Weighing In...

Hi! Mason's 6 month appointment was a couple of weeks ago (and I'm getting further and further behind!) so I thought I'd list his growth. He weighed in at 17 lbs 6 oz (50th %) and was 26 3/4" long (just above the 50th %). He's growing and learning SO much. He is trying to get up on his knees, but he's just not quite there yet. Sometimes I help him. :) He's getting cuter and cuter by the day, though. :)

Andrew is still getting into mischief, which I suppose is pretty common for kids his age. He'll be 2 on the 31st. He learned how to open the gates on the fence yesterday. It seems so silly that we've only had the fence up for a month and he's already figured it out. A little frustrating, actually. I guess we have to resort to padlocks on the gates when he's outside. Poor thing. He's just way too smart for us. It's totally mind-boggling that he can recognize any number from 1-10 and nearly all of his colors. We're really very proud of him.

JJ still loves his job, but is gearing up for school. We have about a month until Fall Quarter starts. Because he was doing his cooperative work experience during Summer Quarter, he has a 5-page paper and some evaluations due on Thursday. They shouldn't be hard to complete, it's just a matter of getting motivated to do it! :) He sure loves working for the P.U.D., though. They have been really good to him. We're still just praying that they will hire him on full time after his Student position ends.

So, things are just fine and dandy. I'm just busy babysitting and taking care of our kids and house. I will start watching a 2-month old baby girl probably next week. That will be LOTS of fun. I haven't taken care of a little girl in a LONG time!! It will be challenging, but it will be fun.

Mason Jumps Up

Here is a video of Mason's first real jump. We can't believe he's already 6 months old!



Here are Mason and AJ jumping... and who should join in the fun?? Watch and see!!

Last Week's Adventures

Well, we made it to the reunion! We left here at about 4 am Pacific time on Monday, and got to the campground around 7:30 pm Mountain time. It was a relatively long drive, but worth it, in my opinion! We thought that we were going to have gotten there so much later than the rest of the family, but we were pleased when we realized the rest of our family had only been to camp for a couple of hours.

Lacey Loves Camping!

What a beautiful campsite!

We unpacked (well, JJ unpacked) and got camp all set up (well, JJ got camp all set up), and then we spent LOTS of time with the family (well, the boys and I did, anyway!). Dinners and breakfasts together and campfires at night. I don't think we could have asked for much more! It was so fun, even though we were only able to stay for a couple of days! JJ and I even had the opportunity to go out on the lake for a while in the rubber raft (thanks for watching the kiddos, Grandma!) and AJ even put his feet in the VERY cold lake! Mom put Mason's feet in, but we're not sure how he liked that.

Our family

Mason is such a cutie!

The kids were total troopers. They slept nearly all night long both nights. In fact, Mason only woke up once each night for a feeding. Andrew is our little "inch worm." We realized that he doesn't stay in his covers all night long...in fact, he kept inching more and more out of the sleeping bag and we kept covering him up. Finally JJ grabbed him and pulled him into the sleeping bag with him! Mason mostly slept with me in my bag, but that was nice because I'm always cold and can definitely use the extra body heat!

Andrew wanted to shovel with Hannah!

a REAL Idaho deer!!

We left on Wednesday just after lunch! We sure had a great time! The drive home was less successful than the drive to the site, but we *somehow* made it through! I can assure you that the portable DVD player was a saving device for us this trip. Andrew had to have watched Cars 30 times! haha. We were all happy to get home and get in the SHOWER and BATHTUB! Andrew missed being clean! We'd go back again, but next time for the full week! We LOVE camping, but a 14-hour drive is a bit much for 3 days (including all the travel!).

spaghetti, YUM!

Grandma couldn't get enough of Mason!

Andrew REALLY enjoyed sitting on rocks!

After we got home, we were able to get the laundry done and catch our breath before we headed out to the cabin in Plain for the weekend. JJ's dad is working on moving a shop to a new spot and he has taken it completely apart just to put it all back together again. He managed to salvage most of the building during take-down, so JJ went out to help him reconstruct the walls and get it ready to be put back together. It was quite a job (and yes, I even got to use some of my womanly MUSCLE!) and there's still a lot to do! While we were there, we got to see the kids' great-grandfather and spend a little time in the wading pool! Andrew had a GREAT time (even sitting in the pool with his clothes on) and Mason got in and splashed a bit. Mason didn't have much of an expression on his face to let us know he was enjoying himself, but kicking his feet was good enough for me! What cuties!

playing at the park

our boys get along SO well!

the kids in the poolwhat a ham!
Merry-Go-Round (and round and round!)

