Thankful Thursday

This week I'm thankful for:
*menu plans. It's so nice not having to think of something everyday to make for dinner. So I'm thankful for that little list we come up with every week...it makes my days easier

*Fall and the pretty colors that we get to see out our front window, and the nice weather we've been having!

*that it stays dark in the morning for a bit, so I can convince Avery it's still bed time and he has to sleep with me for a bit. I love the extra rest and I love getting to cuddle with him!

Today I'm thankful for:
*Cheap(er) gas! I'm hoping it'll drop a bunch more, but it sure feels good to fill up for $47!

*My iPod, I love having an endless stream of music I like without annoying commercials and having to change the station if I don't like the song.

*Nap time

*It's almost the weekend!

Yay!

Yay for two things!

1. Quite possibly the highlight of the week! I filled up the gas tank in the van (it was totally empty, the thing actually said I could go 0 miles!) for under $50(2.51/gallon at costco!)!!! AWESOME!!!

2. There was some kicking and screaming from a certain 2 year old, but after only waiting for about 30 minutes I successfully voted early!
Last time I voted was at the Kidder baptist church (maybe it was a Methodist church??) and, if you've been to Kidder you know, there was no wait at all, and the ballot was not electronic...we've (maybe just me?) come far in 4 years! Yay for early voting!!!

Vote!

Andy and I plan on going in to get our Early Vote on tomorrow. I hear the lines aren't as bad, and I'll likely be out of town on the 4th, I don't want to miss my chance to vote this election.

My friend Sam showed me this video (she knows celebrities, she ate dinner with Katherine Heigl, who does that?!...but that has nothing to do with voting) and I kind of liked it, ever single vote does count. Even if you don't think so! (though Borat is a little less than polite, I don't like him...so just don't listen to what he has to say!). So go vote!

Oh yeah, we're crazy....

Andy and I went on a date last night. Alone. Woo Hoo! As we left the house, at 8:30, we felt a little crazy! :) It's been a looong time since our date nights have started at 8:30...and really, it's just been a long time since we did anything out of the house that "late".

We went to the corn maze at Thanksgiving Point, on a non-haunted night. (I don't do scary) It was pretty fun, being so late in the corn maze season there were a lot of "cut throughs" made by other maze goers, and in the dark it was hard to distinguish between the real path and the fake ones. But we made it through and had fun. Even if we went in circles a few times!
We also went through "The Creature" that was there, it wasn't haunted either, but it was still creepy, and so dark! We went down a big slide and raced ducks in water pump lanes.
On our way home we stopped for ice cream and french fries, one of my favorite desserts. Yum.

Yesterday I also got my hair cut. Thanks to Cari-Ann for the inspiration! :) It feels so good, I love getting a good haircut!

laughing

Jack is very ticklish, it's cute to listen to him laugh. In the video sometimes he sounds like he's getting mad...but he's not, he started laughing even more after I stopped recording. He's a sweety.




And here's a picture of Avery trying to give Jack something to look at! What a nice big brother!

My kid's got mad skills...

...except for the time at the end when he drops the ball... :)

Jack's getting so big...sort of!

Jack was weighed and measured a couple days ago, he's weighing in at 10.14 which I was told is about the 5th percentile, maybe 10th...I can't remember for sure now.
And he's 23 1/4" long. He doesn't seem as teeny to me anymore, I think I realize it a little more when I see other babies. But we think he's perfect!

I was looking at Avery's baby book and at two months he weighed a pound heavier than Jack is now, and I had written down the first time Avery rolled from front to back, he was 3 months 1 week and 5 days old. Yesterday I was talking to Andy about it, because Jack didn't seem to be showing any signs of being interested in rolling over, and not 5 minutes later Jack rolled from front to back! How nice is that of him to do that for me!? And just to be sure we flipped him back over and watched him do it a few more times!(3 months 1 week and 2 days...FYI) I was also happy that he did it while Andy was home, just because he misses so many "firsts", it was nice to be able to share a real first thing with him!
So, YAY for Jack!

This picture has nothing to do with him rolling over, it's just cute!

A couple days ago I pulled out the Johnny Jump up that we have and put Jack in it, I was surprised at how long he stayed in it before crying, and he seemed to like it! He did really well at holding his head up, so I think we'll put it to good use so he's not getting a flat head from laying on the floor! And he's cute in it...!

Fall days

We love the fall weather we've been having. It's nice enough to open the windows during the day, we can play outside without getting overheated or frozen, and go on nice walks.
The other day, Avery, Jack and I were outside playing. Well, Avery was playing, Jack and I were relaxing on a blanket. Andy got home and played catch with Avery for a while (how cute is that?!) and then they gathered leaves so we could color some pretty pictures. (you know when you rub the crayon over the paper with the leaf under it...what's that called, anyway!? We'll go with leaf rubbings) Here are some pictures of our evening. It was so fun, and Avery was so excited about everything, he's at such a fun age. I love it!

