Night Out

So, I'm not sure if you've noticed the ticker to the side of my blog...yep, that's right...12 months until Brad's final (I hope!) graduation! On Friday night, we got to go to dinner and celebrate Brad's co-resident's graduation. We were on the 29th floor of the building, overlooking the river.

It was such a nice dinner and we enjoyed being out without Jacob. The food was great and very filling. I even tried a bite of shrimp. For those of you who know me well, you'll know what a feat this was!

We have been very blessed to have such great co-residents. The girls and I normally get together while the boys are at meetings. It's been nice to have other women who understand exactly what residency is like and we can complain together about all the things we wish were different. But it's also nice to have some girl time and discuss more important things like kids, fashion, etc. The middle couple in the picture have a little girl Jacob's age so they get to play together while the three of us ladies chat.
It was a great date and I'm looking forward to next year's graduation even more!

Father's Day

We have been having the best month. Brad hasn't had to work any weekends yet this month, and he's not scheduled to work any of the remaining weekends either! We are in heaven.

Last week I took Jacob swimming at a friend's community pool. He absolutely LOVED it. He is not a timid kid around the water. The baby pool was about 9"-18" and Jacob would just plop right down in the water and it would come up to his chin. Then he'd stand up and do it all over again. He is definitely in his element splashing around in the water. We took him to another pool Monday night for FHE that didn't have a baby pool and he loved jumping off the side into our arms. He also tried doing pull-ups by hanging onto the side of the pool and pulling himself up.

When Brad came home Friday night, he had some flowers for me! What a great guy, especially since it was Father's Day weekend and should have been more about him than me.
Saturday we went and played tennis. We brought a badminton racket for Jacob and his little popper so he'd have something to do while Brad and I attempted to play. It was so much fun! The weather was very nice, although it was humid. Jacob just ran around on the court playing with his racket and/or popper. Brad and I even got to volley for awhile without interruption. Neither of us are very good and we aren't sure about all of the rules, but it was definitely fun. I just wish I would've brought my camera! Next time, though.

Sunday we spent the afternoon with some friends playing and eating and celebrating Father's Day. Apparently we weren't all that exciting as someone in our party fell asleep, amid the noise of 3 busy toddlers!

Jacob really enjoys playing with Ashton and Abby. They were all sitting on this table together so I thought I'd get a shot of what they were doing while we were playing.

Jacob has the best Dad ever! Brad is so good with him. He allows Jacob to work beside him, even when that slows the process down. When Brad gets home every day, Jacob is so excited. He'll stand and wait at our glass door for Brad to come inside. When he does, Jacob will run as quickly as he can to the couch and throw himself into it (maybe showing off, I'm not sure), but he just gets so excited to see his dad. Jacob also really likes to pretend to be his dad by being "on call". He'll ask to wear Brad's pager around the house by saying "call, call, call...". He just loves his dad. We're so glad we have him in our lives. Brad takes good care of me by getting up Saturday mornings with Jacob and eating pancakes with him (not my favorite breakfast). He's the best and we couldn't ask for anything more!

Doing Our Part

We wouldn't want to be accused of not doing our part to stimulate the economy. We were out on the town last Saturday night and we decided to stop by Toys R Us and let Jacob play in their play area. When we got to the store, there was a sign outside that said the play area is no longer available for public use :( Darn! We went inside anyway. We've been thinking of getting Jacob a ride-on toy for awhile now. Well, Brad talked us into getting one and we headed out of the store with a mini 4-wheeler.

Unfortunately, the wheels stuck out too far and Jacob wasn't able to push it. Darn again! It was such a cute little toy, but back to the store it went. Instead, Brad went to good 'ol Wal-Mart and bought a John Deer tractor.

Cheese!

He really likes this tractor. It has 4 animals that came with it and are stored under the seat: a cow, horse, sheep, and pig. He knows the noises each of them makes and he likes to take them out and push the tractor around. This is one he can actually push around while he's riding on it, so it was a definite hit!

The other exciting thing this weekend was purchased off of Craigslist. I just want to take a moment to thank Craig for making his list (short pause)... We have been looking for a swing set for Jacob. Our yard isn't very big and I didn't want to spend a lot of money. Brad wanted to build one, but the slide alone would have cost $100. So, to Craigslist I turned and with good luck, I was able to hit the Jackpot!

As you can see, there are two swings, a slide, and a little play area under the slide platform. Jacob loves to swing. I still need to buy a baby swing, but for now these ones are working. Jacob is a bit of a daredevil with the swing. He will lean back, holding onto the ropes, and look up into the sky. It freaks me out because I'm afraid he's going to fall on his head, but he just laughs and grins as he does it.

We also want to get a large rubber mat to put over the concrete so if he happens to fall, he won't fall onto the concrete. The hardest part about the swing set was finding a place in our yard for it. There was no "perfect" solution since our yard is small, but this was the best we could do and I think it'll work for now.

Jacob also really likes the play area under the slide. He loves to be able to open and shut the door himself. We put his chair under there today and he was just chillin'!

Funny side story about the swing set...the Craigslist people we bought it from ended up being members of the church in our stake! We had a friend of ours haul the swing set for us and he knew them. What a small world!

So this is our contribution to stimulating the economy. Hopefully Pres. Bush appreciates our contribution :)