Our top ten......

After perusing several top ten lists of the year, I have decided that I would create a top ten list for our family. Here are the top events of the year for the Shoffs:
1-Our first baby girl was born in October
2-We moved to Tennessee of all places!
3-Ben got the job promotion he worked so hard for; it really is sick how much he loves his job!
4-We bought our house and have already had fun painting.
5-Dallin had a big year-losing teeth and tying shoes!
6-Ben's sister Becca was married this summer, and we were able to go out and spend some time with both families! Great summer vacation!
7-Got a chance to explore Jackson a little bit during spring break, and made it to the Memphis Zoo. (New Year's goal is to be a Tennessee tourist and see more of the state)
8-Moved JT into a big boy bed.
9-Got ridiculously emotionial over the drama of a nest and 5 little eggs.
10-Made some fantastic friends and have managed to stay in touch with many of our friends from St. George.

The transition to a new year always excites me. I just read my post from last year when we didn't know if/when we would be moving and didn't know that our baby girl was just wating right around the corner. How exciting that there are other surprises waiting for us in 2010! A fresh new start, a starting point to being a better person/parent/friend.....what does the new year hold for us? Who knows, but I am sure that it will be an adventure! Hold on, here we go!

Christmas Letter

To save on paper and shopping, here is the Christmas letter you have all been hoping for in the mail....;-)

Dearest Friends and Family,
What a wonderful year this has been! We have been so blessed during this year of BIG changes and small miracles.

To start the year off with a bang, we moved to Jackson, TN in at the end of January. We packed up a home that we loved and said goodbye to dear friends and set out on a new adventure, and an adventure it has been!

For starters, our sweet baby girl Sarah was born in October. She is growing and eating, and sleeping like a champ! She was born full term which truly was a miracle for our family, and I learned a lot about patience once again! She already goes through more clothes than I remember the boys ever going through (she is a girl after all!) and she has all of us wrapped around her little finger. She has dark hair that we hope stays dark, has a smile that takes up her whole face, and loves to be pampered! She can flare her little toe out away from her other toes, loves to be swaddled, and is just now warming up to bath time. She brought such happiness with her when she came that has been infectious, and we just love our little lady bug to pieces!

Jarom has also been growing like a weed! He is just the electricity of our family. He keeps us all moving and lights us all up with his smile and charm, and when that little guy gets going, you'd better watch out! Our munchkin loves to sing "Popcorn Popping" over and over, and is really good at the motions. He loves to dance, especially to the closing credits of pretty much any movie. And he LOVES his brother and sister. He loves to say Sarah's name, and is just giddy when Dallin comes home from school. He is awesome at being a big brother already, and is very mindful of Sarah's needs. He tries to make sure she has a blanket over her face (to make sure she is warm) or shakes her car seat just as she gets to sleep (to make sure she isn't dead) or pats her head with sticky fingers (all girls need a little product in their hair every now and then!) or sits right by her side during diaper changes and tells her how gross it is (guilting her into potty training?) He is just so attentive to her needs! He has struggled a lot with his allergies and eczema this year, and we have tried almost everything which works for a week or so and then we are back to square one. He is very patient with the itching and pain, and still manages to be just a happy little guy.

Dallin has grown up right before my eyes this year. When we got to TN, his Kindergarten teacher wasn't sure she was going to be able to graduate him on to 1st grade because the education he had gotten in Utah was seriously lacking. He was just so far behind, but that didn't stop my Dallin from working hard and catching right up. He likes 1st grade, and his favorite parts of school are either P.E., lunch, music, (because of his "beautiful" music teacher) or art. He has become quite the Batman enthusiast, and every picture he has drawn for the last 3 months has been about Batman. He lives for the Lego Batman XBox game which has given us good leverage to "encourage" obedience. He is a rockin' big brother, as Jarom likes to pretty much shadow his every move, and he allows it for the most part. Dallin has really missed his friends from St. George and will randomly ask to move back there, but that is usually when he is mad at Jarom. Otherwise, he has been perfectly happy to have Jarom has his little buddy. He is awesome at his chores which include cleaning his own bathroom, bedroom and the toy room. He also clears the table every night, and has FINALLY learned to tie his own shoelaces. He can make his own bowl of cereal in the mornings, and will even get Jarom a bowl. If I could just teach him how to make dinner......maybe in 2010!

