Princess Ball

I apologize that this week I don't have any pictures posted. I am having technical difficulties. Too bad too, because Sammi and Grant went to the Princess Ball this weekend, and Sammi had the time of her life. She spent the whole week counting down the days. Then, on Saturday, she painted her nails, took a special bath, and I let her wear a little make up and perfume. We curled her hair and sprayed some glitter on her and wow, did she feel special! It was really fun to her to get all dolled up. She loved having her dad as her date too. He dressed up very handsomely as well, and the two were off to the dance. Sammi had a great time. The Princess Ball is a fundraiser that the High School in Elma puts on for all the Dads and their little girls. Everyone in Elma goes, so they have to have 3 different balls! It is a fun tradition that is one small reason we love living in Elma.

The weather was so pretty this week that we were outside all week. The kids were running through the sprinklers, and yesterday we finally put out our birdseed. Today, we were seriously rewarded. The main room in our house has huge windows that overlook our garden, so we can sit on our couch and watch all of our bird feeders. Today we had a flock of 5 Steller Jays picking at our seed as well as lots of other more common birds. It was so fun to sit and watch them. Everett couldn't get enough of them. Grant always says that if you see a Steller Jay it is going to be a good day. You can imagine our anticipation of today after seeing 5 of them! What a fun morning.

I am so excited to start gardening I can hardly keep myself from buying flowers. If there were more for sale, I'd be buying them even if I knew they would frost over. I can't wait to get my hands in the garden again. I'm going to start building my own compost, and have been studying up on how to do it. We are going to plant a big vegetable garden outside of the kids clubhouse and try to do some fun things that the kids will like. I'm going to plant a TeePee, with Sweet Peas growing up the sides for a fun spot for my kids. I'm looking for a fun old chandelier that I could hang in our yard so that we could watch the prisms make rainbows. Anyway, I have plenty of ideas, but little know how, and little time! I can't wait for my garden to be like the gardens I grew up cherishing.

Enough about me, now about the kiddos: This week, I got a math and a reading workbook for my kids to share. Before I knew it, Sammi had accomplished over half of the math workbook! She just loves that stuff. I let Scotti work in the reading book, and he is just so careful with his writing, that it takes him a long time to write. He really takes his time to make sure that he does everything his best and will not even tackle something unless he can give it time to finish it just right. Cooper spent the week trying to be nicer to Everett. He made a conscious effort to try not to bug Ev and I caught him starting to irritate him and then stopping immediately, as if resisting the temptation to do so. He prayed every night for Heavenly Father to help him. What a sweetie. Ev loves Cooper even though Cooper does bug him for entertainment! Ev has loved being outside this week. He digs in the dirt and then comes inside. Then, he goes back out and tries to ride a bike a little and then checks inside with me. He learned how to crawl on the stools this week, which means he can now get on the counter without any help from me. That is bad news for me, because now nothing is safe! He also refuses to sit in his high chair and wants to sit on a stool like the big kids. Oh, the growing! It is most painful for me, I swear.

Valentines and the Potty

Valentine's Day was big time at our house. It all began on Tuesday when I was in charge of games at our Primary party, where we made over 100 valentines! The celebrations continued on Thursday at parties for both Cooper's class and Sammi's and Scotti's class. Scotti and Cooper made paper airplane valentines for their friends, and Sammi made butterflies. We made a whole bunch of Valentines at home, which made a big mess, and then made a whole bunch of cookies, which made an even bigger mess. Here are some pictures of the creative process with the cookies. The highlights of the holiday for us were when we went around Elma with the Doyles handing out Valentines to people in the streets and stores and at the senior center. Then, an even more exciting event was delivering plates of cookies to our friends from secret admirers (us.) The delivering required much sneakiness and everyone enjoyed the high of trying not to get caught. (Although, we often did.)

