My Little Elf

Jackson and I decided to put our new Christmas tree up while Hayden was at school-of course we waited for him to add the ornaments...but oh how nice is the prelit?!?!?





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Brothers

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Reagan is 6 Months Old!

I have no idea where the past 6 months have gone. But I do know that she is the most amazing blessing and that she completes our family. She adds joy to all of our lives. She loves her brothers (especially Hayden at the moment), she is a Mama's girl, and she is loving all the attention from her daddy. She is giggling, sitting, rolling (when she feels like it) and squealing. She's saying "dadadadadadada", eating baby food, loving mum mums, and barely sleeps at night. She loves to snuggle, loves to be held, talked to, read to, sang to, and kissed up.
She's our girl...and these past 6 months with her have been a gift. We love you, Reagan Estelle. Happy 1/2 Birthday Sweet Princess!














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Bouncy

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Reagan's Eating Baby Food Now!!!!

Reagan will be 6 months on Friday, so it's time to start with FOOD!!!! My plan was to make it, but it turns out that I may have gotten in over my head. So, for the moment, I just bought good old Gerber.
She's really not a fan!!!
She's had peas, cereal, applesauce, mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, and really hasn't liked ANY of it.
Here she is trying sweet potatoes for lunch today.



Mmmm...those are pretty good!!!


Nope, nevermind. Turns out I HATE them!!!!

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Favorites

Hayden: 5 years/5 months
Color: red, green, blue
Animal: armadillo, porcupine and dinosaur
Game: wrestling daddy and playing scrabble
Food: ravioli, Mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, apples
Song: Ham and Eggs and Jingle Bells
Friends: Oliver and Milo, Michael and Adam, Sawyer Lewis and Thayer, Kody and Karter and Bryce and Caden
To Play: cowboys (at school) and DS, playing with Jack (at home)
Season: All of them
Toy: I don't know
Show: Scooby Doo
Movie: Scooby Doo, Shrek, The Bee Movie and Winnie the Pooh

Jackson: Age: 2 years/9 months
Color: green
Animal: deer
Thing to do with Mom and Dad: play toys
Food: peanut butter and jelly and pancakes
Song: fight fight
Friends: Sawyer and Oakley
To Play: iPad, kitchen, cars
Season: spring-but spring is over
Toy: Daddy
Show: caillou
Movie: Cars


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Science City Sunday

So, the benefits of having open houses is that it forces us to get our home body bootees out of the house and fill a few hours with FUN!!!! And...that's just what we did on Sunday. The kids and I had been to Science City once before, but they were SO excited to go back and share it with Daddy. This place is SO much fun-for ALL ages-and we had a SUPER fun day!!!!























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My 3 Beautiful Munchkins

Jackisms

"We go Iowa? Daddy's or Nana's?"

When asked if he pooped- "No, that was just a tootie"

"I watch show on big tv?"

"That's my sissy Reagie"

"I go Karate (or school or whatever H is doing) when I Hayden's age"

When he's trying to talk his way out of a timeout, "I won't be rude anymore!"

"Brandyn have sippy cup last night" "brandyn have pink bunny in closet"

Memories-and Pudding

Just a quickie here:
I can remember, almost like it was yesterday, when I was a little girl...on very special occassions, my mom would make a box of chocolate AND a box of vanilla instant pudding. Then she would pour it into wine glasses-making layers, top it with whipped cream if we had it, and sometimes, even a cherry.
I thought it was SO fancy and that we must be the fanciest people EVER...as I was positive only FANCY people ate layered instant pudding out of wine glasses.
This is a wonderful memory for me-so today, while my kiddos ate ravioli from a can (another childhood favorite) for lunch, I made them fancy layered instant pudding desserts. And low and behold-they LOVED it!!!! I love sharing simple things like that from my childhood with my kids. And I love it even more when it excites them and makes them feel special.

Complaints.

Sometimes it's hard to find things to be thankful for throughout your day-and most times, it's hard to remember to take a break from all of the complaining, step back and realize that it's really NOT so hard to find things to be thankful for. I get so caught up in the daily "ugh" that I forget that my life truely is wonderful and blessed.
Take this week for example.
Monday: (negative) had to take the kids to get their flu vaccines by myself.
(positive) the kids got the mists vs the shot-my life was made significantly easier.
(positive) I am lucky enough to have a very involved partner, who is typically present for things like this, so the fact that I had to do it alone was hard-but very much the exception, not the rule.
(negative) it was hard to keep the kids focused enough to get into their costumes.
(positive) my kids HAD costumes to get in to.
(positive) Jason's new job allowed him to work from home so that he could join us-so I had another set of hands to help.
(positive) lack of focus was due to the fact that they were happy and excited.

Thursday: (negative) Hayden is sick and I barely got any sleep the night before.
(positive) I get to stay home with him and take care of him...and nap when they do.
(positive) I have a great doctor that got him right in and treated him and he's on the mend
(positive) I got lots and lots of extra cuddles

See. The things I complain about, whine about, vent about...really aren't that bad. I am a lucky woman. My kids are lucky. My husband is lucky.
I heard something the other day on The Rosie Show (yuck). If everyone put all of their troubles in a bag and then we all piled them up and were told to choose one, most people would still go back and choose their own. I guess we'd all rather deal with the "problems" that we're dealt than anyone else's. Something to think about. You're welcome.