Toothless wonder...

Well, on Friday Jacob finally let me pull it out. His tooth that is!! It wasn't even connected and he balked at the last second and pulled away from me. I had a hold of the tooth though, so he really pulled it out himself! He didn't even realize that it was gone because he said "OK mom, I'm really ready this time." When I showed him the tooth that was already in my hand, his eyes got big and wide and he said, totally surprised, "that didn't hurt at all!!" The tooth fairy, with a big reminder from her husband, slipped him a dollar that night. Today he spent his dollar on Bubulicious Gum. I think it's a conspiracy on his part. Buy sugary gum so more teeth will fall out, so that tooth fairy will bring more money. It might just work as his other bottom front tooth is loose too. Hmmmm... with my luck it'll come out on Christmas Eve and I will be without a dollar! I better stash one away so that can't happen!

Last week we woke to a thick, thick, fog. You couldn't see anything past the grass in our front yard! It still hadn't burned off completely when at 11am I went to pick Jaden up from school. I got him loaded and buckled into the car (no small feat mind you!), when he starts yelling excitedly something about the moon. I couldn't understand him at all at first, mostly because he was so excited that he was squawking at a pitch high enough to shatter glass! He finally calmed down enough to shout it loudly, but within human ear range instead of hummingbird range, "It's a moonhole!" It was the sun. The fog and low clouds were so thick that you could look at the sun direct and it just looked like there was a full moon out visible in the day time. I'm sure he actually meant "whole moon/ Full moon" as he tells us "half moon" or "quarter moon" as appropriate, but that didn't stop Daddy from posting "moonhole" as the "Word Of The Day" at work. As in "Quit being a moonhole!"

Gladi-bone-spidey-soldier-jedi man!

Gladi-bone-spidey-soldier-jedi man is Jaden's new name. Anybody want to guess why? Last night, Kaylee took Jacob and Jaden upstairs to play to get them out of my hair while I cooked dinner for the crew. About 15 minutes later, I hear yelling and screaming coming from Jacob and Kaylee and fierce "growling" coming from Jaden. What in the world is going on up there? I head up to see what the ruckus is all about. I am hoping for no blood at this point. I walk in to Jaden and Jacob's room and see only Jaden standing there. He is wearing dress up clothes; army camo pants, a gladiator breastplate, a skeleton glove, a Spiderman mask, and he is brandishing up in the air a Star Wars light saber. I look at him and say "nice dress ups , bud" and immediately I hear, "mom help us!" coming from the closet. Jacob and Kaylee are being held at saber point in the closet. Jaden chased them there with his "deadly" hard plastic light saber and was holding them as prisoners with a few well placed smacks with the Jedi weapon of choice when they tried to leave. Yes. A three year old trapped a 5 and 10 year old in the closet and was a talented enough guard to keep both of them pinned. Do I really want to know what he is going to be like at 9 or 10?

Where has the time gone?

So much for my goal of writing at least every 2 weeks! It's been a month since the last post and, oh boy, what a month!! Literally. I do mean, oh boy. As in "oh boy, yes it's a boy!" It seems statistics are working against adding a girl to the Hutcherson bunch! He is beautiful though, gotta love the 3-D ultrasounds that they can do these days!! Everything looks good with him. Nice strong heart and measuring just fine for our estimated, "best guess" due date! I am feeling a bit better, for which I am truly grateful! I was not looking forward to 7-9 months of morning sickness that I have had in the past. I have stopped the weight slide that seems to plague me. I know, how fair is that? The one time in my life that I can lose weight easily and quickly and it's not good for me or the baby! I am doing ok health wise. There is a slight problem in that area, but its TMI, so I won't go there. Don't want that floating around in cyberspace! If you just HAVE to know or it'll send you to the loony bin, you can call me and I will fill you in. Not a big deal, just a situation that has potential for bad things. The only good thing about it is that I am limited to 30 pounds of lifting, so... guess what Jaden? You are 30.2 pounds! Time for you to WALK! I am 22 weeks today, only 18 more to go! And before you ask, we have NO idea on names for him yet! Any ideas?
Other things of very great importance and impact on our family have happened this month too. As of November 23rd, Bryan is the command of W company in the 266th Battalion of the 23rd Quartermaster Brigade... or something like that! All I know for sure is that it means very long, tiring hours for poor Bryan. 18 hour work days, 6 days a week, plus work on Sunday no matter how hard he tries to avoid it! He is going to be a great commander though and I am hoping that things will settle down really soon and bring things back to a sustainable work load for him.

Progress? Ummmm... not so much!

Jaden's latest and greatest. If I am in the kitchen loading the dishwasher or in the family room picking things up (or in the bathroom!!), Jaden seems to know it. He migrates to the "unguarded" portions of the house. We have to keep the kitchen locked now, all the time. He can unlock both the fridge and the deep freeze (YIKES!), and of course, as you all know after the last post, there isn't a "safe" spot when it comes to my dare devil. It used to be that if I could hear suspicious activity in another room and I called his name and ask him to "come here, please", he would ignore me. Pretend-that-I-can't-hear-her-and-then-she-can't-hear-me sort of thing. A few days ago that changed. Now when you call, "Jaden what are you doing in the kitchen/bathroom/bedroom/etc? Come here, please", you get a clear as day, "Just minute!! Busy!!" right back at you!!! Is it really progress that he no longer ignores, completely, my summons??

