Prayers of an almost three year old.

Some of the things Jackson can be heard blessing:

Santa
Jesus (he needs lots of blessings :))
That mason and marissa will be nice so that they can get presents and candy from santa
That mom and dad won't fight (okay, we really don't fight much and not in front of him if we do)
That he (Jackson) won't tell mom to "just go somewhere" (his exact words)
The gingerbread house
Gingie (the gingerbread man that goes with the house)
His Toys
The pirates who do nothing (??)
The pirate ship

I know I still have a little baby weight to lose, but come on...

I enjoy having Jackson tell his Dad various things...I think mainly because he talks so cute. I get him to say things like, "you're insane in the membrane," and "you're a goof ball galore" (pronounced gawore by J). Today Douglas retaliated and told J to tell me that I was an animal. Jackson proceeded to tell me that I am an animal. I asked him what kind of animal and without skipping a beat he said, "a big hippo."

A regular hippo wasn't large enough I guess.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Now that I finally finished decorating. I even swept off the front porch to top it all off. I am quite pleased with how things turned out this year. Here are some pics of my work.

This last picture is just to show that I FINALLY finished my advent. It only took three years.

I mailed off the Christmas cards to day (insert huge sigh of relief). I made D help me fold, stuff, stamp and return address all the cards yesterday. I addressed them so that they would actually make it to their destination. Dang, it costs a lot to send out Christmas cards. I think I sent somewhere around 75 this year. D knows everyone, not kidding. We don't ever go anywhere without his seeing someone he knows. I just have to tell myself that I only do it once a year. I had two different cards made. One was a really cool trifold, except the colors were off at the printers and I didn't want to wait until they reprinted and shipped them. So, if you wonder when rust red became a Christmas color, you will understand. The other card was just flat and I really liked how it turned out.

I am going to start some neighbor and work people gifts today. Nothing fancy, but just a little something. I am itching to bake and make candy etc. We will see if I get my act together. Next year maybe I will do vanilla again. I made homemade vanilla last year and never heard a peep from anyone about it so I thought it was a bust. But here comes Christmas again and people start asking if I am doing it because they loved it. All right people, you have got to let me know sooner so that your acceptance can be motivation for the next year :).

Did I mention that we got turned down by about 10 people to play Santa for the ward Christmas party? So...

My hubby is such a good sport. Actually he was a great santa. When we got the costume it was so nasty. It smelled that smoke and B.O. and bad breath. I brought it home the night before, washed it in really hot water with a little detergent, oxy, biz and chlorox and I lysoled and febreezed the beard and hair. Still after all that I was a little weary to touch it. Douglas joked that there should have been a little flask pocket inside.

The kids kept getting on his lap and telling him that they wanted to see Roudolphs nose so Santa said, "stay up really late on Christmas Eve, look out the north windows and watch for the flashing red light". Boys would get up and Santa would say, "I know what you want, a girlfriend, right?" Which of course made all the kids laugh. And one girl told him what she wanted and he said, "you want underwear, huh." It was pretty cute. He was a great red faced Santa. Oh, and the shoes didn't fit so he had to go out in his socks and people in the ward have been calling him the "shoeless Santa."

Jackson was so intrigued by him. He had no clue it was D and he kept going back to talk to him again and again.

By the way, Jackson is not asking Santa for a Green egg with M&M's. He saw it at Target and that is all he wants now. Good thing Santa has been known to shop at Target.

So have I told you about these tasty morsels??

Three words...Hea-ven-ly.

I stocked up so as to not run out. I am addicted.

We bought our Christmas tree a week ago Saturday, and that is where this saga begins. On Tuesday I went to string lights on the tree and there were needles everywhere. Everytime I touched the tree it just fell apart. So, being impulsive and really irritated, I dragged the thing out of the house, got it to the top of the car, secured it down and took it to Home Depot where I returned it and bought another. I bought a smaller one, luckily so the return process wasn't quite as painful. It is up, lighted and decorated though and I am feeling good. Santa can come. I have thought a lot about having a really pretty themed tree, but I have such good memories of helping decorate the tree growing up and I want my kids to have the same experience. I think it is fun to decorate together and I don't want to get irked everytime Jackson moves another ornament. Someday I will have a fun themed tree, but that will be in the distant future. Here is a picture of the tree. The second picture is the spot J decorated. He saw no need in spreading the ornaments out hence they are all clustered in one spot.

and yes, I know I need to vacuum.

