Jeremiah 7 Months

If that doesn't break your heart than nothing will.  The poor guy has a double ear infection.  He handles them well most the day, but a couple times will just break down crying in pain.  And he HATES taking medicine.  To the point where two nights in a row he has made himself vomit after we give it to him and he holds his lips closed turning his head from us.  As soon as Austin walked over and 'Miah could see the syringe of pink stuff he started crying and flailing.  This could be a long road.  He also has a fever in the 103+ range for 6-8 hours of the day.  

Once we get him to sleep, he has been sleeping through the night still.  

I distracted him with the blocks which cheered him up a bit.  He weighs 21lbs and 4 oz, he is in size 12 to 24 month clothes.  He is outgrowing a lot of the 12 month size but some of the 2T is still big on him so 18 month is about right.  The pajamas he is wearing to bed tonight Zachary was wearing when the grandparents came to meet Jeremiah.  It is just shocking how quickly he is growing.  Each time we go to the doctor I expect he will have reach a plateau, but instead he is another pound heavier.  

We haven't been able to get photo evidence, but he has his first tooth on the bottom right middle tooth.  He is going strong with teething still, there will likely be additional teeth in the near future (also not fun with bad ear infections).  

He started solid food, but we are bad at forcing him to keep eating.  He talks all the time and will watch Z for hours is if he anywhere around.  Jeremiah definitely loves his big brother.  Jere doesn't cry, except for recently with the infection.  Even last week a new nursery women was there and she was in awe of how happy he is all the time smiling and laughing.  

I finally was able to pull a smile out of him.  'Miah loves to hug and hold on to us, a big change from Zachary. 

He is kicking his feet in motion with his hands preparing to crawl.  I think it will still be a couple months before he actually puts it all together though.  Even though he isn't crawling he is mobile.  He rolls around anywhere he needs to go.  He moves all over his crib at night, reaching all four corners in one evening.  

We are very thankful for our overly joyful little bear even when he is sick he is a much happier baby than many others.  

Mother's Day 2013

The day started with allowing me to sleep in and then getting up to the "Mom Book."

Even though it is Jeremiah's first year alive he was familiar with the mom book and made me a page.  

Jeremiah really loves Zachary, it is surprising for us how much he already looks up to Zachary.  

For my day's activity I wanted to just relax and play as a family.  

During Z's nap time we went outside and I received a pedicure while getting caught up on some blogging.  

'Miah wasn't napping at the same time but he is pretty much the happiest baby ever created and sat in his bumbo watching us completely entertained.  

Zachary joined the outside party as well and played with the dogs while we rested in the sun.  

Jeremiah has started eating solid foods, but he doesn't love them.  

I want pictures of the boys in their matching clothes.  It turns out they have quit a few matching outfits since I usually buy clothes during the off season and since I find cute cheap shirts I buy both the 18 month and 2T size so Z would have it for a while.  Not it works out that both babies have a shirt in their size.  

Not the best pictures, but at least we have a few.  It was a relaxing day at home playing as a family just as I requested.  I am so grateful for the wonderful babies & husband I am fortunate enough to have in my life.  

Date Night

Last night Austin and I went out alone on a date for the first time since...well we can't remember.  We have gone out a couple times since we had Jeremiah.  Once with Dan & Erica and once to dinner with the Doten's and Brent.  We had some inspiration from a marriage series at church where a visiting pastor from Woodland Hills gave two lists of 4 topics of dates to do in 4 weeks (adventure, dream, laugh, etc).  Under each topic of date there was 10-15 types of dates.  We did a combination of a few of them.  We went out to a new restaurant(s) and while we were out we brainstormed and made our couples bucket list (adventure and dream themes).   Our couples bucket list is a list of things we want to do together.  And since I really like lists...we also made a list of Date Night ideas to make a Date Jar I had seen on Pinterest.

We went to dinner at The Green Truck Pub in down town Savannah.

