Christmas Vacation

With Christmas also comes Christmas Vacation. With Scott getting off about a week and a half during Christmas break, and me usually taking off about a week, we manage to do lots of fun things during our Christmas Vacation. This year has been no exception

Wed: My mom called in the morning to invite me to go to lunch her, my little brother, and some of our old neighbors. I decided to take Jax and leave Scott with Jade. I told Jade I was going to go somewhere and she said she wanted to come. I told her she got to stay with dad. She said she wanted Dad to take her to lunch and I told her that was fine and to go and ask him. "Daddy? You take me to lunch?" "Sure-where do you want to go?" "The mall-burritos." Scott told her that was fine and then looked and me and said "Not C-H-U-C-K-E-E?" As in Chucke Cheese? I told him I didn't care. So he asked her and of course she was very excited. So when I left for my lunch, off she went with her Daddy! She has such a nice dad and he was excited to take her. She came home very, very tired and went right down for a nap, but she said she had lots of fun! The rest of the night was spent taking down Christmas. I decided in the morning that since we had lots to do the rest of the week, and not much planned for the rest of the day, it was the best to just get it over with. I love having Christmas up, but I always feel like my house is back to normal and not so cluttered once I get everything down! So, by about 6:00 Christmas was down at our house! It's a nice feeling actually!

Thurs: I had a hair apt early Thursday morning. I came home and we all pretty much just hung out for a few hours. After the kids napped, we headed down to "The Bear House" or in other words, Cabella's! Jade loves to go watch the fishes get fed goldfish, see the bears, and then eat dinner under the airplane! I'm sure in a year or so Jax will love it just as much. We seem to do this about 3 x's a year. It's a fun little family outing that is pretty inexpensive and the food is actually pretty good.

Fri: My Grandma Nielson started a tradition about 4 years ago that is so fun. She decided that rather than buy a small gift for all the grandkids, she would rent out a swimming pool. So, for 3 hours a few days after Christmas, we all go and swim. She orders pizza and bring treats and drinks and so it's dinner and entertainment all wrapped up in one! I love that she does this and the kids love it too. Jade had so much fun this year. I think this was the first year I didn't get in. I claimed it was due to getting a perm the day before. Jade is like a little fish. We put her water wings on and she jumps right in and would stay in for hours. The pool is pretty warm, so that is nice. She just loves to be in the water and has no fear of just floating around by herself. It's pretty cute. Jax is pretty much the same. Put him in any body of warm water and he would be happy for hours! We topped off the night by taking Seth and Zach-Jadyn's cousins who she LOVES- home with us for a sleepover. Scott even put the tent up for them to sleep in. Jadyn couldn't have been happier!

Sat: For any of you who don't know my husband, he loves to go to movies. He's pretty particular about it though. He has to sit in the middle of the row, about 1/2 way up, and he has to be early! Anyway, about 4 years ago, for our anniversary (I think) he got the idea that we should have a movie day i.e. got to lots of movies in one day. We were kidless at the time, so I was in on it too. So we went to Lunch and then started the shows. 12 hours and 5 movies later, we went home. I thought it was fun-Scott thought it was FANTASTIC. So, he has made it in to a twice yearly tradition. He goes once in the Summer and once over Christmas Break. After I had Jadyn I quit going all day and usually just meet him for one. No, Scott had NO problem going to the other movies by himself. A year or so ago, my dad got in on it and has gone to the past few movie days with him. When people find out about all of this, they think he is a little nuts, but he doesn't care. I also get a lot of "I can't believe you let him go all day" Eh-he loves doing it and it's only twice a year! Anyway, so Sat was movie day. This was the first year Jadyn got in on it. She went to the first movie with him and I picked her up after. He said they got their drinks and Nachos (Jade loves getting Nachos for a movie) and that she was soooo good! She loved going with him and she loved that she is getting big enough to go. It was cute. Jadyn told me later that she sat on her dad's lap and was sleepy. I said "Oh, that silly" Jadyn said "That's no silly" Alright, so I said "Oh, that was nice of you." Jade said "No, it was nice of Daddy!" She's funny, but definitely had a fun time with her dad. Here is SCott's movie review in a nutshell:

#1: Waterhorse: Scott was surprised at how much he actually liked this one-for a kids show.

#2: National Treasure: He said it was ok. Pretty much the same plot as the first one

#3: Juno: Ok, so this was my pick because I meeting him for one. I am a little hesitant to recommend it because there are definitely some sayings that are inappropriate (remember I was sitting next to my dad) but Oh. My. Gosh. it was pretty hilarious. I laughed out loud and smiled about it all night. I think having been pregnant before made it even more funny. Besides the parts that were not so appropriate, it was a good cute show. Touching too.

#4: Great Debators: He said it was a great show

#5: I am Legend: Scott said it was good. Scott's sister said she'll have nightmares about it. Sounds like a suspenseful show-which I hate-makes me feel way too much anxiety.

I took the kids to the mall for dinner. Jade had fun playing at the dino park and eating her burrito! Scott was home by about 10:00 which is actually pretty early for a movie day!

