Sam - Rachel - Jett - Pepper

furture changes....

2012-01-09T23:27:00.003-07:00

Well I was going to update tonight. I have tons to update with lots of fun pictures. We have done A LOT since Thanksgiving. But as I went to get the SD card out of the camera to download all the pictures I learned that it must have been left in the laptop that is in Ohio with Sam until Feb 2nd. So sorry no pictures.
I guess I can update briefly of upcoming plans....the future has no pictures yet. So here goes a boring post.
We have had a major change of plans come up in our near future. Long term plans are all the same for school and career-wise. It's all just been pushed back a year. Sam is currently in Ohio for a month to reclass and learn super skills as a masonry specialist for his guard unit. Then he will dive back into this semester (being 4 weeks behind) and hopefully survive. This would have been his last semester here at SUU so we don't want to miss this semester. The main class he has left is only offered Spring semester. It would really be annoying to not complete it. In June he is deploying to Afganistan for a year. The unit he is attatched to is a bunch of builders....carpenters, plumbers, electricians and masons.
I think I've been pretty optimistic about everything so far. Sam was gone for 5 months once before and I survived. It wasn't always easy but it came and went. But then last week hit....and it hit hard. Jett was so little last time Sam left and he was barely even crawling...that was easy. Two toddlers are a completely different story. I know there are others who have it way worse than I do (atleast I don't have the financial stress of real single mom's) but this is my blog and I get to complain about my own problems here. It is extremely emotionally draining. I think my kids only get sick when Sam is gone. I've only ever been to the ER when Sam is away (no, no one went to the ER this week) but Pepper has major blistery rashes all over with another ear infection and wont sleep. Jett destroyed the post office. The kids wont sleep their normal schedules! We've been all over traveling over the holidays so they started out pretty messed up.

High notes:
-Our house has gotten extremely organized and tity! What else do I do when I don't have anyone to play cards with after the kids go to bed?
-I have awesome neighbors and friends who watch my sleeping kids so I can run more errunds to places I dread taking the kids to (deseret book....I was going crazy without a 2012 calender).
-Other than cleaning.....I have more time to read without feeling like I'm ignoring my husband.
-I do have really awesome kids when they aren't throwing tantrums.
-I survived church with both kids. Thanks once again to awesome neighbors who bring toys for their kid and Jett ends up stealing them through all of sacrament meeting. Pepper is now the difficult one to keep quiet and contained. 2 more months until both kids are in nursery!!!!!
-I weirdly get more sleep cause I don't stay up another hour talking to my husband after we go to bed.

Things really will be fine around here. I just had some huge doubts last week that I wasn't cut out for this but this week has definatly improved. Yes, this week consists of today, Monday. But we had a really good day so I can't complain.

Back to the details of Sam's new unit. He now will have his monthly drills out in Vernal (basically the neighbor (rival) town of where I grew up). So I'm excited to actually go see some old friends. And then when he leaves for good, I have plans of visiting my sister in New York (A LOT) and my Georgia cousins (I've always wanted to go there), probably my brother in Minnesota and hey maybe even my other brother in California again. Any one else who wants a visit and wants to host me and my two crazy kids....let me know. Or you can come to us. We have lots time!

One more thing....the kids have shown some funny signs of realizing that their Daddy is gone. Each morning Jett asks if Daddy is slill sleeping. Or asks if Daddy is going to join us for prayer. Usually after church I will go get Jett from nursery and then Jett runs into the Elders quorum room to find Sam. He's the Elders quorum pres. so he is usually still in there wrapping up business. On Sunday as we were leaving church Jett stopped and said we had forgotten daddy and we couldn't leave with out him.
Pepper is obviously too young to talk but she will now go to any male she sees. I think she feels the void too.

San Francisco

2011-12-01T22:28:00.002-07:00

This year we spent Thanksgiving at my brother's house in San Francisco, CA. It was so much fun and we are so glad we went.

At first we had planned on just driving but i looked up flights just to see what it would cost and SCORE! Spirit airlines is super cheap! I read tons of reviews about the company cause it was seriously so ridiculously cheap that we thought it was a scam. Reviews were pretty bad. Everyone reported dirty planes, no in flight movies, no complementary drinks, tight seating, onery flight attendants, no costomer service, they charge for carry on luggage.....everything. Well at $80 a person (Pepper was free), 1.5 hours rather than a 12 hour drive each way.....we decided to try it out. Yes the plane was a bit grungy, we were too busy entertaining 2 kids to care if there was a movie playing, we brought empty sippy cups through security and filled them up after (really it was only 1.5 hours....anyone can survive that long with out a drink), any flight is tight if you're tall...i'm not so it didn't bother me, all the spirit airlines employees were extremely nice and didn't get mad at me for getting out of my seat before the seatbelt light was turned off when they saw that pepper had poop seeping through 3 different areas on her body...she even opened the bathroom door and pulled down the changing table for me. I'm guessing most of the complaining reviews of bad costomer service didn't share the full story of why and how they ticked off the flight attentant. If you read the website all the "small print" and extra fees are plainly stated. They checked 2 car seats and the stroller for free and we only took carry ons. Even if we had paid for checked luggage it wasn't any different than any other airline company now days.

OK....i'll stop....what i'm getting at is that if you need cheap airfare. Spirit airlines is not a bad deal!

This was Pepper's first flight. Weird since Jett had been on 5 separte flights before he was a year old. I've decided that she is the absolute worst age to fly with. Jett is old enough to listen most of the time and entertain himself when needed. Infact Jett was awesome!!! Pepper on the other hand....both flights there and back were during night or right smack in the middle of a crucial nap time, and she made sure we knew it! I kept telling myself, "as long as we made it in the air they couldn't kick us off the plane." (I read way to many news reports before we left of families getting kicked off flights cause their kids were too loud. There was even a whole Dr.Phil show on it recently.)
She had a couple episodes of crying but not to awful....luckily she has a pretty soft mellow cry.

We've been talking about planes and watching any and every movie with a plane in it for weeks to get Jett excited....when we got there and were watching the other planes take off....he didn't really care much. Then as we started boarding and walking through the long tunnel he freaked out and kept yelling that he wanted to go home. :( On the way back we learned that all he needed was a little toy Francesco Bernoulli from Cars2 and he was the best behaved little person ever!!!

Now that we made it there....we visited my brother's work. He works for a company called Zynga. Basically they make all the games for facebook; farmville, castleville, cityville, (all the villes), mafia wars, words with friends, treasure isle. The list goes on and on.....all those annoying games that 60 million users are addicted to EVERY SINGLE DAY. Ya he works there and is part of the whole business. I did sign a paper upon entering this building that I wouldn't disclose any information that I witnessed while in the building, but anything i've said can also be found on wikipedia so it's no secret. I will admit though that the company has a pretty impressive building. He showed us around and first we went to the "healthy kitchen" full of yogurts and nuts and fruit. Then we went to the candy kitchen....yes, this is unlimited free candy and snacks and pop and anything else you can think of. Shockingly though....I don't remember seeing any abnormally over weight people working there. We also stayed for lunch. They are all fed real food for free too! and it was good! Employees also get free massages and such too....unfortunately not visitors. :)
We also played at the free arcade area with him for a little bit. I'm really not sure when these people work....but it must be working out for them.

Then we left Daniel to try doing some of the work that needed done and we went on a tourist trip. Sam had never been to Frisco so there was much to show him. I'm pretty sure Sam thought i was way over exagerating all the hills in San Francisco. I personally don't think that is possible.

First stop....crazy Lombard street. The prius (4th car from the bottom behind the four door truck) is Sam and my dad.

Down by the piers....

Looking at the sea lions on pier 39....There weren't very many out. I remember coming here years ago and every single one of those plat forms were covered with sea lions.

Alcatraz.....

Crossing the golden gate bridge....just to say we did.

On the other side of the Bay.

Next day was Thanksgiving....which means Turkey Bowl.

We then drove to my cousins house in San Jose. Some how i left my camera and I dont have a single picture of Thanksgiving dinner. But it was delicious!

Each morning the kids would wake up (they do this at home too) and have their morning ritual of pretending like they are starved as they down the whole sippy cup of milk.

Friday we headed back to the piers to take the kids to see everything. We ate lunch at this yummy little place on pier 39.

Then walked around to see the sea lions again.

sea lion fur and skull....

This is looking at the sea lions from pier 41. Pepper was being so stinking cute.

Jett found these train tracks and could have spent all day there and been completely satisfied with the whole trip.

Then we took the ferry back to Alameda (where Daniel lives). Jett loved being on a boat. When we got back Grandma asked him if he rode on the water and he responded, "no grandma, the boat rode on the water. no me."

Saturday we rented a car and drove to Modesto to meet up with a bunch of my mom's aunts and cousins. My mom grew up in Southern Cali so there were lots of people that still live in Cali. I havn't seen most of these people for about 10 years and many of them i had never met.

Jett and Oakley loved playing together....most of the time.

Then we flew home and that was that!

Las Vegas Ragnar!!!

2011-10-26T00:25:00.000-06:00

We spent this past weekend down in Vegas for the Ragnar. For those of you not familiar with Ragnar....it's a team relay race. Twelve guys alternate running continually all day and all night and then more the next day. There are 15 different Ragnar courses across the country and the they all vary slightly in total distance but they are all around 200 miles. The Vegas one happens to be 188 miles. Each runner does 3 legs and in the end it somehow is a fun experience. It can be as competitive or as laid back as you want. Some teams practically walk it and that's ok....There are also ultra teams with only 6 guys so they all run double and if you do the math that is more than a full marathon each! it's crazy! Any way.....

Most of his team was made up of other guys in his guard unit. They have been gearing up for this race for a few months and one of the guys had to drop out the week of the race....but they were able to recruit the last guy two days before the race. Needless to say i was a little nervous for the teams success. Turns out that they did AWESOME!!!! The results were just posted on the Ragnar website and their total time was 27 hours exactly. There were only 14 teams that finished faster than them and they placed 7th in their division. That is out of 478 teams! Way to go team 242.....12 SORE IDIOTS!

Each team also has to provide 3 volunteers to work at exchange zones, water stations, or where ever else they needed human labor. I signed up for a 10:00pm - 2:00am shift at exchange 22. I thought it would be easiest to leave the kids with a friend while they just slept in the hotel rather than try to entertain 2 small kids in las vegas (It's not exactly known for it's kid friendly envirement and honest people and good morals).
Two days before i got an e-mail that my shift had been changed to 11:30pm - 4:15am.....Jett was a bit of a pain and didn't fall asleep until 10:45. Just in time for me to leave.
I got absolutely NO sleep after getting back to the hotel at 5:00am and Jett waking up bright and early at 6:45. Pepper puked in her pack n play that night.

The things i do for a couple free t-shirts!

Well when Alexa and the kids and I went down to the lobby area for breakfast she got a text that the guys were way ahead of schedule and that we should probably head to the finish line if we wanted to be there when they crossed. Sam was runner 12 so he was the final runner. So we rushed to the park and we were a little too early. Good thing this park was freaking awesome! There was the best play ground equipment and sand pit all fenced in with large shady trees just outside the little fence. Jett played in there for hours until it was time to go and him and pepper got put into the stroller and both crashed before we even made it to the car (since we got there so early we had great parking that was really close to where we were at....they were exhausted) any how....

These pictures are not in any particular order....

This was my exchange zone....there were supposed to be two other volunteers show up for that shift but they didn't so i ran the entire thing by myself.....all but 16 teams came through while i was there. thats 462 teams....
funny side note: those of you roosevelt people....do you remember Mr. Quarez from 7th grade? He was one of the runners that came through my exchange. I also ran into another friend from Vernal. Small world!

