November update

This video is in our hotel room in Las Vegas. Joey loves to sing along with several of his movies now. I love it and am amazed at how well he gets some of the words. Joey is funny about when he decides to talk. He has his jumpstart preschool computer game and he just talks and talks while he plays, full sentences and everything. Then you try to get him to tell you why he is mad... says nothing.

For those that have not heard yet, our next little bundle is a BOY! We are so excited! Love the Boy, girl, boy! I have been so lucky with the pregnancy. The first trimester I was a bit tired and had no appetite but that was about it. I am almost completly over that to, still really tired though. I wish I had a bit more engergy. With the kids being cooped up inside we usually have to do pretty involved physical activity to get the engery out. Which requires dancing and jumping and and sorts of rough housing. Even ring around the Rosies is a bit to much involved effort, lol I feel bad that I am starting to lose the ability/desire to do that with them. They really need it!

I have been called full time to the nursery. I do enjoy it! But the class is almost 98% boy, most of which are close to 4 years old, by the end of church myself and the other lady (who is due in Feb.) are pretty much exhausted! It is a blast though, I really do love that age! I take Jeanie in there also even though she is not really soppossed to be there until January... but how can you drag a girl away from all the fun and toys, just so she can disrupt Dad's class that he teaches?

School has been going okay for the both of us. I just finished up my math course and Jared finished up a course in Information Technology. I just started Creative writing and am actually excited about this course.

Potty Training. Well that is kinda going. It has been hard to have the full attention needed to really do it probably. I am always working on a paper or trying to catch up on the house work that has been missed by working on the homework. This past week or so we have been a bit more vigilant about it. We have actually gotten Jeanie to go #2 a couple of times. The one that Joey witnessed he got all proud of her and helped her take the bowl to the toilet. He has stuck to #1's so far. Joey has been kind of resistant latley, even with just regular diaper changes... but having Jeanie use the potty definitly is influencing and encouraging him also. I am trying to get the time together to try to make some more training pants. We have a little pile that we have inherited. I really don't like the amount of $$$ signs that pop in my brain when I think of buying disposable training pants.

We rearranged the kids room a bit. We took apart the toddler bed and brought in a twin size bed from the Reece's. We just put a child at each end of the bed, and of course there is stilll plenty of room! Although Joey seems to need all that space, he moves so much in his sleep. It has been working out very nicely! It is nice to have a bit of room in there now! It will be even better when we finished going through and getting rid of some of the unneeded toys. I also plan on making a stuffed animal hammock to go in the room as well. (I have looked for one at Walmart, but I can't find them!)

Thanksgiving was fun of course! We went to the Reece's for dinner and Jared's sister Rebekah and her family came. It was fun to have the little group together but I do get sad that more of Reece's are not able to join. We miss all of you that are living out of state! Afterward we went over to the Stoker house. Unfortunatly we made it there quite late so most of my siblings had come and gone, but it was a great visit still!

Yesterday we got out all the Christmas decorations. We had fun setting up our village and setting lights all throughout. We had to be a bit clever about how to decorate the tree since glass balls and the like do not do well with two toddlers with grabby hands. I actually like its simple look though. We used white lights and gold painted pine cones. A couple of gold covered snowflakes and ribbons.

November and AZ Trip

Well I am sure you have all seen plenty of pictures of this costume. WHen I made the costume originally for Halloween, Joey was refusing to watch Monsters Inc. Now he is crazy about the movie and likes to wear his costume all the time. Here he had his lunch and then passed out in his comfy costume. After he feel asleep Jeanie starting tugging at the costume, wanting to put it on. I have the silliest little munchkins. Our Trip to Arizona

At the beginning of Novemeber we headed down to Arizona to visit Jared's sister Debbie and her family. Grandpa and Grandma Reece rode in the van with us. We borrowed there DVD system for the car and that made the whole trip run so very smooth. Joey loved watching movies and it definitly helped them from freaking out trying to get out to much. We traveled down to Las Vegas the first night. Spent the night there and then finished the rest of the trip down to Debbie's near Phoenix.

We took a quick stop at Hoover Dam and the kids were not to interested but happy to have a break from the car!
I tried several times to take a picture of the back of the Van... but Grandma Reece would always put her pillow in front of her face.

