Giggles Galore!

Lovin' this stage of life for Jacob. He is just hammin' it up - laughing, giggling and smiling away! They say each child is different - but between Evan and Jacob - both my boys were/are happy babies! Jacob literally turns his head every-which-way when he hears Evan or Cy, and just yesterday - he grabbed to pet Pickles. I guess he was tickled when he pet Pickles, because he belted out some giggles. :)

Blog Catch Up

I often think of things to blog during life-occurring events, but I hardly have time to actually blog about it. Which means, I have to blog in increments per event. Here they are:

Gilbert Peach Festival - July 3rd

I always have plans in my mind on how the day will start, what our plans are, what we're going to eat, etc...and of course, I expect Cy to read my mind -- because he just needs to go with the flow and follow my lead. Little do I know he has plans of his own...i.e., sleeping in on Saturday morning, taking his time, blah, blah, blah.

We hadn't been to the peach festival for a couple years, and I wanted to go this year and make sure we made it in time to see the peach parade. That didn't happen, we ended up sleeping in and taking our time getting there. I was told from friends who saw the parade that we didn't miss much. Whew...

The weather was surprisingly nice for a day in July - hot, but not overly hot. It was manageable. We enjoyed walking around looking at all the vendors, watching people spend money on some hideous items. We paid $3.00 for a hot dog for Evan and Cy bought a chicken sandwich that was $4.00 - which was big enough for both he and I to devour. Evan downed that dog and was like, can I get an ice cream now? How can we NOT go to the peach festival without buying peach ice cream? That cost $4.00 for a couple scoops on a waffle cone -- super yummy! Evan went with a rainbow popsicle. Why not - it matched his shirt and also his painted face. Yeah, I broke down and let him get his face painted. I guess you can say we did our share and was "one of those people" who spent money on "hideous" items. It turned out cute and Evan loved it! Made him happy and while waiting in line, Cy and Jacob strolled the grounds and looked at the classic cars. I was happy to be standing in line (listening to random conversations around me) with Evan then walking around looking at cars. ;)

Ending our stay, we stopped by Tamara's Longaberger booth. Cy chilled & talked w/Ted while I was sitting in their van feeding Jacob (add that to my many places of breastfeeding places). Evan kept himself occupied with Taelor. We headed home, exhausted and ready to jump in the pool to cool off.

4th of July

We ate a very healthy vegan lunch at my parents house and then that afternoon, walked the Lake Murray Dam. It was the first time exercising (hardcore) since giving birth to Jacob. I definitely felt the pain afterwards + the two days after. I did a little running, and Evan kept up for the most part. Jacob fell asleep in his stroller. Mr. Early -- well, he was soaking up the beautiful scenery and also messing around with his iPhone. At one point, Evan and I ran up ahead of him, he was far behind, he ended up jogging a little...which he hates! Hah!!

Birthday Parties

Evan had a mid-week birthday party to attend. His friend Presley turned 3 years old and they celebrated at Chuck E Cheeses. That day was just crazy! I took Evan there, then tag-teamed with Cy while I left to go pickup Jacob. Fed Jacob, in the meantime, Cy and Evan were due home by 6:15 - Evan headed to Royal Rangers with my dad and Cy coming home to watch Jacob while my mom and I headed to Coupon 101 class at church, by 6:30 pm. Although it was just wild, it worked out perfectly. I actually sat down, chit-chatted a little, ate a slice of pizza - thanks Dawn! and of course had some cake and ice cream. And mom and I got to the coupon class exactly at 6:30. The class was very informative and I'm glad I went. I'll have to blog about my coupon savings at another time.

Evan attended his buddy - Colt's birthday party on Sat., but I neglected to take pictures (above picture is of Noah, Evan and Colt - who are at Presley's birthday party). I'm sure Dawn will post some up, and I can snag some from her facebook.