Us and Van 1 waiting at the finish line for Sam to come in. Everyone is a little exhausted....

This picture is the only proof i was even there....

Pepper really liked this guys lemon flavored popcorn....

Jett found some friends and was happily playing with all the leaves.....

jett looking through the fence....

The team all joins the final runner (Sam) to cross the finish line together!

Then I just barely stole all of these off various teammates facebook pages....Sam was in Van 2 and here is an assortment of pictures through out their day....

I got so into the race that the next day i felt like i should be sore too....i didn't run at all but i felt like i had. I want to run the Wasatch Back race this next June....I just need to find a team with an open spot....so let me know if you have an opening. With only 1061 teams registered there is bound to someone who needs another runner!

Pepper had a birthday!

2011-10-01T15:10:00.004-06:00

Pepper turned ONE yesterday! We were originally planning on driving up north for a couple soccer games scheduled this weekend. They both got canceled so we decided to plan a quick last minute party for this little lady. Since it is conference weekend....most of our friends are out of town but that didn't stop us.

We were trying to entertain kids while the food was still cooking....

Then we realized that the food was taking forever so we did things a little backwards.
first presents....

When i asked jett what he wanted to get pep for her birthday he responded saying "something yellow." He gave her the same thing he got for his first birthday. Little tablets that change the bath water colors. And he put it in a yellow bag. Only problem is that he thinks it's for him.

I've been resisting for weeks not putting these little boots on her before her birthday.....

Time for cake! I'm so sick of cake so i tried something a little different. I made cake shooters with layered cake crumbs and cheesecake filling in small mason jars. I will be trying this again with different flavors. I didn't get a single picture of them.

Pepper still got her own cupcake and whip cream.

She got so mad when we lit the candle and didn't give it to her right away. This girl loves her food and is not very patient.

What would we do with out brothers help?

Then dinner was finally ready. Sam did a great job BBQ-ing chicken drumsticks and dutch oven potatoes loaded with bacon, onions and cheese!

Note to self.....DON'T TAKE YOUR KID TO THE DOCTOR TO GET THEIR ONE YEAR OLD SHOTS THE DAY OF THEIR PARTY. She was so sad and her poor little thighs must have been so sore. Also....I thought I had been doing a great job plumping her up. She didn't gain much weight between her 6 and 9 month appointments (less than a pound and dropped from 85% to 63% then down to 21%) so i've been determined to fatten her up for her 12 month appointment. She did gain 2 pounds but is now in the 19%. She is chunky and full of rolls....just a feather weight. O well she's healthy and happy.

Jenna's shower....

2011-10-01T15:10:00.003-06:00

My friend Rachel and I threw a little baby shower for our friend Jenna. I thought it turned out fairly well. We had a couple things not work out and last minute we had to just deal with it but i thought it was fun.

It was just a traditional shower with a couple games, food, and gifts.
Here are the guests analizing diapers to guess what candy bar is melted in each one. We learned a few ways how not to melt a candy bar in the microwave.
1- diaper will catch fire in the microwave.
2- candy bars will burn and start smoking very heavily in microwave (and fill your house will burnt smelling smoke moments before the party starts.....and will ruin the bowl holding chocolate.
3- it is worth watching people put a nasty looking diaper in their face.

We also had our guest guess what each baby food flavor was.....this can also be quite nasty. We spared our guests and didn't force them to try the baby meats.

There was one more game but since i was running it there are no pictures.

We kept the food pretty simple....just some pasta salad, fruit and water/juice. But I really wanted to show off the cute little baby carriage we made out of a watermelon. We found out at the last minute that one of the spouts to the drink things was broken so that was a bit of a bummer but o well.

Then the whole point of a shower....for the mom to recieve gifts! Here is Jenna....

Shannon made this darling diaper bike!

And that's about it!

daily activities....

2011-10-01T15:10:00.000-06:00

Here are a ton of pictures from the past couple months. There isn't any particular order to any of it. Just a bunch of funny moments that i get to share with these 2 little kids.

Jett now likes to help feed pepper....there is a funny video of his helpfulness at it's best. hopefully i'll be able to upload it.

Kayden comes over to play sometimes. He is the sweetest little guy! Him and pepper are great at sharing gold fish and throwing them on the ground together and stepping on every single one to make sure the crumbs get smaller and smaller!

Jett and Kayden know how to use the brooms....

Jett LOVES to color with chalk! he is even improving from little scratch marks to real shapes. Pepper also loves chalk....but she likes to eat it.

side note: It was funny looking at these pictures from last month. Pepper has her binky in....she has now been binky free for a few weeks! It took a couple nights with a couple hours of crying but now it's over. I wasn't sure if i was going to traumatize her to much for taking away her binky and starting to ween her in the same week. She actually really likes whole milk and can hold her own sippy cup better than jett did at 18 months. Jett always had to have a sippy cup with a straw cause he refused to tilt the cup. Pepper was a pro right from the start. Anyways she is down to only a morning and night nursing and that's going to be done away with shortly.

he is always covered in chalk these days.

We still love to go swimming lots but our 6 month pass is about to run out. :(

Pepper sits so funny in her high chair. She always has one of her legs up on the tray. We've decided that it keeps her from slumping and sliding down low.....and it's cute!

Pep has the best time playing when jett is napping. They havn't been napping at the same time for several weeks....I'm going crazy! But she likes time to herself with out jett taking all the toys from her and she is so stinking happy all the time!

i love that she is sitting indian style here.....she moved the reciept right in the way when i went to take the picture and then the camera battery died so i couldn't redo it. but it's still darling!

Sam's new bike was supposed to be here this weekend (we ordered it from germany over a month ago but thanks to hurricanes and other unplanned events it has been delayed getting here) but it's now made it to salt lake and the company cant deliver it until monday so we are still waiting. Sam borrowed a friends helmet just incase it got here early so he could go ride around. His helmet is also still in the process of being shipped seperate from the bike. Sam is so stoked about this bike he may even do his very first blog post when it gets here.
Even without a bike....the kids loved playing with the helmet.

Where's pepper? I couldn't find her for a few moments one day after i had left the room to take care of jett and then i heard little noises coming from the corner under her high chair. I hadn't cleaned up after her breakfast yet and she found a lone missing waffle and was happily devouring it. This girl LOVES waffles. We got a new waffle maker a couple months ago and I'm not sure how long sam will endure waffles 3 times a week, but it's so easy and fast and both kids eat them so why not? Pepper will eat an entire waffle herself and jett usually will too as long as it has whip cream on it! She doesn't know what she is missing out on yet.

Another trick to getting jett to eat is to tell him he can eat outside. He hasn't figured out it's the same stuff so dont tell him. Also if i can figure out a way to make his food into anything with wheels or a train.....he will also eat it without thinking twice. This day he got to choose his own special ice cream cause he was so good at the library. (we havn't shown our faces at the city library for several months since prior incidents occured.....but i decided to try again and he lasted a few minutes during story time which was vast improvement!!!)

Jett likes to play in the rain. Pepper and I like to watch him play in the rain.

More pictures of jett drawing. We aquired a big white board from a friend last week. I dont really have anywhere to use it but she was DI-ing it anyway so we took it. Jett got to choose his own new markers (he chose the only package that had a yellow one in it....he loves yellow). He has been using them every day since. Thanks Jenna!

He has also discovered that his cars can get going pretty fast down our slanted driveway.

and he is probably telling pepper to back off in this one....

Pepper can now stand on her own....and walk holding on to things. She's so happy!

the black eye has set in....

2011-08-07T22:36:00.001-06:00

After I looked back at those pictures I took a couple days after Jett got his stitches....they look pretty lame now that he has his awesome black eye!

I ended up taking a couple pictures of Jett where he fell into the road. The spots aren't very dark since it rained a bunch early this week but they are still visible so I took some anyhow. His face hit the pavement where the rocks are really jagged.....and then when the blood was dripping down his face it splattered on the gutter part. It's in the proccess of getting re-paved so there are lots of loose sharp rocks all over. Not ideal for fearless little boys to play on (not that I encourage him to play in the road....it just sort of happens).

One morning this week....Pepper is so dang cute! She's such a sweet and fun little girl

My neighbor suggested we put Jett's mowhawk in ponytails....so we did.

Then that day we decided to have a drive in movie. I was in charge of date night this week so Jett and I spent a couple hours making a car for him. He didn't get to stay up with us. He doesn't know what he misses out on after he goes to bed so don't tell him.

I've realized I have some perfectionist issues in me. I've known this for a long time. I always have had a hard time delegating anything in life cause I want it done my way....but now that I'm starting to do little projects with him that it might be worse than I thought. It was his car after all and I didn't want him to mess it up or paint it wrong. I gave him his own board to keep him happy but I didn't want him to mess up his sweet cardboard box car! As if it mattered. I have got to get over that.

We watched a movie in the backyard. Notice that our airmattress even has wheels!

This morning Jett and pepper were being funny....

"do again!"

"pep jump!"
"be careful"

It's a shocker he only has one black eye!

first stitches....

2011-08-03T18:25:00.003-06:00

Jett got his first 3 stitches on monday. He was riding our neighbors little ride on toy and it toppled off the curb onto the pavement. I was only about 20 ft away from him but there was a tree between us so I didn't actually see what happened. He was crying (which is nothing out of the ordinary) i started walking toward him when I noticed that half his face and shoulder was covered in blood. We decided to take him to the instacare and get it looked at. Three stitches later and lots of screaming (it took 4 of us to hold him down) he is now healing super fast! I didn't take any pictures before and two days later it doesn't even look that bad. I also meant to take a picture of the sidewalk and pavement where he fell. There was blood splattered all over but it rained before i got around to it and now it just looks like an oil spill. Yesterday he had to have a doctor ordered movie day with no running around. I guess they wanted to keep his blood from pumping to hard. That was a joke!

But now he is doing just fine. A lovely black eye is quickly setting it and his eye is a little swollen. We've already learned that he scars like his dad (it doesn't take much) so i'm expecting nothing less than an awesome battle wound for the rest of his life. He wakes up every morning or from his nap and tells me "the road hurt my face"

Pepper wanted to be part of the post too! She is officially a master crawler. Took her a lot longer than jett but it was nice to only have 1 mobile child. She is such an easy going little girl and sleeps a ton! Yes....I am jealous of her! I crave sleep.

update overload....

2011-07-01T15:35:00.000-06:00

we've been busy since i last posted. my sister and her little family visited for about a month so we did all sorts of fun things.....truth is i'm actually missing a bunch of pictures but if i wait til i get those it will be a few more months. Sam was in the Dominican Republic for most of this so that is why there is no sign of him anywhere. Maybe i'll post some of his cool pictures later....he has awesome pictures and fun stories from down there.

these aren't in any order so here goes....

Pepper just being cute

snow on our anniversary.....never would have guessed that on our deathly hot May wedding day in Mesa, AZ

jett and daddy had matching mustaches.....

once again.....pepper just being cute

jett's friends....eating teddy grahams

playing minute to win it....

pepper watching daddy and jett mow the lawn....

jett playing with his truck in the gutter....he loves it when there is water running down the street!

and they were doing construction on our street....BEST FREE LIVE ENTERTAINMENT EVER!

water play group

kylie and pepper

pepper now gets the high chair....jett is finally letting someone else use it....he doesn't even use it anymore but he doesn't want anyone else in it either....

wrestling mr sock monkey....

finger painting....

messy hands....

messy trucks....

bath time with cousins.....

leatherbys....

uncle gene's awesome train set....

we made bug bows.....

sprinklers....

pepper got to hang out in the stroller.....(i finally got my awesome double stroller that i've been searching for! if you've never seen the phil and teds strollers....you should check them out! if you're not willing to dish out the money you have to be really patient to find them on craigslist....they're pretty rare! But it can be done! i could go on and on about how much i love this stroller but i'll stop)

gateway splash pad.....

i love that lexi is getting attacked in this picture!

we hiked the Y one morning....pepper is getting heavy!

more minute to win it games....

fun with the grandparents....

