Palm Desert Vacation

We just got back from our third annual trip out to La Quinta! We have made it a tradition to go out there pretty much the first weekend of the summer, when the kids get out of school. This year Father's Day was the first weekend so that didn't work out. Anyhow, we LOVE going out there and so thankful my Aunt & Uncle let us use their house!
They have a fireplace that is about a foot and a half off the ground and Jake kept climbing up there, so James put him in time out! He has never been to time out but he sat there for awhile!

The weather was SO nice. I think the best we have had out there. It was about 100 but that is good for this time of year! You could actually be outside and not be in the water! Although that is what we did most of the day!
James ready for the sun in his CARS gear!

He loved playing in the spa with his CARS, he used the side as a race track!

The girls playing

Jake and Nonni

Daddy pushing James through the waterfall

James relaxing in his CARS raft! I swear this kid has EVERYTHING CARS!

The boys watching TV together, sitting so close!! SO CUTE, I love when they do this!

The girls decided they were going to sleep in a tent! They set it up all by themselves and were so excited! They put their music in there, took all the candy and treats, they were set! James was SO excited too! As the girls all got their pillows and sleeping bags James got his too and brought it in the tent! I was worried I wasn't going to be able to get him out to go to bed, but he was fine and came to bed great!

In the morning when I woke up there was only ONE out of FOUR girls in the tent! They were uncomfortable, too hot, and there was a bug at one time!

James hanging out with the girls!

Girls thinking they are funny wearing Nonni's visors!

Craig took the boys out to hit balls on the golf course, James was SO excited to go golf!

And yes, he is in his CARS jammies!

Jake teeing up for Daddy!

Brianna & Jake cuddling!

James LOVES my niece Sabrina. He followed her everywhere, wanted her to play with him, wanted to sit with her! Thanks for being a good cousin Sabrina!

This year we made it a day longer and it was such a nice get away! I want to go back already!

Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the Fathers out there and especially to my husband who is an amazing father. I love watching my kids play with him and when he walks in the door it puts a smile to my face hearing them yell "Daddy" and running to give him a hug. He is such a wonderful partner in raising our children, I feel very lucky.
On Saturday we took Daddy out miniature golfing. James sees this place when we are on the freeway and always wants to go there. So I thought it would be cute if we took Craig there for Father's Day because Craig always wants to golf so it was a chance for us to all golf together! James did well golfing and really enjoyed it, Jake on the other hand was a lot more work than we expected!


Sunday we didn't do much as Daddy wanted to watch the US Open. So I made breakfast, James and Daddy went to hit golf balls at the real golf coarse. I love that James is getting older and Craig and him can do fun Daddy and Son things together! Then we went to my Mom's house and this is what Daddy did the rest of the day!

And my Mom and I took the boys in the pool!

Sleeping Bag

We are going out of town soon and Craig asked me where James was going to sleep. I told him in the bed with us I guess. Craig didn't like that idea and then the more I thought about it I didn't either! James, like most kids is all over the place when he sleeps so that would mean no sleep for us! Craig said we should get him a CARS sleeping bag. I thought what a great idea. All the "big" kids are sleeping in sleeping bags so he will fit right in! I know I have seen a CARS sleeping bag, it was just a matter of finding one! Well, I found one!! YEAH! James was SO excited, he wanted to sleep in it that night! And every night after!
The start of the night

A couple hours later!

Duffy Time

We had so much June gloom this past week, but Sunday it cleared up and it was a beautiful day. We decided to go down and take the duffy out. We picked up some lunch and took it with us. We cruised down to the fun zone and got some ice cream! After we went and picked up our friends Chad,Carrie, and baby CJ. Jake was getting rather cranky since it was nap time and I misplaced his binki. Good thing Nonna and Grampy came to the rescue and took Jake back to the house and they had the binki!! Yeah! After Daddy maneuvers the boat in and out of the dock, James now starts crying that he wants to get off! So Daddy does it again and we call Grampy back to the rescue to get James. It was nice to have no kids for about 15 minutes while we went to drop off our friends! Jake did pretty well for his first time on the boat, especially since we were out there about 3 hours! It was so hard to "manage" Jake, he wants to get down and walk around but I have to hold onto him the whole time and we didn't have a life vest on him...SHHH! We didn't have one small enough! It was a fun day and can't wait to get more use out of it this summer!
Daddy and Jake. Jake liked to steer the boat!

Daddy and James

Yes, James ate that whole sandwich!
Thought these were funny of him eating...