This is our hotel room. We were able to book an extended stay place for the same as normal place. It was nice having the kitchen and family room seperate from the bedrooms. There was two full beds in the room, apparently Joey and Jeanie both thought they got a bed. I had to take a picture of Jeanie's hair in the morning. Pretty much the most awesome morning hair I ever saw. Down at Debbie's house one night we had a Thanksgiving dinner down there with her and her inlaws. After dinner they had a little celebration for Derek's birthday. So part of the main reason for the timing of the visit was to see cute little Deron be blessed. We all ran late that morning but we probably would have still made it if the road we were taking there did not end up being closed down for a fair. So by the time we navigating our way around it we were to late. I felt so bad. Sorry again Deb's!While we were down for down for our visit Debbie took us out to take some family photo's. Unfortnuatly Jared and I hadn't been able to get our hair cuts before the trip, but I think the pictures turned out faboulous! I wish we had Debbie around more often to take our pictures! She is very talented!

Halloween!

Wow! So, I had thought about what to do for the kids costumes for a long time. I ended up with having them go as Mike and Boo from Monster's Inc. Funny thing is I probably should have gone with a different theme. We borrowed Monsters Inc and Toy Story 1 &2 from my parents. Joey refuses to watch Monsters again... guess it is a bit to intense for him, he will yell, "No! No MIKE!" when we would try to get him to watch it. He loves watching Toy Story though, so I probably should have gone with my Woody and Jesse idea, oh well. We got to be a whole lot more creative this way. Jared gets most of the credit for Joeys costume. He is the one that figured out how to make it... (We sewed a hood onto a long sleeve green shirt, then modified a pumpkin pattern around it.) His face was sopposed to look like the eye ball... but the face painting didn't go over so well. Lol.

Here is my Awesome Mom! Apparently she won a contest at work for it!

This is Joey and Jeanie's best friend Austin. He is our neighbor and his parents are our good friends. They have watched the kids for us when we have been to school, they were seriously a LIFE saver to us!

Here is my little comparison pages to see how well I matched the costumes to the characters!

Jared and I went as Mario and Toad from nintendo, unfortunatly we never took a picture of us. So I did take a picture of my hat... cause I thought it was pretty cool.

We had fun making the costumes! We got pretty creative I think! We didn't get to do much trick or treating, Joey was feeling a bit icky and was not very cooperative!

Why blog?

Sometimes I wonder why I even have a blog. I enjoy posting pictures to it if for nothing else I am at least getting that put together as an online scrapbook and chronicles of our little family, just need to look into how to print it. But for the most part I wonder what the point is as I have hardly any readership, I guess there is usually not much to read as I just post pictures and explainations of the pictures.

I read some of the blogs on my list and am amazed at what some people are comfortable sharing with the rest of the blogging world. I am quit jealous of it actually. For some reason I just don't feel comfortable writing a whole lot of my thoughts, trials, ect. I am not sure if it is because I am scared of judgement, unsure of my writing abilities, or just that fact that I can never think of any thing clever to say.

I think the main thing is that I worry what I will say will be misconstrued or something. Although I have a very mellow appearance I sure as heck have a lot of opinions and views, wonder if I post some of them if people will be offended with me or something. Other days when I would love to vent on my blog I worry that people will think I am just an onry person or that I am more upset about an issue then I really am, I tend to have that happen a lot. I guess my facial expressions tell more then I mean or feel.

Jared reminds me often that I worry way to much what other people think, so maybe this will help me get over it!

Anyway, what I am getting at is I might just start blogging on my blog instead of just posting pictures of my kids (even though that will still be the main thing I do... I love to brag and share!) Please don't take offense or look more into what I am saying. My next class will be creative writing, so hopefully that will help me post more enjoyable interesting bits.

Just a little update

The other day I had the kids help me make a quick halloween craft since again we could not go outside to play. It was pretty difficult cutting out the pieces since Joey insisted on helping with it. Anyway, we cut it out and Joey helped glue it together. It was so fun! The kids are obessessed with it now! Jeanie keeps pointing on the eyes, (her favorite word) "eyyees! eyyess! EYE!" so cute!!




