Updates

Paul: Is currently working his 11th week (of 12 total) for his internal medicine rotation. He is really liking the doctor that he is working with, although he has later hours than a lot of the other doctors he worked with. He wakes up and studies for about an hour (prepping for the step 2 exam he wants to take in the spring), eats breakfast and leaves for the hospital, sometimes before we get up, sometimes after. He rides his bike still (thank you perfect Miami weather!), and comes home at 6pm at the earliest. Some nights he isn't home until 9 or 10pm, no thank you. In news other than school (can you believe he does things outside of it?), he found a guy on craigslist giving away his kid's backyard playset (I guess they are too big for it now). Right now it is strapped to our car... Hopefully it will remain there until we get our Uhaul trailer in a week and a half. :)

Jessie: I finally figuring out how to do the 2 immobile kid thing. How do people with multiples do it when they are babies?! Having Hawken casted up is soooo challenging. He wants so badly to be able to run and jump like he used to do, but now I have to carry him most places. To the bathroom, so he can make it there before having an accident. To the car so he won't step in puddles. Into the car because he can't manipulate his ankle to climb in himself... the list goes on. Meanwhile I have a little baby who needs even more from me. But I am grateful that we have health insurance that took care of my little guy when he needed it, even if it makes more work for me now.

Matix: Is becoming such a big boy right before my eyes. I can't believe all the things he can do and say and help with. He has his own little personality and can be quite feisty. :) I love him to pieces and am soooo happy he is mine.

Hawken: Has been doing little silly things, then laughing this fake laugh, and saying, "I'm really funny mom!" He cracks me up. He will repeat this little mantra until everyone else joins in and laughs too and agrees that, yes, Hawken is really funny.

Lullaby: Is almost 3 months old! Ahh! She is still the world's most perfect baby. (Well, Hawken was really good too). She cries only when she needs something and she is very predictable. She naps when the boys nap and makes my life a dream. I love these kiddos so much.

That's it for updates really. We are packing and will be in our new HOUSE (yes, a real house, with a yard even!!) in Georgia in less than 2 weeks! Hooray! Can't wait to get a tree and really feel like it's Christmas, so far we haven't really done many Christmas-y things and Paul and I are both missing that! :)

Mr. Matix Man

My poor neglected big boy. Matix has really stepped up in the past few days. Between the packing for our move, Hawken's birthday, basic baby needs of Lullaby and the needs of Hawken because of his new cast, I haven't had a whole lot of time to spend on him. Well, it turns out he doesn't need me as much as I thought he did. I learned this week that he can undress himself completely (I thought he could only do pants and underwear), dress himself, pour his own cereal for breakfast, reach into the silverware drawer to set the table, and many many more things... Not that I was not feeding him or dressing him, just that when I asked if he could try to do it himself, he DID. Yay!

He is such a delight. Matix is so smart and sweet and wonderful. I love him so much. Thank you Matix for being the amazing little boy that you are and helping me with all this STUFF. :)

Hawk and Lullaby

Sweet little Hawkers and his baby Lullaby. I love watching these 2 together. They are just edible. Hawken asked to snuggle Lullably when she was cranky. It worked and she calmed down. When snuggling got boring, he grabbed his ukulele to play her a song... (ignore the fact that he is half-nakey... it is easier with the cast and the frequent potty breaks to go bottomless sometimes)

Hawken is 2!!!

In an hour, my little Hawken turns 2. For some reason, I am really sad about this. He is such a sweet baby, always in my shadow, always asking to be held and snuggled... I just never want that to end. I hope that with this new number, he will still be my little snuggle bug. He is soooo excited about his birthday, and getting a new number. He has been telling people he was 2 for about 6 months now, so finally it will be true.

Hawken can do everything. I know typically I would make a list of the words he can say, or the new milestones he has reached, but really, there is nothing this little boy can't do. He is quite the over-achiever. We are so proud of him and are impressed constantly. Really the only thing he hasn't quite mastered is counting. His numbers go like this: 1,2,3,4,6,9,10. He sings songs, "reads" his memorized books, jumps (or he did before he broke his leg), runs... everything.

We love you Hawken Man! Happy 2nd Birthday! :)

kids say...

Sharing a graham cracker with Matix he said this:

M: "Let me go get some cheese."

J: "Oh, cheese is good on other crackers, but not on graham crackers. "

M: "I like cheese."

J: "Me too, but these don't taste good with cheese."

M: "Yes it do... Yes they does... Yes it doing... Yes it doose? Mommy, I don't like cheese anymore."

