Bits and Pieces

This post will be my random blabberings.  First, we will start off with a little riddle.


What do you get when you cross this little girl...

+

...a book of stickers??

=

A poor innocent Seryn turned into her sticker collection

I pulled exactly 52 stickers off of Seryn's back that day.

 Poor Ser.... she didn't seem to mind though. Lucky Sailor.









It's swimming season...again!  OK, it's practically swimming season all year round, but now is the time swimming feels AMAZING and you want to submerge yourself everytime your at the pool.  The girls love it as well.  Seryn kicks and splashes and gets really excited once she's in the water.  And Sailor swims around with her little water wings and yells "Look, I can swim all by myself!"  She swims back and forth across the long, huge pool; she gets so proud of herself and her ability to kick her legs in the water.

And when Chase comes out with us, it's even more fun!

Here's a picture that I just love of Sailor. 

Little Miss Sunshine.  Seryn is a quiet, smiley, climber.  She is very active and barely blabbers a sound as she is does her thing (playing, climbing, walking, etc).  We are currently teaching her a few signs, so it's fun to watch her tell me she's "all done/finished" with her food, or that she wants "more".  It's weird that so quickly she is turning into a human baby and not just a baby....if you know what I mean.  She is also taking a few steps now "all by herself" so having a walking baby is on the verge of becoming a reality.....tear & hooray (tear: she's still my baby! hooray: cleaner hands and pants.)  My favorite moments are turning to look at Ser after a period of time and saying her name to grab her attention.  She is usually playing with a toy or climbing on something once she looks up at me, her face just lights up!  The biggest smile forms across her face and she starts crawling fast towards me....awww. love.



 Little Miss Mommy.  It's fun to listen to some of the things Sailor tells Seryn...it's as if she picks it up from her mom or something. :)  I don't realize I say things until I hear it from her mouth.

"Hi, Sweety Baby, you happy to see me?"

"Ohhh, Ser Baby, you so cute." 

"Look, you're standing up all by yourself Ser!"

("All by your/my-self" is probably the number one quote that comes out of Sailor mouth right now, EVERYTHING is a HUMONGOUS big deal when she or anyone can do things by themselves.)

I know this is too much info, but even times when she walks in on me going potty.  She likes to congratulate me by clapping her hands and saying, "Good Job, Mommy, you went potty all by yourself!"

.....yes, Sailor, thank you so much for noticing my achievements. :)

Sailor also likes to tell me what is on the agenda that day.

"Mom, after nap time we will go swimming, alright??"

"After I eat all of my food then I can have ice cream, alright??"

"Mommy, we go outside and I ride my bike, alright??"

back track a bit...We stopped by Newport Beach before getting to Disneyland last month and snapped a few shots.

We were only there for 45 mins or so because Sailor COMPLETELY biffed it as a wave pulled her down.  It looked like it could've hurt, but she just jumped right back up.  She looked hilarious as she was from head to toe covered in sand. I felt somewhat ridiculous snapping shots of her like this...any outsider looking in probably thought  I was a terrible mom.  Once she told me "Mom, I'm cold, I need a towel" for the 3rd..or 4th time, I finally put the camera down.  ha

The other day we had a friend (Zurich) over and we played "store."  First off, from Disneyland we had gotten lots of different plastic cards like hotel room keys, gift cards, photo cards, etc.  We kept most of them around the house because Sailor loved the characters on them.  Sailor got to my old wallet and started putting them in it like they were credit cards.  After I watched her do that I had an idea to play "store" with her.  She would drive to the store with her purse and wallet and car keys, grab a grocery basket, fill it, and check out.  We used our little tot piano as a cash register.  She and Zurich played for a good 45 mins or so before they started losing interest.  They would take turns being the "buyer" and the "card person" (the cashier who would take one of the 'credit cards' and slide it across the piano.) It was cute to watch.

 Sailor watched a Sesame Street on "mail" one day and wanted to send a letter to my sister Madison.  This is her showing off her work.  She was ecstatic to take it to the blue mailbox and to put a stamp on it. Again, I realized it's the small and simple things kids just find so much joy in. It's times like these I wish I could bottle up and hold on forever.  I hope Sailor will be just like this when she's 13, 14, 15 even....what? I can dream can't I ?

The pictures below are her "faces" that she wanted to make for the camera. Scared. Happy. Surprised.

 Last but not least, a few more pictures of my Sailor Girl.  For those wanting to pull their eyeballs out, my philosophy is 'there can never be too many pictures'..........(ok, who am I kidding. I may be exhausting this 'philosophy' by now.)

