Goodbye House

We are moving out of our house next weekend. We decided to rent out our house instead of sell it. It all happened really quickly but I feel good about it. The renters are in our house for a year, helping us pay our mortgage, and we don't have to sell our house for a really low price. The market is really horrible right now and we would have had to lower our price even more to get an offer. We have loved living here!! It has been so nice to have a yard! It has been a wonderful house for Jace this last year. He loves the backyard and will play and play outside for long periods of time without needing me. It has given me a little break when he would otherwise be fussy inside the house. All I have to do is open the back door and he makes a break for it and is so happy. His new favorite thing to do is push his walking toy back and forth on our patio. He does it over and over again. He just got a little more daring and tried it on the grass. Another thing we love to do is set up his little pool and let him play in the water. He loves the slide and he loves looking through the fence at our neighbor's chicken coop. I am excited to move around next year and experience new places but I am really going to miss our house and I'm a little nervous about how Jace will do in so many different places. Hopefully the beaches in Hawaii will help him a little with the adjustment. :)

Walking More & More

Somebody Loves Spaghetti

The placement of all pasta in the following pictures was done entirely by Jace. He did put a whole lot in his mouth too...as you can see by his spaghetti stained face.

Mount St. Helens

We only have a few more weekends until we move. One of the things we've wanted to do for a long time is go and see Mount St. Helens. We got a campsite for last Friday night and the next day we went to see the Volcano. We brought our bikes so we biked to the visitor's center but we couldn't see the mountain because of all the clouds and fog. Later in the day we drove closer to the crater to a different visitor's center so we could get a better view. Once we got above the fog and clouds we had an amazing view of Mount St. Helens. It seemed like we were in a desert instead of what used to be a forest. All around us were tree stumps where the the eruption took out an entire forest. It was sad to learn about all the people who died from the blast. One newspaper article in the visitor's center talked about a husband, wife, and small child that were last seen on an ATV and were never found again. It made me hug Sheldon and Jace even tighter. It was a sobering reminder of how forceful nature really can be.




A squirrel in our camp sight jumped in our car after some food. Sheldon shut the door and it went crazy. We were all pretty entertained until we realized we had to pick up waste from the squirrel that was all over our car. Thanks Sheldon!!
We enjoyed staying at Seaquest State Park. It was a beautiful campground. Jace had fun playing in the playground that was near our camp sight and we also had a lot of fun biking around the campground. It got a little more complicated when we got the fire going because all Jace wanted to do was to touch it. Overall we had a great time and I'm glad we finally made it up there!

A New Place to Climb

Jace figured out he can climb onto the kitchen chairs. If they are close enough to the table he can also climb onto the kitchen table. I moved all the chairs away from the table and he figured out he can push them back. So now he gets really mad when he finds the chairs turned upside down. It really inhibits his climbing adventures.

"Live Long"

My friend Heather gave Jace this shirt. It has a picture of a Bassett Hound on it and on the back it says, "Live Long." Jace is finally big enough to wear it and so I wanted to get pictures of him wearing it with his dog in the picture. Jace really does love Lucky. He constantly teases him. Today he was crawling towards him and then crawling away really fast to try to get Lucky to follow him. He would laugh really hard anytime Lucky ran towards him. It was pretty cute.The front view of the shirt shows the head of the dog.
Here's the side view of his shirt showing the body of the Bassett Hound.And here's the back showing the tail.Jace eventually realized the front door was open and wandered outside. I like this picture because it really does show how long Jace is getting. He is very tall and can reach onto the counters and table. He's quick to grab anything he thinks is interesting. He really is "Living Long" like his dog!!


Thanks Heather for the super fun shirt!!

Trying to beat the heat...

Last week it was really hot, over 100 degrees and we don't have air conditioning. So this is pretty much how Jace was dressed last week, either only in his diaper or in his swim suit. We played inside in the mornings and then in the afternoons tried to get outside and enjoy some water fun. We played in our backyard with the water from the hose and we also went to the local pool/spray park a lot. Luckily this weeks it's only in the 80's. 100 degrees is WAY too hot without air conditioning.
This time Jace was very interested in the water and sat and played in his swimming pool for a long time. He also had fun playing with the hose. He also had fun crawling over to the slide and climbing onto the bottom part of it. I love how he is pointing to the leaf in this picture. He points at EVERYTHING now. It's super cute how he wants to show me everything he thinks is interesting.
Here's Jace playing on the couch. He loves climbing it over and over again.

He's getting very good at stacking blocks and putting the rings back on his toy. He's just recently started putting things back in their containers instead of just dumping everything out. He likes to pull all of the rings off and then put them back on again.

Playing Outside

Jace and I have been outside a lot the past month trying to keep cool. We don't have air conditioning so it can get kind of hot in the house. We like to get outside and play! These pictures are from last month when I set up the slip n' slides and his kiddie pool in our backyard. Jace got a little side tracked from the water and decided to go exploring. I let him of course and it was fun to watch where he chose to go.

First stop, crawling to the gate and proceeding to try to open and close it. He was very interested.
Eventually he made it from the back yard to the front yard. He played on the porch step for a really long time. He loves climbing up and down. He's super dirty at this point.
Next stop, playing in flower beds. He had fun touching all the plants and the bark chips.

Last stop, inside for a bath to get all cleaned up and some toy truck fun!

13 Months

Jace is 13 months old now! He's changed a lot the last month. His preferred way to play is on two feet now. He loves walking with his walking toy and hanging onto anything that will help him stand up. He's even walked four steps by himself. He's also taken to climbing. The other day he watched me vacuum the dining room while he watched from the couch that he climbed. He can climb up and down things and does this constantly throughout the day. He is more interested in playing than eating and his appetite has really slowed down. He also loves to feed his doggy all of the food I put on his tray. That's how I know he is full because he stops eating and starts throwing his food everywhere. He drinks water and juice out of a sippy cup now and drinks whole milk from his bottle. He doesn't drink formula anymore. He still loves his pacifier and even if he has one in his mouth and he sees a new one he will switch it for the new one he found. He is pointing at everything and really likes pointing out trees and lights. He has started throwing fits if he doesn't get what he wants. It's a good thing he is so easily distracted still! He crawls over to me with a book in hand and that is how he lets me know he wants to read books. It's so cute. He gives me the cutest little baby kisses and hugs. He really melts my heart. I love this little guy. Jace and his daddy have lots of fun playing outside together. They are like two peas in a pod because they always both want to get out of the house and be outside! We love this little guy and look forward to many, many more happy months with him.

Making any kind of banging noise always brings a smile to Jace's face.He figured out how to play with his ball popper toy his Grandma bought him. He can push the button and put the balls back in it. He can also stack blocks-I haven't gotten a picture of that yet.He likes to check out the fridge on a daily basis along with any other cupboard or drawer that is accidentally left open.He just discovered he can stick out his tongue and likes to touch it a lot. He's all wet from drinking out of my water bottle. Another one of his favorite past times.He always lets me know when he is done eating and ready to play again.I love his jeans we bought him. We got them for our family pictures and I think they are so adorable.Here's Jace with a determined look on his face prior to climbing onto the couch.Another one of Jace's favorite thing to do is play with his toy cars. He likes to roll them off the coffee table and laugh and laugh when they crash on the floor. He does this over and over again. He also sometimes makes cute little noises when he's pushing the cars.