The Overmans

Eating Cereal!

2012-01-29T18:59:00.000-06:00

I mentioned in the previous post that we have started Jaxon on cereal! He has been getting it in his bottle for about three weeks to help with reflux, but now he also gets fed cereal once a day.

He loves it! It did not take long for him to catch on - he ate a huge bowl the first night! He was definitely ready for it! We've been pretty fortunate that all three of our kids have loved rice cereal!

I just can't get enough of this cute smile! :)

Jaxon ~ 4 Months

2012-01-28T21:37:00.000-06:00

Jaxon is 4 months old, which hardly seems possible! It was almost a year ago at this time that I found out our big surprise was on the way!

Jaxon ...

... is growing so fast! He weighs about 17-18 pounds. His 4 month check up is on Monday, so we'll know exactly how much he weighs then.

... wears 6-month and 9-month clothes and size 3 diapers!

... LOVES cereal and is a pro at eating it! We have been putting cereal in one bottle a day now for a few weeks in hopes that it would help with the reflux. We started spoon feeding cereal to him this week. He acted as though it was no big deal and he knew exactly what he was doing. He eats a huge bowl every night around 6:30/7:00. Jordyn and Jayla love to watch him eat his cereal.

... drinks about 5-6 ounces of formula in one feeding. He is doing well with the formula since I had to stop nursing.

... rolls all of the time. He doesn't roll too often from his tummy to back, but he rolls very easily from his back to his tummy.

... loves to play with toys. He's great at grabbing things to hold onto.

... enjoys standing in the exersaucer and sitting in the bumbo. He also still likes the swing. He is almost to the point of growing out of the bouncy chair - which isn't a huge deal since he's never really liked it.

... sleeps from about 10:00-6:00 each night. I am so thankful he's a good sleeper!

... still continues to be rather fussy for a two to three hours each night. We are so hopeful that this will end soon. :)

... LOVES when his sisters talk to him. He gets so excited when they are by him. He almost giggles each time they talk to him.

Happy 4 Months, Jaxon!

What a week!

2012-01-21T14:45:00.000-06:00

It was a rough week for me - I'm so glad the weekend is here!

We struggled with bedtime this week ... the girls are still not sleeping well - waking up often, screaming, wanting someone to stay in their room. Jaxon is throwing huge fussy fits in the evening. Justin and I are exhausted. It has to get better soon! :)

Justin was out of town on Wednesday and Thursday. My mom came to stay with me on Wednesday. We struggled to get the girls to bed, and Jaxon screamed hard from 6:00-11:00. He was so constipated. (Poor daycare got to deal with that mess the next day - but I got to deal with the laundry from that mess. Ha!) While my mom and I both tried to calm Jaxon down (taking turns), the girls so nicely dumped out every. single. basket of toys they could find. They dumped out every puzzle and every little thing they could find. Maybe they were mad that my mom and I were giving so much attention to Jaxon?! :) So on top of crabby kids, our house looked a tornado went through it.

I finally got the girls to sleep, and my mom had to break it to me that my fridge was not working. Everything in the freezer was thawed, and the items in the fridge were not very cold. So, here it is almost 10:00, Jaxon is screaming, Jordyn woke back up and is on the couch, Jayla was in her bed screaming, and I have a fridge/freezer that don't work. We have an extra fridge in our garage, but since the garage is not insulated and it was super cold here this week, everything in the fridge out there freezes. We couldn't use the fridge as a backup.

I called my neighbors (so thankful they didn't mind a late phone call) and Dave brought over a cooler for us. I filled that one and our cooler, and we put them in the garage. Of course our freezer and fridge were full - I had just gotten groceries the night before. I was in a bit of a panic because I wanted to make sure we had milk for the girls and that Jaxon's medications would stay cold. Thankfully the coolers worked. By 11:00 that night, my mom and I were exhausted ... and the girls were still waking up crying. Jordyn ended up sleeping in my bed with me, and Jayla slept in the pack and play next to my bed.

The girls were super tired/crabby the next morning, which didn't make getting ready for school very easy. We made it though!

Justin's mom came to help on Thursday. My dad had brought my dorm fridge to Justin's parent's house so that Shelli could bring it up to me so that at least I would have a little fridge to put things in until ours was fixed! Justin's mom was able to get ahold of a repairman - and through some begging from her, they came to the house on Thursday afternoon. She was here while they fixed it, and thankfully, it was a just a $150 fix. So much better than having to buy a new fridge! She also picked up Jordyn from daycare so that I only had to make one stop to get Jayla and Jaxon in this cold weather. She and Jordyn cleaned the fridge and the house for me. SOOOOO appreciated! Jordyn also got to go run an errand with her and pick up happy meals for supper. She was pretty excited!

We are so incredibly thankful and blessed with such wonderful parents who give us so much help and support!

I have some random pictures of the kids below. The pictures are from about two weeks ago. :)

Totally random - but Jayla's hair is finally long enough on the top to put in a pony. The problem though is that she HATES having anything in her hair! I have to work fast, but I'm getting pretty good about getting the hair into a ponytail! :)

Jordyn loves to wear Mommy's boots!

The three kids snuggling in Mom and Dad's bed ... nope, the bed is not made. Don't judge. :)

Oh - I was just about ready to post this, and I forgot to mention how my rough week ended. Ugh. I rolled my ankle after lunch on Friday. I was walking in the hallway at school and saw a puddle of water from melted snow, and I was being super cautious and before I knew it, my left ankle rolled. I was wearing boots with about a 2-3 inch heal on them. I didn't fall, but my left ankle went down far enough to touch the floor. I've never sprained an ankle/broken a bone, and I have zero pain tolerance. I sat with my foot up and iced it for the next hour and a half, and then it felt pretty good. In fact, from about 3:00-5:00, I had very little pain. By about 6:00 last night, I couldn't walk. My ankle, the top of my food, the bottom of my foot, and my leg hurt. Finally by 11:00 last night I was able to walk enough to get up the steps to bed. It is doing much better today - a little swollen, but it feels so much better. If the horrible pain had continued, I would have gone to the doctor today. I already filed the work claim on it.

And one other update - I saw a urologist specialist this week. No infection right now, but I need an ultrasound done on Monday morning. I am hopeful they won't find any problems. :)

Today has been a good day. All three kids are napping right now. The house is quiet, and I am enjoying the peace and quiet! :)

The Snow Has Arrived!

2012-01-21T13:32:00.000-06:00

We finally have snow in SD! I'm not excited about, but we have two little girls who couldn't be more excited! All the girls could do on the way home from daycare yesterday was talk about playing in the snow! They wanted to make snow angels, help Daddy shovel the snow, and make a snowman (or "noman" as Jayla calls it).

I knew Justin was going to beat us home so that he could blow out the driveway and sidewalks. He was just finishing as we got home, so we decided to let the girls play for a little while. The windchill was below zero, but after a lot begging, we decided we would let the girls play for 5-10 minutes ... which is kind of funny thinking about how it took me almost 15 minutes to dress both of them! Ha!

I quickly ran out (or hobbled out after rolling my ankle earlier in the day - that's a story for a different day) to take pictures.

Jordyn's favorite thing to do is throw the snow!

Jayla had never played in the snow! We didn't take her to play in it last winter. She loved using the little scoop!

These three had so much fun in the few minutes they were out there!

And not to be forgotten ... this adorable little guy stayed nice and toasty inside the house! :)

Jaxon's Baptism

2012-01-20T22:36:00.001-06:00

Jaxon was baptized last Sunday! Our church does Baptism on the third Sunday of each month. Usually there are several families (we have LOTS of babies in our church), but Jaxon was the only one being baptized on Sunday!

We were nervous how the girls would act, but overall, they did well. Jayla did try to kick Jordyn in the head, and I told her no, so then she hit me and then hugged me ... I'm sure we'll get a good laugh out of it when we go back to watch the video tape!

Jaxon hates bath time, so we weren't sure how he would react. He was startled, but he never cried!

Baptized in the name of Father

the Son

and the Holy Spirit.

Can you believe we got a family picture in which no one was crying and everyone was pretty much looking!? :)

Then we tried to get pictures of just Justin and myself with Jaxon - but Jayla got mad, threw herself down on the tile floor, and hit her head. Picture time was over!

Instead of doing lunch at our house this time, we decided to book a room at a restaurant. I knew I couldn't have the house cleaned and everything ready for 25 people to come over. It worked out so well to just go out to eat. We didn't take too many pictures, but here's a few!

How cute is he?!!? :)

We are so thankful for the support of our families and a wonderful church family that Jaxon could be baptized into.

Jayla ~ 21 Months

2012-01-18T15:23:00.000-06:00

Jayla is 21 months old!

She has a thing for playing with her Puma shoes ...

I had to post these pictures ... Jayla put on her sister's shirt (all by herself - after taking her own clothes off), Mommy's shoes, no pants, and "mowed" the entire house - over and over and over - I am no longer a fan of that toy! (Neither are my sisters - they hid it! Ha!)

What is new with Jayla?

Jayla ...

... weighs about 29 pounds, wears mostly 2T clothing (some 24-month yet), size 6 shoe, and size 5 diapers.

... fights us almost everyday to put clothes on. She loves to run around without clothes on!

... has been talking, talking, talking! She has been talking for a while now, but in the last 10 days she has really has started increasing the words that she says. She now has conversations with Jordyn. It's hilarious!

... loves pizza, dry cereal, string cheese, mac and cheese, and yogurt.

... loves to read books. Her favorites are books that have animals in them! She loves to say the name of the animal and tell you what sound they make.

