Way To Ruin It For Me!

What's worse than having no brownies?

Having a big fat 3 year old face print in the middle of them!

(Can you see the chin print at the bottom of the pan and the nose print just above)

Stir Crazy

It has set in...the boys and I are stir crazy. So today Matt and I decided to drive east and find out what was in Springerville. Nothing. No, I guess that's an exaggeration.



They have a park, 2 actually, however one had a pioneer cemetery right in the middle of it and it somehow didn't seem appropriate to play on the jungle gym while swinging over 100 year old headstones.
The city park had 2 very important qualifications 1) it was fenced in 2) it had grass. Up here in Pinetop they don't believe in nice lush green grass for the kids to play on. They prefer little tiny pebbles, sand, and dirt.




Matt doesn't think Jemma is really smiling, but I swear everytime I talk to her and click my tongue at her she smiles.

Jacks and Bennett loved the park. The day was nice and warm and they got to run around like wild animals. We played for a while then ran to the deli, picked up lunch, and took it back to the park. We stayed for another couple of hours then headed home.

Funny Thing

I had to write this down before I forgot.
Yesterday I was cutting Bennett's hair and he wanted to look in the mirror. I handed him my makeup compact.
He opened it up, looked deep into the mirror and said, "I'd like to see my father please."
I guess he's watched a little too much Beauty and the Beast.

Valentine's Day Fun!

For Valentine's Day Matt and I went all out for the kids and took them to McDonalds Playland (since they were already sick with colds, we figured - Why not? Let's spread the wealth). I, of course, sat in the car with Jemma. No need to subject her to that kind of torture so early in life. And just when the boys thought life couldn't get any better we allowed them to paint and make sugar cookies.


Jacks was more interested in body painting. Unfortunately we found out that they shinny acrylic paint we bought doesn't wash off as easily as we thought.

Bennett however, is turning into quite the artist. He makes sure he paints every nook and cranny of any project. By the way, thanks mom for the bird house. He's been dying to paint it ever since you left.
I had envisioned my sugar cookies looking a bit more Martha Stewart, but I got lazy in the end.

A Whole Lotta Pics!

After a few days in the hospital, we were definatly ready to come home! Here are some pictures of Jemma. I thought I'd better be quick about posting them since Heather threatened my life if I didn't.

As you can see I decked her out with all pink stuff, just so we didn't have any gender confusion. In the hospital I kept calling her a him. I guess I'm just a creature of habit.

The moment we got her home, Michelle slapped some bows on her head to take pictures. I think that's what I'm going to have the hardest time with. The boys are very low maintenance, with girls you actually have to do something with their hair, I don't even do with my own hair.

I'm so glad she's FINALLY here! The part I'm most excited about, I think, is that I can actually bend over now. Yea!!!! Well, yeah, and the fact that she arrived safe and sound, I'm pretty happy about that also.



I didn't make it home for Jacksen's B-day, so we celebrated the day after. My mom and Michelle raced around and found him a cake and decorated it with one of his favorite animals, dinosaurs.
In the picture below Jacks is roaring at the dinosaurs on the cake. He likes them so much that he played with the toys for a while before he even touched the cake and ice cream.
Jacks got a riding horse for his birthday. His other favorite animal. When he lifted the blanket to see his present, my mom asked what he was going to do with it. Before he could answer, Bennett excitedly exclaimed, "Share it!"
Matt handed him a cowboy hat that Jacks kept taking off and waving in the air and saying "Yee-haw cowboy" Sort of, we're still working on the understanding his gibberish stage.

I think this year Jacks had a good birthday, thanks a good deal to Mom and Michelle for doing all the running around. Thanks you guys for coming down and helping out. The boys were so happy to have you here. You did so much for us, and we really appreciated not having to worry about what was going on at home with the boys because we knew you had all the madness under control.

Happy Birthday Jacksen!

