{Christmas in Minnesota}

The day after we got back from Disney World we headed out on our 12 hour drive to Minnesota. Here is what we did while we were there...

Mr. and Mrs. Clause came to the house. The boys loved it. All three boys got matching Toy Story pajamas from them. Jaydon was in bed by this point.

We went sledding one night out in the dark when it was snowing. It was lots of fun! The boys LOVED it! Gavin especially!

Here are just a few of their favorite presents. Gavin got a camera and LOVES LOVES playing with it. You can take a picture and distort the faces. You can put hats and glasses on the people in the pics. You can play games on it. You can use it as a video camera. He walks around recording everyone and acts like a pro..."ok, here is Tanner playing his game. Hi tanner! Here is jaydon all cute!" It is hilarious. Then one night he saw the dogs laying right beside a stuffed reindeer and all of a sudden Gavin says "Ohhhhh, that will make a cute picture!" He has been around mommy a lot obviously.

They both got their own remote control tonka car. They flip over from back to front and front to back. They love em.

They also got their Hulk Hands. They love using these on each other.

And of course Tanner got his Leapster. After a whole year of watching his big brother play on his Nintendo DS he was READY for his own game to play...so he was excited to get this!

Gavin's Birthday!!! 5 years old!!! Woah!He got a Junior Yahtzee game and pacman for his DS. He also got these cool magnetix toy structures...Sorry, i am not sure what you call them, BUT he LOVES em. He got those from his Grandma Jenks. Both of them have been playing with those a lot.

Here is Gavin doing his B-boy dancing. We had dance parties every single night. He always asked for a dance party. So we would do it. It was so much fun.

And, of course, bathtime!

We had lots of fun in Minnesota! Thanks so much mom and dad for the good time!

So here is a video clip from Gavin's first attempt at using a camcorder. It was so funny to hear him talking as he took us on a short tour of the house. Listen for how many times he says video camera, can you tell he's excited to have a video camera feature on his new camera.

{Disney World}

Shane and i went to Disney World for our 6 year anniversary/graduation gift to ourselves. This is our second time to go together and it was just as fun as the first time. I went a couple times as a kid, BUT this place is always just as magical as the FIRST time. We had an absolute BLAST!!! tons of fun. We went from the 12-16, which seems like little time, BUT we were ready to go home on the 16th. It was a perfect short vacation. The weather was PERFECT the entire time. I couldn't have asked for better weather. I didn't take my DSLR camera. A few times i wish that i did have it, but it was nice to not have to haul around that big thing all day everyday. :) We took a little point and shoot that we've had for years. Let's just say, It got the job done. Here are some pics.

Here we are at Animal Kingdom with monkey's behind us in the country Asia. Epcot. Epcot has lots of cool things. The race track ride, Soarin ride, Nemo, Mission to space ride....and all of the countries. Very cool place. And of course the ride in the big Epcot ball. They have made a few changes and one change they made was soooo cool. It was the last part of the ride. I love that ride for some reason.

Aaaahhhh, shane is getting eat'n up by Bruce!

Me on the phone at Epcot. We were walking around all the different countries one evening and saw these. I had to get a pic! Epcot is soooo cool with all the different countries they have.

We went to this and it seriously felt like i was on american idol. They have 3 competitors compete against each other every hour, 6 times out of the day. Each person that one from those competitions ALL compete at the end of the day in the finale. AND whoever wins, wins a golden ticket to stand in the very front of the like at an american idol audition in the U.S.A. Cool huh?! This was at Hollywood Studios.

Eating pizza one evening at our resort. We stayed at the All-sports resort. For the price, we got a great place!

Hollywood studios lit up a portion of the park in the evening. It was soooo cool. They also had fake snowing falling on us the whole time with Christmas music playing. Then the lights would dance to the music, i think every 30 minutes. It was the coolest thing. The Osborn family put it on.

Also here at hollywood studios is the Tower of Terror, which we rode a TON, the aerosmith roller coaster ride, which we only rode once b/c it gave both of us a headache, but it was fun still. They also had a beauty and the beast broadway type of show, which was fun to watch, and they have fantasmic....which is an AWESOME show they hold in the evening. It was so cool. We love Hollywood Studios. They also had a Toy Story ride which was the COOLEST ride ever. That ride was the only ride that expierenced extremely long wait time....i never say any other ride that had over an hour wait time except for this one. BUT i could see why when we did it. I wanted to do it again, but we didn't want to wait forever. We had to use a fast pass for it. Kids love that ride. They also have The Great Movie ride, which is a really cool ride. I like it a lot.

