The messiest mess!

So, the messiest mess my boys have ever made happened yesterday.

Both boys went crazy with our knock-off Walmart brand 'Eucerin' (SOOO greasy!) Rod did most of the damage there. Jax preferred 3 tubes of toothpaste and a tube of 'Bengay' (brand new--luckily he didn't use all of that one...) The damage is pictured below. My children are alive today based solely on the fact that their dad was at work when this happened. :)

So they got the lotion on every room in our upstairs. It's in a lot of places that aren't show even. It was a nightmare to clean. There was quite a bit on the carpet as well--in all the rooms.

They ended up using the ENTIRE tub of "Eucerin"--pictured below.

 

It's all over Jaxton's pillow and on the floor--all over.

Here is where most of the toothpaste ended up. There were 3 different tubes he used...something that you can't tell from the picture is that the boys had dumped cups of water onto the duvet as well, so it was really wet. Joy. :)

Proof of the empty tub...

We had to borrow my aunts carpet cleaner and go to town. 
What was I doing during this explosion? How did this happen you ask? WELL, I was downstairs in my kitchen working on track work-outs for the High School kids. I didn't check on my boys like I should have BECAUSE my boys really DO play well together, I promise. I don't like to disturb that. They can play and play, it's not super uncommon. So, I [retardedly] assumed that the giggling and running from room to room was them playing like they usually do; they have NEVER done anything like this before. So I didn't have cause to really be super concerned. Obviously....[eye-roll.] 
Anyway,

For the record-- the hardest thing to get clean has turned out to be the chair cushions and the really BIG spot of greasiness right by the foot of our bed...

Here is some of February in a nutshell.

Some pictures of Rod...

 Rod falls asleep 97% of the time when I am returning from taking Jax to preschool at about 1pm. He has made it home 2 times awake this whole year...

 Rod does not like to do anything on demand. And much of the time this is what he does if I say I want to take his picture. Or if I ask him to do anything. Period. Defiant little bugger.

 

As of the last 72 hours Rod has become obsessed with this blanket my mom made him. He just follows me around saying "banket, banket," until I stop, pick up the blanket he is holding and wrap it around him (he stands perfectly still with his back to me while I do this--so cute) and then he will walk a few feet and it will fall off again...so... "Banket, banket," and we repeat. He might be kind of sick (he's ALWAYS kind of sick); so I indulge him. He is very manipulative.

So here is a situation:

I was trying to make Valentines Day special. So I made yeast waffles and berry sauce and whipping cream. Jax and Rod are sooo picky but they like berries and whipped cream and waffles individually--so I thought if I put them together it would be magic. They both REFUSED to eat it. Jax, we finally convinced it wasn't poison  and he ate it and liked it-- reluctantly... Rod, I seriously made him sit there "until he tried it"...by noon he STILL hadn't touched a bite and hadn't moved (he was buckled in.) Seriously?? He is 1 1/2!! He had to be starving...wouldn't eat it. So I finally caved and gave him yogurt. And I threw the waffles away. Someone teach me to feed my children. Or teach them to eat. Either/or.

Jax is always SO much more happy to pose for the Camera. I love this kid. Again, major eating issues. It's the plague of my life--meal time, nutrition, food, eating, health--only in how it affects in my kids and my complete powerlessness in it all; and their continual spiral downward.

   

The only foods Jax currently eats are: Bread, chips, orange cheese (only if melted on bread or chips--not plain,) yogurt, peanut butter sometimes, cold cereal and fruit. Oh, and hot dogs, but I'm trying not to feed him that much anymore. Anyway, this list is completely comprehensive. And it makes me CRAZY. He won't taste or try anything new; we are scared to force him because a) it's completely unpleasant for all involved, b) he has thrown up the last 3 times we tried. So that is that. EVERY DAY, EVERY MEAL, coming up with some combination of those foods. It's a nightmare.

Rod is a little different, more erratic, harder to know what he will eat when. Sometimes (lets be honest: rarely,) he will try something new, and like it and eat it. Most of the time not. He doesn't eat sandwiches like Jax will (cheese sandwiches and peanut butter sandwiches) so that's hard. He also doesn't like fruit like Jax does. So he is so much harder to figure out and just as maddening, if not more so, than Jax because he can't communicate as well, not that I really think that would help THAT much.  He will eat plain noodles, bread products at times, burritos, cold cereal, oatmeal, and ketchup pretty consistently. Everything else is hit and miss, lots of wasted food on this kid.

Sometimes I can get my kids to eat smoothies. Sometimes not; and the gamble of wasting 1/2 a smoothie makes me unmotivated to try it too often.

Like this true story: Letting my kids play at the McDonalds play place on 8th N. in Orem, it's new and clean. And they play and play, and it's getting closer to noon. So Jax asks me to go get some chicken nuggets and fries like 3 times. I'm feeling super nice, and figure they are hungry after playing and then I don't have to figure out what to make them at home, so I go and get a Big Kid Meal (which is 6 chk nuggets, fries, apples and a juice box)for my kids to share. This is what is left after me begging them to eat something: Top napkin is Rod. Bottom Napkin is Jax.

Count it! They at NOTHING. Jax ate 6 fries. 

At NOON, after they had been playing for an hour.

Who do you think has the upper hand in this relationship?! 

Aint' me. Story of my life.

They both LOVE candy. Surprise surprise.

I'm through complaining now.

