To be toothful...

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth...well, Jax has gotten half of his wish! Jax's bottom tooth has officially broken through! Interesting fact: Freyjas first tooth broke through Dec 11, 2007 @ 5months, 1day. Jax (same tooth) Dec 18, 2010 @ 4months, 1day! What is it about December that BOTH of my children get their first tooth? He's been working on that little gem for the last month but as of yesterday the last few membranes broke free and the entire top of the tooth is now exposed :)

Its been a laid back month...no news of a job for David yet, I should be starting back to Winn Dixie shortly or if I get the office position I applied for at UWF I may just do that one. Its stressful times but we've had a TON of family time and its been nice. I wouldn't wish being jobless on anyone but the time it has brought us together is priceless!

News on the big Bugg, she assisted with her first gingerbread "thing". It wasn't as big of a mess as I had anticipated but I definitely would recommend two adults per 3yr old as you build one! If it wasn't for mom vh being there to help I'm POSITIVE the train wouldn't have made it and there would be a bald mother and a screaming 3yr old as an end result...between the "whats this, can I eat that, what about that, I wanna taste!"....AHHH!! End result:

On to the baby Bugg... Besides the first tooth this month, he's attended his first birthday party (for a friend of Freyja), and he swung in his swing on the swingset for the first time (and enjoyed it!). He can pull himself all the way into a standing position using your fingers with NO help from you other than just being that solid thing to hold on to. He has the sweetest little crooked smile that just melts your heart anytime you are blessed with one :) There's moments that he looks sooooo much like his sister when she was a baby but the majority of the time he's the spitting image of his Papa, its his eyes that do it!

Well, thats all the updates for today! I find out Monday about the job at UWF, please think positive thoughts for it!! And then pray for David as he will then become a stay at home dad! Happy holidays to you all! May Santa bring you all wonderful things :)

Thankful Times

We may not be the cutest bunch, we may not be the wealthiest, most famous, or most well known but in my eyes we are the luckiest four people to be a family unit! Its this time of year that you have to sit back and reflect on your year and remember the good and bad times and be thankful for each and every one of them for they made today what it is. David still may be looking for work but we've had the best month of him being home with us 24/7! Its been stressful (still is) wondering whats going to happen if we don't get some job news soon but its been a family bonding expierence I wouldn't have missed for anything!

I am thankful for this ones quick wit, foul temper, unconditional love and her friendship. She may be the BIGGEST pain in my rear 99.9% of the time but then theres that moment that she comes into the room, hugs me and says "mama, I love you all my life" that just makes all that other stuff evaporate...then you find out what she's done and we're back to "WHY DID I EVER HAVE KIDS" stage again :) No, seriously...she can melt my heart like no other! I'm thankful that while being the diva that she is, she also has the love in her heart to be the best big sister her little 3yr old self knows how to be! Not once since baby brother came home has she asked to send him back, tried to duct tape his mouth shut, leave him at the store or grandparents...she is forever mindful of him and does her best to comfort him when he cries or to love him when he's happy. She is my first thought of the day and my last, my eternal sunshine, my cream in my coffee, the beat which my heart needs to survive and I am thankful she is mine!

I am thankful for this little guy because he will forever be my baby! There will be no others after him so therefore my baby he will be :) I'm thankful for his awesome sleep habits, his nursing habits...though I am forbidding him to sprout teeth because if he can BITE like that with out them...I'll never survive WITH them! I'm thankful that everytime I look at him I see my father staring back me. We may joke that we wish we could "wash the Tribble" off of him but one look at those eyes and I can see the first man that ever loved me and the little man that will be the greatest love of my life. He's an angel, he's a banshee, he's more active than a three month old should be but I'm thankful for him as well!

I can even safely safe that I am even thankful for this big guy! As I've said before, he makes me laugh, he makes me cry, he makes me wish that murder wasn't wrong! He's possibly one of the most difficult people you'll ever meet but under that furry hard exterior is a chocolate truffle center that will melt your heart at the best of times! He's the best dad I could ask for for my children. Where my patience lacks, his strenghtens and between the two of us we can handle anything life throws at us. We've been married almost 5yrs now and been together almost 8...and the best is yet to come :)

Last but not least, I am thankful for my family! Be it my parents (all four of them), in laws, cousins, aunts/uncles...I am thankful for the love and support you provide everyday! The family email that circulates every morning is the first bright spot of my day, it reminds me that my family is alive and well. I know this isn't my usual blog, and the humor isn't there but I just wanted to take a moment and thank my children, hubby and family for being in my life and giving me something to be thankful for! I love you all!!