We went in to see A Bug's Life 3-d show. It was cool. This was at Animal Kingdom, i believe.

When we were waiting for a parade to start at Hollywood Studios there were these different characters going around putting on little skits to keep us all entertained while we waited. This one was HILARIOUS. I loved it. It was so funny. This lady was too famous to walk on the pavement so this guy would carry her to her red carpet, in this manner. haha. He would put her on his back, move the red carpet forward, walk and put her down on it. Then repeat that over and over. She would tell him where she wanted to go and who she wanted to talk to and then he would get to everyone in this manner.

One of the shows we saw at Hollywood Studios(formally MGM).

Us and Mickey!!!

Our boys loved this one.

I was so excited to show the boys this pic with Buzz and Woody. I knew i would be the coolest mom after this one.

At The Magic Kingdom i made shane ride on the Peter Pan ride with me and also on Snow White. It reminded me of when i saw it as a kid and i LOVED the rides....it doesn't matter your age. All these rides are awesome. We love the Haunted Mansion and Splash Mountain. Oh my gosh, the coolest thing was The Laugh Floor. It was a comedy show that the Monsters put on and it was so awesome the technology they had to be able to do that. That was one of my favorites!

funny faces.

Cinderella's Castle was lit up soooooooo beautiful every night. It looked like magic. You had to be there to truly appreciate it. It made me feel like a kid again. How fun is that?!

We absoutely loved our little trip. Now we can't wait to bring the boys in a few years. The boys talk about wanting to go there and we will keep talking about it. And one day when we do bring them it will be so much fun.

The unfortunate thing about this trip is that i was limping on my foot all day long. I hurt my foot somehow about a week before from running. I thought i had a stress fracture or something. It would hurt during the day and by the night time i could hardly walk. It was swollen and hurt so bad, but i pushed through the stupid pain b/c i wasn't going to let it stop me from having fun. A few days after we got home the pain completely stopped and i haven't experienced it again. Weird?!?!!? It seems like with that much pain it would have to be something serious, but it just disappeared. ?? I am so glad. By the time we had experienced every park, some even twice, we were all walked out. That was a lot of walking. We were ready to see our boys and show them pics. We took more pics of characters they like, but i am not going to post them all on here.

{Merry Christmas Eve}

We came out of our bedroom today and papa was waiting for us with a bunch of donuts he went and bought early while we were all still sleeping. That was a nice surprise. He is so sweet. We are going to go play out in the snow today and then later tonight Santa and his wife are going to make a visit to our house.

We got a nice snowfall yesterday and then this afternoon there is a big snow storm heading in. It is going to snow ALL night tonight and ALL day tomorrow . We are supposed to get up to 12 inches of snow! Crazy.There is already about a foot of snow on the ground here. So, we are definitely going to have a snowy white christmas.

We are sad Uncle Brion can't be here with us but he is having fun in Thailand. He got some time off from his job in Korea and so he and his friends decided to make a quick visit to Thailand. We love you Brion.

Jaydon is trying to crawl. He is getting up on his knees A LOT and rocking back and forth. He gets up on his hands and feet...in push-up position. And he pushes himself backwards. So i guess you can say he knows how to do a backwards crawl. It is fun watching him.

Gavin and Tanner are just having tons of fun playing with Livi lou and Madison, the dogs. The dogs love playing with them too. And they are having tons of fun playing the WII. They love playing on it.

Us adults, we are just having fun playing Dominoes and chicken foot. And doing a lot of chatting and playing wii and watching movies.

I want to start two traditions this year, aside from our other traditions. One is to get the boys matching pajamas and let them open those on Christmas Eve. That will be accomplished tonight. The other just came to me the other night, which i later decided would be a good tradition to keep. Two nights ago i got this sudden urge to provide a turkey or a ham for a family that can't afford it. So i called the Bishop here and asked if they knew of anyone we could provide a ham or turkey for. They told us of a single mom of 7 kids who could definitely use some help! WOW! What a hard job for her. I really wanted to take the ham or turkey and have the boys leave it on the doorstep, ring the doorbell and run....BUT she lived about 30 minutes away and the roads were pretty bad and it just so happens that the missionaries were heading out that day to see her....so shane and i woke up early yesterday morning and went and bought a ham, made up a pan of some cheesy potatoes, and gave her three cans of corn for a christmas eve or day dinner. The missionaries stopped by our house on the way to her house to pick it up and bring it to her. Next year when we do something i will make sure the boys are more involved, but this year was kind of hard b/c it was so last minute and the weather didn't really permit.