... has 13 teeth. She recently got one more. Hopefully the rest make their appearance soon!

... is almost paci-free. She does not nap with it, but we let her use during the night. She is such an awful sleeper, so at this point we are willing to do anything to get her to sleep.

... is transitioning to the next room at daycare. She spends about half of her day in her old room and half the day in her new room right now. Ms. Talor (one of our favorite teachers) is in Jayla's new room, so we love when she gets to go play there!

... loves to kiss and hug Jaxon. She gets right in his face to say, "Hi Jaxy!" Then she kisses him, hugs him, kisses him, hugs him. It's so sweet!

... loves to dance, build with legos, make food in her kitchen, and color.

... likes to watch Yo Gabba Gabba (ugh), Barney, and Frosty the Snowman.

... thinks that all snow is called a snowman. We just got our first snow of the winter this week. Jayla was so excited and kept yelling "noman, noman, noman."

Happy 21 Months, Jayla!

Children's Museum

2012-01-14T10:26:00.000-06:00

We took the kids to the Children's Museum last Sunday. It is about an hour from our house, which really isn't too far, but we don't get there often. The last time we went was a little over a year ago, and Jayla spent the whole time in the stroller. Jordyn had a blast, so we were excited to go back again. We knew the girls would have so much fun! (Click here to see pictures from a year ago at the museum.)

Our first stop was the grocery store. The girls play this all the time at home, so this was of course one of their favorite things!

The next stop was the garden/field to harvest the crops!

(Just in case you were wondering - Jaxon was with us, but he slept the entire time, so he stayed in the stroller.)

There is a video of a hoop dancer, who actually visited the school that I teach at ...

Justin attempted to be a hoop dancer ...

Jordyn could not stop laughing!

The girls ordered ice cream cones in the cafe ...

We did some winter art and made snowmen ...

The girls played with the large lite brite ...

They made sand designs with Daddy ...

We also did a weather forecast on TV, changed the tires on a car, played on the slide, and played musical instruments. We skipped the water room this time. The girls had so much fun, and not once did they throw a single fit! :) We can't wait to go back again!

This Week ...

2012-01-13T20:53:00.001-06:00

As I mentioned in my last post, trying to stay updated on posts seems about impossible right now!

This week ...

... was just as chaotic as any other. :)

... Justin was out of town on Wednesday/Thursday. His mom stayed with me to help with the kids. Bless her heart, she slept on the floor in the girls' room so that I could get a few hours of sleep. Wouldn't you know it - Jaxon was up through the night though. I did get about 3 hours of consecutive sleep though.

... we took Jaxon to the doctor today. He is battling his first "daycare cold" and we get so nervous knowing that we are heading into RSV season. Today was his 9th day of daycare, and on Jordyn's 9th day of daycare and Jayla's 9th month of daycare, they had RSV. Jaxon was not tested for RSV, but he does have a double ear infection. I'm not surprised he has an ear infection - our girls had them constantly. Thank goodness for tubes! We'll see how Jaxon responds to an antibiotic first. Jaxon has been happy, but not eating as well as he usually does, so we felt it would be best to have him checked before the weekend. Good thing we did - especially because he is getting baptized on Sunday morning! We are so hoping and praying that this ear infection isn't the start of RSV.

... it actually snowed in SD! Not much, just enough to cause icky roads for a day. It's supposed to be 30-40 degrees this weekend. What a wacky winter for us! We started the week going without coats because it was warm, and by Thursday we were in the negative wind chills.

... Jayla has been a talking machine. She's been talking quite a bit for a while now, but she took off full-speed ahead with her words this week. She repeats everything we say. My favorite is counting to ten in Spanish - she repeats each one perfectly.

... Jordyn has decided that the show The Middle is her new favorite show. Have you watched it? I can't stop laughing when I watch it. It may not always be appropriate for a three year old, but sometimes we just need some "adultness" in our house. However, why is it that the one or two lines from a show/movie that you wouldn't want your child to repeat are the ones they always pick? Right now, Jordyn keeps repeating a line from The Middle from two weeks ago ... "You can't throw that book at me. I'm in detox." Oh dear, I'm just waiting for her to go to school and tell someone that her parents in detox or something like that. I crack up everytime she repeats the line.

... the kids have loved resting in their sleeping bags that they got for Christmas!

... I realized that I have a Christmas post to do yet (that we celebrated on New Year's Day). Oops! I forgot about it until I uploaded the pictures a few minutes ago!

... our house looks like it was hit by a tornado, and even though I have done about 8 loads of laundry since Monday, there is still a heaping pile in the laundry room to wash/dry, and a large pile in my bedroom to fold and put away (and it's not like they'll be wrinkled or anything - they've only been there since Monday).

I am working on uploading a bunch of pictures from the week. I am hoping to be caught up on the blog soon. Stay tuned. :)

3-Ring Circus

2012-01-10T22:52:00.001-06:00

It has been difficult trying to find a time to update! I have so many things to write down, but I'm sure since I'm behind, I'll forget most of them! Since it's been a while since I've updated, this is a long one - potentially one of my longest - and Blogger doesn't want to cooperate and let me upload pictures tonight, so it is a picture-less update.

We have been busy - Justin often calls our life "the 3-ring circus" - and most days, that's a pretty fitting title!

We are now in full-swing of me being back to work and all three kids in daycare. Our routine (or lack thereof) is a bit crazy, and we feel like we never have a chance to rest. The kids and I leave the house at 6:40, so you can about imagine what we look like trying to get everyone dressed, fed, and out the door by 6:40!

I feel like the bag lady everyday when we leave for daycare/school. I have to be pretty organized to get everything to the van in the morning ... my purse, my lunch bag, my work bag, my pump bag, my workout clothes bag (some days), Jordyn's backpack and 2 blankets, Jordyn's lunch bag, Jayla's backpack and blanket, and Jaxon's diaper bag. By the time I have all the bags loaded in the van along with the kids, it is full!

We're still working on figuring out a good routine at home, but I often feel like we may never figure one out!

I try to get all of Jaxon's bottles and each of the kids' bags ready the night before, along with their clothes laid out. In the morning, I get up at 5:30 and get ready. We get the kids up at 6:00 and run around like mad for the next 40 minutes. The kids and I head to daycare/preschool/my school. I leave school at about 4:00 to pick up the kids. By the time I get Jordyn, then go get Jayla and Jaxon (remember Jordyn's preschool is now in a different building), and then get all 3 strapped into their car seats, it is 4:30, and we have a 12 minute drive home. By the time we unload from the van (maybe it should be a u-haul), the girls have a little snack (because they are always starving at that point even though they have an afternoon snack at school), and sometimes feed Jaxon (depending on when he last ate at daycare), it is time to attempt to make supper. I say attempt, because it usually ends up with 1, 2, or 3 children screaming for my attention. Supper is often a disaster - the girls don't want to eat what is on their plate (they would rather live off of string cheese and dry cereal) or we gave them the wrong sippy cup and they're mad about it. Jaxon often sits in his swing seat on our kitchen table because he fusses if he's not by us when he eats. It's so cute that he already knows he should be at the table with us. (Very soon he'll be sitting in the high chair with us - just a couple of week away.) We finish supper, clean up the table - forget sweeping/mopping the floor most nights - thank goodness for a dog. Ha! Then it's bath time, pj time, play time, and then bedtime, which takes about an hour with the girls. Jaxon is still doing his fussy time from about 8:00-11:00 at night, then he goes to bed, and then I need about an hour of quiet time to relax - I'm not one who can fall asleep fast. Midnight rolls around quickly - and so does 5:30! Oh, I think I forgot to mention that both Justin and I are up numerous times from midnight until 5:30 trying to calm one of the girls. Jaxon sleeps through the night - the girls, not so much. Deep breath.

Have I ever mentioned how many dishes I do? Jaxon's bottles all have 6 parts to them (including the lid). They are the same bottles the girls used - hoping to help with reflux. So each bottle is 6 pieces (x 6-7 bottles daily), my pump pieces which totals 20 pieces by the time I take them apart, along with all of the sippy cups and snack bowls the girls use, not to mention any dishes that I used to cook with or that we eat off. (Some can't go in the dishwasher.) I usually do dishes twice at night - once after supper and then before bed, since Jaxon will have used 2 bottles after dinner and the girls used cups. I won't even know what to do with my "free time" when I no longer wash sippy cups and bottles someday! Ha!

On a random note, I am still dealing with a UTI (25+ days now). I am seeing a urologist next week and hoping to get some answers. I have taken antibiotics for 18 days, had one shot, a lovely trip the ER, and the infection just won't leave. Due to the latest antibiotic that I was put on on Sunday morning, I had to stop nursing Jax. It was either stop or pump and dump for the next 10 days. I wasn't quite ready to be done nursing - and especially without the chance to wean him off, but I also need to be healthy and need this antibiotic ... and pumping/dumping and still feeding from the bottle is like doing a double feeding every single time Jaxon eats. We don't have the time to constantly be doing a "double feeding" and chasing around Jordyn and JaylaJaxon before he was 6 months old, but I've struggled with it to just stop without have time to really think about. I think I always feel bad for the baby when I stop. Jaxon was a bit fussy yesterday/this morning. He has taken formula once a day basically since he was born, but he just seemed upset yesterday.

We have been trying to get out of the house on weekends. Sometimes it's way easier to leave the house (besides getting everyone ready) than it is to stay home the entire day. The girls start to fight, the house is ripped apart like a tornado hit it, and it completely stresses me out.

