Ranch Style Photos

Posted on April 14, 2016 by Mdfrisco

In February we were back at the Broken Branch Ranch. And every once in a while we do a little photo shoot to try and get some cute pictures of the boys around the ranch and with Grandma and Grandpa. The main focus this time was on Dylan, mainly because a certain 3 year old is not too keen on sitting still and smiling for the camera. We also were trying to recreate something similar to our favorite “cowboy” picture of Jacob when he was 8 months old. Since Dylan is a little older than Jacob was, it was harder to keep him still, but I think we got some good ones. There’s not a whole lot of story to tell here, just heavy on the picture side…

First we loaded up the props in the wagon.

Then while we were waiting for the guys to bring the bales of hay I started snapping away at Grandma and Dylan

Then Dylan was ready for his close up

When Grandma and Grandpa joined in, Dylan could not take his eyes off Grandpa. He loves Grandpa’s deep laugh and in every single picture I took he is smiling at him.

Then we tried to get one with both boys and we ended up with more outtakes. But they are still fun pictures to have, that show the general craziness of two boys.

This is what we get if we ask Jacob to smile or laugh for the camera (and again Dylan was focused on Grandpa laughing)

This would have been a good one if Dylan had been smiling, but I think he was over it at this point.

Dylan was tired of sitting and being held, so we let him stand up and play on the bales of hay

and he was sampling the goods

Then we went for a ride in the wagon

Which led us to the horses

And that is usually where you can find this guy hard at work

I love some of the facial expressions I get, he takes his jobs seriously! I can just hear his voice in his head saying “Don’t mess with me mama, I’m busy!”

Once his legs get a little longer he will be tearing all over the ranch in this thing, he knows exactly how to drive it, but he can’t quite reach.

After my dad saddled up Thunder the two of them went for a a little ride

When they were finished, Jake goes right to the bin with the horse treats to fill up his pockets with treats to give the horses.

Mission accomplished!

Wish he was this passionate about doing chores at home!

New Beginnings

Posted on April 7, 2016 by Mdfrisco

Justin’s parents recently moved. Same town, different house. They bought a triplex in a great location nearby shopping and restaurants. So they have been busy fixing them up, moving into one and getting the others rented. In February, when the dust settled a bit on their renovation, we made a trip out with the boys to spend time with them. Papa J, daddy and Jacob kept busy doing little projects around the property. There were golf cart rides, a trip to the Children’s Museum, a walk down the street to an old car show and swimming in the pool.

My favorite times during these trips are the family dinners. Papa J is a pretty great cook and the food is guaranteed to be good,

but I really enjoy the time just relaxing, letting the kids play and talking with everyone. I’ve been feeling bad since I don’t have many pictures of Dylan with the family (second kid syndrome, I know…) so this was the perfect time to get out my camera.

Snuggles with GG

We are very happy for Papa J and Nonnie and their new beginning.

At the end of our trip, Justin and I got away with my dad for a while to drive out to Whitewater. We’ve been trying to find materials for our fireplace hearthstone and we finally found it!

Some day I will get a blog up about our remodel/move, someday…

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!

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!

Month 9

Posted on February 25, 2016 by Mdfrisco

Since crawling around was not so new anymore, Dylan decided it was time to start pulling himself up to a standing position. And he is SO proud of himself 🙂

Now that he is so mobile, he is not happy sitting in the stroller while Jacob is playing on the playground when we go to the park. So Jacob has been busy teaching Dylan the tricks to going down the slides

and the swings

And at home…Dylan prefers to play with Jacob’s toys while Jacob prefers to play with Dylan’s toys. Sometimes, just sometimes…they do play well together. Like chasing each other through the tunnels.

At his 9 month check up, his pediatrician was impressed with how much he has grown. Since his last check up at 6 months he grew 3 inches and is now 30 inches long (96th percentile!) and gained 2.5 lbs which puts him at 21.6 lbs (80th percentile). And his head circumference is 17 3/4 inches (50th percentile). We are blessed with another healthy boy who is growing like a weed! This month we made the transition to his 18 month clothes, one of these days he will catch up with Jacob I’m sure! Both of his upper front teeth came in this month as well, which now gives him a total of 4 teeth.

