Happy Birthday Jack!

It was Jack's 7th birthday on Monday. I can't believe that my baby is 7. He used to get mad at me when he was little because I called him "baby" all the time. I just explained that even when he has a beard down to his knees that he will still be my baby. Here are some fun things about Jack.

• I was induced with Jack and had him 6 hours later.
• was 6 pounds 7 oz and about 19 inches long. I was sure that with my mom's 10 pound babies that Jack would be the size of a small cow but I was lucky.
• Name is Jack Timothy. I always loved the name Jack and Dan finally gave in. Was almost Spencer. We wanted William for the middle name but my dad said he did not want us to name Jack after him so we went with Timothy. When Jack started to talk his middle name came out as Tiffany.
• My dad died pretty soon after Jack was born and there would be times that Jack would be in his bed giggling away. We are sure that Grandpa was watching over him.
• Used to say the craziest things to me. I taught him that the church house is the home of Jesus. We were at the church for my grandpa's funeral luncheon. Jack was 3. He informed me that Jesus house was a mess and he needed to come and clean it up.
• He is a smart little boy. He is in first grade and he reads on a second - third grade level. He loves arts and crafts. He is really quiet and mellow and has been that way since he was born.
• He started life tiny and is still pretty small especially when you throw me and Dan in the mix. Most people think that he is 5 by his size. Noah who turns 4 next week comes up to the bottom of Jack's head.

Jack's presents
Riding his new scooter
Opening the presents with Kate trying to help.

My handsome birthday boy!
Love you lots Jack!

His gift from school.

Kate Dressing Up

Kate has been bringing me things to put on her lately and then when I go to take a picture she stands there and says cheese. She really knows how to match!

Cheese!

Nice Outfit Kate!

Helpful Kate and Noah

Noah and Kate are the biggest helpers on the planet. Did I mention though their idea of helping is to make a bigger mess? Well, with helpers like these who needs a wrecking crew.

This is Kate's closet. This is a mixture of Kate's toys, all of the clothes that were hanging up in the closet and a few packages of diaper. Noah called it his tent.
So helpful.

Kate likes to take clothes out of drawers. She can reach Noah's underwear drawer really well so I usually find his underwear strewn across the house. She also likes to empty the dresser in her bedroom. This day at least she made a nice pile in the middle of her doorway.

The empty drawers

the pile of clothes from her drawer.

Noah's Dangerous Mountain

Noah was calling me one day and he is sitting on top of the couch cushions. He informed me that he was on a dangerous moutain. Kate kept trying to climb up and Noah kept telling her it was dangerous. He obviously has way too much time on his hands.

It's Nap Time

This is what Kate thinks is naptime. I will lay her in her crib and after awhile I will think that she is asleep so I will go in to try to get some work done and this is what I find...

Nothing like a nice refreshing nap. She seriously refuses to go to sleep. She throws her binkie's on the floor and then will sit and scream. It isn't like crying or throwing a fit screaming, it is I know that if I stand here and yell, eventually mom will come in and give me my binkie's. A lot of times I can actually hear it when she drops it. She also likes to "run" around her crip and dive on the matress. Loads of fun nap time is.

Bad picture but she stands there and shakes her crib. I think she is trying to figure out a way out of there. She can get the crib shaking, big time.

Noah the Hairdresser

Noah decided to comb his hair by himself. Considering his hair, I think that he did a pretty good job!

Sexy Noah!

