Catching Up! January 2012

Wow, here I am again four months behind on my blog.  Moving into a new house definitely throws one off.

So, here are my best efforts to recount the month of January 2012 through pictures and comments!

Above: January started off messy.  Both of my boys love Cafe Rio/Costa Vida and they enjoy it to the fullest!

Above: Peter decided to get into a whole tub (a large one) of cocoa butter scented vaseline while I was putting Jonathan down for a nap.  He rubbed it into his hair, over his entire body, and all over the fireplace.  Thank goodness he wasn't wearing any clothes and that he didn't get it onto the couch or carpet.  On the plus-side, it did make the room smell heavenly.

Above: Yeah, I can see the humor in it now and it makes for a great story.  But at the time, I was really, really bugged!  Mostly because Peter felt no remorse and my frustration seemed absolutely hilarious to him.  Argh!

Above: This was after he had been washed a few times.  It took days to get the vaseline completely out of his thick hair.  He sported the spiky look for about a week as a result.

Above: Jonathan's main motivation has become the pursuit of food (even though I feed him like a king while he's in his booster seat).  He pushed through some toys that were set up as a blockade and climbed up onto the fireplace all by himself to eat some Pez candy that Peter had put there.

Above: Ta-da!  This picture is deceptive.  Peter looks super cheerful and happy to show off the snowman we built together.  But for some reason, he was super moody while we were playing out in the snow this day.  He tried to knock the head off of the first snowman we built (which is why this snowman was built up on top of these barrels--so Peter couldn't reach them).  When I stopped him, he SCREAMED at me (and this kid can scream, believe me).  My mature response?  He'd been such a cranky-pants for the past hour that I'd finally reached my limit.  In a huff, I kicked down the first snowman that we built.  Hmmmm.  I wonder where he gets it from?  Yeah, it wasn't my proudest moment.  We made up and built this snowman afterwards.

Above: Enjoying some great brother playtime and bonding.

Above: Lots of laughter and smiles.

Above: We celebrated Peter's 3rd birthday in January.  We celebrated with the Mackay side on Sunday, the 15th.  I made Peter a dinosaur cake.

Above: I'm not going to lie, I was pretty proud of this cake.  Especially since it had some flaws which I think I did a good job of covering up with "grass" frosting.  :)  Not to mention the fact that it was super tasty!

Above: Peter loved the cake too.  Here he is sneaking a tiny bit of the raspberry jam lava.

Above: Peter right after he blew out his candles.  He was one happy guy!

Above: And Jonathan is just glad to be alive!  What a wonderful world!

Above: Nammy spoiled Peter with all sorts of cool Star Wars toys.

Above: Life is great!

Above: Join me on the dark side!  Peter enjoying Uncle Clayton's Darth Vader helmet.

Above: The month just wouldn't be complete without breaking out our good old dinosaur Halloween costumes!

Above: These brothers sure do love each other!

Above: Peter loves to set the timer on the camera and rush into the frame to take pictures together.  We should do it more often.  The boys have a blast and it's also the only way I ever get pictures taken of myself these days!

Above: Oh a whim, we decided to go house-hunting earlier than planned...and we ended up finding a house!  Thus began a month of sheer lunacy for everyone involved!  If I had known all of the crazy things that it would have entailed, I would have insisted that we waited to house-hunt until at least after Peter's birthday.  With the packing, paperwork, painting, etc.  It was just plain crazy.

Above: On Thursday, January 19th, we celebrated Peter's birthday (on his actual birthday) with the Washburn side of the family.  I made him a Spiderman cake for that celebration.  I still have a lot to learn about making and decorating with fondant!  But I didn't do too badly for only my second time using fondant.

Above: The Three Washburn Musketeers; Peter, Cameron, and AJ.

Above: If you thought it was hard to keep one boy away from a Spiderman cake, try keeping three boys away!

Above: Peter rough-housing with his best bud, Cameron.

Above: Ahhh. Birthday cheer.  After everyone went home, we all played with some balloons before bedtime.

Above: I know this is corny, but it tickled my funny bone.  I got Jonathan dressed and put his shoes on and when I turned around, he had pulled only one of his shoes off.  "One shoe off and one shoe on. Diddle, diddle dumpling, my son, John!"

Above: Peter strictly adhering to the train conductor uniform code.

Above: My human garbage disposal snuck this apple from Peter when he set it down and claimed it for his own!

Above: Then, of course, I had to get another apple for Peter.  :)

Above: Peter enjoying his birthday present (which arrived late).  A new bicycle!

Above: Good brothers and best buds!

Above: All dressed for work!

Above: Look at those sweet, chubby legs in those knee-highs!

