Handsome Boys

So today I decided that I would dress Cooper and Douglas in matching shirts. I got these shirts from Mom when I had Cooper and would always dress them the same. Silly moms. :-) So I dress Cooper and he's excited about this new shirt he gets to wear and then I get Douglas dressed in his and as I'm putting his pants on Jackson comes in and says, "Where's my matching shirt?". Oh no. I explained that he used to wear the shirt but that now it was too small and I didn't have one big enough for him. He goes into his closet hides in the corner and starts crying. I told him we would find something that almost matched and then we'd all go down stairs and take pictures. He perked up a little and decided that he needed to wear the shirt he has on in the pictures because it had stripes too. I tried my best to convince him that a navy blue polo shirt was almost the same as Cooper's and Douglas', but he wasn't having it.

Today is Jonathan's last day in oral surgery for the next 4 months. His next rotation starts tomorrow in anesthesia. From what we hear it's supposed to be the best 4 months of his residency. Normal hours and NO on call. So we're looking forward to it and the 2 weeks that he'll get off during this time also. He has a big test that he'll have to take in April so it won't be all fun and games since he'll be needing to study for that. But we're still excited at the prospect of having him around more that 2 times a week. :-)

Chilly days

I'm such a happy boy!


Cooper really wanted to wear his cowboy hat in the car. Didn't seem to work too well if you ask me.


Thank you Grandma for the new jacket


I love my new church sweater!


I must be the most handsome baby you've ever seen.


I love my big brother!!!

What cute boys. :-)


Look at these cute socks! One of the doctors in Jon's office gave us a pack of 6 different colors. I love them!

I don't usually go this long before posting and to be honest it's not like I've been super busy. Just haven't sat down. So here's a few things that have happened lately.
1. Jon had Monday off and wasn't on call so we drove up to Hartford and went to Cabella's. I know, I know, you're all wondering why we would drive that far for a sporting goods store. My husband is a hard working man and has had this desire to go to Cabella's since he heard that there was one up there back when we moved in. So we made it a family outing and it was actually fun! The place is huge and it has a TON of stuffed (used to be alive at one point) animals. Deer, cougars, moose, elk, fox, wolf etc. They also had very large fish tank that you have to walk through a tunnel to see. The boys thought this place was pretty darn cool. The only bummer of the trip was the fact that it was 15 degrees out.

2. Jackson had a little stomach bug. No throwing up, but just wasn't hungry and always complaining that his tummy hurt. One night around 1am I took him downstairs to have some dry toast and sprite and while we're sitting there he asked, "why am I so sick?" I told him that sometimes people just get sick and he'd been doing a good job being so brave and that he'd get better soon. He looks up at me with this sad face and says, "Mom, when you were sick and you had the baby in your tummy you did a good job too." :-)

3. Jackson is really into listening to every word in songs on the radio and then asking a hundred and one questions about it. This past week Kenny Chesney's 'She thinks my tractors Sexy' was on and Jackson asks from the back seat, "mom what does sexy mean?' and then "why does she think his tractor's sexy?" I guess I'll have to start screening my songs better.
A few days later Brooks and Dunn's 'God must be busy' (stupid song, but is was just the last 30 seconds of it when we got in the car so I didn't change it) was on and Jackson asks very concerned, "mom, is God too busy?" I told him that God was never too busy for him. Then he says, "I think God's busy making Arizona right now, houses and stuff so people have a place to live."

4. Last Sunday we were walking to the car after church. Cooper gets to the edge of the curb next to the car, stops, gets a very serious look on his face, takes his right hand and pushes a pretend button on his chest, puts his hands down at his sides, says "To infinite and beyond!", throws his hands up in the air and jumps off the curb and runs to get in the car. Random, but oh so cute!

Gimme More

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Did I say I'm tired of shoveling snow?

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January Blusterings

Alright, I am very sick of snow!! At least shoveling it! The Christmas tree and other holiday decorations finally came down this week, and our living room is looking quite barren and cheerless. Opening the blinds on the big front window just seems to let seep in the dreary winter landscape.


