Christmas

We had a great Christmas complete with snow! Our Christmas Eve service got cancelled due to the snow but Jared's family came over for make your own pizzas, games, dessert and an ornament exchange which was fun.
Christmas morning Jaden did NOT want to wake up. As you will see in the pictures he was really out of it at first. I was actually starting to worry about him but eventually I carried him over to the stockings where he could see stuff peeking out and as soon as he started pulling things out he perked up and got excited. The boys were on their best behaviour all day for which I was very thankful. We opened our family gifts and even opened a few of Geep and Grans over the webcam for them to see. After a relaxing morning we went over to Jared's parents and snacked and opened gifts where we were spoiled rotten! The boys napped, we ate dinner, and then the boys opened their gifts which was fun. Throughout the day they were both more interested in playing with the new toys than tearing off the paper for a new gift. Each piece of paper no matter how small that they tore off they wanted to immediately throw in the trash which made for long gift openings! By the end of the day Jackson was very into putting the bows in the bow box and saying "oh pesint" (other present) so he could pick one up and carry it to whoever it belonged to (after removing the bow himself of course!)
The boys received some great gifts. I am especially glad about that because most of the things they have they have had for about a year and have been outgrowing some of them. I think they were getting bored. They didn't complain about it but it was just harder to entertain them :)
Some funny moments of the day...
* Jared's parents gave them shirts with guitars on them. They matched but were in 2 different packages. Jackson opened it first and was SO excited. Jaden saw it and started trying to rip his shirt off so he could wear the guitar shirt. We found the other one as quickly as possible and put them on both boys who were very proud to be wearing them.
* There was a gift bag that had santa claus on it that looked kind of real. The boys recognize "au cause" and are just fine with him. Every time Jackson passed the tree he would wine and look frightened. We finally figured out he was terrified of that particular Santa bag. If I picked it up he asked if it was ok.
* Jared's parents gave them a mr. potato head. They were both completely terrified. After a couple minutes Jaden warmed up to it and now loves it. Jackson is still afraid. If he sees it in his toy box he looks frightened and runs and grabs on to me. At this point both boys like to take the pieces and try to attatch them to their own bodies in the appropriate location.
* At dinner someone left the table to blow their nose. Jackson heard them and kept asking "ok? ok?" with a very concerned look. When I would say they were ok he would say "zissue" (tissue)
The boys weren't terribly fond of the snow either. But they liked to look at it and talk about it. Now that the snow has melted they are constantly telling me how the snowman has melted into water.
Here are some pictures of the past few days....





Here are some pictures!

White Christmas

I haven't taken too many pictures lately but there are a few...still on my camera so I'll probably post them along with the Christmas ones.
Over the past 2 weeks (mostly this week) we've had random days of snow. The ground has been well covered for several days and they're expecting several inches again tonight so we will get to enjoy a white christmas! I just hope we can get around to the Christmas Eve service and Jared's parents Christmas day!
We will be having Jared's family over on Christmas Eve after the service which I'm looking forward to and then spending some time at home on Christmas before heading to Jared's parents for the remainder of the day.
The boys love to look at the snow. They call it "no!" so I have to be careful not to get confused :) We took them out in it one day to build a snowman but it didn't turn out to be snowman snow and after a couple minutes they started screaming unless we were holding them.
They are currently obsessed with snowmen (ohmaine)and Christmas lights (Jaden: Leyets!, Jackson: Ooooo LOTS!). They love our tree and the ornaments but have been super good about not touching it (most of the time). We have a star on the top of course (for the boys) and they ask me every morning to turn the lights on.
Last night we watched Rudolph with them and Jaden especially sat there and watched almost the whole thing which was very amazing to me. We watched Frosty on a different night and they liked that too.
A couple nights ago we made snickerdoodles as a family. Jared was standing behind the boys who were sitting on our island and I was putting in the ingredients. Sometimes the boys helped but mostly they just wanted to peek into the mixing bowl after each ingredient was added. We watched Frosty while the dough chilled and then Jared rolled the dough into balls and put them on the plate of sugar for the boys to finish. They would wipe it around in the sugar then put them on the pan. I had to fix them a little but they did pretty good. I love raw cookie dough of almost any kind. So when the boys weren't looking I took a tiny pinch, dipped it in the sugar and popped it into my mouth. Jackson looked up right as it entered my mouth and immediately put the entire dough ball he was holding into his mouth. Jaden saw that and quickly did the same. Jaden seemed to like it (though he didn't try it again) and Jackson thought it was gross so took it out of his mouth and put it on the pan. Gross. :) It was a fun experience and we laughed alot.
We haven't been getting out much with the snow. Actually most of the roads aren't awful and they even plow a number of them near our house - it's just getting out of our neighborhood. The snow is pretty deep and neither of our cars are very high off the ground. Jared is a good snow driver but I completely avoid it.
I can't wait until Christmas, it should be fun - as well as funny to see how the boys react.
We hope all of you have a wonderfull Christmas!

