Thanksgiving at Apple Farm

Our Thanksgiving morning began at 4:30am as we carried our sleepy kids into our heated minivan to begin our four hour drive to San Luis Obispo. Bailey actually stayed awake most of the drive full of excitement about our sneaky adventure in the break of dawn. We enjoyed the smooth and scenic drive up the 101 with our coffee's, quality conversation, and the sun rise over the ocean. A great time to reflect on all we have to be thankful for. The one thing we weren't thankful for was Brandon's first speeding ticket that he got on this same drive. The trick is to stay in the pack, because even as we were getting pulled over at 8:00am thanksgiving morning, other cars were passing us faster than 65 - it was a sass that kind of bummed out the morning for a bit - but things quickly got better as we arrived at Apple Farm.

Apple Farm Inn is an adorable country styled place which was fully decorated on every corner with Christmas decorations. Their shops are filled with endless amounts of items to look at that inspired me to want to host lots and lots of Christmas parties. We enjoyed a delicious traditional Thanksgiving meal and I was thankful that I actually was able to sit through the whole meal! Jaemus slept and Bailey didn't have to pee once!

Coffee, tea, and cider are served all day in the lobby and at night they put out hot chocolate and freshly made cookies. Just what we needed after some apple pie right? yum yum. They also had a fun activity of hunting for Dash their Christmas elf. He was hidden in the gift shop and if you find him you win a pie and t-shirt. We hunted down this elf for over and hour! This shop is huge and so full of decor that it really seemed hopeless. It probably would have been too if the nice lady who worked there had not been giving us clues and finally actually showed Bailey in a way that made Bailey believe she found him. We took home the t-shirt and boysenberry pie due to Bailey's cuteness.

Over the weekend we enjoyed Bikes rides

Gopher Glen Apple Farm- brought home yummy treats and baking apples.

Avila Valley Barn- they had the cutest cow. Yes, I said cow. It looked like a stroy book cow or like Clarabell the cow from Disney.

We went to Solvang for half the day on Friday and visited this adorable cute old fashion school that is still in use today.

Went on a hike to a waterfall that was tucked away in the back of the hills.

Thanksgiving was lovely and it was great to spend time with my parent's and have a refreshing weekend away.

Growing Up

Lately I have been having a lot of those moments where I look at Bailey and think, "wow, this works...this while parenting and teaching things pays off!" Going through everything for the first time sometimes I just dive in and think, "I hope this works." It is encouraging to look at my 2 1/2 year old who has manners, language, joy, and personal interests and feel like a very blessed parent.

One of Bailey's biggest changes over the past few months has been language. She was always a quiet observer and now she talks my ear off. She knows what she wants and what her likes are and she does a great job at expressing herself and her needs. Bailey pronounces words a lot better now and it is funny to see her have conversations with other children or strangers in the store. She no longer calls Sleeping Beauty "P Pee Doo Doo" and our dog Frani is being called more and more by his name instead of "Rough." She pronounces her own name now instead of referring to herself and "dadda." Bailey struggled with the "B" words for some time. She can pronounce Jaemus instead of only calling him "Baby" or "baby JJ." Still though some words or phrases still come out funny. She calls her friend Ethan "E E" and her friend Emily "eye-lie."

Bailey's biggest miles stone recently has been her conquering of the potty. We have been casually potty training for a few months but I have been real laid back especially since Jaemus was new and I didn't want to deal with pee and poop all the time. I also was waiting for her to show me enough interest to really commit to a daily practice of no diaper. After a lot of wet panties and potty conversations Bailey began to tell us every time she went pee or when she had to go. The real clincher however was when she would yell to us at 9:30 at night, after she had been in bed for an hour, that she went pee and wants a new diaper. This for us was what pushed us to commit.

Last Tuesday I told her we weren't going to wear diapers at home anymore, only to bed or when we leave the house. Having us all committed to this has been a great success. One week later Bailey has not had any accidents for two days, goes pee and poop on the toilet and yesterday at church she went twice with the caregivers and this morning she went at the bank and Target! I was stunned at her initiative to want to go when we were out and about. I told her she could go in her pull-up when we were out or at church but she wanted the potty. I am very proud of her and so far the ease of her willingness. I am sure we will hit more bumps in the training process but so far I have been so relaxed and impressed with her ability to adapt.

