Trip to see the Lights

We took a little trip down to Salt Lake to see the lights on Temple Square at the beginning of December.  It was raining so bad, which made everyone wet and cold!!  But we stayed for a little and it was a good way to start the season out. 

 

 

Excited to start out!

Cousins that came with.  Jori, Delaney, Merc, Nicolas and Jaydon

Jason asked his sister to take our picture.  That NEVER happens, I am always
the one saying "let's take a picture!"

Afterwards, we went to get ice cream, the idea was hot chocolate, but ice cream it was!

 Jasons sister took us to a little place in town that does a water show to a song.  The kids were having fun dancing around watching the water change colors and dance!

 The next day we happened to run to the store and Santa was there.  So we hurried to make a list and so Jaydon could drop it of for Santa to get.  He was NOT CONVINCED: he knew right away this guy was a fake.  After a little convincing, I got him on boat that he was an elf and he was going to take the letters to the real Santa.  You can see that Jori was thrilled to be sat on this strangers lap and Jaydon still didn't want his picture with him.

 At least the letter was getting to Santa, right?!

November

November....we are really behind here!  I was going through pictures trying to organize them and I noticed I pulled the camera out more than I realized in November.  So I here's the month in pictures.



Jori is 14 months!  She's all girl and loves her babies!

 

Jaydon playing in the 1st snow!  November 9th
(Now we would like the snow to melt and it isn't
as exciting anymore!)

Jason just loves when I tell him about Jaydon being artsy!  So I take extra pictures of Jaydon getting artistic!



Jaydon was a little nervous about Indian day at preschool because they were getting their faces painted.
I told him he could just say "no thanks" and his teachers wouldn't do it, but he was BEAMING when he walked out,
so proud of his face- I was really proud of him!

Jaydon and Jori play together so well, they were having fun that day!

Jori taking a few steps.  She was full going at 15 months!

We spent Thanksgiving in Idaho and then came back to have dinner and go to a light parade that we did last year.  Jaydon loved going and so we are trying to keep going every year.  This year we invited the cousins that were down too and we all had a good time.

Nicholas and Jaydon  

Dad with the kids  

All of us on a very cold night!!

My sweet shopper.  Christmas shopping with Jori, she's so chill!

And onto Christmas and December!

October

So, WAY behind on updates.  I kept telling myself at the beginning of November to post and now it is almost the end.  Anyways, I few pictures of what we've been doing.

 

 Took the kids to a Utah State game.  Jaydon loved it and Jori loved the people around us!  She is always waving and saying "hi" to people trying to get their attention.  It is kind of cute but I don't know if everyone thinks it is as cute as I do.

Jason and Jaydon loving the game

 We also did the annual Pumpkin Walk.  We went during the day with some of his cousins on one side of the family, then the next night we went with Jaydon's other cousins too.  He loves the Pumpkin Walk.

Jaydon and Alexander

Jaydon, Addy and Brynlee

 Jori was trying to get on this horse one day and Jaydon, being the helpful big brother that he is, decided to help her.  The succeeded, at least Jaydon thought so.  Jori got her leg up and around so fast she was wondering what the heck happened!  Don't worry, she was all smiles going around the house.

We also took the kids to the Corn Maze.  Jaydon has been begging to go to one ever since he saw a Curious George show with a corn maze.  I think we picked one of the only COLD days we have had and froze the whole time.  But Jaydon thought it was awesome as he had a map in hand and ran around.  

Me and the kids inside the tee pee right before leaving!

We always make sugar cookies for Halloween too.  I don't know why, it is so messy and I end up finishing because everyone else gets bored, but we do and Jaydon asks to do it, so maybe it's just a tradition thing now.  

We celebrated my mom's 60th this year too.  She does a Halloween Grand kid party every year and it happened to fall on the same weekend as her birthday.  I didn't pull out my camera as much as I should've, but here is at least one picture of my mom.  All the kids wrote down things we remember our mom teaching us, serious or funny, and then we put the gist of what everyone had onto this board for her.  It was fun and something different that how we presented my dad's.  I think she liked it!