Play date

Last but not least - Evan had a play date with his friend Greer. She came home w/us after church and had a great time. Yes - we cramped them in the back of the Volvo. The picture below shows proof that three car seats can fit comfortably. :) They ate lunch, swam in the pool, watched Wallace and Grommet, jumped on the mini trampoline, played games and ended the date by playing with Thomas the train. Evan always enjoys hanging out with Greer. Fun! Fun! Fun!

Let's see what this week brings! I know lots of cleaning since my auntie is coming next week for a few days before heading off to see my sister who lives in Germany. Time to clean up our house!

It's about time!

Jacob is four months and it's about time we put him in his crib. You may ask, why did it take this long for us to put him in a crib?? Hardware baby -- hardware!

When preparing for Jacob's arrival we pulled out Evan's crib and mattress and all the linens too! We decided to save some dollahs, its best to reuse/recycle rather than go out and buy a different theme of linens for the nursery. Time to put the crib together. Guess what? We searched high and low, in the basement, in random boxes in the closets, and still couldn't find the hardware. Somehow, when we moved from the Lewes Circle house to the Marley house two years ago, the crib hardware "got lost" between the move. We figured, eh Jacob will be fine in the bassinet, that will buy us some time in doing another search for the hardware later. Well, he only lasted 1.5 months (still no hardware), so we busted out our new pack n' play. Woo hoo! We will look for the hardware later. Two and half months later, the pack n' play is starting to bow on the sides. We feared that Jacob was getting to heavy for the top part of the bassinet, plus at this point, we are feeling really bad for the little guy because he deserves to have his own little bed just like everyone else!

I'm sure some of you are thinking, just call up the manufacturer and order new hardware parts. Umm, yeah - we found out they no longer make this model and can't provide the hardware. Plus, there's a recall on it! Hah! I'll spare you the long details and will keep this short. Cy ended up going to HD to buy some screws, bolts, washers, etc. and put the darn thing together last night! As he was doing this, I had flashbacks of him putting this very same crib together before Evan was born. That was FIVE YEARS AGO! Boo hoo, teary eyes! Now, here is Cy (again) putting this crib together and EVAN helping Cy put it together with Cy. Again..teary eyes. You know I had to take some pictures of this event. So, here they are:

2005 - Cy setting up this crib for Evan's arrival

Jacob in his pack n' play

2010 - Cy and Evan putting the crib together, only this time, its for Jacob

Evan showing Jacob the same crib toy he had when he was a baby

Jacob in his "new" crib - he was very happy!

His first night sleeping in his crib

Have a SAFE and HAPPY 4th of July Everyone!

Weekend Haps

Well, the weekend has flown right by again! I wish Monday's were included as a weekend day. I hated waking up this morning. I just knew my eyes would have a hard time prying open at 6am this morning; didn't help by going to bed at 1 am either.

Friday - my sweet boy Jacob turned 4 months. YES - the dude is four months old and I am SOO loving this stage. He is cute as a button. We have so many nicknames for him and little songs we've made up using his name. He loves when we sing and at this stage he is so attentive and just stares at whatever is around him. I'm lovin' this stage!! He is still the cute cuddly baby, but he's also like a sponge and you can see his brain just churning & cranking everything that is around him. L-O-V-E it!

Here's Evan burping Jacob just a few weeks old. He weighed 6.25 lbs.

And here's Evan burping Jacob at 4 months. He weighs 13 lbs. 11 oz.

Evan and I woke up super early Saturday morning to pick blueberries. I realized I have been picking blueberries at this same location for eight years! Still juicy and at a dollah-ten per pound -- its worth getting up to pick them! This year, my parents joined us. Between Evan and I (maybe my dad "helped Evan" a little) we picked eight pounds!

Cy stayed home with Jacob. Here's a typical picture of Cy -- ice coffee in one hand, iPhone in the other (Evan took this picture).

Jacob's little feet, so soft and sweet

Bedtime Ritual

This brings JoY to my life when I see Cy reading to Evan and now Jacob too! They are on Evan's bed. Pickles is listening to the story too!

