Cousins

The past few days Jim's oldest sister, Sue, and her family have been in Boise. They drove from Reno, Nevada for a nice visit. On Friday I hung out with Sue, Tricia, and Sue's three oldest kids, Henry, Keaton, and Katie -- Kelly and Colleen stayed at Grandma Tricia's with their Dad. We went to the Boise Discovery Center. It was pretty cool. There were lots of little experiments and scientific things for children of all ages to do. Aunt Michelle met us there with her four kids, and it was a lot of fun. Tralee had fun watching some of the things, but she was mostly along for the ride.

Some highlights were Katie (2nd grade) "fixing" my dog for me. The Discovery Center has a "Veterinary Clinic" with lots of old medical equipment, examination tables, and stuffed animals that kids can work on. I picked out my dog and Veterinarian Katie worked on it. According to Katie my dog suffered from a diseased leg, bad teeth, sickness of the heart attack, and it couldn't see. The diagnoses was tough to take, but Katie assured me with 20 days in her care, my dog would be as good as new. She wrapped its leg in gauze and kept listening to its heart with the stethoscope. I'm glad I had such a professional veterinarian on my side!

Another highlight was this pulley thing you sat in and pulled a rope to hoist yourself up. The kids really liked this, and I even tried. There was a shadow box thing, where you posed on a wall, a light would flash, and your shadow would stay up on the wall. That was pretty cool. Sue and Tricia really liked all the mind games and puzzles, the boys had fun with pretty much all the experiments that were hands on, everyone liked the tornado mist thing, and I liked the bed of nails. There was a place that you laid down, and you hit a switch and nails would lift you up. So, you were REALLY laying on a bed of nails. The Discovery Center was a success, and afterwards we all went out for milkshakes and French fries. YUM YUM! Tralee fell asleep on the way home.

Jim got back from scout camp on Saturday night. We hung out with Sue and Dan's kids while they went on a double date. Jim played cards with Keaton and Henry while Katie acted out all of the holidays for me. She had a dance for each holiday and I had to guess what the dance was called. I never got it right as the dances had names like: The Dance of the Indians and Africans Getting Together for a Good Love Time and For Food (That was for Thanksgiving . . . How could I have missed that?)


Kelly and Colleen both had ear infections, and now I think Tralee might have one too. She's been cranky and grabs the side of her head a lot. I don't think she got sick from her cousins as she's been sick for a little while. I even stayed home from Church with Tralee today, because she was extra fussy and didn't sleep very well last night. I hope this stupid season of sickness ends soon. It's miserable having a sick baby! She's so fussy! Who could blame her? I 'm fussy when I'm sick too!

Look at this fat Colleen baby, she's a few months younger than Tralee, but she's weighs about the same!


This weekend was fun. I just wish the little babies didn't get sick, that would have made it perfect.

A few more things: I cleaned my house on Saturday and got ALL the laundry done. Jim had fun at scout camp, and at least Jim and I are healthy.
,n ., uhnj mmmmmmmmmmmm ,b vhbhvbcib nmin7hbb nhm nm, nm bnbv trgtrrrrrrrv6ygjhnmhuj8iiooooooo*O,,,,bn BGHB NBGT BN BN B B

Tralee just typed all of the above amazing insights.

Tralee's First Christmas

This is what Jim would look like if we had triplets!
Last time this year this is what I looked like:

I was HUGE! I'm kind of glad that's not me this year. The result of that big belly last year is this sweet baby face this year:
We had a very Merry Christmas. On Christmas Eve we went to Jeff and Tricia's for dinner (mother in-law and her hubby). After eating we piled into our car and headed off to cousin Theresa's for more goodies, and family fun. We hung out with cousins, Aunts, Uncles, Grandma Callister, and watched the older cousins put on the Nativity. It was pretty cute. Cousin Jason read the story, and when he mentioned one of the key characters the children would come out and act out what Jason was reading. At one point one of the wise men gave the baby Jesus "Frankincense, Mere (spl?), and a dinosaur." We all laughed. We also sang Christmas songs in-between different parts of acting out the Nativity. It gave me a nice warm fuzzy feeling. As soon as the story of Jesus's birth ended everyone shared a talent. We listened to a cousin play the saxophone, people sang, children danced, violins were played, and cousin Nathan even whipped out xylophone and played Christmas music on it. Tralee was enthralled with the Nativity scene and the xylophone. She loved to watch the other kids act, and listen to Jason read. As soon as the xylophone came out, Tralee's head starred at it with interest. She crawled right under it to investigate, and later had a chance to play some "music" of her own on it. Christmas Eve was really nice.

