Buff Baby (and stuff)

Rose started doing push-ups a few days ago. I took a few pictures of her and then went to put the camera away. In the short time I was gone, she rolled over for the first time!! She hasn’t done it since, but still-- it was such a surprise!

Rose makes the BEST faces when she’s on her tummy:

exhibit A

exhibit B

exhibit C

exhibit D

We got out the trusty dusty clip-on high chair this last week so Rose can socialize with us at dinner. (it’s still a little too deep for her). I guess we bored her because she fell asleep in it last night.

Jay loves reading his library books. A few times each day, he climbs onto the couch and reads himself a story or two. I try to take him to the library each week to refresh his stash of reading material. As limited as our library’s collection is, they have a great kids section!

Here’s a short video of story time with Jay. He’s reading his current favorite library book, an illustrated version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s poem Block City.

And a little update on US: Jeff started working at a one-month long summer school this week. Yay! It’s the same one he did last summer, and he was hired at the last minute, just like last year. When we got home Tuesday night, we had a voicemail from the summer school. When Jeff called back on Wednesday morning, they said “we need you--come in now!” Music to our ears. Jeff went right on in. This is such big blessing—now we don’t have to spend the summer draining our savings.

It is very different having Jeff gone from 8am-4pm. I miss him when he’s gone that long! To all normal people, those may seem like cushy working hours, but I’m used to having my dear husband around even MORE! (at the community college, he worked from 11:30am-3pm).  But in the name of income and independence, I’ll adapt! It’ll just feel empty around here for the first few days. (and no, the guys pounding and shaking the house while replacing the roof do not count as company).

We will be moving out of our little yellow house sometime before the end of June. The thing I’ll miss the most about living here is my laundry room, oddly enough: I have my OWN washer and dryer. I put the changing table right across from it so I can just toss the, erm, soiled clothes straight into the wash (or on the “wash-me-pronto!” pile) during diaper-changing time. Our new apartment has coin-washers/dryers in the basement. I’m going to get so buff lugging all those quarters and laundry around.

This morning while I was getting Jay dressed, he had a 2-year-old stubborn moment when he WANTED his belt on. No time for clothes. The belt had to go ON NOW. Sometimes you just have to go with it. So I belted him up and put on his sunglasses  to complete the ensemble.

This post was originally going to be a little quickie with a few cute roly-poly Rose pictures, but then I remembered to write about Jeff’s job and my beloved laundry room and Jay’s cute belt. Jay reminded me to hurry up in a…unique way: As I was merrily typing sonnets about washing machines, I heard Jay saying sho-seey, sho-seey! (horsey, horsey!) while Rose was kind of grunting in the background. I turned around and saw Jay getting a piggy-back ride from Rose.

Starring KYLE!

Isn’t that one handsome guy? My brother Kyle ROCKS!!! For the second weekend in a row, we drove to the Seattle area and stayed with my family. Kyle was the star of the show: on Sunday he was ordained an elder in the Melchizadek Priesthood, and on Monday he graduated from Newport High School. Talk about big life-changing events! It was so wonderful to be there and support him.

Of course we took all the traditional pictures…

Father and son

With the parentals…

…and the grand-parentals…

Los hombres

Now, on to the Graduation pictures…we may or may not have done them the day before the actual graduation, right after all the other pictures you just saw. We didn’t even bring a camera (aside from Dad’s video camera) to graduation because it was too crazy to get pictures there. The graduation was at the University of Washington basketball arena. Jeff stayed home with Jay, while Rose and I braved the crowds with the rest of la familia. Rose was an angelbaby, as usual, and I only had to take her out once!

As the senior class vice president, Kyle was one of the two MCs for the graduation. He was Mr. Confidence up there, introducing speakers and reading off his classmates’ names like there weren’t thousands of people watching him. (Are we really related?) He wore the gold AP honors cape because he passed whole heap of AP tests, and the honors cord because he is supersmart and has really good grades. Yes I am a proud older sister.