Deep Breathing...

I am convinced that all that separated my two youngest children from meeting "psycho-mommy" today was deep breathing. OK this afternoon, Jaden was first. I was in the kitchen loading lunch dishes into the dishwasher and Jaden was upstairs playing with his trucks and blocks (those came down from an "attic vacation" today so he has been enthralled! So nice!). Anyway, I walked out of the kitchen to change the laundry out (the laundry room is all of 3 feet from the kitchen for those who haven't seen my house before) and I carried the clean basket into the living room and set it on the couch. I turn back around and there he is. He HAD to have been watching me and waiting for me to leave the kitchen. He had pushed a chair over to the counter, climbed up from the chair to the counter, to the microwave to the TOP of the fridge, and reached across and got the scissors down. He then got the unopened bag of chocolate chips out of the freezer, cut them open, and was "hiding" under the kitchen table eating as fast as he could. Deep breathing.... This evening was round two. Jake was in the shower upstairs, Kaylee was supposed to be in the shower downstairs (that's a whole other deep breathing story right there!!), and again Jaden was playing in his room. I finished cleaning up dinner dishes and went to fold that basket of laundry and yes, it WAS still sitting on my couch! I only folded like 4 things when I realized that I could hear Jake talking, but it sounded like the shower was still running. Deep breath. I go up stairs expecting that he got out of the shower, but didn't turn it off. Deep breath. It turned out it was the toilet, the chain had gotten twisted up a little and the flap wasn't closing. No biggie. I figured that since I was already upstairs, I would get the boys teeth brushed, PJ's on, etc. and that we would have time for a few extra stories tonight. I go into their bedroom and Jake blurts out, "Jaden has chocolate and he is hiding over there!!" Deep breath. I look and he is sandwiched between the dresser and the edge of the bed, a bag of chocolate chips in one hand, a little cup from the play kitchen full of chips in the other, and his cheeks looking more like a squirrels then a little boys! Deep breath. I took away the chips and Jake goes, "and he had these chocolates over here too!" and produces a little play frying pan full of chips... from the other side of the room. Hmmm.. I think something STINKS! Sure enough I was right. I asked Jake if he had eaten any and he said no. I could SMELL the chocolate!! I mean come on! I am a mom, a pregnant woman, and a chocoholic to boot, OF COURSE, I can smell it!! Deep breath. So I tell him to open his mouth, I check his teeth, and they are covered with chocolate too! Deep breath. I told him, "Jake, don't lie to me! I know you had chocolate!" You know what he says to me? "Huh-uh!! Jaden was dropping them into my mouth!" I just looked at him. Deep breath. "He even made me chew them too!" Deep breath. If they don't cut it out soon I'm gonna hyperventilate!!

Thanks Nessie!!

OK, so my kids are pretty adventurous when it comes to trying new foods and all... IF they don't know what it is they are eating! The standard answer to the nightly question (asked 4 times over) of "what's for dinner?" had been "Food", but every once in a while I would have the wild urge to lie, uh... I mean tease, my kids. Short ribs became "lizard legs", fish became "sea monster", etc. etc. Well, last night was Sea Monster Night. Thanks to using Nessie's name, my kids ate EVERYTHING. I have to say, it's the one time I have been grateful that Bryan had to work late and missed dinner with us because there wouldn't have been enough!!! I made 7 (yes s-e-v-e-n, that's not a typo!) large tilapia fillets. When I say large, I mean large! They were about 5-6 inches long, about 4 inches across!! Kaylee ate 2 whole fillets, Ethan ate 2, Jaden tried a bite of mine and didn't like it so he filled up on cucumbers and rice pilaf, I got 2 bites of mine before giving it up to Ethan, and Jacob was king- he ate 3 whole fillets! I heard "I don't like fish, but I love sea monster!!" eight times. And yes, I was counting!

Who Knew??!

Who knew that they make size 2T BOXERS!! Yep! Don't ask me what for, but I am grateful! I think we got the pooping in our underwear uh... licked! Jaden has been potty trained for number one for a couple of months now, but we were having such a hard time getting him to use the potty for number two. It STILL makes no sense to me. After all, it seems to me that going number 2 is a... more active process let's say. I accidentally discovered that if he went without undies of any kind (after I had had my fill of washing out undies one day, I said, "commando it is buddy!!") that he won't poop in his pants! The only thing I can think of is that the undies are tight/close fitting on the legs and he associates them with wearing a diaper... Anyway, the good news? We are on day three of the boxers and we have used the toilet EVERY SINGLE TIME! YES! Hopefully I am not jinxing the whole thing by writing about it, but I am totally stoked!! Now it would be a total bonus if I could find cheaper boxers then 2 pair for $5!

More for the Money!!

Well, it looks like we are getting more than a tax return on April 15th!!

Do You Think She's Old Enough to Run For Office Yet?