When we came home from Theresa's Jim helped wrap presents for Tralee and we went to bed with visions of sugar plums in our heads.

Christmas morning we woke up with Tralee, and Jim headed downstairs to put on Christmas Music, turn on the Christmas lights, and get our camcorder running. As soon as it was all-systems-go, Tralee and I walked downstairs and we had our very first Christmas as a family with a kid. It was sooo fun to watch Tralee open presents and play with them. The first present she opened was a baby sign DVD. She was so proud of herself and seemed perfectly content to just hold the DVD and look at it. Several presents later we were surrounded with packages, wrapping paper, tissue, and happiness! I won't name every toy Tralee got, but all of them were the learning type things. They all light up, make sounds, sing songs, teach colors, letters, numbers, and/or animal sounds. I'm excited to play with Tralee's toys with her in the up-coming days. I love Tralee's inquisitive face in this picture.

Grandma and Grandpa Labiszak helped contribute to Tralee's gifts and we really appreciate them for that. In fact, all of Tralee's grandparents helped make this Christmas extra merry! Thank goodness for Grandparents! Nana sent Tralee her first little potty chair. It's really cute, and not too long from now I'm sure Tralee will be putting it to use! Thanks Nana!

I made part of Nana's famous brunch for breakfast. I made Quiche, and Crepes with Raspberry sauce. I think they turned out perfect! I even took a picture so my Nana can see how well she taught me!
After opening presents it looked like a tornado ripped through our living room.
After breakfast we all got ready to go to Uncle Dave's and Aunt Becky's. Jeff and some of Jim's cousins were there as well. We enjoyed a delicious meal of prime rib, mashed potatoes, green beans, orange rolls, and chocolate cake with peppermint ice cream for dessert. After the food had settled in our bellies Jim and David organized a ping-pong and arcade basketball tournament. I came in one of the last places, Jim came in one of the first places. Figures! Oh well, I had fun! After the intensity of the tournament we all needed to just settle down and relax. It was fun to visit with family, and we really appreciated the invite to spend our holiday with some extended family.

Last night Tralee woke up coughing and then she threw-up! She threw-up two more times at night, and it broke my heart. This morning her illness is coming out the other end and she's been fussy. I explained Tralee's symptoms to a nurse at her doctor's office and she said it sounds like a little stomach bug that could last 24-48 hours. If it lasts longer or gets worse (or she doesn't have wet diapers) I should call back. Poor Tralee. In between throwing up and going number 3 Tralee seems pretty content, it's just during those "episodes" that she's extra fussy. Jim ran out and bought her some infant Tylenol and we had to force her to take it because she won't eat anything, but she will nurse, so that's good. I'm just glad Tralee didn't get sick on Christmas Day, hopefully she'll be all better by tomorrow.

Happy Holidays.

Christmas Party

Last night Jim, Tralee, and I went to Uncle Dave's and Aunt Becky's Christmas Party. As I mentioned in an earlier post we were excited to give our White Elephant gift, it seems there were others that had equally entertaining presents to give.

We arrived at Dave and Becky's around 6:30 and were instantly among Aunts, Uncles, and cousins. We ate yummy food, visited, and played. After a while the gift exchange began. Jim helped Uncle Dave direct the gift giving. Some of the funniest items were a LIVE lobster, an enema kit, feminine hygiene items, a Walmart employee shirt, and large underwear. Jim and I gave a pair of large woman's underwear that we decorated with some festive tinsel, and little diamonds that spelled out "Ho Ho Ho." The woman's underwear also sported a bunny tail, and we thought they turned out rather nice. When we went into Walmart to buy the underwear we asked the worker for her largest pair of woman's underwear possible. She looked rather perplexed and asked, "What are they for?" She probably thought we were a bunch of freaks who got excited dressing in large woman's clothing. Not the case. We explained they were just a gag gift. However, last night someone else had a similar idea, and when Jim opened hist gift there was a LARGE pair of Men's underwear inside. He put them on, and I have to say "WOW! Something looked right!" (Just jokes!)

