Jif's 14th Birthday Party

Yes, Jif turned 14 years old. That went by fast. Well, actually, he only turned 14 in dog years--see for Jif's 2nd birthday party we had a doggie party.

Here is Jif and me blowing out his 14 candles.

We invited all of Jif's friends to come and celebrate. There were 21 kids there. He had a blast! What a party.

First when the kids arrived they took a trip to the dog groomers a.k.a Aunt C. Aunt C gave each kid their own pair of doggie ears and drew a doggie nose and whiskers on them. Jif liked trading hats, in the course of these pictures you will see him wearing three different doggie ears. It was really cute to see all the crazy kids running around looking like doggies.

Here are some of Jif's friends playing with the water fountain. Oh toddlers, no matter how fun you make the party games, there is nothing quite as fun as a water fountain. We had the party at a park nearby that had three picnic tables. One table for the Dog Groomers, one table for food, and one table for cake and presents.

We had lots of fun games. One of them was pin the tail on the doggie. Don't look too close at the picture, I drew it by hand and then colored it with crayon. My husband was in charge of this game.

We had other fun games like "Dalmation Dot lost her spots". Uncle D hid spots all over the park and the kids had to go find them like an Easter egg hunt. The kid who won the trophy found 17 dots! Speaking of trophies, the kids who won the games got a little paper trophy with a candy bracelet inside. I found them at the dollar store for 8 trophies for 1 dollar. What a steal!

We had a few rounds of "Dog Trainer Says" this is like Simon Says. My husband got to be the dog trainer.

And here I am leading Dug's Dog Dash. It was a race where the kids had to run, then crawl on their hands and knees, then run and grab a vinyl dog toy in their mouth and run, then crawl back. Most of the kids got too distracted by the dog toys to complete the race. That's ok, I'm glad the race was too fun to even finish.

Even Reece got to go to the birthday party and be spoiled by Aunt C, Uncle D, and Gma and Gpa.

Here are those three tables that I was talking about. If you look closely there are 6 balloons and all 6 had a doggie face drawn on and doggie ears. Thanks Aunt C for helping with that.

Oh there were so many cute little puppies around.

Jif's favorite part was the snacks.

He is such a good wonderful boy. I can't believe my little baby is 2 years old.

Although I think that I had more fun planning the party than even he had at it, I would call it a success. He was happy minus a few small melt downs.

Here are the doggie bags that the kids got to take home. Each one was filled with a tennis ball, a dog frisbee, ball stickers, a dalmation coloring sheet, rawhide (pretzels), dog bone suckers, gummy dogs, and tootsie rolls.

The drinks-complete with the doggie theme

Dug's dog food. Aka coco puffs. This was the favorite food of the tots.

Mmm, sourdough pretzels, aka rawhide

Beef bites, aka beef jerky

And Tennis Ball Cookies. (Took too long to make, but worth it. Aren't they cute?)

And here is Jif's 14th birthday cake. It's supposed to look like a dog food bowl with dog food inside. It also had his name painted on. The cake was a no egg, no milk chocolate apple sauce cake with buttercream and marshmallow fondant. Thank you husband for staying up late to finish it with me.

Thank you in-laws for taking pictures and chasing my kids around. All in all it was a success. Jif received many generous gifts and is now officially spoiled. We had so much fun with our friends. It was so much fun having a party based on Jif's favorite thing in the world: doggies. I love that boy so much. It was fun having a day dedicated just to him.

Reese is 1 month old (about a month ago)

Reese had quite the busy 1st month of life! We found out she was allergic to milk a few days before this picture was taken and she has been much happier since I have taken milk out of my diet. She smiled for the first time when she was 3 weeks old. And I'm talking about real, conscious smiles. Everything I read says that babies don't smile until 6 weeks, but Jif smiled at 3 weeks too. All you have to do is lie her on her back and say "Reese, Reese" and she grins and wiggles. Jif loves to make Reese smile. He shouts "mile! mile!" and Reese usually humors him with a smile. Reese is a very good sleeper. At 1 month she was only waking up once a night around 4 am. She is very patient and will sit and wait while I tend to Jif first. We have fun dressing up little Reese in dresses and bows, but our favorite thing to do is put her in her jammies, give her a pacifier, and swaddle her in a blanket like a burrito. She's so cute and we can't get over how blonde and fair she is. We love our little cuddle bug Reese.

