Christmas with the babies

Christmas Morning


Reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas"

Putting out food for the reindeer


Making cookies for Santa

This year Christmas for us was a little bit different. Tate and Bradan were going to be in Kentucky and Jon had to work, so Nathan was going to stay at his mom's. So we had Christmas Eve on Dec. 23rd with the babies and Christmas on the 24th. Addison and Jace were SO excited for Christmas this year and were into everything. They loved visiting Santa, seeing the Christmas lights at the temple, talking about baby Jesus, singing carols-they know all the words to several. On our Christmas Eve they couldn't wait to put cookies out for Santa and food for the reindeer. It was so fun to watch how excited they were. They are getting so big!

1st Christmas Party

As usual, something is wrong with my computer or blogger or something and I can't journal in-between pictures. I am beginning to think maybe it is me. This was our Christmas party that we had to celebrate a little before the big boys headed off to their other parent's for Christmas. We had FUN, FUN, FUN! We all got new jammies, put those on, opened a few presents, had a big Christmas breakfast-which I got no pictures of, and then later Grandma, Uncle Gary, Aunt Lori, and Katie came over and we decorated some delicious sugar cookies that grandma made. I think this was my favorite part, I ate at least 5 that night and may or may not have eaten several the next day. YUMMY! We had pizza and wings and watched a little of Nathan's new Brian Regan DVD. I finished off the night by taking Jace to urgent care for an upper respitory infection, but all in all it was a great night. It was awesome to get to hang out as a family and make some memories.

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Merry Christmas

Catching Up

It seems like I am always playing catch up in every area of my life. So then I stop and wonder, if I am never caught up with anything what do I spend all my time doing? I am still trying to figure that out. Time continues to fly by whether I am ready or not. It is hard to believe we are coming to the close of another year. These are a few of the major events from the last few months-(in no particular order, because my computer won't let me move the pictures around..grrr).


Nathan got this nasty thing removed from his lip. We were all glad to see it go!
Trunk-0r -Treat, the rest of us were dressed up, but I have been a complete slacker at taking pictures lately-maybe on Halloween. Aren't they so cute?

Nathan has been playing baseball on his school's team and they won the championship! Go Dust Devils! We are really proud of Nathan for trying out and sticking with it.

Happy 12th Birthday, Tate! I didn't get any pictures of the actual day, these are from when he got ordained. Aunt Jenifer came down for the weekend, we always love it when she is in town.

Tate's ordination minus Nathan

Happy 12th birthday, Nathan! Nathan's ordination-I was so proud to see these boys pass the sacrament. They go to mutual on Wed. nights with me, weird. Pretty soon they are going to have deep voices and arm pit hair. I am officially freaking out!

The gang at Nathan's ordination

Happy Birthday to my Bubba! My baby is 2! Hallelujah! No more bottles, binks, and only 1 kid in diapers. Yes you heard me right Addison finally potty trained. I can't even believe it! It was on the night of the General Priesthood. Jon was gone to that and the babies and I were hanging out and out of the blue Addison says "I want to go to the potty." And then she actually did it! Then she says "I want panties on", like it was a totally normal thing. And she has been using the potty ever since! I believe in miracles! So because she FINALLY started going potty she got to start preschool this week. I will post more about that later.

Scout Stuff

Tate and Nathan are going to be 12 in a couple of weeks! I can't believe it! Where did time go and how is it possible that my kids can be just a few years younger than me? All year they have been earning their Tenderfoot and now 1st and 2nd class ranks. We are excited for them to receive the Priesthood and hopefully their youth leaders can penetrate their hard heads and whip them into shape. These are pictures of some of the fun stuff they have been doing in scouts all year.

Elton Jace

When Jace puts on these glasses, Jon always calls him Elton Jace. I am sure he will love these pictures when he is older. HaHaHa.....

I have an announcement to make...

WE ARE...

...drum roll please...

Done with binkies in our house!!! That is right, we FINALLY did it. We took all the binkies put them in a bag and left them for the binky fairy.