Ben took a promotion with Redbox as a Regional Operations Supervisor, hence the move to Tennessee. He really loves his job, and is really good at it too! He is able to work from home, which is great (most of the time!) He has already served in the Sunday School Presidency and is currently serving in the Elder's Quorum Presidency in our church and has loved serving in that capacity, and has been involved in some missionary work also. He is a fantastic father, and loves dishing out "um-num-shebas" as often as he can. For those of you who aren't literate in the "Indiana Jones" lingo, an "um-num-sheba" is basically when Ben pretends to take your heart out with his bare hand. Sounds gruesome, I know, but it really turns into a tickle-fest. The only problem with that is that my boys aren't afraid of them anymore, and actually TRY to get them. Ben is the best dad to wrestle with, because it is virtually impossible to hurt him!

I struggled with the move here because of the pregnancy. I started thinking that maybe it was Tennessee that made me sick, but it turns out, it was just Baby! It was a rough spring and fall, but we all survived! I did my best this year to explore our little corner of TN and plan to expand that exploration throughout TN. It has been fun to have our own house, and I have loved having color on the walls again. I am currently planning out my next house project. I was called to serve in the Primary of our church, and have loved making friends there. We really have made some good friends here, which has definitely minimized our home sickness.

We are having our very first down home Christmas this year. Ben and I have always gone to family's houses for Christmas, and we are excited to be on our own this year. (we still love you, family!) I have been feeling very warm and fuzzy here in our own home, with the Christmas tree, the lights, and our fireplace. What better feeling in the world is there than to feel that way? That is all we can ask for, really is to have that feeling of peace in our hearts for this holiday, and the best way to have that peace is to come unto Christ. When we do that, we can have that feeling all year long.

We hope the best for you and your family in 2010! Please keep in touch,

Merry Christmas!
Love, The Shoffs

A candy cane with sprinkles on top

It's the most wonderful time.....

Thanksgiving was great, and now we can officially kick off the Christmas season! I just purchased my first Christmas presents online (free shipping, thank you very much!) and am definitely feeling the anticipation of the season already! I am a cheap skate for the entire year, but when December rolls around, I find that I really have to reign myself in and chill out. I love buying presents! I HATE buying stuff for myself, but presents for my family is a different story! There definitely is the stress of figuring out what to get the parents, as they just go get what they want/need whenever they want, but I manage to survive each year. I am finding that my big weakness is my kiddos, as is everyone's, I suppose. My mom has told me that she had the same problem with her family. My dad would have to be the one to hold her back, she just loved to get us a big Christmas. We also are having a down home Tennessee Christmas this year, so I am finding that I am planning the day already with what toys everyone will be getting.

This definitely is the most wonderful time of the year when we can focus on others and the thrill of gift giving. Especially if we remind ourselves every now and then exactly WHY we are giving gifts, it makes it even more special. Merry Christmas!

Where does the time go?

We have been having such a good time with our new little one, that time has just really zoomed by! I can't believe that the leaves are commencing there mass exodus to the ground now and we even have a nip in the air in the mornings. This fall really got away from me. Our little lady bug is a rock star baby. She was 1 month old yesterday. She sleeps for 4 hours at a time at night, and is happy during the day. She eats well, and boy does she poop well! The laundry we go through.....she puts her brothers to shame! JT has adapted much better than I anticipated, although he is now struggling with bedtime. He just does NOT want to go to bed. I am not sure what the deal is, but we will work through it. DB is doing well at school and has seemed to handle the adjustment well also. We did have to implement a "Dallin Dollar" system at our house that helps remind him during the week to listen and obey so that he can have "money" left over on Fridays and Saturdays to "buy" XBox time. I have discovered the beauty of having a kid who lives and breathes for something like Lego Batman......you have something you can threaten to take away to encourage compliance. He has been so good and so helpful for the last two weeks, and our home has been MUCH more peaceful. Ben has been working a ton to make up for the vacation he took to hang out with the family. He even covered for his boss this week in addition to doing his own work. That is what happens when you are just so good at what you do, right? People assume you can take on more. I have been feeling MUCH better since the last post. I am anxious to be active again; it has been SOOOO long since I have broken a sweat from actual exercise, not just from being fat.....okay, pregnant.....sometimes it is hard to know the difference. I think I am going to start exercising on Monday. Ben got me a balance ball and resistance band for my birthday and I can't wait to use it! We are gearing up for Thanksgiving, and are SUPER DUPER excited to have my sister and her husband come down from Omaha. Oh, and the kids are mostly excited to see Roxy, their dog. It will be amazing if they are able to drag Roxy from DB's and JT's fingers! I am going to make my Grammy's pecan tarts (even though apparently I am the ONLY one who will be eating them.....) and trying not to destroy the 21 lb turkey that Ben got "so we can have plenty of leftovers!"

