Here's a belated Halloween picture, no that's not the real McCain- it's a cutout. Joe and I didn't have time to really pull out the stops this year and went for simple and fun. The original idea was to be Men in Black and make the kiddos aliens to commemorate NASA's 50th anniversary. However, it is ridiculous finding alien costumes that don't look stupid or scary for little kids. Kayla is wearing the astronaut that we made Timmy for his first Halloween. Timmy's costume is from Costco - we had to get it when we saw it! Joe and I still kinda look like Men in Black but we switched it to Secret Service when we learned that Joe's sister was going as Sarah Palin and had her cardboard McCain. Joe found us cheap earpieces to plug into walkie talkies, so our earpieces actually worked.

And now for the cute pics! We had Jeremy (my bro) take our pictures for the annual Christmas card this year.
Here are our favorites:

What a crazy year! It's hard to really wrap my brain around all of the things that have happened the last 12 months. The best thing that happened is the birth of Mikayla Rose. She has been my little sunshine not to mention the world's cutie pie. The worst was having to leave our home in Boise to keep Joe's job. With the economy the way it is we might have to wait a long time before it sells, something that really frustrates our family. We can't move forward until we are free of that *%#* mortgage payment. It has been a real blessing to be back where we can be close to family again. Timmy LOVES spending time with his cousins and is constantly asking when we are going to visit them.

I was going to wax poetic and say something profound about how growing older has influenced my state of mind but I can't put the feeling into words. I know I have learned a great deal about myself this last year while living out of state - once I figure out what that is I'll let you know.

And here are some recent pics - face it that's why you came here anyway!

Hopefully this isn't new news to anyone but, we're moving back to Utah! After a year in the land of the Great Potato hubbies work realized that their was no need for an office up here. This came after dangling the golden carrot of a multi million dollar contract in front of us for the whole year. With the condition of the )*^#*%# economy it seems no one is willing to invest in new software when they already have something that works. Oh well. We were looking for a way to move back to family anyway but were kinda hoping we could do it without losing the majority of our equity - not to mention the cost of the move which will have to come out of our pockets. Grrr. Looks like all those warnings about having food storage were indeed founded on something!

Mikayla keeps growing and growing. She's mastered rolling back onto her back finally after nearly two months of having to save her. She is a wiggly little thing and won't let you hold her if she is tired, hungry, or sees something interesting. She loves her brother, who is starting to realize that she is indeed a little person, and smiles and flirts with him. We started her on cereal and after a few weeks I think she has figured out that it is for eating and not goobering, although she loves giving a good raspberry right when her mouth is full - yikes! No teeth yet, but she chews on anything she can get her hands on so it can't be too long.


Timmy now loves the PBS show Caillou, which is a nice change from Super Why. He dosen't understand why we have to pack up everything and annoyed that Mommy has things that she needs to do. He has found a whole new fasination with his train set and plays with it constantly. This would be awesome if the playing didn't involve giant train wrecks and ear splitting screams for mommy to fix it, generally during K's nap time. We have been having fun with swim lessons and only wish we started sooner. We hope we can find a skilled swim instructor after the move and continue.Timmy atop Mt Boxmore, which has now filled our front room

I did it! For someone who has never been a runner their entire life and always thought it was cool, this was a huge achievement for me. As with all goals there were lots of things that tried to make me back out. The week before the race our treadmill needed a part replaced and was therefore not available. If the race was in the Summer when it was still light in the morning this wouldn't be a problem seeing as that I could sneak out and run before the kiddos woke up and the hubby had to leave for work. I had to stop doing that because it got too gosh darn dark and I didn't feel comfortable running with cars that couldn't see me! The week of the race my darling baby decided that she wanted to wake up 3-5 times a night, most nights. This usually isn't a huge problem either but it seems that you need some good solid rest if you want to run without hurting yourself. And lastly bomb #3 Thursday before the race I'm informed that I have three weeks to organize, pack, and move my entire family back to SLC because hubbies job can no longer support an office here in Boise. Akkkkk! I lost all ability to sleep for an entire week after that - I couldn't stop organizing and planning things in my head.

Time has flown since Mikayla arrived. All the things I imagined myself doing with my new baby girl just aren't happening like I thought. Things like getting her 6 week pictures, getting her scrapbook started while I was "caught up", and sitting at the park in the shade of a big tree while Timmy played happily by himself - just haven't happened. What we have done a lot of is learn how to juggle two kids and still function normally. I'm laughing at myself so hard thinking how overwhelmed I felt with just Timmy to deal with in the early stages. I'm also considering myself very blessed that Kayla is such a happy baby most of the time.

