5 Years old!!!!

Ethan had his 5th birthday on the 18th. I can't believe it! Rory ended up working on the day of his birthday so I took Ethan to Toys R Us, and let him pick out something. It took quite a while for him to decide of course because there were just so many choices and he had to look at EVERYTHING!! Whatever though, it's his birthday.

What a cheesy smile on that birthday boy! Love this kid!!!

Jacob had to help him pick something.

Buzz Ethan and Jacob to the rescue!

 After Toys R us, we headed back towards home and ended up meeting up with my parents at Red Robin to celebrate a little more. Mom brought his presents and they sang to him!

The next day was the birthday party. We only invited 4 kids, but two of them couldn't make it. Ethan still had a great time with his two favorite friends. One is Savannah, and the other is Gabe. Savannah's mom used to babysit Ethan when I was working, so he loves playing with her. Gabe is a boy that is just a year older that lives down the street. This summer they started playing together and he has loved him since. Of course the theme Ethan wanted was Transformers. (No surprise there!) They played a couple of games (including a pinata which was crazy!) then he opened presents and then had yummy cake and ice cream. It was a great party!

He loved his cake!

October pics I had to post.

Two of my favorite pics from the month.

Ethan wanted Jacob to watch tv with him.  I love seeing them together like this..and not screaming at each other. lol

One night I had to call dad to help me because I needed to go to the dr. When I got home this is what I found. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture!!

SPOOKY BOYS!

So the title of this is a bit deceiving. My boys were anything but spooky on halloween. A few days before halloween, we headed to Rory's work for their annual Pumpkin carving party. The kids dressed up, we ate hot dogs and candy, then started carving our pumpkins. Ethan was a little grouchy because he had school that morning and was tired, but he got over it once he eyeballed the candy. lol Here was the finished product.

On Halloween night we got quite a few trick-or-treaters. Ethan went out for a while, but then was ready to come home. He was actually pretty happy with the little candy he got and had a good time handing out the candy. He decided this year that he wanted to be Thor. I have no idea why he picked that because he is huge into transformers, but whatever. lol

Jacob was of course my little pumpkin. His costume matched his hair!

Jacob's Walking!!!

Today was a special day! Jacob has been trying to get walking and has had pretty good balance. He will push a little toy around and He walkes circles around our ottoman holding onto it, but hasn't yet tried to let go...until today. He walked to me! I was so excited and proud of him. I was too caught up in the moment though that I forgot to get the camera...boooo. :) Still a happy day though!

Sacred Heart

During first part of October, we noticed that Jacob's hernia was popping out quite a bit so we took him into the pediatrician who then referred us to a pediatric surgeon. I cannot tell you how scary that was for me as a mother. When we got to the hospital for the first time, the dr was really quick. Just a few minutes and he said that Jacob did in fact need surgery. I couldn't believe it. Here Jacob is 10 months old, and he needs to have surgery! It was scheduled for the next week, but as fate would have it, Jacob got sick so we had to reschedule. The new date was October 19th at Sacred Heart Children's Hospital. The day started out pretty typical. We had arranged for Ethan to go to his school for a full day that day and dropped him off a little earlier than usual. Jacob was happy as he could possibly be with having had no food. (Saying that he loves food is a bit of an understatement. He does unfortunately get that trait from me.) After being admitted, we had to wait around for about another hour or so filled with more paperwork and vitals.Jacob didn't mind. Where it was a childrens hospital, they had cartoons on (which was of no interest to him) and had tons of toys (again, not really interesting him). They did however have a little car that he was able to get into and push around. It was pretty darn cute.

We got called back to get him all dressed and ready for the surgery. We stripped him down and put on his gown. It was so sad to see him in that. Even though the surgery was not serious or complicated, a child that young should never have to put that on. They gave him a little oxygen mask to play with and that kept him content for a little while.

It was difficult for both of us waiting in this room. We both wanted comfort and closeness, but I could not nurse him until after. Dad had to take over after a little bit, and gave him lots of loves.

