Do you ever wonder.....

Do you ever wonder where Jakey got
his insanely awesome hair from??

 

He got it from his mama!

(How adorable is this picture?!)

The curse of the double cowlick strikes again!!

9 months old!

9 months old already! Three more months until he's 1. YIKES!

Jakey is practically crawling and is everywhere and into everything. He pulls himself along on his tummy or gets up on his knees. He is starting to stand up in the tub and on furniture. He loves to follow Wyatt around and will climb all over him if he can.

He definitely has a favorite person. His mommy DADDY! (which is totally unfair) As soon as Wendell gets home from work he practically bounces up and down until Wendell picks him up. The other day Jake was sitting on the rug and had his back turned to the door. Wendell came home and started talking to Wyatt. Jakey literally whipped around and started hopping with the biggest grin on his face. He loves his daddy.

Jakey HATES baby food and applesauce. Wyatt practically lived off  both of those when he was a baby. I would try and mix some homemade food with store bought and he would have a bite and then refuse to eat it. I finally gave up the store bought food and have begun to just grind up whatever we are having for dinner. He is in heaven. He loves spaghetti, haystacks and soup! He is sleeping so much better again and I think it's because he's actually eating!

Love you baby Jake!

The many MESSY faces of Jakey!

Who wouldn't love a face (and hair) like this??

 

Somebody is FINALLY 3!

We celebrated Wyatt's 3rd Birthday last week. I was actually quite happy for him to turn 3. Whenever people would ask me how old he was I would say almost 3 because 2 just sounded too little for him. He was a very smart 2 year old so 3 fits him better. Of course I need to list some fun facts about him:

• He weighs 34.4 pounds and is 38 inches long.
• I call him Wy.
• He is on the verge of giving up naps. If he naps he goes to bed at 8:00pm and if he doesn't it's 7:00pm. (I prefer the 7:00pm as that's when Jakey goes to bed. I can't describe the feeling of having them both in bed and asleep at 7:05pm!)
• His favorite cartoons are Super Why and The Cat in the Hat. His favorite movies right now are Wall-E and Cars.
• He is fully potty trained and hasn't had an accident in months. He gets up at least once a  night to go potty or just to wake me up.
• He has learned his upper and lower case letters and can sing the alphabet 100% correct. He has also learned the sound that each letter makes. He can recognize  his name and is starting to learn to spell it. Right now it's W-Y-TTTT. We're getting there.
• He was 19 days short of going to Sunbeams this year. I would have really liked for him to go but he can wait another year. He loves going to Nursery and talks about it all Sunday morning . He loves singing time and his favorite songs are "I am a Child of God" and "Do as I'm doing."
• He has become a cuddle bug. He loves to lay in our bed with us in the mornings and watch cartoons.
• He is quite an active and outgoing child. He has a strong personality and can be quite stubborn. I have had to learn different ways of dealing with his stubborness. The biggest thing I've learned is to give him choices. He is learning very quickly that he can either listen or have a time out/lose a toy.
• He loves my IPod and DS. One of the older boys in my day home has a DS so in order to keep the peace I let Wyatt play with mine. He is actually getting pretty good at Mario. He also loves the games on my IPod. He has seen me use my IPhone 4S to set a timer so he walks around with my IPod saying, "Set timer for two minutes."
• He is starting to get frustrated with Jakey. Jakey is practically crawling and moving around a lot so that means he is all over Wyatt. I'm trying to teach him instead of pushing or hitting Jakey to call mommy to come and get him.
• He loves board games. His favorites are Candyland & Cranium Cariboo. (It's a great game that teaches colors, shapes, number,and letters. I highly recommend it.)
• He loves his cousins, grandparents, and aunts and uncles. Whenever we come home from seeing them he will talk about them for days.

Now for his actual birthday we surpised him with balloons first thing in the morning. This year was the first year he realized it was his birthday and was so excited. For days before his birthday he would tell us how we were going to sing HAPPY BIRTHDAY to him and he was going to blow out his candles.

Waking up to his SURPRISE!

Ya for PRESENTS!

Motor Works that he loves!

Cat in the Hat books!

We also had a birthday party with a few of our friends. Every year I get these great ideas of making an awesome cake and every year Wendell ends up doing it. I lack the confidence in myself and end up asking Wendell to do it. This year we Wendell made him a #3 monster truck cake. I think it turned out great!

Wyatt, Macy & Riley eating playing!

Wyatt & his cake. He was sooo done taking pictures!

The gang- Macy, Ryan, Riley, Aiden & Wyatt!

Future love birds Clair & Jake!

We love our 3 year. Happy Birthday WYATT!

Lesson Learned from 2011!

This is the time of year where we all reflect on our lives and set goals for the New Year. My list for 2012 would look a lot like this post from January 2011. So instead of posting the same list again I've decided to share something that's very personal that I've learned from 2011.

2011 was a hard year for me. We welcomed a new baby boy in the spring and with that came all the stress, hormones, and sleepless nights that infants bring. Then in May I was faced with a trial that I wouldn't wish upon anyone. It was life changing. It was unbearable at times. I was faced with a huge decision. Luckily with the help of my boys, family, friends, and the Saviour I was able to make that decision and I have never regretted my choice. That being said it has still been hard and we have a long road ahead of us.

