Favorite thing about my house

The other day, on a board I read, someone posed the questions "What is the favorite thing about your house" I immediately knew mine would have to be the fact that the backyard is right off the main floor and the kids can just go right out and play while I am cooking, cleaning or whatever on the main floor and I can still see them. I know, I've mentioned this before, but it has been so nice. Jaxon gets so excited if anyone even opens the blinds, in hope that we will let him go out and play in his sandbox, slide, and car.


Well............today I thought maybe it isn't always such a good thing. Because I let them go play while I am doing other things, it gives them time to do things I wouldn't normally let them do. Today was one of those times. I was doing something and when I went to check on them, this is what I saw:

Jade decided to make a wading pool in the sand box. Gee, great idea........had the sandbox been EMPTY!!! So, there was one big mudpit and Jax's most favorite play place is now gone. Tomorrow I will see what we can do to bail out the water, but I don't think we will fill the sandbox until next spring. Not even sure we could find sand at this point anyway. I just laughed, took their picture, made them take their clothes off at the door and head up to the tub. They sure had a good time in the mud wade pool! :)

What else can you do outside? Take duct tape and scotch take and make wonderful creations from rocks, pipe, and rocks. Awesome!!! Oh, and those black pipes? Well those were garbage she found on the road one day that she brought home-along with a big ole piece of concrete. She is in to picking up garbage from the parking lots and such lately. I'm talking wrappers, lids to drinks, ANYTHING, and she thinks she found the greatest treasure that she can take home and tape together. I keep telling her that is gross and dirty. She smiles, laughs, and tries to tell me that it's not. Whatever.......

"I said a prayer"

Two weeks ago, on Sept 11th, I took Jade and Jax over to the "Healing Field" where they have all of the flags out. I told Jade a little bit about why they were there and that some mean guys crashed the airplane into a big building and it made a lot of people die. She thought that was so sad. We walked through the flags and Jade wanted to have her picture taken with an "army man" Someone was nice enough to oblige her. She got in trouble for not listening or something and had something taken away from her while we were there. As we were leaving she was quiet and so I asked her what was wrong. She said "Nothing mom, I just said a prayer that they could fix that building" Ahhh....I thought that was the sweetest thing I had ever heard! I told her how nice that was of her and how proud I was of her for thinking of others. I then told her that because she was so nice to say a prayer she could have her toy back. Before I finish my story, I just want to say that I am grateful we could go and remember Sept 11th and the sacrifice so many have made for our freedom since that day (and all of those before that day as well)

Since that day, there have been 4 or 5 times that we have this conversation:
Mom: Jadyn, you are not listening. You can not have _______ or I am taking _________
Jadyn: Silence for a little while
Jadyn: Mom, I just said a prayer for being naughty and saying I'm sorry. Mom, I just said a prayer for Grandma Carla. I miss her (Hmmmm......did she meet her?) Mom, I just said a prayer that you will forgive me
Mom: Oh Jade, that is very nice of you to say a prayer
Jadyn: (face lights up) OK, can I have my toy back (or whatever it was she couldn't have)

Well, at least she is learning to say personal prayers, even if she does have her own agenda for doing so!

Sigh: Jaxon, Jaxon, Jaxon

One of those days. Here is how it went:

8:00 a.m. I'm on the phone with someone and I hear Jade yell. I go around the corner and there is Jax eating all the dipping caramel Jade had left on the table last night. He pulled it down, dumped it on the chair, the floor, his hair and had it all over his body and face. He was so happy. I about died. The sticky mess! I decided to take a pic-camera in the car. He was happily eating so I decide to run to the car. Bad idea. He tried to follow me-with his caramel hands across my WHITE carpet.

8:30 a.m. Jax unrolls the entire roll of Toilet paper. Swell.

Whew, time for daycare

I pick them up and Jax throws Jade's hair bow into the toilet-before she flushed. Jade FISHES IT OUT!!!! GROSS!!!!

Whew...nap time

Jax gets up. I finish working. Jadyn yells, I go around the corner and there is Jax in the middle of a HUGE blue mess. Replay the caramel scene from above but insert melted blue yogurt EVERYWHERE!!!! Again, all on my WHITE carpet. I need the photo, Jax is crying from the Chaos.

Put Jax in the highchair and Jade offers to feed him a new yogurt. Nice sister. I start scrubbing the carpet and talk to my mom on the phone.
Jade yells! I look up to see Jax COVERED in pink yogurt. Jade lost interest in feeding him so she left the yogurt up to him-of course he poured it on himself, the floor, and did some finger painting! :)

Good thing the boy is so dang cute. Really though- you would think I would have learned my lesson after the caramel. The kid needs to be in my sight at all times!