2011-04-24T21:48:00.001-06:00

The weather was so nice last weekend while sam was at drill. We just hung around my parents house most of the day....except for the trip to sams club and the mall for pepper's 6 month pictures.

Jett helped grampa mow the lawn and plant roses. Pepper just watched and did her best job of just sitting and looking cute.

Then Jett discovered he had some sort of green feet disease.

this kid has the fattest little feet! and i promise i rotated this picture. i even went back tried to redo it but it still wont rotate.

then he got over the worry of his green feet and followed grampa around with 'his lawn mower'

when we got inside it was time for more dangerous work that required a hard hat.....

Pepper wanted to be included...

safety first!

after we got back from taking pictures i wanted to take a couple of the kids together. who knew that would be so difficult. sadly.....this is the best one i got and neither are looking at me.

there was A LOT of this.....

and this.....

and this too!
poor little girl

We always play cards/games when we are at my parents house. My favorite. Pepper likes to win so i let her be on my team!

This weekend sam's parents came to visit. Saturday we went swimming, dyed easter eggs, went out to dinner then watched Tangled.

and that's that!

our daily life this week

2011-04-04T00:17:00.000-06:00

now that we actually have a new computer and real internet access (no more stealing wi-fi) i guess i dont have my big excuse to not update. it may or may not improve....

i've been avoiding solid foods and i dont see it getting much better soon. this was the hardest part of jett's first year to me. i dreaded feeding times for months. (just solids - they have both been super good with breastfeeding)

so far we've tried rice cereal, bananas, sweet potatoes and pears.....she hates them all!

jett comes up with the funniest games, but he always seems to be enjoying himself!

we LOVE our new aquatic center! we have gone several times in the past couple weeks.

some nights pepper stays up with us and watches us play cards or whatever game we decide to play that night.

one day last week it randomly started snowing and it was the perfect snow for sno cones....so we collected some in a bowl and made some really strong concentrated black cherry kool-aid syrup stuff for sno cones! for those of you who dont know.....i am a self appointed sno cone expert! i worked at one of those shacks for 3 summers in high school.

jett loved it

pepper and me right before church. she's SO SMILEY these days!

pepper and this little girl, brynli, are only 2 days apart.....she comes to play sometimes. (more so for the moms to chit chat.....i dont think they know eachother exist)

good thing i got her dressed just in time for.....

......this! YUCK....it was running down her feet

this past week we had BEAUTIFUL weather! we spent tons of time outside playing and each of us got some lovely sunburned rosey cheeks

then sunday morning we woke up to more snow

general conference weekend.....we listened to as much as possible with these two little rugrats.
we were trying to listen. jett doesn't have a volume button and pepper is just so cute and distracting. they both took a nap around 11:00 and slept through the whole between part. we thought we were going to listen to more of the second session, but as soon as they had the opening prayer they both woke up and were hungary. good thing it's all printed out in writing soon.

after it was over we made a fort. jett thought that was pretty cool.

until he wrecked it.....

bath time.....this kid loves water....and pepper is so mesmorized by him that she lets him splash her and doesn't even make a peep.

jett is also obsessed with the potty lately. i'm in no rush for this next step but he thinks he needs to go potty quite regularly. i let him sit on the potty and give him an M&M when he does pee in it. today he thought pepper needed to use the potty....so she sat on it too!

side note: jett convinced some nursery teachers that he was potty trained and needed to use the potty at church. TWICE....once during the week at institute so it was just some single girls that volunteer each week and once during church when it wasn't the regular nursery leaders.

but he comes and tells me that he has to go potty and he really does go....i dont know what to do next

one last picture of this crazy kid.....

Jett had a birthday!

2011-03-23T13:51:00.000-06:00

first off....this doesn't have much to do with this post but i love sneaking in jett's room after he's asleep just to see where he ended up dozing off. sometimes if i need to put something away in his closet or whatever....i cant cause he fell asleep right in front of the door. sometimes i find him with his blankets in the closet. sometimes it's under the ottomans that are currently being stored in his room. it's pretty funny now that he can get out of bed so easily. Or he just stays in bed and has a bunch of cars and trucks all over in his covers but whatever! he is such a great napper and sleeper that it doesn't really matter as long as he is happy when he wakes up.

side note: i got some new material to make him a blanket with cars/trucks/busses/motorcycles all over it but haven't had the time lately to do anything other than wash it. so he's still using his rocket ship bedding but he is slowly tearing off pieces of the rocket ship on the pillowcase....why do i even make matching things for him? he doesn't care

this winter has been fun. we get dumped with a mini blizzard and get several inches of snow and cant even make it up our drive way then the next day it's 60 degrees again! it's fabulous really. we get the fun snow (as long as we dont have to drive anywhere) and the next day we get to go outside for a walk!

Jett's birthday was pretty uneventful. We went out to Roosevelt for my friends wedding that friday and stayed til sunday (which was jett's birthday) attended my old home ward that I grew up in (which was super fun seeing peoples reactions when they realized who I was! And that I have 2 kids. I havn't been out there much since I moved away almost 6 years ago). The news said there was supposed to be a huge storm hitting central Utah so we decided not to stay for all of church and hit the road before we got stuck in the middle of no where....there is plenty of open space between duchesne, price, emery, richfield and beaver to get stranded.
we made it with out a drop of snow or rain and it hit hard that night and following day....
anyhow...so we spent Jett's birthday in the car....but we let him have some ice cream before bed.

i wanted to take some pictures of jett on his official birthday with his sister but he is impossible to take a picture of without him trying to terrorize pepper. I have several more and each one he is doing something random to her with his arms or legs.....

and what happens when i move? Oh....she falls!

well little does he know that sister gets to stay up later with good behaivor!

i saw these cool garland decorations on studio5 one day and i've been waiting for an excuse to try making them. I love the way it turned out and it was the easiest thing ever. I just punched out several hundred circles and sewed them together. took about a total of maybe 30 minutes.
and Jett thought it was cool too!

showing off his big 2 year old muscles!....and off to bed.

monday is when we had the real party. we had some friends over and he got spoiled!

we got him his first bike!

this kid loves to blow out fire....he tries to blow out anything with a flame. so imagine his excitement when we lit candles just to blow them out!

bowling set!
side note: the pins have turned into baseball bats....

this rug has been hiding in my closet for some time now....and it was a hit!

now that he's 2 he gets to have honey so here is his first peanut butter and honey sandwich.

see what i mean....blizzard one day and the next it all melts we get to play outside without a coat!

last thing....when anyone asks Jett how old he is. he responds very confidently that he is SIX! i didn't even know he knew six was a number so i was impressed and havn't corrected him once.

2011-02-13T23:46:00.000-07:00

jett and pepper already love to wrestle....this may have been staged, but here is to the future!

pepper's hair is now long enough for 2 piggy tails! and she loves to bite her bottom lip....who knows what jett is doing in the background? actually he is mad cause he thinks he is the only one who should be allowed to sit in the bumbo

jett pointing out her new pig tails

tummy time! she started rolling over last week

and she does this awesome trick....

jett reading to pepper....

i think she may be more interested in him.....she loves to just watch him all day long!

jett gives horse back rides....

this was the funniest thing. today after church i wanted to take a picture of the kids in their matching dress and tie that i made this week. well everytime we would prop her up he would push her over. the first time he did it we made the mistake of laughing....so he thought he was so funny and wouldn't stop. pepper obviously didn't think it was so funny!

each night before bed time jett always finds someway to stall....tonight it was my church shoes that i left out. he was walking all over the kitchen cause they are loud on the hard floor. silly boy!

in other news of our week....it was a long one! pepper stayed up screaming one night. she screamed louder when i would try to hold her. we think she could smell me and was hungry but couldn't breathe so she couldn't eat. sam ended up taking her. every time she would start to calm down he would try to sit down and the gravity meter would kick in and she would start screaming again. he ended up holding her ALL NIGHT!
in the morning i called the doctor. luckily i was able to get her in at 9:50. (i absolutely love my pediatrician but so do a lot of others. he is always full. it's hard to get in to see him last minute. i usually end up with one of he other dotors in his office. this time i lucked out) well i took her in and turns out she has an ear infection and rsv and pneumonia (sp?) so we spent the rest of that morning/afternoon at the hospital doing x-rays and getting her all suctioned out several times. and continued to take her to the hospital each night before bed to get suctioned out.
if i had known how long we were going to be there i would have taken jett to a friends house. he was all over the place and hyper and crazy....then it was way past nap time and he was a little monster! and he is getting so fast.
she is ok....the pneumonia hadn't progressed to badly so she's doing great now. she eats and sleeps again...now the rest of us can get some sleep again too!
also by having to take her to the doctor we learned that she is still a big fatty! not that we couldn't tell on our own. on wednesday she weighed in at 15 lbs 5 oz and friday she was 15 lbs 10 oz....she is 4 months old and barely fitting into 3-6 month clothes. i wish i could compare jetts stats but he didn't go to the doctor between 7 weeks and 6 months....thats while we were in DC
i love fat babies.

ensign....

2011-02-01T23:28:00.000-07:00

Jett's vocabulary is exploding like crazy lately....although he mixes things up all the time it's so cute and fun when he does.

yesterday jett saw the newest ensign magazine sitting on the table and he kept saying "tutle! tutle! tutle!" which is sort of how he says pronounces "turtle". It took me a moment to figure out what he was talking about since there isn't a single animal anywhere in the background. Then he pointed at the one mans hat thing and said it again. HAHA! he thinks it's a turtle on his head! silly boy....

2011-01-23T17:33:00.000-07:00

hair cut time already

2011-01-10T13:28:00.000-07:00

My sis-in-law just sent us this fabulous hair cutting cape thing for christmas....it didn't take long to get used....and i'm sure between the these two kids (and each month when i cut Sam's hair before drill) it will get plenty of use.

Fact is that Pepper only got about 1/2 an inch cut and only the bangs but it still counts as her first hair cut!

Before....

after....(and eating the cape) now that i look at these pictures it's kinda hard to tell that it's even different. but trust me she now has straight even bangs. maybe you can see better in the last few picures in her dress.
and i love this look on her face.

apparently jett doesn't think there are enough vampires these days....

Jett playing in the snow. Him and Sam made a little 18 inch tall snowman too but the bateries in the camera died before that. :(

These are Jett's new dinosaurs he got at trafalga with the tickets we won at the arcade....they were a whomping 30 tickets each.....

Jett now likes to play airplanes....

Oh and then we made a house/cave for the dinosaurs!

Yesterday i took some pictures of the kids in their church clothes....i think they look so cute!

Jett was happy until he bonked his head on the wall behind him....so sad!

we are starting to get more and more of these sweet little smiles from Pepper!

