Creepy Crawlies

Fun Day!  Some friends of ours are moving to Utah and didn't want to risk bringing Louisiana bugs with them, so they left us their trampoline!!  If you're reading this, THANK YOU!  We love it and are having a blast!

So while Ethan and Jacey tried out their jumping legs today, I tackled the job of cleaning out their mud coated playhouse.  I swept and scraped and swept and when I turned it upside down to dump the dirt I'd gotten loose, I found these:

A creepy centipede, an even creepier salamander (which I'm shocked to say I got close enough to tell it wasn't a snake) and a BLACK WIDOW.  If these do not exist in Salt Lake, Christine, take me with you!!!

Not only were they in our backyard, but underneath the kid's playhouse!  They love that thing!  The neighbors flock to our house because they love it too!  So, after consulting some experts (Ryan, Maegan and Mom) I'm off to the store to get spider spray and bug spray of every variety in an attempt to rid my yard of creepy crawlies for good.  If I'm lucky, one of them might even work on the indestructible Lousiana fire ant.

Birthday, Bones, and Bad Habits

What a CRAZY week it has been!  Our sweet Ethan turned two!  And all of a sudden in the last couple weeks, his vocabulary and articulation have just exploded.  He's always been a good speaker "for his age" but now it's like talking to a big kid...almost :)  Anyway, back to the birthday...

The kids broke his crib-turned-toddler-bed a couple of months ago (there's a reason your mom told you not to jump on the bed, right?) so he was in need of a place to sleep besides the matress on the floor. 

My mom found this on craigslist:

 We call it a bed, they call it a toy, everyone's happy!  This boy LOVES vehicles...cars, trucks, tractors, trains...if it has wheels, he's all over it. 

Check out his cake.

Yep, I'm a little proud of that.  He was super excited.  I think it's safe to say that it was the best 2nd birthday he's ever had.

Moving on in the week...we noticed on Sunday that he cried any time we touched his right arm and that he was being super duper careful about it.  He was just using his left arm/hand a TON which was extremely noticeable to us since we put a lot of wasted effort into trying to make him left handed.  He's not.  SO, I took him to the (as Logan calls it) pedia-nutrition, who popped his elbow back into place (worst sound I've ever heard) and sent him in for an x-ray "just in case." 

It was broken.

How did he brake it?  Question of the day.  It's what everyone asks when they see his tiny blue cast.  The answer:  We have NO IDEA.  None.  The best I can say is that it's likely from a fall.  Because he's two.  And he falls.  I never noticed just how often until I was trying to make sure he was really careful yesterday.  This kid is not coordinated :)

Last thought...

I have been SO blessed that all of my babies liked binkies for a short while and then decided they were over it by the time they were one.  Not this new little cutie.  Check this out.

Didn't see it?  Look closer.

That is a THUMB...in her MOUTH!  Can't cut it off and throw it away and I can't keep it out of her mouth.  What is a thumb sucking fearing mom to do??

Pretty Pretty Babies

So, we finally got around to taking Daisy's blessing gown pictures.  We were kind of nervous that her dress wouldn't fit anymore!  This sweet baby is, shall we say, healthy.  But good news--there was plenty of wiggle room!  We have not been impressed with any of the studios we've been to with our other kids.  For being "trained to work with children" as some of them told us, the only thing they did was make them cry.  So this time, we got a black sheet, Ethan's dump truck (yep, she's sitting in the truck) and our sad, well-loved camera and got some seriously cute pictures.  The best part is, we can take more any time we want if we decide it's worth adjusting the lighting or getting a bigger smile!

Taken by Jeremy Pardue

 I love how she smiles so huge any time someone looks at her.  And how she and Ethan love each other so much!  They really have a super special bond.

Taken by Martin Pardue

Just because it makes me happy, here are Logan's and Jacey's blessing gown photos.  I love how their little personalities are so different.  It makes me wonder what we do in the premortal life to become so absolutely different from each other in spite of making the same right choices.

Jacey 3 months

Logan 3 months

I have a blog!

Thanks to my lovely friend Carly, I am now blog-literate!  Now I have a fantastic way to share the fun things in our life with the people I love who are far away!  SO...check out my blog!