My life in pictures

Mom says I'm a "ham" she says I love the camera and can't seem to stop taking my picture because of it. I say...she is right. I do love the camera and I do love my pictures being taken. Here are just a few mom took of me this afternoon...me and my many faces:)

Here is a "hey there, how's it going" face
Here is a "I'm big, mean and scary, monster face"

This is my "Hey, hi guys, I'm cool" smile.This is me with my "go ahead and pucker up" face...I give mommy kisses like this sometimes.

This isn't really a "look" this is what happens when the wind blows my hair and I go "ooooh"
This is my, come on mom...get serious, face.
This is my care free, I'm a happy child, take a bit of a profile pic...face.
Close up!

Surfing belly baby! Oh yea!
And this is what I do when I'm bored of having pictures taken and my bottle is near by.
Enjoy!

Park Day

It wasn't to long ago when Park Days for Jade were rather a boring experiance...But now, she has some friends!

Park Days are so fun now!

More pictures from the Seattle Trip with Grandma ~From Jade

"Oh, you caught me."

"hahaha! look at me with Grammie!"
"These are my servants, Mommy and Mary...they push me around and keep me happy"

"Eating out is so much fun!"

"Why am I (Jade) not in this picture?"

"Aaa, yes, kisses are nice, I like kisses"

"ok folks, what's the plan?"

Hello out there

I feel like I'm starting to have a busier life. Sure I still get bored around 1pm every day, no matter what...but I now am becoming more involved in my church, I hang out more with friends and I'm starting to tackle projects I've been avoiding for years. I'd really like to get back to some of my old hobbies, I know I have a creative side to me but bringing it out can be so much work!

For the past 7 months I've been working on a DVD for my grandparents 50th Anniversary. I need to have it finished pretty soon here, but everytime I sit at my computer and start to work on it, I find myself dancing around the room with Jade to the fun music that goes with the DVD. Then I try to sit back down again to work and my mind goes blank. I say all that to explain to all my faithful readers why it's so hard to be creative. hahahaha. Ok, so that doesn't really explain anything except for the fact I'm easily distracted and can't focus well...

The sun has also been in hidding for FOREVER! It's killing me, it really is. I can't function without sunshine. I have to force myself to get up and move when it's gloomy out. Not to mention the beginnings of a summer tan have now started to fade since I haven't been in the sun in awhile. WHY? Why Lord? Doth the farmers need more rain this year? Doth my life be so small and unmeaningful that the lack of sunshine really shouldn't effect me as badly as it seems to?

You know, one good thing about all this gloom is it makes me feel gloomy. Now, that might be a bad thing, but when I am gloomy I tend to try to think deeply. Lately I've been thinking deeply about politcs and where I stand. I've been reading and researching and complaining to my husband on a daily basis about all the humans in this world whose politics are SO messed up. I've also be more enthralled with religion and the lack there of in my life. Yes, I am a born again Christian, and yes I read my bible and pray...but sometimes I feel like that is all there is to my walk with God. I do desire more, I want to have a stronger relationship, I want to just bubble over with the love of Christ for all to see.
I've gotten some books, and bible studies, and just been picking older ladies brains at church and hearing about their lives. I should have them all over for tea, wouldn't they love that? All...two of them:) LOL! I should go buy some tea cups, I have none.

Dance, Dance Revolution is my favorite workout ever!! The workout mode tells you how many calories you burn on each song, and lets you sent goals for the day. It's so fun, what is better then dancing as your very first activity for the day?

I got my sewing machine fixed this weekend. I now am going to start mending the curtians in this house that are falling apart (the people who owned the house before left their old curtians). I then want to start working on other projects in the house, starting in Jade's room. I can't wait to decorate her room!

I feel like watching a old Disney cartoon...."when you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are..."

Just some pics

Jade and I had big plans for today, but then, last minute, our plans were canceled. This being the case, we had a few moments of being bored. Hense...the pictures you now see:)

Jade is standing here, see how tall she is!
I'm trying to teach Jade how to blow kisses, but she isn't catching on quite yet.

