This is Jack

This post is long overdue.

Introducing my little Jack.

I say "MY" because my children lost interest in him within the first 10 minutes.

So now I am his primary caregiver.

And he really does just love me. First, I must say, I am not a pet person at all. My daughter asks constantly for a pet (Jack doesn't count apparently). But for some reason, when he looks at me with those creapy little rodent eyes, I just melt. For real. Many of you find me crazy, as do I... but I couldn't bear to get rid of him. Until 2 days ago when

he bit my Sydney and made her bleed!

I'm not totally insane... my baby comes first so now he's definitely on my bad list.

So if anyone knows anyone who wants another pooping, peeing machine that's not good with kids, I've got just the pet for you. Because seriously, look at that face.

What a sweet face.

This is what I live with...I don't clean my bathrooms anymore
because I'm always cleaning up my hamster's "bathroom". If you look in the bottom left hand corner you can see little spots... yeah, that's his pee. He somehow squirts it out of the cage.
I seriously hate him.

I don't think this picture needs much of an explanation... except, I had just scrubbed the kids' bathroom because Sydney decided to use the bathtub for her potty. If it's not hamster poop it's toddler poop. Seriously. So the bathroom is super clean (of course I cleaned EVERYTHING). So you see piles of towels and sheets to be cleaned. And of course the never ending mess of toys that follow Sydney around. By the way, she saw me with the camera and ran into the shot. Awesome.
(This picture inspired by my cute friend Kristen and her "messy" house :-).

Christmas Snow

I found our Christmas snow storm pictures. This is the view from Dallin's mom's house. This was the snow accumulation from just overnight. It continued to snow throughout Christmas day totaling over 20 inches of snow. It was beautiful.

Let it Snow!!

A lot of snow fun during Christmas in Sun Valley. We played in the snow A LOT! Sydney is my newest fan of the cold wet stuff. Tanner got to ski for the first time this year. By his 3rd time on the magic carpet (on the kiddie hill), he was ready for the real lift. Dallin said that Tanner was fantastic (sorry no picture) and fearless. Sun Valley got snow almost everyday while we were there. Over 20 inches just on Christmas Eve night to Christmas morning. So we had a lot of snow to play in.

Sydney's sled is a boogie board. It was the only thing we could find that we could tie a rope to so I could drag her along. It did not go fast at all...so if I wanted to give her some speed, I would have to run down the little hill. Seriously, it was that slow. She thought it was great.

Just a cute picture of her cold nose and rosy red cheeks.

Sydney's first time playing in the snow (technically her 2nd time, but she didn't like it much last year).

King of the Mountain. Tanner is standing at the top of one of the snow-plowed "mountains". He and Kaitlyn would ice-climb up the mountain and slide down a smooth side.

This little cave is the entrance into their fort.

Just behind Tanner is the slide the kids had "constructed" from the piles of snow. Their fort included 2 bedrooms, a "playroom" area, and of course, a refrigerator. Plus an ice-climbing wall with a slide to go back down. It was super fun. I even did it.

You can see that the snow is as deep as the deck is tall. On the right of Tanner is the deck and the snow reaches above the bottom of the deck.

Christmas 2008, part 1

I love the big smiles a successful Christmas morning brings. Kaitlyn asked Santa for the robot lion cub. It's eyes open and close, she growls, purrs, and sleeps. It's pretty cute. Hopefully it will pass for a pet. Kaitlyn still wonders why we can't have a horse in our backyard. So, instead, Santa brought her a "littlest pet shop horse" that's like a game. You have to feed it, etc. She also got Pokemon cards.

Tanner is now among the "gamers". Of course he is thrilled. He also asked Santa for some power rangers, Pokemon cards, and bubble gum (all of which he got).

This year we spent Christmas in Sun Valley with Dallin's mother. We had a very nice and relaxing time. It snowed 24 inches on Christmas Eve. I thought I had taken a picture of it, but I guess not. It was amazing to go to bed with maybe 2 inches of snow and to see such a HUGE increase by morning. It was a wonderful white and snowed in Christmas. We lounged around and relaxed for 2 days. We finally got out of the house on the 27th. With that much snow you just don't plan on leaving. It was great.

Christmas 2008, part 2

Sydney is quite the gentle little mother :). She seriously is a very sweet and gentle big sister to her baby sister. She always feels bad if she hurts someone on accident. She has a very tender and sweet heart. She really loves this baby and the stroller that santa brought her.

Sydney and Addison received Puppy dog mittens from Omi. In this picture, Sydney's puppy mitten is "licking" Addison, sound effects included.

On Addison's first Christmas she did what was expected of her: Eat the wrapping paper and her gifts. Way to go Addison, at 7 1/2 months you're right on target.

My cute Kaitlyn

My Kaitlyn wanted all of her friends to sleep with her this night. Notice how they all are looking in the direction of the doorway. What a great way to be greeted upon entering Kaitlyn's room.

