More Visitors

We had all of my family visiting, except Pete, who was away in Vermont for a 7-week training for work. They were here for just a quick visit, but we were so glad to have them here. Carissa especially gets lots of points for making the trek down to see us. She was visiting her family in northern California and drove 8 hours just to be with us for one full day! We were so glad to get to see her, Jayda, and the newest member of our family, baby Alexander.

Everyone was here over Seth's birthday so we had extra people to celebrate. Over the time they were here we went out for Seth's birthday dinner, rented wave runners for the bay, played tennis, swam at the hotel pool, and hung out at the beach. It's so nice living in a place where people actually WANT to visit!

The pictures below are all out of order but you get the idea.

Lukie at the pool. Eating of course.

Grandpa and Lukie at the beach checking out military planes/helicopters/jets in the sky.

I'm not really sure what going on here but I like it.

Mermaid Jayda

Lanx and Trab (Travis)

Nana and Alex

Sunday evening walk along the bay

Me and the Birthday Boy

I said, "Taft you're a fish!" he said, "No! I'm a SHARK!"

I love this picture. Alex has a lot of fans. His grandparents are high up on the list.

Fun Grandpa

Missing Pete!

Sissies

Peekaboo

My parents. They're the best.

Independence Day 2012

I'm a tad behind on things that have been going on around here. We'll start with the 4th of July. My cousin, Amy, and her friend, Kristen, were heading back to Texas (where they live) after a trip to Santa Cruz. They stayed with us for a couple of nights and spent the 4th with us. Seth was working nights the week of the 4th so he was able to join in all the day time festivities. The day started off with a 15K that I ran with a friend. Our ward always hosts a breakfast before the parade along Orange Ave. It works great because then we all have great seats for the parade too. The only bummer was instead of breakfast food they decided to do hamburgers and hot dogs. At 9 AM.  Gross.

Seth had to go in to work around 7 so he had to miss fireworks. Taft and Luke were also spent by the time fireworks rolled around. In fact, Taft had fallen asleep after a walk to the beach so he went straight to bed. Kristen and Amy headed out to fireworks and on there was ALL OF THE FIREWORKS WENT OFF AT ONCE. I heard it at our place and it shook the windows. Every single firework in the San Diego Bay went off early simultaneously.  People had camped out the night before to get good seats. Such a bummer!!! The mess up made national news.

Kristen and Amy

Lukie feeling the rhythm 

Lukie is not impressed with the parade

Too early for a picture.

Luke is 18 months!

Yukie. Tookie. Bubba. Wubba. Lukas. Yukas. Tukas. 

Lukie is 18 months old now and he is just the greatest 18 month old on the planet as far as I'm concerned. Here's an update on my little beach baby toe head. 

Lukie likes  LOVES snacks. Our snacks were within his reach in our pantry and have since been moved. He would eat all day long if I let him. Sounds familiar (ahem...me.) Sometimes I think he might be hypoglycemic because he gets crazy grumpy when he's hungry...which is about every 20-30 minutes. He's getting more picky with what he will and will not eat which is kind of a bummer because it's getting harder to make him eat veggies. 

Lukie loves to bust a move. My favorite dance move of his is him running in circles while kicking one of his legs. Just like Taft did at this age, he will bop his head and move his arms to any music wherever we are. 

Lukie does NOT like the bike trailer and/or wearing his bike helmet. It's the law here that he has to wear a helmet so I don't really have a choice in the matter. Sorry Yuke. 

Lukie and Taft are playing with each other more which is so cute to watch. Today they played together without a crying incident for at least 30 minutes. It was pretty great. 

Lukie values his sleep and takes a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon. He is pretty good at going to bed at night, but if he's not ready to fall asleep he'll just babble to himself until he falls asleep. He still takes a binky and the goal is to take it away after our trip to UT in September. We all NEED that binky for the 12 hr drive!

Lukie still has fluid in his ears so he's not hearing 100%. We are scheduling his surgery for ear tubes within the next couple of months. He is starting to say some words/communicate:

Cracker: "Ca-Ca"

Water/drink: "Wa"

Dada

Shoes: "Doos"

Ouch

Out

Thank you: "Dee-do"

Car/Truck: "Cuck"

Hi

The Herways, The Herways, and The Herways and Picture Overload

All of last week we had the most wonderful stay-cation. Seth's parents, along with Seth's older brother's family, came to stay in Coronado for the week. Seth's parents rented a house big enough for all of us for the week. We stayed at the house, even though we only live a stone's throw away from it. Otherwise, we would have missed out on the late night chats with the grown-ups. It is one of my most favorite vacation activities after all.

