New Baby

So as most of you already know, I am pregnant again and expecting our 4th baby the end of February... My official due date is Feb 22 (2/22/10 sounds good... I don't think I would have too much trouble remembering that date!) I went in for my ultrasound on October 13th and found out we are having a little girl... we are all very excited, especially Mikayla. Her first response to us telling her we were having another baby was "we don't need any more babies in this house!" (I didn't really disagree! but it was a little late for that!!!) However, as soon as she heard she was having a baby sister, she has been thrilled! I think it's something to do with making the "teams" even, with three boys and three girls in the family!! Personally, I am thrilled to be having a girl... after 7 years, I am getting another girl and I can't wait to go out and shop for pretty, frilly, pink things... all I ever get to buy right now is jeans and t-shirts... I don't think this little girl is going to stand a chance... she is going to have earrings and frills and bows and cute hair do's whether she wants them or not!! Also, after 7 years I am making the argument that all Kaylas old stuff is sadly out of style and I am going to need to buy lots of new stuff! (ha ha! we'll see!!) We also have been having lots of fun debating names and trying to find one that everyone can agree on. Bri and I have always liked the name Kenzie, but it is so close to Kayla that I think I would go insane... (I always wonder what I was thinking naming Jaden and Jaxson, and here I go again!!) but I made the mistake of telling the kids about liking the name Kenzie, so now they won't hear of any other names... Whenever Kayla writes anything about our family or draws a picture of us, she adds a baby and writes Baby Kenzie... so who knows, we may be stuck with it!!

Halloween 2009

So we had a great Halloween this year... Mikayla was a Pixie (she said she was a Princess with wings, and that was OK with me... at least she wore the costume!!) On Friday the 30th, I took her to school and quickly realized that they do things differently at our new school than we did last year at Vineyard... She was the only one without her costume on! So I ran her back home and got her dress on and took her back to school, not really expecting the day to go very well... You have to understand, Mikayla is a tom boy, who only wears jeans and t-shirts. But every year when Halloween rolls around, she INSISTS on being some kind of princess with a big floaty dress!! So the whole way back to school she was fighting with her dress and saying how dumb she looked and how she was "NOT wearing this stupid dress all day"... but low and behold when the boys and I got to her school later that afternoon for the school parade, she was smiling and happy and twirling around in her dress (minus her wings, she said she took them off and shoved them in her desk cause they were driving her crazy!!)... After the kids got to show off their costumes in the parade, they all had their Halloween class parties... we stopped in for a few minutes to take some pictures and say Hi to all the other kids... This is a picture of Kaylas class, naturally she wouldn't sit down WITH the class, so this was the best we could get... with her front and center!! Above is a picture of Mikayla and her best friend Olivia at the party... they are very cute together, constantly hugging and giggling together. It's great to see Kayla so happy with her new friends!!!

Jaden got to be Bumblebee the Transformer this year!! He was very excited, and insisted on wearing his costume ALL DAY on Friday... Jaden also got to have a Halloween party on Friday with his class. Jax and I haunted his preschool all day and got video and some pictures of the fun... At one point Jaden started giving me "that look"... you know, the one you give your mom when she is embarrassing you with taking a million pictures and you just want her to go away?? I didn't think I would see that look 'til he was a teenager, but I got it when he was 4... must mean I am supremely annoying!! He even wore his costume to Kaylas school to watch the big kids parade... We saw tons of really cool costumes, among Jadens favorites were Joker, lots of Transformers, and all the big kids cause they were SO SCARY!! One boy passed and said "YOU ROCK, BUMBLEBEE!" to Jaden... He was thrilled! Later that night we went to the Trunk or Treat at our church building, and it was the BIGGEST Trunk or Treat I have EVER seen!!! They had decided to combine 3 wards and have one big bash... it took us well over an hour to get through all the cars, and we got so much candy, that all the pumpkins (trick or treat buckets) were bulging so bad that I thought they might break!!!

