happy birthday lover boy!

it's birthday time all fall long around here!! i am very blessed to have such a great husband! johne is such a great dad. both boys light up when they see daddy walk in the door!! he plays, spoils, loves and lets the boys be his little shadow everyday! he is also a great husband and treats me like a queen (even when i'm snappy and grouchy)! johne always puts his family first (even with the stresses of work and school), is a great provider, keeps us all entertained, encourages me to do girls nights, puts up my christmas lights, keeps us all laughing and i could go on an on an on. i love you johne and i'm so glad you were born!

Happy Birthday Sweet Jack!

my sweet j turned 3 today!! we didn't do much for his birthday this year. he got to have a little party with his joyschool class with all of his favorite things! french fries, apples, muffins, bananas, balloons and games. we also tried out fun land park and went to his favorite restaurant, red robin with uncle tj and aunt lauren. then we went to lauren's grandmother's 75th birthday party. this was our conversation in the car on the way there.

j: where are we going?
me: a birthday party
j: my birthday party?
me: (i thought for a minute) sure, it's your birthday party!

he thought he was so special and danced the night away (or maybe it was more like kung fu)!

today he got to go to the dentist for the very first time, not so fun on your birthday, but he did surprisingly well!! we practiced by reading a dora book about going to the dentist and he opened his mouth big and wide! he got to pick his toy prize and got a little goodie bag with a toothbrush, floss and toothpaste!

i am so thankful for my jack! he makes everyday brighter with his big smile and contagious laugh! life would definitely be dull without him. he is such a great big brother and has tremendous passion for life even at this young age! i love you my sweet jack!

coolest mom on the block

i've got one of those mom's that everyone always wanted to go on class field trips or to girls camp! she was the fun, cool mom that everyone else wished they had. mom would always be the one doing the pranks at girls camp and i can't remember ever being embarrassed by her, like most teenagers are of their parents! not only was she cool, but she was and is a great mother. mom taught us morals, values, discipline, the importance of education, gospel principles, self worth, charity, compassion, patience and the list goes on. i can only hope to be as good a mother as she was/is one day. i call mom for everything and talk to her several times a week. she is my best friend and i am so thankful for her! mom, thanks for being such a loving, kind and patient mother! i love you, we all love you and hope you have a wonderful birthday!!!

treats

today after school i told jack he gets to pick a special birthday treat to take (this week school's at our house so he's not really taking it anywhere) to school on thursday to share with the other kids. i listed off a bunch of sweet treats....... cupcakes, cookies, brownies, ice cream, chocolate. he thought about it for a minute, then said, "FRENCH FRIES" in a really excited voice! so french fries it will be!!!

ps. i'll throw in some kind of sweet treat too, mainly for me! i'll use any excuse to make a yummy treat!!

not just any pbj

me: what would you like for lunch today? dilla (what jack calls a quesadilla), grilled cheese, or peanut butter and jelly sandwich

jack: i want a sandwich

me: what kind of sandwich?

jack: how about........ a french fry sandwich

funny faces

nothing too exciting has gone on around here in the last week, but we did take some cute pics of jack. its hard to catch jacks big personality, cute faces and sometimes attitude in a picture, but here's a glimpse of jack as we know him!

trick or treating, jacks new favorite subject

you would think jack wasn't excited about trick or treating by his face in these pics, but he was SOOOO excited! he watched as our neighbors decorated with all sort of fun, scary things, watched as all the kids started swarming the streets dressed in costumes and loved most of all running from house to house knocking on doors getting tricks and treats!

dear in the headlights (bright flash)

hmmm, what kind of yummy stuff do i have? jack was obsessed with checking his pumpkin!

nate starting to get sleepy from his wagon ride

jack trying to decide which treat to eat first. he opened many, had a lick or a bite and tossed it until he found a good one!

his waddle was the funniest!!! we will have to post some video.

poor little nate

nate has had a rough couple of weeks. he's been getting molars (bicuspids) and not sleeping well, he has taken several bad falls (see the scraped nose below), he got ignored while i taught joyschool (then falls asleep in his chair because i got too busy to put him down for a nap), came down with a cold, has been tortured while i try to get him down to 1 nap, got his immunizations and the list goes on. liz, i kept meaning to repsond to your loser mommy syndrome! i think we all go through that. i had to take nate to the dr. with a scraped nose, goose egg on his forehead, food stuck in his hair, not to mention all the other little scrapes and bruise all over his body!! yeah, embarassing!

seely farm

our joyschool/playgroup spent a morning at the seely farm. the seely's are an extremely nice family in our ward that let all the young kids come visit several times a year. the kids had a blast seeing the animals, running around like crazy and playing on all of the playground equipment!

jack and kyle enjoying the chickens

nate posing in front of the chickens (thats what he will be for halloween). oh yeah, i forgot to post about his poor little nose. i did take some pics, but it is almost better now.

nate's cute chubby cheek profile

charlie, kevin and jack (it really wasn't cold out, but jack insisted on keeping his hood on)

the poor chickens got their workout and so did the kids!

so soft

watching sis. seely get fresh eggs

whoa is right!

zack and jack flying in the warm wind (jack not so much)

thanks to mary kay and the seely family for letting us come visit!!!

signing accomplishment

nate for the first time today signed the word poop a split second before he went poo poo. he signs other words too, but i thought this was quite an accomplishment! i've been showing him the sign, but he's never done it before today. he does it the same way jack used to, by pulling his fingers instead of his thumb. it might be a one time thing, but hopefully he'll keep it up!

firetruck at our house

for fire safety month we decided to give the joy school boys a treat and have the firetruck come to our house! since they were coming all the way out, we invited a few others to make their time worth it. it was a little chili that morning, but they all had a blast!

oooooo, ahhhhh

in the truck

the blank stare when the fire lady asked if they had any questions

the group

a week slipped by

instead of blogging...... i hosted a cafe rio-ish salad girls night. cleaned the house several times. practiced for the primary program. went to a birthday party. washed cars (johne really washed them while i played with the boys). started teaching piano. took my turn teaching joyschool (i'm sure glad my week is over, now 4 weeks off). went to scouts with johne to do service for the county. enjoyed the beautiful fall weather and gorgeous east coast fall colors. played with the boys outside everyday. enjoyed alone time with johne. watched baby mama with johne. had midnight parties with my sweet teething baby nate. tried not to get mad when jack woke us up at 6am after late nights. enjoyed yummy apple crisp and cinnamon ice cream several nights while the kidos were in bed. started organizing my beads and jewelry. did laundry. missed my mom, dad and sister. talked to my mom a lot. was invited to go on a new york girls trip in march, yay~way excited! shopped online for clothes, mostly little boy clothes. watched nate walk up and down hills, cheeks bouncing. had lots of tupperware parties, even as i write. cuddled with my 2 boys while watching dora and diego. listened to jack sing the dora and diego songs with lots of gusto. ate dora and diego apple pancakes. dressed up in our halloween costumes. talked about christmas. played lots of hide and go seek and tag. built forts and slides. jack taught nate how to roar like a lion and cluck like a chicken. stole this cute blogging idea from my good friend, thanks ra!

dog hat

jack came home from joyschool last week with the cutest hat. he was so proud of it and wore it all day, mostly backwards as you can see from the pics! there were so many cute and funny pics, i had a hard time deciding and haven't gotten into making the collages yet, but i will one of these days!

this one really makes me laugh, jack is such a spaz!

tackle ring around the rosie

a few days ago jack and our 2 little neighbor girls amelia and abby decided to play ring around the rosies. it turned into tackle ring around the rosie and was HILARIOUS to watch!

cute amelia striking a pose!

abby's cute smile!