If Momma Ain't Happy

I started a post a few days ago. It was a complaining post. I complained about how my house is ALWAYS messy. I complained about how much Tralee loves to color on our walls and furniture (no matter how much we tell her not to and put her in time out for doing so). I complained about not having enough time or energy to keep up with the messy finger prints, poopy diapers, meals, scrubbing, dishes, and dusting. I never finished that post because I didn't have enough time to do it. One of the kids needed me, and so away I went leaving my post half finished, and feeling sorry for myself that I wasn't able to get 'er done.

We went to church yesterday and as always, I hopped to get something out of the experience. It's a little hard to listen to the the speakers when there's a two-year-old constantly putting a pen in your hand and paper in your lap, asking you to draw her various animals. Meanwhile, your husband is asking you where the pacifier is because your infant is starting to fuss. However, in the midst of the madness there was a five-minute lull where Hunter was still, and Tralee was happily coloring on her own. In these five minutes I heard what I needed to.

The speaker -- who I believe is in our stake council -- gave a talk based on one of President Monson's. In the five minutes I was afforded, the speaker said something to the effect of "now this is for all of you young couples, with young kids at home." My ears perked up. He went on to say something like, "Don't let the stresses of everyday life take over your happiness. Don't let the finger prints, smudges, overflowing laundry baskets, dirty dishes, and toys scattered across your home get you down, because someday they'll be gone and you'll really miss them. Someday the house will get cleaned, but for now just enjoy your children. Find joy in the journey. Don't let the messes stress you out, because all too soon they'll be gone." Tears welled in my eyes and an enormous weight was lifted off of my shoulders. I have been super stressed about the mess I call home, and was getting angrier and more bitter about it. Yesterday I let all of the pent up anxiety fall from my shoulders, took a deep breath, and re-focused my energy on where it should be: My family. It's made me a lot less stressed, more loving to my children and husband, and probably more fun to be around.

So, if you happen to drop by, I will forewarn you. There will probably be toys scattered across my living room floor. Crums will lay unswept on my kitchen floor, and laundry will be waiting patiently in a basket to be done. BUT. . .my kids will be happy, because (hopefully) I will be too.

Counting to Ten

She's such a smarty pants! Sometimes a stinky pants or bratty pants, but mostly a smarty pants.

Kwig

Tralee and I have been working on a little craft project for a few weeks now. We finally finished it today!

It all started one rainy afternoon. Hunter was sleeping and I wanted to do something crafty with Tralee. I saw how they made paper mache on a Curious George episode, and thought that would be fun to do with Tralee. Since I'm into the whole couponing craze, I had TONS of Sunday papers laying around waiting to be utilized in some way other than getting thrown out or taken to the recycle center. We also had some balloons laying around (Grammy Char Char sends them in our birthday packages) so I thought, "Why not blow up a balloon and paper mache it?"

Out came the scissors, glue, flour, water, balloon, and newspaper. Tralee is really into playing in water/mixing things up so after cutting up the papers we mixed some flour, glue, and water together. Tralee stirred up the liquid mix and I showed her how to dunk the paper in the water mixture and stick it onto the balloon. We both had a good go at it until the balloon was sufficiently covered in wet newspaper. We cleaned up our mess (okay, I cleaned it up while Tralee played with the water in the sink) and anxiously waited for the balloon to dry. It took a few days, and when it was finally dry we were too busy to do anything with it. So it sat for a good week or so on our kitchen counter.

Last week Tralee took the mached balloon down from the counter and started playing with it. It was a nice day out, and since Hunter was napping again, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to paint our project. I put Tralee in an old t-shirt, layed an old towel out on our deck to paint on, and let Tralee pick which of my craft paints we should paint the balloon. She picked pink, or as she says it "onk." We had a blast covering the hardened newspaper in pink perfection. It was so fun to watch the look of concentration on Tralee's face. Every inch of it said, "Don't bug me, I'm painting!" She was so determined.

After the balloon was sufficiently slathered with paint, I wondered what we could transform it to. Certainly a pink balloon wasn't creative enough. Then it dawned on me, "Let's turn this into a pig Tralee!" She looked up at me, smiled, and I new when she answered back, "Kwig!" my idea was a knock-out.

The only problem was, we had no pig supplies. Our project would have to wait another day. . . or two. . . or three. Back to the kitchen counter our project patiently waited. I decided to paint Tralee's toenails while we waited for the next step of our project to be done. Cute huh? It was the first time we attempted this.


This last weekend I had a few 50% off coupons for Michaels. I knew exactly what I would use them for. Tralee and I marched right to the googly eye isle and picked out which ones would best complete our pink pig. We also discovered a few other things to complete our craft.

