Mamma and Paka Visit

 My mom and dad came out for a visit and we had a filled vacation!  We started the trip out by hitting up the zoo and this time Jacoby had to show them how he could feed the giraffes and this time I did it too!  It was awesome!  I mean seriously how many times in your life do  you get to feed a giraffe?

 Jace was just happy hanging out with Paka at the zoo

 or Mamma at the house.  He stayed like this forever.  It was so cute.  He was so comfortable! 
The beginning of our trip was great and then one night, Jace needed a nap and he would not go back to sleep so I decided that I would throw him in the car and take him on a ride.  My mom came with me and we drove through the next town over.  We were stopped at a pedestrian cross walk as a bunch of high school kids were running in front and beside us.  The car behind us was distracted with all the craziness and did not stop and ran in to us.  It was scary!  I saw him coming and turned to make sure Jace was ok.  He was sound asleep and woke up screaming.  We all got out of the car and were ok but since then I have had a bad time with my neck and back since I was so contorted when we got hit.  It could have been much worse and I feel that someone was watching over us that day.
That unfortunately took over the rest of our trip.  It was so time consuming and we didn't have a car for a few days but we made the most of hanging out and I was so glad they were there so I could take care of all the paperwork.
We did go to Kirtland and Cleveland and the day that they flew out we went to the Dayton Air museum.

 Jace thought he was such a big boy sitting in the umbrella stroller for the first time. 

 I knew that my parents, especially my dad would think it was really cool and they did.  We had a great time.

 My mom was pretty sore that day from the car accident but we hit all the highlights and that was plenty with two kids! 

Then we took them to the airport and then I drove home with the two kids and they did great!  Thank goodness! 
Thanks Mom and Dad for coming out!  We always love having you!!

Cleveland Indian Game

 While we were in the Cleveland area, we decided to hit up our new stadium of the year. 

 It had been a long day of travel and touring Kirtland so Jace was a little tired and he decided that he is not a big fan of the fireworks- at all!  He was so cute though because I am pretty sure that he thought Mamma was the only one who could save him. 

 He calmed down pretty soon and enjoyed the rest of the game.

 Jacoby loved it and he had his baseball usual of sprite and peanuts. 

 Jace just snacked on Daddy's hat and since they were playing the Yankees that's the one that Daddy had on.

 We love taking our kids to do something that we enjoy doing so much and we love that they enjoy it too. 

 as long as there isn't any fireworks!

It was a beautiful stadium and I am so glad we got to cross another one of this year.

Kirtland, Ohio

 While my parents were in town we made the five hour drive to Kirtland.  The drive was one of the longer ones of my life with Jace but he was not feeling well from the car accident, poor baby, but we made it and I am so glad we did. 

 We went straight to the temple and it was amazing!

 So many amazing things happened there and it was so neat to be there and see where those things happened. 

 The temple is not owned by the church and so it was interesting to hear the other religion describe what happened there.  I had two crazy kids so I didn't get to hear much of it and I think that was a good thing this time around.  My family stayed behind and we did our own thing.  After the group would leave an area then we would go in.  Upstairs in Joseph Smith's office, we took advantage of being by ourselves and Jacoby and I touched Joseph Smith's desk.  The very desk that he sat at.  It was really cool! 

 I was overwhelmed numerous times being there and knowing what had happened there.  I just kept thinking it would have been so cool to have been here and as I watched my kids play on the floor in the chapel, I knew that I had been there.  I knew that I wouldn't have missed that.  None of us would have. 

 After the temple, we went to the historic part of Kirtland.  My parents enjoyed this part more than we did.  It was interesting that we liked different things.

It was really cool to see where Joseph and Emma had lived for a short while and to hear the stories of that time but the most impressive thing to me was seeing the table that Joseph Smith and his family sat around and where he received numerous sections of the Doctrine and Covenants, including the word of wisdom.
I was really glad we were able to go but I think next time I will wait until  my kids are a little older.

Nursing

Jacoby captured this moment with Jace and I while I was nursing him the other day and I love it!  I love that Jacoby took it and I love that I have this moment for Jace and me.
The other day we went to the zoo and Jace had to eat.  I found a very quiet, dark little bench area that was way off the beaten path and sat down to feed him.  I was 40 feet away from the nearest person and you wouldn't know I was there unless you were looking for me.  I didn't even pull my shirt up this time to feed him because I had a nursing shirt on and there I sat with my baby eating.  This group of young twenties, some with children, spotted me and sat there and gawked at me and talked about me in front of me about how they couldn't believe that I was nursing my baby.  I couldn't believe that they were so inappropriate.  I was not out in the open, you couldn't see anything and for goodness sakes even if you could I was feeding my baby.  I have thought about this time and time again over the last few weeks and have decided a few things.
1.  I can't believe that I made them feel so uncomfortable.  I can't believe that was probably one of the first times they have actually seen a mother nurse their baby and that makes me sad.
2.  I can't believe as a society that nursing is not the normal thing to do any more and people would rather give a bottle then nurse a baby. 

As I have thought about this, I have decided that all I can do is my part.  I can support and inform new mama's but I can also try my hardest to help raise boys that support nursing.  And as I thought about that I decided I wanted to take it one step further.  I want to raise boys that support women in general.  I want to raise boys to be men like their Daddy who supports me nursing and nursing way past one year.  Who not only supports me but believes in it as much as I do.  I want my boys to see women for the amazing people that we are and not as an object.  I want them to appreciate a women's body and that she can do amazing things like give birth and sustain a baby not only while she is pregnant but also after the baby gets here.  I want them to see women as their equal and find a women who can be their partner.  I want them to be the husband and father their daddy is and I am so thankful that they have that example in their lives as well as a mama who is a little bit of a feminist :)

7 month old cutie!!

