Yummy, Yummy!

Jaedyn has been on solid foods for about a month now. We started with rice cereal that she absolutely hated. Little does she know that we add rice cereal to her veggies to make them thicker. We then moved on to her yellow veggies, sweet potatoes, squash, and carrots. She liked both the sweet potatoes and squash, but when Josh tried to give her carrots she gagged. He probably should have just kept feeding them to her so she can get used to them, but being the sucker he is with her, he said no, he wasn't going to make her eat them. Boy, she really has him wrapped around her little finger. So, that same day we went to the store to exchange a weeks worth of carrots for some peas. This time we only bought a few days worth to make sure she liked them. I didn't want to have to go to the store again. Lucky us, she LOVES the peas! We can't feed them to her fast enough. If you don't have the spoon full of peas in her mouth as soon as you take it out from the last bite, she will try to grab your hand and shove the spoon in her mouth. It's pretty cute.

Here are some pictures of her eating her last jar of squash right before she got her yummy carrots. She was kind of getting sick of having the squash. I don't blame her. If I had to eat the same pureed food three times a day for a week, I'd get sick of it too. Although, she hasn't gotten sick of the peas yet and tomorrow is her last day on them, she will then get green beans. We'll see how well she does with those.


Jaedyn has improved on her eating solid foods since she first started. She's really getting the hang of it. I can already tell she's going to be a big helper because she loves to try and help hold the baby food jar or help put the spoon in her mouth.



While she eats, she loves to talk, spit, and sometimes she'll even growl at the spoon. She gets kind of a mean face and almost throws her head into the spoon, like when she plays with her baby. I don't ever remember the boys doing that when they eat. When her food is all gone she'll give you a look and we know she's thinking, "Is that all. I'm still hungry people." She gets a little impatient when we clean her up to give her a bottle. She'll kick her legs and throw a little tantrum, but is still so cute.



BTW, she was wearing socks when Josh first started feeding her. She kicked them off while she was eating. I hope that's not a sign of what's to come.

Build-a-Bear

Last Saturday we took Jantzen to Build-a-Bear to pick out a new friend. Jaron got to go when he was four, so we thought it was time that Jantzen got one. He was so excited all week long. Every day he would wake up and ask if it was Saturday, finally the big day came.

When we got there he quickly picked out the animal he wanted, it was a dog. That was no surprise to us, he loves dogs.


After he picked out his dog, he got to push the pedal to stuff it. The girl asked him if he wanted him soft and squishy or hard, Jantzen chose soft. When that was done he got to pick out a heart that says, "I Love You" on it and make a wish. He rubbed the heart on his nose and made his wish. His wish was for a little Gresh (it's a green Bionicle action figure). Then he stuffed the heart inside his dog.




Then Jantzen got to give his new friend his first bath, with Jaron's help. Jaron was very eager and willing to help Jantzen through the whole process. Jantzen thought this was really cool. He didn't use real water, there was a blower that made noise like running water and they used brushes on him...it was too cute! Next came the outfit. We already knew that he wanted a Star Wars one, but wasn't sure which ones they had. They only had Darth Vadar and Captain Rex...he chose Captain Rex, they love the Clone Wars a lot. Josh mentioned that he wanted a Darth Vadar animal so I told him I would bring him here for his birthday and get him one.



Here is Jantzen with his new buddy. He made his birth certificate and tried to figure out what he was going to name him. At first it was going to be "Bob", not sure where he got that from, but after a few suggestions from Jaron, he named him "Rex". He was so happy with Rex the rest of the day. It was so cute to see how careful he was, just like with a baby.


When we got home the boys went to their room to play with their animals. Jaron hasn't played with his in a while, but that night "Spider-Bear" got some much needed attention. I think they played with them for about two hours straight.


I love to see Jaron and Jantzen play so well together and it makes me happy that Jantzen had such a wonderful day. I can't wait to take Jaedyn there and pick out something girly.

