Update from February

There were lots of fun things we did in February too and I just couldn't skip the month totally!! So I have uploaded lots of pics to do the explaining for me about all the fun activities!

First up, storytime at the library! We have been several times this month and it is lots of fun. I am surprised at how vocal and involved Cailen can be around strangers. Well...kind of surprised! He says some of the silliest things!

We went with my family and extended family to a cabin near Heber for a weekend of family time. It was lots of fun and I'm glad that my parents arranged it! Here are some pictures showing what we did!

Cailen hanging out with my aunt Kim, watching a movie.

Snowmobiling! Cailen loved it! Even when he went fast! This is of him and my dad

Mark and I took a turn too, of course!

Family trip!

Jex spent the whole time inside..of course! He was only 3 months old!

Cailen hanging out with my cousins..they were making jewelry. He apparantly thought that was cool. He made a bracelet (ha)

I have a cousin (Brennan) who is 6 months older than Cailen. Perfect! This is more like it, playing with trucks and cookies!

Jex had a friend - my cousin Peyton. She wanted to share her Piglets.

Shots of scenery and around the cabin

Later that month, I made an imprint of Jex's hand and foot to preserve how cute and little they are!

Cailen wanted to be represented too. Of course!

We made jam/jelly with my mom and grandma. Here are some lovely pics of that adventure!

(Jex was such a helper..ha)

Tasting it, to make sure it's ready!

We went on a field trip with my sis-in-law's preschool (where Cailen will go next year) to the candy factory! We all had to wear hair nets, including Jex! (HILARIOUS) His was actually a beard net, so that makes it even more funny.

We got assigned to help clean the church and since Mark was working nights, it was me and Cailen who went and I LOOOOVE how much Cailen loved helping clean. He was so excited when we had to go back for our second turn. Adorable. I hope his excitement about service stays forever!! (our job was the trash-he got to push the big trash can all over the church and was SOO excited about it!)

We had our annual Murder Mystery Dinner with Mark's fam. It had a 70's disco theme this year! I played an actress and Mark was an actor (basically John Travolta). It was lots of fun!

Mike and Wendy (the hostess)

Trisha and Craig

Jeremy and Amy with a little visitor from the future, Jex.

Kenneth an Spencer (Spencer ended up being the murderer!) P.S. Niiiiice wig Kenneth (*snicker*...)

Wow, close up! Me and Mark

Mark's mom and stepdad (Sharon and Jerry)

And Mark's Gma too! (she was basically Julia Child)

We had tang and mini pizzas, both of which were apparently a hot item back in the 70s!

I thought it would be fun and give the indoors some excitement since it was so cold out to have some science-y fun and make a volcano! Ryan jumped in and they had lots of fun making the volcano erupt like 10 times!

Cailen LOOVEs pushing Jex around in this doll stroller. It's hilarious. This was when Cailen ran to do the volcano. He abandoned Jex downstairs. Jex was nice and patient, waiting for someone to rescue him!

We went to the Safe Kids Fair and had lots of fun!

He even won a helmet!! (We tried like 4 times and the ladies took pity on him I think, and just found his name so that he could win! I'll take it!) He was soo excited, he wore it all around the rest of the fair and on the way home.

Here are some videos from our February fun!

I LOVE new things...especially when they are FREE!

A few months ago on one of the freebie blog sites I follow, they had a post about submitting a superbowl recipe to RC Willey and in exchange, RC Willey would give you a $25 gift card. I thought "Why not? What's to lose!" So I submitted a deviled egg recipe and low and behold, a few weeks later I got my gift card in the mail. SWEET! Well, then the challenge was WHAT TO GET? I mean, can you find ANYTHING in the store for $25?? Um, hardly. So I went in on the hunt. Three times. The first time, I found some amazing red lanterns. I totally wanted one. $25. Decided to think about it and the next time I was there, they were gone. Boo. So I had to look for something else. I found a few vases, some decorative bowls, even checked out the Biggest Loser game for Xbox (I hate this 5-10 lbs of baby weight that is just sticking around!) and figured I could just make those purchases cheaper. But I couldn't convince myself on any of it. So then game trip 3. I walked around the ENTIRE store, checking out EVERYTHING. Btw, I had Cailen and Jex in tow. Cailen was a big helper. He had to push JEx around the whole time. He wouldn't even let me help on the ramps (scaaaary!). But then (cue angelic music)...seriously, at the VERY end of the tour of the store, I found IT. MY NEW FABULOUS LAMP. FA-REE!! It was marked at $24.99. The coupon code wouldn't work at the register and they thought it might be because it wasn't $25 yet (how was I going to find a trinket worthy of purchase to bump it past $25? in that store??). But then, the lovely ladies at the cash register made the "price of the lamp" $25 and then took off $25! Didn't even have to pay tax or anything! Just walked out of there with my FREE lamp! It has no special place right now. Doesn't match anything. But you can better believe that when I get into my own place again, the living room will be decorated AROUND this lamp! Yay!

Giveaway obsessed

I want a new swimsuit. There is a giveaway for a new swimsuit. I enter. I win? HOPEFULLY! There are some cute swimsuits at this site, Hapari. Sigh. I like winning. I hope I win. Just thought I'd let you all know how totally obsessed with entering giveaways I am.

Jex is 4 months old!