Buggs and other Fall things

Honest mom! The cookie just jumped out of the bag and demanded to be eaten!! Ah yes...the good ol' downtown trick or treat :) Lots of good candies, lots of neat things to see, great way to get people to see what's downtown and a great way to lose your child in a crowd of thousands of kids and mom's pushing their way around, sniffing out the candy hideouts and grubbing up all the good stuff! We met with a group of our friends and did the downtown circut, came home with about half a pumpkin full of sugary bits of heaven...only of few of which Freyja could not/was not allowed to eat (gum and hard "choking hazard" candies). The next day I shuttled the small cowgirl to Barnes and Noble for a trick or treat around the store and story time, then Toys r Us for what we thought would be a fun activity and costume parade but was actually just a sad little get together of non-costumed kids, cheap coloring pages and a ploy to get you into the store so your child could beg/whine/and drive you NUTS until you relented in buying a small toy! We fell for this last time and by the time we got home she forgot we bought her something so its in the closet for Christmas, this time we perservered through the "I WANTS" and ran for the car! That night was a Egg Haunt...Freyja and I left Daddy and Jaxon with the grandparents and had a girls night. It was set up like an Easter Egg hunt with the exception of orange/black eggs filled with spiders, ghosts and spooky candy instead of pastel bunny goods. There was also a haunted hay ride (though Mario chasing Luigi around a large field does not qualify as terror in my books) and a few other little games. We met some of our friends there and just had a good evening  as mother/daughter. To top the night off I found a ten dollar bill in the parking lot!! Then of course All Hallow's Eve I took my pink princess that was tired of being a cowgirl up and down our street and brought back another fine bag off goodies!! All in all I think she was very pleased with her Halloween events this year! Today we took her to an open air craft fair and they had pony rides. She did not even show the slightest bit of hesitation as the pony handler reached out her hand to help her up on the horse and up she climbed and off she went! Its breaking my heart a little more each time she lets go of our hand and takes another giant leap for "bugg kind" but its just proof my biggest bugg is growing up! Wow...

In other news on my big bugg...she is COMPLETELY potty trained now!! She wears pull ups to bed but big girl panties all day!! She still has the occassional accident but the BAD days are all behind us now :) She had a check up the other day and weighs in at 32lbs and is 39 4/8's inches tall. She's TALL and thin!!!

On to Little Brother! He is now 6 1/2lbs per foot!! Meaning he's 13lbs and 24in long, he's gaining on his big sister quite nicely it appears!  I guess its all the sleep he gets at night :) Yep, he's still doing these wonderful 8-12hr stretches at night for me!! Jaxon has been spending a lot of time with daddy this past couple of weeks while big sis and I run off to do "big kid" things but in our absence he's been working on his smiles, coo's and giggles. In the picture above he and I are hanging out on Granmama and Opa's swing in their back yard. Its our favorite place since we can rock, enjoy the outdoors and watch big sis run amuck in the back yard. My father after seeing the picture asked me what I had put on his poor grandsons head, to which I have responded, nothing that compromises his dignity! Its just a cute little blue skull cap vs some cutesie little googly eye thing or something with ears! Guess I'll just need to find him one just to prove to his Papa, there ARE worse hats in life!

In other news...David is in the middle of a "job change" so um...please keep us in your thoughts and keep fingers crossed that something comes our way soon! We're not panicked yet...As Dori (Ellen DeGeneres) in "Finding Nemo" says, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming"... So our love to you all and I'll be back with another bugg-update soon!

Fall Fun

Miss Freyja has a busy end of the month set up for her! The above picture was taken Oct 21st when we headed out to Holland Farms Peanut Farm, they also have a pumpkin patch and a ton of sunflowers. Holland Farms is about 20min past mom's house so we left Jaxon with mom and Ed after we went grocery shopping and Bugg and I headed out there for some fall fun. After roaming the pumpkin patch and getting lost in the maze of sunflowers we went on THE LONGEST hayride ever!!! We ate peanuts straight out of the field (very earthy tasting!), I got a bowl of their cajun flavored boiled and man were they good!!

Jaxon turned 10wks old on Oct 26th!!! My baby is now in the double digits...how depressing, he's getting too big too fast dangit!! One day last week he went to bed at 830pm and didn't get up til 5am to nurse then went back to sleep til 7am, this kid LOVES his sleep!! October 18th was his 2month check up, he was 12.3lbs and 24in long putting him in the 75th percentile. He stays awake much longer now, he still cries a ton during the day especially on weekdays when in order to get stuff done I have to lay him down and not able to carry/hold him every second of the day. My little man just graduated to size 2 diapers and 3-6month clothing...theres just no slowing him down!