Jaedyn Is Now 5 Months

Today Jaedyn is 5 months old. Where does the time go? Pretty soon she's going to be dating, okay maybe not that, but it seems to be going by too fast. We love her more and more every day. Jaron and Jantzen are having way too much fun with her. They don't give her very much space, but that's okay. I love to see them enjoying time with her, entertaining her. They can make her smile, laugh, burp, and cry all within ten minutes. They are so good to her. Any time we go to put her down for a nap they jump up from whatever they are doing and have to give her a kiss, I love it!

Jaedyn doesn't go back to the doctor until next month so I don't know how much she weighs (our scale isn't that great), but here are some things about her at 5 months:

* She has started eating baby food
* So far she likes squash better than sweet potatoes and rice cereal
* She's grown enough that I've had to pack away all of her 0-3 month clothes :(
* She laughs and smiles a lot
* She loves to be sung to
* She loves her baby doll and her glow worm
* She loves to kick her socks off...we have a hard time keeping them on her
* She's discovered she can spit & blow bubbles, and she loves it
* She likes to spit when I'm feeding her
* She loves to pull Jaron's hair in the morning to wake him up for school
* She loves to pull on Jantzen's ears when he gets too close to her
* She still sleeps in her swing
* She likes walks in her stroller and rides in the car
* She gets so excited to see her daddy when he comes home from work
* She loves the attention she gets from her brothers
* She talks more and more every day
* She thinks her name is "Princess", she doesn't really respond to "Jaedyn"
* Her eyes are getting lighter, I'm hoping they will be green like mine
* She has finally graduated to size 2 diapers
* She's starting to suck her thumb...I will stop this before it gets out of hand
* Even though she still has reflux, she's such a good girl

We have started working more with Jaedyn on sitting up and tummy time. She doesn't want to sit up very much and she HATES tummy time! Lately, when I put her down for tummy time, she will try to roll over, but then gets stuck...she'll just stay in that position. On one occasion I caught her going to sleep that way. It was cute, I wish I would've gotten a picture of it. We all love you "Princess".

Family Pictures

Here are some of our family pictures that Shadoe took for us last month. There were so many that I loved, it was hard to choose which ones to put on here. I chose my absolute favorites, it's still a ton of them.

We went to Town Square to have them taken since I waited too long to do them in the mountains, it was too cold. The day we had them taken was the same day as the Santa run. It was kind of crazy there, but we still got some good shots and the kids cooperated for the most part. Jaedyn had had enough towards the end so we really didn't get a good shot of her by herself, but we got some really cute ones of her with everyone else. Hopefully next time we will.

I love how you can see the boys' personalities in their smiles and love, love, love the look on Jaedyn's face as the boys are kissing her on the cheek. It's like she's saying, "Why can't you guys just leave me alone already!" Too cute!
















I think I have the cutest family ever, and I just love them all to pieces. I can't wait to see how the next family pictures turn out with Jaedyn being older. Thanks again Shadoe, I love them.

Tortilla Face

Jantzen has always been silly, and this time was no exception. Every time he eats a tortilla he does this...makes a face out of it. He'll lay it on his plate and bend his head down to bite holes in it. The first time I saw him doing this, I had no idea what he was doing and just tried to ignore it, after all I thought it was just his way of eating. He does like to pretend he's a dog sometimes since I won't let them get a real one. Next thing I know, I hear a, "Look at me mom, this is my new face". It always makes me laugh. I don't know what we would do without Jantzen in our family. He sure knows how to entertain us.

It FINALLY Came Out!

This week was an exciting one for Jaron. On Tuesday he lost his first tooth. That's right, he's 8 1/2 years old and he just barely lost the first one. He has been bummed for a long time because all of his friends have been losing teeth for a while now and he didn't even have any that were loose until about a month ago. It's to be expected, he didn't even get any teeth until he was 16 months old.

We tried to help him get it out sooner, but he refused to let us do anything. He wanted it to come out on its own. However, we did notice that he has two of his permanent teeth already coming in on the bottom behind the others so we told him the tooth needed to come out. Josh told him if it hadn't come out by Christmas that he was going to get it out. Jaron freaked out and asked if he could have until New Years. We didn't force it out at all. I picked him up from school on Tuesday and as we were getting ready to leave he got all excited and told me his tooth finally came out. Turns out, all he needed was to play with it while Conner Patton smacked him on the back...it came right out. He soon realized what we had been telling him all along, it doesn't hurt when it comes out, it actually feels better.

