While You Were Out

Abygail enjoyed Tea Parties with her cousins, aunt and grandma while in AL

I haven't blogged in a while and I guess I'm in a blogging slump. There's not much to blog about around here. It's gotten harder for me to get around and I'm tired and sore all the time so we are not doing too much.

Thanksgiving: While Jason and the kids went to Alabama I stayed here and had a week worth of FABULOUS SLEEP! I had forgotten what it was like to not have a child (or in my case children) shoved up against every part of your body while I'm hanging onto the edge of the bed for dear life hoping to not fall off. I remember I would wake up at 4 or 5 am and hadn't moved from the position I laid down in, it was AMAZING!!! I had a Dr.s apt on Wednesday of Thanksgiving week (I think the Dr just wanted to make sure I didn't leave with the family) and got to see two little feet hanging out in the lowest possible area of the uterus - baby A, you only have a few more months to turn around so you better get cracking. After my apt I went and watched Twilight all by myself - that was a real treat to be in a movie theater and to be there all by myself. I was disappointed with the movie, my thought is if I had not read the book I probably would have enjoyed the movie a little more. I spent Thanksgiving with our friends and enjoyed a yummy meal. Saturday Boss and I went shopping and that was lots of fun. I also did lots of shopping on my own and managed to keep the house clean for more than 20 mins (it's amazing how much of the everyday mess is NOT mine). I mopped around a bit, missing my family and watched way too much TV.

Abygail was sick for the majority of the time they were gone and remained sick for a few days after they got back.

Yesterday was the first day we got out all week. We went with our friends to the Children's Museum (I'm certainly not allowed to go that far from home alone anymore). All the kids loved it and the adults had fun too. We were all tired and ready to leave by the end.

Jackson learned to throw a ball and enjoyed playing with his cousins while in AL

Jackson turned 1.5 in Alabama...he hasn't had his 18 month check up yet so those stats will be coming soon. He's getting to be so grown up. He talks to much and knows so many words it astounds me. He loves his sister and he has learned "mine" from her. Now when they aren't playing together they are fighting over who's toy it is or who had it first. Jackson always seems to think that it's "MINE". :)

The "Procedure"

Jason had day surgery this morning or as he likes to say...his 'PROCEDURE'. He is doing really well and seems to be recovering great. He's laid up on the couch and we've told the kids:

"Daddy is hurt [or Daddy has an owie (sp?), depending on who is saying it] and we can't climb on him for a little while but we can pat his hand, sing him songs and tell him stories."

They have been doing a great job of giving him his 'space'. He'll be on light duty for a week or two. So no physical activities such as riding his bike or swimming, he's going to miss that, or wrestling with the kids.

This afternoon as I was making lunch for the whole clan I thought..."whose going to do my dishes, whose going to do my laundry, whose going to feed the kids in the morning???" Jason's been taking care of all those things and more since I've been feeling so icky. Thankfully I'm starting to have more energy and I'm sure we'll get through this. I'm even starting to feel a little better in the mornings (although these past 2 weeks I've thrown up more than the entire time combined). O, to be close to family...maybe someday we'll get that chance.

Just to throw in a picture, here is one of Jackson, Abygail and our friend Grace playing in the water fountain at the zoo a week ago. We looked at a few animals but really, it was a hot day and we just sat at the fountain for a long while, chatting and enjoying the shade while the kids got wet, Wet, WET!! I didn't bring them a change of clothes so I stripped them down to their diapers when we got in the car. I only got 2 pictures before the camera* batteries died. Jason won't let me post the other recent pictures with Jackson wearing one of Abygail's hot pink shirts and a necklace - he picked the outfit out all by himself and it looks like he's wearing a dress...he's so cute and proud of himself, but you'll just have to take my word for it.

*Did I tell you the camera is working again? Abygail fixed it, she just had it one day and it was working, I think we'll keep her!

Busy Week So Far

Yesterday the kids and I went to the zoo. We had lots of fun, as always.

