Over the Mountain and Through the Woods...

...to TJ Maxx, Sears, Target, Costco, and Starbucks we go. Phil and I loaded up the kiddos and went to Medford today to do a little shopping. Yes, I know it's a Tuesday and no, Phil wasn't playing hooky from work. I asked if he would take a few days off this week to spend some time with us, since we've been pretty busy since he got back from Boise. That's one of the best things about his job here... he can take leave almost whenever he wants. It's wonderful.

We had a really nice family day today. The mountain pass was not too snowy or icy and fairly easy to get through, J and E slept well there and back, so Phil and I were able to spend some time just chatting with each other, and both boys were really good in the stores. We never had to wear Emmett in the carrier even once. He was happy to just sit in the cart. Of course, I took some pictures of that...


This is probably the last year we can put Jackson in the cart with his Christmas present. We were pretty sure he'd forget about it as soon as we got back in the car. He did.


Costco has extra-big carts with space for two kiddos in the front. Perfect!


Before we left, Jackson was walking around the house with his trapper hat on backwards. Of course, we took some pictures of that, too...


We asked him to smile for this picture and he closed his eyes instead.


This is one video that I know we will treasure forever. It is one of my favorites for sure.

Football PJ's and Fudd

It's been quite chilly here this weekend... and windy, too. The boys and I went to a craft fair on Friday and the wind almost took my car door off of the hinges when I opened it. It was so crazy strong that the back hatch door of the minivan wouldn't even open when I pushed the button. I had to actually get out and open it manually! Snow has been in the forecast almost every day, but hasn't made a strong showing yet, unfortunately. Jackson just got a new snowsuit in the mail the other day and I'm anxious to see him in it!

Emmett had a really good day today. He actually took a 1-1/2 hour nap in the morning and about a 2-1/2 hour one in the afternoon! It was glorious!! Oh, how I wish he would do that every day.

I had stopped giving Emmett solid foods for a week or so because he had started fighting me about it and his pediatrician said that meant that he probably wasn't fully ready and not to force it. Well, he's definitely ready now. He lunges for the spoon now and wolfs down whatever I offer him. I've even started giving him Cheerios and he gums them pretty well. Tonight I fed him some peas and rice cereal for dinner and then put a pile of Cheerios next to my plate to let him munch on while I finished my meal. He would work on the one Cheerio in his mouth, swallow it, and then lean over and stare at the pile until I put another in his mouth. He's so funny!

He was in a good mood when he woke from his morning nap (because he actually slept for the right amount of time!), so I took some photos...


And here's Jackson in the same pj's at the same age after one of his morning naps. These pj's have about had it, though. The zipper is broken and they're stained on the inside from diaper ink. I may keep them just in case our third baby is a boy so I can put him in them at seven months just for this picture. :)


We went to gather eggs again this morning. Jackson looked so cute channeling Elmer Fudd...


He hates to leave that place. I had to almost drag him out of there today!

Here are two videos of J counting and making animal sounds. They're very similar and will probably only appeal to grandparents (and maybe aunts). :)

Seven Months

So far, Jackson has been a pretty easygoing toddler. He doesn't throw fits, he has never bitten anyone and hasn't hit for a long time. He's pretty easily distracted, doesn't get really angry about things, and doesn't mind taking naps or going to bed. We've been lucky so far.

We think we're definitely going to get a run for our money when Emmett becomes a toddler. When he's happy and content (meaning, he isn't hungry or tired and has everything he wants at the moment) he's just the sweetest thing... smiling, cooing, the whole bit. But when he doesn't get something he wants - like, for instance, if he wants to be picked up when I'm fixing Jackson dinner, or if he wants to eat the notepad that's in front of him and I take it away, or if he decides he's bored where he is and I take too long moving him or picking him up... look out!! He has developed quite a good red-faced scream. I can tell the difference now between a mad scream and a sad scream. Sad is accompanied by a pouty lower lip and tears. Mad is just red and loud. :)

He has also gotten quite adept at a "stiff as a board" pose. If I try to sit him down on the floor and he doesn't want to sit, he becomes as stiff as a board with his feet flat on the floor and I have to push on his stomach to make him bend and sit. As you can imagine, a mad scream usually follows this. The same exact thing happens when we try to put him in the car seat without his permission. Totally straight-bodied stiffening followed by a stomach push and mad scream. It is actually kind of funny that he already knows how to make things difficult for us to try to get what he wants!

He is so totally cute, though, and is usually a happy, good baby. I am very, very thankful that he is still consistently sleeping through the night, even if his naps still aren't the greatest. I think Jackson may just be an unusually good napper and has skewed my perception of how napping should be. And I absolutely can't resist Emmett's chubby cheeks, tummy, and thighs. He gets an overload of kisses on a daily basis.

