The reason..

For our short and sweet blogs today. Jack is insisting he needs to help type and let me tell you what a great helper he is!

He's growing up too quick!

I've come to the realization that Jack is getting too big too quick and definately too smart for this own good. Just this last weekend at my mom's house he has learned to say:

Mam-ma (grandma)

Bop-pa (grandpa)

Uh-Uh (uh-oh)

Of course he doesn't perform them on command but when he wants to he can sure give you an earfull!

My little cheese ball!

Jack recently learned what "say Cheese" means....

Only in Idaho...

do you have to follow cows down the highway!
Jack sure enjoyed watching them up close and personal out his window!

One Sick Little Boy

This past week we went to Idaho to stay with my Mom while Ryan went elk hunting with Cory. We arrived on Tuesday and Jack immediately started acting cranky and whiny once we arrived. It wasn't long before he went into full blown screaming at the top of his lungs nonstop. I knew something was wrong with him but we had just been to the dr the week before and he said it was nothing. After screaming all through the night and all morning on Wednesday I knew we had to go back to the Dr. He wouldn't eat or drink anything and couldn't swallow his own spit so I figured it was a problem with his throat. Not to mention that he had the nastiest breath I have ever smelt! I called my insurance and quickly learned that we were covered NOWHERE in Idaho but to go to the emergency room. While on the phone still with the insurance and debating whether to just drive back to Salt Lake they luckily found a clinic in Pocatello that they were contracted with so we would be covered. So Shawnae and I packed up Jack and headed out the door! After hearing him SCREAM for an hour on the way to Pocatello we finally were seen by a doctor who determined he did have strep throat. He gave Jack some antibiotics and sent us on our way. Luckily once we started the medicine Jack got feeling better really quickly! I hope we don't have another bad sickness for awhile because not only did Jack feel miserable but I felt miserable because there was nothing I could do for him. I have to say thank you so much to Shawnae for helping me out and driving us to Pocatello and not complaining too much about the ear ringing screaming and thanks to my Mom for letting me sleep during the day so I didn't turn into a sleep deprived monster!

This could have been bad....

This afternoon when Jack woke up from his nap I was surprised to find that he had undone both sides of his diaper! Luckily he was still lying down when I found him or we would have had some unwelcome little brown guests in Jack's bed! Apparently he was pretty pleased with his newfound trick and I learned no more sleeping in a diaper and t-shirt!

For the record....

Whys everybody always picking on me?

For the record Aunt Katie, it's more like a gap not buckteeth (yet), and at the doctor the other day I had grown one whole inch in four months! And as for the red hair, your right!
And gosh darn it, people like me!

p.s. you shouldn't leave yourself logged in to your account on someones computer.

Thankful Monday?

So I won't have access to a computer on Thursday so we are going to have Thankful Monday today. I am thankful for all of my friends from high school and college. A lot of them I try to still keep in contact with and I love to hear what they have all done with their lifes! A lot of who I am today is a result of having such great friends and influences growing up! I wish we all weren't spread out across the country and that we could get together more often! Kerrilyn and Amelia were my best friends from high school.
The whole gang of us college girls at Chris Hymas's farewell.

We were so not too old to go trick or treating in college! Misty and Karla were some great roomates from college who actually became sister in laws!

Thankful Thursdays

So I almost forgot to post something today because with being sick I feel like I missed 2 days of the week. I'm still living in Tuesday and have constantly had to be reminded that today is THURSDAY!

Today I'm going to be thankful for our dog. He is such a good little guy and was a great companion to me as I layed in bed near death. Never once did he worry that he might catch the flu and stayed cuddled up right next to me. Yesterday at about 7pm I realized that since I hadn't left my room all day that Pax hadn't been let out to use the bathroom either. I felt so guilty but the poor little thing didn't even have an accident or complain that he hadn't been let out! I will admit that somedays he does drive me crazy and sometimes as I'm vaccuming up half a dog worth of hair I consider what it would be like without him but overall I love our little "spooey"!
He loves to go shed antler hunting with Ryan.

