I can't believe it! This time, it's flown by!!!

So, in less than 15 weeks (Aubree was 10 days early, Preston was 7 days early), we'll have our newest Javidi baby joining the family, she's a girl... for those of you who don't know. She is also nameless. We CAN NOT come up with a name we all agree on, and of course we're getting lot's of name suggestions from the usual suspects... #1 offender; my mom. She always has all these "wonderful names" picked out for us... Hahaha!! Bless her heart, none of them ever seem to get any positive affirmation. Also, this time around we have a new voice who certainly wants to be heard (Aubree), Aubree has about 20 names she's suggested... Anything from the traditional "Mary" to the trendy "Macy", to the tomboyish "Charlie", and to the popular "Maddie" (Madeline) and her newest suggestion, "Daisy" which we've entertained. She even comes up with her own jibberish names too... I like that she's involved & I'd love it if she's the one who actually picks out her sister's name, in the end. Aubree is DYING to meet her sister. She can't wait to paint her nails & play dress-up with her - I told her that may take a bit of time! ;)

I have had a pretty big list of names I've presented as well, my favorite being "Magdalene Anne" (nickname: Maggie), I also like "Brinley", "Matilda", "Hailee", "Mackinley", "Bailee", "Cameron", "Reese" - I thought the "ee" would be cute because of Aubree's spelling... But, it just seems hopeless at this point. There has been no consensus... so, I think she'll be nameless until she enters this world. Which, is ok. I kinda think it would be cool to make my NATURAL delivery (yes... I've decided on that), very spiritual - I plan to use my time in prayer & it'll be my prayer that when we meet her, we'll just know what her name is to be.

 

So far this pregnancy has been relatively easy, like the last two. I don't think it's slowed me down much... In fact, most of the time Garrick & I both forget I'm even pregnant! I guess I forget a little less now, because she is so active - we can watch my whole belly move with her kicks & Aubree has felt her many times... She also kicks Preston when I'm holding him, although he is pretty clueless as to what I mean when I tell him, "There's a baby in mommy's belly". He lifts up my shirt & points to my stomach, saying "bebe, bebe" - but he probably just thinks it's all a game, or something. In a few months he'll think it was all a cruel trick! He gets very jealous of me with other babies & wants to be with me, almost always. I think this will be good character building for the little guy, although I hope I don't miss him being my only little baby too much, when he kinda will be replaced - he's my little buddy! :( I'd snuggle with him always... But lately he's not wanting that, so maybe it's time for this new adjustment, for all of us.

Anyway... I'm actually posting a picture of me pregnant. Looking back, I wish I had taken more pictures of me being pregnant with the other two. It is a beautiful time & it's neat to watch my belly grown (again), and to know that there is an incredible little human being inside me! Maybe I'll start taking a picture, a week from here on out... just so I have these memories & can show the kids when they're bigger - especially the girls, so they'll know what to expect when & if they are blessed with children, one day too.

I love my Swedish heritage... and, ever since our move to New Jersey - I can not get over how much the "country" part of the North East reminds me of my summers in South Sweden. Of course, our summer so far in NJ has been pretty mild... so, it may not always remind me of Sweden - but the cool breeze, the smells, the lush abundance of trees, the sounds of chirping birds, the little bit of dewy humidity that gives you the feel of moisture everywhere, the longer days (sun starts rising around 5am & by 5:30am the sun can make you feel like it's 10am... It all takes me back to those beloved memories I had as a child. So much so, that I have even dug into baking my Grandma Siggi's wonderful cardamon filled "Cinderelle rolls" & Swedish meatballs. I love the lingonberries & everything Swedish right now.

Sweden is known for their short, bright summers - they celebrate the longest day of the year, called Midsummer (where the sun barely sets), and the day is filled with folklore, music, laughter, dancing around a maypole, girls in summer dresses, flower wreaths, light herring snacking, some sort of broiled fish & the fresh picked summer strawberries with homemade whipped cream - plus, a pretty decent assortment of beer & schnapps. The partying usually goes well into the night.

