debbiejuden

Our little Tommy...not so little anymore!

I can't believe Tommy's one now!  Here's a few pictures I took of him today.  He's full of energy and life, and loves to make us all laugh with his funny little faces.  We love you Tommy!

 

 

Bribery really works! & Halloween recap

Yesterday I told Chace and Luke that I would give them a sticker for each day that they sleep and STAY in their bed for the entire night until the sun comes up.  After they get 7 stickers they will get to pick out a surprise...Chace suggested a Transformer and Luke suggested a Bumble Bee (the yellow car in Transformers).  I had to explain to them that if Luke stays in his bed and Chace doesn't, then Luke would get a sticker and Chace wouldn't...and visa versa.  I thought it was worth a shot but wasn't to confident that it would actually work.  Ever since we moved to our new house over a year ago the boys have been scared to sleep in the basement, therefore they usually end up in our room before the night is over...not good...  :)  

I went to bed around midnight and up to that point nobody had gotten up...so far so good.  Around 12:30 am Luke came walking upstairs and told me he had to go potty...so I took him to the bathroom.  When he was done I took him back downstairs to his bed and laid him down...expecting that he would cry.  No crying, no fighting with me, no nothing.  He went right back to bed.  About 2 hours later Chace came walking in our room telling me he had to go potty.  I took him to the bathroom then walked him back to his bed and laid him down.  Again, no crying!  He went right back to bed.  I WAS COMPLETELY AMAZED!!!!!!!!!  I guess my bribe must have been good enough this time.  I've tried everything in the past!!!  YIPPEE!!!!!  

Oh, and Tommy slept through the night too!  Now if I can just teach Chace and Luke to go the bathroom in their bathroom downstairs...but that might be pushing it.  Maybe later. 

Anyway, here's a few pictures I took on Halloween.  Chace was Jango Fet from Star Wars, Luke was a Knight (he really wanted to be a knight...no idea where that came from), and Tommy was a Lion (hand me down costume from Chace and Luke).  We went to our ward's trunk-or-treat on Friday night then went trick-or-treating to a few family member's homes on Halloween.  

 

Debbie

 

Super Moooooooooooom!

Today I had quite the experience worthy of scrapbooking!  Maybe some day my kids will read this and see how much I truly love them and would do anything for them!  Ryann couldn't have explained what happened any better....

"As if we ever doubted Debbie's maternal instincts, she proves amazing once again.  We were in the kitchen talking, I was at the sink washing dishes (someone has to help Super Mom sometimes), and the next thing I know Debbie is running across the house yelling "TOMMMMMIE...." I look over and see Tommie starting to go off the top of the steps backwards. Debbie literally launches herself in the air as she dives across the wood floor for Tommie.  I take off running just in time to see Debbie disappearing down the steps headfirst!  She somehow grabbed Tommie in midair and tuck him into her protective arms as they tumbled down the steps!  We know Debbie and Tommie did at least one flip because Debbie started down the steps head first whereas her foot entered the wall at the turn in the steps!  Debbie was not interested in heading Chace's challenge to reenact the event, so best guess is Debbie did a 2 and 1/2 flip with 1/2 twist down the stair case!   Debbie has some bumps and bruises and Tommie does not have a mark on him!

Lessons learned:
Lesson One: Both of our Moms were worried we Snowboarded so much when we first got married; however, it appears that the sliding skills learned on Black Diamond slopes paid off!
Lesson Two: You would be insane to get in between my wife and her kids (just ask our wall!!!!!)
Lesson Three: Stop being such a cheap skate and get child safety fences for all openings of the steps, both upstairs and downstairs!
Lesson Four:  With three little blonds running around the house, and one blond diving down stairs- Make sure your health insurance is always current!
Lesson Five- I am thankful for all those mornings when my father would get me out of bed to go to work with him, especially the times when I learned how to patch drywall!!!!!

I love my wife, I never doubted that she would do anything for our family and she confirmed that today as I watched her in action!!!!

P.S.- Luke has already instructed me three different times that we need to fix the hole because he says it is a "monster hole" where monsters come out of the wall!!!  You can see in the photo how carefully he is looking into the hole!  (He stood their for a few minutes assessing the scary "Monster Hole"....."

 

 

 So, there you have it...I dove down the stairs to catch Tommy.  I'm paying for it now with a sore body, but well worth keeping Tommy safe.  :)  It's crazy what we do for our children!

Debbie

 

My little sand man

Did I mention how AMAZING Virginia Beach was?  I couldn't believe the size of the beach!  Here's a cute picture of Tommy enjoying the sand.  By the end of the night he was covered in sand.  I had to strip him down and spray him off in one of those beach showers on the sidewalk.  He loved every minute of it!

