Frisco Thanksgiving

Posted on March 29, 2016 by Mdfrisco

Yes, I know it is the end of March…As I’ve said before I am trying to go back and blog the pictures I never posted. So in the current sunny springtime, let’s go back to chilly November and revisit Thanksgiving!

This year, Justin’s cousin Lisa and her family hosted Thanksgiving. We had a few minutes before we needed to leave and since I am always behind the camera, and have very few pictures of me with the boys, I asked Justin to take a picture of us. It is NOT easy getting them both to look at the camera and smile, I think he did a pretty good job!

Lisa’s parents were in town from Kentucky and none of them had met Dylan yet, so it was a fun day of them meeting the littlest Frisco boy.

I love this one 🙂

We had so much amazing food and enjoyed time catching up with family.

The best part for me was the built in babysitters! Lisa and her husband have 6 kids who love playing with babies/younger kids. I feel like I hardly saw Jacob the entire day. He was busy playing all their musical instruments

They took him outside with them to play football

And Dylan took a nice long nap when it came time to eat, so I actually got to enjoy a warm Thanksgiving dinner!

We are so thankful for the blessing of family and love spending time with them!

Broken Branch Ranch

Posted on March 24, 2016 by Mdfrisco

Last November, Justin had a meeting that was about a 6 hour drive away. To try and shorten his driving time, we went to my parents ranch the night before so Justin only had about 4 hour drive and we got to spend the day playing on the ranch while daddy was gone. My parents ranch here in Southern CA is called Broken Branch Ranch. One day recently, we saw an airplane in the sky, Jacob and I started talking about how we were going to get on a plane again to go visit Grandma and Grandpa at their ranch in Oregon. After thinking about it for a minute, Jacob said “No lets drive.” I told him that would be a really, really long drive. And he said “No lets drive to the broken ranch!” He really loves going to my parents ranches, there is so much for him to do and his favorite thing is helping Grandpa with his chores. The minute he wakes up in the morning, before Grandpa has had a chance to finish his first cup of coffee, he is bugging Grandpa to go outside. So off they go in the cart to pick up after the horses and feed them breakfast.

Later that day when Dylan went down for his nap, we saddled up my mom’s horse, Checkers, for a little fun.

Jacob is very comfortable ontop of a horse

First they started off by walking around

And he kept saying go faster, go faster. So grandma got up with him.

And he got to go faster!

Then Dylan woke up to join the fun

It is so great that our boys get to experience this different kind of lifestyle of working around a ranch. They love it!

Tickles with GG

Posted on March 22, 2016 by Mdfrisco

Last October the Pittsburgh Steelers were in town playing the SD Chargers and Justin had tickets to the game. He invited his dad and some friends to go with him, so Papa J, Nonnie and GG came to visit for a few days. Earlier in the day before the game, we went to the Bernardo Winery to walk around. In the tasting room, Jake and GG sat down on the couch. He would start out on the other end of the couch and slowly start creeping towards GG, once he got within her reach, she would start tickling him.

And they both laughed and laughed and laughed

Then he would go all the way in for a snuggle before retreating to the other side of the couch to start over. They were having so much fun and I love watching him play with her!

Back outside Jacob found a fun swinging bench.

Which made a good spot for an impromptu family photo, can you tell the Steelers were playing that day?

My cool boys!

Then Papa J and Justin left for the game, which the Steelers won! And the rest of us went back to the house and baked cookies while watching the game on TV. Football, family, wine and cookies, doesn’t get much better than that!

Splish Splash

Posted on March 20, 2016 by Mdfrisco

Both my boys have been big fans of bathtime. What’s not to love about popping bubbles, playing with toys and splashing water, everywhere! And mom loves the clean bodies afterwards. One of my favorite things about our new kitchen is our farmhouse sink. It is so amazing for many reasons, but one is it makes the perfect baby bath! It is just the right size and it saves my back from having to bend over the bathtub.

It is kind of hard to believe Dylan was ever this small!

(1 month old)

Jacob likes to pull his stepstool over and “help” me give him a bath.

When Dylan found his feet he spent all his time in the bath kicking his legs, grabbing his feet and flashing that smile that melts my heart.

(5 mos old)

Then he was no longer happy laying down, so he started sitting up in the bath and discovered all the things within his reach from this new perspective.

(7 mos old)

As much as I love using the farmhouse sink, I think those days are numbered…because now he knows how to work the level for the faucet and grabs the hose any chance he can get, which results in water getting sprayed all over the place.

(9 mos old)

And gets his hands full of bubbles and starts clapping which sends bubbles and water on the kitchen floor, window, cabinets and anything else close by.

But he thinks it is all quite fun!

And the best part of getting a bath is the nice lotion massage afterwards, fresh diaper and warm pajamas.

Good night!