OK, Kaylee came home from school today with her last weeks worth of work. Her teacher sends it all home at once, stapled together with a note that includes the number of D or F papers that need to be signed and returned... Not the case here thank goodness! All her papers were A's but one and it was a 90% (an A is defined as a 94% and up!!). Anyway, in her stack of papers there is a reading test. Those of you who know Kaylee, know that this is her strong suit. I mean, come on! The 10 year old is reading Eragon, a 497 page book by an author that has quite the vocabulary himself! Anyway, the reading assignment for her class was a book on Rosa Parks. The last two questions on the test are short answer questions. Number 19 reads: "Why is Mrs. Parks proud to be an American?" Kaylee's answer? " Mrs. Parks is proud to be an American because slavery has been abolished, child labor laws have been established as the law of the land, women have the right to vote and have taken their places in politics, the arts, sciences, and business."

Whoa.

The last question reads: "What does Mrs. Parks think is the duty of every American?"

Kaylee's answer: "Mrs. Parks thinks the duty of every American is to show the world that we are able to correct our mistakes- including homelessness, poor race relations, and violence- and move forward to a better society."

Her teacher summed up what I was thinking, by saying "Excellent answers. The BEST!"

Her Grandma, upon hearing Kaylee's answers said "Sooooo.... is Kaylee old enough to run for office yet?"

Do you think she deserved the A100 that she got? :)

Ummm...

Jaden just walked up to me and informed me, "I'm poopy... too bad!" and then turned around and walked away. *sigh*

And You're OUT!!

This morning Jaden made me just crack up! He is pretty well potty trained, but if you don't take off his "night-time diaper" right away, then he'll just use it instead of going to all the trouble to use the potty. This morning I didn't get to him fast enough to change him into underwear and so he was poopy. I took the diaper off and cleaned him all up. Now, the thing with Jaden and diapers is that he really and truly believes that they are HIS. When I change him, he HAS to be the one to carry the diaper to throw away. Most of the time that is just great, but stinky ones.... well, they go straight out to the outside trash and he has a hard time getting the back door open. I tried to get him to let me take it out this morning, but he INSISTED. So I told him, "Jaden that one is soooo stinky that it needs to go out to the blue garbage can outside." He looks at me and says "-i*click* own?" (Jadenese translation: "The big one?") "Yes," I said, "the big one out in the back yard." Jaden said, ""o-tay!" and headed out of the room. As he goes around the corner to head downstairs I hear, "tin*click*y i-a-per, oow ouda ear!!" (translation: "Stinky Diaper, you're outta here!!"

Obsession

Alright. Today it's all about Jaden. Jaden L-O-V-E-S anything to do with Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. He is obsessed. He got a little stuffed Donald for his birthday... he had a Toodles cake... he got a mickey mouse look and find book... he carries Donald everywhere... he sleeps with him every night... he FREAKS out if someone else picks Donald up... you get the picture! Mickey and Donald rock his world! OK, so last night we took the kids out for a celebratory Chinese dinner (everyones' favorite) 'cause we survived the first week of school! Yeah! Anyway, the Chinese place we like is in Midlothian, about a 25 minute drive away. We are headed up there and as expected, Jaden fell asleep in the car. We did not want him to fall asleep in the car! He is horrendous when he wakes up! I wanted him to eat before he fell asleep. Since I was driving, Bryan kinda turned in his seat and tried to wake him. He called his name, moved his head side to side, rubbed his chest... nothing, not even an eyelid flicker. So Bryan breaks out the Donald Duck voice (he actually can do a really good imitation of Donald!!). Jaden's eyes fly wide open, he sits straight up and yells at the top of his lungs, "DONALD DUCK!!!" and then his head falls to the side again and his eyes close right back up and by the next breath he was snoring again. Bryan and I were laughing so hard that I am sure we were a driving hazard!

Genius!

OK, so this is how it goes around here. We are all in the kitchen, me fixing dinner, Ethan sitting at the table watching and Jacob is flappin' around, bouncing from person to person, talking everyone's ears OFF, and in general being a pesky 5 year old! Ethan gets tired of it and finally tells him, "I bet you can't find the play donut!" I look at Ethan out of the corner of my eye thinking, "That little sneak! He knows that I put all the play food in "time-out" Jacob will never be able to find the play donut!" Well, sneaky or not, it worked for a while. Jacob bounced on out of the kitchen and we had relative peace... for about 30 seconds. Jacob comes dancing back in (I swear the boy cannot hold still!). He's flitting around for about 5 seconds when he stops cold. He just freezes, mid word, mid dance. and stares. Then he says with copious amounts of utter amazement in his voice, "I'm a GENIUS!" He walks over to the deep freeze, reaches between the wall and the freezer and pulls out the play donut! He brings it over to me, carefully, cupping the plastic toy in his hands like it's the Holy Grail, and repeats himself, "I'm a GENIUS!" Two hours later, Daddy hits the door, and we have a repeat performance, again, "I am a GENIUS!". Glad to know he's figured out so early, what I've known all along!

Aboriginal Sailors!

