Jacob's new room

Recently we moved Jake into his "big boy" room so we could get through that transition looong before the baby comes to cut down on any extra trauma for Jake :)  We should have known that our worries were needless.  When we moved in one room was pink (that one is now Jake's room) and the nursery was half burnt orange and half reg wall color with molding half way up the wall separating them.  They weren't really our style so we had some painters come by and change them.  Now, Jake's room is a light yellow that I like a lot-not too intense but def. fun.  The nursery is now a good neutral grey color so we can turn it "boy" or "girl" as needed.  Conveniently we're having a boy so we don't have to really change any of our decor/bedding etc.  Jake's room is mainly red, blue, and the yellow walls so, the primary colors.  His bed has cars bedding, cars drapes on the windows, and a couple of cars squishy chairs set up by his bookcase, and a cars table and chairs thanks to Gma/Gpa Nolden.  It's very cars.  There's also a red ABC rug on the floor, his bookcase is red, blue, yellow, and green.  We also got an old dresser from a family in our ward.  It had gone through a lot of kids so it needed a lil TLC, but with some wood glue and a fresh coat of paint it fits right in in Jake's room :)

He's done great staying in bed and even once he's up- he doesn't try to leave the room but looks at his books until we come get him.  We got a wireless video camera that we keep up in the corner of the ceiling of his room, and it lets us know when he gets out of bed via text and we can check in on him with our phones whenever/ wherever we want.  (I know I know all you baby boomers are just shaking your heads)  Unnecessary?  yes, but still kinda cool/fun to watch what he does.  He fell out of bed one night and we totally caught it on camera-it's so sad yet so funny how he just fell out so limp like a sack of potatoes.  Ok, I won't lie, I watched it over and over.

Ok, so here's Jake's room- hopefully you can tell the pretty light shade of yellow from these pics, I know some of the lighting is off in some of the pics, but it's a fun yet not intense yellow and I'm really pleased with it.  The painter kept asking once he got a coat on- are you sure?  cause apparently yellows are the most commonly returned color of paint, but I'm glad I stuck to my guns.  

So here's the left side of the room when you walk in that has his car bed, cars curtains, and red/blue painted dresser that we did ourselves to match:

and the ABC costco rug:

And the right side of the room that has his bookcase/cars chairs and his table set:

The walls are still bare but I have a cute etsy print that is coming in the mail that I'll put over his bed and we'll slowly figure out what else we want to hang up to make it homier :)  

Waking up for the first time in his big boy bed:

Like I said, he's done great and we're so proud of how easily he's taken to his new room-must have been ready :)

Here's the nursery-we haven't put it together yet/still have some of the furniture in other rooms from when it got painted, but the main colors in here will be grey/green:

Jacob's bday

Jacob's bday was cars themed all the way but we did low key this year.  We opened presents, ate cake, and facetimed with the grandparents and called it good.

                      

                                                                         Cars balloons!

Blow out the candles:

Jake LOVED the firetruck from Uncle Steve & Aunt Rosie :)

He loved his cake unlike his first birthday :)

Sharing animal sounds with Gpa/Gma Nolden:

Jake got a basketball hoop from his Gpa/Gma Richards!

Practicin' his moves:

He also got an awesome squishy cars armchair (to the right of the bookcase) pictured below:  

and a cars table/chair set which was perfect for his room!

showing gma/gpa the new room:

Needless to say, we felt very loved!  It was a great Birthday and it's amazing how much he's grown up.

We recently went to his 2 yr check up and he weighs 27 lbs and is 35 in tall (jumped to the 64% in height!)

Jacob turns 2.

It happened somehow:  we have a two year old, an official toddler.  It's not that I don't doubt that toddlers can be awful, but I'm not buying into the whole "terrible 2" thing just yet.  Jake is great.  I think the phase could more aptly be named the sometimes tumultuous 2s.  It's like having a mini teenager running around-they're having fluctuations in their hormone levels so, yes, sometimes they over react/go way out in left field when you can't see a plausible reason.  I find that more often than not he just needs comfort in those moments and then he gets over it.  That being said, Jake doesn't have long lasting tantrums or even tantrums that often.  Maybe he has fewer hormones than most :)  Or maybe it'll come later and he'll have the terrible 3s.

