Birthday & Wedding

This is my FAVORITE picture from the wedding. Stephanie and Drew love to do Eskimo kisses and they caught this one at just the right moment.

Drew had his second birthday on Sunday!! How quickly time flies, it seems like he joined our little family just the other day. He took cookies to nursery to celebrate and then we had a bus cake with family. Sadly, this is the only picture we took of his birthday. We were having too much fun playing and talking. Glad we got one!

Brixton was married to Kristen on Saturday in the Manti Temple. I'd never been inside the Manti Temple, and I love the old features and woodwork.

L to R: Me, Max, Cheryl, Brixton, Stephanie

L to R: Ryan (Cheryl's), Brixton, Max and John (mine)

I loved this picture of Steph and Alexis.

Picture of all the family. My Uncle Jim and Aunt Janet came to the luncheon as well as my Uncle Mark and Aunt Menie who traveled from SD, with four kids and a dog that had four puppies!! During the luncheon they had everyone go around and tell how they were related and a funny story. Poor Brixton everyone told one of his embarrasing stories. We were excited to hear Kristen's but her family was so kind and they didn't embarass her nearly as badly as we did Brixton.

Grandpa Hakes with Drew & Alexis.

Grandpa and Grandma Hakes with the kids.

One of our family shots. We took family picture while there, but no one told us that the kids were too short and it looked odd. Oh well, we'll have to retake the pictures at a later time.

John and Drew, my two handsome guys!! Don't they look sharp? We were glad we took pictures to begin with. They had Cold Stone come and serve icecream and as you can guess all the kids LOVED it. Drew was completely covered by the time the reception was over.

the girls. I look like my body has been put inside a twisting machine, it felt that way too. I loved the dresses that we got for the princesses. Alexis loved having to hold her dress up while she walked, just like the princesses do! Maddie could have cared less, she only wanted to suck on something, anything, it didn't matter as long as it was in her mouth.

Big family picture! Yes, you can see the bride in this picture. Her dress was gorgeous, as was she.

Sister picture.

John and I. Drew was crying in the background because we weren't holding him, so we were hurrying, otherwise, we might have gotten a better picture.

Ramblings

After having talked to a couple of people, the Body Worlds description was somewhat vague so . . . I didn't love it. I wouldn't go again, unless it was free, it was a lot of money for a glorified text book. Having said that going to see what it was all about was worth it, I just wish it would have been a little cheaper. John liked it much more than I did and he thought it was worth it. Hope that clarifies a little.

Another Drew update: Monday he had blood in his urine again, although not much. We went back on Tuesday, and the blood was gone. However, we were told to get an ECG (which has nothing to do with the urine) to check his heart because his lips are still going blue, he is always tired, doesn't run around as much as other kids his age, and a list of other fun things. We have to go to a Cardiologist before they'll let us have an ECG so, hopefully it isn't his heart and this is just something to rule it out, but we'll find out on the 21st.

I feel bad for the poor kid, something is wrong with him, but no one can give me something that is causing everything he has. The best case scenario is that I'm just a worry wort and there is absolutely nothing with him. Lets just hope that's what it is.

Oct. 5, 2008

Madison is getting so BIG. She weighs 16 lbs and she's only 3 months old!! John takes the kids to the park for lunch four days a week. This was Madison's first time in a big kid swing. She is wearing 6 - 12 month clothes. She is talking all the time, sitting up for less than thirty seconds on her own, eating food, and turning into a true little person. It's so sad to see my baby turning into a pre-toddler. I wish they'd stay little a little bit longer.




John and I went with Madison, my Mom and Stephanie to the Body Worlds exhibit in SLC a week ago. John thought it was way cool, like a 3-D text book. There were a lot of displays and it was hard to take it all in cuz there was just so much to look at and read about, we spent two hours walking around looking at things and we could have easily spent another couple of hours. It didn't seem like they were real, even though they were, which was nice because I wasn't sure how John was going to react to the whole thing. As you can tell based on his comment he really liked it. It was worth paying for once, I wouldn't pay to go again, and I don't think John would either. We also bought the audio that went with it, John enjoyed it because he hasn't done much studying in anatomy. I've taken a zoology class and the audio didn't tell me anything that I hadn't already learned.

Drew is doing fabulously with his potty training. We ran out of diapers the other day and instead of finding time to go buy more, we decided to just finish the potty training. He still has accidents occasionally, but they are relatively small ones. He left watching a movie downstairs, and climbed all the way up to go to the bathroom by himself. The only problem was that he didn't make it to the toilet. OOPS! But, he tried!