Little Jax got to be Spiderman this year... he was so obstinate about costumes though... I took him to Wal-Mart with me to pick one out and of course I couldn't decide which one to get him, so I showed him each costume and asked him. He just would frown at each one and say "NO!" So in the end I ended up just making him wear a Spiderman costume... I figured at least it would make Jaden happy!! The night of the Trunk or Treat, I kind of had a hard time getting him dressed, and only just managed it by telling him we were going to get lots of candy... after that he was much more excited, and walked around saying candy, candy! Too bad we didn't get him to say trick or treat before we left... maybe next year!! Also, I think it helped a lot that Jaden was so excited to see him dressed as Spiderman! He kept telling Jax how cool he looked... So off we went to the Stake Center... He was so cute, he just marched up to each car and started digging through their candy bowls 'til he found the piece of candy he wanted and would come and bring it to me or Brian. It was SO COLD that night... only a few days after the big snow storm, so we were all bundled up in coats and still freezing by the time we got all the way through zig-zagging through the huge maze of parked cars!!

All in all a great Halloween, I taught the kids lots of Halloween songs that I remembered from Elementary School, and Jaden even taught me a new one he learned in preschool this year... and we ended up with a huge load of candy to eat by the time we were done!!

Living Room... Before and After

So I took this picture for you, Mom... so you could see how I had the new furniture placed in our tiny living room...
...and this is what it looks like after Brian got the paint on the walls... I LOVE IT!! it looks a little minty green in the pictures, but its more of a jade green, like is in the throw pillows and the stuffed chair, and the couches are way darker than they look... Now I just need to get the stuff up on the walls and it will look fabulous!!

Jaxson's Spot

I got a really cute video of Jax the other day while he was getting ready to watch TV... it shows off his personality and he actually talks quite a bit...

Jadens New Bike

Another jump back in time, although this WAS only a month ago! Look at all that green grass, and the kids are in SHORTS... and just the last couple days we have been inundated with COLD and SNOW!! what happened?!?!?

Anyway, this was the first day Jaden got his new bike Sept 27th)... he still had his training wheels on, and was just getting the hang of it, and doing very well!!

Day 2 of riding, and he had convinced Brian to take off his training wheels. OK, so he mentioned it and Bri jumped right on it, there wasn't much convincing involved!! YAY for Daddy... if it was up to this Mom, the kids would be babies forever!!

Snowy Day Video...

The video of the boys playing out in the snow... sorry for the bits where Jax is screaming,

but the stuff after that is cute, so I went ahead and put it in... Enjoy!

First Snow of the Season...

So it's not too often that I check weatherchannel.com and see that we have 100% chance of precipitation!! But we sure did today, and they weren't kidding!! In just a couple hours we got a big load of snow dropped on us!! It was so much fun to take the boys out to play in it! Jax rarely ever wears shoes, so snow boots were a little cumbersome for him. He just stood there for the most part and whined and then looked at his big boots. Jaden on the other hand was in heaven... diving and jumping and making snow angels all over the place! Eventually with Jaden holding his hand, Jax got into the spirit of things and joined in the fun of walking out into the snow... I think this must be his first time out in the cold white stuff, and I don't think he was really sure what to make of it! It was great fun, and we all came in freezing cold and pretty wet, but we settled in with big cups of hot chocolate and snuggled up under blankets to warm up.

Jaden and Jaxson walking through

the fluffy white cold...

A fun snowy day for two best buddies to play in!

Jaden eating a snowball...

look at the size of the snowflakes!!

WE LOVE WINTER!!!!!

The New House

OK, so I get a lot of requests to see

the new house, so here you are:

The front and the back...

We are loving our new neighborhood... there are kids everywhere (mostly boys) and everyone is so nice and friendly... it only took us all a few days to make a bunch of friends and fit right in... There is an awesome deck out the back sliding door for summer BBQ's, but we still want to get some fun stuff for the back yard... a swing set and an in-ground trampoline would be awesome!! As it is, the kids never go back there, as there is not much to do!! Maybe next summer...

