A plethera of things

First off, we're behind on everything because our computer decided to die on us before Halloween. There was some part in it that was faulty in the model we had. Jordan took it to a Mac store and they said to replace the part was 300 bucks. They suggested getting a new one for 1200 bucks. Hmmmm...we told them to fix it; they warned us that the same thing would keep happening and we told them to wait. Out of the blue my dad got a new computer and said we could have his 'older' one (older one only 2 years) I sent him some software, he sent us the computer and wallah!

Happy early Christmas for us! Thanks a million dad! We love it!

Halloween: Jordan was gone because he took some kids to audition for All State Show Choir and Jazz Choir. I was sad that he missed the boys trick or treating, but in the end one guy made 1st chair Jazz Choir and one girl made 4th chair Show Choir. That's huge because there are only 20 kids in the Jazz and most of the students that make Show are from a school in Phoenix. Way to go Rylan and Darienne!

I carved the pumpkin while Kodee took a nap. After I was done, I looked at Jaxon and found him like this:
For some reason it takes me a long time to do it. I'll make Jordan do it in the future.

Early evening I got the boys ready and we headed over to grandma's for trick or treating. We went down three streets and then Kodee was done. Jaxon was really cute sometimes saying, "tricker treat" and sometimes just "treat," but he always said thank you. After we were done Jaxon had fun handing out candy. He was so happy and hyper. He was all over the place. I finally remembered that he had had candy. Duh! Luckily he only remembered about it the next day.




The next weekend, Nov. 6th, was my birthday. It was a great day. Jaxon kept singing to me throughout the day. I was a little surprised he knew the song so well, but he's full of surprises. I opened cards all morning and even got a sparkly carnation from the RS. For dinner I made pizza and had Cindy and Joe come share it with us. It was yummy! I made a strawberry danish dessert for my cake this year. (I don't like normal cake) Jaxon helped me blow out the candles. Then we played with the kids and balloons. They had fun!!!




In other news, Jaxon is done with his pacifier! Yipppeeee!!!! He started wanting all day again and would search for it everywhere, climbing everything and just being a pill about. So one day at lunch Jordan took scissors and cut it right in front of Jaxon. Subtle, huh? Jaxon just stared and finally said, "broken?" He's been good without it, he doesn't ask for it or look for another one, but sometimes he wakes up in the middle of the night and i have to comfort him. Probably what the "sari" did. I couldn't be happier it's gone. We're still working on the no nap sitch, but the last week and a half has been better because he's been going to bed earlier and he's not as grumpy.

Kodee: not standing or walking yet, but with my help he will stand on his legs longer and longer. Cute as can be. We're trying to sign him up for cute baby contests.

New Family Pics!!!

So we had the AMAZING and WONDERFUL opportunity of working with Amber Halversen recently. She truly is one of the most talented photographers we've ever known, and the editing techniques she uses are so unique. We're so lucky and happy we were able to get such great pictures from this shoot. The day before Kodee bumped his head pretty bad and had a huge goose egg on his head. Jaxon had a rug burn on his nose- but lucky for us, Amber was able to touch 'em up, and you don't notice a thing. It's hard to choose a favorite, so we'll just post the ones we love!

Family Shots:























Brothers:











Kodee Bug:



















JAX:























HUSBAND AND WIFE:

















Thank you so much Amber for such amazing memories. We feel that you truly caught the boys' personalities in these stunning photos. We will always cherish these!

H1N1 and Fallibration

That's right. Jordan got it. SWINE FLU!!!! It's going around like C R A Z Y in Safford. And school is the worst place for anyone to catch something, anything, everything. Jordan started feeling sick with a burning in his throat on last Tuesday. That was followed by aches and then a cough. We started getting worried because his first big concert was the next night. He powered through Tuesday and Wednesday, but when he came home from school he said he felt terrible. He knew something big was up. He took a nap and woke up feeling better. Then it was concert time! Hence- Fallibration. (Jordan likes to title his concerts) I was pretty excited, I couldn't wait to drop off the boys with their babysitter.
It was great because the concert was strictly choral. Band and orchestra had their concert the night before. It started with the middle school choir and they were a great start! Something I like about Jordan is how he utilizes his students' talents to the fullest. He always has soloists and dancers and beat boxers, and whatever else they can do.