2 weeks and counting.....ALREADY???

Well, our new little girly girl is already 2 weeks old....time sure flies when you are heavily drugged and really tired, doesn't it? She is just a wonderful baby, and so far, very mild mannered. She definitely LOVES her brothers already and can't take her eyes off of them when they come into her field of vision. She has awesome hair that you just can't help but pet, and long fingers and toes that don't resemble any of the usual Shoff traits. She has gained a whole pound since birth and eats and sleeps well. JT hasn't felt threatened by her like we anticipated, but I am sure that having all the grandmas and grandpas visit over the last week has helped keep his mind off of things. We had her baby blessing on Sunday and Ben did a great job, and we escaped church without any H1N1 clinging to us, so we are doing good so far.

It was absolutely marvelous to have our moms and dads visit us. I was hoping to be a bit more recovered from the C-section so that we could have a bit more fun, but alas, that was not to be. It worked out to be a HUGE blessing to have them come, especially Mama Shoff who took over the mom role of our house and really took care of us. I am forever indebted to her. It was awesome on Sunday morning to see all of us getting ready to be to 9:00 church. Thank heavens for the time change......my mom took DB and kept him on task, my dad had the baby while I got ready, both of Ben's parents tag teamed JT as he was in meltdown mode. Awesome. Thank heavens for parents.

My patience with myself has really been tried this time around. I was expecting to be "whole" again by now, but am just starting to feel better. I even made it through my entire prescription of "happy pills" this time. With JT I only took 2 pills after coming home! If I could just learn to have patience so that I can quit all these lessons.....

One cool story about her cute little booties....the woman who she was named after made these booties before she passed away. Ben's aunt Sharlee happened to have this last pair and gave them to us. That really meant a lot to us to have Sarah wear something made by her guardian angel, Aunt Marlene.

Oh, and I am totally converted to pink--who knew?

JT and SM

Pictures

Sarah Marlene Shoff

Family/Friends,
As many of you know we had our baby this morning at 8:02 am she was 7 pounds 6 ounces and as you can see has a big head of black hair...mom and baby are fine even though our boys seem to have that deer in the headlights look about them...we are happy to have this new sweet baby added to our family.

The education of a phantom

Man, what a night! The Halloween Phantom stopped by our house the other night and the note said we had 2 days to spread the Halloween Cheer to two other families within 2 nights or a horrible curse would come upon us. Wanting to avoid the curse, we set out to deliver our "cheer" to others. We found out that things work differently in Tennessee once again.

First, Ben and I got in a fight about how much cheer to spread and how anonymously to do it. I am sure that the fight was spurred on by A LOT of pregnancy induced hormones. Anyway, we finally agreed to even go, and went to our first victim. We passed the house ever so inconspicuously to case the joint and drove up the street to turn around so as to be in a position to make a quick getaway, and by the time we pulled up to the house, we were being greeted by a very aware man prepared to protect his family.....with a loaded pistol! Ben couldn't believe that this man somehow knew that we were headed to his house and was so quickly prepared to protect his loved ones. Once he saw who it was, he admitted his preparations and even showed Ben! Don't mess with a Tennessean and his family after 7:30pm. Lesson learned.

Second, if you ever want to rob a bank or be inconspicuous in ANY way.....don't let Ben drive. The second house we went to, Ben pulled into their driveway with the lights on to prepare to turn around. By the time we made it back out of their long, steep driveway, the man of the house was standing on his front porch, making sure his family was okay. I am seriously re-thinking my upcoming bank heist and the accomplises I hire. Lesson learned.

Third, sometimes even breathing can bother a overly emotional/irratable pregnant woman. Ben even got to the point that he had to ask me if it was okay for him to even exist! I had to seriously consider the question, and don't worry, I authorized him to exist for at least a little longer. Lesson learned for Ben.

This Halloween Phantom has learned a lot tonight, and is glad that her phantom days are over for now.

Birthday pix

DB

Oh, how I love my DB. We sure have come a long way since he was born, and are happy to go a whole lot further with that amazing kid.