We had fun. Here are some photos from last night's festivities.

Here's Tralee sporting the reject pair of underwear we didn't use. They came in a pack of two, and we chose the pink pair.
Stinky Tralinky and Skinny Brinny called each other before the party and decided to wear matching Santa hats. (They're only a week apart in age, the girls . . . NOT the hats)

Tralee looks rather festive, doesn't she?
Jim's showing off his Christmas gift. Nice undies Babe!

Jim discovered a new and exciting way to tote Tralee around. She'll probably be seeing a shrink one day for this!Jim and Uncle Dave gave free airplane rides to all the little kids after the party. I think some adults even got a ride. CRAZY!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Smarty Pants

I was playing on the floor with Tralee today, and I was pointing out where Mommy's nose was and where Tralee's nose was. Then I asked, "Where's Mommy's nose?" and she pointed right at it!!! I couldn't believe it! So then I pointed at my chin and Tralee's chin and asked, "Where's Mommy's chin?" She pointed right at my chin!!! I tried it with eyes, ears, mouth, and cheeks. She got it right, or at least in the area EVERY TIME! Is she a smarty pants or what? Not bad for an almost 11 month old. I was amazed and called Jim to tell him about our genius daughter. I even did it for him over the phone, he couldn't see what was happening, but he got the idea. After awhile Tralee got bored of that game, and crawled away, so now I'm blogging about how proud I am of her.

Earlier today Tralee was being very quiet while I was working on a craft. I figured that meant she was into some trouble, so I looked around for her and found her behind the Christmas tree chewing on a piece of candy. We don't have any candy in our house, so I wondered where it came from. After some more investigating I realized Tralee had been playing with our Christmas stockings and there must have been some candy stuck in the bottom of one of them from last year. GROSS! It was a strawberry tootsie roll candy. She had some of the chewy goodness in her mouth accompanied by the wrapper. The rest of the candy was in her strawberry and drool covered hand. Wouldn't you know it, I put her in a white shirt today. So, Tralee's shirt also had strawberry slime running down the front of it. It was quite the sight, and she was perfectly content to suck on last year's stocking stuffer, as she had sat there doing so for quite some time. She must have known I would take it away from her, so she hid behind the tree. What a goof ball. I wasn't totally mean, I did break off a tiny piece and let her finish part of her sweet find. The wrapper, and bulk of the candy ended up in the garbage can though. I don't trust last year's candy as much as she does.

We're going to Jim's Uncle's Christmas party tonight. We do a White Elephant Christmas exchange every year. It's pretty fun. We got some great gifts for the exchange. I'll have to let you know how it all goes later.

Happy Holidays!

Kissy Kissy

Did you know that Jim thought "Kissy" would be a cute middle name for Tralee? Tralee Kissy Jacobs, boy would she have some issues if we choose that middle name, she'll have enough troubles with Tralee. Every time we tell someone her name it's the same reaction:

"What's her name."
"Tralee."
"What?"
"Tralee."
"Traylee?"
"TRA - LEE"
"Trilly?"
"T-R-A-L-E-E"
"Tralee? That's. . . pretty"
"It's an Irish city. My husband lived in Ireland for two years while he was serving an LDS mission and he fell in love with the city Tralee. If you ever heard of the Rose of Tralee pageant or the song, then that's how you say her name."
"Oh yeah, it's really pretty."
"Thanks."
OFF WE GO

Anyway, Tralee has been giving us kisses lately. It's really cute. If you ask for a kiss she'll either give you her forehead to kiss, or she'll plant her mouth against yours. She DOES NOT like Jim and I to kiss. She'll push us away from each other, and sometimes she'll even scream and push. As soon as she gets us away from each other, she's ready and willing to give one of us a smack-a-roo. A few times she's given me a kiss without me asking for one. It melts my heart. She's a little cutie-face!