Previous Post

So, I want people to be able to easily email us if they don't want to leave a comment BUT I don't want my email posted because I will get SPAM!!!!
So I created the previous post so that I could link to it on the right. Eventually you won't see it anymore but it will still be useful.

Email Us

Christmas Party

Jared's office had their Christmas party this weekend - here are a couple pictures.

 

 

Happy Holidays!

I have allot to catch up on! December has been so busy but fun! They're calling for snow this weekend and I have yet to see a flake which is great because we have WAY too much to do tomorrow!
We took the boys to something near our house called the Santa train. It was super overpriced and the train itself was not the size adults ride (though we did anyway) AND some of the light displays kind of had a Halloween spookiness to them - BUT we still had a great time. The boys were kind of overwhelmed but liked it. There was one gigantic star up high in the center and the boys constantly pointed it out. Unfortunately I have no pictures because I literally could not move.
Jared had a Saturday where he worked due to the Mac version being released so we met him for lunch and there was a new train "museum" across from his office so we took the boys. They LOVED it OF COURSE. I didn't have my camera though :(
Last night we went to something called "Walk through Bethlehem" that was all outdoors. It was ok, but the boys didn't know what to think. I think they had a good time but they were so confused about why everyone was dressed up. There were some sheep to see but they were under a tarp in the dark night and their breath was visible and it was terrifying to Jade - I think it was just the setup though because across the way they had large goats but they were all lit up and Jaden loved being right next to them.
I can't believe Christmas is almost here and I can't believe the boys are almost TWO!
Here are two videos - one of Jaden helping dad check the lights and one of Jackson playing with his laughing gingerbread man (that he plays constantly all day)

Christmas Decorating

The boys were sick this weekend and it was raining so we decided to just go the Haggen (groceries) to get a Christmas tree. The boys love it there because of the car carts and cookies and we thought it would be better than taking them to cut one this year.
They LOVE helping to decorate! They get so excited about the tree all the time and can't stop talking about the star on top. Someone gave theme each a football ornament and Jaden points them out 1000 times a day. They're pretty good about not touching it too often.
Funny things...
Jaden helped Jared check the lights and was very careful but still kept stepping on the strands.
We cut off the top of the tree, one of the boys found it on the ground and put it "back" in the tree as if it was a branch.
Jaden will point and say 00000000000 piddy!
Jackson will say KINKLE! (as in the star is twinkling)
There is a laughing reindeer (or something) that shakes and laughs when you squeeze it's hand. They were terrified at first that it was shaking and would scream and run away. Now Jackson MUST find it first thing in the morning, carry it around, give it hugs, make everyone else give it hugs, and squeeze it's hand CONSTANTLY (seriously, one right after the other)
All in all they are way more excited about it all then I thought they would be.
Here are some pictures....

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we went to Jared's parents and had a nice time. The boys weren't really into the dinner this year but I think they were having too much fun playing! Here are some pictures....

Merry Christmas

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Catch Up

So the boys are huge. I can't even believe how big they are. Their feet are growing way too fast and it's hard to keep them in shoes.
They are talking a mile a minute and I often have no idea what we're talking about. And they repeat EVERYTHING (and I do mean everything) we say...!
The boys have decided to call me Money. I don't know why. Maybe it's easier to say....?
The boys still don't know they can climb out of their cribs and I'm SOOOOOO glad! Since they share a room I think they entertain each other in there so they don't think about it. It also makes it easier since I don't have to rush to get them up - they play.
I've had my first big struggle in discipline - Jaden was demonstrating a bad attitude regularly. It started out innocently and I didn't really realize it was going on until I saw it happening to other people....fortunately we got it taken care of in about today. It was actually very sweet to see how Jaden wants to do what's right. We still have an occasional setback but he's doing very well so I'm happy about that.
So the boys have super cute coats I think and I was trying to get a great picture but these were the best I could get....(It's Jaden by the way)

The boys love watching the trash truck...

Again they were wearing such cute outfits I wanted to take a picture. While some of these are cute, I couldn't really get a posed picture....here's what I got...

