Jackson

is 6. 6! Holy cow, and what a six year old he has become. I remember when Tyler's parents left to be mission presidents and his mom said that when she gets done Jackson will be 6. I thought that was horrible and terrible and he'd be so big and so grown up. But it's not terrible or awful. He's just as he should be and I still think he's nice and little. Here are some things I don't want to forget about Jackson as he is right now.

*He loves kindergarten and he loves the days when he has "centers." Whatever that means exactly. He loves his teacher Mrs. Burk. Loves loves loves her.

*He can seriously read books! It's crazy and he's so good at sounding out the words.

*He still can't say his R's. I should probably work on that, but it still sounds so cute.

*He loves to color and it a perfectionist about it. So much so that in his evaluation his teacher sent home today she said that they are working on finishing things on time. He's not distracted, just intensly focused and takes his sweet little time.

*He's pretty stubborn, and would rather play alone at recess than play something with the other kids that he doesn't want to play, which I'm proud of. It means he's not a little duckling like I was.

*He's obsessed with Star Wars. The movies yes, but mostly playing Lego star wars. Obsessed obsessed obsessed. He tells me things about the game and he's so excited about what he has found that there is no controlling or containing his enthusiasm. It's infectious - even if it is about a star wars game. As is his enthusiasm about anything. If Jackson likes something you're going to know about it, ALL about it. I love it.

*He still likes transformers and has so many. Right now he plays with a 5 pack power core. You put 5 different pieces together to make one guy. When he talks about it he always says, "My 5 pack" and the way he says it makes me laugh. I could listen to it all the time. Good thing he tells me about it every day.

*He is exceptionally skilled at spinning his light saber around. Before we got him one that makes sounds he would make them all on his own. I could hear, "Hmm mmm mm pchouuuuu" all the time. He stands like a Jedi and fights using moves from Star Wars. He's totally intense when he's doing it too, but it kind of reminds me of the mid evil club at BYU and I secretly pray he won't ever be interested in something like that.

*So far he is so great at practicing the piano. He gets excited about his piano lessons every week. I don't know what I did to deserve this and I'm scared at the retribution I might receive someday for how I acted when it was time for me to practice. eeek.

*He loves to play with his little brother. They fight occasionally, but usually he is his protector and they're best friends.

*When Jackson is playing Lego Star Wars he sets up a chair for Hayden to sit right beside him. He doesn't want Hayden to join in the game, but since there are multiple characters on your team at all times, he tells Hayden which one he is and keeps him informed of everything his character can do and how helpful he is to Jackson, and somehow this keeps Hayden entertained. Hayden will sit next to him for way longer than he should just listening to Jackson and watching the game.

*He keeps me on track. In the morning I kind of verbally list everything we need to do for the day, or what he needs to do in order to get ready. This is for me to remember what they heck I'm doing and to kind of organize my brain, and then mostly for Jackson so he has some structure. He'll repeat back the days activities to me and reminds me if I forget something or do something out of order. "K Mom, first, I need to brush my teeth, and THEN I'll get my pants our of the dryer and pick out a shirt, and THEN I'll find my socks and put on my shoes an THEN we'll eat lunch go to school." I wish I could describe the hand motions and facial expressions that go along with this. It's really cute.

Thank you Jackson for being so awesome. You have so much personality that I can't even begin to capture in words. Mommy loves you. Thanks for always being my good boy.

Cranky Pants

The other day the boys were fighting so I sent them to seperate rooms. Jackson wanted privacy and didn't want anyone to see him. He informed me he was making a sign and taping it to his door. This is what I found on his door:

Yep, that'll keep Hayden out - and me laughing.

My Hay Hay

My baby is 4. I say this every year, but seriously, how did this happen? It's going way too fast.

Here are some things that I never want to forget about Hayden at 4 years old.

* He loves loves loves babies. Loves them. Whenever he sees a baby he wants to say hi to it, or hold it, or take care of it. Ty took a bunch of stuffed animals out of the garage last week and he has adopted the baby chicks (that Ty gave me for Easter) as his "babies."

* Everything is funny. He wants to giggle at everything and when he really giggles it's hysterical. I love his laugh. All he wants to do is have fun and when things are not happy and fun, he gets slightly devastated.

* When he gets slightly devastated he flops on the floor. I mean flops, straight down, no bracing himself for a fall. He's standing straight up and then 1/4 of a second later he's on the floor by literally discontinuing the use of all muscles. Don't try to pick him up in this situation because he goes completely limp. It's a really fun game to play in the store. frrrmp. I give him a sticker if he doesn't flop when I say "no."

* He is my sweetie and at night before he goes to bed he has to give me, "First, a huggie, and first a kissie, and first a zerbert." He's very good at zerberts, or raspberries, whatever people call them. I'll be sad when he doesn't want to give them to me anymore.

*He loves star wars movies and books and "podracing" with his brother.