Today our pig was officially completed. After I layed Hunter down for his morning nap, out came the glue gun, googly eyes, felt, wire, and a few other items to help our project come to fruition. I applied the glue white Tralee pressed each individual item onto our friend. After the last glass stone was glued on as our pig's foot he was done!

"Look Tralee! Look! We finished our pig!" I exclaimed. I admit, I think I was more excited than Tralee was. "What should we name him? What is he called?"

"Kwig." Was the simple answer I got in return.

So here he is, our little pink Kwig.
Tralee spent the rest of the morning coloring with her new pink pal. Every once in a while she would look up from coloring to play with Kwig's tail. It's pretty springy. I also noticed that whenever I moved Kwig to get a picture, Tralee would get upset. She liked him right next to her so he could watch her draw pretty pictures. I call this one "Blue on Onk" Every few seconds Tralee would look up to make sure Kwig was exactly how she wanted him. It made me laugh.
I keep wondering what animal Tralee and I should make next. Any suggestions?

Happy Father's Day Jim

We also want to wish our own fathers, grandfathers, and father figures a very happy fathers day as well.

Look Who's Smiling

All that smiling sure tuckers a little boy out!

Roofing

Jim's been keeping himself busy with roofing. Can you tell?
This is the image I saw when he took his shoes and socks off.

What a dirty boy.

Eagle Island Park

I took the kids to Eagle Island park yesterday (all by myself, might I add). Some of Jim's aunts were in town so a whole bunch of Jim's family met up to play. It was fun. Here are the pics to prove it.


Here is Tralee and Brinley. They're a week apart in age. Just look at how much taller Tralee is! It makes me smile.

So, there you go.

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon Boy

Does he look kung foo to you too?

Zoo Take Two

Jim had to work out-of-town for four days last week, including Saturday. We really missed him around here (mostly me) and we couldn't wait for him to come home. His first day back was Thursday, which happens to be Zoo Boise's half price day. Since Jim had to work on Saturday, instead of spending time with us, he proclaimed that Thursday was now Saturday and we should all go to the zoo. No one hesitated, so off to the zoo we went.

We invited the other Jacobs family to come with us. It was a fun little outing.
Here are Tralee and Jovie running around the park outside the zoo. I think Tralee really tired herself out in the park before we even got to the zoo. Therefore, she wasn't too perky the rest of the afternoon.

The last time we went to the zoo Tralee was mesmerized by the carousal. We never did ride it, so this time we decided to let Tralee ride it for the first time. The outcome wasn't quite what we expected. While Jim was waiting in line with her, it dawned on Tralee that they were going to actually ride it. She started pushing Jim away from the carousal and saying, "Bye. Bye. Off." When it was time to go on the ride she was very hesitant, and when it actually started moving Tralee freaked out a bit. Audie's kids had the desired reaction you would want your child to have while experiencing a carousal. Squeals of delight, waving, smiles, joyous laughter. Nope. Not Tralee. She whined the entire time she rode, and every time we passed the carousal afterward for fear that she might have to ride it again.

Happy

Happy

Not so much

So much for letting our kids go on rides. At least the fair will be cheap for us. Our kid won't be begging to go on every ride.

Even though Tralee was bit grumpy, we still had fun at the zoo with our friends. The extra bonus of the day was we tired Tralee out so much that she took a nice LOOOOONG nap when we got home. Hooray!

Adoption

Our good friends, Josh and Necha, have started the adoption process through LDS Family Services. We're very excited for them, and will keep them in our prayers. They created a beautiful adoption blog, and if you would like to look at it, or know someone who does, go here:

http://gettingtoknowourfamily.blogspot.com/

One of my favorite quotes on their blog is "adoption is not about finding children for families, it's about finding families for children." There's is a wonderful and loving family to be in, and we're excited for their next child to be welcomed into it.

Some Tralee Info

Tralee's art work is getting so sophisticated! What used to be a page of scribbles is now a page of circles! Yes my friends, Tralee now knows how to draw a circle. I'm so proud of her! She's also starting to color in objects in a coloring book, instead of just scribbling on the page. It's amazing to see her progress.

Tralee's other favorite thing to do with crayons and paper is bring them up to us, and request for us to draw animals. She usually does this by doing the animal sound to the corresponding animal she wants drawn. Kitty is always first. I know this because as Tralee is running up to us with pen and paper in hand, she's meowing. Another frequently requested animal is a bear. "Rar! Bear!" It actually sounds more like, "Waw! Beah!" as she can't quite pronounce her R's. She likes us to draw lions, elephants, cows, monkeys, pigs, and the occasional school bus (she requests this by saying "round round" and doing the action for the song "the wheels on the bus"). Sometimes she even wants us to draw a toot. How do you draw a toot? I won't go into detail, but Jim and I have figured it out.