Sunday: Last Day of nursery!!! I can't believe my cute baby girl is going to be a SUNBEAM next week! She tried out primary today for singing time-no not by herself. I stood outside by the door and she turned around about 20 x's in the 20 min she was in there to make sure I was still standing where she could see me! :) I just stood there and listened to the primary secretary tell me how they need to learn to be by themselves sometime, and what I needed to do to get her to be by herself, that she would be fine, that it's a first kid issue, blah, blah blah. I know I am by far a perfect parent, but I don't really like others telling me how to do it better. Especially when I by no means consider her a perfect parent herself. I know that if I left she would cry and eventually be ok. It's just not the way I want to go about it yet. Annoyed? A little. There are only going to be 4 kids in her sunbeam class, so I think it will be better than nursery. We'll see how it goes. I think there may be some bribery going on!

Well, there ya have it! Our Christmas Vacation in a nutshell! :)

Jadyn floating in the pool

Jax and Daddy! I love Jax's little suit

Chistmas

I will start by saying that Christmas is so much more fun with kids! We had a great Christmas day! We woke Jade up around 7:30. She wasn't very happy to be woken up-she is like her dad-but as soon as we told her santa had come, she hopped out of bed! She stopped to put on her princess slippers from the night before, and then was ready to go up to see what Santa had left. She stopped to read the letter Santa had left her and then ran upstairs! She was so happy to see her bike and then quickly showed "buddy" what Santa had left him too! It was so fun to watch Jade open all of her gifts and see how excited she was! She not only enjoyed opening her gifts, but everyone else's as well! :) It didn't matter whose name was on it: Mom, Dad, Brother-she opened them all. We finished opening and headed over to my mom's for breakfast! All of my sibling's were there with their kids, my dad, and my grandma and uncle too! It was and always is loud and crazy, but lots of fun. Breakfast was delicious as always! My mom always does so much for us and we all appreciate it. It was fun to see all of the kids playing with their new toys and my cute nieces in their new clothes! I just love seeing the excitement and joy of kids on Christmas. It's priceless. We were all very spoiled! The best present there was definitely our toilet! No really-we left with a toilet. My mom got each or her kids a sanitary toilet thing (no, it wasn't the only thing she gave us), that you can use in case for some reason water was off for a long period of time. It's one of those things you hope you never have to use, but it you do, you are very grateful to the wise person that gave it to you. My mom said she knew it wasn't a very fun gift, but I disagree. I am very grateful she thinks of her kids when she sees things like that. I know that she worries about us and wants us to be prepared as possible in an emergency. Thanks mom! We love you very much! Again, I love hanging out with my family!

We left my mom's and headed over to Scott's Dad's house. It was much more quiet there! That could be the difference of the 10:3 grandkid ratio! :) I was glad to get 3 cookie sheets from Belva! I think after seeing it on my Christmas list for 2 years, she realized I really did need/want them! The kids were spoiled as well and Jax got the cutest little radioflyer ride on toy!

By the time we got home it was 1:00! We had managed to get Jaxon to sleep for about an hour while we were out, which was good. I had thought about letting Jade skip her nap, but by 2:00 I had decided against it. She is a child that doesn't like to take a nap, but once in her bed she falls asleep very quickly and is much more pleasant for the rest of the day after getting in a nap! I actually had to wake her up after 2.5 hours so that we could go to my grandma's. Jax slept in the afternoon as well! It was nice. I spent their time sleeping just picking up and opening all their gifts. Can I mention how IMPOSSIBLE toy makers have made it to get toys out of their packaging?!?!?! Seriously, what is the point? They have to tape, wrap, and twist tie each toy in a 100 different places! Any parent out there knows what I am talking about and understands how insane it is! Anyway, that is how I spent their time napping!

We headed over to my Grandma Nielson's around 5:00. We had a light dinner and were able to talk to some of my mom's family. With everyone growing up and having families of their own, we don't see each other nearly as much as we used to! My uncle Dave insists on buying gifts for EVERYONE in the family and also insists that in order to get your gift, you must come over! He is so nice and generous to buy for everyone. Especially because this gift buying extends to his great nieces and nephews as well! We love him an appreciate his generosity!

We left my grandma's with my niece Alyssa in tow. She wanted to sleep over-not sure why, secretly I think it was because she knew Jade got lots of barbies and she was DYING to play with them! :) Dang, I'm sad I didn't get a picture of her with the barbies! I never mind when she sleeps over. She plays with Jade for awhile and then just watches movies and texts the rest of the night. Anyway, Scott's brother and sister came over to see what the kids got for Christmas and to bring them a few more gifts. They are so spoiled by them! We were all going to watch a movie. None of us were surprised when Scott went down to give Jax his binkie and never resurfaced. I'm not kidding, 8:00 comes and he is done for the night! We watched Night and the Museum with everyone and then Mike and Brandee left. Jade was still awake and wanted to watch another show. I put Annie on for her, since she had gotten it in her stocking and she LOVED it and stayed awake for the whole show. I sooooo love when she likes things that I liked when I was little! She is really into dancing and singing though, so I wasn't too surprised. She has watched it several times since then! Too cute

It was a great day. I can't imagine not having family around to share the Holidays with! I mentioned early on how much I love the Christmas season and today was a great day to end with. I hate knowing that when I turn on the radio tomorrow there will be no more Christmas music playing and I almost feel like the 26th is a let down, but we have had a wonderful month filled with lots of fun. Thank you to everyone who has made it such a wonderful season. And, because we celebrate Christmas because of the birth and the Savior, I would be hugely ungrateful if I didn't mention how grateful I am for the Savior and the blessings we are receive because of his great sacrifice for all of us. I am grateful to have the gospel in our lives.

