Happy late 4th of July everyone! We had a mellow time around the house this year. Brent's b-day was the 2nd and we just went to dinner. Then the 4th we went and saw Wall-E which Jace was dying to see. He kept saying Wall-E and Eve (which is Wall-E's girlfriend). I think Jace liked it, but not so sure about the rest of us. Bamma (which is now what Jace calls Grandma Burlingame) & PopPop came over for a swim and BBQ later. Then we sat out front and watched fireworks at a restaurant a couple roads over. Fireworks are illegal in AZ, so we weren't able to do any of our own. We had a great view from the front yard though and Mother Nature did some of her own as well. The next morning Jace and I went out to feed the horses. He giggles when they take the carrots out of his hand. :o) It amazes me how fearless he is with them.

The weekend prior was a busy weekend! We went on vacation to San Diego...just a short 6 hour drive from here. We visited the zoo, then Sea World and finally the beach. Jace was a trooper the whole time and didn't even nap until the end of each day! He loved every minute of it all! Well, except getting soaked at the dolphin show....I mean SOAKED! He was worried after that about Shamu splashing us, but we were out of the danger zone that show. Jake and Gavin however opted to sit super low and get soaked again. :o) I'm pretty sure that is a trip we'll have to take again!

No new injury's to report...knock on wood. Jace is doing really good, growing like a weed. His pronunciation is still not the best, but it's getting better. He's such a silly little guy. He loves playing Rockband with Jake and sings and dances around all the time. When we were in Sea World we got a pic of him singing into his thumb on Bamma's lap. If you ask him what he's going to be when he grows up he'll tell you a rockstar. He's still doing swimming lessons and improving all the time. He can actually even snorkel now! I bought a cheap little kids set mostly for the mask. I figured we'd teach him how to use the snorkel later, but he insisted I show him right away. So I explained to him how to do it and he just got in our pool and did it as if he'd known how his whole life! It was crazy amazing and he loves it! Hopefully the little video works for you so you can see him (at least on my computer, I noticed that if I keep clicking on the countdown clock on the video it will keep it going). Jace still loves his kitty and Kitty loves Jace. He's got to be the coolest cat for a kid ever. He's so good with Jace no matter what Jace does to him. Jace has started dressing and undressing himself. He thinks he's quite the big boy! Well, the boys are bugging me to get off MY computer now so I gotta run. Be sure to check out the new pics in the gallery!

Back in December the family went on the Polar Express train ride and on that ride Jace received a Christmas bell from Santa. To this day, June 1st, Jace does his best to remember to put that bell under his pillow every night. When he sees the bell he gets a big smile on his face and a sparkle in his eye as he remembers Santa. It's a truly beautiful thing to see how Santa impacts his life, even 5 months since his visit. When he does this it  reminds me that we as grown-ups need to let go more and believe more in the things we can't see (Santa, Love, God).

It has been quite a busy one already.  We've had a cruise, visitors, Easter and an injury.  There is plenty of pictures of all so don't forget to go check those out.

Brent's Grandma decided to take her grand-kids and their spouses/significant others on a cruise to Mexico.  Unfortunately a few of them couldn't go, but we did and it was a blast!  The boys stayed with my Mom for the week we were gone. The boys met us at baggage claim the day we came home and Jace was holding up “welcome home” signs we had made. :o)

The next weekend my Dad, whom the kids call Poppy, and his wife Cheryl stopped by for the first time on their way home from Laughlin. It was great to see them and we did the usual visit to the Lost Dutchman’s Mine as we seem to do with everyone. It’s beautiful there right now with everything all green and blooming. Jace’s favorite thing about it is the train ride. He still loves trains! They left early Easter morning.

The Easter Bunny left his usual trail of jelly beans for the kids to find their baskets. Jace picked most of them up before Jake even got out of bed though. Then we decided to decorate eggs since we ran out of time the night before. Around noon we went to brunch with my Mom & Dave. We came home and had an Easter egg hunt out back for the boys. It was a nice day!

