Giving Thanks & 18 Months

This Thanksgiving holiday was great!  We had Douglas' family over at our house for "dinner" and then went to my parents for dessert in the evening.  There was a lot of great food and fun.  Then on Saturday we had Thanksgiving with Douglas' dad, aunt and uncle and their family.  More good food and fun.  It was so nice to see everyone over the holiday weekend, and I'm extra grateful that Douglas got to have the whole week off!  We even got the bonus of him not having to go to school the Tuesday before because of weather.

Pumpkin hide and seek

Xander turned 18 months over the holiday weekend.  He is doing well.  He's 30 1/2 inches tall and 21 lbs 14 oz.  He says many things, and even learned a new word and the Doctor's visit- Frog.  He's definitely more shy than Japheth was, but it's just so cute you love it.  He wanted to "knock knock" on the door at the Dr.'s office, but wouldn't do it without me holding his hand.

The boys get along pretty well, though Japheth thinks that sharing means he gets whatever toy whenever he wants. Sometimes he has a hard time with why Xander gets to play with a toy when he wants it, because Xander should be sharing! It helps, sometimes, when I say it's Xander's turn. But their both so good and cute, I really couldn't ask for more. Except to remember better how little they are and understand, sometimes it's easy to forget and get frustrated. I'm so lucky to have such a cute and wonderful family! I am truly grateful for all three of my boys!

Oh yeah, Xander managed this!

Halloween

Halloween was really fun.  Pumpkin patch, food, parties, trick-or-treating, all the things that make the holiday great!  We all dressed up as Star Wars characters this year, for those who might not know- I'm Princess Leia, Douglas is Han Solo, Xander is an Ewok, and Japheth is (as he puts it) Obi Kanobi One.

Fall Fun

We went up to Oktoberfest with my family in September.  Food, fun, dancing and more; needless to say we had a great time.  We were able to to jump on the bungee trampolines, I was a little worried that Japheth would get scared after getting hooked up, but he had a blast!  You wouldn't think it'd take so much energy, but it was a pretty good workout for such a short time.  They invited the kids up on stage for the chicken dance.  Japheth thought it was really fun, even though he didn't know the dance.  He spent the first 30 seconds just staring at the drummer playing his set.  Between cousins, grandparents, and all that fun both boys were thoroughly tired out! 

We also went up to the Handley cabin a couple times. The boys couldn't get enough of dirt, rocks and watching things they threw in float down the river. I thought they might dam up the river with all they put in there. Xander loved exploring, hearing all the fun sounds, and the the seemingly never ending supply of food. Japheth loved that last one too of course, and playing Chinese checkers (which he cheats at) and doing the puzzles. It's always relaxing and fun, and we loved seeing Aunt Kate, Uncle Ken and Grandpa Handley.

On shorter topics, Japheth is absolutely loving pre-school.  Xander is definitely a little man instead of a baby, though he's gained the nick-name of "baby."  It's very sad when you realize one day that your baby isn't really a baby anymore, but he makes up for it by being the cutest thing ever!  Both boys keep learning things so fast it's amazing.  I am very blessed to be surrounded by 3 very cute, smart and good boys!  We are all excited for the holiday season to start.  We are ready for the first, and my favorite, Halloween, but can't wait for it all.  January will be a lonely month when all the holidays are through.  But I'm sure it will also be the start of another fun and exciting year!

Updates

Recent trip to the park

So a lot has happened since my last post, so lets get right to it! First off Douglas got A's in both of his summer classes. He just started the fall semester and is taking 3 classes. He is working really hard to get all his homework done on time and understand it, while working and still being a part of our family. He's doing a really good job of it to. Thanks babe!

Next off is the computers. We ended up getting the malware virus on both computers, but after much work and running at least 5 programs, it looks like we were able to get the virus off without wiping the hard drives. We still have some wierd pop-ups and re-directs on the internet that we didn't have before, so we are still looking into getting Windows 7 sometime soon-ish.

