Happy Birthday Jack- party pictures

It's party time!

Jack wanted a "race car" themed birthday party.  I had a lot of fun putting this together for him. Here are some of the highlights!!

Here's the "figure 8" race track cake I made for Jack

We played "pit stop", and these guys were my "pit crew".  They had to change the tires on my race car, and do it while blindfolded and after being spun around. Whew, we had tires everywhere!  ( note the traffic cone party hats!)

We made race cardboard box race cars and had a relay race.  We were going to spray paint a track around the backyard but it's been raining non-stop and the "swamp-like" conditions forced a change of venue to the basement.  Check out the goggles and helmets too! They were so cute, and Matt even got in and raced a round against the kids!  We also played "car bingo" and red-light, green-light. It was a really fun time for everyone!

Thanks to all our friends for the totally awesome presents Jack got.

Here's megan, thoroughly enjoying pizza, cake and ice cream.  You think she's a mess here, she was being so quiet, we let her sit there and enjoy herself while the party continued on.  By the time we took her out of her seat, this mess was EVERYWHERE!!!

Jack got some cowboy boots! and oh how he loves them....

It's kind of tricky getting the pants over them though...

Okay, now he's ready for his "tough guy" pose...  don't mess with him, you might get hurt!

Six years of Jack!

Here's our Jack over the past six years!

2003

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2004

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2005

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2006

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2007

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2008

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2009

We love you Jack. You are our sweet and cuddly, serious and crazy, thoughtful and helpful, smart and totally awesome super six year old!

Here's a bunch of Halloween Pictures

Trunk or treating at the Ward Building
As you can see, This year for halloween, Jack was Batman (after changing his mind 300 times between batman, transformer, army man, and vampire)  Brianna dressed up as cindrella, and megan who originally was going to be a ladybug (hello... BUG!) but I decided that the little princess fairy dress up clothes were just too cute to ignore.  We had a very busy but very fun Halloween night.

fun and games at the skate barn

A Hayride at the Shaws

Candy is GOOD!!!

Ohh yeah!



We told the kids that they had one week to eat as much candy as they could, but whatever wasn't gone by Sunday night, we would either throw away or give away.  They decided that they wanted to send the leftovers to Uncle Clint.  So that next Monday I stuffed a gallon size bag of candy into a box and sent it down to Fort Campbell KY for Uncle Clint to share with all his army buddies. 

EEWW! Slime!

Okay, so I caught the Halloween spirirt and wanted to make some slime for the kids. I didn't have any borax and we couldn't run to the store because megan was asleep (hence the willingness to get involved in a messy project).  I found a "recipe" for slime that was just water and cornstarch and food coloring.  Once we got the right ratio for the best consistency, we had some ooey gooey very messy and very easily cleanable fun!

Awesome Possum!

Brianna, excited to earn some stamps on her chart, asked me to teach her how to fold laundry! This little girl folded a whole load of "darks" with just a little help from mom!  Brianna, you are such an "awesome possum"!

Jack was feeling creative.  He got out the tinker toys and asked me to help him try to build the same thing that was on the container.  Well, it didn't turn out exactly the same, but Jack decided to make a few adjustments and... ta-da! here you have a handy dandy "sock washer".  Jack, you're such an "awesome possum"

After seeing Brianna dig through the dress up box to get ready for her "dancing show", Megan decided she wanted to join in all the girly fun.  Brianna picked out a few things that are too small for her now and we helped Megan into this lovely ensemble.  When my little "Bug" started doing her adorable little dance (imagine... stomping/ marching, mixed with clumsy twirling and waving arms) I couldn't help but think "Wow, Meggie, you are such an awesome possum"

Sponge curlers

Okay, so I visited my childhood the other night.  I bought the girls some of the sponge curlers that my mom used to put in my hair when I was a little girl.  I remember feeling so fancy with those curlers in my hair, and I loved it, even though they are terrible uncomfortable to sleep in.  Brianna tried to humor me a couple of times, trusting in my promise to her of gorgeous flowing curls.  Well, something didn't quite work out right, and we've both moved on, but I still have fond memories of, as a small child, going to bed saturday night with curlers in my hair!

Firemen Rock!

We had a neat opportunity to go tour the new fire station in town.  The kids had a blast climbing around all the trucks, checking out the kitchen and bedrooms, trying out the fire hose visiting with firefighters and learning all about fire safety.

