Long time no post

I knew I'd been slacking, but dang. November 1? That's the holiday season for you. UBER busy.

Last couple months:

-Thanksgiving
-Met sis-in-law's fiancee
-Taught Joy School--and survived!
-Luke learned to pull himself up, and thereby get into more mischief than ever
-Went to California for Christmas, Utah for New Year's, for sis-in-law's wedding
-JAMIE FINALLY LEARNED TO POOP IN THE POTTY!!!!!! Miracles do happen!!!
-Jason started his VERY LAST semester of grad school!

Yes, I have a lot of catching up to do...makes me more stressed just thinking about it, as I'm sitting in the middle of a very messy apartment. We super-cleaned over the weekend, and I was keeping up very well yesterday, but made the mistake of actually taking some time to sew last night and everything went haywire.  :(  It's pretty discouraging to feel that if I take time to do something I actually enjoy, I pay for it in fatigue and stress and lack of organization the next day.  (I didn't do the dishes before I went to bed, among other things. That started today off wrong.) I also did a Zumba class yesterday, and I think it wore me out pretty good...I just have not had energy or motivation today. I did work out, at least, but the housecleaning did NOT happen.

Oh well. Tomorrow is another day...though I'm dreading it a bit because Joy School was cancelled, so I'll be trying to entertain Jamie at home all morning. Love my boy, but also LOVE when he's gone at pre-/Joy schools, Luke takes a nap, and I get that much more quiet, productive time.

*Lifting one hand* Clean house? Time to exercise and make healthy food?
*Lowering first hand, lifting other* Quality time with children? Time to self?
Is there really any way to truly balance these, along with all the other stuff? If so, I certainly haven't found it.

And my kids aren't even in real school, doing extracurricular activities yet.

Yeah, feeling a bit discouraged today. I think hormones play a part.

Better get to bed. That will help.

Thanks for listening. (Sorry this was not at all an interesting post.)

An hour later...

Many times, I've seen people post pictures of the antics their kids get into while they're supposed to be napping, and thought to myself, "I'm glad Jamie doesn't do that yet."

Those days are over.
He discovered the food storage under his bed and had himself a feast!

A little sheepish, but not ashamed.

Instant Breakfast mix--Not only fun to eat, but to paint with.

After I finished laughing and taking pictures, this boy had some serious cleaning to do.
(Sorry about the red-eyes. My computer's removal tool sucks and I forgot to do it on the camera before I deleted them. :(  )

My favorite part is that he expertly removed the foil seal and deposited it neatly in the trash can.

Oh, this kid of mine. I hope I explained to him how wrong it was well enough to offset how much I had to laugh! (Awful sentence, sorry.)

Halloween 2012

Time for Halloween pictures!

Yoda got sleepy just as we were ready to head to the ward Hallowe--er, Harvest Festival on Friday the 26th. I was so happy it wasn't on a night when Jason had a class, like most church activities are!

"Hungry I am...sleepy I am getting..."

Dropping Jamie off at the preschool Halloween party

Jason totally bribed him to wear the cloak. He's an admitted Star Wars nerd, and on principle could not abide the idea of Darth Vader walking around without his cloak.

Halloween breakfast--the chocolate chip method probably tasted better...

...but the second method, with pancake mix dyed brown, looked better. Fun to make :) hope there will be more partaking on future Halloweens, though. Jamie didn't finish his and Jason didn't want any.  :/

Those aren't capris. Those are LUKE'S pants, size 9 mo, grabbed for Jamie (who is almost 4) by accident--and they FIT! Skinny boy!

Joy School Halloween party

Doing the "Witch Dance"

Ready to go trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. (Yoda's robes were too bulky for the stroller.)

We had a good Halloween--that lasted about 5 days! We hope you had a great Halloween, too!

Sept and Oct 2012 pictorial update

So it's been a little while, and I don't even have time right now to say much--hopefully I can add a few details later. For now, here's some pictures and their captions...

Luke's first solids: before...

...and after, lol. Note the cereal on his foot.

We had car troubles that prevented us from going on a church campout, so Jason and Jamie camped in the living room (until about 11:30).

Jamie's version of a temple that he made after seeing the temple pictured during General Conference

Yesterday Jamie's preschool class had a field trip to a nearby pumpkin patch. Jamie had sooooo much fun!

Big bouncy mound thing. SO fun!

I love this one. Jamie picked out that baby pumpkin for his baby brother.

Luke was very fascinated by it.

It makes me so happy to see my boy making friends, learning, and having so much fun!

Temple talk

...and other videos.

I'm not good at naming my posts cleverly. (Is that a word?)

Anyhow, here're some videos.

For those of you who may not know, the angel's name is Moroni--moe-roe-nye.



Here's the temple that Jamie usually sees once or twice a week, since it's being built in our vicinity:

And this is the "golden" angel (saying "der-der DER!" on his trumpet :)).

(If you're not sure what the heck this is about and would like to find out, click here.)

Jason helped Jamie build this "fort" the other day, and when I attempted to take video, I only got the Armageddon-esque end of its existence.

This was earlier tonight. You should have heard Luke laughing when this first occurred upstairs, where the lack of tile allows for MUCH better thumps upon landing. That boy is so enthralled with his big brother!


By the way--despite the abundance photographic evidence, I can assure you that Luke doesn't spend the majority of his time in his swing.

And yes, I'm feeling big-wordish tonight.

Pics aplenty, pics galore

I read Jamie a book yesterday called Pigs Aplenty, Pigs Galore! It wasn't very good, but there you are.

The first of these go back to May, I think, because I suck that much at picture-taking and -uploading...

I should send this one into a "cutest baby" contest, right??

Sorry, didn't know how to fix it...

This was the hurricane that was: GOOP. It's cornstarch and water with food coloring--neither liquid nor solid, and Jamie had a BLAST with it. So did Jason and I, truth be told. It's really fun to play with!

He played with it for over TWO HOURS, some of that time by himself. This is amazing for him. He doesn't have a very long attention span.

See how it's not only all over the table, but him as well? Luckily, it's very easy to clean up.

Add caption

Oh, and all over the bench, too...and the floor...it was a fantastic mess!

What did I ever do before Pinterest??
http://pinterest.com/kristinanoall/

Couldn't resist capturing this since I actually had the camera right there...

This boy is never so cozy as when he's snuggled up with/on Mommy or Daddy.

Ninja baby! Obviously doing a move Ryu would be proud of!

These are from last night.

I also uploaded three videos today--see them below :)
And now I need to go, because this is Jason's trail day, where he's gone from about 5:30 a.m. til around 12:30 a.m. At least it's only once a week!