Jackson is learning his animal sounds now. So far he knows: cat, monkey, dog and giraffe (at least those are the ones I can name now). He's working on several others. He is also learning the parts of his body, so far he's mastered head and nose. We continue to work on eye, ear, and mouth. Abygail is so cute, she loves showing her brother how to learn and doing the animal sounds with him.

Speaking of Abygail, I'm amazed every day at how conversational she is. She speaks in full sentences and usually uses several at a time. She's become very descriptive too. She likes to pretend and make up stories, like she is reading.

Today we went to a kiddie pool for play group. Abygail was out in the pool playing around like she was a big kid. She has no fear of being far from mommy!!! It makes me very nervous but also proud that she is so independent. Jackson stayed right by my legs the whole time, good thing because I had to fish him up a few times.

They both enjoyed playing on the playground as well. They are very independent on the playground and go to the slides and swings, which ever they feel like doing, whether mommy is on her way or not. I caught Abygail climbing up a tall rock climbing wall, too tall for her to climb on her own was my thought. Nope, not to tall for her, she climb to the top all by herself and 3/4 of it was before I saw her doing it.

Speaking of independent, she loves to put her cloths on and her shoes on all by herself. She is also starting to insist on buckling her own buckles in the car. It's nice most of the time, unless we are in a hurry.

Last night after dinner the whole family went for a bike ride to a playground. The kids got to pet two dogs and play for awhile before it starting getting dark. Total it was about a 4 mile ride round trip.

OK, updates on the picture situation...we HAVE FOUND the cord but...the camera is broken. We have to send it in for repairs, and knowing us it may take awhile before we can find the receipt! So don't expect any pictures anytime soon. When we finally get the situation cleared up I'll come back and put in pictures where I can...too bad I can't take any new pictures between now and then.

A Weekend Review

Friday we ALL went to the Zoo (including Jason). Jackson showed him the rhinos and cho cho train, while Abygail showed him the Sea Lions and Polar Bear. It was so much fun spending time with him and the kids doing something we all love.

Saturday Abygail and I went to the farmers market and got some strawberries, cherries, apples and summer squash. Abygail single-handedly ate all the strawberries (1 quart) by the end of the day. We also enjoyed the summer squash in a stir-fry that night with carrots, snap peas and green beans from the garden. Last night (Sunday) we ate the same stuff but sauteed with lemon butter - it was quite yummy and the kids loved it both nights. (Jackson actually liked the rice the most - his favorite food of late).

We have pictures ... but we can't seem to find the cord to download them. This is why our blog is barren of pictures lately :) Hopefully we'll find it soon and you can see what we've been up to - and for those of you outside of Buffalo, you can see my new hair cut Jason gave me :)

A Perfect Wednesday

Today we met some friends at a farmers market. We got some cherries, peaches, tomatoes and chow chow (yum, yum). The tomatoes and chow chow were local but the cherries and peaches were not. It's still not the season here yet, but it's coming very soon. After the market we went to Cazanovia park and ran around on the water fountain pad. I wish I had the camera. The kids were so cute. Abygail was Miss. Brave and ran everywhere with out worry of where Mommy was. She got knocked down a few times by other excited kids but she did really well. Jackson also ventured further than I thought. Each time he would come back, reach up to me with a huge grin as if to say, "Did you see what I did Mom? It was sooo cool!"

I love my kids and admire their bravery.

It was a perfect summer day:)

My Mouth Is On Fire!...And Other Random Things

I picked up a new salsa at the store the other day. We are salsa lovers and it's a staple of our diet. I haven't found any good salsa since leaving Texas. I found a replacement. It's called Screaming Hot made by Garden Fresh of MI. I really didn't notice or realize that the name of it was SCREAMING HOT. Once I did take note of that I thought "how hot could it be, I'm from TX!" Well...

Down Side: IT BURNS! HELP!
Up Side: SOOOOO YUMMY!
Down Side: So Yummy I can't stop eating it - IT BURNS! HELP!

We've now tried all the other flavors (except Mango - yuk!) and honestly - none of them are quite as delicious as the Scream Hot. We'll have to see if mixing it with one of their milds will do the trick. Until then - if you come to our house and we offer you salsa, consider yourself warned!!!