Here are Jex's 4 month stats:



14 lbs 5 oz (36%)

26 in (86%)

41.3 cm head (26%)

We LOOOVE our little munchkin! Some of the things that Jex is doing these days (some new, some old) are cooing, drooooooooling (hello teething), bubbles, LAUGHING, big smiles, eating his hands (gnawing sometimes..back to the teething thing), try to sit up (only makes it as far as his head a little off the ground), arching out of his bouncer and once off the couch (today. lovely), crying until Mommy holds him, looking at EVERYTHING, and sleeping like poo because he is...wait for it....teething.

Jex loves to be held and played with, preferably at the same time. He loves his big brother. He LOOOOVES LOOOOOVES the bath. He kicks like a maniac when he is in there. Cailen trys to share the bathtub with him, but hates getting splashed. The other day I was getting Jex in the bath when Cailen decided he wanted to get in too. Jex commenced with the kicked and waving of arms. Cailen asked me to get Jex out. I told him that he was the one who invaded bath time! So, he looked away for most of the time, except when he was trying to tickle Jex's feet. Jex also likes to sleep on Mom and Dad's bed rather than his own bassinet. He squirms at nap time in his bassinet but then went RIGHT to sleep when put on the pillow. Jex is amazed at all the things around him which make it very fun to be around him because then HE is fun to watch too! We love our buddy!! Next up, eating solids! We''ll let you know how that goes (quick story : tried to feed him cereal the day after his 4 month appt because I was all excited, and he HATED it. I am pretty sure his immunizations hit him hard, so we are waiting a little while to try again)

Enjoy some pics of our 4 month old!

(this one is our standard one we take every month. We have Pluto in there for size comparison. He is getting BIG! Jex, not Pluto)

Happy Valentine's Day!

But most importantly, Happy Birthday to my dear hubby Mark! We need to clarify that it is his birthday first, then Valentine's Day. Just making it clear :) We always have to celebrate the two separately because Mark doesn't want to get jipped his birthday (by the way, he's the big 2-8!!). But this post isn't about his birthday so much as Valentine's day. Mostly because I made a Valentine's Day craft and want to share it :) I found this cute idea on Tater-tots and Jello and figured I could totally make this on the cheap! So here is my version:

I bought some Valentines candy at the dollar store ($2), some clothespins ($1), some foam valentines stickers ($1) which doubled as decorations for Cailen's valentines to his cousins. Then I used a pot my mom had because I couldn't find squat at the dollar store. I put in some plant foamy form stuff (you know, it's green $1) and stuck in some branches that I ripped off a tree near Layton Hills Mall and the Dollar store...yes that was me pulled over mauling the tree...it won't miss a few brances, don't worry). Then I scanned in some family photos, edited their size and made them all black and white. I matted them on lovely valentines colored construction paper. Eh voila!

Grand total: $5, sweet. My tree of love!

See if you can guess who is who!! (I'm not going to post the answers yet, hehe)

Here is who is pictured, in no particular order: My mom and dad, my sister Heather, me, my sister Michelle, my brother Ryan (I am at my parent's house after all, so I figured I needed to include everyone), Mark, Cailen and Jex. So have at it and see if you can guess who is who :)

#1 

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 This is our Valentine's tree with Mark's bday presents underneath. Cailen wanted to put the presents under the tree he said. Guess he is stuck in the Christmas mode

 We celebrated Mark's birthday yesterday because he has school and work today. So he got to open presents and blow out candles at lunch with my family and at dinner with his family. We love having family close!!

 

Now today is Valentine's day!! We woke up and had pink heart shaped pancakes for breakfast and Cailen got his Valentine's treat of CANDY. He got nerds and I got Mark some Reeses Hearts (of course). And I actually only made like 4 heart pancakes and only 2 really worked out. Cailen ate the best one of course. But I took a pic of it :) (below) Look at me being all creative.

So Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!!! I am thankful for all the loved ones in my life, both family and friends! I hope you all enjoy this day and celebrate with some loved ones of your own!

Jex is 3 months old!

I know I am sooo behind on posts, and I will try to do a catch up (of sorts) later, but first I want to post about a few of the latest things! First being that my little bebe turned 3 months today! WOW! Now I didn't take him to the dr so I don't have the "official" weight, but I made good use of the in-house bathroom scale :) Jex weighs (according to me holding him and then subtracting my weight...which you do NOT get to find out) 13.6 lbs! Getting big! Ok, for a Barber baby he is getting big, haha. He is our little darling and we love him tons. He is soo smily sometimes (other times he just looks at you like "what?"). We took him to Kiddie Kandids to get his formal 3 month pics taken (I do it every 3 months for the first year) and he was alllll smiles for the photographer! We got some cutie patootie pics taken. Then I always do my homemade portrait (sadly, I need to improve somehow with how I take these) which I take every month for the first year. With Jex, I've been trying to always have his litle Pluto dog, that Cailen gave him at the hospital, with him to kind of give a point to compare his growth. Here are some pics of my sweet angel Jexipoo :) Mark hates that nickname. Cailen calls him Jexster. Mark approves that one. Whatever. I'm the mom and I will call him ooey gooey lovey dovey girly sounding nicknames if I want to.

Jexipoo:

The standard growth comparison shot (with his "what?" face)

Cute buddy! 

Cailen's picture of Jex...surprisingly not too shabby. For a 3 year old of course.