However, it does make doing errands a bit more tricky. I was in no hurry to have her use public toilets and deal with Jaemus in the carrier and all but once you start you can't just stop.

Bailey's potty chart. She took months to fill up this one but filled up her second one in one week! When she fills up the potty chart she gets to ride a train at either the Spectrum or Irvine Park. Way to go Lucky Bug!

I just love this picture of these two! So much love.

5 Months!

The past month Jaemus has grown two teeth and gave us a lot of interrupted sleep. However, the two bottom teeth are in and we are all sleeping a bit more. He takes three naps a day and is out by 8pm. Both kids asleep by 8 is quite glorious.

Personality is really growing in our little guy and he has become quite sociable. Jaemus loves people coming over and welcomes them with smiles. He seems to love guy time, especially attention from Brandon.

Jaemus' laugh is so sweet and he recently started laughing when Brandon talks in funny voices. My favorite time with him is after his early morning feeding, I bring him into bed with me and we hold hands while going back to sleep. He loves holding hands, eating, falling asleep, or just while snuggling. His little hands get cold at night so I hold them until they are warm and we are asleep.

Jaemus and Bailey's time together has grown as Jaemus has become more personable. Every morning and after nap I put Jaemus in Bailey's bed and they will be happy in there for a considerable amount of time. Bailey pretend plays with him, sings to him, or tells him stories. Jaemus just watches her and smiles and grabs ahold of her and tries to eat her. It is very precious.

Our home is full of laughter, joy, and thankfulness. Bailey is full of imagination, Brandon is always entertaining, we all enjoy making Jaemus laugh and smile and watching him grow. I sure love our little family and are full of Thanksgiving to the Lord that He has given us these two children.

Halloween's Cinderella and Gus Gus

Bailey has been talking about trick-or-treating and wearing her Cinderella dress all month. She has been calling Jaemus Gus Gus instead of his name and she has been wearing her dress almost every day in anticipation. She even has the "glass slippers" that light up when she walks.

I managed to make Jaemus a little Gus Gus costume and looked so cute with that chubby little belly hanging out.

Bailey needed her Prince to escort her around for the night so we dressed up Brandon. We even had Bailey make a grand entrance to meet her prince by having her come down the stairs while Brandon sang her a song with his hand out to her. Bailey loved it!

I dressed up like the Fairy Godmother but looked really jank. I only had a blue bathrobe on with a grey hood and I tide a giant pink bow around my neck- it was pretty bad and I looked more like the homeless godmother. But it make Bailey happy.

We love dressing up and are glad that we have seemed to pass this trait on to our children.

He's 29

Brandon turned 29 on the 30th and we celebrated his last year in his 20s by going to Down Town Disney and partying-it-up that night at the Johnson's 5th Annual Halloween Bash.

This picture comes with a funny story. What you miss out on is that Jaemus managed to grab a chunk of Bailey's hair while the picture was being taken. Bailey is on a plat form and jumped off while Jaemus kept a tight grip and she began to scream and try and escape his grasp. Brandon had to pry his fingers open and untangle her hair while Bailey continued to cry and Jaemus smiled proudly and successfully grabbing and holding on to something he wanted. Fun times.

Jenni and Tim's Halloween party is never a disappointment. This year all the classic WWF wrestle's showed up and performed a Royal Rumble. We had the band Kiss, the Power Team, popular U-tube videos such as Double Rainbow, and the "Climbing in yo' window" guy.

Jenni, Tim, Greg, Ryan, and Brie went as the Thunder Cats. Michael was Miguel the Chilean miner and Tawnia was his mistress. Brandon and I went as Bella and Edward from Twilight.

Brandon and I were out of time and resources this year but we enjoyed being Edward and Bella. We recently watched all the movies and were thoroughly entertained. We have since become "fans" and look forward to laughing through the 4th movie soon.

4 Months!

Our little man is 4 months with wonderfully chunky legs and a smile on his face. Brandon actually measured Jaemus and Bailey's thighs the other day and Jaemus's thigh is 1 inch bigger than Bailey's. The other week I accidently put Bailey's sweat pants on Jaemus and thought, "these are kind of girly- but at least they are still a little big for him to grow into." Yay, well 3T pants should have a lot of growth room!

