My Oh Crap Moment.

Oh Crap! My anniversary is tomorrow! (No Jason isn't the author of this blog.) Jen forgot until about 7:30 last night. Well I think I had good reason to forget, and yes it's only the fifth anniversary, a little soon to be forgetting it. Saturday evening I decided that I was starting to get a cold. By Monday I had the worse sinus infection and I was throwing up too. Tuesday I went to the doctor and ruled out influenza, I was just lucky enough to get the stomach flu and a sinus infection at the same time. So the last week has been me pawning off my boys to family (thank goodness I have really nice families to help me in times of need), sleep walking to the kitchen for a sippy-cup (I woke up cuddling it), and forgetting the day and the date. And now it is all moving down to my lungs. Thus, I forgot my anniversary. Poor Jason he has to have a crusty oozeball for a wife. I think the 5th anniversary gift is wood, so I might hobble out back of our house and throw firewood at him. He will be so happy!

Jingle Bells Carter's Version.

Again, this is dedicated to the Hawaiians that we miss. Tia Tauna now you can fill your fix of Carter-bean. Katie was in charge of entertainment for our Christmas party and she was told to include all the boys. Carter was the lead singer, Keaton and Grant were holding up the rockin' music.

I miss placed my camera somewhere, so as soon as I find it I will post Carter's jingle bells solo. Auntie Tauna this one is also dedicated to you as well as any other songs he just might sing.

Christmas Eve for Carter

Keaton didn't really get it, he was happy just to go to bed last night. But for Carter he was so excited. First of all he had a solo for our Christmas party last night and sang his version of Jingle Bells. He had a great time hitting the pinata as well. But the funniest moments were after the party was over. I think we put him back in bed like 10 times that night. First time he got out he was soooo concerned that his room was messy. He didn't want Santa to see his room a mess, so we had to clean it up right then, it had to be perfect. So he is in bed again, and I hear him talking quietly to himself about Santa sprinkling magic on his reindeer to fly and singing his own made up Christmas songs. We had told him that Santa won't come to boy's houses that are awake. Santa only comes when you are asleep. So he ended up out of his bed again in the front room were I was laying on the couch and Jason opened the door to come in from outside. Well I don't think Carter knew who was coming in through that door because he went screaming down the hallway all the way to his bed! He finally fell asleep and so in the middle of the night I heard him talking in his sleep, like he occasionally does, and he yelled out "my bag of candy!" Well when he got up this morning I told him that I heard Santa up on the roof last night and he told me we had to go climb up on the roof right now to get our presents off the roof! He was afraid to go down the hall to go see his presents because he didn't know what was out there. He saw his new truck and didn't know if he was allowed to touch it. He was sad that Santa didn't stay and visit with us, silly boy. We told him Santa had to go to bed because he had a long night.

Funny Christmas things...

Apparently all Christmas presents are for Carter, and when Grandpa asked when Santa was coming he replied, "Not for a hundred years." He also told me Santa was never coming and I was quick to say that he won't come if he is naughty.
Another thought. Is it bad to recycle Halloween candy and put it in Christmas stockings? I am soooo going to do that. Whats the point, not all of the Halloween candy is gone why buy more? And what if husbands are bad does Santa get to skip them or leave them coal? Mine has been good this year so I bet Santa or Jen just might leave him something besides coal.

Keaton is officially now walking! Finally.

Poor Baby...

So I was crafting for Wendy today and Carter wanting to be a helper was getting in the way. Practically in my lap...very inconvenient. Well I told him to go away and watch his show. He started crying and said, "I am going to tell Father (Heavenly Father) that Mommy told me to go away." He sure knows how to make me feel bad. Then I think it was yesterday he said his heart was broken and he needed a hug to fix it. I tell you I am in for it, he knows how to work the sympathy pretty darn good.

Santa!

This year Carter wasn't afraid of Santa. His face lit up so bright when Santa came walking in, it was funny! So I had him in line to go sit on Santa's lap and he disappeared very quickly and cut all the way to the front of the line (we were in the back of the line). He just had to ask a very important questions! "Are you going to bring me my present truck?" and last but not least, "I wanna go for a ride in your sleigh."

Keaton wasn't so sure about Santa. He didn't ever cry, he just stared! He didn't move an inch, just stared and it looked like he was too scared to move. What a trooper. I was afraid of Santa when I was little. I would sleep under the cover hoping Santa wouldn't find me awake. I would not budge a tiny wincey bit...to scared Santa would come and get me for not being asleep.

