Before Christmas

Oh December was a busy, fun month.  I'm very sad it's over.  

Luckily with all my busyness, I had lots of good helpers....

Jax and Carter both discovered that they love helping with the laundry.  They are more than willing to load and unload baskets as well as transfer clothes between machines.  

 Jax knows right what to do.  He takes one piece of clothing at a time and transfers it to the dryer.  I've always told him he needs to start earning his keep.....

Carter is quite fond of the snow.  And shoveling the snow.  The first big snow we had, he begged to go outside one afternoon and shovel the snow.  I gladly let him.  Then sadly his kid-sized snow shovel cracked (it was only $3) and he was one sad boy.  Luckily there was Amazon overnight to the rescue.  Our tricky Elf Simon left him a brand new snow shovel under the tree as an early Christmas present.

                                      
Jackson was introduced to the game "Horsie" and it became an instant hit.  He begs for Horsie daily and his great Dad is a sucker for sweet boy saying "Pease Ho-see?"

 Carter never likes to be left out of anything so he volunteered to be the horse for a bit.  This is a common sight each night before bed.

This boy is learning to climb.  He may be the death of me with his climbing.  The pediatrician warned me at his 18 month check up that this was the age for accidents and falls. 

 Carter encourages Jackson's climbing and will often put a step stool next to the couch so Jax can climb up and make himself comfy.  One day while in the shower I heard a loud thump and scream.  I raced out to find that Carter had brought a step stool to our tall bed and allowed Jax to climb up on it.  It didn't take long for Jackson to fall head first off.  He was fine although I think Carter was a bit scarred.  Which may be good.  That is now on a list of things NOT to do while Mom is in the shower.

 Neil was washing dishes and Jax saw that Carter left his step stool next to the sink so he climbed right up to help.

 If I can get him to do the dishes and the laundry on a regular basis then I should have more time to kick back and relax!

He was so proud of himself that it was hard to make him get down.

We spent a lot of time in the kitchen cooking yummy treats.  Carter is my go to man when something needs to be measured or poured.  He finally even realized that it is good to lick the spoons!  Until 2 weeks ago, he refused.  What is wrong with that kid??

 Carter is well on his way to reading.  Real reading.  We have the classic book "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons."  He is halfway done and doing great.  A sticker chart with incentives never hurt anyone either!

We took advantage of a snowy Sunday afternoon to build a killer snowman.

Carter decided to name him "Tree Trunk."  Parts of Tree Trunk can still be seen in our front yard.

I even braved the cold that day and got on my pinkest sweatpants to help.  Snowman building quickly turned into a snowball fight and snow angels.  It was a fun day.

December brought a trip to Payson to see Neil's Grandparents.  Jax is usually very wary of strangers but Grandpa Jack quickly charmed this boy.

 He is the sweetest man alive and the kind of grandpa that every person should have.

 He even got Jackson to snuggle with him for awhile.

 Grandma Renae stole the hearts of my boys too.  It never helps when you let Carter take a pirate ship home with him.....I'm just sayin!

Aunt Linsey rode to Payson with us and Carter is always thrilled to have someone sit next to him in the backseat(beside Jackson.)  He makes sure to let his backseat buddy know how much they are loved.  He is very hands on!

Reminds me of another road trip...........

 Carter and Uncle Steve.  I don't know if you can tell but Steve is blushing in this picture.

This day Jackson found a bowl of yogurt that Carter forgot to clear and pulled it to the ground and helped himself to the tiny bits left.  Boy he wishes he could have yogurt everyday...(I know you are asking yourself..."Does this kid ever wear pants?"  And the answer is No, not often.  Only if we leave the house!

Here is Jackson all wrapped up like a Christmas present.  He has discovered the bandage on his chest and likes to pick it off.  That is a huge problem so I decided to make it harder for little fingers to wander.

 Grandma came down several times during the month and both boys loved having her here.  She brought treats, games, books.....and the ever popular IPad.  My boys are technology junkies and would play Ipads or Iphones all day if I let them.  Jax even knows how to open my phone and get to his favorite game: "Temple Run."  He calls it "Jump game."  I haven't told him how gruesome it is when he gets eaten by the large apes....

Here are the boys fighting over Grandma's Ipad

 This boy loves his binkie.  He calls them Monkey and would have one all day if I let him.  He has 3 and enjoys having all 3 with him if possible.  You will often find one in his mouth and the other 2 close to his mouth, rubbing on his cheek.  I am opposed to binkies this long in the real world, but sadly my baby doesn't get to participate in the "real" world very often so he still has his monkey.  Mostly only in bed.  Jax battles oral aversions and because of that I cannot just take his bottle and binkie away.  Believe me, I would love to.  He is working with some speech and feeding therapists to hopefully be able to give these things up with out Post Traumatic Stress.  More for another post...

 Jackson is obsessed with the TV show Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  So is Carter actually.  He loves to climb up on the couch and watch a full episode.  He dances like crazy when he hears the theme song.  He actually can ask for Jake by name.  Although when he first starting saying it he would say "Dick."  Now it's morphed into Jake and now it's even "Watch Jake."

 He discovered that he loves popcorn.

 With some of our lazy days we spent an hour one Saturday morning watching TV on the couch.  For some reasons my boys like snuggling with their daddy better than me while watching TV.  Why are dads so much cooler than Moms?

 Carter being helpful again.  We were making our to-die-for peanut butter cups and Carter couldn't stand not helping.  He volunteered to unwrap all the Reeses Cups, even though he can't eat them and promised to wash his hands afterwards to get rid of the "Yuckies."

Jackson found the true joy of eating popcorn.  Snuggled up on Grandpa's couch with his own bowl, watching cartoons.

 This picture is sad, but cute.  Jax can't take baths, but would really really love to.  He loves watching Carter take baths and this day wanted to climb in with him.

There is Good new and Bad news:   Bad news is that Jax is apparently allergic to Cats.  Check out those hives after hugging the kitty.  Good News:  We don't need to pay a co-pay for the allergist to tell us this.  These hives were free!

Remember how I told you he likes to climb?  He asked for Chips one morning for breakfast and I told him no so he decided to take matters into his own hands....



Next up: Christmas!!