Here are his weekly photos

Week 36

Week 37

Week 38

Week 39- This week it was a bit of a challenge to get a picture done! Dylan was being a goofball and all he wanted to do was chew on his sticker…

What?? You want me to put my hands down and smile for the camera? He he he, silly mommy…

How about I try and rip the sticker off instead so you can’t see how many months I am…

You still want me to put my hands down?? Okay…Simon says grab your ears!

Nah…back to the sticker, it tastes so good!

THREE

Posted on February 20, 2016 by Mdfrisco

The first week of January, after we got the house cleaned up from Christmas, we got out the birthday decorations to celebrate Jacob’s 3rd birthday!

Jacob was born on a rainy day, so it was appropriate that the week of his birthday we had a pretty wild storm come through town. Over a span of 5 days we had rain, flash floods, thunder/lightning, a tornado warning, a power outage and an earthquake! For people who are spoiled with San Diego’s perfect 70 degrees and sunny weather, it made for an exciting week! Jacob was so happy to use his new umbrella and rain boots

and I felt like I was glued to the window for days watching it all unfold! This crazy birthday week weather also confirmed my suspicion that this is going to be a wild year navigating life with a “threenager”.

On his birthday we had a trip planned to go visit the local fire department since every time we drive by he looks to see if the garage door is open. If it is not, he says “it’s closed, that means there’s not an emergency and the fire trucks are sleeping.” If it is open, he is thrilled to see the trucks and yells “They’re awake! They’re awake!” However, due to the flash floods and thunder and lightning I decided it would be best to stay home rather than driving through the mess, and they were busy enough during the storm. That night after daddy got home from work we had a giant cupcake to celebrate his birthday and he sang along with us when we sang Happy Birthday to him.

I’m THREE!

The next day at school, he had cookies with his class to celebrate his birthday again. And that weekend we had a Thomas the Train themed party with some of Jacob’s friends! When looking online for a bakery, I discovered the bakery that did our wedding cake has their main location nearby. So that was an easy choice for his cake. I’m not really big on birthday cake, but this one was GOOD!

Not all the kids made it into this picture, but I love seeing these kiddos together and it will be fun to look back on these pictures when they are older.

He also had his three year check up with our pediatrician. We addressed the peanut allergy again and his blood test results came back a 2 on a scale of 0-6. It is a low number, but there is an allergy there, so we have an appointment to visit my old office do do some more testing. Otherwise, he is a very healthy boy who now weighs 30.9 lbs and is 37.5 inches (a little over 3 feet) tall.

It was a fun week celebrating our cute, rambunctious, stubborn, frustrating, smart and sweet 3 year old! To close this post, here is Jacob’s 3 year old picture with the giraffe and elephant.

Month 8

Posted on February 18, 2016 by Mdfrisco

The month (December) leading up to his 8 month birthday was a lot of fun and full of more firsts. As I predicted, a few weeks before the end of the year, Dylan started his version of crawling. He starts out on his hands and knees, then flattens himself on the ground and does the army crawl to get where he wants to go, then gets back on his hands and knees to get into a sitting position. His favorite place to crawl is into Jacobs room. Even though he has his toys spread out in his room, our bedroom and the living room, he prefers to play with his brothers toys.

He always has and continues to love his bath, especially when big brother jumps in to “help”!

He has been babbling and making noises for a while, but now his babbling is starting to form with consonants and vowels. Ba, ba, ba and ma, ma, ma are the most common things he says right now. I am really trying to work with him to say Momma first 🙂 so ma, ma, ma has been on repeat. And every time he says it, Jacob looks at me and says “Hey, Dylan’s saying Momma!”

The previous month he started sleeping nice 11 hour stretches at night, however, we all got really sick with a nasty cold for several weeks. So our nighttime sleep was interrupted with stuffy noses, coughs and a lot of late night cuddles. And just when we all recovered from the cold, Dylan kept things interesting by popping out his first tooth on New Years Eve (at 34 wks)! So he started 2016 as an almost 8 month old sporting his lower left front tooth. Then the following week (35 wks) when he turned 8 months old, he popped out the lower right front tooth. It was a rough couple of teething weeks.