This past weekend we took the kids to a basketball game on Saturday night and the Children's Museum of SD on Sunday. The kids did awesome at both things. We hadn't been to the museum for about a year. The girls had soooo much fun and were so well-behaved. Jaxon slept the whole way there, the whole time were there, and the whole way home (from about 11:00-3:30). We just kept him in his car seat/stroller the whole time. I have so many pictures from the museum, but they are still on the camera. Hopefully I'll get them uploaded soon.

As I'm typing, Jayla is currently upstairs crying. I guess that's my cue to sign off so that we can get her calmed down and back to sleep! Just another night at the Overmans ...

6 Years!

2012-01-07T00:00:00.004-06:00

Happy 6th Anniversary, Justin! It's been a great six years full of love, laughs, a little stress, and most recently - a lot of chaos!

A quick look at some of the "big events" over the last six years ...

2006 ... got married on January 7, took a honeymoon to Jamaica, moved to Owatonna, MN, started new jobs (Justin at Federated Insurance ~ Jess at the Owatonna School District), bought our first house

2007 ... Gizmo joined our family, started fertility treatments, took a trip to Jamaica

2008 ... found out I was pregnant, bought two new vehcicles, moved to SF, we each started new jobs, sold our house in MN as soon as we moved to SF, bought a new house in SF, Jordyn Faith joined our family

2009 ... took a trip to Las Vegas, found out that Jordyn was going to be a big sister, spent many weekends at the lake

2010 ... Jayla Grace joined our family, we thought we learned what it was like to be "busy parents" - ha - little did we know what was in store for the next year :)

2011 ... surprise of our life to find out that baby #3 was on the way, took a trip to Las Vegas, Jaxon Dean joined our family and we truly learned what it meant to be "busy parents" and that it is possible to function on 1-3 hours of sleep per night (possible, but not recommended!)

Last year for our five year anniversary we were planning on taking a big trip. Then I found out I was pregnant, so we decided to hold off until this year. (Instead of our big trip last year, we took a trip to Las Vegas.) So ... the plan this year was to take a big trip in May ... BUT ... (NO, I'M NOT PREGNANT) ... Justin has worked super hard and won us a trip to a great resort in Arizona in March! We are super excited and are staying at nice resort in Tuscon. We decided that would be our big trip of the year - can't complain when the whole thing is free! :)

Here we are six years later ... a lot has changed for the two of us, but it has been a fun six years!

Happy 6th Anniversary, Justin! I Love You!

Christmas Day

2011-12-31T16:35:00.000-06:00

It has literally taken me all day to get these pictures loaded to blogger. I don't know if it is blogger or our Internet, but it has taken forever!

We tried to get a picture of the 3 kids on Christmas morning - I have to remind myself constantly that it will probably be a long time before we get a picture of all 3 kids looking and smiling!

My parents have a dancing Santa that Jayla LOVES. She carried that thing everywhere!

She even told us she was going to go "night-night" with it ...

Pretending to take a nap ...

They also have the YMCA dancing Elmo that Jayla loves!

Jordyn's favorite thing is this piano!

As I mentioned in the previous post, I didn't do a very good job of getting pictures this Christmas. Poor Jaxon was in like 2 pictures!

The girls were great helpers with passing out presents!

Jordyn has been begging Santa for a "big big Barbie car that I can drive." She saw some neighbor kids with one this past summer, and for the last 6 months, she has told us that Santa would bring her one! With a little help from G & G VB, Santa made a special delivery to Grandpa's shop!

A new Barbie Ford Mustang! (we need to put on the decals yet)

The girls were so excited ...

And then ... this happened ...

... even though Jordyn wanted to "drive" the car ... she was scared to death. We kind of had a feeling that this would happen. So for now, Jordyn will sit in it, pretend to drive, and play with the radio in it. :)

This little one though is fearless!

We showed her the gas pedal and let her go!

And when she couldn't go forward any farther, we would put it in reverse, let her hit the gas, and she would back it all the way up. It was hilarious!

This thing can 5 mph, but we have it locked at 2.5.

Before leaving my parent's house that afternoon, we tried to get a picture of Kiki and Josh with the kids. Ha ... Jayla was in total meltdown mode ... disaster! :) Jayla loves Josh though, so he was the lucky one to get the screaming child on his lap! (She really does love him - she always run straight to him to hug him.)

The next stop that evening was Justin's grandparent's house. We played some "minute to win it games" ... Meggan and I lost - and were shocked by how much kleenex we wasted to play the game. :)

Justin and Brody also lost their game ...

Cheap toilet paper = difficult game. :)

Jordyn and Meggan (Jordyn calls her "my Meggan")

Jayla and a new toy ...

Meggan met Jaxon for the first time. :)

Christmas sure flew by! We have one more to celebrate tomorrow with my dad's sister and her family.

We took our tree down this week, and the girls were just devastated. They were also so sad that Elfie went back to the North Pole. We told them that Elfie might just come stop by again at different times throughout the year. Jayla still shouts his name every morning and everyday when we get home from school. They sure loved Christmastime!

Christmas Eve

2011-12-31T05:28:00.000-06:00

We really didn't do a very good job of taking pictures this Christmas. Trying to keep with all three kids was a lot of work, so the camera wasn't out much!

We spent Christmas Eve afternoon with Justin's family. We opened gifts, had a lot of fun, and ate way too much food!

Jax hung out in the swing while we opened gifts.

Jordyn, Jayla, and Jaxon all got sleeping bags. They are the cutest things! Each has their own color/name on their bags. The girls have slept in them twice. They love them!

The pillow on the sleeping bag is a puppy. Jayla could not stop hugging it!

A little bit of silliness!

We left Justin's parent's house at about 7:00. Then we went to my grandma's house ... more fun and of course more food!

My good friend, Taera, (and her husband, Chris, and daughter, Hadley) were home from Hawaii! We were able to spend a few minutes together - they came to my grandma's house so that we could see them! Of course our time together is always a quick get-together, but it's better than nothing and always so fun to see them! Hadley is such a cutie!!

We attempted a picture of Taera and myself with our kids. My goal of this picture was just to get all four kids in the picture together. Getting them to look at the camera was a bonus, and even getting a few smiles was an extra bonus! :)

We stayed at my parent's house on Christmas Eve night. Jordyn was quite wound up and 1:00 AM, the two of us were still watching The Santa Claus on TV. She had a hard time getting to sleep, and she loves that movie, so thank goodness it was on!

Christmas Day post coming soon! :)

Jaxon ~ 3 Months

2011-12-30T21:20:00.000-06:00

Jaxon is 3 months old!

Quick update - Jaxon did great during the CT scan today, and we were very relieved to receive good news. The results did not show that there are any problems! :) Our prayers were answered!

Jaxon ...

... continues to grow! He now weighs 16 pounds 11 ounces! Very healthy! :)

... loves to eat! I am still nursing him, but he continues to get one formula bottle (about 5 ounces) every night. Due to his reflux, we have also started him on cereal already. The doctor thought that might help keep some of his food down. So far we have only put cereal into a few bottles - he seems to like it!

... is so alert and loves to interact with us. He "talks" all the time and smiles so much! Jaxon and I snuggled almost all of today (I got nothing done), and it was so fun to have him respond to me while I was talking to him. Today he reminded me so much of Jayla! It's amazing how much we are reminded of the girls when they were babies.

... tested out daycare this week! He went 1 1/2 days, and he did great! They told us he was such a good baby and so happy for them! He starts full-time on Tuesday!

... loves the Bumbo! Tonight I put him in the Bumbo by some toys, but he just sat there and watched football on TV. Made his daddy happy! :)

... has rolled from back to tummy a couple of times (first time on Christmas Day). I don't think it will be too long before he's doing it often!

... is a great sleeper! Jaxon will sleep from 11:00 until at least 6:00. If I didn't wake him up to feed him before work, he would sleep until 7:00 or 8:00! I do wish though that he would go to bed a little earlier than 11:00.

... loves his crib! When he started sleeping through the night we moved him to the crib. He is doing great in it!

... does not like the paci, but he LOVES his hand - He sucks on his entire hand. He will take a paci at about 10:30 each night when I put him down for bed, but he will only keep it in his mouth for a few minutes.

... is wide awake and wants to play right now, so it's time to sign off!

Happy 3 Months, Jax!

Please Pray for Jaxon

2011-12-29T14:11:00.000-06:00

Jaxon is having a CT scan on his head tomorrow morning. He has a spot on the back of his head that we had checked in November. At that time the doctor didn't think there were any problems. The spot (which has been a bit sunken in for over a month now) has taken over a larger area of the back of his head. After having the doctor look at it this morning, the doctor felt we needed a CT scan done to make sure that the skull bones are not starting to fuse together. That is something that happens closer to the age of 2. The doctor mentioned that he had not seen a spot this large, which is very concerning to us. Jaxon is developing just fine and in some areas is ahead of a normal 3-month old (3-month post coming soon). We are praying that the spot is nothing of concern. If the bones are fusing together already, Jaxon will need a very major surgery. The thought of that has sent us into a lot of concern today. Please pray that we get good results tomorrow.

Christmas With the 5 of Us

2011-12-26T21:20:00.000-06:00

Justin and I have always celebrated Christmas on the 23rd (since 1999 when we started dating), and since Christmas Eve/Day are so busy with each of our families, we have continued to celebrate on the 23rd.

Jordyn was a little under the weather that day, but she perked up later in the afternoon when it was time to open gifts. She had a fever and tummy ache through the night and during the day so she stayed home from daycare on Friday with Justin and Jaxon while I worked. She was so excited to open presents though, so you can't tell in the pictures that she was sick. :)

The girls love to play the iPad, and Jayla is doing great with playing Jordyn's favorite games!