I swear Tralee is growing more everyday. The other day someone told me she looks more like a four-year-old than a two-year-old. I'm afraid she gets mistaken for being much older all the time. Other kids or adults will start talking to her and asking her questions. The garbled answer they get in return confuses them. I then feel the need to explain that she's only two. I usually get a surprised look and then always hear, "She's big for her age!" Yup, I guess that's what happens when both of your parents are tall. She's still my sweet, cute, and tiny little two-year-old, no matter what.

I had a dream that Tralee went potty on the big girl potty. I wonder if that's a sign, or just my subconscious wishing for it to be true. We haven't really started the whole potty training thing yet, but it's in the back of my mind. I asked Tralee the other day if she wanted to try sitting on the big girl potty. She looked at it, looked at me, and very strongly said, "NO." Oh well. It was worth a shot. I think we'll start working on it pretty soon. So if you have any potty training pointers/ideas shoot them my way.

Bye!

Avocodos? No thanks.

I always claimed to be an avocado lover. I would order sandwiches at restaurants with avocados in them, buy avocados, sprinkle a little salt on them, and eat them plain. However, as I ate, something never did sit quite right. I was never very satisfied after a meal or snack that included avocados, and I wondered why.

Well, I cracked the code today. It was surprisingly simple, and I don't know why I didn't see it before. Here it is:

I don't like avocados.

I realized this as I was eating my lunch today (a pita pocket packed with turkey, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber, and yes avocados). With each bite the mushy nuttiness of the dreaded fruit invaded all other flavors and I felt nauseated. I threw in the towel, left my half eaten sandwich uneaten, and stopped denying the truth.

I don't know why I didn't see it before. I think it's because everyone around me loves avocados. Jim especially. But I'm not going to deny it any longer. No more avocados for me, unless of course they're served as guacamole. I think I still like guacamole (as long as there's enough tomatoes and spices to mask the avocado flavor).

That's it.

Hi World

Hi guys, it's me Hunter. Just thought you should know I'm four weeks old today. My mom thinks it's crazy, and she even mentioned to me that even though it's only been a month, she can't even think of what life was like without me. She's pretty cool.

This guy above, he's my dad. He's pretty cool too. He keeps saying things like someday he'll take me fishing, and hunting, and hiking, and camping. I'm not sure what any of those things are, but my dad is pretty awesome, so I'm sure all of those things will be fun to do with him. But, for now I think I'll just keep taking naps with him. He's really comfortable to snuggle with. Just ask my mom, she tells him that all the time. She thinks that's why my big sister and I always fall asleep on him.

The picture above is me and my big sister. Her name is Tralee. She's pretty nice. She always comes right up to my face and talks to me in her special baby talk. It sounds like a high pitched "eeeeeeeeeeee" sound to my parents, but what she's saying is "Hunter, I love you buddy. You're cute and small right now so I'll be nice to you, but when you're older I might have to pound on you a little bit. I AM your big sister after all." Sometimes she scares me a little with all her clomping around and noisy behavior, but like my folks, she's pretty cool too. I know she loves me, and I love her too.

My mom likes taking pictures of my hands and feet. I'm not sure why she does that when my face is so stinken' cute. I mean, come on Mom. My face is up here. HELLO!!

Yup, that's me doing tummy-time. I'm pretty good at it, but I have a five-minute limit. After that I'm ready for a meal.

After meal-time I'm usually pretty tired (as you can tell by the cleverly placed photo above of me yawning).

So yeah, that's pretty much all for now. Catch ya later gator!

Why Not!

Click on the link above for a chance to win this bike! :) Good luck!!

Toot

Tralee is fascinated with tooting a.k.a farting. When Jim and I were dating he gave me the book The Gas We Pass: The Story of Farts with this inscription written on the inside cover:

"Dear Leslie,

I got this for you because I wanted you to think of me when I'm not around . . . and this is the best way I could come up with! This book might answer some questions about why my body acts the way it does!! Well, I love you!! Enjoy!!!

Love,

Jim Jacobs"

I knew right then and there that I would someday marry Jim. Okay, not really. But it did make me laugh, and I always knew I would marry someone who could make me laugh.

Anywho. . . This book is now part of Tralee's collection and she loves it. In fact, "toot" has become a very well versed word in Tralee's vocabulary. Anytime she hears a fart, or something that sounds like one she'll say, "Toot!" or "I tooting," or something to that effect.

When we were at the zoo, almost every animal we saw Tralee would point to and say, "It toot!" and then proceed to make a fart sound. At home Tralee will bring us one of her stuffed animals, point to its bum and say, "toot!" followed by the appropriate (or not so appropriate) farting noise. She's a bit obsessed.

What can I say, like father like daughter. And yes, just like Jim, Tralee makes me laugh with her crass behavior.