Summer in Pictures

I looked the other day and realized that I hadn't updated my blog in about 2 months. Sometimes I get behind, but two months is a long time to get behind. It had been so long that my blog template had totally malfunctioned on me and I didn't even realize it. So along with this post, there's also a whole new blog format.

Spence and I have been pretty busy. We've both been busy working full time and our spare time is limited so we like to spend it in ways that typically don't involve blogging. And since it's been so long, I can't really remember any specific stories so this post will mainly be a lot of pictures to summarize our lives. We're horrible at remembering to take pictures and since we don't get out much, we don't have a lot of opportunities for picture-taking moments. I keep meaning to go do this or that, but it's pretty darn hot outside and so we try to limit ourselves to a lot of inside activities or pool activities. Actually I haven't been in the pool in months, since I am usually too exhausted to bother with having to change and then take a shower afterwards in addition to changing and bathing a child at the same time. Just too much work so Spencer usually swims and then I take charge of the bathing and changing of Jameson. Our divide and conquer approach works pretty well and helps us to each have some down-ish time to somewhat relax. We love our jobs but it definitely is hard at times to balance everything.

Anyway, the following are proof that Jameson has spent a TON of time in the water. He's a pretty proficient swimmer as long as he has a noodle float with him.

Back in June, my sister Jessica and her son Graham came into town for a visit. Jameson took the opportunity to welcome Graham to the brotherhood of the grandchildren and knighted him as shown below:

They then took the obligatory bath picture together. Jameson HATES to sit down in a bath and really prefers to stand up and kick around the water or play with the faucet. He is, by nature, a ham in front of the camera though and couldn't resist playing the part for at least a few seconds.

During a trip to the nursery (gardening) we decided to cool off in the gift shop and found this hat for Jameson to try on. Since his head is so large, it fit rather well. I really think that both he and I have the same size head at the present time. It's a little weird, really.

Like I said, he's such a ham... he just can't help it... though in this picture, he does look like he's actually dropping a #2.

This picture is quite a bit older, but I couldn't do an update post without talking about Gideon. Our sweet family dog passed away recently. He was a such a good sport about having Jameson take over his territory. We'd had Gideon for about 10 years and got him back when he was 2 so he had a long and full life, but we'll still miss him.

A few weeks later, we all decided to try and fill the void with a puppy. I have all kinds of pictures of this dog, but very few with this pair sitting quietly together. Let's just say they didn't get along too well. The puppy and Jameson had a lot in common with eachother - too much. Playtime started getting a little too rough and I think Spence and I have all but decided that we need to hold off on getting a dog for quite a few years. The puppy (we never really could decide on a name - so I'll just refer to him as "the puppy") was fun and absolutely adorable, but sadly it just didn't work out.

Spence was able to go fishing with a friend in the ward who has been training for some bass fishing competitions in the area. He even got to go on a 3am fishing trip (in preparation for an overnight fishing tournament - I had no idea these even existed). I'm so glad Spence is getting to do some fun things.

We get a fair amount of rain every once in a while and Jameson is obsessed with these rain boots I bought for him. He would wear them every day if I let him.

Almost every Sunday, Jameson is in a tie. He's so cute, I can hardly stand it. He used to be the smallest kid in nursery, but he's now about in the middle of the pack. Since I got called into nursery, my Sundays are very long. I am learning to have more fun with the calling - it's been a while since I've been in nursery and it's definitely really tough having to be in there with your own child, but at least I get to see how Jameson interacts and can monitor him a little more closely.

We love Taco Cabana. It's so relaxed and so tasty. Luckily, there's one right around the corner.

Last but not least, Jameson has discovered a new love - the garden hose. In an effort to cool off one day but also to battle the onslaught of mosquitoes, we tried out the hose. After a few minutes, Spence let Jameson control it and the following is a documentation of what ensued... and I promise this was not even prompted or directed in any way...

In case you were wondering... he's DEFINITELY all boy!

The next few weeks should be a whirlwind... Spencer is starting school, we're taking a trip to SLC, and Jameson turns 2!! I can't believe how fast this year is flying by. Pretty soon we'll have to actually pay for his plane tickets. Yikes! And I'm sure he'll be talking up a storm before too long. Just in the past few weeks we've seen his vocabulary expand by about 100 times.

He can say:

Be-uh (bear)

Ba-wa-wa (butterfly)

nana (banana)

Bah (ball)

dah (star)

day du (thank you)

wah wah (bye bye - no idea why)

day is (there he/she/it is)

dedah o (any letter of the alphabet is the letter o)

hey

hi

no way

dabu dabu (no no - not sure why he stopped actually saying no and started saying dabu, but oh well)

dah (dog)

cah (car)

various animal noises

And I'm sure there are others, but I can't think of them right now. When he says polite words like thank you or bye bye he always says them in a high voice. It's hilarious.

Anyway, I'll really try to be better about posting - this is mostly just a mental note to myself. It's rare that anyone actually reads this blog, but someday I'll be glad I'm doing it.