Just some cute pics!

The football season is basically over now. J.J. and his daddy sure had fun going to the games together.

And it's no wonder! Look at that stash...hot chocolate and hot tamales. Plus, they both got to go with friends.

Is it my turn to go do something fun yet?

Yep, this is Ryan. He's such a goober and we love him for it. Jar and I laughed pretty hard when Ryan said he wanted to be a ninja when we went to Wal-Mart. I grabbed the camera cuz I thought it would be pretty funny to see Ryan (and other people's faces too for that matter) in a big shopping center with a swim diaper over his head. He took it off when we got out of the car to go inside, but he wore it the entire ride over! He's so funny!

I thought I'd catch this moment on film too (or memory card). Chase is beginning to stop taking naps during the day. (Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!) He's taking after J.J. - not even two yet! Sigh. However, if the house is quiet and I put on Baby Einstein, he'll fall asleep with his blankie that Aunt Kristen made (THANK YOU!!!) and one of his bears (either the one pictured from gma and gpa Armstrong or the one that his daddy had when he was little - thanks again!). I could just watch him sleep all day long, he's too cute! But then I remember that this is the only time I have to get things done, so I don't.

Don't you just love these little rugrats?! I sure do! Life is fun with them around.

J.J.'s 6th Birthday

J.J. had a Power Ranger Birthday party and had a really good time with his friends. When the boys first got to our house, we had their own power ranger pizzas for them to decorate. I can't believe how excited some of them were to put on their own toppings! They also chose their power ranger color of drink (just put food coloring of their choice in with their 7-up!). Kids are so easy to please! They had fun with that too.

Here are some of J.J.'s friends from school and his old pal Jonathon. They're sitting on part of the training course to become a real Power Ranger.

More friends from church. This was a fun ramp Jar put together as part of the training course too.

After they did a power stone hunt (easter eggs with candy in them), we had cupcakes. I wasn't up to decorating them, so I bought the frosting from the store that comes with a star tip spray. Didn't work that well, but they tasted good!

I decorated a cake for Sunday's family dinner and party. J.J. only really cared about the Power Ranger's on it, but I like to at least do a little decorating anyway! And Jaren has fun putting them on. :)

We were lucky enough to have lots of family here! We had Jordan and Kelly, Grandpa Clark, and Julie, and Jenny and her kiddos came and gave J.J. his own BIG bucket of licorice. Life doesn't get better than that!

Once again, J.J. got spoiled by his Grandma and Grandpa Ford. :) We've had lots of fun with the magnets, and the boys watched Jimmy Neutron three days in a row.

Can someone please tell me how to get your child to smile when he's the center of attention?

We had so much fun with J.J. He really is a sweetheart. He makes me so happy. I'm proud of the little guy he's becoming...kind and thoughtful. He really looks out for the people he loves.

P.S. Julie babysat for us last Saturday night so we could go Christmas shopping. When we told J.J. we were going to go get toys for him for Christmas, he told us that we shouldn't get him anything cuz he didn't want us to spend too much money on him. Besides, Santa would get him LOTS of presents! :) Just another way he shows his sweetness to us!

Two Weeks Later...

Happy Halloween! So, yes, it takes me a while to get to things done these days. But the wait is over! I know you've all been dying to see how we dressed up, but I'm sure (somehow) you made it through these last two weeks. :) We kept trying to get get J.J. to dress up as Dracula cuz you know he's got that great dark widows peak. Eventually he said he wanted to be him, so we shouted for joy and got some face paint.

Ryan has said for weeks that he wanted to be a tarantula, no a spitting spider, no a tarantula, spitting spider, etc........and on and on. We went with tarantula b/c who wants to figure out yellow spots?

Chase didn't have a choice in the matter. Although I think it's a bit obvious that he had some say in how much face paint we put on him. He got really good at wiping it the second I tried to put some on. He's such a cute little guy! He really got into it this year. At first he ran down the sidewalk in the other direction. Then he realized that he got candy at the houses and came faithfully. He even started saying tikoteet (trick or treat for those not affluent in toddler talk) and tantu (thank you).

This is J.J. in all his glory. He really started getting into the act!

Can anyone tell what I dressed up as? I'll give you a hint: that's a patch on my head. Pumpkin + patch = ? Not that I really expect anyone to get it. Jaren came up with it and I loved it. Nobody else seemed to get it. So, I'll tell you. A pumpkin patch! And believe me, I feel like one. It seems like it's one pumpkin after another these days.

Running Blacked Eyed Pumpkins

I'm smushing together three different posts. The first is of J.J.'s fun run at his school. They had a 5k as a fundraiser. He was so excited! For the last three years, Jar and I have run a 10k on the 4th of July and this last year he really wanted to run the mile race. We told him that he might be able to do it next year and that we'd have to see if he could really run that far. This was his chance to prove himself!

He didn't want to smile for this picture, but he did...probably because he was so excited!

When J.J. saw me, he started to run faster. I was able to snap a pic before he took off out of sight!