Moments like these just melts my

Dude! It's so HOT here in SC!

One of the only things I would complain about living in the south is the weather. As Ming-ming from WP's would say, "This is Serious!" It is super hot! And to top it off, it's going to remain hot (and humid) for a while.

Needless to say, we are enjoying our pool. I would say "cool pool" - but its not at all cool! One of our friends (who has the same pool), has had a hard time keeping his pool at a nice temperature for swimming. Meaning - his pool was ICY cold. WE DON'T have that problem since Cy insulated the bottom with foam board. We have the opposite problem -- our pool has turned into an instant hot tub. Solution? We thought a pool cover would help. It did a little...by keeping it cleaner (less leaves & bugs), however - the water temperature was much higher with the cover on. Next idea - enclose our pool with a 15 x 15 tent to keep the sun from warming it up. Now we just have to go out an buy one! I'll post a picture when we get to that point. I think the only person who enjoyed the hot tub was Jacob. We put him in his floaty that I bought for a dolla from a yard sale a few weeks back and he was lovin it! Since we were all in the pool, I didn't get a picture. I did however get a picture of Jacob before going in the pool in the house. He seemed very content sitting there, playing with his hands.

Here are some other cute pictures of our weekend:

Visit to Krispy Kreme

Jacob in his exersaucer

One last thing -- I got to work yesterday, unloaded my stuff from the car, only to see Evan's lunchbox in the backseat! Yowzers! Dude forgot his lunchbox, or because I'm the mommy, I forgot to remind him to take his lunch with him when I dropped him off at Harmony?? Well, I wasn't going to let my child starve for the day, so I surprised him and showed up during lunch time with his lunch and mine. It was HOT eating outside, but I managed and it was so cute to sit with his friends. They all would say, "Hey, Evan's mommy could you open this for me", or "Evan's mommy why are you here?" They were a hoot!

Evan and Aidan in the background laughing his head off!

Evan's buddies: Cody & Aidan

Stay cool!

Who's the Master?

Cy is and has always been an ASE Master Technician since the day I met him. Every five years, he has to get recertified. Well, at the end of this month - his title would expire, unless he took the certification tests again. He signed up to take all eight tests and of course it lands on the day of Evan's birthday. Womp-womp-womp -- BUMMER!

The end result - he passed with flying colors! Also "Acing" three of of the eight! Yes, my hubby is smart as a whip! To celebrate, I had a customized surprise cake made for him. And since we were all going to a small group BBQ dinner, what better way to have others enjoy in the celebration! When I announced to everyone that I had an announcement -- I think the room got hyped up asking if we were expecting again. FAT CHANCE! Hah! Cy was shocked about me saying I wanted to announce something too! ! No, no, no -- I just wanted to say how proud I was of Cy and wanted everyone to help celebrate by having some onolicious (that's good in Hawaiian) cake! Hands down, everyone helped themselves and I busted out some ice cream too! Cake taste better with ice cream. :)

Because the ASE company is highly known and its logo is copyrighted, I had to get permission from them in order for the bakery to produce the customized cake I wanted. No problem. The VP was super nice and faxed over the copyrights to the bakery per my request. AND - he also requested a picture of Cy w/his cake. I emailed the following pictures to the ASE company:

Here are some sample ASE test questions. I have no idea what the answer is - you'll have to ask my ASE Master Tech - he will definitely know the answer. :)

Technician A says that although all cylinders were in balance during a cylinder power test, there still may be a problem with the ignition or fuel systems.
Technician B says that good cylinder power balance test results indicate that compression is good in all cylinders. Who is right?
A. A only

B. B only

C. Both A and B

D. Neither A nor B

When conducting a pressure test on an A/C system, the ambient temperature is 85 degrees F., the low-side gauge reads very low (10 psi) and the high-side gauge also reads low (90 psi), which of the following could cause these readings?
A. Low Refrigerant Level.
B. Normal Operation.
C. Bad Compressor.
D. A high-side restriction.