DB really has been quite an easy child. As a baby he was laid back, patient and could always remember to "take a deep breath." (I told him that a lot when he was in the hospital) He was quite obedient and never drew on the walls. I of course appreciate that last one a lot more now......He has to work on his patience now a little more, but just with himself. It is easy for him to be patient with others, including his little brother, but he forgets to take it easy on himself sometimes, which will hopefully push him to greater things someday.

He has never really been too crazy attached to anything, but we have gone through our Thomas the tank Engine and Superman phases, and are currently enduring a Batman/Transformers fascination, and I am desperately trying to fend off an X Box hobby. He will really eat almost anything put in front of him except for potatoes. (french fries excluded) Oh, that and fried zucchini--found that out last night!

One thing I love about DB is that even though he gives a talk in primary every month and enjoys doing so, everytime they call his name to come up to the front, his face turns BRIGHT red and he gets this look on his face. It is one of anticipation, terror, pride and excitement all mixed into one I love that cute little face, yet hope that as he becomes more confident that terror part will disappear.

As every parent, I hope so many things for my first born son, but at this exact point in his life, I pray for him to believe in himself more. I want him to be able to know he is awesome, just because he is, not because someone else has to tell him so....I tell him every day, but as a kid grows, it is not enough that your mom tells you something, so I hope for him to be able to tell himself that.

She could.....Go.....All.....The....Way!

So, I feel like I am being drawn and quartered. I have outgrown my maternity clothes. I seriously waddle. I have trouble getting in and out of my car. But ironically, those seem to be the only real troubles I am having, much to the surprise of the doctor who delivered DB. I have had 2 babies before this one, yet I have never been THIS pregnant before. And we just keep on going.....could it even be possible? Am I really going to have to go the full 15 months of pregnancy? I never realized that pregnancies lasted this long. I always thought it was only like nine months or something! Okay, so I may be exaggerating just a bit about how long I have been preggo, but even Ben has forgotten what life was like to have a "normal" Amanda around. But at least he has AN Amanda around....if things turned out like DB, I would definitely be MIA and at the hospital. Don't get me wrong--it is "a bizillion" (to use DB's favorite number these days) times better for ME to be uncomfortable instead of watching a tiny baby uncomfortable in the hospital. Look at me go, now I will have understanding for the whole spectrum of moms--ones with early babies and no stretch marks, and those with big babies and stretch marks that could rival a topographical map!!!

I have never been known to be patient, but this last 18 days just might kill me! I just don't know how we are going to handle having a baby that doesn't have an IV in their head, tubes coming out of their nose/mouth and all sorts of blood tests and Xrays. Seriously? How do they know these full term babies are okay without all those tests? Do they at least measure their oxygen? How do I know she will be breathing without a machine to tell me so? This is going to be wierd!! What a blessing and what a miracle. I know that all babies are miracles, but when your doctor can't exactly explain why this one is going so much better than the first two, you know you are looking in the face of a miracle.....at least I will look her in the face in 18 days.

Love note

This is the love note that came home from school with DB today. I think he means it, too....I mean, look at all those exclamation points!! We had a VERY rough morning today and he lost some priveleges. Man, I am a good mom!
P.S. He doesn't hear the "n" sound in "Don't" and "won't" I love phoenetic spelling!!

Baby girl update

So I have been seeing the doc every Monday and Thursday now for about 6 weeks. It sure is getting old. I have a non-stress test, ultrasound and see the doc on Monday, and on Thursday it is the same except for the u/s.

Today I was having contractions every two minutes during the non-stress test and the baby's heart wasn't very reactive. They mostly want to see her pulse going up and back down to baseline at least 5 times in 30 minutes. Since that didn't happen, I had a u/s too and the tech had to jab her with the wand to make her wake up and prove she wasn't in distress at all. She passed that test but definitely wasn't cooperative. We even watched her yawn and stick her tongue out at us while we were watching her. I have a feeling that my mom's curse might come to pass and we are gonna get a girl just like me. That is trouble with a capital T. My BP was up a bit, but not enough to keep me today, so we just keep on keepin' on!

This has happened with DB and JT.....I was either hospitalized or kept for an extensive appt a week prior to actually having them delivered, so we will see what the next week brings us. I just really hope that I am not in the hospital for my DB's b-day.

We went ahead and scheduled her delivery on October 19th, assuming she doesn't come before that, so we will definitely have a baby by then! YAY!

Quite the conversationalist.....