Paige is now sitting, but still not even trying to roll over. My only consolation is that she has done it before. I guess she tried it, it wasn't all it was cracked up to be and so she has decided not to any more. I am a little worried though...you know the usual mom thing. If this was baby #1 I bet I would have been really concerned.

Well, I think that about sums up life. I am getting really excited for Christmas and even D is excited. Santa is bringing J a trampoline and I think he will love it. I am going to make him just for at least 20 minutes a day. Maybe then he will have a normal amount of energy.

Tonight is Gingerbread house night. Gotta love Costco's prefabed Gingie houses.

Off to play mom.

Oh yeah, here is a little family picture from when we went to see the lights at the temple.

(insert) huge sigh of relief...

I can breathe again. I have taken a little hiatus from the blogging world as I have tried to tie up all the loose ends with my photography business so that I can enjoy the holidays. I finally finished editing the wedding I did in October and boy, that is a huge burden that has lifted. My Christmas season started right before the wedding and so between family pics, traveling, having family in town and, you know, being a mom, I felt like a chicken with my head cut off (is that even how the saying goes?) I also FINALLY ordered my own Christmas cards which is also a huge weight lifted off. I started decorating the house yesterday and although it is slow going, it will get done. You know what I hate the most??? Stringing lights on the tree. I know, an artificial one would solve that problem, but I love the smell of the real ones. We choose a really pretty one this year. I am not one to look at every tree. I just find one that looks okay and take it home. The one we bought opened up and is nice and symetrical with a perfect point for a star. Of course the point it too close to the ceiling so we will have to do some sort of makeshift something.

So, what has been going on. For one, D and I were both released from nursery...and right when I finally started accepting the fact that I was with my two year old all the time. Actually, I was kind of starting to enjoy the kids. I know that sounds bad, but really when you do it all day long every day, it would be kind of nice to have a break. D loved it though and it was really fun to serve with him. There are not many callings where you get that luxury. So, I got called as a relief society teacher, D as an elders quorum teacher and both of us are on the activities committee. Oh yeah, our ward was split and that is why we have two callings. I have already taught twice and although I may not be the best teacher, I love teaching relief society. I think I can say that it is my favorite calling. Too bad I cry so easily. I try to play it off like I don't, but that is the reality.

We also had our first ward activity which, with only two weeks to plan can off pretty nicely. Yes, we had TONS of potatoes and fruit left over, but the food was good, we had a good turn out and even santa came (more on that in another post).

Jackson is so funny these days. He drives me bonkers a lot of the time and I can't leave him by himself of some sort of chaos will ensue, but he says and does the funniest things today. This evening Douglas put his little gloves on him and he started singing?? "Hand Hand Fingers Thumb" (it is a book for all you non-children's book readers). Then, he walked over to this milk can we had, started banging on it and yelled, "sing mama." It was pretty funny. Of course when he had stopped drumming and I continued singing he made it very clear that I was done too.

Then, during family homely D and I were talking and J came over to tell me a "funny secret". He got close to me and whispered in my ear, "funny secret" and cracked up laughing. Then he told me he had to tell me another secret. He went to my other ear and whispered, "go give daddy a hug, squeeze his juice out and drink it" (a little family thing we do). I started laughing so he told me he would do it and went to D to do so.

He is just such a crack up.

Paige has been so delightful lately. I forgot how fun they are when they hit about six months. Whenever I feed her she stops every few seconds to laugh with me and smile and coo. I love it. Or, if we are in her room, she will stop, look at herself in the mirror (she has mirrored closet doors) and do the same. It is so cute. She squeals and squaks all the time. She went in for her 6 month check up and she is about the 85% for everything. She is about 18 lbs, 7 ounces now. She barely even cried with her shots. She is just so much fun.