Jax and Daddy ready to open presents

Jade on her new Princess bike and some toys

Jax got a couple new rides!

The kids with Scott's dad, Belva, and Weston

Family photo on Christmas-all in our pj's!

Christmas Eve

It's amazing to me that while I am on vacation for over a week I spend less time on the computer than I do when I'm not on vacation. I decided it is because when I am not on vacation, the computer is how I "unwind" at the end of the day. When I'm on vacation, I don't need my "unwind" time and enjoy doing other things. Either way, I am behind a little and it's time to catch up!

Christmas Eve:

We had a very nice relaxing day on Monday. No where really do go or do during the day, which is always really nice. I don't even think any of us showered until after noon sometime! It was great. The kids napped while scott and I hung out. We started getting ready around 4:00. We were going to my Dad's house around 5:30.

A little background here. We have always spent Christmas Eve with my Dad's family. Every year of my life (except one when we went to Washington to spend with my mom's parents) we have gone to my Grandma and Grandpa Warner's Christmas Eve party. I think it was my favorite Christmas tradition growing up. My Dad's family is huge and there were always so many people there. It grew and grew as all of us cousins had kids, and though it was crowded, I looked forward to the party every year. Each year we had a dinner, then a talent show (I think my most embarrassing talent was the clogging number I performed one year!) . About 10 or so years ago, my grandpa started doing a little money draw in which he gave everyone a $2 bill and we sort of raffled off the number on our $2 bill. I must mention here that the first year he did this, I was the lucky one who won the $100. After the money draw they would pass out gifts, starting from the youngest. It was so much fun and I have WONDERFUL memories of my Grandparents party. My grandma passed away 4 years ago in April and my grandpa 2 years ago this Jan. Last year was the first Christmas without either of them, and it was decided that it was time that we split off into our own families to hold the Christmas Eve parties. My dad was excited to carry on the tradition, which was good because I couldn't imagine not having a Warner Christmas Eve party. He started a few new events, which has been fun and I'm sure they will continue.

Ok....back to Christmas Eve. Much to my very happy surprise it had started snowing.... A LOT....just as we were leaving. Nothing makes Christmas feel more like Christmas than Christmas Eve snow. It definitely slowed us down a little while driving, but I was so happy! Dinner was great and we had lots of yummy food. We followed dinner with a reading of the birth of the Savior from the bible (we tried a live nativity last year- it was hilarious, but we decided to just read it this year) and then short talent show. I laugh that we all wanted our kids to perform a talent because we always made a little fun of the talent show at my grandparents, but are keeping it alive and loving it! Jadyn, who much to everyone's surprise, was embarrassed to sing her Rudolph song, so she quietly sang to grandma while we all listened. One of my nephews sang while another played the piano as did my niece. After the talent show, it was time to "Run the monies" (as Jadyn has taken to calling the game) My dad came up with this last year and at first I thought the idea was a little odd, but it is really fun for the kids and all of us adults have fun laughing! Each kid gets a certain amount of time, depending on their age, to run across the room to a bucket of money, grab as much as they can and run back to dump it in the bowl. They do this as many times as they can with their allotted time. It's so fun to see what creative ways they come up with on how to get as much money as they can. Jadyn has definitely improved since last year. I think she got $1.83 last year and this year came away with $4.60! Go Jade! I think my nephew won with $11.50! After we play "run the monies" it's time for the white elephant game. My dad buys the gifts and we all have fun opening them. He even drew who went by going off numbers from our $2 bills. It was fun to do it that way- a remembrance of the past. Scott and I came home with a bag of almonds, and 2 bags of beef Jerkey! Good times. My dad gives all the kids p.j.'s. We changed the kids into their new Jammies and then headed home! It was a fun night. I love being able to spend the night with my family and I hope my kids have great Christmas Eve party memories, just like I do! Thanks Dad for the great memories!

The kids with Grandma

Jade "running the money" If you click to make this picture bigger, you can tell from the look on her face that she means business. This is important stuff!

The kids in their new Christmas Jammies with Grandpa!

Tis the Season!

It's been a busy week and I have loved it! I thought, mostly for myself, that I would post about the past week since we had lots of fun things going on! :)

Monday- We decided this year that rather than exchange gifts between my brothers and sister, that we would all just go out to dinner. My mom was nice enough to watch the sick grandkids at my house, and we had fun getting together with my family. We went to Bucca di peppo. It was pretty good and Scott and I had never been there! I am glad we decided to do this and hopefully we'll continue doing this for years to come!