In between each choir the quartets would sing. It's a great transition tool. /s1600-h/DSCN0815.JPG">
Bel canto was next.
Singers was next. I say the guys were the strongest of the group. That's quite surprising.



Here's the quartets and then Taste of Sound. Jordan has really turned them into a show choir that's very entertaining.


Let's Celebrate!




The guys had a "Newsies" medley that was the crowd pleaser.






The girls did "Mama who Bore Me" from Spring Awakening. They did awesome for it being a hard piece



They ended with "This will be (an everlasting love)




The combined choirs ended the show. They sang a very patriotic song the second to last number and one of the soloists put the video of it on youtube. Just type in Safford choirs singing America Song. And you can actually hear them instead of look at all these pictures trying to picture what they sound like. They also got a standing O. Great Concert! I'm such a proud wife!




Jordan came home and crashed into bed, so sick. He really hasn't left it until today-5 days later. He went to the doc. the next morning and he tested positive for H1N1. He walked in the door and said he needed to be quarantined. I said, "NOOO! Really?" I went and got really expensive medicine for him. 10 minutes later the doc. calls back to say his strep throat test turned positive also and to come get another Rx. Back to the pharmacy. Poor guy! I've never seen him so sick. The only thing that was semi good about this sickness was that he wasn't nauseous so even though he was always asleep, he did eat.

I've spent the last few days sleeping on the guest bed until Kodee wakes up the first time then I move to the couch for a few hours. Now Jaxon's sick. He's had a runny nose since last week, then he got a fever, now he has a cough and he's almost lost his voice. Poor boy! It's so pathetic when he talks. Because of this Jaxon has been waking up at 4am. Luckily after some water or more medicine he goes back down.

After Jordan was locked in the bedroom I've been busy disinfecting everything! I did everything I could to not get sick. So far so good, but we'll see. It has been a rough 5 days I tell you what. We get so antsy if we can't leave the house. I've also been so bored. There's only so much you can do to entertain Jaxon indoors. Today was the first day in a week I've seen Jordan and his sparkling personality. He's still not 100%, but he does have to go back to work tomorrow. We know the students are sooo excited to get rid of the sub. Cheers to Jordan!

Kodee-1, Jax-3

Jaxon has been getting into major trouble lately. I left the kitchen the other day and when I came back in this is what I found.
He had cut the apple on the floor with that knife. I cannot believe he didn't cut himself; the apple is cut pretty good too! Crazy. The next day he did the same thing to the cantelope. Not as clean cut; I had to throw it away. I think it's time to put the knives up high.

Here are our two cuties loving bath time. It's seriously Kodee's favorite part of the day. Jaxon just endures it cause he has to.


Friday was party prep day. I made two cakes and a batch a cookies for Enrichment night AND tons of buttercream frosting. I cut Jax's cake into a a choo choo, of course. Kodee's into a bear. I was able to frost the base coat for the bear and the engine before Enrichment. That was from 6-8:30 and I even left early. In between frosting the cakes, Jordan wrapping the presents, two Walmart trips we got to bed around 1:45 am. We had to get up early for family pictures, before 7am. Yikes! We were out the door by 8:20 to go meet our photographer, Amber Halversen.
We went to these really old silos/farm land. It was a lot of fun! The boys did really well considering the amount of pictures we took and boys' outfit changes. Kodee was a dreamboat. Amber's husband came to help get the boys' attention and we could tell Jaxon wore him out. We can't wait to see the final product which we will get in a few weeks. It was great because we got Jaxon's train engineer costume the night before and he was able to take pictures in it on some real tracks. I think he was in heaven! After two hours it was back to party prep. I went back to cake decorating, Jordan went to balloon and streamer work and his mom came over and basically made the room look like a completely different place. We love her!





Finished products!
Jaxon loved it! Before it was done he would always come over and try to touch it and eat it.

Notice how the bear is slightly "wonkey-eyed" because Jaxon so carefully pounded his fist into the face of the bear. We tried to fix it as best we could. Oh well. . .




