Faylen Walking and Random News

So Faylen started walking!!!! She pretty much started at exactly 1 year. She looks like a drunken sailor all the time. It's hilarious! Check out the video of her walking here:

I've been talking quite a bit. I understand pretty much everything people say to me, although sometimes I like to pretend I don't. But my favorite new line is, "Doggie did it!" as I look at mom and dad with the most innocent face. I think it probly won't be long till I use that one for my missing homework. :)

Here's a video of sissy and I milk drunk. Our nightly routine is that just before bed we get milk.



One of my favorite pastimes is to wrestle Magnus, our dog. Check out the video.

We can get pretty rough. Magnus is a great dog and he is happy in our new home with a whole backyard to himself. He's gotten a bit better with chewing on things he shouldn't and is completely potty trained. He's only 6 months old and already weighs over 60 lbs! Faylen especially loves Magnus. Her eyes light up whenever he comes in the room and she's constantly asking for him all day saying, "Doggie?? Doggie???"

Getting some snuggles

Last but not least, you have to watch this hilarious video. It speaks for itself. Let's just say, being that I got caught red handed, I couldn't blame this one on the dog. My poor sissy.


Mom is finally done with her school year and can enjoy her summer a bit. (Although she's still taking some online classes through USD to finish her clear credential) Boy, does mom look forward to her summers. We've been spending a lot of time in the yard in the sun, playing, while mom does her basking. About the pic below, mom says, "Life doesn't get much better than this".

Our Big Birthday Bash

Thanks to all of you who came to our party and who generously gave us birthday presents. Thanks so much also to all those who traveled from afar to be here. We really were glad to see you! We hope you had as much fun as we did. For all of you who didn't get to come check out the picture slide show to the right or click on this link:http://picasaweb.google.com/PufferPics/FaylenAndJohnSBirthdayBash09?feat=directlink

Even though the weather was a bit chillier than we had hoped, we had tons of fun playing with water. Some people braved the slip 'n slide, lots played at the water table or went fishing in the little swimming pool, or threw water balloons, or blew bubbles, or relaxed in the sand box with the sea shells and sand toys. We had lots of yummy food and everyone sang my sister and I "Happy Birthday" as we blew out our candles and chowed down on puffer fish cake. Then we beat up the fish pinata to get some candy and opened presents galore! Later that night we had Chinese takeout and a bonfire on our front lawn in our new fire pit. We loved having our 1st and 2nd birthday parties together. I have a feeling it might be a tradition for the next few years.

Here's a funny video of Faylen and Grandpa Paul having a conversation at our party:

Our new Ride

So we had to say goodbye to the Outback. It served us well, but it was dying and we were growing out of it. We sold it with 256,000 miles on it! Turns out that the guy that sold it to us rolled back the odometer 125,00 miles and we found this out just before we were going to sell the it. So we sold it for several thousand dollars less than we had wanted. Are there any honest people left in this world??!?!?!?

Oh well, God ended up blessing us amazingly anyways. Grandma and Grandpa were so gracious as to let us use their Jeep while they were in Israel for a couple months until we were able to get our new minivan!!!!!!

So here's the new ride. A 2002 Toyota Sienna. At first mom was a little hesitant to drive what she said was a "nerdy" minivan. But you should see how happy she is now. She loves all the room and how easy it is to load us in the car. She spends a lot of time in the car with us for her work and she looks forward to driving the Sienna. Faylen rides in a big girl car seat now. Check out the pic. She's much happier in the car now that she faces forward. We like to reach out and holds hands while we're in are car seats. ;)

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was a lot of fun. We did our best to make mom feel real special the whole day. First dad got up early and made mom breakfast in bed. (waffles and eggs) He even went out side and picked and arranged his own boquet of flowers for mom. Then we went to church and then went out to lunch on the capitola wharf. We took a little walk through capitola village. It was beautiful outside. Then we went to the Boardwalk where we rode some fun rides. I went on my first rides. I could not have been happier, grinning from ear to ear, when I got to go on the airplane ride all by myself way up in the air. After that we went to OSH where mom got to pick out her Mother's Day present: a nice lawn chair. (cuz we all know now much she worships the sun) Then we got Chinese takeout for dinner and came home and watched a movie and went to bed. It was a fun full day. Happy Mother's Day to all you hard working mother's out there!