School started back up today....i guess we'll see Sam again in another 4 months! it has been so nice to have him home a lot more over the past month. He was still working over the break but atleast when he got off he was off and didn't have homework or what not. But this is our life right now....atleast he is now offiially a junior so that feels like we are making progress!

good news this week....i posted a few things on craigslist this past week and the last thing is being picked up this afternoon. every item except one has sold for more than i paid for them! and the one that didn't sell for more were some shelves that we bought with wedding gift cards over 3 years ago and we sold it for $20 less than what we paid (in gift cards)....awesome right! but the only down side is that we are without a couch for possibly up to 3 weeks! luckily we have 2 ottomans and pillows for the back rest (refer to the picture with the kids in their church clothes). But with the extra money we made on the shelves, bakers rack (sold for $70...paid $20 a few months ago....retails for ~$120), sectional (paid $509 brand new with a few coupons and discounts and during presidents day sale...sold for $600....retails for ~$799), and bassinet (paid $60 for it used 2 years ago...sold for $80...still retails for ~$150)....we can buy this awesome new sectional i've been eyeing, and cubbies (for jett and peppers toys)! I just wish i had more things to sell....:) would it be wrong to start buying things on craigslist, hold onto it for 6 months and repost it for more? haha! i'm certain i could make money on our armoire/entertainment center thing that was also purchased on craigslist, but i'm in love with it and have no desire to sell it. what about the huge pottery barn clock i paid almost nothing for? jett's crib? peppers pack'n'play? our bed frame? my desk that i painted with chalk board paint (jett loves drawing all over it)? baby clothes/toys? i could keep going but i wont!
go ahead and make fun of me Adam! i love craigslist!
that's the latest around here.

christmas....

2011-01-03T00:43:00.002-07:00

we have had a fabulous past couple weeks!

PRE-CHRISTMAS:

family christmas party at aunt joy's house. we played all sorts of games and just hung out with family.
the tootsie roll game: the kids (and a few of the teen cousins) got tape wrapped around their waist and then got to roll around on the floor and try to get as much candy to stick as they could....it was obviously a hit!

pepper is getting SO BIG so fast!

jett has a habit of wanting to eat play doh so i made some salt dough and it did the trick....he was gagging for quite some time after he stuck a huge clump in his mouth and got it in his teeth. YUK!
notice all the gagets he got out to play with and all he really used was the pizza cutter.

jett loves cheese and chicken nuggets with BBQ and ranch sauce....

we attempted a quick family picture of all 4 of us together....i thought it would be a much simpler task....HA!
neither kid cooperated and when they did it was only because mom and dad wern't looking at the camera
but i just wanted something simple to use in a christmas card. then when i went to get the cards printed....the lady messed up and only printed 10. it was too late to go get more by the time i got home and had a chance to cut them out and put them together so only 10 people ended up getting cards from us this year. so much for my first attempt at a christmas card....crash and burn! we ended up using the picture below in sepia....

CHRISTMAS EVE:

we watched a quick little video about the birth of Jesus Christ. we have been acting out the nativity story each week with our little nativity for jett. i'm not sure he has learned anything other than one peice is a baby, one is a mommy and one is a daddy. Oh and of course the animals say baa, hehaw and that the camel spits. and the wisemen came by jeep or train in his version. he is so fun to have around.

pepper got to stay up late with us....as she does every night since she is a little night owl! we go to bed when she does....
we played hand and foot (just so everyone knows....i beat sam by 3000 points! usually i start out ahead and then i cant even get into my foot the next 3 hands) pepper was on my team!

we didn't get a tree this year....after observing jett destroy everyone else's trees/ornaments....we just got some garland and put the presents up high!

CHRISTMAS MORNING:

we had a lovely christmas by ourselves at home! we were asked to speak in church the day after christmas and our topic was on christmas traditions to remember Jesus Christ. i really appreciated being forced to come up with ideas on how to keep Christmas centered on Christ. our kids are young but we still tried to teach jett what we could. it is amazing what that kid retains. but i gathered some really fun new ideas for traditions that we either started this year or will start as soon as jett is old enough to participate.

jett and pepper watched daddy get presents down....although neither had any idea what was to come (both still dont know what that was all about)....

new PJ's

should have eaten first cause jett wouldn't stay focused. he kept running off to the kitchen to eat pomagranite seeds. oh and then he would get mad when we made him put down a new toy and open the next present. he helped open all of peppers gifts and now thinks they are all his too.

new tractors!

new swing from grandma miller

the kids with all their new toys, books and pjs

jett loves his mega blocks....thanks grandma brady

later jett helped me make an angel food cake for jesus' birthday....but i almost burned the house down in the process. i have made angel food cake dozens of times and this time it spilled over the pan and created A LOT of smoke.

peppe is now big enough to take baths with her brother. jett is suprisingly really good with her in there too!

pepper also got these adorable tights with built in mary janes! SO CUTE!

POST CHRISTMAS:

we went swimming one day. peppers first time. she did so good! she was just content and happy to be there (even tho she was turning purple) and barely even fussed both times i dunked her. jett is still as fearless and ever but he is starting to learn how to kick his feet a little.

and she got her own lunch box from grandma van tassell. sam and i got 2 player blokus....it has already gotten a lot of use out of it.
we also got a jcpenney gift card from my grandma hamner and were able to get sam some jeans and i got a rug for our kitchen and we still have a little left for another time!

we also went to temple square one night so show jett the lights but it was so cold we didn't stay long and only have pictures on sam's ipod....i dont know how to work that thing to get pictures off it.

one afternoon we went to trafalga since we had some leftover tokens from a previous time going. well we almost spent the night there cause we couldn't get out of the parking lot due to a blizzard that hit while we were inside.....then 30 minutes later after we got out of the parking lot we were few blocks down the road and were stopped at a stop sign and got rear ended. pepper didn't like that much!....but other than some whip lash and what not we are all fine.
then the next day we witnessed a little hit and run accident. we were the only ones who saw it that were able to get the guys license....i dont know if we are good or bad luck in the car lately?

happy new year!

a months worth of discoveries....

2010-12-09T11:48:00.000-07:00

Jett is discovering how to smile on demand....usually he just looks in pain

pepper was blessed by her daddy....

we discoved jett is a pretty good golfer....

now he thinks it's always his turn....
i'll have to upload the video of this. it's hilarious. he hits the ball and just laughs and laughs. when he hits a ball into the water, he knows it's bad.

jett discoved how to squish his face into a balloon.....

we learned that snow makes for a long drive home from arizona. we almost got stuck over night at jacobs lake....luckily we ran into one of sams mission companions that happened to be working at jacobs lake and plowed us a trail to get back on the road after stopping to feed a screaming baby.
and then we discovered we couldn't even pull into our garage when we got home.

Jett sneakily discovered a box of nerds somewhere! he's so pleased with himself....

the laundry basket is always a favorite around here....he has the worst meltdowns when i actually use it for laundry!

jett also discovered our little nativity set. he plays with it ALL THE TIME!

pepper just lays around watching jett play....

jett found a new friend....mr snowman

o and baby jesus fits through the hole in the stable....i also have a video of him playing and he tried to feed baby jesus to baby pepper.

jett checks the window every morning to see if we still have snow! too bad he doesn't have any snow shoes to go play in it. i think he would be pretty good at a snow ball fight.

i discoved he holds still lots better during a hair cut if he watches videos of himself. (this is his 'cheese' face....he thinks he is smiling) and i really need to get a hair cape thing....it's such a mess every time!

when we first got him this shark towel thing he was terrified of it.....but now he discovered it's not so bad!

here's a new idea for a bunkbed....he can just sleep in the bottom of peppers bassinet!

hopefully they discover soon that they can be friends....pepper just needs to get a little bigger

jett was teaching pepper how to knock.....this is one of his favorite books cause of this page

we have all discoved how cute pepper's smile is....

holding hands....

i wanted to share my view of peppers face....her cheeks come out almost as far as her nose!

pepper at one month.....halloween

2010-11-06T00:12:00.000-06:00

Pepper is now over a month old and I havn't been able to update this blog much. I'll try to cover the past month with a few pictures. At her 2 week appointment (she was actually only 11 days old) she weighed in at 7 lbs 9 oz. So she had passed her birth weight just fine. On wednesday this week (just shy of 5 weeks) she weighed in at 10 lbs 9 oz. It's now no wonder why her newborn clothes are so snug! The rest of her body is just trying to catch up with her fat cheeks.

this one was taken just a few days ago....just as she was getting ready to cry

who knows what jett is doing.....he still makes all sorts of weird faces....

recently jett has watched as we burp pepper....he think he needs to smack her back too....although he doesn't care if it's her back, stomach, face....wherever! Nor does he care if she is peacefully sleeping.

Pepper is so advanced that she can already roll over and turn her whole body around in less than 7 seconds....atleast that's as long as she was left in the room by herself with jett yesterday....

I can't take my eyes off him these days.

one month old....

10/13/10.....two weeks old....on her due date

after first bath....

HALLOWEEN.....

we have the luxury of 1:00 church so we don't have to rush in the mornings before hand (yet somehow we are still always late....how does that work).....anyhow, we made pumpkin pancakes (not pumpkin flavor....that would be good tho) and i'm not sure if jett or sam liked the chocolate chips more. if i had known sam liked them so much in his pancakes we could have been doing them everytime we've had pancakes in the past 3 years....but i think it's gross so i hadn't even thought about it before.

poor kid freaked out when i wanted to take a picture of him halloween morning with his awesome pj's next to our owl family of pumpkins!

And these were our goofy costumes for the ward party. We are condiments. since jett wouldn't keep his hat on, and pepper had a blanket on most of the time....jett just looked like syndrome from the incredibles. But incase you cant tell....the kids are salt and pepper shakers....and sam and i were the ketchup and mustard bottles.

all i wanted was an october baby....

2010-10-04T23:34:00.010-06:00

Ever since I realized that I was due close to October 10th of 2010 I have been thinking how cool that would be for a birthday 10/10/10.....I've had tons of signs that I wasn't going to make it to my due date (which was actually the 13th) but any date in Oct. would have been good enough.

Well....I had an regular apointment on Sept 30th at 11:00 and got checked for the first time....found out I was at a 4 and in early labor. Who knew? So I informed sam that not only was I for sure not going with him.....he was not going to drill either that weekend. He was planning on heading up north in a matter of hours right after his anatomy test. My midwife told me to come back within the next hour and she checked me again....I was at a 5. She called over to labor and delivery and told them I would be headed over shortly and to not send me away just cause I wasn't having contractions. I also had a HUGE fear that I wouldn't get an epidural this time since there is a family history of extremely fast labor/deliveries (after the first). She also told them to give me my epidural as soon as I requested it.

I went home for a couple hours to get Jett taken care of and pack my hospital bag, and cause I didn't wan't to have a September baby. My mind was set on an October baby.....10/01/10 would have been just as good as the 10th. :) So I tried laying around and relaxing and keeping everything from progressing. Finally Jett woke up from his nap and we took him to a friends house and checked into the hospital just after 4:00. They were expecting me had a room ready. My midwife came over and checked me again....I was still at a 5. I was thinking this was great and told them I didn't wan't to have the baby today and that we should keep everything low key until after midnight. And that's when....BAM....my water broke and gushed all over the place. There was no going home now.

Contractions started and my nurse was taking her sweet time asking medical history questions and entering stuff in the computer. Eventually I asked when I could get the epidural and she checked me and said I was only at a 6 and had plently of time, but that she would go call him (the anesthesiologist). When she walked back in the room just a couple minutes later she had the nerve to tell me to breathe....HA! I tried muttering "HELP....HELP....BABY IS COMING!" so she slowly walked over to me to check again and started moving A LOT faster real quick. Baby's head was crowning. Luckily my midwife was still next door and just finished a delivery. She ran in with enough time to put gloves on and nothing else. Within just a couple pushes baby was out. The anesthesiologist walked in....it was too late for him. :(

I have NEVER EVER had a desire to go natural. Sheesh! But anyhow....it went super fast and I survived. After everything was over they had me sign all the paper work that is supposed to be done before hand. woops!

introducing ....

Pepper Lee Miller

born sept. 30 at 5:41 pm
7 lbs 5 oz and 19 inches long

And good news....she has hair! I've been so scared that my little boy was going to be prettier that my girl. I know that's shallow but.....it's the truth.

first picture of our family of FOUR! (got to love not planning on going into labor the day I went to bed the night before with wet hair....then add labor on top of that....It looks lovely!)

