5 Months!

In celebration of his 5 month birthday, Adam took a 3 hour nap yesterday.

Packing It In

And packing up... with a wedding, Christmas, Leah's birthday, and a trip to Mexico (just for Jason) around the corner, I'm guessing I'm going to have a lot of events to blog about in the near future.... whether or not I actually blog about it all in a timely manner is yet to be seen. For now, though, just a few posts of every day life.

Like father, like son- getting ready for church.

Fun with Daddy- Jason always adds a new dimension to play time.

Hard Questions

Leah is constantly asking me the meaning of the new words she hears- stump, weak, rich, Lord, manger, and today's favorite- kisser.

"You know, 'Kisser once for me'?"

(Have a Holly Jolly Christmas!)

Solid Foods

We haven't done much with solids, but so far, I'd say he likes it. The rice cereal was "meh", green beans were "are you kidding me?" and sweet potatoes got me this face!

Of course, we won't really be giving him popcorn for at least another year or so. Not for his lack of trying!

Spoon snatcher! He likes to be in charge, so we each get a spoon during dinner time.

Spreading Holiday Cheer

Of the 5 houses we took Christmas goodies to today...

one house had pinkeye

one was in the middle of naptime,

one had just stabbed themselves in the hand with a screwdriver,

and two were on the phone. One of the conversations included the words radiation and chemotherapy.

I sure hope that fudge brightened someone's day!

Sneaky

Adam lets me know what he really thinks of his Christmas outfit.

Let's Eat!

Here's a much happier looking picture of Jason's birthday celebration! The last post's picture looked a little gloomy... I think Jason was contemplating the weight of his new old age.
This little guy is ready for some food! We didn't start Leah on solids until she was 6 months old, and I was planning on doing the same for Adam, but he is so interested in food! He has started learning about a cup, and today we pulled up the high chair so he can start sitting with us during meals.
Leah had a 15 minute come apart while Jason put the high chair together because we told her that it was for Adam, not her. She is very generous to Adam on her own terms but does not appreciate being told no. (who does, really?) Finally I asked her how she thought Adam felt by seeing that she was not sharing with him, and she calmed down enough to get to join us for dinner, plus we pulled out the tray to her booster chair, which seemed to appease her. Sheesh.I was invited to a cookie exchange last week. I'd never been to one before, and it was so fun trying all of the different cookies. Although, I must say, there was a surprising absence of chocolate. Maybe it's just me, but really, why bother making a cookie of you're not going to load it up with chocolate?
Just a cute picture of Leah laughing I found on the video camera. I think of 100 things every day I could post about Leah and the funny things she says- everything from her stories about how she is "pregment" with her new baby sister Allah (an epic saga that really deserves it's own post) to how she frequently walks up to me with something she isn't supposed to have (like a Sharpie) behind her back and says, "Mom, don't see what's behind my back", or how she doesn't pronounce her "TH" sound, so her sentences come out like "Dis isn't da right thing." or how she always reminds me to "Say nice things to me" when I give her parental direction or "We don't step on things" when I accidentally step on the toy that she left in the middle of the floor.

She has an endless imagination, and spends most of her play time directing everyone else in her dream land. "You be cousin Sarah and Daddy can be Ethan and Adam can be Savanna" is the most frequent roll play. She talks about her cousins like they still live up the street, and just haven't been over for a while, even though she knows that they are in Utah and we're in Indiana. She is changing every day, and she definitely keeps me on my toes.


And this picture just warms my heart. I love watching Adam watching Leah and seeing how big and cool she is in his eyes. I hope they become the best of friends over the years... or at least don't beat up on each other and are willing to acknowledge each other's presence in high school.

I'm adding this old picture to 1) remind myself that I have blue eyes (Jason and Leah's are hazel, and Adam's are still dark baby-blue, so I'm always surprised whenever I see pictures of my blue eyes... guess I should look in the mirror more often) and 2) to prove, Mom, that Leah used to be a round little baby, too.
And I feel somewhat inclined to mention that I have been called to teach Relief Society in our new ward. To real women with real families and real problems in our real ward. This isn't the BYU student ward anymore... Talk about out of the frying pan. And my first lesson? The martrydom of Joseph Smith. Cheery, no? Please, please pray for me.

Happy Birthday, Jason!

