Jazzercise Anyone?

B at 1 yr old. 30 in. long (75th percentile) and 22 lbs (55th percentile) fully clothed.

J at 1 yr. old. If I'm remembering right approximatley 28 lbs (somewhere around teh 80-90 percentile) and only in the 45th or so percentile in height. What a difference.

Ok, so this is a warning there are a lot of pics in this post. These first two are just because it's funny. This is the underneath layer of B's snow bundling for going outside. We added the belt for good measure and it makes for a happy child as you can see. Also, you can see one of her many new tricks, walking!!!

These are backwards but she thinks she should climb now too.

I think I can, I think I can!

Little B also had a birthday. Her first to be exact. Here are some pics from that. Here she is tearing off the fondant. She loved the fondant. It's marshmallow fondant by the way, totally edible.

We thought she would just dig right in because of how much she loves food. I swear this girl could be happy all day in her highchair as long as there was food and she would be great.

Anyways, she took one little finger and was digging it in and pulling little pieces of cake to eat.

There is that little finger.

And then she shoved it in.

Who wouldn't be happy with a whole top piece of a three tier cake, my little B. She finished her ice cream and needed more. Poor picked on child.

And here's the most handsome boy in the world, the one standing up. So cute. He's watching B. He thought it was so cute how she was getting her own cake.

There's that finger again.

The next new trick B has learned is folding her arms. One Sunday I was joking and said fold your arms in church and to my surprise she did it.

A little out of order but this is my little B's cake. It was my first try on a cake. I made it with marshmallow fondant. It could have been better but it could have been worse. By the way, those letters are her initials. I didn't really what her initials stood for besides her initials until after they were on the cake. Oops!

And here is my new favorite babysitter. An indoor blow up thing grandma and grandpa gave the kids for christmas.

J doing a flip while B watches on. By the way it's also one of their new favorite toys.

This look is the look when you hurry and intervene it's his "I'm coming to get you B" look.

This is J posing for the camera. He looks a little uncomfortable about the whole thing.

Besides birthdays and jumping we've been sleeping. I don't remember when or why this happened because J rarely falls asleep except in his own bed but it was too dang cute to leave out. Oh yeah, and the greatest looking guy in the world happens to be in the pic. Who needs Matthew McConaughey?

I told you she could be happy in her high chair all day. She even sleeps in it. Ok, not usually but cute pic anyways.

Cheese it up cutie pie!

The following pics might explain this yucky mess.

And there you have it, apparently I wasn't paying close enough attention to the mac and cheese so J took it into his own hands to make it. Really good job he just needed to drain the water first. He's so cute with his little proud mischievious face.

Ok, so now for some more writing. B started walking about a month ago. She loves it and also loves to try climbing just about anything. She loves food. She wants exactly what we're eating.

She loves her brother most of the time and tries to say his name although it still sounds like Da. She is really good at saying Da Da but has not gotten mom yet. She signs food and drink and it is super cute pics to come of that. She got poked 8 times for her 1 yr appt but was perfectly fine that night and still seems to be fine. She has a small heart murmur but it's nothing to worry about at this point. She loves to laugh when everyone else is laughing even if it's totally fake. I'm sure there is more but those are a few.

Onto J. What a funny kid growing up way too fast. Last night we left Colby's city league b-ball game. This is the conversation that we had.

J: I hate basketball

Me: What?

J: Here's the problem.

Me: (Not sure I heard him right) What?

J: Here's the problem ( a little exasperated at this point)

Me: What's the problem?

J: The problem is I just like football not basketball. That's the problem.

Me: I thought we liked both.

J: Well I'm just sick of basketball that's the problem.

Me: (shocked as can be he's speaking to me like this and getting so frustrated with my denseness not knowing what his problem is and not understanding it) Oh, ok.

