Rice Krispie Wreaths

There was probably an easier way to make these (buying the red and green rice krispies for starters) but nevertheless, I made these and am pretty darn proud of them! Please keep in mind that I am a new cooker/baker, so I'm still taking baby steps, but I'm having a lot of fun doing it!! I hope my Laurels enjoy these!

Happy Birthday Jacey

Jacey turned two today!! (Yet we still let him have his "bubba"). I can't believe how fast the time has gone. I know everybody says that, but it's so true! We had a pretty fun day today! We started off by having a waffle/bacon breakfast which we invited Michael, Melinda and Claire to share with us! Jacey loves waffles and bacon! So he was pretty happy! We gave Jacey his present in the morning so he could enjoy it all day! It was a little people train thingy. Toy/something to ride on. He loves trains so we thought he would enjoy that! My parents came over later on in the afternoon and gave him some clothes and some really cool blocks which he LOVED. They have the alphabet and numbers and shapes on all four sides so he's pretty much in heaven building towers and using his brains all at the same time! :) After dinner, I made my very first cake ever! I know, I'm 26 years old and today was the first time I have ever baked a cake. From scratch. By myself. :) I'm almost embarrassed to post a picture of it because it's NOTHING close to the cakes most of you supermoms create for your kids! But I'm proud of it nonetheless. I decorated it with my ghetto homemade ziploc bag icing tool. I didn't want invest in the real icing equipment until I thought I would actually use it! Jacey loved it and it tasted really good, so I was happy! :) I hope to make many more cakes and improve with each one, cause it was actually pretty fun!! Jacey must have been paying attention to past birthdays of cousins, because he knew what to do with the cake! As soon as we sang Happy Birthday he blew out the candles! No prompting needed! He had so much fun that he had to do it three times! :) We love Jacey so much and are soooo grateful to Heavenly Father for sending him to our family!!! We can't imagine life without him!!

Our Little Doll Face!

I just had to add these two pictures of Jaclyn! She has had this new smile the past couple of days! She is so toothy and sometimes her nose squishes up and her eyes get all squinty!! And it melts my heart! These pictures don't do it justice, but they're pretty darn cute so I wanted to share!

'Tis The Season

This month is just zipping by! We finally got out today and did some Christmas shopping! It wasn't too busy and our kids were well behaved, so we were pretty lucky! I'm so excited about what we got!! Giving gifts is seriously one of my favorite things about Christmas! I love wrapping them and I love seeing the reactions when they're opened!!!! I have no clue what I'm getting Jeffrey..I never do...but I think that I have almost everything else I need for all my other gifts! I wish I could be like my sister, Becky and be done before Christmas even comes, but I'm not that organized. One year maybe. :) Hopefully. Well, I forced some pictures on my kids today and we didn't get even one shot the way I hoped we would. I wanted a nice, smiley, straight on picture of my kids with their santa hats on. Jacey of course with the "naughty" one, and Jaclyn with the "nice" one. They turned out cute enough I guess. Maybe I'll try again another day! The pictures with the Jacey and the Christmas tree were taken very early one morning when Jacey refused to sleep any longer. I made Jeffrey get up with him and I'm glad I did, cause he got such cute pictures of him admiring the tree!! I wish I was a kid again and everything could seem so magical! My sister Lizzie and I used to turn all the lights off except for the Christmas tree and then just spin around the room. For hours! We loved the atmosphere and the magical feeling of Christmas!! I'm so excited for my kids to experience that!!! Jacey's getting there, but he still doesn't really know what's going on! Anyway, tomorrow night is the first Christmas party of the season and I'm sooo excited for it!! I love the weeks before Christmas more than I love Christmas Day! The anticipation of it all is my favorite part!! I hope you're all enjoying it too!

Veggies

These are a bit old, but I still wanted to post them. Some of you may remember Jacey's first experience with eating vegetables. If you never saw those pictures, you can see them here. There are a few similarities as well as differences. I wanted to make sure I documented Jaclyn's first time too, because Jacey's ended up being so entertaining. We gave her butternut squash and she did NOT like it! She still actually doesn't like vegetables, we struggle with getting them down. Jacey ended up getting over it quickly and ate tons. Every child's different I guess. Well, enjoy watching us torture our daughter!!! :D

Look at how trusting she is!

