Our Columbus Trip

We got to go to Columbus a few weeks ago and visit my friend and her little family. It was fun to get away for a weekend and spend time with them. We ate a lot of good food, hung out, went shopping, the boys went paint balling while me and Karlie took the kids to a childrens play place, and me and Had got to go through a session in the Columbus temple, while they watched Jete for us. It was such a fun trip! Thanks again guys for everything. Can't wait until next time!

She even remembered our birthdays and got us a birthday cake!

Had and Josh got to go paint-balling, so we took the kids to this huge play place for kids. (I can't remember what it was called.) They loved it. Jete has never been to one of these science centers/children museums before and he was going wild. He loved that there were balls all over the place. Bailee was cookin us up some good food. Jete just liked to take it from her and throw it.

He loved loved loved the water place. Good thing they had these little rain jackets for them cuz he was dumpin the water out onto the floor and all over himself, splashing anywhere he could reach.

The more i tried to get him to stop drinkin the water, the more he tried to run away from me to hurry and get a little drink in. There were so many kids playin in this water, kinda disgusting, but if the kid's thirsty...... oh well, he didn't get sick so nothin to worry about right? :)

Bailee and Jete were too cute playing with each other. I loved to watch them.

While me and Karlie were talking in the front of the car, i turned around and saw these two puttin the moves on each other in the back seat. Is that a bad sign of things to come? Haha, well i guess we don't have to worry if our kids will like each other.

Happy Happy Birthday!!!

Had's birthday was last weekend! He's one year older and wiser too according to him. We didn't have a huge celebration, but we did celebrate it all weekend long. Last year he had a test week during our birthdays, so it was fun to be able to actually spend time with him this year. Friday we went out to eat with some friends at a little restaraunt that served wild game (yeah, i know....it was his birthday though) a couple days out of the year. We got a platter that had wild boar, elk steak, quail, and venison (deer meat). I'm proud to say, i tried all of it but the elk steak, cuz it was dripping with blood, and that makes me want to vomit. Had ate everything, including what was on some of the other couples plates. (Just in case his parents were wondering if he changed any of those habits, uh that'd be a negative.) I definately think he'd survive out in the wilderness!
Saturday was his actual birthday, and we started the day off right by being woken up by Jete crying. Then I left and let Had and Jete have some special bonding time, since they don't get that too often....ok, so i went to the church for enrichment, but i'm sure they bonded. :) Then later that evening we got to go to a high school football playoff game. We were pretty excited about this, cuz both teams are nationally ranked. We got a babysitter for Jete, got all bundled up, and went out with friends. We got some hot chocolate, nachos, and pizza, and settled down to watch the game under some blankets, only to realize we were the only white people in the stands! Good times. The game was really close, but kinda a little boring cuz both teams were so good on defense, that neither team could ever move the ball.

Game over, 8-7. Whoopee!

We finshed off his birthday weekend by playing games and having birthday cake with some of our friends on Sunday. It was a fun weekend! Ok, I'm not really the mushy type, but i really love him so much! He is the best husband and dad i could ever imagine and i have so much fun with him. I'm so lucky to have him in my life, and i look forward to the many more birthdays i get to celebrate with him.

Trick or Treat

I love Halloween and I love seeing all the little kids in their costumes. I had a hard time finding a costume that i loved for Jete to wear. They are all pretty cute, but there's not a lot of unique ones. Well, i finally thought of one. The only trouble was that i'm not so crafty and i didn't know where to find a chef's outfit. I couldn't find one, so i had to make it. Ern, thanks for the idea on the jacket. It turned out to be pretty easy, especially for someone that doesn't know what she's doing.

We dressed Jete up last year, but he was only 3 months old, so this time he got to go out trick or treating and actually get candy for us. Yeah! Anyways, i really love Halloween and trick or treating, so i wanted to document Jete's first time trick or treating.

Starting out, he didn't know what to think. We just put the hat on him and weren't sure how long it would stay on. He doesn't like to wear hats, so i was a little nervous, but he didn't immediately pull it off. Yay!

The full outfit.

Trick or Treat!

Here's some of Jete's friends that he went trick or treating with. A cute little chick and monkey.

Jeter didn't really understand the whole concept at first. He would walk up to the people and they would hold out the candy for him, and he would just look at it. After a little bit, (we let him eat one of the candies after he got it) then he started figuring things out. He started having fun once he figured out they were giving him treats!

Off to the next house!

Jackpot!!!




When he saw this box out in the middle of the driveway, he knew exactly what to do! He started unloading all the good stuff. Too bad the people that owned the house and treats were sitting out in their driveway watching, so we couldn't let him take them all. :( Dang it. We all got a good laugh though.

