just a little updatey...

I went to the general surgeon yesterday and he gave me good news. Mr. Hernia is very small and I'll probably eventually have to have surgery but it can wait. Also, when I do have it, they can do a laparoscopic repair, so it will be a week recovery instead of 4. So that is good news!!

JACKSON is doing great. He is a tank at 19 lbs and feels heavier than Tyler. (probably how I got the hernia!) He's working on his 5th tooth this week and gets fussy often, but still the most easy going child I've ever seen! He squeals in delight when daddy comes home, which just melts my heart!

TYLER has been great this week. Less temper tantrums (I'm knocking on wood) and happy. I think it is directly related to how much sleep he gets and both the boys have been sleeping until 8 and taking long naps. Thank goodness! I feel a growth spurt coming on for both of them.

With the cold weather this week, I put some of Tyler's pants on and they came up to his shins! So, he's grown since last year... that's good :) He still fits in the waist, that little skinny binny, but much much taller.

When Jackson wakes up from his morning nap, we are so happy to see him, we jump in bed with him! (By we, I mean Tyler, of course). They play and laugh for a good 1/2 hour. I love it! They really play well together. Having them so close together is starting to pay off :)

A very weird day...

...should always be followed by a tub of ice cream.

Weird day item #1: I went to a breast surgeon today who told me I won't have to have surgery on my boob (yay!) but I will have to have surgery on my hernia. (my what?) I didn't know I had a hernia. But it might explain why I have a little bulge and some tenderness around my belly button. I really thought this was just healing from the c-section!

Weird day item #2: For about 20 minutes, there was both a tortoise AND a hare in my backyard. I kid you not. Last night Jeff brought home a turtle from work. (on the way home, he saw it in the road and debated whether to run it over or bring it home. What a guy. He chose the latter.) We haven't seen a bunny for a couple of months, I love how he chose the same day that we have a turtle in a tub to come!

Weird day item #3: I electrocuted myself in the fish tank! I stuck my hand in to grab a floating string of algae and the top of my arm touched the lights on the lid and it shocked me!! I screamed and haven't touched it since. My forearm still feels weird! Jeff will be on fish out the trash duty from now on.

What a weird day!! Once I get Tyler in bed, I have a date with the chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream.

Six very Random things about my Saturday! NOT in random order...

1. I went to Target today to let Tyler pick out his new toy for having NO MORE BINKY!! He stood next to the toy animals for about 15 minutes and went uh, uh, um.... um..... shark. no alligator. no shark. whale. We walked around the store with the whale until he said, "no whale. alligator." We switched.

2. While we were there I got 9 $1 plants. I'm trying to become a good gardener. I'll start simple.

3. I made my mom's famous home made pizza while Jeff watched Nebraska football. So good! But somehow always better when she makes it. Maybe cuz that means we are together. I think yes.

4. I couldn't get Tyler to take a nap but I HAD to crawl in bed (headache). He slept on top of me in my bed. I'm pretty sure we both had our mouths open the whole time. Nice nap.

5. Jackson enjoyed the homemade pizza and had no complaints. He's very easy to please.

6. Tyler changes his mind about his alligator friend and wants the shark that he's been talking about all week. Oh boy. Jeff is a nice daddy and takes him back to target while I write this post and put Jackson to bed.

Happy Fall Ya'll

It feels like fall here. I love this time of year. School started, it's cooling down, the anticipation of Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas coming soon gives me the giggles. A stroll down the decoration isles has me grinning from ear to ear. Holidays remind me of family and friends, the greatest gift I have in this life!

Here's what I've been thinking about. All my extended family and friends are stretched across the U.S. I have new Texas friends, BYU-I friends, summer sales friends and long time high school friends residing all over the states. Wouldn't it be nice to all unite together and do something for one another?