Ok, this post isn't a happened-only-once-this-morning kinda post, but a collection of the last 6 months of Jaden speak! As most of you know, Jaden is speech delayed. He has just started saying something other then his standard 3 things. The problem is that he has all sorts of issues from leaving off the initial consonant, to leaving off the end of the word, to making up his own idea of what should come in the middle. It turns out that Jadenese usually sounds like an aboriginal sailor. He knows that there is a sound that is supposed to go at the end of words that have a hard g or k sound (such as drink, milk, going, etc). He can't make the appropriate sound so he "clicks". He sounds like the movie "The God's Must be Crazy!" And he's GOOD. His clicks flow right into the words. If Bryan or I try to mimic him there is always a short pause between the rest of the word and the "click". Not so with him!! It sounds so funny! The other part of his speech is really not that funny, or at least it shouldn't be! He swears like a sailor!! Not on purpose, of course, but when you drop out all the consonants from a word, well...


For a mild example, let me tell you about the other day. I took the kids with me to run errands. The were sooooo good so for a special treat when I stopped for gas, I got them each a small Slurpee. Jaden loves Slurpees. He was so excited! We were walking through the gas station store and when he saw the Slurpee machine, he started bounce around yelling "Slurpees! Slurpees!". In Jadenese though, Slurpee has no sl sound. So here he is yelling "Herpes! Herpes!" all through the store. Yeah. Got better too. After we left the gas station, we went to Kmart. I told the kids to leave their Slurpees in the car that we'd only be a few minutes. When we came back out. Jaden is climbing back into his car seat when he catches sight of his half melted Slurpee. He yells out "Herpes Juice!!" *sigh*


For posterity sake, and grandpa's funny bone, I'm gonna include a list of mom's "please don't say that in public!" Jadenese along with words that just need a translation too. All words are spelled phonetically!

Real Word : Jadenese
Popsicle : ah-hole
scoot back : douche ba*click*
Slurpees : herpes
weeble wobbles :ee-abbles (sort of like "eat apples")
firetruck : ire-uc*click*
drink : een*click*
fruit snack: oot- na*click*
going: owe-een*click*
pinch: bi-ch
move: oove
Big: -ig
get off: tit-off

But of course the "mean name" he favors, when he thinks his
siblings are being mean to him comes out crystal clear! "-ig dummy
head!"

Motherhood Job Description...

Ok, so earlier this week Jacob came running in to the kitchen to tell me, "Jaden is naked in the bathroom!" ooookkkk... and I was thinking, "that's bad because why? After all he is potty training." I went upstairs to check on him and I saw him, sans clothing of ANY sort, with a Clorox disinfectant wipe in one hand and the toilet seat in the other. He saw me coming and he quickly threw the non-flushable wipe into the toilet and flushed. AGH! "Jaden, honey what are you doing?!?" He turned around looked at me and said, "Momma's job! Momma's job! Biiiigggg help!" Well, I understood that he thinks it's my job to wipe the bathrooms down everyday and that he was being a big helper and all, but I just had to ask him, "but why are you naked? Where are your clothes?" I should have just left it alone. Will I ever learn? He just stood there and looked at me like I was speaking Chinese. Finally Jake, who had followed me upstairs said, "maybe he finks (thinks) he saw you cleaning the toilet naked, but that must have been a dream cause you don't clean the toilet naked 'cause that would be sooooo silly and you are super -duper silly, but not THAT silly!!" See? Even I have my "silly" standards.

Choo-Choo!!

It's the end of day four of the Potty Train! *Chugga-chugga CHOO-CHOO* Jaden has been really successful at staying dry for the past four days. YIPEE!! He has had three wet pull-ups in that whole time and honestly, they weren't HIS fault. The first one happened while mommy was gone to the gym and daddy was really busy power washing the fence and the deck. It was just too long since we had last asked him. The second was when he fell asleep in the car. Again, not his fault. And the third time he was just too excited. He was going to the kid zone at the gym and told me he didn't have to go because he wanted to BE THERE already! And thankfully, the only one to happen in real underwear instead of a pull-up was the power washing day... and he was outside in the back yard! I am so excited! Now if I could only figure out how to get him to do the "clean" part of "clean and dry"!! Hmmm....

Yesterday was worse than usual. OK, granted Sundays aren't fun to begin with, but yesterday took the top prize! Wrestling with my kids during sacrament meeting is standard, but usually I end up standing in the back with Jaden until he falls asleep and the other three kids know I am watching them from the back and to BEHAVE or they will get it when I come back to sit down again. Yesterday though, instead of falling asleep, Jaden just fought and wiggled more, Ethan wouldn't sit up to save his very life, Kaylee was the only one who remembered to double check that she had a pencil to draw with, and Jake fussed and complained about wanting to draw too. When I stood in the back with Jaden (it was like trying to hold a big bowl full of Jell-o... without the bowl!) the other kids fussed and fought and no matter how dirty and threatening the looks I sent their way, they all ignored me. Sacrament could not end soon enough!! Off to primary we all went. Jaden went to nursery as usual. He is always excited to go, thank goodness for small favors! I had a not so nice time in primary. The thought "Who feed these kids 5 pounds of sugar each?!?" kept running through my mind. So the end of church finally comes and I couldn't be more grateful to still be alive (and my kids and primary class SHOULD have been feeling the same!). I go to pick up Jaden from nursery and to my surprise, Bryan is already there. He says, "we have a problem." OK..... do I really want to know? It turns out that Jaden for some really far out reason, was the nursery bully today. He is usually the really good one! NEVER any problems. He pushed 3 kids down, had time out each time, but it didn't seem to faze him in the slightest, and he bit one of the new little boys in his class!! (And yes, for those who have followed my blog for a while, he went from being the bitten to the bitee. Ironic, huh?!) One of the little girls in his class summed it all up perfectly. She, talking as only a 2 or 3 year old can, says Jaden's name... with a twist. It sounds like "Satan" when she says "Jaden". Can you say apropos?

