Jake is TWO!

Dear Jake-

I wanted to write Jakey up there, but I didn't.  I wonder if you'll ever look back and hate that everybody calls you Jakey.  I guess it's not worse than your nicknames.  When Ryan couldn't say "Jakey," he called you "Gakey."  I hate to say it but that stuck with daddy and me.  So you have so many nick names, Gakey, Gake a Bake, Cake a Bake.  I even call you "snack" or snacky."  I'm not sure what daddy and I did to have to little boys named Wubby and Snacky.  Ha.  Sorry baby.

Anyways, you are now two.  You are actually 749 days old today.  I am so blessed to have you in my life.  I can't believe I was so nervous to be pregnant with you.  You are the best addition to our family.  This year has been incredible with you!  Year one was pretty fun.   You have the best little personality and it has come out this year!  You are so much fun and so super sweet.  You are attached to mommy's hip!  You follow me all around the house, usually dragging your blanket around the house.  You love to watch me get ready in the morning, putting on my make up and straightening my hair.  You love sitting on my hip and watching me cook dinner.  You love to snuggle on the couch when I watch my evening TV shows.  You are just CUTE!

You have done so many firsts this year!  Right after you turned one you got your first two teeth and you started walking.

We took you to get your first haircut.

You did a great job, and you've gotten so many haircuts since.  Except now daddy cuts your hair in our bathroom.

You saw snow for the first time!  & it was right in our backyard!  I'm not sure you liked it too much.  You just stood there and didn't move. You are very much an observer.  You like looking around and scoping out everything that is going on around you.

You had your first Easter egg hunt.  Last year you were only 4 months old.  This year you were able to get your own eggs.  I took a ton of pictures on my camera- and then daddy's friend borrowed the camera and lost my memory card.   I'm sad I don't have those picture of you and your first hunt, I'll just have to get even more at your second hunt!

We took you to the zoo a lot this year.  We got a zoo membership in March and have gone a ton since then.  You and Ryan love going.  When we take you out of the stroller, you walk around and stop at all the animals and just point at them and talk to yourself.

You went to your first movie!  You and Ryan only sat still for about the first hour.  I had to bring lots of snacks and your milk cup to keep you sitting that long.  You are definitely not old enough to be watching movies.  However, we took you anyways because they have super cheap kid movies during the summers.

You got to go to the lake for the first time, twice actually!  You loved it!  You love laying in the water in your life jacket.  Gosh- you are cute.  I can't wait to take you every year :)

You sat in your first time out!  You had your first time out for throwing a car at Ryan.  You sat so nicely until I told you that you could get up.  You have only had a handful of time outs so far.  You are a good boy.

You are the best eater!  You eat anything and everything that I put in front of you.  Makes my life so much easier.  You love everything, blueberries, grapes, applesauce, burritos, pasta. etc.

& I don't need to feed you anymore =(

You had your first real Halloween!  It was so much fun.  Last year, you were only 10m old so we pushed you around in the buggy.  This year, you were able to walk around on your own and get your own candy.  You snuck in a ton of candy in the wagon when we weren't looking.

You have done so many new things this year.  I am so proud of you.  I am so proud to be your mommy and to watch you grow every day.  I am so incredibly blessed to see you every day.  I get to watch you play and grow and smile and laugh.  

You love

-Your blanket, you drag that thing around everywhere

-Saying "hi" to every person we see!

-Your milk, you drink a ton of milk and the doctor even said we didn't need to give you so much, but it makes you happy.

-Taking baths, you love splashing with Ryan

-Playing cars,  You don't care for TV so when Ryan watches it, you go into the front room to play cars

-Snuggling, you are the best snuggler

-Stuffed animals & your Cloudb pillows, you call all of your stuffed animals "babies"

-Mommy :)  I am your favorite and I couldn't love it anymore

You are so perfect.  I am looking forward to watching how much more you learn and grow during your third year and every year after that.  I can't imagine you being any more amazing than you already are, but I know you will be.  Happy second birthday to the littlest love of my life.  I love you baby.

Love, Mommy

Wrote on 1/16/14... backdating to 12/30/13

December Randoms

I'm sitting here wondering where the year has gone.  How is already December?  Actually, How is December almost over?!  Of all the months of the year, this one just flew by quicker than all the rest.  There is so much to look forward to in December.  Not only that, but the end of December means I get a two week break from work!  

This month hasn't been too cold, which I am more than thankful for.  I hate cold weather.  It's cold enough for my kids to wear long sleeved shirts.  But not cold enough to wear I feel like my fingers and toes are going to fall off.  Winter has also just started like a week ago, so I'm sure it's going to get worse from here on.