I've got some video but that will have to wait....

Test

I'm testing a different way to put video here. This is just a random video.

Grandparent's Visit

My parents (Rachel) came to visit for a week and we had lots of fun. Unfortunately, the boys were sick for a bunch of it but they still had a great time. Here are a bunch of pictures and video....

Jackson playing music at the playground...

Jackson being silly in the swing....

In the tire swing (Jackson loved it)

Jaden and a big leaf...

Geep pushing Jackson...

Jaden in Geep's Shoes

Lots of Updates

So I drank a coffee tonight and that was dumb. It is now 2 in the morning and I'm wide awake. grrrrrrrr. I haven't gotten much sleep lately and i need to be somewhere tomorrow so this is lame. Oh well, I'll update here, though it may seem disjointed and then try again to go to sleep. This will be kind of random.
Clothes are annoying me. First of all I am not a size of pants. All pants are either too big or too small. I am an imaginary size and it's driving me crazy. Secondly, when the weather cooled off I realized I had one sweater and two long sleeve tshirts - but they were maternity shirts. I'm not sure how that happened but off to the store I went. I was able to get a bunch of clothes for a reasonable price so that made me happy. what makes me mad is that since having the boys i'm ALWAYS staining or tearing my shirts. I finally started using zout and that does a pretty good job of getting out stains but it doesn't save them all. Now, I do not buy expensive clothes so this is not the end of the world but they aren't free so it's making me mad!
We vote by mail in Washington and I think it's wierd that we're having to put on our own postage. It's certainly worth the price of a stamp to have the right to vote, I just think it's wierd because I'm pretty sure I remember in the past not having to put a stamp on it.
If you're in the area and want to see Jared's band play they will be leading worship at Word of Life Church in Lynden this Sunday (2nd) at 10am. I was going to give you the website for Jared's band but I can't find it. I'm thinking maybe it's not up yet.
This year instead of carving pumpkins we let the boys paint their own pumpkin. I got this great idea from Jenni (I know you love the links ;)) so check it out! Anyway, had I thought more carefully I would have chosen more colorful paint. I picked black and white since i thought we might do eyes and a mouth. Nope. Now we have gray pumpkins. The boys did these all on their own. The one where you can barely see eyes and a mouth we helped Jackson with (that part). They both seemed to have fun but at first Jackson seemed to wonder why we were messing up this perfectly good pumpkin. As a result he didn't do quite as much painting. Keep in mind, they're a year and a half people! The funniest part is that I left the pumpkins on the table for a few days after painting and one morning Jaden pulled out a kitchen chair, climbed in and pulled his pumpkin toward the edge. He grabbed a dry paint brush I had left on the table and began to "paint" his pumpkin. This actually occupied him for about 10 minutes which, for Jaden, is quite a while! Here are some pictures and a video....

As you can see, Jaden decided to paint daddy's face. Here are a few videos of the boys painting. In the last video Jaden decided to eat the paint. yuck.



We got a new toy bench and the boys like to stand in it.

And jump in it...

I accidentally caught Jaden on film climbing in his chair for the first time. I know, I know, most kids are doing this younger than this age. My boys aren't really climbers. They can climb and they like it when they do it, but they never think "hmmmm... I wonder if I can climb that" and I typically don't suggest it.


Ok, it's almost 3am. This is ridiculous. I hope I fall right to sleep!

Random

In the middle of a bunch of busy weeks we have a slow week. But Jared is sick. This is lame except that at least he now has time to take a break (?)
On Tuesday I met some friends to take the boys swimming. However, I was at a traffic light and my car completely died. Some guy had to push me to a parking lot. The boys didn't care, so that was nice. Jared met me there and realized the car had "simply" overheated. So now it's getting repaired. Add that to the incredibly LONG list of car repairs this month. Anyway, after that ordeal I was terribly late to the pool but I went anyway and we ended up staying an hour! The pool was designed so that you entered on a slope, not a step, so the boys could choose how deep they wanted to go at any given moment. The second we stepped in the building jaden started screaming (we'd never been there before) and both boys were screaming as I paid. Fortunately I could skip the whole locker room thing because I had us all in our swimsuits with our clothes on top. The boys screamed as I got us down to our suits. They screamed as I took them to the water. I sat in the water and held on to both of them and they screamed for several minutes. Then they calmed down but hung on for dear life (keep in mind that at this point the water is maybe ankle deep) After a few minutes Shannon threw a ball to Jaden and he was willing to bend over and pick it up. Then he thought it was fun and started taking steps on his own to get the ball. The rest of the time he went in up to his waist and splashed and threw the ball and played with boats. He did go head under once and when Shannon pulled him up he looked TERRIFIED but I acted like all was well so he didn't end up crying but it definately freaked him out. Jackson had to hold on to me the whole time. We were in waist deep water (for them) and he'd sometimes think he wanted to go but it's different walking through water so he'd get wobbly then scared and come back to me. He had fun though. He splashed and sat in the water and threw the ball with Jaden. This is serious progress people! Now if I could only get them to like the bath.....they still think they're going to die.
Here is a video taken of the boys practicing their jumping....