He totally gave up trying to figure out the right way to say it, and blamed it on the cheese itself. Ha ha ha! I love this little boy. :)

missing the tub

With his cast, Hawken can't take a bath. :( He has to get little sponge baths in the baby tub. He is not a huge fan and every night asks, "Me take a BIG bath today? Peeeeeeeeeeease?" I feel so bad. I took these "big bath" pics the day before he broke his leg. We look at these a lot. :)

Poor little guy. We have his appointment to get his cast cut off on the 14th. So the countdown begins! :)

Sarge

Our little almost puppy Sarge has moved into his new home with his new family. The boys really had a lot of fun with him while he was here though, which makes me all the more excited to be reunited with our Sakina in a few weeks!! Hooray! Puppy Matix:

Puppy Hawken:

Poor Sarge... he was very tolerant.

And ALWAYS underfoot. His new name is "Finn", another Cars lover named him.

Thanksgiving dinner

For Thanksgiving we went over to our friend Joe's house. He and his two kiddos made the turkey and potatoes, and we brought the other stuff. :) It was a lot of fun. Ellie is a week younger than Hawken and in nursery with the boys. Kenny is a year older than Matix, but plays well with the boys. The kids had their own table, it was really cute and they were all very pleased.

Dinner was DELICIOUS and afterward (before dessert) we walked over to the park to play for a bit. The kids had a great time. Hawken figured out a new fun way to slide with his cast. You would think this thing would slow him down, but no. He keeps on going and going and going. His cast is FILTHY dirty and I want it off NOW. :)

Lullaby got some extra snuggles in with her daddy.

Family shot.

We got back to their house, ate some pie, the kids watched some Pixar shorts (we thought of you dad), Hawken and Lullaby crashed out on the couch, and the adults talked.

It was a very nice night and we left full as can be. Thanks Joe for a wonderful night. We have such good friends here in Miami, we will miss them.

story time

One of our Thanksgiving-y activities was to go to story time at the library a few days before. The teacher read a few books about Thanksgiving and she even had a stuffed animal turkey who gobbled to all the kids. Matix and Hawken loved it.

Then the activity was gluing paper feathers onto a turkey, and coloring it. Matix, the perfectionist, was there for the second longest time of ALL the kids at story time. He colored every inch of it and glued the feathers, and then re-glued them in a better spot a few times... :) He also peeled his crayons furiously. I remember doing that too, when I was little, because I didn't like the feeling of the paper seam.

Hawken glued his feathers on, quickly scribbled a little something in the middle and called it good. :) We snuggled for a bit, while we were waiting. Love him.

Lullaby was very content to sit in her stroller and watch. Smiling and flirting with anyone who would make eye contact with her. She is such a sweet baby.

Lully Bully Boo-we love you!

Yes, she is LOVED. But more importantly, she is TOLERANT. :) We love our new baby. The boys frequently ask to hold her and snuggle her and tell her how much they love her. It is oh soooo sweet to watch. This is the newest holding position, "just like daddy does it!" Paul snuggles her to sleep sometimes on his chest. Cute.

Everglades trip

This is how our trip to the Everglades went... We got in the car and were very excited. It was free because we went on Veteran's Day (State parks and National parks offer free admission every year on Veteran's day and the weekend after, FYI).

After driving QUITE a while and seeing NOTHING... We stopped for a potty break at this place, "Skunk-Ape Research Headquarters". That was the name, for real. It was the beginning of a scary movie. :) Well, that's what it looked like anyway, although the people there were wonderful.

They let us tour their exhibits for free (thank goodness for cute kids). Very cool, and a little spooky. There were snakes that could eat medium sized dogs, alligators, and tons of other equally scary creatures. The boys loved it. There was also this HUGE statue.

We kept driving and went all the way to Naples. Ate dinner and returned home having seen ZERO alligators in the wild. Apparently they are only out in abundance in the summer months... Hmmm... Maybe next time. :) It was a fun road trip anyway. Lullers was good for the ride and the boys were happy to watch a movie on the way home.

Happy Thanksgiving!

What we are thankful for:

Paul:

1. my wonderful wifey (he said that himself, even though I am typing)

2. the family that's picking up our almost puppy tomorrow

3. fenced in parks

4. nephews named Goose "squooooooonky"

5. my brilliant children, I am so keen on them, NZ shout out holler!!!

-(I don't know why Paul's are so weird.)

Jessie:

1. our 3 perfect babies, I love them soooo much

2. my silly hubby

3. our families, even though we are so far away

4. thanksgiving dinner with friends

5. our church ward and the friends we have made here in Miami

Matix: (according to us)

1. puppies

2. sticks

3. anna

4. running

5. guns (although I disagree that this is one of his favorites...)

Hawken: (according to us)

1. candy

2. mommy

3. candy

4. daddy, matix and baby buh-bye

5. candy

Lullaby: (according to us)

1. kisses from brothers

2. cuddles from mommy

3. snugglers from daddy

4. walks in the stroller

5. getting held after a traumatic car ride (she hates her car seat)

We really are so grateful everyday, not just today. But, it's nice to have a whole day to talk about and really reflect on the wonderful, beautiful life that we have been given. We are so thankful.

