All I Want for Christmas is My 2 Front Teeth...

Last night Jantzen lost his two front teeth, that's right, two at one time! These two teeth have been loose for a while and last night as he was getting ready for bed I told him I wanted to check them and see if they were ready to come out. I got a tissue and I started to move one of them forward and it came out. Jantzen said, "Wow! That was quick and it didn't even hurt!". I then did the same thing to the other tooth and voila!...it came out too. Even though Jantzen had a mouth full of blood, he was laughing at Jaron who was standing there in shock. Then, Jantzen proceeded to tell Jaron how he's not a baby like him when it comes to getting his teeth pulled out. Jaron completely agreed with him. 

Jantzen is my first child to lose his two front teeth at the same time and have no teeth to fill the gap. Jaron had his two permanent front teeth already in when he lost his. Now I get to sing "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth" to Jantzen...he loves it. I also told him he should be a vampire for Halloween because that's what he looks like...

"I want to bite your neck!"..ha ha ha!

   The tooth fairy came to visit him last night as he slept and he got an extra dollar from her, he was so excited. I overheard a conversation between Jantzen and Jaron about that, here's some of what was said...    Jantzen: "I got $5 from the tooth fairy!"  Jaron: "That's not fair! I never got that much at one time!"  Jantzen: "It's probably because I lost two teeth at the same time and I didn't cry."  Jaron: "Yeah, that's probably true."    Funny boys!    Now I get to enjoy watching Jantzen try to eat with no front teeth and talk with a little bit of a lisp and remember what that was like.

A Night Out with Josh and Luke...

Last night was so much fun! Josh and I dropped the kids off at Nena's house and then headed to Red Rock for the Luke Bryan concert... 

   I've been so exited to go to this concert because Luke Bryan is my favorite country singer and because I haven't been to a concert since before Jaron was born...it was a Depeche Mode concert.    I bought our tickets early enough that we were able to be on the floor, row 15 in the middle. It was nice to be that close. There was a sign saying no cameras or posters, so Josh had to take my camera back to our car and I was sad that I was going to have to rely on his cell phone for pictures. Here's a view of the stage from our seats before the concert started (taken with Josh's phone)...          The pictures that Josh was taking with his phone of the opening acts weren't turning out very good and it made me really sad, so Josh was a sweetheart and he went out to the car and smuggled my camera back in. I don't feel bad having him do that because there were a lot of people with cameras.    Jason Aldean was supposed to be Luke's opening act, but he had another thing going on last night, so there were a couple local performers that opened. This group is called "Nashville Unplugged" and they play here every weekend with a different song writer. These are song writers that help actual country singers write their songs. The guy in the middle helps Miranda Lambert write her songs. They were really good and entertaining.      Finally, around 9pm Luke came out! He told us that he hadn't been feeling good and that he got a shot in his bum (he used a different word...for a donkey) and said he was good to go. His being sick didn't seem to affect his singing, he sounded awesome!       Luke sang all of my favorite songs and then some more songs from different artists. I'm thinking they are songs from bands that have influenced him. He sang some Metallica, Journey, some others I don't quite remember, and he even sang Sir Mix A Lot's "Baby Got Back". That one was funny because everyone was singing along and after the song was over Luke asked everyone in the audience how we all knew the words. I was thinking the same thing because most of the 8000 people there were young girls...Josh and I were some of the "old folks" there, so we for sure knew the words to that song.       He sang Journey's "Faithfully" on the piano along with his song "Do I"...he plays so good on the piano and all the girls went crazy for him as he played.      This guy has some amazing talent...his voice sounded just like it does on his recorded music.           Luke also has some fun dance moves that all the girls went wild for. Josh tries to dance the same way, but he hasn't quite perfected it yet. I think he does it to make me laugh, and it works.      Towards the end of the concert, Luke sang his song "Country Girl". He then interrupted the song to say, "I'm always asking the girls to shake it, so how about I ask the guys to shake it for the ladies?" and all the girls yelled "yes". So, he pulled a guy out of the audience to come up on stage and dance for everyone. The band played some music and the guy started jumping around with his hands in the air. After about a minute of this Luke interrupted him and asked him what he was doing. He said, "It looks like you're doing P90X", and then he started doing some P90X moves...it was hilarious, everyone was laughing, including the guy on stage. Luke then showed him how to do some dancing and, again, the girls went wild!       At the end of the concert, Luke stood on a platform and sang a few more songs and did some more dancing that all the girls love (bottom right corner picture)...and then it was over...      I was sad it was over. Luke did an awesome job with his singing and entertaining, even Josh agreed with me on that. He was funny and got the audience to participate a lot and it was by far the BEST concert I've ever been to! I had a little bit of a headache because it was so loud, and I'm so old, but it was worth it. I'll definitely go again if he comes back to town.    I got a quick picture of Josh and I before we left...      ..then we headed home to a quiet house!