So dang funny. I couldn't stop laughing. J is still liking preschool although there are times he's so excited for it but then we start it and he gets so upset so he goes and has a break in his room. His excuse for doing anything wrong, " I just want to play with B" even if what he did has nothing to do with her. Kind of funny kind of frustrating. As you saw from him making mac and cheese he just keeps getting more and more independent. Another seriously cute conversation we had that I'll end on was this. A little background we had been up to Blanding and J went to go feed cows in turns out one of the cows had their calf early and J and grandpa found it dead already. So later that day J and I are driving to the store.

J: The baby calf died.

Me: Yup, that's too bad huh?

J: Yeah, but it's ok.

Me: (thinking in my head well alright if he's not upset about it I know I'm not really) Yeah it is.

J: Because it's up in heaven with jesus.

Me: Oh it is?

J: Yup, we'll see it again sometime when we're up with Jesus.

Me: Oh, (thinking grandpa must have told him that one) who told you that?

J: No one.

Me: Did grandpa tell you that?

J: No.

Me: Did you learn it at church?

J: No

Me: Oh where did you learn it?

J: No where I just know it.

So anyways, it showed me what our heavenly father means when he says to become as a child. No questions asked he knew he would see that calf again. I know it seems a little silly but it really did hit home with me telling me I need to become more humble and absorbing like a little child is to learn all I can and have the faith he has. I'm grateful for his huge testimony to me and for the two beautiful kids I get to raise. I'm also so grateful for a husband who puts up with me and even acts like he likes putting up with me. LOL Oh yeah, we had a way fun weekend at my sister in laws cabin and J loved sledding and would totally wreck and still had a blast. B loved the snowmobiles. I will post pics if I can get them. I forgot my camera. Hello stupid me. Anyways, leave me a comment or whatever I love to read them.

Off to the Races!!!

Ok, so we haven't been to a race or anything similar. However, I often feel like I am racing. Racing to keep up with Jackson, racing to keep up with Berklee, racing to keep up with the house, racing to keep up with everything. Rarely do I come out winning the race but I will keep pushing.

Berklee is getting more and more cute by the day and more and more difficult. I guess they have to get cuter everyday so that as they get more difficult you still love them. LOL. Anyways, she is now starting to takes steps. I wouldn't say she is walking yet because she only takes about 5 steps at a time. She loves her little cardboard princess books she got for christmas. She loves playing with anything Jackson is playing with. She laughs at half the things Jackson does and cries at the other half. She has had to have two haircuts and still it keeps growing and growing. She has now cut 4 teeth which was a hard time for her. She is coming up on being a year and is sure she shouldn't have to eat baby food anymore. She used to just kind of push it back out of her mouth. Now she blows a raspberry and sprays the food all over. She is very fun and cute and has a contagious giggle.

Jackson now knows all his ABC's he can tell you most of their sounds when you ask him and he still loves puzzles. He also got a bunch of kids' games for christmas ie. candy land, don't break the ice, chutes and ladders etc. He loves to play them. He also loves playing in the snow and the other day we went sledding in trash bags. I told Colby I had to get out when he got home from work so he got the kids ready told me to get in warm stuff and we went sledding MV style I guess. It was so much fun. It was exactly what I needed. I love being a stay at home mom but there are times it is difficult. I don't see the paycheck coming in telling me I'm helping my family. I don't keep up with things at the house and I'm not doing all I can with the kids so there are many times I don't feel like I'm accomplishing much. I think the winter is really difficult because of having to stay inside so much. It seems especially hard on Jackson. Little boys and girls for that matter need time outside to run and play. Berklee loves to go outside when Jackson does. You just don't get to during the winter very much. Anyways, I've decided no matter what you are doing in life it is a matter of choosing to make the most of it and try to find the good in it. I thought it would be perfect to be at home with my kids when I was working but now there are times I think it would be great to be back at work. I think I just need to find a way to be pleased and happy with whatever I'm doing at that time in my life. Sorry about the soap box.

Colby is officially done with student teaching and has graduated. I am so incredibly proud of him. He is continuing to do great at work and the only thing that could be better is if he was able to stay at home with me and the kids. He is a great husband and always does his best to tell me how much he appreciates all I do even though I know it isn't much. Sorry no pics but they will come next time.

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.