Aquarium

Janelle and I decided to take the kids to the aquarium the other day. We both wanted to get out of our houses and we knew the munchkins would obviously have fun. Not to mention the fact that I get to see my BFF (that was just for you Janelle) and we can have an adult conversation...or at least try to. It's difficult when the kids are saying mom every two seconds. Jaxson ran around to each exhibit as fast as he could while Gavin and Ella wanted to sit and look at each of them for a minute. Jaxson was a little hesitant when we came to the one that you could put your hand in the water and touch the stingrays, he kept saying that he didn't want them to sting them, so he looked at me and said "Mom, you put your hand in der first and if you don't get stinged, den I will put my hand in der." I put my hand in the water and touched the stingray, then I told Jax it was his turn and he said "Maybe later Mom." Apparently he changed his mind. After we saw all the fish we had lunch and then Jaxson thought we should go back and look at all of the fish again. I told him we would have to come back another day because Ella and Gavin needed naps and it was time to go home. This did not make him happy at all and he threw a bit of a fit that resulted in me dragging him out of the aquarium to the car, luckily the tantrum only lasted about 30 minutes...it was such a pleasant drive home. NOT! However once he calmed down he said he was glad we got to see the fish and that he couldn't wait to go back.

Big girl

First of all let me just say that the ONLY reason this post has a title is because of you, Janelle. I am finding it more and more difficult to think of titles for these...so you better appreciate this one Janelle!

Now that princess is officially 18 months old she has decided she REALLY doesn't need mommy anymore. Sad. She even tries to dress herself lately...let me rephrase that, she tries to UNDRESS herself lately. If she doesn't have shoes on she will try to take her pants off, then she will throw a fit because she can't get them back on. Don't try to help her though, this will only make princess throw a bigger fit! I know her grandparents may find it hard to believe that she would throw a fit, if you don't believe me I will gladly let you take her off my hands for awhile so that you can witness these "princess tantrums."

In addition to trying to dress and undress herself, she has also figured out how to use a fork. If you try to hand her a banana that is not cut up and served to princess on a plate with a fork, she will throw one of her wonderful "princess tantrums" for you. TRUST ME I learned this the hard way. The day before I learned about her fork expertise it was acceptable to hand her the banana whole, in fact princess even preferred it this way. How was I supposed to know that she had changed her mind overnight?

Ella also thinks it's really fun to sit on the potty, she even has her own hand-me-down potty. However, I learned the other day that if she decides she wants to sit on the potty, you will be in the bathroom with her for a minimum of 30 minutes while she sits on the potty, then gets off, grins, pulls her pants up (without her diaper on) then pulls her pants back down, sits down on the potty, grins and repeats this process 200 more times. Then try putting her diaper back on her and telling her she is done with the potty for a little while...just when I think she couldn't possibly have another princess tantrum in her to throw, she surprises me yet again with another one. Then she puckers her lip and looks at me like I'm horrible. Like I have said before, I have no idea where she would get this little attitude of hers from...certainly not me.

Jax goes camping...in his room

Jaxson got a tent for his birthday from my mom, it came with a sleeping bag, water bottle, compass and ID tags. He wanted to set up his tent during his birthday party on Sunday because he was so excited about it, but I told him he needed to wait until the next day to set it up. So as soon as he woke up Monday morning he wanted it set up, and he was very impatient while I was putting it together, which only took a few minutes but to an excited little boy, that is a lifetime. We set it up in his playroom and he put his sleeping bag in it along with a few of his new birthday toys. I put the portable DVD player in there and he ate fruit snacks while he watched a movie. When Ella woke up from her nap she immediately wanted to go in the tent with big brother, Jax thought this was a good idea until she started "bugging" him too bad.
Last night at dinner Jax told Nick and I that he wanted to sleep in his tent, we brought the tent upstairs to his room and put his sleeping bag and pillow in it, and that is where he slept. He had a huge grin on his face when he was getting into the tent, he looked at Nick and I and said "Is this what campers do? Because I want to be just like a camper." I wasn't sure if he would last the whole night in the tent because he was a little afraid that he was going to get scared, but he made it all night and I'm pretty sure that is where he will be sleeping again tonight!

5 years old!!

