Jackson is saying so many words now! It's so exciting seeing him able to communicate more. You can see the relief on his face when he knows we know. Today I was taking a bath (a nice hot one) and he would've face-first dove in if he'd been a bit taller. I finally let him come in after a lot of whining and he felt utterly frustrated when the water was hot. I held him above it for a while and quickly stuck limbs in, out, in, out, so he wouldn't get too hot. I kept repeating "hot" and eventually he was saying it over and over, "ahhhhot, ahhhhot." I thought it was adorable. He played for a while and he stood up and anounced, "Un, Un." He was done. I asked, "are you done?" and he nodded. It's so exciting. He really likes to say tickle tickle (kickle, kickle). What a cutie-patootie.
Madison dresses up in a princess dress every single day. I can't get them off of her! She's thoroughly convinced that she is, indeed, a princess and will hear none of it (reason, that is) from me. None of these work: It's dirty because you've worn it every day this week, look it has pee on it!, that's ten sizes too big, it's freezing and it's snowing and that thing doesn't cover you at all. Yeah, none of those reasons work. She's also ridiculously obsessed with any soda. That is specifically why we don't buy soda and potato chips. Although if I had a better metabolism and an uncannily large budget, I would buy them every day.
Rylee is sooo helpful. She's my diaper and wipes getter. She loves to toast and butter her own bagels and asks for food every second of the day. I was watching her this morning and thinking she should be quite a bit more chunky, but she's not. She's very slender. She's got some amazing dance moves under her belt and she's understanding more and more about the world around her. She's quick to notice what others don't and she has the ears and nose of a cougar! She can hear any car pull into our driveway the second it touches our pavement. Jared cooked up some chantrelle mushrooms and put them in the fridge for later and now every time I open the fridge door she screams, "Something's rotten in there! EWWWW it stinks!! Yuck!" I kind of agree with her....

We had a wonderful trip home to Texas in November. I actually can't believe I hadn't written about it because now we're even past Jackson's birthday, Thanksgiving, a few Christmas parties, and lots of other things! This time of year flies so quickly. We had such a great time, but before I start, this is a picture of Jackson eating his birthday cake (red velvet, my favorite--I figured he couldn't tell me his, so I might as well enjoy it). Jackson and the rest of us were battling some kind of flu that would seem to leave and reappear again for up to two weeks. It was horrible and you just hate to see your baby throw up. Jackson, the Angel Child, threw up one night in his bed and didn't really even cry!! I think he might've slept in it for a while and then whined a little bit so we finally knew he had done that. It broke my heart but made me love him even more for his gentleness and endurance!! He's such a sweetheart. So, on his birthday he wasn't really excited about cake and just wanted to go to bed (at 5:30). Part of me feels terrible that his birthday wasn't all wonderful, but oh well. Sometimes things don't turn out like you want them to. Hopefully Christmas will turn out differently.
So the trip to Texas was fun, and what was especially amazing was the trip to the temple with my whole family minus Tyler! Sorry, Tyler, but it really was awesome. It's not every day that you can attend the temple with all your siblings and parents still alive. We had a great Thanksgiving dinner with everyone. I made rolls. Funny, but I haven't really wanted to make them since. I'll probably do them again at Christmas. Oh Jackson's crying right now. This post is going to be cut short. But, I do want to say, it was very fun going to Texas early and hanging out with Mom and Dad, Sarah and her kids, and Shauna and her children. The zoo was perfect! The birds were flying all around us and landing on our seed sticks.
The trip to and from was a bit crazy. The flights home were exhausting. Jackson started bouncing and literally laughing when we walked up our stairs at home and he saw his toys. He couldn't believe it. He started playing with them and kept looking at me, the toys, me, the toys kind of like, "Are you seeing this??"
Jared sang I Know That My Redeemer Lives in church this Sunday and I accompanied him. Turned out great. All right, here comes my random run. We decided we don't really like scary movies anymore. It's snowing here! He live on top of a hill and get more than others and the girls have loved it. I started making the Christmas goodie plates. We wrapped presents already and they're under the tree. The girls are always asking if they can open them now. Jared's work actually had a work party that had great food and fun for the kids. The Santa came and Madison wasn't scared of him at all. She calmly told him that she wanted a Barbie for Christmas. Rylee said she wanted a swimming baby. I haven't decided if Santa is actually going to bring those things for them. We'll see.
Well, I guess I'll write more later, but I want to wish everyone a Happy Holiday and Merry Christmas!