Santa's Lap and Other Events

Today Jim worked, I did a little laundry, and tonight we went to our favorite pizza place (Primo's all-you-can-eat pasta, pizza, and salad bar for $4.99--can't beat it!), then to the mall to sit on Santa's lap, and lastly we picked up some groceries. Here are some pics from the day's (and yesterday's) events:

Corky and Tralee napping together
Tralee likes to help Jim play Guitar Hero
Remember sleeping like this? I do. . . AH . . . CHILDHOOD!
Tralee screaming on Santa's lap
Tralee is SOOOO proud of herself for standing in the cart! It's really cute. Don't worry, we push her REALLY slow.

So, not a really exciting day, but good enough!

Driving Miss Tralee

We went to bowling league night last night, and we did all right. We were up against a REALLY great team. One of their players almost bowled a 300! In his last frame only one pin stood up, so he ended up with a 299! CRAZY!

What REALLY made me laugh was Tralee. There's this car racing game at the bowling ally, and Tralee LOVES it! We stand her up in the chair, she holds on to the wheel, and squeals in delight as she watches the cars race on the screen. I need to take my camera and capture some photos/videos of it because it's wickedly cute!

Jim's working today, and I need to do some laundry and cleaning. FUN FUN!

Fun Stuff

Yesterday Jim, Tralee, and I met with some of Jim's family around here for lunch. We were celebrating Jim's Grandma's 79th birthday. It was a nice little gathering. Then, last night I went to Enrichment. It was super fun. We did a service auction and instead of money we used points. You got points by doing things like, "if you've been married 25 or more years you get 20 pts," or "if you said your prayers today you get 10 pts." The items up for auction ranged from one furnace cleaning service, to a full day of babysitting, to crafty items. It was fun. I tried to get the furnace service for our house on Chicken Dinner Road, but I didn't have enough points. Some of the older women had the younger women beat because they had more points from life experiences. I ended up bidding on a really great framed "The Living Christ" collage thing. It's really pretty. I got it for 1270 pts. I brought some crafts to donate, and people really liked them.

Today Tralee and I wrapped some Christmas gifts -- actually I wrapped them and Tralee tore up Christmas paper. We listened to Christmas music and cleaned a little bit.

Jim has a Young Men's activity tonight, and I'm going to run some errands. I took some cute pictures of Tralee that I'll post on here. ENJOY!

That's about all folks!

O Christmas Tree

We woke up this morning to find this scene out of our window:

Today Tralee and I ran errands with her froggy hat on. I bought it for her last year, before she was even born. I got it when I worked at the Boise Art Museum. I love how cute Tralee looks in it, and she loves to have it on because I keep reaffirming out adorable she looks by saying, "SO BEAUTIFUL!" and "SO CUTE!" then I show her herself in the mirror with the hat on. She gets a big kick out of it. People we see while running errands also comment on how cute she is.


Tonight for FHE Jim, Tralee, and I went and picked out our Christmas Tree.




We came home, blasted Christmas music, decorated the tree, and then read an article from the Ensign. Now we're enjoying a living room with a beautiful tree.

Look closely at the following pictures, who do you see?


Jim is enjoying the end result


Me too!
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Four in a Row!!!

This weekend was pretty fun. Friday night Jim and I went to bowling league. I was a bit nervous because I hadn't played in two weeks. The first week I missed because we were in St. George. I missed last week because Tralee was sick. So, coming back without any practice had me worried. Little did I know, I was going to break bowling league history (well. . . for me at least). The last three frames of our first game I got THREE STRIKES IN A ROW!!! I've never even gotten two in a row! In fact, I usually only get one strike per game. Anywho, my teammates were all proud of me for ending my game with a turkey. The amazingness of the night didn't end there, I started the next game off with another strike! So. . . FOUR IN A ROW! YAY! Jim of course got six strikes in a row, but he does that all the time, so we were much more amazed at my four! In the middle of bowling league night we did the jackpot again. Wouldn't you know it, Jim's ticket number was called, and of course he bowled a strike so. . . we won $134!! So between the last time Jim won the jackpot ($320) and this time ($134) bowling league is paying for itself! We had a lot of fun, and Tralee likes to watch people bowl.