Tuesday- Aunt Brandee was nice enough to take Jadyn to see Alvin and the Chipmunks and then to lunch while I took Jax to the Dr and ran a few errands. Jade had such a fun time. Later that night I left both sick kids home with Scott and I went out to dinner with two of my friends. Again-we ditched gifts this year and went to dinner instead. We had so much fun chatting and I must admit that I wanted to stay out a little later than I did. I had to be home to feed Jax, so I was only gone about 2.5 hours, but I had a great time. I'm sure Scott loved spending time alone with the kids too! :)

Wed- Nothing planned Wed night so I tried to just get a few Christmas things done. I finished some folder games for Jadyn and then, after the kids went to bed, I decided that since I felt like I had so much to do and not enough hours in my day, that I would just stay up all night! So, I wrapped presents from midnight-2:00 a.m. and then did some work until about 4:00 a.m. lucky for my tired body, Jade woke up with leg cramps and I went and laid down with her and fell asleep till 8:00. Otherwise, I was planning on staying up all night. Yes, I know I'm crazy but it felt so nice to get a few things done!

Thurs- Went to lunch (with Jax in tow) with some friends from work. Now that must of us work from home, we miss seeing each other everyday. It was fun to catch up with everyone. Then the snow started. I love snow before Christmas. Anytime after Dec 31st-not so much, but I LOVE snow for Christmas. I don't love it when it takes me 40 min to get somewhere that usually takes 10. My dad doesn't love it when it takes him 3.5 hours to get somewhere that takes an hour! It was my Dad's birthday and we were meeting him at 6:00 for dinner. He made it around 7:00. He had been in the car for 3.5 hours! No fun, but we had a good time once he got there! Happy birthday Dad! How does it feel to be 49?!?! :) (He wishes!)

Fri- It was supposed to be cleaning day, but once we got home from the Dr and SCott got home from baseball, I decided to go run and go shopping for an hour or so. Jade was coming with me, so we were going to be back shortly. Well, Jade decided to stay home with dad and my shopping trip then turned in to a 5 hour nice afternoon alone. Man, I can't tell you the last time I went shopping alone. It is soooo much more productive (and probably more for my pocket book) when I am by myself. Alas, I headed home. Scott was playing PS2 with both kids! May not have been a very productive cleaning afternoon, but we both enjoyed what we did do! We had two parties to get to that night. We only stayed at the first for about 15 min. It was at our old neighbors house. Every time I go there and see my mom's old house, I miss it. I loved that house! We headed over to SCott's dad's and had a fun Christmas party. JAdyn enjoyed playing with Belva's grandson Weston. They get along really well! It was a fun night

Sat- We finally managed to get the house clean-and it needed it! We also went down to see Scott's grandpa who had surgery last week on his shoulder and his 2 day stayed turned in to a much longer stay, and he was moved to a rehabilitation center. We only stayed about 10 min, but it was good to see his grandparents. We ate dinner at CPK before heading home. I LOVE their BBQ salad, so although it was not where we were planning on going, when I saw it I just had to go there! Yummy! When we were leaving CPK there was a Santa outside and looked like he was waiting for someone to pick him up. I told Jade to say him hi. The conversation went like this:

J- "Hi Santa"

S- "Hi" and then looks away as if he was tired of dealing with kids

J- "I want a bike and a toy" Uh, he didn't ask

S- Half smiles and pretty much looks away

J-"See ya stinky goose!"

It was pretty funny.

Sun- Being that it is Christmas Sunday, I made a huge effort to make it to church on time. I was successful. Yay! The kids looked cute in their new church clothes! Of course I went to nursery with Jade again. What else is new. The one time I posted about her staying by herself was the one and only time it's happened. I just keep wondering what will happen in a week when she has to go to Primary! I left today for maybe 90 seconds to get some scissors and by the time I got back to the door I could her wailing! I don't get it! Oh well, no need to try to get her used to nursery now. We didn't go to my mom's, since we will see everyone tomorrow and Tuesday, so we just had a nice night with the 4 of us. I even cooked Honey Mustard chicken that my sister made us when we had Jaxon. It is soooo good and Scott has been begging me to make it ever since! It was delicious! We watched about an hour of the Jadyn show and now Scott and Jade are asleep in the tent! :)

Well, there you have it. My crazy busy, but oh so fun week before Christmas. I couldn't have asked for anything better as I spent so much quality time with Family and friends. That is what is important to me during the Christmas season......and all year long as well! I love you all!

Jade in her Christmas Dress. As soon as she got it on (after telling her she needed to wear it since Santa picked it out for her) she said "It's beautiful!" Yes baby girl, you are!

Jax and Jade in their new Church clothes

Me and my baby girl!

Family pic and the Christmas party!

Man, I love this pic. Jade in her element. She had her Pj's on and was so happy I was letting her wear them during the day. I told her she didn't have to get her hair done until after nap, another bonus for her. Then, she was playing in her room and came out with this tank top on top of her pj's and her moon boots on! She was so proud of herself and thought she looked so cute!

6 months old already!