FABULOUS JACKSON HAPPENINGS THIS WEEK:
Big time events at the Jacksons this week: Everett put his first pee pee in the potty. Seriously, I couldn't believe it. Yesterday, he came to me tugging at his clothes, saying "bathroom!" I thought, what the heck, we'll introduce him to the potty. I took off his clothes and stood him in front of the potty. Lo and behold, a steady stream of pee pee made it directly into the potty. I have never seen Everett so excited. The picture below is of Everett pointing in the potty at his pee pee saying "Pee pee mommy! Pee pee! Potty!" He went again several times yesterday. I'm so proud.

I just realized that when Sammi gets her hair done, she thinks I'm working on her "hair-dude" instead of her hairdo. It's so cute, that I just haven't corrected her.

You should have seen Scotti sneak those cookies to people's houses this week. He was so serious, so stealthy, so swift, but then while we were hiding, he could barely hold his mouth hard enough for the laughter that kept escaping. He is such a fast runner too!

Cooper learned about appropriate wintertime dress, and now gets himself dressed every day in either a summer outfit with a winter outfit over it, or a winter outfit with shorts and a t-shirt on top. He loves it that he is always prepared for either season! I love it that I don't have to worry about getting him dressed!

I forgot to mention that last week we had our house painted, lights installed, and countertops put into our cabinets. Our house is feeling like OURS, and I love it here. What a blessing to live in such a nice place.

Cabo San Jose, Mexico

Last night we got home from our trip to San Jose del Cabo, Mexico. We had such a great time. I think this is by far our best trip we have taken since we have had kids. Our beach was nice and quiet so we had less worries trying to keep track of all our kids. Jumping over waves and running away from them proved to be Cooper's favorite activity. Scotti loved our pool. He could touch and he could stay warm, so he swam and swam until he really learned how to swim well unaided! He also loved building racetracks in the sand for his cars. Sammi mostly loved wearing her new swim suits and sunglasses, but her favorite thing on the beach was to organize the building of some sand project. Ev loved the waves, but would absolutely not go in the water without a grown up holding his hand. There was a hatch of sea turtles on our beach, and we got to watch the babies crawl out to the ocean and try to beat the surf into the ocean. We each got to hold a sea turtle and help them as we were guided by the guy from the Sea Turtle Development Center who was there to make sure the hatch got safely to the ocean. We had a great time, (but unfortunately, I didn't have my camera!) We also got to go whale watching and saw a lot of whales including two parents and their baby. They were right close to the boat, and all the kids were absolutely thrilled. We took a ride on a glass bottom boat and got to see all the fish under the ocean. The kids loved that--especially Ev. Grant and I snorkeled as well. There was so much wildlife. So much to do. So gorgeous. The weather was unbelievable. I'm so sure we'll go back. What a fun week.

By the way, I think we solved our sleeping problem that I blogged about a couple of weeks ago. Our kids were so worn out from all the fun stuff at the beach, that they went right to bed on our trip! I think I just need to wear them out more during the day!

Love to you all!

The Making of Mt. Rainier

Here are a few pics from two weeks ago when it snowed. I decided that my kids have effectively North-westernized themselves when they decided to build a Mt. Rainier out of snow. (Sammi's idea.) Look closely, and you'll see that it is erupting. (Look for the lava flow!) The pictures of Cooper and Ev were taken right after they each threw a snowball at me. You also see the after-activity of hot cocoa!!!

Bedtime Nazi

Oh, it is so fun to see that so many of you actually check my blog.  It makes it worth blogging to know that people are checking in to see what's going on at the Jacksons.  Plus, it is fun to feel like people care what is going on over here.  Thanks for keeping tabs on us.

