She did what?!

Below is pictured the potty Ellie got with her doll for Christmas this year. She makes her baby go potty all the time and loves to play with it. Well, I was doing stuff upstairs for a while and came downstairs to find Kaden hiding by the couch. I asked him what was wrong and he said "Look what Ellie did." Ellie had decided that her little bum could fit on the toilet too and had pooped in the toilet. Ya, I'm not kidding! It was discusting! I went upstairs and found her on the toilet finishing her started project and I said, "Ellie, did you go potty in your baby's toilet?" She looked at me like she couldn't believe that I had found out. Then she said, "Ya, but I didn't mean to!" Whatever Ellie. Aren't you glad I cleaned it before the picture?
Oh ya, and we had a lovely Christmas! The kids weren't as excited as I thought they would be but they love all of their toys. They were definitely spoiled by grandparents.
Lights at Temple Square a couple days before Christmas.
Reading the Christmas story on Christmas Eve.
Kaden with his most coveted weed-whacker and goggles.
Ellie watching her favorite Christmas present Beauty and the Beast.

Happy Birthday Jess!

Today Jesse turns 28! He gets to celebrate by going to church meetings all day! Actually in our house Jesse gets a birthweek so he'll have lots of partying to do. We're having some friends over for dinner to celebrate and help us eat the ice cream cake he requested. To keep in line with my new birthday tradition I am going to list 28 things about Jess that I love. Here's Jesse 101:
1. He has the prettiest shade of green eyes.
2. He doesn't eat sandwiches on bread... has to be toast.
3. He likes to play jokes on people. (Is this really something I love or tolerate?)
4. As my sister Casey said yesterday, he treats everybody like a friend.
5. He loves to play with the kids and does play with them A LOT.
6. One of his favorite things to do is hold our children when they are sleeping.
7. He doesn't take life so seriously.
8. He is devoted to his testimony of the gospel. He decided to go on a mission after he'd only been going to church for a couple months.
9. He works hard.
10. He is always very strict with his time card. If he gets a half hour lunch, he takes a half hour lunch.
11. He simplifies his computer language to something I can understand.
12. He eats his cereal in a cup... never with milk.
13. He cannot stand cottage cheese, sour cream or any type of condiment on his hamburger, taco. It will go in the garbage if it is "contaminated". You can't just wipe it off. There are no second chances.
14. He cannot swim... but I love to watch him try!
15. He is very concerned over our children's safety. If any of you know him, enough said.
16. He loves Johnny Cash.
17. He can spin plates and books in his finger. And cookie sheets too we found out recently.
18. He reads his scriptures EVERYDAY.
19. I rarely hear him complain about anything.
20. He can have a THIN stripe of ketchup on his hot dog but it cannot touch the bun. This has taken me 6 years to perfect. Ya, it's that important.
21.He puts crushed up Nacho cheese Doritos on everything. Sandwiches, spaghetti, chicken and rice.
22. He doesn't have much extra time but he always makes sure he spends time with the kids.
23. He loves UFC. Do I really love this about him? I am usually his target for half-nelsons after he watches it.
24. He is patient with me and all of my quirks like my lack of desire to cook dinner.
25. When he laughs really hard, he crinkles his nose.
26. He's never afraid to try something new. (Unless it has sour cream in it.)
27. He treated me like an angel on our wedding day... that still stands out vividly in my mind.
28. Last but not least I am going to post something his friend Zivana posted the other day. She's a Croatian friend he met on his mission. It pretty much explains it all when it come to Jesse.
"I know Jesse is your husband so you know all of his good as well as the bad sides. But I remember him as the most generous elder ever. He had less then most of the missionaries, but it was he who bought a microwave oven to a single mother of three for Christmas. With no one to help out with her kids, spending less time preparing each meal meant the world to her.
He was also the only elder ever to pay for me every time I'd eat out with the missionaries. I worked from 5:30 am till 2:00 pm, every day (weekends included) for 250 $ a month and each time we'd eat out together none of the elders would offer to pay my share, but I'd end up paying for all of us. Only elder Wakley never let me pay. And it's not even about the money, I'm not a stingy person. it's a matter of principle. And respect. And it is exactly what makes one a gentleman."
I love you Jesse! Happy Birthweek!

Happy Birthday Kaden!

