Christmas Eve

We decided to stay home this year for Christmas - for the first time since we've been together. As much as we really miss seeing all of our relatives, it has been so fun just being at home, together with the boys, enjoying our decorations and just chilling out. No long drive where I play front-seat waitress, no packing up the entire house, no tired kids from no naps and best of all, Christmas morning in our own family room with presents I've already wrapped, instead of frantically trying to get all of it out of the car and wrapped in time. Bliss!
We spent the day watching movies and then made pizzas for dinner. Chad his has been brining a turkey for 2 days now.  He also made coconut bread and cookie brittle today as well.
The elf who's appeared every day since Thanksgiving went back to the North Pole today but left the boys a present instead. It was their pajamas to wear tonight.
Trey said a new word tonight and melt my heart. Thee-thus. Jesus. Add that to Mama, Dada, and Spongebob and we're up to four discernible words. We were reading The Three Trees and he just started saying it.
And for all her fans, a photo of Lucy howling at the remote control trucks!

MeRrY ChRiStMaS
and a HaPpY NeW yEaR!

Feliz Navidog!

Because I am Loved...

Chad gave me such a nice birthday weekend.  I didn't want to go out because it's so hard with a two year-old but when CJ was disappointed because he wanted to go out, Chad told him to be my date and take me out and he stayed home with Trey. I let CJ pick the restaurant and he told me he watned to go to Applebees because "they have shrimp and I love shrimp."

Back home I was given keys to a hotel room and a movie ticket to Twilight and instructed to go to the movie, then go relax in peace and quiet, sleep in, go shopping, and then show up at a certain spa where I would be receiving a facial. I felt guilty leaving! But I think when you're a mom you don't realize how a little time to yourself does so much to energize and renew. I spent the day shopping. I took my time, browsed and tried things on!

You know, getting older really has its perks. I am determined to have a better attitude about it. Because yesterday, after all the loves and happy birthdays from my little boys, thoughtful cards and gifts, wonderful phone calls, emails and Facebook messages, I realize again how blessed I am and how I couldn't ask to be in a better place in my life than I am right now.

I have had the best time this weekend with Trey. I never get much one-on-one time with him so with the other boys out of town, he and I have been together. He is seriously the easiest little boy, just happy to be doing whatever it is he's doing at the moment.  But I am ready for my little four year-old to return because I miss him. And it's way too quiet around here!
One of Trey's new things is wanting to wear this helmet. The problem is, it weighs about 10 pounds so he can't hold his head up straight, then he falls over, then he gets mad and we start the process all over again. Put helmet on. Lean to the side. Fall over. Yell at the helmet. Then yell at me that it's not working. He runs to get it whenever football is on the TV or Sports Center and when it tips him over, he runs to the TV, points to a football player (with a helmet on) and yells at us. So funny!

Trey went to his first day of nursery in the new ward yesterday. And then barfed all over.
This morning I locked me and CJ out of the house, in the rain, bare feet, with Trey inside. The spare key is inside the realtor's box. The cell phone to call the realtor is inside the house.
One long story and four frozen feet later we made it back inside where Trey had found comfort in the sugar bowl. It was everywhere. The dog is outside rolling around with a garbage can. The only thing making this Monday even more awesome is that Chad is out of town.

We've all been really healthy for a long time and today it was no fun in the sun for us - we all have the flu. Chad took this picture of us but it doesn't show Trey, Lucy, Mac and four pillows all plopped on my legs. Some days I feel like a big magnet. A magnet who draws everyone in to watch her throw up.Trey  laughs, Lucy licks my feet and Mac whips the back of my head with his tail. CJ just yells for me to pause the DVR so he doesn't miss anything.  But I sure love the Oreo crumbs on his lips.
He asked Santa for a Remote Control Robot that zaps people, clothes with pictures of garbage on them and a really big TV in his room with a remote, a remote control bee that stings people, and, from the infomercial, Bendarooz!

CJ made me cry two times the other day, each episode a mere 10 minutes a part, occurring at bedtime.

The first is when my sweet little 4 year old read the entire book of "Hop on Pop" to me, pausing only a few times for help. Him! Reading! All by himself! This caused tears because it was one of those "I'm growing up and you can't stop me from doing it" moments, and, because I was so proud of him. It's just so awesome to see your kids figure something out and watch them fill with pride as they accomplish.

So then, ten minutes later, we say prayers. CJ says, and I quote, "Heavenly Father, where are all my friends? I live too far away from school and I'm lonely. I ask for a friend who will answer their phone and play with me." And then.... his little voice cracked and he finished with a heart-wrenching, "I just love to play. Please help me move close to some really fun friends."