It is a little place out of the normal historic district with delicious burgers and veggie burgers.  It is a "natural" place and brings out the Georgia hippie crowd to remind us of Eugene.  Ironically for our first date night out alone we were sat in this little restaurant right next to a couple we went to church with for a few years and haven't seen since they changed churches just over 2 years ago.  So we all talked together some and did our own thing too.  It was cool to get caught up with them though.  Now for the first list...

So far our bucket list includes:

• Build a house together
• Spend a week on an island with no plans
• Go on a mission trip
• Europe trip (Italy, Germany & ??)
• Go to a football game at Mile High Field (and snow board while we are there)
• Build a house to donate (though Habitat or some ourselves, this will likely be once we retire)
• Trip to see Biblical sites in Israel

We have a few other items that we are still brainstorming.  For example, Austin wants to scuba dive and I want to do a half marathon but we haven't committed to doing those together.  It was a fun experience and added some interesting conversation to dinner.  

After dinner we went to The Melting Pot for dessert.  

It is a great place to go for either a cheese fondue appetizer or dessert only.  Each costs about $10 per person.   The entire meal there would take way too long for my patience level and is pricey for what you get. While at dessert we worked on our date night lists. 

We made a list of "dates" in the following categories.

Yellow - Family "dates"

Green - At home dates for after the kids go to bed

Blue - $10 or less dates

Pink - $10 to $75 dates

Purple - > $75 or requires planning dates  

We then put all the different ideas we have so far into the jar so we can pick one in the category we are able to do that weekend.  Here are some examples.

Yellow - Ogeechee Wildlife Center, Children's Museum, Bike ride on Hilton Head, pool day at home, beach day, water park day, 

Green - Camp Fire and S'mores, Board game night, plan our 15 year anniversary vacation, Movie night he picks (includes theater style snacks), etc.

Blue - Picnic dinner at the beach or park, 

Pink - Dinner on the water, bowling, drive in theater, 

Purple - Murder Mystery Theater, Cooking class, spa day, etc.

So now we have our Date Jar (on right).

Next to it in the picture is our New Year's Jar, also off Pinterest.  Throughout the year we right memorable events on pieces of paper and place in the jar.  On New Year's we will read through them all to help us remember the amazing year we just had.  Yes, I like Pinterest.
We didn't take any pictures of the two of us out, but that is pretty standard.  It was a fun night out on the town and we look forward to doing our other dates and bucket list items.

Any ideas you can share in the comments for additional date nights?

Fence Project

We decided to build a fence to keep the dogs in the woods and the yard for the babies to play in with out wholes and other dog items.  Also, I feel like I have to watch them too closely in the woods in case there is a critter out there they would find.  This project has been a work in progress.  It was started at the end of last year and we did 4-6 hour blocks of work on it a couple times.  We still need to cut the posts down (Austin wants to make sure Daisy can't jump over it first) and add the top tension wire.  But it has been functional for a while so I am going to blog about it now vs when it is completely finished.

Z playing while we work on the fence.  

You can see the posts are up at this point.

Jeremiah being cute on the porch, these photos were from December 30th.

Helping dada.

Filling in old post holes and prepping the land.  

Zachary making sure the dirt is good.

Building the gate a different day than the above photos.

The dogs would no longer have the back porch as shelter in a thunderstorm so we purchased dog houses for each of them.  I don't know why we got one for Bo because he loves to run in the rain.  I thought he would use it as shade when it is hot but I think he will just dig a hole in the dirt in the shade of a tree.  

Z thought the houses were fun to play in.  

Bo all settled in his new yard area.  Daisy does use the dog house when it rains, I haven't seen Bo use one yet.  He will go in there but doesn't stay.  

And here is a picture of the fence.  We wanted one that would look natural and not make a big separation between the yard and the woods so we could easily still look at the plants.  

We started the fence last year, I started writing this blog in March and the final fence pictures are from today.