Oh yeah, you’re probably wondering what the graduate’s plans for the future are. Kyle turns 19 in November, so he plans to go on a mission A.S.A.P. and when he gets back, Cornell University has claimed him for basketball and schooling.

Gazing thoughtfully into the middle distance. A word about the AP honor student gold “cape” thingy—we couldn’t figure out if it was supposed to go on with the V in the front or in the back, and we got it WRONG in all these pictures. oops. It still looks ok to me!

Remembering the good ole days wistfully

My Grama and Grampa Gwynn (mom’s parents) came from California for the big day! Before this weekend, I hadn’t seen them for 3 years, so it was fun to spend time together. I like them a lot.

Enough with the serious pictures, time for a tassel war! I gave him a tassel willy, and he gave me a few tassel-whips.

Ok, if we must. I love my brother! It is so strange to think that he’s now “all grown up” because in my mind, he’s still kind of frozen as the 11-year-old little brother that I left at home when I went off to college. Luckily we can still act goofy and have fun together, no matter how old we get!

Oh yeah, we took one of these too. It was after church during Jay’s nap time, so he was being extra-emotional. That’s why we didn’t try to take the basketball away from him.

We also had to take a triple-generation girl picture, since Rose is the first great-granddaughter!

This was the first time Jay and Rose met their Great Grama and Grampa Gwynn. Love. Jay must be wondering just how many grandmas this world holds—we tell him that so many women are Raa-mah. He loves them all, though!

Here’s another one.

Ok, I have to mention the glorious food my mom cooked for us. She pulled out all the stops and made cheesy polenta with heavenly mushroom sauce, juicy spice-rubbed chicken with mango cilantro salad, steak with corn, melons, potato salad, and orange jello fluff, smoked salmon alfredo on quinoa, and also lime-coconut cupcakes. De-LISH-ious! (spelled wrong for emphasis on the yumminess of mom’s cookin’) Go mom, GO!! She is one of the kitchen goddesses that I strive to emulate. We Browns love food.

And also, the favorite Aunt Mel. She was in the midst of studying for her final exams, but she still found time to play with her niece and neph.

I think I’ll write one more HURRAH FOR KYLE!!!!

Jumping and Singing

Life with these cuties is FUN:

Jay’s favorite song is currently Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree. He likes any song with hand motions, but he knows this one the best. He makes us laugh so much!

As for Rose, she is little miss Wiggle-Squirm these days. I got out the jumper again today, and it was the first time that she actually used her legs in it! I love those soft little babythighs. If you’re confused by the background noise, Jeff and Jay were looking at a book (Harry the Dirty Dog).

Oh, and by the way… we found a place to live! It’s a little apartment in a 5-plex unit less than a mile from where we live now. It will be the first time we downsize with a move—when we were first married, we started out living in a 200 square foot dorm apartment, and we’ve relocated to progressively bigger places with each move (that’s 6 moves, not counting the 3 times we lived with family members). I’m going to really miss having a whole house, a back yard, a washer/dryer, etc to ourselves. But you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do! We are very grateful to have found an affordable place to live. Now we just have to move all of our STUFF a mile down the road in a couple of weeks! [grumblegrumblePACKINGgrumble groan]

Some Wonders of Washington

We like to be tourists of our state. Washington has so many beautiful places to visit! This weekend, we drove the 3 hours up to my parents’ house in Bellevue. Jeff signed up to take the French Praxis test at Seattle University so he could add an endorsement to his teaching license. Too bad they had technical difficulties so he never got to take the test! But we still made the most of our jaunt to the “west side.”

Our first stop was Snoqualmie Falls. Every time we drive through the mountains to get to the west side of Washington, we see the sign for Snoqualmie Falls. This time we actually stopped to see them! Snoqualmie is a quaint little town and the falls were gushing and misting and frothing like all good waterfalls do. We traded taking group pictures with some nice Asian people. (They were much shorter than us—that’s why the picture is aimed at our stomachs). You can’t really see the falls behind us very well, but at least we have proof that we were there.