I love that he looks like nothing is holding him on in the middle picture

And finally what you've all been waiting for. . . the boys. Xander is doing really well. He's 15 months now and is as cute as ever. He is 29 inches tall and weighs 20 lbs 14 oz. He loves to talk and read and play. He walks like he's been doing it forever, though he took a spill in the mountains the other day. He couldn't keep his balance while walking the small, steep slope between path and dirt. He loves to do whatever Japheth is doing, and always wants to be a part of everything. He can say ball, book (same sound, but he knows the difference), mama, dada, up, he doesn't say dog, but he makes the same sound everytime he sees one; it sounds like woofing. He signs please, more, and milk. Japheth just gets smarter everyday. He's about 3 1/2 years-old. He looks so tall lately, and I just keep wondering what happened to my little man? (Though I know he's still little). He will start pre-school right after Labor Day. I know - "say what?!" The wierdness has just started setting in for me. I'm sad because I thought being close to some schools I'd get to walk him to pre-school. But they want too much for it, and Grama Tanner's neighbor is starting up her pre-school again for a steal of a deal. So I'm going to have to come to terms with driving him instead. It'll be wierd to have him gone for so long so often. I guess it'll be good time for me to try some things out that I've been wanting to do for a while.

Becoming a swing expert

The Good The Bad and The Ugly

Flipper died a natual death, he caught a nasty virus. . . .  They were all in love with dying, they were doing it in Texas.
I have just found a new meaning to those words from the song Avalanche.  We are currently battling our own nasty virus, computer virus that is!  We are currently in the process of backing up files so we can wipe the whole thing.  And man it's a big job since we haven't gotten on it before and I've taken like a million pictures.  As if life weren't busy enough right now.  I guess we needed something to do in our not very much of it spare time.  Oh well, I guess that means no more putting off spending the millions of dollars to upgrade to Windows 7.  Which also means having to purchase the latest Adobe Photoshop, since the others don't work with Windows 7.
In other news, for those who don't know, Douglas is going to try and get into Med School.  He has about 1 1/2 years of pre-requisites before he can take the M-CATs.  Then hopefully he will be accepted the first time which means he'll start in 2012.  After that it's a breezy 4 years of Med school followed by 3-6 of Residency (closer to 6 than 3 probably).  Yea more school and homework!
Now that the Bad and Ugly are out of the way, on to the Good.  Xander is as cute as ever.  He does the stairs really well, though it scares me to watch him sometimes.  He has started to take a few steps here and there by himself.  I think he could have done it sooner, but he thought he needed to keep hanging on to stuff, which he still sometimes thinks.  But it's exciting and cute.  Japheth just keeps getting smarter every day!  He has been wanting to homework just like his daddy, so we bought a pre-school activity book at Walmart and have been going through some pages on most days.  I don't know what we'll do when it comes time for school and he's already learned everything.  I think it'll still be fun for him, but I worry he'll be bored.  At least he has funny to fall back on, right?  He thinks he's hilarious, and Xander laughing his head off at him only helps him know it for sure.  I love when they play well together, it really is fun to see them laugh together.
And finally, just wishing everyone a happy 4th of July!

Colorado

So over the first weekend in June we went to Colorado for Douglas' sister, Rachel, who got married. Looking at hotels we had a few options; 1- be close to our activities, be what I consider reasonably priced, and be very rundown. 2- be farther than we'd like from our activities, my "reasonably" priced, and be a place I'm good to take my kids to. 3- be close to our activities, have a nice hotel, and pay a bit more than we'd like to. I really haven't had to look at hotels before, so my "reasonably" priced is probably much lower due to that lack of experience with it. We chose to go with option 3 and make it feel more like a mini-vacation. I'm really glad we did! The room was great, it had a separate bedroom from the main living area so it was much easier to put the boys to bed. Plus we were able to get a pretty good deal online which made the end price much more reasonable to me (and my reasonable price has gone up a bit since our stay).

We had a great time! Though I found out that I can only handle half of Wyoming before I start feeling "Are we there yet?!" But we had a lot of fun at Green River's "time tunnel." I think that might have been one of Japheth's favorite parts. And we found a fun stop just off the freeway a few exits from our hotel that had some Dino fossils and footprints. Japheth wanted to climb on it the whole time, and at one point climbed up between the guide's legs. So that made it a bit frustrating, but it was really cool to feel real bones in the rock, and see the footprints (especially since it looks like one dinosaur hunting another). The dinosaurs in the pictures are actually to scale, so that's how big we'd look next to them.  And they color the foot prints with charcoal paste so you can see them better.  We also went to the Denver Aquarium. It was a pretty fun time, the boys were better behaved and really liked seeing all the fish close up. And Douglas got to feed some manta rays, but got in trouble for petting them too much. Apparently you're suppose to only use 2 fingers on the tips of the wings.

The wedding went well, and it seemed like everyone was having a good time.  It was held in a natural amphitheater in Morrison.  It was beautiful, and a pretty cool place to get married.  Rachel looked fantastic!  Japheth got to be the ring bearer and did a really good job.  We practiced with him so he wouldn't go off course, run down the isle or drop the pillow.  He was focused and cute and went at a good pace.  Thanks mom for helping me make my awesome dress!