Practice

Posted on March 17, 2016 by Mdfrisco

Life with two kids is kind of crazy…so my passion for photography has been on the back burner for quite a while. Yes, I am still taking pictures, obviously. But I haven’t really been happy with the quality of them since I am just capturing the moment and really don’t have much time to adjust settings/lighting/angle/focal point/etc…to really get that professional quality photo look. There have been so many times that I’ve looked at the pictures and said, “Eh, these didn’t come out good, I’m not going to post them.” That is the perfectionist in me. But then I shift into mom mode and really remember what this blog is truly about. Sharing stories of our lives and capturing those fun moments of our kids growing up, it really doesn’t matter if the quality of the photos are to my ideal liking, what matters is the memory that is being recorded. So I’ve decided to not worry so much about it and if the pictures are not that great, oh well. Besides to tell you the truth, alot of the pictures on here lately are taken with my iPhone.

However, occasionally, if the moment is right, I do find myself getting my camera out to practice my photography. During this particular moment I was getting Dylan ready for a nap, and of course Jake decided he was hungry at the same time. So I made him some food and got him set up with the iPad while I put Dylan down. After I came out of Dylan’s room I stood talking to Jake for a few minutes and I had one of those moments where I thought, Whoa where did my little baby go! I have this silly little boy living in my house now!

I also noticed how great the lighting was so I decided to get my camera out. Nothing fancy about these pictures, just a little boy eating his lunch.

This little boy challenges me on a daily (no make that an hourly) basis. I often tell Justin that I think he has “inherited” my hearing problems since he doesn’t listen to me. He tests my limits and often makes me question my parenting ability.

But truly, he really is a good little boy, and is just going through his threenager phase. I think he is pretty darn handsome and I love his independent, silly, rambunctious personality. And this is what I get for asking him to smile with a mouth full of food!

I love you my sweet boy!

Month 10

Posted on March 15, 2016 by Mdfrisco

I really can’t believe how fast Dylan is growing up! He is such a sweet, smiley, happy boy and he is such a bright light in our family! The only time he really gets upset is if he is left alone or his brother takes a toy away from him that he was really enjoying at the moment, which unfortunately happens quite a bit…

He is getting faster and faster with cruising around after pulling himself up.

I often find myself looking for him around the house because he is so quick getting where he wants to go, he disappears. Usually he will be in his brother’s room turning over his toy bins, shoe bins, pulling clothes off the hangers in the closet and emptying the bookshelf, I’m guessing it’s payback for all the times Jacob takes a toy away from him.

Or maybe it is his way of telling me I need to read to him more often…poor second kid!

Justin taught him how to say Bye Bye while waving, and he says it all the time. It’s really cute when you are saying goodbye to someone and then his little voice and hand pop up and he repeats the Bye Bye after you. I haven’t been remembering to sign to him as much as I did with Jacob, life is a little crazier the second time around! But he does know how to sign more and all done when we are eating.

Speaking of eating, this kid is very into whatever WE are eating. One night he was sitting on my lap while we were having pizza for dinner and he kept grabbing for my slice, so I finally gave him the crust and he loved it.

This month we celebrated Valentines Day at the resort up the street.

Mom and dad enjoyed some drinks and appetizers, while the boys watched the band.

Here are this month’s weekly pictures

40 weeks

41 weeks

42 weeks

43 weeks – 10 fingers for 10 months!

Dylan and Oma

Posted on March 12, 2016 by Mdfrisco

I have been looking back on older pictures trying to collect the ones that I wanted to share but never made it onto the blog. So like most of my posts these days, the next several ones will be going back in time a bit. First up are the ones I took of Dylan with Oma.

When Jacob was a baby my grandma (Oma to Jake and Dylan) lived a couple of hours away. We would drive in to visit her and Jacob’s favorite things to do was wave at the other residents as we walked in/out, ride on Oma’s walker and run around on the big grassy lawn they had in the back. A little over a year ago we were so excited when Oma moved just 25 minutes away from us. We started making weekly trips to visit her. Jacob has the routine down, he pushes the button to open the front doors and goes right to the hand sanitizer to “wash” his hands then heads over to the elevator to ride upstairs and walks down the hall right to Oma’s apartment, talking to everyone along the way. It is so fun for me to just stay a few steps behind him and watch him. He still loves to ride Oma’s walker, and work the remote control on her recliner and on warmer days we go outside in the courtyard to play with a ball or bubbles. Jacob loves his Oma and talks about her all the time, I love the connection they have!

Then along came Dylan. All of us still go visit Oma, but sometimes on days after I drop Jacob off at preschool, Dylan and I will go visit her, just the two of us. This gives them some good one on one time.

(2 mos old)

Dylan clearly is a fan of Oma as well!

(4 mos old)

I love seeing the joy that the little kids bring to Oma. She is blessed with many, many kids, grandkids and great-grandkids, a lot of joy!

(8 mos old)

Dylan is starting to learn the ropes himself and keeps busy exploring every inch of Oma’s apartment during our visits. He stops every few minutes to share a smile and a laugh with her.

(10 mos old)

And flashes his baby blue eyes

I am so thankful that my boys know their Oma and enjoy visiting her as much as I do.

The Frisco Project

Adventures in life, pregnancy, friendships, family & a little photography

Monthly Archives: March 2016