I'll have to try to get a video of him soon, because he is really close to crawling. He's trying so hard! He gets up on his hands and knees and pushes himself forward, only to land on his face, poor thing. He can scoot backwards like you read about, though. So when he face-plants he just rolls over onto his back, or pushes up to hands and knees and tries again, or scoots himself backwards. That's another thing that we notice about him - he's pretty tough. He doesn't cry easily when he gets hurt from things like... a flying ball that his brother threw in his direction (accidentally, of course), or from reaching for something too far and toppling over from a sitting position, or face-planting from wanting to crawl so! badly!

We were blessed the other day to be a part of my friend Katie's "photoshoot" for a website she's creating. She made a flight suit onesie for Emmett after he was born, and asked if he would model it for her website. She makes all kinds of amazing onesies, t-shirts, and dresses for kids, as well as aprons and bags for women. I'll post a link to her site as soon as she gets it up and running. Anyway, Kelly Armijo, the photographer who took our family pictures this year, photographed the kids for the website and I was able to buy some of the shots from her. I just adore them and was SO happy to have some recent great pictures of Emmett, as the last ones Kelly took of him were newborn shots. Katie has all sorts of awesome antiques, toys, and furniture at her house, and this plane was just perfect for Emmett's session. These are some of my favorites...


I couldn't believe how green his eyes look in these next pictures...


Jackson was supposed to model a flight suit t-shirt, but Katie wasn't able to get it ready in time, so he just got to hang out, run around, and play with all of the cool toys while we were there. Kelly was kind enough to have me plunk Jackson in the plane for a few seconds while she snapped some pictures of the boys together, which I was so grateful for. She originally wanted E to sit on J's lap inside the plane, but neither one of them was having any of that. So we settled for putting E on the ground. I cannot believe that Kelly got any good shots at all, as J would not look at the camera. He barely even looked up from the steering wheel! She is amazing!

Bar, Birds, Bedroom, Bath, and Buddies

How did it work out that the subject of each of the following sets of pictures started with a "B"? Very clever, but I really didn't plan it that way.

We've had a busy week. Jackson woke up crying at 4:30 A.M. last Wednesday and had a fever of about 102 degrees. He was very clingy that day and took a crazy l-o-o-o-n-g nap (we woke him up after 4-1/2 hours), but other than that the fever was the only symptom he had. Thursday was the same, but the fever was gone by Friday, so we went to a welcome home party at the base that night. He was happy and hyper at the party, but when we got home he threw up a few times and had some crazy gross diarrhea, which persisted for the next two days (no vomiting, though). Yuck, yuck, YUCK! Thank goodness Phil was home, because that would have been really tough to deal with by myself... J had about 5 baths in the span of those two days and I think I did about 10 loads of laundry. We don't know what he had, but thankfully it seems to be gone now.

Before the sickness, we went to visit Daddy at work for lunch one day. We were hanging out in Phil's office for a minute, and when I turned around Jackson was gone. He had made a beeline for the pool table in the squadron bar.


Emmett loved the pool table, too...


After the sickness, we went to feed the chickens and collect eggs again. Sadly, the two gorgeous male ducks and two chickens have become the victims of nighttime homicides. Some unknown animal is getting into the yard during the night and eating the birds! All that's left in the mornings is a mess of feathers and a few bones. We're trying to catch the culprit, but no luck yet. Here are the long-awaited bird pictures!


Here are the poor female ducks minus their husbands... Alexis thinks the two males were killed because they were trying to protect the females. What brave ducks! So sad! They always seem to stay in a little clump like this.


The two goats like to stay close to each other, too...


Here is Hobble, the turkey. She's so sweet with her gimpy foot, and she's not going to be Thanksgiving dinner. Hooray!


And here's the rooster. That is one lucky bird - he gets a lot of action. :)


Here's a video of J chasing the goats around. I'm trying out youtube for the first time. I hope it works.



We also painted our master bedroom and bathroom this weekend. It was rough. I think I'm getting too old to paint. It used to look like this...


and now it looks like this...


Phil is going to put crown moulding around the ceiling. I was way happy to avoid all of that edging. It's dark in there, but that's good because we get direct morning sunlight. Not that we ever sleep in past 6:30 A.M. anymore. Someday, maybe!


The boys took a bath together for the first time the other night. Emmett loved it!


They're getting to be good buddies...


Last night I hosted a meeting for a book club that I'm in. We're reading classic novels, and last month's read was Robinson Crusoe. I didn't love the book and didn't finish it, either. Luckily, Cliff's Notes has a great website... I was able to read a synopsis and analysis of each chapter that I skipped. It's okay to cheat a little for a recreational book club, right? I'm going to try not to do that again. This month's read is Sense and Sensibility, and that is one of my favorite movies of all time, so I should be okay.