How fun would it be to do a fall gift exchange? Well, I decided it would be SUPER fun, so I'm hosting it on my kirstikoo blog. I hope you will join in on the fun. Each person who participates will receive a fun fall decoration, craft, treat, SURPRISE! in return! Click on the fall swap button for details!

Saturday Six

I missed Friday Five yesterday (and about a gazillion times) so I thought I'd talk about 6 highlights for the week:

• Jeff had labor day off! It was so amazing to spend the day together. We got some errands done, ate at Cheddars (yummy and inexpensive), and took naps. It was great. Go labor! (I kept saying we were celebrating my labor, as in Jackson's birth. I really don't know what labor day is for. Is this something that no one knows, or am I just stupid?)
• Tyler learned all about the letter B in preschool this week. On Tuesday, he glued beans to the letter B and Thursday he learned about bugs and brought home a butterfly and a caterpillar created by him. On the way home, he saw a dead lizard with ants all over it. He was so excited, he stood there screaming on the sidewalk for a good 4 minutes. I was so happy he was able to see so many bugs on letter B day!!

• Jackson got tooth #3 this week. Yay for that. He has been chewing on everything. His number 1 fav: a toothbrush. Smart.
• Today I had a surprise party for a new beehive (12-13 year old girls at church). We had a princess party with pink pancakes and we decorated crowns. I love these girls. They are so amazing and so fun to be around!

• Do you love my birthday banner? A fun new etsy purchase!
• I got some packages from my mom! She went shopping at the school supply store and got me all kinds of preschool stuff like color and shape posters, alphabet idea books, colored bean bags, board books, stickers and craft supplies. She also sent some old disney videos (which Tyler is enjoying as I type!) and some sugar love!! (have you ever had chocolate covered cinnamon bears? Can you say delicious?!) Thanks Momma Shauna Nauna!
• We've decided to start up our fish tank again. Do you remember what it used to look like? here and here. And even better right before we moved in February. Gorgeous at one point. And then we moved and lost everything. Nemo #2, 2 chromis- our starters, the four line wrass, and the shrimp aka: bug. Our water went bad, rocks grew moss and it's been one of those things you know is going to take a lot of time, so we've been ignoring it. We even considered getting rid of it at one point. BUT, I rearranged our front room (yes, Lanie, we did it!) and I can't wait for it to look gorgeous again. Wish us luck!!

Tyler Talk

Phrases that you will hear my 2 and a half year old say (over and over) if you came to our house:

"Mommy, Mommy! ...Mommy, MOM!... Tursti!"

Don't think I'm ignoring him. This is happening over a 5 second span. He just started learning that we all have names. The other day, he looked at me and said, "Ty'yer, MY name" and pointed to himself.

"Goway, YeavemeYone!"

This one made me laugh the first time, but now it just plain hurts my feelings. I tried to figure out where he picked this up, until one day we were outside and the mosquitos were everywhere. He yelled it at them and then I realized that's what I say everytime there is a fly by me. I've since then explained to him that we do not say go away, leave me alone to dads, moms or baby brothers. Only to bugs.

"Yeyow dinky, me!"

This means give me my yellow binky now. (aka a melt-down is about to happen.) I go back and forth everyday about whether I should take his binky away or not. Kids have security blankets or dolls or stuffed animals. He has his binky. I feel like it might be the same philosophy as potty training, keep working on it but it'll happen when he's ready? I hope so.

"Yast one!"

This will be explained in tomorrow's post when I talk about our night time routine. Though I think you can imagine what it means and when it's said...

For now, Good Night!!

Dear Tyler,

Today while you ate dinner, I took a bath all by myself. Nobody splashed me and I got to crawl around and play with whatever I wanted to. Oh and when I got out, I peed on mommy's leg. Yeah, I thought you'd think that was pretty funny.

Love,
your little bro,
Jackson

p.s. I played with your alligators. HAHAHAHa

My sicklings

This is what my little sickos look like today (snot and all!)