Above: Uncle Clayton introduced Peter to the joys of freezing his toys in water and then chipping and melting them free again.  This became a fad for Peter over the course of the next month.  Now that it's warm outside, I should maybe start this up again and Peter can play with his ice cube toys outside!

Wow.  January was one crazy month.  What with birthdays, house-hunting, house-buying, packing, and just trying to live everyday life on top of it, I'm surprised that I made it through!  Lots of good memories though.  Next up...February!  Stay tuned!

Catching Up! December 2011

Finally, our update for December 2011 is here! It was a busy month, so get ready for a lot of pictures and events!

Above: We kicked off December by getting a van! Jeremiah's car got totaled in September. It was actually a blessing in disguise (scratch that, it was a personal miracle for our family). We were upside down in that car and it had always been a lemon. The insurance estimate came back as the car being worth only $188 less than we owed on it, so we happily paid that $188 and sent the insurance check to Toyota and washed our hands of that blasted car forever! So far, this van has been very good to us (not to mention that this monthly payment is half of what Jeremiah's car's monthly payment had been) and we hope to drive it into the ground (at least until we have teenagers who have to learn to drive...at which point, they might do enough damage that it needs to be replaced!). So, Jeremiah is now driving my little white Toyota Corolla (such a good car! yes you are!) and I'm driving the van. Besides the van having less visibility than my Corolla does, I really like it.

Above: Here are both of my boys having a fun time exploring our new van (while it is in park and the engine is turned off, of course!).

Above: Peter turning the world upside down at Nammy's house. He's got her wrapped around his little finger...and that boy can make a mess faster than anyone I know. That's why all of my pictures have toys strewn all over the place in the background. Believe it or not, I actually pick up after my boys a number of times a day...but you'd never know it from all of the pictures. I can't wait for the day when Peter actually picks up after himself (if that day ever actually comes).

Above: Nope, Jonathan isn't wearing a bib...that's pure slobber from his teething!

Above: Having fun with the cousins at Breakfast with Santa down at Thanksgiving Point. It is so hard to get a picture with all three boys holding still...Cameron is in the middle of coughing and Peter isn't even looking at me, but this is the best picture I got!

Above: The cousins love to pretend shooting, karate-chopping, attacking, and wrestling each other. They have a lot of fun and I just wait for someone to inevitably get hurt! And Peter suddenly outgrew all of his clothes. I swear, it happened overnight. One night he fit into everything and the next day he didn't. So, sorry for the floods and belly shirt, Pete! He got a ton of new clothes for Christmas and his birthday as a result.

Above: Breakfast with Santa cut into Jonathan's nap time, so he simply just went to sleep. What a sweetie.

Above: Mom gives pretty good horsey rides...

Above: But it's harder when both boys want a horsey ride at the same time!

Above: Visiting Temple Square to see the lights.

Above: My Mom came too to help us wrangle Pete.

Above: For how much Peter loves being outside, he wasn't really that into the lights at Temple Square...until it was time to leave, of course. :) Because, sometimes, that's just how Pete operates.

Above: This is Peter's first time watching A Christmas Story (while enjoying a burber and 'ries, of course). Peter was enthralled. This is the part where the kid gets his tongue stuck to the flag pole. I think Peter's face says it all, doesn't it?

Above: Pulling the little boy off of the flag pole...

Above: Free from the flag pole at long last! Ha ha! Oh, and isn't Jeremiah's mustache ridiculous?

Above: Jonathan and I enjoyed A Christmas Story too. :)

Above: My only reason for sharing this picture is that I thought Jonathan's bum looked so cute in those jeans! But it was even cuter in real life...the pictures don't do him justice. :)

Above: Enjoying Zoo Lights at Hogle Zoo. I would have enjoyed it more if it hadn't been so cold! It was freezing! We had planned to go with Nammy, but we were lucky enough to be joined by the Washburn clan as well because unbeknownst to us, they planned a trip for themselves at the very last minute. So, Peter got plenty of time to play with his cousins! And might I say that Jeremiah's coat is just as bright as those lights (if not brighter!).

Above: Nammy and Johnny.

Above: Pete sure loves his cousin Nammer (That would be Cameron to you and me).

Above: Everyone was constantly on the move (to stay warm), so I didn't get any good pictures of the whole family. We didn't stay very long because of the cold (probably only 45 minutes).

Above: Things were much more comfortable once we got into the warm small animal house.

Above: However, the warmth held no comfort for Peter. The rest of the Washburn clan opted not to join us in the small animal house and instead went home. The night without his cousins no longer held any charm for Peter and we quickly departed as well.

Above: How did this Halloween picture get in here? Oh wait, it's not Halloween, it is indeed December. We sure have gotten a lot of use out of these Halloween costumes! Peter wanted to play dinosaurs and he insisted that Jonathan be dressed in his costume as well.