Here are the boys looking at a book with dad and making animal noises...

And here's a picture of the family singing me happy birthday. As you can see Jackson is anxiously awating the cake on his tray and Jaden is crying. They know what candles are but I think Jaden was concerned because it looked like the cake was on fire :)

The Big 3-0

Well, I'm officially old ;)
I had a wonderful birthday. Jared took Friday and half of Thursday off and Jared's parents kept the boys overnight on Thursday. We went to the Chrysalis (very nice hotel on the water in Bellingham) and stayed the night in a corner water view room. It was very nice! Jared also bought me a massage in their spa and it was WONDERFUL and relaxing. We hung out in Fairhaven for the day Friday then picked up the boys and went home and had cake. The boys really liked it, but especially Jaden! Then Jared fixed me a yummy steak and shrimp dinner with fresh bread! Yum!
The past couple weeks have been pretty busy and we (thankfully) have about a week here where things are a bit slower before it picks up again!
Here are some birthday pictures!
Hint: I've switched to the picasa slideshow since it's SO much easier for me to do! It will scroll through the pictures automatically but if you'd like to do it yourself hold your curser over the pictures and a stop/pause/play/etc bar will pop up. Click pause and then you can click the forward and backward arrows to view at your own pace.

Drivers License

Well I will soon be turning the big three o. Bummer. I'm sure I'll get over it as soon as it happens.
ANYWAY...this means I have to renew my drivers license. For some reason they wouldn't let me do it online this year so since I all ready had to go in I decided to get an enhanced license so I could skip the passport and easily get into Canada since we're only a few minutes away. You have to make an appointment for this kind of license so I arranged to have Jared's sister watch the boys, got all the paperwork they told me I needed (and double checked online)and went in. The two guys I was working with were super nice so that made it easier. However, when they asked me my social security number they couldn't find it. The reason is because I never reported my name change when I got married (EIGHT years ago!) At first I tried several times to get it done but was on hold so long each time that I gave up. Jared gets on my case every year at tax time to get it done and I never do. I know I need to of course but it's just such a pain. Anyway, they tell me I can't get the enhanced license until I fix that. On top of that they told me the SS office needs my marriage license but told me what I have is not the real thing (it's the one people frame I guess) and I have to send for it. WHAT? Why don't they just automatically send you one copy? So I went ahead and got my regular license since I can't accomplish all this before it expires and just figured I'd skip the enhanced part. But they were really nice and did all the stuff they could so I can just come in for a couple minutes after I get my stuff together. So, now I have to send for my marriage license ($15) then after that comes and my new license comes I have to go to the social security office and take care of that, then wait again and then make an appointment at the dmv and pay another $15 to get an enhanced license. Lame. Oh well, at least Jared will be happy my name is changed with the social security. Oh, and I think my picture might not be awul. We shall see. I might have to get another one when I go in again anyway.

Cool Plugin

Logos Bible Software (Where Jared works) created a cool plugin for blogs/websites/etc and it's free! It alows you to easily show Bible Verses on your site. Before explaining, here's what it looks like in the end....
John 3:16
If you hover over a reference the verse pops up. If you click on it it takes you to that verse on bible.logos.com. When putting it on your site you simply have to enter a code one time (and it tells you how to do that. I did it in about 5 seconds) then whenever you type a reference it automatically makes the verse link. Pretty cool! Anyway, if you want to use it go here...
http://www.logos.com/RefTagger

Pumpkin Patch

We went to the pumpkin patch as a family on Saturday and it was quite interesting. Jaden was so tired when we went but we all had fun. It was difficult managing 2 boys and carrying pumpkins. They boys were also very bored when we had to wait in a line. Jackson loved the hay ride but Jaden was nervous until he realized a tractor was in front of us. They liked to try to pick up the pumpkins especially the tiny ones. One of these days here we'll paint or carve them but until then here are some pictures.

