We have been to the zoo multiple times. We have a season pass, so any chance we get we take a trip. Its been fun to see how Jace responds each time we go. He has favorite animals he always wants to see, and he has some that change up each time we go. One of my cousins from out of state got married in Utah in the spring and our family was able to go with several of my cousins from Montana to the zoo for a day. We had a lot of fun.
Jace and Brooklyn at the zoo hugging the giraffes. They both really like giraffes, and have stuffed giraffes that they are attached to, so I thought this picture was pretty cute.
Jace and dad checkin out the African safari animals
Jace doesn't ever want to sit in this nest by himself for a picture, but with Brooklyn here we actually convinced him to!
This trip was with Paul's parents. We don't get much one on one time with them, so it was really nice to have that time with them and Jace at the zoo.
Jace and Grandma joined a drum circle for a little bit.
While we were there they had a feed a giraffe event. We decided it was worth the $4 to let Jace feed a giraffe. It was super cute to see the giraffe stick out his tongue and take the lettuce out of Jace's hand. Jace wasn't even scared at all! He thought it was pretty neat.
Since Paul got to help feed giraffes, I got to take Jace on the train. He almost smiled for me in the picture. Though he did smile in real life.
This is Jace's face the first time around on the roller coaster. It got progressively more terrified as the thing kept going and going. Sadly I didn't get a terrified picture of Jace, I tried, but they are all of other kids on the roller coaster not my own.
This was Jace's reaction to the carousel. Not super happy. He got happier I think, as the ride progressed, but he wasn't super super impressed.
This kid loved the train though. He was happy and dapper pretty much the entire time.
Because of Jace's obsession with fire trucks lately we thought he would love to go see one and sit in one. Boy were we wrong! He likes fire trucks from a distance, but up close he was not happy. He refused to even get close by himself. Thats okay though. We tried.
Before the fourth of July, Paul's aunt that lives a few blocks from us had a pool party at her house. He has a cute little pool with a diving board. We didn't originally plan to swim because we had family coming over to hang out with us, but Paul and Jace ended up in the pool. Jace was actually a daring little kid and jumped off the diving board. Multiple times I might add. He has started to become more daring. He used to be the whimpiest whimp. Now Jace will actually try things even if they might seem a little bit scary.
Jace taking on of his diving jumps off the diving board. This kid loves to jump into water, but he more so belly flops than anything. If we could teach him how to turn that belly flop into a dive, he would probably go pro at some point ;)
Just chillin after swimmin in the pool.
Paul had fun hanging with his brothers. I laughed at him because he was totally swimming in regular clothes, but I guess for a guy that isn't anything weird.
Paul had me take a video of Jace jumping off the diving board in slow motion. It is kind of fun to watch.
On the actual fourth of July we had another pool party with Pauls other aunt on the other side of the family. We played water volley ball, and had a BBQ. Jace got to play with his cousins and swim, and play with cars. and go down the water slide, (another daring moment for him). We all played hard and wore ourselves out so we could watch fireworks and go to bed. It was great though.
Pool party with all the cousins!!
Aunt Jessie and Jace playing in the pool.
Since there was no diving board to jump off of, Paul would throw Jace up hi and let him splash in the pool.
Paul has a cousin that he is really close with that has moved to Arizona, but usually in the summer, his cousin Summer and her family will come stay here in Utah for a month or so. Summer has a daughter that is just a year older than Jace, and we discovered that they play so well together. Jace and Lily spent lots of time together at the splash pad, and just hanging out. He was always asking to play with her, and I guess she was always asking to play with him. We have had so much fun with Summer and Tyler here. We try to do game nights with them once a week, and we did fairly well with finding the time to meet up. Our last hurray game night was dinner at Texas Roadhouse and skittles bowling. Sadly, they had to go back to Arizona, but we look forward to seeing them again!!
Splash pad fun with Lily and Summer! This splash pad in South Jordan is awesome. Not only does it have the splashy stuff, it has a little lazy river type thing. Jace isn't a huge fan of all the splashing, but he loved to float boats with Lily down the little river.
Cousin Lily is so nice to share with Jace. She had two boats, and let Jace play with his very own while we were at the splash pad.
Jace and dad racing down the river
Jace really got like all up and into the water.
This was the only picture I got of Jace where he is actually looking at me. Sadly there is a random kid in front of him, but hey, you can tell that Jace is looking this way.