25. Jason has a pretty huge noggin. His parents nicknamed him Charlie Brown when he was little. He has a tendency to rotate through pillows quickly because he flattens them and they just can't fluff back up. I'm sure it has something to do with his big brain...

26. Jason broke his arm when he was 4 because a friend dared him to walk across the top of the monkey bars and he fell.

27. Jason is a fantastic gift giver. He combines several skills to make this happen- great secret keeping, persistence in deal finding, and the great ability of picking up on the little things that I mention months before and turning them into great gifts.

28. Jason is practically blind. He was worn glasses since 3rd grade, when he jokingly put on a friend's glasses and realized that he could actually see. He told me when we got married that if there was ever a need to defend our house or children in the middle of the night, it would be up to me. But all that is about to change because...

29. Jason is getting Lasik eye surgery! This isn't a surprise to him, but we are both so excited that he's getting it done. His uncle is an optometrist and will be performing the surgery when we are in Denver in a few weeks. I know he can't wait!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JASON. WE LOVE YOU!

20. Jason is a naturally talented teacher. He is confident and comfortable, and I love watching the way he interacts with students. He taught on his mission, at the MTC, DAT prep at Kaplan, many years of Biology and Genetics TA courses, and Sunday School. All that practice has really paid off- whenever he teaches now, he hardly breaks a sweat.

21. Jason is a fix-it man. He is confident that he can fix anything, and 99.9% of the time, he's right (even if he fakes it until he gets it right). His determination and confidence was how we started dating. He was willing to try fixing my car, and was the only one who could actually figure out what was wrong with it. How could I resist such persistence?

22. Jason gives AMAZING hand and back massages. That is how he sneakily held my hand for the first time- it started with a great hand rub and then he just kept my hand in his. Every time he rubs my hands, I'm reminded of one great reason I fell in love with him.

23. Jason has a lifelong goal of owning a paintball field some day. He used to be really big into paintball, and even played on a semi-national team for a while. I know he wishes he still played a lot, and I'm sure he'll pick it up again as soon as Adam is old enough to take him on.

24. Jason is an eBay king (you remember the car I mentioned earlier?). He knows all the ins and outs of bidding, and almost always wins. I remember the first time he ever lost a bid... there was a moment of silence in our house.

13. Jason grew up living in the same house for his entire childhood, minus the first two years. That turned him into a bit of a pack rat. When we merged our stuff, we compromised that he could take pictures of things that were getting destroyed or falling apart instead of keeping them in our tiny apartment. This worked for almost everything except the ratty mission tie that is now kept in my cedar chest.

14. Jason is a closet entrepreneur. He is constantly coming up with ideas of things to make and sell, or ways to meet some unfulfilled niche in the world market. The latest idea was wool lined suits for missionaries in Russia.

15. Jason teaches himself entire computer programs. If he doesn't know how to do something, it's never enough to just get the quick answer. He has to learn the entire process and all the hows and whys behind it. He is very much a "teach a man to fish" kind of learner.

16. When Jason was serving his mission in Bolivia, he once cut off the head of a chicken, which was promptly plucked and served up for dinner (after it stopped running around the yard). He also once had a monkey poop on his suit.

17. Jason has wacky eyebrows that seem to move independently from each other. When he wiggles them they look like two caterpillars doing a mating ritual. He also has a disjointed thumb and a pickle-shaped tongue.

18. Before he started graduate school, Jason worked for a sprinkler company for a summer. He would frequently work 12 hours days and come home dirtier and smellier than I've ever seen him before or since. I'm pretty sure that job was motivation enough to get him back into school for another 5 years. (I hope!)

19. Jason has to be the last person in bed every night. Even if he's dead tired, he will "be in in a minute". I think it's because it's the only time of the day he doesn't have someone talking to him or telling him what to do.

Ready to Roll

Adam has started flipping his legs into the air and rolling from side to side. He'll be rolling over any day now- yikes!

When Life Hands You Lemons....

Thank goodness for a child that think it's great when your 4-month old knocks the macaroni box out of your hands and it spills all over the floor that was recently sprayed with ant killer. It just means she can use the ruined noodles to make imaginary pies.