I love bedtime!

Ok, this may seem like an obvious statement that every parent agrees with. However, I promise, my reason isn't quite the same. Obviously I love bed time, because when the boys are down Kizzie and I can relax. However, my favorite part of bedtime is the process.

Every night at around 7:30 (give or take) we gather the boys and go sit on the couch in their room. We read a page from the story book scriptures (we're on the New Testament one now) and then say our family prayers (Avery's turn is always fun). Then Avery will turn off the light, give mommy kisses and hugs, and then climb into bed.

At this point, I usually kneel next to Avery's toddler bed, give him hugs and kisses, and then just lean on him and talk to him a bit. He usually asks to sing some songs, so we sing such classics as Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, How Much is That Doggy in the Window, You Are My Sunshine, and the occasional Primary song. Occasionally I'll sing less orthodox songs such as Rocky Raccoon (by the Beatles), or one of the great songs from the Three Amigos. All in all, we probably sing 4-5 songs any given night. Then, when we are through, I give him another hug and a kiss and say good night.

Again, this is my favorite part of the night. With my crazy schedule, I don't get to see my boys nearly as much as I'd like. Many times, I will only get to see them for 45 minutes to an hour total in a day. This, however, is kindof my special one-on-one time with Avery when he has finally settled down. It made me happy when Kizzie told me the other day, for example, that Avery had asked to hear "Daddy's Rocky song." (speaking of Rocky Raccoon, not songs from the "Rocky" movies - though it is one of my dreams to hear Avery sing "Eye of the Tiger" or "Hearts on Fire"- another day). Hopefully he enjoys that time as much as I do.

Anyway, I'm very much grateful for that little bit of time I do get to spend with my boys, especially at bedtime.

Practice Sling

I made this sling (ot of scraps of fabric in my stash)a few weeks ago but Jack didn't seem to like it very much, and I looked at other patterns and decided I need to make the area he sits deeper so it's not like he's falling out.
But he was being a little whiny today so I decided to try it again, and since he can hold his head up better now he seems to like facing out to look around. So I think I'll get some cute fabric and make a new one, it's nice to be hands free, and it sure is cheaper to make my own than to buy one!

Weekend Extravaganza

After that horrible BYU game on Thursday night, we had to make this weekend good, so we actually stayed pretty busy and did some fun stuff.

Friday night we went to a little gathering with some of my MSW program classmates and families. We went to a park up the canyon, had a campfire, and a potluck dinner with plenty of roasted hot dogs. It was nice being able to socialize a wee bit, meet some families, and eat some good food. (I'm aware that many wouldn't consider hot dogs to be "good food", but I sure do enjoy them if they're roasted or barbecued... in case you were wondering). However, it soon got dark and cold and the boys got fussy, so we didn't get to stick around as long as we would have liked. Maybe next time it will be in-doors.

Here is some hot-dog roastage...(picture involuntarily compliments to LaDawn)

Saturday morning we went to Hee Haw Farms with Jon, Jacque and family for the fall festivities there. They had all manner of fallish things going down, and Avery really loved it.

Here's Avery in a mini corn maze

Here's Jack just chillin'... we think he's pretty cute.
Avery really liked this big slide (that's him and me)
He went down it several times by himself too.

Here's the little animal train thing. Avery liked this too. The little cars weren't quite big enough for me, but oh well.

Avery enjoyed chasing this chicken.

... and jumping on this trampoline covered with hay....and Jack still looked cute......and yes... that is a huge bin of corn that Avery is playing in. Some day I hope to have a large bin of corn in my back yard. It was pretty sweet honestly.

Saturday night, we went to Old Navy and Costco. Not quite so exciting, but still good to get out of the house.

Then... to close it all out... I watched the 49er game on Sunday and they were as pathetic as always.

Here's the man (JT O'Sullivan) who ruined my hopes of a 49er victory with his 2 interceptions and 2 lost fumbles... time to bench him!

Hence, my weekend came full circle. Maybe I should just stop watching football! - Andy

Painting pumpkins

Today I attempted to overcome my distaste for cleaning up messes, so Avery and I painted pumpkins. And I let him have his own plate with paint and everything. And it really wasn't as bad as I thought! Maybe play dough, or playing in the dirt is next! :) Or, not...

3 months (yesterday)

I can't believe Jack is 3 months old! He's still pretty little, but SO much fun!
He laughs, sucks his fingers when he can get them to stay in his mouth, loves to watch Avery play, sleeps...REALLY well (12+ hours/night and a 4 hour nap in the morning/afternoon with a 30-40 minute power nap in the early evening. I am NOT complaining!), and hardly ever cries. He's the perfect baby!

I love google reader, but...

...I seriously never comment on people's blogs anymore! It's so easy to read them, and then forget to ever comment, so my new goal is to comment. Hopefully..!

