{Snow, shots, Boards, baby}

We are getting hit with a snow storm. Yipee. I love snow. And i love the cloudiness here. It's just lovely. I can't imagine a life with SUN in it. I don't know what i am going to do in Texas when we will only get a few inches of snow a year. And all the sun!!! wow, that will be a new thing. :) What are my boys gonna do? I mean, they are not used to the sun. About a month ago i opened the blinds up and the sun was actually shining. Seriously. I can't remember if it was gavin or tanner who said this, but he said" Ohhhhh, it is so bright!!!" and covered his eyes as if the sun was hurting him. yup.

Gavin had to get 4 shots today!! Poor thing. I was giving him a pep talk trying to make the situation all better before they actually came in with, what probably looks to kids like, 4 LONG huge needles. I thought i was doing a good job. I was calming him down. Things were good. THEN she came in. And as soon as we had to take his shirt off he started crying. I felt bad for him. He did so good though. He didn't move or jerk around. He sat still and cried. He felt better after it was done b/c he got a sticker and a surprise toy. And then i told him that when we got home he could play his DS. So, he got a smile on his face quickly after the shots. :) It hit me that he is going to kindergarten this year. I can't believe it. He is getting so big! He is 3 ft. 8 inches, which is the 65th percentile. And he weighs 43 lbs. which is in the 75th percentile.

Shane's Boards are in ONE WEEK!!! I can't believe it! It is crazy that we are almost done. CRAZY!

Jaydon's second top tooth has come in. He has had his four top teeth trying to come through for, all at the same time, for awhile now! Yeah. It has made for one unhappy baby every once in awhile. So, now he has his two bottom and two top. The one's right next to his top teeth on both sides are trying to poke through, but haven't quite made it yet. We go in on Monday for his check-up. But last time i was in there he was 22 lbs. , i believe. He is wearing 12-18 month clothes. He pulls himself up on the stairs, or anything on the floor that is taller than he is. He likes to stand. BUT when he gets up he can't get down. So, he pulls himself up and then starts crying b/c he needs helps down. He knows he needs help down b/c he has fallen a few times already and it hurts him pretty bad. It sounds like a bowling ball hitting the floor. So, he has learned, which is why he cries everytime he pulls himself up to the stairs. He is trying so hard to pull himself up to the couch, but doesn't have it down quite yet. I give him about 2 weeks.

{Things i've been thinking about...}

1. It is hard trying to keep a house perfectly clean....keeping it perfectly clean ALL the time. I have to. I never know when i will get a phone call informing me that someone will be here in an hour or two to look at the house. As hard as it is, i love it. I love that my house is clean all the time. It helps me breathe easier. It eases my stress a little. By the way, you CAN have a clean house AND still have time to spend with your kids. ;) A person shouldn't have to choose...clean the house or spend time with the kids. Both are possible. As long as you put both as a priority.

2. I love my kids. I love them to death. BUT i don't necessarily enjoy hanging out with toddlers all day, every day. It isn't exactly my idea of fun. No matter how much i love em. And that is okay. Who ever said i was supposed to LOVE being a mom everyday?! I like feeling like an intelligent adult who can talk with someone intelligent at some point in my day. Baby/toddler talk just doesn't do it for me... Maybe it would IF i were a child. But i am not. :)

3. NyQuil can offer you a very good night sleep when you don't feel well.

4. Know your limits. It's a good thing to know. ;)

5. I had no idea that a baby could produce as many boogers as Jaydon does.

{Jaydon's Tricks}

This little trick is what Gavin did when he was a baby. He would lift his back off the ground and rest his weight on his head and feet and then push himself around the house like that.

And this little trick is what Tanner did when he was this little. He eventually got to where he would lift his hands off the ground and just put his weight on his head and feet. Our little Jaydon does both! :)

Here he is all messy...snotty nosed and spit up all over his shirt. He is constantly congested and he spits up A LOT so i just can't keep him clean.

A different view. hahaha...can you see his eye?

Our happy little boy.

Peek a boo! He is so funny to watch!

And here is what Gavin and Tanner are up to a lot lately. Wrestling around with each other, making tanner mad. haha.

And i pulled out my point and shoot camera for these pics! I still like point and shoots! I need to buy a new one.

Want to see our house on MLS listings? Our MLS # is 3105669 Mom and dad, this is mainly for you! You can go to Howard Hanna or to MLS to find it. :)

{A bunch of RaNdOmS}

Tanner was being louder than Gavin liked and he said to Tanner, "Tanner, be a little quiet, i am trying to conjestrate(concentrate)."

When we sing "I love to see the Temple"....at the very end of the first verse when it says "this is my sacred duty".....Instead of saying that Tanner says, "This is my secret beauty."

