Going for candy

This is a short little clip of how Kade was going for the candy at the parade. He would just kind of run around slowly in a circle while Glen would yell and point "get the candy, hurry!" It was funny. Luckily Nick and Ben were so nice to share and show Kade where to get the candy.We're going to have to teach him to be more agressive. On the other hand, I guess it's good he's not getting candy. ha. It was fun.

4th of July

Can you believe it? It's one day after the 4th and I'm actually putting it on my blog. We've been in Clay Springs for the weekend with Glen's dad and Glen's sister, Cara and her family. We didn't get up here until 1:30am early Friday morning. Then Glen did a 5:30am temple session with his dad and grandpa in Snowflake. By the time they got home, about 9am, I had started bottling peaches for myself and Dad Jackson. I pretty much spent all day Friday doing peaches, apricots and apricot jam with some help from dad. Glen helped by watching the kids. It felt so good when my last batch was pulled out about 11:30pm. Then the next day, 4th of July, we started early by going to the flag raising and pancake breakfast at 6am at the church building. Tim took Kaitlyn and Konnor in early to be part of the parade with Tim's family in the Dairy Queen T Bucket car. So Cara and Makenna joined us as we watched the cute 2 minute parade in Clay Springs. Glen's grandpa was the Grand Marshal. We then headed to the Show Low parade and joined the Letcher family, some friends from our old ward in Tempe. We missed about half of the parade but still made it to see Tim and the kids. After the parade, Chris and Terri Holladay, Tim's parents, were so nice to have us over for a huge delicious lunch and a nice ride in the T bucket. They also fed us DQ flamethrowers for dinner Friday and ice cream Saturday. Thank you Holladays! We then headed back to Clay Springs to do some more shooting with the Letcher family. They were so nice to let us try all their different guns that I have no clue about, but it was fun to miss all my targets!ha. seriously i did. However, the day before I got 0 out of 10 clay pigeons and this time I got 5 out 10. Not bad, huh? That night we thought about going to see the fireworks in Heber but we were pretty lame and tired and didn't want to drive 30 minutes. So we watched "Forever Strong" with dad and Tim and Cara because they had not seen it yet. It's been a fun and busy weekend. I'm sure grateful for our Independence, and because of that we have religious freedom and Joseph Smith was able to restore the gospel on the earth. Hope everyone had fun celebrating this weekend as well.

Grandpa Jackson as Grand Marshal in Clay Springs. He served in World War II and has been a resident of Clay Springs since 1920.

Kade with Nick and Ben Letcher waiting to get candy from the parade.

Cute Bryson and Glen cheering in the back.

Glen and I taking a ride in the Holladay's T Bucket. It's awesome!

Glen helping Kade shoot a .22 gun.

Getting ready to shoot a AR-15.

Cool gun, I'm just a bad shot.

Random October Pictures

Here's some random pictures I thought were cute. Around October 20, 2008.

This might sound funny, but this picture reminded me of a little baby bird.

Not real happy about standing up.

Big brother Kade loves to play with Bryson.

So sweet and innocent, right?

He's getting ready...

"I'm gonna eat you!" His drewel is about ready to flow off his bottom lip.

Another fun time at the Phx Zoo

October 16 we went to the Phoenix Zoo with Esther, Carolyn, Colleen & all their kids, and mom and Jacob. I believe we were trying to get together as much as we could before Carolyn moved to Colorado. Here's some picts.

Glen's Birthday in ClaySprings

As you know, I'm still updating October. We spent Glen's 26th birthday, which is October 12, in Claysprings. I remember when we were engaged and at my bridal shower we were playing a game and one of the questions was asking me when Glen's birthday was. Talking like I totally knew it, I said October 17. After his sister's told me no, I was so embarrassed. Here I was going to marry the guy and I didn't even know his birthday. I could have sworn it was Oct. 17. For his first couple birthdays after we were married I had to double check and make sure I got the right date for his birthday. Anyways, here's some pictures from that weekend.

Cute pictures of Bryson. 2 months.

The kids had fun playing with the stickers.

Kade loves stickers.Kamery and Bryson (2 months), James and Makenna (5 months), Lacey and Anika (3 months)

Glen's nephew, Jace, has almost passed him up.

Glen with his smores cake I made him.

Doesn't that look yummy!

We also celebrated his cousin Quincy's birthday.