Not even going to smile for the camera...maybe next year we'll have a little more animation from Keaton.

Merry Christmas!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Tis the season...

Its Christmas time!  Keaton is celebrating with new festive hat wear.

Thanks Grandma Grippets for taking us to the light parade! Even if the kids were ornery.

Well we got a cottonwood for our Christmas tree. Last year our pine tree brought in lots of bugs and it was totally dropping needles every time someone sneezed. It was soooo dead that the bows of the trees wouldn't even hold the ornaments up.

Don't you think Keaton makes a great looking elf?

The Husband Tag

A little disclaimer, I was tagged, I am not one to brag about my husband on my blog. I like to brag about him to him and not flaunt it all over the place. Mushy stuff is not my thing and he would probably prefer I skip this tag but awh heck! I'll pay for it later. So I guess we're supposed to answer the questions about our hubby.

1. how long did you date before you got married? He called me the day after he got home from his mission, we went out I think that weekend, that was in May. The first time he asked me to marry him was in August, the second time was in October and we were married December 31st.

2. how long have you been married? Just about 5 years.

3. what does he do that surprises you? He jumps around corners or crawls on the floor to grab my legs when I am not looking. I hate that... I am already a nervous wreck!

4. what is his best feature? When we were dating it was his broad back muscles, now its his widow's peak. I dunno I just think it is so cute!

5. what is his best quality? He is dang smart! It makes me sick how smart he is, I am jealous!

6. does he have a nickname for you? Babe and WOMAN.

7. what is his favorite color? Brown

8. what is his favorite animal? Bull

9. what is his favorite food? Gorilla droppings.

10. what is his favorite sport? Football, he was a running back in high school and was really good.

11. when and where did you first kiss? It was at the farm July 31st at 8:30. He didn't have the courage to do it so we tried to play chicken, which didn't work. The mosquitoes were eating us alive and he was really nervous. He finally just said "Jen you are just going to have to do it." So I did and he had permi-grin for a week.

12. favorite thing to do as a couple? Being and working outside.

13. do you have any children? Carter-bean and Keaton-boy

14. does he have a hidden talent? He can play the organ.

15. how old is he? 26

16. who said 'i love you' first? He did, I moved to the other couch across from him because I had a feeling he was going to say something mushy, and I hate mushy stuff where I am involved. He said "I love you Jen,"  and I felt really awkward and I said "Thanks, I love you too." But really I was so wanting to run out of there!

17. what is his favorite music? No telling, it kinda depends on the day. Mostly country.

18. what do you admire the most? He works so hard!

19. do you think he will read this? Oh probably, we like to surf the blogs and see how crazy and messed up people really are. You know you all do it...we'll just admit to it.

Ok, I guess I'm supposed to tag a person or two now. I choose Cambria, Tylonda, and Mary.

Stay at home mom.

I asked the boys this morning if we should sing some songs. Keaton was kinda cranky and loves songs. So I started to sing. Carter quickly piped up and said, "Mom stop singing, it makes me want to choke." I guess I should keep my singing to myself, I don't want to make anyone choke. At least he is honest with me.

I had a conversation with Carter this morning on the way to preschool, I think he likes me at home.

Carter: "Mom where is Carden? I want to play, his car is gone."
Jen: "He went to the babysitters, because his mommy works today."
Carter: "I want to go to the babysitters too!" (whining)
Jen: "You can only go to the babysitters if I go to work. Do you want me to go to work?"
Carter: "Like Daddy?"
Jen: "Yes, I would have to go to work and take you to the babysitters."
Carter: "That would make me very mad."
Jen: "Okay then I will stay at home with you and Keaton, would that make you happy?"
Carter: "Yes, I would be happy."

What a mess.

Can you guess who made this mess...it was a combined effort.

Dad left out the ashes and Keaton had fun. There are now little hand print all over my floor everywhere Keaton crawled. At least I caught him before he ate it.

Newest Addition

Here is the newest addition to our family. Carter named her "Sugar." Carter heard Grandpa calling the puppy sugar and it stuck. It fits, she is really sweet, but she is a spitfire and won't back down to bigger dogs. She thinks she is the big dog in town. Chispa takes great delight in annoying her so she lets Chispa know that she is bothering her.

I think she will grow up to be a pretty good dog. She is a mix of a red and blue heeler, she is short and stalky. She is a cute one!

Right.