My conversation with DB after church today:
Me: So, DB, tell Dad what your talk was on today in primary.
DB: ummmm, it was on paper.

I think he just may be related to his grandpa Kidd after all.......heaven help us!

Good thing I was there to help him with his talk, not to mention that I wrote it too!! It is funny that in this ward, he does something with the talk/scripture/prayer/theme deal every other week or so. That is how small our primary is. Plus they know we will actually come to church prepared. I can't even tell you the difference between his first talk and today's though. His face still turns BRIGHT RED when they call his name, but he stands up there confidently and speaks up.....I was proud of him today.

The gift that keeps on giving

DB got these swords for Christmas last year, and they have been the greatest thing ever. JT has come onto the light saber bandwagon, and these have provided hours of entertainment. Tonight I had about 30 minutes to go until I could feasibly start the bedtime process and didn't know what to do, so we turned off all the lights and let these two go at it. It turned out to be a lot of fun for all of us! DB has the red saber and JT has the blue one. JT's laugh is infections to us. We even watched the video after they were done and DB couldn't stop laughing at it, even though it didn't occur to him how silly his little brother was at the time! Brothers are awesome!

What's with the hyperlinks?

Does anyone who is more blogger savvy know why I am suddenly getting these hyperlinks on key words in my posts? How do I make them stop?

First Crush

Oh, my cute little DB. Today when he got home I was asking my usual questions, you know, best part of your day, worst part of your day kind of stuff. In his recollection of his day, music was his best part (as ususal) and this time he mentioned that Mr. Arnold, the music teacher would not be at school tomorrow. He is ABSOLUTELY THRILLED because that means that Ms. Green will be his music teacher and "mom, she is beautiful." Then we go to the PTO open house, and as we walk in, he immediately starts looking for Ms. Green, and is all too thrilled to show me who she is. Seriously, the kid wouldn't be able to find his ears if they weren't attached to his head, but he was able to pick her out of a group of 50 teachers! He couldn't take his eyes off of her, it was so dang cute!

I got a chance to talk to his teacher, and she told me how well he has been doing lately, and she is proud of his progress. She says he is more behaved than I make him out to be, so I need to give him a little slack. I think DB may have to deal with this his whole life---a mom that always wants just a little bit more (Ben can attest to that little bit of my personality) but I definitely need to work on that.

He is a rock star at spelling, this week the words he is struggling with is sink and they, but we are getting there.....and I can't believe how well he is reading. It is truly amazing to watch these guys learn so much in just a day! Why can't I do that?

pictures

Movin' on up

JT is officially in a big boy bed. He has been in his crib minus a side for a while now, but we finally got the mattress for his real bed! We made the switch on Saturday, and I don't know if it is a fluke or something, but he has slept for 15-20 minutes longer since then....I am hoping it is a magic mattress that Ben picked up from Sam's Club! He has had fun experimenting with the endless possibilities of this new bed as you can see from the pics. Having these two big boy beds in the same room has somehow made me feel older, though. It is wierd that something so seemingly insignificant can have such a profound impression on your view of yourself. I distinctly remember using these beds when I shared a room with my sister, and my parents were old then (to my 8 year old brain)......what does that make me now? Seriously. I have 2 big boys, a lawn mower, a big ole chest freezer (Ben's dream come true) a mortgage payment.....Am I old? Just a grown up? An old grown up? How does that happen!!

DB was out of school on Thursday and Friday due to a sickness, and he really enjoyed the long weekend of hanging out with the fam. I had a tough time getting him to school today. I asked him why he didn't want to go to school since I did my best to make his time at home as full of naps and rest as possible, and he just said that he likes to be home with me. I didn't know if I should be irritated or start crying over my sweet boy. He's had a fever since Wednesday night, but thankfully it resolved Sunday morning so I could send him to school today. He went with a cough and runny nose, but no fever....and his teacher kept him, so apparently the residual stuff is okay. Part of the hazards of being a teacher, I guess.

This week's spelling words: crib, that, trip, grab, crab, win, trap, grass, good, hit

Oh, funny story about the freezer box. After I had finished cutting out the front windows and door, the boys were playing in it while Ben got the actual freezer all situated in our garage. I told the boys we were going to take the box inside so we could get out the crayons and decorate it. We could draw trees and flowers outside the windows......and Ben stopped me there. He told me that in no way was this a cute country cottage. This was a fierce man fort to be used for protection from the bad guys. The rest of the windows were to be wide and thin, only to have enough space to peek out of and slide your gun barrel through. He supervised the rest of the construction of this "man fort" very closely as I had proven myself untrustworthy of such an important venture in our son's lives. Thank heaven for Dads! We still decorated the box later, but with an American flag out front, and threatening signs like "Bad guys beware" lest any tea toting princesses happen along the way.