Either way, I love my lil guy who seems to break all of the stereotypes that we are always preparing for and anticipating- apparently needlessly.  I'm sure our next kiddo will keep us more on our toes.

So a lil about Jake.  He was a GREAT eater.  Now?  ....not so much.  He seems to be bipolar when it comes to dinner.  Either he eats it just fine and makes us wonder if we've been imagining his pickiness (and its always a meal that caused a refusal on previous attempts), but then the next day he doesn't seem to be hungry at all unless you're offering fruit, cheese, or some type of bread.  His favorite veggie is bell pepper.  His fav fruit varies, but right now it's raspberries/strawberries-he's also loved pears, oranges, apples-like i said, it changes.  He still loves cheese.  He seems to be not as into meat lately but will eat any sort of sauce on rice.  Oh yeah, and he LOVES his grandpas!  (sorry grandmas, he loves you too but that boy only seems to have eyes for a grandpa.)  Even when we're out and about or see an older man he smiles and says gampa!

He still takes one nap a day after lunch and sleeps from 8is til 7-8 in the morning.  His fav things to play with recently would include any kind of cars/trucks etc (esp if "Cars" themed).  His fav books vary but he still loves 'em, and right now he loves any books with animals in them so he can say the noises they make while I read.  His vocabulary is growing and he seems more interested in repeating certain words we say-which he used to not really care/was very much going at his own pace with talking.  Now most of his words seem to revolve around animals/colors/please/thank you/ amen/church/go!/ truck/elmo/pooh/buzz/bed/momma/dadda/riley (the dog)/ grandpa/car/ball/sun/outside/milk/walk/ there's more but I forget...he's also started just busting out with phrases as well.  Lately he's been very fond of any variation like, "here we go"  "there ya go" etc.

He's been starting to play more with some of the kids in his nursey class/and in the neighborhood so it's been fun to watch him gain confidence in being away from me and making friends.  He does NOT like the splash pad.  I'm pretty sure he'll like swimming-we've just been so busy we haven't gone yet this summer.

The newest big thing is that we've moved him out of his nursery in preparation for lil no name to come in Nov.  He's now in his own room which we painted a light yellow-I really like it and pics to come in a future post for sure.  He's in a twin mattress on the floor with cars bedding so he couldn't be happier.  It's only been a few days but so far he's taken to it GREAT!  Hasn't tried to get out of bed (we have a camera) or even leave the room-just chills in his bed and waits for me when he wakes up, and he seems to really sleep better.

I get all sentimental when I think of how fast he's growing up, but he still has THE greatest smile-well, his genuine one not the cheesy one he pulls out for pics.  He's really the happiest chillest lil guy I could imagine, and we're excited to watch him become a brother and have his world get a lil bit bigger-he'll be a great big brother.  In the fall he'll go to a once a week pre-pre school play group type thing and it'll be really fun to see him make more friends and gain even more independence.

It's crazy to think that since he was born we have moved twice and have gone from an apartment to a home that we love.  Time marches on, but we love our Jacob so much!

Born July 23, 2012

6 mos:

1 yr:

18 mos:

2 yrs old!

4th of July

Phew, we're finally caught up.  We had a lot of fun on the 4th.  We went to the freedom parade that morning and discovered the perfect spot to watch the parade- near the end of the parade on center near the round-a-bout: the trees provide perfect shade almost the entire time.  We stood on the edge of the sidewalk/grass on the edge of the border of a huge area that a big family had saved but after awhile their lil caution tape-styled ribbon fell down and we just sat on the grass in the very back of their group :)

After the parade we came home and cooled off while we had some peaches- it was the first time jake ate one whole.  (usually we cut them up for him but I guess that's how kids grow up, parents just become tired and lazy).  Oh yeah, and these were the idiots who parked behind us- pretty even, 5 inch from us while they gave themselves 5 FEET.  Luckily we were able to get out but yeah, I was mad- they're lucky I didn't have paper and pen on me- watch out, the prego monster will come out at the most unlikely of times.