Any how....Jett was so excited to see us. He has never had a sleep over before. Others have babysat at put him to bed for us, but he has always woken up to me. We have the best friends ever that helped us out and took care of Jett the entire time we were in the hospital and since then they have watched him so he didn't have to tag along to baby doctor apointments.

Giving little sister kisses.....he is so sweet to her....
We went home the next day....I will admit one thing about going natural....the recovery has been better this time. Dont get me wrong....It's not without unease.....and I would not recommend it to a first time delivery....but I cant complain too much.

Jett has been pretty good with her....but we definatly keep our eyes on them. He is just a little too curious at times.

This one to me is as if Jett is saying "Ya well....you may have as much hair as I did....but you don't have my eye lashes yet!".....Pepper seems to be upset about it too.

Daddy and daughter.....
And to finish off....I love this one!

our summer....

2010-08-23T11:56:00.038-06:00

yes i realize this is an extremely LONG post but in the past couple months we moved and dont have internet anymore....so if i dont post all these pictures right now while i'm at my parents....it wont get done at all after baby arrives soon. also i have been terrible at taking pictures this summer so most of these are from my mom's camera and already on her computer anyway.

much of this is completely out of order....such is life

jett thought this play pack n play was awesome....just not what it was designed for....

this summer my sister and her little family was able to fly to utah for a couple weeks. we got to meet little lexi!
we played in the blow up pool....

i love seeing jett and ady play together now....a year ago when we moved to hawaii jett was too little to really play with her and now they love each other....too bad they dont get to see each other much since they moved off to minnesota.

jett and tyson giving good bye hugs....nat and thayne and my parents came down south so we spent a couple nights in st. george....then they saved our lives and had a truck available (and more hands/muscles) and helped us move while on their vacation.

Our goofy little cheese ball!

we spent a day at trafalga....it's a mini amusement park for little people....they had lots of fun!
train rides....

arcade....jr. style

the petting zoo....the mini animals were so cute!

jett was the only cousin brave enough to ride the pony....haha! just cause he is too young to know fear...

the bunny was bigger than this goat thing....

a few weeks ago we (jett and I....sam had school/work) went up to coure d alene, idaho to visit my grandparents. it had been a while since we had seen them (jett had never seen them) and my grandpa wasn't doing so great. Well it was good timing since he past away a couple weeks later.

jett did fabulous considering he was strapped in his car seat for 10+ hours each way....the best thing we found to entertain him was a squirt bottle! he would just sit there and spray himself in the face until he was completely soaked!

helping grammy water the plants.....

he thought great-grampa's wheel chair was the most fun thing ever!!!

playing at the park while i took a nap....

throwing rocks up the slide.....

here i'm not sure who is having more fun?!

sitting on great grandpa's lap....

now at our new apartment we have an awesome fenced in back yard....jett loves it! he plays in the rocks more than the grass. he thinks throwing rocks into the trees is the best!

these pool pictures are actually recent....this week infact.....he loves to splash water everywhere!

even after i deflated the pool and let the water out.....he still tried blowing bubbles in the water

and when we dont blow up the big pool....what could be better than a puddle in a chair?

we spend lots of time in the back yard! all times of the day, every day! especially now that the summer heat is tapering off....it's been so nice!

and he always gives the goofiest faces.....

Lately jett's vocabulary is starting to really take off....he's getting really good at listening and following simple intructions like "take your diaper to the trash" it's awesome....he throws his own diapers in the trash! too bad other things that dont belong in the trash end up in there too. :(

OH and the toilet! he thinks it's like any other puddle of water out side and needs to be played in. yuck!

and the other super awesome thing is that jett turned 18 months last week....he can officially go to nursery and i get to go to relief society and be around adults again at church!!!!!!

he's obsessed with anything that has wheels. they all say either "choo choo" or "beep beep".....it doens't matter if it's a car, truck, tractor, train....whatever

man's best friend....

2010-07-12T17:52:00.002-06:00

co-ed softball

2010-07-02T00:00:00.004-06:00

We have been playing softball every thursday evening for the past couple months. Tonight was our last game....due to lack of wins we are out of the tournament. Softball has never been my sport so I play the positions that will have the least negative effect on our team. BUT....I actually got a couple people out while playing catcher! Each time I was pleasantly suprised the ball landed in my glove.

Jett always wants to play on the field too, but had to stay confined to the dugout for his own safety.

And here was our team tonight....some people are missing thats why we were playing with only 8 on the field and had to take extra automatic outs each time we went through our batting line up. That certainly put a damper on our score! O and one more tid bit....our pitcher, Jason, he is on the left in the white shirt....he is absolutely amazing! He's by far our best player and only has one arm.....it was incredible watching him.

That's all....

summer games

2010-06-26T20:28:00.004-06:00

last night we had some wonderful guests....my cousin, 2 of her kids and a friend came down here for the utah summer games. Ky ran the 200m and took 2nd and his 4x1 relay team did close to awesome. Their time broke the record but got DQ'd on the second handoff. Jett had a blast exploring everything (and everyone elses treats) in the stadium.
and here is one of my favorite things about hanging out with these guys....for those of you who dont know my family very well....i should have had kelby and ky take off their hats. but i think today was the first full day where no one asked me where jett gets his red hair from. he fit right in and made me look like the outsider.
fact is that sam had red hair when he was really little too....but my side of the family is almost more red heads than not....so i try to claim something of jett's looks.

(Lori....this is the only prego picture i have to date)

Jett discovered twizler bites! yum!

2010-06-24T10:30:00.013-06:00

i've been really bad at taking pictures lately and the few i have of the past month or so i have finally uploaded them onto the laptop.

my parents came to visit a couple weeks ago and were kind enough to time it right so they could drive sam back with them and drop him off at camp williams for his AT. saved me from having to drive back and forth by myself.
while they were here we took jett to my favorite park here in town. it's such a super cute park. some of it is a little big for jett but he will grow and love it. there are all sorts of tunnels and things to explore but i'm worried he will get part way up and not be able to get back down and that the space is too small for me to climb through and rescue him. So far here are some of the high lights that he enjoys as of now.

he loves anything with a steering wheel....

i love this one....he's trying to help sam balance with his little arms out too!

the slides are kinda scary sometimes....but he is getting better and climbing up and getting situated with his stubby legs in front of him. one time he went all by himself and his shoe caught some traction and made the rest of his body fly forward and face plant it on the ground below. he still got up and went again!

Another day we went over to a friends house (this is going to turn into a regular event) and played in this pool. jackie is a genius to put the camping chairs in the pool too....the water felt so good and we could be right there with the kids playing. Next time i need to remember his sunscreen....he wasn't to fond of keeping the hat and shirt on.

jett may not look like he was having fun or that he wanted anything to do with this cute little girl but he was having a ball! just not when the camera came out.

I didn't capture their excitement very well....but they were so cute riding this bike together.

recently...with some help from some friends....i've discovered this little restaurant where i can get a yummy shake for $1.09. (that includes mix-ins!) so we had to go again.

I have some pictures of the last time jett guzzeled the whole container of fry sauce at leatherbys but those pictures are on my parents computer. Well jenna let jett at it again....just a little more mild than last time....this kid loves fries and fry sauce. (both of which i think are NASTY!)

Last new thing around here....jett was starting to figure out how to climb out of his pack n play and he is not at the stage to be able to sleep with out being caged up.....so we needed a crib....

(this is for adam....he makes fun of me for getting excited when i get good deals)

i found this crib on craigslist down in pheonix (and help from some good friends with trucks) we were able to get it to our apartment. it was a light wood color when i bought it and has one drawer knob that still needs fixed....after a few coats of paint i think it looks great in his room!

i just pulled this picture off another website just to show what it looks like....it was a little lighter than this one but the same model. i love having drawers with out needing extra furniture since his room isn't very big and there are even more shelves behind the drawers!

jett got really sick last week while sam was gone (i think he plans these things) but he had major diarrhea and was throwing up for 7 days straight. if he had still been in the pack n play....i think it may have just been thrown out. there would have been no way to clean it up as many times as he exploded during naps. i was so glad we had the crib that i could easily wipe down. but the only problem with the crib was that he would get his little knees stuck. he would wake up screaming cause in his sleep his leg would slip through a slat and then couldn't get it out.

so that put me in need of finding a crib set with a bumper....only problem is all the crib sets i could find were more than i bought the crib for in the first place.

then just yesterday i was able to grab this rocket ship crib bedding from another person here in town on craigslist for $15.00! cant beat that!

bruised toe :(

2010-05-25T23:27:00.002-06:00

poor little boy....this is the result of dropping a brand new full can of oven cleaner on your toe while standing on the tile kitchen floor. luckily for him....physics didn't get a better chance at the speed of fall from the height of his little hands to his toes.
he's been in A LOT of pain today.....

jett's news....

2010-05-18T10:55:00.003-06:00

I've been a terrible blogger lately. We've been out of town for 2 weeks now and have done tons of stuff, seen loads of people and been everywhere. And through it all I forgot my camera at home for all of it. But I guess I can still share some of our news around here now that we have told all our family.

Jett's getting a BABY SISTER in october!

I'm currently 19 weeks prego and we've had fun keeping our little secret for so long. (In fact it seems weird to be publicly admitting this truth) We saw most of my family last week while Sam was at drill. We see them each month and they say they figured it out but of course asking someone if they're pregnant is the last thing anyone dares to do. But this time I was showing more so there wasn't much hiding it. Then the next day we had the ultrasound on friday (the 7th-ish....i think) and found out it was 90% chance it's a girl.....basically she had the umbilical cord between her legs and legs crossed and curled up in a little ball....so we didn't see any real indicators but the lack of parts to be a boy.....we have a follow up ultrasound in a few weeks to re check!

(to be honest....i was almost really excited to not be able to know....i got my way with jett and didn't find out....this one was sam's call to find out and i thought it was hillarious if we wern't going to be able to know!)

Then the next day we headed down to AZ to see sam's family. Again we didn't say anything....just waited for anyone to have the guts to call me fat. Finally after a couple hours i started to flaunt my tummy a little more and bam! it worked. Sam's mom said something....she noticed as soon as we got there but waited thinking we were going to say something....but the best part was that we could already say it was a girl....
Everyone else took Sam aside and asked him privately. These people are considered wise.....after watching the effect of people asking their wives if they were pregnant and being wrong. The husband is much more forgiving.

and that's our latest story!!!

snow canyon....

2010-04-26T20:29:00.006-06:00

one of sams finals is to go to one of the state parks (that wasn't in his book) and write a paper about it. so this morning we headed down to snow canyon.

jett got to wear his awesome new sunglasses....well for as long as he kept them on
these are on top the petrified sand dunes....

jett had fun climbing all over....

lately jett has learned about this thing called an audience....he does the funniest faces and then laughs at himself when he sees that others laugh....it doesn't matter if we are home, at his doctors office or at church when he needs to be quiet. he just starts laughing and someone is always there to egg him on. he does so many goofy things like....he clicks his tongue, makes fishy lips, breathes hard through his nostrils and makes his 'O' lips....as featured below....

then we stopped at the mall on our way home and found out that today was national pretzel day! wow....there must be a national day for everything....but i like getting free stuff so i support national pretzel day. one free pretzel to anyone (no purchase nessesary) who could sing any part of any song, or just mentioned that they read to sign describing national pretzel day. we like the cheddar dipping sauce so we still purchased the dip....but ya cant beat that deal!

it was funny though....while we were sitting there eating our food there were a few other customers that came by and either didn't see the sign or did and didn't read it all and refused to sing a song so they didn't give them a free pretzel.

well we are excited to be sticking around cedar this summer to actually spend the summer together and explore southern utah. there is so much to do around here and we are going to do as much as possible. we just got on a co-ed softball league with some other couples in our ward. it's just going to nice to have a real summer!

easter weekend....