The best Halloween costume i saw goes to Huey, Duey, and Luey from Ducktails. I'm sad i didn't get a picture of them. They were the cutest little things with a big ol' duck bum waddlin around. Loved it!!! What were some of the cute ones you guys saw?

Jete and Friends

It's past midnight and Had is still at the school studying. I have a hard time falling asleep if he's not cuddling with me, so here I am, posting random pictures of Jete and some of his friends out here. I got on here to look at some pictures of him to remind myself that he is normally sweet and cute cuz he definately wasn't that today. Let's just put it this way, we had a rough, long, night last night and today!

Just happy to be out and about.

Jete, playing with his one-legged friend. (Just kidding, she has both legs, but it made me think that when i looked at the picture.)

After our walk one morning, while all of us moms were talking, a bunch of the kids ran to the curb and were greatly intrigued by this BIG tricycle.

We gave him one ride on a Harley when we went home this summer, and he's already hooked. There were like 4 little toys to ride right in a row, and he kept getting on this one. He found himself a cute little babe to cruise with too.

The Big Race

We finally did it, we ran in a half marathon! My sister and her husband told us they were training to run in the Baltimore Half Marathon, so we decided to start training ourselves and run it with them. We've been training for the last 8 weeks (well, Had had to take every third week off cuz of his exam weeks), and although we weren't where we would have liked to be as far as getting ready for it goes, we did it! It was actually pretty fun, as fun as running can be anyways. :) There was 6, 225 people that finished the race, so it was a pretty beasty race. It went all over Baltimore, through neighborhoods, around a lake, up and down hills, and then we finished at the Ravens Stadium (sort of). It was definately hard, and i'd say it was worth it. Everyone did so good. It wasn't so fun for me during miles 5-9. I got the worst side ache ever, that slowed me way down to just about a walking speed. But other than that, the race was good. Had said he felt the best he's ever felt running, so i'm happy for him. I didn't want this to be a torturous thing for him or he wouldn't ever want to go running with me again. We're both glad to be done with it though, and want to do another one some time.

The start to these races are craziness. Everyone has to go so slow at first cuz there is so many people. I didn't want to wait for the steady stream of people to thin out cuz that is waisting precious minutes on my time, so i weaved through everyone. That part was pretty sweet, it made me feel like I was flying passing everyone left and right. :)

This was taken before the race started. Right here we're feeling excited, anxious, nervous, and having to pee. The lines for the portapotty's were so long, and no toiletpaper, so that makes ya feel like you have to go even more. Not fun.

I had about 1/10th of a mile left to go here, and this is where i started to "pour it on". I was very surprised i had any energy left to do anything, but i had a good finish and passed a bunch of peeps here at the end. I liked it a lot. But it was more exciting when i started coming down the stretch to the finish, sprinting past people on the left, when i hear the crowd start yelling and cheering for me, saying yeah, get em! Get em!! Nice finish!! Then the guy that was announcing stuff announced my name as i was coming along. This was exciting to me cuz we were talking about it before the race, saying i wonder how he knows who it is, or if people pay him to announce their names. Out of our whole group that ran, i was the only one to get my name announced, so that was exciting. I'm sad we didn't get a picture of Had finishing cuz he had an awesome finish too. I was waiting for him at the finish so we didn't get lost from each other in the madness of people.


Here's Had all tired out after the race. He did so good, i'm so proud of him. He keeps saying how he's not a runner. Ha, he did a half marathon, so he doesn't get to say that he's not a runner anymore.

So Had wanted to get 2 hours, and his time was 2 hrs 1 min. How awesome is that? I was hoping to get under 2 hours, but i really had no clue what my pace was cuz when i trained for it, i ran pushing Jete in a stroller. But my time was 1 hr 43 min. I was happy with it, especially for running slow for 4 miles due to a side ache from H...E...(you know the rest). But i secretly had another goal, and that was to beat my sister. Wahaha Holl. I didn't make that goal, so that was the craps, but oh well. I was still happy. Out of 6225 people, Had got 1886 place overall and i got 397 overall.

My sister and her husband were quite amazing. Her time was 1 hr 38 min, and 209th place; and he got 1 hr 23 min, and 30th place! It was fun to get to spend time with them and their cute little family.

Here's me and my sister, and all of my sister's friends that ran the race.

Me and Had, riding the tram back to the car after the big race. We were so pooped it was hard to stand, but even harder to walk the next day. Wow! We're good now though, nice and recovered, back at home from our exhausting but fun trip.

When Daddy's Away...

