~%* Lots to be thankful for! *%~

Blake is now 11 months old.. wow time is flying by. This little handsome fellow is now... FINALLY.. sleeping all the way through the night. Whew. 9.5 hours last night. Good job buddy! He is sure a funny little guy. He is pulling up and cruising on everything. He will sometimes let go and stand there, but he's not interested at all if you try to help him walk. He is always at the window watching his big brother play. Blake always wants to be a part of the action.

With a love for the water and high places, I suspect he won't be quite as cautious of a kid like Jack was. He has a very strong personality and is for sure an individual, even at his young age. He is a very content child, but knows what he wants!

Jack will be 3 years old in about 3 months. He is getting funnier by the day. Still as sweet as ever, and is constantly learning. He is talking and singing everyday more and more... and some of the things he says can make us laugh so hard.

Besides the ABC song, one of his favorites is the wheels on the bus song. Trent will start singing it wrong and Jack will always correct him, "No, No Daddy.. doors on the bus go up and down." Right after Trent was saying they go swish swish swish.

Jason was playing the ABC song on the piano in different pitches and said Jack was right on pitch each time! Pretty darn good for a 2.5 year old I would say.

Since Trent and I got married almost 6.5 years ago, he has always called me random names to see how I would react. And since I never minded being called things like "Bug", some things kind of stuck. What does he call Jack you may ask... "Stink Pot". Now if you call him anything else he will correct you. "No no Mommy, Jack's not handsome.. Jack's a stink pot." "No no daddy, Blake's not a stink pot, Blake's a cutie.. and Mom's a cutie." Ha I like how he always adds that at the end. What a little charmer.

Ha and yes. We made a boo boo when we started referring to ourselves in third person in order for him to know we were mommy and daddy. And now he also refers to himself in third person. Haha. We are in the process of trying to correct our mistake!

We had two great Thanksgivings this year!! One with Trent's family and one with mine. We went to his father's house and got to have a great dinner and spend some time with some great people.

The boy's aunt Wendy loves to give all the kids their Christmas gifts on Thanksgiving so she can be with them all while they open their gifts. What a sweet heart. The boys love their gifts! Jack got some dinosaurs (that are soft in case he hits his little brother with them) and Blake got a fun pop up toy! Thanks aunt Wendy!

All the kids loved playing with one another. They took Jack and they we're playing hide and seek all afternoon. One time I opened a closet and saw them all huddled together in the back. I couldn't help but laugh because Jack looked unsure of what he was doing in there. But at least they found a good spot to hide!

My mom always makes the best rolls for Thanksgiving!! You have to start making them the night before, and they are always worth the wait. Yum!!

My parents have a huge yard behind their house in California. The boys loved playing out there everyday. Jack always had a hard time coming inside. And with their two dogs and ours, it was a great time every time outside!

Wherever there is dirt... there are also bathtubs. Well, hopefully :)

One morning we noticed Jack walk down the stairs with his blanket and walk over to the front door. He then started to try to push his blanket underneath the door. He had a glazed look in his eye and wasn't responding to us for about 5 minutes. When he finally came to.. he looked so surprised and had no idea where he was!! He was sleepwalking!! I think it's just because he hadn't gotten as much sleep as normal though. Hopefully he doesn't become a chronic sleep walker- but man that was crazy!

It still was a little chilly in California due to the arctic wind that was coming down. But we still had the opportunity to play at the park! Which is always fun.

We drove to California by the way.. which actually went great considering we have two little kids. But they did fantastic!! I know, don't ask me how. We stopped half way in Vegas. The lights there always amaze me. Now Jack probably thinks every place with lots of lights is, "Vegas baby!"

Happy Holidays!

1st haircut... and a Ooops

Blake's hair was starting to get into his eyes.. and he was really cute with his long hair so it was a hard decision to give him a hair cut. Jack didn't even get hair until he was a year old! So we gave both Blake and Jack a haircut.

BEFORE

.

AFTER

Jack is getting so much better at letting his Daddy cut his hair. Except we made a little boo boo.. and we ended up having to buzz his whole head. Good thing he still looks good! Whew- lol. At least we didn't have to buzz Blake, I probably would've cried! haha

Jack discovered that it's fun when his Daddy or Mike put him up above the cabinets. It's even funner when they let Buddy play up there too. What a funny kid!

