We're Back

We just got back from a week vacation on the Oregon Coast. Pretty sad that I have lived in WA State my whole life and never been to the Oregon Coast. But it is a long drive. It took us 8 hours to get there. Trevor had the timer going on my car for the entire trip and it said we were in the car driving for over 32 hours this week! That's a lot of driving. I got a stiff neck turning back to talk to and take care of Teagun so much. He really was an excellent little traveler though - just the last hour on the way home he got super antsy. So I can't complain at all! Both Trevor and I said the Oregon Coast reminded us a lot of Hawaii...well, if it had been 20-30 degrees warmer it really would have! But it is just gorgeous! Everything is so lush and green. All the trees are growing over the roadways making a big, beautiful green tunnel on the highways. The towns are so fun and quaint. Lots of fun little shops. Tons and tons of gorgeous beaches. I will be sharing more pictures from our vacation throughout this next week. Here are a few of the landscape and sunsets though.

Photo Overload

Well, since it has been over a week since I posted any pictures, I thought I would post a lot to make up for it! :)

My sister and her family were up here a few weeks ago and we took the kids to Silverwood and Boulder Beach Water Park. It was a lot of fun! Teagun was pretty much a big chicken the entire time until right before we wanted to leave and then he wanted to ride the helicopter and "hairplane". Oh well, and least he decided to go on a few rides on his own by the end! So here are some peoples from the day.





This was the first ride I put him on. Since I couldn't ride any rides, Grandma Karen and Aunt Jennie went with him. He didn't really care for this ride. Probably not a good ride to start with!



He did enjoy the leisurely log ride until this part of it! :)



Then the helicopter ride he actually requested himself to go on at the end of the day. Riding with his cousin Gunner. Yes, they have matching outfits (I just took Teagun's swim trunks off after we went swimming).



And then the one ride I actually did go on with him - the elephant ride (actually, there was one other car ride I went on with him, but it was just old time cars that goes in a loop - Teagun did really like that ride too).



One final picture. Boone with the frog that lives in my parents hot tub (it is empty).

Quick Update

Thought I would give a quick update on how Teagun is doing regarding his surgery, his transition to his "big boy" room, and potty training. So I'll start with a surgery update. What surgery?!?!? Seriously, it hasn't phased him at all. I don't even think he knows anything happened or that he even has stitches down there. Crazy! Kids are so resilient. Next, an update on the transition to his big boy room. He absolutely LOVES his new room and is doing great sleeping on the big bed. He hasn't once tried or asked to sleep in his old room (we still have his toddler bed set up in there and all his clothes are still in there too). So now I hope to start redoing the nursery here in the next couple of weeks...before I get too big and uncomfortable to want to do anything! And finally, an update on potty training. We pretty much just dropped it after our failed attempts a few weeks ago. This week, he asked us to sit on the potty a few times and actually went. This morning I decided to just leave his diaper off and see what happened. Well, it is 10am and he has gone pee in the potty 4 times already and hasn't had one accident! Trevor has bribed him with a Power Wheels Pickup or Tractor if he will go poop in the potty (he has never done this before)...I think it is too early to go out and buy that big of a reward, but we'll see! We may take him to the store later on today to actually see the Power Wheels and let him pick out one and make that his end reward somehow. Do you think he would understand that yet??? He seems a little young to me still, but he always suprises me with how much he understands! So, in short, he is doing FANTASTIC all around!

Funny Faces

Teagun was in a silly mood tonight and when I pulled out my camera started making all these funny faces at me (ok, I might have slightly prompted a couple of them!) :) He is just too much fun now!

And I would also like anyone that reads this to comment on whether you think we should cut his hair or not. Both Trevor and Teagun were going to grow their hair out until the baby arrived. Trevor already gave in and cut his hair last week. I'm torn about Teagun's. I have always wanted him to have the "surfer-look" type hair...but can he pull it off??? Let me know what you think!

