Nice One

Great resolution keeper I am! HA! I have not written in SEVEN months! OOPS. Oh well. So short and sweet.
Halloween is right around the corner! I looove that holiday. It is maybe a favorite. When do you get to dress up crazy and eat yummy pumpkin stuffs, be silly, etc and have it be normal?
Some things I love about this time of year- I am a pumpkin lover. LOVE IT. Pumpkin bread, Dreyer's pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin bars, pumpkin pie, you name it. I love Hazel Garner's Halloween party. A tradition we have been doing for years! I love it!  I love soup & rolls. YUM. Oh, I have a yummy pumpkin soup recipe too, haha. I love the changing leaves and them on the ground. I love the crisp apples along with the crisp air. I like it to be jeans and a t-shirt weather in the day, cool at night. There is something about fall football games that I love too, though I rarely attend anything anymore lol.

Quick update on us--
Ethan is in 3rd grade. He is an excellent student. He hurries through things and that is when he makes mistakes, so as long as he takes his  time, he is great. He is playing lacrosse and loving it. It has been really good to get him into something that he will continue to do long term. He enjoys it and he has even scored a few goals.
Sydney is in 1st grade, TWO kids in school all day! Woohoo! LOL. She is really smart too. She is the opposite of fast in just about everything she does, for better or for worse ;). She is in the Spanish Dual Immersion program at school. The first half of her day is in English, the second half is Spanish.  She did not like it for a while, since she is not allowed to speak English at all (I believe) during Spanish time, but now she is liking it better. I feel like this is a great opportunity and I am so grateful she has been blessed to do this. It is helping me learn a little more as well. And I like to read the words to everyone. Her first Spanish book order is coming soon. Sydney is a very good reader. She has been reading chapter books all summer.

Aidan is in his second year of preschool. I can totally see a difference in him from last October. He LOVES it and has some cute little friends. Aidan is a good little boy with a flippin hilarious sense of humor (on accident, he is not even doing it on purpose lol). Always good for a laugh. He is a very good helper and though he is a little untrustworthy like a 2 yr old lol, he is a great brother. I would have trusted baby Aidan with 4 yr old Ethan, but I do not think I would trust baby Jack with 4 yr old Aidan. They are so different lol.

Jack is soooo sweet. He sleeps through the night, most of the time. He is pleasant to be around. He entertains himself, though he is really great to be around. He does some funny things. We have fun together and I love hanging out with him. He crawls like a champ, pulls himself up on just about everything. He does not say many words... oh wait, he just says MAMA! YES! I finally got a kid to say that first. He is very curious, very active, LOVES to jump... he is strengthening those legs cause I am sure he will be up and running soon. Dang it. He loves to play with animals, totally laughs at Ethan's funny stuff.  He is a great blend of action and affection.  Not too busy to give mom hugs and loves, but totally busy when he is not. Loves to explore, and when he takes off out of his room, half the time he heads straight for Aidan's room. I see a future problemo! HA!
All in all, I am happy he is 11 months but I just do not want him to get any bigger.  I anticipate him being my "baby" and I am just really holding on to and treasuring everything about him. And this experience. <3 br="">

CIAO

Happy Birthday Aidan!

Silly Kid

 Loves to play ball

First day of his preschool

 Needs his sleep or he is a grouchy monster

 Loves to read

 Attitude...

 Marches to the beat of his own drum... does not like olives, but loves raspberries on his fingers, lol!

One year old

18 Months

 After his 2nd birthday party, he smacked his head on the fireplace and had to get stitches

3 mos

 Aidan loved to chew on the corn cob lol! Hanging out with Jenni, camping.

 6 Mos

Staycation January 2013

I am just learning how to do Picasa collages... this may save my scrappy bacon... I am YEARS... Y.E.A.R.S. behind!!! 

We had a fun little family staycation back in January. It was after Jody had been on the road A LOT, it was *much needed*. We cashed in some Marriott rewards (love those) and stayed downtown in a Residence Inn.  We got lucky and ended up being upgraded to a 2 bedroom suite ... funny story. Rather than eat out, we chose to get Papa Murphy pizzas to bake. Residence Inns have games to take to play, so we decided to make it a pizza and game night "in". We ordered online, sent Jody to pick it up, and he called and said to turn the oven on. I went to do just that, and... no oven! LOL!!! Stove, microwave, fridge, uhh whole kitchen... but NO OVEN! So I called the front desk to see if maybe they had one in their break room or something lol. Jody walked in about then and talked to the lady at the front desk. They said there was a two bedroom with an oven available, but if we used the oven they would have to clean the whole suite and it would be unavailable the rest of the night, so she said what the heck.. you can move. So I had totally unpacked and set stuff up... but I was happy to move. 