I can't believe Christmas is almost over. It is going by too fast. Way too fast. To our friends in Ohio, we hope you have a wonderful Christmas this year. And to our other family and friends, we love you so much and wish you a Merry Christmas! :)

Past, present, future....

It is 5:00 a.m. and can't go back to sleep. So, i figured i would post a little to fill my journal and family in. Shane and i got back from Disney World last Thursday. Yes, we went without our kids. Some people looked at us weird for not bringing them, while others, like my pediatrician, got a huge kick out of it and LOVED that we went without them. :) She is awesome. We will bring them one day when they are all big enough to ride the rides and big enough to remember it. I salute those of you who bring very young kids....i couldn't do it. It looks exhausting, BUT i am sure it is exciting at the same time. Everything we saw we thought of our boys. It was always, "Oh, gavin would love this" OR "oh tanner would love that!" Shane and i went to Disney World with my mom and dad about 4 years ago. Last time we went we didn't even THINK about going to see the characters, but this time we stood in the lines in order to get pictures of the characters we know our boys would love to see. We took pictures with Mater, Lightning McQueeen, Mickey Mouse, Buzz Lightyear, Woody, Sully, and Mike Wazowski. They thought it was soooo awesome that we were able to hug them. Gavin said, "Dad, when i am 6 years old will you take me there?!" They both want to go now. I am set on taking them in about 5 years. Yes, we thought of them A LOT on our trip, BUT we had tons of fun by ourselves and would not have changed a thing about how we did it. We laughed a lot and sooooo enjoyed our time together alone. Shane's wonderful mother came out to watch the boys while we enjoyed our trip. She was sick most of the time with a bad cold and we felt so horrible for her. We are just so grateful that she did that for us. Thank you so much! We love you!
The day we got back i had to take Jaydon into the pediatrician b/c he was congested, had a fever and just didn't look well. Turns out he had an ear infection. The day AFTER we got home we packed up VERY quickly and headed out the door for Minnesota. We drove 8 hours and then stopped at a hotel and shane and the boys went swimming. It was nice breaking up the trip instead of driving 12 hours straight. That way the next morning we only had 4 hours until we arrived. The boys were soooo excited.
We have been enjoying our time so far. Eating pizza while we watch Football, playing games, laughing , talking....today we are going to go sledding. And tomorrow we are going Christmas shopping. And Christmas Eve Santa is coming to the Seifert house again. AND Mrs. Clause is going to come along this time! The boys will love it. When i was growing up whenever we went to my grandma and grandpa Seifert's house Santa always came to the house on Christmas Eve. It is a good tradition to keep in the family. Oh how i miss Christmas's at my Grandma Seifert's. She died young, in her 60's. ALL of our family on my dad's side would get together. The house was FULL and LOUD ... My family is a very loud family. Everyone talks over everyone else....laughs are loud, people are loud. I associate that with fun....but NOT when i am home alone with the kids and they are screaming, that is different. :)
I am excited for Christmas morning to watch my boys faces, but trying to slow time down a little b/c i don't want it to come too fast. I wish i could slow time down. It is flying by.
Then when we get back home to Ohio we are only going to have one semester left of Dental school! Weird. It is going to be busy for shane....real busy. And it will be busy in other ways too...paperwork, packing, figuring out our plans, etc. I am excited to live somewhere new. I am sure i will miss certain things about Ohio, but i won't miss it bad. I never do with any place. :) I like moving and experiencing new places. If i could live in every single state for two years, i would. BUT that would be hard with kids, so maybe i wouldn't. :) I will have TONS of pics to post when we get home, so stay tuned.

{jaydon}

Jaydon had his 6 month appt. today. I was right on with his height, but NOT his weight. He decided to slow down in that department, which is probably a good thing!!!

Height- 27 1/2 inches....75th%
Weight- 19lbs...75th%
Head- 90th%
(no surprise. all my boys had big heads. Tanner's percentile for his head was off the charts. Not kidding. They were worried about him so they had to do an ultrasound on his head. He was fine, obviously. And Gavin's head was always in the upper 90th %. I am just grateful that Jaydon came out with a small head.)

I think it is so funny b/c i have a friend that i have known since we were little girls and we both ended up giving birth to our boys on the SAME day and they have the SAME weight, height, and head circumference AND they got their bottom teeth in at the SAME time. It is funny how similar they are.