We were at the dinner table the other night making fun of each other. It was hilarious. We all take turns and say "Who says this, and then act out something that someone in our family does often. Like, who says "wahhhh wahhhh." They will guess the baby obviously. Then we make fun of daddy or mommy or gavin and tanner. Who says "you have GOT to be kidding me?" They laugh and guess, mommy. Well, tanner kept saying over and over "Who says, "wahhhhhh wahhhhh"....and we would guess the baby everytime. Finally, tanner said it again for the 10th time and gavin said "Tanner keeps saying that. Just ignore him." Tanner laughed and said, "Yeah, just ignore it." It was funny.

The boys are VERY into wanting to hear stories about our childhood or just any funny story. They ask ALL the time for us to tell them a story about when we were little. It is fun b/c right now they enjoy it. I think when they get older they won't really care to hear about these stories i tell them.

Our house is now on the market. It has taken lots of hard work to get it ready. In the meantime of getting it ready Shane hurt his back REALLY bad and was laying down for two days, the kids have been sick, i am sick, and i have to work hard to KEEP the house perfect b/c i never know when someone will come look at it. We had our first person come look at it yesterday. That was exciting. Now i have to go get ready b/c i have to be out of the house for 4 hours today.

The snow keeps coming down. It won't stop. ugh.

{Tanner, and our early v-day celebration}

Today Gavin asked me, "Who makes all the food at the grocery store?" Tanner quickly replied, "Jesus!" He said it in a way that was serious, forceful, and "duh, don't you know." It was so funny.

We were putting together Valentines for their friends....Gavin is writing his name on all of them. Tanner comes in with one of Gavin's valentine to his friend and says to me "Gavin gave this to me." I said, "I don't think he did. That has his friends name on it so you should probably go give it back so that Gavin can write his name on it." He said, "But gavin gave it to me." He stomped into Gavin and said, "This is for YOUR FRIEND. DON'T GIVE IT TO ME AGAIN!" haha. It was so funny.

Tanner tells a lot of little lies lately too. It is funny, mostly.

Tanner is gettin quite a personality lately. I love hearing all the new things he says every single day.

Last night Shane and I went on a DATE. It was our Valentine gift to each other. We hadn't been on one since our Disney trip in December. I was ready. He surprised me with tickets to the Cav's vs. Magic game!!!!! And I paid for dinner at a sit down vietnamese restaurant. LOVE IT! It is my new favorite food. I had kept mentioning how we should go to one last game before we move AND out of all the one's coming up i REALLY wanted to watch them play Orlando and WHOOP them. OH. MY. GOSH. It was an AWESOME game!! I have to say....there are no fans like the Cleveland Cavalier fans! When they introduce the team and when Lebron does his thing where he throws that chalk in the air.....it is like a powerhouse. It is like a whole production. It is huge. People scream so loud to where your ears hurt. And you can feel the spirit of the TEAM and the love of the fans for their team. Cleveland LOVES their Cav's team and i love being there experiencing it! That is one thing i am going to miss about this place. There is no team like the Cav's team and there are no fans that LOVE their team more! It was AWESOME. I will post some pics later of the game!!

{Jaydon-our happy patient baby and our home}

Jaydon is so000 patient. He is our most patient one. There isn't much that bothers him. He is very chill. I know, it will probably change when he turns two, but as for now its great. He already LOVES life and gets so excited about every little thing. He is jumping with JOY all the time. I love it. AND he absolutely LOVES and ADORES his big brothers. There is something special about it and i love watching them all interact.

Here are the boys blowing on his belly. He loved it and the boys loved the juicy sounds they could make by blowing on his chunky belly.


And here is Jaydon mesmerized by my flash... (he looks so much like his daddy)

And here he is already trying to go up the stairs. He has taken off with his crawling....he will get in squatting position with his hands still on the floor. He gets in push-up position often. And he is doing what Tanner did....stick his bum up in the air, feet on the ground and forehead on the ground, with hands sometimes and without hands other times. Yup. And he is doing what gavin did...basically the opposite of what tanner did. He will be on his back and lift his entire body off the ground except for his head and feet. It is so funny all the positions he keeps discovering he can do.

He absolutely melts my heart. I wish he could stay this age forever.

Mom and dad, here is the new color on the walls in the kitchen. It is like a creamy warm yellow color. I think it looks good. This color would look ESPECIALLY good in a kitchen with cherry wood cabinets!! I am not sure if this picture portrays the color very good, but it does look nice. :) I will post a picture of the bedroom walls soon.