It was usually my sister Natalie & I who would join in on the festivities of decorating the Maypole with the other Swedish children... and also joining in on the dancing. I wish I had pictures to share of Natalie & I in our midsummer attire (but those are all back in CA). Anyway... all these Swedish thoughts I have been having, made me research Swedish, or Scandinavian heritage groups in the area. I happened to find a Swedish village, just 32 miles west of us who was putting on their 23th annual Midsummer celebration. I told Garrick that we had to take the kids - as I'm sure most of you all know, both Garrick's Father & my Father were born abroad (Garrick's Dad from Iran & obviously, my Dad from Sweden), we make plenty of Persian stews & whatnot and I'd like both Aubree & Preston to know all of these traditions of their heritages - whatever we can share with them.

So, we headed out to Budd Lake, NJ for the day yesterday & had a fun time! Aubree & I made her a flower wreath and of course we also played, danced, ate & talked with the Scandinavian locals. All in all - a good day, as I had expected! :)

Natalie suggested we take the kids to the Bronx Zoo, one of these week days & I'm so glad that we did! Preston went CRAZY over all the animals - he thoroughly enjoyed each & every animal... big & small. Since we always seem to get a late start (with our drive into NY & the kids nap schedules), we only got a chance to see about 1/3, maybe even less of the zoo. That's ok though, it gives us another excuse to get back there... hopefully next time with Garrick, I think Garrick would love to see how much Preston was in full-awe of all the animals - it's cute because as much as Aubree loves animals, she never really seems to have the attention span needed to look at each animal, in the type of admiration Preston does.

I love all this lavender!

This was such a sweet Polar Bear to watch... He was quite entertaining!

These guys were kinda interesting... I completely forgot what they are called.

Some sort of hog critters (they were actually both pretty large!)

This Grizzly was quite active (no... Aubree is NOT standing on the same rock!) hahaha!

Ok... our new summer evening tradition.... Chasing FIREFLIES!!! Well, Garrick calls them "lightening bugs", so I'm not sure what the kids call them (because we have that cute P.D. Eastman Book called "Sam & the Firefly" - which is a favorite of the kids)... anyway, they LOVE it!! It's usually after bath time that we take a look outside & see hundreds!! I hate that they run outside after getting all clean - but, I guess that's what Summer is all about! :) They try to catch them & chase them... getting so close to them and then they light up & you hear Preston just lose it with laughter & Aubree screams with excitement. It's very fun to watch.... This is also my first experience with Fireflies, so I get just as excited!!

(Of course, my camera couldn't pick up very many (if any) of the fireflies going off every second, so it's a bit hard to see, just imagine them ALL around!) :)

Father's Day was really, really nice this year! We started with waking up Garrick to his Father's Day card & little gifts from the kids - since it was so early, we let Garrick go back to sleep for a bit (Aubree tends to wake us up REALLY early from time to time). After Garrick slept a bit more, we made him breakfast.

We decided that we wanted to explore some of the surrounding New Jersey areas, so we started our day by heading to Little Falls, NJ - where we played a little miniature golf.... It was a bit challenging with the kids. Preston was all over the place & Aubree is a bit of a struggle, because both Garrick & I are right handed & Aubree is a lefty - so it's hard to teach her how to swing her club (she took her own Nike putter with her - it's for a right-handed person, so we're teaching her that way - she writes 100% left, so maybe we can teach her to be ambidextrous). Anyway, other than that - she has a bit of a short attention span. By hole 8, Garrick & I just had our own little game... Until Preston picked up my ball, around hole 12 & threw it into the river. The kids did have fun though. It was pretty HOT, so instead of completing 18 holes, we called it a day for golfing & ate ice cream while we watched Garrick hit some balls at an adjacent driving range.

Of course every outing has to have it's breaks, so that Preston gets his nap times in - so we went home, cooled down & relaxed a bit. Then for round 2, we went to a small town called Montclaire to have a little Mexican dinner, on an outside patio, followed by some homemade ice cream at Applegates in Upper Montclaire - one of the busiest ice cream shops (actually, barn), I've ever been to. There must have been about 75+ people in line to get a scoop of this deliciousness. Anyway, it took us about 1/2 an hour to get a scoop of ice cream, but it was well worth it! Aubree picked cotton candy flavor with sprinkles, Preston got cookies & cream, Garrick got some peanut butter, fudge crunch(?) & I had pistachio nut.

It was a beautiful (almost) summer afternoon... And a very pleasant & fun Father's Day! :)

Future Rory Mcilory....

Little lefty trying to get the hang of it...