Dad had fun on the kitty rides ;)

My Birthday

I am 2 whole years old! The day started by me crawling in bed with mom and snuggling her in the morning. She loves that. I was so comfy sleeping on her pillows that she let me sleep in till almost 10am! Then she made us macadamia nut pancakes. Then we packed a picnic and went to the park. It's a really pretty park just down the road from our new house called Royal Oaks Park that we bought a year pass to. Then after naptime and when dad got home we went out to Chuck-E-Cheez for dinner. I really enjoyed my pizza and orange soda. I had a blast playing every single game in the joint. My favorite was this silly Barny Game. I won 50 tickets and traded them in for a bag of Pop Rocks. Whoa, those were crazy! It feels good being 2! I've been talking so much and people can actually understand what I'm saying. I love to give long explanations about everything. Whenever somthing happens to me I go running to mommy or daddy and jabber out several sentences and almost everything has to do with the doggie or Mas (Magnus). Whenever I get a booboo I have to have someone kiss it to make it better. Sometimes I pretend like I hurt myself just so I can get a kiss. ;) After I do something I know is wrong I say with a solomn voice, "I sorry, mama". When someone sneezes I say, "Bless You!" Oh, and I can also count to 10! Click on the video me counting:

Here's some Chuck-E-Cheez pics

Picnic at the parkSleeping in on my Bday My sister is growing a lot too. She will be 1 year old in just a few days. She has sooo many new tricks. Let me just brag about her for a minute: She can clap, she gives you an open mouth kiss if you ask for it, she can stand on her own for about 20 seconds, then plops down, she can take a couple steps, SHE SAID HER FIRST WORD!!!!!, it was "Doggie!". Now she says it all the time. She stands at the sliding glass door and screams at the dog outside saying, "Doggie, Doggie, Doggie!" See video. She now also says, "thank you" and "hi". She also waves hello and goodbye. It's just too cute when she waves. She's very bashful and has the most beautiful smile. She gives a little wiggle dance when you turn the music on. She's not quite as musically inclined as I am though. Faylen now has 8 teeth and LOVES to eat. In fact, mom and dad call her a garbage disposal. She ate 2 whole pieces of pizza at Chuck-E-Cheez! She eats about twice as much as I do and she's NOT at all picky. Hopefully she gets her dad's metabolism. She likes to hide her face and play peek-a-boo. And she finally figured out how to use a sippy cup.

We are settling into our new home. We absolutely love it! It's so fun and nice. Mom and dad seem really happy. After several nights of staying up till three in the morning they are finally done with most of the painting and major jobs. Now it's just hanging up stuff and decorating, which is mom's favorite. My sister and I have a really fun room. It's blue! Dad put up really nice Waisnscot wood paneling on the lower half of the room. It looks really nice. I like to shoot hoops with dad in the driveway and go in the backyard and climb on the hill with the Magnus.

Uncle Josh came to visit for a few days before he flew off to Israel to be with Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie Shosh. It was fun to see him. He helped a lot on moving day. Actually lots of people helped us a lot. Thank you to everyone who helped. Everyone in Israel is having an amazing time. Mom, the traveler, is soooo jealous of her family and wishes she could be there with them. They have been going to amazing places traveling all around the country. They have seen Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Cesaria, the Wailing Wall, the Sea of Galilee, the Dead Sea and so much more. They all say that it's really beautiful and that it's amazing how they feel God's presence in the Promise Land. I bet that's inevitable when you are walking where Jesus walked.

We went to my friend Sammie's pool party and daddy dunked me in the water 100 times. Faylen went swimming in a pool for the first time and loved it. The cold water didn't faze her at all. She woulda stayed in the water all day. Thanks for the fun birthday party Sammie!

Can't wait to see you all at our birthday party!

Love, Li'l John