Scary Pumpkin!

In preparation for the ward "fall festival" (which included a jack-o-lantern carving contest) we got carving a little early this year ( first week of october ) . I was obviously a little concerned that our creation wouldn't survive the month and get to see Halloween night.  I read on the internet that spraying the thing down with lysol will keep the germies at bay and you'll go longer without the classic, rotten pumpkin black fuzzy mold.  As you can see, less than a week later I concluded that the lysol advice was worthless.  We all agreed that the other two pumpkins would be just that... pumpkins. Heck, it's a lot of work and a lot of mess carving pumpkins, but I have to say, my spider was pretty cool...and SCARY!

do you salsa?

(beginning of October)

Thanks Al Gore, you've saved us from "global warming".  Thanks to the early frost, I still had a ton of green tomatoes.  We put them in the window in the basement. About half were either rotten by the frost or didn't ripen,  but the other half we got one more batch of salsa out of. This year we have bottled so much salsa and diced tomatoes( probably close to 100 pints).  If we had to live off our food storage, at least we'd have a lot of salsa flavored rice.... YUM!

(beginning of November)

Bugs don't just crawl

Well everyone, it's kind of like sasquatch, or the loch ness monster. People talk about it, but there's not any solid proof. Here it is folks, we finally have video proof that megan is actually figuring out how to walk. She's getting more and more confident, and thinks that we are cheering for her falling down. She'll stand up and then plop and then look around like "come on, guys, cheer for me, right?" With matt home, we got her hard work recorded for posterity. Oh, and yes, that is Brianna throwing a completely ridiculous tantrum in the background. I know we are horrible parents who expect her to ... gasp... eat her dinner. So the question is, "is that Brianna or Megan saying 'I'm running away'? "Don't worry, it all worked out, and we're all so proud of Megan and how big she's getting.

Let's go fly a kite

"Jack, will you help me fly my kite?" Brianna asked

"sure, let's go" Jack replied enthusiastically

"okay, but it's not very windy out there, so you'll have to make the wind okay?" Brianna added

"oh, alright" Jack said

(baby) girls gone wild

Shield your eyes everyone, Megan has a new "talent". This morning, when Megan woke up from her morning nap her shirt was off. That's right folks, my little girl is learning how to strip! We thought that maybe it was some weird fluke or something, but no. This afternoon Brianna yelled in surprise "mommy, Megan just took her shirt off all by herself". I guess we'll be leaning more toward the shirts with the snaps underneath from now on (especially during the upcoming winter months ;) Don't worry, this is a family blog so there'll be no pictures for this post.

