California Memories

Here is a video of one of the many times Jaimin lost his binky while living in California.

Spring Fever

So I thought I was the only one getting spring fever. Last week the boys decided it was time to start riding again. It was freezing outside but you know boys, they could care less. They had fun but it didn't last long. Jaimin would get stuck somewhere and would lay on the front of his bike saying "yo help, yo help", it was funny. So besides being ready to ride their bikes, their new thing is to go run laps, for some reason they love it. When we get home they head down the driveway and run around the circle. The other day Jai was in the house and just took off and did 3 or 4 laps of going down the driveway, around the circle, and back up the driveway. By the time he did his last lap he could barley get back up the driveway. I guess it is good for them, maybe I should start doing it with them.

ANY SUGGESTIONS?

So I need some help. As most of you know Jones is in Kindergarten this year. He hasn't exactly loved it but he has been fine with going every day. Well out of the blue last week he decided he hated it. I took him in crying because he didn't want to go but I got him to stay. Well 3 days later he did it again, he started crying on the way in and then as soon as I left his classroom he ran out sobbing . I ended up staying for 45 minutes before he calmed down enough to stay by himself. When he got home we had a big talk with him and could not figure out why he didn't want to go other than he didn't like it. So since the big talk he has been fine, until today. As soon as he started getting ready for school the tears started coming. Fortunately I didn't end up staying as long this time but I did have to force him to stay and I had to promise him that after I took Jaimin to school I would come back and sit with him. I ended up going back about an hour later and he said he was fine and I could go home. I don't know what to do, I have talked to his teacher and she is oblivious to anything, the counselor said he would keep an eye on him, and I have tried many different bribes. Has anyone had this problem with any of your kids? If anyone has any suggestions or ideas to what could be wrong or what we can do about it, PLEASE let me know, it breaks my heart that he gets so upset about it. By the way his teacher does nothing to help, she just stands there and looks at me fighting with him, is this normal for a teacher?

What a kid!

What a kid! So Jones is usually really good about helping around the house. Lately he has been extra helpful. The past week he has surprised me a few different times with making beds, vacuuming the whole house, and cleaning the toy room. Well tonight I was laying in bed with Jaimin and I kept hearing Jones in the kitchen doing stuff. I couldn't figure out what it was he was doing because I had already cleaned the kitchen. So I decided to go in and see what he was doing, expecting a big mess. Boy was I wrong, he had set the table with drinks, napkins, and all the utensils and he had made dinner for everyone. He also cleaned up from making dinner. We all had Eggo waffles for dinner. I was shocked. After dinner he put the dishes in the dishwasher and cleaned the house. For some reason he wanted to organize every ones closets. He tried to do mine cuz he said it looked bad with shoes on the floor but I told him that I had just cleaned it. It made him cry, I felt terrible. Luckily he found plenty of other stuff to clean. Man if he keeps this up and Jaimin learns to follow I will be bored with nothing to do. Anyway all I can say is he is going to have one happy wife when he gets older.

I had to add this picture cuz he was being too funny. He was standing at the bottom of the hill while Max was going down and somehow Max's sled turned just perfectly and took out Jaimin. It was pretty funny cuz Jaimin went flying. It didn't hurt him but for some reason he thought it was funny to play dead. He would get up and walk a few steps and then lay back down like he was dead. I would ask him if he was dead and he would just smile and stick his tongue out like Jones does when he plays dead. What a silly kid!

So this New Years Eve and New Years Day we decided to take the boys sledding for the first time (besides in our front yard). The first day we went with Jane and the kids while our husbands worked.
We get there and surprise, surprise Jaimin refuses to put his snow pants or boots on. So I just let him go in his Levis and shoes, I was pretty sure he wasn't going to wear his snow clothes so I brought extra clothes so he wouldn't freeze all the way home. Anyway Jones was a little nervous so I told him Jaimin and I would go down first to show him how fun and not scary it is. Well Jai was more than willing to go but as soon as we took off the screaming started. He screamed all the way down the hill and as soon as
we got to the bottom he jumped off and ran to
the car and locked himself in for about 20 minutes. So Jones was more nervous now but I talked him into going with me. He ended up enjoying it but would still not go down by himself. After a few times of me going down with him I realized that sledding is not the best thing for people with back problems. Luckily Jane and the kids were there to help until he was comfortable doing it himself.