Jaxon slept through gift opening and supper!

Justin loves oakley gear! :) He should be good to go now since he got some from me and also from my parents!

Jayla loves her new guitar!

Two thumbs up for Jordyn's new bike!

The plan was that Justin was going to put the bike together during the day while he was home with Jaxon. Since Jordyn was sick and had to stay home, he was unable to do that! Assembly had to take place later! :)

Jaxon finally woke up, so the girls opened his gifts for him.

One of his gifts was a box of four books. Wouldn't you know it, the girls had the biggest meltdown over it. The girls didn't want to share the four books ... they each wanted to hold all four books (instead of them each getting just two) ...

The last couple of years we started making homemade pizzas when we celebrate Christmas. The girls love putting their own pepperoni pieces on their pizzas!

I have to share pictures of my gifts. Last year Justin and the girls surprised me with charms that had the girls' names and thumbprints on one side. We took Jaxon to do his last week, so I was able to add that to my necklace. I just love this necklace!!

This year Justin and the kids gave me a new bracelet with their names/birthstones. I just love The Vintage Pearl, which is wear this bracelet is from! It turned out great!

Finally, thanks to all of our wonderful family/friends who have sent Christmas cards this year. I LOVE getting the mail this time of year! :) Our doors are full of pictures!

Spinning!

2011-12-22T12:43:00.003-06:00

The last few days have been a bit of a whirlwind - my head is spinning! I went back to work on Monday. Even though I was pretty organized on Sunday night, I still felt like I was running around like a crazy person on Monday morning! The girls and I left the house at 6:45 ~ Jaxon stayed at home with my mom.

My first day back at work was a great one! I was excited to see my students, and they were so wonderful the whole day!

(How can you not love that smile?!)

By Monday afternoon I didn't feel great, and by Monday night I realized the UTI that I had been dealing with for over a week (I had just finished the antibiotic for it on Sunday morning) had not gone away. I headed back to Acute Care, found out the infection was worse than it was before I started the antibiotic, was prescribed another antibiotic for 14 days and headed home.

I woke up at about 5:00 on Tuesday morning and I was super dizzy and quite nauseous. I had to sit on the end of the bed for a while before I could get up. I thought I would be okay to go to work, so I got ready and fed Jax. The dizziness got worse, and Justin called the after-hours nurse thinking I was having a reaction to the medication that I had started the night before. She was concerned the infection had moved to my blood, so after dropping the girls off at daycare, we went to the ER.

The good news is that the infection wasn't in my blood or kidneys, but the infection was still bad. I was given an IV, and after a couple of hours we went home. Then my OB doctor's nurse contacted me, and said that they felt I needed to get a shot too, so I ended up getting a shot on Tuesday afternoon.

I am feeling much better now. I have to go back to the doctor in two weeks, unless I think it's getting worse again.

So ... I made it through one day of work before having to call in sick! Ugh. The three days that I have been back at work have been good ones! I have a great group of students!

And now for a little randomness, since nothing seems to be organized these days! :) Ha!

How is it even possible that Jaxon is old enough/strong enough to sit in the bumbo!

I'm pretty sure this girl is going to be a teacher ...

This little cutie keeps us on our toes!

I think she's going to be a great basketball player - she loves to shoot the ball!

In case I don't get any other posts done before the weekend, Happy Holidays to all of you!

Preschool Program

2011-12-21T06:31:00.000-06:00

Jordyn had her preschool Christmas program on Saturday morning. Each class had their own program, so it was for a small group of people since her class has ten kids and two of them were gone.

They sang 5 songs. Jordyn knew every word of every single song (she's been singing them nonstop for weeks), but she didn't sing too many words during the program. It was still cute though!

For some reason, she kept sticking her tongue out. Maybe that's what she does when she gets nervous? I hope that changes in the near future! :)

Playing with her friends ...

After the program we had cookies and juice and the kids all ran around! Since Grandpa Buzz, Grandpa Marlin, and Grandma Shelli all came, we decided to all grab lunch at McDonald's. Jordyn was so excited that her grandparents were able to come, but she missed Grandma Ronda, who had to work for a few hours this morning. We taped it for her though!

We are proud of Jordyn for doing two Christmas programs this year! :)

Jayla ~ 20 Months

2011-12-20T14:57:00.000-06:00

Jayla is 20 months old. I am a few days late posting this because I've been trying so hard to get a picture of her, and she has no desire to cooperate. :)

This is my favorite ...

She loves to find Elfie!

We recently got the bumbo out for Jaxon ... Jayla decided it should be for her!

What is new with Jayla?

Jayla ...

... weighs about 30 pounds, wears size 24-month and 2T clothes, size 6 shoes, and size 5 diapers.

... has still been going potty on the little potty chair, but is definitely not close to being completely potty trained.

... loves to talk and completely surprises us with some of the words that she can say so clearly! Some of her new favorite words to say are owl, pizza, Jayla, and Jordyn. She knows many words and will try to say most words that we ask her to say.

... loves to dance - especially to the Sunday Night Football song.

... loves to make every animal noise.

... enjoys holding Jaxon, talking to him, and bringing him his paci and blanket.

... loves to "help" mom in the morning and wants to wear makeup, have her hair brushed, and wants to weigh herself.

... could live off of milk, juice (which is totally watered down), and dry cereal if we would let her. She loves dry cereal and knows how to get it out of the cupboard for herself.

... still needs her paci. She was doing so well about only needing it at nap time/bedtime, and then we went backwards when she had hand foot and mouth. Now we're on an uphill battle to get it away from her again.

... has 11 or 12 teeth. I can't quite tell if the 12th tooth is in or not, and she is very stubborn about letting me look. I tried to feel with my finger but she bit me the last time I did that. Ha!

... loves looking at Christmas lights, finding Elfie (she's a pro!), looking at the presents under our tree (which she has not even tried to touch!), and watching Christmas movies on TV.

Happy 20 Months, Jayla!

Family Pictures

2011-12-16T21:03:00.001-06:00

We had our family pictures taken in October. (I am just a little slow to post them.) My sister, Kandi, came for the weekend to take them. She is a great photographer! You can check her out on facebook at Kandi Poppler Photography.

In my mind, I had pictured the most perfect family pictures - including happy kids in every picture. What was I thinking?! Having 3 little ones, doesn't make for an easy photo session!

Jayla preferred to do this ...

If she wasn't running away from us, she was screaming. Not just a little cry - it was a full-out scream.

Jordyn, however, was ready to be photographed!

We did eventually get Jayla stop screaming for a few seconds - Jordyn is pretty good at calming Jayla down. :)

Kandi did a great job at snapping pictures in between screams! :)

This was our favorite ...

We had to give in and give Jayla her paci for a little while. We could only listen to the screams so long! Ha!

The wind was literally 50 mph the day we did pictures - thank goodness we were able to be sheltered. :)

One of my very favorites ... I think it sums up what it is like to take pictures with 3 kids, who are a total of 35 months apart in age, with the oldest having just turned 3!

I love these - we actually have large poster of the black and white one in our house. Jax looks so cute on it. :)

Thanks, Kandi! You did a great job! :)

Good for a laugh ...

2011-12-15T13:44:00.000-06:00

After nearly 100 pictures - and two that turned out okay (just okay) - I thought I would share just a few of the others to give you a laugh!

This one takes the cake! We gave up after Gizmo tried to join in ... Ha!

Low-KeyWeekend/Week

2011-12-15T13:21:00.000-06:00

First of all, thanks for your advice/encouragement, friends. :) I know once I'm back to work, we'll figure out a routine and a "new normal" ... it just will take some getting use to.

We don't have a whole of news to share ... last weekend was pretty low-key for us and our week so far hasn't really been too busy. Since we haven't had much going on, this post is a little random.

We had Justin's work Christmas party on Saturday night. His parents came and watched the kids for us. We had a great time at his party - always a lot of fun and great food!

Our kids love when their grandparents come over ... they love to play, and the girls were super wild once Grandpa Marlin and Grandma Shelli got here! They had lots of fun!

We let the girls do a little coloring Christmas project a few nights ago. I needed to run to Hobby Lobby, so we took a family trip there (are we lame, or what?! :) ... and we told the girls if they were good listeners they could pick out a craft. The each picked out wood Christmas pattern to color. Jayla picked a Christmas owl and Jordyn picked Santa.

I think I have given up on the idea of getting a picture of our 3 kids all looking at the camera and at least getting a smile from the girls at the same time. We took almost 100 pictures (some in pj's after their bath and some after church on Sunday), and we didn't get a single picture in which both girls were looking and smiling. Jax is too little right now, so I wasn't trying to get him to look.

This is the one of the best ones ...

Jayla has a silly face she likes to make ... here it is ... and it cracks us up everytime she does it! She clenches her teeth and shakes her head as she does it.

So cute!

Look who was hiding in our tree!

Another round of pictures ... we got some very cute ones of Jordyn! (Aunt Kiki and Josh - this is the dress that Jordyn picked out with the Gymboree gift card you gave her. We think she did a good job!)

This is the other picture of the three that turned out okay. If I have time, I'll do a post with the ones that didn't turn out so well. :)

In One Week

2011-12-12T12:08:00.001-06:00

One week from today I will head back to work. It doesn't even seem possible that Jaxon will be 11 weeks old tomorrow. It doesn't seem real that I have been away from my classroom for almost 12 weeks.

I don't think I could write a post long enough to describe how I am feeling about all of this - although I might give it a try. :) Buckle up, you might be in for a long ride!