Black Friday

So I did it, I braved Black Friday. Only I didn't get at 4 in the morning to do it. I got out the door around 9. I figured nothing in Walmart was worth getting up at 4 a.m. and have crazy people push me around and steal stuff out of my cart. I thought it was going to be "The Nightmare Before Christmas" but it wasn't that bad. I mean there was alot of people there but I think the big rush was already over and I just went in and got my stuff and was second in line to check out. Plus there wasn't any real "deals" that I thought were all that great. I expected the prices to be really low considering the economy and what day it was, but they seemed pretty normal. Now that my bank account if officially on empty I can stay at home and wait for the next pay check to roll around to pay for important stuff like groceries, house payments, gas, and etc.

Hip! Hip! Great!

Carter says, "Hip, Hip, Great!" instead of hip, hip, hooray. So this is how we say it at our house. For Jason he gets one loud "Hip, hip, great!" from all of us because he finished school this week!! He has a bachelors in Aviation Technology Science, or it will soon be mailed to him. But what we are really happy about is that we actually get to see him in the evenings and he is sooooo much more happy being done! I am so proud of him, and he even did it with honors, smartie-pants runs on his side of the family. We are excited to have him be done finally with his schooling, we wanted to run away for some Rn'R but alas, we have no moola. So we will probably run away to the farm or something, maybe even watch a movie. Jason even got promoted to a new job at the mine. He now works in the engineering department and he is a sr. surveyer! Which means no more night shifts!!!!! Hip, Hip, Great!!! He'll work normal hours of 6-2 right now and then we'll see what day shifts they want to keep him at. He has done so well in work and school, I am so proud of him, so the next time you see him pat him on the back.

Yes Sir!

Today I asked Carter to go throw some trash away for me. He turned around and said, "Yes sir!"
then saluted and turned to go throw his trash away. Now were did he get that from? I like it, I just might make him do that all the time.

Maybe I did, Maybe I didn't.

Last night I heard Keaton crying from his room, so I ran down there to see what was going on. From the sounds of the commotion going on in the room, Carter had hit Keaton. I told him we do not hit brothers and Jason called Carter down to the office while I calmed Keaton down. This is how the conversation between dad and son went.
Jason: "Did you hit Keaton?"
Carter: "Probably so."
Jason: "Did you hit Keaton?"
Carter: "Maybe."
Jason: "Are you lying to me?"
Carter: "No."
Jason: "Did you want to go to bed until you can answer me?"
Carter: "No."
Jason: "Did you hit Keaton?"
Carter: "Yes."
The funny thing was is that Carter couldn't come right out and say he hit Keaton and he wasn't exactly lying. He tried to just skirt around it the affirmative answer. While Jason was talking to Carter I had to hide my face because I was laughing because it reminded me of the Shrek 3 movie when they were asking Pinocchio were Shrek was and he gave a very confusing speech that he might in fact know the exact whereabouts of Shrek. Silly Kids.

FHE

So for family home evening last night we decided just to play. We wrestled for awhile and then got into a game of hide-n-seak. The funny moment came when Jason hid and me and the boys went to find him. Carter was looking all over the house. I put Keaton down and he kept on crawling down the hall and then I would have to pick him up and bring him back. Finally, I just let him go and I went to help find Jason. Well I didn't hear from Keaton and so I went looking for him too. Well he was in the hall bathroom standing by the bathtub. He had found daddy! He kept trying to crawl there I kept bringing him back. He knew exactly were he was going, he was going to get Dad.

Mmmm Snacks....

Jason didn't clean up the ashes that fell out of the wood burning stove. I found Keaton enjoying his snack of fresh ashes this afternoon. Taking it in by the handfulls, yummy. Still dosen't beat Carter eating a glass christmas ball one year. Yeah poison control has been called a few times we are on a first name basis.

The Blurry-eyed Blogger needs ear plugs...

Jason is on night shift and so he leaves about 5 p.m. to go to work. Well me and the boys go to my parents house to help fill the evening hours. Well Carter does not know how to stop talking, he talks about a mile a minute. Even when he has nothing to say there is alot of "Ums" and "Mom" going on in the back seat of the car. On the way home the other night me and Carter had this conversation..
Carter: "Mommy where is Daddy?"
Jen: "He went to work."
Carter: "At the lights?" (You can see the mine lights up on the base of the mountain basically anywhere in our little valley. Carter knows that's were Daddy goes to work, at the lights.)
Jen: "Yes, at the lights."
Carter: "The lights are broken?"
Jen: "I don't think so, maybe."
Carter: "He went to go change a light bulb?"
Jen: "Yes, I guess he had to go to work to change a light bulb." (In my head I was thinking, how many miners does it take to change a light bulb?)


