Mishaps, Injuries, and Merry Christmas

Well, the Merry Christmas is first because once again I don't put the pictures in order. We put our Christmas tree up and this is my two cuties in front of it. They love each other and already love being with each other and hate being with each other sometimes.

Here is our Christmas tree. It may not be the prettiest or the funnest or the best theme, but it is ours and we love it.

These next pictures I get to brag about because they are what we call special ornaments. We do a tradition my family has always done and you choose an ornament for that year of something significant that happened in the family or that you do together as a family (i.e. family vacation) Anyways, I have been a little slow on making a couple of them. I get to brag about them because I did very little on them. My wonderful mom did most of the work, hence they are so dang cute. They would have been very plain and boring had I done them by myself. The bears and heart if you couldn't tell are for Colby and I's first year. Obviously the big event that year was us getting married.

Then we have Jackson and Berklee. The other ones are mine and Colby's graduations, a trip around southeastern utah where we went to the 4 corners and a disneyland trip. We bought ornaments for those ones. I love my mom and am so glad she made these ornaments so much better than I would have. She is so crafty and good at this. Thanks Mom~!

This would be the mishap I was talking about. It actually happened in October. Colby had gotten bitten by something so I was getting some hydrocortisone cream. It wasn't coming out so I squeezed a little bit. As you can see more than a little bit came out. Needless to say, it was not my day. After I got cleaned up from that I was feeding Berklee some carrots when I decided to somehow throw them (okay I didn't throw them but I may as well have) all over myself and the floor. Not really sure how it happened but things happen. Anyways, don't mind my nastiness it was just one of those days.

Last of all, injuries. Colby decided to go play basketball with some old friends over the weekend we were in Cedar City for football. He did not have his basketball shoes so I asked him if he really should go because he tends to have bad ankles. Anyways, I must have jinxed him. He had been gone to basketball for about 20 mins when I got a call to go pick him up. He had sprained his ankle. By the time I got there, the ankle was so swollen and mis-shaped that I could have sworn it was broken. Anyways, these are just a couple pictures of that. This picture shows some bruising which was rather small in this picture. This side of his ankle was all bruised then the top of his foot and toes became bruised and finally the other side fo the ankle bruised. Weird but true.

This picture is to try and show how swollen the ankle got. However, this was about 4 days after the fact and he had been off of it and iced it before this picture. I have to say he has been a good sport about it. It has been almost a month and it is still swollen. Jackson of course has bumped it, jumped on it, and hurt it in many ways and Colby tries to just remind him to be careful of the hurt foot and still goes and wrestles and tackles with Jackson. I hope it gets better soon.

HELP!!!

Ok, so I posted this on facebook but thought I might get some other people to respond if I put it on my blog. I am terrible at making cookies. They usually turn out taste wise good but they are flat or hard or on and on. So if you have any really good cookie recipes or fail-safe recipes or maybe some great tips I would love to hear them. I randomly get in the mood for good cookies and then I follow a random recipe in one of my recipe books and it just doens't quite hit the spot. Oh yeah and if you have any great ideas for traveling snacks and food I would love to hear that also.

Thanks a bunch please comment.

Halloween and past!!!

Ok, so this was supposed to load the pics the opposite way around but I am not about to go in and change that. So this is our little family all dressed in our San Juan Broncos garb for Colby's brother's game. The kids and I have been watching the games with Colby's family and he has been in the booth with his brother broadcasting the games live on the internet. Anyways, he enjoys it and Jackson loves yelling at the games. Really CUTE! Berklee actually watches too if she isn't sleeping or eating. This is from Jackson's birthday. He actually had a party with friends this year and not just family. We didn't do anything too big. They got to play around and then have cupcakes and ice cream. As you can see that was plenty for him. The kids loved the balloons, the noisemakers in the party bags, and the party hats. Ham it up Jack!!!

Now for the Halloween pics. I kept asking Jackson different things of what he wanted to be for Halloween. Apparently he was very stuck on being a pirate, then I asked him what Berklee should be and he insisted she be a pirate with him. I think I asked him a hundred different things to be and it never changed. So sorry Berklee you got to be a pirate of course she doesn't look to upset about that here.

In fact, she seemed to like it just fine. Jackson may get to pick her costume next year too. But I promise he won't always get to choose her costume. I really think she turned out soooo adorable. And as you can tell, Jackson loved it. Too cute!

He also had a hat. I don't know why we didn't take pics with the hat on. He was so excited and would keep saying "I'm egcited mom". We had our impromptu party so he dressed up for that this is actually the night before Halloween when we dressed up for a party at the little family center here and the school's carnival. He got to play around, do a cake walk, make a little picture frame magnet for a picture of him in his costume, and get mommy and Berklee locked in jail for 5 mins. (Colby was in big trouble) j/k.

Halloween day was crazy because we headed up to Blanding after the school's carnival in MV and Saturday went to the Broncos game. They ended up winning so that was good. Then we hurried and got the kids dressed up and took them around to family's houses up in Blanding. We hurried and packed our stuff up and rushed back down to MV. We had been told our housing area is the place so the idea of actually getting more than 10 trick or treaters intrigued us. Plus, Jackson just insisted he go trick or treating to his friend's houses. He loved it. He was so happy about the candy. It's so fun to watch him grow up in so many ways. I do wish every now and then he would just slow down though. Well, Jackson also loved handing out the candy. He would run to the door open it up and start putting one piece in everyone's bag. Guess what? We had more than 10 trick or treaters in fact we bought more candy than we ever have and ran out. I had to break out some of our own candy stores. Colby was about to bring out old Christmas candy but I vetoed that. Thankfully the treaters stopped with about 2 pieces of our stores of candy left. Well thank you for cleaning us out so I won't eat it. I had to put this pic of Berk because she's playing with Jackson's hook. Every chance she would get she was trying to play with his sword or hook so the costumes were a hit for both kids.

