take three

Take one: Jack's fingers in nose. Both fingers.


Take two: Jack's fingers in mouth.


Take three: fighting.

the end.

schwimming.

Christmas Eve tradition? Swimming on Christmas Eve. Best tradition ever as a little kid. Now as a mommy…not so much. But it gets my kiddlets tired…I think that was my parents goal.

Sam + swimming = love.

“I a shark!”

Jack not so much. Just tired.

Santa Baby

gypsies

I wrote a post about the gypsies leaving. As I read it over, I felt it was too mean and toxic. So I revised it and had Adam read it. He told me it was still too mean.

So I deleted it.
But I'm still happy.

The gypsies are gone.

Anyone want to buy a house?

I promise I am a good neighbor.

Christmas Card

I am lazy. No Christmas card this year. Everything was basically still the same from last year...until yesterday.

Jack is a chubby, walking, talking, eating machine.He loves sticking the In-N-Out stickers on his face.

Sam is a neat perfectionist, order-loving, sweet, {and now!} talking boy. He is potty training at the moment. Pray for us. He loves telling everyone about his spiderman or "buzzyear" (buzz lightyear) undies.
I am exactly the same from last year. Still teaching piano, still staying home with the boys. Still always moving around, painting and fixing old crappy furniture. Trying to decorate my house on the cheap.

Adam is still at BYU. As always, he loves it. He loves it so much, he just might stay next year. Yep, he got accepted to BYU law school yesterday!!!

{by the dean personally I might add, I'm just a tad bit proud of him}

Sadly, this does not mean we're going to be staying. We still have to see what other schools say and offer. BUT the good news is we at least have the option to stay!

the stockings

All of a sudden Sam appears in front of us and says, "Big socks."

gross

(I have no idea what is up with the foot being on the table, but it is pretty cute.)

Jack is a disgusting eater. Let's just get that out there. Sam is CLEAN. He asks for a napkin to wipe up anything that gets on the table. I thought I could cultivate another clean little boy in Jack, but oh no, this kid had other plans.

I got sick of the high chair and decided it was time to move Jack to the table. BIG MESSY FAT MISTAKE. But he has to learn sometime. Until then, you will find me on the floor scrubbing hunks of crusted over nasty old food of the floor.

parade

The dinosaur parade has now become the "Jesus" parade.

Spanksgiving

Some highlights of our trip to Phoenix:

Playing at the splash pad, with no water,

Meeting baby Kayla, too many days late,
All the boys plus kiddos played the Wii,
(imagine that!)

Looking like some futuristic creature, and Adam almost crashing into a BMW while doing so,
A first "real" Thanksgiving dinner for the Jack Jack,
After not eating most of dinner, pumpkin pie for dessert, heavy on the whip cream, straight from the pan,
I got to check out my new favorite place, World Market,

The chance to be silly with the only cousins we have,
Hopefully not seeing Noah's future,
Finding out that Santa likes to visit Zion's on Thanksgiving break and doesn't understand what a "personal bubble" is (my dad understands this completely now),
Lastly, a chance to pretend to be girls for a few minutes.

breakfast

What cereal should I have this morning?

Or in Jack's words,
"waa-waa"
This means "I want cereal!" as he shakes the box.

grateful

This Thanksgiving I am grateful for the gift of speech.
No, not the freedom of speech, Samuel's speech.

A year ago, Samuel was not speaking. I could count his words on one hand. He was 22 months old. We had been worried for sometime, and through many Dr. visits we found out he could not hear very well at all. He had so many ear infections that his ear canals were blocked. He had tubes placed in his ears earlier this year. The Dr. said his hearing was like living underwater. No wonder he couldn't talk.

Even before the surgery this spring, we hooked up with Kids On The Move. KOTM provides services to children who are behind in any way. He has worked with some great therapists. They have helped bring Sam to where he is today. We still have a long way to go, but he is talking! He can communicate his needs and wants. He can tell me things that happen to him and how he is feeling. It is so liberating.

We caught this problem early and decided to get Jack tubes early on to prevent the same thing from happening to him. I cannot believe the difference of Sam and Jack's speech at this age. Jack has many, many more words than Sam did.

Within the last few months, Sam's speech has exploded.
The first time I heard him say "no," I cried. He uses tone and inflection in his voice. I love hearing all his words, his "pleases" and "thank-you's" and of course his "I wuv you"s.

There have been so many tears, angry words, and inadequate feelings as a mother during this whole ordeal. I felt as though my relationship with Sam was strained, we were always fighting. I felt horrible for bringing a sibling into the mix so early, when he still needed my help and full attention. He now understands my words, and I understand his. Our new favorite thing to do is have "mommy loves" after his nap. He curls into my lap and we sit and talk about our day. I will never take for granted the fact that we can talk and communicate our feelings to each other.

I am so grateful for modern medicine and the ability to fix my little boy's ears and give him the ability to hear. I will be indebted forever to the therapists who have worked with him, and have helped him improve so much. I am grateful for a family who helped us though this hard time and who love Samuel so much.

I am grateful my son can talk.

this is so me.

Ongoing Projects

I finally finished a few of the projects I posted about earlier.

Remember this little guy?
Lovely huh? I love the green. My favorite part...

The lining! I fell in love with this paper.

The knobs turned out pretty fun after I cleaned them up.


Of course, Sam must be in the photoshoot.

And this little beauty?

My new nightstand! I love love LOVE it.

Of course, more projects are in order. Hopefully they'll be finished soon.

more cereal

They wouldn't be true Dayton's if they didn't love their cereal.

Squiddles

Pictures of my mother growing up.

All I can say is she is Sydnee (my sister's) twin.

Syd 5 years ago with cousin Noah.

meeting.

Five years ago today I met a boy in the Wilkinson center.

He was wearing an orange Spongebob shirt.

I was in a light green turtleneck that made my eyes look stunning.

We bought Subway sandwiches and ate in the Cougareat.

We talked for nearly an hour.

We laughed about old boyfriends and girlfriends and our funny mothers.

He was nervous. I could tell. For some reason, I wasn’t.

We both went to class, not knowing that our buildings were right next to each other.

I called my mom right after we went different ways. “You did not tell me he was so HANDSOME!”

I did not hear a word my professor said, not because it was the most boring

Anthropology class ever,

but because I was thinking about him.

Walking to my car after class I saw him talking to a cute girl, with his back to me.

She caught my eye and I was jealous. Little did I know he was talking to her about his lunch

with me.

I was hoping and praying that he would ask me out again.

The next morning he called me and asked me to go to a movie that night with him.

Little did I know that five years later I would love him even more than I ever thought possible.