Catch Up

We have had beautiful weather here in Blaine and I'm so thankful! It's definately Fall around here but we have still had sunshine.
The boys are growing too fast and love to communicate. I love it when they say a big long sentence to me that's all gibberish and expect me to understand. They are learning lots of words and like to repeat everything we say. Of course it's not clear English but it's obvious they're copying us. I love it! They are also working on two syllable words. The funniest thing is when we say a phrase and they "repeat" it. It always has the right number of syllables no matter how many there are, but it makes no sense. Sometimes they will say thankyou which is funny because it's not clear but it's two syllables and you know that's what they're saying. Here are some of their favorite or new things to say...
Metk - milk, Bit - blanket, pot - plant, muhhhhhhhnnnnnn - moon, cuck - truck, mamaine - airplane, cahcah - smoke stack (on a train), tix - kix (cereal), bus - brush, botk - book, jax - jackson, dahee - daddy, dadadadaaaaaar - guitar, sips - chips, gis - juice, sege - sausage, gugul - turtle, bur - bird, doah - no, tax - tracks (train), uto (Jackson uh oh), UUUUUHHHHHHOOOOOOOO (Jaden Uh oh)
When Jackson wants to read a book he picks one up and goes to the couch and pats it really hard and looks at you and says eh? eh? It's hillarious. I think he does this because I will pat the chair for him to sit next to me to read :)
They currently love trains, cars, airplanes and all animals. They don't often call an animal by it's name they just make the sound the animal makes. Sometimes those are pretty funny.
They know the sound that several letters make and Jackson recognizes O and E. Jaden thinks all letters are Os. I think if I work with them on their letters they'll pick them up pretty quickly.
They are getting good at feeding themselves with forks.
They are both completely obsessed with the moon. I have no idea why. When this began the moon would show up outside our front window. Now they think that is always where it is day or night. They beg to see it when it can't be seen. When they see it they are so excited they can't contain themselves. The other night we saw it driving home and when we got home we took them to look at it from the very front of our yard. However, you couldn't see it from any windows inside. When we got inside Jackson was running everywhere to all the windows flailing his arms, pointing and saying da mun? da mun? da mun? He was very disappointed that it could not be seen.
We took them to chucky cheese (sp?) this weekend and that was interesting :) They had fun though.
They can climb down the stairs though I don't completely trust them on their own yet.
They love shoes and jaden puts my shoes and Jared's shoes on and walks around the house.
One of their favorite things to do is watch a worship video (usually Hillsong) before bed. They dance and clap and raise their hands and Jackson is learning to clap on beat.
Jaden is going through a mommy phase and just recently started getting upset about going in the nursery (as Jackson always has) but they're both fine less then a minute after getting in.
They are good at picking up their toys and getting their chairs out for lunch.
They love to look at and read books. Their favorite book is goodnight moon for obvious reasons and second is their three train books. Jackson likes to look at a page and point to all the same objects (like all the wheels, all the flowers, all the steering wheels, all the clocks, etc) on a page and then find that object in the house or out the window and point to it.
They are learning to kick a soccer ball and Jaden is pretty good at it.
They love the pets and Bob is getting annoyed but can't hang out outside because it's starting to rain. Both boys have been scratched by Joey several times. It doesn't really upset them but they don't understand.
Jackson must clear his tray somehow when he doesn't want more food, if we do anything to Jaden we must do it to him and if we do something to one hand we must do it to the other. Jaden doesn't really care except when it comes to "fairness". When I get the boys up from the night or a nap Jackson wants to point to all the animals and letters in his room for me to tell him what they are.
When I do the laundry for some reason they know which clothes belong to each person of the family and like to tell me so.
They love babies.
There's probably more to update on but I can't think of it all. Here are a few pictures :)

Pictures

Not alot of time here but here are some pictures....
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Prayer Request

This is from some of our friends. Please read the following and pray for their son...


Friends,

My four-year-old son, Max Middlebrook is in the hospital fighting hard. It started out as E Coli, and has progressed into HUS, a syndrome that attacks the organs.

My request is this - I've set up a blog, and would appreciate anyone that's willing to go to the blog and a comment. We are going to get a map and put pins in it so he can see where people are coming from, so if you wouldn't mind, sign your comment with your first name and tell us your location.

Also, please feel free to spread this around to your churches, ministries, co-workers, whomever - the more notes, the more pins, and the more pins, the more smiles!