Father's Day

Well, I have to say, I'm impressed. Kaylee does a lot of things that are well beyond her years as well as being very creative, and I have to admit, I have sort of come to expect that from her, but she surpassed even my expectations. She told me her daddy was a good example for her and so she wrote a poem for him for Father's Day. It goes like this:

You are my sunshine to help me along the way

To Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ who are far away.

Even though I feel them beside me, I want to see them too

And someday I will because of you.

Happy Father's Day Bryan. We have one incredible daughter who loves you very much!

Hopes up only to be piddled on...

Well, Jaden had our hopes up yesterday and this morning. He stayed dry in his big boy pants yesterday evening and then again this morning. He used the potty twice without prompting. Everything was looking GOOD. And then he sat at the table to eat lunch. I don't know what it is about his booster seat, maybe it is too similar to his potty seat, but every time he sits to eat he wets his pants! This morning was no exception. After 3 and a half hours without an accident, he wet enough to soak his undies and leave a little puddle on his booster seat. Bummer!! I put him back into a diaper for church. Seeing as Bryan sits up on the stand during church, I couldn't be running him out to the bathroom every 20 minutes! When we got home, I asked him if he wanted to put big boy pants back on again. A very decisive NO! was the answer. *sigh* someday...

Tomato Wars

Tomato wars. Yes, you heard right. Tomato wars. *sigh* My boys thought it was really fun to have a tomato war with Jaden's cherry tomatoes... IN MY FAMILY ROOM!! I have squished tomato in my carpet, splat marks all over my walls, and banana (yes, banana! Jaden thought he'd join the fun, but the only ammo he had was what was left of his morning snack!) gunk smeared on the floor. The total result? One very yucky room, one very miffed mommy and 4 cleaning slaves in mini bodies! Yes, Kaylee got punished too as she thought it was funny to sit there and watch the whole thing! I will have to steam clean the carpets in both the family room and the living room (tracked in by little feet) today before it really sets in. I am not so happy with my kids right now!

Hi-ho, Hi-ho, it's to the zoo we go!!

Well, Monday we took advantage of the fact that daddy was off from work and took the kids to the zoo. Even though Richmond Zoo is teeny tiny, we still had an awesome time. Jaden in particular. He wore a huge grin and was so excited move from one exhibit to the next to see what other kind of animals were there. The only thing he didn't care for was the giraffes and the petting zoo. Oh he liked to look at both of them, but you can feed the giraffes and pet/feed the animals in the petting zoo and he has the attitude of "it's all good, as long as i don't have to touch!" The other kids keep us entertained with funny comments about things, like Kaylee's "boofalo" (aka buffalo). Ethan though, lent a comic view to the day...more then once! We went to look at the crocodiles and daddy asked him "hey Ethan are these alligators or crocodiles?" Ethan says, "ummm... I don't know... oh! wait! I DO know! They are alligators!" Daddy says, " Really, how can you tell?" Ethan looks at him like he is either totally bonkers or as dumb as a rock and says, "duh, dad, alligators are animals and crocodiles are shoes!" I laughed so hard I thought I was gonna die! A little while later he comes up with another doosie! *caution readers: if you are easily offended, stop reading now!* Ethan was our "adult content" humor of the day too! He says, "hey dad! I know why they call those birds peacocks! It's because they have a cock." He had no idea what he said, but my mouth fell open in surprise, and Bryan was speechless. All in all, it was a fun and amusing day!

A Momma Bird Poopin' in the "Busch"

OK, some exciting things are happenin' 'round here! Jaden went poop in the potty!! Yeah! And to make it even better, he took off his diaper and climbed onto the real toilet, not his little potty (yes!! no cleaning it out!), and went! Without help or even telling me he had to go! I'm so excited!! Do you have any idea what a boon it would be to our budget not to have to buy diapers??? Secondly, we have a nest in the bush by our front door. It's at about even with the bottom of my ribcage in height so we can see in really easily. We are very careful to move slowly out the door and not to let the door slam and startle the momma bird. We have been able to watch the 4 little blue robin eggs hatch and the babies are starting to grow! They are just starting to get feathers and their eyes are still closed. Momma bird has decided that even though she would prefer that we weren't around so much and so close, that we aren't going to hurt her or the babies. She watches us as we come out the door, but doesn't fly away. We are all of 2 feet from her too. Jaden says "Momma Bird?" all the time asking to see the mommy bird and her babies. He is fascinated by how much they grow day to day. And lastly, but not least, I had a GREAT day. Bryan and I hired a babysitter for the day and just he and I went on a date to Busch Gardens and rode ALL the roller coasters! Busch is offering their Hero Salute again this year and so we were able to get free admission to the park (which helped off set the cost of the sitter). It was awesome to spend time with him as he has been either working really late hours or completely absent while in the field. We enjoyed our time together and it was wonderful. Bryan works so hard for our family and I loved seeing him doing something that he really loves to do. He was like a kid on the roller coasters, hands in the air, yelling and having the best time! It was so worth the time spent in line just to see him!