My Little "Zac"...

Jaron has had long hair for quite a while now. He cut it short a few years ago and immediately regretted it. I believe his exact words were, "The girls are going to hate it! They love my long hair! I"m never cutting it short again!". And he hasn't, except for the occasional trims. I personally love his hair style, not to mention he has hair to die for...thick, straight, and soft. It looks really good on him and that's where his nick name comes into play. For many years now we've been calling him "Zac Efron" because of his hair. He used to hate it, but grew to like being called Zac because, lets face it, who doesn't love "Zac Efron" and think he's a cutie?

 To document Jaron's hair, because one day he will have to cut it for his mission, I made him pose for some pictures for me. So, here's my little "Zac Efron" in his "High School Musical/17 Again" look...he's so serious!

   He did get a little embarrassed for a minute...      ...then he went right back to posing for me...      I do need to add that I really think his hair style is working for him with the ladies, also because he's a cutie too. Almost every day he has several girls (mostly 8th graders) approach him after lunch or after school is over to give him hugs and tell him how cute he is. He loves it and all his friends are jealous of him. The other day Jantzen told him he should run away when he sees the girls coming and Jaron's response to that was, "Why would I want to do that?!?!"...Oh boy!    Just a little FYI...Don't call Jaron "Justin Bieber", he HATES that! He's not a fan of that boy, but he's okay being called Josh Hartnett because he does look a lot like him, face wise.

Attempted Camping Trip

Last Friday we packed up to go on a overnight camping trip up to the rock quarry that we've been planning for a few weeks. The kids were all excited because we weren't able to do any camping this summer, it was just too crazy busy. We got on the road a little later than we had planned, so we were trying to hurry and get to our destination because we knew it was going to be dark while we set up camp. Little did we know that setting up camp in the dark was going to be the least of our trials we were going to face that night. A few days prior to our planned trip it had rained...a lot!! Driving on washed out roads where others had been while the ground was obviously still wet made for a very bumpy, and at times uncomfortable, ride. We got through most of the bumpy roads and went on our way...until another problem arose! We were driving through a ditch and all of a sudden we got stuck. Josh tried to back up the Tahoe and go on an angle, but it wouldn't budge...nothing would move! We got out to see what was going on and this is what we found...

