Jetty-boo

My favorite 2 year old in the whole universe... what a spunky-monkey. When I describe my sweet boo-boo, Jetty-boo, monkey butt, Jet, guy, I feel a mixture of total exhaustion and utter adoration. He is wild, no doubt. Crazy, reckless and terrifying but at the same time he is so sweet and tender with endless kisses and I wuv you's. He is passionate and intelligent, I can tell he will be academic and bright with a temper and wild moods. I have a gal come clean once a week and he literally follows her around for hours saying "You wuv me? I wuv you so much, I wuv you," needless to say, she adores him as well. He is nothing but doting to Audgy (pronounced Odd-jee) often climbing into her crib and laying sweetly next to her telling her stories. His very favorite things right now include: Finding Nemo and Veggie tales: Lord of the Beans, or as he says, Me-mo and War da Beans, foffles(waffles), doaggies, and jumping onto, or off of, everything. He goes to Maddox for comfort and hugs and just cries into his chest which is so incredibly endearing. Are they awful to each other? Yes. But they also run to each other cheerfully yelling the other's name saying, "I missed you!" after an hour apart at church. They will certainly despise each other at times but I know they will be such incredible friends for their whole lives.

We celebrated Jetty's Birthday in Montana, along with Maddox and Papa Scott's. Then, on the day of his actual birthday we had special cupcake breakfast, presents and general fun. To celebrate turning Two, we took his binky away :) He has been sober since September 17. He has also decided that sitting in his own poo is disgusting and has chosen to start using the toilet. Two is AWESOME! We really are enjoying this time and what incredible people our kids are turning into.

Birthday post delay

Mama Marcia. I got all settled in to blog about my sweet Jetty, and wouldn't you know the USB ports on my laptop have pooped out on me, making it impossible to download the good pictures to my computer. While I could tell you the story and edify my baby boy, it just isn't the same without pictures. So you'll have to wait! Sorry, LOVE YOU :) To keep your mind occupied until then, here are some cute pictures from the other camera that doesn't require USB connectivity.

They are good buddies, with long hair!

What a good helper, dangling from the stroller...

Last weekend at Silverwood, we wore them out good :)

They deserve this(me posting the absolute worst shot) for being so difficult.

Backwards with an inside out mask, the independent stage has begun, so has the nude stage. He keeps popping up naked after I have clearly dressed him for the day.

She likes to cuddle, and sucks her thumb...whose kid is this?

The one antlered buck. One of a bagillion deer that hangs in our yard. They like to rest by our big pine that is also home to a gaggle of quail, funny little birds.

Who has discovered her pretty little self? This girl, that's who!

Family fun night, cuddling, munching on some "poocoo", and inevitably a wrestling match.

Couldn't find Mad one morning, he had let himself out of the house and was fishing. Jetty joined him after the reprimand.

Amazing what fun a heat register can provide...haha!

The neighbors took us out on their boat. It was great fun!
***
I threw one shot of me in there, just to prove that I'm still here. We take a lot of pictures with our phones and they are poor quality and unflattering...so I won't share those. As is our style, we are very busy, always going, going, going. We DO spend good stretches of time at home, the kids have a routine and are great sleepers/nappers. Maddox continues to ask for his cousins and older girls from Billings. His buddy next door is moving to Colorado so we are hoping when it rents, the family is younger with kids. Most of the families on our street have teens and while Maddox is cool with that, teens prefer to hang with other teens, not 4 year olds. Audrey crawls, pulls herself to sitting and claps on command, she also has a funny tongue and likes to spit. Life is GOOD.

This growing up business has got to stop

My firstborn is four, where has the time gone? I am thrilled with the amazing kid he is growing into. He is all boy, rough and tumble, gun shooting, ball:throwing, hitting, shooting, whacking; superhero, snack sneaker.
Maddox is everyone's buddy. He makes friends with all kids, no matter their age and he asks for his friends daily. Maria is our 18 year old neighbor, Joya is 16, Jarred (his "bigger friend" is 11, his "little friend" Lincoln is 3, Kody is 12 etc. He asks for his cousins, every day as well as rolling ball, the big slide, swimming and golfing. The kid isn't afraid to ask for the world.
He likes to hold my hand and tell me I'm his best friend or his best sweetheart. He kisses the back of my hand and will stroke my hair, saying "I wike your hair" and then he'll turn right around and punch Jetty in the gut. Every night at bed he asks "mom, you tickle my back and my belly"? He begs to go to church and to school, for goodness sake! I could go on and on and on about what an amazing kid he is and I can just envision the incredible man he will grow into. What a joy to be his mama.

Guess who is FOUR?!