2010-04-04T18:52:00.009-06:00

we dyed easter egg monsters....jett and I ate some before we got around to dying them so there aren't very many final products
we watched conference.....(as much as possible with a little one all over the place and into everything)

he obviously didn't focus much.....but definatly kept us awake!

we had an easter egg hunt....he loves these little sports ball eggs. he thinks they are balls so why wouldn't he be obsessed with them? he found them hinding under the table and couch....

we had some visiters....cousin oakley stopped by for a quick BBQ of yummy burgers....(she didn't eat her share)

o and then we hid some eggs in jett's pj's......he was a little confused until we unzipped them

we had a yummy small-2-person-brunch before and during conference.....(apple german pancake things and crepes......a tradition from the family i nannied for) i forgot to buy crescent rolls and marshmallows to do our traditional 'jesus in the tomb' thing.....but o well....next year! it was kinda nice to just be home and watch conference at our own place....first for us since we've never had tv stations before!

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!

my growing seedlings....

2010-04-01T13:17:00.003-06:00

last monday i planted some tomatoes, peppers and just some 'wild flowers'

since i dont really know what i am doing.....i was all stoked to see some sprouts popping up this past weekend. the flowers are really taking off but the tomatoes are what i really want to grow. no sign of life from the peppers yet. if nothing else grows....i would be satisfied with just my tomatoes.

look close at this picture and it shows my tomatoes growing....
this is half of my plants in our kitchen window.....

i have other seeds to plant outside when it warms up....one day we are at 70 degrees and then the next (like last night) we get 10.5 inches of snow.

if anyone has tips on how to grow a garden....i'm open to suggestions....all i know is what the random lady at walmart told me. she wasn't an employee or anything.....just another customer who happened to have a little experience growing her own garden and she helped me pick out which seeds to buy. who knew there were 15 types of tomatoes! and she was nice enough to explain what the numbers and info on the seed packages meant.

st. patricks day.....

2010-03-17T20:49:00.005-06:00

we spent this weekend with sam's brother's family in colorado. on saturday it took us 11 hours to make the 6 hour drive in a nasty snow storm and we only did one donut....luckily we were able to keep the car on the road and continue on. we arrived at 5:00 am! it was such a long night.
it was a fun weekend but i have no pictures....
we had to drive home today cause sam works tomorrow. on the way home i wanted to stop at DQ and get a slush/freeze thing that deanne introduced me to this weekend. it was so good. after we got home jett was exploring and got a hold of the cup and decided to play with the sticky straw. good thing he needed a bath anyway....
he got a green st. patricks day style bath....(one of his new bath toys)

and he loves to splash....

then we blew bubbles outside....

and then he suprised us and said "bubbles".....sorry the video is sideways.....but you can still hear it. his favorite word for sure is BALL! he sees any ball and starts saying "ball ball ball ball" this weekend he also said the word "DUCK" O and he took 4 steps but doesn't really like to walk....o well!
we love this kid!

best laundry helper....

2010-03-12T20:51:00.002-07:00

jett turns one!

2010-03-09T20:05:00.011-07:00

On saturday morning we went into jett's room to find him awake in his crib and frustrated with his shirt. Somehow he weasled his little arm up and out of the top. But he was much to excited to make his way over to his presents than pose for a picture.

The video is at the bottom showing his cute excitement....in the morning he got a giant alligator/crocodile and new front facing car seat!

then we had to wait for sam to get off work at 2:00 and head up north to my parents for a mini birthday party. adam, kasey and ady came over....then daniel, whitney and oakley came over later.....we were planning on going swimming but we didn't. it was too late and we were hungry and then jett had a slight melt down due to being tired. but we were able to keep him up for presents and eating cake.

ady gladly helped jett open his gifts....he got some bath tub toys, bubbles blower thing, an out fit and books!

then the cake.....we decided on a jell-o cake and jett atleast liked the frosting on this one. he wasn't as timid with the frosting as he was with his last cake (when sam's parents visited last month they brought him a little cake so they could see him eat his cake....and he didn't want much to do with it) then last week i was eating a piece of extremely delicious chocolate cake. i gave jett a bite, he tasted it and made the yuckiest face and wouldn't let me give him any more....
he actually ate a couple bites of the jell-o cake.

the rest of the weekend....the main reason we drove up north....
one of my cousins was blessing their little baby girl and so my aunt and uncle from georgia were in town and so many cousins and family were there. it was such a fun sunday afternoon!

current dilema....

2010-03-04T12:06:00.002-07:00

What am I to do with my baby who hates and refuses to eat cake? His birthday is in 2 days and he absolutely hates the stuff! He also doesn't like that ice cream is so cold.

This little man is going to have one pathetic first brithday.

Is there such thing as a gold fish cake? He loves baby gold fish!

i forgot about these pictures....

2010-02-19T11:41:00.011-07:00

a few weeks ago our ward did an ice fishing activity. there was the hard core determined 5:00 am group that went up super early for just fishing and then a 10:00 group to go tubing and what not....well we were part of the 10:00 group. there wasn't much of a turn out. we got up there (to panguitch lake) and no one had caught anything, and someone had left the pump for the tubes. so we just ate soup with them and that's about it. we couldn't stay too long, jett was cold. we bundled him up in all we could think of that we owned. he had like 5 layers on and couldn't move, but his poor little cheeks were red. then the wind picked up a bit so i was glad to have a baby to blame needing to get back to warmth for. hehe

bishop's wife....jett really likes her....he plays with her markers at church.

then i found these random pictures on my computer when i was uploading the ice fishing ones....

jett is practicing to be the bow of a ship....he's pretty good

and he loves to play in the kitchen. we've child proofed the cupboard doors but couldn't do anything to the drawers. they aren't very dangerous so it's ok....he knows exactly where the big plastic spoons are at and the measuring cups are his absolute favorite.
he hasn't yet figured out how to pull the sandwich baggies out of their boxes....until then....life is good playing in the kitchen while i do dishes or whatever....

and now i have 2 little pyros under my watch....jett loves fire

jett is the best reliable alarm we have ever had.....and he is such a happy boy when we get him in the morning. he loves to play on our bed

valentines weekend.....

2010-02-16T11:55:00.008-07:00

this past weekend we had guests. sams parents drove up here to deliver a huge load of furniture that we got given a few months ago from my old boss when i was a nanny. we are coming up on 3 years of being married and now have a fully furnished apartment!!! and there is no way we could have afforded this nice and great quality of stuff.
any how.....sams parents were kind enough to squeeze this trip into their busy lives so we could enjoy eating at a kitchen table with padded chairs and what not.....

it was also fun that it happened to be a holiday weekend....we went bowling on saturday. debbi won the first game.....but in second game sam had no mercy.....he scored a 217!!! that translates into 7 strikes in a row!!!!
my best scores came from grannying the ball....kicking it....bowling backwards....or throwing it lefty while holding jett.....some how i got a strike or spare on each of those methods
the truth is....i just need to stick with wii bowling

jett enjoyed all the attention he got this weekend....he loves his grandparents....

when we got home i mixed up some pizza dough so it would have enough time to rise by dinner....we made romantic heart shaped mini pizzas

then on sunday morning, jett got to open his first valentines present from the people who love him the most....i finished making his crochet elephant around 11:58 the night before.

he loves it! but then again....he loves all stuffed animals. he gets so happy and gives them all big hugs!

hair cut and meeting oakley!

2010-02-14T15:04:00.007-07:00

Last weekend sam had drill up at camp williams so we headed up to lehi to spend the weekend at my parents. On saturday i was driving up main street in lehi taking my dad to work when i saw a little girl on the side of the road holding a sign that read 'free kids hair cuts.....11 and younger'
so on the way back i stopped to see what the catch was and if there was a minimum age requirement. The girl told me that she had just opened up this new salon and was trying to get herself out there. She figured if kids came in, their parents would have to bring them and therefore discover her new salon....
so jett got first professional hair cut.....he wasn't so sure of it at first. he just sat there holding onto a spare comb and then he got wiggly and i had to feed him gold fish to keep him occupied.

Then we went straight to camp williams to pick sam up and head to my brothers house in salt lake. This was our first chance to meet little Oakley! she is so sweet and tiny! she's a month old now and made jett seem so old.....they are exactly 10 months apart.

by the way....jett totally knows he is suppsed to cheese up when he sees the camera come out!

jett was really good with her....he liked her feet. then he lost interest and watched the fish tank.

and to add to jetts 5th hair cut headline....mine got chopped off recently too....it's been a bit of an adjustment but jett doesn't pull it anymore and after wearing it in a ponytail for 10 months....it's been nice to have it down and eliminate those headaches. (and i can blow dry it in a fraction of the time.

splish splash....

2010-02-11T21:46:00.011-07:00

Jett LOVES his baths.....(yes, although faded, he still has tan lines from hawaii)

plays hide n seek with the curtain....

washes his feet....

this is the only time i can get a mowhawk to stay standing....
then when it's time to get out.....he throws his ducks overboard....and gets water EVERYWHERE!

and dries off in his stylish white robe!

missouri & AIT graduation.....

2010-01-19T13:57:00.019-07:00

We left AZ on new years day to head out to Missouri for Sam's last 2 weeks of AIT training.
I stayed with a super nice couple that lived about an hour from Fort Leonard Wood. It was nice to be able to go on base on saturday and sunday and see sam. Then on the 18th was his graduation....
Here is sam and pvt Lara when they found out the little scroll they received at the graduation ceremony was a total fake! :)
Jett loves having his daddy back!

the graduation ceremony.....

on saturday we met sam on base and went bowling....(i personally am going to stick to wii bowling....my scores are much better)

During the weekdays it was bitter cold. Missouri just experienced their coldest tempertures in like 17 years or something like that.....it averaged about -5 to 7 degrees with windchill factor around -17 degrees......having just left hawaii, jett and i just stayed inside most of the time.

I brought a small suit case full of his toys and he ended up playing with his other suitcase full of clothes the whole time.....

and this little step stool was his favorite thing to push around all over the kitchen....

as for the long car ride.....he did AWESOME! i couldn't have asked for better cooperation from a 10 month old baby! we got him some window shades and a couple new car toys to switch things up on the drive when he got bored with the old toys. it worked great....and he slept the rest of the time or one of us would ride in back with him and he LOVED that!
(o and he likes to point and wave at everything now)

when we stopped for feedings and diaper changes.....he got really excited to get out of his car seat....he played with cups/ketchup packets/straws or whatever while we ate....
FYI: jett and i have been in a car for like 50+ hours since we left hawaii, we got 2 oil changes and are almost due for the 3rd....all in less than a month! he's a trooper

he was so good.....and now it's GREAT to be home and knowing we aren't moving in 4 months again!
Sam was able to get into school this semester and he has 14 credits and things are starting to get back to normal. I really enjoy not being a single mom anymore and having my husband around!

christmas & new years.....

2010-01-19T13:29:00.013-07:00

these pictures are all backwards but it's already taken me a few trips to the school this week to get online and have enough time to do all this....i don't really care to fix it

For new years we were in Arizona at Sam's parents house....Jett and Dave didn't last but, Debbi stayed up with us til midnight. They had some 14 year old alcohol free chardonnay....IT WAS DISGUSTING!!!! we were informed that it was actually pretty close to the true flavor....YUCK!

we played scrabble.....(my first time)....sam wooped us!

Here is the score sheet to the game of gin rummy.....I WON!

Jett tried so hard to keep up with us....he just loved being involved....

For Christmas we ended up at my parents in Lehi. Tyson, Ady and Jett loved this little kid work bench and the little kid kitchen....