I think the best word to describe the thoughts of returning to work is overwhelmed.

I am so incredibly thankful that I will have had 12 weeks at home with Jaxon. I have been very fortunate that each of our kids has had a lot of one-on-one time with me as babies. Obviously Jordyn had a lot of one-on-one time since she was the first baby, then I had Jayla in April so I didn't return to teaching until August (and Jordyn went to daycare full time for 6 weeks after Jayla was born and 3 days a week during that summer), and now I've had 12 weeks with Jaxon (while the girls are at daycare).

I am looking forward to being back in the classroom, (I have a great class!) and I am looking forward to seeing/being around adults again.

On the other hand, I am so overwhelmed at the thought of returning to work. I have a million things going through my mind at all times right now, then I have a meltdown, then I'm okay with things, then I have a meltdown ... and the cycle continues. :)

Right now, Jaxon and I pick up the girls from daycare around 4:00ish. By the time we get Jordyn and then get Jayla, and then get home, it is about a 45-55 minute trip. Then we get home, and all three children want my attention. Not the sit on the floor and play with me attention ... it's the hold me, let me sit on your lap and if you don't I'll scream kind of attention. Thankfully with being on leave right now, I am able to get most our supper ready while the girls are still at daycare. I feel like once I'm back at work, we will be eating McDonalds every night for supper ... how am I supposed to cook with three little ones who want my constant attention until Justin comes home around 5:30 ... and the girls are ready to eat at 5:30 since they eat lunch at about 11:15/11:30.

I can't stay on top of laundry for a second - and right now I'm home everyday! How in the world will it get done when I'm working everyday?

Right now, Justin and I aren't getting a break from kids until 11:00 PM or after. Jayla goes to bed at about 7:30 (and is thankfully sleeping GREAT now that she is feeling better - but we have to stay in her room until she falls asleep or she'll crawl out of bed). After Jayla is asleep, Jordyn goes to bed, and then Jaxon wakes up, and is up until 11:00 of after, and he's not very content during that time. In fact for the past week or so, he's been screaming from about 10:00-11:00. Thankfully the girls sleep through it. (Nichole, if you're reading - if this crying cycle ever ends, I will call you!)

With no break from the kids until 11:00, both Justin and myself just feel wiped out and don't want to touch the laundry or any other chore that needs to be done. We go to bed around 11:00-11:30, and then our day starts nice and early around 6:00. When I go back to work, my day will start at 5:30. It takes me a while to fall asleep once the kids are all sleeping/content, so I am usually up until midnight. I think I'll be fortunate to get 5-6 hours of sleep each night.

It's constant questions going through my mind ...

How will I cook supper?
How will I get the laundry done?

How will both Justin and myself get to the fitness center during the week? ... Leading to the next question ... Will I ever lose every pound of baby weight?

How will Justin and I ever get to watch a movie again? (We rented a movie on Netflix a while back - had 30 days to watch it, and never got a chance to watch it. We started it one night and watched 20 minutes of it in an hour, and then gave up.)

How will I stay sane? :)

I'm already at the point of realizing my house will always be a disaster ... so if you visit, don't plan on a clean house ... be prepared for toys everywhere, piles of laundry, beds not made, and cereal/crackers on the floor. That's just the way it is. :)

Jaxon is not starting daycare until January, so he has a little time at home yet. Our parents are helping with him next week, and then I'll be on Christmas break (good timing, huh?!), and then he'll start daycare when I go back to work in January. We wanted him a little older/bigger when he started daycare since we are entering RSV season.

Jayla has always been a very strong-willed child, and she is not backing down from that ... however, it seems that she is only doing that for Mom and Dad ... not daycare or her grandparents. She can throw a fit like no other, and if she wants something and you are not getting it for her in the split second that she wants it, be prepared for a full-out tantrum on the floor, screaming, kicking, and hitting. I'm thankful that she only does this for Justin and myself, not other people, but if you have any advice, I would take it in a heartbeat!

I actually do have a number of pictures of the kids to share, but I haven't uploaded them yet ... maybe I'll get a chance later this afternoon.

With all that I just wrote, please know that I am incredibly grateful and blessed with three beautiful, healthy, and adorable children who I wouldn't trade for the world. I am also grateful for a good teaching job that I will be returning to.

Any advice you have for me, I'll take it. :) I'm sure I'll get things figured out once I'm back at work for a little while - we'll attempt to get a little routine here at home. Until then ... I hopefully won't sit and worry constantly about this. I may need read Matthew Chapter 6 verses 25-34 over and over and over.

Conversations with a 19 Month Old and 3 Year Old

2011-12-07T20:10:00.000-06:00

I always laugh at the conversations that we have with our kids, and I wish we could literally record every one of them. I usually try to write many of our conversations down or text them to somebody so that I have them documented somewhere. :)

A few of our most recent conversations ...

I made the girls Christmas macaroni for supper that had snowman, stocking, candy cane and snowflake noodles. Jordyn took a bite of the snowman and announced, "I just ate Frosty's butt!" Totally not appropriate for a dinner conversation, but we couldn't help but burst out laughing!

~~~~~~~~~~

Just a little background info - on Thanksgiving Day we stopped at Lewis (a store by our house) and they had 2 reindeer in a cage that the girls got to see.

A few days later we were driving by Lewis on our way home and we had this conversation ...

Jordyn: Mom, the reindeer aren't there today. Where are they?
Me: I don't know. Maybe at a reindeer farm.
Jordyn: Mommmm, they're at the North Pole.
Me: You're right. (Why didn't I think of that?)
Jordyn: Can I go to the North Pole?
Me: Only Santa, the reindeer and the elves can go to the North Pole.
Jordyn: Why?
Me: It's too cold.
Jordyn: Well, I'm going to pretend to be an elf, and I'm going to the North Pole.

~~~~~~~~~~

Jordyn: Mom, who made my school?
Me: Your teachers got your school ready and decorated it for you.
Jordyn: NO! God made my school!

~~~~~~~~~~

Jayla isn't having full conversations with us yet, but she can sure talk up a storm! We love hearing her sweet voice ... some of our favorite words/phrases that she says ...
I love you!
I miss you!
I got you!
Row Row (telling us to sing Row Row Row Your Boat)
Hi Baby Jaxy!
Lights, Tree, Snow (she's loving all of the holiday things)
Milk, Juice
Help please
Thank you
Achoo - Bless You
Dadddddy! Mommmmy!
Duckie says Quack quack (She knows pretty much all of her animal sounds.)
Uppie (when she wants to be held)
Nack (snack - Jordyn always called it a "nack" too)
Potty - poopy (She loves to go on the little potty chair - can't wait until she is trained!)

~~~~~~~~~~

Jayla loves the movie Frosty the Snowman. Her favorite thing to do is yell "No, no, no, no" to the mean magician throughout the movie.

~~~~~~~~~~

The girls LOVE finding Elfie every morning (our Elf on the Shelf). Jayla immediately looks for him when she comes down the steps. As soon as she finds him, she shouts "Elfie Elfie Elfie" until we acknowledge that she has found him.

