The Big One

I know, I can't believe it either, but Barett turned ONE last Saturday!!  I thought Adelyn's first year went by fast, but this one has been ridiculous.  It has been a great year and I feel sad for those of you who live far away and haven't gotten to be a part of it because this little guy is irresistible.

Those of you who do live around here know that he is a very good-natured guy who is serious about one thing: FOOD.  Even if he is has just eaten, if he sees someone else eating he goes and begs, if he hears the sound of a wrapper across the room, he goes and begs.  Just like a little puppy.

Last Saturday the 18th was the actual day, but the poor thing got a little lost in the shuffle of us trying to get our new house ready to move in to and our current house ready to rent.  Plus we had Aaron's cousin's wedding reception two and a half hours away that evening.  Good thing he had no clue about the neglect...bread in hand and he is happy!

The reception was at someone's house in their ward with some nice property so we took some birthday photos.  Big sis was more excited than he was that it was his birthday.

We didn't throw a fancy party, but took a break from demolishing and painting long enough to at least have some cupcakes and presents with family.  He was a much bigger fan of the carrot cake than Adelyn was at her first birthday (I have to start that indoctrination early on!)

He goes in for his one year check up this week, but I think he is about 28 lbs right now, with eight teeth and lots of hang time behind his ears.  He is definitely not the talker that Adelyn was, but he does say ma ma ma, da da da, na na na (for food), and a-da for Adelyn.  And he is VERY good at grunting.  Apparently he got that from me (when I was a baby that is).

He is much more physical than she is too, so I guess there is something to those gender "stereotypes." He loves climbing on anything and everything, getting into the cupboards and banging pots and pans; to listen to us trying to change his diaper or clothes from the next room you would think we were torturing him because he does not want to be forced to sit still.  You can imagine how he feels about sacrament meeting!

He started walking a few weeks ago and I figured you could see his skills while witnessing his enthrallment with his new truck.  He is very happy to get some "boy" toys after being surrounding by Adelyn's pink girly things everywhere.

I love him so much and am grateful to have him in our family.

July July

Just when I thought we had a busy spring, we are having an even busier summer!!  For the first time in as long as I can remember, I am actually looking forward to fall.  Or maybe I am just looking forward to finishing fixing up our new house, renting out this one, and being all settled down into normal life again...which all probably won't happen until fall.

But while it is still summer, I thought I would share some of the fun things we have been up to.  The 4th of July was a gorgeously perfect northwest day, so we decided to start celebrating early by hitting the Steilacoom parade with Aaron's family.  The gun salutes were a little much for Barett, but Adelyn had a blast getting candy thrown at her.

Yes, she is wearing a scarf.  One of her independent wardrobe choices.

The kids napped in the car on the way back down to a yummy BBQ at my parents, followed by a great night at the Tumwater Artesian Festival.  This is our yearly tradition thanks to my big sis working there, but we weren't sure how little Barett would do.

We decided to all get our faces, or something, painted this year...even Barett sat long enough to get a little lightning bolt on his cheek!

We didn't think we were going to last through the festival and into the fireworks with the young kiddos, but we actually did!!  Barett refused to go to sleep with all the excitement going on and was loving every minute. But even he is only so stubborn and was so tired that he finally fell asleep...sitting on my lap...right in the middle of the booming fireworks show. Ya gotta love him!

Jadyn begged and begged Aaron to do the jousting with her and was surprisingly sad she didn't do better against him.  But she gave it her all...do you see her determination in this picture?

We had the kids in swimming lessons, gearing up for what I hoped was going to be a summer spent lazing by the pool getting tan, but the Washington weather had different plans.

Thanks to the Rosados, we did get a few good days of swimming in!  And crossing my fingers we will get at least a couple more in before all the pools close on Labor Day!!

Fresh berries from Spooner's are another of my favorite parts about July, and it looks like I am not the only one.  I turned my back on the open door to the fridge and found a couple of scavengers when I turned back around.  They were shoving them in by the fistfuls like they hadn't eaten all week!  Spooner's just closed for the season...:(  Maybe I am not happy about fall after all.

While Aaron was gone on one of his too many/too long business trips, we decided to meet up with my sister to go to the Woodland Park Zoo.  Believe it or not, this was my first time ever going, even though I lived practically next to it for two years.  Zoos aren't really my thing, but while my kids love them, I love them.

And they definitely had an awesome time!  Though sometimes they seemed to have more fun with the statues of the animals than the actual animals themselves.  This was our best attempt at getting a cousin shot.  With those two boys being mobile now it was obviously a little out of our skill set.

Since the Tacoma zoo doesn't have lions, this is what Adelyn and I were most looking forward to, and boy did we get a good shot!!  I do NOT have a fancy camera with great zooming, this was just how close we were to it!  It was RIGHT on the other side of the glass, which another lady said this was the closest she had EVER seen the male lion and she goes to the zoo a lot.

The elephants were awesome too, though not long after this my kids started to break down a little as it got more and more past naptime.  It was just a little too big to see everything in the two hour window that Barett can usually stand being awake in between naptime.  He screamed the whole 20 minute walk back to the car and all that beautiful Seattle traffic somehow didn't seem to brighten his mood or help put him to sleep.

 In bigger news, Aaron's sister had her baby, Brynnalise Rose in July!  She came close to sharing my birthday, but ended up coming the 24th, while I was gone at Girls' Camp.

The kids got to see her though...here is a little better cousin shot of the Anderson side cousins.  We are so lucky to have the cousins all fairly close right now!!

Hope you guys have been out there enjoying the summer too!