12 days of Christmas

So, Christmas is in 11 days. Well, 10(or 9, or 8..) depending on when you read this. Cody only has 5 more days of school, and then he is off for 2 full weeks. I seriously dread those 2 weeks. Yes, it is christmas vacation, and there are a lot of things to do, but honestly...I would rather him be in school I think. Jacob just behaves so much better without Cody around. I mean, Jacob is still a typical 3 year old, but he is egged on by his bigger brother most of the time. *Sigh* 5 more good behavior days....Oh well. At least summer vacation is still 5 months away.

Santa Girl

I was taking pictures today of Natalie in her Santa outfit, and Cody kept calling her "Santa Girl". I thought it was so cute. Here are some of the pics.

We also attempted to take a christmas photo of the kids. Yeah....didn't go so well.....

Bike riding

Well, my baby is growing. Not my baby girl, but my big baby. Cody has requested the training wheels off his bike. :( He thinks he is hot stuff. Well, we took them off, and let him ride his bike in the front room on the carpet to start out with, in case he fell. 10 minutes later, he was ready to take it outside. He did awesome. Never fell. Can start off by himself, and use his brakes when he gets going too fast down our little hill.

Wow....long time no post....

We have had some serious bacterial/viral crap in our house for 2 weeks. Everyone was sick at some point or another, and all of us were sick at the same time at one point I think. And of course, everyone had to have something completely different from everyone else, because we all couldn't be sick with the same thing. That would be too easy. We had to bring in pretty much everything under the sun, and spread it around to everyone for well over 2 weeks. I think finally though, after lysoling everything that was hard every night for 3 straight days, the sickies are leaving the building!!!! WAHOOOO!!!! I promise I will post more tomorrow. And post more pictures. :)

8 TAG

RULES

1) Post rules on your blog

2) Answer the six "8" items

3) Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving them a comment



8 Favorite TV shows:

1. LOST
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. Private Practice
4. Eli Stone
5. Pushing Daisies
6. Ugly Betty
7. Numb3rs
8. .....um.....dunno

8 Things I did yesterday:

1. Made bread
2. put up vinyl lettering in Natalie's roon
3. Lowered Natalie's matress
4. Changed Cody's sheets
5. laundry
6. shopping to WalMart with the boys
7. watched Tinkerbell
8. digital scrapbooking

8 Things I look forward to:

1. A full night's sleep
2. A healthy household
3. Christmas morning
4. Seeing my sister
5. shopping with Natalie
6. Warm weather
7. No more diapers!!
8. A full night's sleep. :)

8 Favorite Restaurants:

1. Durango's
2. Olive Garden
3. Red Lobster
4. Del Taco
5. Applebee's
6. Cafe Rio
7. The Mayan
8. Chili's

8 Things on my Wish list:

1. A full night's sleep
2. no more diapers
3. a Dyson vacuum
4. drastic weight loss
5. my sister to live closer
6. a laptop
7. Canon Rebel XTi
8. Hubby to spend more time with the fam and less time with the compy.

8 People to TAG:

1. Beth
2. Caroline
3. Emily
4. Andrea
5. Sarah R.
6. Amanda
7. Vickie
8. .....feel free......


Have fun and Enjoy!!!

chunky baby in bath

I love chunky babies. I can't help but to pinch their cheeks and thighs. Kiss their cheeks and belly. Tickle, tickle, tickle. But, put that baby in a bathtub, and it is just heaven!

Contest!!!

I love contests, and I love gift cards, and I love books. This rocks!!


THE AMERICAN TITLE V CONTEST HAS BEGUN!The American Title contest is a joint project between Romantic Times Magazine and Dorchester Publishing. Each year, Dorchester selects a handful of submissions to compete for a publishing contract, and YOU, the readers, get to choose the winner.

To spread the word about the contest, finalist Jessica Darago (author of The Serpent's Tooth, a gothic historical), is raffling a $10 bookstore gift certificate to anyone who copies this message into his/her own blog. You don't have to vote for Jessica, or vote at all, to win. (But Jessica sure hopes you will!)

The winner may choose a gift certificate from Amazon, Powells, Fictionwise, or even iTunes (because audiobooks deserve love too).To enter, copy this message to your own blog and leave a link to your post at http://justjayj.livejournal.com/259245.html

To vote for Jessica, send a blank email to votes@romantictimes.com with "The Serpent's Tooth" in the subject line.Visit Jessica at http://justjayj.livejournal.com/ for more information and a link to read all of the American Title entries.

Halloween Pics

At Cody's school, they did a little halloween parade for the whole school. After lunch all of the kids got into their costumes, and paraded around the track twice. It was so cute to watch. Here are all of the Kindergarden teachers dressed up as hippies. Cody's teacher is on the far right in the orange jumpsuit.



Here is a picture of Cody in his shark costume. I told the boys that they could be whatever they wanted to be for halloween, as long as the costume was downstairs in the costume box. :) I don't see a point in spending $20+ on a cheap plastic costume that they wear for a few hours. I wait until halloween is over, and then I stock up for the next year. I usually buy a few costumes after halloween, so they have a fresh pick for the following year.