Church In the Bathroom!

I have to say it, the kids were pretty good at church today. We had an awesome sacrament meeting. Our ward struggles and we don't get those super awesome, spirit filled meetings all too often. Don't get me wrong, I love my ward, but... we get a few truly inspired speakers sprinkled throughout the inexperienced speakers and the "oops, I forgot to prepare" speakers. We don't often have a meeting where the spirit is felt strongly by all for the entire meeting. We had 3 youth speakers. Michael and Brendan are 10 and 11, respectively and both did an amazing job speaking about what they can do now to prepare for a mission later. Luke, 16 I think, also did a nice job as well, again speaking about preparing to go on a mission. The primary sang "I Hope They Call Me On a Mission" and then newly returned Elder Brandeberry spoke. I had the great privilege of being Josh Brandeberry's seminary teacher during his senior year. I still remember the flooding feeling of the spirit when I asked Josh, in class, if he intended on serving a mission. He could not have answered faster or more surely then he did with the "ABSOLUTELY, with out a doubt, yes." You can imagine what his talk was like if he was that strong BEFORE his mission. Not to mention, he ended his 30 minute talk by bearing his testimony in Mandarin Chinese. So cool! Anyway, I'm a little of subject here, but the point was it was a good meeting, the kids were good, and, drum roll please, Jaden told me he had to go potty! I took him and yes he was dry. He sat on the potty and pushed for a few minutes. He didn't go, but he did toot a little. He's trying!! About 30 seconds after we went back in and sat down, I felt his bum on my lap go very warm. We would have had success if we had held church in the bathroom!! Success would have been fantastic, but I would have missed out on the wonderful meeting today!

Daily Jake-ism

We went to the baptism of a friend, Noah, this afternoon. This was the conversation this evening while Jake was in the bathtub.
Jake: "Hey dad, I just pumembered (remembered), I know why its called a bafftism (bath-tism aka baptism)."
Dad: "you do huh? Why?"
Jake: "Because they have to plug it up like a baff (bath)"

Easter

Easter this year was amazing. Our dear friend, Audrey Dube, wanted to try something a little different this year. When she was a little girl, he dad would make a treasure hunt with clues that would take her and her sisters all over there 10 acre farm. The final clue would lead them to the stash of Easter eggs and candy. She had this great idea to do the same thing only on a smaller scale of course! She invited our family and 3 other families (the Irishes, the Smiths, and the Greenwalds) and we all went over to her house Sunday morning. We had breakfast first, and then the little kids got to go outside in the backyard and collect the 100 eggs (YIKES!!) that the Easter bunny had hidden in the grass. Then the big kids were split into two teams, boys and girls, each had the same clues, but in a different order and they raced each other to solve the clues and find the treasure. Girls won!! Even though the clues were hard and took several minutes to decipher, the kids said it was the best Easter ever!

Birthday Boy!

Well, a little late to tell the world, but Jacob is officially 5! He had a fabulous time at his birthday. He wanted an "army plane cake". Hmmmm..... ?? We looked at pictures and he was very insistent, he knew what he wanted, and mom just had to find a picture of the right plane. Turns out he was thinking of the SR-71 Blackbird. How does my five year old know these things!?! And why is it always BLACK frosting? Ugh! Anyway, we made a cake that he was happy with and he thought it looked "just right", so mom succeeded. He is happy with his birthday party consisting of Emma coming over for cake and a present. He isn't quite to the age where he is wanting a "real" party. Thank goodness for small favors! He got a new dress-up. Da-na-na-na-na-na-Da-na-na-na-na-na BATMAN!!!

Food and an Attitude!

A few days ago when the little boys, Jake and Jaden, and I got home from the gym, we were met at the van by a couple of surprise "visitors". As I unbuckled and unloaded the boys, 2 very angry robins swooped down in the grass right by the driveway. They were fighting and squawking and pecking and in general being VERY loud. Jake watched them in fascination for a minute and then turned to look at me. He raised his eyebrows way up and tilted his head down so he could peer up at me, put his fist on his hip, which he cocked out to the side and announced, "Mom, they have attitude!"...Do you think he's heard me tell his older sister and brother to "drop the attitude" a couple of times too many? That night when saying his prayers (ah yes, his infamous prayers!), he said "bless the birds that they won't have attitudes anymore and be nice and not screech at mom, I mean at the birdie's mom".
Recently, Jacob has been a very grateful boy. We had talked a little bit about prayers and I had mentioned that sometimes when we pray we can forget all of the things we have been given and we get stuck asking for something all the time. We talked about "thank-you prayers", were we just express our gratitude for the wonderful things we have in life. Jake really took that to heart and night time prayers have been thank-you prayers for several weeks now! He is grateful for a wide assortment of things. "thank-you for couches so we don't have to sit on the dirty floor" (thanks, bud, tell everyone that my floors are dirty....) "Thank-you for doors so we can like go through them... thank-you for cars to help us drive where we need to go to far away places... thank-you for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ... Thank-you for dads and moms for everyone, to help kids and babies to eat when they are hungry... (and my personal favorites) Thank-you for food to eat when we hungry so we don't have to eat dirt and grass... Thank-you for kids to help clean up the house when really old people are coming over like really old grandpas!" Truly humbling when you realize just how much we have to be thankful for isn't it?!?!