   Yes, our trailer hitch got caught up on a rock that we didn't see because it was under the dirt and apparently the trailer decided it wasn't going to go anywhere anytime soon. Josh had to get the trailer unhooked and jack up the Tahoe so we could dig out the rock that was preventing us from continuing on with our camping.           Meanwhile, the kids got out of the car and enjoyed running around while they waited...              Here's Josh working hard to get our trailer unstuck...      After about 20 minutes, Josh got the trailer out and the Tahoe moved so we could hook things back up and head on up to our camp site. It was dark now, so we couldn't see much in front or on the side of us. We were almost to where we had planned on spending the night when we noticed a gap in the road. We got out of the car to check it out and saw that the rain had washed away part of the road...      ..it doesn't look that big in the picture, but it was over a foot wide and we didn't want to chance getting stuck or possibly having another issue with the side of the road. That's right, the right side of the road was completely washed out and it was about a 10-12 foot drop (pictured below)...that would suck to have the Tahoe and trailer fall off that!      Since it was dark outside and there was a cliff on one side of us, I walked along the road as Josh backed the trailer down to make sure he didn't go off the cliff. We got to a point where we could turn around, so Josh proceeded to back the trailer off the side of the road to turn around and I quickly told him to stop. He was about ready to jack-knife the trailer and was close to hitting the Tahoe. Turns out we had to unhitch the trailer again and turn it around, then hook it back up so we could get back down the road. So, we were on our way again to try and find a camping spot at Buffington Pocket. As we approached the camp sites we heard people shooting guns and we didn't know where it was coming from or going because it was so dark, so we decided to just go home. Our kids weren't happy, but there was nothing we could do.    When we got home we had to unpack everything, which really kind of sucks when you didn't actually get to do any camping. As I was cleaning out the coolers I noticed there was some yellow slimy stuff all over our food. It turns out the bumpy ride wasn't very kind to our eggs, not to mention the egg holder wasn't a very good container either. All of the eggs, but one, were broken. I guess it's a good thing we didn't end up going camping after all. There would've been some unhappy campers with no eggs for breakfast and egg yolks all over the rest of their food.      On Saturday night we had Kennedy, Sadie, and Tate over for a sleepover, so we decided to cook our tin foil dinners, that were meant for our dinner out camping, with them. Josh got the charcoal all lit and ready, then we cooked our tin foil dinners in the back yard...      It wasn't the same as camping, but they did taste good.    After dinner we let the kids roast marshmallows over the coals and we all enjoyed some smores...                  Even though we weren't able to go camping this weekend, we still had a good time and I guess that's all that matters. We'll try again to go camping soon...and hopefully we won't have any problems!!

So Stubborn!!

Do you see those cute little legs and feet hiding in this picture? Those belong to a super stubborn, but cute, little 3 year old who would rather hide and poop in her diaper than go potty in the toilet!!! 

   Jaedyn loves to go hide whenever she has to go #2, like she thinks we have no idea what she's doing.  She'll often wait until we put a fresh diaper on her before she'll go too.  I've been trying to convince her that wearing big girl undies is so much better than wearing a diaper and she completely disagrees with me. All of her friends are potty trained and we make sure to tell her that all the time, but that doesn't make her want to be potty trained at all. I don't know why my kids have to be so stubborn about this phase in their life, it drives me crazy!!

Hide-n-Seek!

Who's that hiding behind that cupboard??? 

   It's Jaedyn!      Jaedyn is such a little stinker to her brothers sometimes! On this particular occasion of her "stinker-ness" she decided it would be fun to steal Jantzen's Kindle. He didn't want her to to play it because sometimes she messes things up. Well, she decided that she was going to play it anyway, so she ran into the bathroom with it and hid behind the cupboard...you know, because no one can find her there! You gotta love younger siblings!!

First Day of Preschool...

Today was Jaedyn's first day of preschool. She has been anxiously waiting for this day ever since her brothers started school a couple weeks ago. She got all dressed in her "first day of school outfit" that Jantzen picked out for her, we fixed her hair all pretty, then we headed out the door for her "1st day of school" pictures. She had to try and pose the same way her brothers did...she's such a cutie! 

          Jaedyn had two different backpacks that she got from her friends for her birthday to choose from for her first day of school and in the end "Tinkerbell" won out over "Hello Kitty". She made sure I got a picture of her backpack...      Jaedyn also got a smash book to keep all of her preschool projects and notes from her teacher in. She insisted that I put her name on it, so this is what we came up with. All of the flowers were her idea. It's a good thing we added her name because all of the other girls in her class picked out a pink book too.      I dropped Jaedyn off at preschool and I went to run some errands. I really think I'm going to enjoy having four hours a week all to myself, except I think it's going to be spent running around!    I picked Jaedyn up after school and I asked her how she liked it. Her response was, "It was awesome! Can I go back!". I'm so happy she liked it.

