Surprise Date!

Last weekend Kyle and Kyle told Kylie and I that they had a special date planned for us.  We were so anxious to know what we were going to do!

We climbed in the Pilot and headed to downtown Louisville where we met the Belle of Louisville on the river.  

The Ohio river runs right downtown.  It separates Indiana from Kentucky.  

They boys had booked us tickets on a lunch cruise.  Unfortunately, will call messed up and was trying to give us the "sightseeing only" tickets.  Luckily, they had extra food available and they were able to switch our tickets to include lunch. 

The cruise was fun.  It was 2 hours long and cruised up the river, turned around and cruised back.  Kentucky really is so beautiful and it was gorgeous looking at all the scenery.  The food was good.  However, I think this was the first time I really realized how different Kentucky is.  Their gourmet is different.  We had a buffet of fried chicken, mac n cheese, mashed potatoes, rolls, ham, roast beef, potato salad, pie, cole slaw, pasta salad, and green beans.  Dinner cruises I have previously been on were serving steak or fish.  I suppose to the Kentucky native that fried chicken is better than steak! Anyway, we all had a blast and filled our bellies.  We also got to walk down to the steam room and see it operate.  The Belle is still on of the only operating steam boats in America!

Thanks to our boys for such a fun day!

We decided the next time we all wait in a line to board a boat better be for the company cruise in December!

It was so hot waiting in line we ended up taking Jude's shirt off...then we took off his pants too.  Poor kid roamed around in just his onesie!

So green!

All Boy

This week has made me realize something...we have our hands full with this little guy.

He now knows how to flush the toilet.

His reaching/grabbing is getting farther and farther everyday. 

Walking along furniture is no big deal.  

Toys are not as fun as electronics, papers, bags, cords, boxes...

And now, he can climb...

Oh, did I mention the little fits he throws when he gets removed from any of the above mentioned items?

The Fun Begins!

I don't know why, but I have really been looking forward to the 9 month old mark.  Something about it just seems so fun and like Jude is getting so old! Well, the day has finally arrived!  Today Jude is 9 months old! Let the Fun Begin!

I think that part of the reason is because the list of foods he can eat is finally longer than the list of foods he can't eat.  He still gets plenty of different foods, but at 9 months he should start consistently eating foods like meat, cheese, yogurt etc... all the good stuff in my opinion. The joy of this means that I can finally start just feeding him straight off of my plate without being too picky of what I am giving him.  Bring on the flavor! One year will be exciting too...that's when he can eat the really good stuff like peanut butter and ice cream!

Jude has mastered several things by now.  He crawls everywhere.  He has become a master and can crawl pretty fast.  As soon as he was crawling he was standing up on everything.  Now he has gotten his balance down really well and doesn't fall as often.  He is also walking along furniture, walls, tables, anything!  Today I saw him get a little risky and go from a end table to the wall to walk.  He does have a little push walker, but he doesn't use it for walking very much.  He has realized that while he is standing on one side walking he can't be on the other side playing with the toys!

9 Months old.  Eating breakfast/drinking from his straw sippy cup.

Jude also claps!  It's so cute.  He first started this on our drive home from Chino to Mesa, Az while in the back seat with his Aunt Melanie and I.  She started singing Pat-A-Cake to him and he just decided to copy!  I have been trying to get him to clap for months but I guess my clapping wasn't as cool as Melanie's!  Another talent Jude learned is to drink from a straw.  I don't know that he really learned this though.  I think he just came pre-programmed already knowing how to! One day I just put a straw in his mouth to see what would happen and immediately he was drinking my water!  This is his new favorite thing.  Anytime we have a drink he wants some too.  It's nice to be able to do this although Kyle doesn't love that I won't allow him to give him any soda pop yet!  After Jude started this I broke down and bought him two new sippy cups with straws instead.  We have bought several different types of sippys, but he never would take to any of them.  I had been getting worried that he wasn't getting enough liquid with his meals so luckily now problem solved!  Now we are just stuck with a bunch of useless sippy cups!