So hopefully Spencer is at the tail end of his first cold. He has kept both Dacia and I up the last several nights with his sufferings. We've had an exhausting week. The new job at Fidelity is going fairly well. My shift is from 2-11pm Monday through Friday, so I am becoming a bit of night owl. I will typically work overtime until at least midnight, and when I get home everyone is asleep. Since Jonah is in school, that means the only time I see him is if I wake up early enough in the morning before school, so I've had to make it a point to make him breakfast, and take him to school to spend some time with him every day. The rest of the day I spend studying for the series 7 exam for licensing as a stock broker. I have been studying since early December, and so am pretty much fed up with studying at this point. This is the reason I have such a difficult time wanting to return to school. Kudos to all y'all who are doing that and more (Jonathan).




Jonah is doing quite well in school, but his favorite pastime is Harry Potter games on the Xbox. For the last two weeks, he has been telling me about his 4 day weekend over Martin Luther King Jr Day, and how he wants to rent Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for Xbox. I had to explain to him that we have the old Xbox and the game is only made for the new one. Well that didn't deter him for long...He and Jon-Jon received a Nintendo DS for Christmas, and his rejoinder was: "Well then let's get one for the Nintendo!" Too smart for his own good, that one. Jon-Jon is banned from the DS for this week for playing too rough with Spencer and causing quite a bit of pain for the baby, and consternation for the parents. He is pretty sly as well. Every time I stopped by a Target or a Walmart, I had to go search him out of the electronics section where I would find him playing-yep, you guessed it, the floor model of the Nintendo DS. And at home he kept trying to convince me to let him play the Xbox, since I only grounded him from the Nintendo, and that is not the same as the Xbox!

Dacia is coping with our overlapping shifts. The Fidelity job came as a bit of a surprise, and so she didn't have time to plan her shift around mine (my fault of course). She can't wait for her shift bid in May. She currently is working Friday and Saturday nights until 3:45 am, then has to be at church Sunday mornings at 9:00. It's a wonder how she does it! I would be less-active by this point. I asked her about planning for our next baby, and she kind of grinned weakly, and quickly exited the room so as not to have to respond. I was only joking! A little... :) Here she is at 1:15 this morning while working...on her very expensive chair, which she loves...

OneTooth takes to the dance floor...

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Ok, a brief explanation....This is our bouncer that Spencer just loves. Notice how we can fit a least two of him--or a really fat toddler in there. The thing is huge! We have to roll up towels and put them on either side of him to keep him from leaning way over and getting stuck on one side or the other--which is actually quite funny. As it is, his arms barely come out over the top of the thing, and just sort of stick out there flapping in the wind, because that front bar is just a wee too high for him to have any real range of motion. Jon-Jon loves to run past him from one side to the other, which spins Spencer around. And he loves to yank on Spencer's arms to encourage more bounce. Jon-Jon is being punished quite often, come to think of it. By the way, sorry about the sound quality...This is from our little point-and-click camera, because our video camera is ancient-and not digital.

So, this is what happens when you let someone full of angst get a hold of some hair bleach. Anyway, All is well in Steve-o land. I'm preparing to sing in an upcoming work version of American Idol, where I hope to take the grand prize of a whole whoppin hundred dollah! Better than a kick in the teeth, as my pappy used to say. Well, for lack of a more substantive blurb about what's going on Chez Steve-o, I'll leave you for now :)

Baby 'Gouglas'

The other night Douglas was really talkative. It was so funny! Even if we weren't paying attention to him he was talking and talking. We got a few videos of it, but I've only put on one of them. The others were too long. Enjoy!

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Birthday Time

I had a great birthday! The celebrations were over a three day period. Some girlfriends from the ward put together a surprise lunch for me on Thursday (thanks Leah). We ate, talked, ate some more and talked some more. It was nice to have adult conversation during the middle of the week! We did most of the celebrating on the 11th. Jonathan made me a birthday breakfast with the works and a dozen roses as decoration for the table. It was nice. I got to open two presents. A book I've been wanting to read 'Love in the Time of Cholera', and a pair of Crocs. I was excited about both but Jonathan said there was one more that he was waiting for in the mail. We spent the rest of the day at the mall so the kids could play and run around. Then we came home for naps and to our surprise there was a box on the doorstep (the last present). So I sat down to open it up and was shocked when I pulled a little blue box out of the shipping box with Tiffany's on it!!! I opened it up and found a sterling silver heart necklace with the initials J C D on it. (that's the kids initials if you didn't notice). I was very touched. I love personal presents like that, and the fact that it was jewelry, from Tiffany's no less was great too. :-) After that we took the kids to some friends house while we went out to dinner and a movie (thanks Dan and Heather). What a great day!!! Then on my actual birthday Jackson and Cooper decorated the house with streamers and sang happy birthday to me all day. Jonathan got called in to the hospital twice but was able to be back in time for us to do cake and ice cream as a family. Great fun...let's do it again next year!!!