Surgery

Today Teagun had surgery to fix what they called a "dog's ear" (scar tissue bump) on the edge of his circumcision. He had to be put under for it and I thought I would be ok with it since he had been put under once already for his tubes. But no, it was much harder on me than it was on him (at the hospital anyway...we'll see how the recovery goes!). He kept looking at me and then asking Trevor, "Why momma sad?" which would make me cry even more! :( I love that he is learning emotions though - so cute! He did awesome though and he now has been taking a 4+ hour nap this afternoon - I'm sure sleeping off the anesthesia. When we were back in the waiting area before they took him to surgery, I was kicking myself for not even bringing my little point-and-shoot camera (I knew I didn't want to lug my big camera around). He looked so dang cute in his little bugs bunny scrubs - fit him perfect length-wise, but about 2x too big width wise! So here are a couple pictures after we got home. The bandage on his arm is where his IV was and then the nurses put a bracelet on "blue bear" and bandaged his hand up too so he matched Teagun - very cute!

Trucks, Tractors, & Mixers, OH MY!

Yes, we are finally getting closer to getting Teagun's room done. The room is painted, the bed is put together, some of the wall decorations are up. He is soooo excited. He was just jumping up and dancing around after I put the bedding on his sheets. "Mommy - there's a mixer! There's a backhoe!" He's been running in there and climbing in and out of his bed all day. Tonight will be the test though to see if he actually really likes it and wants to sleep in it (Update - he did GREAT!). I still need to find some frames for a few of the wall decorations and we are waiting on the paint to dry on his dresser and then it should be done (well, I guess I need to clean out my clothes from his closet since I was storing ALOT of my clothes in the spare bedroom)! I think I might be more excited than he is! It is so dang cute. So here is a sneak peak at his room. Once it is all done I will attempt to take pictures, but I don't have a wide angle lens and that room is tiny, so we'll see!



Sorry I have been a bad blogger lately. I don't know what is up, but the hours, days, weeks just seem to fly by lately. Actually, I just wanted to make sure you all got a good look at our little Lima Bean below! ;) We did have a busy weekend last weekend and I do have a lot of pictures to share. I will try to get them up this week for sure! Thanks for hanging in there with me!!!

Boy or Girl???

I had my "big" ultra sound today. I was strong and resisted the temptation to find out. I do have to admit, though, it was much harder than with Teagun. Trevor couldn't make the appointment and I would have been super tempted if he had been there. I would have felt bad finding out without him there though, so I held strong. My youngest sister, Jaclynn, went with me to the appointment. She swears the lady referred to the baby as a "she" one time when she was talking. I don't recall ever hearing that though. This ultra sound tech was much better than the one with Teagun. She didn't even go down in that area and if the baby made any sudden movements, she was super quick to move the wand. Well, not that the one with Teagun was bad about that, but she did tell us, "Oh, don't look right now (she was checking out down there), it is really obvious!" So though we technically didn't find out, we weren't totally suprised when they told us he was a boy after I delivered him. I think that may be one of the reasons I don't want to find out again this time because I kind of felt cheated out of it last time. I'm weird like that though! :) Anyway, the new doctor's office has a 4D ultra sound machine. SOOOO COOL!!! I've seen some pictures of 4D ultra sounds before and thought they were kind of creepy-looking myself, but when it is up on the screen and you can see pretty much exactly what your baby looks like, it is so amazing. Here are a couple of the (probably creepy) 4D pictures.

So what is your guess??? Does it look like a boy or a girl??






Jaclynn said on the last picture it looks like s/he is giving the I LOVE YOU sign - I love it! :)

ABC's of Jaidean

A - Attached or Single: Attached
B - Best Friend(s): Trevor, Holli, Heather, Angie
C - Cake or Pie: Either
D - Drink of Choice: Diet Pepsi & Granitas
E - Essential Item: My Camera
F - Favorite Color: Red
G - Gummi Bears or Worms: Gummi Bears
H - Hometown: Spokane, WA
I – Indulgence(s): Ice Cream
J - January or July: Definitely July – I hate winter!
K - Kids: Teagun and one on the way
L - Life is incomplete without: Family
M - Marriage Date: 6.28.04
N - Number of Siblings: 1 older sister: Jennifer, 2 younger sisters: Jolynn & Jaclynn
O - Oranges or Apples: Apples (sliced with lemon juice on them)
P - Phobias/Fears: Drowning
Q - Favorite Quote: Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much (is that a quote or just a saying…or does it matter??)
R - Reason to smile: Teagun – he makes me smile everyday!
S - Season: Spring/Summer LONG days with LOTS of sunlight to take pictures and it is not cold!
T- Tag Three: I tag Jennifer, Jaime, & Kim (sorry, I didn’t link – trying to do this quickly!)
U - Unknown Fact About Me: I hate watching movies. (whoops - just realized I forgot to change this from Brianne's - I love to watch movies!)...I'll have to think about it.
V - Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animals: Bring on the beef.
W - Worst Habit: biting my fingernails
X - X-rays or Ultrasounds: Ultrasounds (I have one today!)
Y - Your Favorite Foods: Ice Cream
Z - Zodiac: Cancer

Kai & Kaylee

I had the opportunity to take pictures of these adorable kids a few weeks ago. They were so much fun. Here are a couple pictures from the session.