Seriously....1/2 a year old? Time flies. Little Jax turned six months old on Thursday. It's gone by so quickly. We were watching "The Jadyn Show" (Old home videos) tonight and it's amazing how quickly you forget when they are this little.
Jax is just so dang cute. He went to the Dr for his 6 month check up on Friday. He's still a little peanut. 8% for his weight, 47% for height, and 37% in head. His ears seems to be getting better, which is good. I talked to the dr about feeding him. He said I could skip cereal and go to veggies. We tried carrots and Pears tonight. I wouldn't say he hated them, but again, he's just not sure on the whole eat and swallow part. We'll work on it! I talked to the Dr about the fact that he is still sleeping in his car seat and although I think he was hesitant to give me the go ahead, he said he kinda feels like whatever you can get to work and the baby to sleep the longest, is fine. Jax was sleeping through the night around 3 or 4 months, but we've gone backwards. He got sick about 6 weeks ago and he started getting up again. After that sickness he finally started sleeping again, only to get sick again, and he is now waking up around 2:00 or 3:00 to eat. I don't mind so much, I nurse him while I sleep so there's not much lost sleep. The biggest problem is the very, very short naps I get during the day. I think if I could get him to sleep in a bed, he would get better sleep. So, we have talked about putting the crib up this week. I am a little nervous as Jade and Jax will be sharing a room, but I think we can get it to work. I'm more nervous about getting him to actually sleep in a bed than I am about them Sharing. So, hopefully we can make the switch from car seat to bed sometime in the next month.
Jax is still a very happy baby. He loves to people watch. He is happiest when he can look around and just watch other people. He loves to laugh at Jadyn. It's so cute to watch them interact with one another (rather than Jadyn just constantly being in his face) If you ask Jadyn, he is a great sharer, since she likes to claim he is just sharing all of his new toys. For her, Christmas will seem amazing considering she'll quickly claim Jax is sharing everything he gets!
Jax is jabbering a lot lately and loves when we talk back to him. Yesterday he was sitting with Scott and saw his feet move and instantly smiled and grabbed them-almost as if he didn't know they were his! It was cute!
I am so grateful to have Jaxon in our lives. He is a perfect addition and we all love him so much!

Jax-6 Months!

JAx 6 months

It's rare that Jax ever falls asleep anywhere than his car seat, so I had to capture this moment! It wasn't until after I took the picture that I noticed the cell phone. Jade said she gave it to him when he was crying!

Messy! Messy! Messy!

Why? Why? Why?

Why do kids have to go through the "why" stage? It's enough to drive me crazy! I think Jade asks the question 87,000 times a day! I know it is a stage that all little kids go through, so I am just crossing all crossables that it passes quickly. I try to come up with good reasons to all of her why's but a lot of the time, after she has asked why one too many times about the same thing, it ends with "just because" and then I distract her to move on to something else! Good thing she is so darn cute!

2 sick kids = LONG weekend

I could end the post there. It's been a long weekend. Jax has the worst cold and is so miserable which has led to A LOT of crying and very little sleep! So not fun, but it sure is going around

We did have a fun filled weekend though. We had a bro/sister Sommer family party on Friday. Jade found a new love for Disney Bingo. We played with prizes though, and she can't figure out when we played it the next day, why there were no prizes! She likes it thought and is one of the first games she can play all by herself! We had a fun night though.

I spent all night up with Jax and finally at 6:30 made scott take him in the car to see if he'd sleep. He did-for an hour! We hung out most of the day. I ran a few errands because Jax was happiest out and just loves to look around. Scott was gone until late so we just hung out the rest of the night.

So today was spent at home most of the day as well in hopes that we could get feeling better. No go. This is what Jax looks like now. Think he is sick? Crossing all crossables he doesn't have to feel this way very long!

Edited to add: After another LONG and sleepless night on Monday, I took Jax to the Dr on Tuesday. One very infected right ear and lots of fluid turning infected left ear was the culprit. Guess I would cry too! We got him on antibiotics and he slept 3 hours that afternoon and 12 hours (with one feeding in between) Tuesday night. I think we are on the road to recovery. Yay for medicine!

A Night with the Fam!

We had a fun little outing tonight. We have been wanting to go and look at Christmas lights for a while now. We were going to go last Friday but with the major snow storm, we opted for staying home that night. I think we have something every night from now until the 22nd, so tonight was the night. We had such a good time. Since Jaxon is on a napping hiatus during the day-he slept the entire time we were gone. We grabbed some dinner and then drove around looking at a few houses. The last house we went to was amazing. When you get there you tune in to a specific radio station and this man's lights are set up to the songs on the radio. It was so great. There was also a Santa projected on the window and it looked so real. Jadyn waved and he didn't wave back and she said "Oh, he didn't see me!" But-much to her surprise he waved soon after and she was so happy! We were driving home and we were about to pass a tree lot and I remembered that when we were at the Zoo this summer Jadyn started talking to a man and asked if he was Santa. He replied he was and said where his reindeer (and tree lot) live during the winter. I decided that since we were passing it we would stop. I am glad we did. Jax was asleep so I just got Jade out, but after paying $5 for a santa pic (with my camera), Santa saying we could take as many pics as we want, and the fact that you can't take personal pics at the mall anymore, I went and got JAx out of the car. The pics came out way better than the mall! I didn't plan on getting them, so they are just in their Jammies, but they turned out cute anyway. We had a really fun night and I'm sure we'll do it again next year!

