i LOVE my BOYS!

Sometimes I think I take for granted how wonderful my life is and how blessed I am.  This is for my own sentimental journaling.  I love my boys!  Not a day goes by that they don't make me laugh.  At times, it is difficult to be a mother and have patience with every naughty thing they do (ie: Porter scratching the heck out of Jack's face right before we left for church!)  But  I love the days when we get to cuddle up on my bed and read a story to them before nap time.  And I love, even if just for a minute, when they are both sleeping and I just get to lay there with them and watch how innocent and adorable they are.  I love when I do find them laughing together.  Jack thinks Porter is the funniest person he has ever seen and it makes me happy to know that one day they will be the best of friends!  I love being a mom and with days like today when the power was out I realize how sometimes I lose sight of what is most important and how much I just enjoy sitting with my boys with nothing else to entertain us but, well. . . us!

I love Porter's enthusiasm for life!  Everything is so exciting and fun to him.  His new favorite?  Each day we get to get out one Christmas decoration.  Yesterday was a tiny nativity set and so as part of our Thankful Family Home Evening we talked about how thankful we were for Jesus and the Christmas Story.  He loves to tell me it a billion times a day.  Did you know that the Wise Men (who did in fact build their house upon a rock!) brought Jesus gold and frankenstein. We now carry the nativity around in a ziploc bag and I'm sure we will loose every piece of it, but well worth it.  He loves to help cook and clean, read stories, play the "what letter does it start with" game and hide and go seek (even if he doesn't get it), and he absolutely loves nursery and preschool.  We love this little boy!  (oh and potty training is just about there!)

Jack is trying my patience a bit right now, but I love this little boy.  I love him while I'm giving him a bath at 4 am because it is the only way to calm him down.  I love his chunky little body and his smiley face!  He is irresistable and he knows it.  He started crawling now and since it took him so long, he is quickly advancing to pulling himself up on things.  Here we go! 

One of Those Days

So. . . apparently, Jack is like his dad and is allergic to penicillin. I tried to take a picture with my phone, but it just doesn't quite do it justice.  We went to the doctor Friday to see if we could figure out why Jack was waking up every two hours at night and never napping longer than 20 minutes.  The diagnosis was reflux but he also had a small ear infection so we started him on antibiotics.   He said big kids (23 lbs.) often have a hard time with reflux.  We gave him maalox for the first two nights and it worked like a charm 10 + hours.  But then we started him on Zantac which started us back to 2 hours a night.  So. . . we are going to try Prevacid and see if it is less irritable on his stomach.  But, back to the matter at hand.  He woke up this morning with a rash.  It wasn't much so I thought maybe it was just an irritation to laundry detergent or something, but as the day went on his whole body was covered in hives and his back was almost completely red.  After seeing Tommy a few months ago with his allergic reaction to penicillin, I knew what had happened.  $25 later I found that he was indeed allergic to penicillin.  Awesome, poor guy looks pretty pathetic but hopefully all his problems are solved now and his ear infection is gone.

But, I had dropped Porter off at my parents house when I took Jack. As I was going inside to pick him up, I noticed the door to our Mr. Sandless truck was slightly ajar.  I looked inside to find that the stereo system had been stolen and the whole front end had been ransacked.  Awesome!

Luckily we've reached the end of the day and a package of pretzel M&M's and a Diet Coke is just what the doctor ordered to help wind down.  Pray that we have a nice restful night and that Jack will sleep for longer than two hours (that is worse than a newborn!)

We Survived!

We are home after being in Provo for four days watching my Aunt Jenny's 5 kids! So. . . maybe I"m not cut out to have that many kids, or maybe having 4 kids 3 and under is challenging! Actually, truth be told, it wasn't too bad, and Porter was in heaven. The hardest parts? Jack waking up every 2 hours day and night (this has been ongoing for the past month plus, we went to the doctor today so hopefully putting him back on acid reflux meds will do the trick!? Here's hoping!) having to give Porter an enema because he had not had a movement in a LONG time, making breakfast and dinner for 6 kids who all want something at the same time, convincing my 12 year old cousin that as a past History Teacher I was more than qualified to assist her with her history homework (if not more so than her mother whom she would secretly call to ask for help), figuring out how to pick up 3 kids from school with four car seats in a 7 passenger van, dealing with piano practicing for hours on end, getting my work done for Shabby Apple and completing a 1.5 hour conference call with 4 kiddos, and not losing my patience with such lack of sleep!

The kids were fabulously behaved for the most part. Bed time was the best. All kids in bed at 8:30 with flashlights that they use to read a book and then lights out (even the 3 year olds) I only hope my kids can be as well trained as that!

I admire all you mothers out there who handle a plethora of children so unbelievably well. I only hope that I can be as good as you when I have more! Jenn, you are awesome and have taught your kids well!

PS: Mags had her baby: 4 lbs 10 oz teeny itty bitty (especially for someone with almost 9 pound babies!), keep them in your prayers!