It was fun, hope the people on all sides of us felt that way :)

We checked in on Friday, went to a Jazz game (we had AWESOME seats!!!) THAT was a really fun game. I had been worried about baby and crowd and everything, but Jack slept the whole game in his baby carrier. I fed him a bottle when he woke up, which was after the place had cleared out. We did not have room on out row for a giant baby carrier, but the people behind us had no shows next to them, so Jack sat behind Jody's head, with this nice family.  

We had a really fun game, a nice dinner before (ice cream sundae bar included!). After the game, Jody had to stick around to get some quotes for something he was doing, so we all ended up going down in the tunnel. I had Hannah, Jazz PR girl, telling me who was who (LOL). Gordon Hayward came out and I shook his hand, and I think I shook a few others. Then Al Jefferson came out-- he is my biggest advocate hahaha, so I shook his hand and he rubbed Jack's head. He asked Jody something like, "Is this the wife you are always taking advantage of?" He gives Jody a hard time for leaving me alone with 4 kids, one being an new baby. He cracks me up. Anyway, we had a blast and it is fun to sorta feel like a part of the Jazz family. 

We stayed over Friday and Saturday nights, came home Sunday, then went to the Pass of all Passes Grizzlies game. Here is a collage from that. I have decided to go to bed mid-post, so you get more pics some other day when I sit down and do this again! :)

A Note to Self

*RSV
*Off Track
*St George
*Cold.
*Update on kids' happenings
*My Heaven-sent funeral experience
*Coco
*Staycation/Jazz/Grizz/City Creek
*Single Mom
*Reflection on past post when Aidan was born

Neutralized

I picked up my computer with the intent of writing a great blog. Heartfelt, progression, etc. Then I got sidetracked, saw a few (eek) bills and remembered my whole FSA debacle, and man that neutralized my feel good feelings. LOL. So, I decided I would rather go watch Jack with Jack (ie nurse and watch 24) and hopefully that "runaway" tactic will work and I will be good to go later :). I had a really pivotal day yesterday and I plan to share it. I realize I say that a lot, whether it is here or in my journal. And then never write about it. I need to go back through both and write about all the things I said I would write about later haha! Anyway, I took notes, so hopefully that will help me. It is something I want to come back and read in the future to remind me what I learned, how I felt. Keep me on track, ya know.

Anywho, adios, Jacks time.
PS I really wish my Instagram and my Eyeem photos would upload to g+ and dropbox. I wish I knew how to make them do that!

Second Last Chances

I may be laughing at myself in a couple years if this is not "the end" or we have a little mistake, lol, but here goes. I am so grateful I get to do this baby thing this last time. I had such an interesting time with Aidan, I really did not focus on the wonder or love and savor him as a tiny baby. I remember feeling, later, that I really need one more baby so I can make sure I treasure as much of it as possible, as I may (hopefully lol) never have that opportunity again.
I really did love the middle of the night feedings I had with Ethan. I would write in my journal (not sure its legible lol) and just treasure it. Life was SO different then! IN some ways, this time, I am wishing my bedroom was next to Jack's so I could feed him in there, keep him in there, and not worry about Jody being loud and waking him up or Jack and I waking Jody up etc.
I don't love the night feedings like I did with numero uno, and I lose patience spending so dang much time in a chair, bed, or on sofa feeding a baby. But then I look at him and rub his head and marvel at his little fingers and ears and love it. I have to balance out my ginormous list of things that need to be done, other people I need to take care of etc, with nursing. I read somewhere that nursing is nature's way of forcing someone (ie a mom who just had a baby) to relax and recover by making them sit and feed a baby all the time.
No truer words!

So, for now, Jack is my caboose and I am trying to treasure all my moments I spend with him, loving that he wants me more than anyone else in the world (I am not going to lie, it brings me satisfaction when he is crying in dad's arms and I take him and he stops).  We all know mom is mortal enemy eventually, so it is nice to be fully loved and appreciated for a year or so :).

Comparison

All the kids, about 6 wks old.