bed to make room for a smaller bed and a crib, so I'm pretty exhausted, but I figured I should at least blog about our big news from yesterday.

It's a boy!

More details, stories, excitement to come, when I can keep my eyes open.

Big Brother

Jackson is going to be a big brother! We're so excited to be adding a new addition to our family. I am 16 weeks along and the baby is due September 17th (although I'm already planning on the the baby arriving about a week late based on my last pregnancy). This pregnancy has been just as rough as the first, although I have a 2 year-old this time around, which means it's been a lot rougher. Being sick with a little kid is hard, and makes you feel guilty and useless. But we have survived so far and I am feeling mostly better. I still get a little sick in the evenings but nothing compared to what has been happening the last few months. And the last few days I've started to feel little kicks, which makes it all worth it. I'm excited to start enjoying the fun part of pregnancy.

My fabulous mom decided to fly out and help when I was about 10 weeks along, which was when I was at my worst. It was fabulous to have her come. She is the greatest house guest in the world and definately welcome back when the baby arrives. She did all the cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, laundry, Jackson entertaining/diapers/bedtime, and even left our freezer stocked for the weeks to come. I seriously would not have survived this time around without her.

Of course she brought gifts, including a giant Lightening McQueen coloring book.

Jackson helped her make cookies. He was very good at unwrapping the Rolos without eating any, until his mom broke the rules and ate one. It was downhill from there.

Drumming like Daddy

Thanks for all your help, Mom. We love you!

We'll find out in a few weeks if it's a boy or girl, so stay tuned.

Shamu & Sunshine

We had a fantastic week in San Diego with my mom and sisters. Jackson was in heaven. Sunshine, Shamu, sandy beaches, Whitney to play with him, and Grandma to spoil him. What more could he want? Although he did once make the comment, "I just want to play with daddy right now." (Tyler was in Peru)

Meeting Elmo was one of his favorites. After the problems we had with Halloween costumes, I thought he would be scared by the giant, fuzzy costume, but he ran right up and gave him a hug. I guess Elmo is the exception.

After we were done taking pictures, he kept saying,

"I want to meet Elmo again!"

Jackson is all wet in the picture because we just finished with the fountains (see the video at the bottom of this post)

Me and my mom

Jackson loved the deer in the petting zoo

He really loved them, and they were amazingly tolerant

Does anyone watch Scrubs re-runs like we do? He looks like he's doing JD's hide-the-nipple dance. It cracks me up.

This is how you know the day was a success

What a gorgeous beach. Jackson was an expert sand castle maker.

So here is Jackson enjoying the fountains. It started off as innocently putting his hands in the water. But once I realized I had spare shorts and a dry jacket in my purse, we decided to just let him go crazy.