Preston's Birthday(s)

Preston has been counting down to his birthday FOREVER. He knew that it was after Christmas time so the day after Christmas he woke up thinking it was his birthday. Sorry kid, a few more weeks!
He actually had 3 birthday parties because he's a lucky boy! 

Birthday #1: his actual birthday. It started the day before his birthday, birthday eve, when he got to have a late night and stay up really late playing video games & sleep on the couch- something he really loves doing. He had school on his birthday and we all went to bring a treat for his class. He picked fruit roll ups and gogurt. 2 favorites. He picked steak for his birthday dinner with french fries. After dinner we went to Toys R Us for him to pick out a new toy, per our birthday tradition. And then stopped for donuts on the way home! 

If you wonder why he's got that strange look on his face it's because he was just crying right before I took the picture. I can't remember why but having late nights makes him a tired emotional boy. 

His birthday crown that he got at school. 

Donut time! 

Birthday #2- This one was with my side of the family! Preston is REALLY into Pokemon right now and wanted his cake to be a pokemon character. He changed his mind about 10 times about which one he wanted and finally the morning of the party decided he wanted some snake pokemon named Arbok. 

This birthday dinner he picked ribs for dinner. Expensive taste! We had mashed potatoes and corn bread along with them. 

Birthday #3- With the Reynolds side of the family celebrating the January birthdays. This menu was shredded beef/chicken tacos with bean dip and chips with ice cream sundaes and berry pie. Super yummy!!! He got so many great gifts at the party. Lots of markers/art supplies which he loves, some magnetic sand and new toys.
He insisted on wearing his birthday shirt for all 3 parties & eating off the birthday plate for all 3 as well. 

And finally his birthday radius is over! He's 5! So much older then 4.
He had his 5yr old checkup and he's doing great. Some ear issues that we are working on getting fixed, but other then that great! We got him registered for Kindergarten this week if you can believe it. He's pretty stoked for that and the idea that he gets to eat lunch at school and ride on a big bus with no seat belts.  Takes such little things to make him happy :) 

Just another Manic Monday

Sometimes I get texts from my #1 blog fan Jimmy that look like this:

"Jess. You haven't updated your blog in awhile."

"Jess. Blog."

"Jesssss"

And I try to tell him that nothing big is going on in my life that is blog worthy and this post is proof!

This was my Monday.

4:40- wake up and go to the gym for my Mon/Wed/Fri 5:15 body pump class. 

Every Monday after class I go grocery shopping. I love it. I use to hate grocery shopping but I've discovered going at 6:30 on a Monday morning is wonderful. Best part is that they always have flowers on clearance! $2.50 for a nice bouquet is great. Other fun tips for the grocery store: buy frozen chopped onions instead of regular onions to chop. Or buy frozen chopped bell peppers when bell peppers aren't on sale.
So then I came home and unloaded the groceries and put them away then got Lucas up and dressed (b/c im lucky to have a baby who sleeps from 730-730) and we were off to the next thing. 

Lucas had his 15 month checkup!
He's so great. He's close to 27 pounds, I can't remember how tall, just that it's in the 80% and his head circumference is still 99%, but hey thats less then what it was- 103% 

Look how cute he is!! The doctor is very pleased with his progress and how smart he is. He really is smart. He babbles all the time and just copies everything anyone says. So he got 1 shot which he handled like a champ and then we were off to the next thing. 

We had a little time in between appointments so we came home & I put some laundry in, changed out of my gym clothes and into normal clothes and washed dishes- since the dishwasher is broken and probably not getting replaced soon. Good thing I have so much dish washing experience! Organized the pantry since I put the groceries away in such a hurry that morning.
Then Preston got ready for school and we took off for his ENT appointment.
Got his ears checked & one of his tubes is out and there is a big hole in his eardrum and the other is out and has healed but there is fluid behind the eardrum- which is why we had to get the tubes done in the first place. So we have to wait a few weeks and see what the fluid does. If it stays then we have to have a tube put back in that ear and leave the hole in the other. If it goes away then we will have to have a procedure to patch the hole in the eardrum. And then we are considering having his tonsils and adnoids removed due to his snoring/allergies/breathing. 

Then I took him to get a "fun lunch" at Sonic before school.
Dropped him off at school and then came home to do the next thing. 

Had about an hour so I switched out the laundry, hung out with the boys and Patrick for a few minutes, had some lunch and then brushed my teeth a few times before going to the dentist. 

