Words

I have to record some of the words that Jameson has been saying lately, he is really starting to communicate well.
His two words he has been using a lot lately are "shoes" and "out". Meaning, put my shoes on and let me out to play! He can also say "sock", since we put those on his feet before the shoes.
He also loves to say "mama". He calls everyone mama and when he points to Billy and calls him mama he starts laughing :)
He can say "water" "cracker" "more" "woof woof" "book" "ball" "ouch" "car" "diaper" "stinky" "poo poo"
When he see's a helicopter he says "bah bah bah" and he always says "thank you" when you hand him something. He loves to growl when he see's a picture of a bear.
I'm sure there are a few others that I can't think of right now.... just loving that I can understand his needs better and better everyday :)

Birthday 5 & 35

Yesterday was the long awaited day for William and myself, the day to celebrate our births. We had a nice morning at church and then home for some quiet time. At 2:30 our friends the Gleason's came up to hang out with us for the afternoon/evening. Kevin was willing to watch the 3 boys along with his 2 girls while Lauren and I escaped on the ranch for an adventure. And an adventure we had! I wanted to show her the place where we drove to the other night on our bear hunt, but I didn't realize how far back it really was. We made it, but I was hurting and not looking forward to the jog back. The total trip ended up to be 12.85 miles!!!! My body was really not prepared for this, haha, but we DID IT. The view was just as beautiful as I remember and we had a lot of good conversation in those 2 1/2 hours exploring the ranch on foot. We saw a few groups of dear and one really beautiful buck and that was about it (which we thought was perfect)
We enjoyed a chili & rice dinner when we got back (and about a gallon of water each) that Lauren had made and brought up. Then of coarse no Wrenn birthday is complete without a funfetti birthday cake! For William it was in the shape of a fire truck :)

Once the friends left, we opened a few gifts. William enjoyed opening a car transporter, two more characters to his Thomas set and a few books. Billy surprised us all with Rainbow flipflops that he bought at the outlet store in San Clemente after his CPAT in Orange on Saturday. He is so thoughtful! All in all it was a fantastic birthday and we still have one low key friend party on Tuesday for William that we are holding at playgroup at the park :)
Happy Birthday William (and myself) Here's to another great year!

PS, I have been told I need to make a birthday goal..... great idea, I will work on that.

"Going on a Bear hunt"

Last night our neighbors called and asked if we wanted to drive out on the ranch with them to look for bears. Heck Yes! We met them at their house about 5:45 and loaded up in their big 'ol truck. All the kids (William, Zachary, Abby & Asa) plus Billy sat in chairs in the bed of the truck and Jameson & I sat inside the king cab with Felicia and Scott. We drove out about 5 or 6 miles and spotted a bear! As soon as he saw the truck he started running away, so it was a quick siting. He was big, black and fat :) The kids were pretty excited. Of coarse Jameson was passed out in my arms at this point so I couldn't snap the picture (that is if I would have gotten one anyway).
We kept driving a couple miles further and stopped at this lookout point, it was breathtaking! I tried to snap a couple pictures here while everyone stretched their legs before the drive home. Pictures don't do this place justice. 360 view was so beautiful :)

On the way back everyone piled into the truck cab and it was still a comfy ride home with 2 families in there! Scott, Asa, William, Billy & Jameson rode up front and Abby, Felicia, Zachary & I were in the back. I wasn't even touching shoulders with Felicia and I could stretch my legs out in front of me! Scott has one big 'ol truck! :) On the drive home we spotted a group of huge wild pigs, lots of deer and bucks and an owl.  Super fun. We are planning on going again when it gets a little deeper into fall.

Honda Pilot!

We have a new family ride as of this afternoon! A 2012 Honda Pilot EX. I found it on craigslist and I think we got a great deal and it is almost exactly what we were looking for. A 3rd row, with under 30K miles, a year or two old and within our budget of 25K. The only thing that would have been better is 4X4 (according to Billy at least).We drove down to Simi valley and bought it from a young family who is part of the LA county Fire Department. :) It's a nice ride and we are very excited to have a new reliable & comfortable car.  Here it is

CAVA K12 Online Kindergarten

Yesterday I came home to 4 huge boxes on my doorstep. It was all of William's curriculum for Kindergarten from CAVA (California Virtual Academy). Then today another 4 boxes came, a desktop computer and printer just for William to use!
It's official, I am schooling William at home, online and off. He even has a virtual teacher, Mrs. Duffy. It's going to take me/us a while to figure this all out and get a routine down. William is excited about all his new stuff though. There are 6 subjects that we will be working through, Phonics/ Writing/ Literature, Math, Science, History, Art & Music.  Pretty amazing that they sent all this stuff to our home totally free. Art Supplies, Writing paper, science kits, Music CD's and a ton of reading books. As well as all the text books and work books for each subject, this is going to be an adventure!
Kindergarten here we come.