Before the party though, grandma took the boys home while we had a Stake primary activity. We were asked to play the Candyland/ Temple game we did a month ago in our sharing time with the 8th ward kids. We only had ten kids, but they sure were wonderful! We had two groups of three sisters, two brothers, and 2 more boys. They were so fun! At the end the boys won, and this little girl started crying because she was so close. Jordan was quick on his feet and had her choose another paper which made her "get to the temple." She felt better and we were able to end with how the kids now know what it feels like to not go to the temple and work your hardest so they can go. We really enjoyed them and then we had to go.
We decided to put Jax in his outfit again for the party and give them a wagon ride before it started. They got this wagon for their birthdays. We're excited to use it to transport them around on walks. It's so cool because it has seat belts in it and Kodee loves being a big boy with Jaxon, sitting across from him.


Jaxon was gracious and greeted all of his guests-they all came! We started with a balloon game in the backyard which turned into throw the balloons on the spiky grass and wait for them to pop. Jaxon thought it was so funny! We also made a human choo choo to start the festivities.

We led him back inside for opening presents. He opened his and helped with Kodee's. They each got a puzzle (From Tregaskes'), Chutes and Ladders (Cindy Anaya), balls for Kodee (grandma), stackable cups, (Greens), and trains for Jaxon (us, both grandma's), and trucks (Greens) It was like Christmas! Jaxon would get stuck on one toy so we always had to distract him to open the rest. They have been playing with their gifts ever since. Kodee LOVED opening up his gifts and playing with the balloons and wrapping paper.





The real star of Jaxon's birthday was the Mickey Mouse Club House Magic Choo Choo we got him. He was SO excited about it. . .he even remembered when we bought it and would come out regularly to the car to see if it was in the trunk. The first day he didn't have it he was really sad. . .but oh the joy when he was reunited with it and able to play! He's still in heaven and has it by his side constantly.


Here he is unwrapping a choo choo set from Grandma and Grandpa Leinbach.


Thank you to everyone that came and for your presents!The Greens!

The Anayas and Tregaskes'


Of course Great-Grandma Jeanne was there too. (Also Grandpa and Grandma Keith- but she was busy taking all the pictures and they mysteriously never showed up in any of them? Thanks for all your help mom!)

Now we can get rid of things they don't play with. We sang to Kodee first and then Jaxon.



After all that excitement about the cake, Jaxon only ate a tiny bit. We found out why early this morning in Jaxon's bed. Poor kid! Now that we've looked at all his pictures we can tell he wasn't feeling well. This is when he opened the Anayas' gift. He definitely wasn't his vibrant self.

We'll leave you with Kodee diggin' into his birthday cake. The kid LOVED it!


Notice how you can hear Jaxon's new choo choo in the background? I'm sure this is I'll will hear for months. We'll have to find his something quiet for christmas.

The fair comes rollin' around again!

I just love this time of year. There's a crispness to the mornings and evenings, a buzz in the school with the anticipation of the fair, and two sweet little boys who are amazed by anything and everything. They truly are becoming the best of friends!
They love to play together and have a blast. Ari's been loving being able to drop off Jax at preschool for a few hours and coming home and having Kodee time and time to get ready for the day.

Jax is adapting to preschool well. We think he's already speaking better and understanding communication a lot more. He always comes home with cute little art projects that he's very proud of. The downside to preschool has been his behavior at home. With big changes in his life, comes big attitudes. He's throwing more and more tantrums and thinks he's too old for naps. Then by about 5 he's ready to pass out and can't make it all the way to bed time. If he falls asleep, then there's no hope in getting him to wake up and then he won't go down till 10 or 11. It's a little frustrating.
We're thinking he may become a drummer.

Kodee is our little smily, bouncy baby. He's definitely got the rhythm and dance moves of the two, and always feels the beat and is aware when there is music playing.
He's saying more words like: bye, hi, daddy, hey, more (with the signing), and waving bye bye really good. He's a big waver and likes to shake his hands. He's also scrunching up his nose with his cute smiles and it's heart melting!

Ari made these AWESOME cinnamon rolls for conference weekend.


Kodee is now officially weened (he was biting Ari too much with all those teeth he's been getting.) We love how he holds the bottle.



One night Ari and I were lying in bed contemplating how we could get some extra cash and we thought- let's enter our artwork in the fair! So we went around each room and found something we had made. We ended up submitting 5 pictures we had cross stitched and one that I did with pastels (a Thomas Kinkaid copy.) It's funny because we've done these over the last three years, and my pastel was from my senior year of high school, but I had never entered it. . .so I did.