Kid's bathroom......CHECK.

I have been so anxious to paint something since we got to this house. I endured the white walls of St. George and now the drab tan here for long enough, so I started with something small...the kid's bathroom. I did temporarily forget however that I hate painting bathrooms--they are the hardest thing to paint! Anyway, I have had a fun 2 days and am glad the project is almost done. I have some touch-up to do, but that is going to have to wait for a day or two. I am tired. This room is now my favorite in the whole house though! Next is the kitchen. I have big plans for the kitchen and just got some awesome ideas from my SIL that I can't wait to execute. I may have to wait until baby girl comes though, it depends on what wins out-my stubborn/impatient brain or my ever increasing girth. This is fun!

P-u-r-p-l-e.....what does that spell?

I think we may be making progress! DB just has an impatient mom, I think.....and Ben agrees too. Ben was a little disappointed at my last post that was a bit critical of DB. DB was on purple for 4 DAYS IN A ROW!! Friday apparently was rough because of his teacher's birthday party. I think he got hyped up on cupcakes, not to mention that it was Friday. I remember when I was working, Fridays were my LEAST productive days. Each day he came home, he had a big grin on his face and couldn't wait to tell me he was on purple. I am still just concerned, because I asked the teacher if I could volunteer in the classroom, and she told me she would have to ask the principal if they allow parents in there. His Kindergarten teacher didn't allow parents in the classroom, so it is doubtful this class is any different. When I visited with her last week, she said DB was trying to make friends and that was okay, but she still had to give him warnings. At least we are seeing progress so I don't have to worry too much about getting into the class to see what is going on.

My boys are all just going to have to get used to an impatient, hormonal overly sensitive mom for the next couple of months. Deal with it. Ben says I have been a piece of work lately, and this could all just be part of it. DB going into first grade, losing teeth, getting more of an opinion every day, baby growing, the heat/humidity becoming increasingly irritating, my pace slowing from the extra lbs, and JT using my belly as a ladder/special seat just for him could all definitely be factors in my decreasing patience level. I think we are going to have to set up a "mommy's behavior chart" here soon!

Adjusting to school

I thought JT would have more trouble adjusting to DB going to school than anybody. Turns out, DB is really struggling. In his first week he was one warning away from going to the principal's office which is VERY out of character for him. Since that troublesome day he has gotten better though, after a stern talking to by his parents. He was proud to report that he was on purple today again for the THIRD day in a row. The color scheme goes purple, green, yellow, orange then red. Purple is the school color for those of you wondering at the randomness of the color code. Then he was written up for not wearing a belt! We had a late morning, and I just forgot to remind him to put his belt on. My bad. Now we know just exactly how strict the new dress code is. Polo shirt, dress pants and a BELT! But most importantly, when he gets home from school he is a BEAR. He is mean, sassy and obnoxious. The kid has spent more time in his bedroom after school than the entire summer combined. He is extra rough with JT, whose patience is pretty good considering he is happy to see his brother after a whole day with boring mommy. I don't know what to do. I am giving him until September before drastic measures are taken. What those drastic measures are, I don't know.

This week's spelling list: dad, nap, mat, back, sack, too, tap, man, over, sad

He's really lost it now....

Yep, the tooth came out tonight! I told him it was time for the nightly wiggling and when I realized how loose it now was, I told him it was time to come out. He was the one who requested the string, since that is how it was done in the Bearnstein Bears book that we have. After a couple swipes at it with the string and one good tug with a paper towel (sheesh, there was a lot of slobber!!) he did the rest himself. At one point during the process he had to take a step back and say "don't cry" to himself a couple of times, I think not because it hurt but mostly because of the stress and anxiety of the unknown. The first person he wanted to call was Grandpa Shoff. When he got on the phone, DB said "Grandpa, I don't have to come to your office now because my mom pulled my tooth out." DB is very proud of himself and actually can't wait for the other loose one to come out too. It is cute to see him rubbing his tongue over the hole and gawking at himself in the mirror. Like I said, it is a rite of passage. He is a grown up now.

