Eva--a deserving post

Eva, my oldest daughter.  She sparkles.  She shines.  She loves me and we're best friends.  When she was asking about her childhood I looked it up on the blog and at 7 years old she was only tagged in 6 posts!!  Of course that's because I use Facebook and Instagram but we thought it was time for some Eva highlights and stories.  Since we just got back from Utah we'll highlight that trip a little bit.  It was Eva's first flight.  All three of the others flew as an infant for either a wedding or a funeral.  It was so exciting.  Although today marks a week home, Eva asks to return to Utah several times a day.  She loved it.  She loves her family.  

 Salt Lake Temple

 Eva loves collecting things.  When we went on a nature walk she'll pick one of every flower that she likes.  Paige and Sawyer followed right along with her collecting with her.  Eva finished with three golf balls, sticks, and tons of flowers.  The flowers of Utah are so different from what we're used to.  While we were there, she was also the "Queen" of their secret fort.  She directed efforts to decorate the fort with rocks and flowers.  

 When we were in Provo, Matt and Robyn took us to Bridal Veil Falls.  I thought it was just a waterfall to see but when we got there people were walking in the water so we hopped in too.  I took this shot right when Eva got in.  We weren't expecting the water to be so COLD!!  I think she looks pretty shocked.  She loved it and wouldn't be outdone hiking either.  She hiked just as high as the boys did!

 Luckily, Aunt Becca is magical with all things beautiful.  Eva got her hair done in Becca's style and it took her three days before she took it down.  It took me bribing her with pink face masks to convince her.

 Our pink face masks.

This is just a silly picture we took at the dentist office trying to compare eyes.  She is such a beautiful girl.  I love watching her grow up.  

It's Fall

So in creating your first blog in a few years, where, or rather, when do you start.  Now or way back when you left off?  I'm choosing to start right in there here and now October 2015.  Fall is so beautiful and there are so many fun activities to share.

 We tried Wales West Pumpkin Patch.  It was a fun day trip for the family.  They each got to choose and decorate a pumpkin with train rides, inflatables, and hay rides sprinkled in as well.  We love taking our wagon on these trips because Paige is so happy in it.  

 This was our second attempt at crazy hair day.  Our first attempt was the WRONG DAY!  I was fearful the boys would be totally upset with me but when they got home and noticed my new haircut they commented on how weird my hair looked.  On the real crazy hair day they got off the bust and upon noticing that I actually curled my hair they asked "did you do crazy hair day too?"  

 Jackson has decided he wants to be an author and has started making comic books at night.  He is a natural motivator because he'll often recruit Sam and other friends to write their own books as well.  This was his first day setting up a stand to sell them in the front yard.  He told me he was a little disappointed his only customers were family, but he was happy to earn $1.15.

Paige and our friends the Emmertsons' son Ryker dressed up for the Trunk or Treat as Pebbles and Bam Bam.  

Facebook statuses

I've neglected my blog.  I got into facebook and instagram and it was so much easier.  I got a new phone and transferring pics was so much harder.  I didn't want to lose the things that the kids have said that I've posted on facebook.  Here are the quotes.  Do you have a favorite?

Sam's "best friends ever" of the week include Simba, Blaine, Mickey Mouse, Nemo, Sienna, his mom, Eva, and his red Hot Wheels car. You can't explain to him that this is illogical. Trust me, Jackson's tried. "Tinkerbell is NOT my best friend."

"I want bedbest! Bestbest (starts crying) befbest. I can't say it!"--Sam
He was trying to say breakfast.

"Sam today is going to be one of the best days ever. You want to know why? One of the apostles will be at church today! " --Jackson
Can't wait to see Elder Dallin H. Oaks!

At church I learned that if we didn't have skin our blood would shoot thirty feet away from us. -Jackson. Poor teacher, I'm sure she was trying to get something spiritual in there. You just never know which of the 100 sentences you spoke during a lesson will stick.

jackson: one day can we go to a real ice cream stand?
me: sure buddy, one day.
jackson: good because i want to buy an ice cream cone and leave it there to see how long it takes for it to melt.
me: ?? i'm not gonna do that.
jackson: but mom its an important discovery!

"I want to take care of the grass." --Jackson I had to document that one so that I could remind him of that in 10 years or so.

"I want to be a billionologist (they dig for dinosaur bones), an astronaut, a builder, and a clown when I grow up." --Jackson

After Brent and I upgraded phones last week, Brent loaded our old phone with kid apps, wrapped it up, and gave it to Jackson as a birthday gift with encouragement to share it with Sam. It has been in heavy use since then. He brought it to us last night dismayed that he couldn't get it to work after washing it in the sink. In his defense, it was disgustingly crusty. poor boy.

At 6:00am Jackson pokes his head in our room to say "The world is broken. I've been awake for a long time but the sun isn't coming."