Good news for me, no cavities!! 

Came home, had a chat with my favorite Texan & then started dinner!
Cleaned up dinner, folded the laundry, took care of some boys, put a baby to bed, went for a run, showered, hung out with the boys more and that was it.

So you see, normal boring busy day that makes for a normal boring blog post. 

Highlights from our 2014!!

2014 is almost over (already?!/finally!) and I thought we should do a recap of our year! The year started out REALLY hard & was even dubbed "the year of the tubes" but we survived and are stronger then ever- physically, mentally and spiritually.

PATRICK

Patrick is enjoying his last year in his 20's- lest we forget he is 3 years younger then I am & he loves it. But soon he will know what it's like to enter your 30's! He is still working at Go Daddy and in March switched from working graveyard shift as a supervisor over to a day shift on the Premier Services team. Thank goodness! Those 8 months he worked nights were rough on us all. In the middle of the year he was released as a counselor in Elders Quorum and put in as Elders Quorum president. El Presidente is enjoying the calling & doing great in it. He still makes the best jerky in all the land & if you ask nicely he'll make you some just how you like it. He had his turn with "year of the tubes" when he had an outpatient procedure this year to have some nasal polyps removed. He can breath a lot better now which is always a plus. He works so hard for our family & we love him so much for it. The boys all adore him & from the second he gets home someone is demanding his attention.

JESS

The year saw a lot of me taking boys to doctors/specialists and dealing with the never ending boy tornado that rips through the house everyday. Seriously in one week I had yogurt dumped in my hair twice. TWICE! I was released as YW 1st counselor and put in as a primary teacher for 10 & 11 year olds and as a Den Leader for 8&9 year olds. Good thing I've got some experience in dealing with boys! I had a weight loss goal that I came so close to hitting (46 out of 50 lbs lost) but will keep working on that this next year. I participated (almost willingly) in my 1st sprint triathlon- 400m swim, 12 mile bike, 5k run. Don't know if I'll be doing that again since swimming is not my thing, but it was a good experience. Right now I'm training for the Phoenix half marathon in February. I bit the bullet and got glasses at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year traded them in for contacts. I'm still getting use to them....

PRESTON

Preston turned 4 in January and immediately started asking when he would turn 5. 16 days btw. He went back to preschool with the same teacher as last year Ms. Claire and loves it. He's kindergarten ready & is looking forward to going to the big kids school and eating lunch there. He had tubes put in his ears in March after countless ear infections & they seemed to help. We will be going to the ENT in January to discuss getting his tonsils out to possibly help with all the strep/allergy/ear issues he has. He was in Sunbeams this year which means he did his first talk in church & participated in his first primary program. He was a big hit during the program & lots of people commented on how funny he was.

He is always coming up with funny phrases, like saying his nose has a shield when it's stuffy & confusing the words overcast with flabbergast. He went through a lot of phases this year- power rangers, angry birds, big hero 6 & is currently into Pokemon. He's a bit of a homebody (like his parents) but asks to go to a fun places like the movie theatre for popcorn or the phoenix childrens museum often. He wants so badly to be big and do things big kids & his dad does, in fact one of his favorite things to do is have a late night with his daddy playing video games- which he is really good at! 

JAXTON

Oh Jaxton. Our daily emotional roller coaster. If being 2 is hard you should see what its like being 3. Jaxton started working with AZEIP (az early intervention program) for his speech delay and then in November when he turned 3 started at the same school Preston goes to. He even has the same teacher! He LOVES going to school which is great. He became potty trained early in the year which was nice to only have 1 in diapers again! After some weird glucose issues- peeing alllllll the time, like 6 times a night, endless thirst, almost passing out in the mornings we had some blood work done and discovered he's hypoglycemic. How much better life has become now that we know he functions better with some juice right when he wakes up.

He's definitely our outside boy & isn't too interested in tv/movies and such which is fine. We predict he will be the first to break a bone since he is so all over the place and fearless. He starts Sunbeams in January and that will be interesting. But as long as they have snacks I think he will be happy! 

LUCAS
Lucas had a rough rough year. Poor baby had 3 brain surgeries in 3 months. Lucky for him since they placed the internal subdural to paritaniel shunt he's been doing really really well. So far he hasn't showed any major delays from the issues he had. He is working with AZEIP also to make sure there aren't any developmental delays and he's great. Of course my kid who had brain surgeries is my fastest walker/crawler/best eater. He is showing speech delays already, but that runs in the family. 