*He gets up every night in the middle of the night to go potty - which I love, because his brother, well, ya.

*He sneaks into our room in the middle of the night. He has the ability to crawl in our bed like Houdini and then pets daddy's arm, or head, or cheek until we respond and "snuggle".
*He's so funny and says the funniest things, but he doesn't want to be laughed at.

*He stomps his feet like no body's business. Sorry people below us. He does it because we tell him not to.

*He has the sweetest little voice. It's just sweet and when he talks sometimes he even seems innocent. Just right now he came in my room with his little high pitched sweet little "Mommmmmy?" (Ok it's not cute right now because it's 3 hours after his bedtime, but later I'll look back and say, "Ahhhhh," his voice was so cute.

*His favorite songs are Never Grow Up by Taylor Swift and Do You Hear the People Sing from Les Mis. I'm serious. The Les Mis one especially. I had my Les Mis cd in the car once (because I'm a sucker for show tunes, OK? I love musicals and I can't help it) and he heard it and now when we get in the car he says, "Mom, can I hear MY song?" (Jackson loves it too and they belt it in the back seat of the car. I should record it.) This is what I hear coming from the back seat:

They like to yell certain parts at the top of their lungs.

(Chorus)
Can you hear the People SING?
Singing the song of angry MEN!
It is the music of a PEOPLE who will NOT be slaves AGAIN!
When the beating of your HEART echoes the beating of the DRUMS
There is a life about to start when TOMORROW COMES!

Will you join in our crusade? Who will be strong and stand with MEEEEEE?
Beyong THE BARRICADE is there a world you long to SEE?
Then join in the FIGHT that will give you the RIGHT to be FREEEEEEEEEE.

(repeat chorus)

Will you give all you can give so that our hmm hmm hmmhmm VANCE
Some will FALL and Some will LIVE will you stand up and take your CHANCE
The BLOOD of the hmm hmm will water the meadows of FRANCE!

(repeat chorus)

Happy Birthday Hayden! We LOVE you! Now stop growing. Thanks.

Happy Halloween

Let's just pretend that Halloween was, like, yesterday.

Before it got cold, I took the boys to the lake to let them throw rocks. They could do this for hours and hours. I wanted to relax so I thought I would take them up and they would throw rocks and I would read and it would be so nice.

It started out fine. The boys were throwing rocks and it was all peaceful in the mountains.

Here Jackson is picking out his perfect rock. I should have known by the look on his face that he was going to do something that would cause me a lot of work. You think he's giving me a sweet and innocent smile, but no.

I was enjoying my camera and watching about 15 ducks swimming together when I hear shrieks of laughter and then this is happening. Do you see the mud flying through the air? This one is my favorite because it's right before a huge splat of mud is going to hit Jackson in the face. I just sat there for a while letting them throw mud and laugh. Finally I got up to take a picture of the final product before they were going to get stripped down and dunked in the lake.

Ew. Luckily I did bring a change of clothes, but I forgot towels for "just in case". They were so happy and thought it was so funny. The I stripped them down and they seriously got dunked in the lake to get all the mud out of their face and hair. That part wasn't fun, but they did think it was hilarious running around naked for a little bit and then getting warm inside the blanket. The lake was so cold that they learned their lesson and after I changed their clothes they didn't throw any more mud, onlyrocks. It helped that we moved to a place with only rocks, and no mud. Guess how many pages I read the whole time I was up there? 16. So not relaxing for me, but what can you do? At least they were happy.

Hee Haws

Holy Crap this week has flown by. I have been so busy I haven't watched any TV. I don't even know who got kicked off of dancing with the stars and that was on Monday and if you know anything about how much I love my TV, and how much I love to catch up on my shows until 2 in the morning, this will give you an idea of how crazy things have been. Not to mention the fact that I have been without my camera for weeks. Did you know that your memory card can lock? When it's locked you can't take or delete any pictures. And did you know that all you have to do is push a little white thing on the side of your memory card up or down to unlock it? If I would have known this I would have had beautiful fantastic picture memories of going to cascade springs with my boys, who love it there. It was beautiful and the weather was perfect and the boys saw fish and little waterfalls and climbed over the bridges. Stupid memory card.

Anyway, last week was not crazy. It was fun. We started off with our annual trip to Hee Haws and I actually had my camera for about 10 minutes after I unlocked the memory card, but then the battery died.

The boys love it there, and this includes Tyler. They love getting dirty and playing in the courtyard and most of all visiting Leroy the pig. Guess what? Leroy died. He wasn't there. Luckily there is a new pig paving the way to extreme pig obesity.

The best part of the whole thing was feeding the little animals they had there. There was a petting zoo type pen and it was funny. There were goats walking around who literally climbed on me for food. There were rabbits that Jackson and Hayden got to hold. We fed baby piggies (I love them so much - I really do) and Jackson and Hayden loved the baby ducklings and they actually let the boys hold them. They'd kick their feet a little when you picked them up, but they let you pick them up and didn't run away.