I will post some pics soon. I have been meaning to take Jaydon down into my studio to take some of his pics, but life just won't slow down and i can't seem to find the time.

{Any suggestions or HeLp?!}

I get frustrated when i try to sit down and teach Tanner his letters and colors. I need a new way of teaching him so that he can understand it and so that i won't get frustrated. When i teach him his colors this is how it goes.....If i ask him "where is the Red train?" He can point to it. He does just fine with that. BUT when i say "what color IS the train?" He cannot tell me. Instead, he will find something else that is the same color as the red train and point to it and say "it kind of looks like this one". I can't, for the life of me, get him to tell me the color of anything. I almost get the sense that he doesn't understand what i am asking him...? I mean, i will POINT to Elmo and say "Elmo is red." Then right after that i ask him "What color is Elmo?" He can't tell me. So, i don't know what to do and was hoping some of you would have some suggestions on how i can teach him so that he will understand?!?! I am not a good teacher. :)

{Jaydon is 6 months}

I can't believe it! I took his stats myself, but i will see how accurate it is on the 9th of this month when we go in for his 6 month appointment.

Weight: 21 pounds
Height: 27 1/2 inches

He holds his bottle all by himself when he eats. He tries grabbing the spoon from me when i feed him. He still can't figure out how to roll from his tummy to his back. He gets his arm stuck behind him and it makes him mad. He is such a SWEET SWEET boy. He is very content majority of the time. He LOVES his big brothers and craves attention from them. He loves being on his belly and he likes sleeping on his belly too. He eats like nothing i have ever seen. He eats a ton of food. He is very patient with his brothers. He acts very determined. You can see the wheels in his head spinning 10 miles a minute. If he could he would get up and run around with his brothers right now. He goes to bed really well, sleeps all night, and takes a long afternoon nap. He really likes bathtime. He is starting to pull his knees up underneath him, so that means crawling isn't far off. AND he has his two bottom teeth already, which he got about 3 weeks ago. CRAZY! He wears clothes that range from 9 to 12 months. He is so big!

I just can't believe how big he is and how fast time is going by! We love him so much and he brings so much joy into our home!

{Thanksgiving week}

We went down to Columbus to pick up Ryan, Shane's brother, and his wife Ashley and son Ethan on the Monday before Thanksgiving. We spent the night down in Hocking Hills at a cabin on Monday and Tuesday night. It was gorgeous, secluded, and tons of fun. We spent a lot of time in the Hot Tub! that was located outside on the back deck. And lots of time eating sweets and talking. It was a blast. Then we came back here to enjoy Thanksgiving day. We cooked a ton of food and ate on it the whole next day after Thanksgiving. We played games, chatted a TON, ate lots of crap, and enjoyed Black Friday. Well, i should say that Ryan and Shane enjoyed black friday. They went out twice that day. They got up at like 3 or 4 in the morning. They came home around 7:30 a.m. and then they left to go out again just a few minutes after they got home. We enjoyed the results of their shopping experience. :) Then we all went out together later that night. Ashley and I went and watched New Moon the night before Thanksgiving. We LOVED it!!! Then we went and got the new scent at Bath and Body Works called "Twilite Woods"....it is a wonderful scent. hhhmmmm. Ash and i went out for a few runs and we both got new matching running outfits that we LOVE. I am now finally back in my running mode and feeling the motivation for it again! I am starting to feel back to my old self after having Jaydon! Though i still do NEED a vacation! ;) We went to Kirtland and looked at all the Nativities that are displayed, went to Arby's, and went to the Mall in Mentor. Ashley and Ryan just bought a home so we went into Sear's to look at all the appliances for the kitchen. Ohhhhhhhh it was fun and i cannot WAIT until we can build a home one day. :) How exciting. We did lots of fun things and really enjoyed being together. We have lots of fun together. I didn't take many pics. But i do have some of our Table with all the food on it. And a few of the cabin we stayed in. Now we are looking forward to seeing them again at Shane's Graduation in May, along with the rest of his family and mine!! woohoo.

{"Tis the Season" and 6 years}

(FYI... we have decided to make our blog private, so if you want to continue reading our blog then leave us your email address or mail your email address to us at ashspassion@hotmail.com.)