Updates:

Mikayla rolled over for the first time on Wednesday the 16th! She has yet to do it again but she is really close. It was from tummy to back and she was as surprised as we were. Also she has begun to "rotate" meaning we'll leave her in one position and minutes later she'll have scooted and wiggled till she's done a 180. She is now sleeping in her crib and had no adjustment problems - although I think she rather preferred being in the bed with us. She never really liked her bassinet so I'm glad I didn't spend much for it. We found a cool mosquito net with stars and moons and hung it over the crib. We'll have to take it down when she can pull herself to standing so there aren't any accidents. Her hair is as long as ever - she'll be the first one year old sporting a french braid at this rate. We'll be getting her pictures done tomorrow and can't decide to keep it down or put it in pigtails (or antennae...).

Timmy is growing his vocabulary by leaps and bounds. I still think I owe it to PBS and Disney's Playhouse programming. My current favorite is when I ask him to do something he sometimes replies "of course I can". He still can't remember when to say "thank you" verses "you're welcome" but it's kinda cute. He's mastered identifying the letters of the alphabet and his numbers and is now working on shapes, colors and being introduced to letter sounds. (for a great reading website check out Starfall). He is obsessed with water, being naked (nakee!) and his bellybutton, go figure. He loves eating veggies out of our little garden but can't tell what's a veggie and what's just foliage. I've caught him eating grass, pea leaves, and the swiss chard.

Joe is still working at Alpha Bay and is still looking forward to when they land the contract. It will mean many changes in his responsibilities and a new office. The biggest change for Joe recently is his new calling in the church as a Sunday School teacher. He loves the challenge of making the lesson material interesting and refreshing for his class and is doing a great job. With me tied up with caring for Kayla he's spening lots of fun quality time with Timmy and the two of them have grown really close. Timmy can't wait for him to come home from work everyday.

ME: I'm doing my best to find ways to do some things just for me. I've taken up running and am looking for a 5k to enter in September. I go out early in the morning while it's still cool and the babies are sleeping. The things that have helped me most with this is the couch to 5k program. I recommend it to anyone who wants to try running but is scared that they might hurt themselves or push too hard and then quit. I use the program in together with a music from www.djbeatsmith.com, a site that specializes in techno music set to specific BPM's for interval training. They have the whole couch to 5k series in easy to follow downloadable music files. I just download the appropriate track for where I am in the program and off I go.

Anywho, here's what everyone wanted to see in the first place - pictures!

I snagged this from Michelle's blog and think it's great - here are the instructions:

1. Make a comment on this blog sharing a favorite random memory that includes me or any member of my immediate family.

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses.

If you leave a memory about me (Jodi), I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Have fun!

Big Boy Bed
We finally bit the bullet and transitioned Timmy into his toddler bed. Mikayla will be needing the crib next month and we want him to be very happy with his new bed first. He's had both the new bed and his crib in his room for a few months now and had plenty of time to get used to it. The first few nights were tough for him because he didn't understand why he couldn't sleep in his crib. He didn't scream and carry on like I thought he might, he just kept getting up and banging on his door to get out. It doesn't help that it is light outside until well after nine. So it took over an hour before he was tired enough to crash.

He soon figured out how to open his door and then chaos ensued - tried the Supernanny approach where you say good night and then return him to his bed the first time and then say nothing everytime after that. After over 200 times of escorting him back to bed I put hand lotion on the doorknob so he couldn't open it and just let him holler for awhile.

The last two nights have been wonderful - we do our bedtime routine and put him in and that's it for the evening. He still will wake up once or twice at night and cry for someone when he can't find his special toys (currently Lightning and Sally from Cars) or if he needs a drink.

Mikayla's one month old now! Time has really flown by these last few weeks. She's starting to figure out the "nighttime is for sleeping" thing, much to our relief. With all that hair it's easy to forget just how "new" she really is. To our relief Timmy is starting to be more interactive with her, he will kiss and cuddle her (when he is asked to) and I think he's forming a bond. He really likes it when I hold her in such a way that he can slither in and snuggle on my lap next to her.
Thanks Em for the great idea for the feet picture! I only wish mine turned out as great as yours.

Our first day at church in a very frilly purple dress. She was ooohed and aaaahed over.
We love our angel baby!

It was an absolute blast having Timmy's cousins here. They had a great time playing together and were all very sad when it was time to go home. This is the swing set we got for $50 off of Craigslist - can't beat that! Tim crashed on the couch after a long day of being his usual charming self. We discovered about three months too late that he won't nap in his crib without his jammies on. Mikayla sleeps all the time still and so we took advantage of the opportunity to get this shot. Our first time trying a bottle. She can't stand pacifiers and so it was no surprise that she wasn't fond of the idea of taking a meal from a bottle. We hope that she'll get over it so that Daddy can feed her if Mommy needs to be away for awhile.

For some mysterious reason the text above is defaulting to being a hotlink. If anyone knows how to fix that, let me know!