"I get ice cream because I went poo poo!" says the boy who just pooped his pants

"I have a testimony that I want something to eat." Sam

"Its raining in many pants! " -Sam. If you were wondering he is not potty trained but I'm assuming he meant raining on his pants.

Jackson: Sam, we're going to the church but don't worry, we're not learning anything, we're going to a pancake breakfast.

me: "jackson, do y'all still have to sit girl boy at lunch?"
jackson: "no,we sit boy girl"

So my sister-in-law asked me what roll tide meant and I thought, I might as well tell everybody. It mostly means go bama but may also be used to say hello, good bye, or i love you. any i missed?

"Santa doesn't really work because Sam hits me everyday and he still got everything he wanted. " Jackson

jackson: you are one of the best moms ever.
me: one of? who is the best?
jackson: maybe dad

Sam fished a spider ring out of the candy bowl, started biting it then said "I can't figure out how to eat this!"

 

At church they marked places on the floor that need to be fixed with blue tape. Jackson asked me what the tape was for. I told him its there so they can fix the church. He asked "Why didn't they just use wood glue?"

 

a homophone

Jackson: Mom, can i go outside in my bare feet?

Griffin (the neighbor): you have bear feet!?!? let me see!

Sam is talking.

I couldn't believe it when it happened but I said "Sam, say cheese." and he said "cheese" in the cutest and cheesiest way possible. I was flabbergasted. My other favorite is "I-wan-pop-pop" (I want popcorn.) His first was diaper.

He keeps making me laugh

Jackson cracks me up. I just thought i'd share more of his thoughts.

He'll often come in our room in the morning before we wake up asking us to get up. Yesterday morning the door opened and he whispered "mom, i know what I want to be when I grow up." Just trying to dismiss him I asked what. (For months he's been telling me he wanted to be a garbage man. Even going so far as to ask for garbage man clothes for Christmas.) He replied with "an octopus." Then closed the door. When brent asked him later in the morning what he would do when he was an octopus he said "wiggle my arms of course. That's all an octopus does."

Last night we were having friends over. I was busy trying to clean up for them. He said "mom did you put on lipstick?" I told him no but thought wow my son thinks I just naturally look good. Then he said "I think you should put on lipstick. I think our friends would like it if you put on lipstick."

Ok, son. Thanks for the advice.

We've been playing a lot of charades

here are a few of my favorites of jackson's

here are his hints as he's standing with his legs apart and arms stretched high.

I have screws. I'm made of metal. I'm on paper. [huh??] I don't have a chimney. I don't have magic.

Give up?

it's a picture of a robot.

He's curled up small on the floor

are you curled up like a ball?

nope?

I don't know buddy. All I can think of is a ball.

Yep! I'm a ball.

Another time he's curled up like a ball.

Are you a ball?

I'm a ball on a person.

[uh??]

an eyeball!

chattanooga

i was so happy that brent was able to go and serve in the clean-up in chattanooga. it was really hard on jackson though because it seems like he's been really busy on the last few weekends. when we were talking about what he'd be doing this is what he said.

jackson: i wish i could go with daddy and help the people.
mom: wow jackson i'm so happy that you want to help other people. thats so good!
j: [sounding very annoyed] you're happy that i'm sad. thats not very nice.

so what did brent do in chattanooga?

you can't tell in the video but that was a cicada that he ate. even in a group of men, brent will still out gross them all. he told me, "i can never turn down an eating contest." he also out ate all of the youth group at cici's this year. it was something like 20 pieces of pizza and 20 cinnamon rolls. needless to say, i am so proud.

if you needed an image to add to the grossness of it this is a picture of a tree covered in cicadas.

jackson was in bed

Brent and I grab a bag of pretzels to munch on while we watch watson on jeopardy.

Jackson is within in seconds at the top of the stairs. "um, what's in that bag?" he couldn't see us but he's very familiar with the unique crinkle sound of a bag that is made for snack foods.

i think he has super hearing...when it comes to snacking.

guilty

jackson has told me for several weeks he wanted to drink tea. i told him we didn't drink tea. i gave him all the reasons but he told me he just wanted to taste it.

friday night when we were getting ready for bed he said, "mommy i drank tea today and i liked it."

he totally asked for it at our neighbors house.

sneaky boy

Your son watches too much pbs if....

-he runs inside with a dandelion claiming he's found a between the lion.

-he tells you to turn on p-b-s dot org slash read

-whenever you get upset with him he says "be calm and think things through that is what you need to do."

-he bounces down to breakfast saying "its breakfast tiiiiiime."

-when he "works" in the ditch at the park he hums bob the builder.

-after you tell him he can't have ice cream he responds with "i have to mom. It's in my story see[and while pointing to an imaginary sentence below his face says ] Jackson eats ice cream!"