Love ya Jax.......at least I can see some humor in all this

Saturday: Part 2

Ok, so I am way behind on this "Part 2" from a week and a half ago, so here goes:

Alright, so after the fair we took Jax home and then Brand, Jade and I headed off to the Gymnastics preview. I told Jade she should wear her gymnastics clothes, and she would have none of it. Fine, whatever. Not worth the fight. We get to gymnastic, walk in to see about a hundred gymnasts all in their gymnastic clothes and what happens "Mom, I want my leotard on!" Gee, really? So, being the nice mom that I am :), I went out to the front and bought her a leotard that was on sale. I wasn't that bothered since she now needs leotards for dance and gymnastics and could always use another. Anyway, she quickly changed and then went and sat with all of the other kids. It was so fun to get to watch all the older girls to their tricks on the floor, balance beam and bars. They had the tots class come on the floor and just basically so some back bends and donkey kicks. It was pretty cute.

These pics are bad because of the lighting, but here she is warming up!

Doing backbends. Her teacher is amazing with the little kids!

After the preview they had a magician come and do a show and then we headed off to the park for a little "carnival". The past month at gymnastics they have been getting tickets to use at the carnival. There were games they could get more tickets and then they were able to get prizes. Jade loved it and had a great time. Afterwards we ate and then let her play at the park for a minute and then headed home.

She loved rolling down this hill

Playing a game

This is the Prize she used her tickets on "Sugar Crystal"

Not a great pic, but considering my kids don't eat fruit (although they would eat green beans with every meal and do twice a day) and she voluntarily asked for my watermelon, I had to document it! :)

We got in the car around 7:00-so we had been gone for pretty much 10 hours straight. Needless to say we had only been in the car about 3 min before I notice Jade was OUT. She didn't even wake up when we got home. I took her, laid her down and she didn't wake up until 8:00 the next morning! We definitely wore her out! I had such a fun day with her. I love Jax, but it is also fun sometimes to spend one on one time with the kids

She was so tired. And yeah, that is her cottoncandy stick. She would not throw it away!

Basement

As I have talked about in many of my posts, we are finishing our basement. My Dad was nice enough to agree to help us-which he has done a lot of. Until today, I have done nothing to help. Well-unless you count watching the kids so Scott can work, as helping. Even then, I will be so glad when the project is over. Scott and my dad probably feel that way x's 100! A

Anyway, it is getting close. I took these pics after they framed, but before we had sheetrock. It doesn't look anything like this now. I just thought I'd post these so I can remember what it looked like before. It is going to be so nice to move all the toys and my workout stuff downstairs. I can't wait!

The sheetrock guy finished about 2 weeks ago. We now have the ceilings, baseboards and doors painted. I am crossing my fingers and will work hard and getting it finished painted by next Sunday. That is a lofty goal, considering how much there is to do, but one can always hope. I am also hoping to be all done in 3 weeks. I think it's possible.

Stairs....

My grandma has been known to do good things with teaching kids how to go down stairs the right way (backwards on their bellies) Jaxon had yet mastered this skill or come anywhere near learning. Scott and I, as well as their Daycare Provider had tried relentlessly and it always ended up with Jax screaming and crying like we were torturing him.
Last Wed (09/03/08) My grandma was nice enough to watch the kids for me while I worked since Collene (Daycare) had the day off. I told her that we had all tried to teach him the stairs and at 14.5 months he still hadn't learned. She said she would work with him.
No lie-I picked him up a few hours later and she said "Well, I got him to go down twice by himself and there was no crying!" What?!?! And wouldn't ya know-I took him home, put him at the top of the stairs, turned him backwards and said "Ok, Jax-let's go down!" and down he went on his belly. He was so proud of himself and I clapped and said "Good boy!" The whole way down!
Wonder if I should take him back to my grandma and she could instill the ways of walking.

Whew....what a day! Saturday Part 1 (The Fair)

Last Saturday was a busy day! I got up early to finish cleaning the house. I was talking to Brandee-who had cleaned hers the night before- and she said "I just love the feeling when you are all done and the whole house is clean." I laughed and told her to enjoy it now, before she has kids. Now I clean one room and move to the next. By the time I am done in that room, the tornado or I mean my kids, have gone through the first room and made it not so clean! Oh well....at least I feel good knowing the house gets cleaned good once a week.
Anyway, We left around 9:30 to go to the fair. We have gone every year since Jade was born so I guess it's kind of a tradition. We usually go on Tues, but weren't able to this year so Brand and I decided we'd take the kids on Sat

Jade giving loves to the sheep! :)
Jax LOVED the animals!

They have this Kid farm activity that is so cute!
The yellow slide!
Jade thought this guy was so funny. She loved that he could balance a chair on his chin
The Scary Fair rides. I always worry about these, but Jade thought it was great

The $4 pony ride

We were at the fair for a few hours and didn't get home until about 2:00. We dropped Jax off and put him to bed-Checked on my Dad and Scott who were working hard in the basement, and then we were off to Jade's gymnastics fair.

Jax's 1st Haircut

Scott was going to get his haircut the other day. Jade was already going with him-I was working, so he said he was taking Jax as well. Sounds good to me. I told him while he was there he should get Jax's trimmed-just around his ears and shorten his spikes on top. The thought overwhelmed Scott. He said I needed to go with them if I wanted Jax's done too. I reassured him that it would be fine and sent them all on their way.