Next week we'll have fun pictures to post. Brixton gets married on Saturday! And Drew turns two on Sunday!

Drew update

We had Drew's speech retested to see if he was still on target. When they called, they asked if he was using two words together, if he could jump with both feet and if he could open doors. He was not doing any of those. Drew overheard me telling John the three things he should've been doing but that he wasn't. In true Drew fashion he started doing all three within the week! I shut his door so he wouldn't come out during nap time. He started whining, opened his door, and then crawled back into bed! It was cute.

After testing him, we have great news: he is 99% in his comprehension equal to 2 years 8 months, 92% for speech equal to 2 yrs 4 months overall, 98% at 2 yrs 6 months. He improved a year during the last six months. We're so excited that he's back on track and doing fabulously.

Little Milestones

I read in the Parents magazine about making "finger paints" with food coloring and vanilla pudding. So, I decided to give it a try, I substituted banana cream for vanilla. The kids loved it and I had a lot of fun cleaning up after them. Alexis is making a nasty face because she saw me with the camera and decided to ham it up. Drew wasn't as interested in eating it as he was getting it all over his hands and then shaking them like a dog. I think it's an outside thing from now on, but it was a lot of fun for them!!


Madison had her first taste of real food today. I blended a nectarine with some milk and fed it to her, she LOVED it!! She also "played" in this little toy for a while. She was more interested in sucking on the giraffe than anything else, but it was cute. Madison also started really laughing this week. It's so fun. She laughs when tickled or when you move her arms really quickly or when you play with her face, especially her nose. She loves to be cooed at as well!!


Drew has to sleep with one arm under each pillow. Yes, arms under the pillows not head on the pillows. It's so cute because he insists on having it just so each night and when we don't do it, he does it himself.

The last week

A cute picture of Madison hanging out in her bouncer. She currently has a nasty cold and only wants to be held and loved. I'm glad it happened on the weekend when John was home, hopefully she feels better tomorrow.


Drew found my lipstick and had a little too much fun. He was so very proud of himself.


Our next door neighbors are great! Their kids love to play with our kids and this was the game they came up with Friday night. Drew was having fun trying to get it to go where it was supposed to go! Starting from the blue shirt with the caution sign and going left: Drew, Dallin, Mary, Alexis and Christina.

In Alexis' preschool they taught her about strangers and how they might entice them to come with them and what you should do. It's so cute to hear her telling us how she should kick, hit or bite them and that they will offer her candy or a puppy, the classic stranger danger. I can't wait til Halloween, I hope she doesn't hurt anyone!!


Sunday night we took the kids to Canyon View Park to play. John decided to go golf ball hunting in the river. I took the kids and we walked on the trail above the river, we were having fun spotting daddy through the trees occasionally. As we were walking something caught my eye, and I noticed two deer about half a football field ahead of us. Having recently read someones blog about their terrifying encounter with a deer, I thought it would be wise to just turn around. But, yes the big but, I couldn't resist showing Alexis and Drew the deer. We had stopped walking and I got down to their level and pointed out the deer. Alexis was so excited until she actually saw the deer. Her little eyes got so big, she turned around and started running and screaming in utter terror. It was funny then, but now it is even funnier. The poor girl cried for about five minutes. I've never seen her so scared, hopefully she doesn't have nightmares tonight!!


John may not appreciate this being posted, but I think it's cute. Drew loves to sing the doggy song. The only problem is that we have to sing it, he only does the barking at the end of each verse. We were hoping he'd ditch the binki and do it, but he was holding on for dear life. Which reminds me, being the bad parents that we are, we cut the tops off of all his binkis one night this last week. The day after we did it, Drew went looking for his binkis and surprised me by noticing right away that they were different. He wouldn't even put them in his mouth. He kept saying they were Madison's. I told him they were all broken and he could throw them away if he wanted. He did and he waved bye-bye to them as well. Later that day he wanted his binki again and so I pulled one out of the drawer. He looked it and said "noooo" and then threw it in the garbage. We had about two nap times and a bed time that were more work than normal, but he doesn't seem to care that they are gone!! Madison will not take a binki no matter what I try, so I am again a human binki until she gets old enough to pacify herself.

Drew is also doing really well with potty training. Today he told us when he had to go, and he went. We're still not done and probably won't be for a couple of months, but he's doing great for his age!!

It's finally finished!!

Ever since we got married, we've slowly been putting together a theater setup. John was so excited to put it all together in one of the basement rooms. It has been a TON of work, but we are finally finished. Yay!! We're so excited!