Jaemus has gained the skill of grabbing his toys, swinging them around and bringing them to his mouth. He loves mobiles (especially Bailey's butterflies) or looking up at trees and squeals with excitement. We have been able to get some good laughs out of him and he usually gives Brandon a warm welcome home filled with flapping arms and laughter.

He has been pretty consistent with 3 naps a day now and I can usually get him to take his longest nap with Bailey's which is glorious! However, his eating has not slowed down and still eats every 2 1/2 hours and maybe 3 if distracted. Jaemus continues to sleep well at night by going to bed at 8:30 pm at the same time as Bailey and wakes up once at about 5:30 or 6 and then goes back to sleep until about 8 or 8:30 am. I am going to ask his doctor about starting him on rice cereal to see if I can stretch out his feedings a bit.

Jaemus has become more sociable these days and is really comfortable with others and smiles at just about anyone. He fell asleep on Aunt Tawnia the other day and he adores my parent's and seems to enjoy being at their house.

Bailey is very protective over Jaemus and is always telling everyone to be gentle. She actually says, "come be gentle with me," and then gentle rubs his face and says, "ahhh...so cute." She does not like strangers getting too close and has at times tried pushing the stroller away from people looking in. Healthy instinct I guess but I explain that it is ok since we are here too. She also seems to know Jaemus's physical limits for when my dad asked Bailey if Jaemus can come swim in the pool she pointed her finger at him and said, "No, papa, he too little." Jaemus is going to be one pampered little boy by his very maternal sister.

Jaemus rolled over once a couple weeks ago by pure accident. Since then he rocks back and forth coming really close but doesn't have it down yet. He also doesn't particularly like tummy time and gets over it in about 60 seconds.

He is very vocal and personable. He loves making gaw-gaw eyes at you while cooing and smiling. He begs for attention now but waving his arms and legs and babbling until I come over and rub his belly. I love how cuddly and sweet he is and he melts my heart all day long.

Catching Up

Life has not slowed down like I had hoped it would this Fall. From what I am told, it never will, and will only go faster! Yikes! The more kids, the more lives to maintain; and with our friends and families growing too, more parties, and it continues to grow. But we are lovin' it and having so much fun! We have been having more free weekends and family time which has been great!

Brandon has been really enjoying his job and being in the office. He gets to work close with the engineers and really enjoys all that he is learning. He will be starting school in the Spring to work towards his degree in Mechanical Engineering.

I have been working from home for my sister's company Rough-Fit. It is an outdoor fitness program in Tustin and I do some of their administrative work. You can check out their Blog too!

I am also teaching again the Bible class at Red Hill Lutheran on Fridays which is fun and challenging, and I enjoy the students a ton.

My Women's Bible study at Rockharbor, Nurture, started up again and it is a blessing to be involved with great weekly fellowship. They have a kids program now that does a bible study, music, and a craft-fun for Bailey!

Bailey is still doing swim lessons once a week and is getting more and more confident in the water. She is speaking a ton! She talks my ear off all day and is always asking "why" or "how" and repeats everything she hears. Bailey is very attentive to radio and T.V. and I am impressed with how much she understands and picks up. She still remains to have us all be a different character each day and lately her pick has been Pinocchio. Bailey is also potty training. She has a train-track sticker chart and it has been a success! She is doing great and is so proud of herself when she gets a sticker. She also applauds and sings for Brandon and I when we go to the restroom now too.

Jaemus has rolled over once by accident. He was on his tummy reaching and rolled over gripping the blanket with wide terrified eyes. He had no clue what he did but Bailey and I were pretty excited. He is happy about his new found ability in grabbing toys and bringing them to his mouth. It's really cute because he focuses real hard, sticks his tongue out, and goes a little cross-eyed. He loves attention now and squirms and flaps his arms and legs when he is in need. Jaemus seems to have a special liking to Brandon and gives him the best smiles when he gets home and often just stairs at him. Bailey continues to be a great source of entertainment for him as she dances and sings in the living room or runs circles around him.

Brandon and I are in the prime of our life with these two little ones. Exhausted but are counting our blessings.

Magic Castle with the Johnson's Part II

Great evening of some awesome magic.

Thanks again friends!

Family time with Shelby, Jennifer, Hollee, and Tank

Daddy and Son

Family beach day on that sweltering Sunday at the end of September.