Christmas

December was a pretty exciting month. Jeter understood the whole Santa/naughty & nice thing. So I enjoyed reminding him ALL the time about how he has to be good or he's gonna get on the naughty list. Too bad he only has an attention span for about 5 minutes. He would act really good for a couple minutes, then start fighting with Jerzi, then I would remind him again. (Given... Jerz is the provoker EVERY time.)
It will be an even greater day when Jerzi understands it all.

Here's Jeter with Santa at our ward Christmas party. He acted all tough and got in line with some of his other buddies, and when it was his turn, marched right up and sat on his lap. I thought, wow, he's doin really good. I didn't think he would do it. Then Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas, and Jete froze. He had it all planned out what to say too. He was gonna ask him for a black toy dirt bike, and a new monster truck. But when Santa asked him, he got a look of sheer panic in his eyes and just stared into space. Santa patted his back and said, "It's ok, I'll give ya a candy cane anyway."

Good ol' Santa!

Jerzi wouldn't even go near him, so we decided not to even attempt it.

These bad boys consumed all of my time for a good half of the month. We have to make our Christmas presents for my side of the family, and so I got this dumb/cute idea from pinterest, and my sisters, to make wreaths for the back of the chairs in my parents dining room.

They were really easy to make, but took soooo long (mainly the red ones). I made 3 red ones, and 3 red and white ones. The red ones are made out of tissue paper, and the red and white ones are out of yarn. These are just on the chairs in my kitchen. I wanted to see what they would look like before I shipped them off to my parents.

I bought this sweet kit to make a gingerbread house. It came with the gingerbread, frosting, candy and tray. Super sweet right? So we start decorating it....

although some unamed peeps were just hoarding the candy so they could eat it.






The finished product....
kind of
We didn't have everything quite on it yet, but it was starting to slide, so we snapped a picture.





CRASH!!!

Right after the above picture was taken.

Yeah, super sweet gingerbread kit.

So they have a really sweet subdivision here that has it in their HOA that they have to put up Christmas lights. So the day before Christmas Eve, we all got in our pajamas and went and picked up a little KFC and found a nice little spot to park. We all climbed into the back of our car, into the mounds of blankets we layed back there, and ate some yummy dinner. Then we drove through the neighborhoods with the kids up on our laps (shh, don't tell) so they could see all of the Christmas lights too. It was so awesome! Lights everywhere! I didn't even think about getting pictures of it though. Maybe next year.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree, you make me sooo happy.

I love Christmas trees and Christmas lights inside the house. It just makes it feel so much more festive and magical.

I did a really bad job taking pics Christmas morning, but I couldn't help it. I was so excited to watch every present everyone opened, that I kind of just forgot. Santa left this cute little rocking horse unwrapped though, and the kids LOVED it. They were so excited!

(Although you can't really tell in this pic, he loved it. I just didn't get any good pics of him Christmas morning at all.)

Jeter wanted to open every present under the tree, and Jerzi opened a few of hers, and then she said she's done. She didn't want anymore. And so she left to go play with the ones she had already opened. Lucky for Jete, he got to open the rest of hers, so they were both happy.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were fabulous. We just hung out as a family on Christmas Eve, and had our own little Christmas Eve dinner. Christmas Day we had to actually wake our kids up so that we would have time to open presents, eat, and get ready for church. Church was really good! Lots of Christmas songs, which I love. Then we came home and put the kids down for a nap, and packed our bags while they slept. When they woke up, we headed to San Antonio to visit Had's Aunt and Uncle that were there coaching the Washington Huskies who played the Baylor Bears in the bowl game. We visited with them, stayed the night in their hotel, and went and walked around and ate the next day and then came home. It was a fast, but fun little overnight trip, and so good to see family on Christmas. The next day Had went back to work and it was as if everything was back to normal, while our families were all partying it up. I love to spend Christmas with just our little family. The next few days though, ya definitely need to spend with the whole family!

Snaggletooth

Jerzi's teeth have always came in way later than other kids. So when her top teeth finally started coming in, we started noticing a bump kind of to the side but up on top of her front tooth. Well, for awhile we thought it was the tooth that was supposed to come in right next to the front tooth, that was just growing in crooked. But then those two lateral teeth just outside of the the 2 front teeth came in, basically at the same time. So we were left wondering what the heck this bump was. It was there for a few months, without ever breaking through the gums. Then one day it broke through and of course it was another tooth, turned sideways. Poor Jerz. She had what we call a snaggletooth.

We took her to a pediatric dentist and they said she has an extra front tooth. Sweet huh? They told us to bring her in after she turned 2 years old (so they can give her gas), to pull it out. So here she is on the way to the dentist to get it yanked out. Poor thing, she has no idea what's about to happen to her.

(Sorry, not a real good picture of it)

The dentist told me that after they give her the gas, Jerzi will be nice and relaxed and mellow as they do the extraction. But after giving her the gas, I would have to leave the room because too many parents can't handle watching.