There hasn't been too much going on around here.  My parents did come visit again the second weekend in December.  Ever since I moved here in 2003, my mom comes every second weekend in December because she gets a half day at work.  We used to spend the weekend Christmas shopping.  Now that I have kids, we spend the days at home.  It usually lands on the night of my work's Christmas party too so it's nice that she gets to come here and spend the night with my kids while Tim and I go out for the night.  My parent's have been coming down a lot these last couple months, which I am more than grateful for.  But I know that once the year ends, the visits might not be as frequent.  Ryan and Jake love to spend the time with them.

Auntie Loni sent Jake's birthday gift super early this year.. I think she always does though.  They got a new Thomas the Train set which has provided for many hours of entertainment.

I love how simple their lives are.  How the little things in life make them the happiest.  After Tim  & I set up the train, they had the biggest eyes and smiles watching Thomas go around and around the train track.  They sat in their room for a while just watching him go around the track.  They were so in awe.  It's the little things :)

The boys also got an early Christmas present of a Children's Museum membership!  That will definitely be awesome to have.  We went at the beginning of December and of course, we spend the most time in the train room.  We didn't have time to go through the whole museum because we had to get back home for Jake to take a nap.  But I can't wait to take them back!  We have plans to go back on New Years' Eve with our friends Christine and Hannah.  Santa was at the museum the day that we went.  They also had a little station to make Christmas ornaments.  There was also the cutest snowball fight.  They got a huge box filled with cotton balls and dumped them all over the kids.  My kids were so excited to throw snow balls!  Only in Arizona, do we have snowball fights with cotton balls. :)

You can't tell by this picture, but both of the boys were so excited over Santa!  This is the first year that Ryan actually understands about Santa and Christmas presents.  He told Santa that he wanted a red bike and candy for Christmas.

More Christmas jammies.  I always want to remember how cute Jakey is when he's sleepy.  He sucks his thumb and plays with his ear with his other hand.

I am still loving my mornings with Ryan before work.  He usually wakes up about 10 minutes before I leave the house.  Right after I'm done getting ready and right before I start making my lunch.  We lay in bed and snuggle and kiss and hug.  He's the sweetest thing.  He's always wanting to snuggle.  He'll usually lay in our bed and bring his cars into our bed and play with them.

On December 16th, Ryan turned 3.5.  That is just crazy- wasn't it just his third birthday.  Now in just 6 short months he's going to be 4 and starting preschool.  He's becoming so independent.  He wants to dress and undress by himself.  He wants to put on his shoes and buckle his car seat buckle by himself.  He has to do everything by himself and he gets mad if I do it for him.  He won't even let me turn on the light switches in the house and if I do, he will turn them off and put them back on again.

Jake is no longer my little quiet baby who observes everyone.  Out of nowhere he has started talking and is saying so many words.  He says new words everyday and can pretty much say anything you tell him to say.   This past month his personality has totally blossomed and I feel like he is no longer a little baby but a toddler instead.  His favorite word is "mommy"  except it sounds more like "maaaaah-meeee."  He is hilarious.

He sees Ryan go potty all by himself and will ask to sit on the little potty.  I'm thinking he might be potty trained a lot sooner than Ryan was.  Would be nice!

The Wednesday before Winter Break started was SO nice.  We didn't have any staff meetings and report cards were due the day before, so I got to be home with my babies before noon.  The weather was just perfect so we got to go for a nice long walk!

Ryan gets more mail than me these days!  The boys got new squeaky shoes in the mail from Auntie Loni, P, and Marlo- so we came home to try them out.  They were a huge hit.  The kids loved them and ran all over the house and all you could hear was "squeak squeak squeeeaaak." & lots of laughter from the boys.  I put Jake down for an early nap so I could wake him up early.  We took the boys to the park for their Christmas pictures.  We let them wear their squeaky shoes to the park.  They were so funny running all over the place with their loud shoes!

One of my old students came over while her mom was at work so I could watch her for the day and we taught Ryan how to play hide-n-seek.  His little brain is just growing so much.  It's crazy that he is becoming such a big kid.  I showed him how to hide and every time it was his turn he would hide in the same spot! Under his bed, and he would giggle while being looked for, he was pretty cute.

My mom was here this weekend for Jake's birthday party and she asked me if I still blogged because she hasn't seen anything for a while.  So here I am, blogging for hours and I'm about to pass out, it's way past my bed time.  But it is the end of the year and I need to get caught up.  I have a few more posts to do before the year is over and only 48 hours to write them.  Christmas & Jake's birthday.  My baby will be two in just 11 minutes.  Good night!