Above: Peter was being a pretty lazy dinosaur that day though.

Above: Practicing using my camera's timer function so that we can actually all be in a picture at the same time. This is tricky though because you have either 10 seconds or 2 minutes. Two minutes is a little too long to ask my boys to wait and 10 seconds is pretty fast. So, most of these pictures turned out blurry because we were all running to get into place in time. But we had a lot of fun. Peter LOVED it.

Above: Celebrating Christmas Eve with the Washburns and placing the characters in the Nativity scene while the Christmas story is being read.

Above: Jonathan and cousin Tyler sharing Papa.

Above: Uncle Jabe reading the Christmas story from Luke while Jonathan and Tyler cuddle their Papa.

Above: Peter opening his Christmas Eve pajamas.

Above: Our Christmas set up. I took our little four foot tree off of the table and put it in our family room for the boys to discover on Christmas Day.

Above: Peter's Power Rangers toys and stocking from Santa are on the left and Jonathan's piano and stocking from Santa or on the right (Jonathan enjoys music a lot more than Peter does). :)

Above: All of the Christmas presents with the lights off. I was going for magical...I think I succeeded. Good job, Santa!

Above: Jonathan on Christmas morning. Bright and cheery as always! Though, he did manage to scratch his cheek during the night--even though we had just cut his nails!

Above: Jonathan doesn't know what to expect in regards to Christmas. He's got a fun day ahead of him!

Above: When I told Peter in his bedroom that Santa had come and that he had brought him his Power Rangers toys that he had asked for, Peter gasped in wonder and said "Santa? Power toys!?" It was a pretty darned good day for Pete!

Above: Jonathan playing his piano from Santa.

Above: Santa greatly enjoyed the gingerbread cookies and eggnog we left. He also left a very nice note for Peter and Jonathan.

Above: Jonathan got starving hungry right in the middle of opening presents, so we had to put him in his booster seat and finish opening his presents while he ate his breakfast (it was a necessity because he was going after everyone's stockings!).

After we opened our presents, we went to church. They held it at 10 a.m. for only an hour and combined all of the wards (in the whole stake, I believe). The boys were pretty good, I thought, considering that there were so many fun toys at home to get back to and play with.

Above: Mimi and Papa gave all of the cousins InnoTabs for Christmas (it's like an iPad for kids). Here, Peter, AJ, and Tyler play with their new Christmas present while Papa looks on.

Above: No more pictures, please. I'm focused on my InnoTab. Meanwhile, Jonathan was taking a short nap after the excitement of the morning.

Above: Jonathan is awake again and cheerful as always and enjoying his brand new present from Mimi and Papa. And what was Mom's best Christmas present? Jonathan was able to get his helmet off for good. His head looks beautiful and he is helmet-free!

Above: Peter LOVES his Batcave from Nammy.

Above: Jonathan "skateboarding" on a board that Daddy got for an X-Box game.

Above: What can I say? These boys just love the stairs. :)

Above: It's been a busy holiday season and we are tuckered out!

Above: Pete is on the move for our New Year's celebrations with the Mackay clan!

Above: Peter is always looking for someone or something to shoot at...and as you can see, Nammy fully encourages him in these endeavors.

Above: Clayton and Kim. Clayton is very adept at finding ways to obscure his face in photographs.

Above: Robin, Spiderman, Sean, and Emily. That Spiderman sure likes to hog the limelight. Sorry, Robin!

Above: After an ambush attack, we have an enemy helicopter down!

Above: Pete sure loves his Aunt Emmy (that's Emily to you and me)!

Above: Jonathan is getting so big!

Above: Being a father is quite a balancing act!

Above: Aunt Emily is good at helping make sure that no one topples over!

And there you have it! We took the boys home at about 8 p.m. and put them to bed and then Jeremiah and I watched a movie...only to have Jonathan wake up at 12:40 a.m. He was so, so sad, so we all went to bed so we could cuddle him back to sleep...only to be woken up by Jonathan at 3:30 a.m. again and then on and off until 7:30 a.m. when it was time to get up for the day. I got two hours of sleep. Thus ended our December 2011 and began our January 2012.

Jeremiah and I were DEAD because of the lack of sleep. The very next evening began Jonathan's sleep training! I had wanted to and tried to do it many times previous to that (I seriously tried to start when he was six months old), but Jonathan kept getting colds...so I couldn't do the cry-it-out method (and I tried other methods with this guy and they did NOT work). So, finally, Jonathan was well enough on New Year's Day for us to begin sleep training in earnest.

And hopefully that leads us into a year with much better sleep than the previous one had!

Stay tuned for January updates!