Here is Cody's class lining up waiting for the parade to start. Jacob (the elephant) wanted to be in the parade too. He just didn't want to wear his hood. Oh well. It was pretty hot out, and that costume was made for colder weather. Jacob was dying in it. He decided to be Buzz Lightyear when we went trick-or-treating that night.

Our pumpkins

Thanks to our neighbor, we had 3 pumpkins sitting on our porch. I was really dreading carving the pumpkins this year. I wasn't looking forward to cleaning up all of those stupid little seeds. I wasn't looking forward to washing orange goop off my hands for days. I wasn't looking forward to having droopy, disgusting looking, moldy pumpkins on my front porch. I was putting this off for as long as I possibly could. Cody kept asking when we were going to carve them, and I kept saying, "Not today, maybe another day." Well, since Halloween is on Friday, I couldn't put it off any longer. I got ready to carve the stupid things, when all of a sudden, I remember pictures of people painting the pumpkins. Lightbulb moment! I can do that! I even have paints already. :) So, I got the boys decked out in their painting clothes, and put the pumpkins on the driveway, and let them go to town with washable paint. :P

Even Natalie had fun, and helped with her pumpkin.

Piggie tails!!

I am so excited! I was looking at the top of Natalie's head today while I was putting on her hair bow, and thought to myself, "I wonder if she has enough hair for a pig tail yet." I found my trusty little box of teeny tiny elastics, and went to work. I gave her her favorite baby doll to chew on, and pulled her thin hair up on the top of her head. I have to say, those elastics are VERY stretchy! I kept pulling it around and around, and it took forever. It wasn't all the way tight, but I was getting bored. I think the results are rather cute, but I also think I will wait awhile to try again.

I love my family!!!

Seriously, I have the best sister-in-laws ever!! Not only do we all get along pretty well, they are sooooo generous!! Along with hitting new milestones, Natalie hit a growth spurt too, and grew out of all of her clothes. Not a big deal, I had a box waiting in the next size. Then Mother Nature came and threw us for a loop. It got really cold really fast, and Natalie had summer clothes. Big problem.

I went to Phoenix with the children this weekend for my nephew's baptism, and I came home with boxes and bags FULL of clothes for my baby girl. I will have to play fashion show this week with her, so I can get pics of all of the cute outfits that she now has. I am so excited to dress her up. I was literally giddy this morning trying to pick her outfit for the day. I know I am weird.

Thank you again so much Andrea, Camille, and Amy. I really do appreciate all that you have given me, and can't wait for Natalie to wear it all!!

Growing up

Well, Natalie has decided to grow up a little more this week, and hit 2 milestones. She can now clap her hands, and she army crawls. :( I don't understand why she just won't stay little for me. We even had a talk about it. She told me that all babies had to grow up, and I had to grow up too. Well, I don't want her to, so I hope she takes her time learning to crawl the correct way, and also walking. I don't mind her waiting a few months(okay...make that like 6) for her to walk.

A little bit of ME time.

I am so not good at keeping up with this. Last weekend I went on vacation. All by myself. Well...as by myself as I could get with a nursing baby. :) Natalie and I packed our bags and headed south. Where to you ask? Lake Havasu City, AZ. Now I know you are thinking "why would you want to go there?" Well, I will tell you. I grew up there. I lived there from the time I was 8 until I was 15. It is pretty much the "home" I remember. My mom still lives there, so I went to see my mom. My dad was there too. My very best friend from elementary/junior high got married. I just HAD to be there. It was fun. It was fun to get away, it was fun to see my parents, and it was fun to just chill with Natalie all weekend. Also, not having to cook was a bonus. My dad is the best cook!

One of the perks of a girl. :)

Pierced ears!! I went and got Natalie's ears pierced today. She hardly cried at all! She didn't like me holding her head still, but once it was over, and I turned her around, a few hugs later, and the tears stopped. The lady that pierced them was amazed.

Vacation Report

Well, I thought that it had been over a week, then I should probably tell you all about our little Stay-cation/vacation. We started out the week at home. Jared took the whole week off of work, and Cody was out of school for assesment testing. Mommy brain is setting in early, and I can't remember what we did on Monday, other than the boys spent the night at grandmas house. *oops* On Tuesday, we took the family boat out to the lake. Jared's parents came along, and we had a lot of fun. That evening we went camping out in Snow Canyon State Park. We had hot dogs and smores for dinner, and slept in a tent. We had some yummy eggs and bacon cooked over a fire for breakfast.

On Wednesday I did a lot of laundry, and we packed our bags and the van. Thurdsay morning, we headed to Salt Lake City. I met up with some of my awesome online friends in Ogden, and let the kiddos run wild. :) They had a blast.

Friday was spent at Utah's Hogle Zoo. We were pretty much there all day. We took a little break for lunch and a quick siesta, and then we went back to the zoo until they closed, and we left for dinner and bed.