Right before this picture took, Jade was laughing at me.

And here is my daughter looking nice and drunk.

My one funny food story for today. So Jade has started to eat baby food the past couple weeks. I've done very taste-less items for her to try. But we took a walk today to the store and I got some more baby food. We went home and I tried her on sweet peas. She seemed to love it, laughing and lurching forward for more. We were down to the last few bits when she all of a sudden started making this terrible faces, as though I was feeding her something awful. But she still wanted more, so I kept giving her more. Her last bite she nearly gagged. I couldn't help but just laugh at her, she thought she was pretty funny too. At any rate, she finished her peas and seems to be doing just fine.

Jade's new hair do

I've tried to put Jade's hair in a pony before, but this time...it stayed all day long:)

Everybody dance now!

A week or so ago Jonathan surprised me with the Dance Dance Revolution xbox game! I had talked about getting it for awhile but didn't really think it would happen. I LOVE IT!! I already love to dance, but I am about as good as a monkey eating a hot dog (sure a monkey can eat a hot dog, but it doesn't really fit now does it?). At any rate, it has a "workout mode" so every morning for the past two days, I've woken up and gotten my groove on for 30-40min before starting my day. Amazing what a little shakin' can do for your attitude:)

I have pics of Jade to post, but for some reason my computer isn't letting me download them...hmmm, I'm sure I'll post them soon enough. Lata friends!

Grandma's Layover ~ From Jade

Aaaa, hello my friends. This is me, Jade, talking to you all from a pretty little french resturant in Seattle. (actually I am no longer there, but that is where the below picture was taken).
My mother took me driving on Saturday morning, we found Grandma Mangione and her friend, Mary, at the airport. Apparently Grandma had a very, very long layover in Seattle on her way to Alaska and mom thought it would be fun to take them to Pike's Place Market for lunch and some sight seeing.
However, in my mom's rush to leave the house she forgot to bring me toys, so here I am at this fine French resturant and all I have to play with is a pocket measuring tape. Thankfully, it was fun to eat.

Grandma and Mary loved the french resturant, we got to sit outside and could see the bay from our seats. Here I am pretending to be shy and cute and uninterested. I loved the attention though!

While Mary was holding me Grandma M started making all sorts of funny faces, that was so fun! Half way through lunch Grandma gave me a piece of bread to munch on, yummm.

After lunch we walked all over, first all through the Farmers Market then down to the bay and all along the streets near the water, then back up many, many hills were we window shopped at fine art stores, checked out a wedding dress shop and had fun taking pictures of pig statues (not shown). Grandma and Mary said it was the best layover they have had!

I say...let's do this again some time soon!

How Jade Crawls

Mom: "Oh look Jade, you are up on all fours! Hurray, good job. Can you show everyone how big and strong you are?"
Jade: "huh?"
Mom: "Show everyone how you get into crawl position!
Jade: "AH! Ok, well, first you start out like this...on your belly, see"

Jade: "Then you push your toes on the floor and stick your bottom in the air"

Jade: " THis is the tough part cause sometimes it throws you off balance and you gotta use your head...hold it, hold it..."

Jade: "Ta da! And that's all there is to it. It's simple. It's easy, look how well I did it.

Mom: "Good Job Jade!! Your such a big girl!"

Jade: "This is starting to get hard, how long to have to stay like this ma?"

Mom: "That's all baby, good job:)

I feel like there is a lot that is "new" with me. Let's see...

As you all know, we recently moved into our first home (before we were renting). This past week and weekend all we have been doing is shopping for house stuff, buying house stuff, putting together house stuff...and working on the house. I started weeding our garden and JB has been working on fixing our underground sprinkler system and mowing our little yard.
I've found that spiders really love roses and I think I managed to get freaked over finding a spider about 5 million times. I've never taken care of roses before, so this weekend I rented a book from the library on how to care for roses. My first step is to figure out what kind of roses I even have in my yard.

