Dancing Baby

Choices

Adam: I want to visit great-grandpa Peery.
Me: Honey, great-grandpa Peery died, we can't go visit him.
Adam: I know, I want to visit him in the cemetery.
Me: (putting him off) I'm not sure if we can do that, that cemetery is up in Salt Lake.
Adam: Mom, it's been a long time since I visited him, I want to go now!
Me: The problem is, dad and I made plans to go to Temple Square tonight as a family.
Adam: (to himself) Hmm. Temple square. . . visiting family. . . dead family. (To me) Mom, I'm going to do eeny meeny miney mo.

Rockin' Twins

Here are Jacob and Chloe--I think they're talking about starting a band. Jacob's got an agent on the phone.

Beautiful

What a beautiful place to live and work. This is the view from the front door of Sam's office.

wrestlemania

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Heaven

Here is Adam in heaven (aka: Coeur D'Alene Idaho with his cousins)

In October we found out Sam had 5 cavities (after a lifetime of no cavities, poor Sam). We decided this justified a visit to my sister Kim and her husband Tom, who is a dentist. So we packed up the kids and headed out. Here's a picture of the boys in the car.

We left in the evening, and drove to Idaho Falls and got a hotel (for free, with points). We took the boys swimming, then went to bed. Notice I didn't say we slept, since Jacob was in a new place. :)

The next morning we enjoyed checking out the falls of Idaho Falls--there is a huge man-made set of water falls that is a hydro-electric dam. It generates power for the city. It was beautiful weather, and a beautiful spot.

We continued our drive through Idaho and Montana. Sam was familiar with the route up to Butte, since his family drove to Cardston Canada all of his life. But from Butte to Coeur D'Alene was beautiful. Here are some pictures of the trees.

I thought these are "evergreens" but the trees seemed to be changing color, like leaves in the fall.

There were even red trees! Anyway, we were so happy to arrive and the kids loved playing with their cousins. The next morning we went to "down town." The kids played at the park, we walked by the lake, and browsed the shops. Of course we got burgers at Hudsons. :)

That night Kim and Tom took us to the best restaurant in town, and it was the best food I've had in a long while! I'm feeling like my Grandpa Stan when I say that, but it's true! Then we caught a movie. The kids were with babysitters--that was heaven for me!

Sunday morning was painful--baby Paige was up early, then Jacob woke up, and they seemed to take turns crying and keeping everyone up. Thank goodness for a day of rest!

Monday was spent seeing Dr. Dance, and getting all the holes in our teeth fixed. The office is beautiful, the staff wonderful--Adam loved the slide! We left late in the afternoon, and drove to Helena to spend the night. By this point Jacob was good and tired, so we all slept well. It was a full day of driving home, and by the end Jacob was crying at the mere sight of his car seat.

As Sam and I reflected on it, we haven't had such a pleasant vacation in so long. We can't wait to go back, hopefully in the summertime!

Roseola

Back in July Jacob got roseola. I found these cute pictures from Sam's phone. First, he had a temperature for four days. And it was high, like 103.4. Other than being hot, he was just fine. Happy as a lark. Then the fever broke, the rash hit, and he was cranky.

Here's a picture of his belly. This was the first day, I think. The rash got a lot worse--raised and red all over his body.

Birthday visit with Isaac

We enjoyed a visit from Isaac, Jacob's birthfather, and some of his family. Here they are together. Jacob definitely has Isaac's "sort of curly" hair. And I remember visiting with Isaac's dad and he told us Isaac's mom Mary had big hands. Jacob definitely has big hands too. It's so nice to know little things like that about our adopted children.

Isaac's girlfriend came, as well as his sisters and their children. Here's Isaac and I, with all the kids.

And this one has everyone except for Sam (he was taking the picture).

Thanksgiving

A belated Thanksgiving to you! I sure am grateful for these boys--grateful to be a mom and have these wonderful children to love!

Happy Halloween

Let me begin by saying that I don't really like Halloween. Something about witches, devils, ghosts, and zombies suggests that it is Satan's holiday. Add to that giving little children tons of candy for no apparent reason, and I'm convinced that it is.

I have softened, because even if you hate Halloween, it's cute to dress your children up as Bob the Builder or a Lion, or something like that. Who can resist playing dress ups?!?

For some reason, I always totally fail when it comes to getting cute Halloween pictures.

Here is Jacob on Halloween. You can see his latest "war wound"--a nice triangle cut in the forehead from falling onto the corner of the banister.

We went to Adam's school Halloween parade, and this was the best picture I got of Adam. 

Jacob enjoyed wandering around and visiting all the people. He was slightly obsessed with the basketball hoop.

I decided I needed better pictures, so I made the boys dress up the other day. Now this is more like it. I especially love that you can see Jacob's new top teeth. 

What a sweet little monkey! On Halloween I called him "chubba chimp."

And here are some good pictures of Adam, as a Ninja. He wasn't allowed to wear the mask at school, or bring the sword. So he ended up looking like a fire nation soldier (name that show).

Close up, dramatic shot. Believe it or not, I didn't pose him. This is ALL NATURAL.

And the two boys together. Jacob was melting down by this point, so we came full circle to Halloween!

Happy Birthday Chalupa!

Jacob turned one!

Jacob's real name is Jacob Keaton.

We started calling him "Chubba". This mutated into "Chubba chew." Sometimes Sam jokes that he is "King of the chews." It's a little sacrilegious, but I laugh every time.

And then his name became "Chubba chalupa." Which has been shortened to "Chalupa." It's very cute, but a little odd when I hear little Brynlee (age 3) call him Chalupa. It means we use that nick name more than his real name. How embarrassing.

Living vicariously

(Here's a post I wrote a month ago, and never posted)

I recently found out that I no longer need to gate the top of my stairs. Jacob is too afraid to go down them. I have tried to teach him, but he just fusses and cries all the way down.

Instead, he lives vicariously. He throws everything down the stairs. And then he looks at them longingly, as if to say "Goodbye old shoe, I cannot follow you, but I will remember you with fondness. Enjoy your visit down the stairs."

By "everything" I mean, dishes, tupperware, apple cores left on the table, toys, bags, you name it. But his favorite is to throw the shoes, especially Sam's shoes.

(Update: One day about a week ago, Jacob decided to go down the stairs. No trial and error--I walked in and he was at the bottom. He's very proficient now, going up and down without a problem. He still throws everything down the stairs, but now he goes to visit them.)