More pictures

I havent been very good at keeping up with pictures on the blog, especially since I cant ever remember which pictures i've posted on Facebook, and which one's i've posted on blogger, and to be honest, I dont really have the time to go through each of them and see what i've uploaded. So, I keep a folder on my computer desktop of pictures for me to go through, and whenever i get a chance, i post them either on blogger or facebook. Below are pictures from the last few months that I dont remember if they are on facebook or not, and I dont think i've posted them on blogger either.

So, these first two are from easter morning, the kids opening their easter baskets

Avery being a ham (yet again)

One of the first times she got to sit in the grass

Jadon helping daddy in the yard with his "dinger binger"

The kids sitting together outside

The only zoo pix we have

Jadon was not happy that I was taking his picture

Avery, on the other hand, cant seem to get enough of the camera lately

momma and baby elephant

taking a break

Avery watching Jadon play Mario

Avery learned how to crawl today! 

Arent you lucky???

Another picture post! I'm just waiting to see if Avery's going to take a nap this afternoon, and then i'm headed to take a nap myself. Avery's getting some more teeth I believe, and has kept us up alot the last several nights.... i'm pooped! So, here's some random pix from the last couple of days.

Jadon playing on the computer while I cook dinner

Its a girl!!!!!!! Yes, she does have a few dresses, and look! tights too!
We made clay hand and feetprints a week or so ago, and Jadon and I painted them a couple days ago. Its really hard to see the shape of the hand and foot on Jadon's though.

Avery just ADORES Jadon..... shhhh... dont tell Jadon, but i'm pretty sure the feeling is mutual ;)

Mostly pictures

Sorry, i have not had time to blog.... seems like the story of my life these days! Although it feels good to be busy.
These pictures are in no particular order-

Avery's first tooth (2nd one is right by it just starting to come in)

BEAUTIFUL rainbow from the other night
Another shot of the rainbow... it was SO bright and beautiful!

Avery posing for a picture. Once I start clicking and the flash starts going off, she starts grinning. Little ham!

Jadon allowing a picture to be taken of him

Another hammy AveryHaving fun with her toys.

Jadon is really beginning to enjoy his sister sometimes

So thats about it for pictures. Kids are keeping me busy still. Avery's napping is going better, and she seems to be getting on a bit of a schedule now. Usually I am scurrying around trying to get something done while she's sleeping, and i've been successfully getting her down and Jadon into quiet time at the same time, so that gives me a moment of peace....

Ever since our zoo trip, we've been thinking in the back of our minds about getting a bigger, safer car. However, an SUV or minivan are out of the question- too expensive and/or bad gas mileage. We've been eyeing the Honda CRV, which is roomier than a normal car, yet gets better gas mileage than an SUV and the price is right (ok, the price is better... we'll have to see if the price is right if we decide to seriously buy one.) My heart will always belong to our old Honda Pilot though... I sure did love that car, it was sooooooooooooooooooooooooo comfortable!

Wow, second post of the day!

2 posts in one day! Aren't you lucky! ;)

Avery's getting a few teeth in... her two front bottom teeth have broken through, and we think a top tooth might be getting ready to come in. She has been a B-E-A-S-T!!!!!! I swear, that girl is so high strung, and i'm not sure where she gets it from.
She has also started saying ga-ga, ba-ba, ma-ma, and da-da this last week. And has decided that she hates to sit. She wants to stand all the time, although she's still too young to stand by herself, so we have to hold her while she stands.
She is quite a little fireball, and I worry that she is going to be a difficult kid!

I've been scrapbooking the kids' babybooks, and i'm almost done with Jadon's. Looking back at his 7 month pictures and comparing them to Avery, they look a lot alike! Although her cheeks are fatter.

Thats all I have for now... Avery woke up at 2something last night and didnt go back to sleep until just after 4, so im tired and shes squealing so I better go!