We have been doing A TON to get this house ready to go on the market. TONS of organizing, cleaning, organizing, cleaning, organizing , cleaning, moving furniture around, etc. We are so close to having everything done. This weekend it will be done. I can't wait. We didn't realized how much junk we had accumulated over these past few years and didn't realized how dirty our house was!!!! I love the new look and feel of it now....it makes it more liveable, and cozy. :) We have gotten rid of more stuff than i thought we had!! It is crazy! And we are saving the nicer stuff for a garage sale. :) Gotta make a little money! I am hopeful that it will sell quick, but let's hope that we don't have to move out before our actual move out date in May! :)

{A Child's Prayer}

Gavin's newest thing to say in our family prayers is sooooo sweet. In our prayers we will say "please bless so and so, so they can feel better, etc." Or i will say "Please bless Gavin, Tanner and Jaydon so that they can stay healthy ans strong." Something like that. Well, he has started saying, "Please bless Jesus and Heavenly Father." It is so sweet and makes me smile every single time. I love listening to my boys pray. It is so sweet, and i love listening for new things they come up with to say in their prayers. And one thing he has always done, which i am not sure how he picked it up....when he blesses the food he says "Please bless the food and bless it."
It is sweet.

Today we are going to the temple and the boys are soooo excited b/c we stay in a hotel everytime we go down and we always get one with a pool and a continental breakfast. They get sooooooo excited. In fact they were so excited that they woke up just before 6 a.m. asking if we were going to go to the hotel right then. :) When we move to Texas we will be about an hour and a half away from a temple rather than 2+ hours away. That's a little better. :)

We are so excited for the super bowl. Shane wants homemade pizza. We asked gavin what he wants and he said he wants chips, and tanner said he wants chocolate. I don't know why but i never would have guessed that Tanner would've picked CHOCOLATE. He likes it, but i didn't know he likes it that much. Then we are going to sit in front of our larger than life t.v. and enjoy the game as a family. :)

One more thing we have to look forward to this month is Mandi's arrival! Shane's sister is going to come visit us and we are sooooooo excited! Party party!

{Anxious}

I am very anxious for

1.The summer ... ohhhhh summer. SUN.



2.Graduation!...I can't tell you HOW PROUD I AM of shane. What an accomplishment. I will probably cry a ton that day! Happy tears, of course. :)

3.Our family vacation to see NYC, D.C., Niagara Falls, Palmyra, etc. I have been to these places, but i haven't been to NYC yet, so i am excited to see it. AND just being with all of shane's family, minus kids, is going to be AWESOME!.....for a whole week!!!! :) eewww, i can't wait!... 4.Our move to Texas! Ohio is a great place(really it is), but i am so done. :) I am ready for the sun and the mild winter's! And for that cowboy twang accent all around me again...5.Actually making money...I can't imagine what life will be like when we MAKE money. Woah! Weird.
6.Finding a home to rent that is hopefully not as old as this one and a bit more roomy! ....

7.Taking Shane to see Tulsa so he can see where i grew up!!! Oh i can't wait!...

I am anxious for all this to happen. January, February, and March are the worst months out of the year for me. I HATE EM. They are slow, nothing is going on, and so it just drags on. As soon as we get through March things will start lookin a lot better! :) BUT i always say i want time to slow down, so right now is a good opportunity for me to take advantage of slow time. :)

{Boys will be Boys}

I am becoming a slacker with my blog. I am not as interested in it anymore. After i had a year and a half of my blog made into a book i started slacking. Sorry! Anyway, here is an update...

Today Gavin went to timeout for being naughty. They sit on the floor up against the wall. Shane noticed he had moved out of his naughty spot so he went and put him back on the spot and Gavin started CrYiNg saying "Noooooooo, i don't want to sit in BoOgErs!!!! Noooooo, gross!!!! Shane was like, "Boogers?" He said, "Yeah, there are boogers on the floor!!! Nooooooo! Shane was like "how are there boogers on the floor?" He said, "Because i wiped them there!!!" It sounds gross and is gross, but it was hilarious to listen to. That's boys for ya.

Jaydon is CrAwLiNg and is now 8 months old! He has been trying for the past month and a half. He has been army crawling and scooting his way around. Well, he finally is on his hands and knees crawling around getting into everything! He is the funniest kid ever. He is going to bring a lot of excitement into our home....he already does so i can't imagine when he is older. All 3 boys are going to love hanging out and it is going to be a crazy house!

Tanner told me the saddest story i have ever heard. He told me this story in his quiet sweet little serious voice. "I had a dream that a dragon threw me away." I said, "Ohhhh tanner, how sad. That makes me so sad you dreamed that. Why did he throw you away? He said, "Because he didn't love me." I said, "ohhhh, you are going to make mommy cry!! What did you do after he threw you away?" He said, "I got out and broke his wings." I said, "Why did you break his wings?" He said, "Because he didn't love me." It was the saddest story i have ever heard from him and he told it in such a sweet precious voice that i wanted to cuddle him in my arms all night!