For being sick. It has already started. We weren't allowed in our house this whole last week...Monday through Friday. We were getting new windows put in the house b/c the old one's contained lead. So, the whole week we were in a Hotel. We enjoyed it b/c we had a pool to swim in everyday and we had a WONDERFUL breakfast every morning. I didn't have to feel bad for sitting around in the hotel room doing NOTHING. The baby got really congested about a day after we got into the hotel and Tanner had just gotten over a fever. I got the flu while we were in the hotel but it didn't last long. It started in the evening and lasted about 24 hours. It was a fever, sore throat and aches. Then i noticed Gavin and Tanner started getting congested. Now, as of today, they are coughing alot and just sound congested. We have already had to start his albuterol treatments for the first time this season. Hopefully it doesn't turn into something serious b/c about ONLY 30 minutes after his treatment he sounded like he was struggling to breath again. So, we have to try a few things and if it worsens at all then we have to go into i guess the pediatric ER....BUT hopefully when he wakes in the morning he will be better! :) Crossing fingers! I have a sore throat still and am getting a cough. Lucky for shane, he never gets anything!

The stay at the hotel was not an enjoyable one in the night. We were waking up all through the night. The baby didn't sleep good b/c he is congested so he was waking up a few times in the night. Tanner kept waking up in the night yelling for Gavin. "Gavin where are you?!?!?" We didn't get much sleep. We were so glad to be back in our house and our bed! We slept good too! All of us did!

Our new windows and doors look fabulous! I love em! It looks updated and just so good! :) When we moved back into our house yesterday we noticed a package! It was something i have been waiting for for awhile! We turned our 2007 blog into a book. It looks fabulous!!! I can't wait to do 2008 and 2009!! I don't even want to think about how much it will be though! It will be thick.
:)
I put out my christmas decor today. I couldn't resist! Minus the Christmas tree. That will come after thanksgiving. It was weird though. I put it out and turned on some Christmas music, but i had my windows open....weird! It seems like it should be COLD when listening to Christmas music, but i loved it anyway. The weather is so dang nice. It worries me a little for when January comes around...thinking we might get dumped on with lots of snow! We will see.

I came to realize something over the past 1-2 weeks. I miss my longer hair. I am now going to grow it back. Yup. I won't grow it as long as it was before....it was REALLY long. But it will be past my shoulders. I have loved my new hair style, but it seems like i have to trim it every 2 months in order for it to look good. So, the growing out process right now is not going to be a pretty one. This type of haircut just doesn't look good when it grows out! So, i am excited to have long hair again and shane is excited for me to have long hair again too. :)

Shane and i have our 6 year anniversary tomorrow! November 15. We probably won't do anything. At least right now. Shane planned something for us a little later that i will tell you about after we do it. ;) I am excited!
Six years! I can't believe it! Time is flying by! I get so sentimental anytime i think about what we have done, what we have been through, what we have accomplished and where we are going with our lives. It is amazing. I couldn't have picked a better man to enjoy the journey with. He keeps me going, he makes me want to be better, he challenges me, and he lifts me up when i am down, and he keeps life spontaneous and exciting. Sure, we have our moments of difficulty with one another....who doesn't?! Seriously. But what matters is how we make it through those difficulties together and become better from it, together. Together, we have grown so much from the first day we met. We have plenty more growing to do. I am excited i have him to do it with.
If you don't know our story.... i met him at a basketball game. Funny b/c that is his second love. I tried playing basketball in middle school, but our team lost every game. We stunk. Anyway, I was there watching a friend coach her basketball team and shane was there to watch another girl of interest play IN the game. I was there alone and He came up to me. I ended up telling him where i lived. Never thought he would actually stop by, but he did. Then I also ran into him at a subway, which might have sparked in him a reminder to call me to ask me on a date. :) Before i knew it we had been together everyday for a week. As soon as i realized that i took a step back b/c i thought it was going too fast. I mean, i was there waiting for my RM to arrive in like 3 weeks. YUP. My rm and i were meeting up at BYU to get the courting process going. I know! This wasn't the plan. I was there to have fun and was going to marry my RM. We had been talking for 8 months already. We had talked about marriage even. Soooo, this definitely wasn't in the plan! I didn't know what to do. I was just there to have fun. So, I stopped calling Shane for 2 days. I needed time to think and to take a breather and think about what was going on. He didn't like that and still gives me a hard time about it. After those two days of not returning his calls he came over to confront me. :) hahaha. ANYWAY, from there we dated for three months and then got married! It was quick! I ALWAYS told myself i would know a guy for all 4 seasons before i married him, and i thought girls who married guys quick were absolutely NUTS. Well, he turned me into a nut i guess. B/C that was freakin quick! I still wouldn't recommend it to ANYONE to get married that quick...it isn't smart. Luckily, i was at a time in my life where i felt i was in tune to the spirit more than i had ever previously been. And luckily i picked good b/c you really can't know a person and who they really are THAT quick! :) Really, i am so lucky. I got married at age 22. At BYU-I when guys found out i was 22 and not married they were SHOCKED. And some called me "old". hahaha. Seriously?. Anway, that is a different story. We met each other at the end of July, had our first date in August and married in November. We had our original date set for dec. 27th. Shane came to me practically begging me to change the date to Nov. 15th b/c he couldn't wait that long. hahaha. ;) I was in shock. Seriously. I was thinking, "we already made our invitations...we are already getting married quickly, but now you want me to do it even quicker?!?!" Who are you?!?! hahha. You know i am kidding hun. So, we changed it and had to make a separate piece of paper to slip into the invite that we changed our wedding date! haha. I love our story. :) It's the best. AND before he even proposed to me i had already set the temple date for our wedding....yeah, i had called and set it. :) hahaha. i know. I knew he was going to propose as soon as he got my ring, which was soon, but i didn't know exactly when and i didn't want the day we wanted to get married to be booked up....so i called and set the time and date. I told him afterwards what i had done. :) We got married in the SLC temple...where i always wanted to be married b/c that is where my mom and dad got married. My mom for many many many years gave me the nickname 'Goat'....i don't know why so don't ask why. Seriously. One day she just called me that. So, our wedding day i meet our Sealer and find out his name is Brother Goats. How hilarious is that?!?! Also, i want to Jenks highschool and now that is my last name! :) So funny huh?! The wedding day was perfect and that night in our beautiful hotel room..... i got food poisoning. Let's just say that our wedding night was NOTHING like i had planned in my head! But what really has gone the way i had planned for it to go?!?! :) Despite that everything has turned out wonderfully. That is the way i tell my story of it all....shane usually has a different story. :) I love you Shane. Happy 6th Anniversary.