Anyway, Jax had a Valentines party at preschool--These were what he gave out to his little friends. Jax signed every one. It was a lesson in patience for both of us. He seems to have a hard time writing. Reading and recognizing sounds and letters he is excellent at, but actually writing them down is a lot harder for him i'm finding.  He starts in REALLY weird places to form the letters, and half the time the letter is backwards or something. For "x" he brings 4 different lines from the outside to intersect in the middle. It's kind of fascinating. But it's really, REALLY cute to watch him concentrate so hard, and to see him so proud when he completes a letter. :)  The goob. 

Look at these cuties!!

 Chanel recently cut her hair and it looks DARLING. Gabe just bought his first car--a little white truck. It's very exciting.

We did a "Super Bowl Party" with our good friends from our last neighborhood. Emmy through the party and had it at her new house--It's sooo pretty. And I have some legit pictures of her perfect pantry...just so I never forget...:) It was a lot of fun, more food than I have ever seen at one place--YUM! :)

Anyway...Our bathroom is finished!

We just need to figure out how to get the bath tub to hold water...the new little lever has never worked, but at least it's new and looks like it should work. :)

We have all been really sick in this neck of the woods. But so is everyone else. I seriously have never been so sick with a cold, like ever, as I was these last few weeks. But I think that is pretty much everyone's story at some point during these last 2 months...It's the sick that just keeps on givin' and givn'. 

AND my kids BOTH got their flu shots. It did NOT save them. I might be becoming a skeptic...

Please winter be over soon!

January 2013 ends...Hallelujah

We were able to get some Monster Truck tickets for a steal of a deal, (thanks Mom!) at for the last Saturday in January. They kids were BEYOND excited. The anticipation was really a fun aspect.  Once we were there and it was time to sit down--Jax got really nervous...he was a little afraid of the trucks. The arena was WAY smaller than we thought it would be so we could see really well. It also made everything more intimidating for a 3 year old. :)

I brought ear plugs for them both--good thing--because it was LOUD. It was a pretty cool show, a really good time was had by all. Rodrik (who refused to take a nap previous) feel asleep during the last 30 minutes. which was really pretty funny because it was SO loud.

Monster trucks are definitely the favorite things around these parts. My kids have this History Channel documentary on Monster Trucks that is available on NetFilx; they watch it all the time. My 3 and 1 year old are entertained by a 45 minute documentary on monster trucks. :) It's really cute.

 They are ready to go with monster trucks in hand!

 Jax isn't really smiling in any of the pictures--he was really pretty nervous...

 You can't really see his face well because of the darn back light, but he is pretty nervous--these where all taken before it began.

 And this is what the little arena looked like--it was really small. And guess where all those toxic fumes went--ya we basically breathed it in for 2 hrs straight. GROSS. I would so much rather attend one outside. 

 

 The picture on the left is about 3/4's the way through the show, Rod really started to get into it--clapping and jumping. I have some really cute video of it. And there his is getting ready to fall asleep in the picture on the right.

The next week we had some fun at the McDonalds on 8th N. in Orem. It's new and I always prefer it. This was actually on my dad's birthday. I made him some pies that actually turned out--it was a miracle. And my mom some really tasty enchiladas. YUM! Happy Birthday Daddy!! We love you!!

 I love this picture of Rod. He really is SO cute. He has the most infectious cheesy smile--and I have such a hard time catching it on camera--I think it's because he is usually moving when he's smiling.

 Jax was impressing the other little boys there with his tricks. He would jump off and go immediately into a summer-sault. He also likes to do a jump-twist thing, that is what he is doing in the picture on the left. And that is his cheesy grin on the right. I love that boy.

Ever since preschool I have been noticing that Jaxton's manners are improving in leaps and bounds (among other things). He says "No thank you" more often than "no!" and he say just plain "Thank you" more. He also is very good at saying "I'm sorry" un-prompted. It's wonderful. Miss Marlene is the bomb.com. :)

And apparently he is very good at preschool and has a super positive attitude--Miss Marlene says that you just can't bring him down; and so far in Sunbeams at church I've heard that he is great. He is a good kid. I just LOVE him. 

Rodrik has been growing in speech, its SOOO cute. If you ask him a questions he'll usually say "Uuuuh, yees." or "Uuuuh, noo." And it's very deep and raspy. He loves to run and jump, "one, two, sree, goo!!" and he takes off. He will usually show off on demand if I say, "show how fast you are Rod", he is ALWAYS up to the challenge  :) He is also really rough and tough, he loves to play with Jax. And Jax really can be a very good brother and plays really well with Rodrik most of the time. It WONDERFUL.

It is now that I am finally really appreciating that I had my boys so close together, it was SOOO hard in the beginning  but it is already really paying off. They can just go off and play at times and I can do whatever I "want" (ie: clean, shower, etc...) 

In other news, I had legit "Jury Duty" for 3 days this last week. It was CRAZY; like out of the movies!! The lawyers were real and saying very lawyer'esk things. And they were dealing with like MILLIONS and MILLIONS of dollars, it was completely UNREAL, the amounts of money that were in question. Anyway, it was a VERY neat experience. It was amazing, the jury just has to come up with a verdict. There were 8 of us, 6 had to agree. The only down-side was that I had to find accommodations for my kids! A big thanks to Justin, my mom, and Natasha for helping in that department. Especially Justin, it really threw his week off as well.

Justin is still working on the bathroom, but it's almost done!!

  We just need to get a vanity mirror and put it up--it will be soooo wonderful to have it all done. It has been QUITE the project. He had to move lots of pluming and electrical, it was very hard. Justin is "the man".

 He can literally do anything. :)

Way to go babe!