Blurry mall pics

Retro Jadyn Pic

Monthly J & J update

I decided that since I have not been so good at keeping my little daily entries in my calendar for Jade and Jax, I am going to have to post updates here, so that I can one day print all of this off. I try to write down funny things, or dates when new things come up so that I can remember them. Here is what I have for the past few weeks

Jaxon:

Jax will be 6 months next week. I just CAN NOT believe it. A 1/2 a year? It has gone by so quickly! He got his second tooth on Thanksgiving, so just after he turned 5 months! He has started to really get around when we put him on the floor. If we lay him on his belly he is quick to roll over-and over- and skoot in a circle! It's so cute. He is grabbing and reaching for toys, and as soon as he gets a toy it goes directly to his mouth-including his toes, which he has discovered the past week or so. He must taste everything. Speaking of taste, I finally quit being lazy and let him try cereal for the first time on Sunday (12/09) It didn't go so yell. There was no gagging or showing too much dislike, but I think that was because most of it came right back out. He is used to nursing and the tounge motion is definately different, so we'll have to work on that. For about two weeks, after having a little cold, he was getting up at 3:00 again at night to eat. Thankfully, he is back to sleeping from about 8:00-5:00 or 6:00. I definately prefer that! He is still sleeping in his carseat. Trust me people. I have tried to brake him of this. I probably try once a week to see if he will sleep in a bed and all we get is screaming and crying until I put him back in his seat and he is out like a light. I will be talking to the Dr about this at his 6 month check up. He also sat up for the first time-unassited on Monday night! It was so cute and oh my gosh, why is he growing up so fast? People are constantly commenting on what a happy baby he is. It's 99% of the time true! He loves to sit and watch people and still smiles at EVERYONE who will talk to him. He has also started jabbering a ton! It's so fun to hear him jabber and jabber! I love having a baby in the house. He makes all of us happy and I just love him to pieces. Jadyn is still clobering him any chance she gets and he is still loving it. That, I can't figure out, but he laughs at her all of the time!

Jaxon eating his toes! 12/10/07

Jax after his first bite of cereal. He was more interested in watching Jade playing in the bath

Sitting up!!!!! He is so big!

Jadyn:

The last month-well since she turned 3, Jade has turned in to even more of a dramam queen and the non-stop talking, that my entire family had to endure through myself, has definately arrived. She talks, and talks, and talks some more. Most of the time it hillarious, because she is so dang funny, but every once in awhile it can be a bit much. Pay back, I'm sure for the non-stop talking I did (and still do if we are being honest) while I was growing up. And-she talks fast! I wonder where she gets it. Hmmmm....She not only talks fast but has taken to speed praying. She has one prayer down- a few short lines-that if she is playing and we aske her to pray she will say "Ok, I'll say it. Let's hurry." and the words come out so quickly it's over almost before it started. IT's funny, but we have had to have a few reminders about praying! :) We rented the show Hairspray last weekend and had it like 5 days past when we were supposed to. Jade would ask every day to watch "Oh, Oh, Oh woke up today" and then would sing and try to do all of the dances. It was so cute and I was shocked at how much she loved it. She is big in to getting herself dressed. She doesn't need help and is so proud of herself when she is done and all the tags are in the back. Lucky for me, she still let's me pick th clothes. I just can't put them on her. Sounds like a good compliment to me. I'll take it while I can get it. She can be a little bratty though, and I have to remind her sometimes to be nice-particularly when she is playing with younger kids. And Oh my, does she try to be everyone's mom! Seriously, the girl is out of control on this one. Uh, another trait she gets from me! She mothers EVERYONE-any age. She thinks she knows what is best for all. Again, her little sayings are hilarious. A few from the past few weeks are: "silly goose", "What the heck, "Are you kidding me", "It's not a problem" (that one comes out whenever she did something bad and doesn't want to get in trouble for it) . She still loves her brother, as mentioned above. The best is that she calls him "Buddy da da" so much so that the rest of us have found ourselves calling him "Buddy da da" It makes me laugh! I just loves that she loves him so much. She truly lights up whenever he enters a room and loves to have him by her and hold him. It's cute. Now, in a few short months when Jax is crawling and getting in to all of her things-this may change! My very, very favorite thing is when she randomly tells Scott and I she loves up, without any coaxing from us. She will out of no where say "Mom, I love you. I need a kiss" Uh, melts my heart. And just the other day she was sitting on my lap while I was working and she was watching t.v. and while she was starting at the t.v. she just mattter of factly said "Mom, you are my best friend!" How cute and wonderful is that? Being a mom is so much fun. My kids are growing up way too fast. I just wish I could freeze time and enjoy them as much as possible.

She is a lover of braids so I did a bunch of them the night before Thanksgiving so she could sleep in them and have wavey hair. She thought it was SO COOL to get so many braids!