** Just realized I could have added "Books" to the title of this post. I thought that might have been overkill, though.

What Happened to October?

I cannot believe it is November already. My friend, Andrea, just wrote about this same thing on her blog. Seriously, did we completely skip October? Time is just flying by!!

Phil returned home on Wednesday safely and for good this time. Hooray! Like I've said before... it is just wonderful to have him home with us. I can't even believe yet that he doesn't have to leave again in a few weeks! He's really enjoying reconnecting with the boys, and I can tell that Jackson is just ecstatic that Daddy is back. He just loves his Daddy - follows him around everywhere!

The stars aligned recently (meaning, within a month's span of time Emmett started sleeping through the night, Phil returned home, and I got completely fed up with not fitting into any of my clothes) and I finally got motivated to start working out again. Oh, I've done the occasional run with the stroller since Emmett was born, but this time I actually joined a gym and decided to really commit to working out.

After being inspired by a few of my friends (ahem, Kristen and Aree), I've decided to start going early in the morning before Phil goes to work. I thought hard about the pros and cons of an early morning workout, and the only con I could think of was missing out on an hour or so of sleep. There are many pros - not having to put the boys in the gross gym daycare (that's a huge one), being able to come home around 7:00 A.M. and be completely done with working out for that day and still be able to enjoy my morning coffee, not having a workout completely dominate the morning's activities, not having to have Emmett miss his morning nap for my workout, being able to take a shower and get all cleaned up for the day while E naps in the morning, etc. So, I decided to stop being lazy and haul my flabby self out of bed two hours earlier than normal.

I went four times last week and actually enjoyed it! Yes, the initial throwing back of the covers at 5:15 A.M. really stinks, but after that it's not too bad. I really love taking classes at a gym and I need the motivation that comes from having to be at the gym at a certain time to take a class and having someone else tell me what to do to work out. If I were to try to get up early and work out at home by myself it would never happen. I also push myself harder knowing that other people might be watching what I'm doing. I love the early morning classes at my gym, and it's only $18 a month! I just hope I can stay motivated through these cold, dark winter months.

Anyway, on to other things. It was a red-letter day in KF on Friday. The Oscar Meyer Wienermobile came to town. Woo-Hoo! Of course we went to see it. Who would want to miss that? The boys were both in great moods before we left so I took advantage of that and took some pics...


I love how Emmett looks so lovingly at his brother. He loves to sit and "play" with Jackson now. As long as J is in the room, E will sit on the floor for a long time and play with toys. As soon as J leaves, E is ready to be moved, too! Speaking of moving, Emmett has now learned to rotate on his bottom. He can move in a complete circle by bending his leg and scooting himself around. I'll put him on the floor facing one way, and come back a few minutes later to see him facing the complete opposite direction! He's also getting very grabby - he's so curious and will reach out for anything that's even remotely close to him. He loves to eat paper, so I have to be very careful that any kind of paper product is very far away from him. I found out the hard way that he can dissolve a board book with his saliva in about 5 minutes flat. He loves to lean way forward and reach for things. I'm interested to see how soon he beings to crawl. He is ready to move!


Jackson is telling me something very important here and Emmett obviously thinks it's hilarious!


I look way more excited in this picture than I actually was...


The Wienermobile was parked at the Children's Museum in town, so after seeing the "big hot dog", we went inside to play. Jackson loves saying goodbye to things now, and the Wienermobile was no exception. He yelled out, "Bye, hot dog!" as we walked inside. There were a gazillion kids in there and J was a bit overwhelmed at first with the noise level and all that was going on.


He loved banging on this xylophone. That little girl in the picture stood there and just watched him bang away for a few minutes.


Emmett was very snuggly and content in the baby carrier. He even fell asleep in there for a few minutes. He loves to gaze to the side and suck on that part of the strap. If you want, click on this picture to see it bigger and tell us what color you think E's eyes are. They're very interesting. Even his doctor didn't know what to call them!


When we got home that night, Jackson got a much-needed haircut. He's not crying about the actual cutting here, he just didn't want me to take a picture of it.


Just some other pictures from today and yesterday...


Getting ready to play outside... I know there are a bunch of these, but I thought they were all so cute! I seriously cannot stop kissing those cheeks. I think I have a problem. :)


I looked out the window today and saw Jackson eating dirt from his sand box off of a shovel. What could possibly be the appeal of eating dirt? I guess it's just a boy thing. Of course, I took a picture before I cleaned him up.


"Mmmm! Dirt good!"


Last, but not least, here's a short video of Emmett in the bath. He loves when Dad sprays him with the "shower".