Birthday Recap

Well I had a nice birthday. Derek took the day off (friday) and we went to the zoo, thinking it would be less crowded than if we had gone on saturday. WRONG! It was PACKED, took us a long time just to find a place to park. Really, it was like stalking the people who were coming out of the zoo and heading back to their cars to see if they were leaving. Turns out, a bunch of schools were there.
We got there at about 12 noon, and walked around for a bit, then ate some lunch. Oddly enough, at the little food cafe that we were at, there was a little girl there named Jadon (probably spelled Jadyn or something though) and a boy named Avery. What are the odds? I know our kids names are becoming more popular, and that both of them can be used for either a boy or girl name, but it was still weird.
Anyways, the zoo was a little disappointing. A lot of the animals werent out, and most of the cages only had 1 animal in them. The best part was seeing the polar bears, there were 2, and they were playing with a ball in the water.
Jadon did very well. We couldnt have asked for a better kid to travel with, i mean really, he does so well on long drives! And at the zoo, he walked for about 95% of the time.... thats alot of walking for his little legs!
Avery did very well on the way up (surprisingly!) And was even pretty good at the zoo, although when it was naptime she got a little cranky, so I had to carry her for a bit to calm her down, then when I put her back in the stroller she eventually fell asleep.
Driving home was unpleasant once we hit Salem. Avery was tired of sitting, getting hungry, and pooped her pants(which we were not aware of until we got home.) So she screamed the whole way from Salem until we got home.

We have a tradition that on our birthday, we go out for dinner wherever the birthday person wants to go. Well, after our long drive, i didnt want to subject anyone to riding in the car anymore, so we just ate at home, and went to dinner on saturday night instead. I chose Red Robin because its loud inside, so we dont have to worry about Avery getting cranky and loud. Although i'm quite tired of Red Robin.... and I dont even want to think about how many calories are in each meal. There really isnt much, if anything, on their menu thats healthy.

So, that was my birthday!

Birthday Eve

Well, this is it, the final day of my 20's! Seems so unreal... I dont really feel like i'm going to be 30. I've been dreading this day since my 29th birthday, knowing that it was my final year in my 20's. In some ways, I still feel like i'm 22. In other ways, 30 feels about right (like when i try to sit on the floor with my legs crossed for a little bit... my knees get sore.)

My 20's held lots of good (and some bad) memories, as i'm sure most peoples 20's do.
I met Derek (I take that back, I was 19 when we met), got married, gave birth to 2 kids and was pregnant 6 times, bought a house, bought a new car, bought an SUV, sold the SUV :(, got a new job, quit my job, went to Hawaii, went to Florida, and went on several other little vacations in Oregon and Washington, gained 45 pounds (baby weight not included...), lost 15 of those so far and still going! Thats all the major things I can think of.

My goal for my 30's: get in the best shape of my life, become a more confident person, make a good friend and be a good friend, decide what I want to be when I grow up (yes, I still dont know what I want to do with my life once my kids are in school.... been trying to figure that out for the last 10 years... surely my 30's will reveal it to me!), and MOST importantly, be the best mom and wife that I can be.
As far as material things... it would be nice to someday have a bigger vehicle, and a bigger house with more yard ;), and a couple of fun vacations with the kids for memories sake.

Goodbye 20's, you've laid a great foundation for me! Hellooooo 30's!

Boys will be boys

Why do boys have such an obsession with their...ahem... male parts? Well, i'm telling you, this obsession starts early!!
This evening, I was getting Avery ready for bed downstairs, Derek was upstairs in the office paying bills, and Jadon was informed that he was going to get a shower in a few minutes as soon as Daddy was done with bills. He loves baths and showers, so he stripped himself down to his birthday suit in preparation (and anticipation.) So here I was downstairs dressing Avery for bed, and Jadon's upstairs waiting for daddy to finish bills, and I hear him say "thats a big winky!"
A minute later he comes running downstairs, and I asked him "what's a big winky?" He proceeds to stretch his winky out with his fingers and he says "that is!" with a big smile on his face. I couldnt help but crack up!

Earlier this evening he was playing with a whoopie cushion that he got for Christmas (thanks alot Gramma Debbie!) and he would have it on the floor, and he'd jump up in the air, and land on his butt on the whoopie cushion... over and over again. Over and over again, because we laughed at him the first couple of times, so that of course egged him on.

