Campin in January....Wahaha

We got a tent for Christmas this year! We were dying to try it out. So when I got back from Idaho, we decided to have a campout in our own backyard.

These guys were so excited!
(Don't ya love Jerzi's football jersey over the top of her pajamas? This is a regular occurrence at our house. She has to wear a jersey, everywhere, even to bed. Although it gets really annoying..... like when we have to fight her to take it off for church or to go places and have her look semi-little girlish, me and Had both secretly love it. haha )

What's a campout without hot dogs, chips, phones, smiles, and...


SMORES!!!

Oh how we love us some SMORES!

Jete took a fabulous pic of us.

Jete and Jerz seriously were on cloud 9! They were having so much fun. We had to keep telling them to not be so loud cuz they were yelling and squealing and laughing so loud....and our neighbors house is a whole 10 feet away.

We made a little snack tray and ate and ate, and laughed, and talked.

(Our sad attempt at a family pic in the tent.)

And we all watched Incredibles.

This is definitely my idea of a perfect night with my family. And to think, we were camping in our backyard in January. And we all got too hot during the night.

I LOVE Texas!

I'm excited for tons more good times and memories that come along with our new tent!

Love Day

For Valentine's Day this year, we had a lovely little celebration of love as a family. Hadley had to work most of the day, (He is on call the whole month of February, not fun!) but he was able to come home in time to eat dinner with us. He brought home pizza with him, so I wouldn't have to cook. He splurged and bought Dominoes instead of a Hot 'n Ready from Little Ceasar's like we usually do, because he knows I love Dominoes.

Then after dinner I gave them all a little gift bag, with a new nerf gun in it. We had a big nerf gun war all over the house for the rest of the night. Good times.

When the war ended, we took a little break to enjoy our valentine desserts (thanks to pinterest).

I love Valentine's Day...

and getting to celebrate the love I have for the loves in my life.

Our Other Home

We weren't planning on going to Idaho for the holidays. We wished we were, but Hadley didn't get any time off, and had to be on call for New Year's weekend, so we knew it wasn't going to happen. Then we got a phone call. His mom and John "needed me" to watch Maycee for them while they went to California for 5 days. So we went there for about 2 1/2 weeks.
I feel so lucky and blessed to have the families that I do!

Everyone is so nice and awesome to me and my kids when we go home. They all provided me with a car to drive, fed us, let us sleep at their house, and changed their own plans so that they could spend time with us. I didn't take much pictures while we were there, but we had a lot of fun!

Some of the things that I want to remember:

-my sister Linds, staying in Rexburg longer than she planned so she could chill with me

-late night talks (Bird, Kenz, Les)

-Had's siblings all changing their New Year's Eve plans to come hang out with me so I wouldn't have to be by myself

-talking to my sister in-laws as nerf gun bullets are whizzing past our faces

-Bird texting me at 12:30 a.m. to see if I'm awake, so I can come out and eat a Cocoa Bean cupcake with her and watch Mobbed, and then me actually doing it

-My dad taking Jete out to eat

-hearing my mom tell me she loves me

-building a fort with Jete, Maycee, and Jerz

-getting my hair done

-watching Chipwrecked with Jete, Jerzi, Bird, Broc, Sam, Lexie, and Deegan. We all loved it!

-going bowling

-Ducks bowl game party

-trying tons of different flavors of Cocoa Bean cupcakes

-random people coming up to me and saying, "How are you Jamie?" (meaning Bird)

-Jerzi saying to me, "Mom, are you Bird?"

-Ashton playing a song for me as loud as he could, every time I would go over to his house, so that I would start dancing.

-there was no snow in Rexburg the whole time I was there! (Dec 29- Jan 15)

I'm sure there is more, but I can't think of them right now.

Here's the only things that I got pictures of, which I'm so glad I got these.
John and his crew built this whole thing so his trucks could transload, right outside the truck shop! We all went and out and watched.

They basically pushed/slid the bridge up to the top.

They got the bridge all the way up there, then took the excavator up the other side to try to pull the bridge across the gap, without knocking the cement wall down. It was lookin a little sketchy. We were all worried. Or maybe just us peeps that were standing on the ground watching were worried. John's givin us the thumbs up sign. I guess he wasn't too worried.

Of course, it worked and they got the bridge on. Here's the crew that worked so hard on it (minus Jake). I loved watchin them. They all looked so proud. And they had every right to be. They did awesome!

Here's the three amigos, being crazy and doin tricks off the chair.

Sing it Ash!






Broc and Sam invited us come out and let the kids ride four wheelers and dirt bikes, and get in the hot tub. Jeter and Jerzi were in heaven! Jete told me this was the whole reason why he wanted to come to Idaho. He loved the little jumps, the little track that he could cruise around on, and of course... racing!

He was really nervous to get on the dirt bike, but after a lot of persuasion and convincing by me and Broc, he finally did, and loved it. He only let Broc ride with him for about 10 feet then said he wanted to do it himself. He says he wants to race motorcycles when he gets big now.


For some reason Jete kept winning the races.


"Jete, you totally cheated!"
"No sir Mom, I just drive faster than you."

Little Miss Jerzi girl was lovin it just as much as Jete.

So when we got back to Texas, I was talking to Jete one day when we were in the car. I can't remember what our exact conversation was, but I was telling him that he would be able to do something when we got home. He asked me, "What home?"
I told him our house here in Texas.
He said, "Oh, I thought you meant our other home."
"What are you talkin about? What other home Jete?"
"You know....Idaho."

Yep, Idaho is our "other" home.

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!