While I'm at it I think I will post a picture of Jacksen playing outside on Tuesday. It has been close to 60 for the past few days and we enjoyed some time outside playing. Today Jacksen turns 2! Since the doctors want to keep Ashlee and Jemma for another day we will do our celebrating tomorrow but I wanted to post a picture today!

Jemma Julianne has Arrived!

This is Michelle. I have hijacked Ashlee's blog to post some pictures and info on Jemma. Ashlee and Matt went to the hospital at 7pm on Tuesday night. The plan was for them to get Ashlee going on antibiotics and then start pitocin to get the ball rolling but when they arrived Ashlee was in labor on her own. Jemma came at 4:30am on February 4th. She weighed 6 lbs 10 oz and is 19 inches long. Both Ashlee and Jemma are doing well.

Scary Picture

Since my mother and sisters are sadistic and enjoy seeing me get bigger and bigger (and more uncomfortable) by the minute, I gave in and took this lovely self-portrait for them. Don't let the smile fool you. I was really grimacing inside. By the way do you know how hard it is to take your own picture when you have to set the timer and run across the room? (Almost impossible for a pregnant lady)

Matt's Officer Training Course

Matt left me home all alone the past 2 weeks, fending for myself while he had a "dreadful" time at Officer Training. At least he said it was the longest 2 weeks of his life. I'll let you decide after viewing the pictures.

Officer Training was in Leesburg, Virginia which is about 45 minutes west of Washington D.C. On the weekend, he and some friends went over. He didn't take many pictures. Just the close up, glamour shot at the train station.

Here he is at the Smithsonian in the dinosaur exibits.

This is a picture of them at the Capital building. He's in the back up on the balcony in the black while the rest of his group is standing below, all in black. They were watching the changing of the guards.

And can you believe they couldn't decide on the winner of a game so they had a dance off. The top picture is of Matt on the left of the line clapping.

You can imagine my extreme pleasure in seeing this picture. I guess he thought the sprinkler move is still the rage in dance moves.

He did have a little class time inbetween all the fun. Here he is doing CPR on a baby dummy.

Matt also volunteered to be on flag duty. Every morning and every night he would raise and lower the flag. Eagle scouts really did come in handy for him. Matt's at the middle post.

This is a pic of them marching to the flag pole.

This was the squad he was placed with while at training.

Here he is getting his pins put on. I think this man is the Admiral who came to speak at their course graduation.

And last, but not least. For your viewing pleasure. Here is Matt doing the can-can with his squad. It's a wonder on the things you need to learn in order to be an officer in the military.

As you can see it was all work and no play. I felt really bad for him when he called and said he was so bord. All he had to do in the evenings was watch football or sleep. Boo-hoo. I felt even worse for him when he came home and wanted to take a nap, because he was just-so-tired! But me, being the absolute mean wife, didn't let him. Instead I made sure the kids were hyped up on sugar, then locked myself in the room and took a nice long nap myself.

Christmas

No one ever has called me a procrastinator, so I suppose it's time to get my act together and finally display our Christmas pics.
Matt and I were so excited about Bennett's Santa present. He has been really big into camping and wanting us to constantly build him forts with blankets. We thought a tent complete with a tunnel to a tee-pee would be the ticket.

Bennett walked out of his room Christmas morning, point to the tent exclaiming "I can't like that!" What a stinker!!! Matt and I just stared at him. I think at one point I even threatened him that he would like it or else. He must have caught my point, because soon there after he was enjoying it throughly.

Jacks was in bliss with all the ride on toys that were availiable to him. He received a Diego trike from Santa. Then a dump truck/ride on from Uncle Bill and Aunt Robin. They also gave Bennett this nice red motorcycle that Jacks would not allow him to play with. He went from bike to bike and was in absoulute heaven. That is until someone else dared to try and ride something.




My Chirstmas present came a couple days early. I was such a good girl this year and was rewarded with 2 feet of snow. I had forgot to write Santa a letter to explain exactly what I wanted, but somehow he figured it out.