Really?

This month has been absolutely crazy. Steve was in Houston for work for 3 weeks. It's always stressful to have him gone so long. We had a week left before he came home when Jacob decided to do this

 I was picking up the toys and getting the boys ready for bed. Jacob was in his room and I hear this thud followed by crying. I go in there and he's laying on the floor. He has this little kid chair next to him that has toppled over, so I ask if he fell off the chair and he says yes. I pick him up (using his arm, major guilt about that) and he cries for a minute and then stops, so I'm thinking no big deal. I lay him down on the couch, get Jeremiah's pj's on and when I come back he hasn't moved at all. Normally he can't even stay still when he's asleep, so I knew something was wrong. We ended up going to the ER to get x-rayed and ta-da his arm is very broken. With the break being so high on his arm they can't cast it, so I get to try to keep his arm still for the next month using a sling (which is too big and doesn't do much) and an ace bandage. Right, that's gonna work.

The first week I was kind of a nervous wreck, but thank goodness I had a lot of help. My mom and Lori came up for the first few days, and Steve's sister Jen took Jeremiah to play with her kids which made it so much easier.

 

My mom brought this little doctor kit up with her, and the boys had so much fun playing doctor.

Jacob turned 3 a few days after the break, so when Steve got home we had a little family party. Jacob is in a Thomas the Train stage right now. Some days we pretty much have a Thomas movie playing on a loop all day. He has been looking forward to this Thomas cake for months. Most of the decorations are made out of modeling chocolate, and both of the boys have decided that they like that better than the actual cake. I don't think Jacob actually ate any of the cake he just wanted "moe chocate."

The next day we went to a cabin in the Uinta's for a family reunion with Steve's family. My camera never made it out of my purse, so I don't have any pictures. It was 3 days of playing with cousins, hiking, picnics, and roasting marshmallows.

I have been giving Jacob a sponge bath every day, but lets be honest, it never really helps much. After all that outdoors fun, he was really starting to stink so I wrapped his arm up and put him in a real bath last night. Obviously I still couldn't really wash his arm, so that part of him still kind of stinks, but the rest is oh so much better. Best of all, we managed to do it without hurting his arm.

 Coban (the zebra print stuff) is my new favorite thing. I spent the first week rewrapping Jacobs arm every couple of hours because he would wiggle his way out of the ace bandage. I finally have a system that will last all day long, and the coban is the key. I swear I totally belong on an infomercial for the stuff. "Michelle's sanity brought to you by coban" Plus, Jacob totally gets excited about it. If he is wearing a solid color he says he's a super hero. Then of course there's the zebra print and we have some camouflage too so that he can be a hunter.

 

 

the consequences of marrying a hunter

Lately Jeremiah has been pretending he is a hunter. He talks about going hunting with Steve and talks about all of the animals he has shot. He makes animals out of blocks, pretends to shoot them and then has us mount them on the walls.

On the left is a duck and on the right is elk antlers

 

 

Then he started pretending he was a deer, elk, moose etc. and having one of us pretend to shoot him. He runs around with his fingers on his head like antlers, falls down and pretends to be dead and then he goes and stands next to a wall pretending he is hung on the wall. Jacob and Steve always "shoot him" on the first try, but whenever he has me do it I miss and someone else has to take a follow up shot. 

 I have been very successful at keeping dead animals off the wall in this house. But it appears I have been outwitted by a 4 year old. Jeremiah convinced Steve that he needed a real animal on his bedroom wall, so this is now hanging in his bedroom.

We went to Malad for Steve's grandpa's 80th birthday party and promised Jeremiah we would get him the antelope head while we were there (it was living at Steve's parents house). He was so upset that we had to go to the party before getting the antelope because he was convinced somebody else was going to get it.

 

 I made the cake for the party. It was so scary driving through the canyon with this on my lap. I was sure it was going to die, but it made it intact. Jeremiah was just in an uptight mood that day. After he got over having to wait to pick up the antelope, he fixated on the cake. It's kind of hard to see, but there is a fish on a fishing pole hanging over the side of the boat right in the center of the cake. He decided that he needed to have that fish and he was convinced someone else would eat it. So his eyes were glued to the cake until it was time to cut it. Anytime someone was standing in the way and obstructing his view he started freaking out because he thought they would take the fish.

Easter

Steve got to be home for Easter this year, which was super exciting. I think he's missed it the last 2 years. We got 4 chicks the day before Easter. We've been meaning to get some, and it just worked out that this is when it happened. The boys love them, and it's a constant battle to keep Jacob from smacking the cage so they'll run around and squeak.

We had a lot of fun dyeing eggs. I boiled 16 thinking that would be plenty, but we went through all of them in like 5 minutes. Jacob thought it was the coolest thing ever and just kept saying "moe eggs"

Jacob actually got the concept of the Easter egg hunt this year. Well, until he realized there was candy inside. Then he didn't want to hunt for more eggs, he just wanted to sit down and eat his candy.

 Jeremiah is such a sweetie, and shared his loot with Jacob

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abu Dhabi

Steve had to go to Abu Dhabi for a month for some training for work. It was the longest month of my life. He's usually gone for 2 weeks, but he's only 3 1/2 hours away, so he could get home pretty quick if I really needed him. This time he was far enough away that he might as well have been on another planet. To keep from wallowing too much, the boys and I spent 2 weeks at my parents house. Mom and Lori did a good job keeping us entertained.

 We made a little construction playhouse that fits over a card table. It turned out really cute and the boys loved it.

 

 We also took the boys to Jungle Jims. There were mixed feelings about it. They ended up being afraid of the rides that I thought they would like, and loving the rides I thought they would be afraid of. Go figure.

We have a swing set at home, and both of them love to swing. Unfortunately both of them screamed and bawled the entire time on the swing ride.

I don't have any of Steve's Abu Dhabi pictures to put on here. But what he's said about it is that it was pretty much a sandy slum and that the food changed color but not flavor. Needless to say, he wasn't any happier about being gone than we were to have him gone. It is so nice to have him back.

 

 

 

Christmas

 

Holidays are kind of strange with Steve's weird work schedule. He was gone on Christmas this year so the boys and I went to my parents house and had Christmas with them and then had a do-over when Steve got home.

 

My brothers and there families came a the day after Christmas so we got to have fun together, and all of the little boys had a blast.

 

Steve got home on New Years day and we got to do Christmas all over again. We were all very happy to have Steve back.





hardware ranch

Every year in January we go to Hardware Ranch to see the elk. This year while we were there they had a mountain man display in the visitors center. The boys also got to paint some fish, make Christmas ornaments and Jeremiah got to shoot a bb gun with a lot of help. 

 

The boys got to sit in one of the snow cats. 

 

Then we went on a sleigh ride and saw a lot of elk.