It may not be summer quite yet everywhere else, but it is here in Arizona!  School gets out here before Memorial Day and we’ve already had more than a handful of triple digit days!  The pool is a wonderful 86-88 degrees which is absolutely perfect!  We started the swim season a few weeks ago and Daisy started a few months ago!  She swims daily, you can’t keep her out of it!  Jace is back to wearing his floaties after missing so many months of swim lessons, I think a little fear crept in.  He loves it though as long as they’re on. 

Jace graduated from preschool (sniff, sniff) and he’s off to Pre-K in August at a new school.  He is getting so big, but still isn’t gaining any weight (36 lbs).  He is really into Star Wars now thanks to Brent.  He watches the movies, plays it on the Xbox and even has action figures that he uses to play with his pirates, his other favorite thing.  :)   He can’t leave them lying around though or Cookie (his cat) will steal them and run off.  She’s quite the character and he loves playing with her and so does Daisy.  We’ve had some friends over lately and now Jace keeps asking when we’re going to have more company over.  He loves having people over to our house and doesn’t understand why they can’t come over all the time during the week…so cute. 

Let’s see, what else….oh yeah, Jace had scarlet fever a couple of weeks after he had strep throat.  I had never even heard of anyone getting scarlet fever, but he caught it from a kid at school (of course).  It wasn’t quite as bad as when he had strep because we caught it early, but seriously enough with the sicknesses already!  He also finished up his T-ball season and he did good, his favorite part of course being the trophy at the end.  :)  We haven’t decided what he’s going to try next.  I’m not working right now, so it’s been nice to just hang out together during the day.

Don’t forget to check out the latest pictures!  Let me know if you can’t view them all and I’ll send you an invite.   Well, we’re off to go take a dip!  You’re all welcome to come and join us anytime!  :)

The Easter Bunny left Jace a nice basket this morning.  We had to rise bright and early to make it to the 7:30am (yes I said AM) church service.  Then we beat the crowds to The Good Egg for breakfast with Bamma and PopPop.  We’re going to go to their house for a little dinner tonight after our breakfast has time to digest.  We dyed Easter eggs last night and made bunny cookies.  We’ve posted some more new pictures  in the gallery, so go check them out!  We just want to wish you all a blessed Easter Day!  

Here in Arizona the weather is already beautiful, as other parts of the country are still getting snow!  It's actually already hit 90 degrees here but has  been mostly hovering around the low 80's.  And I have to say...Jace looks so darn cute with his little bird legs sticking out of his shorts!  So here we are already a quarter of the way through the  year.  We don't have much to report yet, which could be considered a good thing I think.  Just a few quick little notes on the latest...

Jace has had numerous ear infections over the past 6 months so we haven't resumed his swimming lessons.  Then the night before my birthday he got super sick with strep throat.  I don't think any of the other kids ever had that, nor do I think I've had it, but it was terrible!  He had a really high temperature and couldn't even move or keep his eyes open so I rushed him to urgent care.  Thankfully the medicine helped quite quickly, but he was still pretty sick for like 4 days.  Either he's having a growth spurt now or making up for that week he didn't eat because he is eating like a horse!  We signed Jace up for a new preschool next year, Christ Greenfield.  It's a Christian one that is a private school serving preschool through 8th grade.  We've heard great things about it and are excited to have him going there this coming school year.  Jace also started T-ball two weeks ago and so far it's a little slow going, but they are only 4.  :o) 

Let's see, what else...Umm, some of Jace's latest sayings are "on the money!" and  "are you kidding me?".  We went to the Renaissance Festival last weekend, where Jace rode an elephant, a camel, and llama along with some regular rides.  As Brent and I grow less fond of riding rides it appears Jace is growing more fond of them, go figure.  Also last week being Spring Break, my Mom and I took Jace to the Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium.  Once again he had to ride every ride there, Bamma and I were pooped!  There are some pictures of both adventures out on Flickr.  Oh yeah, Uncle Paul, Aunt Gayle and Cousin Jennifer who live in Washington came by for dinner.  They are from Brent's Dad's side of the family and the first to visit us here from that side.  It was a great surprise to see them!  

Well, I think that's really about it for now.  Jace is just doing good as usual, still going to preschool, church and Bamma's.  He's learning and growing so much, it's great to watch the transformation from a toddler to a little boy.  He's still enjoying his latest cat "Cookie" who enjoys Jace's fish he has in his room AND picking on our dog Daisy.  :o)  We hope you all come visit sometime soon and until next time...XOXO!

Gosh, did Christmas even happen?  December was such a blur and now it's a new year already!  AND...Jace is 4 years old now!  Can you believe it?  I sure can't.  He's getting so big so fast it seems and I hate it.  I want my boy to stay little and sweet.  The last two weeks have been great since I had to take them off, I got to spend them with Jace.  Thankfully soccer is over and we took a break from swimming due to a bad cold and fluid in his ears, so the entire day was ours.  So here's the latest from birthday to New Years...

For Jace's birthday he wanted to eat at home so Bamma and PopPop came over.  Jace's choice for dinner was pizza and jello.  He made his own pizza and had orange jello with mandarin oranges in it and of course whip cream on top!  For his cake he just wanted white cupcakes with white frosting so I made little ice cream cone looking ones for him.  I think his favorite present was the Hungry Hippo game (personally not my fave, very noisy).

On Christmas Eve we went to our church service which was held outside (bet you Oregonians can't say that!).  Afterward they had a bunch of stuff for the kids to enjoy.  There was snow brought in to sled on and a petting zoo and a wagon train ride.  When we got home we made brownies with Bamma and took them to two of our local fire departments to show our appreciation.  I guess Bamma and Jace see them in the store all the time and they are always super nice to Jace.  That night was no different...they gave him a fire hat and gave him a tour.  He got to sit up on the engines and everything.  At one of the stations they even got a call while we were there and had to rush off.  He was super excited!  Bamma and PopPop stayed the night so they could see Jace's face when he woke up Christmas day to find his presents.  All Jace told Santa he wanted for Christmas was the big dinosaur and he sure must have been a good boy this year because Santa delivered!  We just hung out at home all Christmas day and enjoyed being with family.  Gavin came the next day and got to spend a week with us.  They spent a lot of it playing Xbox 360 together (kills me to see Jace play that so well already!).

New Year's Eve was pretty mellow.  We ate homemade tamales at Bamma's house for lunch and then went to see the Bedtime Stories movie.  We all agreed it was pretty good.  We went home and relaxed a little and then Bamma and PopPop came over again to bring in the new year with us.  We had some snacks and then staged and early New Year for Jace at 9pm because he can't make it to midnight (I barely can anymore).  He slept right through the true New Year and we went to bed pretty quickly ourselves after it was over.  On the 2nd Gavin flew home and it was PopPop's big 60 birthday!  He didn't want a big shindig though, so we just went to dinner and then to their house for dessert.  Jace kept insisting he was going to get PopPop the Hungry Hippo game for his happy birthday (that's how Jace says it).  Thankfully we were able to detour that idea at the last minute and he was content to give him a light for the BBQ so he won't use Jace's Wall-E one anymore.

So that sums up the end of 2008 for us as we welcome 2009.  May it bring you (and us) all health and joy.  It can only get better right?!   :o)  Oh yeah, and don't forget to check out the new pics in the gallery!

Just a quick side note...Jace's other grandpa Poppy (my Dad) got his double lung transplant after only being on the list for a short time and is having an amazing recovery so far.  All I can say is there is a God and he does answer prayers when you least expect it!