Sledding

Last Saturday we headed up to the mountain with my brothers, sister-in-law, and our nephews to go sledding. There wasn't much snow, but the weather was good, it was sunny and not really any wind, perfect for the kids. We got Darci's snow gear on and bundled up Jarret, we got a little thick outfit for cold weather and put that on him with a hat and put him in the carry pack, he didn't like facing me, so we turned him around so he could see, he wasn't like that for long, just til we took a break for lunch, then he fell asleep so we carried him facing us. Darci had tons of fun, she did not want to leave.

All ready to go!

Isn't that just the cutest thing! That hat didn't last long, every time he turned his head the hat would adjust and cover his face, and he did NOT like that. So we took it off and just used his hood.

Wyatt carrying his tube

Love this picture!

Throwing snowballs!

Lunch break! Randy brought his camp stove and made chili and hot cocoa.

Such a great Daddy! Taking the kids around while Mommy takes a turn sledding down the hill a couple times.

It started getting colder, so while Jarret was sleeping I wrapped a blanket around him to keep him nice and warm.

Easton tried to sit down on that pipe, he slid right off. And he couldn't get up with all that snow gear on.

Her cheeks were so red at the end. It didn't show up much in this picture. She was so cute in all her gear!

On the way home with Hot cocoa in her cup. She feel asleep soon after!

Here are some videos of the day:


Kevin



Merrill


Darci and Merrill


Kevin and Cory had gathered up a bunch of snowballs and attacked Merrill, I'm pretty sure none actually hit him, but they ended up in a bit of a snow fit. And the Kevin tackled Merrill. I have it all on video, except for the tackle but it wouldn't upload cause it's too long. I told Kevin to tackle him again so I could get it on video cause I turned the camera off just as he did it. So, Kevin and Cory decided to team up on the tackle. Didn't really work for them.



Wyatt going down the hill by himself!

Christmas

This was our first Christmas that we didn't travel. So, we were able to do Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at our house. Darci set out the cookies we made with some milk and a letter to Santa. Then in the morning her stocking was full of treats and a letter from Santa. And, under the tree was a big Teddy Bear with a big red bow, from Daddy.

She loves her big bear.

Checking out all her stocking treats

After all the Christmas morning fun we went to church, then we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house, and THEN it was time to open Christmas presents. Darci was super excited.

Opening her present from Santa. A fisher price digital camera! She LOVES it! :)

clothes from Grandma and Grandpa Bird.

...and a puzzle

Jarret opening his gift from Santa.

Darci took lots of pictures, which were all blurry or too close. ;)

I couldn't get blogger to upload any of the videos of Darci opening presents, but it uploaded this one..

Jarret Laughing

Finally got a good video of Jarret laughing. And it's his best laugh yet! He didn't even get the hiccups, he always gets the hiccups when he laughs.

Christmas cookies

Darci and I made some sugar cookies. The beginning of a Christmas tradition. She is going to set them out for Santa tomorrow night, she is pretty excited.

Frosting her cookie all by herself.

Her first attempt at the sprinkles

Found some star sprinkles in the cupboard, Darci did a good job putting them on her cookie.

she keep licking her fingers and before I started the video she licked the knife.

Jarret Standing

Jarret is 3 months old, and for a few weeks now, he has been able to bear his weight on his legs. I can't get a picture very well by myself and finally remembered to have Merrill help me. So here are a few pictures of him standing. And the pajamas that he is wearing were Merrill's when he was a baby!

Dumb blogger

Anyone else out there having troubles with Blogger? I know my sister-in-law did, and so she switched to Wordpress. I thought maybe it was the slow internet connection that we are using, but it does the same thing at my parents house.... maybe it's my computer. But it takes Forever to load pictures and videos, and most of the time it doesn't work at all, and then it won't save my post as i'm working on it, it'll tell me I have to copy it and paste it in a new post. WEIRD! So, it takes me FOREVER to post things, I've given up on some posts recently and then included a couple pictures from said post in another post I attempt to do. I did, however, successfully upload 5 pictures without troubles, just takes a bit.
Here are some pictures from the last few weeks.

I laid Jarret down like this

And somehow, he ended up like this

A pretty girl in her new cute hat.

Trying to do laundry with a baby NEEDING attention. I got the clothes out of the dryer while holding him, but I couldn't pick up the clothes basket with one hand. So, I put him in the clothes basket to carry it in the other room. He seemed to think Mommy was weird for doing this.

Since Jarret was born, his hair has been growing in blonde. It looks as if we colored half of his hair (the tips) brown. You can see the line, half brown, half blonde.

Caught Jarret sleeping with his hand in his pants. Funny that he got it stuck there. Later on that day he grabbed himself and held on tight while I was changing his diaper, he thought that was pretty funny.

When I have to give Jarret a bottle, most of the time I just lay him in his swing and prop up a blanket and let the bottle rest on the blanket. Every once in a while he kinda holds on to it. He is doing a pretty good job in this picture!



