The Fair!

I love to go to the fair.

I have always loved the fair. While I know that the Nevada County fair is the best in the world, I am open minded enough to recognize other fairs can be great too. Like the Pima County Fair. We went over the weekend and it did not disappoint! While the food was no where close as good as the Nevada County fair, we still found some decent pizza and we even splurged on a $4 snow cone (we would do better to buy one from Maria and John in Spain). Jay of course loved the rides and I felt nostalgic watching him enjoy some of the same ones I experienced as a child. He's still too nervous to go on the giant slide - but I'm hoping that will change in a year or so.

Jay decided he needed some daddy protection on the super-fast roundabout ride.

After getting off Mike commented, "Now I remember why I hated that ride as a kid." Let's just say the combination of KFC, the superfast ride and 8 year old Mike didn't mix well. At least you didn't throw up this time sweetie!

Okay, so for as cool as the Nevada County Fair is, I have to be "fair" and give props to the Pima County Fair for 2 things. First, the shark tank.

How often do you see sharks at a fair? To be honest, we kind of felt bad for them. 

But even better than sharks? A FREE demolition derby!!!

Amaya loved the show!

It was pretty awesome. Because really, what's cooler than watching trashed cars drive around a muddy field trying to smash into each other hard enough that their engines catch on fire? I submit nothing (unless your European - then it's just weird). My favorite are the cars with random sized tires on them.

Here are some more highlights from the Pima County Fair.

Giant hot dog wrapped in a flag, smothering himself with ketchup and mustard - for you! mmm... giant hot dog man.

How long have they been out of business now?

Watch out, these are angry unicorns!

A skeleton rowing down a river in a bath tub with the energizer bunny. Carny art.

Almost slumber party on the trampoline

Jay and daddy love to jump together on the tramp. One night daddy suggested they sleep out under the stars together on it. Jay was SO excited! He couldn't wait for bedtime that night. They prepared by putting plenty of blankets and pillows out there and then they snuggled down together. They looked at the stars and Jay even showed daddy Orion's Belt (thanks for teaching him that one grandma)! Then they decided they wanted to watch a movie. Mommy brought out the portable DVD player and they watched Up together until about 11 pm. They had a great time! The only problem came when it was actually time to sleep. After all the anticipation, Jay kept insisting that he had to go sleep in his bed. Daddy tried and tried to get him to see how cool it was to sleep outside together, but Jay would have none of it - so in they came. Oh well, they still had a fun time! Maybe someday Jay will get the full experience :)

1 Month Old

Amaya is one month old today. What a big girl! She is growing, growing, growing and more loved each day. She has recently started smiling and she lights up the room with her little grins!

 Here she is on her one month birthday in her pretty Spanish dress that Maria and John gave us.

I can't believe how much Jay and Amaya look alike - check out these two pictures!

Pretty cute. I hope she takes after her big brother in every way (except sleeping!)

Amaya still loves to stick out her tongue ;p She makes adorable grunting noises and cooing sounds and loves to move her legs and arms crazy style. She's still a little pip-squeek, wearing newborn clothes, but she has moved on to size 1 diapers. She loves her binky - it can quiet her flailing body in an instant. She loves to look at faces and can track people and objects as they move across her line of vision.

She has become pretty interested in the camera too, since it's always in her face.

I made the flower in her hair.

Her eyes are still blue.

She seems to really enjoy bath time. She never cries, just looks around with her wide eyes wondering what will happen next.

Her sleeping patterns have begun to improve. She seems to understand that awake time happens during the day and sleepy time is for the night - although she still wakes up to eat at least twice between 10:00 and 8:00 am. She has started to sleep a few 4 to 4 1/2 hour stretches at night, which is wonderful!  Mom can't wait until they turn into 6 or 7 hour stretches though :)

 She loves her swaddle!

Most nights go like this: eat between 9:30 and 10 pm. Mom and dad in bed by 10:30 or 11 pm. Amaya is up to eat at 2 am. Back to sleep by 2:30 am. Up again at 5 am for the sunrise feeding and then back to sleep (sometimes with a little more difficulty at this point - but the swing saves us if she's too restless) around 5:30 am. Then Jay wakes up around 7:30 am and Amaya wants to eat again at 8 or 9. Some mornings daddy is still home when Jay wakes up so he takes him downstairs and they eat breakfast together before daddy leaves. Then daddy turns on a cartoon for Jay while mommy sleeps a little more. It's so nice! We are looking forward to the day when Jay can take Amaya downstairs when they wake up and then play together until mommy and daddy get up. I remember doing this with my own brother many mornings.

Jay has been such a good little helper to his mommy and baby sister. Check out his new haircut.

 He loves his Amaya and enjoys giving her kisses and love. Today we took a walk in our new-used (thank you Craigslist) stroller/bike trailer.

When we turned into the sun Jay automatically reached over and covered Amaya's eyes with his hand so it wouldn't be so bright for her.

What a sweet brother! I think Amaya is wearing Jay out too because he never falls asleep when he doesn't have to - but one day he was so exhausted that he laid down on the couch and within minutes we found him like this.

We love our Jay and Amaya so much. They bring joy beyond measure into our home. Happy one month birthday lovely little girl!

So sweet siblings

Happy Easter

We had a fun Easter here filled with TONS of candy - pretty sure Jay ate his weight in candy over the weekend actually. On Friday Jay colored Easter eggs with Nona and Daddy while Mommy slept.

On Saturday we went to a neighborhood Easter egg hunt. Jay found his 10 eggs in about 10 seconds (they were more spread out on a field than hidden) but he seemed to enjoy himself and he loved riding on the little train they provided.

 Jay showing off the number on his hand placing him in the 4th Easter egg hunt.

We also had a nice time listening to General Conference. We heard about half of each talk since Jay is pretty distracting, but we loved the messages - especially as parents! Thank goodness we can re-watch them on lds.org and read them in the April Ensign. On Sunday we made a yummy Easter dinner, well mostly my mom made a yummy Easter dinner. It was very tasty and we have plenty of leftover ham for the next week!

Baby Amaya is doing great. She's totally over her jaundice and growing, growing, growing! She loves to eat. We took her to the doctor yesterday for her 2-3 week check-up and she now weighs 6 pounds 15 ounces and is 20 inches long. Way to go little girl! Already surpassed your birth-weight :) She's been a very easy baby so far. She rarely cries and sleeps a lot. Lately she's been awake a little more often and her favorite wake-time activities are looking at faces, getting kisses and pets from Jay, and having tummy time. She has been great sleeping at night. She wakes up every 3 - 4 hours (occasionally 5) to eat and goes right back to sleep when she's done. Mom is very happy about this! Nursing is going a lot better too - much less painful now. Here are some new pics of her.

Soooo sleepy!

Here's Amaya wrapped up in her new blanky that Papa Lee made her.

We're loving being a family of 4 (plus Nona makes 5 - we don't know what we'll do without her when she leaves!). Here's Nona teaching Jay how to play ball, just like she taught his Uncle Cory. I love it!

Life is good. The weather is already in the mid 70s to mid 80s every day, so we'll see what the summer brings!