So, I caught Joey drawing on himself with a dry erase marker. For some reason I didn't feel like making a big deal about it and started to help doodle all over him! He had a blast and giggled as I drew on his belly! It was fun and with it being dry erase it came off really easy in the tub. Except he found the same marker later and wanted to do it again. Opps.

We inherited another George and Joey thinks it is pretty cool! When I brought in his Georges to cuddle with he was pretty excited.

It was so funny, the other day Jeanie just laid down at my feet and fell asleep. It wasn't anywhere near her nap time, I guess she just didn't have enough sleep. Silly girl!

Weird little boy

Sick Days!

So these past 2 and a half weeks were a killer! It started out with Jeanie having horrible teething, keeping her up all night crying in pain. After she was over that she had a fever for several days. As soon as Jeanie was feeling all better, Joey went on a crazy cycle of sickness, going from vomiting, to fever, back to vomiting, then to coughing and and sneezing. I actually never made it to the Dr. since each day he began by seeming that he was doing a lot better. I was hesitant to go into the Dr. and have him tell me to just let the fever run its course and just give him Tylenol if he needs it. Since we would have to pay for the full visit because of our deductible. Yesterday he was FINALLY back to his old self. He is not a nice person when he is sick! I guess he gets that from me... I HATE to be sick and express it to everyone! Lol...

This picture is just the cutest! I left for an hour or so to take care of school stuff. This was when Jeanie was feeling sick and nasty, Jared said the only thing that calmed her down while I was gone was to sit with her big brother, who was all to happy to care for her. So cute!

Poor sad sicky... he just hid his face in the couch
The only thing I could get Joey to eat was Jell-O, at least he got some fluid from it.

Such a sad face

See the sad frown!

Well, in other news, the pregnancy is going really well so far! I am so lucky! Another pregnancy with hardly any sickness. This is actually the easiest so far! I actually keep forgetting that I am pregnant. Until I look in the mirror and see how much worse then normal my acne is and my pants are tight! I am SO grateful that I take it so easy... I am not sure how I could care for the little crazy kids and the house and school if I was nauseated and lying on the couch!

I got the first of the big tasks I need to do to prepare the kids for the baby. I weaned Jeanie and it went a lot better then I anticipated. I thought it would be a long drawn out battle with lots of tears and sleepless nights. Luckily I was actually able to do it almost cold turkey. I went the first two days with it totally scaled back to just morning and night. She took that really well that I just cut it all off. She was mad and would ask for it... but she wouldn't fight too hard and would give in to the alternative.

So the next big thing... really really really tackling this potty training thing. We have had it around as an idea for like 7 months now... but have not pushed the issue to much since he keeps resisting, but then he will just surprise us, say he needs to go potty, rip his diaper off himself and go. I have also been waiting for a bit more language and communication from him so we could discuss it more. I know he will talk more when he is ready. He definitely understands everything, just doesn't care to speak a lot. He is picking up a ton though now. He is constantly adding new words and sentences.

We are expecting again!

For those that have not been notified yet, We are expecting another baby! Due April 18th! 

Some cute videos!

I had issues posting these videos so for some reason the only way I could get it to work was posting them each individually!

This first video is of Joey at the park a month or so ago... This kid has no fear! He scares me sometimes what he thinks he can do! This is rather high up for a 2 year old to drop! He did this over and over again! A 7 year old came over to try it and chickend out!

The next video is of Joey dancing to this cute youtube video posted below it. Joey kept trying to mimic thier dances. Before I took the video Jeanie was more into it and Joey was trying to do the floor dances to... it was pretty darn cute!

Fearless Joe

Billy Jean!

Some Cute videos!

Finally an update!

It has been months since I have updated the blog! The main reason it took me so long was we had camera issues, first our memory card got currupted and we lost all the pictures on it that I was just so fruastrated that I lost them I ignored the camera. We then lost our good newer camera twice! Our older camera is a pretty good camera and was top of the line when Jared bought it on his mission, but it has some some weird quirks and occasionally takes pictures funny. 

We finally have side walk and pavment and a parking lot!! After 3+ months living in a mudhole it makes such a difference! Love it!

We have had a fun filled summer! We went camping with Joel and Linda beginning of June, Had the Arnold's visit, went to Lagoon, got visited from the Robison's, went camping for the Marley family reunion and celebrated Jeanie 1st birthday!