They got home and how cute was it to see my little boy got his first big haircut. They cut everything: Buzzed the back, cut the top, the works. He looked so cute. Scott said he did so good and was so cute. He laughed when they were buzzing his head. I am sad that I missed out on getting some pics and keeping some hair, but what do ya do! It saved me time, so that was good. He looks so cute, sweet and......innocent! :) Good thing he is so dang cute because he is a wild child!

This is pretty much how Jax feels about being held. He is always wanting to be down and on the move. Well, not true. He will crawl to me, pull up on my legs, I'll pick him up and love him and then he whines and wiggles to get down! I think he just likes to check in to make sure I'm still around and available if need be-but never really wants to be held! I try to just enjoy the brief seconds! :) I was trying to get him to hold still to get a picture of his cute haircut, but he wanted to be down playing!

This would be the story of Jax's life right now-ya only see the back of him because he is never in one spot for longer than 1/2 a second!

Jade of course did not want to be left out of the picture taking

mOre and mOre Jadyn"ism"'s

They never stop. The girl is funny!

The Aquarium:

Mom: "Jade should we go to the Mall or the Aquarium tomorrow?"

Jade: "Ummmm....I think we should go to the Aquarium."

M: Ok, sounds good

J: But mom? Let's not feed buddy to the sharks. They are bery, bery, bery scary and we would be so sad if they ate him

Hmmm...wonder if Scott should have rethought the whole letting her watch Jaws.....

Dance Class:

Mom: "Jade, when you go to dance class I am going to just wait outside and go on a walk with Jax and we will be waiting for you when you get done"

Jade: "Ok, but you need to stay on the sidewalk and be bery careful. And if a naughty guy tries to get you, you scream and kick him like this (kicks legs wildly)"

M: "Alright Jade, we'll be very careful!"

Calming Down:

We were at Scott's Dad's house the other day and Jade was running around pretty wild and crazy. It was getting late and almost time for us to go and I had told her we needed to get ready to head out. She was still playing and running around and I got up to go and get her. I gave her "the look" and picked her up just as she said "Ahhh....I think I want to calm down now" I hadn't even said anything! It was so dang funny. We all just bust out laughing. She knows me and "the look" a little too well!

A Hold

I was upstairs getting ready the other day and Jade had been downstairs watching tv. She came upstairs and had her blanket with her.

Mom: "Hi babe! Did you come up to go potty?"

Jade: (in the sweetest voice)"No, I just need a hold!"

M: "You just need a hold? Ok, come here and I'll hold you!"

And then we sat in the bathroom for like 5 min just holding her on my lap! She is so sweet. I loved that she came all the way upstairs just so I could hold her. I love that she loves to snuggle. She still loves to sit on my lap, have me hold her, rub her back, whatever. She will give me kisses whenever I ask, where ever she is. I love it. I hope it lasts forever....one can always hope-right?

1st Dance Class!

What a fun 1st! Jade had her first dance class this week. She really liked it and can't wait to go back. I am a little worried because there are a lot (think 13) little girls in the class-with 2 teachers. It seems like too many, but I'm sure it will be fine. The first week of the month parents are allowed to stay. The other weeks you just have to drop them off. I have warned her about this and at first she was no ok with the thought of me leaving, but now when we talk about it she says it's ok if I wait in the car. I think she'll be ok.

We went to the park before dance and she was pushing monk and giving him underdogs!

Cute Girl!

After Dance was over

New posts-below the Labor day post

I posted two new posts-just scroll down a little. I had started them on Sunday so they posted underneath the Labor Day post. Oh well!

Labor Day

LABOR day it was. Forget the whole idea of having a "day off" There was no rest for the weary at our house! I was up at 6:30 to work out. Got home from there and took my niece over to my Dad's to help her clean his house (She cleans for him and I offered to help her considering he was at my house for 8 hours helping in the basement on Saturday and killed his new knee! Thanks Dad!) It only took us about an hour and a half. I got home in enough time to shower before my wonderful friend Cheryl came over. She is a gem. I'm not sure how many of you remember this, but she is the friend who gave me the recipe. I mentioned a few weeks ago that I needed to can some more and she called last week and said she had all the ingredients and would come and help me can a bunch! So, she showed up with the ingredients, bottles, canner and herself: kid free and helped me can for 6 hours. She left around 5:00 and I canned until about 7:30! Yes, I canned for about 9 hours! It was a LONG day but I ended up with about 35 cans of salsa! I have to add in here that Scott also tiled our downstairs bathroom today. And the kids- They were seriously amazing considering they pretty much had to fend for themselves-entertainment wise, for the day!

Thanks Cher for coming over-You are such a great friend and I love ya tons. I will try to make it up to you in 4 weeks when you need me to help you find your sanity! :)

Little Jax was loving that he got to make such a big mess! That's what happens when mom is trying to get things done!

Here is Cher slaving away!

Only a few of our tomatoes

The GINORMOUS pot of salsa

Finished product