And I like to make him stay home and take baths which he doesn't so much love!

Jack and Pax have a love hate relationship. Pax loves it when Jack's strapped in his highchair and throws him some food and hates it when he's loose and chases after him to pull his hair! By the way Pax keeps the kitchen floor spotless! He will eat anything Jack throws his way!

Hey you.... Thanks for the Flu!

Ya you know who you are! Well it finally caught up with me. I have been sicker than a dog since yesterday afternoon! Jack has been sick for a few days too and I finally took him to the doctor yesterday morning and they tested him for strep but we haven't heard back from them so i'm taking that as a good sign! Thank you Grandma Annette so so much for watching Jack today. I don't know what we would do without you - you're a lifesaver! Thankfully though I think I am on the mend - I am feeling a little bit better this morning! Big thanks to my wonderful husband who took care of Jack and I last night without too much complaining! I know we were both being whiners!

Baby Monet?

I decided to try and do a couple crafts while I was at my mom's and Jack and Alyssa really wanted to help. Rosie hooked Jack up with a paintbrush and some water and he sat there for a good 20 minutes painting the table, his arm, inside his mouth, pretty much anywhere he could reach. I just need to teach him how to paint the walls because I want to paint my bedroom and wouldn't mind some help! Oh ya and by the way Alyssa gave herself that wonderful haircut.... isn't it pretty?

Granny Love...

What else can I say? Jack LOVES his Granny Rosie! (By the way those are kisses - He's not trying to eat her face!)


I like her a little bit too! :) Love you mom - Thanks for the fun weekend!

mmmm.... Salsa!

Saturday we decided to use some of my moms massive tomato collection to can some delicious salsa. Okay mostly I just watched but it turned out delicious! Jack was a great helper when we were picking the tomato's and tasted almost every tomato Grandma Rosie picked. So if you are afraid of germs I wouldn't try the salsa!

The finished product.... Yum!

White Trash Splish Splash

When we got to Idaho on Friday we went to Aunt Shawnae's first for a quick visit! She gave him a new haircut and Avery and Jack had a great time playing. Before we left they decided they wanted to take a swim and what do you do when you don't have a pool? Pull out the cooler! They loved swimming in there together although it was a bit of a tight squeeze! Only in good old Idaho would you see kids outside swimming in a cooler!

I just love the face Avery pulls when you say "cheese"!

Thankful Thursdays

Since it is September 11th I have to say today that I'm thankful for the country that I live in. I'll never forget the day of September 11th, 2001 and the way it made me feel. I was living in Nantucket at the time and it was the scariest thing to watch the whole island shut down after the terrorist attacks. There were no planes flying, no ferry's running basically you were stuck on the island. I've never wished so hard in my life that I was home with my family. I remember driving around the town and seeing people just walking down the street on their cell phones crying. A lot of the tourists on Nantucket are from New York so I can only imagine how many of them lost family members or friends. I think that we all take for granted how lucky we are to live in a country with so many rights and privleges. I know I don't always take the time to be thankful for the country I live in so today I'm going to.

What a BIG boy you have!

Last Friday before we left to Idaho we went to Jack's 12 month check-up. Of course we were stuck in the room waiting for the doctor for about 30 minutes and Jack managed to hit his head on the exam table and bonk into a few other things before the doctor came in. The doctor was probably considering turning us in for child abuse because of all the "owies" Jack has had recently. But luckily he trusted our explanations and continued on with the exam. We are the proud owners of a 24lb 3oz 32.5in long one year old little boy. For the first time ever and I thought I would NEVER hear these words the doctor said we have a very long and LEAN little boy and that he needs to drink whole milk! Who would have thought my BIG little guy would ever be called lean? He confirmed our suspicions that Jack is growing just fine and learning all that he should be at this age. We went to leave and we made our next appointment for 6 months down the road. I almost passed out when she said that would be in March and what day would work for me. For the first time it actually hit me that I will be having another baby in MARCH. Holy cow that will be here before I know it and that fact scares me just a tiny bit... okay a lot. Oh ya and speaking of Jack always having a bruise... while we were dropping Ryan off at work Jack was running around the parking lot showing off for Uncle Cory when he tripped and his forehead bounced off the pavement. I was just thankful that we had already been to the dr's and I didn't have to explain the new goose egg hanging off of his forehead!