July 4th 2009

So I am hopping between new stuff and old pictures and videos that I am coming across that I haven't blogged about yet, so bear with me while I get caught up!!

This past Independence Day we were very excited to have Mom and Robynn and Kennedie come up to help us celebrate... You would know how momentous this actually was if you knew how much my sister Robynn dislikes coming to Utah, but we managed to get her up here in summer!! We had a great time together celebrating and playing and eating yummy food!! Between them all they got me to agree to go out and watch the Hot Air Balloons launch. I have lived in Utah for almost 15 years and I have never been (I think the 6 AM start time has something to do with that!!) but we went and it was amazing!! We got to watch all those massive balloons get inflated and launch and fly through the air... it was great!

Then we walked over to see the Parade... it was a lot of fun, despite Mikayla being in a very bad mood and crying the whole time... Jaden kept running out to the street to pick up candy, which of course is the best part of ANY parade!! We saw Princesses, and Pirate Ships, and the BYU athletes with Cosmo, and the LDS Missionaries, and lots of marching bands and horses and all the good stuff you would expect to see in a parade. Pres. Lincoln even drove up in a golf cart and gave Jaden a shiny new penny minted in 2009! It was great fun!!!

After that we dragged ourselves back home for a shower and lunch and to start getting ready for the next phase in the festivities... Its never a party until Kell gets out the grill and does his family famous Carne Asada... as usual it was fantastic... Brad and Jan and kids (including their adopted daughter for the summerMorganne Romney) and Melanie and Ken Donahoo all came to join us... along with Mom, Robynn, Kennedie, Kelly and Steph, and Brian and I and our kids... we had a great time eating to our hearts content, then rushing off to watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks from just below the Provo Temple. We were a little disappointed at first in the fireworks display... about half way through they just stopped with no grand finale or anything... it was quiet for so long that a lot of people around us got up and left. We hung around, though and were rewarded with the rest of the show. Apparently there was a glitch and it took a good while to sort it out!! The kids all had a great time though during the wait playing with their light wands, the boys being Jedi Knights with Light Sabers and the girls making necklaces and bracelets. We did have a second of panic when I looked around and couldn't find Jaden ANYWHERE... eventually we found him. He had wandered off to join another group so he could play with their kids!! Like I said, he will play with ANYONE! (more FHE's on stranger danger, I guess!) By the time we fought traffic and got home it was closing in on midnight, so we let the kids hurry and do sparklers in the parking lot and then everyone headed home... it was a great day... AND a very FULL day!!

Change...

So I am not really sure if I can even remember how to do this blogging thing, its been SO LONG!! We had a very crazy summer... house hunting and buying a new house and moving INTO a new house (not to mention morning sickness! YUCK!!). Once I got my camera and video camera unpacked and charged I realized that I had tons of stuff from clear back in July!! so for now, I am in catch up mode to get us back to the present...

And of course, it never stops there, with the normal things... Mikayla has had such a rough transition into our new neighborhood and her new school! I think she just doesn't like change and EVERYTHING changed in the blink of an eye for her... she tells me almost every day that she wants to move back to the condo (after 4 yrs. it had really become home for us!) so I try so hard to explain that there is NOTHING there anymore... no furniture, no food, no family... poor kid, she even had me drive into our old neighborhood so she could see the condo and the playground... Fortunately, she is just starting to perk up a bit. She has made a couple of cute friends from next door, and she has 4 friends at school that she talks about all the time and invite her to eat lunch and sit by them on the bus coming home from school, so I think she may be getting used to the newness. She refuses to ride the bus to school... every day I have to take her in, and hand her off to her teacher. For the first couple weeks, unbeknownst to me, she was getting to school and hiding from her teacher... so her poor teacher was spending the first 15 min. of class looking for Mikayla (she never hid in the same place twice!) so I resolved to take her in... and for the next couple weeks, I would take her to the door of her classroom, kicking and screaming and her teacher would drag her in to class while she punched her backpack and cried (her teacher would always joke and say "Come on Kayla, lets go beat up Tinker Bell" ... I of course was NOT happy with this situation. Of course I had to take Jax with me, and I think her crying and freaking out got to him, so whenever we would get even CLOSE to Kaylas classroom, Jax would start screaming too... So I had Kayla screaming and trying to run down the hall, and Jax screaming wanting to be picked up so we could leave... Can I even describe the looks on the faces of the other second graders in the room??? I doubt that any of them had ever even imagined such a display!! SO... the new game plan for us is...