And she brought us this. A Belle Barbie for Addison and a LittlePeople Airplane for Jace. I can say I am over-joyed to be done FOREVER with the whole binky thing. It was getting ridiculous the constant searching and searching the house 20 times a day. The desperation to find a binky or pay dearly. Addison has had a hard time adjusting. She doesn't ask for her binky, because she knows the fairy has it. She just throws ridiculous fits and the worst is at nap time and bedtime. She can't figure out how to go to sleep without it. The new nightly ritual is to keep getting out bed, going to time-out, and screaming her head off until she is too exhausted to do it anymore. Hopefully this too will pass. Jace has been a trooper and only asked for it a few times. Tuesday is 1 week binky-free. Now if we could just get Addison to potty-train....

Aunt Jenisper

We LOVE it when Aunt Jenifer comes to visit! Addison loves Aunt Jenifer! Aunt Jenifer brings her fun presents, plays tea party, stickers, and all the other fun stuff that little girls love to do. We wished she lived closer and we could see her everyday. This last time she came to visit it was her birthday. We had a big birthday bash for her, Uncle Gary, Bradan, and Aubree.

The kids love to run laps around the clubhouse at Grandma and Grandpa's.

Aunt Sandra made this delicious chocolate cake! I ate a huge piece.

Addison and Uncle Gary

Some of our Summertime...

This was actually awhile ago, not really in the summer, but funny. We went to an Ostrich farm at Picacho Peak. We fed the Ostrich, which are INSANE and pretty gross close-up, some deer, and these birds. Jon and Tate were the only ones brave enough to actually let the birds land on them. Birds freak me out.

GIRLS CAMP!! I got to go to girls camp this year with the YW in my ward. We went over the July 4th weekend. So we were there on the 4th and a Sunday. I had a good time hanging out with the girls and getting to know them better. Except for my neck popping out of place it was a great experience. I am excited for next year.

Jon and I celebrated our 5th anniversary this year. We wanted to take a cruise on the Caribbean, but being unemployed for several months, having kids, and just life in general foiled our plans. So we settled for a night at the Sanctuary(Thanks Jenifer for watching our demons), dinner at Alto(some fancy, smancy Italian restaurant) and a gondola ride at the Hyatt Regency in Scottsdale. The below picture is not from too much celebration, just a camera flash way too close to our faces in the dark. We were on the gondola. The guy even sang us some "romantic"song in Italian. It was a little awkward.

Our neighbor's sister works at the Arizona Science Center, and got us free tickets. We took Nathan, his friend Tanner, and the babies. This is Nathan riding the sky bike.

Having lunch at the Gecko Grill with most of the ladies of the Jarvis clan. I love hanging out with them and wish that we did it more often.

Nathan's Last day of school. We had ice cream sundaes and he put some weird hair glue stuff in his hair?? He is now a big 6th grader. At his school this is Jr. High so he is pretty convinced that he is hot stuff. I am NOT ready to have teenagers!!

Mother's Day-May is summer, right? These 3 studs took me out for a night on the town. We went to Texas Roadhouse, Target, Old Navy, and Lowes. I love these guys!

So that is a tiny taste of what we have been up to. I still have a few things that warrant their very own post. One of these days I will get around to it. Tate and Bradan spent the summer in Kentucky living the good life. Everyone is home and we are into the full swing of school and "normal" life. I HATE homework! Jon is still working under another RN as he learns the ropes. He will hopefully be on his own by the end of September. We are so glad he has a job, but miss him when he is not home. Why can't we be independently wealthy? I am still holding out hope for some unknown, rich relative.

Bubba-licious

My baby is getting so big! Even though Jace loves his Daddy WAY more than me, I still want to eat his little face, because he is so cute!

He loves his big brothers and wants to play ball and wrestle with them. He follows Addison's every move, which isn't necessarily always a good thing, as he has picked up her bad habits.

He is talking his head off. Which is so funny to me, because Addison refused to speak until she was almost 3. He will basically repeat anything you say, but speaks without being prompted. This morning he told Nathan "give it to me right now, please". He is also very good at yelling. He will say your name once and then he yells it at the top of his lungs until you answer him.

He has peed in the potty twice, which is twice as much as Addison. I am sure he will be potty trained before she is. When he gets in trouble for hitting or throwing things he will sit in time out all by himself .

He still has no interest in Nursery and basically screams until he goes to sleep. Horrible, I know. I feel sorry for the Nursery leaders, but Jon insists on leaving him in there. He is warming up to the family. He loves his Grandma and Grandpa and even bonded with his Aunt Jenifer on her last visit. He LOVES his blanket! It is his constant companion. He is a sweet boy, most of the time and we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE him!