Recent Pics

Here are some pictures that have fallen through the cracks due to my recent lack of blogging. My dad checks our blog faithfully, and I haven't given him very many posts to brag about. So, here you go, dad. There's not much to say about them, though.



When Lance's mom (Peggy) was here she was in the mood to celebrate, so we went to the Wisconsin Dells. We stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge, and had a great time there. Jaycee found this little house, and that was all she wanted to do. They had an awesome water park, which is shown below, but when it was all said and done, Jaycee's favorite thing was this little house. She's such a weirdo sometimes.

Every couple of minutes a bell would ring letting us know that the bucket was about to dump all that water. Standing under it was actually kind of scary because it hits you pretty hard, but if you stood to the side, it wasn't bad at all. One kid that was standing in the middle actually got his swimsuit pulled down to his ankles by the water.

Peggy was nice enough to hold Rydge the whole time we were playing. She said she enjoyed that so much more, anyway. I had to take a picture of him because it was 84 degrees in there, and very humid, hence, the dripping sweat on his forehead. It felt cold when we were wet, though.

I don't know why Jaycee had to stand right by Marilyn Monroe's behind, but she thought it was cool.

We miss you, Grandma Dixon!

Well, for about two weeks, Jaycee was able to be spoiled rotten by both of her grandmas. Lance's mom left on the 10th, and my mom came on the 12th. We had to say goodbye to my mom on Tuesday, and it was a sad day. We ended up not doing very much while she was here, but she was a huge help to me. Leave it to me to forget to take my camera to the airport when she came. Those are some priceless moments...oh well. Sorry, mom. Anyway, we made up for it later by taking some at our house. Jaycee's in a "look as weird as possible in pictures" phase, which explains this picture. The only thing we did worth taking pictures of was going to Monkey Joe's. That was my last ditch effort to do something fun. My mom was a good sport taking Jaycee through all the obstacles and slides.

I was glad to have someone else lugging that chunker around.

This slide brought out the kid in her just a little bit.

She got to try out the massage chair. I've never tried them, but she looked like she was enjoying it. To me, it looked a little rough, but she said it felt good.

The night before my mom left, she started feeling sick. She is still sick, and Lance and I got sick as well. It hit her the worst, and we feel terrible it had to happen to her while she was traveling home. We're all on the mend, though, I think. Once again, mom, thanks for coming! We miss you!

Thanks for coming, Grandma J!

This past week we had Lance's mom come visit us, and we tried to enjoy our time to the fullest, but it still went by so quickly. We had a great time, and Jaycee had a hard time realizing that Grandma isn't here to spoil her anymore. This first picture says it all. Jaycee was so excited when she saw Grandma coming down the hallway at the airport. Obviously Grandma was excited to see her as well.
Double nappers! Jaycee was exhausted the whole time Grandma was here because she was able to play so much. It's the first time I have gotten her to nap consecutively for a week.

Playing in Grandma's bed in the morning.

We found another Fonz, but he's not bronze.
This is what Grandma did while we went and played in the water at the Wisconsin Dells. She enjoyed that job better anyway.

We miss you, but were glad you came. We had a blast!

Halloween

This first picture is totally unrelated to Halloween, but can anyone guess what got on these shirts?


If you guessed poop, you're right. I just had to post this picture to show you the shirts that Rydge probably won't be wearing anymore. He only poops every 3 or 4 days, but when he does it, it's big! It's pretty much unbelievable. It didn't help that I was playing with him and putting his feet up to his mouth. That spread it all the way up to his neck :) On a more undisgusting note, here are some pictures of the MCW trick-or-treat. We're getting very spoiled being able to go trick-or-treating there. We don't get cold, and only have to walk from office to office instead of house to house. The picture below is just of some of the kids (and Jenny who's holding the baby) that were there. Brad is pretty much a kid himself (the one with the lobster glasses with Jaycee). If any of you are wondering if you've seen Jaycee's costume before, it's because you saw it last year. She could have had a different costume, but she said she wanted to be a witch again. It was easy enough for me.
Luckily Devenee brought along her deluxe B.O.B. stroller that her kids weren't using. Rydge and Phebe decided they'd had too much fun.
They do such a good job decorating the offices.

"Jaycee the Witch" and Drey as "Batman".

Jaycee and Myleigh being good girls and sanitizing their hands.

Rydge was a fearless hunter with a hat malfunction because his dad put it on backwards.

That's pretty much what we did for Halloween. We went to the Medical School party and skipped neighborhood trick-or-treating.

Pumpkin Carving and Bath Time

Here are some recent pictures I've taken. My parents complained that I haven't been posting pictures enough (which is true). I always say I am going to blog after I get the kids to bed, but after they're asleep I just want to do nothing. I even go to bed at 9:00 sometimes because I'm so tired. It's not easy taking care of a wild 3-year-old and an insomniac 4-month-old.

Turkey Hunt

About three weeks ago, my good friend Andy and his father invited me to go turkey hunting on a piece of their property in eastern Wisconsin. We had an incredible morning which ended in us taking down two young jakes. I had every intention of posting a play by play of exactly what happened that morning. However, after spending the last three weeks with my nose buried in one book or another preparing for my tests, I lost my motivation. My dad told me that, at the very least, I needed to post the pictures.

