Jastef

The kids found Stef's makeup kit the other day, while Stef was out and I was working and not watching them every moment.  After emerging from the office and figuring out what was going down, I snapped this pic :)

Stef and the girls were off to a baby shower on Sunday, so Ethan and I got to spend the afternoon together!  We went and grabbed burgers and shakes for lunch at Lumpy's (home of the $24 3-lb-burger, which we unsurprisingly did not order), then saw UP together.  UP was a beautifully done, if somewhat sad movied - Pixar seems to consistently turn out really awesome work; even the 5 minute short cartoon that ran before the movie was awesome. Ethan thought it was odd that I was sitting in the movie crying my eyes out for the first half hour :)

After a quick stop by Nanna and Papa's house (he hung his toy airplane out the window, inspired by the flying house in the movie), we came home and played Mario Kart till Stef and the girls came back - Ethan has gotten really good at it lately, and it's a lot of fun to do together.  The funniest part is that he has started picking up on my mannerisms, so getting hit by a blue shell gets him to say "That's SO not cool!"  I'm trying to work with him to understand that you don't always get to win in games, and it's okay that way :)

The girls had a nice time too, so all in all, it was a great afternoon!

Ethan learned how to write out lots of different letters in the alphabet, thus spelling out several profanities without knowing it. I love this age of innocence. Kind of wishing I could make it freeze right here.

Rachel learned that Desitin Cream stains carpet, that knives are not something we play with, mommy's make-up is not something we put all over our dolls, band aids are not toys (also, as a side note, she's learned we don't like hypochondriacs in our home) and last but not least, cutting your hair does not make it magically get longer.

Kara learned that it IS possible for an 8 month old to shove 14 cheerios in her mouth at one time... and not choke! Computer cords are not to be chewed on, the new word "NO" is not something pleasant to hear and, cutting teeth is painful and gives her every excuse to get sympathy from her older siblings for a simple thing like yawning.

Kara's 7th month flew by way too fast! She's going to be 8 months old tomorrow and is suddenly showing signs of being such a big girl. She's crawling all over the place and seems to be very happy with the new independence this have given her. She has her 2 bottom teeth (first 2!) and so she's enjoying a whole new world of food. Kara would eat 24/7 and still want more. She's out first big eater and its been fun. I love feeding people who enjoy food as much as she does. My nephews, Sam and Joe are the only other 2 people I love to cook for. They enjoy every ounce of it. Totally worth it. Kara is understanding so much more all of a sudden. She loves, loves, loves to sit on the floor and play toys with Ethan and Rachel. She will do that for an entire hour. She has become a big fan of Baby Einstein (just like her brother was) and still has quite the attachment for Mommy. I've had people ask me if its annoying to have a baby that's so attached and I think the correct answer is, there are times when I wish she wasn't so clingy, but I quickly remember how fast this time goes by, so I do my best to enjoy every moment of it. We love her to pieces. I keeping begging her to stay this age forever, but she doesn't listen. I showed the kids her new teeth the other day and Ethan burst into tears over it. I asked him why he was so upset and he answered with "You told me she was gonna be our baby and now she has teeth!!" I had to explain to him that babies are only babies for about a year and then they just keep getting bigger. To which he responded "oh! then you should probably have another baby when Kara starts walking." Wow.

I am missing my camera like crazy. Hoping to replace it this week, so pictures should be coming soon!

Seems like every month we have several friends having babies! Its been fun getting the emails with pictures, checking out the blogs and celebrating new life with our friends.

So here's to....

Jackson Brodie

Chloe Christine

and

Kaitlyn Marie

Welcome to God's world, precious ones.

Even without pictures, the website must go on! I feel like this jastef.net account is cursed. Back at eatsleepandrun I had such good traffic and the site felt like it was worth keeping. Every time we've gone back to this one, we feel like its a complete downer to everyone. Maybe not. I guess we just get less comments over here. Who knows...

Our Memorial Day weekend was lovely! Saturday was our 2nd and final garage sale. We made about $145 and sold a lot of little odds and ends and a couple big items. Its nice to have the garage looking more empty and ready to organize. Our old kitchen table with chairs didn't sell, so we're going to donate that to a family at our church, who's sending their daughter on a missions trip to Uganda. They're having a big sale this Saturday to raise money for her trip, so we're hoping our table and chairs will sell for them.

Sunday was quite nice. I feel like the sermons lately have really been speaking to my heart. Like they were made for me, for that specific week. Its been a huge blessing. We're hearing sermons through the book of Mark and Sunday's was on chapter 4.

After church our friends the Rippees came over for the afternoon/evening. I thoroughly enjoy spending Sunday with God's people. Its such a refreshing way to start the week; great conversation and good fun and fellowship.

Monday was also a great day - Jason had a meeting to go to in the S.F area, so he left in the morning and the kids and I spent the earlier part of the day cleaning their rooms, sorting through stuff in the garage and cleaning off outside toys, to pull out, now that the weather is nice. After Jason got home we all went to our friends the Jerralds house for bbq and water fun! There were 4 families represented (all of which I know from CBS) and we had a blast together - thank you Heather and Roy for hosting! We ended the night with a walk down to Loard's Ice Cream and then headed home for baths and bed. It was an awesome weekend!

What did you all do? I love hearing about how people spend the holidays, so don't be shy and do tell. :)

Tomorrow we're going cherry picking with a group of our friends. Ethan remembers how much fun he had last year and is terribly excited about tomorrow. Have a great week everyone!