I hate missing church, but I decided that instead of feeling guilty and flaky, I should enjoy the day with my family and I did.

I spent the day:

Cuddling all three of my cuties,

taking a few naps (Jeff and I took turns and even got a few minutes suggled up together),

eating some comfort food like chicken noodle soup and scrambled eggs,

bathing with soothing vapor body wash to try to deplug those noses,

and watching bits of movies including Godzilla (appropriate for the Sabath, I might add), Elmo, Darby O'Gil, Third Man on the Mountain and Planet Earth.

Oh, I love my family!

Jack Jack

Eight months old:

Loves to crawl and pull himself up on everything

Loves his brother

Loves to eat

Loves his mommy's kisses

Loves to play with daddy

Loves to take baths

Loves to blow bubbles

I LOVE my JackJack!

First day of Preschool!

My little Ty went to preschool today! A few of my friends are doing a rotating joyschool, and today was our first day! I was so excited.

Here's Tyler holding onto his lunch. He did not want to let that thing go.

I made an ABC chart for the kids and Tyler loved pointing out all the pictures.

Here they are finger painting the letter A coloring page!

They learned all about the letter A and alligators- what they eat, where they live and if they have eyelids or not (though he hasn't told me the answer to that yet- I'm gonna have to look it up!) They crawled like alligators on the floor and chomped up their food, finger painted the letter A and made alligator visors. How fun! I wanna go to preschool!

Giveaway!

Check out my kirstikoo blog and enter to win another giveaway! Click pic for link

In other news...

Tyler starts Preschool on Tuesday! I'm doing a rotating group with a few friends and we will do abc's, art projects and playtime! I think this will be a great way for him to learn social skills and will give me a nice break for a couple hours twice a week.

Jackson has two teeth now! He is an amazing sleeper, beating Tyler at sleeping through the night by about 4 months! YAY for that. He eats well, plays by himself and is crawling from room to room now. He is my little explorer.

A couple funny stories (that pretty much sums it up!) Tyler was taking a bath because that's his favorite thing to do right now. He'll stand at the tub yelling BATH! ME! BATH! ME! BATH! Until I just give up the, no it's 9 am you're not dirty yet argument and just let him in... Anyways so he's in the bath and I walk by to see him dumping cup fulls of water onto the carpeted floor. I yell at him a little and say, "Man, you are being such a bad boy, it's making me crazy!" and he yells back at me in the same voice and tone "yeah!"

Tyler, Jackson and I were in my room. I was in and out of the room and Tyler was following close behind me. Jackson of course was a little slower but also trying to make it from bedroom to living room. He got distracted at the door stop and started playing with it. It made a very loud "boing" sound and it totally freaked tyler out. "Oh no, dinosaur get me! Bite me! Oh no!"

It's really funny the words that come out of his mouth lately. He makes me laugh all day long. Even midst yell, I start cracking up sometimes at his reactions. I decided 2-year olds are the cause AND cure to needing anger management!

**Mom, this is for you... I know you asked to see Tyler but Jackson really wanted to show off his riding skills, so here it is:

6 Things I LOVE...

...about Jeff!

1. Everytime I tell him "I love you", he says, "I love you more."

2. He's always up for an adventure and makes sure we do the craziest thing possible. (see pic below for proof)

3. He works so hard for our family and comes home excited to see us.

4. He's so supportive of me and my dreams and desires (especially with kirstikoo)

5. He is the strongest person I've ever met. Physically and emotionally- he holds me together and picks me up when I need it!

6. We are a team. I love that about us. If he needs help, I help him and if I need help he helps me. Sometimes sacrificing what we want to do for the other person. I love that.

HAPPY 6 YEARS JEFFERS!

And of course 6 flashback pictures are required for this post:

Our first date: Hotsprings in Yellowstone. Take that for a first date. Nothing ordinary or boring with him! I think that's why it was my last first date!

Just being silly, sometime between October 2002 and February 2003...