First spelling list, looth tooth

DB came home with his very first spelling list today. These are the words:
mat, man, down, up, can hat, cat, ran.
These are all very easy for him except for down, which causes him some trouble, but just getting the list made me so excited for what awaits us in first grade. I have been amazed already at how much he has retained over the summer, and even improved upon without any practicing at home. Kids are amazing that way, aren't they? Anyway, he asks me every day when he can be done with 1st grade so that he can go on vacation again. We have a ways to go to get back into the swing of things with homework and the rigorous schedule of school, especially since the homework is already much harder than Kindergarten homework was. He had reading words, spelling words AND sentences to read today for homework! To him, that is just an OBSCENE amount of work. I think I didn't work him hard enough over the summer, you think?

Also, his two front bottom teeth are teetering on the verge of coming out. Aahh, one of the rites of passage in childhood. Any day now. It is about time, as one of those teeth has been looth since our visit to Utah where Grandpa Shoff was the one who discovered that it was looth in the first place! The problem with this is that it just makes him want a vacation to Utah more to visit his Grandpa Shoff, as he is the only one qualified to pull out teeth.

My baby has grown up so much just in these first 4 days of first grade.

The End of Summer

Yay for us! We survived the summer! DB started school today! He was apprehensively excited to go to school, and all went without any problems. He has asked that he ride the bus to and from school this year (last year the bus came at 7:15 in the morning....not possible....this year it is 7:30, and thanks to our resident early bird, 7:30 is definitely workable) and that he take lunch from home this year too. The school lunches around here are just subpar according to him-"The beans/chicken/meat/corn was TOO spicy, so I didn't eat it!" As I was looking at his pic from this morning, I mentioned to Ben how much he looks like his uncle James, and we sure hope that he does more than just look like his uncle James, but have a school year like him too--James rocks! JT has done just fine today without DB, I thought he would miss him a bit more, but we took him on a walk with us this morning and then he helped me clean the house when we got home, then it was just about lunchtime and naptime, so we kept him busy today. I don't think I can keep up with that pace for long, though.

Yesterday we finally made it to the Memphis Zoo to celebrate the end of summer, and it was awesome. It has been voted as America's best zoo by a couple travel agencies, so we finally took the drive and had a great time. It is free for TN residents to enter on Tuesday afternoons, so we went in the morning, and pretty much had the place to ourselves. When I asked DB what his favorite part was, he looked at the map and slowly started listing off everything we saw. I think his favorite part was reading the map. JT apparently liked the snakes the best, as you can see in the pic with DB and the snake. He is showing us exactly how he feels! It felt like we went on the hottest and most humid day of the year, you can see in the pics that our faces are all red and flushed. I think that Ben and I lost about 30 lbs of sweat each! Who needs cleansing pills or drinks, just go to the zoo on a humid day! The boys had a great time, and JT was WIRED at the end of the day.

We stopped at my BELOVED Costco on our way home (only Sam's Club in Jackson) and got some pizza and my much craved hand dipped ice cream bar with roasted almonds. Man, I was in pregnancy nirvana. I have been craving one of those since I polished my last one off in June when I was in Utah!

Big Talker

JT is turning into quite a talker. This is new territory for me as many of you may know, because DB was and still isn't exactly a chatterbox. I have some nieces and nephews that can talk all day, but DB just wasn't born with that gene. I have started to feel bad because I wonder if JT feels like he is constantly being interrupted. He gets going and there is just no stopping him. He doesn't even allow for an interjection here and there. At what point can you say "okay, kiddo, it is time for bed/church/prayers/someone else to talk now." I know that if I had something to say and Ben kept interrupting me, I would get pretty irritated pretty darn fast. The difference I guess is that I know the words to use to describe my story/feelings, and JT hasn't quite gotten that fluent yet. He just rambles until you figure it out. He even uses body language to help enunciate what he is saying. It is pretty darn cute, but exasperating all at the same time. Just new territory with this little one.

27 6/7

I am as far along in this pregnancy today as I was when my DB was born. I kept an eye out for this day when I was pregnant with JT, and now again with this one. 27 weeks and 6 days is kind of a "magical" number for me even after how well things went with JT. I feel some sort of amazed accomplishment every time I make it past today. I still have no idea exactly how far I will make it past this point, but the fact that I made it past gives me a bit of peace of mind and lets me relax--just a little.