Wading and Marshmallows

This past weekend Jack and I headed up to Idaho to spend the weekend with my Mom. My stepdad was out of town for the weekend so we had a great time enjoying some girl time plus Jack! Saturday morning on our way to town we decided to get some of Jack's cousins and head to the cabin at Yost. We grabbed all the "essentials" for a night of "camping" and grabbed the kids and we were on our way. We stopped by my Grandpa Dalton's grave and cleaned it off and decorated it since we haven't been there for awhile. It makes me sad that Jack will never be able to play with Grandpa Dalton because he would have loved him. But hopefully he will grow to love him through all the fun stories we will share with him!

Once we got to the cabin Jack LOVED wading in the ice cold creek that was too cold for me to even put my feet in. His wonderful Granny braved the cold with him so he could walk up and down the creek playing in the water.
Later that night we decided to roast some marshmallows and it was Jack's first time participating in "roasting" a marshmallow. He wasn't very interested in watching everyone else get to roast a marshmallow so my mom gave him his own stick and he got busy. He had a death grip on the stick and copied everything that Colty did.
He put it in the fire, dragged it down the sidewalk, swung it around and took a lick or two. After we let him play with the stick a bit I tried to take it away to put on his pj's but he wasn't interested in that. He wriggled away from me stark naked, grabbed his stick and hurried over to the fire to roast it some more.

We had a little too much fun with the self timer and took a ton of pictures of us being crazy. I love that we can go and have such a fun time together as family!

SILVER LAKE #2

Okay so Ryan made fun of me because apparently I wrote Silver Lake wrong on my last post so hopefully I got it right honey!

Last night we again ventured up to Silver Lake but this time I was a little more prepared. I dressed Jack in his old high water overalls and his too big hiking boots (you can't be picky about sizes when they are hand-me-downs!) so we wouldn't ruin anymore outfits.

Although when we got there though I was relieved to find that the rain had settled all the dust so Jack crawled and rolled through the dirt without hardly even getting dirty! This time though it was freezing and I was glad I had grabbed a jacket for myself too! It's amazing how much difference in temperature you could feel and it was only 5 days since we were there last time! Fall is here and I love it!

I had packed us a delicious desert of strawberry shortcake to enjoy up at the lake but after the lovely windy ride up again I wasn't feeling well and was doing my best just to keep my dinner down. So unfortunately Ry had to take the shortcake to work today and we didn't quite enjoy the picnic like I had planned! Luckily Ry let me know that it tasted delicious!
Jack and I had fun snapping a few pictures before the sun went down and just enjoyed the scenery while Ryan looked for wildlife. We had a great evening and I can't wait to do it again although Ry can we find a different location that doesn't involve windy dirt roads?


(I hate this picture of me but I couldn't resist Jack's cheesy smile!)

Thankful Thursdays

Today I am going to be ooeey goooey so try not to gag...and say that i'm thankful for my husband. He is such a great father to Jack (even if he still struggles through changing a poopy diaper)and it makes me so happy to see them wrestling on the floor together or building a tower of blocks. I can already see that Jack is going to LOVE the outdoors as much as his dad does and I'm sure they will spend countless hours enjoying it together! I'm so thankful that Ry works so hard so that I can stay home with my baby. You will never know how much of a special gift that is to me! I love you Ry and although I just "love" (ya i'm being sarcastic)hunting season I can't wait for it to be over so we can spend more time together! Love you baby!