Introducing the newest member of our family...

Updates on Clifton -

Clifton is starting to say funny things all the time now.  I really want to keep a record of the things he says that make us laugh or catch us off guard or just plain cute.  So I will start a little place for this each week:

This week Clifton said -

"Mommy make it rain" (he was talking about the sprinkler)

"I love you Kaybers" ( without tell him to do so - Kaybers is what we sometimes call McKay) 

During dinner prayer Clifton turned to me and said  "close your eyes"  he ratted me out for having my eyes open during the prayer.  Silly boy!

Clifton is having a hard time sharing these days and giving people and animals personal space.  It has all of the sudden become a real challenge for him. 

Updates on McKay -

She is babbling so much.  It is super duper cute.  She finally said "Da Da", I think Alex heart melted when her heard her say it.  Also she waves.  I am not sure if she is meaning to wave but if she sees herself in the mirror she will wave her hand back and forth and sometimes to pictures in books.  It is funny.  I will have to get it on camera.  Her personality is starting to show through more and more everyday.

She sits up to take a bath now and loves to splash.

This week we had a lot of sunshine and heat.  So playing in the water was a must.

 The first day Clifton insisted he ran through the sprinkler naked and of course Evan wanted to follow.  So I figured that we now have a fence and no one can see us so why not.  They had a blast!

Splashing in the water.  For some reason bubbles made it ten times more fun:)

Clifton wanted to wash his car.  And then he chased Alex and I with the hose.

We spent a lot of time at different parks too.

These boys make me laugh!

Wednesday the library had Casper BabyPants come perform.  It was a pretty big deal.  He was also the lead singer in a 1990's band called The Presidents of the United States of America.  He was fun.  The boys loved dancing to his music.

Clifton has some good moves!

Later we painted with our hands and feet.  It was messy but the boys loved it. 

Next time though I will do it on fabric or something.  They were slipping all over the place.  I really liked how it turned out.  I think I could sell it to some artist or something for a ton of money:)

This week we also introduced a new member into our family.

 Introducing Walle the cat!  Clifton picked the name:)

 Thus far he fits in perfectly.  He is very timid and calm.  The kids can play around him and with him and he has not hissed or do anything.  Clifton LOVES him!  McKay was a little scared at first but now every time she sees him she gets all stiff with excitement.  The first couple days were a little rough for him to get comfortable but he loves to cuddle and loves to play with Clifton.  I really enjoy having him around.  The best part is the humane society is double their max capacity so they are literally giving away cats.  He cost us nothing.

Clifton helped pick out some new toys for Walle.  I think Clifton might like playing with them more then Walle does:)

I am in the primary presidency for church and this weekend was our big carnival we were throwing for the kids.  We made a huge gumball machine and they would get a gum ball every time they chose the right (get it chews the right?).  Anyway when they filled it up we promised a carnival.  We did a lot of planning and it turned out great.  The kids loved it and I had fun too.

 Gumball cupcakes! (really with m&m's)

We even had a clown show up:)

Great news!  Alex got a promotion.  I am so so proud of him and all his hard work.  He deserves it.  We are really blessed:)

Also about a month ago we took advantage of a YW's photography fundraiser and we got back our pictures this week.  You can view them here -
http://shamalea.zenfolio.com/p380023024


I lost all my baby fat! Yep it is all off!!!!!! And I feel great:)  I would be happy at this weight but would not mind to lose five more pounds.  But I reached my goal and now it is time to go shopping and to get my hair did!  Super excited.  I think I am going to keep my hair long and some bangs cut into it.  I got a date set to go shopping with a friend and life is good!  Now to reach my other goal of running a half marathon in about 2 hours.

4th of July

 Updates on Clifton -
I strongly believe in waiting to potty train until Clifton is ready, but I am not sure he will ever be ready.  He refuses to sit on his toilet or the big toilet or even stand and go potty.  But he hates his diaper.  I have even bribed him with treats or goodies but he would not try to go potty.  I am fine with waiting, but I really think he has no interest in going on the toilet:(  So I don't want to wait forever.
Clifton LOVES making McKay laugh and McKay thinks he is so funny!  It is really cute to watch.  Clifton is definitely one silly boy.  He can get me laughing pretty good sometimes. He is always good at putting a smile on our faces.
Clifton is a true Washington boy.  He hates the sun.  He whines and complains whenever it is on him.  He wont wear a hat or sunglasses.  Silly kiddo.  I love the sun!

Clifton and McKay love sitting and listening to me read a book.  And I quite enjoy it, too.

Updates on McKay -
She is sitting up more these days.  She can do it well but really has no interest.  She would rather be rolling or scooting on the floor.  She is a wigglier!

 She sat in the shopping cart for the first time this week and liked it a whole lot better then here car seat.  Safeway needs to get a bigger cart!  Three kids in this tiny cart leaves me no room for food:(

Mondays at our bowling alley is 1 dollar bowl.  A dollar for shoes and a dollar for games.  So I decided to take the boys.  They had a ton of fun. 

They loved cheering for the ball to go go go!

For an art project I got out cookie cutters (stars for the 4th of July) and they painted with them.

They enjoyed it but it quickly turned to finger/hand painting.

Tuesday we had a really low tide.  People told me that we could probably find some starfish.  So the boys and I went for a walk looking for cool things and hoping to find a star fish.

Sadly we did not find any starfish, but we found a ton of cool shells, touched slimy seaweed, saw a sea snail, and some crabs.

Alex had the 4th off work and decided to take the rest of the week off and build us a fence, which was much needed.  He worked super hard for three days straight and finished our fence.  I must say that my husband is super handy.  He did it in half the cost of paying a professional to do it.  And it looks great.  We had help from friends and really appreciate all the help we got.  I even got out one day while and friend was watching our kids and help (I enjoy dirty work).

