The rest of Utah va-kay

We went to Uncle Nathan's house for dessert and a quick visit. Although I didn't get one picture of him... Here's Kassie, Jude, me, and Mitchy

Reesa and Gage

And little Jude totally snuggled up with Jake. It was so cute!

Mitchell wasn't this mad, but he sure looks unhappy here. These boys are 2 weeks apart.

So this is what happens when you use several camera's to take pictures. Here's the rest from our fun Halloween day at the U.

Jansen and his FAVORITE movie characters (really Buzz)

Me and Jansen

Benson and Papa Bill

Jansen, Beckhem, Remy all ready to go. What a fun day.

PS... the funniest part was seeing the pictures of our budding photographer. Reesa took Jake's cell phone and with out us knowing took over a hundred pictures of the drive home. Here's just a few.

Mitchy

Still in an infant carseat? it's just too easy for travel, sorry Mitchell.

Pumpkin Patch

I went with Reesa's preschool on a field trip to the pumpkin patch. We learned about how pumpkins grow, went on a hay ride, then we each picked out a pumpkin.

As we were leaving we bought a bag of walnuts. I kind of thought it would be cool to show Reesa how to open them, and to find the nut inside. Well, we don't have a nut cracker, but we have walnut ALL OVER my car and house now. I find several new ones everyday! I'm just so smart!

Update on Mitchell

Mitchell is 17 months old today. Where did the time go? The other day I saw a 16 month old boy running and playing and driving his mother crazy and I just squeezed my baby boy tighter. I'm not sure I could handle another active little Jansen right now and was just so thankful to have my 17 month newborn!

Mitchell is doing AWESOME!!! He has made some great progress (that I am so proud of) in the past few weeks. He is REACHING and HOLDING toys. I'm sorry to say, I really thought that would never happen. It has been so intense working those muscles for over a year now, with VERY LITTLE improvement, and now it seems like overnight he can do it, and does it all the time!!!

Mitchell had a great day this morning with physical therapy as he sat for a few seconds!!! I know isn't he cute? Barb is amazing and gets Mitchell to do all sorts of things. We LOVE her!

Oh, those arm and leg things Mitchell is wearing??? He got those yesterday, they are supposed to help stimulate his muscles and joints when he moves and get him to increase movement. He'll wear 'em one week on, then one week off. Jake said "one more thing to help the special kid look more special!"

Mitchell is such a sweet baby. He has no stranger anxiety and will let anybody hold him. I try not to let it hurt my feelings, BUT I do think he recognizes my voice. He loves to be patted and bounced, only while standing. He's about 22 pounds, and is SO HEAVY. I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to hold him... He loves toys with lights and soft sounds. He lets us lay him flat on the floor and he'll kick and be happy about it. It's so cute. He's eating baby food 1-2 times a day, but it's very difficult to feed him. He gets very upset if there's too much noise, or just b/c some reason we don't know... so I never attempt with out another adult present. Jake is a pro at feeding and putting him to bed. AND Jake is the one who gets up with Mitchell during the night. (I'm helping Jansen and Reesa, gosh nobody sleeps around here!) BUT last night Mitchell slept through the entire night and didn't wake up once!!! I'm sure it won't last, but it's a start, right?

Kitchen Photos

Okay, I'm really surprised that everyone (Lindsay) is so annoyed I left out my kitchen. I guess I figured you would just remember a few from before... so I grabbed my camera took 2 photos (because if I had to clean the counters first I would find a hundred other things I should be doing besides taking a picture to put on my blog... ha ha)

So here's my clutter-ry kitchen. We love it!

It has a bar and an island, one day we'll get stools for it.

Here you can see the doors that go outside to the backyard. Can you picture it now?

Halloween In Utah

For October break, the kids get a week off of school, so Jake took a few days off work and we went to Utah. We only stayed 3 days, but we packed in the fun.

The U of U had a fun Halloween trick or treat party for kids that we went to, and this is the only time we broke out the camera. As you can tell, we all went through Grandma Sue's costumes to find something to wear...

Jansen was so cute to pick out this peter pan hat! I would have never guessed!

They had some of the cutest things for the kids to do, each house had a theme and then an activity to go along with it. Like a story with Wendy and a pirate boat to climb through from Peter Pan. A house to color and tie a balloon to it, from the movie Up, and Andy's room with pictures to color of Woody and Buzz, along with 10 Mr. Potato Heads that Jansen didn't want to leave alone. It was so fun.

Remy, Reesa, and Cianna

From left to right, Jake, Jansen, Me, Reesa, Jordan, Zaylee (?) Saige, Cianna, Claudia, Remy, Zoey (?) Simone, Caprice (turned around) Beckhem, Benson, and my dad took the picture.

(Did I get the twins right?)

Happy Birthday Paw-paw!

My Grandpa Whitney, my dad and his twin, Aunt Jeanne all share a birthday TODAY! WOW, at what age do you want to start counting again? It seems like every year is another miracle. My grandpa is 97 today, here's an article my aunt sent, love you paw-paw.