And he was pretty good about putting the life vest on. He didn't want to at first but didn't put up a fight.

Mommy and Jake

James did this a lot!! Good thing Nonna wasn't there to see that! She would have been a mess!

James' First Video Games

It is so exciting when your child does something for the first time no matter what it is. Every new thing is so great, until you introduce something to them and they never want to stop doing it! As you all know he is obsessed with Cars the movie. We already introduced him to the Cars video games on the computer and he ALWAYS wants to play it. I am thinking that may have something to do with my computer crashing! So anyhow, one night Craig decides to see if there is a Cars video game on the Xbox that he can demo. Oh yeah there is! James is SO excited when he sees it he can hardly contain himself. Craig plays it first and then shows James how to play. We didn't know if he was going to be able to work the controller but he did...kinda. I have a hard time controlling the car in a race so I think he did pretty good! Well now of coarse he wants to play all the time. Luckily I don't know how to put the Xbox on so he has to wait for Daddy! :)

And Jake sitting right next to him watching...he's next!

Yes, James does have underwear on!! My clothes-less child!

Swimmer Boys

Today was Jake's last day of swim lessons. This week was very hard on me. I was starting to doubt that Jake was ready for this. After about 2-3 days the kids usually stop the crying and enjoy the swim lessons. Well not Jake! After the weekend, we come back to the lesson on Monday and Jake is worse than he was the week before. He is now screaming his head off and is not really grabbing the side of the wall. I kinda felt sad and thought maybe he is too young still. The next day even worse, now he won't hold onto the side AT ALL, he would throw his head back, having a fit and screaming bloody murder, won't stand on the step without screaming "uppy" for Tom to hold him. At least he still wants to go to him. He would stop crying right before he would start to go in the water. Tom asked me if Jake was held a lot and I told him, umm not really. Well he is. He always wants to be held! Something about Tom, he is the child whisperer! Wednesday Jake was much better. He cried of coarse but not hardly as much. Some of the parents went in the pool, except me since I did last time with James, and every time Jake went to another parent he would cry and reach for Tom! So today was the last lesson and he started to cry when I put on his swim diaper, but James and Craig were going in too. When I handed Jake to Craig he was ok in the water. And when Tom took Jake for a swim and he didn't cry!! He even smiled a bit. It was like someone flipped a switch, I have no idea why, maybe because Craig was in with him. Who knows, because last weekend when we were swimming he wanted nothing to do with it! Whatever it was I am SO glad he is enjoying it and we will be able to have such a fun summer with both the boys in the pool!

Here is a video of Jake and how he was LOVING to swim. He wouldn't stay on the step. He immediately would go right back in to the water, he was having so much fun! AMAZING!


After swim we got some lunch, Jake must have worked up quite an appetite! He has never even eaten a hamburger like that!

Jake Swim Lessons

Jake started swim lessons with Swim to Tom on Tuesday. We weren't quite sure if Jake was going to be able to do swim lessons this session because usually Tom doesn't start them until they are 17-18 months. He told me to bring him and he would tell me with in the first 5 minutes if he was ready. Jake of course cried his eyes out, since he was traumatized last time from when James had lessons. Since James' lessons Jake now hates the water. He won't even go into bathtub when he used to LOVE the bath. But Tom said he was ready, I guess it depends on if he can hold onto the side of the wall for a period of time without falling off.
So here is a little video of Jake on the second day. This was the best video I got and I didn't edit the video so there is a lot of talking...actually Tom talking...

Memorial Weekend/Birthday

Memorial weekend we celebrated my birthday and my sister-in-law's birthday at my Mom's house. We had a fun time playing in the pool and hanging around with the fam.
Brianna & Andi posing

Mommy and Jake relaxing

Daddy watching James play in the floaty

Mommy pushing James around in the boat

Jake LOVES beer, someone left their beer around and Jake is trying to snake it!

Our pretty flowers, my favorite flowers!

Singing Happy Birthday

Our yummy cake

The next day we went to Nonna's house, took the kids to the beach for a bit, it was a little chilly. So nice to have Grandparents at the beach so we can just go for a little bit!! After the beach Nonna made the boys cupcakes that they bought for her for Mother's Day...a present James picked out that I think was intended for himself! They thoroughly enjoyed them!!

Time Change

Gosh I haven't blogged in SO long! It has been almost a month! I guess we haven't been up to anything exciting lately!! We have been enjoying day light savings, went for a walks to get frozen yogurt and have been spending a lot of time outside playing...