Christmas 2013

Eeeeekkk- My journal.  My babies poor journal.  I always said I would keep up, but man.  TV shows after the kids go to sleep have really gotten the best of me.  Who knew there were so many good tv shows out there.  & thanks to my BFF- she's always suggesting new ones and I get suckered into them.

Sooo- Let me write a Christmas update, 3 months and 1 day late.   Thank goodness I have already uploaded pictures from Christmas onto Photobucket, that usually takes longer than writing the actual post!

I just looked at my photo bucket and I did not upload pictures, I'm going to have to steal them off of Facebook.

I think I got the best present of all on Christmas.  My friend, Loni, has the absolute best photo wall and I've been wanting one like hers forever.  So Tim got me pictures of the boys!  & Then the next weekend my mom came into town and made my photo wall for me.  No more big, blank, white wall in the dining room!  I also got a photoshoot of my kids too.  I'll post some of those pictures too.

Who doesn't look forward to Christmas.  Every year I just get more excited because the kids get older and love it even more.

Ryan actually had a Christmas list this year!  He had been wanting legos for a long time, he also wanted a new bike, toys, and candy.

Showing off his first set of Legos.

I don't even know what he was opening up here, but look at that face!

Isn't Jakey's stocking cute?  My mom made stockings for Elyse, Ryan, and Jake that all look similar to this one.  

A new pan from my mom.  My mom must listen to every thing I say all year because she always gets me stuff that I mention throughout the year.  For example, one time I was baking and I only had one cookie sheet and it took me forever to make cookies, so my mom got me some new cookie pans.  In November, I got my hair cut and I cut off about 4 inches because my hair was so nasty.  And then my mom got me some special shampoo to help with my overly dry hair.  She's the best.

This is the aftermath of all of our present opening.

After we spent our morning here opening up presents, it was time to go over to Tim's parent's house for even more parents.  My kids are way too spoiled with the amount of stuff they get.  One of my favorite gifts were these signs that Tim's sister made the boys!  How cute and perfect are they?  They hang on their doors.  I am still in love with them, 3 months later.  She is so incredibly talented.

<3

We didn't do much at Tim's parents.  We ate some breakfast, opened presents, played new toys and helicopters, attempted to take naps that did not work, and ate some dinner.  It was a low key day and my babies were happy.

So the next morning was a little scary, Ryan woke up wheezing and having difficulty breathing.  I got him in to the doctor in the morning and she hooked him up to check his oxygen level.  They were low and he was having the worst time trying to breath.  They gave him some medicine and put him on a nebulizer.  We had to stay a while so they could check him.  His oxygen level didn't get all the way back up to 100 so they put him on the nebulizer again.  We had to stay at the doctors a couple of hours.  Ryan's pedi gave me a subscription to steroids, and a nebulizer.  We went to Target right after to pick up all the things he needed.  Tim was texting me pictures because Jakey was wearing his helmet all morning.  :)

We came home and played a little while.  We were playing memory when Ryan started wheezing again!  Which he shouldn't have been.  I called his pedi again and she told me to take him to the ER.  =(  My babies first ER visit.  I knew we might be staying a while so I packed his backpack full of toys and snacks, grabbed his nebulizer and my purse.  He fell asleep in the car on the way there.  I didn't know it but I parked on the opposite end of the children's hospital from where you are supposed to check in.  It felt like the longest walk ever, carrying everything AND my sleeping 3 year old!  We got checked in pretty quickly.  They hooked Ryan back up and he had to have more breathing treatments and a chest x-ray.  After like 3 hours, the ER doctor told us that it looked like "a touch of pneumonia" whatever that means.  She wasn't sure.  I was pretty annoyed that no one had any answers.  They also couldn't tell me if he had asthma or not.

My poor little guy.  She kept us there until about his bedtime and I hadn't fed him any real dinner.  He was asking for french fries, so that's exactly what I got him on his way home.  Along with some antibiotics from Walgreens. 

He still has some breathing problems sometimes.  Mostly at night or early in the morning.  We put him on his nebulizer whenever he gets that funny breathing sound.  It's pretty awful but he's gotten used to using the machine.

And, a few days later we received his Christmas gift from his Secret Santa.  The day I found out I was pregnant with Ryan, I joined a June 2010 momma group.  Well, we went over to a Facebook group and we do Secret Santa every year.  Ryan got a Curious George game.  We still love Curious George in this house!

3/26, but backdating it to 2013 so I could put it in my 2013 blog book!