Saturday morning Jim woke up early to go help our ward set up for the ward Christmas party while Tralee and I slept in. Saturday afternoon Jim met with a client, and Saturday night we went to the Christmas party. The party was only okay. You could tell they put a lot of thought into it, but I think they over planned the program. It was nice, just a bit too long. Sometimes it's fun to just go have fun at ward parties, and not sit and watch a super long program. Don't get me wrong, it was nice and everything, just a bit on the lengthy side. After the Christmas party Jim and I went to Costco and did some grocery shopping. Isn't it amazing how you can go into places like Costco and Sam's Club and spend way more than you were planning on. We did okay, and we got things we needed so it was money well spent.

This morning I made a yummy breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and bacon, and then captured Tralee talking to herself and playing with our shoes. She's a cute little munchkin! Then we hung around until church. Church was nice today, although Tralee is getting more and more restless. She doesn't like sitting still, especially now that she taught herself how to crawl, stand, and chatter. We spent some time out in the hall when Tralee was especially rambunctious. Other than that church was nice.

That's all.

Videos

For a few weeks now I've been trying to get Tralee clapping on film. She's really good at it. Every time she hears cheering or someone saying "YAY!" she starts to clap. It's really cute. In this video she's playing with a book that squeaks, then I tell her to clap, and she does. I try to get her to do the sign for milk, and to wave bye-bye, but she's too into her book. Maybe on another post I'll get her doing those other things.



This next video is me reading one of Tralee's favorite books to her. Every time I get to the "sad baby" part Tralee makes a funny screaming noise. You'll see. The rest of the video is just me reading to her. Not that interesting.



So, there ya go!

Nothing New

This is one of my favorite pictures of Tralee. This was from when she was about four or five months old.

There's really nothing new to post, but my mom said to me on the phone last night, "I'm sure glad Amy (my sister-in-law) writes on her blog everyday!" I took that as a hint that she would like an update. So Mom, here it is:

Jim packed up his truck and a trailer at 6am this morning to travel two hours to an install. He'll be home late tonight. I'm not complaining, the more hours he spends at work means the more income we'll get this month. So, as much as I miss Jim when he's away, I'm also glad he's able and willing to work long hours to support his family.

Tralee is still a little sick, but nothing too bad. She's actually taking a nap right now, which gives me a few minutes to get other things done. I'm trying to finalize Christmas gifts. I'm excited to give some people their presents. I'm really excited to give Jim his presents. I ordered them last night, and I'm sure he'll love them!

I finally forced myself to unpack, clean, and do laundry yesterday. My house is a bit more in order now, but I think I'll have to do a deep cleaning pretty soon. Maybe after the holidays are over.

I'm excited for Christmas, I've been blasting Christmas music everyday. Jim comes home from work and begs me to turn it off so he can watch ESPN or anything sports related. I guess some people just don't appreciate Frank Sinatra singing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" or Ella Fitzgerald belting out "Frosty the Snowman." Maybe Burl Ives crooning "Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer" annoys Jim, because it can't possibly be Eartha Kitt's voice resonating "Santa Baby" that gets on his nerves. I know he adores Alvin from Alvin and the Chipmunks singing to Santa for a hoola-hoop, just as much as he craves hearing the Vince Guaraldi Trio jam out "O Tannenbaum" from A Charlie Brown Christmas. Anyway, whether Jim likes it or not, the Christmas music is here to stay until December 26th. . . maybe even later!

Here's what Tralee and Corky were doing while I was typing this:


So there's an update. . . exciting, eh?

Funny Man

So, my husband is super silly, and makes me laugh everyday. Today he made me laugh by putting on my cookie monster pajama pants with his ski socks hiked up around the bottoms, and he strutted his stuff around our duplex for all to see. He said he put them on because he saw them in our room, and they looked comfortable. So, Jim wore a pear of PJ pants from the Juniors department at Kohls. He still has them on, and says he'll keep wearing them, even though there a little short, because they're super comfy.

Jim's worn other woman's items of mine, but I'll keep the details of those occasions just between Jim and I.

Here are some pictures of Jim modeling his new favorite outfit:


Later on Jim and Corky cuddled on the couch while watching Shrek the Third. I had to get a picture of that also.
Jim was the only one who made it to church today. We were all ready to go, but Tralee was being extra fussy, her nose was running, and she felt warm, so at the last minute Tralee and I decided we better stay home from church. While Jim was being spiritually uplifted Tralee and I took a nice long nap. After several sleepless nights of taking care of a sick baby, it felt really really good!

That's all folks!