The end of the river where all the kids liked to sit and chill.
Texas Road house party!!
I can't believe how much he understands either. He is talking in sentences and it just blows my mind! Jace has learned that he likes technology, but he doesn't like it when we take it away from him. I am very much so trying to keep his screen time to a minimum, but it makes it hard when there is seriously technology everywhere we go! He currently knows how to use his tablet better than I do. I am an iOS user and trying to learn the ropes on Android has been oh so fun. His current favorite movie is Zootopia. Literally loves it. He is always asking to watch it, (which I don't let him watch it all the time). He is also starting to take some interest in Horton Hears a who. I think its because its got animals in it, and for some reason he has taken a liking to animals. Jace also is very much into fire trucks, trains, and cars lately. He loves to see fire trucks and is always asking to see them in the car. He also loves trains. When ever he sees one he yells, "Train Mommy, train! All aboard!" Its so fun and seriously so cute. We have been to the zoo a few times this summer and taken Jace on the train, and almost the entire ride he is shouting, "All aboard." All the other people on the train always look back at us and tell us that its cute. Its good to know that he isn't driving everyone crazy.
Jace is learning that he doesn't like time out. But he is also in the stage where pushing the limits and testing the boundaries is apparently what life is all about. Most of the time he learns pretty quickly, but things like not sharing, and not hitting, are frequent time out discussions at our house. Paul and I are trying really hard to make Jace think about why he is in time out. We don't just want to put him there. We usually wait till he calms down then have a discussion with him about what choices he made that put him there. At first we got a lot of wrong answers out of Jace because he was just saying whatever he wanted to say, but lately he is actually starting to think about his choices, and give us correct responses. For example he got upset and pushed a kitchen chair onto the floor and ended up cracking it. He sat in time out for a minute and we chatted about why he was there. He was able to tell me that he was in time out because, "Jace broke chair" It was so cute how he said it that I had to refrain from laughing. But he knew and understood that he was in trouble because he broke a chair. His responses continue to get better each time we discuss and practice with him. The hope is that he will think about his choices before he makes them rather than having to continuously review the aftermath of them.
I don't know how we planned our summer so well, but it has been really nice. Paul has literally had time off of work almost every two weeks or so. We have had vacations planned and a few little short activities planned here and there, so having him home for a week, or a few days, then a few weeks at work, then home again has been awesome. Now that summer is coming to an end he is going to start slowly getting a little bit busier as busy season encroaches, but thats okay. We are looking forward to November when his firm takes all of the employees and their families to Disneyland. Its at least something to hold out for as Jace and I have to transition back into the normal everyday work life routine.
Jace got a strider bike for his birthday, and is finally cruising on it. He is getting so so fast, and always asks to ride it. I love that he has a desire to ride his bike. I love anything athletic and outdoors and it melts my heart that he likes some of the things that I enjoy as well.
My Aunt brought over a few slices of chocolate cake and left them at our house. Jace was supposed to be eating breakfast in this picture, but he somehow found the cake and decided to eat that instead. What a stinker! But it was too cute to not get a picture of it.
When mom is too busy with yard work to take Jace down the street to the rec center pool, we play in the sprinklers that Mimi and Papa gave Jace for his birthday. He wasn't so sure at first, but by the end he loved it and was sad we had to put the sprinklers away.
Jace and his friends bike gang. I love that Jace is learning to socialize and connect with other children. I also love that he is growing up in a neighborhood with such amazing friends. We lucked out with our neighborhood. I am so grateful that we have the neighbors that we do, and that Jace gets to grow up with all these kids.
Because I currently can't lay on my pregnant belly in the sun, I had Jace do it for me. The cute kid did just that.
It took me a few minutes to get Jace to actually play in the pool because I just wanted to sit in the shade, but after some convincing he got in.
Paul has an old coworker that him and his wife have become really awesome friends of ours. We hang out every month or so and do dinner. Today we did lunch at a Chinese Dim-Sum place (So so yummy), then we played an entire game of Majong. It took us about 6 hours to complete! Yes, they are Asian if you are wondering. Anyway, they missed Jace's birthday and were thoughtful enough to get him something. He got some pretty neat books from "Aunt Jessica and Uncle Wei"
Jace used to despise trampolines, but has recently decided they aren't so bad. I had to snap a few pics at the neighbors house of him willingly jumping on the tramp.