This is his very serious, Spider Man face. He held the face and the pose for quite some time, not seeming to mind that Reese and I were enjoying a good laugh.
We celebrated the day of with a Little Debbie donut mound, a few presents and fun stuff I don't remember. Then we headed to Billings for a smattering of things and celebrated again with all of the fam. Spider Man was the unofficial theme as he is currently very "into" the superhero. We celebrated at the waterpark again this year, it never gets old (Thanks G.G.!)Thanks Grammy and Papa Myers for hosting everyone and providing all of the fun play things!

Donut mound (Maddox just finished crying because Jetty snagged a donut and sent the mound, with lit candle, into a tumbling mess. HA!)

Gimme that donut....drool...I love fooood
A journey back some years...*tear*

I'm "free"

two

one

Brand new Maddox

Prayer request

I sometimes take it very lightly that Bing and I are VERY fertile. And beyond that, my body is an ideal incubator. Pregnancy and birth come easy and our children are very healthy.
Today we spoke with a very dear gal, she and her husband are salt of the earth, wonderful people. They had a very hard time getting pregnant and finally were able, but come to find out their baby girl, due in 6 weeks, has a condition known as HPE. She is very small, only 3 lbs, and the doctors warned them to be prepared that she may not live more than a week.
I just want to flood them with prayers, please join me in petitioning for a miracle, for healing and for mom and dad's hearts.

Guess who LOVES splashing in her bath? This girl, that's who!

Funny kids

Audrey is 6 months old! Yikes, how the time is whizzing by! She is sitting up, unassisted and is on the verge of crawling. She gets up on her knees and rocks and blows raspberries...its a hoot:) Here she is sporting a skirt I crafted. It is really poorly made but she makes it look darn cute. We had shots today and she was a real champ. After the initial cry she was back to all smiles and flirty eyes. She does this cute head turn, in her carseat, like she is being shy, while cracking a coy smile. Needless to say, we are stockpiling guns and ammo. She is starting to REALLY enjoy solid food, especially pancakes. She was below average in length and about 75% for weight, maybe solid food will allow her height to catch up...ha!
Jetty had had enough of our impromptu hike and fell asleep all smooshy faced. I can't resist pictures of him sleeping, it is about the only time I can get his picture without it being blurry!
I just found this app for my dumb Droid, so I am giving the whole "mobile blogging" gig a try. Who knows, maybe I'll be better about sharing...

Montana fam

We had the pleasure of having the Bedfords join us for the 4th of July. We had discussed the possibility of them coming while we were at THEIR home, meeting the beautiful little Vesper Grace, I mean, Claire, I mean Eileen... Vesper Eileen :) It takes a bit to get used to a brand, new name, even Addie thinks so. Anyway, on Sunday I reminded her of the conversation and asked if they were indeed coming. They hadn't thought about it, so they talked, rearranged and packed up! It is kind of funny, at this point in our life, vacation isn't so much about doing a lot of fun things or seeing all of the sights. It is now about trying to relax, somewhere besides home, eating meals not prepared by you, and watching the kids enjoy themselves. Down the road, you can bet I'll be going to exotic, awesome places, without kids, and plenty of mojitos...who's coming with?

Rob and Addie were too pooped to care about going some place to watch fireworks and the huge trees in back blocked most of what was going on near us. So, we lit some tanks and bang-bang noise makers and then Bing and I packed the kiddos down to Honeysuckle Beach Hayden Lake. It was wonderful, the kids enjoyed the display and the boom in their chest with each mortar that went off and so did we.

The next day, Bing took Maddox and Blake to Silverwood for some water-park fun, I have zero pictures of that...sorry. Rob worked while Addie and I got coffee and enjoyed some quiet time together before everyone was in one place again. It was mostly relaxing and a delight to just BE together.


Jetty cherry picking...literally


boom-boom-pow


A few from our MT trip...look at those sweet faces!


Funny boys, this one cracks me up


Sweet cheeks


fearless bubble blowers


Can't keep this girl from rolling, even in the bath!

Hotter than hell

Our air conditioner isn't working right now...I am not a nice person when I am forced to be home, sweating from every inch of my body. I have been showering twice each day, which is about 10 times my normal weekly habit,  and it angers me to be sweaty immediately upon exiting the shower. I won't go into the entire story but, we told the property manager over two weeks ago, she ignored us, we continued to pester, she claimed we don't have AC, I told her otherwise (what am I stupid?), then the owners wanted multiple opinions (it isn't a disease, it is an AC compressor!). It has been extremely hot and humid, everyone needs their AC serviced now and it is taking forever!!!!! I AM SO ANGRY ABOUT THIS AAAAAAAAAAAH!
~~End rant~~
On to lovely things then. Audrey sleeps minimum of 12 hours at night, takes two nice naps during the day and is always happy. Except when she's not. Mostly, she only cries when hungry, poopy or needing to poopy, I'll take that! She is not quite sitting on her own, not terribly interested in rice cereal, and rolls over constantly (making it unsafe to leave her on an elevated surface). She chooses to sleep on her tummy and upon being laid in her crib, rolls over, sticks her thumb in her mouth and draws her fuzzy blanket right up to her nose.