Ohh yes.  This yellow dress reminded me of something I wanted to write.  The other day I started talking like the princesses at Disneyland (to cheer Sailor up after being upset about something).
****WARNING: Mothers of little girls who like the Disney princesses, DO NOT attempt.  Unless you want to talk like a princess for several hours straight because your daughter/daughters become OBSESSED with it. ****
Even though I spent a good 4 hours straight talking like I prissy, high-pitched, delicate, petite- young lady (which quite ironically I am the complete opposite of everyone of those adjectives)  it was worth it!  Sailor was looking at me and acting as if I was really a princess.  She couldn't believe that I could sound "just like Belle."  She started calling me "Princess Mom" and then would say, "OK, talk like Princess Belle now."  Her face was priceless.  She was getting shy and would smile and laugh...I wish I could have video recorded it.

I knelt down by Ser and in my 'princess' voice I asked her what her name was, Sailor chimed in and said, "It's Ariel.  She is Princess Ariel."  Then, after a few seconds she proceeded to say, "No, no I'm Princess Ariel and she is Ursala." haha 

Weekend Camping Trip

We finally went camping for the first time since becoming Chase and Kiya Jackson Family! I grew up camping quite often so it's felt like a long time (about 5 years now) since I last went. We went with some good friends and made it a quick fun, weekend trip to Prescott, AZ....where it's sooo much cooler (like 75-80 instead of 100-110 degrees). ;)

Sailor and her little buddy Benson.

Seryn and her buddies, Will and Evvie.

 Gosh, it felt good to be in a forest-type environment.  I was surprised to see that we found an area in the desert that obtains some green..so pretty!

 Our friends, Lance and Anne just got a 8-person tent so we shared with them.  The tent was so big and so fun for the kids to play in...it was like a humongous fort for them.  Unfortunately, we didn't have the pleasure of sleeping in it because the girls feel asleep in the car (Chase sat with them in the back when it was around their bed time so that they could fall asleep quicker.  It worked great...too great...so we chose to leave them there and joined them when we finally decided to go to bed). I slept in the back with the girls and Chase slept in the front seat, yeah not the most comfortable place to sleep.

The group we went with was so fun.  We had homemade ice cream and told story after story.  Bear stories, 'little rodents in the house' stories, family members falling through the attic, creepy youtube videos, & anything a group of people would talk about way late at night in the forest.  I couldn't help but feel a little bit at ease sleeping in a car rather than a tent that night. :)

Sailor learning to rope!

Yep, that's a leash on that bike...haha.  Thanks to the Higbees for that help. It was our way to keep her from veering into the oncoming cars.

Our little friend Benson again...he was looking so cute with his Mickey hat, I had to take a picture of him.

Our insanely fun group! 

We had a blast.

Chase

Chase has been one busy man this past month. Between posts about the girls and all my thousands of pictures, I very selfishly forget to post about Chases' happenings (ok, I should be forgiven a little bit because there's not much to document when the man goes to school and studies 24/7- where's the fun in that?) :).  Regardless, Chase has had a 2 week break and has used it VERY well.  After Disneyland, this is what he's been up too:

Building a new computer.  Wow, did he have fun with this project of his! After hours & hours & hours & hours & hours & a few more hours of research, he ordered his parts and once we got back from Disneyland everyone of his pieces were waiting here from him.  He was up way late at night and up way early in the morning...just like a little boy on Christmas morning.  It was fun to see him do something that he really loved doing.  The picture below was his first try turning it on, and it worked!!

 Editing a wedding video.  Two and a half years ago, Chase's brother and sister in law got married. We got footage of their special day on our video camera, but never made them a copy of it or even showed them.  So, over the break Chase also learned how to make a simple video using video clips, music, etc.  A project he thought would take several hours ended up taking a few days.  I had fun watching him produce it as I threw out ideas (he didn't always appreciate my ideas but together we added a few special touches). Chase feels like he worked magic with the footage we had...our skills as filmographers were completely lacking that day.  Nevertheless, he worked so hard on it and discovered a new hobby.  We plan to make some sweet videos in the near future.

Here's the link to the video if anyone was interested in checking it out:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZE23QmjmY74&feature=youtu.be


Getting Pinned.  Chase just started his 3rd year of optometry school, which means he will get to experience first-hand how to be a optometrist.  Him, and the students in his class are working on patients for the remainder of his time in school. The pin is a symbol of 'transforming' from student to student-doctor...and something to do with respecting your patients....we aren't quite sure, honestly.  But it was a big deal because they had really good appetizers and desserts waiting for us after the ceremony.  :) 

A few of his fellow students and friends.

Working on his first patient.  His patient was a good friend of his who needed new contact lenses. His first experience was a learning one.  He's excited for this year to continue working in the clinic.  So, if anyone in the area needs an eye exam for a reduced price, come to Midwestern's Eye Institute (across the street from the university) and request Chase Jackson as your student-doctor. ;)

This same day that Chase was working at the institute, Sailor wanted to make a cake and "surprise Dad."  It was so fun to watch her get excited about making him the cake.  Once we made it up, Sailor topped it with some candles and sprinkles, and we surprised Chase as he walked in the door...fun.