Kaden turned four today! It's gone by so fast but it also seems that so much has happened in those four years! Kaden forgot all about Christmas because he was so excited for his birthday. My sister-in-law has a tradition of listing things she likes about a person on their birthday, one trait for how old they are. I am going to copy cat for Kaden today. Here it goes:
1. He has the most tender heart. He cried during the Grinch because he felt sorry for the dog. He's my angel.
2. He has the number one most contagious laugh. If any of you have heard his laugh, which he has been doing since he was 4mos old, then you know what I am talking about. It truly comes from the gut and you can't help but smile.
3. No matter how long I have been gone, he always comes running to me to say hi. I love it.
4. He still likes to cuddle. He always lets me hold him... unless I start in on the kisses.
He had an awesome birthday. He said he wanted another one tomorrow so I reminded him of Christmas. That'll do for now.
Some of Kaden's favorite foods are pancakes and waffles so we met dad at IHOP for breakfast.
Kaden was dying to open presents all day. Grandma Wakley came to the rescue and came up to visit with his presents!
Kaden lit up when we started singing "Happy Birthday". He kept telling me all day to sing Happy Bday to him and when I would start he would say "NO, with the cake!" (Which was Ninja turtles by the way.)
His friend Brayden got him a light saber and a helmet. He looked awesome!
Kaden has been asking for this chainsaw for two months. It must have been the display at the store because it didn't work. Bummer. Should have tested that before I bought it!
When Kaden was distracted with other toys, Ellie pounced on what she wanted. She tried to ride his scooter three times...crashed three times. At least she had a helmet on!

Finally...Snow!

Kaden has been begging for it to snow for weeks. He finally got his wish on Monday and was so excited to go outside! And it was the typical play in the snow scenario...they liked to throw snow at other people but cried when snow was thrown at them. Ellie followed me around throwing snowflakes at me. (I say snowflakes because her snowballs weren't big enough to qualify as balls.) Our friend Nick was kind enough to take the kids out and pull them behind a four-wheeler on a sled and needless to say that was a bigger hit than our little snowball fight. Gotta love the snow!
Ellie in her snow outfit...it took us longer to bundle up than we were out there! Does her hat look funny? That's because mom put it on backwards!

Christmas Tag!

Modeling Christmas pj's from last year!

I thought this would be fun to get everyone in the Christmas spirit!
1. Wrapping paper or gift bag? wrapping paper
2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial, no maintenance!
3. When do you put up the tree? Day after Thanksgiving every year!
4. When do you take the tree down? Day after Christmas every year!
5. Do you like eggnog? If it's diluted with TONS of milk I'll drink a little bit
6. Favorite gift received as a child? My porcelain doll
7. Hardest person to buy for? Do I dare say? My father-in-law!
8. Easiest person to buy for? Kaden- he gets excited about everything
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes! Christmas present from Jess two years ago, the willow tree one
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I don't have one but Jesse gave his sister baking chocolate once!
12. Favorite Christmas movie? Miracle on 34th Street, any version
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? October usually
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes, when I was 11 a friend gave me a troll and I gave it to someone else... I didn't want it!
15. Favorite thing to drink at Christmas? Water please
16. Lights on the tree? Yes, white
17. Favorite Christmas song? This year it's We Three Kings by Aly and AJ... you should iTunes it
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Travel to both in-laws
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Dasher, Dancer, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blizten, Comet and Cupid? Repeats, I guess not! How many are there?
20. Angel on the tree or star? Star
21. Open the presents Christmas eve or Christmas morning? Pajamas Christmas eve and rest on Christmas morning
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? My son, husband and brother all have bdays in December, hard to think of presents!
23. What do you want for Christmas this year? Time with my husband!!
There it is! And I tag, Tami, Rachel, Wendi, Jami, Heidi, Heather, Lacie and Syd.

Diaper-Free and a Christmas Tree!