 

Virginia Beach trip

Last month we were scheduled to teach some classes in Virginia Beach, VA.  I couldn't find anyone to teach for us, so Trina graciously offered to go out there for the weekend and teach.  Once Aunt Georgia found out she was going she told Trina she wanted to go with her.  Later on that day I found out Aunt Georgia was going and I decided it might be fun if I went too.  Then that evening Trina was talking to my mom about it and Mom said she wanted to go.  Long story short...we ended up making it a trip for the girls + Tommy.  He was so spoiled there with all of us girls...along with all the women at the scrapbook convention!  

While we were there we also went to Williamsburg and the beach.  Here's some fun pictures...

 

 

 

Me and my lovely sister.  I'm going to have to get over the fact that I hate the way I look in this picture...but I wish I had more pictures of my Mom when she was my age so I'm just going to get over it.  Of course I have lost about 4 pounds since this pictures so that helps.  :)

Oh, and I almost forgot to say what I'm grateful for.  Today I'm grateful for my sweet husband who remembers everything.  After a long two days of watching all three boys while I was scrapbooking with my cousins and sister, he and my brother-in-law went to watch a movie.  We met them at Aunt Georgia's house and swapped the kids.  Before I left I wanted to give the boys a bath, and my sweet husband brought jammies for all three of them knowing that I would probably want to give them a bath before we left.  Thanks babe for remembering.  They always fall asleep on the way home and it's such a pain to change their clothes when we get home after they've fallen asleep!

Fishing in Utah can be very eventful

Here's a few pictures I took at a fish farm near Park City a few weeks ago.  Please excuse the bad pictures.  I've been having camera issues and apparently the settings weren't working right when I took these...

It was actually a pretty eventful fishing trip.  While we were getting our fish cleaned we heard a squeal over by the water.  Ryann and I both look up and saw a kid hanging half way in the water but we couldn't tell who it was.  At the same instant we both realized it was Chace...we weren't sure what happened but Ryann ran over to him faster than I've ever seen him move before.  

Apparently Chace was fishing and looked over into the water at his fishing pole and he fell over the fence into the water.  He hung on to his fishing pole which got caught in the bushes so he was hanging over the water just enough for legs to get wet up to his knees.  Bryan was the closest one to him so he grabbed one of his hands and was trying to convince Chace to let go of his fishing pole and grab his other hand.  At that point Ryann got to him and they pulled him back over.  Chace was a little shaken up by it but was most upset because I didn't have a change of shoes for him.  Kids are so funny!

 

Chace caught this all by himself.

A fish jumped out of the bucket and Luke about had a heart attack.  It was hilarious!

Fun with cousins and what I'm grateful for

Today I went to Inspiration Unlimited with my sister and two of my cousins.  I have to say it was fun scrapbooking all day, but it was even more fun catching up on life.  We were so fortunate to grow up close to our cousins, and now that we're all "grown up" we don't get to spend much time together.  Thanks to our wonderful hubbies we were able to just sit and talk for hours without being interrupted...it just seems like we pick up where we left off when we get together.  Melissa, we missed you!  

In a class we took today Teresa Collins had us work on a gratitude album.  I really enjoy her outlook on life, and am excited to take on a new challenge of listing one thing I'm grateful each day.  We're supposed to start at the beginning of the year, but I'm going to start today instead...

I have never a firm believer in getting warranty plans for electronics until this last week.  Let me explain...

1.  Last October my camera bag fell out of the back of our car.

2.  Lens breaks on camera.  

3.  I Take camera in to Best Buy to see if they can fix it and find out I have to send it in for them to look at it.  

4.  I get a new lens for camera because Thanksgiving is in a few weeks and we're having a baby in a month...can't be without a camera.  Camera works fine with new lens.

5.  A few months later camera starts acting up and won't focus or take pictures every once in a while.

6.  I take camera back in to Best Buy to see if they can fix it.  Another lady in the store is getting a new D90 camera because the lens on her D80 broke and they can't fix it.  I'm listening to her talk to the Best Buy Geek Squad and am thinking that maybe I'll be lucky and get a new camera.  I find out I need to send my camera in for them to look at it.

7.  I can't be without a camera because kids birthdays are coming up.

8.  Birthdays come and go and I take camera in to Best Buy.

9.  Best Buy has my camera and now I'm patiently waiting to see what happens.  Keep your fingers crossed!

STORY #2

I don't think I have to explain first that sometimes it's hard to keep track of things around my house.  I'll put something down and two seconds later I'll go to pick it up and it's gone.  

About a month ago I misplaced my cell phone.  This happens quite often so I didn't think much about it when I was looking for it before church.  The next day I looked for it for a few minutes and couldn't find it in any of the usual places.  I start to worry a little but still didn't think much about it.  A few days go by and I start to panic a little because I'm going out of town for the weekend with my sister, mom, Aunt and Tommy, and it's annoying to be away from the kids without a phone.  