{Texas, here we come}

We got a call yesterday from the Air Force telling us that we have been accepted into the AEGD one year residency and we are being stationed at Wichita Falls, TX. It wasn't our first choice. It was like # 5 or 6 on our list, but we will take it. :) So, this May we start our adventure. I cannot wait! In the 2000 census it showed a population of 105,000.

Here are a few things we are not far from...
1. 4 hours from where i grew up(Tulsa)
2. 2 hour drive to Dallas.
3. About an hour and a half from Shane's good friend who he grew up with in Idaho.
4. 7 hour drive from my best friend, rather than about a 20 hour drive.
5. 7 hour drive from my Aunt and Uncle and cousins.
6. 6 hour drive from the beach.
7. 15 minutes from the OK border!
8. 2 hour drive from OKC or Dallas temple.
9. 2 hour drive from Six Flags.
10. 5 1/2 hours from Sea World.
11. 5 1/2 hour drive to the beach.
12. 2 hour drive to the World Aquarium
13. I could go on and on, but i won't.

Other things to enjoy...
1. SUN and hardly any snow! Shane's buddy says it snows there only a couple times a year. The average temperature in the winter is about 40 from what i read. The sun shines a lot more than it does here! I get all 4 seasons, but with a milder winter and more SUN! yay! I know, it gets really hot in July and August, but its nothing new to me. Oklahoma had some pretty hot summer's. That means lots of swimming.
2. Thunderstorms! If you know me you know i love a good thunderstorm. Every spring and summer i always miss the OK storms i experienced all growing up. Well, now i get to enjoy them for at least a year while we are there. We are in tornado alley, big time, so let's hope a tornado doesn't go through while we are there.
3. Rodeo's. I love rodeo's. It's been awhile since i have been to one, but i can't wait.
4.I have a lot of friends in Texas...college friend, highschool friends, elementary friends...all of whom i haven't seen since those days. And Shane's buddy is there too.
5. Lots of outdoor swimming. If you live in the south you know there are plenty of pools to be found, so we will be swimming a lot.
6. Lots of outdoor BBQing! Ever since i had Tanner BBQ chicken and grilled veggies are my new favorite food. I could eat it everyday all day. I love perfecting my chicken over the grill. I would love to get those wood chips that you put at the bottom of the BBQ'er to smoke the chicken to make it taste even better! Aaaahhhh... lots and lots of bbq dinners. Okay, i bbq'd a lot this summer, but with the weather there i can do it more.

