News Flash

I’ve neglected to tell some news about our family over the past few weeks. It’s all good news, more or less. First off, I took Jonas to see the orthopedic surgeon again last Friday. His right foot is getting worse, turning in more and his calf bones are  turned in as well. So the doctor said he’d have to do surgery to correct it all. Basic club foot surgery; Replacing tissue and putting pins in his foot to keep it straight. He’ll have an above the knee cast on for 6 weeks. He won’t be able to walk so we’ll have to carry him everywhere:P, but it’ll be good for him in the long run! I think we’ll buy a wagon to wheel him around in! We’ll probably wait until after school gets out so that his teachers don’t have to deal with carrying him everywhere and getting him on and off the bus. After 6 weeks the doctor will put on another cast below the knees and take out the pins in his foot. All of this will take place at St. Lukes Hospital in Boise, which is where the doctor works. He comes to Idaho Falls every few months. I’m really glad that he’ll be doing the surgery! We’ve seen him twice now and he seems like a good doctor. Plus, Bruce, the guy that does Jonas’ cables and braces, works with him here in Idaho Falls. Bruce and Jonas’ pediatrician highly recommend  him. I feel better about him doing it rather than a doctor in SLC. Every time we go to a Spina Bifida Clinic in SLC we see someone different so I can never keep track of what orthopedic surgeons we’ve met with. I don’t really feel like Jonas matters to them so Dr. Showalter make me feel more comfortable. Mark and I think we’ll probably transfer Jonas’ services to St. Lukes anyway. That way Mark’s mom can help out with Brynnan and Mark and I can take care of everything with Jonas without having to worry.

So that’s what’s up on the Jonas front. He’s doing really well with all of his therapy’s! His speech is improving everyday and he’s learning about half/whole/quarters and different/same. He’s so funny, he’ll say out of the blue that something is different or the same as something else. It’s so cute!

Brynnan is as wild as ever and is getting more stubborn by the day!:) But I love him to death.

On to my news… I got called as a Beehive adviser in our ward!:) Yea! It was totally a surprise. In all of my 8 years of being out of YW I’ve never been called back to it as a “Sister”. I’ve been in the primary, mainly the nursery, and I taught in Relief Society twice, but never in the YW:) We only have 5 girls in our ward. 2 Beehives and 3 Laurels, So we all meet together on Sundays. I teach every other week and Karlenn is the other teacher.

I taught my first lesson this past Sunday and it went ok. I couldn’t think straight so I’m surprised I got through it! I was telling a story about President Monson and I couldn’t remember his name!! LOL I kept thinking of Pres. Hinckly and couldn’t get his name out of my head! And I noticed that after the objective lesson, which I got the idea from Mark and it was totally awesome!, the girls didn’t seem to be listening. Maybe it was just me, but they didn’t look up from their papers I’d given them to write stuff down on and we weren’t writing the whole time. Maybe I gave too much of a grown up lesson? I don’t know, Patty, Karlenn, what do you think? I need all the help I can get. I’m kind of a “nerdy” girl so I always listened to lessons and I love the serious/spiritual side to teaching. Do I need to be more fun rather than serious/siritual?

The girls are really nice and I love this new calling, I think I just need to find my groove. Maybe if I start going to Tuesday night activities I can get to know them better and my lessons will be more interesting.

Mark is doing well at work. We’re finally getting our house “winter ready”. It’s been so cold this week that Mark finally went out and bought plastic shrink wrap to voer the windows. Ok, so it isn’t really plastic shrink wrap, but it’s the same idea. We put up these plastic sheets and then ran a hair blow dryer over them until it was taut against the window. Amazing! That took us about an hour or so to do 5 windows. I also went out this morning and got 6 yards of fleece to hang up in the stair well to block the cold air coming from downstairs. We don’t have a door there so hopefully this will work.

Well, I better pay attention to my Brynny:)

BEYOND Below Freezing!!!

We woke up at 6:30 this morning to -18 degrees outside!!!! Holy Cow! I almost froze walking out to take Jonas to the bus! I forgot my hat and gloves:P I can literally feel the cold air from the basement rising! It’s so bad! I’m afraid of our next electric bill, we just got this months bill and it was a little under $300!! I almost died! NEVER get electric heating!! That’s my advice to you today! It’s horrible to have to heat each room individually, plus our heaters don’t have thermastats on them!! It’s annoying!

