A day at the beach

Here it is the end of August and we made it to the beach this year ONE TIME!  Only an hour and half away and we only went once.  I regret that!  I wish we would've gone more.
We did go on Saturday though and it was a BLAST.  Worst part of the day was when the seagulls decided to come and rip a whole in my cheetos and get sand all in the bag.  Bummer.  It was such a fun day.  We got there about 2 and the tide was going out so the timing was perfect.  The water was pretty cold and the weather was humid and about 78 degrees. 

All the girlies playing with the sand.  

 

 Daddy insisted on a picture of Jaycee and me and my preg self. 

 We climbed up on an island that we were able to walk to because of the low tide.  Looking out over the beach

On our walk towards the island Jaycee was collecting sea shells and she bent down and picked this one up although it wasn't a sea shell.  It was a sand dollar.  I've always wanted to find a sand dollar.

 There were crabs all around the island

Right after we left the beach it only took 10 minutes until both the girls were out cold. 

We ended the beach day with dinner at Red Robin and watching the Lions beat the PATS!  Even our waiter was a Lions fan in Patriot-nation.  The food was awesome and the game was.  What a great day

My Little Lady

I must say Jaycee has personality!  She makes me laugh on a daily basis.

*Today she took the arm to her Mr. PotatoHead and came up to us saying, Hi Guys.  It was pretty funny.

*Jaycee is obsessed with my camera and taking pictures.  Tonight she wanted me to take a picture of her and daddy so she said, "Daddy, cheese for mommy"  So she goes close to him saying cheese.  Here's the cute pic:

*Jaycee loves to play with her little tea set that Grandma Parker gave her for her first birthday.  It came with 3 little pieces of pretend cake.  She likes to get 3 of her princess plates, 3 spoons, and put the 3 pieces of cake for mommy, daddy and Jaycee.  She'll come to give them to us to eat, but I never get a different one.  It's always the one with pink frosting and sprinkles.  Daddy always gets the chocolate piece.  And Jaycee always gets the white one...cuz "It's my favorite"

*Jaycee is obsessed with dragons.  She is constantly talking about dragons in the clouds or dragons coming into the house.  Sometimes it's a nice dragon and sometimes we have to "hide from the dragon"  She has quite the imagination.

*The other day Jaycee hit her head on a chair at the church.  Usually she'll cry for just a minute and then we'll tell her she's tough and she'll go back to playing.  Well this night she was being a little shy with the new missionary there.  After she hit her head, I looked at her and said, "Jaycee, it's okay...your tough"  She continues to cry and says, "No mom; I'm Jaycee"

*Jaycee loves her "puppy" Izzy.  First thing every morning she asks to play with Izzy and let her out of her kennel.  They are seriously best buds.  Last night Jaycee had fallen asleep on the couch and then moved onto the floor.  Izzy saw her laying on the floor sleeping and came and laid right next to her.  It was the cutest thing to see them together.

*Jaycee LOVES to sing or be sung to.  She likes the silly songs like Itsy Bitsy Spider or "The Pirate Song" from Backyardigans.  At night when going to bed she always has me do "The Prayer Song (A child's prayer)" or "Mommy's Prayer (Love is Spoken Here)" or I am A Child of God.  She knows almost all the words to the songs.  Well Craig and I like to watch Monk.  The other night we were watching and during the intro the theme song came on and Jaycee sang along.  We had no idea she knew the song.  Luckily tonight I caught it on video.

I just love being a mommy!  Most rewarding thing I've ever done!

CHICAGO

If any of you know me well enough, you'd know I LOVE PIZZA! 

Well, I'm a little jealous at the moment.  I talked to Craig about an hour ago and found out that the week before his Oregon trip next month, he'll be flying to Chicago for a job site visit he's been working on.  That means he gets to eat this

 Anyone that's been to Chicago and had their famous deep dish pizza know what I'm talking about.  If we had the money and time, Jaycee and I would go with him just so I could get some pizza.  I guess it should be a given that I love the things of Chicago...pizza and da Bears! 

Garden-Part 2

...AND THEN THERE WERE TOMATOES!...