We finally bought Jason a bike with some of our tax return money. He's really been enjoying riding to school. It takes him about 15 mins to get to south campus and 25 mins to north campus from home. We are so proud of him for riding! This will not only help our pursuit of treading more lightly on the environment but it will also save our pocket book about $30 a month in either bus tokens or gas.

Yesterday Jason removed the tree from our front yard. Many people have worked on this tree. First the weather uprooted it, then the city chopped it up and left us a stump half in the ground, then the gas company repaired the leak in the gas line from it's uprooting and pulled most of it the rest of the way out of the ground for us, lastly Jason chopped it up. It's been a long time coming but this weekend was the perfect weekend to do it and frankly, it could not have been done before now. He did a great job and had a lot of "fun" (in his words) doing it. It gave him a reason to buy a chainsaw and do manly things. He looked like He-man at one point - he was swinging a rather large ax to chop through a root.
Abygail loves music (as we've mentioned many times before), she's learning so many songs. It seems like we sing all day long. A few months back I started trying to involve her in the singing. We were in the car and I was singing Popcorn Popping and I stopped mid-verse to see if she would sing the next line...SHE DID! Now I sing part of the song and stop, wait for her to pick it up, when she's gone as far as she can then I pick it back up. Our singing sessions go back and forth just like that. This morning on the way to church she wanted to sing Child of God "by self" (as she likes to say about EVERYTHING). It was such an endearing and precious moment to hear her sing as much of the song as she could remember.
Abygail has nick names for all of us. Jackson is Jackson-Boy, Daddy is Daddy-Man and Mommy is Mommy-kins. She also likes to say HI!, in her sing song voice, to everyone she sees and walks around the house saying "my name Abygail!". Her favorite show is Little Bear and she has finally started to like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

The kids love playing with Daddy, their favorite thing to do is clobber him!

Jackson has become quite the character. He loves his Daddy very much and can't wait to see him and crawl up into his arms. The other day he got up in Jason's lap all by himself (he was on the floor and Jason was sitting in a chair). He likes to wave at everyone. He says "bye, bye" and "hello". He likes snuggling his blanket and rubbing his face on it to go to sleep. He wants to eat whatever we are eating ESPECIALLY if it's pizza. He also like eating dirt!

We went to a playground Friday morning and he got to swing for the first time, just like Abygail's first time, he wasn't sure if he liked it. Abygail got to swing in a big girl swing and L.O.V.E.D. IT! I had a hard time prying her away from the regular swing and the tire swing. We had such a good time that we went back after dinner that night with Daddy. It was a perfect day and EVERYONE from the neighborhood was already at the park. I was glad there were 2 of us. The kids had a great time running around, sliding, jumping on the 'jumping bridge' and eating dirt. Someone had a bubble machine there and Abygail loved dancing under the bubbles too.

Jason and I took on Chris and Rozannah's challenge while we were there. I'm sorry to say that I only made it around once and Jason did it twice. I think we need more practice and less people there watching us! Just give us a few more weeks and we'll be the winners!!!!!

That's it - we've been up to ... nothing. ;)

Happy Birthday To Me!

Tuesday I celebrated my long awaited 25th Birthday (for the millionth time).

My sweet husband got me just what I wanted and more. Sewing Machine, Quilting supplies, socks, and cinnamon gum-yum!

Other things that happened on my birthday:
The gas company dug up our front lawn and repaired a leak in the gas line as well as moved our meter to the outside (now I don't have to let them in, yea!).

Jason and Jackson have both been sick but Jason was sick as a dog on my birthday. I wasn't very sympathetic, I must admit, darn it - it was my day and ... well birthdays are a day off and there are no make up days for your birthday. He took it well though and still made my birthday special. He got me a cake, which I shared with Abygail. (I was a bad mommy and gave her a pizza party but no cake for her birthday - which is probably a bigger deal for me than for her. I make a special cake that is 'Abygail's' cake-heavenly angel cake- and a special cake that is 'Jackson's' cake-lincoln log cake. I started this tradition before she was even born and we ate her cake just days after her birth. It makes me sad but there were several reasons why it didn't happen, the biggest reason was I couldn't find the whisk attachment for the kitchen-aid, which is mandatory for her particular cake.)