You can leave a note here...

www.maxmiddlebrook.blogspot.com

Thanks so much!

Sam

 

18 months

I've been a super bad blogger. Sigh.
Where did summer go? Suddenly, one day last week it got cold and rainy. Wierd. Our afternoons have still been warm and nice though but there's still an obvious change in the weather.
The boys had their 18 month check up last week (I think) and here are the stats....
Jackson: 24 lbs, 8oz (30th percentile), height: 34.25 inches (92nd percentile)
Jaden: 25 lbs, 12 oz (50th percentile), height: 34.5 inches (95th percentile).
They are doing well and while my dr isn't really one to say they've "caught up" with babies their age, they are now in all in the "white zone" on paper which means that a baby not premature that fell into that range they would not worry about (which makes sense). So they are doing quite well.
They babble a mile a minute and are testing out new things. Fortunately it hasn't occured to them to climb out of their crib yet - because I think they could. They love going to the playground and whenever we pull up to one they start cheering and clapping. Only problem is that sometimes Jaden throws a fit when we have to leave.
I don't have too many pictures lately and the ones I do are still on the camera. So....they will have to wait!

We've been busy around here this summer! We've had nice weather and it's been great. The boys are climbing everywhere and saying more things. We'll have their 18 month appointment this week and I'll have to update you with the stats. For now, I'll just show you some pictures!
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First time in

Music Time

The boys love playing with dad in the music room! Here are some pictures and video...
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A duet on piano....

Jackson on piano....

Jaden on piano and Jackson on guitar...

Jackson on drums...Jackson likes to play on his own but he mostly likes dad to help him play...

Jaden on drums...

Updated Videos

Here they are....
Jaden Swinging....

Jaden actually enjoying walking through the water....

Jackson throwing rocks...

Jackson Digging....

Jaden enjoying his new shoes....

More to come....

Update

I haven't posted pictures is SOOOOOO long! So here's a bunch! Some of them are from quite a while ago! My dad was in town for a while and we had some friends visiting this weekend and those pictures are included here too. I have some video that I will also try to post soon. We've had a really busy month and I'm not sure August is going to slow down. It's a great summer though!
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We have had quite the week! Jared got a nasty stomach bug from somewhere and the symptoms appeared last Sunday (apprently you have it for several days and are contagious before you even show symptoms). Jackson had symptoms the same day. The boys went to their grandparents and so the next day Jaden and the entire Bryant family came up with it too. Jared's dad and I are the only two that somehow made it out without getting sick. So all last week I've been cleaning up lovely messes, shampooing the car multiple times (we had 2 incidents there last Sunday), going to the store 1000 times, disinfecting the house and doing laundry. Not to mention chasing everyone around with a can of lysol :) Jared was home all week since you're still contagious for a while after your symptoms are over - and it's super contagious. But everyone seems to be better now and we're getting back to normal!
On a more positive note, someone is supposed to be purchasing Jared's motorcycle tomorrow! Praise the Lord! We've been needing this to sell for a LONG time! Please pray that it all goes through (we don't want to count on it until cash is in hand)
The boys are getting into everything. Last night Jackson decided to eat some dog food while I was changing Jaden's diaper. It's "human grade food" (whatever that means!) but that is still gross. I fished a bunch out of his mouth. They love to play outside and get into the kitchen drawers. The other day Jared came out of the bathroom and found Jaden on the sofa using a cell phone to pretend to change the channels. They both like to be rocked at the same time now more than before and Jaden has been grumpy and super clingy since he has a couple teeth coming in in the back. They are both trying to say more words now. Jackson is actually doing this more than Jaden in my opinion which is wierd since Jaden has always been more verbal. Here are some things they like to say ( I will not say who is saying what but Jackson is saying most if not all of these)
Bah...ball
Bop....Bob (our dog)
Cah....car (and bicyle, truck, etc)
cuck...clock
gog...guitar
fas...flowers
mamamamamamamamama.....mom
da....dad
dah....dog
key....kitty
gigo...joey (our cat)
sus...shoes
jus...juice
cucka...cracker
booooowwwwww...rainbow

They like to "talk on the phone", Jackson will give you a high five, they will give you a hug if you ask them (well, they will for me anyway) and Jackson will run over and point to his chair if he is hungry. They also try to get out the back door (impossible at this point) when they want to go outside and love to feed food to Bob. They like to wash their hands (actully they just rub their hands together) and climb the stairs. Jackson especially likes to feed himself with a spoon. He can't get his food onto the spoon but once it's there he likes to do it and sometimes won't eat unless you let him do that.