Anyway, enjoy the pictures! Sorry we missed so many of you at the reunion and sorry we didn't get to stay longer! Oh, and I threw a little video of AJ playing with Mason on here, too...just for kicks. I thought it was pretty adorable! xoxo love you all.

The Cross Fam

Nice To Meet You, Baby Cate!

Just a quick note! JJ's sister, Melissa, and her husband, Ralph, just welcomed their new baby girl into the world. Cate Juniper Eronemo was born on June 28th and she is quite a beauty! Arriving at 21 3/4" long and 8 lbs 12 oz, the anticipation is finally over! She looks SO much like her mommy with her pronounced Asian features. Congratulations, Ralph and Melissa! Great job!! Welcome to the family, Cate! And a special congrats to the grandparents. This is the first Eronemo grand-baby!

Monster Trucks!

Hey! We went to Moses Lake on Saturday to see the Monster Trucks. This was a first for AJ, Mason and me, but JJ has been to a few shows already. Boy! It was SO loud! I expected there to be some noise, but since we were outside, I thought it would be a bit less. Guess not! haha. Here are some pictures. Andrew didn't like the loud noise so much, and he refused to wear the earmuffs that we spent a fortune on, but he liked the big trucks, and Mason was pretty good. Mason was in his stroller, with a hat on, a blanket by his head, and parked behind a pole so that the noise wouldn't be too much for him. It was a lot of fun. We didn't get to stay for the whole thing (we figured staying until 9 pm was enough) because we had to get back in the car and drive 1 1/2 hours back to Wenatchee. It was worth it, though. We had a great time!

Insomnia of sorts

I should be sleeping.

Yesterday, after Paxton went home, I started to feel a little under the weather. It started with just feeling cold. Then came the body aches. Then a nearly unbearable migraine. All I could think was "I'm getting the flu." Oh joy.

For those of you who don't already know, JJ is going to school and working, and he's basically gone from the house from 7:30 am - 9:15 pm. EVERY DAY, Monday - Friday (an improvement, I suppose, from the old schedule where he worked straight through the weekends). So from about 2 pm to 9 pm, I was faking optimism with the kids. Not to mention I had to do the grocery shopping. JJ got home a little early, more like 8:30, and I got to put the kids to bed, trying VERY HARD not to breathe on them. JJ said that since I didn't feel good I should just go to bed when I was done with the kiddos, but I took a nice hot bath first. Despite being achy and cold, it felt good to lay down, but it was too good to be true.

20 minutes after I made it to bed, Mason woke up. Not for any reason in particular, but just to be held, I guess. He fell asleep right away. I put him back down and got back into bed. 20 minutes later... yep! He was awake and crying again. Back in his room. Feed him, burp him, get him back to sleep. I laid back in bed. 20 minutes later, he was awake again! This continued ALL night until about 4 this morning. I finally decided that since he wasn't doing well in his crib, he'd just sleep in his swing in our room. At least then, if he would sleep better, maybe I would, too, and if not, I wouldn't have to walk all the way across the house. I was still pretty dizzy, nauseas, etc. Finally! He was sleeping. But you parents know that if it isn't one, it's the other.

At 4:15 our bedroom door opened and Andrew walked in. "Stickers" he said, holding up a booklet of stickers that he gets out every day. You've GOT to be kidding me! So I took him into his bedroom and laid him down. He wouldn't sleep. He wouldn't sleep and he wouldn't sleep. He kept saying "Lacey. Lacey." Our dog was sleeping in our room. He sure loves that puppy. FINALLY at 5:30 Andrew fell asleep. I went back to bed, just for a few minutes before the alarm clock started going off. Today is my early day with Paxton. He's here at 7:30, so I have to be up by 6:30 to get Lacey out back to potty, JJ's breakfast, lunch, coffee, and water jug ready, then my shower and clothes changed, and then it's on to Andrew's breakfast. Somewhere in there, I often have to feed Mason, too. Lots to do before 7:30 in the morning!! SO, while I feel much better today, I can definitely say that it wasn't helped by a large amount of sleep. I'm not sure I slept at all, actually.

Child Abuse At Its Finest...

Andrew has discovered taking off his pajama pants at night, so when JJ went to put them on, this is what happened. We thought it was funny so we did it again and video taped it. Hope you like it. We got a good laugh!