Now, the worst part of this spring so far…a trip to the emergency room this week with Jace. He ran into Brent’s office and tripped on the chair mat, smashing his little face on the desk's metal leg. At first we thought just his lip was cut and needed stitches, but once we got to the hospital we saw the worst part. He had chipped both his front teeth and the right one plus the two next to it was shoved up into his gum. He was such a little trooper though the whole 4 hrs we were there. He got four stitches and they’re just hoping the teeth will come back down on their own and avoid infection. His little face is all swollen on the right side now and he can’t really eat anything. This is one of the worst parts of being a parent, seeing your baby hurting and knowing you can’t help. It absolutely rips your heart out. I give major credit to all those parents that have to deal with this type of pain on a consistent basis due to illnesses or cancers. I just think my heart would die, but I guess we do what we gotta do. I’ll keep you posted on his progress. We hope all is well with everyone!

Well, well, well...long time no talk!  It's been quite awhile since I've posted on Jace's blog, so here is my first attempt to start this new year off right.  We've changed the program that we use and changed our pics over to Flickr.  Even though we haven't been writing, we've still been posting pics out there so remember to go check them out by clicking on the picture gallery link on the right of this page.  I'm going to try and be more proactive about posting this year, although it won't be as often as when Jace was a baby.  There just isn't quite as much change going on with him as there was then.

Let's see, where do I begin?  Umm, it was a really long hot summer here in AZ.  It didn't really cool down until almost November.  We have a swimming pool now though AND air conditioning so that helped.  Jace absolutely loves going swimming and so does his Daisy dog!  Jace became potty trained and is learning lots all the time.   We went to a great pumpkin patch and get this...we didn't have to wear winter coats, or worry about rain, or even get all muddy!  It's called Schnepf Farms  and they have lots to do there.  One of Jace's most favorite things right now is trains and they just happen to have a little one there that goes around the farm.  Another one of his most fave things is horses and they have ponies there to ride too!  Jace was Sully off Monsters Inc for Halloween.  He had a blast trick-or-treating and got lots of candy!  I ended up donating most of it to the guys at my work.

In November we finally got our yard done and it looks really good.  For Thanksgiving we went to Gma & PopPop's house for dinner (that's what Jace calls my Mom & Stepdad).  Jace also started a basketball class called Lil' Dribblers.  It's for 3-5 year olds, but there were a couple kids there younger than that.  It was Saturday mornings for 45 mins and a parent has to participate with them.  Since Jace is quite the Mama's boy I opted to have Brent do it with him, give 'em a little bonding time.  It was a great experience and we've signed him up again for the January session which starts next weekend and goes for 6 weeks.

December was busy as usual with Jace's birthday and Christmas.  Jace turned 3 this year and I just can't believe it!  It makes me sad that he's growing so fast.  He of course got lots of presents with his favorite being his guitar and his play kitchen.  The Thursday before Christmas we went up to Williams, AZ for the Polar Express train ride.  For those of you who don't know, Williams is up North so we got to see snow!  To see Jace's excitement made it worth every penny!  Some how he came up with the idea that he wanted a kitty for Christmas and it had to be orange.  When you'd ask him what he wanted for Christmas that is all he would say.  So, being the great Mom that I am I started the hunt for an orange kitty to help Santa out.  In case you didn't know (which I most definitely did not) winter is not kitty season.  After driving many miles, Petco stops, and lots of web searching we got lucky.  The Saturday night before Christmas Eve Day an orange kitty was found.  Santa came and delivered him on Christmas Eve because it was too cold to carry him in the sleigh all night.  Jace was so overwhelmed he started to shake!  His kitty's name was Pumpkin, but has been renamed Kitty by Jace.  It's a great kitty and Jace loves him so very much!

For New Year's Eve we went to lunch with my Mom & Dave and then we all came back here.  The guys all played Rockband on the Xbox360 while Mom, Jace and I hung out downstairs.  Jace didn't stay up until midnight of course, but Brent did go wake him up just in time to bring in the new year.  He then wanted to go right back to bed.  So here we are in 2008 and I can't even imagine what this new year will bring.  Hopefully it will bring you all here for a visit because we miss all our family and friends!