Here he is finishing up with Dad. I was so proud of him!!! Most kindergartners stopped running the race after the first lap and got their ice cream. Not J.J.!! He wanted to do the whole thing...and he did! He ran almost three miles! Jar said he walked some of the way too, but WOW, I was so impressed! He's got a real competitive side to him and didn't want his Dad to beat him. I think he won! He didn't even want to stop to get water at the tables...he had to keep going.

J.J. having his well deserved treat at the end.

Well, I don't know if you can see it very well, but this is the second post. Look at Chase's left eye. How many colors can you see? The other day I was doing dishes (yes, it's a miracle), and Chase was in the front room with J.J. I heard a thunk and then crying. When I got in there, I could see some color and swelling already starting to form by his eye. He was not a happy camper. Chase wouldn't let me put ice on it, so I just held him for a while. It was so sad...but at least he still has his eye! I was a little worried when I saw how close it came. Apparently, he got onto the couch and fell off right onto the coffee table. OUCH! Sorry, buddy. That'll teach me to clean house!

Post #3. Carving pumpkins for FHE was a lot of fun. J.J. couldn't wait to actually do some of the cutting. Ryan just wanted to eat the Sweettarts he had picked out at the store for the treat (well actually, he opened it at the store; therefore I HAD to buy it for our treat). J.J. pretty much designed the smaller pumpkin. Ryan was supposed to help daddy with the big one, and I think he did get out some of the "guts".

As always, Chase had to be right in the middle of things. I gave him one of the Sweettarts, thinking he'd chew it up, but he swallowed it instead. He had a hard time breathing for a while, but eventually he puked it up. Poor, poor Chase. What's it gonna take for Mommy to learn her lessons? Maybe some carpet cleaning (yes, that was my job for FHE).

What a cute bunch of guys! As you can tell, this is Chase's first experience with pumpkins and he was totally enthralled with the candle inside. We had a lot of fun!!!

Does the Tooth Fairy have wings? and The Tooth Fairy's rich!

Those are just some of the things J.J. had to say about the tooth fairy. He had many other questions too, but I can't remember them all. Seems like we talked for ages about her ever since his tooth first started getting loose. He was so excited when he pulled, yes PULLED, his tooth out at the suggestion of our home teacher. His other bottom tooth is loose as well, but not as much, and he tried to pull that out too! But it just wouldn't come. I told him to give it a few days!

J.J. very carefully put his first tooth in a baggie and put it under his pillow. He woke up at about midnight, got his money, and went to the family room and turned on the tv! Jaren went out and told him to go back to bed. But he made sure in the morning to show us his money bag and begged to go to the dollar store today. We did...after he cleaned his room. He got another big spider, kind of like the one Grandma Ford gave him, but it's hairy with wiggly legs and is attached to a pump that makes the spider jump. He LOVES it! Thanks Tooth Fairy!

For the other exciting news in our lives...

Jaren is ecstatic about football season coming. He went to the BYU bookstore today and got ANOTHER flag to display proudly on his truck. He gets a big grin whenever he mentions how soon the football game is. He's going to a friend's house in the ward to watch the game. But about 4 hours before the game, he's having a bbq with them and watching other games going on at the same time. And then after, there's another game! Looks like I'll be doing homework that night!...all night!

It's a....

Drumroll please....

BOY!!!

J.J.'s ecstatic; Ryan's in denial; and Chase is oblivious.

Mommy and Daddy are very, VERY happy!

Here's to sports, dirtiness, and wrestling! Cheers.

Nacho Libre meets the Three Amigos

Around bedtime, Ryan came out of his bedroom with a swim diaper on his head, on each of his hands, and on each of his feet. He was acting crazy! Then J.J. came out of the bathroom and saw what Ryan was doing and laughed his head off, then proceeded to pull out another five swim diapers and came out dancing. They were hysterical. This is the epitome of our household fun with the little guys.
Chase mostly just wanted to watch and be in the middle of the craziness, but towards the end, he got brave and asked Jaren to put one on his head in his own way. I almost didn't get a pic b/c he took it off so fast. Towards the end, J.J. and Ryan both had the "masks" completely covering their faces and started acting like blind ninjas or wrestlers. Oh, the fun we have!!

Catching Mice

Eww. This blog post is not for the faint-hearted. Nor is it filled with happy pictures to make you feel good inside. This is a true, and very ugly story.

We have had a guest living in our house without permission for at least 8 months now. We have tried at least two different traps, poison, and cornering it. Yup, that's right. Cornering it. Yuck. The first time was about three months ago (maybe four). Jaren saw it one night go right into our stove. He was determined to get it. So we both started getting ready for it. We taped three garbage bags together and attached it to the stove with tape. When we finally opened the stove (like 45 minutes later) the mouse was not inside due to a large hole in the back that he would easily have fit through. Yes, exasperating.