I tore my house apart...no phone.  I tore Aunt Georgia's house apart...no phone.  I tore our cars apart...no phone...I looked everywhere.  So, I leave for the weekend without my phone...the whole time borrowing a phone from someone.  I'm not sure if it was more annoying for me, for everyone whos phone I was borrowing, or for the people trying to get ahold of me.  I get back from our trip and the next day I start getting serious about looking for my phone.  I looked in every single hiding spot in my house and can't find it anywhere.  After 3 days decided I wasn't going to look anymore and that maybe it will just pop up while I'm going through my daily routine with the kids.  Two days pass and no phone.  

The next night we're getting ready to go to Aunt Georgia's house...all the kids are in the car and I have the car running.  Then Luke says he has to go potty.  As I said before, all the kids were in the car, so I took Luke out of the car and walk him to the side of the house for him to go in the bushes...he's a boy...As he's going he tells me he wants to see the horse next door.  So, when he finished I lifted him up to look over the block wall, and what do I see?  MY CELL PHONE SITTING ON THE BLOCK WALL!  

I yelled, I jumped up and down, I was so excited...thankful it doesn't rain in Las Vegas EVER...and I was even more grateful that my phone still worked!

...3 days later...I'm walking in the house and notice that my diaper bag is wet.  My first reaction was "Did my phone get wet?"  Thankfully my phone was in my pocket.  Everyone who has an iphone is probably aware that if your phone gets wet it is not covered by warranty, so I was very lucky it wasn't in my bag. 

...the very next day...I'm going to eat lunch with the boys and notice that my diaper bag is dripping water.  Yes, a water bottle leaked in my bag AGAIN!  I casually went in to the restaurant and ordered, then went to the bathroom and dried it out.  And there it was...my cell phone sitting at the bottom of my bag...all wet!!  I grabbed it, dried it off, and pushed the on button.  Nothing happened.  My phone was broken.  

I came home and blow dried it for a while.  It didn't help.  Ryann set it on the XBox while the XBox was running to see if the heat and fan would help any.  After two days he plugged it in and it turned on.  The only problem was that it would only turn on when it was plugged in to the wall.   Of course this doesn't do any good when it's a cell phone.  At this point I had decided it wasn't meant for me to have a cell phone.

...7 days later...I'm getting ready for a weekend of scrapbooking with the girls and I realize that I will be stuck without a cell phone while I'm away from the kids...not a good thing.  So I have Ryann set up an appointment for me to take my cell in to the Apple store...knowing that they're just going to tell me that the sensor shows that there was water damage and that there is nothing they can do.  

I dragged all three boys to the Apple store and very innocently tell the Apply guy that my phone won't work when it's not plugged in.  Of course the first thing he does is take out his flashlight and look at the dumb water sensor on my phone.  He tells me nothing that I didn't already know and then says he's going to go in the back and take a look at the inside of the phone.  

10 minutes later he comes back with my poor phone and another box in his hand.  He tells me I'm lucky because only 1 of the 4 water sensors was tripped so it is still covered by the warranty.  He has me sign a couple papers, gives me my new iPhone, and I'm sent on my way.  That's it...I now have a new iPhone with a password lock on it and no kids games loaded on it.  I'm hoping it stays that way.  KIDS, MY PHONE IS NO LONGER A TOY!

So, long story short, today I am grateful for electronic warranties, no rain in Vegas, and my wonderful husband who has a lot of patience for me.

Tommy's new look

I know this pictures is blurry, but it's the best one I've been able to get with Tommy's newest face...complete with nose crunch and buck teeth...When he makes the face he breathes in heavy through his nose and looks real serious.  You can always tell when he's doing it even if you're not looking at him because you can hear him.  It cracks the boys up!  

 

Utah State Fair

A few weeks ago we went to Park City with Trina's family and Aunt GA.  We enjoyed watching the leaves change colors while we were there and expected the weather to be nice and cool when we came back to Vegas!  While we were there we went to the Utah State Fair on Chace's birthday. 

When you ask Chace what his favorite thing about his birthday was, he'll tell you it was the trampoline.  Chace, Luke and Isaac all did the bungie cord, and they loved it.  Chace even got a few back flips in.  

Waiting in line to get on the bungie jump.

Saddling up

 

 

Luke's first day of pre-school

Luke started preschool this year and feels like such a big boy now.  He's so proud of his backpack and is always excited to show me his work each day when I pick him up.  Here's a few pictures I took of him before we left the house on his first day...okay, maybe it's more than just a few...I just couldn't decide which ones I liked the best.  :)