Let the halleluia chorus begin! We are a diaper-free household! Last week my sister Casey was at my house and asked when we were going to start potty training Ellie. I said "Why not today?" So we started last Saturday and Ellie did amazing. She only had a couple of accidents when she couldn't find me to tell me she had to go. She even stays dry at night! It was so easy so fast! Knock on wood for the next kids!
Ellie modeling her new underwear!
Our Thanksgiving was fun. The plan was to go to Malad around 4 or 5pm on Wednesday but Jess called me at 4:30 explaining his server just crashed and we would be delayed. We finally left at 9pm and had a great Thanksgiving in Malad with the family! I am the die-hard shopper and went up to IF on Friday and went shopping with my sisters and mom. Then I raced home to put up the Christmas tree. Kaden had been waiting all week to do this. The first thing he does when he wakes up is turn on the Christmas tree lights. He woke up this morning and asked if there was candy in his stocking yet... December is so long for kids!
O Christmas tree!
Friday night we went to the Pocatello Lights Parade. Kaden could not wait to see Santa who was of course at the end. Jesse's server was still down so he missed most of the parade unfortunately. Ellie decided she needed to go potty during the parade so we ran across the street to the chinese restaurant and made it in time. Kaden stayed behind with a friend and was able to see Santa who came as soon as we left!
One of the floats at the parade.
Jess with his best friend. Poor guy can't get a break!
Brrr! It was COLD!

Twilight at Midnight

Love the books, love the movie, got the t-shirt. A big group of us went to the premier of Twilight at the midnight showing. I've never been to a movie premier before. Tons of fun. We were laughing at ourselves all night wondering if we would be amongst a bunch of screaming twelve year olds. Yes, we were definitely some of the oldest ones there but we had a blast. I was surprised, there were actually quite a few of the male gender represented as well. (Most of them were accompanying their die-hard fan girlfriends.) Our months of waiting are finally over. My opinion of the movie? ......Read the books!

This is only a small part of the group! There were 25 of us all together. We went out for appetizers and dessert before the movie.

My friend Tami and my sister Casey. Yes, our shirts say "Bite Me"!

Casey was one of the few "Team Jacobs". (Cough...traitor!)

Tag

This is the fourth picture in the fourth folder tag that I'm sure all of you have had already. I can't believe Ellie was ever that little. I'm actually glad I got tagged because I haven't posted in forever. For some reason since we got Chubbs life has been a little crazier... go figure. We are all excited for Christmas. Kaden has discovered houses with Christmas lights on and can't wait to get on the roof with dad to put our own up! (Probably not.) Ellie wants a baby with a diaper and a bottle for Christmas and Kaden wants a Tinkerbell so he can fly. (Hey, a kid can wish.) Only 32 more shopping days til Christmas!

Oh ya, and I tag Rachel, Jami, Tami and Heather!

Meet Chubbs

A year ago yesterday we got Minnie. I never would have thought that a year later we'd be getting a completely different puppy. Kaden has been asking for a puppy since we lost Minnie, and I have to admit there was an empty space with her gone. Jess grew up always having a house dog so he was easy to convince. We went and picked up Chubbs today. He's a Maltepoo (Maltese Poodle cross). I forgot how much puppies are like newborn babies. He always wants to be held, cries when he's alone, has poopy accidents and follows me everywhere. I know tonight will be a sleepless one. But Kaden loves him to death already so what do you do?
Kaden's only stipulation about the puppy is that it had to be TINY! I put my hand in the pic so you can see how small he is. He was the runt of the litter. He weighs less than a pound!
Ellie is not as sure about Chubbs as Kaden. She screams when he chases her and gets jealous when I told him! Poor baby Ellie!

Boo to you!

Halloween keeps getting better and better the older the kids get. Kaden waited so long to wear his Spiderman costume! Jess had to work from midnight til 5am the night before so he took the day off to be with us! He made us orange pancakes and helped us carve the pumpkin. We had a great day with dad at home! Gma and Gpa Horton came trick or treating with us and then we had my brother and his kids over for pizza. Fun times!
When I was little my mom would always have a special treat for us on holidays at breakfast. I decided to carry on the tradition. I got the kids new books to help distract them during the day. It worked--very much recommended!
Ellie liked the frosting!
Jess always makes the kids any shape of pancake they want. Today Kaden got a motorcycle and Ellie got a princess! Yeah dad!
Here they are! Kaden refused to answer or talk to you if you called him Kaden. You had to refer to him as Spiderman and Ellie as Mouse.
Here's Jess's masterpiece for this year. He always does such a good job. Mom is just there for crowd control!