His best friend that used to live next door moved. He absolutely loves his preschool class and has lots of friends which have generated invites to lots of fun birthday parties. As for every-day play, they live too far away. We live on the lamest street in America, I'm convinced. Our house has been on the market for a while, we have a new lot picked out in a huge development that's anchored by a brand-new elementary school, high school and middle school. And - it's right next to his new preschool and most of the kids in his class. I have even stalked it in the afternoon, you know, after school when all the kids are walking home. Almost every open garage door revealed bikes, trikes, scooters, Power Wheels and the likes. And, at Halloween, the houses were decorated! For kids!

So we wait. And wait. And wait. Not an ideal time to sell a house, but we're willing to try if it means finally putting down our roots in a community and ward that we love.

I insist that the Lord is ever mindful of our needs, and, if we are blessed enough to move, then it will eventually work out. If not, well, then we'll find a way to be happy here. We have a lot to be thankful for. Recently our ward got split and we are now in a huge new ward, so maybe there will be lots of little Sunbeam boys?

We'll see. But for now I'll be happy with the fact that my little one understands that he can ask his Heavenly Father for things he feels he needs and the beauty is watching it all unfold. Even if waiting takes all the patience I can muster...

Well who knew that spray bottles from the dollar store would be so entertaining? The boys are obsessed with filling them up and then spraying the entire backyard and everything in it. It's awesome - I get a good 30 minutes of non-confrontational playtime out of them them when they do this.Trey  loves his so much he was running, tripped, refused to let go of his spray bottle to catch himself on the patio and ended up looking like this. He cried for about five seconds and stopped as soon as I refilled his bottle. I love this little boy and his funny little face with all my heart.

Mac went hunting with Chad for the first time and did a great job!

I'm convinced nothing is more fun than holidays with your little kids. We had so much fun this October between decorating, making treats and celebrating Halloween. Although CJ's costume changes about made me crazy (started out as a skeleton, then The Hulk and finally, after a last-minute trip to the fabric store for some brown and tan fabric, Indiana Jones), I just love dressing them up. Trey was loving the freedom to run all over the place and he also helped himself inside a lot of the homes. He's so cute everyone obliged his visits.

Costume #1 for Eloise's party.

Costume #2 Indiana Jones
Since Trey wears wristbands every day (or, if he's misplaced them he helps himself to my hair bands and slides those up his arms) he was super excited about his costume.


It was a great day!

At bedtime Trey came running out of CJ's room with this on and, for some reason, CJ's underwear on his head.

Every holiday gets more fun as CJ gets older and gets more into all the decorations and such. We had so much fun decorating the house inside and out. These little "Mr.Potato-ish" pumpkin parts were so fun. It took about 10 minutes for us to put together our pumpkins which was about the attention span the boys had.

“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).

A few months ago a young family in our ward lost their dad to a heart attack. He was in his 30s and left behind 5 young children. He was self-employed and had no life insurance. One of his daughters is in CJ's primary class and on our way home from church on Sunday CJ said very quietly from the back seat, "Sabrina was sad today."

Yesterday CJ brought it up again. Out of nowhere he stopped whipping Lucy's leash around the living room while pretending to be Indiana Jones and said, "Is Sabrina sad because her dad is in Heaven with Tucker?" (Tucker is my mother-in-law's dog who passed away last summer). I told CJ that yes, I'm sure Sabrina is very sad and misses her dad very much.

"Can we make her cupcakes?" He asked.

So we did.

When we pulled up to Sabrina's house, her mom was outside on the porch. My heart literally breaks everytime I see her. What a trial she has been handed. CJ got out of the car and took the plate of cupcakes up to the porch. Sabrina's mom took them inside to Sabrina. As I was buckling CJ into his seatbelt, her mom came back outside and said, "Jamie, when I took those in to Sabrina and told them they were for her, she gave me the biggest smile I have seen on her face in a long, long time." With her voice cracking she said, "She was having a very hard day today. She needed this, thank you so much."

I told her it was all CJ's idea to which she replied, "Then CJ must be very in tune because this was exactly what she needed. It was so good to see her smile like that again."

As we drove off I looked in the rearview mirror at CJ. He was looking out the window sort of pondering something and then he got a huge smile on his face. He said, "Mom, do you think Sabrina is still smiling?" I told him yes, I'm sure she was.

He said, "It feels so good to help people."