This is the view from our blind. That is our decoy on the right side of the field. We had a deer come within 10 feet of us on our right side. While we were distracted, looking at the deer, eight turkeys surprised us from the left. Luckily "Pretty Girl" (that is what Andy so lovingly calls his turkey decoy) kept the turkeys preoccupied while we shouldered our guns and got ready for a shot.

This is the view from the field looking back at our blind. It also gives you a better look at Pretty Girl. Isn't she beautiful? Its no wonder those jakes were so interested in her. You can see us in our blind in the upper left hand side.

A close up of us all decked out in our camo.

We had those same grins on our faces for the next three days.

4 months!

Why do kids have to grow up so fast? Why can't they stay newborns a little bit longer? I can't believe Rydge is four months old already. I took him to the doctor for a check-up today, and he is doing rather well. He's almost too fat--if that's possible. He weighs 16 lbs. 6 oz. and is in the 90th percentile for his weight, and 75th percentile for his height. Kind of opposite of Jaycee, since she's on her own growth chart (below the 3rd percentile). I love Rydge's leg rolls--I could squeeze them all day. He is such a happy baby, and usually very easy-going. I love my little guy. I swap piano lessons for pictures with Danielle Taintor, and she did such a great job taking pictures of Jaycee and Rydge. She's so wonderful. There were so many cute ones, but I had to just post a few. I'm just going to put the rest on my Facebook page, so look there if you want to see more. Don't you just want to squeeze him?

I love Jaycee, too, of course. She is the sweetest girl (most of the time). She's got her own personality that I just have to laugh about instead of being infuriated sometimes. Look at those innocent eyes. There's some definite mischief hiding behind them. Don't let her fool you. It just comes with the age. She's such a good helper and so loving toward her brother. That love is just way too rough sometimes, but he loves it.

If you want to learn a little bit about Jaycee's mischievous ways, here's an example. The other day I was trying to clean the house because we had people coming over. I kept telling her I needed to clean, and she eventually realized that her room needed to be cleaned. When I went in there she said, "Mom, I'm putting my toys in my closet!" By then, she had only put a couple things in there. I tried to tell her that if she put all her toys in the closet, she wouldn't be able to get anything out on the bottom unless she took everything out. I told her she'd get frustrated trying to get her stroller out (as an example) because everything was on top of it. All I wanted her to do was put her toys in the corner of her room so they weren't all over the floor. I went back in the kitchen to make dinner, and tried to listen to see if she obeyed. I seriously didn't hear any sounds to indicate she was shoving things in her closet. That little stink put everything in there so carefully so I wouldn't come in and catch her disobeying me. That is literally all of her toys. I couldn't believe she could lift them so high, and her room was really clean. Better than I clean it most of the time. Now I know what she's capable of, and it's so frustrating when she says it's too hard to pick something up off the floor. Yeah right, Jaycee, you can stuff a closet!

If this doesn't make you smile...nothing will.

This is what the grandparents are missing. Come visit us already!

Rummage sales and basketball

When I was younger, my grandparents (my dad's parents) used to take me and my siblings to yard sales around Montpelier, Idaho. I had fun doing that until I became a teenager and decided I was too cool to buy used stuff. It's funny what stages we go through when we're growing up. I remember my younger brother, Chase, absolutely loving going around to yard sales, and how I thought he was such a weirdo. Looking back now, I regret not taking advantage of the time I had to spend with my grandparents. My grandma passed away when I was 9, and my grandpa passed away when I was 14. They were wonderful grandparents, and I've been told they potty-trained all five of us kids. My parents would just drop us off for a week, and we'd be cured. I think I'm going to tell my parents they need to try out some potty-training for their first grandson when he's old enough (Rydge). I thought I was good at it until my three-year-old decided she doesn't know how to get to the potty in time. We've had a bad regression. Anyway, back to the yard sales, I guess I grew up (or it's in my genes), and now I love going to the rummage sales around our neighborhood. It's the only kind of shopping I get to do with our current budget. It's actually bad because I convince myself I need things, then get home and dread getting the look on Lance's face asking why on earth I bought something. We had to get somewhere today, but we passed three or four rummage signs, and I really had to bite my tongue in fear of blurting out, "Go to that one!" It's just fun seeing what deals they have to offer. Well, I bought this walker for Rydge a while back at a rummage sale, and I'm so glad I did. I just started putting him in it, and he loves it. The video doesn't display his love for it, but you'll get the idea. I didn't think he'd be big enough to fit in it yet, but he's a big boy and his feet even touch the ground.

Another thing that has been awesome is curbing. If you see something out on the curb in front of anyone's house, it means it's free. The other day we were walking home from the park, and there were these two chairs out in front of someone's house. I told Lance that we had to take them, and I'm going to make a cover for them. I don't know how it will turn out, but I'm going to try. I'm not that good at these kinds of projects, but I think I can get help. Anyway, it might take a long time, but I will post before and after pictures when I'm done. It'll be good to have a project during winter.

The other night Lance was debating about going to play basketball, or just staying home. He decided to go, and within the first few minutes of playing he landed on a guy's foot and sprained his ankle. It has gotten really swollen, and he has a major cankle. Apparently, it's a Jacobson thing to have wussy ankles.