Twilight

I, like so many of you I'm sure, am waiting patiently for the Twilight movie to come out. The first book was definitely my favorite of the series so it will be interesting to see how they make the transition to the screen. If you've read the books you gotta take this online quiz to see which Cullen you are most like. Only 21 more days!

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

Obsessed?

Ok so I knew I always liked to have bows in Ellie's hair, but I didn't realize it was out of control! I started organizing Ellie's bows and could not believe how many she had! The grand total was 80. I had Kaden lay next to the ribbon to illustrate just how long it was. My mom has always made fun of me because Ellie "always has a bow in her hair", but I guess now I have to concede... I must be obsessed! When I showed Jess he laughed and then said "Each one of them is necessary. My Ellie is a princess." I wonder if he would feel the same way if he thought about how much I've spent on these necessary bows... Yikes!

We love you, Minnie!

Unfortunately, when we came home from our hunting trip this weekend we found our Minnie had passed away. It's been a little sad at our house this week. We miss our puppy, but are glad that she was with us for a year. She was the sweetest dog and never did anything out of anger. She always tried so hard to please us and was so gentle with the kids. She was always happy to see us and just wanted to be where we were. I'm sure she's in doggie heaven because she was such an angel. Thanks for all the smiles you gave us Minnie! We love you!

Minnie the day after we got her. She loved to sleep on you and would follow you around until you settled down so she could cuddle up.

Her skin was so baggy!

Minnie grew up fast but she was always our puppy.

Weekend Getaway

Well Jess decided to try his hand at hunting again. He hadn't been since before his mission. So we decided to make a weekend of it with our fabulous friends Nick and Tami. Tami's parents were out of town camping so we were able to stay at thier house. It was a nice weekend away. Jess and Nick went hunting early Saturday morning and hiked all over the mountains and weren't able to get anything. That evening they took off again... this time on the four-wheeler. They both shot a four-point buck. We were so proud! And they loved the fact that they shot them both from the four-wheeler after hiking around all morning! Tami and I held down the fort with the kids all day. I don't know who was more tired at the end of the day.... the boys or the girls!

Jess got Kaden this gun for the hunting trip. He didn't let go of it for two days! He loves to be like dad!

We found a caterpillar outside. Brayden was the only one who would touch it!
Four-wheeler rides! Thanks Nick!

Here's the trophy! Mom was a little grossed out that Jess let them touch the deer!

Bath time! Brayden, Jacie, Kaden and Ellie

Here's the beautiful view from the house!

Man in Black

I let Kaden pick out his first outfit at the store yesterday. He's picked out some shirts before but they were usually with my persuasion. But this time I let him have what he wanted and I didn't add my opinion at all. So this is what he wanted... black pants and a black shirt. He was so excited to wear them today! I had to add a picture of Ellie in her sweater that her Grandma Helen made for her so Grandma can see how cute it turned out!

"It doesn't look good!"

Ok so I know I just posted like an hour ago but we just had a classic Jesse moment at our house that I had to publicize! So I saw this girl with cute bangs at church today and for those of you who know me know that I am never satisfied with my hair. So I called my sister in law who does hair and asked for a few pointers and decided to cut my own bangs. I was in the bathroom trimming away and Jess comes upstairs and these are the EXACT words that came out of his mouth :
"I was on the computer and just deleted my contacts list....WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" I told him I was cutting bangs and not to worry cuz I called Tera and I know what I'm doing. Here's the classic Jesse thing to say verbatim:
"Stop! Why are you doing that?! You aren't going to like it, you're going to complain! It doesn't look good!"
I just laughed at him and kept cutting away. That's always what a girl wants to hear when she's trying new things on her hair isn't it? "It doesn't look good!" But I am way past taking offense to what Jess says anymore. I was seriously laughing so hard that he was throwing his little fit about it. I love being married to that guy. He's so honest and loves me for who I am... bangs and all!

Oh ya and by the way... they didn't turn out at all like I wanted...but I'll fix them tomorrow when Jesse is at work!

Cousins!