 Once he was taken back, we were told it would take about an hour and if we wanted, we could leave then come back. Neither of us could stand the thought of leaving, so we ran down to a vending machine then came right back and sat in the waiting room. It took about 45 minutes and then we were taken back to post op. The dr said that when they got in there, they had found 3 hernias and the muscle was so thin that they had to just cut it, and stretch the muscle together. It broke my heart seeing him attached to all the monitors, and IV. He was a little bit awake and fussing. We went home after about another hour and drugged Jacob up. Here he is that night. There's my sweet smiles!!

They were able to just make one cut in the crease of his belly button, so you won't be able to see a scar.

September

September was a crazy month. First off  was Rory's birthday.  He is officially 28 now. (Wow, such an old man!) Because he is so into guns and shooting, I thought it was only appropriate to make a special cake for him. This was the first time I ever attempted to use fondant on a cake and the results weren't too bad for a first timer. I tried to make a target, and the picture doesn't really do it justice. It looked so much better without the candles on it. It could've used some red fondant instead too for the target. Anyhow, now I know for next time.

We celebrated at moms and Rory was so excited to get a cool laser to place on one of his pistols. Yay!

I think it is safe to say that he had a good birthday. :) The next day Ethan started school...preschool that is! He was so excited and had been looking forward to this day for quite a while. He's not a morning person, but he jumped out of bed that day.

What a big boy he is getting to be! He also started up a karate class!We thought it would be good discipline and great character building for him. Plus at first, he really loved it. He met up with them two times a week and they practiced kicks and punches. He looked like such a little stud in his gear!

doing those crunches!

He's in the far corner

After class one day.

 September was also the month for Jacob's 9 month check up! I was about to say that I can't believe he is growing so fast, but I remember it being this way with Ethan too. At his well-care checkup he was:

Height: 30 in

Weight: 22.13

Here's my growing little dude at 9 months sleeping peacefully.

Scrunchy nose

Jacob is walking around the furniture like crazy! I swear he’s going to be walking by the time he’s 9 or 10 months old. He’s getting big so fast!! He's also started making these really cute faces where he scrunches up his nose. I love it!!

Our camping adventure

On our 8th anniversary Rory had to work, so we planned to celebrate the next couple of days and go on a little mini vacation. There was a traveling vietnam wall that was going to be in Lewiston which is about 3 hours from us and Rory was really wanting to check it out. So, I thought to make it a bit more interesting, we could camp out for a couple of days in the area. Growing up my family was big on camping, so you'd think that it would come naturally to me right? Ya, not so much. Even though I grew up in the country, I prefer the city, and love modern conveniences. I'll pass on the whole 'roughing it' stuff. But for my husband (who dreams of camping out in literally NOWHERE) I will compromise a little bit. I found a hells canyon campground that looked to be on the outskirts of Lewiston, so I set us up some reservations. We were late heading out of town, but thought we would be able to make it in time for the wall. (it was the last day, and they only went until 4pm) Well, then right before we got to Moscow, there was a major road back up.

 I don't know if you can really tell, but off the road next to the ambulance is a motorcycle, and in the middle of the road is life flight. They weren't in too much of a hurry, so we're thinking the accident was fatal.

