melt

This morning I was making Jax some cereal when he came up to me, looked me right in the eyes and with the sweetest most sincere voice he said

"Oh mommy, I really like your hair. It's really great"

Oh how I melted.

He has to be the sweetest kid ever.

And considering this is how my hair looked at 7:15 am

He deserves some sort of medal.

(photo courtesy of Jax Miner- notice how well he captures my many, many forehead wrinkles:)

Merry Christmas!

Christmas was a blast this year! Jax was excited leading up to the big day and for me his excitement was the highlight of the season. He could not wait to hang up the advent calendar ornaments each morning starting December 1st and his anticipation for the Big Man's arrival was good to see.

Here Jax is reading the letter Santa left for him.

The Play Doh Mega Factory was a huge hit, as well as the mini tramp, the tunnel and Toy Story 3 Chutes and Ladders.

But the main thing on Jax's list this year was his very own digital camera. Santa delivered- what a Stud!

Jared's late mother made this advent calendar and we were lucky enough to inherit this treasure. Jax adores it, and so do I. Jared loves how much Jax loves it.

Giddy and hyper after so much candy, Jax thought it fun to wear the stockings as stockings. I mean, doesn't that make sense? :)

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Festival of Lights

This has become a fun tradition for us! The Festival of Lights in Spanish Fork is SO much FUN!!! Jax was giddy with excitement because he could "drive" the car with Daddy. It was adorable to see them sitting in the driver's seat.

The lights are so much fun to see! I guess this is similar to the lights at Thanksgiving Point but you don't have to wait 2 hours for these lights. Gotta love that!

Tyce was conked out in the back seat which was a bummer. He would have loved it!

You gotta love FFF

Oh, what's FFF you ask? Around here it's known as Forced Family Fun. Jax often needs to be pushed into doing new and different things. He gets caught in ruts and wants "sameness" a lot and it's good for him to shake things up a bit- it helps him learn to regulate better and accept others ideas of fun. So, the other day I was hit with heavy resistance as I suggested we go outside and build a snowman, but I patiently urged him to get bundled up and head outside.

Jax was okay with being outside but he couldn't have cared less about Mr. Snowie over there- all he wanted to do was eat the snow, which was fine. I gave up trying to get him to help me put together the snowman and just let him have fun doing whatever he wanted.

Handsome little man!

Then Mr. Bully Tyce came along and yanked off poor Mr. Snowie's nose.

And was then really upset that he couldn't put snowie Humpty back together again. The party was over after that :)
So yeah, it was FFF at its finest.

ugh....stupid toaster

I HATE this dumb machine...................

Because without fail this is what you get.......

What the crap Cuisinart?????? Okay, rant over.

Sensory Fun

We do a lot of sensory activities around here. Both my boys are receiving help from wonderful occupational therapists that help with some of their sensory needs. You can chalk it up to therapy but I just call this FUN! During the days you'll find us wrestling, jumping on fun shapes we've taped onto the carpet, spinning, rolling around in blankets, hopping on one foot to various places in the house, playing with finger paints, rice bins, soft brushes, listening to music while dancing and playing blindfolded.

This particular day Jax asked if we could play with shaving cream since he once saw daddy using some and has been very interested ever since.

Sure...why not?

Yes, it's messy- big deal- it's SO worth it. You can do all sorts of creative things like making shaving cream mountains and oozing the cream between your fingers and you can also write words!


It gets everywhere but it comes out of clothing and carpet easily :) we even added some WASHABLE paint towards the end and made all sorts of colors- it was great.

So, if you're up for a messy adventure I highly recommend playing with shaving cream (before bathtime :)

Meeting the Big Man

My parents' ward had a Christmas breakfast and we decided to drive up to Sandy to attend. We knew Santa would be making a visit and Jax was really excited to meet him. He asked before he left if he could hold his letter to santa so I gave it to him and he put it inside his pocket.

He was so patient waiting for the breakfast and the entertainment to be over because hey, all he really cared about was seeing Santa. He waited so patiently in line and once he got on Santa's lap he was all business, taking from his pocket his hand written Christmas list.

All of the other kids sat on Santa's lap and told him what they wanted, not our little Jax man- he was probably thinking it much more efficient to just hand deliver his exact wants to Santa so he wouldn't forget, plus we all remember things better when we get hit with both auditory and visual stimuli :)

Santa got a kick out of Jax's letter and spent a little extra time with him going over his list which included his own digital camera, space shuttle, a garbage can, and a fish game. It was adorable. All of the parents were giggling at how cute he was up there showing santa his list.

Tyce did not patiently wait for Santa and was quite bothered at me for not giving him free reign to run around on stage. He wasn't sure what to think of Santa.

He didn't cry at all, he was just squirmy and once Santa gave him candy Tyce decided this big red dude was alright afterall and gave him a smile.
Fun memories

Jax the photographer

Jax loves to take pictures. He hands down would rather play with our digital camera then any "toy" on the planet. Here is some of his work :

the all important Buckeye game.

Molly: our candy land girl- don't call this figure "him" or else Jax will correct you.

I think I was texting here....looks like I'm using lots of brain cells to do so.

Tyce being naughty and touching our brand spankin new washer and dryer.

And his favorite subject is me, and oftentimes the unflattering angles he captures really gets me bummed out. I won't show you the closeup he took of my zit the other day.