Ah, boys will be boys! I'm so glad God blessed me with a son to entertain us! :)

My beautiful kids

There's not a day that goes by that I dont look at my kids and wonder how I was blessed with two of the most beautiful kids on earth.
I have a video of each of the kids, but blogger is not letting me post any kind of video's, so I uploaded them to OneTrueMedia, and i'll paste the link here.

The kids are so cute in the video's. Avery is in her jumperoo, and LOOOOOOOVES the thing and goes bananas in it! Despite hating to have his picture taken, Jadon enjoys watching himself on videos, so he was willing to let me video him for a few seconds. He's actually let us take a few pictures of him lately, so maybe that whole I-hate-getting-my-picture-taken phase is ending... I hope!

Then it ends with a picture of the two of them outside this weekend. They love it outside!

Kite flying

So apparently no one blogs anymore.....

It was a breezy (and partly cloudy/cool) day today. A couple months ago we got Jadon a kite from Costco for like $12, and we've been waiting for the perfect weather to do it. Usually when its windy enough, its also raining, or its late at night and too dark to do so. Well, today we had the weather we've been waiting for, so we got the kite out and Derek flew it for Jadon. Although there were lots of crashes because the wind would die down suddenly..... It still made it into the air many times, and even crashed into the neighbors house once!

Here's some pictures:

I love this next one, Jadon looks like a dog with his tongue hanging down to his chin!

In other news, we've made a joint decision to postpone potty training. We've been at it for close to 2 months, and its just not working, and yes, I know that it takes time, but we've been thinking for a couple weeks now that he is just not ready. Sure, he loves wearing underwear, but he wants to be able to use them like a diaper. He refuses to tell us when he needs to pee... when we ask if he needs to pee, he says no, and then 20 minutes later we find that he has peed and just carried on as if nothings happened. We make him go sit on the potty alot, and its a huge battle, he fights and screams and protests, and he refuses to use his little potty and will only go in the big one.
We've tried everything. We've tried positive reinforcement, reward systems, and even negative reinforcement ("Jadon, if you wet your underwear today then you dont get to play Mario tomorrow"... that kind of thing.) Loading him up on liquids doesnt do a thing (just makes more laundry for me), restricting liquids doesnt either (just plugs him up.) He just doesnt care. And for the last couple of weeks he's just been peeing more and more in his underwear.
He's just not ready. Period.
I'm afraid he might not get to go to preschool this fall, we've only got 3 or so months left and the only progress we've made is getting him to like wearing underwear.
I know they say boys are often more difficult to train so I was fully prepared. And every kid is different, no matter what. At this point, I probably still wouldnt have even tried potty training if it werent for the fact that I want him to go to preschool in the fall.
Oh, and pullups are not an option, he just uses them as a diaper, and not like the "training pants" that they are supposed to be. To him, pullups are just a glorified diaper with one of his favorite characters, Lightning McQueen, on them.

So, we'll reevaluate in a few weeks or a month and see if he's ready then. If not, then everything I've researched and read and heard from other people has said just let the child do the initiating and when he is ready he'll let us know. Otherwise it just becomes a power struggle between parent and child.
So thats my vent on that! I'm not even going to get started on Avery's sleeping, its getting out of control and I now feel that I am chronically tired. We've got to somehow get her sleeping under control because i'm starting to feel like my life is completely out of control!

On a more happy, pleasant note ;) we went to Home Depot tonight and got some flowers and plants for me to plant, and i'm soooooo excited to jump into my "nothing box" and plant away!! (haha, only men have nothing boxes, but lately I feel like I need one too!!!) I'm refering to a really great marital video- Mark Gungor's "Laugh your way to a better marriage." Derek and I watched it last summer (no, we are not having marital problems), and its a FANTASTIC seminar for ALL couples to watch, even if you're not having marital problems. Its also hilarious so its really easy to watch! I highly recommend it to all couples! Anyways, ive gotten completely off track, so I think i'll stop there!