We didn't give Jackson any cake but he just couldn't help himself - he loved it finger full!

All in all it was an eventful and nice 25th birthday for the Xth time!

A Week In Review

Silly Songs:
Abygail loves to have us sing to her. Most of the time that's how she goes to sleep. Lately (the past month or so) she has been requesting some interesting songs. This is my favorite song for this week:

Abygail: Sing Abygail.
Mommy: Ok, 'Abygail, you are my sunshine...'
Abygail: NO! Sing Butter.
Mommy: Ok, 'Butter, butter, who's seen the butter...'
Abygail: NO! Sing Pancakes.
Mommy: Ok, 'Pancakes, panny cakes, everybody likes panny cakes...'
Abygail: NO! Sing Butter Pancakes.
Mommy: Ok, 'Butter on my pancakes, what's better...'
Abygail: NO! SING ABYGAIL BUTTER PANCAKES!!!
Mommy: OK! 'Abygail likes butter and she like pancakes...'
(a sigh of relief that we've finally found the right song)

Testing the Limits:
Abygail has also started testing the limits. She likes to try and demand to run around diaper-less (nekky bum). She also wants to go to the bathroom "by self" and closes the door behind her among a vast number of other things (playing during dinner, pushing Jackson...)

Wiggle Wart:
Jackson is such a WIGGLE WART. I was cracking up the other morning when he woke up for his 5:30am feeding. I was nursing him and his legs were pushing and bouncing, his eyes are closed and he's moving! It's so hard to get him to stay still long enough to get food into this crazy boy. I just love him so much and it really cracks me up!


Daddy Date:
Wednesday we had a "Daddy Date". Since it is still pretty cold here and there is still snow remaining on the ground there are not a lot of places where the kids can get out and stretch their legs for very long. There is a mall here that has some indoor play equipment (it's pretty small but beggars can't be choosers). Wednesday we decided to go to the play place in the mall and Jason was free for lunch so we swung by and brought him with us. Of course, no family outing is complete with out a little car sickness. We got to the mall, I was looking for a parking place and I started hearing the signals that Abygail was about to do her thing. I quickly stopped, Jason and Abygail got out of the car planning to meet us inside. But...It was too late! Jason got as far as Abygail out of the car and in his arms about ready to close the door for us to drive off when IT happened...all over the ground and on his shirt! It was a good thing we were at the mall, he got a new shirt out of it.

We got to see the Easter Bunny. Abygail was very cute. She was shy and didn't want to touch him/her or have him/her touch her but she told him HI.

We enjoyed lunch together and then the kids played in the indoor playground. There were a lot of kids there but they both had fun. Jackson wanted to be right there with all the big kids too. He climbed up a slide and crawled all over the place.

We all had a lot of fun. When it was over we dropped Daddy back off at school. A perfect Daddy Date.

Potty Training:
Abygail is not completely potty trained. Really, she just knows how to use the potty when she wants to. She has become very adept at taking her diaper off as well. I know I need to be more firm about her using the potty, I just haven't figured out how to do it in a nice way that she will respond positively to.

Yesterday I lost it. She went pooh pooh in her diaper and then took it off and came to tell me that she had gone pooh pooh (nothing unusual there). She also said "uh oh mommy. I poopie on my foot". Sure enough there was pooh pooh on her foot. I told her not to move, I would be right back to clean it up. I walked out of the library and past the bathroom, where right in front of it was laying her diaper with poop in it and poop on the floor as well. I got some stuff to clean it all up and came back to see that she had moved. I told her again not to move, then proceeded to clean up the mess in front of the bathroom (dummy me, should have cleaned up her foot first). When I was done and ready to clean her up, I found she had moved again and now there was poop on the furniture in the library. GREAT! I cleaned her up while yelling. I know, it really wasn't her fault and yelling just scared her but I just lost it. Next time...hopefully there won't be a next time.

