Jace Turns Five!

Happy Birthday Jace!



Five years ago tomorrow (Aug. 30), we welcomed our first son into this world. Amazing how fast it has gone. Jace is growing up so much. We threw him a carnival themed birthday party and invited all of his friends and he had a wonderful day!

Our computer got a virus, so I'm using my SIL's computer, but I'll post more details of his party once our new computer arrives.

We love Jace & and appreciate all of the help he is to us and Rylee and Jaden. He's had to deal with a lot this year and has learned quite a bit about sacrifice, compassion and selflessness. Our family wouldn't be the same without him. He's a great boy & we're lucky to have him.

What's grosser than gross?

It's true...you learn something new every day.

My kids always think that flies are bees. To try to teach them that flies are harmless, I picked out a book on flies at the library. What did we learn? That flies are disgusting and not as harmless as I assumed.

Here's what it said. Gross!

Houseflies lay their eggs in rotting, smelly vegetables or in bad meat. (Yes those little white things headed for the food are fly eggs- YUCK!) Sometimes flies lay their eggs in our food. Female houseflies...come into our kitchens and eat our food. Flies squirt juice onto their food (which is really our food) to make it very soft. The flies then suck the food throught their feeding tubes.

The fly lays hundreds of eggs. After about two days, the eggs hatch into larvae. THe larvaie of many types of flies are often called maggots.

You might want to think twice about leaving food out uncovered or for long periods of time.

Makes me want to throw up.

Cute 'lil Bubby

Here are some cute pictures of Jaden that Tasha took for me. I'll show more off later. He couldn't keep his hands off the grain- he pulled it right out and of course, it went straight to his mouth.

We've still got more shots we want to try out.

It's so fun to have a photographer & nice camera to play around with.

Isn't She Lovely

My SIL Tasha got herself a new camera, so we took Rylee out for her to practice on.

I love how they turned out. Once I get the CD, I'll show more.

Our Lake Powell Get-Away

Since this past year has been like a run-away train for us, we decided that we needed to get away from it all. We needed a break, some time to breath, to think, to rejuvenate, to escape.

Nothing like a week in Lake Powell!

We went June 14-20 with some of our long-time friends:

Chris & Cindy Merrill, Ryan & Becca Nelson and Vince & Angie Byram.

Beautiful Lake Powell-the scenery is amazing there!

The guys- some things never change, they've been friends forever & haven't changed much.

Our group at Rainbow Bridge (all of us plus Ryan & Becca's kids & their babysitters who came along).

Lake Powell in a nutshell:

Reading, lounging, riding the banana, laying out, wake boarding, water skiing, lots of good company, hot weather, tons of yummy food (thanks to Chris & Cindy), boating, that darn tube-scares me to death, water trampoline, jet skiing, baths in the lake, nice house boat accommodations, cards or movies @ night, lots of pictures, some good wipe outs, a small storm & some rain, a fun road trip there and one packed Suburban.

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Of course, nothing is without complication in our life.

We were lucky that we actually ended up even getting there. The weekend we were scheduled to leave, Rylee of course ran a fever. What? We thought we were out of the danger zone? Wishful thinking- she ended up with a 3 day stay in the hospital instead for low counts. She was discharged on the Sunday that we had planned on leaving- after a firm recommendation from her Dr. that we'd be okay to still go, we did just that. A few hours behind schedule, but we still went.

Then.....

We get to St. George where we were staying the first night and 5 minutes from where we were staying, the Suburban (yes, our new one we got for Christmas) suddenly dies. WHAT? It was midnight, we were on the on-ramp of the freeway, everything was closed, we were pulling the boat- which was full of food and everything else, the OnStar diagnostic center was closed, so we weren't sure what the problem even was. We had heard a drop when it stalled, so the guys suspected the transmission, but it would only go in reverse or in low gear. Anyways, to make a long story short- we ended up being able to drive it in low gear to where we were staying and got it in the shop the next day. Thankfully, it was still under warranty- it ended up being the sprag? which is a part of the transmission. Apparently they've had some trouble with this- good to know. Now it's fixed. {Thank you to our St. George life lines that we called way past a respectable hour to help us.} Wouldn't be a road trip if something didn't happen right- you've got to come back with a good story.

And...

A huge, huge thanks to Justin's mom & family and my sister Jennifer, niece McKell & my family who were willing to take on our responsibilities for a week. We're in a difficult position and know that it is no small task.

Despite it all, we had a Good Time!

Five Months Already- Jaden!

Wow! This little dude is growing up on me.

He's got a couple of cool super-human tricks:

Toe sucking

and

Fist in Mouth!

He started on solids this month.

He can hold his own spoon and practically stand up out of the Bumbo chair.

I'm not kidding when I say he is a strong kid- he has strength like you wouldn't believe for his age.

You've got to keep your eye on him.

He also learned how to sit up this month.

Go Jaden!

He will sit and play with a toy on the floor for awhile now. I think he's liking his new view.

He's always alert and looking around at everything and everyone. He has a TON of energy and NEVER holds still. He's always either stiff as a board of as wiggly as a little worm. He's constantly looking, flipping, rolling, kicking, jumping, sucking, grabbing.....you get the point.

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In his 5th month, he went swimming for the first time & loved it.

Loves the water!

And also went to his first drive-in movie.

He wiggled through the first movie, slept through the second.

He also celebrated his first 4th of July.

He spends his time going to soccer games, Dr. appointments, errands or wherever else we shuttle him along to. He usually takes 2 good naps and maybe another cat nap in there as well. He still doesn't sleep through the night and he still spits up a TON! Just call him Pukus.

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I will not lie, he has been a challenging baby. Call it colic, call it fussy, call it stubborn or demanding- whatever it is, it's been difficult. We've exhausted all resources in trying to figure out his tummy issues. These are all (+ one: Enfamil GentleEase) the different formulas we've tried him with so far in his short 5 months of life:

Milk or lactose based stuff definitely gives him really bad tummy aches. I finally threw in the towel with nursing him because he'd get belly aches and just cry in pain for a long time, soy formula still makes him spit up, but is easier on his stomach, we tried Alimentum and he did okay for awhile and then he didn't like it anymore. That stuff stinks too. We've been given a prescription for prevacid as well as two other stuff- none of which seemed to help. I took him to a naturepath and he said that he had an underdeveloped liver and gallbladder. He also suggested that his pancreas wasn't releasing enough enzymes. Whatever that means. We got some homeopathic drops and the verdict is still out on that.

Bottom line is: we're still trying to figure it out. It could be a number of things. Right now he's doing pretty good with Soy Good Start. Meanwhile, making sure we've always got extra clothes and plenty of burp rags with us.

{P.S. if anyone is interested in opened, but hardly used cans of any of these formulas- let me know.}

But, despite it all.....

He's loved... and that's all that matters!

The Mom Salon

In the land of make believe......

I am the client.
Mike (a.k.a. Jace) is my hairdresser.
He's been doing hair for about 6 weeks.
Before that, he raced ramps.
The shirt he's wearing shows what he used to do, before hair of course.

Rylee is always the make up assistant.
And by assistant, I mean the one who tries on all the lip stuff, occasionally a little eye liner on the lips as well.

This day, I got my hair picked.
Blow-dryed.
And round brushed.

Pretty sure they're accepting new clients.
Free, if you're patient enough to let them do it.

{I remember doing similar stuff when I was a kid. Except it involved barrettes, my dad, a cup full of water, rollers and a little black comb. My dad was a good sport.}