Preston HAD to chase after every ball!

I love my family...

Pretty little ice cream face...

Goofing around...

I love this picture... This is my whole life, right here...

Preston looks like a Ralph Lauren spokesmodel! ;)

(75% of his wardrobe is RL - haha!)

Happy Father's Day big guy... Thanks for all that you do!!!

We LOVE you!!!!!

I gotta start taking pictures again! Time is flying by too fast & I've been much too lazy with my camera.

This morning, my little guy looked so happy laying on the changing table, I just had to run & grab my camera to snap a few. He actually thought my camera was funny (with all the shutter speed noises). Above him (the off-white blanket) is his favorite blanket, known affectionately as "Bebe" - Bebe goes EVERYWHERE with Preston, we're in big trouble when Bebe needs to take a bath in the washing machine.

Preston is now 16 1/2 months old... He has 7 teeth & three 1-year molars popping through. The boy can TALK & he actually speaks very well for a 16 month old. He even puts words together "what's that?", "where's Dada?" etc., when I answer him, he always replies "oh". If I had to guess, I would say that he could say well over 50-60+ words (which is actually on the advanced side - I'm going to toot my kids horn right now, ok?). He's been talking for a long time too & we really don't have any problems communicating with him. I'm personally impressed by this, because Aubree was much slower in the talking department. I think she was about 22 months when her verbal skills really kicked in.

We've started potty training Preston & he's done very well (Aubree was day-potty trained at 18 months). We haven't quite worked on him peeing in the toilet (although he has), we primarily are concentrating on him doing his #2 on the toilet. He's really catching on & will tell us when he has to go on the toilet. He's had very few accidents since our training started a couple months ago. I'm not really into changing the poopy diapers - who is?? Hahaha! So, if I can get this going 100% I will start on the day-time potty training & hopefully he'll just be in pull-ups at night, maybe towards the end of the year (which would be nice because by then I'll have another baby's diapers I gotta start changing!).

Preston loves any type of ball & has a collection of about 25-30. He throws balls very well, kicks them, kinda catches them... He's a total sports guy! He even likes watching any type of sports event on TV, that has balls & he'll sit there & say "Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball!" when the golfer is about to hit the ball, the baseball player throws the ball, etc. For now, that's his thing & I'm perfectly happy with him being a sports-guy! :)

Preston is also majorly obsessed with Albert (University of FL's mascot), anything green, alligator/crocodile/dragon looking is "Albert". He says Albert about 100 times a day. He also says Aubree a lot too (pronounces the "r" and all)! He also calls her sister & he's obsessed with her too. They're pretty cute together - anyway... That's my Preston update, because it's been awhile. I'll have to do an Aubree one too, but another time.

Oh... his eyes are still that green/blue/hazel color (changes with his surrounding colors), he's about 27 pounds (only 6 1/2 lbs lighter than Aubree) & oh... I can't even think about his height, maybe a little over 2 1/2 feet! :) I'll have to update that later.

This week has been great, weather-wise; nice, breezy & moderately cool.

However, last week we had a bit of a heat-wave (which, in all honesty wasn't terrible because it only lasted a few days). On one of those hot days we ventured over to Manhattan for a little fun. Central Park & Riverside Park turns multiple playgrounds into little water parks during the summer, which is a really nice cool-down treat for the kiddos.

The water was COLD!! Aubree is pretty unaffected by water temperatures, whereas Preston is a bit more affected by the "hot" & "cold" differences, of almost everything. And... he'll let us know about it! ;)

So, we had a bit of fun & even Marian had her sweet little bathing suit on & was ready to go! :)

(This girl never questions whether or not she'll jump right in...)

 Preston is always a bit unsure of things (he has to think about if he likes this, or not):

 Aubree leaving Preston in the dust - poor little guy, he just can't keep up with "sister"

 And before he can think about it... she whizzes past him again... Hahaha!

 Preston telling Daddy that the ground is "hot"

 Seriously though.... How did Garrick & I get the whitest kids ever??

(they're like little vampire babies... Haha!)

 ....And how did this one get that beautiful golden tan look???