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Merrill and I had a Tree our first Christmas. After that, we didn't get one. We were always going to our families houses for Christmas, and I guess it just didn't make sense to have a tree when we weren't around on Christmas. But this year we are unfortunately unable to go to Denver to be with Merrill's family. But, luckily we are able to spend the Holiday with my family here and since we are home for Christmas we got a tree. I was super excited to finally decorate a Christmas Tree again. And Darci had so much fun. The first Saturday in December we drove around and found a little tree farm and bundle up Jarret in the little carry pack thing and Darci on Daddy's shoulders and hunted for the perfect tree. We found a pretty good one. Darci loved hanging up all her ornaments that she has received from her great Grandma Bird for the past 3 years.

Our Christmas Tree.
(And Darci sings "Oh Kim-es Tree")

Jarret loves to be up where he can see what's going on. He doesn't really bounce in this yet, just a little bit, but he loves to look at the lights on it and plays with the toys a little bit. And of course, Darci "has" to be in all the pictures.

My cute little Santa boy!

Darci singing the wheels on the bus





A tiny clip of Jarret laughing, but he got the hiccups so it didn't last long.


I have been trying to get a video up loaded, it is very cute, of Jarret "talking". Just the faces he makes are super cute. But dumb blogger won't load it. and facebook won't load my videos either.

November

This post took me almost 2 weeks to post. It takes forever to load pictures now and then I had to start over a couple times cause it failed to save. Anyway....

November... Well, November started with the beginning of potty training Darci. The first day was very stressful. Lots of accidents and lots of trips to the bathroom. And with a 6 week old, that was a big challenge. After about the 3rd day she only really had one accident and even more trips to the bathroom as she was learning how to tell when she really needed to pee.

November 6th Jarret was blessed in church. Merrill did an amazing job on his blessing, as stated in a previous post about his blessing. Now lets back up a bit, the last week of October, Merrill got sick, it started out as a sore throat, fever, chills, body aches... and after a few days he got pink eye (which Darci had the week before) a throat infection and a insane ear infection. Finally after antibiotics, he was better. And after he got pink eye Darci got it again. Ok, back to the weekend of Jarrets blessing... the friday before the blessing I got what Merrill had, started the same but for me, when I went to the Doctor and he diagnosed me with a throat infection and sinus infection and gave me antibiotics. That night my ears plugged up before I went to bed, and then I woke up in the middle of the night with a Bad ear ache, which lasted a few days, so i assumed it was an ear infection also. Then, I ended up with pink eye too. Wow! Luckily my Mom took Darci to her house multiple times that week. Keeping up with the potty training while being super sick was ridiculous.

Merrill and my brother Randy had their Birthdays the week before Thanksgiving. We didn't really do anything for Merrill's birthday but he got to go to the Oregon State vs Washington football game on his birthday. Then on Sunday we celebrated both their Birthday's with dinner at my parents house. And I made cheesecake and Capri made Mountain Dew cupcakes.

Many of my friends and family have heard my frustrations with breast feeding. I won't go on about all of them but my most recent frustration is that sometimes when it's time for Jarret to nurse and he is obviously hungry, for some reason he will not nurse, he somewhat attempts and then just screams and shakes his head, like he is trying to tell me that he just wants a bottle cause nursing is just too hard (hey, I can't say I disagree), he still acts hungry, but doesn't eat and after many attempts I cave and give him a bottle of breast milk, which he practically inhales. So, when I got clogged milk ducts after he would not nurse while at my parents house and didn't have my pump, I was so ready to switch to formula, especially after getting sick from it. Seriously, I thought I was getting mastitis. I had a fever up to 101, and chills and body aches, it was ridiculous. Luckily it only lasted basically 24 hours. Once the milk duct cleared, I was fine. But still wanting to switch to formula. I am still strictly breastfeeding, and really trying to keep it going.

Thanksgiving was great! My family got together at my parents house. We ate yummy Turkey and lots of other yummy food! We all just hung out for the day and played some games.

Here are some pictures from November.

Darci always wants to be in the picture when I am taking a picture of Jarret.

She asks to hold him every morning. They sure do love each other.

He has been so good at holding up his head. He is so strong.

Darci loves to pick her own outfits for the day.

My pretty little girl!

Jarret napping on Thanksgiving

Darci and Wyatt watching a movie on Thanksgiving.

He was getting fussy laying in the play pen (during all the Thanksgiving fun), he wanted to see what was going on so I put him in the high chair. He liked that!

In the high chair at home, watching Mommy do the dishes.

He got his arms stuck like that after I laid him over the pillow. It didn't seem to bother him.

I made a hooded towel for Jarret. Darci has one that someone made her when she was a baby, it's big so she can use it for a while. Those little baby hooded towels that you can buy are just so small and thin. So I found instructions on you tube and made one for Jarret, with a $2 towel from Walmart. Click here for the you tube video on how to make it.

Darci modeling the towel for me.