Well, off to bed. I am almost done with Harry Potter 5 and I think I will go get the movie tomorrow (haven't seen it yet). The HP books are always fun.

I may actually get some Christmas cards made!

Thanks to Anne, I finally took some photos of the kids. I can't do it alone!!

covering the basis...

Jackson only includes two things that he is thankful for in his prayers:

Jesus

and

Santa

He knows who truly matters.

what a stinker.

Lately Jackson has been giving me a run for my money. I am trying really hard to be consistent in his punishments so that he knows that I mean business (this really is not one of my strengths). Anyway, one of his rules is that when we ask him to do something he doesn't say no to us (usually very rudely). If he does he has to go to his room which he hates to do. So now when we ask him to do something he doesn't want to he says "ni". I guess he is not saying no, although the meaning is the same. He is such a smart little stinker.

let's be honest for just a minute...

We are would like the world to believe that our children are the little saints that we are able to capture in the ONE Christmas card photo, but in all honesty, doesn't this more closely depict what our children are REALLY doing while we are getting photos taken??:)

Thanks Andrea for letting me capture your children how they REALLY are. It was refreshing.

just testing out my macro settings.

kinda trippy.

Preview

This one is for you, Robyn...

These things don't last long...

you know, all the cute things your kids do and say so I thought that as I wait for pics to upload I would share a few.



First, Jackson always says, "after later." Anytime he wants something and I tell him he can have it later he will say, "okay, I can have it after later."



Paige is still fairly new to solids and still has a pretty strong tongue thrust so every time I give her a bit of food she sticks her thumb right in her mouth, takes a few sucks and pulls it out. I think that is how she has figured out how to get it down. It is cute and messy!

a little friendly discussion...

So, here it is. I know there will be many differing and strong opionions on this subject. I will lay out the facts, and my opinions. Then I would love to hear what all of you think about the matter. Then I will tell you what decision I made.

I am a firm believer that all babies that are healthy can be trained to sleep through the night. By 14 weeks I think all babies can be sleeping at least 8 hours if not longer. Both of my babies were sleeping a good 12 hours by about 12-14 weeks. People say I am lucky to have great babies, but I also think it is because I teach my babies to sleep. I am not saying I am an amazing mother, I just follow a philosophy called "The Baby Whisperer" and it has been magic with getting my babies to sleep, eat and play on a schedule. It is my sanity. I can't function without a little predicatbility. That being said I have to say that I am really against the idea of letting a child "cry it out". I will let Paige cry for a few minutes until she finds her thumb and gets to sleep, but seriously, it kills me to listen to my babies cry.

So here is the situation: over a week ago P had the stomach flu--you know the whole throwing up, diarreah bit that no mother wants their little baby to have. Because she was sick she started waking in the night and I would feed her. I don't know if she was actually hungry or just needed comfort, but when my kids are sick I will give them what they want and need. So fast forward a week...P is healthy and still waking up one or two times a night. She wants to eat. Period. She wants her mommy and a boobie and nothing else. Is she hungry? Doubt it. Does she want comfort? Probably. I kept thinking it would pass, but it didn't. I was getting exhausted and cranky. Something had to be done. So I came up with a plan.

Yesterday with the time change P's routine was a little out of whack. That necessitated an extra feeding during the day. I figured that it was a perfect opportunity to get a few extra calories in her body and make sure she had enough to get her through the night. I also gave her two bowls of rice cereal.

7 pm came around and I fed and put the kids to bed. I am just about to settle down for a long winter's nap around 11pm (way too late) and what do I hear?? My sweet little P crying. I gave her a few minutes to see if she would settle down. She would and then a few minutes later she would start up again. Had it been 2 am I probably would have just gotten up and fed her, but it had only been 4 hours. She goes 4 hours during the day, most certainly she can go longer (much longer) than that at night. What to do?? D and I discussed this at length as we lied in bed not sleeping because P was crying. It wasn't a pained cry. It wasn't a hungry cry. It was a MAD cry. I knew that if I went in there it would reinforce that if she cries I come in, yet at the same time, I really don't want her to feel abandoned or whatever else. Honestly, it was killing me to hear her cry.