Our miracle called NAET

Okay, so back in May, I posted that we were going to try some treatment called naet to help Megan with here allergies. This poor baby has spent the past nine months or so enduring terrible itchiness, with skin problems such as severe dryness and oozing hives. No, not simply eczema, but a terrible allergic reaction to several foods. We took her diet down to the bare minimum. No milk, soy, eggs, wheat, nuts, bananas, tomatoes, or citrus. We had her on a hypo-allergenic formula called alumentum at $25.00 for a five day supply, even though it had a little bit of soy in it, but it was the best we could do for her. We found out about this treatment, (which is dismissed by most medical doctors), that claimed to be able to rid a person of allergies with no medicine and nothing invasive... and really, it was our best.. and only viable option. I just couldn't accept that this was the way I was going to have to raise my daughter, not if there was someone out there who said they could help her. We went on the website naet.com and Matt called an RN named Becca Skrainka. We picked her because naet's website tells you who has had what and how much training by Dr Devi Nabudripad, and Becca had the most of all the people in the region. After Matt talked with her and tried to explain what this is, I was a little skeptical, calling it "voo-doo". But then, the miracle happend. I say miracle, because I feel that miracles happen all the time when the Lord answers our prayers. Matt and I chanced upon a story that the news just happend to run the very next day. http://www.kmov.com/video/topvideo-index.html?nvid=354873&she=1 Watch it and tell me that you wouldn't sign up! Becca charges $50.00 a visit and we go every monday. At first I wasn't sure if we were making any progress, because at first you have to treat a lot of basic things that don't show convincing results. But we're now past the basics. We have made huge strides. We have conquered milk, soy, eggs and wheat!!!! My baby is now able to drink regular cow's milk and I can tell you that 3 bucks for a week supply of whole milk vs. $25 for 5 days of the alumentum, it won't be long before the $50 a week we've payed her pays off. These past few weeks have been full of firsts for my little "Bug". First... pancake... yum! mac-n-cheese... messy... scrambled eggs... not her fav., but mixed with hashbrowns cheese and ham and we've got something going. And this just in, Cake and Ice cream. She loves animal crackers! can you believe it, I almost can't. Sometimes I'm sure she's thinking, "golly mom, why is this the first time I've tried an animal cracker, you've been holding out on me!" I swore that "if this naet thing works, I'll scream it from the rooftops" Well, we live out in the middle of nowhere, so I don't think many would get my message if I did that. So here I am, telling anyone who happens to read this, that it worked for us. I know that there are so many people who suffer from allergies, not just food, not just hayfever. If you have any adverse reaction to anything in your environment... then something about energy being blocked has something to do with it. I still don't understand exactly how it works, but what I do know is that just because it hasn't been "proven" by the medical doctors, doesn't mean it doesn't hold value. My baby's face is clearer than it's been since she was 4 months old. The dry patches all over her body are gone and the scabs from the scratching on her arms and legs are fading. My beautiful baby can now make it through the grocery store without every well meaning stranger quizzing us about what's wrong and what we're doing about it. And she's finally (at 14 months, bless my heart) sleeping through the night.
It took time (about 4-5 months) before we started seeing results, it took patience and it took faith. I've felt so good about this from the moment I saw that video on the news, that I knew I couldn't give up, and I'm so glad I didn't. Becca (who has grown quite attached to Megan) said to her the other day "you're going to love me for the rest of your life.. well you probably won't remember me but your parents better tell you about me!" Oh, we will.... we will.

A Presentation worth noting

Today was the primary's sacrament meeting presentation in our ward. I don't miss the stress of being in charge of that, but the current Primary president did a great job.

I was a little concerned at first, because out of context, my children's parts seemed a little short. Jack's was "...because I can be resurrected" and Brianna's was "I know my family can be together forever". They had it organized like the teachers were presenting a lesson, and the children were responding to the questions they were asked. It was a nice format and my kids knew their parts very well.

It was fun to see their individual personalities show while they were up there on the stand. Brianna, up in front with the other sunbeams, was trying to be reverent. But it is hard when you are singing... on a stage... with an audience... to not be a fabulous dancer as well! Jack, who I know knows all the songs, was very reverent. He too was in the front (on the other side, near the sacrament table). For each song, he'd stand up and...well... stand there, very still. I think he was scared stiff at all the people looking back at him. Thankfully he did manage to sing parts of a few of the songs.

I absolutely love "primary presentation sunday". I love how those sweet little voices are so quiet in the microphone, so you almost need to l e a n f o r w a r d to hear them, until one poor kid mis-judges how loudly or how close he needs to hold the microphone and we all get thrown back into our seats. I love watching as each of the children, at all ages, smiles and waves to someone special in the congregation, and then turning around and seeing all the mommies and daddies waving back. I love how during the songs, the voices most heard are the confident Senior primary girls, and the exuberant Junior primary boys.

But most of all, I love how the Gospel of Jesus Christ is taught in a way that everyone can appreciate it's simple, yet profound beauty. I love that as my children sing the primary songs, they are learning the truthfulness of the saving principles of the Gospel. So here's a big shout out to all the primary presidencies, teachers, and music leaders who work so hard and stress so much and hope and pray that the children can behave and sing and remember their parts. It is SO worth the effort.

I love "primary presentation sunday"!!!

Turned "two wheeler" in about two hours

Okay, so this was actually a couple of weeks ago, but I'm a little slow getting things uploaded. Brianna decided she wanted to try it, so we took the wheels off. By the time I went in to get the camera, and came back out, she was trying it on her own. So check out these videos of my awsome bike riders. The bottom one is the before, and the top one is the after...Megan, your next... okay we'll give you a couple more years

Oh, and by the way, this was the first time Jack figured out how to ride his bike while standing up on the pedals. So add that to his ability to make a "skunk stripe" when he slams on his breaks and yeah, his coolness level just went up about 5 points!