1. LEAVE JAX IN THE CAR

and

2. I actually go INTO the classroom with Kayla while she puts her backpack in her cubby and goes to sit in her seat. This is of course contingent on her NOT SCREAMING or KICKING ME or any of the other embarrassing things she likes to do. Its been working out great so far... I just stand in the back of the class and wait til she looks comfortable, then I slip out. This also gives me a chance to talk to her teacher every day and get progress reports on how she is doing in general. The last report I got was so reassuring... teacher said that she called on Kayla to come up and read to her, AND SHE DID!!! she got right up, read to her teacher and went back to sit down... Even after a full year at Vineyard last year, she never got that far with her other teacher, so I am hoping that things are starting to inch towards improvement!!

Jaden of course is happy as always to be wherever... and there are SO MANY kids on our street (mostly boys) that he is in heaven most of the time. Occasionally he asks if he can go to Orem and play with his old friends (to which I very adamantly tell him NO! they were a bunch of punks!) but for the most part he is doing great here. We started him in preschool at a private home just a block over from us, and it only took him a couple days to be best friends with everyone there... he is my little social bug (he takes offense when I say social butterfly) he is always at someones house playing, and can hardly stand to be at home, since it is so BORING here!! His friendships range from hanging out with two year olds to being buds with 11 yr olds... he just joins any group that is outside at the moment!! On another good note for Jaden, he has taught himself how to ride a two wheeler. He used to commandeer a bike from one of the neighborhood boys, but he wasn't making any friends that way... so I went out and got him his own. We decided on a big bike so he could grow into it, but turns out he can;t even reach the ground!! So I told him we would leave his training wheels on and get a helmet until next summer when he is taller. After riding on the bike for about two hours, he came in and told Brian that he didn't want his training wheels on, and so Bri took them off!! But don't you know... Jaden did awesome! I swear it is so refreshing to have a little do it yourselfer. After Kayla's histrionics, I get Jaden who wants to ride a bike without training wheels so he just does it!! He's such a good kid!!

Then there's Jax... my sweet little white baby! I swear, I never thought I would have such a white kid... he is just precious! It makes me laugh so hard when I see him and Jaden next to each other... I had them in the tub together last night and Jaden (who has my coloring) looked so much darker with his tanned skin, dark brown hair and big brown eyes... then there is my little Jax who is whiter than you can imagine, with his strawberry blondish hair and blue eyes... it cracks me up how they are so different. But still the best of friends... Jax can't stand it when Jaden does ANYTHING without him. Especially being outside... Jax shouts at me "mom on!" (come on) "Out!" I have to admit that I hate to take him outside, because like I said... he thinks he can do anything that Jaden can do. So he grabs his dump truck (or a stroller) and off he goes into the road to chase after Jaden and the other big kids... I am constantly running after him and pulling him out from in front of a car... luckily this is a great family neighborhood and everyone knows to drive SLOW!! Jax also is a big talker... he is moving on to saying two and three words together now... some of the cuter ones are "shoes off" when he wants his shoes off or has done it himself... or "there it goes" when something is stuck then starts... like a DVD or a zipper. He also knows most of the Thomas the Trains by name, and I think he knows all the Cars characters by name as well... If he wants to play he comes and tells me "track, track" so I will build the Lightning McQueen race track, or "Tuggies, TV" if he wants to watch a DVD. He is a cute kid, he loves to get comfy on the couch with a pillow and a blanket. He calls it his "spot" and will stay there for a whole Thomas DVD... this works out great for me so I can get a shower!! He is starting to really show a lot of personality, too! If Kayla gets mad and is frowning or shouting, he mimics her, and puts on the hugest scowl (I need to have the camera ready!) or if someone does something he doesn't like he starts shouting "HEY! HEY! HEY! NO!" and glares at them... but if you tell him "Ooh, you look like a grumpy baby!" he smiles at you or makes a funny face... he obviously can change moods at the drop of a hat, and I am not quite sure if that's a good thing or not!!