Seth had the week off from work which was fantastic. Before his vacation week started he said he wanted to be lazy and watch "a lot of TV". I don't actually think he ended up watching any TV but he did get in a couple of early morning bike rides with his brother. (FYI Seth loves bike rides)

Taft was on cloud nine hanging out with his cousins all week. Like any other time spent with his cousins, Taft laughed at just about every darn thing Brauer (almost 4) did or said. Like belly-busting, side-splitting laugh. At times we had to tell Taft to give Brauer some space. Taft loves his cousins.

Lukie also soaked up the attention he got from all of his big cousins. He loved it.


We spent a lot of time at the beach, went to Cabrillo National Monument, checked out the tide pools near Sunset Cliffs, took our kayak out, and ate, and chilled, and ate, and relaxed.

After our family left I decided all of the people I'm related to need to get together and decide on one place to live and we all move there. I really like my family.

Boys at the Padres' game. Grammie was there too. Um, the kid behind Pop looks like he hates you guys.

Lukie with a snack in each hand. Pretty standard.

To get Taft to smile Grammie said, "Who wants ICE CREAM?!"

Cabrillo National Monument

Lukie and another snack.

Other than us, these guys are the coolest couple we know. 

Daph. She's growing right up on us. When Seth I were dating she was 4 and pretending she was a baby tiger/leopard/animal half the time. Now she's a boogie-boarding, science loving, sea-creature finding, gorgeous-looking almost teenager.

The little boys...next summer there will be another one!

"Gaaaak!!" says Lukie as an airplane flies over head. 

Scarlet. This girl. Everyone needs/should definitely want a Scarlet in their family. She's the sweetest.

Tide Pools

Eeek. Don't know how this girls touches all this stuff.

The crew

Dudes.

Cute family huh?

Zaner and Lukie. I was so surprised to find out that Zane was not only NOT annoyed by my boys but actually played with them TONS and gave them lots of attention. Both Lukie and Taft loooove Zane. 

Pop and Zane

Brauer might have been reading here and trying to hint to Taft that he needed some alone time. Taft didn't catch the drift.

Our family before church. And the TV.

Taft says...

Conversation at our house while eating ice cream:
Gwen (4 years old): "You have a mustache!"
Taft: "No I don't Gwen!"
Gwen: "You have a mustache!"
Taft: "No I don't!"
Gwen: "Yes you do."
Taft: "I don't understand what you're talking about!"
Gwen: "You're hilarious."

Driving in the car:
Taft: "Mom, those cars are up THERE!"
Me: "Ohhhhh...." (I had no idea what he was talking about)
Taft: "Don't say OH! I'm trying to talk to you!"


Grandpa trying out a new nickname with Taft:
Grandpa: "Hey Chunksly..."
Taft: "Just Busski."



Me: "When Lukie wakes up from his nap we're going to go to Costco, ok?"
Taft: "Oh yeah!! Now THAT'S what I'm talking ABOUT!"


After Taft was talking about poop, alot:
"Taft, we don't talk about poop."
Taft: "Oh. Can I talk about 'H'?"
Me: "Sure."
And ever since then, when I say, "We don't talk like that," He says, "Oh, oh, oh. H, H, H."


After going to the doctor regarding a mysterious bald spot on my head (don't ask).
Taft to Seth: "We went to the doctor because Mom's hair got lost."

Early one morning Taft woke up as Seth was leaving for work:
Taft: "Where are you going?"
Seth: "My work called and said I have to go in."
Taft: "Oh. Your work called and said I have to watch a show."

Babies!!

Last weekend I took a very last minute trip to Texas to meet the newest members of our family...on both mine and Seth's side! Seth's sister Natalie had her third baby, a gorgeous girl, a couple of weeks ago and my brother's wife had her baby just a week ago! I was sad I wouldn't get to see the babies for a while, but once I saw pictures of them I HAD to visit. Like HAAAAAD to.

My parents and sisters had already planned a trip to Texas with the anticipation of my brother's baby for the same weekend.  I believe my brother's baby was born on Wednesday, I looked at pictures of the baby all day Thursday, searched for flights, and bam! Friday afternoon I was on a plane (by myself!!) to Texas to visit not, one, but two beautiful new babies. It was the shortest trip, but I am so glad I got to go. It was Seth's first full weekend off in a long, long time so I felt guilty leaving when we could actually be spending time together, but there was something serious going on in me that was insisting that I go see the babies. I told Seth that I either needed to go see the babies or have a baby. His choice. :) Just kidding. Seth was very kind, said I deserved the time away, and sent me on my way. The boys did great while I was gone...so great I think I should've stayed away a few extra days. I was a little nervous about leaving for some reason. It was the first time I left Luke overnight, and the first time I've left both boys at the same time. For the first time in my life I was worried about the plane crashing and Seth becoming a widower and my children motherless. Luckily, the plane functioned properly, I read a book, drank Diet Coke, and ate candy. I realized this is the first time I've flown solo in about 6 years! Seth or the boys have always been with me.