P.S. Check out those water SKIS Jaden has where feet should be!

Vacay Anyone?

I finally figured out how to do it! Jacob and Jaden have too many toys, but every time I even hint that maybe someone else could use some of their toys and that it would be nice if we shared, Jacob would panic and say, "No, mommy!! I would miss them all so very much!" Today he wanted to look at family picture albums and when we were looking at last spring's family vacation he commented on how much fun he had on vacation and how he would like to go again and that "everyone in the entire world has to go to Seaworld and see Shamu. Everyone needs the opportunity (and yes, my 4-year old is still routinely using that word) to get splashed by Shamu." It just hit me. I said, "Hey Jake, let's go play in your room." So we headed upstairs and started to play. Now, every toy is out, every bucket has been dumped, the dress ups are scattered, the play food/kitchen box got stepped on and broken, there are a gazillion hot wheels and assorted other cars hiding under dress ups just waiting to get stepped on, plastic dinos competing for floor space with old McDonald's toys, etc. You get the idea. I told him that some of his toys would love a vacation. We started to divide things up into 3 groups. "Things I would miss too much if it went on vacation", "Things that can go on a little vacation" and "Things that can go on a forever vacation". He was so excited to be sending things on vacations, that he was OK to let go of the old happy meal toys and the cars with wobbly wheels. He let me put a few of the toys that I know he really likes, but only occasionally plays with, up in the top of his closet for a time out vacation. In 2 months when they come back I know they will be front runner favorites again. We gave 6 grocery sacks full of toys to Goodwill for "forever vacations" (not to mention the 2 sacks of toys not fit to pass on that got dumped!) The result? A clean bedroom with enough floor space to hold a hot wheel derby in which Jacob's favorite blue car took first place. I'm so excited!

My poor blue baby!!

Well, Jaden has taken a page out of the Jacob book. Monday afternoon was crazy. The big kids hit the door at 330 and chaos took over. The first day back from Christmas break and we were sadly out of practice with our routine. While trying to get homework done, both the little boys continued to make a nuisance of themselves, causing interruption and hence preteen angst from their sister. I finally said, "hey guys who wants to watch a movie?" Jake and Jaden settled down in front of "Kung Fu Panda" and I thought Jaden might actually fall asleep sitting there as he had refused to nap earlier. After a while of blessedly uninterrupted homework time, Ethan finished his work and then left to go play with his friend, Ben. Kaylee continued working on her excessive amount of 4th grade homework, and it slowly dawned on me that I hadn't heard Jaden in a while. My first thought was oh, he must have fallen asleep, but it keep bugging me and so I hollered to Jake, "Is Jaden in the TV room with you" "Yes, mommy" OK, back to homework. A few minutes later it was bothering me again, so I called Jake into the kitchen and asked him "Are you sure Jaden is watching the movie with you?" and he said "yes, mommy, he's right there" OK. Another few minutes pass and the feelings back. All of a sudden it hits me, duh, prompting, move your bum!! I jump up and run to the family room. Sure enough no Jaden. "where's Jaden at Jake?" The standard "I don't know"was his answer. Great. I call Jaden's name again and again as I go searching the house. I was thinking that I'd find him crashed laying on his bedroom floor or in his brother's closet passed out, but the more I looked, the more the panic took over. He wasn't in the house!! I ran to the backyard. He loves the backyard and the trampoline. That's where he'll be... in the cold... in a t-shirt and a diaper (if he hasn't stripped out of those as well as he did his pants, socks, and shoes earlier!). Nothing. Can't hear him, can't see him. I run back in the house yelling for Kaylee to help me look everywhere for Jaden. We search the house again. I check the front yard and the neighbors front yards: no Jaden! Under the beds, in the closets: no Jaden!! Under the sinks, behind the couch: no Jaden!!! I am sobbing by this time and so scared. I look in the backyard again and still nothing so I turn to back into the house to call the police and the neighbors and I just happened to look over the fence and through the windshield of my van. There sits Jaden, in the van, having a meltdown crying fit in the van. As close as we can figure, he followed Ethan out the door when he left and opened the van door (it's a power door), climbed in and shut the door. He had fun turning on all the reading/map lights and who knows what else, before climbing into his car seat and buckling the chest buckle. One problem. He can buckle, but not unbuckle the car seat!! So there he was, trapped! I ran over and opened the door and he was shivering and crying his little heart out! As soon as I had him free of the seat, he wrapped his little arms around my neck and grabbed a hold of my hair in back and held on for dear life. I brought him in the house and sat on the rocking chair bundled him up in blankets and we both had a good long cry.

Opportunistic Punks and Drunks!