Anyway, on a more positive note, Mark stayed home from work yesterday because he’s been sick and just needed an extra day off. It was nice to have him home. I think he started to feel a little better. He just needs to get rid of that horrible cough!! Right before dinner the kids wanted to go outside and play in the snow. I’ve never built a snowman before and so we decided to go out and build one. We bundled the kids up and headed outside. The only problem was it hadn’t snowed all day so there wasn’t enough moisture to keep the balls together. Instead we decided to borrow the Heath’s sled (hope you guys don’t mind, Megann! You were at the gym, but we figured since you gave us the open invitation it was ok:) and Mark took them for a ride around the yard.

Here are some pictures and I’ll try to post a video later. I need Mark’s technical abilities for that part!:)

Here they are going down the driveway. A snowy winter is one good/fun reason to have a slopey driveway!

Oops! They kept leaning to one side and falling over, but it was all good fun!:)

Daddy saved them every time!

So much FUN!!

It’s now 4:00 and the temp outside is 2, so not quite so cold as this morning! The high is supposed to be 7, I doubt it’ll get there today!:) I need to go put on another pair of socks though! LOL Or just buy some slippers.

Is that…SILENCE?!!!

I can’t believe what I’m hearing. OR I guess I should say what I’m NOT hearing!! The boys haven’t been taking naps in their room during the week for me. Why? Who knows… well, ok, I know why, it’s because they know they can get away with it. I’m a “push over” as Mark says and they know they can push the limits with me. Yes, I need to be more disciplined and firm with them. And I actually am getting better!

Well, anyway, today they were watching a movie before naptime and I even let them eat on the couch while finishing it. Jonas got upset when it was over even though I warned him  more than once that it was naptime after the movie was over. He started crying and screaming so I got upset and told him if he didn’t get into his room by the count of 3 he would sit in time out. That usually works with Jonas so he got up and ran to his room. We made their beds and changed their diapers, all the fun before naptime stuff we always have to do. Of course Jonas had to put up a fight about it!

So after he whined and cried that he didn’t want to take a nap I yelled at him because I had just had enough of it and that seemed to make him cooperate. He laid down on his bed and let me cover him up and then I left the room. To my surprise neither Jonas or Brynnan made so much as a peep! They didn’t even get off of their beds!!  And now the house is nice and quiet. Woohoo!:)

New blog

Ok, so I’ve been thinking about dedicating a blog to all my scrapbooking stuff and I finally set one up. If you want to take a look at it here’s the link. I’ll eventually put a link on my blogroll as well.

I recently got a Gallery Stand Out at one of the scrapping sites I visit for this new layout:

I don’t normally do layouts of myself, I feel really weird the couple times I have, but I was participating in a challenge and it was called indulgences. Making my hair look pretty is definitely one of my indulgences!:)

And here’s a favorite of mine that I did last week of my Jonas. I love this kid to death!

So, if you want to keep seeing my layouts, head on over to my new blog I’ll be giving away freebies and stuff too. So if you want to scrapbook, but don’t have the time a freebie is the way to go!:)

A Smart Idea

For those of you who don’t know, we woke up to about 5 inches of snow Friday morning. I didn’t realize it was so much and stepped out in my normal shoes to take Jonas to the bus. It was up to the middle of my calves! My pants were all wet once I got back inside. And it has kept snowing all weekend. Saturday it snowed most of the day and this morning it was snowing again. We were running late this morning so all the front row parking was taken. I realized that the shoes I had decided to wear to church were not the best for snowy conditions!! Open toed and back:P A friend, Patty, came in while I was taking off our coats and I saw her slip off her boots and on her nice Sunday worthy shoes! I was totally taken with this idea! I want to get some boots that are easy to slip on and off so I can start doing this!! Jonas was being a little difficult after church and didn’t want me to hold his hand through all the traffic. Needless to say my feet were sooooo cold and wet by the time we got to the car! So, thanks for the idea, Patty! Now I just need to find those boots!:)

Well, ok, not these ones exactly:)

Today Was THE Day

I’ve got it in my mind that I HAVE to get Brynnan potty trained and I have to do it now! Why? I have no idea. It probably has to do with the fact that he poops about 2 or 3 times a day and I HATE changing his diapers and then smelling them forever more!