This evening on our way home Carter had gotten out of his buckles in is car seat and was hanging from the handle on the roof by the door. So I yelled at him in a typical motherly fashion and told him I was going to pull over and spank his pants if he didn't get back in his buckles. He told me very matter of fact kind of way, "No you wouldn't, I am going to fight you up!" Its a good thing his dad wasn't in the car at the time...or the car would have come to a screeching stop, with a "teaching moment" for Carter. Ugh, my three year old sometimes...what do ya do? I think somedays I am doing really good at being a mother and other days I need to write CPS' number on the wall in spray paint for the kid.

The Circus.

All we need is a tight rope for Jason and we would be in business! Trying to get into the attic involved me holding the door still for him to step on to and singing the circus them song.

Our dumb dog could be the clown. This is were she has decided to sleep. I have a nice dogloo with a fleece dog bed inside and she picked the stroller to sleep in. I guess it's her version of a hammock. When I take the boys for a walk she won't walk with us, she decides to ride too.

Dedicated To Auntie Tauna

He has some of the words down and basically the right idea. We just need to work on the tune and the arranging the words in the right sequence. It's still Carter and his excitement to sing. If you like this song you should here is song about Tinkerbell, its quite lengthy.

Lullaby.

Well, Keaton has been insisting lately that I sing to him when I rock him to sleep. I usually only do this for naps and just put him in his crib at night. Well he still cries for a few minutes when I put him to bed for the night. So a couple of nights ago I put him in his crib and the screaming began. I was beginning to walk back down the hall to go get him, but I hear Carter singing! He was singing his ABC's and what do ya know, Keaton stopped crying and laid down and when to sleep! I was amazed, I got a good laugh out of that one. The same thing has happened a couple of times. Weird. Anyway, last night Jason went down to the boy's room to put Carter in his pajamas, and I followed and put Keaton in his crib. Well I had to leave to go get some meds for Carter and when I was in the kitchen I heard Keaton screaming and "The StarBang led Banner" being sung at the top of Jason's lungs. I walked in and I told him that was a great lullaby and he said it was the first thing that popped into his head. Keaton didn't stop crying for that one, maybe he should have tried Carter's version of the ABC's.

The Blurry-eyed Blog is thriving!

I don't think that I have gotten up at a normal hour for over a week now. It's been averaging about 3 in the morning. First, it was Keaton covered in puke standing up in his crib. That lasted for a few mornings and then is moved onto Carter coming in and saying that his tummy hurt. So being the little trooper that I am trying to be, I cleaned up everyone of their messes, and waited on them hand and foot. So we had a day or so were I thought "Yes! We are finally getting back to normal." Nope, not so lucky...I got very sick last night with the tummy bug that is having a ball wreaking havoc at my house. I spent most of the night hovered over my bucket, thinking this is what I get for pulling mommy duty and why in the heck did I eat a chili beans at lunch I am an idiot! When I did fall asleep I was having dreams of looking for a big cold glass of water and leaving water rings on my new nightstand. I thought I might live earlier today but I made the mistake of eating two pieces of pumpkin pie that are currently sitting in my stomach like a brick. Moms are not allowed to get sick! I still had to change dirty diapers and put kids down for naps.

Oh What Fun!

Saturday we went to the farm to cut wood and just hang out.

Our poor doggie, she gets carsick every time she sets a paw in a moving vehicle. But she had a great time at the farm and got into an ant bed.

Jason taught Katie how to drink out of the pump for the irrigation ditches by making a drinking fountain with your hand, she thought she was hot stuff. What a dork! (That is a term of endearment at our house in case you were wondering.)

At the end of the trip they went wading in the ditch to cool off.  They had alot of fun.

Happy Halloweenie!

Just chillin'.

The rest of my peeps at preschool.

Me and my brother getting ready to go to trunk or treat.

Keaton found the stash the next morning, we start our sugar high early here.

Happy 1st Birthday Keaton!

Happy Birthday to Keaton! He loved this car! He has spent most of the day playing in it and he thinks he is so cool he can stand up in it. My baby has grown so fast and a year flew by! He is such a sweet boy, I love spoiling him!

This is Carter waiting for Keaton to wake up. He wanted to go wake him up and I told him no. We wouldn't let him touch it until Keaton got his chance to play with it first. It bothered him so much that it wasn't his birthday, he told me only Carters have birthdays. I think he is a little spoiled, but he did have fun pushing Keaton in the car. He also told me that it was his turn and Bonnie says to share!
Presents at Grandma Grippet's house too!

