Back in Business!

Things have been a bit rough around here.  Before Christmas, Allie had a long week of being sick, and Mike got sick too.  Nate was a snot face for 2 weeks and Jason had an ear infection.  Then I got mastitis.  I think we were all pretty miserable at some point in the last few weeks, I guess Jake was the exception.  He stayed healthy.  I didn't have any clue about poor Jason's ear infection.  He just started screaming one night and didn't stop.  Mike and I were both frantic because he's never acted like that before.  If it were Nate, we could have just handled it because that was life for us when he was this age.  But Jason has never really cried much.  I was half way to the emergency room when he stopped.  I thought it would look pretty silly to pull up to the ER and say "uh...my kid was crying...I swear..."  So I turned around and went home.  We spent a restless night and then took him to the Dr. the next morning.  I was thinking he had some gut issues, but it was an ear infection.  Thank heavens it was something that could be fixed!  We were so stressed after hearing him cry for hours, I was imagining the worst.
Anyway, after all that, it was Christmas. Then we went to Orem, came home from that and went to Island Park.  It was a lot of fun but it also made things a bit more crazy.
Jake was also baptized and Jason was blessed.  Lots of stuff to happen around here.  So, I guess that's my excuse for being off the computer.  I have my new computer back and the pictures are loaded.  Now there's no excuse to blog.  There are so many funny pictures from the last few months that I can't just skip them.  So, even though lots of time has gone by now, I'll still be back dating some of these posts.  Scroll down and look for them if you want...

2 Months!

Jason turned two months old on Christmas Eve.  So this is a little late in getting posted...

 One of his first smiles caught on camera.  So cute!

I had to work fast because Nate wanted to "nuggle!" with Jason.

They will be good pals.  Nate is so soft with him.

I took Jason to his 2 month check up the other day (just slow to report).  He was actually 2 months and 2 weeks before we could get into the office and I swear, he grew so much in just those 2 weeks.  He is growing right along!  All that worry in the beginning about not gaining weight is not a problem anymore.  He is right on track now.  

I always try to get a picture of the cute chunky legs after shots...so cute!

Jason is an amazing kid.  He smiles easily and seems content most of the time.  He is just a happy kid.  He takes really good naps during the day and we are working on a good sleep schedule in the evenings.  I can't complain though because he sleeps a good solid 6 hours in the night.
No one gets tired of holding him, or of coming into his line of vision to be rewarded with a smile.  We love you Jason Kay!

As for his stats...

Weight: 12 pounds 5 oz. (50%)
Height: 23 1/4 inches (50%)
Head: 39.5 cm (25%)

Here are the other kids at 2 months if you want to look back and compare.  I was shocked to see that he is almost exactly the same size as Nate was at this age.  However, he is not nearly as mobile as Nate was.  Does that mean we won't have another super crazy "I'm going to crawl before most babies roll over" boy?  I'm okay with that.  Jason is pretty fun just the way he is.

Conversation at bedtime

The scene:
Allie and I were having another "discussion" about cleaning.  I set the timer for 10 minutes and wanted the kids to pitch in on cleaning up the living room. I knew it would take 2 minutes if they all helped.  Jake got cleaning, and even Nate got going.  Allie sat there and argued with me.  She insisted that none of the mess was hers.  I took the bait and suggested that I would just throw away anything that I found that was hers and it set her off.  The result was that Jake, Nate, and I cleaned and Allie cried.  Later, she came up to me to talk it out...

Allie:  I'm sorry that I didn't help clean.
Me:  Why didn't you help?
Allie:  Because I had to just sit and cry.
Me:  What made you so mad?
Allie:  You said that I was going on the naughty list and I just know I'm not going to get any presents (insert broken hearted sobs).
Me:  I'm sure you will get some presents.  You are mostly good.  You just have little fits every now and then.  What can we do to solve the problem?
Allie:  I just don't know how to be good.
Me:  When I ask you to help out, just help out!  That would be good wouldn't it?
Allie: Yes, but I don't know why I just can't.
Me:  What if we do this...when you are starting to get mad, I can just say 'do you need a minute to cool off?' and you can go off for a minute and then come back and start over.  Would that work?
Allie: No. I wasn't mad because I was hot.  I just didn't want to help clean.  So that wouldn't work.