So, many of you may not know this - but we have moved to a new state; New Jersey. Garrick was offered a Senior Financial Analyst position for a big Fortune 200 company who's corporate headquarters are located in Northern New Jersey. The city we currently live in is about 15 miles from Manhattan & a rather quick 30-45 minute drive there. He started work this week & I have to say... It's been an adjustment; going from the student-life to the corporate-crunch. It was so nice to have so much time with Garrick over the last 22 months, or so - but, now we're back in the real world. We were just fortunate enough to take a mini-break from it.

It was very, very sad to leave Gainesville. It's not the actual town that I miss so much (although I do miss the southern-type, friendly, helpful locals who reside in North FL & of course, my favorite grocery store; Publix), but it's our friends that we miss most - the people who used to occupy Gainesville. Everyone is scattered across the country now, from Miami, to Jacksonville, to DC, to North Carolina, Philadelphia, New York, Michigan, Texas, Ohio & even as far west as Arizona. We knew this would be the outcome & I knew it would be difficult... so we're trying to adjust the best we can.

The kids seem to be adjusting pretty well too. They like our new suburban-type living situation, with many parks within walking distance, lake communities & a family-fun filled environment. We even bought a new SUV & a new modern, big-city living stroller, a Phil & Ted's double - which I think is pretty darn cool... especially because there are so many cute little areas to walk to + it makes our weekly trips to Manhattan all the more easy! We've visited Manhattan at least 4 times since our move, on 5/28. Which has been very nice... We love all the time spent with our family there & the kid's first cousin.

I have to say, my overall experience of living in New Jersey is that it probably gets a pretty bad rap - you always hear people talking badly about the state of New Jersey, when really... It is quite beautiful. Especially our town, the homes are just gorgeous - the natural landscape is so pretty & lush. Right now spring is in full-bloom, all the tree buds have formed & everything is so green & blossomed! NJ gets a lot of rain & the landscape shows it. There are also rolling hills, absolutely covered in thick trees - we see deers grazing along the side of the road, HUGE ground-hogs (like 30+ lbs) just laying out in the sun, chipmunks galore (they're sooooo cute!! They look like little hamsters playing around the yard areas), Canadian Geese just walking outside our windows (they're such family-oriented birds, they all seem to have 3-4 little babies & you always see the mom & the dad with them). We're really enjoying the cooler weather (windows are always opened), the cool June-breeze & nice warm sun (when it makes an appearance).

We're currently living in an apartment (something I wasn't really wanting), for the next 12 months. After a very short & spontaneous attempt to buy a home (2 1/2 weeks before our move up here), we decided we wanted to take our time to feel out the area a bit. We realized we were rushing things a bit, although we did find a few houses we would have liked to make an offer on, we didn't want to be in limbo for the month or so of our arrival. I feel good about our decision to wait & I'm excited to know that it's just temporary & come next May, we may have our own house!! :) For now, I really like our community. There are lots of great places for walking, a playground in our complex & our "backyard" which is a pretty big open grass-area that the kids love running around in, digging up rocks, throwing balls & riding tricycles. It'll also be fun to go out there when we get our first blanket of snow - we'll need to buy a little sleigh because there is a very slight hill decline, that the kids will enjoy sliding down... The idea of winter sounds fun right now - but from what I hear, the 6+ months of winter is not something too enjoyable. I am, however hoping for a "white Christmas" :), if I wake up to snow... I'll just feel the magic! Hahaha! But - that's a long way from now. For now, we're enjoying the nice cool end of spring, something I welcome after leaving 90+ degree FL, since Jan.

Ok - I had to finally make a post. It's a bit shabby - but present. To include a few pictures... Our town had a little festival the 2nd weekend we were here & of course, Garrick and I being the "festival-type" people we are, we had to attend! The festivals here are awesome... In addition to all the fair-type foods, they have the most amazing Italian food!! Yummm... Italian sausages, peppers, pizza, I love all the delicious Italian grub here! :)

Horse rides... Preston doesn't like it (thought we'd give him a second shot at riding horses - I think the attempt last fall ended in a similar way!)

 Pro...

 My little animal-lover! :)

 This kid is so goofy with his faces... He's seriously the cutest thing ever, I just can't seem to take a decent pic of him... Hahaha! He cracks me up! :)

 Aubree is the best big-sister!

 My mini-me.... (she's the best helper!)

 This was a really cool bear show we watched!

 Of course... haven't we seen pics like this before?? Aubree wouldn't leave until she got a train ride in! :)