The unfortunate thing is that we will only be there a year. Are we going to be able to do all these things...haha...i wish. I think Shane will be a lot more busy than he is now. He won't get long Holiday breaks anymore either, unfortunately. That is the nice thing about school...they give you time on Holidays. But when you actually start working it isn't like that anymore.

If we could move to a new place every 3-4 years i would love it. I love experiencing new places and doing new things. I don't know what i am going to do when we actually have to settle down somewhere. We will just have to travel A LOT.

Anyway, I am excited to be back in my homeland, where southern accents are everywhere and the good ole southern country feel is present. I love it. We are really excited and can't wait. Can you tell?! :)

p.s. I probably won't be posting again for another 1 1/2 weeks to 2 weeks. LOTS goin on.

{Halloween, Fall, baby Jaydon, Learning new things}

This is what we have been up to in the past week...

Raking the leaves and playing in them. That tree with the yellow leaves is on that is in our neighbors yard, but part way in ours, so we get to enjoy the beauty of the bright yellow leaves everytime we walk out our back door. I love that tree. We pile all of our raked leaves next to the curb and the city comes by and sucks them up in some machine. It is nice. :) The boys look really happy to be having mommy take this picture, don't they?! :) haha.

After we raked all the leaves we came inside and had some yummy hot chocolate.
Here are the boys carving their pumpkins a few days before halloween and we also made caramel apples, which is a fall tradition.

Here are our boys on Halloween. Tanner has been waiting for a WHOLE MONTH to finally get to wear his costume, as you all know from one of my posts a month ago. He was the coolest and cutest Buzz-lightyear and everyone that saw him had to say something about how cute he was, which was A LOT. :) I had to agree with them. I wanted to eat him up all night long! Gavin was sooooo cool in his Optimus Prime. He ran into another Optimus, he also saw Bumblebee and Megatron!!! People would see him and start singing the Transformers song or they would say, "Oh, that is my favorite movie!!" He was proud. Little Jaydon was a giraffe. Gavin wore this when he was 10 months old and it was a tight squeeze. It's a size 12-18 month costume. Jaydon fit perfect into it. Anymore growing and he wouldn't have fit in it so well. Here are their pumpkins all lit up outside. I wore my sisters Kitty Ears, tail, and bow around my neck. :) It was a fun fun night. There is a certain street we go trick or treating on that is pretty hoppin every year. It was fun. We also started a little funny family tradition....We had a trial-run Turkey dinner on Halloween night. I made a little Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and rolls. We ate that before we went trick or treating and we listened to scary sounds while we ate. It sounds funny, but it was kind of fun for us and it got us EXCITED for Thanksgiving Day!!! :) And Auntie Holly was with us the whole time which made it even more special. :)

And here is baby Jaydon. He is 5 months old now. Isn't he the cutest?!?! He sleeps pretty good through the night, but he is in a habit of waking up at about 4:30 in the morning. Anyone have any advice on what i can do so that he will stop waking up and just sleep 12-13 hours straight?!?! I know, i could let him cry it out, but he is different than my others. He screams hysterically and acts like he is dying. I just can't handle letting him do that. I have tried once and he will go on and on. The longest i let him cry for was about 2 hours and he won't stop. Any other ideas?

And here is daddy teaching Gavin to ride his bike without the little wheels on the back. We are going to go to the tennis court later today to teach him b/c we don't have enough room here at our house. If we were at the tennis court i think he would get the hang of it a lot faster. By the way, i learned how to ride my bike on a tennis court...remember dad? So, it will be fun doing the same thing with Gavin. :)

The day after Halloween i took all the Halloween stuff down, cleaned my house, and put up Thanksgiving and a few Christmas decorations. I am going to hold off on listening to Christmas music until Thanksgiving. It will be hard, but i need to wait.

{Transformers, circus, and Patterson Farm}

Yes, i know....i am done with blogging. SORT OF. I will only be posting like 2-3 times a month. That is a BIG cut back from my usual. I thought i better keep family and distant friends updated still about what we are up to. :) So, when i do post it will all be random with all kinds of stuff on one post. :)

This is what we have been up to before and after my surgery...

There is a man here in Cleveland who built these out of wood. They are just about as tall as his house. The boys LOVED it! This street had quite a few houses that were decorated really scary for halloween! It was cool.

Of course we went to Patterson Farm. They have the BEST apple fritters i have ever eaten. We got a few other donuts too. In fact, all their donuts are the best i have eaten. Here are my boys in the bottom picture eating their donuts. Plus, we get to enjoy the beautiful cleveland colors of fall. Love it.

