So Spoiled

There are so many things we LOVE about Oregon (the weather and not having to pump my own gas to name a few). But one of our favorite things in the summer is all the fresh produce. While living in Corvallis for our internship we discovered the farmer's market and blueberry picking. Since moving here we've discovered even more. We've already gone berry picking several times and we found a farm where they deliver us a big bag of fresh produce every week. The farm delivers the bags to Todd's work every Tuesday. It is so much fun to see what is growing on the farm every week. It is such a fun way to get fresh produce and try new things. So far our favorite new things are rhubarb and fresh chives. We've had so much fun trying out new recipes and enjoying all of the fresh produce Oregon has to offer.

Shots

Last Friday we had shots for James at his 4 month check up. Poor little thing, he had a little bit of a cold and the shots didn't make him any happier. He waited until both pokes were done and then he let the nurse know how mad he was. On the plus side we got lots of cuddle time in. He is such a sweet little guy. I can't believe he is 4-months old already, the time is just flying by. At this appointment he was still in the 75th percentile for height, but he's dropped to the 50th percentile for weight. His head was still in the 30th percentile. The doctor told me that he had a beautifully shaped head, Todd said that is how you compliment bald babies. Regardless I think he's cute.


James has been such a joy to have in the family, even if he's tired or cranky he is always ready to show you he loves you with a big smile. One of his favorite things to do is spit and make funny noises (pictured above). In the car, I can always here him in the back just spitting away.


He's always learned how to give kisses. I was trying to get a picture of the two of them, but James just kept turning and giving Hailee "kisses." We need to work on him closing his mouth, but it's just too cute.


We are just so happy to have this little guy in our family. He's made our family even that much better.

Happiness

So I'll admit I was more than a little nervous about Hailee's reaction to having a new baby brother after being alone for so long. Things couldn't be better if I had planned them myself. She absolutely adores her baby brother and is so helpful. She never complains about getting a diaper or helping me with James. (Just don't ask her to clean up her doll house, she likes it "messy".) She loves to play with him and he loves to give her smiles in return. She is always the first to the crib if she hears him wake up and is always ready to talk or sing to him if he's a little sad. I went into their room yesterday to find this little scene, Hailee had climbed into bed with him and they were having the best time. Every day they become better and better friends, I'm sure that as soon as James can get around they will be getting into all kids of trouble together. They are the cutest little pair.

Daddy's boy

James has always loved his dad. From the beginning he would always look to find him when he heard his voice when he got home from work. I think he's glad to have another boy around when he gets home. Sunday after he got home from his church meetings I was sitting on our bed with James and Hailee. Todd sat down at the computer chair by our bed and James started reaching out to him. Once Todd picked him up he was so happy. That is the first time he's actually reached for one of us. He is getting so big. This time around it's seemed to go by faster than when Hailee was a baby. Maybe it's because he is growing faster than Hailee. He's already gown into his 6-9 months onsies and he's not even 4 months quite yet.

Why is it....

For the past month or so James has been putting absolutely everything in his mouth. If it's in his reach you can bet it's going to be in his mouth. I have been worried that he was going to get sick since he has be chewing on everything. I've also had help from Hailee handing him things that probably shouldn't be in his mouth. Not that I can really blame her, it's quite cute to watch the look of concentration on his face as he gets something in his hands and puts it in his mouth. So now I'm just wondering why I am the one that got sick and he appears to be just fine. Maybe I should start chewing on things to build up my immune system.

We've also discovered that he does not like to be hot at all and has very little tolerance for any heat. It has been hot here, well over 90 degrees and with no air conditioning it's been kind of miserable. The evenings cool down, but the afternoons are HOT. He spends a lot of time in just a diaper and a fan right on him. We're surviving so far because usually every few days it will cool down and we'll get a break. This week looks like it's going to be hot all week. We might need to get a few more fans.

Who Knew?

I would love to spend a day inside of Hailee's head. She is constantly thinking and saying the funniest things. My favorite time is when we are driving around and I can tell she is thinking about something. Then after some time of thinking she'll ask the most random questions or have the funniest little comment. There really is no limit to what she thinks about, it's everything from the tooth fairy to the sleeping habits of bears.

The other day when Kristy was in town she was showing us her new toy, her iPhone. She was showing us some pictures and one of them was a guy she had gone on a couple of dates with. Hailee in a nonchalant voice said "He looks just like a regular guy to me, not a soccer player or anything." We all just about died laughing. Who knew that she though soccer players were the standard to which boys should be judged.


A little while after that we were watching the Gold Cup (another soccer tournament), Todd and I were talking about different players. I commented that I really liked the way Charlie Davies plays. Hailee quickly commented "Yeah he is really cute too mom." Now who can really blame her, soccer players are really easy on the eyes. I thought the same thing and that is why I married one, I wonder if she'll do the same.

Baby Blessing

So the real reason behind all the fun this weekend was blessing James. It was great having both sides of our family here for his special day. Todd gave him a beautiful blessing and James was perfect throughout the whole blessing. I tried to have him sleeping like Hailee did through hers, but even wide awake he just sat there quietly. Hailee wanted to know why he was getting a name when he already had a name. I think she was thinking that he was going to get a new one. Once we had all that straightened out she was excited. Since James was over three months old I was a little worried that he would be hard to hold and that his clothes wouldn't fit him. Luckily he still fit into his clothes, but just barely. Todd said that Hailee was easy to hold and James took some careful holding, he was a lot more of a handful.

