Oh How Fun,

Our Princess turned ONE!

Ella turned one on March 23rd and we had a little celebration! Family came over and celebrated her special day! We made tons of cupcakes and had lots of candy! Jack spent part of the day with Grandma so Ella and I were able to spend some special girl time together and I loved it!

She is such a sweet little girl and I really can't believe she is already one year old! Where in the heck did that year go?!? It seems like just yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital!
She is still not walking but still manages to get into most everything. She says Hi, Bye and after much coaxing... I LOVE YOU! She still is a terrible sleeper and still manages to get us up several times a night but, we still love her! I haven't slept through the night in over 3 years so who needs to start now? :) She is starting to develop a little sassy attitude and doesn't let her brother get away with everything anymore. She has begun to fight back and i'm sure the fist fights will only get worse! Most of the time though she is very easy going and doesn't mind getting drug around everywhere we go.
She is our special girl and we love her so much!

Spring Break 2010

So this year we decided to head out for spring break to somewhere warm. My Mom works for the college so she gets the same week off that I got so we loaded the car and hit the road. My nephew Colton and Niece Ainslee came with us and we headed to St. George and then Vegas. We checked the weather doppler before we left and it looked pretty clear so away we went. All was well for about 1.5 hours into the drive until we hit a TERRIBLE snow storm. Scariest driving experience of my life, including almost rear ending a semi stuck in the snow SITTING in our lane on the freeway, then a semi sliding backwards down the hill on the ice in our lane on the freeway, ya that one was pretty scary, and then to top it all off, my car almost didn't make it up a hill. We were sliding back down and spinning out, I seriously was praying that we would please just make it up the hill. Obviously we did and we are all alive but it was VERY scary there for a couple of hours. When we watched the weather later that night the town we were near in the storm got more than six inches and I bet in the mountains where we were there was nearly a foot of snow that my Honda had to plow through! To our delight though after we made it past Cedar City we were greeted by SUNSHINE and LOTS of it. We had a great time in Vegas relaxing, walking our bums off, eating and swimming. Ella on the other had developed a weird cough that everytime she would drink some milk she would cough and the milk would come exploding right back out at us. She left her mark on several places in Vegas and all over me, her stroller, her blankets, her car seat and LOTS of her clothes. Luckily, I had packed extra but it was pretty slim pickings by the time we got home.
Overall we had a great time and i'm really sad that the week is already over. I didn't take very many pictures because I was a little pre-occupied by trying to anticipate when the next milk explosion might take place!

It was great to get away for a few days but it's also always great to get back home. I missed my Jacker man too much and although he drives me CRAZY some days I always can't wait to get home to see him! Him and his dad held down the fort at home and Grandma "nette" spoiled him rotten while Dad had to work! It was a great break and very appreciated!

WE DID IT...

Yesterday I booked them..... Ryan and I are officially going on a vacation together! We haven't been anywhere together since our honeymoon 5.5 years ago! Needless to say, I'M SO EXCITED. Ryan not so much, although he is putting on a happy face for my sake. He just isn't into traveling that much and would rather be hiking on the mountain. Although, it's not really going to be just both of us... (Ella is coming) I am so excited to just get away and spend some time together!

Although I said I would never go back after our last trip there... we are flying into Philadelphia,going to NYC and then onto Nantucket. SO SO SO excited.

Just want to say thanks to Southwest for the travel vouchers that they gave us after our terrible flight experience on our last trip that is making all of this possible and big thanks to Mike and Christie for letting us crash at their house in Nantucket.
And, also a thank you in advance to the grandma's for watching Jack while we are gone. If you didn't have grey hair before we left.... you will by the time we get home!

Sleeping Beauty Take 2

Apparently we may be burning the candle at both ends....

Stay at the Hotel-O

We stayed Friday night in Pocatello at what Jack thought was the Hotel-O. We got free rooms from our last trip there because it was a disasterous trip last time and we had to use our free rooms before they expired. Unfortunately, since the last trip they still haven't warmed up their pool and this time even the hot tub was not working. Needless to say there wasn't as much swimming that took place as we had originally planned for. We did however brave the cold for awhile and took a dip! Jack had fun swimming and it was just too cold for Ella to get in. Next time... we WON'T be staying at the Red Lion in Pocatello.

Although the pool was freezing we still had lots of fun and Jack was just tickled pink at getting to sleep at the Hotel-O and even did a great job sleeping by himself in a big bed!

Snowmobile/Sledding Trip 2010

Our annual trip to Pocatello for sledding was this last weekend and we had a great time! Jack totally had a blast and screamed for a good 10 minutes when it was time to go! We can't wait until next year.....