Snoqualmie Falls! It was sunny when we got there, but after I fed Rose and we walked to the falls from the parking lot, a dark gray cloud moved in at top speed. Within a few minutes, it was POURING rain and we had to make a run for it. Living in dry central Washington sure makes me appreciate rain a whole lot more.

While I was feeding Rose, Jeff took Jay to play in the woods. I just love how furry and green everything is in western Washington! Green is such a restful color to look at.

Random Rose picture: Rose is at that adorable, plump, smiley, photogenic phase of babyhood. We love taking pictures of our happy little blue-eyed cherub girl.

Nubs! Kyle and Mel (my siblings) and I got in a goofy mood on Friday night. We started playing “nub ball” with a ping pong ball. I wish wish wish we had gotten a picture of us sitting in a circle on the rug trying to pick up a ping pong ball with our elbows and play catch with it! We were laughing so hard! It felt so good and almost healthy to just let all that silliness out and LAUGH. Jeff and Alivia (Kyle’s friend) joined in eventually too. Good, hilarious times. I took this picture today to demonstrate for you what we looked like while playing nub ball. Yes we are kind of weird. But I love it.

I ran twice while we were visiting my family. It was so good to run on a spongy forest trail in the green shade of mossy trees and ferns. I have been feeling my body get into shape bit by bit. Well, the steep LONG hills of Bellevue showed me that I’m only at the very beginning of getting in shape. On the way downhill, my post-par-tummy jiggled like Jell-o, and on the way up, I slowed to a turtle-paced crawl. It was actually rather entertaining. My legs are sore now, though!

Now on to another wonder of Washington. On Saturday afternoon, we left for Mt. Rainier National Park. We planned it so Jay and Rose could nap while we were driving the 2 1/2 hours from Bellevue to the park. It worked out nicely. Can you believe that there was this much snow up there in June? It was a warm day, but the snow cooled off the air and made it feel so fresh and moist. I was in heaven, just drinking in that delicious air. We stopped a few times at viewpoints along the road in the park.

We can see Mt. Rainier from pretty much anywhere in the state, but it’s always a small snowy lump on the horizon. It was awesome to be this close to this enormous mountain! I feel like I got to know good ole Rainier better. He’s a big guy.

This looks like a fake backdrop, but we really were standing right there on the edge of that canyon in front of the mountain.

The Tennessee girl in me won’t let me pass by a chance to make a snowman, (snow was a rarity in my childhood down south!), so while Jeff was taking artistic alpine pictures, Jay and I scooped together a little snowguy. Have you ever made a snowman while wearing flip-flops? I have now! This was a “snow Caesar.” See the faux-olive wreath on his head?

One of the many snow-melt waterfalls along the road. SO cool and FRESH-smelling! Mother nature’s A/C.

At last we made it to the main event—the Grove of the Patriarchs. It’s a grove of 1000+ year old Douglas Fir trees. They were HUGE! I didn’t know that non-Redwoods could get that big! I love it when nature makes me feel tiny.

This tree was like a cave

Looking up—they were TALL!

Jay liked the boardwalk. It was a quiet, pleasant little loop through the aptly named Patriarch trees.

Jay is making an awesome face here. There was an energetic, happy group of friends that we traded taking pictures with. One of the guys was doing big, wild jumping jacks in the background to make Jay smile. Also—we forgot Rose’s baby carrier, so my Mom gave us an old sheet to cut up and create a sling. It was quite effective. But it was also snug, and it squeezed a big barf out of Rose, right down my shirt.

These twin douglas firs are supposed to be more than 1000 years old! Enormous. Pictures just don’t do them justice.

Can you see a Rose blooming anywhere?

To get to the big trees, we had to cross this bouncy suspension bridge over a deep, clear, fast-flowing river. Jay was fearless. I loved looking down in the water—it was so clear that you could see all the rocks in the bottom. I bet it was freezing freshly melted snow! It wasn’t really dark—a switch on Jeff’s camera accidentally got flipped so it looks dark.