Turning 1

So Xander is now officially 1 years-old. He is 27 1/2 inches tall and weighs 17 lbs 15 oz. He has 6 teeth in his cute little smile, and loves to use them for eating Cheerios, his favorite food. He's healthy and super cute. He loves to walk around with his Tonka truck (see last post), and has started to let go of the Tonka every once in a while to stand on his own for a second or two. He is also climbing stairs, up not down, and made it to the top today without an adult behind him, but with Japheth in front telling what a good job he's doing. He can talk up a storm with all his baby sentences, and sometimes helps me get after Japheth by holding his hand out toward him and talking louder. His favorite toys are Japheth's tools, and he loves to snuggle his bed-time doggy. He has the cutest facial expressions and words, and is such a fun loving little guy. He is super mellow most of the time, but has recently started to attack Japheth by climbing up him to stand up, and then puts his mouth to Japheth and talks into Japheth's back. It's cute to watch them play together; I think it's the beginning to their rough housing, luckily for me it's not so rough yet! He also loves bath time, with his most favorite part being splashing everyone even remotely close to the tub.
While Xander enjoys most things in life there are a few things he thinks he could do without. First is waiting for his milk to warm up. He thinks it's the end of the world having to wait, but refuses to drink it even luke-warm. Second is the feel of outside. Sounds weird, but it's true. He super hates the feel of grass, and while he tolerates it, he isn't fond of the cement either. He definitely prefers to be held outside, but maybe one day he'll find he's having too much fun to notice that he's outside.
We had a great time at his first birthday party! Thanks to everyone that could make it. All the presents are great, and both Xander and Japheth are having a blast playing with the new toys and can't decide which one they like most, though Japheth is finding it hard to share Xander's toys with Xander. Xander was a bit unsure of the cake at first, but only because it was cold. After a bit he really got into it. It's crazy to think we've had him for a year already, and sometimes he looks too big to me! But I know he's still really little, and we definitely enjoy having him around. Thanks again for all the great presents.

1 Plus 3 Equals Crazy!

I know it doesn't look like it but it's really a hug.

So first I have to attribute this post to Liz, since she inspired me to post it with her poo bath and crayon eating child. (Also thanks for helping me make my blog more stylin') The past few weeks we have felt a little crazy. Partly from crazy little boys and partly from Douglas' shedule. He just ended a class for work and started Chemistry 1210 with the overlapping time resulting in him being gone a lot. I think the hardest part is when the boys take turns being punks or just go completely out of control.
Japheth has been all over the place hyper! It's been a bit more constant than usual. We went to Applebees for dinner the other night and he was literally bouncing off the walls in the restroom. He has been into more things than usual, and has been playing harsher with Xander lately. They can play nicely, but Japheth has been hitting him to get toys back, plus hitting with toys in his excited playing. Also he hasn't been going to bed well lately. We put both boys down at 7pm for the night, but Japheth has been staying awake until 9pm, even though he's tired. The problem is that he isn't just laying quietly, so we have to go up every so often to put him back down. It can be maddeningly frustrating night after night! By the time he finally goes to sleep it's almost time for us to go to bed and we've spent all our "kidless" time taking care of a kid, instead of rejuvinating and relaxing to be ready for another day of kids. Sadly I think our only option is to finally drop his nap. :(
While Japheth has been perfecting his ability to not listen to a thing you say and be hyper beyond belief, Xander has been perfecting his art of crying and persistance in crying. There are many times when he wakes up and straight off swears that he is starving like he hasn't eaten for days. Though if we're out and about he has no problems waiting longer for his meal. Seems a little backwards to me, maybe I'm just wierd though. He'll cry and cry until he gets his bottle, and then sometimes cries more until he's had all his food, and then sometimes more until he has his cherios. And if he sees the bottle then he's automatically starving and needs it right then. And if he sees anyone else eating he of course is starving again, even when he's just eaten. It's a fun cycle of crying, luckily it's not all day long.
I know that they're really good kids, and I love them tonz, but man can kids drive you crazy. Luckily they can be really cute too, often right when it's needed to keep them in the family. :) I love that Xander likes to cuddle, and he says little baby-talk sentences all the time that make you just smile. Plus he does a little head shake ending with cocking it to one side and smiling like there's no tomorrow. While Japheth has started saying "thank you mama for making dinner" even when it's lunch time. And many times an "I love you mama" comes out of the blue. Since Xander is a cuddler, Japheth has decided he needs it a little more in his life too, and I very much enjoy that. But the funniest is when the influence of having mostly girl cousins around, and being with me all day shows itself. Like having tea. . .
Sorry about the audio, can't seem to make it work.