My basically BFF from 6th grade through high school decided it would be awesome to move 10 minutes away from me. It has actually been pretty neat. We took the kids swimming at her apartment complex, then went on a lunch picnic to Wheeler Farm. These two munchkins were too cute holding hands to not get a picture of it. Photo credit goes to Shanda for being quick thinking and getting her phone out quick enough to catch these priceless memories. Jace pulled his hand away at one point and Leila was pretty sad about it.
These three were inthralled with the ducks. Pretty sure Shanda and I had to coax them away from the ducks to see some other animals on the farm.
I feel like I never have much of an update on Paul, but there usually isn't anything huge going on. He is still doing awesome at work. He is doing awesome at the whole dad thing as well. We recently took on the project of pouring a cement parking pad on the side of the house. He was out there some days with me, some days without me working on sprinklers, taking up sod, moving boulders, ect. I was out there when I could be, but with Jace, its not always easy to do everything. He has also taken over my job of mowing the lawn lately. I usually try and do it during the day because it gives me more time with Paul on the weekend if he doesn't have to do it, but being as pregnant as I am, and having hills in the front and back yard has made it a little bit tougher of a job for me. Paul can get front and back yard mowed in 45 minutes. It takes me seriously an hour and a half. Now, in all honesty, I am a little more particular about the pattern I make when I mow the lawn and Paul just takes the quickest route, so maybe I can attribute some of the time to the fact that I like the diagonal angles instead of just going straight across the grass. Or maybe my pregnant belly does just add too much to it for me to keep up with Paul.
I am doing well. Just continuing to hang in there and wait for baby brother to make his debut. I am almost 38 weeks as I write this. I have had some contractions, nothing constant or serious though. Baby has dropped and is pretty much ready to go, other than the fact that I guess he isn't quite ready because he isn't here yet. I have stayed pretty active this pregnancy and just recently decided that I need to stop going to the muscle up classes I have been taking. They have been awesome because there isn't a ton of hard core cardio, but lately as my ligaments have started to loosen, I definitely feel like I am putting more strain on my body than I am doing good by going. I am finally starting to submit to the fact that its basically gotta be yoga, swimming, and walking for me for now.
I haven't kept as good of track this pregnancy of my cravings and over all feelings as I did with Jace, but these are some things that I have noticed. I have been off and on with craving both sugary snacks, and ice cream. I have also had a lot of cravings for salty things like bacon and french fries. This little guy loves to be active at night. He used to be really good and never wiggle too much before bed, now I can't get him to stop wiggling between the hours of 9 and 11. Its fun to see him move, but he does make falling asleep a little more challenging. He loves to poke his butt or his foot out of my belly button. No joke, but my belly button only pops out because he is pushing up against it. And let me tell you, he does it ALL the time. I haven't had to deal with swelling hardly at all this pregnancy, but when I do its because I have been sitting down for too long. Most people swell from being up on their feet all day, but I swell from sitting down. Weird, I know. And it has made it hard to want to relax. But honestly, its been nice to go hiking, or on a walk, and not have to worry about turning into balloon legs and feet. I am too the point where I have about 2 pairs of shorts that fit me. I have some pants I could wear but with it being so BLAZING hot, I don't even want to attempt it. I just alternate between my two black pairs of shorts every day. My maternity shirts are all questionable at best. They fit ish. Because babe has dropped, they don't always fit all the way around my belly. But I guess the good thing about maternity pants going up to my boobs is that either way I'm covered.
Paul recently had a few days off and we took Jace to the zoo. There was a moment where Jace was on his dads shoulders looking at the bears when I thought to myself, this is what it is all about. Moments like these. Father and son spending time together. But I also thought that Jace is going to move from the role of only child to big brother. I have to accept that he isn't going to be my one and only any more. Some how my heart has to grow to make room for this other little guy that will be with us soon. I love Jace so much, and its incredible to think that I can have that much love for more than one person. Don't get me wrong, I love our little Pikachu, but I know that when he is here, and a physical part of our family, my love for him is going to multiply ten fold. I am usually not a very emotional person, but I have definitely been thinking about a lot this past week. I have been able to let go of some emotional stuff holding me back, and I am excited to look forward to the future. A future with an amazing husband and two perfect little boys. Our family has been so very blessed. God is good!