We got all blue ribbons except for one red. Luckily it was mine, I didn't want Ari to get any second places because I didn't want her to feel bad. Then I was surprised when I did, because I thought my cross stitch was much better and more complex then the one that got the blue. Oh well. . .next year I think we'll have about 5 more cross stitches to enter!! Hey, each blue ribbons 3 bucks, so we have definitely arrived. :)

I was asked to judge the instrumental and vocal competitions at the fair this year. It was a blast! I loved being able to decide who was the best with the other judges, cause we all know how picky I am. I hope the instrumental competition can one day be what it used to be. It was a little sad this year. The vocal comp. was incredible! Almost 40 kids signed up, and the competition was steep! Jillian Innes (Ryan's little sis) rocked it with a rendition of Cowboy Take Me Away. I was so proud of her, all of the judges thought she had an amazing instrument!

My Taste of Sounders did awesome Saturday night as well. They performed their fall set that they will be doing in the concert in about two weeks. The reaction was great from the crowd, so I think this fall show is going to be historical! The boys doing Newsies is a real treat. how often do you have 12 teenage boys who can really sing and dance that can put on a great show! It's so much fun to work with them.

We of course took Jaxon and Kodee around to see the animals and exhibits and also ride a few rides before the show. Jaxon was not so daredevilish to begin.

The car ride he road really freaked him out cause the corners were really fast.
He loved the choo choo of course, I was impressed he got up the nerve to go down the Super Slide with mom.


I held my breath when they were at the top cause I could just see him toppling over the edge, but that didn't happen. He rode an airplane ride with me,

He then impressed us both by riding the huge ferris wheel with me.


Here he is looking over the edge.

I was much more scared then he was. In the middle of the ride he crossed over to the other side of the cart and was looking over the edge! That crazy kid, he wasn't scared of how high we were at all.


Here he is with mom on the carousel. He chose the bench? Huh?

We're lucky to still have Jax with us. . .Saturday night during the Taste of Sound performance, he was quite a handful. We had a teenage girl helping us watch him. I of course was swamped with the show, Ari was watching Kodee, and this girl was watching Jax. Well, as the quartets were performing I started hearing stomping on the roof of the grand stand stadium. I thought, "that can't be Jax." I tuned it out, and tried to focus all my energy on the show. Well, later I found out it was indeed Jaxon ON THE ROOF of the stadium. He climbed up a staircase in the back, went under the railing, and out on the roof over where everyone was sitting. One side is about a 25 foot fall, and the other is probably close to 50 I'm guessing. The roof is sloped and ridged too, so we are so lucky he didn't trip and slide off either edge. I just CRINGE thinking about it!

Oh we're not done. . .after the show was over and I was packing everything up Jaxon toddled off with some hispanic family back towards all the rides. A friend of ours found him close to the ferris wheel with this family and they asked, do you know who his parents are? Luckily Cindy grabbed him and returned him to us! How freaky is that? How does that even happen? Oh Jaxon, you're going to give us a heart attack. We seriously will have to bring a leash with us wherever we go.

Here's one of the cross stitches I entered in the fair. Glad we have it back for our festivities of halloween. The smaller one on the bottom is one I did in Ari's labor room while she was having Kodee last year. I pretty much cross stitched the whole night while she was contracting. Fun times. Glad we can enjoy it on the wall this year!





This Saturday's the boys birthday party so I'm sure we'll have many an adventure to talk about! Till then. . .

This cutey goes to preschool

For the past three weeks, we've been meeting at the preschool to see if Jaxon qualified. On Friday we found out he does, I registered him and today at 8:30 Jaxon went to his first class. No tears. (By either of us) only a little timidity because all the kids were there and he's never been in the room with kids yet. After two hours I picked him up and gave me a big squeeze. The teacher said he did great! That's all I know because Jaxon can't tell me what they did. That's why he qualifies for preschool-the boy with not many words...yet. He improves everyday, but we want help so he can catch up. The best part about it; it's free ninety-free!!!!! I'll enjoy the break, but at the same time the house was awfully quiet this morning, and I got ready with too few problems and distractions. I'm excited for Jaxon to learn more structure and classroom discipline because he's a sunbeam in January and frankly, that's scary! Sit down? What? Learn? What? Use words? What? Hahaha. I'm sure he'll be fine.
After reuniting I took him to the big store of Wal-Mart and picked out a small, red backpack. We're still working on how to wear it, but he's cool.

