Tow-Mater

When I get some time I will fill you in on our fun (and almost deadly for some of us) weekend in Moab, but for now this is a quick post for my mom.

This is the new exciting toy at our house, and all other toys have gotten the shaft. My mom couldn't stand that she had already bought Chase's birthday present and he wouldn't be able to use it now. Who knows he might have been walking before he got this little helper in a month- so he got it a month early.

At first he wasn't sure about it. He loved the noises and flashing lights on it, but wasn't sure about riding it or pushing it, so he just played with the rising piston.



He then moved up to the steering wheel and decided sitting on it wasn't so bad and before long he was giggling and squealing as Daniel pushed him around.




Today he spent the whole day walking Tow Mater around our house and around the sidewalk outside and what do you know- took his first "real" steps. He has been taking 3-4 steps for months now but usually falls into your arms or face plants after that. I call them real steps because he walks around on his own or with or without encouragement and actually gets to a destination instead of falling.

I'm not sure yet if I will thank Chase's Grandma or blame her.

(I'll get pictures of him walking soon... I was so busy studying for a test tonight that I didn't pull out the camera.)

Fall Break

We're almost all packed and ready to go - to Moab that is- for a 4 day weekend. I could really get used to Fall Break! Chase even helped us with the packing (read: unpacking).



..... and for the ride home I will be sporting my brand new pair of contacts. I have been in denial for long enough about my eye sight and only wearing glasses driving. I can finally see people's faces, eve when they aren't standing right in front of me. Now if I could only get the hang of getting them in and out of my eyes without making them sore and red.....

So grateful for contacts!

This was supposed to be my toy.

But Chase seems to like what he sees better than I do. Sometime I wonder what it would be like to look in the mirror through the eyes of a child. So happy to see what they are - not focusing on what they are NOT.



And a silly attempt at a self-portrait with my little buddy. (I don't know what I'll do when he gets sick of being my guinea pig. I know Daniel won't take his spot.)


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Angel by day, devil by night.

Here is my little sweetheart. This is his cute baby face, but lately that face has changed dramatically at bed time.

I need your help. Surely out of all you who have kids someone has dealt with this and overcame it and I need to know how.

It all started last Friday when we were visiting Daniel's parents. Chase started refusing to go to bed. We played it off since we were not at home and he was sleeping in an unfamiliar crib, but it has continued since we got home. We lay Chase down to bed with his bottle like we have done for the past 3-4 months and let him hold it himself as he drifts off the sleep. This still works in the day time for naps, but when bed time comes he refuses the bottle no matter how long his last feeding was and cries (read: SCREAMS) until he finally falls asleep.

We usually do a bath before bed, we tried getting him back up and letting him play for a while (thinking maybe he wasn't tired yet). We tried a nightlight thinking that maybe he is afraid of the dark- none of that has worked.

Any suggestions? Any at all? I can't stand letting him scream himself to sleep everynight.


Didn't know eating ice cream can be so dramatic did you? That's what happens when you are trying not to think about the screaming baby in the other room racking your brain for what you could do for him. All I can say is you should have seen Daniel :)

Blog Safety

Camille sent this to me and I thought I would share with all you fellow bloggers. It is a site reminding us to be careful with what we post on our blogs because the information is out there for anyone... ANYONE.

I recently sold my camera through KSL classifieds and the girl interested in buying it wanted to come with Daniel was gone to work. I was really nervous about someone I didn't know coming to the house while Chase and I were home alone so I googled her name. Her blog came up and I could have found out way more about her than I would ever want to know. Just know that it is out there especially if you have it set to be picked up by google's search engine.

One lady in this story found out that the pictures she was posting of her son were being copied and used on a young girls blog who was pretending to be the child's teenage pregnancy mother- CREEPY!

Here is the article. Just be careful.

100 things

I wanted to do this for my 100th post a while ago and then Natalie did it and reminded me about it so here it is for my 100th post. I couldn't think of that many things for myself so I included facts about Daniel and Chase as well.