Lucas did the most growing this year I think, as a baby will do. He learned to sit up, stand, crawl, walk, run, turned 1, got 6 teeth, knows a handful of words he knows and is just a chatterbox trying to repeat everything he hears. Besides eggs there isn't a food he doesn't like. He ADORES his brothers and is the instigator for most of the wrestling matches that happen around here. He has the most infectious smile. Hopefully this next year we have less doctor visits for him and just as many smiles.

Other things that happened this year that we enjoyed:

Dress like a cow day at Chik-fil-a, Phoenix Childrens Museum, Pump it Up, 4th of July festivities, Splash pad, Temple open house, awesome Halloween costumes, the chance to serve others, Az State Fair, new fridge, Thanksgiving with family, 6 year wedding anniversary!, playing outside, Golfland, Swimming, Getting a dog (Louie), Park trips, playing games, making forts. 

Seems like there is never enough time in the day but the time we have we try to enjoy.
Happy New Year!!!!!

This is ALL Christmas

Ok. I thought it best to do 1 big long post all about Christmas and then it's done and we can move on to other things. Like Preston's birthday in 17 days.

So the week before Christmas the boys had Christmas parties at school. I try to go to all of their school functions if I can b/c I love how happy and proud they are showing me things in their room. Plus its nice to see things that are going on in their class that I can ask them about.

So first up was Jaxton's party. Lucas and Preston went along to this one. First we made ice cream cone Christmas trees. And ate them. We did other things too like play "Rudolph Rudolph wheres your nose?" and an obstacle course outside. I love their school and their teachers. 

After Jaxton got out we had 40 minutes before Preston had to go to school so we rushed to Sonic to get a "fun lunch" and ate it at the park and then rushed to get Preston to school. 

I then took #2 and #3 to go play at Rox's and went solo to Preston's party. MUCH easier that way! 

We tried to go simple for the teacher gifts this year but dressed them up by making them into snow globes. 

We went simple with our treats to our neighbors too. Nothing is more simple then oreo truffles in a makeshift basket via a paper plate!

We had a Christmas party at my grandpa's house the weekend before Christmas. It was nice to be able to continue the tradition of Christmas party at Grandpa's with a younger generation. Sad to say my boys weren't on their best behavior at the party. Missing naps and blood sugar issues bring out the worst in us. 

Christmas Eve we had our usual Christmas Eve dinner- White Chicken Chili! 

But first there were other activities before stuffing our faces. 

We started the day with an early trip to the doctor. Preston has a bacterial infection of the outer ear. 

Then we raced back over to Marc and Chelsey's house for the annual Christmas Eve breakfast party. It was sad not having Patrick with us- he had to work, but the boys and I did just fine.

That night Laura and her  kids came over to help us eat the chili and visit for a bit. 

And then finally it was Christmas!! Lucky for "Santa" he had the good sense to assemble some of the gifts before Christmas Eve. "Mrs. Clause" didn't have such good sense and ran out of tape TWICE while wrapping presents that night. 

And time out. Can we talk about our Christmas tree for a second? I feel like I should get an award for letting go of some control this holiday season. The boys really wanted colored lights up on the tree which is fine except some of the ones blinked and other strands didn't and it drove me CRAZY and I ignored it! And I let Patrick and the boys hang up all the ornaments and didn't even move them all how I wanted when they weren't looking! Thats kind of a big deal. 

Present time!!! 

Present Recap.
Preston- a big boy bike, spikey helmet, Pokemon ball, Scout boy shirt and 2 books plus little stocking stuff. 

Pretty sure he's the only 4 year old in the world who wanted a boy scout shirt for christmas. 

Jaxton- train table (thank you jimmy/mallory for picking that up on black friday!), a big big helicopter, pokemon doll, 5 Pete the Cat books & socks

Lucas- a cookie counting jar, a crank car that pops into a robot, new shoes. 

I think they were happy with what they got. It was a hard Christmas with Patrick working all day, and having worked Christmas Eve and then the days after Christmas. Takes away some of the togetherness and can make a person feel lonely. But he works so hard for our family and we are grateful for that & know that if he could have it any other way he would! 

The night ended with a lovely Christmas dinner (ham, macaroni and cheese, rolls, corn, and dessert) and then we had a video chat with Jimmy and Andrew and their significant others.
If you are wondering what a video chat between us looks like, it involved a lot of just making weird faces in the camera. 

Typical.