How you doin'?

How do you like your Raisin Bran?

Nate likes to pick the raisins out first.

Anyone want some cheese?

Blessing pictures

I finally had a little photo shoot with Jason in his blessing outfit.  I thought it was a really cute outfit.
We blessed him in his squares blankie, so that's in his picture too.  He is getting short on hair.  It's always sad when my babies lose their hair, but it's happened to all of them, why did I think Jason would hang onto his?  Oh well, it will grow back.
On to the pictures...

 It can't be a photo shoot of Jason without Nate squeezing into a third of the shots...

 He loves to bring Jason a car or truck and sit it next to him saying "moster truck Jason!" over and over, louder and louder.  When he does it to the other kids, he does it till they pick it up and play with it.  Jason will have to learn quickly.

It was right before nap time, so we didn't get any happy faces, but I assure you, this kid can smile.  I love it.
Jake was baptized and then confirmed right before we blessed Jason.  I think it made the day even more special and I was glad we did things that way.  Jason was given a neat blessing and I just know he will grow up and join his brothers in being a good boy and eventually a missionary.
I am so grateful for this cute boy of mine!

3 Months!

Jason is three months old today!  He is such a cutie.

Just today as I was taking these pictures, he rolled over for the first time.  He didn't really think it was all that cool though and he hasn't made it a new trick.  I am okay with that.  I want him to stay a baby for a little while longer.  I'm not ready for him to be mobile yet.

He does like to stand on his feet.  He thinks he's pretty cool when he does that.

Jason is a bit of a pill when it comes to night time fun.  He sleeps all night, so that isn't the trouble.  He just can't settle in for the night until I do.  So that means I am not as productive as I'd like to be.  The warm water bottle worked for a few nights, but Nate wandered off with it and I haven't found it yet.  You'd think it would be easy to find a 2 liter bottle in the house...

We sure do love this little guy.  Some of us like to show that love daily...

Click HERE if you want to see the others at 3 months.

No counter top is safe...

Nate is a table top dancer.  He always has been.  As soon as he could climb a bar stool, he was on the table trying to get into things.  You have already seen what happens when we leave things out on the table.
Well, I have learned my lesson many times.
For example, now, on bread making days, I just leave the bar stools out here...

 Notice the rod holding the sliding door shut...he can unlock that door now, so we have to be careful.
Anyway, my hidden chairs didn't last for long because Allie came home for lunch and we forgot to put the chair back outside when she was done.

It was a costly mistake...

The flour is just too tempting.

Anyway, it is a constant battle.  I learned to put things that were dangerous or messy over on the other side of the bar.  He couldn't get to it.

Well, my crazy boy wouldn't stand for that.

Allie and Jake's "tandy?" is no longer safe in that spot!

By the way, I love how Nate says candy.  It is always said with the voice inflection of a question mark.  "tandy?"  Even when he is crying.  "Tandy?"  Sure, why not?

P.S.  Isn't it sad how Nate's last hair cut took all of his sun bleached summer hair away?

"Butter Mom! Mmm"

We had banana bread with butter on it for breakfast.  I went in to change Jason's diaper and then things got quiet.  I came back as quickly as I could, but the damage was already done.  You know how I said that I get the camera rather than get mad?  Well, here's more shots taken so I could laugh instead of scream.

 This used to be a whole cube.  He ate almost half of it before he started giving himself a butter bath.  If he has clogged arteries at age 5, we'll know the culprit.

Even after washing with dish soap, his hair was still greasy for what seemed like days.

I thought I would add, this is one of the best pictures I have of Nate.  He doesn't stop and smile when we are taking family pictures, or when I have him posed with the other kids.  He screams and runs away.  When he is doing naughty things, he is all too happy to have a nice smile to go along with it.

A bath every day

Maybe after you look at these pictures, you will see why I want to give this kid a bath every day, and maybe even more than once.  He is so cute to look at in this thing! 

If you remember, Nate used to love this tub too.  I did not love changing the water as often as I had to.  Jason hasn't pooped in it once, so my theory that this tub induces pooping is happily proved wrong.  :)

Love

This girl loves this cute little boy.  He is the first thing she asks about when she walks in the door from school.  Nate will be hovering around vying for her attention and all she can think about is Jason.  Ah well, Nate had his turn when he was Jason's age.  

Rock the halls

I'm pretty sure I have written about it before, but I'll do it again today...

Jake got to Rock the Halls at school.  When you read books and take tests on them, you earn points and when you get a certain number of points, you get prizes.  One of the most exciting ones is to Rock the Halls with the principal.  They play "Who Let the Dogs Out" and run from one end of the school to the other.  All the kids cheer and scream and make things fun for them. Jake said the "fifth grade hall is the loudest mom.  It will break your ear drums!"

It is fun to see him running down the hall with an ear to ear grin.

Here's the Principal and Jake is in the red shirt.  I was too worried about video to get a good picture.

 These are the kids that earned it for the month of January.  Jake's friend from the neighborhood rocked the halls with him.