I know this has nothing to do with me or how well I take care of myself, because believe me, I really could do a lot better. I know it is just in the Plan for me. Heavenly Father had some lessons to teach me with DB that still affect me, even in subsequent pregnancies. It has been almost 7 years since the kiddo was born, and I still often reflect on that experience. There is A LOT I can't remember, as my brain has decided to protect me from SOME of the especially hairy stuff I think, but I can remember enough that it still affects me.

Fear is the absence of faith, and as I remind myself of that every now and again it helps me to go forward every day with faith, not doubting that I am just an instrument in bringin these little ones to earth in the way (and at the time) that they were meant to come.

Ready for school to start.....

School around here starts on August 5th. That is not a day to soon, if you ask me. I don't know about anyone else, but I am about ready to wring my DB's neck! Summer has been good, we've done almost all we set out to do for the summer, and now he is bored and can't help but get into trouble!! He just can't help himself. Now, being the oldest, I can sympathize with the kid. When there is nothing else to do, it is always easy to resort to the "picking on your kid sister/brother to see what kind of reaction you get" and see where things go from there. I see him doing things to JT that I KNOW I did to my little brothers and sisters, just for fun. Oh, how that has come back to bite me!

All I know is that if the kid is going to see seven years old, school better start quick!

Bending over

Good grief! It suddenly seems like such a chore to be bending over and picking up assortments of stuff throughout my house. Little JT has an attention span of 30 seconds or so, and my front room shows that. Throughout the day, I have picked up sauce pans and lids (for drumming) the empty oatmeal box (once again, for drumming) my reading light, a ball, legos, some of the Thomas the tank engine trains, his shoes, his blanket, a fake credit card, several sippy cups, mixing bowls, and books....all from my front room! DB has been a trooper so far and generally helps pick up after his brother on an hourly basis since my bending capabilities are quickly waning. Did I have to bend over so much before and just didn't notice because I didn't have this big bowling ball in the way, or has JT just decided that the toy room is not big/sufficient enough to accommodate his creativity?

Summertime pics....

Sorry for the delay in pics, I moved my office to a different room to make room for baby, and in doing so messed up my main computer. Good, I know. Anyway, we are back in business, so here you go! Oh, and we will get a belly pic one of these days.....

Bellies and Bugs

I made it to a significant point in a pregnancy. When I straight down, I can no longer see my feet. I have to tilt over a bit to see those tootsies, and boy am I feelin' this extra belly of mine. It is definitely pedicure time, since it is getting harder and harder to bend over to do it myself. I hate having people touch my feet, and I've gotta say that I have never had a pedicure, but I am feeling one come on. It is much easier to wear sandals more often here than in St. George because of the humidity, so there is not as much covering up those toes as much anymore! I just may have to bite the bullet this time and git-R-done.

Also, we failed our termite inspection today. That's right, folks....we've got termites! It is not an ifestation or anything, and the guy doesn't think there is ANY damage to our house, but still......It is kinda creepy thinking about those little critters crawling around inside my walls. I suppose that is par for the course with living out here; we have had to adjust to many different kinds of bugs here, and big ones too! I have never seen so many ants outside and I have been cursing their existence for quite sometime, but then I was told that ants eat termites, so I suppose they aren't so bad anymore, but apparently their vision is quite bad, so a colony of ants and a colony of termites could be living next door to each other and not even know it for a long time. Just another example of how nature is not that great sometimes after all!

I WON!!!

I never win ANYTHING! Tonight however, was a different story. It all started out as one of those dog days of summer kind of nights. The four of us had just been hanging out all day, really, and I was pretty bored. After dinner when I couldn't think of anything to do to entertain the kiddos anymore, DB wanted to watch another movie. I saw something on our shelf that would liven up our evening though. I found the Deal or No Deal game. So we threw that into the DVD player instead, and I decided to play like those maniacs on TV do, you know, the cheering and deliberating and everything. At first, JT was quite leery of me and didn't want to have anything to do with me. I picked my case, and went clear to the end, and I WON ONE MILLION DOLLARS!!!! Like I said, I have never won anything, and I won a million! I jumped right off of the couch and was jumping around and dancing and everything to try to get my family a little excited to, and it wore off! (And let me tell you, even just getting off of the couch quickly is a feat for me these days with my bulging belly!)It was fun to give high fives and everything, and JT even warmed up to his lunatic mother. DB ended up winning $250K, and Ben brought up the rear with a whopping $400. Overall, it was a lucrative night for the Shoffs!