After about 20 minutes I decided it was time to
force Jai out of the car. He put up a fight but once he realized I wasn't making him go down he was okay. He had fun telling everyone when to go. For some reason he decided that it would be fun to go down on his butt. So that is what he did, the only problem was his shoes were too slippery to climb up the hill by himself so Jane and I took turns helping him. By the end of the day both of our butts were sore, mine from hiking him up the hill and his because it was bright red and frozen. Boy am I glad I brought extra clothes.





We had so much fun we decided to go the next day so everyone else could go. This time Sayla, Josh, and Lydia came but Jane was too sick. I think everyone had a lot of fun. This time our problem was that we had more people and only one sled. Mark and I went to 3 different stores and couldn't find one. Josh even went to a store and they were out, so he ended up borrowing a friends. You would think that in Utah they would keep a good stock of sleds. I went to 4 more stores on Friday and only found 1 crappy one. Oh well the kids had fun.

Here is a picture of Jones going down by himself for the first time. If you look close you can see the look of terror on his face.

Jaimin

Jaimin is always happy. I don't think most people truely understand him or know him because of his limited vocabulary. It's a shame because he is the sweetest little boy. He has made a ton of progress in speaking over the past few months. He is now saying full sentences regularly and his teachers and speach therapist at his school have told us he is making great progress. He tells us that we are crazy, he says "come on" constantly, and he even went up to Jones the other day after Jones fell and asked "Are you alright?"
It has been great to see Jones and Jaimin start to play more lately. They both are starting to use their imagination, and they get pretty silly at times. Jones is very good with Jaimin. He is very patient and understanding. Sometimes when Jones has friends over we will ask him to please include Jaimin and he is usually pretty good. Jones is a sweet boy too. He has a new girl in his class at school. When we picked him up the other day he told us that nobody would play with her at recess, so he decided to go play with her. That obviously made us very happy. In his baby blessing he was blessed to love everybody including those that may not love him. I am glad he is so accepting of everyone.
This has always been my favorite time of year. I love Christmas. I think that my job is starting to change that. There is too much going on at work and I'm working longer hours. So I find myself enjoying the holidays, yet anxiously awaiting January when things will slow down.
I'm very frustrated right now because we were unable to go down to Tina, Robert's, and Henry's sealing. We have been planning on it for weeks, and the snow hit at the wrong time. I'm very happy and proud of them, but very frustrated and saddened that we cannot be there. I feel like we miss out on so much with my family.
Anyway Merry Christmas everyone!!!!!

PLEASE PRAY FOR TRAVIS

So as everyone in my family already knows, my cousin has been battling esophageal cancer. Well a few months ago he had his esophagus removed and has been doing really well. Well on Wednesday they found more cancer. He will be going in for a very dangerous surgery sometime next week and has been told that there is only one shot at getting this right. There is a fast for him on Sunday so anyone who is willing to please do, even if you don't know him. He is in his early 30's and has young children so he needs as many prayers as we can give him. If you want to learn more about him go to www.wonderingsofawannabe.blogspot.com . Good Luck Travis!!!

So after the last post I realized that there were a few other people that we needed to thank for helping make California easier. So Thank You to the Nydeggar's and the Bulmer's, who made us feel welcome and gave us someone we could count on.

So I got looking through old Christmas pictures and found these two pictures that brought up a lot of memories. The first is of the boys on Christmas Eve in their new jammies. It was Jaimin's first Christmas, he was only 5 months old (man has time gone bye). This was a fun Christmas, Jones was finally at the age where they start to enjoy opening gifts. The one of Mark brings a lot of memories, but not very many fun ones. As you can tell by the picture we weren't very happy. We were in downtown Sacramento, California looking for a place to take a family picture for our Christmas card. The thought of being away from our family for the holidays was very depressing and it didn't help that we were already depressed. I actually think this is before we knew we were going to be transferred back. Anyway since Mark, as you can tell, and I were not very excited about taking a picture, we didn't take one that day. I think we waited until our neighbors dragged out of our house to take their picture, before we wanted to take one of us. Anyway thinking about California brought back a lot of bad memories. I know we were only there for 10 months, but it felt like 10 years. California definitely changed all of us. Luckily my family was very helpful in us getting through the whole experience. They called and talked at least once a day, and a few that were able to came out and visited. Without all of them I think we would have ended up in the Sacramento River. So Thank You Covieo's, Buehler's and Shivers' for keeping us alive through one of the hardest times in our lives. We love you all for it!!