Hello Winter

Not sure why I haven't felt the need to update the blog lately, but here's a few pics of what has been going on in our world...

Jan 14th - The boys love to sit on the storage bin outside.  They were shooting bad guys, guess I was one of them!

Jan 29th - me, my mom, & sister at a family baby shower for cousins Megan and Bridget, who's due dates are about 2 weeks apart. 

The little girls at the shower: Addison, Abigail, & Laney

The stars of the party with the wonderful host, our new cousin-in-law Megan

Feb 1st - such a great brother day!  The boys got along great and when one 4 wheeler battery went out, here's how I found them:

I was shocked that Jonathan then switched to let Jace drive, but notice he's still holding on to the handles!

Last week, Jonathan's school celebrated their 100th day.  He glued cereal to his 100 poster to hang at school.  It was a good use of a healthier cereal the kids won't eat!

Today we stayed home, although our school did not have an official snow day.  The boys could not wait to get outside and I was able to hold them off until about 10:30.  I forgot how long it takes to bundle everyone up, put on snow pants, and snow boots.  I think we are outside for about the same length of time it took to get warm clothes on, then back off.  Jonathan wasted no time in making his snow angel.  So glad this year we had adequate snow gear and fun snow sleds!  We got about an inch of snow but it was enough for the boys to slide down the hill in our backyard!

A pet free home again

Today, our dog Juna went to live with my niece, her boyfriend, and their two dogs.  Juna hadn't been getting along well with the boys, especially Jonathan for over a week.  For some reason, he started to give the boys dominance warnings by popping up in their faces.  Then, he always seemed to be after Jonathan, wanting to show his dominance.  On Saturday, he snapped at Jonathan and then acted very strange at the glass door towards the boys, biting at their fingers through the glass.  My niece claims Juna is getting along with the other two dogs and doing great on his 1st day.  I hope it works out.  I have never given away a pet and was a little sad to see him go.  If it had been just myself and Jason at our house, Juna would have been a great pet.  The boys were ok with it since they hadn't even been around Juna much for over a week and I don't think really bonded with him during this short month we had him.  Jonathan did however ask if his cousin was trading her dog (boston terrier puppy) for Juna.  After telling him no, he then asked when we would go look for a new dog.  The plan is not very soon and I will admit the house is less stressful for this mom this evening! 

Took Jace back to the dentist today.  Wasn't going to announce to the world that I should get the worst mom award for my 3 year old needing two (yes, TWO!) cavities filled after his first dental cleaning, but this is a blog of our life so decided to add it in.  Both of his corner teeth on top had small cavities and it was totally all my fault.  The evening after his dental cleaning, I had to make a huge effort to clean his corners that I had totally been missing so I could definitely see how the cavities formed.  At first I was puzzled since we brush Jace's teeth twice a day since his teeth have come in.  When I brush Jace's teeth, he constantly moves around, tightens his lips, and makes it a little difficult.  I thought I was doing a good job but was totally ignoring those corners.  So two cavities filled later, lesson learned.  Jace did great at the dentist and didn't even need to be numbed.  He had the gas and did everything he was told.  He was in and out of that chair in about 30 minutes.  Hopefully, it will be a long time, or never if we are lucky, before he needs any other dental work!

Dental Appointment

Jace had his first dental appointment yesterday. I decided 3 is the magic number to start taking my kids to my dentist for regular checkups. The office is not foreign to him since he's been coming with Jonathan for two years so I was only a little surprised when Jace asked if he could go first. Of course Jonathan had no problem with that. Jace was an excellent patient and did everything he was asked to do. Even though Jonathan watched Jace, he still had issues when it was his turn and wasn't totally comfortable with everything so the hygienist decided to skip the xrays.  Jonathan does have his first loose tooth, which concerns me since he seems too young for that milestone.  The dentist assured me it was fine and most kids get their first loose tooth between ages 5-7.  After the exam, the boys got to pick something out of the treasure chest, which Jonathan did not forget about!  We also took home fresh baked cookies, which seems a little odd for a dental office to give out!

Watching cartoons while waiting for the dentist to look at their teeth:

A very crowded trip to the zoo

Today was an unusual warm day for January so I met my sister and cousin Erin and their kids at the zoo.  Saying the zoo was crazy busy is an understatement.  I have never been to the zoo with so many people but when you have a nice winter day plus a school holiday (MLK Jr) PLUS $1 gate admission (that I did not know about), what else could we expect!  The boys had a great time seeing their cousins.

Jonathan, Abigail, and Jace

 Jonathan, Abigail, Addison & Jace

 The kids insisted on visiting the petting zoo, the place I usually try to avoid!  Abigail and Jace had fun brushing a sheep.

Family Game Night

We had my sister, niece, 6 cousins, a couple spouses, and five of their kids over Saturday afternoon to hang out, have fun, and hopefully play some games! We tried to keep the kids upstairs most of the time (8 kids aged 8 and younger, they did pretty well) as we played Apples to Apples. My cousin Kari brought it and it was a great group game! After a few people left, the remaining eight adults played one round of guesstures, which was also fun. It was a little crowded at our house, but I would definitely host again! The dog even did well since he hasn't even been here for 2 weeks in a big group. But why do dogs always have to bother those who don't want to be around a dog the most???