6. Jason loves chocolate just as much as I do. Maybe even a little more. He likes fruit desserts, too, but he loves chocolate pie, cake, cookies, donuts. You can't go wrong with chocolate with Jason. He asks for a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and cherries on top every year for his birthday. The first year I made the cake, I didn't realize he meant a 9x13 pan cake, and I made a two layer cake. It was a slimy mess with cherries all over, and ended up like this.
Loving chocolate was actually a "requirement" on my list of qualities my dream husband would have. And, on a side note, Jason met every requirement on that list that I created years before we met and then stumbled upon after we were married. Everything from Eagle Scout and is taller than me to speaks a foreign language and respects his mother. Pretty lucky, aren't I?

7. Jason has bad luck with squishing bugs. One time he locked himself in our bedroom with a wet towel to initiate warfare on a HUGE fly. He was in there for a good 10 minutes with before he came out victorious, assuring me that the fly was dead and had fallen behind our bed. And since I wasn't about to sleep with Flyzilla under my bed, he had to move all the furniture in our bedroom and retrieve the fly before I would let him rest.

Then there was the time he attacked a crazy moth with a pillow (the world's least effective bug-squashing tool, by the way) and shattered the light fixture overhead, leaving glass shards all over our bed, pillows, and carpet.

But the absolute best (or worse) was the time that he took me to a bed and breakfast for my birthday. On his way into the shower, Jason found an angry bee flying around the bathroom. He killed the bee, only after getting stung, while he was on his way into the shower (and thus not entirely covered by protective clothing). It was one of the sweetest things Jason has ever done for me.

8. Jason loves to play games. I think an ideal night for him would be spent with friends or family playing a variety of board games, card games, and especially the name game. He is a 100% rule follower, and has earned the nickname of Game Nazi in some circles. He won't cheat to win, and makes sure you don't, either. We haven't played Parcheesi since 2007 because I ganged up on him with his sisters and cheated to win. Not that I miss the game- Jason usually won anyway.

9. Jason has only gotten into a real fight once in his life. He was only 9 or so and his friend was killing the fish in a pond with a bat. When he refused to stop after Jason asked him to, Jason punched him. Seeing that he was still pretty little, and he was trying to save the fish, I think it's pretty darn cute.

10. Along those same lines, Jason is a total peacemaker. He really knows how to pick his battles, and he lets me win at all the silly little fights I try to pick with him. And it's not that he may not be right, he just doesn't care as much about being right as he does about making me happy. I try not to abuse that one, but what a nice guy, huh?

11. People used to ask me a lot what ethnicity Jason is. It's hard to see, I guess, but he's half Mexican. His dad's family is from Chihuahua, and speak more Spanish than English. Jason didn't learn Spanish until he served his mission in Bolivia, and he says when he got back it was like meeting his Spanish-speaking relatives for the first time.

12. Jason used to be a big spender. He wanted to try snowboarding, so he bought a snowboard. He wanted to take a cross-country trip, so he bought a car on eBay and drove it home from Massachusetts. He spent so much money on his paintball gun, that when he sold it it paid for a large chunk of my engagement ring. I thought he was amazingly rich when we met. And while time has taught me a thing or two (about money and what matters most), I'm more attracted to him now as a poor, starving, PhD. student than I ever was before.

Celebrate Jason Week

Jason's 29th birthday is on Saturday. Since he doesn't get a whole lot of attention here, I thought I'd do 29 facts you may or may not know about Jason throughout the week, in no particular order.

1. Jason loves shopping for a deal. Black Friday is quite possibly his favorite day of the year, especially when there are presents to be bought (and money to be spent!) This picture was taken early one Black Friday morning years ago when he was trying to cheer me up with Krispy Kreme hot chocolate. It didn't work, and now he usually goes by himself.

2. Jason once shook President Hinckley's hand. He was ushering at a regional conference in Denver and helped Sister Hinckley down the steps from the stand, after which President Hinckley shook his hand and said, "Thank you, Brother Usher." I think he was maybe 12 at the time.

3. Jason is still very much a kid at heart. He loves to play tag, pillow fight, wrestle and tickle and gets a great sparkle in his eye when he's about to attack. I don't enjoy any of that so much, but it makes him very popular with the kids!

4. Jason has a secret passion for cooking. When he is in charge of dinner, he always scours cookbooks and the Internet for the perfect recipe. He isn't afraid to try new recipes, which I love (even if I don't love the food!). One day I'm going to send him to a culinary school in Europe so he can learn all of the great secrets. He also has a secret wish to work at Best Buy, just so he can get the discounts.