Palmyra

After church today we went to Palmyra. I packed a picnic lunch Saturday night and made sure everything was in the car before we left for Church this morning. I fed Jackson right before we left the church so he was full and he and Aby took nice long naps.

It was a nice drive. We are in a smaller car right now (rental car, ours is in the shop from the pre-Christmas accident) so it was a bit cramped and there is no leg room in the drivers set for Jason so I GOT TO DRIVE, which I really enjoy doing. As I said, the kids were both asleep the whole way there so Jason and I got to talk and enjoy the black and white scenery. We saw deer and turkeys on the way there. It was nice to just be 'us'.

This was Jason's first trip to Palmyra, the exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls is up at the visitor's center there so our plan was to go and see them. Since the kids were still sleeping I drove him past the temple, Smith farm and Sacred Grove as well as the 4 churches (a presbyterian, baptist, evangelical and methodist church all on different corners of the same intersection). Finally we decided it was time to wake the kids up. We both changed our clothes in the car (a little harder for the driver in a cramped seat) - well out of the line of vision for any peeping toms - and them went inside.

There was a lecture just about to start so there was an overload of people there. It was a bit much for the kids so we went back to the car, ate our picnic, and then drove to the top of the Hill Cumorah. We were all by ourselves up there and it was beautiful. One side of the hill still snowy and innocent and the other side green for all the snow had been melted in the sun. There was a huge snow drift right on the stairs that led to the statue of Moroni but it didn't deter us from climbing through it.

Climbing through the snow drift and petting the stray cat that was there were definitely the highlights of our trip.

We were not able to see much of the exhibit but it was still a good reason to go and have some family alone time.

"By Self"

Abygail has become quite independent lately. She wants to do everything "by self". "I go potty by self" (but only randomly) or "No! By Self!!!" those are the two we hear most often.

Jackson has become a mountain climber and climbs up the slide and stands on the platform all by himself. It amazes me how strong this little guy is. He also says "Uh-oh" when prompted and likes to babble "dadadadada" and "mamamamamama"

Here are a few pics from the week. I love my little sleeping beauty and my mountain climber.

Abygail likes to fall asleep reading booksDo you like my new hairdo? Jackson likes to eat crayons.

I'm King of the Mountain!

Green Changes: February

I thought I would keep track of the green changes we are making. I've been reading blogs, books and articles and I have really felt the need to make some changes in the products we use and food we eat.

In the month of February we:
*switched to recycled toilet paper (you know the kind with brown stains on it from the previous use - HAHAHA - just recycled paper made into toilet paper - you are so dirty!)
*switched to recycled paper towels, we don't use a lot but what we do use will now be recycled
*switched hand soaps, all purpose cleaner, and wood floor care products to Method brand
*I've started using the back of my grocery receipts for making lists and other notes that used to be written on fresh clean paper
*I've done some research into what I can and cannot recycle and after much WORK (because the city website tells you NOTHING) I located a general list that works for almost every city I'll be posting it by the recycle container to remind myself and I've started putting a paper bag by our various trash cans around the house to put recyclables in them. This will make it easier to recycle because you don't have to leave the room to recycle.
*we've been turning down the heat and putting on more clothes, it doesn't work every day but we are all getting used to not wearing our bathing suits in the house year round :)
*I (just me) switched toothpastes
*finally the biggest one, we've joined a CSA - we are growing a garden so we will just be buying meat and pork shares through them this year, it will be nice to know that we won't be eating sick, tortured and mistreated animals

I don't think we've spent a lot more money making any of the changes, but I certainly feel better about them than our previous choices.

Little Moments

This past week was really fun, other than the aforementioned 18 hours. Here are some pictures and moments from our week.

"Cheese"

Abygail and I went outside and played in the snow. I paced out our garden area and walked the perimeter of the yard. I might be crazy (no scratch that, I am crazy) but I think I actually saw buds starting to develop on the trees. This did not help my spring fever at all. We had some ice sickle forming on the side of the house and a tree that is there. I pointed them out to Abygail who was really excited about them. She didn't quite seem to understand that an ice sickle is not the same as a popsicle.