Monday, Oct 25th we went to the fair as a family. I wasn't positive Freyja would ride anything but it was worth a try. Dora and Diego (cartoon characters) were scheduled to be there that night so we figured that would be a good night to take her, we had free admission tickets so that made it even more enticing!! Dora and Diego ended up having a line literally a mile long so we just bought ride tickets and had fun that way. We bought a sheet of 22 tickets (rides cost 3-5 tickets yet inevitably they give you some funky number of tickets so that you have some left over or have to buy more to use them all) and the girl in the booth wasn't paying any attention and ended up giving us 44 tickets instead :) So we spent our "freebies" by all going on the ferris wheel, it was Davids first time on ferris wheel and Freyja and Jaxon's first fair rides ever. (More pictures are in the Picasa album) Freyja rode a handful of rides, most of them by herself but there was one that she really wanted to ride that she had to go with us and that was the "Kite Flyer", you lay on your belly and get strapped in and fly around in circles. She loved this one so much she had to go twice, I went the first time with her and nearly had a nervous breakdown...not from the ride but from the fear of what if she started to fall off, how could I save her. David went the second time after laughing at me for my "irrational fear" but after getting up there he knew what I meant :) I wore Jaxon while we walked around, he received TONS of smiles and compliments! He stayed awake almost the entire time, he loved the lights and sounds and did his little "marching" thing the majority of the time he was in the wrap because he was so excited and wanted out to play too! Poor guy gave up the fight just as we left the fair and fell asleep in the wrap...only to wake up in the car and cry the ENTIRE way home because he was wet,hungry and over tired. We finally got home around 8pm, comforted Jaxon, fixed Freyja a grilled turkey and cheese, read a couple of bedtime stories which she barely made it through and we were all in bed and asleep by 930pm!

Next on our agenda is a bunch of Halloweenie stuff, costume parties and trick or treating!! Stay tuned and next week I'll elaborate on our Halloweening and post costume pictures!! Love to you all :)

Ghouls and Boils (Girls and boys)

No, she's not choking him! She's trying to hold his little wobbly head up long enough for me to take the shot...and then of course she gets this wild hair and shoots up WAAAAAAY over the top of him and says CHEESE as I cut her head off...but its still a cute shot! And just a small sampling of her love for him. Before he was born and I was oooober pregnant we went past an Indian Restaurant and I made the innocent comment that we should eat there and maybe the heat of the food would "smoke" him out. Well this poor child since then EVERY time we pass the restaurant she says "mama, we can't smoke Jaxon!" Today she took it even farther as to explay WHY we can't smoke Jaxon, apparently in 3yr old logic "we can't smoke Jaxon, he's a people and we don't eat people! We only eat meat!!" At least I dont have to worry about her eating her little brother anytime soon :)

Freyja news...potty training is still going... When we're out, theres no accidents... then we come home and oh man does her laundry pile up in just one day! And on top of potty training accidents the poor kid has had an accident prone week and the bad news is, its only Tuesday... Saturday we went to a birthday party for DJ's twins, they just turned 8. The party was at the beach, it was our first trip out there since the spill and honestly you can't really tell we had one! Well, a handful of steps out of the car she topples off the sidewalk and gets a huge scrape on her knee, luckily the rest of the party went well. Yesterday she was a walking disaster! She wore too small of shoes and wore blisters on her heels, missed her swing and landed butt/back first in the dirt and to add insult to injury the swing smacked her on the bridge of her nose between the eyes and left a little bloody spot. THEN she fell out of bed last night!  I swear I'm not killing my kid, she just has my clutz gene! Bad news...she'll never outgrow it, good news...she'll live...I hope!

Jaxon is 7wks old today!!! I wish I could take a picture of where he currently is...I'm on the couch in the den with the laptop in my lap and he is laying across my arms as I type. He's big on being touched, as long as my hands are for the most part on him he's happy. Its a good thing I'm home with him all the time!! He's starting to focus alot more, he's starting to smile finally, his neck is getting stronger, he coo's constantly, he still loves sleeping almost more than eating and is growing like a little weed! His next check up is the 18th of this month, I will update with stats then :)

We had a MAJOR upset last week. I was making some room on our picture drive and burning some backups when the drive up and died on us. At first we thought the worst and thought we'd lost ALL pictures, documents, programs, etc that we had stored since 2003 (and back to 1997 for me) but luckily after a couple of days of tearing Davids office apart our losses boil down to the last 3years of his tinkering with some programming (he hasn't done alot since he's been busy working), I lost ALL of my music and only a handful of pictures which unfortunitely included Jax's birth and anything from August 16th to September 25th...luckily those items are on Picasa so they are not gone for good and all of my other pictures that predate August 16th have been saved on my fathers system so he will be sending copies back to me. Just goes to show you should not trust your life to a computer... I will burning cd's on a monthly basis now of all albums so that I never lose them again!

This concludes this note...I'll be back mid month when Jax has his check up and will catch you up on the latest "kids say the darnedest things" from my darling daughter!

Kids say the darnedest things!