I had the opportunity to watch my sisters kids this past week. I was pretty excited to have the girls over. There's two of them Jane who is 3 1/2 and Kate is 1 1/2. We weren't too adventurous we didn't go anywhere besides outside to play but it was fun to get to know Jane and Kate more and to have the kids play. This picture is pretty explanatory of our week. Kaden and Ellie are CRAZY and Jane is pretty shy and LOVES to wear dresses (even though it was snowing outside) and Kate... let's just say she likes her house better than mine. But we had fun and loved her anyway! She was most upset when I took her picture. It went by pretty much without incident except for some diaper contents that got stepped into the carpet (thank heavens for 409 Foam stain remover). We're excited for them to come see us again!

Quirky Tag

I was tagged by my lovely sister-in-law Rachel. I am supposed to name 6 things about myself that are "quirky". I'll have to keep in mind I am limited to six. Here it goes:

1. I do this weird thing with my fingers when I am thinking or talking to people (so pretty much all the time). I type out the words in my head as if my fingers were on a keyboard. I don't do it 100% of the time but more often than not I catch myself twitching away. Jesse's never said anything but I'll bet it drives him crazy when we are holding hands...I also do it with piano music while I sing the hymns.

2. I do NOT like mashed potatoes. Every time I tell someone this I am looked at like a two-headed troll. It's just one of those dishes that everybody loves...except me. Poor Jess loves them but I have made them a whole two times in our marriage because I am selfish and don't want to take the time to make something I don't want to eat. Thanksgiving is definitely my least favorite meal. I would probably be happier with grilled cheese. (But I will take the apple pie!)

3. I DO like Prego spaghetti sauce! I can and do eat it by the spoonful. My pizza is always dripping in sauce, my lasagna and spaghetti are runny because I use way too much. I love to just dip bread in it and munch away, even if the sauce is cold. But it has to be Prego. I've even converted Jesse.

4. I am addicted to running. This is a recent trend. I used to HATE to run. I started to doing it because walking just wasn't doing it for me anymore and now I am hooked. There's something about getting into that rhythm after about a mile where your lungs and legs don't burn anymore and you feel like you could run forever. Very relaxing and quite addicting. You should try it!

5. So enough about me, Jesse's weird too. He has this thing with the type of body soap he uses to shower. I laughed so hard when I figured it out when we were first married. I have to buy Dove bar soap with 1/4 moisturizer in it. If I don't then Jesse's skin "squeaks" when he is showering. We had to get a water softener to help with his addiction as well. When we go out of town and on vacation I have to bring a bar of soap for him to use so he doesn't get "squeaky clean" and throw off his whole day!

6. Jess is very protective of eyes. This one is slightly warranted by the fact that he does have a scar on his cornea from a mission-wrestling match gone wrong. He is extremely paranoid about the kids getting soap in their eyes in the bath tub and if anything comes near his or their eyes with the potential of touching them he is traumatized for about an hour. Let me illustrate: we had been married for about one week and I was washing dishes when Jess thought it would be funny to come up behind me and scare me (I know none of you are surprised). I happened to be washing a steak knife and when he scared me my hands flew up and the knife almost poked him in the eye. Jess proceded to go into the bedroom where he sat on the bed for 1/2 hour just staring at the floor pondering what had just happened. When I noticed he didn't come out I went in to see what was wrong and he wouldn't even speak to me and was borderline mad at me because it was such a close call. Even when I bring it up to this day he goes all quiet and has to take a time out. He keeps his eyes closed tight 98% of the time in his morning shower only opening them a peep so locate the soap which is very carefully not brought within a five inch radius of his most protected treasures. Now THAT is quirky!

There! I've spilled our beans. And now it is time for Heidi Wakley, Wendi Oyler and Syd Nelson to spill theirs! You're tagged!

Fruits of my labor

I finished my canning for the year. I got 30 quarts of peaches and 31 quarts of salsa. I could never find pears so we are out of luck this year. I like the peaches and Jess LOVES the salsa so we both win. (Hint: canned peaches on rice chex cereal is amazing.) I got Jesse's mom's salsa recipe which is way good. It took 13 hrs to do the salsa because Jess wanted a double batch. I did the salsa on Monday and my fingers still smell like onions and garlic and I still get a whiff on our clothes once in a while. While I was canning my friend said she could smell my house from the driveway. Yuck! I've been baking bread and making cinnamon waffles to get the smell out of the house!
Plenty of peaches and tapioca for me!

This is only half.

I finally the salsa finished at 9pm and that was with two canners going! Probably NOT doing a double batch next year!