~~~~~~~~~~

The girls love to cheer for the Vikings and Raiders. Jordyn will usually yell "Go Raiders Go" or "Go Vikings Go." As soon as Jayla sees that football is on TV, she starts yelling "Go Go Go Go." (Do you think our girls have been exposed to just a little football?! Ha!)

~~~~~~~~~~

And, not to be left out ... Jaxon has been "talking" up a storm the past week. He loves to "talk"/make noises and just smile at us. I think he's already realizing that he's going to need a loud voice to be heard over his sisters. :)

Kathryn's Baby Shower

2011-12-07T16:31:00.000-06:00

I hosted Kathryn's baby shower at our house on Saturday morning. Justin's aunts (Sherri and Tracy) helped me with the planning and food/games. We had so much fun!

This little cutie hung out with Daddy for the morning ...

The diaper cake that I made for Kathryn ...

The clothesline of clothes for Miles and the letter "M" that I made him ...

M is for Miles!

The punch I that I made! (Jordyn and Jayla kept wanting the duckies and thought that I took them from the their bath toys. I tried explaining that I bought new ones, and their toys were still in the bathtub!)

Sweet Jayla slept through most of the shower ...

A couple of gifts ...

I made Darin a "Daddy Emergency Kit" complete with goggles, rubber gloves, a clothespin for his nose, and ibuprofen. :)

D & K - We can't wait for the arrival of Miles in February! :)

Jordyn's Christmas Program!

2011-12-07T08:27:00.002-06:00

Now that Jordyn is 3, she goes to Children's Church every Sunday. And, since she goes to Children's Church, she was able to be part of the Christmas program. We had no idea how this would go. She is one of the youngest since she just turned 3.

She has been practicing all of the songs for several weeks, and she knew every single word. At practice on Saturday, she didn't sing a single word, didn't do any actions, cried on the stage, and eventually just sat down. It was so sad to see her cry, but we also really wanted her to give it a try. She had been talking about the program for several weeks. She knew that all of her grandparents/great grandparents were coming, and she was so excited!

We kept saying on Sunday that just getting her on the stage would be considered success to us. :) She stayed on the stage the whole time, didn't cry, did a few actions, and even sang a few words. (even though she knew all of the words, she just sang a few) We were so proud of her!!

Here she is with Justin before the program - she was a bit clingy and nervous.

We were quite a ways back, so ignore the back of other people's heads. :)

She decided to sit down since the little boy next to her did ...

Afterwards we ate at Pizza Ranch with all of the grandparents/great grandparents. We had a great evening. :)

This and That

2011-12-06T06:48:00.000-06:00

This post has some random pictures from the last couple of weeks. I just realized that I never posted about Thanksgiving! We spent Thanksgiving day with my family, and we had a great time! (Except that I didn't take a single picture - but I know my sisters did!)

On Friday we went out shopping - all 5 of us on Black Friday. Are we crazy?! I usually go every year early in the morning, but I didn't this year. We left the house around 9ish, and it really wasn't terribly busy since everything had opened at midnight. We just shopped at the mall for a while with Justin's parents and went to a couple of other stores. That was about it for Friday. Jayla had a fever that evening, so we just stayed home.

On Saturday afternoon we went to my parent's house to have supper with them and also to let the girls help decorate their Christmas tree.

Now for the random pictures ...

Loving her brother ...

These two love to dance and jump - I think this was to the Sunday night football song that Faith Hill sings. Jordyn LOVES this song and can sing the words, and she gets super excited when she sees Hines Ward on it (since she loved him on Dancing With the Stars).

Snuggles with Mommy (which I am REALLY going to miss when I go back to work in a couple of weeks) ...

So so sweet!

Jordyn doesn't like to say good-bye to her grandparents or aunts and uncles. This was at my parent's house on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Kiki and Josh were getting ready to leave, an Jordyn was so sad.

Grandma Ronda and Jordyn - all ready to decorate the tree!

Jayla was such a good helper!

Jordyn sang Christmas carols for an hour straight while decorating Grandpa and Grandma's tree. You name it, she'll sing it. We've been listening to our Christmas CD with 56 songs on it since LAST November. I seriously might throw that thing out the car window! Thirteen straight months of Christmas music is about enough for me!

I am hoping to get caught up on blogging soon ... we have been so busy! I threw a baby shower for Kathryn at my house on Saturday, Jordyn had her first Christmas program, Jayla is feeling so much better after that horrible bout with hand foot, and mouth, Elfie the Elf has been watching the girls closely and they love finding him every morning, and Mommy is down to 2 weeks left of maternity leave and feeling so overwhelmed. More to come soon, hopefully! :)

Tumblebus

2011-12-05T20:11:00.001-06:00

I have so many blog posts to get caught up. This is from last Tuesday.

I went and watched Jordyn during her Tumblebus time at daycare. This is something she gets to do every Tuesday with her class. A school bus has been converted into a "tumble gym" and it travels around to different places. Jordyn absolutely loves it! I am so glad that I got to go watch her and see what Tumblebus was all about!

The bus has a slide, soft tumbling mats, a balance beam, trapeze, and trampoline in it.

Each week there is a theme that the instructor uses. This time they were pretending to go on a trip to Disney World! The instructor is so wonderful with these kids - you need a lot of patience for ten 3-year olds with tumble equipment!

Stretching out ...

Doing the log roll ...

Swinging on the trapeze ...

I love this picture, except the lighting was horrible. With the entire bus being windows and the sun shining in very brightly, it was hard to get a good picture.

Two thumbs up for a great time! :)

Jaxon ~ 2 Months

2011-11-29T21:07:00.000-06:00

Jaxon is 2 months old! :)

We just love his adorable smile!

And how cute is this Under Armour outfit?! Our friends, The Sernetts, brought this for Jaxon when they visited us in September. I just can't believe he is already big enough to wear it!

He loves tummy time!

Jaxon ...

... weighs 14 pounds 9 ounces (90th percentile) and is 24 inches long (90th percentile). He's growing very fast! He had his two month wellness check yesterday and the doctor said he looked great! :)

... wears size 1-2 diapers.

... wears mostly 3-6 month clothes now. Wow! There are still a few 0-3 month outfits that fit him, but I have already packed up the 0-3 month pj's and onesies!

... smiles and coos when we talk to him.

... loves the swing and his carseat and sometimes likes the bouncy seat.

... doesn't really like bath time. He usually screams through most of it.

... is still a great eater! Most evenings he gets one formula bottle ... once 7 PM hits, he wants to eat about every 45 minutes, which is totally exhausting to me, so he usually gets one bottle.

... still wakes up once most nights. Some nights he'll sleep from about 10:30-6:00, but most nights he wakes up around 3:00-4:00 to eat. He usually only eats for a few minutes in the middle of the night.

... is still sleeping in the pack and play next to our bed. It just seems easier for me to get up and feed him with him right next to me.

... is very strong and holds his head up very well...and he loves tummy time!

... still is a bit fussy for us in the evening, but not as fussy as he was for a while. He used to be fussy for about 3 hours, but now it's more like 30 minutes to an hour.

... still takes Prevacid twice a day for reflux. He still spits up, but he doesn't seem to be in pain with the reflux. Hopefully he won't have to be on that medicine as long as the girls were.

... recognizes and responds to our voices. :)

Happy 2 Months, Jaxon!

We were wrong ...

2011-11-28T21:31:00.000-06:00

Jayla started acting up last Wednesday. She was fussy, she wouldn't eat, she was chewing on everything ... we assumed she was teething. She has a lot of teeth that need to come in yet. Jordyn had all of her teeth at 14 months ... Jayla is 19 months and has 11 teeth (3 of those are only part-way in).

Her fussiness, lack of interest in food, major drooling, screaming, and not sleeping started on Wednesday and continued through the weekend. She had a little fever on Friday night and on Saturday night we noticed a little rash on her knee, but we didn't think much of it.

Fast forward to today ... Jaxon had his 2 month wellness check (blog post coming soon), and while we were there I asked the doctor if he had any advice for teething since Jayla was really struggling with it. I told him the symptoms, and he said that none of that should happen that long if she was teething. He mentioned a few things to look for and mentioned hand, foot, and mouth disease. Sure enough, not long after Jaxon's doctor appointment, daycare called saying they found blisters on her hands. I went and got her, called the nurse even though we knew there is nothing we can do since it's viral, and brought her home. We feel awful ... all of these symptoms that we just assumed were teething, were not. We were able to look in her mouth with a flashlight (it took both Justin and myself to do this) and we found some huge sores. We were totally wrong about the teething thing.

Right now she has a few small blisters on her hands and sores in her mouth. The ones on her knees are gone. She has had the symptoms since last Wednesday, so she can go back to daycare tomorrow if we think she is feeling okay. She was finally starting to act like herself tonight, and she ate a little food. She has hardly eaten since last Wednesday. She is constantly wanting to drink and eat things like applesauce and yogurt.

Hand, foot, and mouth is so contagious. We are praying that Jordyn and Jaxon don't get this. Our biggest concern is Jaxon since he's so little.

I was sick all day yesterday with body aches and a fever - and I have one sore in my mouth. Not sure if it's a canker sore and coincidence, or if I have what Jayla has.

I was just thinking about how healthy we have been in our house ... and then we get this.

Poor Jayla has just been miserable. Her screams of pain are so sad. We hope the pain ends soon for her. Thank goodness for tylenol.

Tree Decorating

2011-11-25T23:08:00.000-06:00

We usually put our Christmas tree up the weekend before Thanksgiving, but since we were gone for the weekend we did it on Monday instead. (and I finally uploaded the pictures today) The girls had so much fun and were great help! Jayla helped at first, then played and read books, and then helped again towards the end. Jordyn helped the entire time and was sad when we told her we were done putting ornaments on the tree. (Thank goodness she gets to help Gpa and Gma VB decorate their tree tomorrow!) So far, the girls have been pretty good about leaving the tree alone. Jayla has a bell ornament that she will take off and put back on, but she has done pretty well staying away from the tree. :)

Jordyn was so interested in every detail that went to putting our tree up ... she didn't want to miss out on anything!

Gizmo, on the other hand, could have cared less. Ha! :)

This little cutie was super content just watching everything from his bouncy seat.

And Jayla was busy checking out everything under the tree. :) But she was great help as well!

The girls were super silly while we were decorating ... and they may have been tackling each other. I love to watch them together!

Hugs from a big sister and best friend. :)

Both girls wanted a turn at putting the star on top of the tree ...

Too much excitement wore this little guy out!

Our tree isn't fancy, but almost every ornament on it has a special meaning behind it. I love pulling out the ornaments each year and thinking about where they each came from. The first ornaments that we put on the tree were the girls' first Christmas ornaments. (Speaking of which ... I need to buy Jaxon one. I already bought one, and I'm thinking it fell out of the bag. I paid for it, but it is no where to be found!)

Jayla took a break from decorating long enough to dump out a basket of books!

More decorating ...

Jayla was so proud of herself each time she put an ornament on. She clapped every time.

Our tree may look a little silly in areas ... there are several branches that each have 3+ ornaments on it ... but the girls decorated it, and that makes it special.

The finished product ...

The rest of the house is not decorated yet ... that will hopefully happen on Monday.

The girls are loving everything about the holiday season ... the music, the lights (we went to the Falls on Tuesday night - beautiful!), the tree, the decorations, Elf on the Shelf (more about "Elfie" later), the Christmas shows on TV, seeing Santa at the mall, and getting ready for Jordyn's 1st Christmas program at church. It's so fun to watch their excitement!

Yay Raiders! :)

2011-11-23T09:07:00.000-06:00

A couple of months ago, Justin won tickets to the Vikings/Raiders game, which was last weekend! They were perfect tickets to win since he is a Vikings fan and I am a Raiders fan! (I am finally able to admit that I'm a Raiders fan after many years of hiding it since they were so horrible!)

We left on Saturday morning to take the girls to my parent's house for the weekend. We drove on awful roads since it had sleeted/snowed. The ride was a very slow one. Justin's parents went with us, so they picked us (and Jax) up at my parent's house. We had a slow ride up to the cities. The roads were not good. Thankfully, Jaxon slept for the first 3 1/2 hours, so we didn't stop! We did stop to see some friends along the way - long enough to feed and change Jaxon and meet their precious little boy, Jae Miles, who they recently adopted!

We would have loved to stayed longer with Paul, Angie, and Jae, but we needed to keep going!

Isn't Jae just adorable!!!

Justin's brother and sister-in-law live in the cities, so we stayed at their house. We all went out for dinner on Saturday night. On Sunday, Justin, his dad, his brother, and I headed to the football game. Jaxon stayed with Grandma Shelli and Aunt Kathryn.

It was cold outside, but we walked around the dome for a little while before heading in. (Sidenote: to make Justin happy, I did wear a purple shirt under my Raiders shirt.) :)

He covered up my Raiders shirt!

We only took in our little camera, so I wasn't able to get great pictures.

Three disappointed Vikings fans due to the Raiders winning ...

Our weekend was fun ... all of our children were spoiled by grandparents/aunts and uncles ... and we were of course worn out, but it was worth it!!

Our Week

2011-11-18T13:50:00.000-06:00

I thought having two small children left very little free time ... wow, three basically leaves NO free time! Our week has been another busy one - and Justin and I are completely exhausted!

This week we felt like at all times, we had one child crying. Jordyn and Jayla were throwing fits about random, little things, and Jaxon hasn't been real content this week. When he's awake he wants to be held and is fussy. He's not screaming, but he just isn't content. It has been a bit wearing on me during the day, and on both Justin and myself in the evening. We are missing that "quiet time" in the evening. Jayla goes to sleep at about 7:30, Jordyn is anywhere between 8:00-9:00 right now, and Jaxon is usually fussy from 8:00-11:00. Once he's calm and we go to bed, it all starts over at 6 AM the next day.

This week we woke up twice to find Jayla in our bed ... having no idea how she crawled into our bed. We were both so tired and sleeping so sound, that Jayla managed to walk into our room, crawl into our bed, and put herself in the middle of us! It's a bit funny to wake up and find one of our kids in our bed when neither of us have any recollection of her getting in there. Ha!