The Grove of the Patriarchs was such a peaceful, awe-inspiring place. We like trees! The drive from Mt. Rainier National Park to our home in Grandview was longer than we anticipated. Jay was exhausted, but of course he didn’t fall asleep on the way home. And Rose slept too much. Needless to say, we now have two travel-worn children. Wait, make that one travel-worn family. And we’ll be driving BACK to Bellevue in a few days for my brother Kyle’s graduation!

I think I’ll finish up with another random Rose picture. I adore this dress. And this baby.

We had a fun long weekend as a family. It was nice to take a break from the deadly countdown to who-knows-what. I’m glad we have gorgeous scenery. It’s therapeutic.

Even though Virginia has my heart, Washington is wonderful.

A Message from Jay

Dear Uncle Brad and “almost-Aunt” Dani,

I can’t wait till you get married in 2 weeks because I get to fly on an AIRPLANE to see you. We also get to stay in a hotel and go swimming! It is going to be fun to have another Aunt! Hurry up and get married, ok?

Love from Jay

Bon Anniversaire, Jeff!

Today Jeff turned 29 years old. My dear husband, growing up so fast! Sniff.

I hung his birthday card on the inside of the cupboard door by the cereal so he’d find it first thing in the morning, but he didn’t see it! I thought maybe he was doing some goofy Jeff thing and “prolonging the birthday pleasure” by not taking the card out of the cupboard, so I didn’t say anything. By lunch, though, I had to ask if he had seen his card. After I made him hunt for it, I finally showed him where it was.

Then I gave him his birthday present: the MarioKart Wii game. (we’ve had that game for a long time, but our disc got too scratched to use, so we haven’t been able to play it in over a year). The other part of that gift was that I’d actually play the Wii game WITH Jeff. Can you tell I love this guy? [Video games are definitely not my thing].

THE BIRTHDAY DINNER: We fondly call it “Jeff’s pizza.” He learned how to make this yummy white (crème fraiche) sauce bacon-mushroom drop dead pizza in France on his mission, and he has taught me well so I can make it how he likes it. We don’t have pizza pans, and our oven is moody, so we made it on mini cookie sheets in our trusty toaster oven. It turned out rather well. Jay loves it too, except he picks off the mushrooms. I was happily eating his pile of discarded mushrooms until I saw him suck the sauce off of one and then place it, all slimy and slobbery, on the reject pile. eew!

The dinner! I’m still wearing my apron—oops! Rose is on my lap. I didn’t realize that she wasn’t tall enough to make it into this picture. My smile is always so stiff when I’m busy concentrating on getting everyone (including myself) in the picture!

Drumrollllllll…. THE CAKE!!! I got the idea for Jeff’s crepe cake from one of my favorite cooking blogs. Doesn’t it look cool? It is a stack of 21 crepes (they’re 11 inches in diameter!) with alternating fillings of a “Nutella fluff” that I invented and peanut butter cream cheese frosting. The whole glorious heap is slathered in shiny, rich chocolate ganache. I wrote the words with left over PB frosting. I kind of got carried away with the French theme and wrote happy birthday in French. I had to use a dictionary to spell the words on a cake right! Jeff made the crepes, by the way. I may have learned how to make his pizza, but I leave the fine art of crepe-ing to my husband. (ah, I love a good pun) I assembled the cake last night and let it refrigerate nice ‘n firm all night.

Blowing…

…blowing…

…gone!  I put 8 candles in the cake so the 21 layers + 8 candles = 29. How’s that for birthday symbolism? We’re goofy like that around here sometimes.

The first piece! I wish you could see all 21 layers better. Next time I’ll spread twice as much filling between each crepe. That should help. But it still looks cool, eh?

The cake really was quite tasty. The texture was kind of like a flour-less cake—dense and moist. But it had a light cinnamon twinge to the flavor from the crepes. Definitely will be doubling the filling next year (Jeff decided that this cake will become his yearly birthday tradition).

We had our local family members over for cake-time, but we should’ve invited about a dozen or more people over to help us eat this big beauty! Then again… [sneaky grin] who needs flat abs of steel anyways?

I am so thankful that Jeff was born 29 years ago! He is such a kind, patient, loving, giving person, a great daddy, and a superb husband. I love him. Jay and Rose do too.