Christmas

 December was a fun month.  The kids love to have an advent calendar, which I fill with a Christmas related activity for every day.  Sometimes one activity takes a lot of effort, and some of them take little to no effort at all.  This year, almost all of our activities were the no effort type, due to the fact that I was 8 months pregnant and had no energy at all.  Me and Had didnt even start Christmas shopping until a couple weeks into December.  We did manage to do a few fun things though... aaaaaand I lost my camera, so no pics of any of it!  :(

The only pics I got in December.

This was Christmas morning, coming down the stairs and seeing what Santa had left for us.

So this year Jerzi asked for everything under the sun, and Jeter didn't ask for anything.  He's already hard enough to buy stuff for, because he really does not play with toys, AT ALL.  So I kept prying and digging to see what he wanted.  Finally he told me one day all excited, "Hey I got an idea Mom.  Why don't we get all my old toys...... and throw them away!"  Awesome.

He eventually did end up telling me two things he wanted, right before Christmas.  A Cardinals football jersey (Fitzgerald), and a pool table.

Luckily Santa and his elves are pretty good!

Jeter was so excited about this air hockey/pool table combo that he tipped over.

Christmas is such a fun time of year.  I love all the excitement of it all!  We tried really hard to help the kids understand what Christmas is all about.  We even went to a live nativity put on by one of the local churches.  I got some cool pictures, but they're lost with my camera somewhere.  I am truly grateful for the Savior and that there is a special day for not just me, my family, and my religion, but everyone around the world, to celebrate Him and his birth.

T ball Champions!!!

Let me start off by saying t ball is intense here in Texas.  There are 2 different levels of t ball; a 4-5 year old level, and a level for 6 year olds.  The 6 year old one has umpires, and if they get a good hit, or the the fielders miss or overthrow, they get to keep running, instead of stopping on first base like in the younger level.  Well Jeter played in the 6 year old division this fall and he actually got on a good team!!!  His coach knew what he was doing, and he had some really good little players on his team.  It was seriously so much fun going and watching them!  Jeter improved tons since last year and came away from the season a lot better than he started.  So that alone was worth it.  But I came away from his season a little more in love with my kid loving and excelling in a sport than I ever thought I would.  

 I loved watching Jete hit the ball.  He got to be a good little hitter... but mostly I loved watching him fill one side of his mouth up with air as he went to smack the ball.

I loved the shy, but proud look on his face when he hit his first home run.

I loved watching the parents and coaches get into it and yelling 

and cheering over a right or wrong call.  

I loved watching Jeter tear around the bases and hearing 

other parents say, "Man, that kid is so fast!"

I loved that Jeter was about the only kid who knew or cared 

about the score at the end of the games.

  I loved that he wasn't ever a kid in the dugout that was climbing 

the fence, or causing problems with other players.

And I loved that they only lost one game the whole season, played in a tournament, and won the championship!!!

I loved watching how Jete's face lit up when his daddy told him how proud he was of him. 

And I loved watching Had help coach, and get sooo excited for Jete's games.

We loved watching Jeter play and are so proud of him!!!

A Ducky Halloween

Halloween came and went. 

 It was layed back, and pretty low key this year, or I should probs say that I was layed back and low key.  I decided to let our kids have a little say in their costumes this year.... and with the help of Had, decided [was told] not to make costumes for us.  It made for a lot less stress.  I usually think homemade costumes are so much cuter, and even though I get stressed making them, I kind of like doing it and feeling like I can accomplish some sort of sewing project and creating stuff, when I really don't know what I'm doing.  But even though the majority of their costumes were bought, or they already had parts of them, I still think they turned out pretty cute.  And yes, I'm still a sucker for themed costumes.

I saw a little girl football player on Pinterest (I can't remember the site), and thought that it was about the cutest thing I had ever seen, and knew Jerz would love it. Sure enough, she did.  She got to be a little bit girly, and a football player at the same time.  So I whipped out her tutu and threw together the rest of her costume to make for one adorable little Ducks football player.  Jeter was excited to be the football ref.  I just ordered his gear from an actual reffing website, since there were no ref Halloween outfits for kids.

So proud to be a Duck!

Like I said, we didn't dress up this year, but Had couldn't resist gettin a little Ducked out with the kids for our ward Halloween party.

Jeter said he's gonna throw a penalty flag on Jerz every time she throws a fit or cries.  HAHA

Candy heaven!

Ooh yum, I see chocolate!  I'm sure they'll never even notice if it somehow goes missing.

Happy Halloween!!!

Birthday Girl

Jerz had a birthday shout hooray!  We hope her tantrums will leave today!  One year older and hopefully out of this phase, Happy Birthday... to Jerz!

Ok, that's kind of mean...but kind of true.  She threw tantrums all her life basically, but then she quit for awhile.  I thought she grew out of it, and that it really was just a phase like everyone tells me, but she's picked it up again, and we're hoping it won't last long.  She definitely keeps me on my toes.

But when she's not throwing a fit, she is the funnest, funniest little girl.  We love her spunk. We love how happy she gets over the littlest things, and we love to make her laugh.