We've taken them to the park a few times and last week we put them in a swing. They were a little too small for it but not in danger of falling out. They screamed and cried and when we pushed them they would laugh hysterically and then scream and cry over and over again. It was funny but didn't last long because of the screaming and crying. They were terrified but also thought it was great fun!

That might be all the new stuff going on. I haven't taken tons of pictures lately but I do have some which I'll hopefully get up pretty soon!

Pictures this month

The boys are growing so fast! Jaden has realized he can climb on the ottomans. He hasn't realized he can climb on the furniture. This is going to make life interesting for a couple weeks! :) The weather has been pretty nice and it's been fun taking the boys in the yard or the beach.
Here are some pictures of what we've been up to!
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At the beach

Catch Up!

The boys are so cute these days! (of course they've always been cute!)
They LOVE to play with ANY kind of ball. It is also Jackson's absolute favorite word.
Jackson eats cheese so fast I can't even remember if I actually gave him any.
Jaden loves peanut butter.
Jaden is visibly taller than Jackson now and has slightly bigger feet.
They like to quack like ducks and bark like dogs.
I think they're sleeping a little more these days. However, Jackson often doesn't seem to need an afternoon nap. I don't know how he does it because he only takes a 1.5 hour nap in the morning.
Jared's office went to a Bellingham Bells (local Baseball team) game which is an annual event. We went last year and the boys were so small. This year they loved it! We made it to the top of the 8th. They ate hamburgers and clapped and pointed and cheered (kind of) and had a great time.
Here are some recent pictures....
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The boys are starting to insist of feeding themselves with a spoon and here's Jaden...

Grandpa and Grandma B gave them this great little car for their birthday and they're doing much better with it now that they're walking...

And another...

And here's Jaden playing on the patio (NOT the grass - still scared!)

New Things

The boys seem so grown up now!
* Jackson especially is revealing much more how much he understands by his responses to us which is fun to see (though I'm sure he's understood these things for a while.
* Both boys have been terrified of nature. they won't touch it. Just last weekend we got Jackson to sit in the grass. He's still a little nervous. Jaden thinks he might die if he touches a blade of grass. Today we finally got him to sit on a blanket in the yard (he wouldn't do this before either)
* Sometimes when Jaden is walking around Jackson thinks it's funny to push him over. Jaden thinks this is funny too and they both laugh hysterically about it.
* Jaden copies any dog barking he hears. Even if it's on TV or off in the distance.
* Jackson thinks the word bow (I don't' know why or even why it was said in the first place) is the funniest word in the world. He'll laugh and then try to make his mouth into an o but then laugh some more because he can't get his mouth to do it while he's laughing.
* Jaden is always very proud of his sandals
* Jackson would live on fish crackers if I let him
* They are becoming finicky eaters. Lame.
* They are both getting several more teeth. Jackson has at least 11, maybe more. Jaden has at least 8 with at least one or two coming in right now.
* After we say our bedtime prayers Jaden is often heard saying "yen" after we say amen. So cute!
* Jaden does some weird dance (?) moves with his arms and head. I don't really know why but it's pretty funny.
* Sometimes the boys think it's their job to hand feed me my lunch.
* I think Jaden would drink until he floated away if possible.

Jackson is getting better with his walking over the past day or two. I don't' think he really cares about it though so he just takes off without thinking and then falls over shortly after. Jaden likes to practice his walking. He'll walk back and forth across the room studying his every step. here's a picture of him practicing and then some recent pictures.



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More Steps!

Jackson was a little quicker than I anticipated! He's been walking on his knees lately which is really funny. yesterday he took 5 steps! he wasn't as stable as Jaden and doesn't seem as interested in doing it as Jaden did so it might take a little while for him to choose to walk often - we'll see. I couldn't get a good video but this one is still cute. it's a little longer than most videos and the beginning is sideways...but still fun!

Fixed

I fixed the video in yesterday's post so it isn't so wide.

