THE HILL

Incredible picture that Aaron's cousin, Ben, took using a "tricopter" of the Betteridge Bluff. It's always so hard to explain what our living situation is like up here- but this explains it quite well!

The yellow house in the middle is an aunt/uncle's and Grandma. The house right of the yellow house  is the one we live in, under another aunt/uncle. The house on the left of the yellow house is another aunt/uncle where my sister and her husband also live in the basement apartment while they plan to build their home. House with a flat roof below ours belongs to aunt/uncle from yellow house and is rented to the missionaries.

Beautiful homes with even more beautiful people in them! :)

Like father, like son

Oh Jaylen cracks us up. He was having way too much fun jumping around with his underwear on his head.

So, today at the Y Santa was there and when we passed by I asked Jaylen what he thought about it. He said, "Mom, I don't believe anything that happens at the YMCA." It really made me laugh! I asked him more and he said, "I just get a little creepy." So, no idea what's going on in his head, hopefully he hasn't heard me say that Santa gives me the creeps to anyone, but the child care staff sure got a kick with Jaylen's skepticism with the Y and Santa.

Also, I talked to Jaylen's teacher this morning. She said Jaylen does awesome in the class and hasn't had any problems. She said he talks about me a lot and tells her he misses me and tells her all about the fun we have. It made me smile- Jaylen is so good for my heart. He's such a momma's boy. He came home with a cute ornament wrapped for Aaron and I, and a Christmas tree that said, "I love you, Mom" on it. 

On the way to the Y a couple days ago, Jaylen was making Gavin laugh in his car seat and he stopped giggling, sighed and said, "Mom, Gavin's going to be my best friend forever!" It was so sweet and brought a tear to my eye. They are so cute together!

12 hour treadmill run

Nastasha ran for 12 HOURS ON A TREADMILL for the Forgotten Children's Fund. She was amazing- raised over $1800 for the charity along with many gifts dropped off for kids who wouldn't get presents otherwise. We stopped by to see her after coming back from the Santa train- and she was still smiling and going strong 10 hours in. She completed 45 miles and was painful to watch her limping in our house for dinner later that night. Crazy, crazy woman.

Way to go!

Santa Train

We grabbed tickets months ago to go on the Santa train in North Bend, WA. Jaylen has a DVD all about trains and it had a santa train on it, so Jaylen was WAY excited about it. He was adorable.  

It was a 20 minute ride on the train to the Snoqualmie station where they had a hot chocolate/cookie train and Santa in the depot. 

Does anyone else feel weird about Santa? Call me wacky, but the whole sitting on Santa's lap creeps me out. I know he's fake, he knows he's fake, yet I'm encouraging my child to go sit on this old guys lap. It's not even a pedifile concern, I'm sure Santa is a nice guy, it's just awkward to me.

Anyways, Jaylen wasn't wanting to go anywhere near him, so Aaron went and stood with him and "Santa" started asking him about his drawing and Jaylen finally warmed up to him. (More on Jaylen's thoughts on Santa later)

Waiting for the train

Here we go!

Walking off the train to the depot

Getting our hot chocolate and homemade cookies on the Santa train

This train was decorated in ALL train ornaments. Jaylen loved it!

Jaylen was exhausted on our way home. We laughed after finding him dead out while reading his train magazine. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gingerbread train

Nastasha is so cute to my kids. I love how much she goes out of her way to love on, hold, and play with my kids. It really means a lot to have her love and want to be around my sweet boys. She is such a fun auntie for them! 

How she got this gingerbread train was pretty funny to me- we were on our 13 mile run before Thanksgiving and ran into Walgreens to see if they carried salads, since Nastasha forgot to grab one. She saw this and begged me, "Can I pllleassee get this for Jaylen?!" So we ran home, one of us with a bunch of stuff for salad and the other one running carefully with a gingerbread train kit. Not a typical purchase while out running, but we sure laughed at each other running home. 

Auntie Nastasha and Jaylen with the finished train

Starting the kit!

We all had so much fun doing it! I really appreciate Nastasha thinking about Jaylen and doing this with us!

Jaylen randoms

I love the random things that Jaylen says. Here's some from lately.

Jaylen in the car: "Mom, I've got such a good idea! Let's do a fun run today!"

We did a "fun run" for our ward a few Saturdays ago, and Jaylen loved running along too. So he's into running lately, which I love. It's so cute to watch him go!

"Mom, listen to my heart," as he puts his belly button up to my ear. "Do you hear it? My heart is so sad and sick. It needs to do a fun run to make it healthy and happy."

Me: "Jaylen, can you please go pick up your room?"
Jaylen: "No mom, I'm too busy and I have priorities."

(Later he told me that he got "priorities" from Curious George 2. Super cute, since the movie is about George and a run away elephant helping the man in the yellow hat realize that his priorities should be more about his family and friends. Love where he picks up random things like that!)

Randomly on our way home from the grocery store: "Mom, do you remember when I missed you way too much in New Mexico? I just really did."

Jaylen has been saying really cute things lately like, "Mom, you're my favorite sweetie." or "You're my favorite friend, Mom." or "You're my best friend, Mom." Really melts my heart. It's just so darn cute!

Jaylen's responses really make me laugh when we give him compliments.
Us: "Jaylen, you look soooo handsome!"
Jaylen: "I know."

Us: "Jaylen, you're the best little boy ever."
Jaylen: "Yep! I am!"