I was going to put a video of Xander talking cute, but since the audio doesn't seem to want to work with my phone videos here's one of him walking with the aid of a toy instead. (A recent developement)

A Dino-mite Time!

So we had Japheth's friend party this last Saturday. We were sad that not everyone could come, but had a fun time anyway. We played "pin the tail" on the dinosaur, chopped the head off of the dinosaur pinata, and ate dinosaurs that were dipped in "mud." It was nice to make a chocolate frosting that Japheth could have since he won't have chocolate much in his life. We're pretty sure that he's lactose intolerant. Japheth was so excited about turning 3 and having a dinosaur party. He told as many strangers about it as possible. He loves all his presents, thanks everybody.

3 Years and 9 Months

So it's getting to be birthday season at our house. Japheth will turn 3 on the 12th and Douglas will be 29 on the 18th. Since Xander's 9 month appointment was somewhat close to March we decided to only go into the Dr. once for both check-ups. A week or so late for Xander and a week or so early for Japheth.

Japheth is a very cute ball of high energy. He loves letters and numbers as much as ever. Since he's been able to count pretty high, can recognize numbers into the 20's and beyond, recognizes ABC's in capitol and lower case; we've moved on to spelling and math. He loves to spell with Word World, and types many words on the computer. At the store we were looking at movies and Japheth passed all familiar characters to promptly say "I want this one!" to LeapFrog's Math Circus. He's not very familiar with anything Leap Frog, but as soon as it was over the first time he immediately said "Again!" He is such a handful of a wonderfully good boy. But yes it finally happened... Japheth tried to change his own diaper. At naps and bedtime he's not in underwear yet and after a nap he got out the wipes and attempted to use them all! Luckily I wasn't home, and Douglas had to deal with it. He is 36 1/2inches tall and weighs 28lbs. He's actually in the 25% now, so he's a lot taller since he used to be around 10-15%.

Xander is also doing great! He army-crawls and bunny-hops all over the place, getting into as many of Japheth's toys as possible. Yep that's right, having big brother's toys was the motivation to get Xander moving. He still has only the four teeth thankfully. He loves to cuddle and play and is full of smiles. He rocks back and forth playfully and expects you to do it back. He's growing like a weed, and sometimes with how much food he wants I think he'll surpass Japheth any day, but know it'll be a long while before that happens. He is 27inches tall and weighs 16lbs 14oz, which means he lost a few ounces from his last appointment.

Teeth!

So Xander has been teething for a little while. Then it happened - 4 teeth in 3 weeks! Yep, so much fun. His first tooth popped out on New Years day, and his latest just popped out today (21st). Mostly he's been pretty happy, but the night before his teeth pop out he's super fussy and doesn't sleep well. I'd like to blame it on our friends Marshall & Liz, I think hanging out with them bring the teeth out. They were there for the first and third teeth, with the second and fourth coming only a few days after.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Well another year come and gone. This last year has been a struggle at times, but it's also been a great year! We lost the Saturn in the spring/summer time (right after buying new tires!), Douglas worked a crazy amount of hours and only got paid for half, and the Honda tried to die on us- but we fixed it (for what seems like a lot) since it's our only car. BUT Xander was born in May, both boys are happy and healthy- not to mention sleeping 7-7, Douglas graduated in December and has a job in cardiac (many of the other students in his program don't have jobs yet), we have a beautiful home (that after a year and a half we finally put pictures up), Japheth has been doing well at potty training, both boys are growing and learning well, and we are all just happy and healthy.

Christmas was great! Japheth had a fun time opening presents and he's starting to get Santa a little more. He even got to hear Santa's bells on Christmas Eve after going to bed. Xander got some books, Japheth got books and a kid camera that he loves along with some other fun toys, Douglas got more Ninja Turtles DVD's, Ghost Busters for Xbox360, and some other movies and things, I got some movies, a yoga mat and blocks to help with P90X, money for shelving and some other great things.

This year we are looking forward to Japheth turning 3 and Xander turning 1, and just spending more time together as a family. We are excited for Douglas' sister Rachel to get married, and my cousin Kevin. We hope to have no car troubles this year, and also to be able to afford a new (to us) car. We hope to have Japheth going potty at other places besides our house and wearing underwear all the time soon. And, as every year, we hope to be able to enjoy this year better than the last.

We are very greatful for our many blessings! And we hope that all of you are able to have a great and blessed year for 2010.