Someone came to visit our house last night

. . . it was the tooth fairy!

After lots of complaining and whining Hayden finally let me pull his tooth yesterday. It was just hanging there and the new tooth was halfway in. Then he starts crying because his tooth is gone and that it was his "special tooth."
I asked him if it shot lasers or could teleport him or something. :-D

Then last night he's crying that he wants to keep the tooth and save it in a box. That is our son the "pack rat!"

But this morning when he woke-up he was excited to see what she left for him. Here are his prizes... a golden dollar, because the tooth fairy only gives gold dollars :), and a pack of Pokemon cards! What a haul!

Bath Time

I have a feeling this will be happening a lot this summer since Hayden can get dirty outside in 2.5 seconds! It was Jax's bath night and Hayden needed a good scrubbing so in they both went. You would think with the age difference they wouldn't like this but they LOVE it! Hayden takes up a bit more space than Jax but he doesn't seem to mind, for now.
Hayden being a dork :D

Jaxson's turn :D

New family member

Welcome Elmo to our family. Our oldest fish finally "floated" last week after a long 3.5 years, so we decided that it was Jax's turn to get a fish. He helped me pick this little guy/girl out at PetSmart by banging on the glass.
I helped him with the name. It's his favorite character AND this little fish was the brightest orange/red in the tank.
So welcome Elmo, welcome!

Best seat in the house. . .

(watching the boys play)

Tooth #9

This afternoon while I was changing Jax's diaper he smiled and I noticed something white in his mouth... and another new tooth was discovered.

The weird thing is that it was one of his first molars. He completely skipped his canine teeth. There are huge bumps for his other 3 molars as well but no canines ??? I'm scratching my head here since Hayden got all his teeth in a timely and orderly manner.
At least this explains the runny nose and crabby temperament he's had for the past few days.

Jax learning from the Master

(padawan training)

Easter Bunny

We took the boys to visit the Easter Bunny before the big day. Hayden was fine and asked the bunny for vairous DS games :) Jaxson just loved the bunny!! He kept staring and waving and when it was our turn he kept giving the bunny "high fives" :D

More easter pictures and other stuff to follow. It's been really really busy here :)

14 months old

Just another Bear picture to add. This kid is going to be 16 and I'll still be taking pictures with his bear :-) LOL
He's just moving and grovin` this month. He's gotten really really active. Climbing on stuff to reach things he not supposed to. Running with Hayden. Getting into everything.
Just when I think I have the family room/kitchen all baby proofed Jax finds something else to get into a new way ;)

He's really trying to talk. His big works are still, Mama, Dada, Hayden, banana and Lamp. But now when Tim comes home from work it's , " Hi Da!" It's so cute to hear. He's signing a lot too, maybe too much but I'm working with him on that.

He's still eating everything under the sun, although I think we finally found a food he's not fond of. Potatoes. Weird I know. He will eat a few bites then start to spit them out. I don't get it. He won't last long in this family not liking potatoes :) LOL He had his very first chicken nugget from McDonald's yesterday. LOVED it! But what kids dosen't ?

I can't wait to get him outdoors with the warmer weather that the weatherman keeps saying is, "just around the corner" ( Man I would love a job where I'm paid to only be right 50% of the time) He loves his swing and I can't wait to introduce him to the sandbox.

I have no clue how much he weighs or how tall he is this month. No doctor visit till the end of April. I'm thinking he will be big enough to turn his car seat around finally. :)

** edited to add I weighed him at Hayden's doctor apt for his finger and he's 23lbs 4oz, but that was with clothes on... **

Easy dinner night.

I was relaxing watching my favorite food Network shows, Everyday Italian, Barefoot Contessa, and Paula's Home Cooking and saw this recipe on Everyday Italian. It looked so easy and yummy and as luck would have it, I had thawed pork chops for dinner that night. I had everything else in the fridge or the pantry.

It was that mysterious coming together of fates that made for an easy meal :D
I love those nights!

So I thought I would share these yummy dishes with everyone else. Tim said it was a keeper and even Hayden cleared his plate that night.
Just click on the names of the dishes to get the recipes.