Jaden's First Steps

Ok, these aren't his VERY first steps. But it's within 5 minutes of them! He's been doing the one-step thing for about a week. This afternoon he took 6 steps. then a minute later he took 4. Then I tried to get him to do it for this short video. Excuse my breathlessness. I ran and got the camera and then had to keep scooting back while recording :)

(By the way, I found a great free software program you can download that will rotate your video if you forget and use you digital camera sideways...it's called Video Flip and Rotate)

Mother's Day

This is a late post! I had a great Mother's Day weekend. Jared was home some on Friday so I had a little break :) He got me a crepe maker and made me crepes Saturday and Sunday morning. YUMMMM!!!! (Special thanks to Dave Kaplin for searching high and low for a coupon! :)) Saturday we had strawberry crepes and on Sunday we added nutella....SOOOOO good. Sunday was relaxing and we went to eat for dinner at Jake's grill - also yummy! I felt very loved! :)

Passing Time

I haven't posted a blog about our trip with pictures. I haven't had time and I don't have alot of time now.....but..... I finally got the pictures uploaded so here they are.....
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The trip was good and I'm glad we made it. It was a little exhausting keeping up with the boys especially since they had a hard time adjusting to the time change, but overall they did well. We were all sick the last several days and I missed out on seeing some people I really wanted to.... but I still got to visit with some people and had a great time!
The boys and I are STILL sick but I think we're reaching the end.
They each grew 2 new teeth while in NC so that made things interesting :)
The trip home was AWFUL! Dad and I (Dad especially) were both sick, we had a 4 hour layover, and the boys (Jackson especially) wouldn't sleep and had TONS of energy. We felt like we weren't going to survive, but we did of course :)
Glad to be home and getting back into the routine!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JARED!

Today is Jared's Birthday!  Alot has happened in this past year and I'm am proud to call him my husband.  As I'm sure the boys are proud to call him their dad! :)

Happy Birthday!  We love you!

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Snow on our way to take dad to the airport

Almost ready to cease our last plane. We'll be on the plane 5 hours them two hours to drive home but that will be better. I an so exhausted

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At our Layover. Dad is quite sick. Boys did ok but were squirmy and didn't sleep until we landed. Seating arrangements better and hopefully so on the long flight.

Homeward bound

We're headed home wednesday morning. The boys have been busy growing teeth so they are fussy. Please pray throughout the d

Two boys kicking legs at boston market

Jaden and peek-a-boo

Jackson and peek-a-boo

At goodberrys

Family lunch

Lunch

Music lesson

Sugar rush

This video is very poor quality but demonstrates a very small amount of the reaction to alot of fruit punch which they have never had

Sweet picture

Eating mexican

Our Trip So Far

I'm actually making a blog post now not from my cell phone.  Here's what's been going on on our trip.

Tuesday: Drive to Renton in two cars with Jared.  Day goes well.  Boys don't want to sleep at our friend's house

Wednesday:  All goes well until we get on the plane.  The boys are a bundle of energy, trying to climb everywhere and are hard to entertain.  Jackson won't sleep but is very tired and gets very fussy.  Everyone we sat next to was very nice and patient.  On the first flight the lady next to my dad was giving herself a manicure and almost painted her nails.  What's that about?  All in all it was a very hard day for me but we lived and the boys were thrilled to be able to crawl at their grandparent's house.

Thursday and Friday: Stayed home mostly.  The boys are having a very hard time adjusting to the time change.  Challenging but definately doable.  They're very happy when they're up though.  I was able to visit the Mehaffie's on Friday night.

Saturday: Drove down to Charlotte stopping on my way to visit with the Harrels.  Ended up at Ben and Emily's.  The boys were done travelling but did well until the end. 

Sunday: Went to church where Jackson slept in the nursery and Jaden had fun then went to Maxlife to watch Uncle Ben.  They boys lasted a while then we went to lunch which the boys loved (they ate grilled cheese and milkshakes!)

The boys are definately having some fussy times since their schedule is messed up but they are doing really well.  They've slept 3 different places in 2 different beds and been to 2 additional people's house plus a new church all in less than a week and are really doing very well.  Jackson LOVES his Uncle Ben and always wants to be held by him (except when he's upset then he usually wants mom)

I guess that's all for now!

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Jaden at max life

With ben and emily

With chris and melody

Going to charlotte

In our unc outfits for the big game

At luke.s

On a walk

Jackson and his new crawl

Tired boy

This is jackson for nearly two hours. I tried everything. Poor little guy has some serious let lag. He finally just fell asleep

Lunch time

Fun playing

We made it

The boys are allready having a blast

On the plane

Layover in dallas

At the airport

Good morning dad

Eating breakfast

Dinner with grandpa

If you haven't noticed i'm attempting to blog some of this trip via cell phone. Many pictures will be taken with my cell so won't come out that great. Here we are at jimmy macs my favorite restaurant.

Bye dad we love you

Dad feeding the boys before saying goodbye

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At starbucks with grandpa in renton

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At ikea getting a pillow for dad