Christmas Eve 2013

I'm not sure if it was Christmas Eve, but I always remember going Christmas shopping with my dad at the very last minute.  We'd take my moms Christmas wish list and get her everything on it.  So what do you think my husband was doing on Christmas Eve while I was at home with the kids?  He spent the entire afternoon Christmas shopping, where I've been shopping for the last two months.  Ryan and I did some crafting for Christmas presents while Jake was taking a nap.  He was a pretty good sport, although he wouldn't stop giggling while I painted his feet.

We would also go to church on Christmas Eve, which we did.  Daddy got home just in time to go to the 5:00 service at church.  The church was filled, as it always is on Christmas Eve and Easter.  It was a beautiful service.  There were also no children's services which meant that we had to take them both into the adult service.  Good thing it was shorter than regular services.  Plus, the kids all got goody bags with a Christmas coloring book, crayons, a door hanger, and stickers.  That kept Ryan busy and I mostly held Jakey.

We still had to stop at Target before we came home because I needed to get stocking stuffers for Tim.  I didn't have time to cook anything for dinner so we had our Christmas Eve dinner at McDonalds.  Maybe that will become a tradition.   Having gross greasy fast food!  I do love fast food, and we hardly ever have it because I would rather make dinner for my family.

When we got home from church, shopping, and eating, I let the kids open up their Christmas Eve boxes.  Our Christmas tree was up, but I didn't put anything under the tree because I didn't want to risk Jake or Ryan trying to open up anything!  I used left over Citrus Lane boxes and packed them new jammies (that I wanted them to wear while they opened their presents in the morning,) hotwheels, marshmallows, popcorn and cookies!  I've seen them on Pinterest with a Christmas movie and hot chocolate.  My kids are too young for hot chocolate and all the cheesy kids Christmas movies are all over Netflix!  They were most excited about their marshmallows.  Yum.

When I was younger, we always wrote our Santa letters at night and left them on our coffee table for Santa to get when he stopped by our house.  That's what I'm going to to with my kids too.  Ryan asked for toys, candy, a bike, and cars.  I helped Jakey with his and we put a bike, trucks, and cars.

After Santa letters, we sat on the couch for popcorn and movies.  I put on "Fred Claus."  I love Christmas movies and I love Vince Vaughn.  Jake and Ryan sat still long enough to finish their popcorn!  Then I put Jake to sleep because he gets sleepy right at bedtime (8:00.)

My mom bought the boys a "cookies for Santa" plate a few years ago.  This year, Tim's mom and his aunt got them one too!  I guess everyone thinks they need one, which they do, but now we have three!  I put them all out for Ryan and told him that he could leave cookies for Santa to eat when he comes by our house.

He chose to put one cookie on each plate.  He was so excited to leave them for Santa.  I filled up a cup with milk and told him to leave them by the cookies so Santa could drink it and Ryan started pouring the milk onto the cookie on the middle plate.  I couldn't help but laugh at him.

I put Ryan to bed at about 9:00 and Santa must have known the kids were both sleeping because he stopped by at 10:00 at night with lots of presents!

I still need to upload pictures from my camera onto the computer from Christmas.  I'll post a Christmas update next.  Merry Christmas!!

Citrus Lane December 2013

The boys received their December Citrus Lane boxes on December 17th.  Last month they had a smokin' deal on Plum District for a 6 month subscription.  Plus Plum District had a promo code for 20% off any order, so Grandma R was sweet enough to renew the boys subscriptions for Christmas.  So both of them now have a 6 month subscription & they each cost only about $56.  Making each box less than $10!  What a great deal!  They only have these specials about once a year so we are so happy Grandma got them.

Citrus Lane is a subscription box service that is curated for children aged 0-5 years.  It's been around for a couple of years, but I didn't hear of it until last October.  Each box has 4-5 items that are designed for your child based on age and gender.. or you can select neutral when signing up.  If your little one isn't born yet, you can put your due date in when signing up.  The boxes ship from California on the 15th of each month and arrive between the 17th-22nd.  Also, the cut off date for each month is the 5th.  If you order after the 5th of the month, you will receive next month's box.


Our first box is for my 3.5 year old boy, Ryan.

1.  Handprint Wall Art from Pearhead ($9.95)

This canvas also comes with blue and pink paint, plus a paintbrush and a little tray to dip the paint in.  We've already tried using it.  I put Ryan's feet print on it, which was rather easy, and his handprint, which  was not so easy because he's a little squirmy.  These make perfect keepsakes or gifts.  Since they arrived right before Christmas, we decided to make them and give them as gifts.

2. Create-a-Craft from Melissa and Doug ($4.91- price from Amazon)

We actually got this in one of our boxes this Summer.  Ryan had a lot of fun painting and putting together this car.  Because it is something we have already received I emailed customer care and they issued a credit for this item on our account.  I offered to mail it back and exchange it, but I'll just regift this.