It always makes me smile when the kids say things to remind me that some of the things in our language are just plain weird things to say. 
My mom used to say "sit on your own lunch" when we were trying to sit on her lap at church or something.  That meant to quit leaning on her and sit on our bum (I assume), but when I said that to Jake once, he said "why would I want to sit on my lunch?"  with such an innocently perplexed look that I just had to laugh. 
Did your mom tell you to "cool your jets?"  Mine did.  She also told us to "quit rough housing or someone will get their block knocked off!"  I've said that one a hundred times too. 
I trued to explain what "cooling off" means and I still don't think she gets it.  I think she is going to work on it though.
Love that girl...

Naughty, naughty Nate

I almost feel disloyal typing out the title of this post.  Nate is a good boy.  He's been even better than ever in the last few weeks.  However, he is a boy.  He is a wild and crazy boy.  He likes to vroom his cars on the walls and throw balls in the house.  He also likes to dump out toys and make things smash.  He likes to hear loud noises.  He enjoys life.  But really, he doesn't do these things to be naughty.  He just does them because he is almost 2.  He is just figuring out life. 
So, I wanted to say all that before I post these pictures.  I do love my little Nate boy and he sure can make me smile.  In fact, that's why I take pictures of him when he is making messes.  It makes me stop and take a breath.  Then I don't yell and get mad.  So here he is...naughty, naughty Nate.

Not pictured...

All the times he jumps into the tub clothed because it just looks so fun to be in with Jake or Allie.

All the times he plays with poo...yes, I said time(s)...plural...yuck!

The many times he unloads the pots and pans

When he uses a cup to get water out of the toilet

The list goes on...

I sure do love this boy though!  He makes life fun. 

Toothless

Teeth are falling out right and left around here. Jake lost a tooth while I was in the hospital and then two more the next week.  He's going to wear the tooth fairy right out!
He lost another one at school today.  I wanted to know the story of it, so as he was doing homework he gave me all the gory details.  Apparently the tooth gave a fight.  He had to twist and turn it and use wipes and napkins...it was quite a tale.  So at the end, I asked him what his teacher thought of all of it.  He said, "no big deal!  Kids are pulling teeth out at school all the time!"  I guess when you are a grade school teacher, you have to toughen up at the sight of those dangling by a tiny root teeth.  I can't stand the sight, but I guess if I saw it every day I'd have to get over it.

Conversation as we did the dishes...

The scene:
It was a Saturday morning.  The kids had watched hours of cartoons and lounged over breakfast.  It was time to do some chores to earn their keep.
I told them to clean their rooms.  Jake hopped to it.  Allie started to complain.  She cried and said that Jake's room was easier to clean because it wasn't as messy as hers.  I told her that she had made her own mess and he couldn't be blamed for not making a big mess of his room.  The conversation went round and round in circles until I was out of patience.  I reminded her that Christmas was around the corner and that I just might choose to take her gifts back.  She cried and got even more stubborn about things.  I knew I wasn't going to win this fight, so I told her if she helped me do dishes that I would help her clean her room.  She agreed to the bargain.

The conversation:
Me:  Allie, I hate it when we have to argue like that.  You are so willing to help when Nate needs to be taken off the table (100 times a day), or when I need a binky for Jason.  I love it.  I ask you to help and you hop to it.  But then today, I tell you to clean your own mess up and you throw a huge fit.  What's the problem?
Allie:  Well, I went to sleep so late last night that I just couldn't help it.  I was grumpy.
Me:  I guess we need to make sure you get good rest tonight because I don't like having to argue.  I don't like having to threaten you with the loss of Christmas presents.  I don't like having to talk mean to you.  Let's work on it okay?
Allie:  Did you not get good sleep last night either? So that's why you were so grumpy?

The Schwabby Express

We rode on the Schwabby Express...
I got the idea from a friend of mine and decided to toss it in with our Christmas time traditions.  The kids loved it.  We got into jammies and loaded up in the car with hot chocolate and treats to go for a ride and look at all the Christmas lights of the town.