Paul is 29!!!

Who knew 29 looked like this?

Happy Birthday Hubby! I wish today you didn't have to leave before the rest of us woke up, and I wish you didn't have class after your rotation until 9pm tonight. :( Not the most fun way to spend your special day. But when you do come home, we can celebrate again. I love you soooooooo much. And the kids do too. You're the best.

We celebrated last night when Paul came home. We had birthday muffins for him (the boys insisted that he would prefer muffins over cupcakes), sang to him, he opened his cards and gifts, and then Paul and I enjoyed a fancy dinner and dessert. Yum. Birthdays on a budget (money and time) aren't always spectacular, but they are still fun. Happy Birthday PAUL!

worst.day.ever.

As the title reads, today was the WORST DAY EVER. It was the worst in too many ways to count. It was bad in the morning when Paul and I argued over if he should take a shower (stupid fight, we made up after a couple minutes, don't worry). Then in the late morning, Lullaby got up early from her nap #1 (no fun), then we walked to the Goodwill store. Hawken threw a HUGE fit when we had to leave... Crying, limp noodle, tantrum... Lovely. I was already tired, so I opted to buy pizza for lunch. I was TRYING to make it easier on myself, but then their "hot and ready" pizzas weren't hot OR ready. We had to wait 10 minutes, which to toddlers may as well have been a few hours. The boys were cranky, and ready for bed. We finally got our pizza, got home and ate it. During that time the baby woke back up and needed to be held, and rocked, and diaper changed (twice), and fed AGAIN... During this time I was barking orders to the boys to get their under pants off and pull-ups on for naps and SOMEHOW, Hawken got out of his bed and fell weird on his leg. When he tried to stand up, he fell again because he couldn't put any weight on it. He still wanted to take his nap, so we all napped (this was the ONLY happy part of the day at this point). I was praying that when he woke up he would feel better and maybe it was just a sprain, but no. Of course not. Not today, the worst day ever. Today, it had to be something worse, and it was. We went to the ER at the children's hospital which thankfully is very close to our house. After being there just over 5 hours, we found out that in fact Hawken BROKE HIS LEG!! Crap. It is a small fracture on his right leg, they called it a "toddler fracture" and said it was a pretty common break for kids his age. It won't affect his growth and shouldn't re-break in the future.

He had x-rays done, picked the color for his cast (yellow) and got another x-ray after that to make sure it was set well. He can technically walk in it, but he is afraid to put pressure on it. When we were finally released and I told Matix to put down the Wii (apparently, he knows how to play the Wii, although we don't have one at home), he RAN FROM ME! What?! Lullaby was crying and wanting to be nursed in public (for what would have been the 3rd time that day) again, Hawken was in a general state of distress, but I had to run after Matix who was long gone and around a corner in a very busy and confusing hospital. FANTASTIC! I found him right away, some nurses had stopped him. He said he wanted to stay at the hospital, and at that point I thought about it... Hmmm.... Maybe only 2 kids would be better? :) Just kidding, but I was EXHAUSTED. I dragged him back to where my other 2 crying children were waiting ever so impatiently.

I somehow managed to get all 3 to the car. Then I got home, brought in our screaming baby, gave her to Paul to hold until I got the others. He of course, was in the SHOWER... (remember our fight this morning was about the shower...) Anyway, I got Hawken and Matix in from the car, and Matix informed me that HIS leg was now broken too. So Paul (having more energy and strength to deal with this and all the other ridiculousness that comes out of these situations with silly children), wrapped up his leg in a "cast" of toilet paper. Very clever, and it fooled Matix. This was the another of the good moments today.

The boys are now sleeping and I am basking in the silence and peace... FINALLY. I am soooooo tired. Today was the kind of day that I don't want to remember until I am MUCH older and wiser and have something good to get out of it. Right now, I just want to have my little pity party. Today was the worst day ever.

date night OUT

Our ward had a fundraising activity for the boy scouts. It was a dinner and a dance. The dinner was surprisingly AMAZING. We were mostly going to support the boys, but ended up having a wonderful time. Hooray! Family picture!! :) So far, all the family of 5 pics we have are at or just outside our church building, funny.

Matix and Hawken showing off their mad dancing skills. They are so fun.

Hooray a date night OUT! (Even if we did have to bring along the kiddos!)

I think they had just as much fun as we did, well, except Lullaby, she slept pretty much the whole time. She could have cared less where she was.

Hawken found Anna right away and ran around with her the whole time. The boys call her "my Anna" when they see her. So sweet. I think they are really going to miss her.