 

We carved pumpkins too.  A few days before Halloween we finally finished off the last pumpkins we had for carving.  (The pumpkin in the back started to slump too much).  Jaydon loves doing this too.  Well, he picked out the designs for them-he won't even touch the insides of them!

Halloween costumes...Jaydon is Bumblebee and Jori an owl.  Jaydon had a preschool party and no masks were allowed.  That morning I drew an Autobot on his face and he was so proud.  I just crossed my fingers that he would think it looked enough like an Autobot!   For trick-or-treating he wore his mask though and Jori and I stayed home to pass out the loot.

 Last, here is a picture of Jori napping.  This is for me to prove to me someday that she did nap.  However, she hates her crib.  She and Jaydon just aren't nappers.  I don't know if it's me or what but my two missed the boat on this area that is really important to my sanity.   Anyhow, she tuckered out one day and slept here instead.  I'll take it!

One year old

 

I keep looking at pictures from a year ago.  Time is going faster the older I get.  It really doesn't seem that long ago that I had Jori.  I spent most of September last year going to the hospital to see Jori and then home to spend time with Jaydon too.  You'd never know looking at Jori that she was such a tiny little lady.  I remember asking the nurses that were in the room over and over again to tell me how big she was.  She was 5 lbs. 2 oz.  then and that was pretty good for being almost 6 weeks early.  Now a year later, Jori is a "thriving"  "round" "chubby" baby....people comment on her chubbiness all the time and isn't it true?!  She is such a cutie. 

She's full of personality.  She's a tease and a cuddle baby.  I get lots of loves from her.  She's too smart for her own good and she will definitely keep me going.  She has slowly outgrown her milk intolerance and has moved from soy formula to regular formula.  And now onto cows milk. She's a good napper and good at entertaining herself too.  Those are some of my favorites!  Her laugh is infectious and her teeth are crazy, so her smile is just fun.  We love her like crazy!

 

 For her birthday we went miniature golfing with my family.  My parents had my brother's kids for the weekend and we wanted to do something fun.  She was napping for most of it, but woke up at the end to get some pictures! We had a picnic planned for later that day so we headed straight there and spent the afternoon with family eating and having cake.


Jori with chips.  I think that's all she ate for dinner

Jori smiling for us with her cake.  She just wanted the cake really, she has a sweet tooth.

 Jaydon was helping Jori with her presents.  He would open it and then hand it to her.  He gave her a Care bear and so he was really excited about that.  And when he saw she was given headbands he whipped one out and tried to get her to wear it.  She is still getting used to liking that and we keep encouraging it too, she's so bald!  The next day was her actually birthday and we had leftover cupcakes so we got out a candle and sang to her again.  Don't worry, Jaydon was making sure she didn't touch the fire!

Not a big fan of my kiddos bathing together but Jori loves baths
so I let her in one day, she was pretty excited!

After church in her birthday outfit from grandma.

 I had to throw in a few more pictures.   A couple weeks ago I ran my 1st half marathon.  I decided last winter I wanted to run a race this year and started to do the elliptical a couple times a week.  I looked into the half marathon and it opened up to register on March 1st at midnight.  I kept thinking and thinking about it and I happened to be up with Jori that night right around midnight.  I took it as a sign...and yep, I was registered. 
I ran a few times outside in February and March, then in April I went a few times a week and then once Jaydon was out of school, I would wake up and go at 6am.  It was something I started to really enjoy doing once I was outside, but it was sometimes hard to want to wake up and go.  After lots of training I was still nervous for the big day, but it came and I beat my goal by 17 mins.  I told Jason to come at 9:30, he got there early, and good thing, a few minutes after they got there I crossed the finish line!  Jaydon wants to run a race now too, so we are going to find a kid race.  So glad I did it, but glad it is over.  Now I run 5-6 miles instead and that is much nicer!

Can't leave out this picture either.  Jaydon was so ready to go to school again.  All of the older kids started a couple weeks before him, so he kept waiting for his turn.  He loves going and he loves his teachers so hopefully this will be good for him to get ready for kindergarten.  And to ride the bus, that's what he really wants to do!