Holiday Happenings (Part 2)

So New Years Eve morning, we took off to Las Vegas.  We left very early in the morning as to avoid any holiday traffic.  The drive went very smoothly besides the fact that both kids threw up in the car.  We got to Las Vegas and my parents took us to lunch at ihop.  We had delicious things such as cinnamon roll pancakes, pumpkin pecan pancakes, and banana bread french toast.  Then we celebrated New Years Eve together by ordering our tradition (which happens to be many peoples' tradition) of chinese food.  My husband and I were so tired that we were literally in our beds when the New Year came and closed our eyes to sleep a minute later.  Jif got to sleep on the bottom bunk of the bunk beds and Aunt Blagh (that's what Jif calls her-long story) slept on the top bunk.  Jif loved it at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Especially because they have a doggie.  In the past Jif has had some asthma problems when we visit his Las Vegas grandparents, but not this time.  Sure, his eczema flared up pretty nicely, but not breathing problems-so that is a big improvement.  Jif chased that doggie around as much as possible, but as soon as the doggie started giving him attention back, he was pretty afraid of it.  Aunt Blagh especially fell in love with Reese.  She held her almost non-stop.  I think she is pretty excited to have a niece.  It was a nice weekend, we hung out, watched a few movies, talked, my dad took some pictures of Reese in her fashionable black velvet dress, we ate a lot of ham-ham, ham sandwiches, ham salad, ham in soup.  Reese got to meet her great grandpa and her Aunt Susie.  On Monday we even woke up to snow!   My husband was so excited that he woke me up at 7:30am (I was not too excited about that) to go play in the snow.  And guess what!  We even packed Jif's snow suit, hat, and gloves so we were really prepared.  Why did we pack that stuff for a Vegas trip?  We were going to go to the mountains to find snow, but we ended up not needing too.  Jif had fun trudging through snow and throwing snow balls.  His favorite thing to do was brush the snow off of walls.  While we were playing in the snow he got upset about something and threw himself on the ground and threw a tantrum.  Well the tantrum turned into a pretty good snow angel.

 We were going to stay in Vegas for the entire week, but on Tuesday I realized that I had to get back home for a doctor's appointment.  They wouldn't reschedule me any sooner than a month away, so we had to pack up and leave that night.  But not before we went to Grandpa's pet store and played with more doggies.  I pulled out an adorable energetic little Yorkie terrier, and Jif was pretty intrigued by that fluff ball of energy.

 After playing with the doggies, parrots, ferrets, and bunnies and looking at the fish my parents took us to Red Robin for one last dinner before we left.  As we were driving out of Las Vegas, I realized that we never got to go to Tropical Smoothie!  The best Smoothie place on the planet.  My husband quickly put in Tropical Smoothie on the GPS and we stopped on our way out and got a huge kiwi strawberry smoothie.  Unfortunately when we got home and I breastfed Reese, we discovered that she is very allergic to milk.  That big smoothie caused her to get a horrible rash all over her body with hives, vomit everywhere, big diarrhea, and a very fussy attitude.

This reaction had happened before, just not as severe.  The doctor had me take anything milk out of my diet- including butter, cheese, and anything with milk protein in it and we will have Reese officially tested in February.  But it seems to have fixed things taking milk out of my diet so we are pretty sure it is a milk allergy.  I really miss milk, especially chocolate and cheese, but it is worth it to have a happy baby.  And it is making me have a much healthier diet because I have to say no to most of my favorite unhealthy snacks.
So after we got home I had my doctor's appointment and we spent time hanging out as a family and visiting the beach and playing with Jif's new sand toys.

 It was such a good vacation, and it was so nice having my husband and family members with me for a few weeks after having a new baby.  It made me spoiled and Monday was a hard day when it was just me versus the kiddos.

Holiday Happenings (Part 1)

This was the best Christmas season ever.  We are so grateful to spend it with Jif and Reece.  They make the holidays so much fun.  This is the advent calendar that we used to count down the days until Christmas.

 I made little notes and candy treats for Josh (pictured above), my mom, and Jif (Jif got kit kats).  Jif's notes said little things that I love about him with pictures to look at.  My mom's had things about her that I was thankful for.  my husband's had compliments mixed with coupons (ie-this is good for a study snack for your study group- which he redeemed for Chocolate Chip Cookies).  Also there were bonus cards mixed in for fun family activities (like making gingerbread houses).

 Jif had a fun time adjusting to having a sister.  It has made him a little jealous.  For instance, this picture above is him wearing his special hat.  He was jealous that Reece gets to wear bows in her hair, and he kept trying to steal her bows and put them on.  We gave him a special hat so that he would stop stealing her special bows.

 Yes, we turned on the Yule Log on the T.V. and enjoyed some Christmas tunes.  I love this picture.  I think it's funny

 We got all dressed up in our Christmas best.

 And then we fell asleep and waited for Santa to come.

 This is Reece on Christmas Eve visiting with her Great grandma and Great Grandpa. We had a yummy dinner at my husband's Aunt's house. It was unfortunate that we only got to spend an hour there, we had to get home for work.  Yes, we worked on Christmas day- a tradition handed down from my parents.  On Christmas Eve Evening we had our own little Christmas Eve celebration of appetizers to eat and reading the Christmas story in Luke.  We had a spicy cream cheese dip to dip crackers in, a fancy pizza, hot dogs wrapped in puff pastry, strawberry salad, and sugar cookies.