Jaron was super excited to put his tooth in an envelope and put it under his pillow for the tooth fairy. Lucky him, the tooth fairy gave him more money than I got even though the tooth fairy is on a budget. We're now hoping that the two permanent teeth he has coming in behind the others won't cause too many problems and make it so we have to pay for braces when he's older.

New Years Day in the Mountains

On New Years Day we went up to the rock quarry just past Valley of Fire to hang out with the Ashbys, Stewarts, Thompsons, and Lewis' for the day. We didn't want to camp because we thought it would be too cold for Jaedyn in the tent. We took up the dirt bikes for Josh and Jaron to ride. Jaron didn't end up riding his at all, he was too busy playing with the boys all day. The ride up was a lot better this time for me. I wasn't pregnant anymore and we have a better vehicle to ride in. We made it up a lot faster and I didn't have to walk part way, it was nice.

One of the first things Jantzen had to do was eat. He was wanting to eat something the whole way up , but I won't let him eat in the car. Josh went for a ride on his bike, wearing his new riding gear he got for Christmas. Jaron took off with Jace as soon as we got there, so Jaedyn and I just hung out. It was a little cold for her, so she spent most of the day in the car to keep warm. Jantzen did end up spending part of the day in the car with her, they both took a nap. I should've joined them, I was so tired.





Last time we came camping here, the boys found some rocks that looked like a house. That's where they spent most of their time while up there. When they needed a break or something to eat, they came down and lounged around.


Jantzen wasn't big enough last time to go up in the rocks with the older boys and I was pregnant so I couldn't, but this time I went up with him. We explored around and he even found some fun caves and his own house. I wouldn't let him down into Jaron's because he's clumsy like me and it's steep and on the edge of the rocks, why I let Jaron do it I don't know. I did let him have his picture taken with Jaron at the entrance though. Jantzen and I had fun up there and the house he found for him was pretty cool. It has a rock that looks like a couch and one is a table. It's a good thing I went up with him and didn't let him go by himself because on the way down he stumbled and almost fell. Luckily I was holding his hand so there were no accidents.




Later we enjoyed a yummy Christmas style lunch that Tina and Trish made and some yummy dutch oven cobbler that Cody made. It's the best meal I have ever had while in the mountains. The kids played some more while us adults enjoyed our conversations by the fire. It was a little chilly up there so it was nice to have the fire to keep us warm and Josh got to enjoy some cuddle time with Jaedyn by it. I think she was fascinated by it. It'll be fun when we can actually take her camping.


Thanks for the invite up guys, we had a good time.

New Years Eve

We had another fun New Years Eve this last year. We went over to the Bullingers to hang out with them and some of their friends from Utah. Before we went Jantzen, Jaedyn, and I hung out while Josh and Jaron were playing on the Wii.

I was trying to get some pictures of me and Jaedyn, because I'm not in very many since I'm the one that is always taking them. As you can see, Jantzen had to get in on the action and show his "funny" side.




Jaedyn is starting to get used to her Bumbo and we bought a tray for it so she can have her toys closer. It doesn't stay on that well though, so I don't really recommend it to anyone.



It's so cute how much Jaedyn loves her baby doll. Any time you put it in front of her, she goes crazy and starts chewing on it. I haven't seen her do that with anything else. She's finally able to wear some of her shoes and the ones she's wearing in here were also worn by Jaron and Jantzen. The boys think that's cool.



As I was saying earlier, we went over to the Bullingers to party. We played games and enjoyed some good food. The boys had a blast running around and occasionally stopped for a bite to eat. Josh was the first one to fall asleep and he did that before midnight, so he didn't make it to see the new year come in. I put this hat on him, it was pink, and took his picture. Jaron and Jantzen loved watching the fireworks on the strip while running around blowing horns. I forgot our own fireworks this year. I think they could have stayed up longer, but we made them go to bed at 1:30 am.



Last year was a good one, we still have a job and each other and that's what's most important. Here's to another year...Happy New Year!