We even had a white trash birthday cake for Keaton! It was a brownie with a grill match stuck in it!

Oh Happy Day!

This is what a face looks like when they have just soloed! Bill is Jason's third student to solo. Congratulations Uncle Bill!

Farm Boys

My handsome men.

Feeding the cows milo.

Jason and Cater picked a milo bouquet for me. What sweet boys they are

San Diego

I found one of my two rolls from our trip so San Diego last summer. These are my boys at the beach. This was their favorite part of the whole trip. Carter still asks to go back to the beach.

Carter LOVED burying his dad in the sand.  Jason was like a little kid, he even got told to get out of the ocean by Lifeguard Rick several times.

Part of the trip we went to Lego Land. They had built entire cities out of legos, some pretty amazing stuff. We had to pull Carter out of Las Vegas, he thought you could play with them. He was very upset with me.

Carter barely met the hight requirements for the rides. He had permie-grin on his face on this ride. Pretty darn cute.

Very funny...

So last night I asked Jason to take out the stinky trash. He replied to me, "I already did when we were dating." Very funny Jason... You still have to take out the trash in more ways than one. He is a smarty, isn't he!

Just Us.

As Dad would say "this is the whole fam damily." Sunday we took pictures, Micheal, Jill's husband was the only one not present for the pics. Trying to get the kids to cooperate was like pulling teeth. Aren't we precious!

Look at my mad pumpkin carving skills! It was a pretty afternoon so we decided to do something outside. Katie, Carter, Grant, and Keaton all helped out in their own way. But I seemed to do it all....hmm funny how that works out.

Puppy Love!

It was a great day for Carter today because we woke up bright and early to hurry down to the feed store to get his "new bigger puppy." Carter says that we bought the puppy to kill the snakes and the bears in the mountains. Every cow needs a cow dog to protect it right? This one is a bit more sturdier than the last one. I had to constantly save the last one from Carter being to rough. When we got to the store she was one of two queensland heelers left out of a litter. I got both out but her sister kept running away and hiding and had her tail between her legs most of the time. This one was friendly, played and was mostly happy to see us so we picked her. The other one was a more pretty blue heeler but not as nice.

We got her home, and yes Jason told me to go pick her out, and she has been happy ever since. It has taken a week for Jason to pick out a name for her but I think he finally settled on "Chispa," pronounced (cheespa). It is spanish for sparkle. She had a spark in her eye that the other puppy did not have. Carter thought we were calling her cheese fold, and he said she was not a cheese fold, she was a puppy! We took her down to the farm yesterday to have her first experience with the cows and she was a bit chicken so she stayed by me and Keaton the rest of the chickens. On our way home she got car sick and threw up all over Jason's pathfinder. She threw up when I brought her home from the store too. Who knew that puppies could get car sick?! She is learning pretty fast from Jason's training. He can get her to come and sit already and he thinks she'll make a really good cow dog when she is trained.

Awe!

Did I mention that I love my husband?! Well, I do. He did the dishes last night and cleaned my kitchen, it gave me the warm fuzzies all over again!

Year Supply

This is our year supply of milk. Carter named her Woopsie. We went and picked her up in Humbolt yesterday and it made for a long day, but an adventure nonetheless. Her previous owner got teary-eyed when we loaded her up to go. She was attached to the cow, I guess. Kind of different back-hills type people, Jason said they reminded him of people from Tennessee.We were trying to feed her sweet feed but it wasn't sweet enough for her... my kind of cow! She is real gentle and will let you pet her all over. She has been known to give up to 10 gallons of milk a day. I don't know what I am going to do with all that milk! We only drink about 3 gallons a week! So if anybody would like to buy some fresh, organic, raw cow's milk let me know. We are going to have to breed her to get a calf and a milk supply going. So we are going to have to wait 10 months before we can start milking her. Just enough time to get her nice and fat!

Keaton loved sitting on the fence post! He cried when we took him off, he wanted to stay up there and supervise. Silly boy gotta love him! He loved being outside in the sunshine.

Our Weekend

Jason poured our front steps to our house and we took the time to put our prints in it. Then Grandma's little dog got loose and decided to do a little dance on it and leave it's prints behind too. Geeze, kids and pets are the worst around wet concrete! I had to spend the rest of the time keeping Carter for making more hand prints, he thought it was so fun he wanted to do it over an over again.

I was trying to find a Halloween costume for Keaton, I don't think he wants to be a mexican.

Is this Sunday appropriate? Jason-4 / chipmunks-0