Update - Teagun = 1, Mom = 0

Yeah, so right after I posted the post below I ran upstairs to check on Teagun (there was 10 minutes left on the timer so it had only been 10 minutes since we had last tried to go) and low-and-behold...guess who peed his underpants again? Seriously - I was about in tears. He seriously needs to pee every 10 minutes??? So I clean up the floor and clean him up, we go sit on the potty again and this time we put him in a pull-up (we have tried these before and he could care less if he wets in these, so they are not good training tools for him). I figured I would keep the timer going though and take him in there every 20 minutes to at least try and go. The buzzer goes off 20 minutes later and he comes running into the bedroom where we are working on his "big boy" room and tells me the buzzer went off, so I take him into the bathroom and...he had pooped his pants this time. I just threw up my hands and put him back in a diaper. Apparently he is not ready at all. I really, really, really want him potty trained within the next 4 months! Do you think there is any luck at all in this happening???? If you have resources, tips, etc. please let me know! I will try anything!!!

Underwear = 2, Toilet = 0

and it is only 8:30 in the morning! Definitely not a good sign. I don't know if I am going to make it through potty training. He is 2 years 3 months old - please tell me that is not too young. We've read books, we've talked about it, he is in a daycare room with 13 other 2-3 year olds where half are currently potty training and he sees them use the toilet, he loves to come in when we are going and "cheer" us on. So why the heck will he not go on the toilet himself??? About 3 weeks ago, we totally dropped it. Did not mentioned or ask if he had to use the potty once. A couple times in that two weeks, he wanted to sit on his potty while I was using the toilet. I put him on it, but never pushed it and praised him for even sitting. So the last couple of nights we have been reading a new book, "Big Boys Use The Potty" and he seemed to really like it. So today, I decided I was going to either let him run around naked or put underwear on him and see how it goes. I decided to go the underwear route because I didn't really want to be cleaning up pee from the carpet and I figured the underwear would catch most of it. I have been setting the timer for every 20 minutes and he knows when he hears the buzzer, it is time to go try to sit on the potty. Well, two out of the last 4 times his underwear has been wet. It apparently does not bother him that he is walking around in wet underwear because he doesn't say anything to us. Is he just absolutely not ready for training yet? He is being very stubborn, that is for sure! Any advice out there???

Sorry, no pictures today - still going through the wedding pictures and have another session to go through of an adorable 2 and 6 year old. So I haven't even gotten out my camera to take pictures of Teagun recently. I will try to do that this weekend! I'm hoping to finish up the wedding pictures within the next couple of days (keeping my fingers crossed!).

How Cool is This?!?!?

I was checking out Janice's blog and she had given me this award along with some other great bloggers. Now Janice is definitely worthy of this title - check out her blog and you will notice right away it is titled "Eleven Months Apart". Yep, her two kids (Cameron and Ava) are only eleven months apart!!! Now just for that alone, she is worthy of a BIG award, but then she always takes the cutest pictures of her kids and has time to keep us all informed on those two on top of it! Very well deserving of the award!!!

Now I am supposed to pass this along to 5 other bloggers.

1. Lyndsay - Giggles-n-Grins - Definitely deserving of this award. We "met" on The Knot about 4-5 years ago when we both were planning our destination weddings and have stayed in touch since. She has a son Ty and a daughter Taryn who are just the cutest kids. She started her own photography business a couple years ago and is amazing!!! Her house was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina and they are still rebuilding, but she is just one amazing person - always willing to help out, answer questions, and just listen even though her life is probably way more hectic than most of ours!

2. Jennifer - Has the most adorable son Devin. Devin and Teagun are only 1 week apart. It is great to chat with Jennifer and see what each of the boys is doing at the moment. They seem to go through a lot of the same phases at the exact same time and it is so nice to be able to bounce ideas on how to deal with certain things off someone else who is experiencing the same thing!