3. Snuggly Lotion from Episencial (About $5)

We have gotten some of their lotion in the past, and I do love it.  I use it for myself way more than I use it on my kids.  I have extremely dry skin in the winter and this stuff really helps my dry, cracked skin.  Plus it has a nice scent to it too.  I have very sensitive skin and a lot of lotion irritates or burns my skins, but this stuff is awesome. 

4. Robot Watch from Crocodile Creek($12.99)

This was Ryan's favorite item in the box.  It's small enough for his little wrist, but will also grow with him as he gets bigger.  He had to put it on right away and kept looking at it and saying "It's 6 o'clock momma!" I think it made him feel grown up!

The total value of Ryan's box was $32.93, which is a great deal with what we paid. However, it's only about $8 more than the monthly subscription.

Now on to the second box, which is for a 2 year old boy

Jake also received the 

1.Snuggly Lotion from Episencial ($5.00)

2. Handprint Wall Art from Pearhead ($9.95)

3. I Took the Moon for a Walk from Bearfoot Books ($7.99)

You can never go wrong with books in this house!  Except for all the bookshelves in the rooms are filled with books, I am running out of room to play them.  Both of my boys will sit and listen to me read books, especially my 3 year old.  When googling this book, I also found activities that go along with it.  Which means I'll be able to take this book to work and read it to my 2nd graders.

4.  Rainbow Stacker from Melissa and Doug($7.99)

My [almost] 2 year old loved this toy!  Which I knew he was, he has another stacker that is similar and he will sit and play with it for quite a while.  It's made from wood and is very durable.  A few people on the Citrus Lane Facebook toy thought their child was too old for this, but my 3.5 year old will play with it too!

The retail value of the 2 year old box was about $31.00, which isn't a high value box either.

While the boys enjoyed their Citrus Lane boxes, it was not my favorite month.  But the boys love them and that's what matters! Do you get Citrus Lane for your little one?  Share the link with me so I can read your review.. I love reading subscription box reviews.

Want to give Citrus Lane a try for your little one.. use my link to sign up and get $10 off your box.  When you sign up through my link it also gives me a $10 credit so I can keep getting these boxes for my little ones as well!

Potty Training My 3 Year Old

Potty training Ryan has definitely been something I've been dreading since as long as I can remember.  The first time Ryan tried out the potty training thing, he was about 2.5 years old.  My mom took him for a few days (the first time I ever let him leave me) and when I went to pick him up a few days later, he was wearing underwear.  The problem was, he was wetting one pair of underwear after the other.  He was having small tinkles all day pretty much, I decided that he was NOT ready to be potty trained.  After two days if it wasn't clicking at all, I didn't want to push him on it.  Plus I could tell he started getting frustrated.

We put it off for a couple more months, and I tried again January 2013 over MLK, jr holiday.  This time, he went potty a few times on the potty but continued to have his accidents.

We put it off for a few more months.  This time, he was having more successful potty trips than unsuccessful ones.  For the first time, I thought he actually might be getting it.  However, he had an accident on the couch that traumatized him and he did NOT want to wear underwear.  He cried when I even said the word underwear and would not let me put them on him.  Again, I didn't want to pressure him if he wasn't feeling it.

Once Summer started, I was happy to have 10 weeks off of work so that I could actually stay home and have the time to potty train him.  But that didn't happen either.  Elyse came for half of that time and we're always running around when she's here.  Plus we had lots of play dates and other things scheduled so I put it off all summer.  

So finalllly, when fall break rolled around in October, I knew it was time.  I just had to get this kid potty trained.  I made sure we had absolutely no plans for the entire week.  We went shopping at Walmart where I let him pick out his potty seat for the regular toilet, some new underwear, and some prizes.  When he woke up on Saturday morning, I put him in his underwear and showed him the potty surprise box and told him if he went potty on the toilet he'd get a candy and a sticker.

[Ignore my messy counter!!]

This time, he was finally ready to be potty trained.  He spent the whole week going potty in his little toilet and was so proud of himself every time he went.

I spent so much time reading blogs and looking for stuff on Pinterest about "How I potty trained my 1 year old in 3 days." There is so much stuff about this 3 day method and how it only takes three days until your child can be fully potty trained.  Eventually, I gave up and realized that every kid who went to kindergarten was potty trained and one day Ryan would be too.

I'm glad I quit forcing it until he was ready and willing to be potty trained.  No matter if he was 2 or 3 years and 4 months, I'm still proud of my little guy.

And this sticker chart stayed up on our fridge for about 6 weeks, until every white spot was filled with a sticker for going potty.