I went ahead and put the pictures onto collages so that I can still post all the zillion pictures I wanted to share.

 

Wow! Can you tell they are siblings! They are at about the same ages here... Jeanie is quite a bit thicker then Joey ever was! This is the picture of Joey we put on his shirt that we announced Jeanie's expected arrival on.

Jeanie turns 1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can not believe that our sweet little baby girl is already a year old!! I am so glad that we have her a part of our lives! She has the biggest heart and is just so sweet! Happy birthday cutie!

On my birthday (the big 25!) We went boating with the Stoker family. It was so much fun! Joey loved riding the boat! I never brought the camera down to the beach unfortuntly. While there we celebrated all the July birthdays and Jeanie got to destroy her cake! And boy did she have a good time doing it! She is wearing one of her birthday gifts from me. I made her a cute little apron as most of her bibs really don't do much but protect a small little area!

The day at the lake proved to be pretty exhausting! In these pictures there are 5 babies sleeping, and a sleepy Aunt Amanda watching over them! The only baby we were missing was Lucas... who was probably sleeping soundly wherever he was with his daddy.

On her birthday we invited the Grandma  and Grandpa Reece  and uncle Nathan to come enjoy cake and presents with us. 

We also did a fun little Korean tradition. You set out a couple items and you have the baby crawl and see what item they choose will tell you about there future.

A Ball- They will be athletic

Money- They will  be wealthy

Spool of Thread- Long life

Book- They will be a Scholar

and...

Jeanie Choose long life! 

(that was Joey's choice as well!)

Unfortunatly we had to do a rather low budget birthday. We have so many toys already that we still have in boxes we have plenty of toys. The other day when I went to DI looking for something else I cam across a cute little cabbage patch doll that reminded me so much of Jeanie... I ended up not getting it, but went back and found another one that was also pretty cute. I bought it and brought it home. I gave it a good cleaning and made some cute little clothes for it. 

At first I had thought I had found a very vintage doll- apparently the color of the ink of the signiture on the tush tells you the year. I thought it was 1984 which was the year I was born. Upon further google research however I found that my signiture was on the right cheek rather then the left... therefore making it a 1998 anniversary doll. Oh well still a fun find!

The Reece family got together on the 24th of July and on the 26th of July for Grandpa Reece's birthday. They were bitter sweet visits. Debbie and fam had come up from Arizona to visit and Joey had a fun time getting to know his cousin Derrick! We hope to make a visit down to AZ this fall and give them some more time to get to know each other!

He also had a fun time with his best bud and partner in crime Dallin. It was the last time playing with him for probably at least a year! Good luck on your journey Joel and Linda! We will miss you guys!

Potty and Play time!

We have not really officially started potty training yet. We have started to introduce the idea, let him sit on the potty very often and get the feel of training pants ect. Joey likes the free feeling of walking around naked apparently... and will try to stay undressed, everytime we suggest getting his diaper back on he screams potty and sits on it. With all that he had actually used it until the other day. He started to grab at his diaper and we took it off and he sat down, then a while later he gave up and we put his diaper back on. A few minutes later he ripped his diaper off himself and sat down on the potty and went #1! Jared and I made a huge deal about it and praised him to no end... and treated him with a Reese's butter cup!

This is a fun little indoor playground that they have over at the mall.  Its a nice way to let the kids play a bit but we are able to get out of the heat for a bit!  Poor Jeanie, at first she really liked the bubble but got a bit freaked out when she couldn't figure out how to ge thru it.

Lagoon Day!

We were able to go to Lagoon on Harmon's Lagoon day with Melissa and her girls! It was such a blast! The little kids had such a fun time! Cousin Graci and Joey wanted to ride one ride after another! We will be definitly going back next year and invite anyone to come with and partake of the discount to!

It was fun eating all the free/inexpensive food Harmon's provided. We also hung around and waited as Bob and Randy Harmon called names for all the drawings they had... unfortunatly we didn't win anything.  Jared made the box that his store's names were drawn from. I don't have a picture of it... but it was so cute! He made it into a little VW  Hippie Van to go with the Groovy theme! Good job honey!