Big and Bigger

I don't know what bit of news is bigger, but we have lots of big news to share. First off, only because it happened first and it is the most exciting, is we will be welcoming another little Taylor into our home next April. We are super excited and feel very blessed to have another baby come into our home. This past week we finally were able to see the doctor and have an ultra sound. All of us in the room were surprised to see how active this little peanut is. All inclinations are pointing to boy. We'll keep you updated on that though:) All is well with everyone.

And the next bit of news that we also had delivered to us this week are our new orders for Washington DC! Yep, we'll be heading out to the Pentagon on November 1st. These orders came very fast and we are sad to say goodbye to good friends and good weather, but the opportunity is amazing for Jared. He will be working with the Admiral at the Pentagon and will be the Admiral's executive assistant and director for administration.

Here's to another year of exciting changes. How blessed we feel to have our faith, which helps lead and guide us every day.

Happy Birthday, Jack - Part II

On Jack's official birthday we first celebrated the day at the Wild Animal Park. We had fun feeding the birds and staring down the tigers and lions. Still to this day he hates the gorillas and makes me walk really fast by them. Crazy kid:)

Fortunately on the way home Jack fell asleep and took a nice nap and I did too (when we got home that is). When we woke up we decorated the house. Jack had gotten wet from a drink in the car and took a nap in his diaper, so when he woke up he of course took his diaper off because he prefers to be naked. I just felt why not spend your birthday in your birthday suit. This is Jack helping me make his birthday cake.

Jared got home from work early so we wasted no time in opening gifts. Jack LOVED this part and was so excited with each gift.

And although he loved the gifts, he loved singing happy birthday and blowing out the candles just as much... if not more (we only had to sing and blow out his candles seven times).

So glad we could celebrate this guys special day. He makes us laugh every day.

Happy Birthday, Jack - Part I

We officially have a toddler and a very independent two-year old. I guess the time has gone quickly when looking back, and I can't imagine life without Jack. We have so much fun together each day, whether it's building forts or building towers with blocks or just bringing every ball we can find in the house to the tennis courts to throw around.

Some of our favorite times are spent with our meetup group, North SD Babies. Jack and I have made some awesome friends in this group. This last month Jack and his friend, JR, celebrated their birthdays together. JR's mom and I had a Curious George themed cupcake party for all their friends. Here are a few pictures of the group. These kids are adorable together.

Time for Celebration

I'm slow to get things posted these days. No excuses... just pure laziness. I seem to enjoy my alone time when Jack naps these days. But I did not want to miss posting our big celebratory day earlier this month. It finally happened after knowing for a year. I got to "pin" my husband a Lt. Commander. We had a very small ceremony at work and then went out to breakfast at Wendy's. I know, I know... it needed more gusto than that, but when I did go out to buy things to decorate the house and dinner, CA had a major power outage that you may or may not have heard about, so we are still waiting to celebrate the big day. Here are some photos of the pinning ceremony at work though. Jared had asked his commanding officer, CAPT Jehu to lead the ceremony.

Summer Fun

One thing that's nice about having just one kid, is that you can easily pick up and go. And recently Jared has done a lot of traveling, so this last trip when he went to spend two weeks playing "army" in the desert, Jack and I headed north to Seattle to spend time with the Johnsons. What a nice break for me. Jack was thoroughly entertained by my twin nieces, Sarah and Rachel. Whenever he started to whine, I just asked him if he wanted to play with Sarah and Rachel and her cheered right up. I'm so glad they were just as entertained by him!

We tried to pack in a lot of fun things while we were there. But above all the swimming, ferry rides, lunch dates, bounce houses, and parks, Jack's favorite activities were camp fires for roasting hot dogs and smores (which we did twice) and of course, Grandpa's motorcycle.

We had a great time, but it's nice being home again. And we plan on staying put for awhile, but that doesn't mean we haven't been busy. More blogging to follow but for now we are off to a playdate.

Summer Vacation

We decided to relax this vacation and invade our families' homes in Utah and Idaho. We did pack both our video camera and regular camera, but they rarely made it out of the suitcase.

We had a great time helping my sister get her yard in at their beautiful new home. I only have two pictures of Jack from those few days at Teresa's house. We took a few breaks from the yard work at visited a few museums. Jack LOVES airplanes and so does his dad. Jack especially loved that he could touch these huge planes. If it wouldn't have been a 100 degrees that day, we might have stayed longer.

And even if I would have pulled my camera out more at grandma's house, we probably wouldn't get pictures different than Jack in the field with the horses. We couldn't keep him out of the field and he was not scared of those big creatures at all. And they seemed to like him too:)

(Yes, this is my baby laying in knee-high grass without a care in the world or a fear that a horse may come tromping by... )

(Holding on tight to Smokey's mane. Who needs a saddle?)

We had such a great time on our vacation. Jack especially loved exploring all the houses and playing with all the new toys. Perfect vacation for a one-year-old:)

The Strawberry Patch

A few Saturdays ago we decided to take Jack strawberry picking. Up until this weekend he ate strawberries every day--sometimes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Well the thrill of finding strawberries and putting them in a bucket or eating them lasted about 5 minutes. He was then much more interested in finding all the mud puddles to squish his fingers in. And after that weekend of strawberries plain, strawberries in whip cream, and of course strawberry shortcake, Jack has not eaten another strawberry.