Jaxon is growing growing growing! We've moved up a size in diapers, and we're starting to move up in clothes sizes too!

Looks who's starting to smile a little for us! :)

The girls had ENT check ups yesterday. Jayla's tubes look great - she has had hers for 6 months. Jordyn only has one tube - they pulled one of them out a year ago, the other one has been in for two years! If it hasn't fallen out by about April, he will pull it out at that point. It's touching the eardrum, and he doesn't want a permanent hole created - but he doesn't want to pull it right now as we are entering cold season. He's trying to prevent ear infections for her by leaving it in.

We told Jaxon that he didn't need to play "catch up" to his sisters - we would be fine if he avoided getting tubes. :)

Last night we took the kiddos to the mall. It's nice to get out of the house for a little while, and it takes both Justin and myself to get all 3 in one place right now! Both strollers go with us ... Jordyn and Jayla in the double and Jaxon in the single. Jordyn is old enough/big enough to walk, but then Jayla wants to do it too, and she's a wild child - she runs everywhere! It's easier to put them both in the stroller. The girls saw Santa while we were there. They wouldn't sit on his lap, but they gave him high-fives. There weren't any other kids around, which was great - the girls could just go stand by him and talk to him - they weren't rushed - and since they're both kind of scared of him, this gave the girls the chance to warm up. Jordyn kept shouting "Santa is real!"

Jaxon and I met some co-workers for lunch today. I always look forward to our Friday lunches!

Jaxon is just waking up - time to sign off!

PS - Who watched Regis's last show? And was anyone as ridiculous as I was and cried during most of it?! I can still blame it on the hormones, right? :)

Jayla ~ 18 Months, I mean 19 Months Old

2011-11-17T21:46:00.001-06:00

Jayla is now a year and a half old ... or so I thought! Would you like to know how tired I am!? She turned 18 months old last month, and I did her 18 month post then ... she is now 19 months. Lack of sleep and 3 little kids has me feeling a bit off! :)

She would not sit/stand still for pictures. (Gee, that reminds me of our very difficult family picture session with her!) :)

What is new with Jayla?

Jayla ...

... weighs about 29 pounds, wears size 5 diapers, and 24-month & 2T clothes.

... has show a lot of interest in potty training! Yay! She has gone a number of times here at home and at daycare! We have a busy weekend ahead of us, but the following weekend we might try hard to get her trained. Jordyn wasn't fully potty trained until she was a little over 2 years old. We'll see how it goes. :) It would be so nice to be back to just one kid in diapers!

... can talk up a storm ... when she wants to. She can say many words and phrases, but only when she wants. Some of her favorites are ... I love you, I got you, thank you, please, Jaxy (Jaxon), baby, book, blanket, more, juice, milk, snack, and bath.

... knows part of her ABC's and can count to 10. Sometimes we will count if she is doing something that she shouldn't be ... "Jayla, I'm going to count to 3 and you better stop. One ..." and then she finishes with "two - three" ... and by that point we're all laughing and there's no way to give her a little "time out" for doing something naughty!

... loves books! She has about 2-3 books that are definitely her favorite, and I think if I never saw them again, I would be okay with that. :) We're just so happy that she is showing such an interest in books! It took a little while, but now she loves them!

... loves to work on puzzles, build lego towers, play basketball, color, cook in her kitchen, and give her baby a bottle.

... loves her baby brother! She calls him Jaxy. She loves to give him his paci, throw away his diapers, and kiss him. She gets so excited to see him when I pick her up from daycare - she often runs over to touch him or try to kiss him.

... is best friends with Jordyn. Of course they fight - they're sisters - it's going to happen ... but those two love each other so much and play so well together!

... is no longer sleeping in her crib. We decided to have Jordyn and Jayla share a room, and we put Jayla in a toddler bed since she HATED her crib. Overall, she's been doing pretty well in the bed. She's had some bad nights, but we think we made the right decision by taking her out of the crib.

... melts our heart every time she says "I Love You" ... so darn sweet!

6 Weeks Old!

2011-11-11T15:46:00.001-06:00

Time is going so fast! Jaxon is 6 1/2 weeks old now. That hardly seems possible! He is growing so fast - closing in on 14 pounds! I noticed his 0-3 month pj's are starting to get a little snug. He'll be out of them before we know it!

I am so thankful that I am taking a 12 week maternity leave. With Jordyn I was only allowed 6 weeks because I was a new employee in the school district (since we had just moved). Six weeks was way too short. I had Jayla with only 5 weeks left in the school year, so I had the whole summer with her. I am going to back to teaching one week before our holiday break this time. It is actually perfect timing. I will teach for four days and have a work day to get ready for January. Jaxon will not be starting daycare until January. We will be in the middle of RSV season, so we are hoping that with him being a little older, we can avoid RSV - or at least avoid a hospital stay! :)

The girls are doing great at school. Most mornings they run away from me and don't even say good-bye. Sending them to daycare is so much easier when they love it!

Our weekends continue to be busy. We have had visitors every weekend since Jaxon was born! They haven't always stayed overnight, but it has kept us busy. We love it though - the girls always love attention from other people too. :)

Last weekend Kandi and Eric came and stayed with us ... and attempted to take our family pictures. Kandi is an awesome photographer! Unfortunately, Jayla wanted nothing to do with pictures and screamed through almost the entire session. Ugh. Kandi was able to get a few of Jayla - not smiling, but not screaming! :) Ahhh ... such is life with 3 little ones! I was frustrated ... in my mind, I had the perfect family picture ... Justin and one of my friends reminded me that this will just be a reminder that life doesn't always go as planned with little kids and that our pictures will still be great!

Justin and I were able to get away for a little while on Monday night. It was so needed! We went to the UNI volleyball game. They happened to be playing at SDSU, which is about an hour from here. We had a great time.

And ... I am getting out of the house tonight! I am scrapbooking ... which have I ever mentioned I will NEVER be caught up on?! I am excited to see some friends again and have adult conversations without my 3 littles making lots of background noise. :) Justin's parents are coming over to help out with the 3 kids.

Leaving you with this sweet face today ... I just love him so much!

PS - Happy 5th Birthday to Gizmo! :) What a special Birthday for him ... 11-11-11!

Halloween 2011

2011-11-10T10:35:00.000-06:00

I'm finally getting around to uploading our Halloween pictures. :)

Jayla's class didn't have a Halloween party with costumes, so she got to wear her super cute Halloween dress. (I found this on clearance last year in December for $2 ... it was originally a $50 outfit.)

Jordyn's class had a Halloween party that I made treats for ... marshmallows dipped in chocolate and rolled in sprinkles. :)

Here's sweet Jaxon all ready for his first Halloween! :) We actually bought him a pumpkin sleeper/costume, but he was so content in this outfit, that we just left him in this.

Jordyn's preschool class had a costume party ...

Jordyn and her good friend, Mollie ...

Jordyn and Jayla were the cutest ice cream cones ... but Jayla hated her hat, and we had a hard time keeping it on her head. (Have I ever mentioned how strong-willed she is?!?!)

We got it on for her a split second. :)

We took the three kiddos to a trunk-or-treat that was a few blocks from our house. The girls had a great time, and Jaxon just slept all bundled up in his stroller.

The girls were so polite. Jordyn said "trick-or-treat" and "thank you" to everyone.

Jayla said "please" and "thank you" to everyone.

Daddy with his two girls. :)

After the trunk-or-treat, we came back to our house. Justin and Jax stayed home and handed out candy. The girls and I went around to a few houses on our street. They loved taking turns ringing the doorbells. Jordyn has already told us how excited she is for Halloween next year.

This Says It All :)

2011-11-09T13:46:00.000-06:00

Our days of Man-to-Man Defense are over. Justin and I now play a Zone Defense. :)

Carving Pumpkins

2011-11-08T09:30:00.000-06:00

I haven't blogged in over a week, which means I have lots of sharing to do! I'm obviously behind, and I just got around to uploading our Halloween pictures to our computer.

On Sunday (the Sunday before Halloween) we carved pumpkins. Jayla didn't have a ton of interest, but Jordyn could have sat for hours just cleaning out her little pumpkin that she picked out from the pumpkin patch. She loved it!

Justin carved a cat - look how hard he's working. :)

After we cleaned up, I gave the girls quick baths, and we thought we would attempt to take a picture of the girls in their pumpkin pj's and Jax in his pumpkin hat along with the pumpkins. Ha - after 40 pictures, would you believe that we still didn't have a picture with both girls looking and smiling at the same time! Ha!

The girls love their little brother!!

Jayla always wants to give Jaxon his paci.

More Halloween pictures to come. :)

A Few Firsts for the Girls

2011-11-01T13:49:00.000-05:00

We have had a busy few weeks at our house. Well, every week is busy, but it seems as though the last few have been super busy! The girls have also had some new things happening! (This post is a bit random.)

Jayla has hated her crib since she was an infant. We have struggled to get her on a good sleeping schedule for about 10 months now. Each time we finally get to the point of sleeping through the night, it only lasts for a week or so, and then she's back to waking up a ton of times and screaming. We could let her scream for an hour and she still won't go to sleep, unless we are right next to her crib. It has been stressful. So ... we decided that since the crib clearly wasn't working, we were taking her out of the crib.

Last Tuesday, Justin and I completely rearranged our upstairs bedrooms (pictures to come later when everything is completely done ~ this project was way bigger than I thought it would be). The girls are now sharing a room, and Jayla is sleeping in a toddler bed! Eighteen months might be a little early for a toddler bed, but we knew it couldn't really be any worse than her screaming constantly in her crib.

Jordyn loves that she shares a room with Jayla! Jayla has been doing okay in the bed. Out of the 7 nights she's been in there, she has had 4 good nights, 1 okay night, and 2 bad nights. Last night was another good night - hopefully we can continue in the right direction!

Doesn't Jayla look so grown up in these pictures?!

Not only is she sleeping in a big girl bed, she also went potty on the little potty for us!!! She was so proud of herself ~ probably because Mommy, Daddy, and Jordyn were cheering so hard for her! I would love to be back to just one child in diapers. :)

The girls had so much fun trick or treating last night. Those pictures will be coming later. We went to a trunk or treat first, and then we went to a few houses on our street. We had 85 kids come to our house. I know we would have had more, but we were gone for the first little while, and then we shut our light off at 7:30, so that we could get the girls calmed down and ready for bed.

Now that Jordyn is 3, she can go to Children's Church! Justin and I had no idea how this would go. We could not get Jordyn to go to the nursery at church without her screaming and being paged to come get her. So ... we have been talking a lot about Children's Church, and we may have done a little bribing (or a lot of bribing) with opening Birthday presents and getting McDonald's for lunch (she loves Happy Meals!). It worked! She told us she was going to be very brave, and she was! She love Children's Church and told us she was going to go again next week! Yay!

Before going to church on Sunday, we had a plan that we thought would never work ... Jordyn would go to Children's Church, Jayla would go to the nursery, Jaxon would stay asleep in his car seat with us, and then we might actually hear a sermon for the first time in 3 years. Never in a million years did we think it would work! Believe it or not, it did! The girls both did great and Jaxon slept almost the whole church service! Success!!!

And, speaking of Jordyn being 3, she is so excited that she can do Tumblebus at school now! All of her friends are 3 and have been doing it since September. The Tumblebus is a school bus that has been transformed into a "gym" full of gymnastic activities. It travels around to different daycares/preschools. Jordyn will do this one time each week. She was very excited about it before we left for school this morning ~ we can't wait to hear how it was!

And ... I don't want to leave out Jaxon. He is doing pretty well. The medicine seems to be helping with the pain of his reflux, but now he has starting spitting up a lot - much like the girls did. He still has a fussy time for a couple of hours each night. Of course this has to be when the girls go to bed (which they sleep through), but it doesn't give Justin and myself much free time in the evening right now. Hopefully that will come soon! Jaxon is growing quickly and so loved by all of us!

Two Parties, One Day!

2011-11-01T07:18:00.000-05:00

We celebrated Jordyn's birthday with Justin's family on Saturday morning and my family on Saturday night. We were all exhausted by the end of the day!

I made two princess tiara cakes for Jordyn's parties. By Friday afternoon I had made 24 cupcakes for school and 2 princess cakes - I don't have any desire to make cake/frosting again until Jayla's Birthday!

Since we had family over, we thought it would be a good time to get a quick snapshot of our family. Ha! It was a total disaster ... Jayla was overly tired and started screaming. We finally calmed her down, and then Jordyn had to go to the bathroom ... and this was the best we got ...

This picture says it all ... I was ready to give up! (At least Justin and Jordyn look nice in the picture!)

My family came that afternoon, and it went much smoother. The girls had napped, and we were much happier ...

We are also having family pictures taken this weekend - hopefully they wil go smoothly!

More presents ...

Jordyn and Jayla got matching vests (but Jordyn was too busy opening presents to take a picture with hers).

Cake #2

My grandma and Jaxon ...

Jordyn was very spoiled for her Birthday, we ate too much, and we are all partied out! :)

29 & 3

2011-10-31T13:45:00.000-05:00

We celebrated Justin's 29th Birthday and Jordyn's 3rd Birthday this weekend! Justin celebrated "princess style" this year since he and Jordyn share a Birthday!

Jordyn absolutely loves that they have the same Birthday! She kept telling us that she was the Birthday Girl and Daddy was the Birthday Boy!

She loves her Daddy so much!

Two Cuties in Tutus!

2011-10-31T08:07:00.000-05:00

Jordyn loves princesses right now, so I decided to make the girls tutus for Jordyn's birthday. (Thank you Pinterest for showing me how ... who else is totally addicted to Pinterest right now?!)

Showing off her dancing moves ...

These two were so cute dancing together ...

... until it ended like this ...

The girls fell and Jayla bumped her head. Poor thing!