Our October

I absolutely love fall! And not just because of my birthday, although that was an enjoyable event too. I got a Cricut Machine and I am soo excited to start crafting. Now if I can only find the time. But back to Fall. It is by far my favorite season and having kids has made this month even more fun. Unfortunately, after more than a week of Halloween Parties and festivities, Porter has come to expect something every night and doesn't understand why we aren't still dressing up!

I love this costume!

The Pumpkin Patch

The First of many Halloween Parties. In case you can't tell, as many people seemed to need clarification: I am Wendy, Jack is Peter Pan, Porter is Captain Hook and Tommy is the Crocodile. No Jack is not Robin Hood and I am not Bo Peep. Come on people, honestly! He was so insistent on this that after going to every thrift store as well as Walmart and Target, I gave up and had to make my own nightgown. His assignments extended far beyond our little family as my dad was Mr. Smee, my mom, Tiger Lily, Trent as Michael, and Miko as "Poor Nana". Unfortunately, I don't yet have the picture of that, but hopefully I can get it from someone else.

Porter loved carving pumpkins, although he didn't really like the guts! Later on in the week, of course Justin had to use his art skills to carve an awesome Captain Hook Pumpkin.

Violet, Noah and Jack. This was right before Jack realized that Noah's costume was so soft and began to nuzzle his face into it. As you can tell, Noah didn't appreciate it so much.

The Grandkids with Nanny and Grandma Adams. I failed as a mom by forgetting the majority of Porter's costume. Luckily, Nanny saved the day with this Price Phillip costume that even matched the hat!

We had a very Happy Halloween, but I am Halloweened Out!

Pictures!

We had pictures taken a few weeks ago. Porter was not the most cooperative, Jack was all smiles, and here are the results. I love my little boys and you have to admit they are pretty dang cute!

Jack is so white in this picture you can't see the shirt underneath. A little photoshopping might have to fix that bare chested look!

The Question of the Day

Porter posed the following question on the way to Gymboree: "If Sneezy sneezes, and Happy is Happy, and Grumpy is mad, and Sleepy sleeps, what does Bashful do?" The kid cracks me up, seriously who thinks about that? I proceeded to explain that he was shy, but that didn't work for him so we ended on the fact that he doesn't talk much.
Porter is loving Halloween this year. I so wish we were in DisneyLand right now because he is all about Disney Villans and is totally into the Captain Hook costume and doesn't want to take it off. At least I am getting my moneys worth. After a brief search for a Wendy costume, I decided to make one which my mom helped me polish off today, so we are ready for Halloween at the LeBaron house. Here is just a glimpse of what is to come . . .

My Husband is Awesome!

So my husband is pretty much awesome. I wish I had pictures of the awesome shelves he made or the amazing dinner we just enjoyed that he prepared, but instead I guess I'll just tell you all. He is awesome! He can pull 6 miles out without exercising for a month, build anything (if only he had the time), survive on minimum sleep and wake up at the crack of dawn to go to work and then school and not get home until 10 at night and still have the patience to take care of Porter when he wanders in at 3 am. He is an awesome cook and loves doing it. Who doesn't love a man who can cook? He can figure anything out and loves to research everything. And despite how busy he is, he always manages to be the on-hand handy man to help anybody solve any problem they have. Ok, enough of that, here are a few catching up pictures:

Here is my little boy exhausted after a week of potty training (yes he sure did have an accident at Nanny's this day, as soon as I heard the door to the playroom slam I knew it was over as that is usually his choice of pooping places) In the words of Candace Flynn (if you don't know how that is, don't worry about it): "Sick of it! Totally sick of it. Sick! of! It!" We still have not mastered this aspect of potty training so basically I have to deal with dirty pants every other day! Any thoughts or help would be greatly appreciated!

We've been making lots of Halloween treats lately. As you can see from the pictures above (this photo is taken when I came down stairs looking for Porter after a shower) Porter loves frosting as he bites or licks the tops of the cupcakes off and puts them back.

In other news, we did in fact survive last weekend which unfortunately was the weekend everything was going on. We did the homeshow for Mr. Sandless starting Friday. Tom and I took the Friday evening shift ending at 10pm. I went the next morning with Trent until 1 while my mom watched the kids because Tom was helping his dad with a special project, after which I ran home to get to a baby shower for my visiting teaching partner. We then had to be at the Stake at 4 with a pot of chili and rolls to set up for The Stake Activity that I was partly in charge of. It went over fairly well. At the last second I had to enlist Trent to be the entertainment as everyone else bombed. Luckily I have a talented brother who can perform on the fly! The night was a pretty huge success with the exception of the Sumo Wrestling injury (the activity I was in charge of) as one of the Sumo Wrestlers fell out of the ring and landed on a little girl who now may have a broken arm. Of course there were the old ladies who then proceeded to criticize whoever it was that set it up there and why they weren't more careful (they being me!) We then had to clean up from the Home Show and by Sunday evening we were exhausted! So glad its over!