Grandma and Grandpa Mortensen

Grandpa and Grandma Cunningham

Aunt Kristy

Aunt Kristen and Emily (along with Grandpa and Grandma)

Seaside

Saturday we headed down to Seaside. We ate at a new restaurant. (we're still trying to find our favorite clam chowder) This one was pretty good. Then we headed down to the ocean. One thing we hadn't planned for was Seaside was having a huge fireworks show so it was CROWDED. But our little beach girl didn't care one bit, she just had to get to the sand and water. It was a lot of fun. It was nice to get away from the heat of Hillsboro (90+ degrees and no air conditioning in our apartment) and enjoy the cool of the coast.

This is how James enjoyed the beach. It seems like he is usually sleeping when we go places.

Hailee and Grammy kept getting closer and closer to the water. Hailee kept bending over and digging and I knew it was just a matter of time before the inevitable happened. I wondered how Hailee would react to getting dunked by a wave.

I didn't have to wait long. Right after she ran up to me and said "That was totally awesome!"
Then she bent back down and kept digging. She absolutely LOVES the beach.

After the beach Hailee got to ride in the stroller with one of James' blankets and we stopped for ice cream. It was such a fun day.

Berries, berries, and more berries

To fully appreciate this post you have to understand a little about the way the Mortensen family travels. Growing up our vacations were always packed full of "fun." No spare second was wasted. There was the trip to Yellowstone National Park where we were up before dawn and didn't stop until it was to dark to see anything else. The reason being was the animals were out in the morning and at night, the days were full of visiting every hot spring and going on as many hikes as we could possibly fit in. It seemed after every vacation we needed a week of vacation to recover from our vacation. One year my mom thought it would be great to get the Disneyland five-day pass so we wouldn't feel like we needed to rush everything in one day and just maybe we'd have a nice relaxing vacation. Great idea, in theory it seemed perfect, we could do everything and not be exhausted. But what happened in reality was we just saw EVERYTHING Disneyland had to offer. We were there every morning at opening and left every evening after it closed. Not even when I got the stomach flu did it slow us down (I just spend the afternoon in the first aid room sleeping with my mom). To this day I still have no desire to go back to Disneyland.

Any way to get back to this trip one thing my dad really wanted to do while they were visiting was to pick berries. He has been jealous of Hailee and I making berry pies and eating berry shakes for lunch. So the day they got here (after getting up at 3 in the morning to drive here from Idaho Falls) we went straight to the berry fields. The day was hot and they were all tired, but that didn't slow anyone down.

Hailee was thrilled to be showing grandpa how to pick berries and by the end she was more "supervising" than picking. She considers herself an expert since we've gone a couple of times this year. After picking 25 pounds of raspberries we discovered the obsidian blackberries, so they decided they needed 20 pounds of blackberries. Then while they were paying for their berries my dad heard that the next morning they were opening the blueberry field for the first time and that if you wanted any berries you needed to show up early. That of course just got my dad and sister Kristen excited. They were really hoping for a crazy stampede for blueberries like you find shopping the day after Thanksgiving for flat screen TVs. I am still convinced that this is the only reason why they went. They were a little disappointed that it wasn't nearly as exciting as the day after Thanksgiving sales, but they did pick 20 pounds of blueberries between the two of them.


Kristy went with us and pick a couple of buckets of berries for herself, and I'm sure she thought my family was just a little bit crazy after their 13 buckets of berries. She took her berries home with her on the airplane. She just carried them home in the buckets and they didn't even question her at security.

While my dad and sister were picking blueberries, my mom and I were washing and freezing berries. I was impressed I could fit that many berries in my freezer at one time (I'm sad I didn't get a picture) and even more impressed that they fit them in their cooler and got them all home. I talked to my mom this morning and she had already made a couple of batches of freezer jam.

This is what 20 pounds of blackberries looks like being weighed. I still can't believe that they picked 65 pounds of berries. They are already planning their berry picking trip next year.

Why is Zac all wet?

One of Hailee's toys got a little too close to James. He is really starting to enjoy putting things in his mouth. Hailee isn't quite sure what to think about it. After picking up "Zac the Rat" and finding him a little wetter than normal, she asked "Mom why is Zac all wet?" I told her that it was from James playing with him. To which she said "Oh gross, baby slobber." I'm sure this is just the beginning of James driving her a little crazy. It's good for her.

First Haircut

Yes even though it doesn't look like he has any hair, James was sporting a little extra hair in the back. The time has come to cut off James' mini mullet. So far both or our kids have had it and Todd isn't a huge fan. Saturday we finally got around to cutting it. I held James and Hailee took pictures. James being the super mellow kid just sat there happy as can be. It does look a lot better now and Todd promised him that if he got another mullet he would cut it again (even if he was 15).

Swimming

For his birthday Todd wanted to spend some time with the kids. He's so busy with work that weekends is when they get their good quality time in. Our pool is now open and Hailee really wanted to go swimming. She had such a good time swimming with her dad.


Since we do live in Oregon the pool was still a little cold at this time of year. As skinny as Hailee is she doesn't do well in cold water for too long. Her lips turn purple and she just shivers. She would get out ever 5-10 minutes to warm up.


James and I got to watch all the fun from the side. The water was way to cold for him. We enjoyed the nice weather and took pictures.