Labor Day Fun...2012

Today we went up to the mountains for our annual "Labor Day" picnic. The weather has still been way too hot for me to handle, so I really look forward to this day...we don't get up to the mountains enough. When we got up there we set up our picnic stuff. Josh didn't want to set up the canopy because the weather was perfect and he said we wouldn't need it, but I insisted that he should, so he did. It's a good thing I had him set up the canopy because not long after it was up the weather changed and it started hailing. It was so crazy, but it didn't last long. The kids thought it was cool and I gave a "I told you so" to Josh.

This year we went with the McKee's and Jaedyn was so excited because she wanted to hang out with Casen, aka her "boyfriend". Casen got this play golf set for his birthday and Jaedyn had a blast playing with it with him...

Jaron and Jantzen played with the rest of the McKee boys and they found this really cool fort that had already been built. This is where they took shelter when the quick hail storm came through...


  They also had a "bridge", as they called it, leading to their fort that they had fun playing on. Jaedyn had to get in on the fun with them and her brothers were really sweet as they helped her cross the bridge...     After eating lunch and playing for a little while, Mary and I took the kids on a hike up the mountain...the kids love to go hiking. Jaron and Jaedyn stopped to check out a little bit of graffiti on one of the trees. It really irritates me that people do stuff like that, especially in the middle of nature!     After a while of hiking, we all took a little break...     Jaedyn did a little modeling for me...     ...then Krew joined her...     ...and they had fun making funny faces at me...     While the boys were exploring, Jaedyn found a tree stump to practice some of her gymnastics moves on...     Jaron found a bunch of ants that he decided to irritate a little bit...     Then we continued on with our hike. On our way down the boys took us on a steeper side of the mountain than where we hiked up. Jantzen had a little bit of trouble with it. He almost fell down, but was able to quickly catch himself. Next time I'll lead on the way down instead of letting the boys.     By the time we got back from our hike, it was time to pack up to go home. I got a couple pictures of us adults to prove that our kids weren't there without any parental supervision.    Here I am with my cute friend Mary...     ...and then all of us together...     Before we went home we decided to drive up to the ski resort and see if the lifts were open. They were, so we paid for all of us to take a ride up the mountain on them. Jaedyn was a little hesitant at first, she wasn't sure this ride was going to be a fun thing. She latched on to her daddy pretty tight...         Jaron and Jantzen rode on the ski lift with me. Jaron was loving the ride...     ...Jantzen, not so much! He was a little freaked out about how high he was. I told him to just sit back, hold on, and relax and he'd be fine. After a little while he wasn't as scared anymore.     I attempted to get a picture of the boys and I, but this is what I got. I had to hold the camera out pretty far just to get this and thought if I tried to hold it out any farther that I'd drop it...sorry boys!     I got our feet instead...     Josh and Jaedyn were two seats ahead of us and he took this picture of the boys and I with his GoPro. It doesn't really look like we're that high above the ground, but we really were pretty high up...     Josh got some fun pictures of him and Jaedyn goofing around on the way up the mountain. Jaedyn seemed to be having a good time after she relaxed a little...     Jaedyn got a picture of her feet too. I'm thinking her legs were crossed and that's why her shoes look like they're on the wrong feet because I don't remember putting them on her that way...     Once we got to the top of the mountain, we got off to explore a little bit. Jaedyn had to show me who's #1 in our family (I'm thinking it's her?)...     ...and then, of course, she had to give Jantzen some bunny ears!     My camera battery died right after I got the pictures of Josh and the kids, so Josh started using his GoPro. Here's a cute picture of all of us on top of the mountain that he took...I'm glad we're all in it!     We hopped back on the ski lifts and headed back down the mountain. Jaedyn had some more fun with Josh's camera...         On our ride the boys spotted this red bra dangling from one of the trees, they thought it was really funny and they laughed...you know, the way little boys do. I wonder how many times it took to get the bra to hang on the tree like that.     Our ride finally ended and the boys wanted to go again, but I didn't want to pay again so we didn't. We headed home...back to the heat!    We all had another fun Labor Day in the mountains. I love the cooler weather and I can't wait for it to cool off at home!