All in all we are having a great year so far and really loving our new house and new neighborhood... we especially are looking forward to the Holidays coming up!! YAY!

Day Out With Thomas... on Video

SOO... I have been having a hard time downloading video for the past month or so, that is why I am so far behind... but the previous few have gone through so fast and easy, that I thought I would try again!

Getting On The Train...

On the Train...

Tattoos, Tiny Horses and Giant Trains...

Kickin' It Jaxie Style...

Jaxson is getting so big... he loves to watch TV now. Some of his favorites are Thomas the Train (which he has called "tugga" since before his first birthday) and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse which he calls "Dickey". He loves to sing the "Hot Diggity Dog" song and dances whenever he hears it or the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse song.

He also loves to watch Super Why... so we were so excited to go up to Toys R Us last Saturday to a "Super Why" party. They had coloring pages, bingo, Super Why masks, temporary tattoos, and even story time... This is Jax siting on his chair for story time... he didn't move a muscle the whole time... shockingly, he was the best behaved of the bunch... he had a great time!

Bee-utiful!

so this was a week or two ago... but still wanted to share... gorgeous!!

P.S. You can hear the Kelly Clarkson concert in the background... nothin' like living next to UVU. I got to hear the concert and I didn't even have to get wet!! (or pay)

Hyotee...

it boggles the mind!

Mikayla

So, its that time of the year again... We are spending most of our lives in various doctors offices across the Wasatch Front... How did this happen? How do we go a WHOLE YEAR without seeing any of her doctors, and then BOOM! spend a whole month, running from one to the other?!?! Luckily, most of her appointments are for prescription refills, and nothing serious.

As most of you already know, Mikayla has been going to play therapy to help her deal with some of her fear, anxiety and anger issues that she has developed from all her surgeries and medical tests she has had since she was a newborn. The good news is, she REALLY loves going. She is always asking if today is JP day... Well, a few days ago, Brian and I had a session with her therapist and just sat down and talked about Mikayla and what he was observing and what he thought. And he told us (basically things we know and have observed ourselves) that she is very hard to diagnose. She is really scattered one day so it looks like ADD, but then the next day she is totally focused so maybe its not... He says her moods change SO FAST that he thinks maybe it is bipolar... but we don't have any history of bipolar disorder in either Brian's or my families (apparently it is inherited)... so that left him with childhood depression, and he asked us to go see our pediatrician so she could prescribe some antidepressants for her. OK, I am not happy in the least that my 6 year old needs to be on antidepressants!! But we want so much to help Mikayla, that if that is what she needs, that is what we will do for her! SO... we took her to the pediatrician and did a whole medical evaluation and physical, and sat and talked with her for OVER AN HOUR! (how often does a doctor sit and talk with a patient for that long?!?!? never in my experience!) and she (the pediatrician) said she is not convinced that Mikayla has childhood depression. She says there are MANY different things it can be, like her diet, her sleep patterns even the seizures she has could be responsible for what is happening... and it still might be depression, she is just not sure! (which is good, I am glad she is being cautious... I don't want her on antidepressants if she needs meds for ADD! and I don't want her on any more meds if it is just her diet and sleep that need to be changed!) SO... she told us we need to take Mikayla to a child psychiatrist so that THEY can diagnose her... so now on top of her having a cranio-facial surgeon, a neurosurgeon, a neurologist, an occuloplastic surgeon, a pediatric ophthalmologist and a play therapist, she apparently needs to have a child psychiatrist too! so we are on the hunt for a good psychiatrist, that hopefully can diagnose her and just get her the help she needs!!