Saturday we went to Discovery Gateway. It is a children's museum in SLC, and it is FANTASTIC!!!! We were there almost all day. We ate lunch in the mall courtyard, and went back to the museum. It is pretty pricey, but we found some BOGO coupons online, and someone in line ahead of us were gracious enough to give us 2 free tickets that they didn't need. In the end, we only had to buy one ticket!

On Sunday we went to my niece's baby blessing, and that was the whole reason we went to Salt Lake in the first place. :) After the blessing, we hung out at my sister's house for a bit, and then headed home.

Then Monday(Labor Day) was spent doing laundry again, and just vegging out before our lives had to start again.

Natalie's new skill

Bring on the ear plugs, this girl has a set of lungs!!!

Vacation cleanup

Well, it has been awhile since I have blogged, because we have been on vacation for the past week. Once I get the house back in order, and I have 2 hands to type with, I will report. :)

A season of change

Change #1: Cody is now a Kindergardener. :( He is growing up so fast. He was so excited to go to school. He goes all day. 9:00-3:30. He has an army backpack that he picked out himself, and a spiderman lunchbox. And, we can't forget the cool red shoes he picked out.


Change #2: Natalie is now 6 months old. :( Time is flying by so fast! She is helping it go a little slower by taking her time hitting milestones, and I really don't mind. She can roll over both directions, but she sometimes forgets that she can, so she will roll onto her belly, and then think she is stuck, and get mad and cry. She doesn't sit up by herself yet, or crawl yet, but that is just fine by me. She needs to stay my baby for just a little longer. I am in no hurry for her to grow up. She can take her sweet time in doing things. She is my cuddler, and I love it! She is probably a little bit old for the swing by now, but she still has fun in there, so who am I to kick her out of it. She especially likes to see if she can turn herself sideways. Silly girl. :)

Busy, Busy, Busy

That pretty much explains the past week at our house. It has been crazy busy over here. Jared's little sister got married today, so for the past 3-4 days, we have been helping out with last minute food preparations, and decorations, and directions, and...oh yeah....watching my kidlets. Well, it has been a fun week also. I am trying to do more crafts with the olders while Natalie sleeps after lunch. The afternoon just gets so long some days... This week we decided to do something easy. I noticed that Jacob will pay attention to crafts a lot longer if they involve food, so we made fruit loop necklaces. :)

Natalie had a big week this week too. She cut her second tooth on Thursday, and she also managed to finally get her chubby little legs up to her mouth to suck on her toes. It is tooooooo cute! She is so proud of herself. :)

Her most favorite thing in the whole world though, is to attack Cody's face. Both of them just start cracking up at each other every time they play like that. It is so fun to hear.

We have a TOOTH!!

Natalie has a tooth anyway. It popped it's way through last night, and I found her first pearly white this morning as she was eating....let the biting begin. :( Natalie has also started eating baby food. She kept grabbing at my plate, so I figured she was ready to eat.

Last Thursday Cody was able to participate in his first ever parade. He rode on the float for our ward primary in the Pioneer Day Parade. Sorry the pics aren't any closer, but I was taking them one handed and holding Natalie at the same time. She kept grabbing the camera too, so half of the decent ones came out blurry because she pulled it away. Cody is the second one away from the big white sign. He is wearing the black hat.

A SNAKE!!!!

A foam snake that is. :) Today yielded itself to another craft project. I found the idea here. I got to work making the complicated blowing contraption while the boys were wrestling in the front room. I couldn't for the life of me find any rubber bands at my house, so I improvised with string. It worked ok, but rubber bands would be better. Anyway, Cody loved it. Jacob, not so much. I think Jacob is a little too young to understand the concept of not sucking into the bottle. He inhaled a lot of foam bubbles. :( Anyway, here are some pictures of our fun today.

Here Fishy, Fishy

Well, I got creative today and decided to let the boys try a craft project while Natalie was sleeping. I got the idea from here. The boys seemed to enjoy it. Didn't take up as much time as I had hoped, but that is okay. My boys aren't big on coloring, and that is just fine with me.

One Week Later

Well, I had every intention on writing every Tuesday, but that didn't seem to happen. We had a wonderful 4th of July up in Parowan with my parents and some of my siblings. It is so fun to get together (most of the time :P ). We set off fireworks in the middle of the street, and the kids thought it was the best thing. Granted, most of my nieces and nephews are from Arizona, where it is illegal to buy fireworks, and set them off yourself, but it was fun nonetheless.

We also had the opportunity to get our family pictures taken finally. My sister-in-law is a budding photographer (Andrea Whittle Photography), and she was excellent! Check out her blog in the next few days for some of our pics. The boys were mainly good, but they were goofballs at the same time. Only one minor accident, and everyone involved was satisfied with a cookie and a bandaid. :)

My New Blog

Well, we will see how long I keep this up. :) I am creating this blog for all of our family and friends to be able to share with us the things that our family does. Since most of our family don't live near us, I thought this would be a good idea. Also, I love showing off my kidlets, so what better place to do it right?