I got inspired to go on a very short juice fast this weekend. Partly for health reasons and mostly for diet reasons. I got this wacky idea that if I did nothing but drink juice for two days straight, maybe that would shrink my belly and I wouldn't eat as much. Sunday morning I woke up about 5am thinking I was going to throw-up everywhere. I was shaking so badly I couldn't even hold Jade or get up. I was pretty pathetic. So I opted to allow myself to eat strawberries and have some chicken broth.
I'm glad my little "fast/diet" is over with and I can be normal again. I think next time I try to fast I should really do it for spiritual reasons and not to effect my figure:)

Sunday afternoon we were out shopping for cabinets and storage solutions for the office. We got some things and headed off for the car. While JB was trying to lift the extremly heavy items into our car, the cart he was using to lean some of the weight of the cabinet on started to roll away. JB had to twist himself in a very odd fashion in order to keep the cabinet from crashing to the floor. This in turn caused him to twist his knee out of joint. The pain was really bad, it took him awhile before we could get him in the car and at home. I told him he wasn't allowed to do anything all day but sit and watch football. He was pretty good for a few hours, sat like a good boy with an ice pack on his knee and watched old football reruns. But before long he was up and about and saying he was fine.

I rented "children of men" last night. *yawn* It could have been more interesting I think. Why does it seem most movies have to make some sort of politcal statement? Why do movie producers think they are so deep and smart? Why does everyone think they know the answers to the worlds problems? Don't people know, I am the only one who has all the answers. *sheesh* lol!

Church on Sunday was really sad/good. One of the military families who attend are church lost her husband in Iraq. He is a helicopter pilot. She found out the news of her husband death on the Fourth of July. I wanted to cry so hard when the pastor was telling the story. Not only has her husband been serving our country for many, many years, but when his helicoptor got hit he gave his life to save his partner. His partner is in serious condition, but alive. It is rare for me to hear modern day stories of real heros, the stories I do hear are so distant from me it's hard for me to even relate to them. But I know this women, we've gone to "mom's day at the park" together. I've seen her girls and little boy around church and talked with them. Can you even imagine?
The whole sermon was basically dedicated to this man and his family.

On a lighter note, we bought a new grill this weekend! That was one of the most exciting purchases we got. I can't wait to start grilling, I plan on doing bbq chicken tonight! woohoo!
Hope everyone else had a nice weekend! Oh, and for some reason I can't get my computer to let me put a title on this post, so this is the title-less post:)

My first Fourth of July ~ From Jade

Yesterday Mommy woke up all chipper and excited. She kept telling me that "it's the fourth of July! Hurray!". I couldn't understand why she was so excited, but I went along with it all for awhile.

Later in the morning after mom went outside to read and get some sun, we all left (Daddy, mommy and me) to go run errands. I thought it was going to be lots of fun, but then Daddy took us to places like "Home Depot" and "Lowes" to buy things for the house and garage. I thought that was really boring and tried to sleep through most of it.

When we got home mom set me down and started making all sorts of yummy little treats. She cut up some watermelon and made a flag shapped cheese dip for crackers and finished making her yummy jello flag cake with chunks of pound cake in the bottom. It all looked really yummy so Mom decided to take a picture of it. She can be so werid sometimes.
While Mommy was inside cooking, Daddy was outside working like a big tough man. He had to set up his new shelves and start organzing our super messy garage.

After my nap and daddy organizing the garage, we left again for more errands were we decided to buy a couch set. We did some other things, but I was grateful when we got home again and I could roll around on the rug and play and "talk". When dinner was all finished and my parents had relaxed we got back in the car to go see fireworks. Mommy said it would be lots of fun, but I wasn't to sure about the whole fireworks thing.
We caught up with some friends and the picture below is me starring at them as they all try to make me smile and laugh. Sometimes I get such a kick out of just watching them make the effort.