 This is what Santa brought me and my husband.  A rocking chair for me, an iphone mount and phone charger for my husband (super cool-it even amplifies the sound), bath stuff for my husband, an edited DVD of a Few Good Men (a must-have lawyer movie) and lots of goodies in the stockings.  This year Santa stuffed the stockings with breakfast treats :an orange, poptarts, juice, fishie graham cracker snacks, and lots of candy including the candy cane kisses.  mmm.

 Even though Reece was just born, Santa knew to come to her!.  He brought her a great diaper bag, and some books and bath toys to share with her brother.  He also got her pacifier clips, and shampoo in her stocking.

 Santa had a lot of fun picking out Jif's toys this year.  If you can tell- Santa only gives our kids three big gifts each year (Symbolizing the three gifts from the wise men), and then a few little gifts in the stockings.  Jif's 1st gift was outdoor toys: including a rain coat and boots, and sand toys for the beach.  Then he got Jif some toys to help him with potty training.  He brought Jif potty Elmo and cars underwear.  Funny story: on Christmas Jif was playing with potty Elmo and Elmo makes a tinkling sound when you put him on the potty.  We told Jif to put Elmo on the potty, but Jif just ignored us so we gave up.  A few minutes later we hear the bathroom door open and the toilet seat clang open.  We both yell "Jif! No! Stop!"  We caught him just in time.  I guess he was listening when we said to put Elmo on the potty, he just took it too literally.  The third gift Jif got was blocks to add to his block wagon.  Inside his stocking he also had some books and mittens and a hat. (Santa was psychic and knew that Jif would need the mittens and hat when he went to Las Vegas for New Years and played in the snow)

 Here are the Christmas cookies we made Santa.  It's our family tradition to make these sugar cookies and decorate them with cinnamon candies (usually the Red Hot brand)  But for some reason Red Hot Candies are impossible to find in California.  I checked 6 stores!  So we improvised and used Hot Tamales.  They did the trick in satisfying the delicious combination of cinnamon and sugar cookie, but it wasn't the same still

 This is Jif in his Christmas outfit that he got from mom and dad.  (Reece got a fabulous black velvet dress with tule sticking out everywhere-I just can't find a picture right now).

 He's so handsome.  Even though we weren't allowed to leave home because we were answering phones for the apartment complex, it seriously was the best Christmas ever.  We opened presents, played with new toys, and had a delicious meal of ham, and green bean casserole.

 Here are one of the many jammies that Reece got for Christmas.  Our relatives knew that jammies are the best thing to dress a newborn in, really-they don't need to wear anything else.

 And then psychic Santa knew that it would be a rainy week here after Christmas, so Jif got to wear his froggy rain coat and alligator boots.

The first puddle we found was really dirty, but it was small so I let him jump in it anyway.  Then he found a huge dirty puddle. I told him that he couldn't jump in it because it was yucky.  That was a mistake.  We went to the other playground that had clean puddles and he wouldn't jump in it and kept calling it yucky.  Unfortunately now he thinks that big puddles are yucky and small puddles are fine-regardless the amount of dirt in them.  Oops.

Our work week ended great.  It was very low key and the minute it ended we took off to Las Vegas.  Stay tuned for that post.

New Years Card

Happy New Years!  Here is a card from us to you and a letter (with the names changed of course)





 December 2010

Dear Family and Friends,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  We hope that 2011 brings happiness and joy to all of you.  This last year has been an eventful one for our family.

My husband is officially half way done with law school.  After a year and a half of living here we are beginning to get used to the traffic, city life, and increased cost of living.  This is good because my husband recently accepted an internship here at a great law firm, which means that, if all goes according to plan and they make him a permanent offer, we may be living here full-time.  This year my husband is working on the Law Review journal, working as a writing adviser for first-year law students, and participating in moot court.  He is also working as an apartment coordinator.  He recently got called to serve in the nursery of our church, which he is very happy about since he gets to spend time with Jif.

I finally got my nursing license transferred here, but I don't see myself going back to work any time soon if I can help it.  I keep myself very busy during the day taking care of Jif and Reece. I am currently serving as Relief Society President in our church, which keeps me extremely busy.  It has been a very difficult calling, but she is learning and growing a lot through it. 

Jif will turn 2 years old at the end of January.  He is a very active and energetic boy.  He is absolutely fearless and loves to climb and jump, which makes his mom very nervous.  He knows all of the numbers and colors.  He loves to play with toy cars, read books, snuggle with his stuffed doggie, and talk about Elmo on T.V.  He is a very helpful big brother and likes to give sister her pacifier when she is sad.

Reece was born on December 5, 2010 at 4:42 pm.  She weighed 8 lbs 12 oz and was 20 ½ inches long.  She is a very good baby.  She sleeps well and wants to be cuddled and held at all times.  She only tolerates being put down when we swaddle her in a blanket.  She is a very beautiful girl with fair skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes, and has stolen all of our hearts.

Our best wishes go out to you this New Year.  We appreciate all of your love and support.

Love,

The husband, Choosy Mom, Jif and Reece