I think Mike thought I was weird when I proposed the idea to him, but he went along with us and thought it was fun in the end.

We started out by dipping marshmallows in chocolate and then lots and lots of sprinkles.
Jason hung out in the mobe wrap and snoozed off and on.

Nate did his best to get in everyone's way and eat as many "mellows" as possible.

These darn kids wouldn't lay off the sprinkles (even though I warned them to) and doused them all to where there was very little chocolate showing.  Mine were conservative and guess who wanted to eat them all up when they realized theirs were gross because they were "too sprinkly".  Oh well, lesson learned, I guess.

We sure are filling up this car of ours!

I think it was a great adventure and one that we will do next year for sure.  I wanted to print off cute little tickets and be the "conductor" and listen to The Polar Express while we were on the ride, but none of that happened.  We did, however, go up where Mike likes to ride his motorcycle in the fall and see a beautiful view of the valley.  The lights were everywhere and it was a pitch black night.  Perfect way to see Christmas lights.

When Mike walked in the door...

He said, "It's never a good sign when I come home and can hear the crying from inside my truck."

Nate has a seriously loud cry.  I too have heard it from inside my car when he is in the house and I am backing out of the garage.  He hates to see us go.  He sure is a cute little guy, but we could do without that loud cry.

I am annoyed that I haven't been able to post anything lately.  As far as computer news, I was able to get all my data back.  Yay!  I wasn't too worried about it because I had a pretty calm feeling about it all, I like to trust that calm feeling, but I guess you never know.  As for the computer, the hard drive was fried so I have to get a new one.  My sister in law Dixie is going to hook me up with a 3TB drive.  I told her that I'd never fill it up...but you never know, I just might. 
Anyway, the external hard drive with all my precious pictures on it is back from the computer shop and now I can blog again.  I am so behind!  Jason has turned one month old (and is now 6 weeks!).  Jake has turned 8.  Allie has been up to her funny conversations at the lunch table, and Nate has been into everything he can get into.  We took family pictures and have started with the Christmas celebrations.  So there is much to write about.  The only problem is time.
Jason is an awesome kid (and so, so cute!) but he is a bit fussy at night when I like to get stuff done.  Mike was gone for a week and that didn't help matters.  But I will try and get things on here. 
For now, just know that I was able to get my pictures back (and the 18 months of video that I hadn't backed up anywhere...shame on me).  Also, let this be a reminder to us all not to procrastinate backing up data.  It's not fun to think it's been lost.  I thought I was pretty good at it, but even losing a month or two is devastating.  I'm so grateful that I was able to get it all back. 
More to come...

8

My cute little Jake boy is 8!  He had a wonderful birthday.  Mike was out of town on the actual day, so we celebrated the day before.  

 Jake was happy with his gifts... Lego's, a Nerf gun, an airplane with a propeller, and some underwear :) Yay!

 He chose Lucky Charms as his birthday cereal.

Instead of a birthday party this year, he took his friend Carson to the Jump Zone.  It's a trampoline park here and it was really fun.  He wanted his cake to be a trampoline.  So this was my effort at it.  Can't you tell that those blue things are kids jumping?
I tried to talk him into dark frosting so it looked more like a trampoline mat, but he was firm on yellow.  The inside was blue and green.

 This looked so fun to me.  I think I'll have to return to the Jump Zone and try this out.  They were doing all sorts of fun flips.

 Jake requested nachos for his birthday dinner.  This looks pretty gross, but they weren't bad.

Jake...it just doesn't seem all that long ago that I looked forward to your birth.  Then you were here and my heart grew to love more than I could have imagined possible.  Your happy disposition made it so fun to be around you.  I am so blessed to be your mom.

You still make me smile every day and I love to watch you grow up and change.  You still give me a hug and a kiss each night before bed and you remind me to say family prayers before school.  You are a responsible kid and although you can make me a bit crazy at homework and piano practice time, I am grateful that you are smart and talented.  I love that you enjoy life.  I love to hear of your outdoor adventures and the fun things you learn in school.
I can't imagine life without you.  Thanks for being my sweet boy forever.
Love,
Mom