Lately, we'd been seeing the mouse a LOT more. It's like he was finally getting really comfortable here. I actually saw him stop a few times in the middle of the room before dashing back behind the entertainment center. (I thought he was cute!!!) But, regardless of his good looks, he's scared the heebie jeebies out of me too many times. I really wanted him gone, and Jaren even more so.

Not last night, but the night before, 24 robbers came knocking at my door. OK, no. And it was actually in the afternoon. I opened the pantry doors to get ready for dinner and the mouse was RIGHT THERE! Yes, probably at chest level, right in front of me! I screamed, the mouse jumped super high, and then dashed to the back of the pantry. I stood for a second, completely mortified. Then I got my head back, closed the pantry, and told my sob story to J.J., who immediately put his sandals on and went to tell Dad. That's how he fixes things you know!

So, Jaren came in and decided that what we needed to do was take out all of the food in the pantry and have the trash can and some cardboard blocking/waiting to catch him. Again, I was mortified. I was sure that the mouse was long gone and that this was a waste of effort while at the same time worrying my head off that he would pop out and scare the living daylights out of me again. Grudgingly, I agreed to help my dh. So, guess who held the trash can and cardboard and who had to reach in and grab the food items one by one with her bare hands? I know, I must be totally insane to let him talk me into doing that.

So we went shelf by shelf until we got to the bottom one. Then, when we (I) was halfway through getting out the food from that shelf, I reached in to grab the vanilla and the mouse jumped up again right by my hand!!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!! And shiver too. Then the mouse ran into some bottles, so we knew where it was and I quickly put my hand back in the lion's den to get rid of the rest of the food. When we got to the bottles, I grabbed the broom and with the stick part started poking around in there. It got scared and ran around until it ended up in the trash can. Jaren quickly covered it with the cardboard and then opened it to look and make sure that it was in there. It tried to scramble up the side, startling both of us, and he slammed the cardboard back down and ran outside with it (after having to dodge three excited little boys who wanted to be right in the middle of this adventure).

We all went out for a second when Jar started to smash the trash can on the side of the steps. I didn't realize he meant to kill it...what an idiot I am. I was concerned that he let it go far enough away from our house! Silly Melinda. I was kind of grossed out and ushered the kids back inside who definitely didn't need to see that (and neither, of course, did I). He came back in after a minute and told me that after he slammed it a few times, the trash can broke, and the mouse got out and started slowly walking in a dazed manner. Then Jaren slammed the trash can on top of it and killed it. Ewww. He showed me. Double ewww. Then he put it in a bag and stuck it in our outside garbage.

So, there it is. The adventure that made me scream in horror. Hope you enjoyed it as little as I did.

Ryan's 3rd Birthday

We celebrated Ryan's birthday at his Grandma and Grandpa Armstrong's this year since we were already there for his birthday.  After much discussion and deliberation, Ryan decided he wanted a Lightening McQueen birthday party.  (This changed from day to day and varied in themes from ocean to princess - that's my boy!!)
He got this cute tool box from Grandma and Grandpa Ford.
He made the funniest faces while opening his presents.  Ryan was SO excited for this little flashlight that my Grandma Butler gave him. 
He got the same face when he opened up his bike (I think he made this face before he even knew what it was!!!  So funny!)

And he made the face again when he saw the card Grandma Sperry sent him.  He loved it and really had fun picking off all the cute stickers of Lightening McQueen and friends.

I put this picture on because I thought Chase looked cute in it.

Need responses!!!

Please leave a comment with your interpretation of this photo...

We're going to Kentucky, we're going to the fair...

So I know this title has nothing to do with this post...but J.J. got a cd of songs from his Grandma and Grandpa Ford and this song is on it and it's stuck in my head!!  

It's finally park weather here again, and the kids were beggin me to take em.  So, after much ado about finishing their lunch, we went.  Ryan's favorite thing to do is slide, and J.J. is obsessed with the "monkey bars". (Yeah, I know they're rings.)
The most fun thing about the park though was that the sprinklers came on while we were there.  J.J. got a huge grin, so I asked him if he wanted to run around in them.  He was thrilled that I suggested it!!  I'm sure he was expecting me to say no because he was saying thanks a million times over!  So here he is, running around in them.  I was lucky he actually stopped for one pic instead of having his back to me, going crazy in the rainstorm.  I laughed my head off at him, he was too funny!

J.J. and Ryan Are Fighting - AGAIN!!!

I know that sounds bad, but it’snot what you think.  J.J. and Ryan have started playing really well together actually.  But they make ENORMOUS messes.  I wanted to show you one!

They have fights with tons of their “guys”.  They line them all up and have them face each other.  They can play for hours like this.  They have only one problem: Chase!  He’s into everything, which means he is all over their stuff.  If they’re in a separate room from me, I usually hear just after a couple minutes, “MOM!!!  Chase is grabbing my stuff!  MOOOOMMMMM!!”  Then I have to rush in there and grab Chase before he ruins their fight.  

I can’t wait for the day when he can actually play with them.  But for now, I still think it is pretty cute that he wants to be in there with his older brothers…even if the older brothers don’t think it’s so cute!