Yep, we are moving and did not want to hold still for this photo shoot.  It also didn't help that big brother was in the room and he is far more entertaining then I am so Jace is looking at him in almost all of the pictures but they are still adorable!
Jace, you are our sunshine every day!  You are always so happy to see us.  You are always good for some snuggles and a smile.  You just radiate all the time and we love you so much!!
Some fun things about you at 7 months.
1.  At this point you have had cereal, squash, carrots and pumpkin.  Carrots are your favorite so far but you really are not that interested in food. 
2.  You love to nurse!  I love our time together too.  This month has been a little more challenging because you are easily distracted so I usually try and nurse you when big brother is not around or you just want to take a few sips, pull off, smile and laugh at us and then go back on. 
3.  You are a great little sleeper!  You usually take a few hour nap in the morning and then take two more cat naps later with one of them being another hour.  I don't have you on any sort of schedule at all so things are different every day but that is usually what you do. 
4.  You are a little bit of a night owl but you usually sleep around 5 or 6 hours straight at some point during the night but occasionally you like to keep us on our toes and wake up every hour.  You usually just want to snuggle with Mama and you back to sleep.  You refuse to take your inky in the middle of the night though.
5.  You are very stable sitting by your self and will for long periods of time.  You get where you want to go by rolling, pivoting and reaching or falling over while sitting in a certain direction.
6.  Laugh, laugh and smile all the time!
7.  Get so excited when Daddy gets home
8.  Reach for who you want to hold you
9.  Tries to communicate with us and is pretty good at it. You will whine and whine while staring at something until you get our attention and get your hands on it.  You are so fast with your hands! You even got your hands on some little girls hair the other day as she walked by.
10.  Love my hair.
11.   You talk and talk and when we look at you, you smile and giggle. 

You are so wonderful and we love you so much!!! 

Super Heroes

The other day I went to work out at the gym and when I came back, super heroes had taken over my house!! 

The smallest one thought it was hilarious and was giggling as he flew around the room. 

The bigger one was in heaven.  He loves to be a super hero every day and it is even more fun with Jace and Daddy. 

He can even fly! 

I love watching and listening to all of my boys play together.  Jace thinks it is so much fun to run around the house and chase his big brother with Daddy and hearing them all giggle is the best sound ever.  I love them all!!

Memories

 There are times in my life when I would like to just hit the pause button and live in this moment much longer and this night was one of them.

 Life is good.  Life is really really good.  Sometimes I wonder how I ended up to be so lucky to have the life I have. 

 I have the most amazing husband and children, who I love so much! 

 We love spending time together with just the four of us. There is no one else I would rather be with then my little family.  They are everything to me.

 I love to hear them laugh and giggle and there was lots of that on vacation so much that I wanted to stay forever.  To see my boys so happy makes me the happiest person in the world. 

 I want to remember how Jacoby loved to not only run away from the waves but how this time he ran in to them so fearless.  I want to remember really playing in the waves for the first time with him and seeing his face light up every time. 

 I want to remember watching him be a T-Rex and march through the water seeing how big of splashes he could make.  I want to remember the sand castles that he built with his Daddy and then was just as excited to destroy them.

 I want to remember Jace being so in awe of everything around us, especially the sand.  I want to remember those chubby hands digging in it and then trying to see how fast he could get it to his mouth without me noticing.  I want to remember his little tan lines on the rolls on his legs.  Or how he reached for me the very first time at the beach.  I want to remember him sitting in front of my with the view over his little head and then he would turn and smile and then lounge himself into me and give me big slobbery kisses and snuggles. 

 I could have stayed in this moment forever.  It was so much fun watching Jacoby and Daddy play in the waves and how every time he would jump he thought he could jump so high with Daddy's help and spread his legs out as wide as they would go.

 I am so glad that I was able to capture some of the moments so they will stay with me forever. 

 I am very lucky to have all three of them

 and I hope all of them know how much I love each of them.

Beach Bums

The next morning Jarod and I took turns running on the beach.  It was an incredible morning with lots of dolphins and I was the only person out there for a while. Then we took the boys putt putt golfing.  This was on Jacoby's list of things he wanted to do on vacation.  It was such a fun animal themed place and we all had a great time. 

After golf, we decided to drive to Norfolk because I wanted to hit the Ross store there.  I am so glad I did I got a really cute new top and pants. 

Then we headed to a new cupcake place that Jarod and Jacoby had watched on cupcake wars a few nights before.  We decided we were on vacation on cupcakes for lunch was acceptable.  Let me tell you, I am not a big cupcake fan.  Actually, I don't really get what all the fuss is about.  There were some fairly good places in Chicago but I still didn't get it... until now!! 

This place was incredible!!!!  We were all huge fans and the six flavors we tried were the best cupcakes I have ever had, hands down.

Then we came back to the beach and had a blast playing.  They had a fun park right on the beach and Jacoby enjoyed playing on that and I took Jace to the indoor pool for a while and he loved watching the water fall. 

We all showered up and went out to dinner at another amazing restaurant.  Actually, we had tried to go there every night but the wait was too long so we got there right when it opened and it was amazing.  We had the best food the entire time! 

When we got back from dinner we stopped at the beach and took these great pictures and then we ran upstairs, changed back in our suits and hit the beach again. 

We just can't get enough.  We love it!

It was another amazing day!! 

That night we were putting the boys down and Jacoby told Jace that he loved him more than hole in ones!!  We just started giggling.  It was so cute!
Our vacation went by way too fast.  The next day we headed to the airport and came home.  Jacoby was really sad to leave the beach and kept saying I will miss you beach but we will see you soon.  Can't wait to do it all again soon!!