This month has been the worst bedtime month of my life.  Seriously.  I spent a lot of time over the past 5 years trying to make sure that my kids went to bed when I said it was time for bed.  This month, however, I have gone to bed angry at my kids every single night.  They stay up until 11:00 and then are exhausted all the next day.  I have taken away cars, football guys, hockey guys, shin guards, treats, computer time, and even TV time (something I promised I would never use as a punishment, since it actually punishes me the worst!).  That is all in one night.  I have yelled and screamed.  I have said absolutely nothing at all.  I have researched on the internet, and I have tried a whole new program for bedtime and have found improvement.  I now put the kids to bed after our bedtime rituals and sit outside their bedrooms reading my book yelling "Shhhhhh" at every movement until they are in bed.  They also earned a sticker a day for doing a good job and got to pick something they could have when their sticker chart was full.  Sammi was the first to earn her's.  She chose a unicorn.  She earned it on Friday and we had a fun time on Friday picking out fabric for her for a pillow and a blanket.  She made them both herself.  I was so proud of her.  Here she is pictured with her new unicorn and the blanket and pillow that she made for them.  

FAVORITE STORIES OF THE WEEK:  We are going to Cabo in Mexico this Saturday, and I bought Sammi two new swim suits.  She was on cloud nine.  She kept telling me how lucky she was.  I teased her that she was spoiled.  She then said to Cooper, "Do you know what spoiled means?  It means you are really happy!"  I thought that very fitting.  Ev bumped his head and went into a huge fit of screaming pain.  I was comforting him saying, "No more tears.  That's enough.  Take a deep breath."  He stopped mid scream, calmly put his hand over my mouth and said clearly as can be, "Please stop."  "OK."  I said, and Ev picked up on his screaming and crying right where he left off.  I didn't say a word.  Scotti found that when he stands on our blocks on our linoleum they make great skates for our hockey games, so now everyone has to put on their "skates" before the games and slide around the floor.  The only problem is that it causes Ev, who can't seem to do it, a lot of grief!  Cooper has been disappearing all week.  I always find him outside on the tire swing in mismatched mittens, and hat, and a t-shirt and shorts.  It's warm, but not that warm (40 degrees or so!) 

Ev's Photo Shoot

Oh man, we have had a gorgeous week, and I decided one day while we were out playing on the playground to do a photo shoot of Ev.  You see the results here.  We have had a fun week, with field hockey, rock painting, playground, bike riding, swimming, and even a picnic.  I love good weather.  It hasn't been like summer--the high was 50 degrees, but in winter that just seems so pleasant!  The flooding here is almost gone.  You'd almost never know it happened now except that my kids still play flooding (especially in the bath.)  

Grant worked in the hospital for the first time this weekend and things went really well.  Much less stressful than Residency!  Grant feels like his business is doing really well and he is really enjoying himself. 

STORIES OF THE WEEK:  I have spent a minimum of sixty minutes each day this week cheering for all Scotti's pretend sporting events:  football, hockey, and racing.  He comes down the stairs every morning and tells me that I am late for the game and I better get up the stairs.  Once we are up there, I watch him move all his action figures around and narrate a game that seriously takes much longer than my attention span.  By the end, when my cheering is much less than genuine, he is still as excited as if it were really happening.  Cooper always wants me to stand in the hall and watch him run laps around our stairway.  I have to do this immediately after the game with Scotti.  Sammi received a bunch of beads for Christmas and wants nothing more than to create jewelry for everyone she knows, but Everett keeps finding her and messing up her masterpieces and throwing her beads all over the place.  She does a good job being patient, but I feel bad because she hasn't been able to finish one yet.  Ev constantly sings while he plays.  I'm surprised at how many songs he knows.  His favorites are "Twinkle, Twinkle", "Happy Birthday", and "BINGO."  He is in the most adorable phase right now where he copies everything I say in that adorable baby talk of his.  He thinks everything is the most exciting thing that ever happened to him.  

A couple of farms under water.  Look closely at the current.  There are actual waves in some spots.  Our little Satsop river, normally 5 feet deep, measured in at 50 feet deep yesterday!

Speed limit sign.  I love it.

The road going under the water!

A warning sign, barely above water!

Elma's lumber yard, flooded.

The last time we saw our road.  Now it is under a couple of feet of water!

Coop and some friends at our road, now flooded.  

Ev watching the waterfall the flood has made of our road.