What would you do?

It is sad when this is a big life decision...

Okay, so it is Miss P's first Christmas. I have waited for the chance to dress a little girl up for Christmas my whole life and let me tell you, this has not been an easy decision. So, here are the candidates. D informed me that with all the money I have spent on shipping I could probably pay for the dress...

practicality...totally over rated.


Love this one, but here is the problem...it is silk and dry clean only...spitty baby + silk = a lot of dry cleaning.

So, I already got this green one (dress only--J is WAY too old for a little outfit like that). I thought that maybe it would be a nice simple dress. It was really ugly and kind of Walmarty looking...not that I have any problem with Walmart, but I would rather pay the Walmart price if that is the case.I love the idea of J and P totally coordinating...at least until J is Way too old for that to be cute anymore. I love the brown and blue. We will see how they look in person. (it would be the vest outfit for J and little dress for P)This was my first idea. I think it is really pretty, but I am not IN LOVE with it. It is machine washable though. I guess it just doesn't look too Christmasy to me.


And, I found this today and I sort of think I am in love and it is machine washable...still I need to get it to see how it really looks.
I already have an outfit for J picked out if I don't go with the brown outfits. It is a cute sweater vest, trouser outfit from Gymboree with, of course, the cute hat for picture purposes.

silly j

ole?

halloween pumpkins

my long lost daughter

isn't she a pretty one? j came upstairs and said, "hi mom, I'm you." too cute.

Happy Halloween

Thanks Grandma Dee for the great costumes!

Little Indian Princess Wow. His smile is definitely one of a kind. It cracks me up!

That's more like it.
I made D put on this get-up. When he came downstairs I think I laughed for a good five minutes. I look hot with long black braids.

from our tribe to yours....

luv those chubby cheeks

Just a picture of my little miss P.

carving the pumpkin part deux

Love that little face.

Okay, so D found patterns for pumpkins and set out to carve a witch . He wasn't too impressed with it, but as soon as J saw it he said, "cool witch." I will take a pic tonight and you can see if you can tell what it is. I carved a good old fashioned J lantern. Jackson wasn't much help in the carving process.

Carving the pumpkin part 1

Still hasn't figured out the whole smile bit.
Thanks Nana for my Skeletor pjs (too bad he doesn't even know who Skeletor is) "It's dark in there" (this is what he was actually saying when I shot this pic)

Drama anyone??

Our little thief.

So we went out on a family walk yesterday. We made it to Andrea's house when J started getting kind of rough with Paige. After a warning or two he wouldn't stop so I got him out of the stroller and told him he had to walk. He refused to so I said,"all right, we will miss you then." and we headed back towards our house. I thought it would be a short while before he started running after us crying, but no, he would just occasionally walk down the driveway to see where we were and then go back up. We made it back to the stop sign when D informed me that J had won the battle of wills...(we will just see when I make him go to bed early...hmph.) Anyway, we head back to get him when all of a sudden he comes walking down the street pulling the little decorative wagon that Andrea keeps by her door. You know, the one that is probobly an antique or something.

Douglas heads back to Andrea's door with him and as he is getting it situated J rings the doorbell.

Thanks for not being home.

Little stubborn stinker.

Mr. Chatterbox

Typical Conversation with J

J- "Where are we going Mama?"
M-"On a walk"
J-"What walk?"
M-"A walk around the neighborhood."
J-"What neighborhood?"
M-"This neighborhood."
J-"What this neighborhood?
M-"The one we are walking around."
J-"What walking around?"
M-"The walk we are on."
J-"What walk?"
M-"The walk where we are just quiet and look around."
J-"What walk where we are quiet?"

and you can extrapolate where the conversation goes from here....

here's j

it's a pony...

tail...does this look goofy or cute?? I hesitated to put a pony in because I thought it would rip her hair out, but she is doing a good job rubbing it out in her crib anyway so I figured why not.

p.s. Paige started puking today. Oh joy.

p.p.s. i threw one of J in there just so you realize that I love him too. I just have to fight him to take a picture and it's not worth it most of the time.