 

I was surprised Clifton was not out helping the whole day everyday.   He kept complaining it was hot, but when there was shade out you bet he was out helping his Daddy.

It really turned out nice!

One night Clifton went out to play and found his shadow.  So we played with our shadows together.  He thought it was fun that his shadow followed him and did what he did.

I thought it looked cool so I took a few photos.

Fourth of July!  Well it started out great.  We all got our matching shirts on.  We helped Alex work in the yard a little.

Made cookies (I tried to shape chocolate chip cookies into starts they just turned out like blobs, but still tasted great).

Just having fun being together.  Then I decided to get some little non-boom fireworks to do with Clifton.  I grabbed some snakes, smokers, sparklers, and tanks.  All of which were supposed to not make noise.

Well Clifton loved the smokers and the snakes.  But then I lit the tank and at the end it let off a big bang.  Both Clifton and McKay hated it and were crying.  Later the neighbors started doing fireworks and McKay hated it.  She would fuss every time one would go off.  So we decided to be lame and stay in for the night and not go to the firework show.  If it is just going to scare our kids then there was no point in going.
 
Well I am sad to report I had no weight loss this week.  But no weight gain.  I actually got a staph infection that caused me to get boils on my body.  One of those boils got infected.  The had to cut it open and drain it.  So I was in pain all week.  The bumps were on my upper thigh so it hurt even to walk.  Because of the pain I did not workout or run or anything.  Then it started feeling better, but the antibiotics were making me feel sick:/  Then I think I am invincible and did not listen to the doctors orders, he said the medicine makes you weak to the sun.  I thought whatever so I get a burn.  But I got a rash on my face!!!!!  Learned my lesson.  It kills me that for the next ten days I need to stay out of the sun as much as possible and the next ten days are supposed to be sunny.  I will just have to find shade or put extra sun screen on.  It is hard to stay out of the sun!

Six Months Old

Updates on Clifton -
It has been a tough week for him.  He is getting more molars in:(  But we still managed to have fun.  His new thing is to act like he is the boss.  He like to tell McKay and Evan "no" if he thinks they are doing something wrong.  He apparently does not think I can parent:/  So we are trying to teach him he does not need to parent but it is tough for me to explain to him.  He can say no when appropriate but not to be bossy and mean.
The other new thing he does (this one I like) is play a game with Alex and I.  He acts like Alex is getting him and yells out "Help me, Mommy!"  Then I come to rescue him.  It is a fun little game that gets us all laughing.
I think we have gotten over the fear of nursery.   He is going in and not crying and staying the whole time.  WOOT WOOT!

Updates on McKay -
She is our little six month old!  It is hard to believe, she is growing so so fast.  She had her six month check up.  She is doing great.  Still has a little thrush but we are trying different medicine and that should help.  But she is in the 90% for height!  She is going to be our tall girl!  Her weight percentile went down but still doing well, she weighs 15 pounds.
McKay is starting to get up on her hands and knees.  Not moving forward yet...she usually ends up on her face.  But she is getting closer to crawling.  She likes to get up on her hands and feet and shake her booty back and forth, it is cute!

McKay's hair after bath time.  Rockstar!

Love these two!

Having fun again around here!  Tuesday the other leaders and I took the cub scouts Geocaching.  I have never done it before, but knew we would be taking a little hike so I decided to take Clifton with us.  It was fun!

Clifton found a little fireman figurine that he wanted to take and swap out another toy for.  He enjoyed the hike and getting a toy.

Introducing my wonderful mother helper, Judy!

During the summer she is going to help with the kids every Wednesday and we all love it!

 Wagon ride!

Wednesday the library had a Brazilian musician come in and play music.

 The boys enjoyed the music and we decided to go down on the sand and listen. 

Some kids found a crab in the water and brought it to the sand so other kids could look at it.  Clifton thought it was cool.  Clifton's crab sounds like crap and it makes me giggle under my breath.

 The boys then enjoyed a free lunch on the bay.

The boys had fun doing some Fourth of July crafts this week.

 American flag hand prints.  They were the right way when I painted them on their hands but then when they stamped it on the paper it was the other way around... oops!  I am not usually a product art person, meaning I usually don't want the same outcome for their artwork I like them to be able to express their art.  But they really enjoyed me painting their hands so it was fun!

I found some cheap star foam stickers and let the boys go at it.  It was nice because they could take the backs of by themselves so I could get something done while they were working on the stars.

Friday was the beginning of Port Orchards Summer Festival.  They had a craft festival down by the bay.  Vendors were selling items that they made. 

I found this cute little dress and head band.  I could not resist getting it.  She looked so cute in it.

They also had the horses back again.  So Clifton wanted to go for a ride.  He sure does like riding horses. He is cute!

Later that night they had a concert by the bay.  We all went and enjoyed the music.

 I love this picture!

:)

Alex got a ton of yard work done this last week (he is a good husband) and Clifton was a big helper!

 Alex being the dork he is!

Finished product on one side!  I love it.  Now to put up a fence!

Saturday Port Orchard had a parade.  Despite the cloudy skies we decided to go.

 McKay and Alex watching the parade.

Clifton thought this car was Sheriff from the movie Cars.  He was so excited to see it!  

This is his excited face!

One more pound down!  Only two more!!!!!!!  The exciting thing for me this week was I had time for a long run and I ran 13.1 miles in two hours and ten minutes.  I was sore the next day:/  But it felt great.  I want to get it under two hours if possible, but it is great to know I can do it.  I love setting and then reaching goals.  It is a great and addicting feeling.