Last Tuesday was Jaxson's 5th birthday...I know I know, I'm a little behind. Sorry! On the day of his birthday Jax requested orange rolls for breakfast so I made him orange rolls and fruit, daddy was at a meeting that morning so Soma (my mom) came over to have breakfast with the birthday boy. As soon as the orange rolls came out of the oven, Jaxson decided he did not want to eat breakfast, he just wanted to play the Wii. I told him he was not going to play the Wii until he had eaten, this of course resulted in a full blown temper tantrum! I will spare you all of the details of this lovely tantrum however, I will tell you that several people called to wish Jax a happy birthday during this episode and he REFUSED to talk to anyone! After about 30 minutes of this it finally ended, if you ask me it was 29 minutes too long and I had had it by the time he returned to his normal sweet self. Later that day Gabe and our neighbor Sam came over to play with Jaxson, they ran around the house like wild indians and had a blast! Although the house was a disaster when they left, but the birthday boy had fun and that is all that matters. After Gabe and Sam left, Jaxson got to open his presents from mommy and daddy and Ella. He got guitar hero for his wii and a new monster truck game for the wii also. I'm not sure if Nick or Jax was more excited about guitar hero. Later that night we went bowling with Keith, Janelle and Gavin and had pizza. Jax loved bowling and legitimately beat me! Let's just say bowling is not my thing. On Sunday we had a birthday party for Jaxson with the family and of course Keith and Janelle! It was a Transformers party which Jax thought was just about the coolest thing ever. We had pizza and Jax ran around and played with his cousins, then he opened presents and ate cake. Then Jax, Nick, Colby and Sara ended the night with a little guitar hero. I thinks it's pretty safe to say that he had a very good 5th birthday! Happy Birthday Jax! We love you so much, and we are so proud of you!

Dinosaurs!

Last night we got to go to the dinosaur show at the Energy Solutions Arena! I didn't think Jaxson was actually going to make it through the day yesterday because he was so excited! We went to dinner before the show with Colby, Dani, Derek and Gabe. Derek and Dani had decided that they wanted to keep the show a surprise for Gabe and it took everything Jaxson had to not tell Gabe where we were going. He would look at Gabe and say "Gabe, da show we are going to doesn't have dinosaurs in it, and it REALLY doesn't have dragons in it." Luckily Gabe wasn't paying much attention to what Jax was saying, but Jaxson really wanted to tell Gabe!! I was a little worried how Ella would be at the show, but she just sat on my lap the whole time sometimes she would actually watch the show and other times she would sit and eat licorice, which she got all over herself and me. The boys loved the show, their eyes were huge the whole time and they were totally mesmerized by the dinosaurs. At one point the T-Rex roared and Jax jumped and then looked at me and said "Wow, dat sure was one loud roar!" When he woke up this morning he asked me when we would get to go back to the dinosaur show because he loved it so much!

So silly!

The last week or so Ella is really into sitting on the potty, she will walk into the bathroom and point at the toilet until I let her sit on it, I know, I know I shouldn't get my hopes up that she will potty train early. But after the challenges (slight understatement) we went through to get Jaxson potty trained, I just can't help it! A girl can dream, right? The other day Ella was mad that Jax was sitting on the potty and she wasn't, after several failed attempts to pull big brother off the toilet, she finally got her turn on the throne! She sat there for a few minutes and grinned at me and then decided she was done. I got her off and put her diaper back on her and before I could put her clothes back on she took off. She came walking up to me a few seconds later with Jaxson's beanie on her head, holding her coat. So I put her coat on her and she walked around in her diaper, Jaxson's hat, socks and her coat for at least 20 minutes. She knew she was being funny because she would stop and look at us and grin then start laughing at herself. What a little ham!

New Year's Eve

We decided to go up to my dad's cabin for new year's and of course when we told Jax where we were going he couldn't wait. He was so excited to see his Papa Kirk and go snowmobiling. We got up there yesterday evening and relaxed by the fire and had dinner. The kids were having fun playing and running around, I thought that maybe they would wear themselves out and I could put them to bed. This however was not the case, the only ones that were worn out were the adults! We all decided we were too tired to stay up until midnight, so we went to bed at about 11:45. What a bunch of party animals we are! Ella decided she was not going to sleep in the crib so me, Ella and Jax slept in the bed and poor Nicky had to sleep on the couch that was way too short for him. There was no way the 4 of us were going to fit on a double bed. For some strange reason Ella thought that it was play time when we layed down Nick and I were trying to get her to calm down and go to sleep which she was not the least bit interested in doing. Nick looked at the clock and it was 5 minutes after midnight, instead of the normal cheering and everything that most people do, we looked at each other, yawned gave each other a kiss and went back to trying to settle the princess down. My how new years celebration's change when you have kids! This morning we woke up and had some breakfast and then went for a snowmobile ride and Jax loved every minute of it! He wasn't too happy when it was time to come home today but we promised him we would come back to Papa's cabin soon so he could ride the snowmobile some more.