Cinnamon Trick

You know how Cinnamon Rolls smell so good? Whoever invented those was a genious diabolical mastermind because hey, let's face it, you can have a Very ugly and Very nasty tasting cinnamon roll that smells like heaven! And if you're sitting through say... a presentation, a FHE, or who knows what else and you can smell them but you haven't seen them, you get all excited and psyched and then what do you find? A mean joke! They're either too dry or too wet, too shriveled or too small, without enough sugar and cinnamon and without any frosting, or too cold. Or all of the above. It's almost not even worth eating unless you make them yourself. But then, how can you make them when your husband will only eat one and leave the rest to you? Oh, it's a plight for the pious. I don't know if that makes sense, but it sure sounded good. Oh, and p.s. if someone says they're the first cinnamon rolls they've made, you can be sure that they aren't what they smell like.
So do you ever find yourself coming home, with tons and tons of stuff in your arms (like two huge garbage bags full of blown-up balloons that you could've just thrown away but because of your awful sense of frugality, you bring them home for your kids to pop?) and a shriveled cinnamon roll on a plate and papers and your purse and keys and such. And then you get to the door and you find that your husband has finally locked the door like you have wanted him to for the whole marriage and you think, "wow, this couldn't have been set up any more perfectly." And while I'm laughing trying to find the right key to get the door open, I realize I'm kicking the cinnamon roll I brought back for Jared (how long has it been in the dirt? I'm sure he won't care!) and a balloon's escaped and one just popped on my zipper and I forgot to eat dinner (yeah, I just realized it when I walked in). But I made it. It's those times when it's just fun to laugh at yourself. Plus I got Posh's haircut (not intentional, believe me).

Never Assume

So, as a parent, never assume that just because you can see the back of your baby's head, that everything is all right! I was watching Jackson for 15 minutes until both the girls yelled "He's got something on his face!!!"

Madison likes to say, "I'm freakin' out!" I must say that occasionally...

Cavities cavities are no fun. Ugh. I got some filled yesterday and it was painful. Are they supposed to be sensitive to heat? Well, can't think of anything else!

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures (bear with me, I just figured it out!)

Best friend Tamie. You're great!

I'm not a huge fan of high chairs anymore. These things are so compact and amazing. Plus the baby that sits in it is as cute as pudding.

W

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Best friends! Ken and Jared on Halloween at the ward's trunk or treat.

Apparently in Oregon, everything molds at a rate 15 times faster than anywhere else. Rylee carved this less than a week before Halloween and by the time trick-or-treating came, it already had a bitter beer face. Heeeyyyy, what was he doing all night??

Halloween was so much fun! Madison was Snow White, Rylee was Aurora, and Jackson was a Bumblebee (although he missed a lot of the action because he stayed home with Grandma during trick-or-treating).

There's nothing like flying when you're with your sister.

They are such posers!

Jackson loves to play the guitar with daddy. He mostly loves the Wii guitar and he was a bit confused with this one. He was so confused he decided to just suck on the strings.

Family Home Evening

Mondays are always fun, mostly in the surprise-type way because you just never know how Family Home Evening is going to turn out. Here's an example of one of ours:
First of all, the girls LOVE to conduct. Rylee always takes out her Book of Mormon and has a spiritual "thought" prepared. She'll open them up and tell us all about Abinadi or Nephi. Today she picked Madison to say the opening prayer (they only pick each other!) and it's always a huge surprise when Madison says a prayer. Sometimes we sit there for 10 seconds with our heads bowed and arms crossed waiting for words and when we look up, we see Madison deep in thought saying a prayer in her head. Jared taught them to do that if they need to say a prayer in a public place (and sometimes for personal prayers). So now she'll spring these silent prayers on us during dinner, FHE, and just about any other time. It's so funny! When we finally convince her to say it out loud, I'm always the first to be blessed. "Bless mommy to be happy. Bless her to be kind and to have fun." I'm lucky I get blessed so much!
After the prayer, our Family Business only takes a few moments--mostly just the parents preping the kids for events during the week. If Jared has the lesson, he tries in vain to keep the kids' attention the entire time. Today we were looking up scriptures about prayer. Everyone had their own scriptures out. Jared tried to whisper a scripture to Madison to say, but she wouldn't have it. She wanted to read her own. So she read one all about how you close your eyes when you pray. Rylee then proceeded to tell us the in-depth story of how Jesus put forth his finger and touched the stones to light the ships on their way to the promise land.
This is when Jared tries to reign in the lesson back to its first intentions. Jackson's eating his Book of Mormon and Rylee is using her outside voice. Madison is trying to see how many ways you can sit on a stool in 30 seconds and Jared's still trudging through the lesson.
The song we ALWAYS sing is "I love Daddy Yessiree" (who DOESN'T love daddy?) to which the girls belt out with true conviction. Madison spends a few minutes "hmmmmm, uhhhhh, hm. Well, hhmmmmm. I pick Wywee (rylee) to say the prayer." Rylee spends a few minutes animatedly pouring her heart out in humility and whala! Family Home Evening is a success! I wish you could join us, but maybe this gives you a little window into our home on Monday nights!