-if he sees a bridge approaching on the road will scream "time bridge approaching!"

yea-he definitely watches too much pbs. maybe i do too.

just some of the questions I regularly answer

what cranes can carry? what time it is? did you see that blue truck? what it has in it? why it has bread in it? did you know cranes can carry cars? did you know cranes can carry flowers? where does jesus live? up way high in the sky? when i get bigger i can fly rocket there? is big blue jet bad? can we take grandma rocket some soup? what that crane has? what are supplies? what are clouds? what are trees? what are flowers? what are seeds? and the chickens eat the seeds? what does woman mean? am i a woman? is daddy a woman? when i get big will i be a woman? is sam funny? is he a spitty boy? is he trying to hit me? can cranes carry me? can cranes pick up a house?

yes-my son really likes cranes and we seem to pass a lot of them.

i hear three is the age of questions. we're definitely there.

I sing to Jackson a lot. Did you know that? I guess I'm the lucky sort of mom who has a child who seriously believes that a kiss cures a boo boo and songs will, eventually, make us feel happy again. I don't know many children's songs besides the primary songs. So to all of you who are familiar with them I'll test you in the same way I've been tested over the last couple of weeks. Jackson doesn't know the titles of these popular primary songs just random lines of the songs. He also doesn't know the real words, just guesses what they might be. All of these completely baffled me for a full five minutes at least as he screamed "you do!! you do know it!" I'll give them to you easiest first.

Ponder pray

Always turn a tea

Her peas, her father

Answers:

Search, ponder and pray

Families can be together forever (all eternity)

Love is spoken here (her pleas to the father)

i've learned i need to call them by the real names to keep peace.

yeah-yuh

Jackson's hip. Way hipper than his mama who still uses words like hip. He has now decided that it's cool to not finish saying your words. examples "change his die" or "slidin' dow." Another new one is adding "uh" to end of words or substituting it for the real ending. He'll tell me Sam is a babuh, he wants to watch a movuh, or yeahyuh. I haven't decided if the last one sounds like a thick southern accent or a 90s rapper. Either way, he's cool.

3 days

Last night Brent said to me "So this baby must be a girl because I keep forgetting about it!"

It's so wrong on so many many levels!

Christmas preparations

This was our first year to go and see Santa. Jackson was so excited. After telling me for 2 weeks he was going to ask for a tricycle, that morning he changed his mind to 4 lollipops.
This is the first year I've really gotten excited about Christmas for Jackson. It's exhilerating to try to shop around for him and hide gifts and such. We've also been talking about the nativity story. He wants to get down the manger scenes to talk about them...unfortunately we have breakable nativities and so I can't just leave them down but hopefully after christmas is over i'll get the little people's nativity for next year.
Another fun story was for our ward christmas party Brent and I were asked to be Mary and Joseph. We thought it would be fun to dress Jackson up as a donkey to walk in with us. He was so cute and then got up to the front and yelled "I'm superman!" Sorry mom, no pictures.

here i am!

That's what my camera said when I found it yesterday. It had been hiding for the whole month of september. I decided to celebrate winning hide and seek by posting. just cause.

So yesterday I grounded myself from the computer so I'd get some things done. (like finding my camera) it had been sucking out my soul. I had a lot of cleaning to do so I wasn't finished when Jackson woke up from his nap. I kept telling him to follow me and he could help me with my chores. He just wanted to go play in his room. Then he comes in and says "Mommy come on! I made a BIG BIG MESS!" these are words I fear.

This is what I found. He'd knocked over his stack of library books, added a blanket, pencil, and puzzle piece to the "disaster." Yeah, sometimes its nice to have a child that wasn't more creative with his I'll-get-moms-attention-by-making-a-mess scheme.
I don't have a scanner so I just took a picture of my ultrasound. We did this a few weeks ago. We've decided to wait to find out the babies gender. We found out with Jackson but thought this would be fun. I know its just an ultrasound. A black and white picture of a baby that could be anybody's. I get all emotional though looking at it. I'm so so excited. I think more so with this one than Jackson because I have a clue about what mommy love is. With Jackson I didn't know how to interpret my feelings and nerves and stuff. With number #2 though I can attach this strong feeling of love that I've experienced before to this new person I haven't met and I just stinkin' can't wait. I'm crying now. typical. I love you baby!

I wonder

How many moms say this. "Now if you pick up your toys you can help me sweep and mop" and then the child actually squeal and giggle in delight.
It just makes this feel so long ago.

Stinky baby

When I picked Jackson up from the ChildWatch at the Y today they told me they smelt him so they thought he'd pooped. When they went to check him he shook his head saying "no nope no GAS." and he was right. I won't place blame on the side of the family this comes from but you know who you are.

Lella

The best thing about the rain is you get to hold the lella.