Rock Museum

This is the sign in book for Kaitlyn and Brinley's rock museum. I first called the museum (on my cell phone to my house phone) to inquire about hours and special exhibits. I paid an extra $15 to view the "rare and special" rocks.

A nice lady in our ward, Sis. Harelson, gave Kaitlyn her daughters super great rock collection. My children were thrilled. I could hear my Tanner and Kaitlyn planning the construction of their rock museum. They wanted to use the vacant lot across the street to build their museum. They wanted it to be like a dog house but bigger. Their other plan was to paint Kaitlyn's room brown and display the rocks on the wall. Brinley was wise to say that might not be a good idea because when we took the rocks off, the wall and paint would tear. Very wise indeed :). So this is their museum for now... which I LOVE! They just got a book today to help them identify different rocks to become true geologists.

The Joy of a 2 year-old

This is how I found Sydney tonight... "making out" with our Gingerbread house. She is so proud to have discovered that climbing onto the table means all you can eat treats. If you look closely at the mint at the front of the house, you'll notice that the stripes are gone. That is because she must have done this earlier in the day when I had the gingerbread house on my black table (I must not be watching her very closely because I didn't even know she was on that table). When I was polishing the table today, I noticed little feet prints on the table top next to where the house had been. The little foot print, Sydney size, and the missing stripes on the front mint lead to only one thing... Sydney is in love with the mints on the Gingerbread house and I need to do a better job at watching her :-).

Gingerbread House

Addison is now 7 months old and is such a nice baby. She cried for the first 5 1/2 months and now she is so wonderful and mellow. She can be sitting in her highchair now... STARVING... and she'll wait patiently until I get everyone else their food. She just looks around at everyone and waits for her turn. Now I can lay her in her bed and she'll go to sleep all by herself. Hopefully I won't loose all the tone in my legs from all the bouncing I've had to do, but I'm sure grateful that she is happier these days.

This was just a quick snapshot before we went to church today. Sydney did not want to cooperate, hence the candy cane in her had. What cute kids.

My cute master builders. They always do a great job. Tanner did the sidewalk extra great this year and I love Kaitlyn's tree and the roof.

My 2 year old on a stealth "candy seeking mission". Needless to say, the gingerbread house is at a much higher location now.

Sydney's 2nd Birthday

Today is Sydney's 2nd Birthday... So, obviously this was not part of the plan. Sydney is a wonderful 2 year-old climber. I found her on the table and she leaned down and licked her cake. It was hilarious! So we quickly grabbed the video camera and camera and snapped away. This was definitely an impromptu party. She was quite pleased with herself. Then we gave her a "Word World" DVD and toy (this is her favorite show on PBS). She can now proudly say, "I two." We are so grateful to have sweet Sydney in our family.

Baby Addison on Thanksgiving Day. She's getting better at sitting without support.

Cute Kaitlyn doing such a great job on setting the table for our first Thanksgiving dinner in our home. We loved it.

Cute Sydney took over Tanner's job of loading the dishwasher. She was thrilled. I wasn't. Climbing is a curse in an almost 2 year old.

Tanner's cute Indian outfit that he made at his Kindergarten feast. So cute.

Tanner and Kaitlyn showing off the pies they helped their grandma Omi make.


Sydney still proud of herself and making a big mess with the soapy water.

My early Christmas present: a new bedroom set

I am so excited about this new bedroom set. We've been using my husbands childhood bedroom furniture for almost 9 1/2 years. I think we deserved to get our very own. Our friends furniture store in town is downsizing to just 1 store (instead of their 2 stores) so they were holding fabulous sells. I didn't think we would be lucky enough to find anything... but we were. The bedding is a hodge podge of whatever I found that was the right kind of blue. I didn't want the room to be too dark... and I really wanted this color of blue. Luckily I found the decorative pillows at TJ Maxx and the sheets. THat made me very excited given I really wanted this steel blue color with silver and black. Next the curtains, rods and lamps were the perfect color blue and matched the hardware on the dresser on end tables (there is also a large dresser with a mirror.. the mirror is still on the floor so I didn't take the picture). FInding the duvet cover was more of a trick... Trying to find fabric without a lot of crazy stuff going on was very difficult. Luckily Pottery Barn came to my rescue with steel blue embroidered dots as an accent. I LOVE IT!!! I feel so grown-up now.

Silly Sydney

Just a cute picture with her "dancing" her dolly, Jessie. It looks more like Jessie is hiding, but she had just been bustin' a move.

This is Sydney's signature dance move. I call it the "doggy swap". She'll do this with both legs. It is hilarious. I love her age. She is our little entertainer.

I'm going Private!

I've decided that I should protect my precious family by going private. Please post a comment on my blog so I can invite you soon. I will make it official in the next couple of weeks.

Halloween!!

Those are some creepy lips Tanner boy

Sydney loves CANDY!!!

Counting the loot!!!

Kaitlyn is proud of her pile.

My beautiful little butterfly and my cool Clone Trooper