Another sunny pool day!

We've been going to the pool every day that I'm off work. James is doing so great, we decided that since he's showing all the signs of wanting to swim, that he's at the perfect age for swim lessons. He wears a little inner tube right now, and jumps in the deep end and kicks and strokes with his arms getting back to the edge of the pool all by himself, it's great. He jumps, and jumps, and jumps. Ethan just chills in his little tube while James and I jump in together. They nap so well after a couple hours at the pool. (It doesn't get any better than that!) Their cousin Madison came to stay a few days with us from Vegas and James couldn't be happier to have another swimming buddy besides mom. I love this summer so much better than last summer, I'm not pregnant, and not chasing after a toddler, so going swimming is actually really fun! It takes a while to get out of the house before our little walk there, but I've gotten down the pack up and sunscreen routine...it's a great summer!

Down...set...hut!!!

James has so much fun with Cameron when he gets home from work, lately James has learned how to be a line men and definately has the head for it! It's so funny to watch him say "down, set, hut!" He's so darn cute and ALL boy for sure! He's 2 and a half now and doesn't know his own strength so we are constantly using the word "gentle" in our house. We're hoping each day the more and more we try to teach him how to be gentle (with his brother especially) that he will actually GET IT! Parenting strong little boys is pretty challenging, but we're getting there slowly but surely we hope!

Ethan's first steps!

We barbequed with our super fun neighbors on Saturday night and all our kids played so good together. Ethan decided to join in on the fun and surprise us by taking 4 steps! He did it 2 times in a row. Yay Ethan!!! He's been standing for a few weeks now for like 30 seconds at a time, so we thought he'd be interested soon since he walks all around the furniture and walls and stuff. Looking back, James was walking right before he hit 11 months so it looks like Ethan is following James's footsteps:) We are so proud of him!

Happy Birthday Daddy!!!

Cameron turned 29 on Friday 7/11 so we celebrated by just going on a date, him and I. We got the boys all set up at and we went to our favorite sushi restaurant, Takao. It's in San Clemente and well worth the drive. We had such a wonderful time eating our yummy food and just talking and laughing. Cameron and I are such buddies and have so much fun together. I love him so much and couldn't ask for a better husband and dad for our boys. We finished our night off by going back to camerons mom's house and having ice cream cake yum, and singing to him (his least favorite thing ever!) Happy 29th Cameron!!!

Milestone...for mom!

So lately all my neighbors and friends have asked me to go to our nice big pool that has a kiddie pool and everything, and I have never been brave enough to go with BOTH the boys and no daddy to help me with one or the other...well, I finally did it! I loved it and we have gone practically every day that I'm off work. The boys love it, James especially because he's love to float in his inner tube. (last summer he hated any kind of floaty!) Ethan just hangs out with me we bounce and all that, he loves to splash and kick. James is such a brave little guy though, I really can't take my eyes off him the whole time because of course his favorite thing to do is jump into the deep end(with his tube on) but with me holding Ethan, there's times I wonder what I would do if James went under with out his tube, besides scream and panic. So far, so good and we are now looking into private swim lessons so if any of you know someone good, please give me their number :) So anyhow for those of you who had kids close together like we did, you can probably relate to how proud I am to go to the pool by myself now! Yay for mom!

Happy 4th of July!!!

We love the 4th of July! It's a fun day of just relaxing and having fun. Every year, we go down to the pier, on the south side of the clock tower and camp out all day. This year it was totally up in the air though because, now we have two kids, and we didn't know how they would do at the beach all day long till the fireworks and everything. So we only decided the night before to go for it and it was great as always! We got down a little later than usual at about 8am and we managed to still get a pretty good spot right where we always set up. We decided not to make it too much work this year as far as all the food and so we just packed up one igloo with fruit, sandwiches, and drinks and for dinner all of us just ordered a pizza from cassanos right before the fireworks it was so easy and fun! Oh, and Ethan had his first piece of pizza, he loved it! Anyhow, the boys were troopers all day, they even took a 2 hour nap at the same time! We were so happy we ended up doing what we do every year for the fourth an decided to keep it as a tradition every year. (Last year I was pregnant and chasing after James all day, so I was especially happy not to be pregnant this year and totally able to have my energy back) We got home at 12 midnight because it was bumper to bumper on pch of course. We had a wonderful day overall and we hope you all did too!

Ethan, Ethan, Ethan!

Ethan is 9 and a half months and has just become this smart baby overnight. He is so daring, makes messes, and wants to eat everything we eat! It's so funny because we feel like we just exited (somewhat) these stages with James and now we are starting them all over with Ethan. We do love it though, it's always the best entertainment watching your babies grow and learn. Ethan is such a joker. He makes the funniest faces now, and knows how to put on a show when he knows all eyes are on him. He's decided he wants to do practically everything his brother does, such as drink choc milk, have his own piece of toast, play with cars, and try to color! Our lives would not be the same with out our sweet, funny, little Ethan!

Backyard fun in the sun!

Our backyard has been amazing during this wonderful weather we're having. We got James and us a slip 'n slide at target for $10 and it's so much fun! Seriously, we were laughing so hard, it reminded us of when we were kids. James kinda just runs down it unless we help him get a running start and shoot him down. We even gave Ethan a try, he doesn't really like it yet. Anyhow the boys are in the backyard most of our days lately, they love the water, James helps Ethan a lot more now and is getting to a point finally where he listens and follows directions. We also got them this cool little safari pool that has a little slide attatched and they love it. I do too! We definately pretend that we do have a pool in our backyard and sometimes I think with their little ages I would be worried to have a pool anyway. They love the water being filled just enough. It's great. Hope you're summer is starting out fantastic like ours is!