Pork Chops alla Pizzaiola

Baked Mashed Potatoes with Parmesan and Mozzarella

My crazy boys

Jaxson has this fascination with the vent cover in our family room. There hasn't been a day that he doesn't rip it off and play with it. Well the other day I found him making mashed faces through the plastic.Too cute so I try and grab the camera to get a picture and he won't stand still so Hayden took the cover and demonstrated the act.
I have 2 CRAZY kids :-)

Too pooped to eat

and it was a cookie (well a caramel rice cake but he doesn't know the difference ;-) )

Family day

Since Hayden was injured we decided to keep it simple on our family day over spring break. We decided to check out Legoland Chicago. A very cool afternoon thing to do. A bit expensive but Tim and Hayden are Lego nuts so it was worth it!


This is the replica of Chicago they have... It's amazing with the details they have in it.


Navy Pier
The Jungle Expedition.

Jaxson checking out the tour guides.
Hayden and Tim were very happy :-D
Mommy and Hayden with Haggard from Harry Potter.
Darth Vader and my men.
ROAR.... thus why Hayden is holding he ears. :)

Jax got in on the action too.


Hello Mr. President!
Hayden playing with his Lego set once we got home.

Finally

as you can see we are up and running. The picture upload is fixed, as it's going to get. My camera is properly set now...and should of been since Oct if I would of noticed the function marked "picture sequence"
DOH!

So we should be back up to normal now and sharing pictures and stories of the kids and our happenings.

Only took 6 years . . .

for Hayden to land himself in the ER.
* * *

Hayden and Jax were playing with a toy that was Hayden's when he was a baby...when all of s sudden he screamed and was holding his finger. Tim and I both looked at it and it was already swollen twice it's normal size and turning purple and black before our eyes. We both knew this was not good. So I took him for his very first ER visit. He was very brave and patient until we got in the room. As you can see below he was a little freaked.
After some calming down, and a red Popsicle later... he was much better. The nurses were great here. It's the top kids ER in Illinois.

3 hours, 3 x-rays, 1 Popsicle, and a dozen books read... we come to find out he broke his pinkie finger. They call it a complex buckle fracture. He's not hurting... he can bend it and move it so we're good there. He's out of karate for a week or two and thank goodness we are between soccer seasons. It threw a hiccup into spring break plans but nothing too major. He's on the mend with his cool green splint that he tells me smells like carrots. :)
I'm sure this is not the last time he will see the inside of the ER if he is anything like his Uncle John. :-D

Indoor Soccer

This 2009 indoor season has come to a close. The Orange team did very very well. I think our record was 5-1-2. That's win-tie-losses. The last game was Hayden's best for he scored 2 goals all on his own and the team won 8-0. Hayden improved so much this season. He has the right idea and some of the skills down. The Coaches were the best! Thanks Coach Laurie and Coach Lance!!They had a party where everyone got their trophies. At the rate he is going we're going to have to build him another shelf. :) We can't wait for Spring outdoor to start in just a few weeks with Tim coaching again.

I wanna play too...

Muskrat Love

Okay so Tim tells me one night last week that there was a woodchuck in the yard digging while him and Hayden were out in the yard. My Dad saw it as well when he playing with Hayden earlier.
That was weird I thought.... since Hayden is so loud I thought he would scare it away. Tim said it just kept on digging. He even got a nice picture of it.
Turns out this thing was not a woodchuck but a muskrat and it was STUCK in the fence. The digging was it trying it's hardest to claw its way out .
So the next night when I took a look at it the poor thing was not moving any longer. (Bad sign) I called my Dad over with his heavy cutters and he freed the poor thing. But it was too late. The muskrat had already gone to the swap in the sky.

And people call this town the city when we have wildlife like this in our yard.

Allstar

This is Allstar. . . the bear Jax has chosen for his own special friend. He can not sleep without it, relax without it, and if it falls (ie thrown) out of bed at night he can't fall back to sleep.
and of course I can't find another one like it since it was bought over a year ago. Now I know what my friend Sharon went through with Faith and her pink elephant.

Check out that moon!

This was taken with my new zoom lens one night when I got home from work. It was just so amazing and bright. A little blurry but that zoom lens is heavy! :D

I'm hoping to perfect my photography skills at the Nikon class I'm taking in 3 weeks. I can't wait to see what my camera can really do.

Messy Messy boy!

This is what happens when you give him Mama's meatballs and spaghetti. :)Only a face who would love? Me of course!