Family

We had the joy and pleasure of hosting grandpa and grandma DeJong in Southern California for a few days in August.  As always it was a wonderful visit with lots of fun, and we were even able to hang two new doors.  Thanks, Dad!

On Sunday after church we traveled down to Coronado for some fun at the beach.  Coronado is by far our favorite beach and for many reasons- quiet, hardly anyone around, easy parking, great sand, great location, and you just can’t beat the views.  Josh loved the water, and Carter loved the sand.  It amazes me constantly how much Josh is growing up as a boy.  He braved the ocean with Michael most of the afternoon, stopping for a few sunscreen reapplications (bummer of being a red head at the beach).  Carter loves the sand and burying his legs and animals as well…very cute.  Too bad I don’t have any pictures, but you will rarely see us bring our camera in the sand anymore; we paid a $100 a year ago to get a speck of sand out of our lens.

We hit up dinner at this little restaurant near our hotel a bit later after showering off from the beach.  The restaurant serves breakfast all day, so I jumped on that like white on rice.  I very rarely eat breakfast and if I do it’s a yogurt.  Even if I had time to sit down and eat no one in my house likes my favorite breakfast, a Greek omelet.  So that being said, breakfast it was and boy they had the best hash browns EVER…and I’m not a big fan of hash browns (too much carbs for the me).

After dinner we looked to come up with a plan for Monday at Seaworld….the boys helped

SeaWorld is so much fun especially with the ages that Josh and Carter are at.  Thanks Mom and Dad for taking us.  To start our visit out, and I highly recommend this, we hit up a ride were you get soaked, I mean absolutely drenched – or at least I did….good thing it ended up being a beautiful sunny day.  We were able to see almost every show and keep the boys attention at each one, mine especially at the Sea Lion and Otter show (sorry, but Biff is hilarious).  We had so much fun and can’t wait to return.

Here are a few fun picture of our day:

 

Pwease

Sometimes I just have to brag about how gosh darn cute my baby is.  It seems like every time we turn around he is hugging our legs, or racing around the house with his trucks saying, “Twuck, go, twuck, go”. 

As we try to teach him to say, “Please, and Thank you”, we’ve discovered that we can’t really tell him no.  It’s just too darn cute when he says them. 

His beautiful brown eyes get big, and he pushes his head forward, puckers his lips and out comes the cutest, sweetest, and hardest think to resist, “Pwease!” 

and “Twoo too (Thank you)”!

It’s the little things that truly make us feel blessed.  My boys do exactly that for me every day. 

 

 

The Ball’s Visit

It was so wonderful having family in town for a few days and even better that we were able to go to San Diego with them. 

We were pleasantly surprised that Michael’s sister and family that were visiting the Grand Canyon were coming in a day early.  We love having family visit and the opportunity to have more time than what was originally planned was a wonderful surprise. 

It’s a tight squeeze, to put it simply, to fit 6 more people in our cozy house, but we made do.  I don’t believe a picture is necessary to demonstrate the “coziness”.  If  you’ve been in our house, you understand

Friday we enjoyed each other’s company and hung out around the house. 

Saturday, Michael and I planned out a scavenger hunt for everyone around the City of Redlands.  Our hope was to make our family more familiar with Redlands.  The town we call home.  We had lots of fun, and I think the girls really enjoyed the competition.  Then we headed to the Schneider’s house to play in the pool for a while.

Sunday, after church we headed to Coronado Island to go to the beach.  Coronado is so beautiful and the beaches are far less crowded than those of Huntington or Newport.  The kids enjoyed the water and sand.  Carter, especially, enjoyed the sand.  It seems that when my SIL is in town I simply just don’t take the time to take pictures.  She’s quite the photographer and it’s always much more enjoyable to look at her photos than my own.  Towards dinner time it started to rain a bit so we quickly packed up the beach gear and headed to the hotel.

Monday, We headed out early for the San Diego Zoo.  I love the San Diego Zoo, because each visit is unique and this one didn’t disappoint.  It was the first visit to the Zoo for the Ball family, so it was even more fun to show them around.  Every one had their animal that they couldn’t wait to see;  Josh’s was the hippo, Carter’s was the giraffe’s,  Mine was the koala’s and Michael’s was the polar bears. 

We absolutely enjoyed the Ball’s visit.  Can’t wait till next time. 

 

Happy Birthday my sweet baby!

It’s hard to believe that it was two years ago today that the your dad was able to announce, “It’s a boy” and we welcomed you into our family. 

Carter Michael DeJong.  You were named after your strong, intelligent, soft spoken, whole hearted, amazing father.  And ever since you came into this world you have shown much of the same characteristics.  You are as sweet as a summer watermelon, as cuddly as a teddy bear, and as fun as, well your big brother. 

Your father and I just adore the way you understand things and although you can’t talk you lead us to what you want, or point, OR big brother translates for you (smile).  We are looking forward to you learning and growing more each and everyday, though we wouldn’t mind you staying just the way you are for a bit longer (too sweet)! 

Just like your big brother, Dad and I hope to show you the world and God’s plan for you.  We promise to do everything we can to raise you both to be respectful Godly gentlemen.  Lucky for me you have a perfect example at home, your father. 

I know that you are only two, but I can’t tell you how much joy you bring to my life.  You truly make my heart sing.  Your amazing dimpled smile that just makes your eyes beam, how you love to hold my hand, and how you love to snuggle in on my shoulder.  I hope you never grow out of those things.  I wish I could just bottle it all up.

Some of your favorite things to do are:

Playing with Trains:  You not only just love to play with trains, you climb and sit in the middle of the table.

Trucks:  Your favorite truck is, of course, Dad’s.  You get super excited when you see him pull up, or just see his truck parked in front of the house.  Your favorite truck to play with is a garbage truck.  You love to race back and forth around the house giggling the whole time. 

Playing with Josh: 

Best buds!  I realize that this may not always be, so I treasure how much you two get along and love to play with each other.  You two are quite the silly pair. 

and playing outside:

I just love this picture of you playing with your Uncle Lucas that we took tonight.  Though I don’t understand, especially with the amount of time you play outside, why we don’t have any pictures of you doing so.  Sorry, sweetie!

Thank you, Carter for blessing your father and I with you tremendous heart, gorgeous smile, and sweet personality.  We love you so much!

 

 

Trains and other things

I love how much Carter loves to play with “Choo choos”.  He carries them around with them everywhere he goes. And he says, “choo choos” so adorably, as he sticks his lower lip out and puckers. 

The cutest part of it all is just how into his “choo choos” he gets.  See…

 

Josh on the other hand has been loving the game of baseball.  That is the game of dice baseball.  It’s a game that Michael made up when he was a kid and he’s been teaching Josh. 

As I worked on few painting projects the boys did some of their own.

For Christmas Josh was given a Dino Dig; a clay brick with dinosaur bones in it.  He has been super excited to start digging and we finally had weather that provided us with an opportunity to do it. 

Here is Josh digging for his T-Rex dinosaur bones.

 

 

Ohh those brown eyes…

 

Blog title?

Good Morning, family & friends!

As you have probably noticed our blog layout and look keeps changing…sorry!  I think from the basic settings I’ve finally found something that is “me”.  But I am not a big fan of our blog title, and can’t think of anything else for the life of me.  It just doesn’t sound like us…does that make sense?  Every time I read our title I start singing the “Sound of Music”, and although I LOVE the movie, it’s not very unique to our family…the crazy bunch that we are.

  Please, please help!  Any fun suggestions?