Jude and I flew out to Arizona and spent 9 days there and then Kyle flew out so we could all attend my family's reunion.  My family doesn't do these often. The last time was about 7 years ago!  It was awesome for us all to finally get together.  We were only missing my niece Bonita who was headed out to Africa for a mission trip with her church group.  I guess that was a pretty good excuse!  Jude did awesome on all the flights and was a good trooper throughout the whole trip!  We miss being back home already.

Growing Up

You might think, by the title of this post, that I am going to talk all about Jude.  You know, like how big he is getting and how active he is.  

Wrong.

 This one is about the real big kids in the house.  Kyle and I.  We did something really grown up yesterday.

We bought a car!

We have been talking about getting a second car for months.  We could really use a little extra space.  Especially when we drive back to Utah at the end of the summer.  Sitting Indian style for 26 hours on the way out here wasn't fun for me! Our dream was to get a Honda Pilot.  We both really love them.  However, they are on the more pricey end so we were looking at other options a little more wallet friendly :) The only thing is, the Pilot has everything.  The third row seat, extra space, storage, comfort, rear a/c....Then we went to a Honda dealership and fell in love with this beauty:

She's a 2006 Honda Pilot, 66,000 Miles, Leather, Sunroof

We are so excited to have this new car.  As Kyle said while driving it, "This makes us feel more like family."



P.S. Check out Kyle's FB page for up close pics!  He uploaded all the dealer photos.

Slugger Museum

Every Wednesday the boys get the morning off.  I love these mornings.  Kyle works 10:30am-10pm everyday and Saturdays from 8:30am to about 5pm.  Wednesdays he doesn't have to go in until 1pm!  It's our only time to do something.  Sometimes it gets used up going grocery shopping or just staying home.  Last week a bunch of us decided to go to the Louisville Slugger Museum. This place was awesome!  Especially for baseball lovers.  We took the tour and then headed to their batting cages.  It's incredible to watch them basically hand make all the bats.  Only the actually carving of the bat is done by machine.  At the end of the tour everyone got a free mini bat!  

Look who is in first place!

Trip to the ZOO

Yesterday Jude got to go to the Zoo for the first time ever.  

It was so hot and humid out but we figured it would be all summer.  So we toughened up and headed out!

We went to the Zoo with our good friend Kylie.  Her husband Kyle is out here selling for Terminix also.  Being out in the scorching sun gave us both a much better appreciation for our husbands.  We got to walk through misters every so often to cool off.  They go out every day and walk in this sticky heat!  

Anyway, the Zoo was a blast.  We really got to see all the big animals. The polar bear wasn't out just because it was so hot.  We saw giraffes, bears, tiger, zebras, camels, elephants, gorillas, rhinos, hippos, sea lions, birds, birds, birds... it seemed like for every animal we saw there were 2-3 different kinds of birds in the same exhibit.  Jude did really well.  He was happy the whole entire time.  What a trooper he is to be out in that heat.  As soon as we buckled him into the car he closed his eyes and went right to sleep!  

What a fun day!

One of the coolest things ever...we got to see these two bears playing with each other.  They were chasing each other around and then would "fight" each other!

So We Moved to Kentucky....

So we moved to Kentucky and then what happened?  I neglected my blog.  On the bright side, we are LOVING it out here! Kyle is absolutely loving his job.  He brought it up the other day that this is the best job he's ever had.  This makes me happy.  He's thinking that he'd like to do this again next year.  There are no guarantees that we'd be back here in Kentucky so really we could be anywhere over the country! Jude is growing up.  He picked up and started crawling a couple weeks ago. All on his own...no rocking or anything.  Just got up on his hands a knees and took off.  I was in shock.  Now our days consist of me chasing him around pulling him away from cords, tables, chairs...everything.  He didn't just start crawling, he also pulls himself up to standing on anything possible.  He's getting better at gently falling down once he is done standing but he still takes a tumble here or there.  Our favorite pastimes while Kyle is away at work are going to the pool and baking/cooking new treats and dinners. So far we have made several batches of cookies, homemade pizza, Cafe Rio shredded pork burritos with Cilantro Lime rice, dressing, and black beans (check it out here), Andes Mousse Pie, cupcakes....just to name a few! We are really loving life right now.  The only thing better would to be closer to family but we are looking forward to visiting Arizona in a couple weeks!

I'll do a post of pics later!