Remembering

One of my good friends father passed away this week and it started me thinking about my parents and life in general. We never know what life is going to throw at us. Sometimes it is good and sometimes it is so bad that you don't know if you can get up and keep moving down the path. I sometimes think to myself that I signed up for this but I sure would like to see what else is going to happen so I can prepare. The unexpected is so hard to come to terms with but the expected sometimes isn't any better. When my mom was sick, I knew that she was going to leave the earth but it was so hard to tell her how much I loved her. It was so much easier to sit and watch a movie and laugh. I really should have expressed my love for her. Hopefully she knew when she left. With my dad being an unexpected death I didn't get the chance to tell him either. So, in the grand scheme of things take the chance whenever you can to tell people how much you love them. Don't take it for granted because you never know when that curve ball is going to be thrown in your direction. As for me, I will remember my parents and teach my children about them. Remember the good times and the bad times. Sometime I will be a little bit angry that they aren't here with us anymore but also be grateful that I know where they are and that I will see them again someday. Hopefully I will make them proud of me as they are looking down (or up since my moms last book she read was a little naughty! Totally Joking...I hope anyways!). Sometimes I remember the craziest things and either laugh or cry. I was watching Singing in the Rain the other day and the last time I watched it, it was with my brother and my mom. I just remember my brother asking my mom why she didn't put him in dance classes so he could have been the next Gene Kelly. He also said "that man can dance". It brought a smile to my face. It made me remember the many times my mom, brother and Jacob would watch some interesting movies. If my brother reads this, remember "Mame" with Lucille Ball?
I love my parents and I am grateful for everything that they taught me. It makes me sad to know that they aren't her to help me out but I can miss them and know that they love me.
Most people around me don't know that my parents are both gone so I am pulling the cat out of the bag but I just felt like I needed to say that I love my parents and I miss them.

Picture Tag

I have been tagged with a photo tag. I am supposed to go to my 4th folder and my 4th photo in that folder. We don't keep a lot of photos on the computer so this one is really recent and boring. Here it is. This is Kate trying to take her pants off. The girl does not like clothes. We are hoping that she isn't practicing to be a stripper when she grows up. If I have to go to a strip club and hear "here comes Katy the naked Lady" or something, I won't be happy. Notice she has no shirt. She got away before I could get one on and I was laughing because she was trying so hard to get her pants off but they just wouldn't budge. Thank goodness for elastic waist bands skinny enough to fit this girl.

I get to tag people. However, I think only three people read my blog, one of which tagged me in the first place, so any one who wants to play, go ahead!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is over again. I confess, I am not a big Halloween fan. I hate to be scared so no scary movies, haunted houses (why pay someone to scare you?), ghost hunter shows on tv...I understand the whole candy thing though. Here are some pictures from our Halloween night.

Kate as Dorothy. The shoes were huge so a little bit after this was taken, the shoes came off for some different ones.
Noah the spider. I made this. The legs are tied to each other with fishing line so when he moved his arms his legs moved. However, didn't count on the excited three year old and not staying in one place. It got caught around the arm rests in our van, a sprinkler head... Anyways, Noah would yell Trick or Treat and I mean yell! Then he would tell them that he was a spider and Jack was a Jack-o-lantern.
Here is Jack as a Jack-o-lantern

The only thing that I can come up with the whole jack-o-lantern with Noah is that we called him Count Jackula. Jack was very excited to have black hair and the makeup until it came time to wash it out. How come I am always the one with the child screaming in the bath tub as I am scrubbing hair and faces? I think I will go on strike next year. He makes one scary vampire though.

Trick or Treating

Getting ready to go trick or treating

Look at Noah eyeing that candy! He was actually more excited by the little thing of play-doh he got.

That is quite the haul, Count Jackula!

All in all it was a fun night. It was really warm so that was a bonus. I actually was warm walking around. According to Dan it was because I had luggage. Actually is was the diaper bag with diapers, wipes, a bottle, mittens, hats, blanket.... I am a little over prepared sometimes. The kids had a great time and got a lot of candy!

Happy Halloween!

Finally Finished!

I am finally finished with all of my canning adventures for the year. So with that in mind I thought that I would count my blessings. I am grateful for my ward who has garden spaces for those who have no room for one in their own yard. I am grateful for my husbands green thumb. Little garden space, huge harvest! I am grateful for my Grams and Mom who taught me how to can so it didn't go to waste. I am grateful the DI had jars for 0.50 cents each because I went through a lot of jars. and finally....I am grateful to be DONE! I don't have an exact tally but I have 30-40 jars of tomatoes, at least 20 jars of pickles (different types, dill, relish, bread and butter, etc.), 7 pints of salsa (which I have never made before and was a lot harder than I thought it would be). Then I have a freezer full of peppers (bell, Anaheim, jalapeno, chilies), butternut squash, spaghetti squash, zucchini, green beans, summer squash and peaches. It will be nice to know my hard work will pay off during the winter where we will be having spaghetti, tomato soup, tomatoes on eggs, whatever else I can think of....

Some of my canning, there is a lot more now.