Recently

Just some things we've been up to:


This is a pic from last week @ 22 weeks.  I was trying to do something funny and Craig caught me off guard.  Less than 17 weeks to go. 

 We had a primary activity last week at the park by our house.  It was fun to let all the kids play together and enjoy the nice weather.  Jaycee thought it was fun to play with Bella until she tackled her down.  

 Eating watermellon at the park with friends

 This past week was a pretty stressful week for Craig at work.  With a lot of things to be done and leaving for 2 days to NH on a job site, we were excited for Friday night.  We had Craig's yummy nachos for dinner and watched the movie "Marley & Me"  When we started eating dinner I didn't think Jaycee would eat any and we'd have to make something for her, but she dug right in and loved every bite. 

 Lately Jaycee likes to take pictures with my camera.  I let her use it and she took some pics of Craig.  Hi Craig!

It was a great weekend and very relaxing.  Just what we needed.  Next weekend we're going to the beach with Dathan and Kel; Labor Day weekend we're going with our friends up north 3 hours to her parent's "camp"; I've gotta write the primary presentation for our branch; I also have a teacher development to finish planning and host; Craig is leaving for 5 days in Sept for Bend, OR in which I'll be spending that time with Dathan; Craig's parents are coming in town in October.  We are super busy but really excited for the next few months. 

Ore-A-Gone

Have you ever heard of that state?  They must have taught ppl in school out here that's how you say "Oregon" 

There's been a couple things pertaining to that great "Beaver State" flying around in our neck of the woods.  Anytime Craig gets to do things with Oregon or any progress with their office there, we get so excited.  I just thought I'd update since Craig doesn't really talk about it or update this blog.

Oregon #1-Craig is leaving September 20-24 to Bend, Oregon for a conference/client meetings.  He flies out then spending a day in their new office in Gresham, OR to meet other clients.  He's really excited!  I wish he had a lot of time to check out the area and some of the cities we find homes online at.  I'm sure he'll go again.

Oregon #2-They just moved out a senior guy from CT that's going to be working in that office with Craig.  So now that office officially have 2 ppl working out of the office now. 

Oregon #3-Craig got asked to have lunch and interview with a potential guy they want to hire as a senior engineer to move out to OR.  He spent half the day eating lunch and getting to know the guy and sitting in on his interview.  I think it's pretty neat they asked Craig to sit with the "higher ups" and I'm sure they asked him since if they hire him they'll be working together.  *They told us in the meeting a few months back once they move out the guy from CT, and hire a new senior engineer that we'd be next to go!  So if they hire this guy and start moving him out, we're next :)

Oregon #4-Craig got asked to write a HUGE proposal for a potential job in Portland, OR.  He's helped work on proposals on some jobs, but has never written one by himself.  Even Jack the CEO came into Craig's office and said how highly he thinks of Craig and what he does.  Writing proposals is a huge step in project management.  And with them asking Craig to write this big one based out of their Oregon office show their confidence and desire to have Craig involved a lot.  *I would never speak bad of his previous job because it was perfect for him at the time, and we loved the work environment.  But if Craig were to have stayed, there's no way he'd be getting to write proposals for big jobs or any jobs at that matter, and he wouldn't be progressing in the company like he is doing here.  I know this was a good move for his career and for his learning.  I'm so proud of him!

So needless to say, Oregon has been a common subject around our home.  We know it's still a 11 hour drive back home, but we are so excited to be able to move closer and still work for this company.  It's getting closer...I can feel it!  Here's to 2012 and moving back West!

York!

Our day at the zoo & amusement park was a success!  Dathan and Kel met up with us and we got to see lots of animals, Jaycee rode rides and enjoyed a our favorite Loco Coco Taco for dinner.  We had such a fun time and will def go back next year if we're here still

Craig and Jaycee watching the turtles

 Jaycee's favorite part.  The goats.  She had so much fun feeding the goats.  One even bit her hand; she cried for a few minutes; then continued to play with them.

 She loved the baby goats the best

 Funny watching the monkey try to figure out how to get his food out of the green circle puzzle

 Jaycee feeding the deer.  Daddy had to show her to let them eat out of her palm.