During this trial I was selfish, especially in the beginning. I felt as though no one's trials were worse than mine. That everyone else's lives were perfect in comparison and basically they should just suck it up. 

Then one day a small simple phrase spoken by President Uchtdorf at the October 2011 General Relief Society Broadcast changed my view and life drastically. He said,

"I want to tell you something that I hope you will take in the right way: God is fully aware that you and I are not perfect. Let me add: God is also fully aware that the people you think are perfect are not. And yet we spend so much time and energy comparing ourselves to others...."

 When I heard this coming from a disciple of the Lord I knew that I had been wrong to judge others and to think that my life was hard while everyone else's was perfect. I looked around at the lives of my family members, my friends, and those who I associate with and I realized that they all have challenges. And to them these challenges were just as hard, life changing, and difficult as mine is. No matter how big or small someones trials may seem to us, to them they are everything. After this realization I stopped feeling sorry for myself and have really begun to put myself in other people's shoes.



Even though 2011 was a hard year for me I am thankful for my trials and the lessons I have learned. Because with these trials I have also received many blessings. My hope by writing this post was to remind everyone that it is not a matter of IF we will go through trials but WHEN we go through trials. And when that time comes please remember that you are not the first person or the last that will go through what you are going through. You are never alone or forgotten.

Christmas Extravaganza!

For Christmas this year we were able to go to Cardston for a few days. My parent's house was full of 14 adults and 19 grandkids! It was busy but very fun!

On CHRISTMAS EVE  we had our traditional CHINESE FOOD. My grandma & grandpa Prete came for dinner as well as my Aunt and cousins from Las Vegas.  We also read the nativity (acting it out was not happening this year with 19 young kids running around) and opened BROTHER & SISTER gifts as well as gifts from GRANDMA & GRANDPA. But the new thing we did this year was we made REINDEER FOOD and threw it outside on the road for the reindeer.

Here are my boys in their CHRISTMAS PJ's and in their CHRISTMAS SUNDAY OUTFITS!!

CHRISTMAS MORNING! Wyatt woke up around 7:15am so we decided it was time to get up! Both boys slept through the night which was a first! We woke up Jakey (we couldn't let him miss all the excitement) and opened presents!

Santa brought Wyatt a new strider bike! He absolutely loves it and can already race around our kitchen. Wendell spoiled me with a new IPhone 4S (which I desperately needed as my Blackberry was randomly calling people at all hours of the night) a dyson vacuum, and a pot and pan set! We had a great morning opening presents before we headed to church.

Then on Boxing Day a few of my siblings and their families met us in Lethbridge at the movies. We went to ARTHUR CHRISTMAS. It was an adorable movie and I will definitely be buying it to watch next year.

 I was also able to go to the temple twice while I was in Cardston. The second time I was with these lovely ladies! My cousin Chelsey (middle) who was visiting from Las Vegas and my cousin Miranda. It was fun to have this special experience with them. After the session was over we ate at the cafeteria and had a great time catching up with each other.  

Both Wendell and I took the week after Christmas off of work. We thought it would be fun to go on a little road trip to Edmonton to the West Ed Waterpark! Both boys traveled really well and both of them loved the waterpark. We met up with my brother and his family and after the waterpark we took the kids to Galaxyland which is the amusement park.

We had a great Christmas Holiday and hope you did too!!

Froggy 2.0

When Wyatt was born Wendell's brother and sis in law gave him a stuffed froggy.
Over the last (almost) 3 years that froggy has been by Wyatt's side practically everywhere he goes. He sleeps with it, travels with it, and even takes it to the grocery store on days when mom isn't willing to put up with the fight! When he was little he would twiddle the tag (hence the worn out tag by his leg) and press their noses together when he would sleep. He loves his froggy.

Well as time went on that little froggy became more and more rattier. The seam on top of his head has split open, both eyes were badly banged up and pieces where chipped off, the fabric was very worn and in some spots practically see through. Random strangers at the grocery store would comment on his special froggy that he must love very much because it was so well used.


So we decided to get him a new froggy. I wish it was as easy as going to the store and buying it. Wendell's brother bought it from Safeway and over the years we've checked there to see if they had more but they never did. So we found out the brand of stuffed animals they sold there and started google searching and looking on EBAY. After looking for many hours we found one that looked like it was the exact same one for only $20 and it had to be shipped from England. So we ordered it and it arrived in a week and a half.Unfortunately it wasn't the same froggy as it was bigger. But we decided to make the trade anyways.


When we got home from Christmas holidays we were doing laundry and I convinced Wyatt that froggy needed a bath in the washing machine. After much coaxing he finally put it in the machine and when he wasn't looking I took it out and put the new one in. After the laundry was done I casually handed him his froggy and told him he was all clean. He looked at it and dropped it on
the floor. He said, " It's bigger." (Like duh mom you can't fool me) I was sure the jig was up and that he would not accept this new froggy. I was expecting a total melt down for sure and crying and screaming for his froggy. But luckily I came up with an explanation. I told him that froggy grew big like him because he ate his food and the washing machine fixed his hole and his eyes.
Wyatt took another look at this new froggy and said, "yaa he's big like me!" He ran off to play and hasn't said another word about it! Phewff....

Wendell and I were obviously sadder about losing the old froggy than Wyatt was. He has loved this old froggy for so long it was hard and sad to take him away from him. So we will save him in my hope chest and one day tell him about it!

Meet Froggy 2.0