Here's the helicopter taking off. I think we sat around in traffic for a good 1/2 hour or more. So of course we were late getting into Lewiston, and pulled into the fairgrounds just as they were getting the wall packed up. Rory was pretty disappointed, which I don't blame him. The real wall is amazing, and very humbling, and I'm sure this miniature version is still spectacular. So we started heading out to the campground, and were very surprised to find that it wasn't quite on the outskirts of town. It was more or less in town! It was pretty funny though. Rory and me joke that it was my kind of camping. We had flushing toilets, showers, grassed area for the tent, paved walking paths, etc. It actually turned out to be a blessing that it was in town though because we found out pretty quickly that we were not nearly as prepared as we thought. When we were unloading everything, we realized we didn't have any chairs to put around the campfire. What?! How were we suppose to make smores?! Sit on the ground!?? So we loaded up in the car and headed to Big 5 sporting goods, which was just about 10 minutes away. We also found that we had forgotten a lighter as well, so had to add that to the purchase. As soon as we got back, it was getting dark and we just had enough time to get the fire started, and to have dinner. We all got cuddled up in our tent with the two air mattresses and blankets and settled in for the night...watching transformers on our portable dvd player. That night we were all awake about 3 am freezing our butts off. We were all shivering and putting on all the extra clothes we could find. It was a LONG night. (Note to self, ALWAYS bring extra blankets) I ended up getting up about 4 am and going into the nearby bathrooms where I held my hands and feet under the hand dryer for a while just to warm them up.

after the first night. At least there's one happy camper!

i had some great bed head going on!

The next day, we headed to Ross to pick up some more blankets for that night. lol The following night wasn't quite as cold, but it was still a little chilly. It was definately quite a memorable time. We found we also forgot to pack socks (for me), extra pants (for me), and extra t-shirts (for Rory). hehe. The day we packed up to head home, we went for a drive along the snake river canyon to see how far we could get to Hells Canyon.  It was beautiful scenery and we found a stop along the road where there were some amazing etches in some rocks.

 Notice the etching on the rock above. I love this picture of my two boys.

 So overall I would say it was a good trip. It was nice to get away, and definitely a learning experience when it comes to 'camping'.

I couldn't resist

I just HAD to put this picture on here. I love my two boys so much, and they are complete opposites. Even in this picture...look at how tan Ethan is, and how white Jacob is. lol He's my little vampire child!

Getting Around

It was just another typical day on the 7th of August at our house. Rory was gone to work and I was home with the kids. I was in the office when I heard Jacob making some commotion in the dining room. I thought, 'What?! I put him in the living room!' As soon as I came around the corner, he was there and started trying to get to me. I had to rush to get my camera because it was the first time he crawled! I was so excited! 

Silver Mountain fun

So one day we decided it was time for a family vaca. It had been way too long since we got away from home, and because we have two little ones that hate being in the car, we drove about 25 minutes to Kellogg, ID. For those of you who don't know, Kellogg is a small resort town. There's not a whole lot there but big mountains, a resort, a mine, and a humongous car dealership. (Dave smith I think owns pretty much all of Kellogg. Every empty lot is filled with new cars and trucks.) Anyhow. We booked one night at the resort and took off. It was a beautiful room and resort. It's nestled in the mountains and because we went in the middle of the week, there wasn't hardly anyone around.

The Morning Star Lodge

You can't tell, but behind all these clouds is the big ski mountain and gondola. It's beautiful!

The resort has little firepits around with benches so you can roast smores at night, and there's a big separate building that has a huge waterpark in it. That's what lured us there to begin with. I'd like to say it was for the kids, but I think really we wanted to go swim just as much. :)
The lazy river, baby pool, and family hot tub was my favorite features. But it was cool watching people try out the surfing. Luckily, no one's clothes got ripped off by the force of the water. (It really does happen!) Jacob's first time in a swimming pool was great. He loved it and was so relaxed with me in the lazy river that he even fell asleep! Kids were splashing and we went under a waterfall, but he just flinched a little and stayed asleep. lol It was so precious! I can't wait until we can go back!!!!

Day 1 Adventures:

Ethan's floating the lazy river

This was part of the kiddie pool. Jacob loved it!

Such a happy guy!

'lilly pads' for the kids to cross. Ethan didn't want to use the net above his head though.

Dad's helping him across.

Jacob had had enough of the water for one day.

s'more time!

I love these boys!!

Ethan loved the tv. (They had cable, and we don't at home. lol)

Day 2, we packed the bags to check out, but were still able to spend all day at the water park. We ate breakfast, went to check out some cars, then came back to the water for some more play!

Jacob was enjoying one of the fountains