4th picture

I've seen this one on a bunch of blogs, so I thought I'd do it too.
this is the 4th picture in my 4th folder, in my pictures file.

Avery and me last Halloween, he looks like such a baby!

Another giveaway at Forever and a Day

Sis is doing another giveaway! And this time you get to pick what you want!! (well, in a certain price range!)
So go check it out, maybe you'll be the lucky winner this time around!

Go here >>>> Forever and a Day

Here are a few things she's made for me...

(this is a headband, I should get a better picture of it, but it's way cute!)

I love this kid

*Also, thanks for all the compliments from the last post. Though it's really not that impressive, I wish I could say I've been exercising and eating right, but this is what I've been doing... We've been eating less dessert(only every other day, sometimes not even that often), not snacking between meals, no pop and no eating after 8:30pm. And, taking my RA treatment that makes me sick, so I don't eat as much. Thanks though! It does feel good to be able to fit into my old clothes!
I did have a sip of pop yesterday for the first time in over a month, and it didn't even taste good to me, and it was WAY more carbonated than I remember!

Take a look...

At Kizzie! She's looking pretty darn good, I think. Anyway, she announced proudly to me a couple weeks ago that she had made it under her pre-pregnancy weight with Jack. She then announced this week that she's 5 pounds or so under her pre-Avery pregnancy weight. Keep in mind that Jack is not yet 3 months old. She's pretty excited to be able to wear some of her old clothes again, and is definitely worthy of applause for her rapid recovery especially since her RA generally limits her activity. We, of course, love her all the time, but we're happy when she's happy. And I think she's pretty hot, so that's cool too. - Andy

Jack's scrapbook

I scrap booked pictures for Avery, he has a "first year" scrapbook. I wanted to do the same for Jack, but with 2 kids it's a little harder to pull out all the paper, etc. So I opted for digital for Jack's book. I started it this week so I only have a few pages done, but I'm having a lot of fun with it!
I love digital because I can try things I wouldn't with paper, I hated cutting the paper unless I knew exactly what I wanted, so this way I can change it really easily if I don't like it!
Also, it's WAY easier to clean up, and I can do it while the boys are awake if I want. When I was doing Avery's book I could only work on it during naps, so this is working out a lot better for me.
Here are a few pages I've done so far.

baby sitter in the making?

Avery took very good care of his cow yesterday, he played with him and even fed him lunch and "changed" his diaper. Lets hope when he's older he doesn't try and feed his younger siblings checkers or leave them laying on the floor with no diaper on for extended periods of time.
The cow didn't seem to mind.

who said leggings are only for girls?

I think he looks super fly in these little baby legs. (they're not really baby legs, I made them)
I don't think he looks girly at all, I think he looks adorable. I'm thinking of making him some halloween ones too. I should probably try and match his onesie a little better to them though...oh well.

Here's the link to the recipe and instructions with pictures to make playdough
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-Playdough-Play-doh/

Play dough

Avery will be 2 1/2 in a couple months and I think he's only played with play dough once, and that was a few weeks ago at Amelia's house. I just don't like cleaning up big messes, or potentially big messes, so my poor kid misses out on things like play dough and playing recklessly outside getting dirty. Someday I'll try a little harder to loosen up a bit and let him get really messy. I just like things to be clean.

Anyway, I made some this morning to take to a ward play date tomorrow that the "theme" is play dough. It was so easy to make, lets just hope it's as easy to clean off a bunch toddlers in the church gym!
I'll let Avery try it out after his nap today.

Avery silliness

This past week Avery has done some pretty funny/cute things.
The other day he fell asleep on the living room floor about an hour before he usually naps, it was so cute though.


Then he found a winter hat from last year that is a little small for him this year, but he insists it's a helmet and walks around wearing it and asking if he can ride his bicycle now. He doesn't even have a bike.

Then last night on our way home from Amelia's house he started asking for his cape so he could "jump over the moon". What?! But he talked about jumping over the moon the whole ride home.
This afternoon he asked me to put a blanket on him like a cape and then kept trying to open the door insisting that he needs to go outside and jump over the moon! When Andy asked him where the moon was, without hesitation he said "behind the mountain". I don't know if he watched a show that talked about it or what, but I know I haven't read the nursery rhyme to him. I guess he's just got a killer imagination!Avery has also developed some sort of a fascination for superheroes (perhaps after watching Ironman with Andy and Jordan last weekend). It is pretty common for him to run around the living room and randomly exclaim, "Superhero to the rescue!!!" At least this suggests that he wants to help people. That's way better than him running around saying that he wants to kill people or something like that.

Yesterday I made a tutu for one of my nieces and of course had to try it on the boys, it was a little big for Jack and just about right for Avery's head. Avery REALLY liked wearing it, and called it "the princess". He looked like he had a giant pink afro!