One day Nat and Thayne put Tyson down for a nap and left.....after a couple hours i checked on him and he hadn't slept one bit....but he did manage to get into all of Nat's make up and took Thayne's electric razor apart....

side story about his shirt. i tried to be all prepared and order a t-shirt ahead of time for jett to wear when we picked sam up from the airport, but i found out about 3 hours before we were supposed to be there that it wasn't ready. of course i had all day to kill time and just wait until his 7:00 flight to come in. and now i was in a rush to walmart to find something last minute. (good thing there is a brand new walmart out in lehi really close to my parents house) I found some iron on stuff and rushed home designed a quick logo thing to print out....had to wait for it to dry, iron it on, wait for it to cool.....
sam called in the mean time from denver saying that his flight hadn't taken off yet and was going to be delayed, we looked it up online and sure enough, it was delayed.....

so i finished up, strapped jett in the car and took off to the SLC airport to pick up my husband who i hadn't seen in 4 months.
of course there was lots of traffic (friday night) and it was starting to snow a little. i was still on I-15 when my phone rang. it was sam asking where i was at.....their flight got in early! :( i had it all planned out to park and go inside and have jett wearing his shirt that said 'all i want for christmas is my daddy'
we ended up picking sam up on the curb, Jett asleep in the car seat and his shirt laying on the front seat drying....

this picture shows the shirt

We left Hawaii....flew into Pheonix....and drove up to Salt Lake to pick Sam up from the airport for his Christmas Exodus....It was so good to have him back!
Here is Jett making friends with the kids on the other side of the isle.....I've lucked out on all my flights with Jett alone to have a full row (3 Seats) to ourselves! it helped a lot on this one especially since he didn't sleep one minute on this 6 hour flight!

Then he would pull himself up and peek between the seats at the family behind us....that's what we call 'in flight entertainment'

Luckily we flew into AZ rather than UT cause we immidiatly had to go baby clothes shopping. He no longer gets to go everywhere naked or just a onesie. this outfit was the warmest thing i had for him.

december in hawaii....last week wrap up

2009-12-12T12:03:00.020-07:00

Adam and Adyson made some animals out of legos that i thought were pretty cute. There was a dog, giraffe, catapillar, ant, human and an elephant.

Ady and I made a ginger bread house this week. Truth is i needed to get some cash out and since my bank isn't here in Hawaii it's cheaper to buy something and get cash out at the grocery store rather than pay ATM fees. This ginger bread box mix was close to the front of the store so i grabbed it and left....
Our supplies were slacking. First we had to cut out our shapes....we didn't have any cookie cutters, just a knife. No candy. Just leftover chocolate and white chocolate chips.
Ady made lots of little logs out of her dough. She's so smart to know that a ginger bread people need wood to be kept warm. Then we made some frosting and Ady loved double dipping her logs in the frosting.

We even made little ginger bread people....and a ginger bread baby for Jett....although he wasn't too pleased.

Because we are in Hawaii the gingerbread people were working on their tans in their front yard (after they gathered wood for their fire of course)....Then after the little people got their heads bit off, and Ady puked all over......I got bored and gave the house some finishing touches; siding, roof shingles, a stone walkway and a gecko.

This week a friend called and invited us to ride up to north shore with her and her girls. They were the biggest waves of this decade. There was a huge professional surf competition going on that we were able to watch for a while. The waves were incredibly huge and awesome. Then we got too hot and went to get an acai bowl and head home!
And to think it's December and it's storming like crazy everywhere else! haha

I made a Christmas tree to give our apartment a festive touch. It's a lovely work of art made from Ady's legos.

After Jett got his diaper changed I walked off to throw away his dirty diaper and came back to find him like this. Silly boy!

While I've been here, I was put in charge of the wards 'mommy & me club'.....this last week we went on a little voyage to the valley of the temples.
It's an old Byodo-in temple of some sort that is built with out any nails. It's located in the cemetary in Koneohe.....pretty cool!
The kids got to ring a big bell and they sell food to feed to the fish/birds. I got a bird to eat right out of my hand.
Good thing kids under 2 were free cause Jett sure wasn't impressed!
Check out the black swan in this picture....

Jett trying a new thing - cross dressing

2009-12-07T21:30:00.005-07:00

FOR THE RECORD.....THIS WAS NOT POSTED BY ME.....IT'S A FORM OF REVENGE, FROM ADAM AND KASEY, OF THE POST I PUT ON THEIR BLOG RECENTLY.

AND ALSO FOR THE RECORD....I PUT JETT IN THE SWIMSUIT TO BRIBE ADY INTO PUTTING IT ON HERSELF. IT WORKED. SHE WANTS TO DO EVERYTHING JETT DOES (AS SHOWN IN THE POST I PUT ON THEIR BLOG). I just wasn't expecting adam to whip out his camera so fast.

Jett sometimes has fun trying out his cousin's clothes. Or maybe his mommy has fun dressing him in his cousin's clothes. This is him wearing Adyson's bathing suit. No matter what he wears, he looks pretty cute.

foto shoot....thanksgiving....and star wars

2009-11-27T00:57:00.009-07:00

When Jett plays pick up ball, he has no shame being on the skins team....even considering his gut hanging over his shorts and farmers tan! not a problem here....

Thursday monring we went to Laie with Adam to watch the turkey bowl game he played in. Funny thing is that one of Sam's favorite mission buddies (from the big island) is here at BYU-H that I didn't even know about before this week. We ran into him and his cute wife that morning.

Jett learned how to dive with the football....or just lay on the football and eat it....
Adam is in a singles ward bishopric and since most students are far from home and not able to visit family, they are required to provide thanksgiving dinner to their ward. So we joined them and had a fantastic traditional thanksgiving meal. It was all ready when we got there, and delicious. I've never seen a thanksgiving meal go that fast! Jett ate some rice, mashed potatoes and then later at home he had some of his own gerber style turkey. NASTY!
I was able to talk to Sam a few times and take a short nap!......and that was our Thanksgiving.

A friend here in my ward did a little photo shoot with Jett and me last week. She just posted some of the pictures on her blog here..... check them out! This one is my favorite for sure....

Jett loves to play like this with Adam. He laughs and giggles like crazy! If you can't hear it starts with a horse ride, then a motorcycle ride and ends with the Anakin Skywalker pod racer....
The best part is that Ady is right next to them doing it to her baby doll too!

2009-11-21T16:58:00.009-07:00

Update on Sam....He has officially graduated from Basic training and left Fort Sill, OK and has now been at Fort Leonard Wood, MO for about a week. His awesome brother Ben flew out there for his graduation and took pictures for me! I havn't seen any of them yet, but I was promised pictures. I don't know when I'll get a hold of those pictures, but it's not like I have my own computer available anyways. No rush. I'm planning on making it to Sam's AIT graduation in January so maybe we will do a big Sam post then.

As for an update on our holiday plans...
Jett and I will be flying in PHX on Dec 13th and stay in AZ for a couple days. Then we'll make our way up to Utah and move into our apartment. I have officially paid the deposit for the new place...and got a sweet deal....free first and last month rent! I can't even express how excited I am to sign a 12 MONTH contract. We have never lived somewhere for that long. Then we'll head up to SLC to pick Sam up from the airport on Dec. 18th!!!!!!!!!!
I only booked him a one-way home for Christmas and then we'll drive back to Missouri together. I'll stay for the 2 weeks he has left until graduation and we'll make our way back home. He will already have missed the first few weeks of the semester so no rush there. Past that....there are no real plans....

Anyhow....now about Jett....

I've always wanted to be able to give my baby boy a mohawk....little did I know that would not be an option. I've tried several times and he just has too much hair! This afternoon after Jett's bath I tried again....still too long. He has even had another hair cut recently....
Sometimes when Jett wakes up he is playful and other times not so much (for example he has gone back to waking up every 3 hours to eat every night), but I try to encourage him to be happy when the sun is up. As long as he isn't hungry he does pretty good.
His favorite is to press his body against the mesh and get tickled or putting his hand up to mine...

I still can't get this kid to eat solid baby food! He's pretty stubborn at refusing it. The only source of nutrition has been through nursing. Just in the past week he has made vast improvements with finger foods. He LOVES cheerios! I've also tried bread, cheese, broccoli, apples, pancakes (he LOVES syrup), bananas and pasta. He even had part of a cookie, which was perfect since Ady only digs out the chocolate chips and leaves the rest.
It's like how my sister and I used to (still do when we are together) split lemon meringue pies, she eats the top and I eat the lemon filling. We both got double of our favorite part. No need to waste tummy space if it's not wanted.
Any ways....He sure gives some funny faces when I try to give him baby food.

It's like he is thinking "ha! i know what you're going to try next and it's not going to work either!"

But I will gladly feed myself cheerios!
The best is when he gets mad that his chubby fingers aren't coordinated enough to stuff anymore cheerios in his mouth.
And for more benefits of Jett eating cheerios. Just like the african rhino has bird friends who eat the ticks off their bodies.....Jett and Ady have developed a symbiosis type of bond too. Jett drops cheerios all over the place and Ady comes around and cleans up his mess. Who knew you were going to get a science lesson today while reading my blog....

2009-11-11T15:03:00.012-07:00

Since Sam will be able to have some internet access this week, I wanted to add a few more pictures so he can see the most current pictures of us.
For the past few days some of Kasey's family has been visiting. It's been great to have someone to go do some sightseeing with. I really enjoy getting out and doing stuff but without a car I'm very limited....

We went up to north shore to check out the waves. I love watching the waves come barreling into the shore.

An ancient ruin site above Waimea bay that looks out over the valley....
Then we spent an afternoon at Hukilau boogie boarding...

Saturday we stopped at the Pali lookout....it's a super windy spot that looks out over Kaneohe. There is more history to this place but I don't want to type all that....
Then we went on an awesome hike to Maunawili falls....
This picture is out of order....but Jett got his first ride in a convertable....his hair was wild!
Maunawili falls...
Jett sleeping....

2nd trip to the ER....

2009-11-01T11:18:00.008-07:00

After working on Jett's pineapple halloween costume all week....he ended up being a patient on halloween. This past week Jett broke out in a rash all over. I took him in to the clinic on Wednesday and turns out he most likely had an allergic reaction to his antibiotics from the previous week. So I started giving him stuff to help with that. Then his fever kept coming back. It was up to 104 yesterday morning and stayed that high for a couple hours. I called the Doc. and he said to take him to the Kapiolani ER (they specialize in women and children) Of course I gave him some drugs on my way out and Adam gave him a blessing, so by the time we got there he was as happy and playful as could be. He hasn't been that happy in 2 weeks!
This hospital was excellent! They actually looked at him and ran some tests. The only time he cried in the hospital was during his little catheter ordeal and when they had to get a snot sample. He is negative for the flu and some other tests. He must just have a virus bug his little body needs to fight off.
I'm glad he is ok and there isn't anything else wrong, but at the same time frustrated that there isn't anything more to do for him. Just drug him up and comfort him. I havn't slept much in 2 weeks now....Jett is super clingy and sad lately.
The high point though is that at the Kapiolani hospital they have the cutest little baby hospital gowns for the babies! So glad I had my camera on me!

Thursday evening was our wards trunk or treat. At least Jett was able to wear his pineapple costume somewhere. His costume didn't turn out as I had envisioned at first. Instead he looked like a human quilt, but o well! That's what happens without any pattern or sewing supplies. I borrowed a sewing machine and thats it..... no pins, kitchen scissors....

Here is our land lord holding Jett....
This is how Jett has been acting all week....
Then he falls asleep....

what newspaper ads really get used for....