Here is Daddy and I at the park where we were going to watch the fireworks. There were so many people there and all sorts of games and activites for kids who are able to walk. I can't wait til I am able to walk, then I'll make Daddy and mommy stand in line for all of the fun kiddie games for me to do.

Before to long night fell and everyone started screaming with excitment. I watched as the whole dark sky was illuminated by great big splashes of color and couldn't believe how loud the fireworks were. It was cool though, I liked watching all the pretty colors and lights. But then they kept coming and I was tired. I tired to sleep on mommy, but just as I got comfortable those silly fireworks would start going again and they would wake me up. So, I just decided to stay awake until the show was over. Then, as soon as it was finished and mommy put me in my stroller, I fell asleep. That is the last thing I remember.

San Juan Island ~ From Jade

Hi all! It has been one crazy week. My parents have been running around like mad, packing boxes, unpacking boxes, going here, going there. Honestly, I don't know what's gotten into them.

This weekend they got this crazy idea to go for a VERY long drive. The first three hours were't that big of a deal but then they decided to park in a great big line with a whole bunch of other cars and just sit there. I don't know what they were thinking. So I told them I didn't want to sit in my car seat any more and lucky for me, daddy brought me up front to play games with me.
Recently I cut my very first set of teeth. Mom has been so excited about it, you would have thought I was the very first person on earth to ever get teeth. She said this picture was taken so everyone could see my little "chompers", it's kind of hard to see them though...cause they are pretty small.

After about 2.5 hours the big line of cars finally got moving, and wouldn't you know we drove a couple feet only to stop again. Dad and Mom got out of the car this time and said we were going to "tour the ferry". I didn't know what a "Ferry" was so I figured it would be pretty interesting. And man was it, a ferry is just a fancy word for "very big, ugly, boat that holds lots of cars". lol! It was cool though, my first ride on a ferry.

We road on the ferry for about an hour, Mom said we finally made it to the "San Juan Islands" and we got off at Friday Harbor. Some where on the Island was a whole bunch of cabins and one of those tiny cabins was were Dad and Mom planned to stay for a few days. There was a whole bunch of people there that I didn't know, but everyone seemed super nice and everyone said I was "cute", so I liked them all well enough after that.

The next morning dad and I chilled in the living room drinking coffee and eating breakfast. I'm getting super big now so sometimes I like to sit up being proped up with lots of pillows. I guess I look pretty cute cause Mom took lots of pics of me sitting with dad.

That morning Dad decided he should do more then just sit and talk with all his friends. So he borrowed a kayak and away he went. I decided to take a nap while he took his little adventure so I told Mom to take a quick pic of Dad. Doesn't he look cool?

Later that afternoon mom decided to put me in my bathing suit (no pic, sorry) and she in hers and go "sun bathing". Granted, after mom put my suit on she put more clothes over me to keep me from burning but she said it was the "look" that counted. We sun bathed and read books and talked with friends and before long all of us packed into cars and went "whale watching" not to far from where we were staying. We saw a few "fins" and we assume they were some kind of whale or orca or something, we even saw a few seals, which was really neat.

Before you knew it our beauitful Saturday was over, we didn't stick around for to long on Sunday since Dad and Mom knew it was a long trip back.

As we were waiting for our next ferry, get back to the main land, Dad and Mom found a really cute cafe to buy coffee and Italian soda at. I was bummed they wouldn't let me have any. Waa.

The ferry ride back was even more fun the on the way over. I was so happy and Mom kept taking pictures. I LOVE pictures. I did my biggest smile ever, it was so big I had to shut my eyes to make more room on my face for the grin.

It was such a sunny day I could see all the mountians and the water really well and it was warm and so nice

but it has been a long week and weekend and boy am I tired. Lucky for me I can sleep where ever I need to cause my Dad is so big and strong he just holds me tight so I can sleep.