3. Erin - Go look at her blog and tell me her son does not have the most beautiful blue eyes you have ever seen. He is just a doll! Erin is due with baby #2 in September - another boy! We can't wait to see pictures of him too.

4. Anne-Marie - Anne-Marie and I met on a Parenting message board (yes, I am on the computer way too much!). She has a gorgeous son named Brick. I am sooo jealous of his hair. Check him out - it is just too cute! I am trying to copy his hairdo and grow Teagun's out similar. It isn't going very well though! Anne-Marie is also pregnant with #2 and we are due just 2 weeks apart!

5. Stephanie - yes, Stephanie and I also met on-line when we both bought our cameras right around the same time. She is a beautiful daughter named, Hannah, who just won an Alabama Baby Contest and is on the cover of the Alabama Babay magazine (which Stephanie was the photographer for - she is fabulous!).

I could have easily listed everybody on my Blog list to the right - all those girls are great and so talented and have the cutest kids! So go check them out if you haven't already!!!

Now a couple pictures since this is my photo blog and all!

Teagun enjoying a popcicle and making funny faces at me!



Cropped and b&w - just because I like this one!



And since I mentioned in a post below - here is my 20 week belly picture! :)

Wedding (Part I)

I think it is safe to say part 1 since I haven't even gotten through half the pictures yet. I'm sure I will be sharing more here before too long! I had the opportunity to be the (main!) photographer at a wedding this past weekend. This would be the cause of the lack of posts and pictures this week because I am out of memory cards until I get through editing some pictures and then I am spending all my free time after work trying to get through them. Wow, weddings are a lot of work, but it was so much fun. Tara was the best bride. Totally relaxed and didn't seem stressed at all. Here are just a few pictures to share right now. Congratulations Tara and Casey!

On a different note, is anyone else having an extreme heat wave? We are supposed to be in the 100's again for the next 3 days and we've had a few days in the 100's the past week already. Two weeks of this hot of temperatures is rare here. It definitely gets hot here, but not this consistently HOT for this long. All I can say is thank goodness I am only 4 1/2 months pregnant and not 8 months pregnant! That would be miserable!

Baby Countdown

You will notice on the side that I put in a new baby countdown ticker. The baby supposedly grows and looks like what it would look like in my belly at each particular time. I thought that was pretty cool! So, on Monday I scheduled my c-section. The official date that we will be welcoming our new addition is November 27th! (Yay! I can still hit the black Friday sales!) :) And, holy smokes, I was an emotional wreck that day. I don't know if finally scheduling the day made it all sink in or what, but I just kept thinking about our family now and how it is going to change and how Teagun is going to react. I know it will be wonderful to have two children and Teagun will eventually love having a sibling to play with, confide in, and fight with. It will definitely take some getting used to, I'm sure. I just hope Teagun takes it better than our dog, Zoey, did when we brought him home. Still two plus years later, Zoey does not care for Teagun at all and is still extremely jealous. I am keeping my fingers crossed that Teagun will be a little more open-minded about it! And maybe Zoey will finally give up and become a child-loving dog instead. I can hope right???

So, I should probably have a belly picture update for this post...but I don't have one uploaded (since I'm posting at work...sshhhh!), so I will post some of Teagun as naked as the day as he came into this world! These crack me up. My mother-in-law had picked Teagun up from daycare and brought hime back to our house to play. I came in the house after work and didn't see them and went and looked out the back window and this is what I found. They were playing in the hose and he got wet, so she stripped him. I'm sure our neighbors who were sitting on their patio with guests over really appreciated it. But he was having so much fun, who was I to ruin that???

Excuses, Excuses...

With the nice weather we are having, I am having a hard time sitting down and editing pictures to put on the blog. Also, the fact that we now moved everything out of our den into our dungeon of a basement (we are going to move Teagun into the extra bedroom where we used to have our computer), it is hard to go down and sit in the cold/dark all by myself to play with the pictures. I also had the opportunity to photography my co-workers two kids this past weekend, so when I do get on the computer I am working on their pictures. Oh, and related to photography - I am the photographer at my first wedding this weekend (and quite possibly my last!) :). Not something I had ever planned on getting into, but I think it will be a great experience. Hopefully I will have some to share in the next week or so.

So, onto a couple pictures. These are from last weekend. Teagun was eating my chocolate birthday cake and loving it!