woohoo!

Translation: "Yeah cereal, WooHoo(fist pump)!!"

matchy matchy

Visits/Visitors

Heather, Myia, and Dakota came to visit us last weekend. We had so much fun with them. We took them up to Multnomah Falls and walked around. This is them trying to cheer up grumpy Jude.

The girls with Jude. The boys were up on the bridge above us

You can see Dennison holding Carter and Dakota waving on the right side of the bridge

So cute!

Then a few days ago the boys and I went to visit Lindsay and baby Van! We went to this cool park with this awesome water feature. Carter wasn't as into getting wet as we thought he'd be....

Lindsay with the boys

Smiling Van. Isn't he just so cute?!

Carter protecting Van from Jude

Update on Jude

Jude tries to do everything that Carter does

This is Jude's favorite thing to do now. He climbs up in this little rocking chair and just stands there and jabbers away. He can even get down without hurting himself!

Jude with Mommy in the Columbia River Gorge

Columbia River behind us

Jude loved hanging out at Lindsay's house. He is such a troublemaker now! We had to stand guard around baby Van because Jude is a serious face-grabber.

Can't you just see mischief in his eyes?

And he still sleeps like a stinkbug

He loves pushing this little car. He's not at all interested in walking on his own, but he'll walk all over the house pushing this thing.

update on Carter

I don't remember what he was mad about but I'm glad I captured the moment

He put these marker lids on his fingers all on his own

My new favorite picture

His tiny bum still fits in a bumbo chair! We were visiting Lindsay's house and he carried this all around the house with him.

He put these shorts on his head while we were skyping with Grandma

Grandpa Harris came to visit and Carter loved hanging out with him. While he was reading this Winnie the Pooh book to him, Carter kept calling him "Poop Winnie". Kinda gross

The ABC's of me

The ABC Info about me!

A - Age: 25. a quarter of a century.
B - Bed size: King (it's new, and I'm in love)
C - Chore you hate: cleaning the toilet and taking out the trash (good thing Dennison does both!)
D - Dog: not really a dog person
E - Essential start your day item: food and a huge glass of water
F - Favorite color(s): right now it's orange
G - Gold or Silver: Silver
H - Height: 5' 7.5"
I - Instruments you play: I used to play the clarinet, I wonder if I still could...
K - Kids: Carter and Jude
L - Living arrangements: nice. We've officially lived in this house longer than any other since we've been married!
M - Mom's name: Karie
N - Nicknames: Robi, bin, mommy, changger, chang
O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: yes, when I was 7 and had eye surgery
P - Pet Peeve: people slowing down before they get in the turn lane, waiting at a red light to turn right when the car in front of me is not turning, other people's feet touching me, "cool beans"
Q - Quote from a movie: "sgo, sgo, sgo, sget there!" -Dale from King of the Hill (not a movie, I know)
R - Right or left handed: right
S - Siblings: 4 - 1 sister, 3 brothers
T - Time you wake up: between 7 and 8
U - Underwear: I, like Sylvia, like them to smell like bleach
V - Vegetable you dislike: not a huge fan of califlower
W - Workout style: I like using the treadclimber at Nautilus
X - X-rays you've had: teeth, eye
Y - Yesterday's best moment: When Carter invented a game for us to play. If it had a name it would probably be "hit the ball when mom throws it with a snake tail, or your hand, or your fist, or the broken bucket handle"
Z - Zoo favorite: monkeys

Jude = 9 months old!

I forgot in my last post to give a little update on Jude's world as a 9-month-old (thanks for the inspiration, Amber!). Jude is always on the go. This boy does not sit still! He's been crawling for a couple months now and can stand up on his own. He walks along the furniture and just learned to climb. He's not a fan of eating from a spoon - we all just end up frustrated, but he feeds himself really well. And now that he has two bottom teeth, he likes to bite his upper lip with them. It makes him look like a monster. He's learning to make all sorts of cute sounds and he even says "mama" when he wants me to pick him up. He just learned to clap and he does it all the time. He loves to be the center of attention and would stay in the bathtub all day if I let him. Jude LOVES his big brother. He follows him around all day and tries to do what he does. It's so fun to watch them together. He is truly a blessing.

best doctor visit ever

We did another double doctor appointment yesterday: Carter's 2-year check-up and Jude's 9-month check-up. The best part? NO SHOTS!! no shots for either of them. I heard the Hallelujah Chorus as we left the building.Mr. Jude:
18 lbs (10th %) and 28.5 inches (50th %)

Mr. Carter:
25 lbs (10th %) and 34.5 inches (40th %)

We've got some skinny kids! Nice blue sucker huh? Yeah, he got that in nursery.

The zoo

Last weekend we went up to Tacoma. Dennison's Mom was in town and we got to go meet her, her husband, aunt April, and cousins at the zoo! We had a lot of fun with them. It's a pretty small zoo which was perfect because we didn't have a lot of time and we still got to see everything. The next day, we went to watch Dennison play in a Rugby tournament. I even got to see him score some points! (I'm usually too occupied with the boys to watch much of any game)

Aunt April has this awesome chair that the boys loved playing in.

Cute, huh? You can kinda see his two little teeth sprouts. They both came in at the same time.

This is what Jude looks like when he's fighting sleep

This is what Carter looks like when he's feeding goats

Aunt April with Jude

Wouldn't you cry too if you were that close to a scary shark? (He was actually crying because we made him stand still. rough life for this guy)

Grandma Sue with Jude

Carter with cousin Naomi

Carter just hangin out. We really hadn't been standing here very long, he must've been tired. Or maybe he just really liked the...... whatever was behind that glass :)

Jude and Daddy

Jude just woke up.

lately

We have been having a fun summer, even though we've been BURNING HOT up here! It was over 100 degrees for about 5 days straight. Yikes. Not everyone has a/c here because, "it usually doesn't get this hot!" That's what we keep hearing but the only 2 summers that we've been here it's gotten pretty hot. Luckily, we bought a window a/c unit about a month ago before the heat wave - the stores sold out of them very quickly. Our house still gets into the mid 80's with the a/c on around the clock. So we've spent a lot of time in the house and in the kiddie pool in the backyard, yes all 4 of us. Here's what else we've been up to:

This is what happens when I try to make dinner.

Carter thinks it's so fun to run around with these rings on his feet

I made new curtains for Carter's room.

Jude has learned how to climb. Oh boy. He climbs onto the coffee table, Carter's bed, and the many vehicles we have in the house. The problem is, he doesn't know how to get down or even that he has to be careful getting down. He just dives. It doesn't help matters that Carter tries to get him down by pulling his head. awesome

This is just about the cutest picture ever. Lindsay and Van came to our house a couple weeks ago and Carter just loved baby Van. He always wanted to be close to him. I guess baby Jude is old news now :)