We sure love our boys!

Happy Halloween!

So we were on a roll with potty training, and Jack was doing so good.. then he started resisting it. So we didn't want to push it on him - so I heard somewhere to completely put it all away and start again in a few weeks. Hopefully when he sees the "Potty Time with Elmo" movie we are getting from netflix, he might be a little more excited! :) haha. Besides that he is starting to talk up a storm! He is telling me about his day, what he likes and doesn't like, and things that he is excited about. He also started at a gym called 'My Gym' in Layton and I am super excited about it. It's a great teaching atmosphere and it also helps with different skills. He loves it, but he is still getting use to the whole concept of a class. I think it will be really good for him!

As for Blake.. he is crawling so fast everywhere and pulling himself up on EVERYTHING. He especially likes to pull himself up on anyone that has food. He is a little mooch and LOVES big people food. He is such a cute kid and is very smiley. He has let go of things a few times and balances.. but then he realizes what he just did and grabs right back on! His big brother still picks on him alot, but you can still tell they really love each other.

Blake had gotten to the point where he was waking up 4-5 times a night and we were getting soo tired. So we decided he was old enough to be sleeping through the night. He is 10 months old! So the first part of the night we tried the same thing we did with Jack, and would go in every 5 minutes and comfort him.. but that would just get him more and more mad. That kid really has drive. Then we tried not even removing him from his crib and just sitting with him until he would fall back asleep. The first night he woke up 4-5 times. The second night 3 times. The third only once and he fell right back asleep! Now he is sleeping 8 hours straight!!! YAY :D. It's nice to finally get some uninterrupted sleep. And he seems much happier in the mornings as well. It was a win win I guess!

Halloween was so much fun this year! We got to spend it with some good friends and their kids. We went to the mall at first when it was raining, that we decided that we were never going back there. It was PACKED! After that we went over to our friends parent's house where they were making home-made donuts. YUM. We went trick or treating around their neighborhood and all the kids were having a lot of fun. Jack was so shy he wouldn't say anything.. he would stand behind the other kids and hold up his pumpkin basket. If they were just holding the basket of candy down to take one, he would just look down. So a friend he was trick or treating with (who was 3.5) would get one for him and put it in his basket. It was pretty cute. They all looked so cute and happy bouncing up to each doorstep. So stinkin cute!!

Family pics 2010

We had some pictures taken of our family recently. Carol Lynn took them and did such a fantastic job. I told her she should think about being a photographer. She starts a new journey in Hawaii soon. She decided to go back there to finish her high school career, it's really sad to see her go -we will miss her alot. It's been nice living with a sister ~ I never had a sister so it's been fun living with her this past year.

Here are some of our pictures. Here are little pieces of my heaven*

Homecoming and Saudi Arabia

So Carol Lynn went to Homecoming recently with her boyfriend of 5 months - Aaron. They looked so cute and had such a good time, I just had to post some pictures!

She looked so pretty! She did her hair and everything herself- so talented!

My brother and sister-in law, Dave and Gretel, and their 3 boys headed to Saudia Arabia this past month! They signed a two year contract to teach at their school over there. It was fun having them around for a week or so before they got all of their paperwork together. So far they say they love it over there- everyone has been really nice, and their home is fantastic. Hopefully it won't be too long before we get to see them again. Here is a picture of all the cousins together. The contrast between cousins is quite noticeable! haha ~ and don't you love the flowery couch at their uncle Mike's new home ;) ??

Playing drums!! Diego, that kid has got rhythm!!

Jack and Blake keep getting bigger and bigger. Jack is continually saying more and more, and Blake is now crawling on all fours!! Blake still is having problems with reflux, to the point now we actually believe he has an ulcer :( . Poor little guy, he has been crying in his sleep.. and not giving us much sleep either. But we recently started him on some medicine and he is turning back into his happy little self that we missed so much. I am just happy he is feeling better!

Jack is constantly hugging and rough housing with Blake. I am quite surprised how much Blake puts up with. I can already see a bond growing between them.

Told you my kids were cute! - And no, I'm not bias at all ;)

Haha... See ya later