"Look mom, my ice popsicles"

She is quite the talker now. She talks my ear off all day long, but I love it. I love that she can tell me what's wrong, what she needs and how she feels.

Jackson just adores his sister.

Abygail on the other hand does not always adore her brother, but she does most of the time. Jackson's favorite thing to do is to catch her sleeping and wake her up...this does not go over well with her. (She takes her nap on the couch so it's easy to see how Jackson 'catches' her sleeping.)
Jackson discovered how to climb through the crawl holes in the kangaroo climber this week. He loved to crawl in there and surprise his sister...what a funny boy.

I really love these two little packages of love. I'm so proud to be their momma!

I got to shovel snow again on Friday. I know, this is a chore for most people and I'm sure that at times it is for us to but...I loved being out there and having a moment to think and feel the last of the snow flakes falling. It was so peaceful, no one else was out because it was still snowing (it stopped before I finished and what fell over the freshly shoveled drive and walks melted with the sun).

Jason's schedule got a little more freed up this week - that's not to say that he won't be on campus still. He'll just be using the time to do research in the lab and homework/study for his class. He is such a good father, the kids love being around him and are sad when he leaves in the morning. He's such a hard worker and we are glad that he is the head of our family. He challenges me to think about things on a different level. I know that we are in for a lifetime of learning with him at our helm.

And me, well, I'm just happy that I could be a part of these little moments.

The Fifth Element

(statements in orange have been updated to this post on 2/24/08)

Meaty Chunks recently posted "While You Were Sleeping"
Xochitl Girl posted "A Beautiful Mind"

Now, I certainly can't deny the temptation to follow suit and post "The Fifth Element"

What are the first four elements? Well if you've seen the movie then you know they are Earth, Wind, Fire and Water. If you didn't see the movie, well, now you know.

The fifth element is the human element. I'm reading The Omnivore's Dilemma and it really has got me to think about the human element.

Most of my life my food has either come from a can or a box. Growing up my mom worked full time and raised at least 4 of her six kids pretty much on her own (please note, I'm not downing my dad here, I'm just painting a picture) so she didn't have a lot of time on her hands and it was a struggle just to get us all up in the morning, much less prepare food from scratch. Sure, I had grandparents, one set had a huge garden and the other set had a pretty good sized garden, chickens and even a peach farm. Yes, my family even had a garden, peach trees (5), blackberry bushes (2), chickens and birds too. But pretty much all of that stopped for all 3 house holds at about the same time, that was when I was in my preteen years. So, yeah, I knew corn could be grown and eaten but that's corn on the cob - not regular corn...or at least this has been my thought for many, many years. I'm not saying I'm stupid, what I'm saying is that I simply didn't put 2 and 2 together and with supermarkets...who needs to.

Well, I need to now! That's what I'm talking about and thinking about, and when you see my book review on Michael Pollan's book you'll see where this all started. I lost the human element, the element of being connected to my food source and knowing how it came to be and what it is.

Sometimes at dinner we play this game...Either Jason or I say "Man, Mommy/Daddy sure does make good xyz." Sometimes it's pasta, sometimes beans ... whatever happens to be on the menu. Then we begin telling the story of how it all came to be right there on the table in front of us (or at least how it would have come to be on our table IF we were the human element of our food). Jason is way better at this game than I am, he'll say, "You see Abygail, last fall I harvested the wheat that was growing in our field..." and he'll continue on with what harvesting consisted of. Then he'll tell how he made it into wheat, and how that wheat was combined with eggs from the chickens (including how the eggs where gathered) and so on and so on through all the elements of our dinner, until you get to the cooking, setting the table and eating stage. Sometimes we have to stop and really think "wait, how does that happen, how does cheese come about, or where would we have to go to catch a salmon". (The first time we played this it was Macaroni and Cheese - try that one, a seemingly simple dish can be very complex.) It's fun to see what it would take to really make a meal without help from the supermarket or farmers market. (Again - not down on supermarkets because let's face it...if it wasn't for them I would have starved to death a long time ago and my mom would have gone insane too.) You should try this game - it's great family time fun.