Most of the kids - Jacob, Abigail, Addison, Jonathan & Jace

 The cousins who were left at the end:  Amy, me, Sarah, Erin, & Kari

 The spouses:  Jasson, Jason, & Joe (could we seriously have any more Js in our family??)

 My cousins Erin, Amy, and Erin's husband Jasson

 My sister Sarah and cousin Jarrett, at least someone liked the dog!

 Me and Erin

Bridget & Erin - think I got a good picture of everyone except for cousin Megan and David.  I'm sure she would be just fine without me posting the one picture I took of them!  That very pregnant momma was taking it easy, as she should!

New shoes

We went to the shoe store after school today since it had been awhile since Jonathan had new shoes and I was pretty sure his old shoes were too small.  I was right.  Jonathan switched his old size 12 for size 13 and told me the shoes did not fit because he couldn't feel the end.  His poor little toes!  Jace went up a whole size to 11, and are the same ones Jonathan picked out.  Jonathan picked out black with red sketchers (he was very vocal in picking out his own shoes) because his friend Collin has the same pair.  It was a good choice, the pair was the cheapest sketchers so I talked Jace into the same ones.  Of course I wasn't thinking how annoying it will be to get the correct shoes off our shoe rack when we are running late on our way to school every day!

Juna is fitting in nicely although he proves he is young sometimes by playing a little too rough with the boys when he gets a little excited.  He has scratched Jace's back and popped him in the mouth.  Sorry Jace, you are just the right height for Juna.  Jason takes him for walks in the neighborhood once or twice a day.  The only thing he has torn up in the house is the carpet in front of the back door.  There is a little piece missing where the carpet meets the tile but the carpet is old and ugly so it needs to be replaced anyways.  Jonathan prefers calm Juna but will try to coax the dog into following him around everywhere. 

Riding our 4 wheelers in the backyard is now more fun with the dog chasing the boys all over the yard.  Fun for the boys, exercise for the dog!

Juna & our last day of 2011

 Jason and I have been on the fence about whether or not we wanted to get a dog.  We've been dogless for almost 4 years.  We knew we wanted a large dog and narrowed down our choices to lab, golden retriever, or German shepherd.  Ultimately deciding the lab would be the best fit, we filled out the application for a lab rescue.  Then, I found a golden retriever/lab mix named Anna (my aunt Anna just passed away this month) that I was sure we were meant to have so I also filled out the application for her from the golden retriever rescue.  I looked on another website and found a young German shepherd/lab mix named Junior (which happens to be the name of Anna's husband) at an animal shelter.  The information on this dog said he was house broken, had lived with kids, and we liked the fact he was part German shepherd.  This dog did not require an application and was the cheapest so went to see him.  He did growl at us when we first saw him in his cage, and then almost peed on his when we took him outside, but he quickly seemed like he would be the perfect fit.  We took him to petsmart for dog supplies, we had nothing left from our previous dogs.  We just had to close our eyes at the total and sign the machine.  Our first couple of days were rough and I wondered if we would be able to keep Juna since he snapped and barked at Jonathan twice and barked at Jace once but it seems like he was just nervous, scared, and adjusting to his new environment.  I hope that is the case.  He is very well behaved, smart, calm, hasn't barked much at all, and we hope he remains a member of our family.  He did bark when Jason came to the back door, which we saw as a good sign.  We can't figure out why a family would surrender him to the shelter, especially since they had spent some time in training him.  We did shorten the dog's name to Juna, since he already responded to Junior. 

The Boys at their new art work station (table from my parents):

 We think Juna is a lab body with colors of a shephard, which is exactly how the vet described him also!

On Thursday, Juna started coughing and appeared he didn't feel well (maybe another reason for snapping at the boys?) so we went to our first vet exam. Juna has kennel cough, which is basically an upper respiratory infection that his highly contagious among dogs. After a shot and getting two bottles of pills, we have really faced the reality on how expensive it is to own a large dog. We did find out he is a little older than what the shelter had been told (9-12 months instead of being born in June 2011) but that actually works out for us since he shouldn't get much, if any, bigger at all. He already weighs 64 pounds!  I'm so glad my parents were already planning on coming over Thursday afternoon so I didn't have to take the boys with me.  I think I waited longer to see the vet than we normally do to see our pediatrician! 

 My parents, Abigail, and the boys:

Today is New Years Eve and the 70 degree afternoon couldn't be better, although my little coughers (Jonathan and Jace) could do without the wind. The boys had fun playing outside and even got to hit a few balls at the driving range with dad. Other than that, our evening is no different than unusual and Jason and I will most definitely not see the ball drop at midnight tonight. We had thought about inviting a few people over but after all our dog expenses this week, we decided against spending any extra money. This is our life now, the American dream: a house, two kids, and a dog. Good bye 2011, Hello 2012!