This short, two-minute exchange on a Thursday afternoon had a profound impact on me. One that reminds me that our children are close to the Spirit and that this was a blessing to me to witness my little boy being sensitive, caring and then seeing the rewards of service - no matter how simple. It also put all of the little things I worry about into perspective and I counted my blessings and thanked Heavenly Father for reminding me that there people - big and little - suffering and how important it is to live worthy to receive promptings to help. Even if it's with a simple cupcake with gobs of frosting and a pumpkin on top.

It was time to refresh our water supply so I decided that, since the boys love anything to do with water, hoses, sinks, water in hoses and sinks, etc, I would enlist them in this super fun chore for family night. It worked like a charm. Trey dumped out the old water, CJ refilled with fresh water. Then we went outside and they got to dump out the big 5-gallon containers, Trey laid down in the running water and CJ refilled those with the hose.

CJ declared it was good that we did this with the water because he "doesn't want to drink out of the toilet if there is an emergency."
Then we practiced a fire drill which was very enlightening. The dogs thought we were playing a fun game on their level so they were running around barking, Trey thought it was a good time to go plug my blow dryer in while Chad and I were distracted by crawling around on our hands and knees and CJ kept stopping to tell us what was important to save. His toys and their sippy cups. Oh, and "Mom, don't forget your makeup!"

C o U s I n S

When we visit Utah I don't see very much of CJ. We oblige his every invite for sleepovers and parties because he misses his cousins and, frankly, gets very bored at our house. Last weekend was no different - I love seeing my boys have so much fun with their cousins. It brings back lots of happy memories from when I was little. Yesterday he told me he thinks all our cousins should come to our house. I agree!
Jack and Trey

Chad is the greatest guy in the world. As with every family birthday, it turned into CJ's day to celebrate. At the party store CJ picked out a basketball scoreboard candle and Halloween spider accents for the cake. We made a big Texas sheet cake Sunday morning we decided to stand around with forks and eat it right then and there - straight out of the pan (the best way). The I gave Chad a new wedding band to replace the original that flew off his hand and into the lake on Bill's Island. He also got the new touch iPod and a guided fly fishing trip with his dad.

We love our happy, fun, freeze-tag-playing dad.
He is the most selfless - and I mean SELFLESS - person I know. I love him more than words can say a

This week was just a bad week. One of those that just seems like the same old stuff, different day. After day. After day. It seems like by 10:00 a.m. we (meaning me and the boys) had already decided we were just bugging each other and then it went downhill from there. And it's pretty much all my fault for being so crabby and then feeling sorry for myself that I don't have any family around to help out sometimes. I have a lot of redeeming to do after being such a lame mom this week. Sometimes it's just hard! But then today, when CJ's school headmaster got him out of the car on "Western Day," he turned around and said to me, "See ya later pardner!" And my heart melted.

As I watched him walk in with his cowboy gear (including the chaps he insisted he needed so we hastily cut up a pair of old jeans and 'wrangled' them on with a belt), AND his new sneakers (he still wanted to run fast at recess) - I just sort of choked up and took a moment to capture that sweet little image in my mind. He's getting so big, so fast - but at the same time, moments like this remind me how little he still is. And I need to be way more patient with this oldest little man of mine.

I love my boys more than anything in the world and it's moments like today that I realize it won't be long before they won't want to hold my hand, sit on my lap, snuggle in the big chair and beg me to play with them. So here's to a new week and a better mommy. I am determined to do a better job and avoid damaging their little spirits by not fully investing myself in them.

"Mommy! Come here - I need you! I had a bad accident and I'm serious!" Yelled CJ from the family room.

 CJ helped me can salsa and loved the fake "blood and guts"

I love this time of year. When it finally cools down and isn't so hot. I especially like our family walks every evening.
They kind of mellow us all out. Like last night - after feeding the missionaries all heck broke loose. So after showing his Incredible Hulk costume for our guests, CJ left it on the stairs. It was then that Mac ripped all the stuffing out of the pectoral muscles. DRAMA!
I got Hulk fixed up good as new. Mac got out of time-out and we all headed out for a walk and came home happy and relaxed. Especially CJ - it's wondrous what a field full of trash will do to his mood.

Friends

These two are buddies for sure. It must be because Trey feeds Mac all his meals. And that he lets him in the house (along with all the flies) 50 times a day. But then he tells on Mac when he continually takes Trey's beloved Nerf football out of the toy box, then Mac goes back outside and then it starts all over again five minutes later.

This is a nightly scene: Toad in his jammies, having escaped from family prayer, babbling to Mac in the hallway. I love how he's playing with Mac's paw as he just keeps nonchalantly jabbering.