We bought some fireworks from costco-nothing big just ones you could set off in the day time.  Jake loved the lil snap things but when we did one that made crackly noises, well.... you'll see :)

I made jello jigglers (star shapes) for the first time, and once he got over the "what the heck is this" factor, I think he liked it.

Sparklers!

Anywho, it was a fun day and we had eric, sarah, and olivia over and later Rosie to help eat all the yummy food and play games.  Our neighborhood put on a HUGE firework display that we also enjoyed/hated cowered through (guess who).  :)

June- Vacation with the Engstroms

It seems like we are always traveling to see people or people are traveling to see us, and I've been telling people that it's just been a crazy summer, that usually it's not this bad.  But....maybe this is our new normal.  There's nothing wrong with it-while we can easily before anyone is in school etc.  Why not travel all you can right?  I mean, next month Code and I are taking a few days to go down to Tuachan for our 4th anniversary so it doesn't really seem to end haha.  Oh well, at least it makes this more interesting to read and keep up with right?  right.

Ok, so Code has had a best friend from childhood, they even roomed together at college etc.  When we were dating, Eric (bf) and his wife Heidi were dating/engaged.  They got married a few months before us and after we were all married, we lived in the same complex directly below/above each others' apartments.  We would get together and have game nights all the time etc.  So after we had moved our separate ways etc we tried to stay in touch.  So the summer that both Heidi and I were due with our first we planned a trip to the Palmyra area.  We rented a lil house by a waterfall on the edge of one of the lakes out there and toured around to all the historical sites plus niagra as well as played TONS of games.

Fast forward another year or two (we try to get together every other year), now we each have a 2 year old boy and both Heidi and I are pregnant with #2 (and both expecting boys again), and we plan a trip nearer to them since Eric is about to start his rotations/internship/something....  So this time we rent a house on a lake in southern Virginia/North Carolina border.  It was fun to catch up and hang out again.
It was also fun to see our boys hang out with their different personalities.  Aiden,, who was used to playing with bigger kids who always took stuff from him/intimidated him, took on that roll for Jake haha.  Which, isn't hard to do cause Jake is a complete push over and easily gives up his toys without a fight.  We can't wait for them to get older tho and be mischievous buddies.  Tho, we could tell they did love following each other around and would copy each other a lot.

We didn't really plan anything big to do this time, just chilled at the house a lot and played games during naptimes and after bed time.  We did try to go on a hike, it was way short and easy but ended abruptly when we started to find ticks on each other.  All was good tho after thorough exams and showers and laundry.

The house was fun- tho it's internet was really exaggerated online (barely worked), there was a ping pong table, foozball, and horse shoes outside that the boys (cody/eric) really seemed to like.

on our way!

the house:

side of the house with the horse shoe pits

back trail to the lake

lil Aidan

 walking to the lake

the floating dock

the guys went and investigated

 kings of the dock!

The lake wasn't really a lake that you swam in-at least we didn't seem to think so/didn't have boats or a canoe so it didn't really add to our fun adventures too much.  Here we are on a hike:

at a local restaurant

One unique thing that we got to do while there was go and visit my family's old house when they lived here back in 87'.  Obviously I don't remember it but I think it was one of the favorites of my parents.  They lived right on the Raleigh/Durham border, and it surprised me at how woody it was, but it looked exactly the same as all the pictures I've seen so that was kind of cool.  I refused to go knock on the door and have that whole awkward encounter-forcing strangers to show their home to me, but we walked around outside and called it good.

this: was from a lil horse path that ran along side and back of our property that shared a property line with an old baptist cemetery.  

was brought home here as a newborn, and 28 years later:

we also went to a free natural science museum in down town Raleigh since we're half way there at the old house.  Jake LOVED it and ran around pointing and saying "ooo!" and craning his neck to see all the cool stuff hanging from the ceilings haha.

It'll be fun to watch these two and their subsequent siblings grow up and change as we keep this tradition :)