Kade's 1st Night in Toddler Bed

I wrote this on 10/6/08.
Well, today I finally changed Kade’s crib into a toddler bed. He’s in the habit of sleeping with us, or at least falling asleep in our bed and then we move him. We tried just putting him in the crib and letting him cry, but he would cry, cry, cry and you could tell he was wide awake and not going to sleep, so I would give in. Since he didn’t like his crib, I would start using that as a punishment. It worked pretty well, but I decided he should probably like his bed. After I changed his bed to the toddler bed, he seemed to like it and liked being able to get in and out by himself. When it came to bed time, instead of doing our scriptures and prayer routine in our room, we did it in his room where he could lay in his bed while we read. When we knelt down for prayers, it was so cute to see him kneel down by his bed with his arms folded on top of the mattress. It was such a precious sight. Then while Kade was repeating Glen’s words for the prayer, he starts picking his nose and eating his burgers. NOOO! I didn’t know it started this young. So gross, but I guess we all did it! Ha. Then it was time for bed. Kade seemed to realize something was up, so I turned on some primary music, turned off the light, shut the door, and laid by him in hopes he would fall asleep. Nope. It was so cute though, he would start singing some of the words to the songs he recognized, “I am a child of God” and “Teach me to walk in the light”. Every move I made he would pop up and every once in a while he would reach over and feel my face to make sure I was still there. After a while, there was no progress of sleep. So I went out of the room and shut the door leaving him crying. After a few minutes he opened the door. So I just gave in. As soon as I put him in my bed, he fell right asleep. Oh well, we’ll see how tomorrow works out! Maybe I’ll be stronger.
5/3/09
Just to give an update on the whole bed situation, for the most part he does not sleep with us. Glen and I were getting tired of being kicked around in our own bed and Glen was getting horrible sleep. Kade had to have his space. Glen would be all the way on one side, myself on the other side and Kade had the whole middle, sometimes sleeping horizontal. Plus, we only have a queen bed, and once Bryson was born there were some nights all four of us would be in this queen bed. Sometimes when Kade thought we got too close, not even really touching him, he would say "owie owie, scoot over mom." We would get so frustrated sometimes and have to remind him this is mom and dad's bed, not his. And then sometimes when he got his space he would still end up right up next to one of us. Too funny. Anyways, since we've moved into our townhome, he has been so good to fall asleep in his own bed. There were a few nights we had copied what we had seen on "Nanny 911." We would tuck him in, kiss him and say good night. Then, whether it was Glen or I, we would sit on the floor close to the door. Of course, Kade cried and got out of bed. The first time he gets out, we put him back and reminded him it's time for bed, and then when he gets out again we just keep putting him back without saying anything. The first night we did that, well actually Glen did the first night, it took about 20 minutes, but then it got better every night after that. One of those first few nights, I had sat on the floor at the end of the bed with my back towards him, Kade was crying while calling "mom, mommy," and then he came over and hugged me around the neck. It was so sweet and sad. It was really hard for me because naturally when your child is crying and calling for you, you want to comfort and hold them. I gave him a hug and then put him back to bed. Those first couple nights it was hard to sit there and hear him. So we kind of compromised. One of us will lay next to Kade's bed until he falls asleep, luckily it doesn't take too long. Sometimes he will wake up in the night and come in our room. We will put him back in his bed, and the times he won't go back in his bed then we put a blanket and pillow on floor and he sleeps just fine there. Sorry, that update was kind of long. Anyways, as sweet as it was to see Kade asleep next to us, Glen and I are extremely happy to have our bed back.

No more sleeping in mom and dad's bed!

My Sleep Talker

When you read the following paragraph just remember I actually wrote it back on 9/9/08.

I just thought I would write a little blurb about my husband. Last night around 11pm or so, I started walking towards our bedroom and I hear some talking. The only part I could make out of what Glen was saying was “That was so crazy, Bryson. I love it.” But what made it sound so funny was this whole conversation he was having was all in BABY TALK. It was funny. Glen talks a lot in his sleep and whenever I hear him I always think I’ll remember what he says so I can tell him in the morning, but I always forget. So this time I actually wrote it down. And while I’m on the subject of Glen’s sleeping habits, there were multiple times he’s hit me in his sleep. One time, when Kade was just a little baby, Glen swung his arms out to the side and hit me right in the face. Kade was sleeping right between us too, but luckily he was too little and didn’t get hit. It hurt though. There were times when Glen would just suddenly sit straight up in bed, it would scare me because it was so fast I would think something is wrong. Another time, he sat straight up and then flung back and hit his head on the wall. Poor guy. But then there were times I really appreciated him immediately getting up in the middle of the night when I was pregnant with Kade and Bryson, I would get huge leg cramps. I would cry out “CRAMP, CRAMP!” and he would get up and rub them for me. Saved my life! Love him.

8-9-09: I just thought I would write another sleep talking moment of Glen's. This actually happened probably back in May and I wrote it on a scrap paper and now I'm finally recording it. This one's funny because I really do feel like we're always saying that to Kade. He gets so messy and then has to touch everything. Glen said, "Uh oh! Somebody has messy hands and face. Don't touch anything. (then in a louder voice) Don't touch your clothes."