Ty's favorite animal to feed there ( you can't feed the big pig) was the donkey. He loves that thing. When Ty would walk away with food still in his hand the donkey would kick the fence with it's front leg over and over until he came back. They totally bonded. They're kindred spirits. If he were reincarnated he would be a donkey. I tried to find him a donkey costume for halloween, but I haven't found one. He has said that is a costume he would actually wear. Anyone have donkey ears and a tail?

I Like Brown

Jackson told me the other day that he got to speak in the microphone during primary at Church. Apparently he was supposed to say his name and then something he likes. So it was his turn to use the microphone in primary. He told me that he said, "My name is Jackson and I like brown."

"Wait, you said what?"

Then he said, "I MEANT to say, My name is Jackson and my FAVORITE COLOR is brown, but I didn't!" Then he sighed, rolled his eyes, and smacked himself in the middle of the forehead.

Seriously his favorite color is brown. It always has been ever since he could say his colors. One of his homework assignments was to make make a collage using his favorite color - so his collage was of everything brown. Brown horses, brown leaves, brown dogs, brown monkeys, brown hats, brown shoes...Anyway.

He continued his story by telling me that Hayden got up later, and I'm pretty sure it was NOT right after him, and said, "My name is Hayden Jones and I like brown."

Oy. Of all the colors. Any other color and the sentence would feel finished instead of leaving you thinking, "Brown? Brown what?" (My kids have apparently inherited my public speaking ability and to them I apologize.)

Hayden

This is my three year old. We're both finding this stage of life hard to deal with and this pictures describes the feelings we've had toward each other lately. I think it has something to do with the fact that we don't do well with change. Life feels really weird lately and Hayden and I have been having temper tantrums galore. With all the new things going on in our house we've had some major battles. Granted, most of the changes are good things, it's just hard for us to get used to them.

I think Hayden has been having difficulty with all the attention Jackson's been getting from me. Jackson gets to go to school every day and it's still a big deal. Hayden has started preschool, which I am grateful for, but I can just tell he thinks it's not exciting as Jackson going to Kindergarten. Jackson also started piano lessons, and Hayden wants to do everything Jackson is doing, so he tries to mess Jackson up when he's playing the piano every day. Jackson has soccer practice and soccer games, and Hayden wants to play so bad. I'm really excited for when Hayden does get to play. That kid has some aggression he needs to get out in a positive way while Jackson is just very...sweet. He smiles throughout the soccer game, like I literally took this picture while he was supposed to be playing in the game. He saw me with my camera out and stopped running and smiled. Whatever though right? He's having fun and he doesn't mind at all that their team didn't score a goal today. At least he was trying. Anyway, today Hayden got to practice making a goal during half time at Jackson's soccer game.

And here's my bipolar child and I waiting for our dinner. He's such a cute little stink, especially when he's not throwing a tantrum. And when he plays nicely with his brother.Now comes some more change for me. I have to go to my new ward tomorrow. I got cut out of my old one that I was so comfortable in. Boooooo, and yes, I feel justified acting like a baby about it, so I will. Hayden shares in my discontent:

Some Firsts

These past couple of days we've had a lot of "firsts in our house. Jackson had his first soccer game. He was a little nervous at first.

But then he told me he had "so much fun" and he loves being a silver surfer.

Then Hayden had his first day of preschool. He was really excited to go. (Don't mind the blue tape. We're repainting.) When I picked him up he said, "I can't believe I'm in preschool!!!" You and me both kid.And Jackson started Kindergarten today. HOLY COW. I can't believe it and it was so fun taking him to school today. He got a little nervous right before it was time to go, but luckily we walked to school with his friend Christian, which made Jackson feel much better.(Jackson is wearing his most "Fwavowite" clothes and he was trying to make a silly face.) He loves his teacher Mrs. Burk and he's so excited to go back tomorrow!

Idaho Day 2

Here's some of our massive group before we went to some hot springs close by.I forget the name, but it had a really big slide, and the first thing that happened when we got there was that I lost Hayden. He climbed up 100 stairs by himself and was trying to go down the slide by himself. After my (and my family members) initial panic attack I KNEW he had gone up the stairs and I found him coming back down saying, "Mom. I can't go by myself." Really?!!!! Apparently the lifeguard sent him back down the huge flight of stairs. Phew. This is how Hayden swims with me. I'm constantly the horse giving him a ride. Whatever makes you happy kid. Jackson got pretty brave. He actually jumped off the diving board in the background. Granted, he had on a life jacket AND floaties and I had to "catch" him, but he did it a couple of times. Hayden tried. He walked to the end and said, "It's so high!" and turned right around. He was also wearing the life jacket and floatie combo. Oy.We ate lunch by the Snake River and then went back to swim some more. I thought the river was so pretty. We also celebrated Great Grandma Baugh's Birthday while we there, or as we call her "Grandma Great." Happy birthday Grandma!