Going Private

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We have words!

I've been a tad bit worried about Jamesen's speech since he's a bit behind. He's never passed Marcus in how behind he is though, so I've not been worrying too much. Lately though, I've got no need to worry, he's saying new words everyday!

Yesterday we were in a store at the mall. I was holding Jamesen while Sabe followed Marcus around. Sabe went past us and Jamesen clear as day said "Daddy" for the first time. It was so cute!! He said yummy today to the french toast and eggs I made him (another awwww!). He's been saying "done" regularly when he's finished with his food and wants out of his high chair and has also started saying "down". All these new words are on top of the ones he's already got, hi, bye, mommy, doggy, kitty, etc. I know it's not a ton, but it makes me heart sing to know he's talking. He's talking way more than Marcus at this age at least!

Speaking of Marcus, he's amazing me too. He's saying new phrases daily as well and is catching up quickly. He says bye bye to everything now days "Bye-bye daddy" when he leaves, "Bye-bye Ponyo" when the movie stopped, "Bye-bye poopy". We giggle about that one because usually it's followed with a "See yah!" I hope not son. I really hope not.

It's so funny how something can make you so happy when to others it seems so mundane. I've had a lot of people tell me that Marcus will soon explode with talking and I'll wish he would shut up. Honestly, with how long it's taken him to even get to these few word phrases, I can never see that happening. This boy will have his momma hang on his every word for the rest of life I'm afraid! Whether that's a good or bad thing is to be announced...

Jamesen is still just as clingy to me as ever. He gets really jealous when I pay attention to anybody else. He could be completely distracted by something, but the minute Sabe comes over for a peck or a quick squeeze, oh man! Jamesen comes running over and wants to be in the middle! Heaven forbid I pay attention to Marcus either. We were dancing around the living room yesterday and Marcus went behind the couch. He came out crying and holding his eye. He's got a slight black eye from whatever happened. Anyways, I was comforting Marcus and Jamesen was pretending to hurt himself to get attention too. It got to the point where he climbed up on the rest of my lap and whacked Marcus in the head with his own head, just to get attention from me. Well, not sure if he really meant to do it, but I laughed anyways. Poor Marcus. I couldn't help but giggle at them while they were both wailing away on my lap.

I think that's it for now. My laptop broke so there won't be any new pictures as they're all stuck on my camera for the time being. Should get it back from being fixed in a week or two. Until then! :)

It Feels so Good...

to feel good! We were pretty sick for a bit there and spent like 3 days like this:



I learned all the words to Atlantis by heart and had I not already known Lion King by heart, I would have learned them too. Poor dudes were so lethargic and fussy :(

Now days, though, we're back to our crazy selves again and we've been re enjoying our favorite activites... such as : chasing each other around the coffee table with matchbox cars



Shaving with daddy







Writing our letters (or scribbling in J's case)



Tackling each other with loves (not one of J's faves if you can't tell)


and playing in the "shwow". Marcus and I built his first snowman today. We have tried a few other times but Jamesen likes to stomp on the first ball before I can get the second one finished. Jamesen was in with dad, so Marcus and I made a quick little snowman. He kept saying "Hug shwow?" and I'd say "You wanna hug the snow?" "OK!" and then he'd hug it and giggle when it made his ear cold. Silly kid.




Then Jamesen made it out with us. I couldn't believe how happy and smiley the boys were today. It feels like it's been so long since I've seen those huge smiles from them. I'm so glad they're feeling better.





Looking at these pics makes me think Marcus finally had his growth spurt. That first one of them together makes Marcus look a lot bigger than Jamesen. Just a few weeks ago, Jamesen was getting really close to his height and we would get people asking if they were twins all the time. Now that I think of it, those comments have slowed down a lot... I better measure him!

And I have to say, as much as we love the snow, we can't wait to go to "Dah-bye" and "Dah-Pop"'s house and play in the warm weather along with all the cool things they've got in there. Only a few more weeks! Not that I'm counting or anything...

Marcus is so awesome

He's obsessed with writing his alphabet lately and writes it any chance he gets. He was writing it all through Sacrament Meeting at church today on his little doodle pad and then when we picked him up from class, his page he was supposed to be coloring had the alphabet on it instead. He's written his name quite a few times and gets so proud of himself!

He's started writing the numbers out but always skips 15. I've been trying really hard to correct him but nothing I do will add 15 in there. I might have found a solution though. I usually have the boys watch a movie when they wake up because they get up WAY too early for me. It's usually a Disney movie, but I've started changing that to Leap Frog movies. Jamesen has been trying to say his letters now too. Little smarty pants!

Well, there's really nothing else to day. We've all been sick and other than leaps and bounds in my digital scrapbooking, the kids haven't done anything exciting! Not other than the letters anyways :)

What a Difference

It amazes me the difference in my friendships here compared to everywhere else. Since I left Shauna back in Vegas, I've had a single friend that put as much into our friendship as I did. Most of the time they were only my friend because I'm too nice, too trusting, to friendly...

