Family

At the beginning of January, most of the family, including all 11 Grandchildren were all in the same place at the same time...and we had a blast! My brother, Stephen, just graduated with his PhD and moved his family back to Washington (after scoring a fantastic job as "Inventor" at Intellectual Ventures. How rad is that title!?) Since Jenny has supported him so unselfishly through the past 8 years, Mom and Dad gave Jenny some money and told her to spoil herself. Mom, Lisa, Natalie, Everett and I couldn't miss out on the fun so we joined her! We spent 12 hours getting manis/pedis and MAC Makeovers, eating at Panera Bread, and going shopping. We definitely missed Heather but hopefully next time she can make it!

That Sunday, William received the Melchizedek Priesthood. It was such a great experience to be there for this milestone in his life. We took these pictures right after church. Hehe, they make me laugh. I LOVE my family!!

We missed you, Kyle and Heather and Dylan!!

Haircut

(Whoa...I just found out there is a blogger app for my phone! Right on!! )

We took Asher to get his hair cut today. We have never paid for a hair cut for the boys before, so this was an experience. A good one though! We are trying to give Asher more choices and responsibility, to see if it helps with his obedience and defiance levels. He told us he wanted to keep his hair long... So we let him!

First day of Sunbeams

A Few Pictures from Christmas

Phone Purge

I was cleaning off my phone and found these pictures that I wanted to share!

Last week, we *needed* to get out of the house. We bundled the boys up in their snow gear that they have been begging to wear and walked to the bank, Dollar Tree, and grocery store across the street from us. Aren't they adorable?

Sean was reading to the boys before bedtime and I had to snap a picture. They love reading books with Daddy!

Asher and Baron started soccer yesterday. This is a picture of Coach Bryan teaching the kids how to do jumping jacks. Asher and Baron were the only ones that were hesitant to participate!

Brayden and Jackson started Basketball today. I didn't get any pictures of them though, unfortunately! 

This is a picture of the chore charts I made for my boys. I got the idea HERE. I have a stack of like 28 or 30 chores and every day I change them up. They have a set of 6 that they have to do before lunch, and a set of 6 that they have to do before bedtime. Today is only day 1, but...I am praying that this will work for our little family!

500

I've reached the 500 blog posts mark! I've been blogging for 5 1/2 years so I don't know if that is a lot or a little, but I DO know that I am so grateful for this little outlet!

More Milestones

I've been meaning to blog this for awhile, but am just now getting around to it! Last Friday, Everett cut a 2nd tooth, and also started cruising! He can get from one end of the couch to the other in nothing flat. 

And, just now, he stood without hanging onto anything for 5 whole seconds. 

Where did my baby go!!?

Climber!

Everett crawled from up on top of the piano this evening. He climbed his very first stair yesterday, then made it to the top in one try without stopping or looking back. He has been climbing all over everything today! He isn't even 8 months old yet. In fact I got his weekly "development" email today that said this: "He's apt to lunge forward onto all fours from a sitting position. He may go into a "precrawl" exercise, rocking back and forth on hands and knees with his trunk parallel to the floor." It literally made me laugh out loud. He's been doing that for 2 months! We are in SO much trouble!

Brayden's Dinner Prayer

This was Brayden's prayer last night at dinner:  "... We're thankful that our family loves Jesus. And I'm a part of that family. I'm thankful that I'm a big brother. I love being a big brother. We're grateful for the prophet, Thomas S. Monston. We're grateful that we belong to the Church of Latter Day Saints. We like going there. Because its Sunday. And it's fun. We love thee, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

Welcome 2012!

I cannot believe that it is the year 2012. What the heck!? My life is speeding by and I don't know how to slow it down. I've been in a weird funk lately, and haven't had the energy or the desire to set any New Years Resolutions. It doesn't mean that I don't want 2012 to be fun and happy and successful, but it just means that I'm giving myself a break from it. I am a naturally a goal oriented person, and I know that when I'm feeling back up to par, I'll set some awesome goals for myself. But in the meantime, I'm not going to beat myself up over not having any resolutions. I figure that life is a continual progression. It isn't the end of the world if I postpone new goals for a little while. This way, instead of doing great for January and February, maybe I'll do great in March and April ;)

Christmas

We spent Christmas this year in Oregon. We had a Janeway Family Christmas Eve program at Brad and Lorraine's with almost all of their immediate family. We had a little nativity puppet show put on by the kids and a fun little talent show. Sean and I, and the kids all stayed the night at their house and did stockings and presents at their house. The kids got to bed so late the night before that they didn't even wake up until 9! It was weird to be up and ready for the day before they even stirred in their beds...especially on Christmas!  Shortly after we were done with gifts, Jamie (Brad's sister), her husband Tum, their kids Brandon, Travis, and Cameron, and Grandma Janeway (Brad's Mom) all flew in from San Diego. We spent the entire next week eating tons of food and ice cream, going to the Evergreen Aviation Museum Water Park, staying a night in Seaside, and eating the best dang Thai food ever. We wore ourselves out with Ping Pong, Pool, and Fooseball, and exhausted our laughing muscles playing Quelf, iMagiNiff, Catch Phrase, and Quiddler. I absolutely that family and am so glad they were all able to be here to spend an entire week with us! Next time, I think it's our turn to return the favor and make a trip down to sunny San Diego!

