Rice Cereal

Now that Arie is four months old, we decided to see how he did with a taste of rice cereal before bed. This is about a month earlier than we started cereal with Jack, so I kind of assumed Arie wouldn't totally be ready for it, and that most of it would get pushed out by his tongue. Boy, was I wrong! This kid gobbled up every little drip of it, cooing and smiling the whole time!

Because he's a little young, we are barely giving him any, but it's so fun to watch him eat it that it's tempting to give him more! We'll stick with the tiny bit for now. This kid doesn't need to get any bigger... he's our big boy! Our home scale says he's 18 lbs already!!! I'm eager to see what the doctor says at his four month check up this week.

A little added bonus to the rice cereal... he's now sleeping until at least 6am every night! Yay!

Arie is a sweet and happy baby and seems more laid back than Jack was at this age. We are grateful for this, because we need Arie to be content as we are kept BUSY with his brother! :)

Sea World

We have been soaking up the last few days of summer before Ben goes back to work and life gets crazy again. We wanted to make use of our passes to Sea World, so we escaped the scorching heat and headed to San Diego for the day! It was a beautiful day, and so much fun to spend the day together doing something so fun. Both boys were so good and conked out on the car ride home.

This shark tank was pretty sweet. Kinda creepy to have them swimming all around you like that!

Arie was fascinated by the slow swimming turtles.

More sharks!

Go Blue, boys!

Jack loves the Sesame Street play area. He got to "meet" some of the characters.

"Knuckles" for Cookie!

Besides seeing the Shamu show, dolphin show, the penguins and lots of other neat things, Jack loved getting to touch these star fish.

What a great day! We'll be back, for sure!

Artiste

I've been so eager to get this eisle from IKEA, and couldn't wait to let Jack try it out! We got a "painting shirt" on and let him go to town.

It's been so hot here, and within 30 seconds of starting to paint, Jack needed to scratch his sweaty head....

... resulting in paint on the face!

It was so fun watching him create his first masterpeice.

When he decided he was done, I told him I wanted to take a picture of him by his painting. I told him to say "tah dah!", so that's what he did. :)

Love this little artiste!

Nana and Gigi Do LA!

We had a fantastic week hanging out with two terrific ladies! Ben's mom and grandma came for a visit and boy, was it fun! Jack just soaked up all of the individual attention that he got all week and Arie was sufficiently adored as well!

Gigi loved to rock and chat with Arie. She would just talk, and he would stare and listen intently to every word... so darling!

Gigi also charmed Jack with her magical reverse psychology (i.e. "Jack doesn't want to read books with Gigi" or "Don't give me a kiss!" It worked EVERY TIME! We are still reaping the benefits of this tactic!)

We enjoyed lovely meals together.

Did some cuddling (somewhat rare for Jack!).

And LOTS of playing!
(Gigi introduced Jack to playing "store", which was so cute. I'm bummed I didn't get any pictures of it.)

We also went to our traditional meal at Magic Wok.

(Had to document Arie's first visit, and captured our favorite, Patrick, in the background)

Thanks for coming to visit us, Nana and Gigi! You are welcome back to California whenever you want! :)

Arie's Baptism

We had a beautiful day celebrating Arie's baptism recently. It was such a meaningful day, full of blessings, surrounded by family and great friends.
Here's the main man... wearing the top and holding the blanket that his daddy was baptized in. We made the outfit his own with the cute shorts. :)

Pastor Paul has baptized both of our boys. We are blessed to call him "friend" and our kids will be blessed to be taught by him. Pastors Paul and Bill are great gifts to our church family.

We were surrounded by loved ones who supported us in our decision to baptize Arie and who promised to help us in teaching him about God's great love for us.

Dear Molly sang at Jack's baptism, so it was only fitting to have her sing at Arie's, too. The song was simple and sweet, and of course so beautifully done by Moll.
Here are the words she sang:

River, wash over me
Cleanse me and make me new
Bathe me, refresh me and fill me anew
River wash over me

Spirit, watch over me
Lead me to Jesus' feet
Cause me to worship and fill me anew
Spirit, watch over me

Jesus, rule over me
Reign over all my heart
Teach me to praise You and fill me anew
Jesus, rule over me

We had some special guests from out of town... Nana and Gigi from Michigan, and Uncle Jack and Auntie Jana from Colorado. It was so special to have them there.

California Cousins.

Don't our kids have the most gorgeous grandmothers???

Arie James,
We love you to pieces. But you know what? God loves you infinitely more. We pray that He will help us, despite our vast imperfections, to teach you all about His perfect love. What a challenge and an honor to be your parents and to be given this task. We will make lots of mistakes along the way, so give us some grace, ok? We eagerly look forward to watching God's plan unfold in your life.
Love, Mommy and Daddy

My Boys

I am just so in love with these boys....

I'm so lucky to be their mom!

Who's Who???

We can't get over the mirror that these two pictures are.
Can you tell which one is Jack and which one is Arie?!