11 Weeks!

Here's our cutie Jase! I need to get some help to take his pictures. I took these right after I bathed him, but no one else was home. I need someone to take the picture or be the one to make him smile. His smile fades when the camera comes up to my eye. But here is his 11 week old self!
His children's therapy appt. went well on Friday. He was evaluated by an OT. She gave me some exercises to do with him and he'll be evaluated twice in the next 6 weeks. He doesn't need anything other than at-home help! Wahoo! I'll be taking him to a chiropractor on Monday to be evaluated too.
I took this pic really fast.

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Yeah right, like I'm going to smile at that thing.

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We Danced to Babypants!

Caspar Babypants came to Renton again. I didn't know until last minute because I'm still kind of in a newborn bubble and I don't plan well; but he came to Liberty Park in Renton. It was perfect to see him play in a park, so much room! I even talked to him before the show, yep, I'm that cool! ; ) We talked about his wife who does all of the cover art on his albums and they've written children's books together. Her art is the reason he decided to do children's music. I'm still not sure why he doesn't sing, "Peaches" to kids. I should ask him next time. ; )

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The kids rocked out!

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Ryan dancing like a bunny to "Mr. Rabbit".

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A's bunny

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It was a nice, perfect day to be in the park and listen to fun music!

2 months

Jase had his 2 month appointment a little past the two-month mark. Here is his cute self.

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He was 22 7/8 inches (50th percentile) and 9 lbs. 7.5 oz. (50th percentile). The crazy thing is that he's still smaller than both brothers were at birth. He also has Torticollis or stiff neck, he tends to look to the right. This is caused by how he was positioned in the womb. He starts children's therapy on Friday. It hasn't been too bad but I've been working with him, doing tummy time, stimulating him on the opposite side so he'll turn that way and positioning him when he sleeps, but it hasn't corrected itself so we'll learn how to help him with therapy.
Jase has so many smiles! He has moments of fussiness (or a whole day and a half this week), but whatever, we're just happy he's a part of our family.

Ben's Wedding

We had a fun time in Oregon seeing family and attending Ben's wedding. There are a lot more pictures I wished I would have taken and some that I wished would have turned out better, but for the family that couldn't be there, here you go...
We stayed at Uncle Ken and Aunt Dorothy's house. They have a great little basement suite which is ideal for a little family that has kids and a newborn who wakes up at night (nice and private).

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All of the kids, two baby-sitters and I played at the park during the wedding ceremony which was at the Portland temple. There were a lot of kids at the park so the baby-sitters and I were constantly checking, counting, playing. It was fun!

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Annie found a little bestie and they held hands and played together the whole time.

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Then everyone got their kids, changed and went back to the temple.

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Ken, Dorothy and Grace

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I stole this pic while Becky was gathering other family.

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Cute boys.

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The beautiful Kara

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Before the reception.

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I kept this pic with the bad lighting just because it showed the Italian soda bar! :)

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We definitely enjoyed the Italian sodas.

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We each signed in by writing on a jenga block.

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Cute pic--sorry about the lighting Becky!

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Their car was stuffed with balloons.

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There was also a disco ball and feather boa waiting for them in their car.

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One last pic relaxing on Sunday. Just had to get a shot of Ellie warming up to Tony. She's a doll.

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Lots of fun memories! Congrats Ben and Kara!

Something We are Not Loving

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It was stop and go traffic around Joint Base Lewis McChord on Friday when we were traveling down to Oregon. Someone misjudged distance while changing lanes and swerved into us, bounced off of us and hit another car.
We are very grateful that everybody was safe. We were carrying our most precious cargo. They hit in the corner Ryan was sitting and Jase was right in front of him. So yet another "not-our-fault" accident to add to our list. I'm not even going to try to count the number of accidents or car break-ins that have happened to us because it's kind of ridonkulous. Our van is now sporting some classy red duct tape to hold the bumper on until it's repaired.
Another blessing was that everyone was nice and it only took about an hour and a half from the time of the accident to be on the road again. Onward, ever onward!

A Couple of Things We are Enjoying

In the last bit of summer, we are loving beautiful flowers

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and swimming pools

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Our Green (really brown) thumbs!

Okay, truthfully, these pictures truly show my dad's green thumbs. He planted my garden for me the week I was with Jason in the NICU. All we've done is kept it watered. Thank you dad!
From this view, it looks like quite the jungle.

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From this view, it's not as bad.

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We have several tomato plants, zucchini and cucumber.
Here is our pumpkin plant taking over the grow box and engulfing the tomato plant it's supposed to be sharing space with.

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Another tomato in a planter with blueberries in the very front.

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Visiting Sequim

Sequim, WA is a beautiful little town on Washington's north coast on the Olympic Peninsula. I fell in love with it in 2002 when my sister-in-law, my niece Anna (17 months) and I took a daytrip there. I had to ask Casi, what was the draw so long ago? Why did we choose Sequim? She said we were doing a day trip to see the Dungeness Spit and we stopped at a lavender farm because she loves lavender. Well, now I love lavender. Seeing a field of purple lavender in bloom does something for my soul, seriously. So, I've been back nearly every year since to visit that awesome town. One year we even made it at the time they were having the Lavender Festival. I'm going to try to make it for that next year as well. I don't necessarily love the smell of all kinds of lavender but I love how beautiful it is and some types have a soft scent with less Camphor. I have lavender in my bathroom, lavender in my yard...I bet Casi didn't know she was going to have this kind of influence on me.
There's plenty of things to do outdoors in Sequim in addition to seeing the lavender.
First we met our friends at this lovely park.
Exploring while we waited for them.

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Then we had lunch and played.

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Then we went to the Olympic Game Farm. I'd been once before I even knew Tony and it is a lot of fun. You drive around and see lots of different animals. Some of the bigger ones will come to your car and get bread. They also have lions, tigers, etc. in enclosures (we didn't feed them of course).
Tibetan Yaks

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There's a llama!

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They have bears who have retired from acting in movies. The bears are supposed to wave. They did not wave to me.

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It was pretty crazy. Check out this elk.

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Why hello there!

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There were a lot of bison including this young guy.

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And European fallow deer.

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Then we headed to a nearby lavender farm, one I hadn't been to before called the Lavender Connection.

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They make their own honey which we purchased. Look at those lavender beehives.

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And then when walked down to the Dungeness Spit. It's six miles long with a lighthouse at the end, but we just played, we didn't traverse the long spit.
Jason's first trip to the ocean.

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Enjoying the waves.

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Ryan wasn't so sure.

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Take THAT ocean!

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Digging!

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Kite flying!

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Relaxing!

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Between Sequim and Port Townsend there is this crazy house. It's one of several Trollhaven homes.

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I love Washington!

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