5. Jason plays the trumpet and was the drum major in high school, which, to me, is very sexy. My dad was the drum major in high school, too, so I've always thought it was very impressive. Even in high school, when I knew all about band geeks. I'm still very happy I married one.

Holiday Highlights

We ended up having a fantastically restful Thanksgiving weekend. I took exactly two pictures of our Thanksgiving dinner- sent Jason out to do the dirty work at 4:00 AM on Friday morning, and we spent the rest of the weekend decorating for Christmas-
and walking through fields to poke at underground animal holes. (No we do NOT have a cat. This one, which Leah named Hello Kitty, decided to take a walk with us, and then wisely disappeared shortly thereafter.)And now we are exactly 18 days away from the start of our crazy holiday travels. Christmas, here we come!

Pucker up!

Thanks

Why do I feel like Thanksgiving is going to to come and go so uneventfully this year? Turkey? Check. Shrimp dip? Check. White Christmas and chocolate pie? Check.

I think it's because there won't be any of thisor this
or this
or this
But I will get lots of this...
and I'm not going to complain about that.

What I Learned Today

A GPS system is no good if the battery dies.

This website has some dresses I would love to see delivered on my doorstep.

Adam is weighing in at 14 pounds 13 ounces (double his birth weight!) and is a whopping 26 inches long! No wonder we don't fit in the rocker very well anymore.

Missionaries love spaghetti and meatballs.

Having said missionaries over for dinner does not prevent Leah from stripping down naked in the bathroom and loudly declaring, "Mom! I pooped two big poops!"

Dishes don't disappear if you ignore them... I guess I've known that one for a while, just hoping the facts had changed. No such luck.

Mini Milestone

I glanced over at Adam today, and caught him doing this! Yes, my now four month old son is sitting up in his swing! And look at that concentration. What a little stud.

Okay, that might be grasping at straws, but even mini-milestones are so exciting at this stage. I just love watching him go from helpless lump to a little man of action! And I feel I should explain that, no, Adam does not spend all of his time in the swing. It just usually happens that he's in the swing when I have two free hands with which to take pictures.

Four Months

Resists all naps unless timed perfectly and in the swing (preferably), gnaws on anything he can get his gums on, tummy time pro, has made peace with his carseat, loves Crazy Duck.

Perfect little man. We love you.

Where We Live

We did another exploration outing this weekend- this time to discover the Wabash River.Baby Savanna had to come with us.
I love (and am learning) that for kids, a free afternoon at a local park is just as entertaining as an expensive activity!

Yard Work

Living in a house, even if you don't own it, means yard work! Or yard play, or just yard work-watching!

Friday Night Fun

It actually started in the afternoon with, "This is so we can take the bread and water."
After spending the WHOLE week in the house with two mildly sick kids, we went to the library yesterday. Story time is interesting again!
"You be Grandpa and I'll sit in your canoe and you can row me."And my personal favorite- "Get her off of me!!!"

The Chronicles of Farmer J

A couple of weeks ago I was driving to the farm and I got stuck behind this beast (minus the row head which was on a truck):



The picture below is to give you a sense of how big this thing is. The wheels were as tall as our Chrysler Pacifica and this combine can mow down 12 rows of corn at a time like it's nobody's business. FYI, it also comes equipped with a GPS system that tells it exactly where the rows are (also used for precision planting) and a computer for keeping track of yield, seed moisture, etc.



After watching this thing maneuver around mile marker posts at 40mph (yes, they can go that fast) because the road wasn't wide enough, I started getting the itch to drive a combine. So, this morning I hopped onto this combine:



It's not quite as big as the John Deere 9870 STS Corn Combine, but it's still pretty intimidating when you're sitting in the cab watching it chew through three rows at a time and watching it convert 7-foot tall corn plants to mulch (as seen in the picture below).



After this morning I'm amazed at the extent to which technology facilitates agriculture. The field that got harvested this morning would have easily taken four people 2-3 days to harvest plus 3-4 days to shell.

As a final thought, I was driving home from the field on Friday afternoon and passing field after field of corn and soybeans and realized that I am a long way from where I thought would be 5 years ago...and I'm okay with that. Besides, I kind of like being called Farmer J.