I put this one in because it shows her full costume. She is such a big girl. She's growing up way too fast. She's standing up to things, climbing over things, and letting go of things to stand up. She either thinks she needs to keep up with her brother or be able to get away from him I'm not sure which. Sometimes she just follows him around and wants to play with whatever he is playing with and other times she is happy as can be doing her own things. I guess we'll see as she gets older. I really think and hope they'll both like time together but also want time alone.

Brother and sister together. So most of the time she is happy as can be with her. Of course, that only lasts until he wants to wrestle and tackle her. He's actually really careful about it and doesn't usually hurt her but she doesn't like being restrained when he's wrestling her. Watch out though Jackson, because I have a feeling she'll be a fighter. One day you might be sorry you try to wrestle her. Although, the fact that he just keeps growing may not let Berklee get that chance. he is still around 38 lbs but has grown 4 1/2 in since a month after Berklee was born. He is now 40 1/2 in. Berklee is growing quick too though so I guess the race is on.

Sorry so long. I finally posted pics and decided to share some news. Leave a comment if you read this I love to hear what you have to say. Oh yeah, one more thing the family got flu vaccine shots today. I actually got mine last week. The other three got them today and got both of the flu vaccines. My poor babies. Including my husband in that statement. I don't know if you guys have had them but mine made my arm ache for two days. I hope my little chile beans don't hurt that much.

Kid Update

Well, I will get pics on as soon as I take them but the two kids are going to be pirates. They both got in their costumes yesterday for a spur of the moment idea of mine to have all the other neighbor kids come over and their parents. I had about a half hour to get ready and get the kids ready. We had a lot of fun. The kids made egg carton spiders, spiderwebs, and decorated cupcakes. We also went ahead and did dinner for everyone. Tomato alfredo spaghetti. Yummy!
Berk cut her two bottom teeth. She snorts when she wants something you have and isn't getting it. She also scrunches up her whole face into a smile when daddy gets home from work. She tries lettiong go of things she is standing up to occasionally. Jack is loving preschool. He recognizes quite a few of his letters and some numbers. He reads to Colby and I at night. He has this Cars book memorized and reads it to us everynight. He also loves his daddy time. He and Colby usually wrestle or run around the house after dinner and the other night Colby wasn't home and around that same time as usual Jack started going nuts. You could almost see a look in his eye like if he didn't get some energy out he was going to start using Berk as a wrestler. Needless to say, mommy and Jack wrestled and played. He is one tough kid. Seriously another year or two and he really could beat me I wouldn't have to pretend. He has started liking playing board games. He also remembers everything you tell him you'll do and repeats everything he hears. The other day he said "Holy Fetch" Colby and I don't say that so it must have been uncles he heard that from anyways, I laughed. Oh yeah the other day I finished getting ready and I had gotten in some nicer clothes than usual. He said "cute girl" I said what and he said "you're a cute girl" I thought it was pretty cute.
Things are great. I love being a sahm and wouldn't change it.

Thank You

Ok, so I really appreciate all the comments. I am up for any ideas just about anyways. The doctor said ger tonsils were a little big and red but it was fine as long as she wasn't running a fever. We've tried the teething orajel and tylenol. The other thing I thought of is that around the days she woke up we had fed her the baby food meats. The nurse I talked to said that her body may not be ready to digest that stuff yet. The other thing is that when I feed her she calms down but I don't want to be feeding her if she thinks she has to just to be comforted. I also don't want to starve her if she really is hungry. I thought about the night terrors but I have no way to know. Is there anything specific to watch for with those? And, is it normal for a kid around 7-8 mos to go through a growth spurt where they are hungry and need to eat in the middle of the night? Anyways, she slept good last night and her and Jackson have done very well during conference. Jackson was even so cute playing basketball with all of us and the Sharpe boys in between sessions. He would get down in his stance and side step and reach in and stay with his knees bent and arms out, so dang cute. They are great blessings in our lives.

Suggestions

Any suggestions or help about Berklee all of the sudden waking up in the middle of the night screaming and inconsolable please comment.

Also, suggestions on discipline that works and they learn from let me know. We do timeout but he just keeps doing some of the same things.

Update!

Well, I haven't posted for a while so thought I should. We don't have internet in Monument Valley yet so I really don't get to keep in touch with the outside world except by phone.

Berklee Updates:
She is crawling.
She pulls herself up to standing.
She wants to play with whatever toy her brother is playing with.
She sits up with no help.
She LOVES food (except the baby food meats she gags on them).
She was sleeping through the night until last week and now wakes up a lot (not really sure what's going on) any suggestions would be welcomed.
She has about 3 in. of hair.
She weighs 16 lbs.
She is 7 1/2 months old.
She is usually very pleasant.
She smiles and laughs a lot.
She loves her brother.

Jackson Updates:
He is 3 yrs old now. (Growing up way too fast)
He likes doing preschool at home most of the time.
He sings the ABC song to g without help.
He knows the sounds ABC and D make but loves making the b sound over and over.
He loves his train set from his b-day.
He also loves and whizzes through puzzles by himself.
He knows that we will live again.
He said today "I'm happy Jesus can be in my heart"
He's usually nice to his sister but when he isn't he does time out.
He doesn't understand why berklee doesn't do time out when she messes up his toys or pulls his hair.
He is so proud of berklee for sitting and crawling on her own.

There is so much more but that will do for now. I will try and get pics up from his b-day soon. BTW we are loving Monument Valley.