2009-10-25T01:33:00.015-06:00

This afternoon we went to pounders beach. This is where you can do some pretty intense boogie boarding, but I'm sort of a wuss since I hurt my back a few weeks ago. So I went out far enough before the waves break and just floated on the swells. Mean while....Kasey was watching Jett and Ady on the beach and Adam found a crab. Jett freaked out! OK....the truth is he was crying already (probably due to the tooth trying to poke through) and we just held the crab up next to him....

As for the newspapers....
This may have to become a weekly thing. I'm usually keeping any paper, that Jett can destroy, out of reach. But when he got a hold of the weekly ads....who cares! so they all ended up on the floor and entertained both of them for quite a while....

Look at Jett's hands and feet. They were black by the time we were done.

Jett pulls himself up to anything....(then gets knocked down by Ady) :) I love that this picture shows just how short and fat he is!!!

Jett learned about drugs this past week. He had never had any before and he is now a true believer of cherry fever reducer and bubble gum antibiotics....he actually hates both but they have definatly helped him feel better. Now if I could find some baby orajel....that would be great too.
Ady is so silly....I can't believe she wasn't screaming in pain from those rings on her nose. They cause a tight pinch!
Ady is all into kisses lately. She tried helping Jett feel better....
This is Jett last week when he was so sad and not feeling good. He even fell asleep on my lap....that doesn't happen very often these days.
He didn't smile much for a couple days.
Last Saturday we went on a hike with Adam's singles ward. well it was a nice hike and this was the end destination. Adam failed to mention to me there was swimming at the end so I wasn't very prepared but that's alright, I wouldn't have wanted to walk back in wet clothes anyhow. Jett did really good riding along in the baby bjorn. He is getting slightly heavy for it (or for me), but he actually fell asleep for most of the hike as I crossed the stream several times and ducked under trees and slipped on rocks.

first trip to the ER....

2009-10-19T20:03:00.003-06:00

I was going to take advantage of the rare event of both kids taking a nap at the same time and update the blog with some pictures. Super rare since Adyson doesn't take naps very often unless she is really tired and just falls asleep on her own....and the fact that my brother left his computer at home doesn't happen very often....also Jett hasn't been sleeping very well the last few days. I went to try and get the pictures off my camera and I don't know where Adam's camera cord thing is. So no pictures....
Then I ended up looking at a couple blogs and checking my e-mail. My sis-in-law, Lori, e-mailed me some pictures of Sam when he was Jett's age so I could see what all the hype was about when people keep saying Jett looks identical to Sam. Ok...I now agree....then I was going to post some pictures of both of them next to each other but I'm using a mac and I don't really know how get the pictures from my e-mail and post them here....
Now it looks like I'm just typing....I hate when there are no pictures.
O and I can hear Jett waking up....here goes for a quick update....

Yesterday morning I ended up taking Jett to the ER. He has had a fever (highest 102.8, lowest 100-ish) since Thursday. I read that that could be side effect of teething and he started drooling again. So I didn't worry to much about it. But then he started having other symptoms and I read some more and wheezing/trouble breathing are never signs of teething, and a fever lasting more than a couple days is also not good. He also pretty much lost his voice on Saturday. So after talking to Sam and the on call pediatrician in cedar city on Sunday morning, I decided to take him in. (sidenote...the pediatrician recommended I try a humidifier....that was before I told him I was in hawaii....) Turns out Jett has an ear and respiratory infection. Poor little guy....but now I know how to help him. Hopefully soon he will start eating and sleeping again, but he has still been pretty good considering all. Who knows....maybe his first tooth will come in during all this...

Last time I was able to talk to Sam was while I was in the waiting room in the ER....by the time we got in and checked out....I couldn't get ahold of Sam to tell him the end results. He just heard Jett hacking the in background....

Also a quick update on Sam....He seems to be doing as good as one can be doing in the circumstances. Basic isn't meant to be fun and it sure isn't, but he's doing what he is told and doing just fine. Only a few more weeks of basic and then he's off to his AIT and should be back up to the rank of a human.

Jett is doing great at crawling and standing. The very same day I posted the last post about him standing and needed help....he did it all on his own. In fact....at the moment he is standing by my legs holding onto the couch looking at me wondering when I'm going to play with him. So I had better go....

i looked out the window and what did i see?....PORN

2009-10-12T16:40:00.003-06:00

i have 2 other super funny video's of adyson and jett but they are taking way too long to load....these should do it for now.

mr. cool....

2009-10-12T16:05:00.011-06:00

dont be too impressed with this picture i helped him stand up in the pack n play...but he can hold himself up as long as he has something to hold onto. he can pull himself up to things but he usually grabs stuff that's not very stable and falls....

o and jett is officially 19 lbs 9 oz.....he is so heavy!
on saturday i took jett to the sears in koneohe to get his 6 month (yes i know i'm a month late) pictures. they can be viewed online but i have to send you the invite thing, so if you have any interest let me know (grandmas). either way i'll get the printed copies back in a couple weeks.....

but since we were in koneohe i got jett a new church shirt and tie. i was so excited to get him dressed sunday morning!
here we have mr. cool himself.....look at that scowl...
and last but not least.....a while back he finally stopped drooling constantly but then discovered he can spit! it's so hard to capture everything (for sam when he gets back), he will be doing something and as soon as he sees the camera he puts on his intense glare stare face and studies the camera.

in this particular video he is trying to grab the handle/string thing that hangs from the camera....

playing tourist....

2009-10-04T21:48:00.026-06:00

this past week my sister and her family were visiting from new york. this was her first time back since we lived here as little kids so we did all sorts of sight seeing.....
one day we went to the PCC....
we made fish out of leaves and jett wanted to eat them....

we practiced our skills at twirling poi balls......
or eating poi balls....
we tossed sticks at each other in rythm....
we rode the canoe boat thing....
one morning we went to pearl harbor....
tyson and ady played on the weapons....

jett slept....
we ate shaved ice at matsumoto's....
personaly....i've been twice and so far i'm not impressed. this may be the place where shave ice was invented, but after working at a shave ice shack for 3 years....i think i perfected the art just fine in utah and we had better flavors at sno biz....
jett slept some more....i think he was practicing the hula moves he learned at the PCC....
sunrise at laie point....

playing wii....
boogie boarding at hukilau beach...
and jett's favorite past time....eating sand!!! there's bound to be some nutritional mineral value in it....and i'm thinking of mixing sand in with his veggies to get him to eat them better

then the whole reason why nat and thayne came....for the 150 anniversary ADA dental something thing....jett and i stayed down in waikiki for 2 nights with them at the royal hawaiian!...

we had a great week!
i know this movie is sideways but it sums up what jett was doing the whole time at the beach....

playing....

2009-09-29T01:57:00.015-06:00

i wish i had some of the pictures from both my parents or sam's parents camera. they both witnessed jett first encounters with rice cereal. he absolutely hated it. the faces he makes are so funny. well since we've been here in hawaii i've started him on stage one veggies......he makes the same faces but i'm not very good at getting pictures of it.
personally....introducing solids is so much more frustrating to me than nursing ever was....i didn't expect this to be so difficult.

the red mark is from the first time he fell of the bed....

adyson playing with her train set....
ady trying to tackle jett....
playing on the swing set at the neighbors....

jett is super close to crawling....
he gets up on his hands and feet but doesn't know what to do next. when he does lift his hand up to move forward he falls on his face. usually he gets around by lowering himself back down to his tummy, reaching forward and pushing off....
if we had a mini twister board i think he would be amazing....

since sam left.....

2009-09-14T00:47:00.015-06:00

a couple weeks ago we all drove down to arizona together to spend the last few days together before sam left. then bright and early on monday morning we took sam to the airport to fly up to salt lake city to report to meps the night before he flew to oklahoma for basic training on sept 1st. here is sam and jett at the airport the last time we saw him....
since then....
jett and i spent most of the week in arizona with tammy and the girls (the family i used to nanny for) i had a great time catching up with them....we also spent much time with sam's parents and had a very good time getting to play with grandma at the pool, tagging along on drives down to pheonix and whatever else....
side note: jett has gotten a couple full hair cuts recently. it was all over in his eyes so i took care of it and i think it turned out pretty good! those pictures are on grandmas camera so sorry....
here is jett playing in the guest house....

i love this grin! he has this thing about chewing on his bottom lip and this is the result...
jett is getting in wrestling referee position....
playing in tammy's hot tub with britin....
then on sept 6th (jett's 6 month birthday!!!) we flew to hawaii....
i was super nervous about this 6 1/2 hour flight with jett. all the other flights sam has been there to pass him back and forth to atleast use the bathroom or what not....
well right before we took off, the flight attendant came up to me and said there was an empty row of 3 seats in the front of the back section that i (the single mom with the baby) could have it if i wanted. so i got the middle 3 seats of the 7 between the 2 aisles.
only problem was that the arm rest on this row didn't go up. so....jett could have his own seat to lay down but, he barely fit....

none the less....he was able to take a couple naps....and long enough to keep him happy for the entire flight. some ladies found their way to my row to hold jett....which was totally fine with me.... we were all in the same tube going to the same place, there wasn't anywhere they could take jett and much to many witnesses for them to do anything.... so i was able to take a bathroom break here and there

while we were waiting at the airport for my brother to pick me up a lady came up to us and was playing/talking to jett.... (his red hair stands out a bit around here) then she looks at me and asks:
"is he your baby?"
i nod yes
"from your uterus?"
i nod yes again
"wow you have good eggs!"

haha....i hadn't heard that one yet.....

since then we have been here in hawaii....it's pretty hot and muggy but everywhere has it's highs and lows. adam and kasey had to move out of their on campus housing for me to be able to stay with them for the entire semester. so thats basically what we have done this past week. now we are in a new apartment and we can claim that we have an ocean view apartment. its on the second floor and about a block away from the shore. jett and i have gone on a few walks and played in the sand....although he isn't really at an age to enjoy it.....he is still super cute.

2009-08-20T14:05:00.002-06:00

OK! sorry that took me forever to update everything. since the laptop stopped working i havn't even been able to view any pictures from our camera. we ended up getting a new SD card for the camera since the other one was full.
There are now tons of new pictures on here so just keep scrolling down.....
as for what we are doing now....we flew back to utah on tuesday, wednesday we headed down to cedar city for jett's doctor apointment and a bunch of other errands to take care of down there. Jett officially weighs 16 lbs 11 oz.....fatty! he is healthy and we will start him on rice cereal sometime soon (whenever i make it to the store to buy some, but it's not a rush)
we are planning on going out to roosevelt this weekend. it has been over 2 years since i've been out there. crazy since i grew up there for 12 years and now cant find time to make it back....
then we are headed down to arizona for a week.....until sam fly's back to SLC and reports to basic training on sept. 1st. (he will be stationed in fort sill, oklahoma for basic and fort leonard wood, missouri for his AIT) I will stay in AZ until sept 6th when i fly to Hawaii (it was $400 cheaper to fly from PHX than SLC) to live with my brother Adam, his wife kasey and little Ady while sam is gone. If i have to be alone for 4 months without my husband i might as well be alone in hawaii, right?....
that's about it and should be updated enough for the time being....who knows when the next time will be?

Sam's birthday....

2009-08-20T13:52:00.008-06:00

sam was able to take the day off for his birthday. it was wonderful to spend time together and each take a nap....we went to the pool for a while and then nate, lori and caitlin came over for pizza, IBC rootbeer, brownies and ice cream.....
i love this picture....jett was holding lori's pregnant tummy! we are sad we had to leave so close to when lori is due....i cant wait to see pictures of her when she is born!

too bad jett wasn't actually able to taste the goodness of rootbeer....he's going to love it!

always the center of attention.....

jett loved sam's birthday gifts from his mom just as much or more than sam did! he played with that bag of skittles for a very long time....he even some how opened one end....then we took it away....