~~~~~~~

Just a few other pictures .... waiting so patiently for Grandpa and Grandma to arrive for the party!

We took over 200 pictures this weekend ... between birthday parties, tutus, Halloween pj's, carving pumpkins ... I have a lot of posting to do! :)

I also have some big news to share about Jayla ~ hopefully I'll get some of my posting done today! :)

Our Little Pumpkin :)

2011-10-29T21:20:00.001-05:00

Jaxon is such a cute and sweet little pumpkin!

Jordyn ~ Preschool Party

2011-10-29T13:56:00.000-05:00

Jordyn's 3rd Birthday is on Sunday! On Friday, Justin and I took cupcakes for her class for an afternoon snack. Jordyn wanted cupcakes with pink frosting and sprinkles, so that's what we made. She was very excited about bringing treats to school!

Jorydn's friends sang Happy Birthday to her ...

She was very shy during this ...

She helped pass out napkins ...

So sweet - praying before eating ...

Jordyn got pretty shy while we were there. I always love watching her interact with her friends, but she seems to get very shy when Mom and Dad around.

We have a busy weekend of celebrating ahead of us! Last night we went to a Fall Festival at church, this morning we celebrated Jordyn and Justin's birthdays with Justin's family, tonight we will celebrate with my family, tomorrow we will celebrate just the five of us ... I'm exhausted already! :)

Jaxon ~ 1 Month

2011-10-29T10:06:00.000-05:00

It does not seem possible that Jaxon turned 1 month old on the 27th! Time is flying by and he is growing way too fast!

Jaxon ...

... weighs between 11.5-12 pounds.

... wears size 1 diapers and 0-3 month clothes.

... sleeps about 3-4 hours at a time during the night.

... loves to eat all. the. time. I can hardly keep up with feeding him. Once 7 PM hits, he wants to eat every hour. We are to the point of giving him some formula at night, because it is exhausting to feed him every single hour for 3-4 hours.

... has about an hour or two at night that is a fussy time for him. Jordyn and Jayla went through that too. Jordyn grew out of it at about 6 weeks, and Jayla grew out of it at about 12 weeks.

... still sleeps in a bassinet in our room. It works out nicely to have him next to our bed since he's still waking up 1-2 times a night to eat.

... rolls from tummy to back. He started this when he was just two weeks old.

... likes his car seat, swing, and stroller. He does not like the bouncy seat that we have for him.

... hates to wear hats. He will scream until we take it off.

... looks as though he will have brown eyes. Jordyn has brown eyes and Jayla has blue eyes.

... has completed our family.

Happy 1-Month, Jaxon!

When Jordyn grows up ...

2011-10-28T14:35:00.000-05:00

... she wants to be a mommy ... or so she tells us all the time! She loves being a big sister - she sat on the floor after school the other day and told me she was going to read to Jayla and Jaxon.

Gizmo even joined in. :)

I just can't get enough of those eyes! :)

Messy!

2011-10-27T14:20:00.000-05:00

Jayla loves yogurt ... but she doesn't always think it's necessary to use a spoon! She went straight to the bathtub after this!