I'd like to say that things went really smooth after that, and she did so good throughout the whole thing. But that would be a lie. She was terrible! She was freaking out when they put the gas mask on her, screaming, kicking, banging her head against the chair, trying to pry their hands off her and the mask. The dentist kept saying to me "Ok, in just a second she should start calming down."

She never did. She just kept on keepin on. They didn't tell me to leave like they said they were gonna do, instead they had me hold down her arms and legs. One assistant was holding down her head. Another assistant was holding down her shoulders. All the while, the dentist was poking, sawing, burning and pulling. Jerz screamed and fought the ENTIRE time, and kept yelling out "Hurting me! Momma, hurting me!" It was the worst thing ever. She kept looking at me like, why aren't you helping me? The dentist kept assuring me that they weren't hurting her, that she was numb, but I'm not sure I believe it. They did get it out though, and according to the dentist, "everything went great, and she should have a beautiful smile."

Here's an after photo, one week after she got it taken out, when her gums had healed up a little bit. I'm a little sad I didn't take a pic right after it got taken out. She looked a little like she was a crack head, with missing teeth, black stuff (dried blood, or burned gums, I'm not sure which) on and between her teeth. Hopefully now, the rest of her teeth will start growing in, and will grow in normal.

Giving Thanks For Family

Thanksgiving!!! We were lucky to have Grandpa, Grandma, and Ashton come visit us in Texas for Thanksgiving. We couldn't wait for them to come! We were counting down the days for forever it seemed like. When they finally got here, Hadley went and picked them up at the airport after work, and we all met at the Rainforest Cafe for dinner. The kids have been dying to eat here, so it was super exciting. Plus, that place is just cool. We all loved when the animals would start moving around (except for Jerz, she was afraid).

Look at this dessert...

Oh how I love dessert!





Jeter got sick the night before they flew in, and was sick the entire time they were here, except for the last day. It was such a bummer. He loves playing with Ashton and didn't really get to play at all. He mainly just slept, whined, and cried cuz his stomach was hurting him so bad all through the day. Then every night he would throw up. It was the weirdest sickness ever. So here we are getting ready to eat Thanksgiving Dinner...

without Jeter and Jerzi (they were both in bed asleep).




Yum, it was delicious! Had did most of it (or so he claimed), and he did a pretty awesome job. The turkey was awesome. But so were the cute little turkeys that me and Ashton made out of cookies and candy, that I got a lotta crap for taking the time to make. HAHA

Even though Jete was sick, we decided to head out to the Houston Aquarium. He was a good little trooper, and probably slept for half of the trip in the stroller. Poor kid! The weather was perfect though, not too hot or not too cold. We enjoyed every second of it.

My two favorite fish we saw....

The sparkly but fierce pirahna, and this other fish that looks like he has a sweet paint job.

The stingray pool was a big hit. And I loved to watch Blayne with my kids. I could totally see the love that he has for them. It's sad to me that my kids don't get to have these kinds of interactions with their grandparents more often than they do. So I love to sit back and watch, and take pics like crazy.

I know this probs sounds kinda nerdy, but I love to watch Had being a cute little daddy to Jerzi, when he thinks I'm not watching. It makes me so happy to know that I have such a good husband and daddy for my kids.

The deep sea divers!

Yes, that tiger is real!

(But I have no clue why they have a tiger in an aquarium)

This tiger is not real, but I think Jerz was more scared of this one.

While Ashton and Jerzi were havin all the fun, poor little Jete was lookin like this.
It seriously was so sad to see him like this. He was so weak and tired. He just sat there until we moved him to the next spot.

They had a little train that went in a big tunnel under water with sharks in it. It was pretty sweet to see all of them swimming over us and on the sides of us.

They are so freaky looking!

We had so much fun spending time with them! We all can't wait until they can come back again. Hopefully next time no one will be sick, and we won't have to be worried if we need to make a trip to the E.R. the whole time. :) We loved having you guys here! Thank you so much for coming and for everything!

Yabba Dabba Doo!

McArthurs. Meet the McArthurs.

We're the modern stone age family.

From the town of Bedrock, we're a page right out of history!

For Halloween this year, we dressed up as the Flinstones.

Wanna meet the family?

Fred
(Notice the juice box in his hand? Someone had a huge cooler, and gave drinks out instead of candy. Awesome huh?!)

Wilma

Bamm Bamm



Pebbles




When I was trying to decide what Jete and Jerz could be for Halloween, I read on the internet how some people made Flinstone costumes in like 3 hours, right before a Halloween party. I thought that would be a cute idea and fairly easy to make. I also know that I usually take longer than anyone to do anything, so I figured it would take me a lot longer than 3 hours. Plus I'm definitely not what one would call a seamstress. I don't know how to use patterns, so I just had to make them up as I was going. Well, after working on them for one week straight, I finished them right in time for our ward trunk or treat. So I was pretty happy that we were all able to fit in them and that people recognized that we were dressed as the Flinstones.