Mr. OneTooth

So Spencer has his first cold. He has hardly any voice, and is just miserable when trying to sleep. All of which means his much quieter than usual. So I figured I would post this short montage of the pictures of him over the last week-before he caught the cold. He has discovered the bouncer, and loves to spend time in it. I tried to get video of him bouncing, but he was more fascinated with the camera than bouncing. Of course, as soon as I plug the camera into the computer to download, he goes to town in the bouncer. Ah, well...He also has his first tooth, which makes him drool even more than usual.

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Vacation

So here are a few pictures of our fun time with Jon/Dad on his week off. We've really for the most part just hung around the house and watched movies, played games, and the boys have gone out a few times and played baseball (no pictures sorry). We did spend one day at the aquarium in Mystic and had a lot of fun. Enjoy!

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A big THANK YOU!

First, Heidi Mae and company; thank you so much for the generous gift of the train. The boys love it and those first couple of days could not walk away. And they even played side by side for quite a while without too much bickering. :) Thank you so much! It was very, very nice. :)
Second, Mindy; thank you so much for the cute winter hat and the health book. I used the book tonight when Peter was feeling quite awful and it was such a comfort to know I had the book on hand and I could try and help Peter.
Third, Ed and Carole; thank you for the trip to California. It was a lot of fun and so nice to just relax together. I know that you may never want to travel with my children again but they enjoyed the vacation. :) Tonight Peter started talking about a bike ride. I asked him when he had ever gone on a bike ride and he said, "beach." I then remembered how much Peter loved that bike ride and he also let me know that he wanted to do it again, "please."
You guys are such an awesome family! We love you! -Diedre

There have been so many times that I've looked at Douglas and thought he looked like Jackson as a baby. Is it just me or does he?

Money Money Money

So Jackson has been hard at work trying to save his money for a new toy and yesterday he made his last fifty cents to get his Star Wars toy he's been wanting. So today we made our way to Walmart in hopes that they had an Emperor in stock for him to buy. And they did!!! He's pretty freaky looking, but it was the one Jackson has been wanting, so....
He wanted me to take a picture of him with his new toys. It was the first thing he said to me after he bought it. "Mom we need to take a picture of me with my new toys so we can put it on the computer for everyone to see."
The second picture is what I wish they were like all the time. And the third is unfortunately what they are usually like, especially after Jackson gets a new toy. :-)
Love you all

Man it's cold

So it's been super cold out the past few days. We haven't had any snow lately, but we have had some rain and very low temps with high winds. I spent most of yesterday putting up plastic on our windows to help keep out the freezing cold air. It seems to be helping a little. With the temps so low we've been stuck inside to keep warm. My lifesaver has been that we cleaned up the basement and made it a fun kids play room last week. The boys love going down there and so being stuck inside with them for the past two days hasn't been too bad. Cooper has been teething though so it's made for a few meltdowns on both his and my part. Jonathan hasn't been able to get home the past few nights until either after the kids are asleep, or just before they should be. So my nerves are a little frayed. But the good news is that he's off work for his vacation starting tonight!!!! We have a whole week! Jackson is excited for Jonathan to take him to school. We had asked off this next week because my birthday is on Sat the 12th. So we thought it would be nice for him to be off for that since he's been on call for Christmas, Christmas Eve, our Anniversary, New Years, etc. But some how the guys making the schedule didn't get that when we asked off for the week of the 7th that meant we wanted vacation to start on the 7th. So they instead gave him off from the 5th to the 11th and then put him on call on the 12th (my birthday!).

Douglas is getting so big and he's so happy. He loves it when you talk to him and just sits and smiles so big. The other night while he was having his tummy time I got out the camera to get a picture of him. Everytime the red light on the camera would light up, saying it was focused, he would smile. So I made a slideshow of all his cute smiles, plus a few extra.

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Cooper the cowboy

Swinging his hat over his head when he says "Yeehaw!"

I forgot this picture in the slide show. Look at that hair!!


Here's something funny Jonathan put together about Cooper. Enjoy!

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PS Don't worry. A blog about Jackson is coming soon. We haven't forgot about him. :-)