Her grandparents spoiled her on her birthday.  She was in heaven with all the horses, barbies, and baby/baby clothes.

Every year we carve pumpkins on her b-day, and so this year we invited Christina (one of Had's co-residents, with no family here) over to come carve pumpkins with us and have cake and ice cream.  And because this year, Jerzi's b-day was on a Sunday, we didn't plan a birthday party for her.  Instead, we took her and her friend to Chuckie Cheese, and to a big bouncey jump playground thing the day before, like she wanted.  But on the day of her b-day, she was pretty upset she wasn't having a birthday party, like Jeter got.  And she insisted that she wasn't turning 4 cuz she didn't have a party.

So instead of carving pumpkins with everyone, while they carved, I whipped up a sad little attempt at a "princess barbie cake" to make the birthday girl happy.  

It worked.

She loved it and couldn't believe I "knew how" to make that kind of cake.  The inside cake part was even pink, strawberry flavored, like she wanted.

Yay for having all the things on hand to make this cake at the last second, and yay for being able to make the birthday girl happy!

The finished pumpkins!

Even though she ended up being happy, Jerzi still wouldn't believe us that she turned 4 without having a party, so I through together a little Halloween/birthday party a few days later, on Halloween.  She invited a few friends.  

(This, in and of itself, is a major accomplishment for her.  She normally doesn't play too good with other kids, mainly just follows Jeter around.  So I was so proud that she wanted to have a party, invite other kids, and Jeter wasn't even going to be there.) 

 The kids got dressed up in their costumes, ate a Halloween lunch, decorated Halloween cookies, played, watched her new Barbie horse movie, and ate cupcakes, while all of us moms got to hang out with each other and visit.  The party was a hit, and four days after her birthday, Jerzi finally turned 4 at her very own birthday party!!!  

It's Real!

As soon as I became pregnant, I wouldn't let myself get excited.  It's happened a few too many times, where I get pregnant, and then miscarry.  This pregnancy hasn't been like any of my other ones, miscarriage or not.  I didn't get sick.  I didn't feel nauseous.  I wasn't hungry.  I didn't have to eat the second I woke up, or even hours after.  I exercise and don't get tired. 

 I thought for sure, this one wasn't going to make it either.  I waited a few weeks, and then yep, there came the bleeding.  Ughh!

It only happened for 2 days though.  So I wasn't quite sure.

My belly was slightly growing, but still no other symptoms, for a miscarriage, or for a healthy pregnancy.  Hadley kept telling me, "Be happy, you're just getting a really good pregnancy.  You're still pregnant, I know it."  I wanted to believe him, but couldn't fully.  Finally the time came when I could go to the doctor, at 10 weeks.  Hadley and the kids came with me.  We hadn't told the kids anything yet.  I was nervous and kind of expecting them to show me there was no heartbeat.  Had was excited and expecting them to show us that it was twins.  I told the nurse about everything, and her response was "I'm sure everything's fine.  Maybe you're just having twins."

They did the ultrasound...one single baby, and there was a heartbeat!  We told the kids that was a baby in my tummy that they were showing us a picture of. They were shocked.  It was kinda funny.  The doc told me that I wasn't out of the scary phase yet, but everything so far looked good.  He said he wanted to see me again in 2 weeks to check on things, but I was going to be in Idaho, so I had to wait.  So we sent out the good news to our family right before I flew out to see them, in case they got suspicious of my growing belly.  Jerzi drew a picture of our family, and this is how we told them.

 I was still nervous things weren't quite right.  I got tired, and that's about as much symptoms as I had of being pregnant.  And I wasn't for sure that I wasn't making that up in my head.  Anyway, I went about my business of playing in Idaho, being a mom, and a wife.  When I got back to Texas, and I went to my dr. appt., they couldn't find the heartbeat.....for like 5 minutes.  The nurse seriously tried forever, and finally she said, " Oh there it is."  I could barely hear anything, just a faint little sound.  I seriously thought she was making it up.  At least there was something there though.  I went away from that appt. feeling a little better, but still unsure.  

My next appointment...finding out the sex of the baby.  I really truly can say I didn't care...at all.  I just wanted to see that everything was ok, and to make sure that it was real.  That our baby was alive, still growing, and doing good. 

Had couldn't make it to the appointment cuz of work, but luckily I had my in-laws here, and Leslie was able to come with me, while Blayne watched the kids.  If I got bad news, I don't know that I could have dealt with it on my own.  We got good news!  The baby is healthy, and is growing at just the right pace.  And we're having a boy!!!  But just to make me worry a little more I think, a high risk pregnancy doctor came in and told me there is something showing up on his heart.  It's called an echogenic intracardiac focus.  It's typically a sign of an increased risk of down syndrome.  But, everything else looks good that shows he doesn't have it, and blood tests came back that everything is normal also.  She said it is very common now to see that in ultrasounds, because of all the high tech stuff they use, and to not worry because everything else looks normal and fine.   She said they don't even need to do a second ultra sound for it.  I'm oh so glad she had to come in and tell me all about it, if I don't need to worry about it.
       