Also, last year at her MRI, her neurosurgeon told us that she would most likely need to have brain surgery this year again. Her brain is hemorrhaging too much and there is too much pressure on her brain again. So we will be taking her back in to the hospital in SLC to have another MRI done so they can measure how much the hemorrhage has grown and see how soon they need to do surgery again... we will keep you updated on how she is doing and whether or not she needs surgery this summer / fall...

Does it ever end?!?!?

A Day Out With Thomas

SO... we finally did it! After years and years of "missing it" we finally got to go up to Heber City and ride on Thomas... I can't even begin to tell you how excited the kids were when we got up close to the train depot, and they could see Thomas chugging down the track with Annie and Clarabel and the other passenger cars... Even Kayla (who when we left home professed to NOT wanting to go see Thomas) was jumping up and down in her seat and shouting "Thomas! Thomas! Hi Thomas!"

The first thing we did upon arrival, was ride the train of course... we really lucked out and got there just in time to buy our tickets and jump on the train before it left the station... You should have seen Jadens face light up when he know he was actually riding ON Thomas the Train! I asked him which car we were riding in, and he said that "we were sitting in Clarabel, because Annie is first and we were in the last car, so it MUST be Clarabel!" Me personally? I was shooting for sitting in one of the open air carriages, but as soon as the kids saw Annie and Clarabel... you know the rest! The kids also got an "official" Jr. Engineer Certificate signed by Sir Topham Hatt...

After the train ride, we went on to see all the rest of the fun stuff there was to offer... unfortunately the first tent we came to was the Gift Shop... so we started out right away with some temper tantrums (Jaden) and wanting to buy everything in sight! But we agreed on buying a Thomas the Train Board Game and everyone was happy! (yay!) After that we moved on to see Sir Topham Hatt (sp?) Supposedly you were able to get a picture with him, but it was so hot he would only stand out there for 30 minutes then take a 30 minute break, so we never actually caught him out... we got in line a couple times and just as we got to the front of the line they would say the half hour is up! so we gave up on Sir Topham and moved on to something else! Besides riding on the train, Jaden really had a great time in the train table tent... Picture Toys R Us and times it by 5... there were like three small train tables and 2 or 3 BIG tables set up with tracks and trains and a lego train table and a coloring station and a stamping station... it was lots of fun! (sorry no pictures, I only got video of this one!!)

But I think the favorite over all was the tattoo station! We all got to be involved and I think we gave our tattoo artist a run for her money! Brian got a James tat on his cheek, Mom got Rosie on her bicep, Jaden got Thomas on one hand and Henry on the other and Percy on his cheek, and I got Harold the Helicopter on my hand and Thomas on my cheek! We were really decked out and lookin' pretty cool... and very appropriate for the Thomas Day Celebration!

They had a horse grooming station, where you could brush and groom these tiny cute little ponies and feed them. I was so proud of Jaden... he let a horse eat out of his hand... very brave, I would never do that! Then we moved on to the last station which was Movies and Storytelling... of course they only had movies... the couple running this tent was about 17 and obviously not in the mood to tell stories! While we were in the tent we heard a huge "WHOOSH!" and came out to see what it was, and it was a HUGE black train!! (I think this is the Heber Creeper Train, but not sure!) So we all came out to see it, and Jaden was so fascinated by the train, he walked right up to it and tried to stick his hand in some water leaking out of the bottom of the train. Luckily there was a member of the staff close enough to stop him, or he would have gotten a pretty bad burn, as it was the water from the boiler!! His mom just sat there and videoed him walking under a train! (HELLO?!?!?)