So this weekend I decided that I would try what Rachel suggested…. The kids woke up at 6:30 I grabbed a pair of underwear for Brynnan and had him sit on the potty. He went pee and then we put on his underwear and I explained to him that he needed to hold in his pee and tell me when he needed to go. I also set the timer for 30 minutes. So we ate breakfast and played for a little bit. When the timer went off I put Brynnan on the potty and he went pee again:) Yea! I set the timer again and we went half an hour later. Things seemed to be going well and I thought we’d have it down by the end of the day…. I guess I shouldn’t have jumped ahead that early! The kids were watching Wall-e the 3rd time the timer went off. I went over to get Brynnan…. and the couch was ALL WET!!! Argh. So I cleaned him up and got him some new underwear and he went back to watching Wall-e. So long story short, he had 3 more accidents, none of them were poop though! Thankfully! He actually did go on the toilet once more without having an accident and that was poop! So needless to say I ran out of underwear and decided I didn’t want to deal with making him go potty anymore so I put him in a diaper after lunch. After his first accident he started fighting me to go potty so that’s a big reason why I gave up along with the no underwear thing. It don’t think he liked wetting his pants because he got really soaking wet one time and he was NOT happy! I guess I can still keep it up, I’m just going to keep him in diapers. I don’t think he’s quite ready for the whole big boy experience yet.

2008 Year in Review

I finally finished this layout tonight. I started it on Wednesday and it took a while to get finished. I didn’t think it looked very cute, but I decided to finish it tonight and it actually turned out better than I thought:)

The journaling says:

Winter: We were sad when your physical therapist,
Stacie Little, told us she was moving to a clinic in Rexburg!

The kids and I took a trip to Mark’s parents house for Spring
Break.

Spring: We got a new 42’ LCD TV in May. Mark and
Jonas were very excited!

The weather started warming up in June. The boys enjoyed
swimming with Lainey’s pool!

Summer: Brynnan turned 2 years old! Mark and I
bought him a Wall-e that popped in and out of his body.
Jonas and Brynnan loved it!

Shondee, Brigham, Brig and Liam drove to visit Mark’s
parents in August so the boys and I drove over and stayed for
a weekend. Jonas and Brynnan LOVED playing with their
cousins!!

Fall: Jonas started Preschool again Septemter 5th. He
wasn’t very happy about it, but once we were on our way he
got really excited. He had a great first day back to school.

Jonas turned 4 in October. He wanted to have a Wall-e cake
so we used a Wall-e candle and decorated it with M&M’s.

We moved into our first house on November 1st. It was
stressful and chaotic, but totally worth it! The house is so
wonderful!

It’s Bigger!jjjkjjhkjkkjkjhjhjkhkjhjkjhkhjjjjjjjjjjjjjjkjjjjjjjjhjkjjjjjjjjjjjjjhjjjjjjjj

Jonas said this gjhjhhkjhkjhkhgkjghjkhgjghjghjghkjhkjhkjhjgkjhkjkjhkjhkjhkkjhjhjhkjhhkkhjkhjkhkjhhjhjjhjhjhjkkkkkkkkkkkkkkj

Isn’t this the cutest post ever?:) Jonas wanted to “help” me type so he sat on my lap and type the title of the post (just the “It’s Bigger” part) and then his name. I had to step away for a bit and when I came back this is what I found. (I did type the “said this” part before I left). Mark said that Jonas wanted to type in the title area. this is how their convo went:

Mark: I don’t think Mommy wants you to do that.

Jonas: No, I just have to go there (the end of the title area) and I’ll be done…….. It’s perfect! ( He said the last part once he got to the end)

Isn’t he a funny kid?:) I bet you’re wondering what is bigger, though, right? Well, I’ve been having a problem fitting into mypants lately. I went shopping after Christmas, but was so depressed that I couldn’t fit in my old size I didn’t buy any pants. Well, today I decided I needed to suck up the fact I’m getting fat and buy some pants that I don’t have to suck my stomach in to button up! I found a bunch of drawstring pants that were so comfortable so I bought some of those and didn’t feel so fat. I tried on a size 10 pair of pants, I didn’t realize they were that size, and they fit!!! When I say they fit I mean I could button and zip them up on my waist. Everywhere else they were incredibly baggy. How does my belly only get bigger and the rest of me stays the same size?! It’s very frustrating!!