Just waking up

Jetty is getting more verbal and is finding a use for words. He also screams. A lot. His defense mechanism for dealing with Maddox is to just scream, hoping to either thwart him, or get him in trouble. Usually it only serves to get himself a swat and reprimand. I am not cool with screaming. Jetty l.o.v.e.s. to dance, he is forever cracking us up with his moves and hand jives. He digs roller coasters and throws his hands in the air while riding them. He also does this sometimes when daddy drives too fast! What a corker.

Enjoying Lake Coeur d'Alene

Maddox is a watermelon eating machine. He asks several times each week if we can go to: church, rolling ball (skee ball), school, and his cousin's house. He loves to torment Jetty and is quite skilled. When not tormenting him, they play very well together. He repeats all of the horrible things that we say to him at unexpected and hilarious times.
 ex: At dinner
m: mom you're a crap face
me: hm, what did you say?
m: I said you're a CRAP face
(Note to self, stop calling the kids crap faces)

We constructed a killer slip-n-slide in the back yard, and it rocks! Maddox will spend hours on it and Jetty does not like it...yet. It is strange to me that Jetty is the wuss. Anyway, it has helped to cool the body and the temper while our AC is out.

This is the stupid slide we bought first. Impossible to stay on, the water sprayed anywhere but where it should have and it isn't neeearly long enough for our hill.

(we have since staked things down and it is sturdy and non-flappy at the end...dang we're good)

The slide is not safe for infants so, Audgie chills in a tube and is happy doing so.
Bing is AWESOME. He really is. He is so gifted and we are blessed. I recently went to the dermatologist for a funky mole. I left with a crater in my back and am waiting to hear results. Neither the doctor, nor I are concerned, rather, just being cautious. Prayers that it is nothing are appreciated :)

So many visits!

We have been both the visitors and visited a whole bunch this last 30 days and the forecast shows more of the same. We journeyed over to Montana for our dinner group and some grandy time. Bing left us for two days and ventured even farther, on over to Bismark, to meet some oil dudes. I used that as a time to see my girlfriends and treat myself and the kids to ice cream, coffee, pizza, TJ Maxx, all of those delightful and indulgent joys.


Visit from my friend Jess and her two youngest

Snuggle time with Grammy

Upon returning we had the joy of seeing Great Uncle Burch and his girlfriend Bebe, and also Bob and Teresa (his daughter and son-in-law).

They were in town for a conference and we got them in their free time. We did the booze cruise on the lake, minus the booze, we had diet coke and lots of crackers :) And then we got a sitter and went to a delicious steak dinner at the Wolf Lodge Inn, which is a funny log cabin decked out in backwoods, seventies decor. It could certainly stand an update but, the steak was truly tasty.

THEN, we had the Schuyler circus stay with us over Memorial Day weekend. We went swimming at the Kroc Center with all but the tiny ones and even with the millions of lifeguards they keep on duty, it is stressful tracking that many kids! We went bowling and to the arcade, also, stressful. Maddox made a habit of wandering off this particular weekend and for the first, second, and third time ever, I had the scare of losing a child. NOT FUN.

There was some discipline administered, and we laughed about how all of us parent and deal with the constant barrage of whining, disobedience, tantrums, and general neediness of multiple children. It was a hoot! I asked our neighbor to watch the 5 older kids and her mom insisted that we leave the babies too. She and her mom took all 7 of our kids for several hours while we enjoyed a relaxing dinner overlooking the lake with no need to rush or feed littles, or threaten spankings, it was HEAVENLY!

The kids thoroughly enjoyed one another and took over my robe belt to be used as a sling shot, lasso and fishing line.

I think it is a permanent loss, for every time I take it back and loop it through my robe, Maddox strips it mercilessly and returns to his adventures, it even comes in the car with us :/ The cousins are also fans of Wild Kratts and enjoyed jump dancing on the couch to the theme song while staying up later than usual and having a slumber party with all 5 boys in one room. We were grateful for the multitude of bikes and the mini cooper that Maddox refuses to drive, it was well loved by the cousins.

We had some fun playing with my camera's "fish eye" function. The boys thought it was hilarious and I must admit, I do too. I have some really funny one's of my mom that I will spare her, posting on the internet, but will share upon request...love you mom!
Audrey and Gunner were the easiest and could spent a good amount of time just laying on the floor next to one another or in a swing or bouncy, side by side. If one was silly enough to get their hand close to the other's mouth, it was fair game.

Hard to believe that Gunner is 2 weeks younger and was a preemie at that!
Bing and I were woken faaaaaaaaaar earlier than we are accustomed and our children took several days to recover from their unusually early starts. It was so great. We sure loved having them visit and we look forward to more visits in the future (from any who are willing to make the trek).