(*Picture is of Jaden standing right next to the train, notice that he is about half as tall as the wheel!!! It was HUGE!)

After that we were pretty tired and hot and hungry, so we took off to head up to Centerville and some fun family/cousin time... On the way out we stopped for some pictures by the big train psters that were on the gate. Naturally Jaden had to get a picture by EACH ONE!! All in all it was a very fun day... the kids did so great, it was 2 PM by the time we got lunch, and not one of them complained or whined!!

P.S. Some of you may be wondering why Kayla is not in many of the pictures... she had a pretty bad day and had 4 seizures while we were there, so she rested in the stroller for most of the day! Poor Baby!

Also, my job was video and Mom's job was pictures... unfortunately we didn't get her pictures downloaded before she went home, so we will have to make do with the few I took, but I have ALOT of video... coming soon!

Easter Movies 2009

THE PRESENTS!!

THE HUNT AND THE FEAST...

Easter 2009

So, I realize this is about a month late, but I still wanted to put up our Easter pictures... We had a very fun day, digging through our Easter Baskets, chomping down chocolate for breakfast, opening presents and coloring Easter Eggs... Mikayla got a new Tinkerbell puzzle, which she claims is way too hard (it IS really hard!) Jaden got two new Hot Wheels cars for his "city" and Jax got a new Tigger and Pooh ball... As you might expect from the contrary nature of my kids, Jaden played with Jax's ball all day and Jax played with the new cars... at least they were both happy right??

Then (after church of course) we had a blast coloring and decorating Easter Eggs... We got a great decorating kit with sticker faces in it, so the kids got to give their eggs a little personality! We had a great time, making a huge mess in the kitchen, and getting the dye all over the place! The kids were so excited that they wouldn't let me leave the eggs in the dye long enough to get some real good color on them... every time I would check an egg, one of them would say "That's enough, take it out and let it dry!" Then off I went out to the playground to "hide" the eggs... I hid them so well, we lost one! I seriously couldn't remember where I hid it, so we had 11 eggs to find... but Jax didn't mind being one short! (Honestly, I think that someone came and took one of the eggs when I went back in the house to get the kids, but I can't prove it! That's a much better solution than that I am just loosing my mind!) As you can see from the picture, Jax was in raptures over his egg! He was so thrilled to hold it and bash it into the table (yay for hard boiled!) He just kept squealing and giggling and jabbering at it! I will post a video of his reaction to his very first easter egg, it was priceless...

Two cheesy kids, who are very happy with their eggs!

Ready, Set, HUNT! Off to the playground to look for their eggs...

Prince Jaden

Prince Jaden during Fairytales week at Pre-school... very cute!

A new fashion

The new fashion at our house... both Mikayla and Jaden do it, and we are yet to figure out why... almost every morning they each get out of bed with only one sock on or walk around the house with one shoe on and one shoe off... weird-o kid-o's!

Jaden and Jaxson

Just a cute video of the boys playing...

Jadens First Book

Mikayla LOVES to read, so every time we bring books home from the library, she sits down and reads to Jaden. I was aware of this of course... but I didn't know that she has actually been teaching HIM how to read. This morning he got out a book and said he wanted to "read" to me... so we sat down on the couch, and I was BLOWN AWAY! he did so good, I decided to put him on the blog... so here he is reading his very first book (that I am aware of!)

Popsicles and Scripture Night

So we were trying to get the kids settled down for Scriptures and everyone decided they needed a Popsicle... Here is Jax and his first attempt to go it alone. It was lots of yummy and some laughs too! Jaden is getting to be such a clown! He likes to "quote" scriptures...

Note the popcorn popping in the background while I video... needless to say, it was BURNED! I had to pop another bag...

The Crabtree's

So one last hoorah for our trip to Idaho for Christmas... We all got together for group family portraits and this is what we got...