Sick of being sick

Last week was not a fun one. First, Jaxon threw up on Tuesday morning. It didn't happen again so I thought nothing of it. Wednesday afternoon Kodee threw up right before we had to go to Scouts. I changed him and we left. In the middle of our activity, he did it again. All over. I had the boys try to memorize some things while I cleaned him up again. I was frantic because Jordan wasn't there yet. Scouts ended great though. Which is good because we are starting Boys Scouts from scratch in our ward. Kodee spit up every couple of hours through the night. Then I got it. In between me trying to throw up I had to keep washing Kodee's bed sheets. About 3 am Jaxon threw up too. Great, more laundry. I think there was one hour that whole night where I actually didn't see the clock. I ended up sleeping on the guest bed in Kodee's room so we wouldn't infect Jordan with it. He was nice enough to wake up with Jaxon at 6:30 am and let us sleep til 9:30. We just lounged all day, me on the couch, and the boys on the floor. It was pathetic. The worst about it was how achey and thirsty I was. All I wanted was water, but Jordan wouldn't give me any. I think I'm still making up for loss of water because I drink it like crazy. We all went to bed early and miraculously I was fine Friday morning; except for a small headache and fogginess. The boys were also a lot better. Good thing too because we had a meeting at Jax's preschool. (That's the next post.)

All day Friday we just kept hoping Jordan wouldn't get sick because he was singing in a benefit concert that night. He seemed fine all day. We thought that since he'd gotten the flu shot he was going to be fine. Plus, we had to worry about other things. We had company come from Salt Lake so they could attend the concert. Emily went to EA with Jordan and both knew the boy for who the concert was for. Well, they arrived before I could finish cleaning the house so I was a little embarrassed. But, I've decided that it takes forever to clean the house after being sick. Luckily, they dropped their stuff off and left so I could finish mopping. I even ironed Jordan's concert shirts. (I= don't iron.)
During Jordan's rehearsal on stage me and the boys got to see some of it because we had to take some music down there. The boys loved it. Kodee, for the actual music, especially the drum beats, and Jaxon, to run around stage and up and down the aisles. Then after dinner and Jordan getting ready, and dropping the boys off, it was show time!

And guess who started the whole concert???? That's right Jordan did! He tore it up with Mika's, "Grace Kelly." The crowd went wild throughout the whole thing. Video of it is coming, but it's on his phone and Jordan always has his phone. It was a great show. I got the biggest chills when Cindy sang, "Gravity." Cindy's got some amazing pipes. All the performers, musicians, and wife, son, family members of the Guy who died.
The only bummer of the night was Ms. Texty Texterson sitting next to me. If you didn't catch the title, the girl texted practically non-stop!! I don't care if your phone is on silent we can still hear you push every single button. There were times I thought I was going to yell at her to stop texting. I pictured that happening and then the whole show stopping to look at me. Not pretty. The only reason I didn't say anything was because I filmed every one of Jordan's songs with his phone and she could have used that against me. But, you couldn't hear me push any buttons. So, I hate texting!

After the show, Jordan goes to tell me something and it's, "Guess what? I'm sick." WHAT? During one of the final numbers he thought he was going to puke all over the piano. I'm so glad that didn't happen. Thankfully he was able to be okay until later in the comfort of our own home. With company. That was interesting. Awkward at times. But, our friends handled it really well. The rest of the weekend was kind of a bust. I did take the boys down to the Salsa Fest to try and get free awesome salsa. We got there too late so I only got to try three kinds, so bummer. Then Jaxon started walking off so I had to bust outta there mid bite and we went home. Tired boys plus heat plus a hungry mom is not a good time to go out.

The weekend ended/week started with the news that the brother in our ward with colon cancer died during our sacrament meeting. It was a somber day for our ward. He was only 28 with four small children. I didn't know the family too well, but I cried during every prayer. I can't imagine losing my spouse so young. Yesterday I reflected on all of our blessings. There are so many.