Fun at Parks

The weather out here in Ohio has been going back and forth for the past little bit. We'll have some cold, cold days, and then really warm days. The warm days sure make us want to get outside and aching for spring. We can't wait until it gets permanently warmer.
Anyhow, on some of the cold days, Jack and I took Jaxon to the little play area at the mall to get out some pent up energy. :o)
Jaxon loves playing where all the big kids are and so he gets run over by some of them sometimes, but as Jack says, it's "toughening" him up to hold his own. ;o)
When we got the little bit of sunshine and warmer weather, I met up with some girls and we all took our kids to the park outside.
Jaxon is totally fascinated by the geese and the ducks that we saw in the pond behind him. Everytime he hears them from our apartment, he goes to the window and just stares out. Sometimes he can see some of them, but other times he can't, but either way, he still just likes to stare out the window to look for them. And Jaxon LOVES the swing. He complains when I need to take him out to give other kids a turn. But if he could, he'd stay the whole time in the swing...well, most of the time anyhow. :o) He still loves to explore and walk around of course and puts EVERYTHING in his mouth.
Jaxon has been a ball of energy these past couple of months and is constantly walking around the house discovering things and moving things around and picking things up and dropping them in some unknown place. I am loving being able to get outside more with him and just watching him take in everything around him. I love this kid, he's such a fun buddy to have around. :o)

Who Does Jaxon Look Like?

Just confirming what everyone has told us when they see Jaxon. :o)

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family pictures - Family history

Recent Projects

I worked on a couple of crochet projects during the last two months...and no, these did not take two months to complete. :o) They were actually pretty quick 2 day or so projects.
The first one is this cute gray hat with a brim. I found the pattern online for free here.
I cheated a little with the brim and didn't do a double piece...but still turned out all right I think.
Next is this cute headband. I've been dying to make one since seeing all these cute little babies with such cute headbands at church.
It doesn't look quite as cute on me as it does on the babies...but definitely a cute fashion statement I think. At least it makes it so I don't have to do my hair. :o) Oh, and yep, this one was another free pattern found here. I just made up the flower myself.

Jaxon Did This All By Himself!

Jaxon gave mommy a reeeally good laugh today with his antics. :o) Watch for his pose by the door. It's hilarious! Oh, and please excuse our messiness...it was laundry day. :o)

Sweeet-ness

It's been SOOOO nice having Jack home for Spring break and we've been loving just relaxing and spending lots of time all together. We headed over to Mally's Chocolates a couple of days ago to take a tour of their chocolate factory and see all their sweets. The tour was actually a lot of fun and since we went during a week day, it was pretty empty and the workers enjoyed waving at us and having Jaxon smile at them. :o) We weren't allowed to take pictures of the tour, but we saw this sign at the end of the tour and Jack HAD to get a picture of it. We had a good laugh about it. :o)
Jaxon is just walking all over the place now and enjoyed walking around the bright pink candy room.We got some yummy sweets from there...which actually weren't chocolate. :o) But they had super yummy sour candies.
We also went to the West Side Market in Cleveland. It's an AWESOME farmer's market type place with lots of vendors with TONS of yummy fruits, vegetables, meats, and sweets. We got a couple of things we needed and on the way out, a really nice vendor offered me a bunch of starfruits for a dollar. When I agreed and he started bagging it, he wanted me to buy another dollars worth and so was just loading more fruit into the bag. I told him no thanks, but he insisted, and so in the end, I got a HUGE bag of starfruit for just a dollar. :o) It was great!!
Starfruit always reminds me of Hong Kong and of my parents, so I've been loving having so many to munch on.

Fun in Michigan

We were excited when we moved out here to Ohio to find that we were now within driving distance to our good friends Chris and Rachel, who are living in Michigan. It's been a while since we've been out here and I FINALLY got a chance to drive out to visit with them. It was my first road trip on my own with Jaxon and I was a little nervous, but I'm glad I did it cause it was super fun. It's only a 2.5 hour drive, so Jaxon and I just hit the road and went to give Jack a little bit of private studying time :o). Jaxon got to play with Allie and Chris and loved every minute of it.
Here's Jaxon and Allie.
Jaxon loved being held by Chris. Chris is like 6'11'', so I think Jaxon thought it was an adventure to be up so high whenever Chris picked him up. :o)
Funny story about Jaxon and Chris. Jaxon used to say "mama" and "dada" all the time, but in the past month or so, he's just kind of stopped. The doctor said it's most likely because he's so much more focused on motor skills and functions right now that he's just not thinking about verbal communication as much. Anyhow, when we went to stay with Chris and Rachel, Jaxon all of a sudden decided to bust out with his "dada" to Chris...not Jack. But now that we're back home, Jaxon is back into the "dada" with Jack...but we're still waiting for the "mama" word to come back into his vocab.
Here's one of Rachel and I with our kids.
We didn't get a pic of CJ, Rachel's newest little one, but he was a precious baby and I loved holding a newborn again. Makes you realize just how big my own "baby" is now.
But thank you to Chris and Rachel for a fabulous weekend and we can't wait to do it again!!

Props to a Wonderful Photographer

I hope my friend Rachel doesn't mind me posting these on my blog too, but I just wanted to showcase the wonderful talents of my friend Rachel Opdahl. If you need a fabulous photographer with lots of experience, she's your gal. You can contact her through her website here.
Anyhow, I did a photo shoot with her last weekend and loved every moment of it...except for it being FREEEEEZING cold and having to take off my coat for the pictures and smile like I was basking in wonderful sunlight. :o) Made me totally think of America's Next Top Model having to shiver away between pictures, and then pull together a nice smile for the camera. But opinion time! Which picture do you like the best?
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