Isn't it amazing? I still can't believe how big our family has gotten!! I love it that my kids have so many fun and adorable cousins right a the exact same age as they are. I love it that we all get along so well, and have so much fun together. I love it that we DO get together (though not as often as we should...) so our kids can grow up knowing each other and we can all grow closer as a family... Thank you Ken and Sara for the beautiful family we all share!

First Haircut

Last week I decided that my sweet little boy had the weirdest hair ever... while having the cutest curls I have ever seen, it had unfortunately grown into a mullet! Don't ask me why my kids hair grows so fast in the back, and doesn't budge in the front... but for some reason both my boys had mullets!! So I decided it was time for Jaxson's first haircut! Brian decided he was going to have nothing to do with it, because he was sure that Jax was going to be all over the place or screaming or BOTH! so I took Jax and stripped him down to his onesie handed him a train (that was the key!) and off we went. He was SO GOOD! He just looked at himself in the mirror and watched what was I was doing... he never fussed once and he just let me go to town on him!! He was such a good boy! So bye bye baby hair... isn't it funny how much older they look with buzzed heads? Is it because the baby hair is gone?? but hey... no more mullet! YAY!! (but I do miss his cute baby curls!!)

Big Boy Jax

well, yes he is finally walking... YAY JAX!! silly kid! he has been so stubborn about walking... even when I would take the time to hold his hands and help him walk around the house, he would just plop down on his bottom!! Then one day while I was sitting at the computer working, he just let go of my chair and walked out to the kitchen, and has been walking ever since! He was pretty funny about it, though... as you'll see in the video, he is pretty proud of himself and he does a great job for his official first day walking... but when he falls down he shouts "AARGH!" in frustration.

Naturally, like all my posts this one is a little old... so I will work on getting a more recent one for the Grandma's and whoever else cares to see it!

Doctor Jaden

As many of you know, Mikayla spends alot of time in hospitals, and has a pretty hard time when it comes to getting her IV's placed and her blood pressure taken and so forth. Well, at her last MRI we were talking to the childlife specialist and she suggested that we take an IV kit and some other medical stuff home for her to play with so that MAYBE she would play with it and get comfortable around the different items they use... Well, predictably she won't have anything to do with it, but Jaden of course LOVES it! Almost every day, he asks me if we can play "doctor stuff"... usually it's during the day when Kayla is at school, so there has never been any uproar about it, but we finally got the IV kit out when Kayla was home....

She came in to see what we were doing and we were explaining to her that all their "babies" (that's what my kids call their stuffed animals) were sick, so we were helping them to feel better. Well, she took one look at the IV and told me her doll was NOT sick, and to take that yucky poke out of her... (naturally they didn't give us a needle, its just the catheter) and she stormed out saying she was not going to play that yucky game... That didn't change Jadens mind! He had a blast placing IV's in the babies arms, and wrapping the dolls head in a gauze bandage and putting bandages over their eyes etc... he even got the gloves on!!

Is there a doctor in the house?!?

Jaxson and Tyler

During our stay in Rexburg over Christmas, Jaxson got to meet his cousin Tyler for the first time. They are so cute together, they seemed to bond right away and they played so cute together!! Tyler was born only about 4 weeks after Jax, and that makes it even more fun for them!! This is a video of them playing together... they were "chasing" each other around the coffee table in the living room... very cute for a couple of one year olds!!

Christmas Day 2008 Video

Ok, so if you were there, you may be interested in seeing this... we got some of everyone. It is very long, though, about 25 minutes! so... enter if you dare!

The Christmas pictures are here at last!

Mikayla and Jaden on Christmas Eve in their new jammies...

Jaxson and Tyler (born 4 weeks apart and destined to be best buds)


Jaden playing little people with his cousin Allison

Three pretty princesses playing house with the play kitchen and their baby dolls

Mikayla, Allison and Ellie

The motley crew... all the older cousins sitting down for dinner... There were so many of us, we had to eat in shifts!!

Mikayla, Jaden and Jaxson on Christmas morning, getting ready to open presents...