Us: "Jaylen, you're so awesome."
Jaylen: "Mmm-hmmm"

It's just one of those little things about small children that I love.

Cute, cute, cute Gavin

Gavin was taking a bath today and being so cute and full of smiles. Such a kissable little (almost 9 month old) boy!

Our teething little boy!

He LOVES kicking around in the water in the tub. Looks like we've got 2 water loving boys!

This video is from last month. Aaron was cracking him up a ton. By the time I started recording he wasn't quite sure if he still wanted to laugh or cry. Such a cute lil guy!

Christmas tree and visit from Mr. Candy cane man

For FHE, Jaylen wanted to make a fort. So, Aaron got to his creative business of coming up with "the best fort EVER." After they finished building the awesome fort that our whole family could fit in, we told Jaylen the story of Mr. Candy cane man, and we called for him, sang him a song, and finally we heard a knock, and Jaylen went to open the door of our fort and there were 3 candy canes outside from Mr. Candy cane man. Jaylen was SO excited- it was adorable. I love how gullible kids are. In Jaylen's bed time prayer he thanked Heavenly Father for Mr. Candy cane man coming. So cute..

Almost done!

Decorating our tree

We finally got a tree up and ready for some Christmas celebration with family soon!!!! YAY!

On the bus!

Jaylen started riding the bus half way through last week. He LOVES the bus. One of his buddies in his class, Tommy, rides it with him and they are always giggling in one of the seats whenever I pick him up from getting off the bus. So adorable.

School has been going well. It's amazing to have a taste of how things will be when he's full time in school- it's crazy how much more scheduled I feel- not being able to just go with the flow during the day, but be ruled by when the bus is coming, etc. I will definitely cherish the time I have with my young ones before they are into the full swing of school while I can, now! I love that Jaylen is learning and growing so much though!

Before you speak: Think!

Love this! 

Kido update

My sweet, crazy little boys. Here's some latest happenings:

Gavin is getting much more curious. He still isn't crawling and hates being on his tummy, but he's excellent at doing a 360 while he's sitting. He's beginning to really reach for things, and wants to be standing as much as possible. He loves tearing up newspapers and anything paper. He has 2 bottom teeth, and has 2 tops teeth, as well as 2 side teeth coming in. OUCH! This has him being fussy, fussy lately!  Really random, but everyone who holds or plays with him for the first time mentions how strong his grasp is. My hair suffers because of this desire of his to hold and pull. He's the easiest little thing to put to bed as long as he's put in his crib with a blanket. The minute he gets that blanket and thumb in his mouth he is out. (Really, really cute!) He loves to make screeching noises in the car when Jaylen tries to talk. Jaylen gets really upset about it, and it makes us laugh because Jaylen does the same thing to us ALL the time whenever we try to talk.

Jaylen is SO silly and drives me crazy 75% of the time (Can you tell we had a rough morning?). He is go, go, go, GO all the time. He is really enjoying preschool and riding the bus to school now days. He had a blast setting up our Christmas tree this weekend and is constantly trying to sneak the candy canes off the tree, play around the tree, and sing his own version of Christmas songs around the house.

This morning he said he dreamed about "Lyndon flying in his plane to my house to see me for Christmas." He's pretty excited.

He was lacking a couple shots so I took him to the doctor to get them. He was so angry afterwards- "Mom, I told you I didn't want to get any shots!! I'm just not a brave boy for those!! I just told you to tell them NO shots, Mom. They just don't understand! Only you, Daddy and Gavin can get shots- NOT ME!"  Poor kid- I told him we all get shots to be healthy and keep each other healthy. He could care less! I got some blood drawn the next day and in the car he asked, "So you're getting a shot? Is Gavin getting a shot? Am I getting a shot?" I told him no, and his face lit up so bright and he said so sweet, "OH, thank you Mom, THANK YOU!"

As we were leaving the YMCA today, I told Jaylen we had to hurry and run home to catch his bus. He looked at me all worried and said, "But mom, I really don't know if I can run all the way home! I think we need to drive." It made me laugh that my 3 year old knows me well enough to worry that when I say let's "run home" that I might truly mean it.

His teacher asked me if he says "Watch this" all the time. (Remember the constant go, go, go I mentioned?) She said he is the most talkative little kid she's seen. Made me laugh. He is always talking, singing or wanting me "to watch" something he's doing.

Jaylen was doing the potty dance the other day and I told him to go potty. He danced around all funny and said, "No mom, I just love to dance, and to SING!" It was sooo outrageously silly. I couldn't help but crack up.

I went to take the trash down to the street, when I came back Jaylen had moved Gavin to sit in the middle of his toys and things in the family room that I told him to put in his room. When he saw me he said, "Mom, I told Gavin to put my things away because I'm in charge and he needs to do what I ask him to, okay?!"  Oh, boy. Poor lil Gavin.

Merry Christmas!

 Our family was part of the live nativity they do at the Festival of Nativities at the stake center this weekend. We got to do it today, right before Rachel and Ben's family. It was a beautiful event. They had TONS of nativities all setup around the building and we were on the stage for an hour as the "live" nativity. Such a fun idea! We had Gavin sitting in the manger as Jesus and he was adorable chewing on the straw and flirting with those walking by. Jaylen loved being a sheep. Aaron was hilarious looking, wearing his hat and all. It was a great way to remember the Savior's birth!