Jade holding Jax. As I took this she said "What are you looking at?" In the snottiest voice she could muster up. So this pic was taken mid What. Oh, and don't mind the bright green pants on Jax. Scott picked out his jammies

Gingybread houses

For FHE on Monday night we made Gingerbread (or gingybread if you are talking to Jade) houses. This is something Jade has remembered all year from last Christmas and has been wanting to make another one since June, I swear! She was very excited tonight was the night! Last year we bought a pre-built house and I loved it-It was so easy to just decorate it. I thought that is what I bought this year, but I was wrong. So, Scott had to put it together. Jade actually was pretty patient-which is amazing and we watched a movie on Christs birth while we waited. She was so happy when it was finally dry enough to add the candy. You can see it is not the prettiest Gingerbread house, but it has tons of personality and Jade was so proud of it! I love seeing how happy things like this make her. I am sure we will talk about this gingerbread house again all year and we will look forward for next year as well. It is going to be a fun tradition in out house, I'm sure!

Here is scott starting the process with Jadyn watching intently

Jadyn was LOVING licking the frosting off the spoon

Jaxon started off in the bumbo wathing us but then started crying and doing the move above (trying to get out) Jadyn kept telling him he was "angry" He was tired so I took him down to bed and he slept through the rest of the FHE

Jadyn decorating

The final project- a little scary. Look at Jades little face in the background. Doesn't she look so pleased with her house?

Family photo minus "angry" Jaxon! :)

Quite the compliment

Jade, Jax and I were at the store the other day. I got Jax in the car and was attempting to put Jade in the car who was laughing and thinking she was funny to make it a little difficult for me to get her in. I was about to get mad at her and changed my mind quickly and decided this wasn't a big deal so I tickled her, got her buckled, and shut the door. The lady getting in the car next to me laughed and said "She is so cute. She just looks so happy!" My first thought was "Gosh, I'm glad I didn't just get mad" but my next thought was what a compliment that was. Having my kids happy is important to me! Small post-mostly a note to self!

A Great Day

Someone on another blog I read posted the question "When was the last time you had a GREAT day?" I thought about it and I thought that really, every day where I have my whole family together and happy and healthy is a great day. But a GREAT day: as in going and doing fun things or something extraordinary than others, it had been awhile. But....Sat was one of those GREAT days. It went like this:

We woke up to TONS of snow. So much snow that our tree out front looked like this:

I know, not so great, but whatever, not much we can do about that after the fact. We just hope it doesn't ruin the entire tree. That tree holds our swing in good weather. Anyway, Scott's gold net that he built also had a rough go, but he went out and fixed that as well. When he was done with that, and shoveling the driveway I sent Jadyn out. Remember from post below she has been waiting and waiting for her dad to build her a snowman. As I got ready to leave the snowman was finished! Jade was so happy!

I was then on my way (with Jax in tow) to meet my friend Cher! We decided last year that we were no longer exchanging "things" for Christmas, but would go and do something together instead. This yead we chose pedicures, and let me tell you, it was a good decision on our part! We went to Cameo College and it was so nice. Little did we know that we were not supposed to have kids their, but lucky for us, Jax and Kanani were sooo good and barely made a peep. Now of course, being the baby that he is, Jax did have an explosion that I had to take care of, but it wasn't a huge deal. We were at the pedicure place and then went to lunch. The babies, being the angels that they are, slept the entire time and we were able to eat and chat for 2 hours! It was WONDERFUL!!!! We were gone for about 4.5 hours. It was a much needed day out! And must I add that my feet have never felt so dang soft!

The good thing about me taking Jax was that Scott and Jade got to spend the day together. After they finished making their Snoman, JAdyn insisted they go in and make hot chocolate and then they went swimming. Jadyn loves the county rec pools and about 3 weeks ago I took her to my workout class at the gym and she saw the pool and has been wanting to go since then. Seeing that I am not a fan of swimming (suits) right now, I told Scott it would be a good time to go. He enjoys taking her, so it was perfect. They went swimming for about 1.5 hours and then got JAde some lunch at Wendy's, came home and watched a part of a movie and then got her down for a nap (which she was wiped out and asleep in seconds) She had a great day with her Dad!

After nap time was over we packed up the kids and dropped them off at my mom's. Scott and I hadn't been out, alone, since 2 weeks before Jax was born. I know, we are pretty pathetic. We were able to go to the store, a movie (Dan in real life-which I highly recommend. It is the first non kid show, that was clean, that I have seen in a long time) and then to Dinner at Johnny Carino's. We were able to have lots of adult conversation. Whenever we are in the car as a family and Scott and I start talking to each other and not to Jade, she is sooooo quick to pick up on that and say "Mom, (or Dad) talk to me. Stop talking (as in to each other)" Needless to say, we had a good time. I am always nervous to leave my kids. I don't know why, the break is nice, but I just get nervous and feel better when they are with me. Still-for the sake of our Marriage, we really should do it more often.