It's always so hard every time Had has exam week. He is gone all day long, and some days doesn't get to see Jeter at all. A few of the days Jete stayed up a little past his bedtime so Had could at least tell him good night. Well, this past week was no exception, but maybe a little worse. It has been nice weather during his earlier exam weeks, so we could go out on walks, go to the pool, or go to the parks and play. Well last week it started turning colder outside and rained a lot. I didn't know what to do with this little kid. He wants me to constantly play with him, but there's only so much chasing him, playing hide and seek, and toys that i can handle. I decided we could still have fun even if it was raining and we didn't get to see Had all week. I took him outside and let him run wild in the rain. He had the time of his life! I actually splashed around in the puddles with him and we both laughed like crazy. He loved every second of it and cried when i dragged him back inside to get him out of his wet clothes. It took up a good portion of the morning, and got him all nice and tired out for a long nap. So next time you think "Ah crap, it's raining again...now what should we do?" Go out and play in the rain, it's so fun!

This was another one of our little activities we did while it was nice and freezing outside. I've been wanting to make cookies like crazy (well any kind of desserts/treats, I'm pretty much a freak when it comes to desserts), but Jete makes it a little difficult because he hangs on my legs and wants me to hold him every time i go in the kitchen. It's pretty much torture if any of you can imagine. Well since we were so bored and had nothing but time on our hands, waiting till Had gets home anywhere from 9-12 at night, I decided Jete could just help me make them. He loved helping and sitting up on the counter to watch my every move. He tried to help mix it after each ingredient went in. But once he realized it was edible, oh my! He started freaking out when i had to pull him out of the bowl. This boy can eat some cookie dough! Anyways, Had's exams went well, and we're all so excited that they're done. Only to look forward to it again in another 3 weeks. :(

Noah's Ark

We got invited to a little birthday party for our friend's kid Hogan. He just turned one. I just thought i'd share her talent. She made his birthday cake, and i thought it was pretty freakin amazing. Check this thing out!

Too Bad...

I've been kinda slacking on what we've been up to lately. We've been busy now that Hadley is back in full swing with school and studying all the time. We did manage to go to a few sporting events though. It's just too bad that the Indians and Browns aren't doing better this season. This post would have been a little more exciting. We went to an Indians game with a bunch of the other students. It was better than i thought it would be with the little Jete-monster, and turned out to be pretty fun.

That's Had in the tan shirt on the left, trying to catch Grady Sizemore's ball he used to warm up with. Had didn't get down far enough to get it, but our friend did. He caught it and gave it to a little kid, only to have an older lady snatch it from the kid. Seriously people, it's a warm-up ball!

We made it to the end of the game with little monster. We even got to see the firework show
after the game.

We also got to go to the Cleveland Brown's training camp. This was actually pretty sweet. They have a week where they open it up to the public and you can go watch them practice. We are sitting right on the practice field. Then after their practice they come over and sign autographs. Once again, too bad they're not awesome this year. It would have been a little cooler.

Pullin the Plug

That's right, we're taking Jeter's binky away. Had just finished a week of exams, and has a couple more weeks before the next ones start, so we figured now's as good of a time as any. He has been very attached to his binky, but only when he goes to sleep. In fact, he sleeps with one in his mouth, and one in his hand, just in case the one in his mouth happens to fall out. He can hurry and pop the other one in, without missing a beat. Well, we have wanted to take it way for a little while now, but haven't really dared to. (We really like our sleep!) So anyways, last night was the first night without it, and he did pretty good. I'm really excited about this. We layed him in his crib, and he cried for about 10 minutes, then fell asleep! We were like wow, that was way easy. Then about a half hour later, he woke up and started crying again. We thought we were in for it, but he never woke up again the entire night! His nap today went even better, only cried for 5 minutes. Then, tonight when we layed him down for bed, he was not just crying but screaming. I bet it wasn't even 5 minutes later and we heard silence. Is it really this easy? I'm so excited. Now i'm just hoping that it will continue to go on like this, and hopefully i don't jinx him by saying how its been working good so far.

Little Cowboy

I know that i'm still posting pictures from when we were home, but we were able to do so much while we were there. So i have tons of pictures, so i'm gonna keep posting them. :) We got to ride horses while we were home! This is another one of the things we just love to do. Had got to go on a little cattle drive one day. He gets so excited to do this. He loves it and will jump at the chance anyone mentions one to him. Well, me and his younger sister Kenzie were dying to go on a horse ride, so finally one day we were all able to take the horses out and go for a ride. It was a little shorter ride than we wanted, but the little tykes needed to take naps, so we had to turn back after awhile. Mayce-cat (Had's little 5 year old sister) and Jete were troopers though. Jete was funny, he did not want the horse to stop. Any time we stopped, he would start movin his body back and forth, like c'mon, get this thing goin again.

Lovin the cowboy life!

Jeter McArthur-born to ride!