Another thing that's been running through my head: I look at our dinners/lunches/breakfasts in a different way now. Mostly dinners because they are more complex. I think about how I can make it from scratch. Take last night's meal for instance: black beans, Rotel tomatoes, canned corn mixed with spices and simmered for a good while then served over rice. I look at it and think - "how can I make this fresh". It dawns on me, you shave the corn off the cob and freeze it, you preserve the tomatoes with hot peppers, you dry the beans (I don't know about rice, is it even possible to grow in this country?). Then when it's dinner time you use what you harvested.

My point is - I'm really excited for this summer and the change it will bring. I'm really excited about being an element of my food and for my children to know where food comes from. I know it's going to be hard and it's going to be a lot of trial and error and there will be some successes and some failures but, we'll be connected.

The last 18 hours

I want to be able to remember the last 18 hours so this post is mostly for myself and my family. I'm not giving details, so don't ask. I've been forbidden to give the full account on some of the following so, anything that is left out will just have to be left up to our memory. Please feel free to stop reading now.

6pm last night - a fire in the kitchen
8pm last night - a funny/terrifying story of an animal, a car trunk and M&Ms begins
In the wee hours of the morning - another story for the McFallville news broadcast
8am this morning - Abygail brings me cat poop, a nice surprise left in her bed by Darwin

Two Little Cuttie Pies

Look! I've got one little tooth :)

Check out my 6-pack, 8 1/2 months old and just look at these muscles. I'm such a big boy! I can crawl all the way up here and stand up all by myself.

Two Clean Cutie Pies!

Yesterday I walked down stairs after putting the laundry away to find Jackson and Abygail wearing wash cloths on their heads. I guess Abygail thought they both needed wash cloth hats. ;) Abygail is sharing her plastic potato with Jackson.

Not even 10am this morning and Abygail was already getting a bath through trickery.

This Just In...

Reports are streaming in from all over the city of multiple stair accidents.

This morning at 6:21am, just east of the Buffalo city line in a small town known as McFallville New York, a loving mother was tenderly carrying her 8 month old son down the stairs to avoid waking up her snoring husband and daughter when it happened. She was 2 (possibly 3, her vision was a little fuzzy) steps from the bottom of the staircase in a cautious race for the early morning bathroom call when her foot slipped and she fell, her son still in her arms. Being the loving and self-sacrificing mother that she is, she shielded her son from the fall by using her knees to brace and bare the brunt of the impact. Although her son escaped unscathed her husband found her 5 seconds later moaning and writhing on the floor in pain. It does appear that she escaped any serious medical injury requiring the emergency room however she will have days possibly weeks of knee bruising to cope with.

Later this morning another report came in that a child of 22 months fell down the stairs as well. It seems that the child was wearing her froggy puddle boots and trying to climb the stairs in an attempt to follow her doting father when she mis-stepped and plunged down the stairs. Fortunately the mother reports that the child has become very adept at falling down the stairs and escaped even minor injuries.

Lets hope that the stair falling crisis does not continue. We pray for the safe travels of our citizens up and down the stairs for at least the remainder of the day.

This has been Amber McClumsy reporting live from the scene in McFallville, NY. Back to you in the news room Jim.

Play Group

Tuesday we had play group at our house. It was so much fun. There were lots of people, at least 9 ladies and most people had 2 kids - we had a FULL house. The kids had so much fun playing on the climber and slides. All the babies enjoyed hanging out in the swing, jumper and playing on the floor. All the ladies had fun chit chatting and being out of the house. It was really nice to have people over to the house. We still have a LONG way to go before it's fixed up but we still love it.

I've actually been thinking about posting something about play group for the last 2 days but had forgotten each time I sat down to blog. This evening I had a reminder in my laundry...



We are still using cloth diapers and a disposable diaper from play group got mixed up in the cloth diapers. It just goes to show you that any diaper can get pretty clean, too bad it can't be re-used now that it's clean :P (i cracked up when I saw it - all the jell has been washed away too. it is rather funny...don't you think?)