"Mommy,mommy!!! Its an IGUANODON!!!" This is the statement that had me first puzzled beyond belief then almost crying from laughter today! Last night we read "Oh can you say dinosaur" by Dr Seuss and one of the dino's in the book was an Iguanodon. This morning I heard her shout this from the living room where she is supposed to be hanging up the phone for me so that we can go see her daddy, I go and look and she has cornered a baby house gecko by the telephone. Trust me, there is NO convincing a 3yr old that loves dinos and reptiles she has not found a dino but a baby lizard! So I caught the lil guy and assisted him to the outdoors, he was cold and hungry and probably wouldn't have lasted another day or more in the house. But yes, that was my chuckle for the morning :)

As for my little bugg, his smile is still lighting up my morning everyday! We go to bed around 9pm, get up around 2am to nurse and 5am for a diaper change then around 730am for the rest of the morning. He doesnt cry at night unless I leave him to go to the bathroom before I feed him. He's truely a laid back little guy and a pleasure to wake up with!!

Freyja is 75% potty trained, its taken an entire month to get this far but each day its getting better. She's just such a busy little bee that she either forgets to go or just doesnt want to stop whatever she's doing to go. Today we went to Seafood Fest in downtown Pensacola with daddy on his lunch break and walked (kids in strollers) from his office down to Seville Square (roughly 1/2mile). As we were about to head back she announces she has to peepee...well David stepped on the gas and ZOOOOOOOMED that child down to his office and made it before she had a boo boo :) So things are clicking for her...just need to get #2's to click for her as well!!

Other news...my 6wk check up is Monday morning!! YAY! Mom is coming over next week to have some "fun" time with Freyja and help enforce good potty training behavior,then end of the week is the Circus. If Freyja has a good week mom is going to watch Jaxon and Freyja and I are going to the CIRCUS!!! That's it for now! Stay tuned for more adventures :)

And then there were two...

My babies, my little pride and my little joy (no clue which is which)! A family of four at long last:) A complete unit, the score in our house is even (boys vs girls that is)! I still have "Saturday Morning Confusion" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQlvyhTfaos) running through my head and the occasional question of "am I truely prepared for this?!?!" nagging at me...but we're 16days into this so far and the house is still intact, David has managed to makeit back to work, I've learned how to shower without panicking what TWO kids are doing...or more of is the baby safe from his sisters loving grasp.

So we'll start with the oldest...Bugg is doing wonderful with the transition of center of attention to big sister. We're actively working on potty training again and Tuesday night she actually TOLD us she had to peepee and made it to the toilet in time to go! She's slowly starting to pay more attention to her body signals...we may make it yet! Wednesday she made it til about 2pm in the same diaper then it was all down hill from there.  The other night she helped me make cupcakes, daddy's sweet tooth was begging for them so she and I happily obliged...though it was more of her adding the ingredients, mommy stirring, baby screaming so daddy poured and baked so mama could squelch the indignant cries of the babe. She had her first dentist appointment August25th, David had to take her by himself since the babe and I were still napping. She was a real champ!! She got rave reviews from the dentist and the dental tech that cleaned her teeth about how well behaved she was and how clean she has kept her teeth :) Daddy took her to Arby's as a treat afterwards!Theres pix in the Picasa album of her appt, they made me bawl like a baby because I wasn't there for it, but I'm so proud of my baby girl!!!

Now for Jaxon! He's 16days old today!! He lost his belly button on Monday while I was at moms house visiting. He sleeps and eats like a champ! Last night he had his first real bath and appeared to like it, he just laid there and let me wash him with only a slight grimace on his face. Afterwards I massaged him down with lotion and the kid was like melted butter :) He slept from 8pm til 130am, nursed and then slept from 2am to 630am! I'm LOVING having an infant that sleeps this time around! His two wk check up was last Friday, at that time he was only .7oz under his birthweight (bw 8lb 6.7oz) and had already grown 2inches! He was still mildly jaundiced in the eyes,but the dr says thats the last place for jaundice to leave so we might see a yellowish tint a while longer. Next check up is at 2months!

Family news...David went back to work Tuesday after having been home since the 17th. I miss his company and help! It hasnt been bad adjusting to two kids, not nearly as bad as people have made it sound! Given,today is only day 3 of going at it alone and I have potty training toddler on my hands...but it just isn't "bad". David now puts Freyja to bed at night so that I can go to bed as soon as Jax lets me. This helps me get my 6-10hrs of sleep needed to keep up with these young'ens during the day without having to hog-tie Freyja mid morning and nap. Our days now start by 8am...but at least we're all rested :) In the next day or two we're going to test out our ability to shop as a FULL family unit and find out if its possible or whether the boys will fend for themselves while the girls shop and gather. I'm hoping for the latter so that they have time to bond and Freyja and I can still have some one on one time:)

Well...the bassinett sounds like a flock of Canadian geese passing through so that means my little man is about to start wailing anytime now! Theres TONS of pix in the Picasa album, make sure you catch up on those! Love to you all :)