We also went to the circus. It was fun. That is all i have to say about that. :) Let me just say, the cotton candy.....$10!!!! yeah.

My new read....

My friend posted on her blog that she had read a book called "The Hunger Games" and she liked it better than Twilight!!! woah! So, i went out and bought it. I read it in 2 days. It was quite a page turner. It was very interesting. I have to say, i still like Twilight better, but it is second on my list of favorites. It would make for one crazy movie if it ever was made into one, but the book is just great. Plus, it makes you think... more than you have to think in Twilight. You should read it. If you want to borrow it then email me or call me. I am going to be reading the second one here shortly. :)

I made....

A lot of Christmas Decorations at Fabulous Friday. I made just about everything that they had. I figured i better make them b/c they are cheap and it is the only time out of the year where i actually get any projects done! I won't ever go out and buy stuff and think of anything creative on my own.

How the boys are doing...

Well, the day Sza Sza leaves is the day our boys get sick. Tanner and the baby have pretty rough coughs right now. I am taking the baby in today to get checked b/c his cough just doesn't sound right. Jaydon is wearing 9 month old clothes. He isn't even 5 months yet. He is so big. He is so fun too. We love him so much. Tanner is in his terrible three's. He likes to hit his big brother, but loves him at the same time. I will just leave it at that. Gavin is big brother. He likes to boss tanner around and tell him what he is and is not allowed to do. That can be a good and bad thing.

Shane...

Is busy with school. We can't believe he is so close to being done. We will HOPEFULLY find out where the air force is sending us, before christmas rolls around.

We are all...

Doing pretty good. Can't wait for Thanksgiving when Aunt Ashley and Uncle Ryan and Baby Ethan come to our house. Can't wait for Christmas at Sza Sza and Papa's house. Can't wait to decorate my house for Christmas. :) Can't wait until i can start exercising again.

{MIA}

I haven't posted in awhile because i have been in the hospital. My mom is here helping to take care of me and the boys while i recover. I was in the hospital for 5 days. Sure, it may sound bad to some of you, but it was a nice break....even though i was in pain, i didn't have any responsibilities. Momhood is hard. What can i say. Anyway, i was in a lot of pain, went to the hospital and stayed in the emergency room for about 12 hours before they admitted me into the hospital. When i had my appendix taken out 2 years ago they stapled my appendix....i don't understand it, but all i know is that i had staples in there from the surgery, which is normal. Somehow the staples came loose. One got caught on another and one staple pinched off my intestine. So, i had an obstructed bowel. I had a ct scan, a few x-rays, doped up on lots of morphine and laying in bed and watching tv. The pain of the obstructed bowel, before they could give me med's, was pretty intense. It was worse than labor pains. Not fun. I am glad it is over. Glad my mom is here. Glad i had a break from responsibilities. Glad to be home. Glad for a husband who is so helpful, loving and caring. I realized some things while i was away. 1. I am taking on too much. I was exhausted and didn't realize it til i had my 5 day hospital stay. My life is sooooo busy. I was in the hospital thinking about my life before i went in the hospital and i thought to myself, "How in the WORLD was i doing all that? How did i not have a break down yet?!!!" 2. I am tired of blogging, tired of the internet. It is not being what it used to be for me. I won't be blogging much anymore. I want to get all my blogs turned into books and then be done. 3. My dream of becoming a nurse is more alive than it ever has been. I want to become a nurse so bad and am determined to do it b/c if i don't, i will regret it. I know i will. Now i just need encouraging so that i can stay positive in that i am SMART enough to do it. :) 4. I want life to slow down. So, i am going to try to make that happen. 5. I like my life and who i am.

Anyway, i am fine. It is a freak accident, what happened. The doc said, "If i had thrown a bunch of staples into your stomach i still wouldn't expect this to happen". I missed my sister-in-laws wedding, which i was supposed to take pics at. Yeah. Stinks. I was her photographer AND i missed her wedding! I am so bummed, but things happen.

{Could these faces do any harm?}

So sweet.....
So innocent...

BAM!!! Little Brother takin big brother out with a stick! Still look sweet and innocent? Maybe not so sweet, but still innocent. :) They are really good at hitting each other lately. Gavin likes to boss Tanner around and likes to tease and harrass him. Tanner will tease him once in awhile. But Tanner isn't much of a teaser, so he gets Gavin back by HITTING him. This happens all too often around here lately.