The difference this time, is that I've met these people through church rather than meeting them because they're my neighbor, or work with Sabe. I can't even tell you what a difference that makes.

Marcus has been really sick the last few days with a high fever. Since we don't have insurance for another month, I didn't want to rush to take him to the Dr but it wasn't getting better. It was getting steadily worse and his fever was extremely persistent. After 3 days, I called one of my friends up to see if her husband would give Marcus a blessing. He came right over. Within an hour of the blessing, Marcus' temp went lower than it had been in days and he was acting like himself. I text her to thank her and do you what she said?

"I'm so glad I was able to help. Let me know if I can do anything else. In fact, can I bring dinner over for you guys tomorrow?" I was shocked. Most of the "friends" I've had in my 6ish years since I've graduated high school have never offered to help me like that. She had already helped me by being available and now she wants to make my family dinner too!

I honestly had a hard time accepting it. After a couple more texts between each other I sent her "thanks for being sweet" and she sent back "That's what friends are for."

That's what friends are for. It seems like I'm always on the giving side of that phrase, not on the receiving. Not to sound selfish or anything, but it feels really good to be on the receiving end for once.

So thank you, friend of mine, for taking time out in your day to make a woman who's been through more than you know feel loved and welcomed. It means more than realize.

Jamesen the Crappy Sleeper

may possibly... maybe... have taken a back seat in this family, giving way for Jamesen the Awesome Sleeper to come through. He's slept through the night 3 out of the last 4 nights and to top it off, on the same 3 nights, he's slept in too! He never sleeps in. He's usually up between 630 and 730 but the last few mornings he's gotten up after 8 with this morning making a record of getting up at 9! Sad for me, I've not been able to sleep in any of those mornings because of Marcus, but at least I don't have to sleep train Marcus. I just need to get him back into his groove of sleeping.

I can't even tell you how relieved I am that Jamesen finally sleeping. I thought it was bad when Marcus didn't sleep through the night until 15 months, but once we put him into his toddler bed, it was like he was instantly sleeping better. Jamesen has taken awhile with his first time sleeping through the night being right before 18 months. Better late than never!

I wish I had better news on the subject of church though. Having two kids transition to different classes at the exact same time is proving to be really really hard. Marcus doesn't want to go to Primary because he wants to be in Nursery with the toys rather than with the lesson. Jamesen doesn't mommy to leave so he's super stressed too.

Today wasn't fun to say the least. I took Marcus to Primary and had him sit with his teacher so that I could take Jamesen to nursery. I dropped J off and went back to M who was crying "Mommy?!" which broke my heart. Jamesen lasted maybe 15 minutes before he was brought to me, doing his hyperventilating cry which only has one fix, me. So then for the next 10 or so minutes I had two fussy clingy boys sitting on my lap. After a bit, J calmed down and wanted down so I decided to take him back to nursery. I sat with him for a few minutes and then slipped out to go back to Marcus who was screaming again.

Finally Marcus calmed down when the crayons were brought out so I went to go back and check on Jamesen but he wasn't there. Apparently they had taken him to my mother-in-law where he fell asleep. Marcus didn't make a peep when I left so I took J and went to class. It was so nice to be able to sit there and listen, even if I had a sleeping baby on me.

It wasn't fun to say the least. Though Marcus did really good for the last hourish so maybe I'll be able to drop him off here soon and not have to worry while I go help J get used to nursery. I just hope it gets better soon because today was really hard! At least I was rested :)

I'm having visions

of painting a boy's room. They'll probably both be sleeping in the same room, even if we have enough room for both... maybe not. Maybe I'll be painting two rooms. Anyways, J's half will be Lightning McQueen and M's half will be in Thomas. I'll split the walls into thirds horizontally. the top 2/3 will be white, the bottom blue with a red stripe splitting the two. Then I'll put some red and blue stripes on the white part of three walls and paint a picture of Thomas and Lightning together on the 4th wall.

It looks really awesome in my head. Wonder if it'll look that good on the walls... I also can't wait to actually decorate a house. The 4 years Sabe and I have been married, we've only stayed at one address for longer than a year and that was only by a few days. We've seriously moved so many times. The prospect of spending 3-4 years in one place sounds heavenly! I know that's kinda crazy. Most people can't imagine moving every 3 to 4 years but it would be a welcome change to stay in one place that long!

I'm going to want to paint, I already know I will. If we live on base, we'll have to paint it all white again before we move, but I think having paint for 3-4 years is worth it. I want a bright cheery kitchen, a black/red/white bedroom, a neutral living room and a playful play room. All of this of course depends on the house. I don't even know WHERE we're going, let alone what the house will look like or even if they'll have room for us on base or not.

So yes, I'm having visions of how I want my house and I'm drooling over the prospects of having a house that's ours (even if we won't be staying there forever). I think that's one thing that I really miss about Kentucky. Even though we were far away from most family, it was a house and it as ours. It was our first one. We'd been in apartments every other time. An apartment and a house are so different!

I'm gonna have to draw the boy's room out and see if actually looks good, haha!