I wish I had taken ANY pictures of the week, but alas, the only one I took was this one...

which was the result of a *long* Christmas day of travel.

On Christmas Eve, we let the boys open 1 gift. It was their set of pajamas they got to sleep in that night. (Janeway tradition.) In the morning, as we were helping the boys get dressed and ready for the day before they got to go see their stockings, (Harston tradition.) Brayden was hesitant to take off his new Buzz Lightyear pajamas. He asked if I'd let him wear them again that night. I assured him he could and he looks at me with these huge eyes and grateful smile. "Thank you forever!"  Best quote of the day. Still makes my heart happy thinking about it!

Kids Grow Up Too Fast and Ramblings

I asked Brayden yesterday to clean up his toys. He said that he didn't want to, and I was explaining how we need to keep our house clean. He then started inquiring about when we'll have a different house and said "When I'm a Dad and have a son then I'll live in a different house?" Yep. "And my wife will clean up the toys?" "Your wife will help your sons clean up their toys." He replied saying "And I will help my wife clean up their toys!" So I went with it and said "But Brayden, how are you going to help your wife if you don't know how to do it? That's why you need to practice when you are 4 so you can be really good at it to make her happy!" He rushed into the living room and cleaned up his toys. "I want to make my wife happy!"

About 2 hours later, it was nap time. B was saying how he wasn't tired. His eyes and whiny voice said otherwise. I said "Brayden, taking naps is good for you. It makes you grow big and strong." In which he replied "If I don't take naps, I will be 4 forever, and I won't get a wife?" 

I have no idea where this sudden obsession with having a wife is coming from, but she's going to have a huge affect on the latter 2/3 of his life...why not let the dream of her affect the first 1/3!

Everett is paci-free. He actually hasn't used a paci since the beginning of December when I lost his last one in Marysville. I bought him a new one but he had absolutely nothing to do with it. He never once even sucked on it. He just gummed it, tossed aside and never looked back. I love love love that he was unattached at 6 months. I'm sure that was SO much easier than waiting til 2.5 or whenever it was that we took it from B and A.

Everett has another tooth about to pop through. And he's walking along furniture. And climbing stairs. He did that for the first time this morning. Sean let him get up 6 stairs before finally setting him back down on solid ground. Slow down, Tiger!

As of today, I officially have no more children in Nursery! Asher is a Sunbeam, and Brayden a CTR 4! I cannot believe that they are both into primary. It is blowing my mind! 

(Picture taken Christmas Day... in their new ties!)

Asher is as rambunctious and rowdy as ever. He is fearless and has so much fun wreaking havoc everywhere he goes. We have recently started eliminating red food dye from his diet. He has a cousin that reacts extremely negatively to it so we are taking A off of it to see if we notice a difference. It has been 2 weeks since we started trying, but considering he eats candy off of the floor whenever he finds it (Mike and Ike's at the Sprint Store? Yup.) and there are a lot of obliging adults that will indulge him a Christmas Candy Cane, we haven't been able to accurately determine if there is any real affect. Now that most of the adults in his life know about it, and Christmas is over, I think we'll be able to figure it out soon. By default, we've taken B off of red dye as well, but with what I've learned in the little research I've done, I am definitely not hurting him. That stuff is POISON!! We are all making a concerted effort to eat less (if any!) of it. Did you know there is red and yellow dye in WHITE cake mix and WHITE cake frosting!? Apparently it makes it look more Golden? Whatever. It is not healthy for us Humans so I'm grateful for things like "Dye-Free Children's Tylenol" and 100% natural tomato sauce!

The chickens are doing really well. We've gotten 24 eggs total. They are delicious! It's crazy the difference in a farm fresh egg vs a store bought one. We are having fun collecting those every day.

Stephen, my brother, got a job at Intellectual Ventures, in Bellevue, Washington. He starts Tuesday! He was able to move his wife and 3 daughters back to Washington State after graduating from BYU with a PhD in Mechanical Engineering! Congrats Dr. Harston! I am SO super proud of you. I guess technically he doesn't graduate until April, but he is done with school and got to bring his family home. I am so glad to have them closer!