1. I have been married for 3 1/2 years to the man that fits me perfectly.
2. I like school.
3. I love being a mom.
4. I can admit to being a biased mother, but I still think Chase is the cutest little boy I know.
5. I think I will have lots of kids because being in the hospital with a brand new baby was such an adrenaline rush- I might be addicted.
6. I am the secretary in our ward Relief Society.
7. I LOVE my calling.
8. I have been singing Christmas songs all year to Chase and can't wait for Christmas this year.
9. I usually hate winter, but don't mind the idea of it this year.
10. I'm saving my money for the new Nikon D90.
11. I am named after my moms brothers.
12. My middle name is Jayleen
13. I am a terribly picky eater and have a hard time finding something that sounds good to eat- every day!
14. I drive myself crazy because of that.
15. I love to swim- for exercise or fun, doesn't matter.
16. I am addicted to chapstick- my lips chap when I DON'T use it.
17. I used to hate to read- now I like it.
18. I hate politics - especially trying to find my opinions and beliefs on who to vote for when I feel like everybody is lying.
19. When I vote in November I will be choosing the lesser of two evils in my opinion.
20. I consider my mom and Jill my best friends
21. I didn't always feel that way.
22. Jill and Kyle had a hate Kimbrey club when I was younger.
23. I have a ham radio license - if you know what that is, you are either a nerd or married to one too.
24. I got the license only because I love my husband.
25. My favorite food is home made chicken noodle soup and always has been.
26. My favorite color is red.
27. I have 3 red formal dresses.
28. All the schools I have attended except one year at snow had the school colors- red and white.
29. I think Daniel was like my little brothers when he was younger- annoyed his older sisters.
30. I played soccer and ran track (outdoor and indoor) in high school.
31. I havn't played soccer since I graduated.
32. I have college credits from Dixie, Snow, U of U, USU, CEU and SLCC. I'm only missing a couple of Utah schools.
33. I will finally get my bachelors next spring.
34. It won't do much for me except help me get in grad school.
35. I sometimes struggle with my health promotion classes, but got an A in anatomy, physiology and organic chemistry.
36. I look up photoshop and photography tips when I get bored of homework.
37. Then it's hard for me to refocus.
38. Swimming is the funnest class I took in college.
39. I wish I could take it every semester.
40. I wish there was more time in the day or that we didn't have to sleep.
41. I am afraid of how fast time is going.
42. I don't keep in touch with old friends very well.
43. I miss old high school and college friends a lot.
44. I used to play the organ for the ward for 2 years.
45. I had never played before the calling and struggled with it until shortly before I was released.
46. I want to learn as many languages as possible.
47. I have taken french for 1 year and German for 4 years.
48. I still can only speak English.
49. I don't think I will ever like my hair.
DANIEL
50. Daniel is the smartest person I know.
51. He is also pretty nerdy, but I kinda like it.
52. He would spend any extra money on ham radio's.
53. He almost promised me a new camera if I would get my ham radio license.
54. He has his masters in computer science and can't decide if he wants to do a PhD
55. He is a great dad to Chase and can make him laugh more than anyone else.
56. He would be a farmer for the rest of his life if it could make any money.
57. He would move back to Lyman in a heartbeat if I would let him and if an opportunity presented itself.
58. Daniel doesn't enjoy swimming
59. Daniel will eat anything, even when I burn our dinner.
60. His favorite food is cheeseburgers.
61. Daniel thinks that I was like his older sisters when I was younger- mean and bossy.
62. His favorite stores are sportsmans and home depot.
63. He scrapbooked with me one night for FHE- he made a hunting page.
64. He spent the 9 months of my pregnancy cleaning up bowls of throw up when he got home.
65. He dreads me being pregnant almost as much as I do.
66. He wants to have a large family.
67. His middle name is Morgan.
68. I once accidently told him I didn't really care for the name Morgan - oops.
69. He won't let me live that down.
70. He wants a motorcycle really bad.
71. He regrets not buying a motorcycle and a truck before getting married.
72. He works as software engineer.
73. He hates spending money on cloths.
74. He still wears some cloths from high school.
75. He is also very picky about the collar on polo shirts.
76. I can't buy him shirts without him there because I don't understand the thing with the collar.
77. He hates to read- but is half way through a book right now to prove to me that he can.
78. He went to Equador on his mission.
79. He tells me scary stories about it all the time.
80. He wants to take me there someday- I'm scared to go.
81. He met my sister 3 years before we even met.
82. We didn't make that connection for 2 months of friendship.
83. He promised to take me to every temple in the US before we got married.
84. That will take the rest of our lives (especially at the rate they build temples now days.)
CHASE
85. Chase loves chapstick
86. He will carry one around all the time while he plays if he can find a tube.
87. He is extremely ticklish everywhere.
88. He has 4 teeth he loves to show off.
89. Chase likes to eat books.
90. He would never get out of the bath tub if I didn't make him.
91. He is scared of toys that roll towards him.
92. He has more energy than I do.
93. He loves all kinds of food- we havn't come across anything that he won't eat.
94. He loves mom and dads food more than his own- even if we eat the same thing as him.
95. He laughed so hard at a toy at Kmart one day that we just had to buy it.
96. He weighs 19 lbs.
97. He has loved the mirror since he was just a couple months old and still laughs everytime he sees himself in it. (click here to see the beginnings.)
98. We use that to our advantage when he is mad - it works every time
99. He sleeps 10-12 hours every night.
100. He doesn't really nap well (probably because of the previous statement)

Playing tractors

Chase is all boy. He loves all the things that little boys love and has lately discovered the fun of pushing cars and trucks and tractors around while crawling. This has been the main activity of today. Sure we ate lunch and breakfast and had a couple diaper changes, but other than that we have been playing tractors.

When the tractor tips on its side Chase gets so frustrated that he screams and gets upset. I have to hold in my laughter because my 10 month old son already has my lack of patience.