But now that I've seen the baby, I know that he's healthy, and I can feel him kicking and squirming around, I can happily announce it's real!  We're having a baby boy in February, and we couldn't be happier!

Spud Harvest

Spud Harvest was the greatest thing ever growing up.  It was two weeks where we didn't have school, so the farmers, and students could work out in the fields and harvest their potato crops.  My parents were both teachers, so they took advantage of their time off, the cooler weather and the non-touristy time, and took us on family trips during this time.  As we got older, our family trips died down, and my older siblings worked in the spuds.  I never did.  That's why I loved it.  It was a 2 week vacation for me.  

Well, now that I live in Texas, we of course don't get spud harvest, but our family in Idaho still does.  So we got some visitors, yay!!!  Ashton, Grandpa and Grandma McArthur came to spend time with us during their spud harvest.

Jeter had a baseball game the day after they got here. Grandpa was so excited to watch him play.  I loved to see how excited he was to watch him.  He kept telling Les to get out there and take some more pictures of him.  Well Jeter was first up to bat, then maybe 2 others hit, then it started raining.  We all huddled in the dugout with the kids, in hopes that it would blow over.  

It didn't blow over.  It only got harder.  It was pouring by the time they finally decided to cancel the game.  I felt so bad for Blayne and Les.  They were so excited to watch Jete play.  At least they got to see him bat.  Anyway, we booked it back to the car in the middle of the downpour, cuz it showed no signs of stopping or even letting up.

We looked like "drowned rats" according to our husbands.  They wouldn't let us go change, or go back to the house.  So we went shopping, out to eat, and all around town for the whole day like this.  Fun times.

One of the days they were here, we snuck Jete out of school for half the day, and went to this driving range called Top Golf.  I would never consider myself a golfer, but it was so much fun!  It didn't really seem like a driving range.  We had our own little booth with couches and tables and we ordered food and had a waiter come and refill our drinks the whole time.  It was a pretty sweet set up. For the actual golfing part, you played a game against the others that are with you, trying to hit it in certain spots.  

In this game, you try and get the most points.  Looky looky who turned out to be a golfer!

Yep, that's me with the highest score.  I won!  I was pretty proud. 

We ate at a bunch of yummy places and had so much fun spending time with them.  It was a sad day when they had to go home.

Until next time, whenever that may be, we love you Blayne, Les, and Ash!  Thanks for spending your spud harvest vacation with us!!!

School Days

And so it begins!  Jeter has officially started the life of a student.  

Since his birthday is at the end of July, he would have been the youngest in his class if we would have started him in kindergarten last year.  Last year at this time, he wasn't even excited to go to preschool.  He didn't want to go to school.  He said he would just rather stay home and have me teach him.  And as much as I would love to keep him home and out of the schools, dangers, peer pressures, and bad influences, etc., I know he would be better off there, and learn so much more than I could ever teach him.  Anyway, after thinking for the last five years about all the reasons to send him or to hold off a year, we made our decision to wait a year and send him now.

.

I am so happy we did!  He was so excited to start school, 

which I think makes a big difference.

Last year's first day pic compared to this year's first day pic.

I'm not gonna lie and say that it was easy watching this sweet boy walk into his new school that would soon consume his life, but I'm also not one of those parents that cry about something like this either.  He was so excited, how could I not be excited for him?  

Getting ready to step inside the unknown.  

If he was nervous, he didn't show it.  I think I was the one that was nervous.  I had so many concerns and questions and worries, that were all probably dumb, but still.  To name a few:

How is he gonna know how to do the lunch line, or pay for it?

Will he dare to tell the teacher he needs to go the bathroom?

How's he gonna find his way there and back if he does go the bathroom?

Is he gonna last for 7 1/2 hours?

Will he make friends?

Will he know to come in from recess when a bell goes off?

How will he find me after school? (Parents aren't allowed in the school when school gets out)

Will he pay attention?

We got in his classroom and found his seat.  He sat right down and told me I could leave.  As I went to give him a hug and tell him bye, he hugged me back and pulled away real quick so I couldn't give him a kiss.  Oh I hate for him to have to grow up!

Then there's little miss.  

She had to have a backpack and get all ready for Jete's first day too.  She could hardly wait for Jete to start school, and was so excited to walk him to his class.  But at the same time, she was apprehensive about him being gone all day.  After all, he is her playmate, partner in crime, fighting companion, and mouthpiece.  I had to convince her it was gonna be so much fun for just us to be together all day.

We only had a few people in Jete's school stop us and ask if we needed help finding her class.  She looks like she would fit right in.  She's as tall as most of the kids in Jete's class!

She was definitely listening to me when I told her of all the fun we could have.

So when we got home from dropping Jeter off, her requests to play barbies, horses, babies, and a picnic at the park (in 100 degree weather might I add) were all granted.  But seriously, how do you turn this cute face down?

I'm excited for Jete to make new friends, learn, and be independent.  I'm excited for me and Jerz to have quality time together, where we can rely on each other for company and to make it through the long days without Had and Jete.  And I'm just a little terrified that I'm gonna have to play barbies and babies every day.  Yikes!