I love this picture of Jack throwing the fit in the snow and refusing to take a picture with us!

It was too quiet....

And this is were I found them.....


He told me he was just pretending.... but.... the next day I found a baseball sized part of Pax's fur that was crusty and smelled like shampoo. It's a good thing he is such a patient dog!

What's Up??

Jack doing what he does best.... pestering his sister!

We haven't had anything exciting around here to blog about lately. I have just been busy doing homework and wrangling the two munchkins. Elk shed season is here so Ryan spends most of his time at work and then begging to go look for Elk. He loves looking for elk sheds for some silly reason and Jack was sure excited when his dad came home the other day with more "sharp antlers". It only took him 9 hours of hiking to get them. I know I wouldn't consider this a fun pastime but,I am happy to report that he has finally succumbed to the pressure from me and is selling a few of them on ebay. A VERY SLIM few but we will take what we can get.

Jack has been soaking up the sunshine the last few days and has spent many hours outside playing with the dog and getting into things. First thing this morning he dumped a whole pile of dirt on the bottom of the slide that was still wet with dew and then proceeded to slide down the slide. We were on our second outfit of the day by 9:30am! It is so funny to watch him and Pax outside playing because they are like best friends. When you look out the window they are always right by each others side! One more thing that this little precious boy has been up to is PEEING on my floor to PUNISH me! When he gets mad at me he tells me "I pee on your floor" and proceeds to do so. Seriously??? Did he seriously just do that? Yes he did! Twice in fact in one day. After making him rinse in cold water after he did it.... I'm hoping he will have learned his lesson!
He did his own makeup the other night while his dad was SUPPOSED to be watching him!

Little Miss Ella is just preparing to be a ONE year old! Can you even believe it? I sure can't. She is busy getting into things although she is not near as much of a handful as Jack was.... Or maybe I'm just used to it by now? I'm not sure! She still isn't walking.... not even close, but i'm okay with that because she's much slower on all fours than she will be when she can run! She is so cute.... she can say hi and wave at you and also waves goodbye. She also knows about cell phones and will put it up to her ear and say "Hi." How quickly they learn!!


We've been seeing a lot more of this around our house now that miss Ella has developed an attitude!

So in a nutshell.... nothing exciting is happening around here but I don't mind it!

I Love Books

This little chick-a-dee LOVES to read and it's so cute to see her little pudgy hands turning all the pages! I love her!

Happy Un-Birthday to you Jack!

Saturday was Jack's un-Birthday so we celebrated with a trip to In-and-Out and to the mall. Those were our plans for the day anyway but it sounds better that we actually made plans and celebrated! Our quick trip to the In-and-Out which Jack refers to as "the hamburger store" was more like a trip to the order your food and cross your fingers that someone's almost done eating so you can have a seat and then cram in to the restaurant like a bunch of sardines, hurry and eat so someone else can have your seat kind of trip! Although it's good I don't think it's that great and definately wouldn't sit in the drive thru for 30 minutes for it! And I definately wasn't impressed when Ryan heard somebody order their fries "animal style" and so Ryan had to try it and changed his order and we ended up with some fries slimed with cheese and some kind of onion mixture. I didn't let him live this one down all day long that he had ruined the fries!
Okay, back to the original purpose of this post.....
Jack at 2.5 years old.....
He is a handful...
Loves to tell me to "Hold my Pee Wee" when I tell him to do something....
Went to the dentist today and they said he did better than almost all 2 yr olds...
Is getting quite the vocabulary and surprises us with new sentences everyday....
He is quite the mirror and loves to repeat all the nice things he hears people say...
for example.... SHUT UP....which i'm not happy about so when he tells you that... I'm sorry!
Did I mention he's a handful??
Doesn't eat hardly anything but when he wants to eat he loves pancakes.
LOVES to cook and clean. Can't decide what he will be.... the janitor or the lunch lady.... I mean Lunch man!
Still is super mean to his sister and if you mention pepper even while you are cooking... he will inform you that he doesn't like it..... it's spicy! (think he's had it a few times?)
LOVES his Grandma's and begs to go there constantly! Is spoiled rotten while he is there!
LOVES his sippy and apple juice.
Is COMPLETELY potty trained!
When you ask him what you do with deer.... he tells you SHOOT THEM!
Courtesy of my brother.... he bosses me around and tells me to DO IT!
HE is my FAVORITE little two year old..... although I can't wait til he can me my favorite THREE year old and leave the TERRIBLE TWO's behind!