Anyway, I got in late Friday night and stayed with my brother and his wife. I got to hold the baby for like an hour (or even longer?) straight the first night while chatting it up with my siblings. It was heaven. Saturday I held him some more. Sunday morning I drove to about 2 hrs to Austin to see Seth's sister, held her baby for another hour, and then headed back to San Antonio, had an early dinner with the fam, and went back to the airport. The trip was way too short, but totally worth it. I stole all these pictures from Carissa's FB page and didn't take any pictures with my new niece unfortunately. Take my word for it, she's so so beautiful.

Alexander

Alexander and his very cute big sis Jayda

Has his mama's eyes and dad's nose and mouth

Doesn't it look like I need another baby?

Pete and mini-Pete

Want an update on what's been going on with us? Sure you do. Uhhhhh....Seth works a lot. Like a lot. I always kind of thought the wives that complained about medical school being hard for them were kind of weak sauce. I thought it was pretty easy peasy. Seth never complained or stressed about it much either, so it didn't really phase me. I went to work, he went to school, we had a life in the evening.  Then I realized all those complain-y ladies had kids already and I didn't until the last year. Residency is a different story and it's probably because I have kids and now am one of the weak sauce ladies. And really, it's actually not that bad. It would just be nice to have Seth home on both a Saturday and a Sunday. And I just feel bad that he has to work all the time and hardly gets sleep. Actually, it would be nice if spouses/people didn't have to work at all, that money grew on trees, and we could all be on vacation and do fun things every single day. Seth hasn't had a full weekend off since.....January? I can never complain about this much here because there are a TON of Navy families and they deal with several month long deployments.

"Your husband is working all weekend? Oh, that's so sad. My husband has been on a ship in the middle of the ocean for 7 months. " (just to be clear, nobody has ever said this to me)

 Last week Seth had a rotation sent from heaven and it actually felt like he was on vacation most of the week. He was home a lot, we did fun stuff together as a family, and it was a nice break for all of us. The boys love, love, love their dad. I think he's cool too.

Taft is a sweet, sweet boy. He is getting easier and easier to manage every day. He really only throws a fit when he is COMPLETELY exhausted...like hours past bedtime exhausted. Oh and he becomes hysterical if I shut the door while using the bathroom....so that's fun. He's a very good big brother and is getting more and more used to sharing with Lukie. Taft gives compliments freely to Seth and me. Things like, "You're a good guy, Dad." "Mom, you're pretty awesome. And you're a good listener." (As in good at minding.) Taft now can recognize and name all his letters! It's so cute to be out and about and have him be like, "Hey! There's a P! There's a T like Taft!" "S! T! O! P!" Taft loves being read to, "reading" on his own, and telling stories. There are a lot of "and then..."s in his stories. He starts preschool in the fall and I think he's going to love it. I'm going to be sad to have him gone, but I'm also looking forward to the one on one time with Lukie that I've never really been able to give him.

Speaking of Lukie, we went to the ENT this week and he is a candidate for ear tubes. We're going to see how the summer goes and if he gets another ear infection we'll do the tubes. It's only a 10 minute procedure, but he does have to go under general anesthesia for it. Lukie is a character. I think a good way to describe Lukie is he is "passionate". He is either all the way happy or all the way sad/mad. Today he was absolutely hysterical for 10 minutes at the library because I broke off a piece of granola bar instead of handing him the whole thing. He would NOT eat it broken. I would hand it to him and he would squeeze it together, making it crumble, and would then throw it. I felt bad, but it was kind of funny. He was just so dramatic about it. I could not get him to calm down at all. I ended up buying a bagel from the coffee cart outside the library for him and he immediately stopped crying and scarfed the entire bagel.  I'm not always pleasant when I'm hungry, but I think he was a tad beyond unpleasant.
When Lukie is all the way happy he loves to dance to music, read stories until I lose my voice, play with toys, play on the top bunk (with supervision of course),  and hug the guts out of stuffed animals. I really can't express how much I love when he snuggles with me. He snuggles at all times throughout the day. He'll just lay his head on my shoulder and pat my arm or back. It's the cutest/best/my favorite part of the day with him. He does say one phrase right now, "thank you" but it sounds like "Dee do". I don't know if we can count it as a word, but he uses "dee do" at appropriate times so I'm going to say it counts. He also says, "gak" for everything related to eating. But I think "gak" seems like more of a stretch for a word.

Aaaannd.... I have no pictures.