 A couple even came out of the fence and walked right by us

While looking at the deer we found out that this deer had just barely given birth about 15 minutes ago.  They say within the first hour the fawn will walk.  

 

The duck fro  ha ha ha

 Jaycee riding all the rides.  My favorite was how excited she'd get to wave "hi" to us

 Jaycee's favorite ride.  She likes to name the horses "Bob"

 

 Jaycee and Haylie were laughing so hard while they were playing in the Arcade.  They sure are best buds.  Jaycee LOVES Haylie and calls her "my haylie"

*If you notice Jaycee's shorts; the pocket is sticking out.  She decided to find about 8 rocks and stick them in her pocket THE WHOLE DAY.  I tried to get them out and she freaked out.  So my little girl stole rocks from the zoo.  Oops.  I got them out finally when she fell asleep, and before the shorts went in the wash.

 What a fun day at the York zoo!

I've been thinking a lot about trials and why they seem to come and make me feel so stressed.

A couple months ago our a/c in the car went out and I was keeping my fingers crossed it was just a fuse or relay.  No such luck.  We took the car to a little back woods mechanic that we've heard good things about.  I guess he does car repairs for John Travolta.  There's some big names out here in Maine.  Anyway, 2 weeks later we finally got our car fixed.  We didn't know the total bill but could go pick it up and just write a check.  Well that same day we were going to pick up the car, I was chewing on a mentos and my crown chipped.  Oh great!  One: it stressed me out because we don't have dental ins, and two: we were saving up all our HSA $ for the baby bills coming in December.  I cried!  We got the car and wrote out a check for $550!  Ever since I've stayed home we don't really have lots of extra money so that whole bill came out of our savings.  OUCH!  I found a dentist close and couldn't get in until Aug 9.  In the meantime it was driving me nuts cuz my tooth was sharp although it didn't hurt at all.  So I went to my appt and luckily the dentist said there was no damage to the tooth and the crown still is fine and fits well.  Needless to say, it was a good visit.  He complimented my teeth and if I'd had braces...nope.  I'm not saying I have the best teeth, but out here in Maine...no one cares!  Well the dr. did a composite filling on my crown in hopes that it would work.  Later that night it came out.  HERE WE GO AGAIN! So now that $250 I just paid them just went down the drain and have to wait til they get back to me to see what we do next.

So pretty much I've felt a little stressed financially with our trials but in the midst of it we got to go to the temple and it was just what I needed.  I realized that trails are going to come all the time, and as long as we are paying our tithing and keeping positive we will always be taken care of.  A quote I like to remember:

 "Faith and doubt cannot exist in the mind at the same time.  

Cast out doubt, cultivate faith." 

President Thomas S. Monson

How can my trials feel better if I'm doubting and not putting my faith in Heavenly Father?  Things will be okay.  I have faith.  Money is wordly.  I have an amazing husband, beautiful daughter, and one growing :)  Life is good.  I just need to remember all this when these trials do come. 

This is what happens when you cook with mommy...mmmmm...brownies

Dinner and Movie

For Friday, date night, we did dinner and went to the movies by our house.  For dinner we had breakfast sandwiches with strawberries then left right after to walk to the movies.  This was Jaycee very first time to a theater. 

We usually take the stroller when we go for walks but we didn't have anywhere to put it during the movie so we all walked.  It took almost 20 minutes to walk .4 miles up the road!  Jaycee was so curious to look at everything along the way.  Finally, half way up Craig had to put her on his shoulders so we weren't late.

Friday night was opening night to Cars 2 and since Jaycee really likes the first one we figured she'd love to watch the "race cars" again.  Monday night is $1 night but there's always a long line so we didn't want to chance missing it. 
 

Buying popcorn at the movies is a MUST.   And it was delicious!

The movie was pretty good.  Jaycee lasted about 45 minutes in her chair/standing up in front of her chair.  Then she wanted to wander the theater.  We let her for a little bit because there was hardly anyone.  For the first time I think she did pretty good.  We'll def be going back but hopefully to a movie she's more interested in.  It was such a fun night!