Anyway, tonight Mark was talking about how I got bigger and we were looking at my stomach and Jonas comes up to me, pokes at my stomach and says “It’s bigger!” and starts laughing!!!! So this is the reason for this post. As he was sitting with me while typing he kept looking back at my big belly!! Man, I feel so deflated now! Even my 4 year old can tell I’m fatter!:P I guess I should get on the lose weight band wagon. Anyone else want to join me?

Training pants or not?

I don’t know what to do! I want to start potty training Brynnan. I usually don’t get him to go on the potty during the day, but I caught him before he went poop tonight and he went in the toilet again!:) Yea! So I’ve been debating whether or not to buy him some training pants. They’re SO expensive! And I don’t want to have to buy regular diapers for Jonas and then pull ups for Brynnan. That would be like $60!! I guess they wouldn’t go throw them as much as they do now because they’d have their own individual set, but it’s still expensive! And the training pants you get half of how many you get in diapers!! Why are they so much more expensive?! It’s the same thing practically:P Any advice, tips, or success stories you have on potty training would be very much appreciated!!:)

Reading a potty book while going potty:) What else would you do?

Man, I Really Love My Boys!

Yesterday the boys and I had a really good day. Probably because we spent a good half of it with Megann and Lainey! LOL:) I had a dentist appt. at 8 am, yes another one and hopefully my last for a while! Mark left Brynnan with Megann last minute (thanks, Megann!) and when I came home we hung out for a bit. Megann even gave me a half our break. I came home and did pretty much nothing! LOL

Anyway, it was just a nice, lazy, fun day. The boys didn’t really take a nap, but they did stay in their room for about 2 hours and they didn’t make a HUGE mess! It was amazing!:) We played together after “naptime” was over and it was fun. Some days they just drive me crazy, but the last couple days I’ve realized how much I really LOVE my kids! They’re the sweetest little boys and I wouldn’t change them for anything!

Jonas and I have gone on a couple “Mommy and Jonas dates” in the past month. On Wednesday after we had dinner Jonas came to me and said, ” I want to have Mommy and Jonas time.”!!! It was the sweetest thing ever! So we went into my room and sat on the bed and talked with each other. It was so fun! It only lasted about 5 minutes because Brynnan wanted to join us, but it was a wonderful 5 minutes!

Jonas isn’t always very easy to talk to about what he does at school. I think he has a hard time explaining/remembering what he does there. Today I asked him what he did and he started talking non stop for a few minutes!! I love it when he can tell me about his day and I can understand who he’s playing with and what they do. I know most of the kids and their names so it makes it more fun:) Today he played a computer game and his friend Mason played on the computer next to him. Then the computer froze so his teacher had to turn the computer off. I think after that he watched Mason play:) He loves the computer games at school! They have a water game and a dinosaur game. He also likes to tell me what his job was for the day, although, he didn’t tell me what he did today. He’s been the line leader and the milk giver (I don’t remember what he called it! LOL). Ok, anyway, I’m babbling on about this… I just love that he loves school and will talk to me about it… sometimes!

Megann is letting us borrow this doll that can go potty. Jonas was helping the baby sit on the potty last night before bedtime.

And here’s the baby’s bottle.

Brynnan and I get a lot of one on one time right now with Jonas at school and his 3 therapy’s during the week. I love hanging out with Brynnan! He is such a sweet little boy! He loves me to hold him and talk to him. He’ll climb up in my lap if I’m on the computer and talk in my face until I stop what I’m doing and talk with him. It’s so annoying, but funny at the same time. He has always been an attention needer, but lately it’s been more fun. He loves to talk, not that I can always understand him, but I’m glad that he’s becoming more verbal.

Bryannan and I both love PB&J sandwiches! We often sit and eat them together for lunch or a snack while Jonas is gone. Brynnan was being so cute and silly while Jonas was at therapy yesterday. He kept swinging his hair around on his head and laughing about it:) He’s such a cutie!

Here Brynnan is helping me do the dishes. I love how he throws the pots in the drainer any way! LOL

The boys and I made snicker doodle cookies last night. We had fun making them together. I rolled the dough and the boys rolled them in the cinnamon. I had to show Jonas how to do it first.

And here he is doing it all on his own:) Such a good helper!

Brynnan loved playing with the cinnamon mix when we were all done. Apparently we didn’t use enough of it:) He was covered by the time he was “done” playing. Such fun cooking experiences!