They had all sorts of games set up for the kids at the church for the Halloween party, like bowling, fishing, mini golf, a cakewalk, etc. They also had a little costume parade for all the primary kids and handed out awards after it.... and Little Miss Jerzi girl won an award. Yay!


The actual trunk or treat was a little ridiculous. There was so much candy. We didn't even go to all the trunks cuz their candy buckets were too full. So Jeter and Jerzi sat in our trunk and started chowing down while Had passed out candy to the same kids that were making their rounds for the 3rd and 4th time. I did love seeing how creative some of the people were that decorated their trunks though. Some people really get into it. It was awesome. Not us. I didn't even think about decorating ours. Woops.

Bamm Bamm and Pebbles....they're showing us their muscles.

Me and Had decided that we were going to dress up to take the kids around trick or treating. It was fun. And what I really loved was that we got to just go out in our costumes, and I didn't have to make the costumes to fit over a big puffy coat or snowsuit.

I mainly just put this picture on here cuz it's so crazy to see green bushes and trees instead of bare bushes and trees with no leaves on them, or covered in snow on Halloween.

Gotta love Texas weather!

I totally remember doing this as a little kid....

dumping out all my candy and just being sooo excited.

Now I just look at all the candybars that they got and get excited. :)

Halloween is GREAT!

Birthday Girl!

It's that time of year again, where things get a little crazy in my house. Our sweet little Jerzi girl had a birthday on Oct. 27th! She's officially two now, even though people have asked us if she is 2, 3, and 4 for quite some time. Now when we answer them, maybe they won't feel as sheepish when we say she's 2, instead of 1. So we have her birthday on the 27th, Halloween the 31st, Had's birthday on Nov. 8th, and mine on Nov. 14th. So for almost 3 weeks straight we are partying it up, and eating a whole lotta crap. For some reason I take it upon myself to do things that don't necessarily need to be done for all these occasions, like making all of our Halloween costumes, making cakes that I have no clue how, etc. but it's fun once I get them done, and hopefully someday they will be appreciated. :)

Some things I want to remember about Jerzi right now:

-She's still very emotional: cries (more like screams) at the drop of a hat, laughs at anything, gets so excited over the littlest things.

-She loves pink

-She loves to play with Jeter, but always ends up crying

-She always hears the tiniest little noises, like background noises that nobody would ever notice, and looks at us and says "Noise?"

-She loves to look at the moon

-She is the best airplane spotter I've ever seen

-She already had to get her crib converted to a toddler bed a few months ago because she was climbing in and out of it in the middle of the night. Then when she started opening her door and wandering around the house at night, we had to figure out a new method to keep her in. We put the crib back together, but dropped her mattress clear down to the floor, so she can't climb out. So far it's working, she's only climbed out once.

-She thinks she can do anything Jeter can do, and she always tries.

-She loves dirtbikes, football, and baseball right now.

-Whenever she sees football on tv, she yells out "DOE (go) DUUUCKS!!!

-Whenever anyone mentions baseball, she pretends she's swinging a bat and yells, "Hit hard!"

-She loves to dress up and "accessorize" herself with her bracelets, rings, leg warmers, tights, hats and shoes. When she was getting out of her bed in the middle of the night, she'd go get in her closet and start putting on all her crap, all in the pitch black. So at 3 in the morning, I would have to take off all that stuff before putting her back to bed.

-She loves to wear Jete's football jersey's and basketball shorts all the time.

-She has to do everything herself. She has to feed herself, put on her own clothes, get in the car and in her carseat by herself, jump into her crib by herself, etc. Then she freaks out if she's having a hard time with any of them. It makes for some fun times at our house. :)

-She can count to 13

-She's a big time Momma's girl

-She loves meat, noodles, pancakes, waffles, and french toast

-She is usually a really good girl and sits there nice and still for me to do her hair

-She wants baseball cleats for Christmas

-She loves to say prayers

-She amazes us with the things she understands

-She had a hard time going to nursery at first, now she goes without a problem, and she loves singing the primary songs.

Jeter wouldn't let me take a picture without him in it too. She looks bugged. haha

So before Jerzi's birthday, Jete asked her what kind of cake she wanted. He told her "Mom can make you any kind of cake you want." So glad he has faith in me. She answered Jete by saying she wanted a pink helmet. I kind of just blew it off, cuz she's just obsessed with helmets right now. But then when we started asking her what she wanted for her birthday, she answered the same way every time....a pink helmet cake.

Yeah.

I had no idea how to make it, but Had of course, kept encouraging it. So I somewhat figured out how to make her a pink Ducks helmet cake for her birthday.
DOE DUCKS!!!

She loved it, and was so excited when she saw it, so I'm glad I made it for her, even if it took me a lot longer than a regular cake would have. :)

Happy Birthday to our sweet, little, kissy face, Jerzi girl!

We love you!!!