Surprise trip

Sunday was Michael and Matthew's birthday party. We weren't planning on going cause it is in Vancouver, WA...but at the last minute, I decided to surprise them. Anesha was so surprised when she opened the door and saw us.

Michael turned 5. He is so cute and I love all his expressions. I can't believe he is starting Kindergarten already. Here are some pictures of Mikey...

Matthew turned 4. He hardly took that Batman mask off, except if he was crying or pouting about something. Here's Matt...

Can't leave out the baby, Marcus. He thought it was his party too. He is 2 and getting so big. He will pass up his older brothers soon. And this is Marky-marc...




These guys keep ya busy. Mom and Dad weren't looking, but I was and happen to catch them all getting into mischief...
Mike was climbing up and standing on the top beam of their new play house. What a dare devil.
Matthew kept running Batman's motorcycle thru the cake and then he'd lick the tires. The side of the cake didn't have much frosting left.
And baby learned that when Mom was distracted, it was a good time to help himself to some lunch meat.
I love these guys!
The next day, we got up very early and went fishing. Jayden was tickled. He never goes fishing, so this was really special for him. We drove up to Silver Lake near Kelso. In fact we drove thru Kelso 3 times on the way there. Thanks Randy.

Jayden, Thomas and Randy got set up on the dock.



Anesha and I watched the boys for awhile then drove up to Johnston Ridge Observatory to see Mount St. Helens. It was a beautiful drive up there...wish I could say the same for the view at the top. It was so cloudy that we couldn't see 15 ft. in front of us. We got a good laugh out of it. We met some other tourists up there from Texas and Wisconsin. Everyone was joking about the great views.

Finally the clouds started to part and we got to see the tip top of the mountain. But that's all.
We drove back to the lake to get the boys. Jayden caught 3 fish but they were all too small to keep. They ended up with two to take home.

Way to go Randy!
And those boys tormented me the entire drive back with those fish. I couldn't put my feet on the floor of the van cause I didn't want the fish to touch my feet.
We drove back home later that day. It was a nice visit and it was fun to do something we hadn't done before. I will definitely go back up there...hopefully on a clear day.

Attempt #2

So...this is my second attempt. I need to learn a new trick now.

Before:

After:

I got Photoshop!!!!

I am so excited. I have wanted Photoshop for some time now...and I finally got it. So...this is my first attempt:

Before

After
I turned the photo black & white and spot colored the plane. It's not much, but I was pretty excited that I figured out how to do this. I am going to have so much fun and I will be displaying my new talents here.

Jay's a Buccaneer

Jayden started football this week. Tackle football. Everyone keeps asking me if I'm nervous about him getting hurt and actually...no I'm not. Most of the kids are smaller than him. I'm more worried for his friend Luke. He's kinda fragile.

Jayden was weighed in at 81 lbs. He got his helmet, pads, pants and jersey. And you know I will be taking tons of pictures once I get all the gear on him.

Jayden has lots of friends on this team. This is Parker, our neighbor. He and Jayden plan on practicing together in all their gear. Reese, Luke and Trenton are also on his team.

I love this. They were so cute. I mean cool.
He was #24 for only a few minutes. He traded it in for another jersey because this one was "freekishly huge". So... he is #8 now.
After practice, he started complaining that he was feeling dizzy. He was burning up and when I took his temp, he was 101.2. He had been outside most of the day and it was almost 100 so I took him into the Emergency Room (it was 9:30pm). We spent the rest of the night there. He started puking about 12:30 and had to have an IV. He took some Tylenol and anti-nausea medication and we were allowed to leave at 6 the next morning. All they could tell me is that he had a virus. I am sure the heat and maybe some dehydration was part of it too.

So its a good thing the weather will cool down this next week. He has soccer camp in the mornings, swimming and football on Tuesday and Thursday evening and Soccer starts this week on Wednesday and Friday evening. And this is our crazy life.

swimming lessons

Jayden has been in swimming lessons all summer long. This week has been the funnest so far. He learned how to dive. And he wanted to do it over and over. He even started diving off the blocks. Also, he got to jump off the diving board for the first time. It was so fun to watch. I think the other parents were laughing at me cause I was so excited. I even took pictures...of course!

I love Jayden

I love him so much. I am so blessed to have a child who is such a good person. He is so caring, well behaved, funny, smart, thoughtful, talented, and as cute as can be.

I love how kind and caring he is. He has so many friends and that really says something. I constantly hear "He is such a good kid" or "Everybody really likes him". We were talking yesterday about how some kids behave bad and I thanked him for being such a good person. I rarely have to discipline him. I heard Carlos tell Jayden the other day "you are my best friend". I can't explain how that touched me. I melted.

I love how he makes me laugh and I love to make him laugh. We have so much fun together. It is so cute when he does the robot dance when he doesn't know I'm watching. Or when he sings in the shower. His jokes typically have something to do with farting... or chicken.

I love how when he is into something, he has to learn everything about it. It started when he was one and he loved basketball. Then it was dinosaurs, monster trucks, sea creatures, collage football, soccer, geography, and now {hate to say it} Nascar. Hopefully that's a very temporary interest. He'll spend hours looking up stuff on the Internet or making up games about his favorite subject and he just absorbs everything about it. I hope he never looses this.

I love to watch him on the soccer field...or the football field...or the basketball court, swimming pool, golf course and so on and so on. He is very athletic. I'll admit, I have become that parent who yells really loud at the game. Never thought I would, but I can't help it when I am watching him play. I especially love to watch him play soccer. His footwork is so fancy for his age. I cannot explain the pride I have when he is playing well.

I love how honest he is. He will totally rat himself out. I sometimes hear "Mommy, I have something to tell you". He will tell the truth no matter how bad he might get in trouble. He is not afraid to talk to me about difficult things. He doesn't shy away from telling me things that many people are too embarrassed to say. I hope that never changes.

I love his freckles. I love his brown eyes and beautiful smile. I even love his cowlick. I cannot believe he is growing up so fast. We wear the same size shoe! I love that even though he is getting so big, he isn't too big to cuddle. He has been so lovable and snugly lately. He even started letting me kiss him on the lips again (for several years, that was off limits).

I thank God for blessing my life with this child.