The terror!!

On The Go...

First things first, Jacey did NOT make it to the top ten for the Vibe's Cutest Kid Contest! It was a sad few minutes after we realized that we would not win all those wonderful prizes...but we were soon over it because chances of winning were so slim and I, personally, have never won anything in my life, so why would that change now!! We are now voting for #89, the cute little curly blonde haired little girl, she is adorable. I don't know her, but she's cute so she I think she should win!
Jaclyn has learned to crawl!! She gets everywhere!! Slowly but surely! It's so much fun to watch. Picture an inchworm, and that's how she moves. She's getting more steady on her knees and will soon lose the inchworm effect, but it's so cute for now! Jacey never crawled on his knees, he went from army crawling to walking, so it's extra fun to have a real crawler!
Jacey learned a new trick a couple of days ago too! He can officially get out of his crib. He figured it out a while ago, but fell and hurt himself, so he stopped trying. But now he's in and out, easy as can be! It makes bedtime a longer process than normal. And what's worse, is that when he wakes up in the morning, he can just get out and come wake us up. Usually I hear him talking or playing, but I leave him in his crib until 8am. Now it doesn't matter what time it is, if he's awake, he's up! It's kind of sad. Actually really sad! Because he's often awake by 7 or 7:30, but that didn't matter before, because he was fine in his crib. Now I have to get up then too! :( We actually bought him a bed awhile ago, but he doesn't sleep in it yet. Cause he won't stay in it. But now that he's mastered the crib, we'll have to move him over and get Jaclyn in the crib. Hey, here's a question...how do you get two kids to sleep in the same room? I'm so worried that they'll wake each other up. Actually, I know they will. So what do I do? Cause I'm tired of Jaclyn sleeping in my room in the playpen. It's too squishy!

I'm not sure who got ahold of the green pen first, but as you can see they both ended up with ink all over themselves and the carpet and surrounding toys. Thankfully it all came out!
Jacey has also developed an allergy or something. He's got this rash/hives all over his body. They come and go all day. And they're super itchy! We took him to the doctor and all he said is that it was an irritation to a change in detergent or a new food or something. But I haven't changed detergents or introduced new food to him, so I have no clue where it's coming from. Actually, it might be from dust. Our doctor said a while ago that he might have a mild allergy to it, and I did find him in the dust pan and brush the other morning. But since then, he's bathed and I washed his bedding...so I can't figure out what it is!! I just feel bad for him because he's so itchy! We have some cream for it and if it gets really bad I can give him Benadryl, but that's about all I can do. Poor guy. At least it's not affecting his breathing or anything. I just wish I knew what I could do to prevent him from getting it!

Okay, from the time I started writing this post and the actual posting time, I videoed Jaclyn crawling, so you can see the inchworm thing for yourself! It's not a very exciting video, but I figured some of you might appreciate seeing this little milestone! Since you're not here to see it in person! Oh and Jeffrey just got home and so we decided to add a few more things to the video. We went to the zoo this week, even though it was below zero, and we had a great time!! Enjoy the clips and sorry for the extra footage of the tiger!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Vote for Jacey in Cutest Kid Contest

I know that everybody thinks their own kids are the cutest, and that is the truth, everyone's kids are the cutest!! So that is why we entered Jacey in the VIBE985 Cutest Kid Contest....because as his parents, we think he is the cutest! :) If you don't have a child of your own in the contest and you would like to give us your support, PLEASE go to http://vibemorningshow.com/gallery.html?page=35 and vote for Jacey to win! He's #1765. The voting begins Nov 11th at 6am and goes to Nov 20 at 11:59pm. If Jacey then makes the top 10, there will be voting until Nov 27th when the winner will be announced! There is one vote per day per IP address, so if you can remember, vote everyday!! :) Please pass our plea for votes on to your family and friends!! Your help, time and support will be greatly appreciated!! Thanks everyone!! And may the cutest kid win! :)

PS. The prizes consist of a 3 yr lease on a 2008 Honda Odyssey, a year supply of groceries from Sobeys, a year supply of clothes from Kiddos and Co., monthly spa packages for mom and dad for a year, studio pictures from a studio that I'm currently forgetting, and a playhouse for the kids. I know...AMAZING!!!! :)