Right after our engagement on my 19th birthday weekend. Notice I'm flashing my ring? Thinking about that night still makes me smile!

In Sacramento the summer before we were married. He was working in Sacto and I was working in So. Cal. I got to visit for a weekend and here we are at my Aunt & Uncle's house.

A year or two after we were married a group of friends went to Havasu Falls and backpacked about 10 miles each way. Here we are at the final destination. We are sitting on a ledge of lava rock thousands of feet above the falls. I told him to hold me tight and do not let me fall or else...

My OVERproductive Day

Last night, I lay in bed so proud of myself and the day I had.

We woke up at 8ish and got ready to take Tyler to camp at 9. From 10-12 as Jackson slept, I sewd away. From 12-12:30 I decided I better pay attention to my very messy kitchen. I cleaned that and then Tyler got home from messy-fun-camp (he's been going all week!). He took a bath to wash off the tatoos Jeff gave him during mutual. (I wish I took pictures, they were hillarious. Envolving all of his favorite things from a fire truck to a snake and of course mommy's face. I was impressed, and glad that I was smiling in the picture. Ok, good.)

Soooooo, getting back on subject, Tyler bathed and I got the sudden urge to clean the toilets. This does not happen very often, so I took the opportunity and started scrubbing away. Tyler started casually chanting the word "poopoo" which was the exact word I was thinking about as I scrubbed that toilet. So I didn't think anything of it. Until he said the dreaded "uh oh". And then I was awakened from my cleaning coma and said, "Oh, no" and saw two lovely pieces of poop floating in the bathtub. YES, too much information, I'm sorry. I tell you this because suddenly my urge to clean the toilets increased about 100 degrees and suddenly I had to clean every single surface of the house. I did the tubs next then the countertops and tile.....That took place from 12:30 to about 2 o'clock.

From 2-4 I put the boys down for a much needed nap and I slept for about 40 mins. When we woke up, we met the Lofgrens and Taylors at the pool! We swam until Tyler remembered that there is a park outside the gate and moved the party there. Then we walked home, made dinner, and went to bed.

It was a great day, I got so much accomplished and wasn't lazy at all. I planned to have the same type of productive day until...

...I woke up this morning and my back was broken. Ok, not technically broken, but it hurts to move or bend or sit or walk. That's what happens when I pack hours of cleaning AND sewing in the same day.

Oh well. Today I will have the opposite. An UNDERproductive day. With lots of cookiedough eating and blog browsing and thinking about getting stuff done. I have a movie rented for Jeff and I to watch tonight and I'm excited!

Total Slacker

...sorry I've been slacking on my blog lately. I've been busy! I haven't taken any pictures of the kiddos in awhile and they've been watching a lot of movies... I blame it on my sewing machine. It taunts me when I'm not using it. I swear I'm a little addicted. Oh well. There are worse things I could be addicted to. (That's my justification, and I'm stickin' to it!)

Ok, so to give my family and friends a bit of an update:

JACKSON is officially crawling!! Yup, he started about a week ago and is pretty close to becoming a pro. He is taking bottles during the day which has been a wonderful thing. And he's sleeping pretty well at night.

TYLER is either my little sweetheart or my little devil. (Those of you who have 2 1/2 year olds, I'm sure you understand. Those of you who don't probably think I'm either over-exagerating or a really mean mom.) But seriously, we're a little bi-polar over here. He still loves running around the house like a crazy person and is so nice to his little brother. Sometimes I get to sit and read (or sew, of course) while they sit together and play. It's been nice.

AND for those of you who are still reading (thank you-- Jeff would say there are two many words in this post!) I've added a picture of me and my big brother. It was Christmas '85 so I was a year and a half old. I've looked at this picture before, but just today I looked again and noticed that Tyler looks a lot like me!! I always say the boys look like Jeff, but imagine short hair, and I see Tyler... what do you think?