OK, so here is the story. Once again our blog is all about Jake. hmmm.... do I sense a theme? Anyway, Jake has been a... well.... a B-R-A-T this past week or two (and I do mean with capital letters and a few hundred exclamation points following). He has been very disobedient and sneaky. It started last week when we had a special cake for desert after dinner on New Year's Eve. We covered the left over half with plastic wrap and left it on top of the stove. Jake not only snuck down to the kitchen to eat the rest of it, but knowing he'd be busted if caught, he grabbed handfuls of chocolate cake and snuck it back upstairs to eat while hiding in the corner of his room. In other words, not only is the cake all gone, but the door knobs on both kitchen doors were covered in dried on frosting and a trail of crumbs leads out of the kitchen through the dining room, up the stairs, down the hall and into his room. He made the trip many times as there was ALOT of cake left. Made sure to step on the crumbs and grind them into the carpet while he was at it too! He got caught. I made him "clean up" (as only a 4 year old can of course!) and then put him on his bed for a 10 minute time out. During his timeout, I went back and cleaned up the mess. When his 10 minutes were up, I went into his room to talk to him and low and behold, he's GONE! I go looking for him and I find him in the family room watching TV... with it muted so I wouldn't hear it and catch him of course! I scolded him told him to get in his room for his timeout! 10 minutes, that's all he had to do. 3 hours later.... he finally finishes his time out. I guess I could have sat outside his door to make him stay put for the ten minutes, but that's really not the point. I want him to make the choice to sit because he wants to obey, not because I force him. Anyway, so he gets out of timeout just in time for lunch. He asked for grilled cheese, which I made for them all. After I hand him his plate, he changes his mind. He makes it abundantly clear that he will not, under any circumstances eat that grilled cheese. "Well, Bud, it's a long time till dinner and you aren't getting anything else till it's gone." The other three kids finish there lunch and Jaden, the graham cracker fiend, asks for graham crackers. I pass them out to everyone except Jake (and Kaylee, but that is because she doesn't like them). Jake throws yet another fit. I told him that when his sandwich is gone that I would let him have a cracker too. He carries on fussing and I finally tell him that since he isn't eating anyway, to go upstairs and play in his room that mommy needed a time out! He heads up stairs, still grumbling. Not 5 minutes later I catch sight of him out of the corner of my eye. He was headed BACK upstairs and he was movin' awfully fast. "Jake, what do you have in your hand?" He doesn't even pause and keeps truckin' it back up the stairs. I caught up with him in the upstairs hallway and ask him again. He turns around and shows me his empty hands... and his mouth so full of graham crackers that he can't even close his lips!!!!! Once he is back on his bed for yet another time out, I head to the kitchen to see the damage. You know how graham crackers come in three plastic wrapped "bricks" to a pack? Well, the other kids had finished off the first brick so i knew that there should have been 2 wrapped bricks left, but no. The was ONE brick and 3 loose graham crackers left! Yes, ladies and gentleman, my four year old has set a new world record for eating 15 graham crackers in less then 5 minutes!! Please, hold your applause till the end of the story. Well, given the morning's effectiveness in the timeout arena... I kept a close eye on the bottom of the stairs... or so I thought. The problem with our house, as pertains to Jake, is that the stairs end right by the front door and all the other rooms are back behind it. The only room that you can really see the stairs from is the dining room. Once I picked up the toys on the dining room floor, I moved into the living room. My mistake. I, blissfully ignorant of my child's intentions, picked up a large laundry basket full of toys. Bryan came in about then and I asked him to take the basket to Jake in his room and tell Jake that when he puts the toys from the basket back on the shelf that he can come out of time out. Like a good hubby, Bryan lugs the basket up to the boys room and then hollers back down, "Um, Stacy, Jake isn't in his room." Uh, oh. Bryan searches the upstairs, all the hiding spots. I search the downstairs and the backyard. Nothing. Oh, crap. Bryan and I look at each other. "You start calling people. I'm on my bike" and he heads out. I call the neighbor boy, Hunter's house were Ethan is playing and ask his dad if Jake is there. Now, keep in mind, it's in the 30's outside and Hunter lives one street over down at the end of the cul de sac. Brian (Hunter's dad) says, "well, he was here about 20 minutes ago, but the big boys didn't want to play with him so he left" A four year old, in a t-shirt, in 30 degree weather, for at least the last 20 minutes. AHHHHHHHHH! Then the front door opens. In walks Ethan, "Have you seen Jake?" I asked. No. A few minutes later the door cracks open. I see Jake slowly stick his head in and look around. Not seeing me standing behind the door, he sneaks in and makes a run for the stairs. Here, we go again... OK, so that's the Punk portion of tonight's entertainment. A few days later Jake asks if he can watch Scooby Doo. I say "OK, we can put in the DVD when Jaden goes down for his nap and I'll watch it with you (UGH!!)" And what does my precocious 4 year old say? "No mom, you have to check cartoon network right now to see if it is on right now. If it is I need to take this opportunity to watch it!" WHAT??!!?? I asked him what opportunity means and he says its a "chance". wow. A few nights after that, Daddy gives the kids a special treat and lets them have chocolate milk with their dinner. Jake is happily drinking his milk when he all of a sudden says "See, I'm a chocolate milk drunk!" Again, I repeat, WHAT??!!?? Bryan and I look at him and ask" You're what?" He repeats "see, I am a chocolate milk drunk!" After like four tries, we finally got it. "I can see chocolate milk I drunk" He meant, that he could still see chocolate milk in his cup after he had drank it all gone.