Mike is always in awe when he sees Jake reading a book.  He didn't read unless he was forced to.  I love that my boy is a reader.  I can't wait till he can read some of my favorite books and we can chat about them. For now, I better get caught up on what he is reading.  All the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books are going to have to go on my bedside table.  :)

Fooled

Jason is a good baby.  He is also pretty smart, but I think I have him fooled.
That kid can tell if you are sitting down comfortably or walking around.  He would rather be carried around than let me be comfortable.
He can tell if his car seat is resting on a grocery cart, or if I am carrying it.  He would prefer me lugging him around than the smooth ride of a shopping cart.
He can sleep all day long without a bed buddy, but as soon as 7:00 pm rolls around, he fusses and wants to sleep with a warm body.  It has put a cramp in my cleaning style.  I like to get the dishes done and clean up around the living room when there aren't any kids to mess it up.  With Jason's fussy patterns, the things just don't get done.  I have missed my night time independence.
Someone gave me this idea, and I don't remember who, but I got a 2 liter bottle and filled it with warm water.  Now, the dishes are done and I am leisurely writing this post :)

Previously, I have shown pictures of Nate getting into the refrigerator.  It has become quite a problem.  It's a new fridge and one that he can open easily.  I haven't ever had a kid that can open the fridge (or even care to) until they are old enough to be responsible about it.  This fridge doesn't have handles that I can tie together, and the first lock that I bought wouldn't stick to its shiny front surface. 
I thought I was out of luck and resolved to train Nate into staying away.  That's nice in theory, but then when I sit down to feed the baby, Nate thinks it's time for a feast too.  He goes to the fridge and snoops around in there for something good.  I used to be able to keep things in the crisper and he couldn't get those drawers open.  But I have learned that putting an obstacle in Nate's course only makes him want it more.  He can get into every drawer now.  He's usually in search of carrots.  Sometimes he's lucky and there's a big pitcher of grape juice.  He grunts and stumbles over to me and asks for a "sip pease". 
It gets old.  When he broke 2 raw eggs on my bedroom carpet, I decided that I needed to browse the child proofing section at the store again.  I found one that was promising.  I followed the directions, and waited the suggested 24 hours to use the lock. 
I think Nate was out of bed for 15 minutes when he wandered over to the fridge and yanked it open (finding little resistance).  So much for that lock. 
Any suggestions?

A wonderful day

This cute boy was baptized last week.

This cute boy was blessed the same day.  I am one lucky momma.

I thought the day turned out perfectly.  I was frantic the night before, but Cinderella came up to help me get ready for the party.  My Christmas tree was still up and in a matter of a few hours, mom had this house whipped into shape.  She's pretty awesome...but back to the event...

I am so grateful for Mike.  He is such a good dad to our kids.  Jake admitted to being a bit nervous that day and he said he wasn't a fan of the white jump suit (too stretchy).
I guess he was also expecting cold water and was pleasantly surprised to find it warm.

We had a nice program in the Primary room.  Mike's dad Joe gave a nice talk on the Holy Ghost and we got to watch a video filled with pictures of Jake growing up.  It put me into a bit of a funk as I looked through all those pictures and remembered the fun, carefree days that we used to enjoy before the busy life took over.  It's hard for me to let these kids go.
I was glad for the peace I felt that day though.  I know that Mike and I are not alone in raising Jake.  He now has the gift of the Holy Ghost and he will have help as he chooses between right and wrong.  I am so grateful for my membership in this church and now for the choice that Jake has made to be a part of it as well.
Jason's blessing was nice too.  I feel a bit bad that he had to share his special day with Jake, but he won't ever know the difference :).  I'll make his own little blessing day post so you can see his cute outfit.
He was such a good boy.  Snoozed most of the day away.  I love that boy of mine and I love how well he fits into our lives now.  He's just perfect.

We reserved our ward building for a lunch after.  It was so fun to let the kids run around and toss balls, and just be wild and crazy...and not in my house :)
Thanks to all who came and helped make the day so great.

Kiss it better

Yesterday, Nate fell down in his bed and hurt his tongue.  He cried and cried and then asked me to kiss it  better...

I must be a bad mom, because I just didn't want to.  I thought we had made a compromise that I would kiss him, but just not on the tongue, but he found a way to slip it out there just at the last minute. :)  He got such a  big reaction that now he sticks his tongue out all the time and asks for a "mooch".  

The bed time routine has turned into quite a production.  

First, you have to avoid the tongue...

Then, you have to kiss any truck or car that he has in the crib.

Then you have to kiss each of his feet...once through each bar...

Then you have to kiss any stuffed animal that he has...

And finally, you have to repeat all of that if another sibling comes in wondering what all the joyful noises are about.
He tries to add to the routine to prolong me being in the room.  He asks for more books to be read, or for "ice wada".  Things always end in tears because he is never satisfied with the time that I put in.  I'm glad he's always happy in the mornings though.  Sure do love that kid...

Two Sides

You know how they say there are always two sides to every story, two sides to every coin...

Well, there are also two sides to every baby.

I like the other side better :)