We picked the kids up at 10:30 and of course both were still up. Jax had been asleep but decided he didn't want to stay that way, and Jade had spent the last hour playing "playmobile" toys of my brothers, from 20 years ago! She was excited to see us, but had so much fun with my mom. Who wouldn't-my mom tends to her every request and plays so well with her! :)

No, the day did not end there. Scott had promised a night of sleeping in the tent, so although we got home at 11:00 he kept his promise and put the tent up for him and JAde to sleep in! I had gone down at 11:30 to feed Jax and put him to sleep. Jade came down at 1:17!!!!! and asked for another show. I could only assume Scott was the only one who fell asleep up there! I told her absolutely not and to go up and GO TO BED!!!!! :) Of I've said it once, I've said it 10000 x's. She is sooo my child. She could stay up late every night! Here she is bright eyed and bushy tailed at 11:30 p.m.

So there you have it. A very fun filled day for not just me, but Scott and Jade as well! (I'm sure Jax felt it was pretty much the same as every other day)

LEt is Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

When it snowed just a little bit last week Jadyn asked when she got to go and play in it. Ummm....considering it didn't even stick to the ground, I told her she had to wait until we had enough to play in. Well, we woke up Saturday morning to such a fun surprise. Now, I love the snow up until New Year's and then I want it to stop. Of course it had to snow HARD the weekend Scott was gone. Lucky for me, I already had plans to go to a movie with my Dad and he was nice enough to shovel the driveway and walks for me before he left to go home. Jadyn of course was saying "Mom, there is enough snow. Can I play? Mom, can I go out? Mom, can you play with me?" The thing is, I'm not one that loves to play in the snow. I kind of have deemed that as a "Dad" job. But-seeing that her dad was out of town and she had been dying to go play, what's a mom to do? We played. First I let her go out for about 15 min while my dad was shoveling and then I told her when she woke up from nap we'd go out again! Of course it was the first thing out of her mouth when she woke up. So, I bundled her and I up and sat Jax up by the screen door and out we went! She had a blast-up until she was crazy enough to take off her gloves. Not a good idea. I brought Jax out for a minute. He was ok with that until I thought I needed to get a photo op of him and Jade together. Yeah, not such a good idea! We had a good time though and Jade was happy we could finally play in the snow, even if we couldn't get the snowman very big!

My Dad and Jadyn out in the Snow!

Jadyn trying to get covered in snow!

Mommy and Jade!

Jaxon nice and warm outside!

I took Jax out for one pic and he was not happy! Jade was done as well.

The Advent Calendar

Jadyn just woke up and came upstairs. Usually she comes and finds me and let's me hug and snuggle her for a little while. Not this morning. She came upstairs and I said "Good morning!" and went to pick her up. She pushed right past me and I said "Where ya going?" Still no response and she quickly climbed up on the kitched chair right in front of her two advent calendar. The girl wanted to open another door and get her chocolate! She gets so excited about it and must have been thinking about it all night! Too cute! She is scoring on advent Calendars this year because I also stole the one from my mom that we had all growing up. It hangs on the wall and has pockets and you put little treasures in it for each day. Today there was a $1 jump rope in there. Needless to say, she was a very happy girl this morning!

So here is a pic of her, eyes barely open, but she has the two advent calendars! Oh, and no, I didn't intend on having her have two but Scott's dad gave her one and then I couldn't find it. As with anything else, the same day I bought her another one, I found the first one. Trust me, she isn't complaining!

And another chapter is OVER in the Sommer book of LIFE

He's done. As of today, Scott has finished his Master's program. The grades aren't offically in, but considering he is hoping to pull a 4.0 for his entire Master's degree, it's safe to say he'll pass! ;) I'm sure Scott is so relieved to have it finished. I can tell you that I am sooooooooo glad it's over. It was stressful for everyone, class two times a week with lots of reading and papers in between for the past two years. But, I think that as it is with everything else in life-once you finish one thing, there is always something to fill the time. Young Men's, batting instruction with some team, whatever. But, he is done with being a student and that makes me happy. So we will have him around more for the next two and a half months until baseball starts! I must say that I am proud of him for getting it done. We knew it was important that he get his Master's when he decided to go into teaching and the sooner the better. Again, I'm just really happy to close this chapter and move on to the next! Thanks to everyone who helped support/encourage Scott and our family through this!

Bad Mom Day

Man, I am such a downer these last few posts. I post about it because I will one day use this as a journal type of thing. Lucky for those of you that read it.
I hate these type of days. The days when you finally get the kids to sleep, excited to have a little break, only to start feeling incredibly guilty. Maybe it's just me. I don't know, but there are times, when the day is over, that I just feel like saying to myself "Today was a bad mom day." Days where I should have been more patient, more loving, less onery. It makes me want to just go and get my kids out of bed and say "I'm sorry" and give them big hugs and kisses. I put Jade to bed tonight without rubbing her back and singing to her because she just wouldn't listen to me when we were getting ready for bed. Sounds lame, but right now I feel awful about it. I love the girl more than anything in the world, but she isn't always easy. She is too much like me. Always wants her own way, talks constantly, can whine with the best of them. I said the other day that I think I am going to have to change my personality because I know she won't be changing hers and I'm afraid of the clashes we might have! :) I'm kidding. It's a good things kids are so forgiving. That in the morning she will be over the fact that I didn't sing to her and we will start another day. I am grateful for another day-but I am going downstairs now to rub her back-even though she is asleep- and to kiss my baby boy.