Today

Jason started school today. Although I'm sad to not have him around all the time I am looking forward to getting the kids back to a more regular schedule. His earliest class starts at 11am and his latest class gets out at 5pm. Yes, this may sound like a dream but I assure you it will keep him more than busy. We are trying to figure out his transportation so that I can have the car more. We've figured out the bus route, which if used 3 days a week (his classes are Monday, Wednesday and Fridays, a seminar on Thursday and he'll audit a class on Tuesdays, but 3 days is a conservative estimate) twice a day than it would cost about $50 a month - which is our total gas budget!!! So we are looking at some other options too, I'll let you know what we figure out.

We slept late today. Our bedrooms are all facing North and they stay dark even after the sun comes up - this might be good for some people, but not for us. We are too much of a sleepy head family as it is. I guess we'll have to start setting the alarm.

I had a Relief Society meeting this morning so I dropped Jason off at school and then we went over to Alaska's house. Abygail had fun playing with her kids. After we got home we did some finger painting at Abygail's request (she knew exactly where the supplies were) and then she got a bath. You can tell from the picture that she hasn't quite understood that paint is for the paper on not for the face. SO FUNNY to watch!

Now it's nap time and it's snowing outside - so beautiful.. I hope we have just as much fun the rest of the day as we have so far. (and I hope Abygail will forgive me one day for making her cry herself to sleep all alone in her room. New schedule, new routine, right?!)

Catching Up

Saturday afternoon I got a call from Jason that started out like this, "Let me start off by saying, I'm OK and it wasn't my fault". Of course I'm sure you can guess what he was talking about but if you can't let me tell you. He was in a car accident while on his way to Christmas shop.
Here's the scoop, he was stopped behind a car at a red light when all the sudden some one plowed into him from behind. Our car was then propelled forward and hit the car in front of him which then propelled 3/4 of the way into the intersection. He was fine and so was the man in the car in front of him. The teenagers that hit him were a little worse for wear but everyone walked away and that was good. The car that hit him was pretty much totaled. Our car will need to go in the shop for new bumpers (front and back) a new tail light and possibly some work on the trunk, pretty minor thankfully. The car in front of him has a cracked frame by the rear bumper.
camera. I am so thankful and you will be too since now you will see better pictures on the blog.Next: Jason and I exchanged gifts Saturday night because I guessed my present. I hate that I almost always know what he got me. It's not his fault and he always gets me really good presents but IT BUGS TO NOT GET THE FABULOUS SURPRISE OF CHRISTMAS MORNING. O, to be young again. First let me say that we agreed to only get stocking stuffers this year for one another because we are buying a house. So I bought him a water bottle, I know, I know, how lame but it's one of those polycarbonate bottles so that he doesn't have to refill his grocery store water bottles any more. This past year I sent him to school a few times with a breakfast drink (cranberry juice or orange juice) and he had to take it in one of Abygail's sippy cups so that it would not spill, that's the only beverage container we had. I did put thought into it but again - it's a water bottle so nothing to spectacular. He on the other hand bought me a digital I'm glad we opened them early so that we can use it to take good pics for Christmas. Thank you sweetie!

Finally: Abygail has been very excited about the presents under the tree. She has been trying to sneak them out of the living room to open them. We opened a few early, our new ornaments to commemorate this past year. I haven't blogged about this but I LOVE ORNAMENTS. I love pulling them out each year and thinking about where I/we got them, who gave them to me/we and under what circumstances they were received. My most prized ornament is this one, it's one that my brother Paul made for me when we were all much younger.

Here is Jackson's ornament for the year, he loves reaching up to the tree and trying to pull the ornaments off.

Abygail's, last year she got one similar to this one with the same kitty in a stroller. Notice she (the cat) is holding a baby kitty (brother).

Last Year's

This Year's

Jason and I got this cute little house to remember this is the year we bought our first house.

Expressive Story Telling

This morning Jason was playing Christmas music on the piano. Abygail likes climbing up and sitting with him while he plays. This time she demanded that he play "Bug's Life". (We have a book that is the story for the Disney movie Bug's Life.) So he did, Expressing the story through the piano. I caught the video a little late but, you can get a little of an idea of how much fun they both had. Enjoy!