Here are some recent pictures i thought i'd share. We've had quite the past couple of weeks. We were able to spend some time with Zach and Allison which was a lot of fun. They came down to have another interview at Baylor? I think, but it was very nice to have Allison this time around. We were also able to go to Pirate Days in the Colony, which wasn't too exciting. Jordon was scared the first half hour or more and the time he started to have fun was when we went to the little kids park, had a snack, and let him run around. Oh well, it was fun to have a nice little outing anyways. We stayed for about an hour and went home to put him down for his nap.

Chillin with Gramma

He doesnt go anywhere without his puppy!

Daddy and I at pirate days pretending to be "pirates", aarr matey's!

Having fun with mommy over at the play area!

I don't quite know about this?

Chillin with daddy after my nap

i love my daddy! i follow him around all weekend. i just don't get enough time with him during the week!

i found my belly button!

first tastes of hot cocoa! i like it, a lot!

i love books, especially reading them! i love the pictures

Jordon has been teething a lot lately, still working on his eye teeth and the last 2 bottom teeth. Yesterday it took him almost 2 hours to fall asleep for his nap when it is usually only 20 minutes max. I don't know if he senses a time change coming or if he's just not willing to go to bed that well. lately he has been falling asleep at 9 pm even though i put him to bed at 7:45. i hope he senses the time change and will go back to his falling asleep at 8 or 8:30. i'm not looking forward to the time change one bit. Stake Conference happens to fall on that sunday and it is the 1-3
session. i guess it'll prepare us for the 1-4 church next year. uggh! for those of you that have your kids on 2 naps a day, treasure it, i miss those days cause at least if the baby doesn't take a good first nap, you know you can put them down again later, but with jordon he only goes down once, no matter how short of a nap. so sundays are always rough. if he sleeps at church, he's a zombie the rest of the day and goes to bed early, if he makes it through nursery he takes a good nap later but so grumpy you still put him to bed pretty early.

We have also invested in some cloth diapers, we got the diapers last week or so, but haven't started using them quite yet. We installed a diaper sprayer this weekend, fixed our washer machine so it has a cold rinse cycle now! Apparently we had the hoses connected wrong, we just switched them, so now we have both cold and hot water. before it was just hot and only hot. We have the right detergent, and all we need now is the wet bags to store them between washes. We are excited about our decision, it not only will help our budget, but we feel good that we aren't filling landfills. It will be quite a change but i think it will be the best in the long run. We bought ours off of Ebay from a candian company, Kidalog. They have been doing cloth diapers for 25 years and these diapers are supposed to last 2 1/2 years or more. We'll let you know how we like them.

I am also in the process of planning a baby shower for a visiting teachee in the ward along with my visiting teaching companion. I've never pulled one off before, but i hope it turns out well and that the lady feels special. She has 2 boys and she is expecting a girl. It should be a lot of fun.

Chris is at the Stake Roadshow tonight with the youth and so he won't be back until later tonight. I thought i'd update you all, sorry for the long epistle. HOpe everyone is doing well, take care, and remember to always have fun!

Updates

It's been a little while since i've updated everyone. Life at our house seems to never slow down. Jordon is quite the walker or should i say almost runner! He loves to be chased around the house, and when daddy comes home, he doesn't give him a hug until he chases him around the house and plays with at least one toy. He sure has a way with keeping us happy and busy. Tomorrow I'm taking him in to get a flu shot, so i hope that he doesn't get too bad of a reaction. I'll probably be getting a flu shot next week and I know Chris's workplace is offering flu shots soon. We've been all lucky so far with being pretty healthy, cross our fingers for no flu this year.

We are getting excited for Christmas and for seeing everyone in Texas. It'll be great to see all the kiddos playing together. We are sure looking forward to seeing Zach and Allison this week. I'll make sure to post some pictures later on.

Jordon has also discovered his belly button today and pulls up his shirt to find it, the cutest! By the way, have i told you how nice it is to have him in nursery? He is completely worn out by the end of church but so nice for me to actually do my calling better. He seems to love nursery and enjoy snack time. He has learned something very cute that he did in nursery on sunday. every time he likes what he's eating, he looks at you with a smile and says, mmmm! He may not speak words too much but he sure knows how to mimic sounds. He goes around in the house growling like a bear, mmm at meal and snack time, and another weird sound almost like your doing the he he hoo in labor. Don't know where he picked that up. Other than that he points and grunts at things, and drags you by the finger to where he wants you to go.

This past week we've started our tradition of making pomegranite jam but this year we're doing it right. Last year we picked them way too late, January 1st. I'll always remember that day because i almost cut off my finger trying to cut open one of them. I don't know why we thought we knew how to cut open pomegranites and juice them because we totally did it wrong. We cut it in half and juiced it like orange juice, but the best way to do it is to just cut off a little off the top and section it into 4 or more slices and break them apart under a cold water bowl getting all the seeds out that way and juicing it in a blender. Apparently if you juice it like an orange the peel has a bitter taste that will get into the jam. And it's so much easier to get the seeds out under water. I made the first batch of jam last night which turned out ok, it's kindof runny. It was a late night for me, i was up until 1 AM finishing it. Chris was really tired so after he went to bed i started to make it. I don't know about you guys but it is so much easier to get things done when your child is asleep for the night. Even naps around here are great for getting things done but not canning. Some days i don't know what to expect out of a Jordon nap. There are those days when i want to get something done that he only sleeps 1 1/2 hours and then the days I don't really have anything too much going on he'll sleep 3 - 31/2 hours. Dillemas! So I hope the jam tastes ok and if it isn't good as a jam, then we can use it as ice cream topping or syrup for pancakes. We are so happy that we are using the pomegranites, we got 4 pints just from one batch and a whole lot more pomegranites to pick left. Even if our garden didn't turn out, at least i know we will always have pomegranites every year!

On a side note, my mom has been having more health problems. She has been having a rough time with certain foods agreeing with her and the doctors thought it was an adult case of reflux, so about a month ago they did a procedure to see if they could figure it out. They came out saying she had a severe stomach inflammation. Things kindof got worse after that and she's been awfully nauseous so then they did an x-ray and discovered that it was her gal bladder. It was packed full of galstones which could not be crushed or passed through her system. Yesterday she went in to the hospital for her gal bladder to be completely removed. They gave her laughing gas and she was out within a matter of seconds. I guess nowadays it's a lot easier to do those surgeries, they can just take it out from the belly button. I talked to her today and she's at home recovering with her pain meds but feeling great because her nauseousness is completely gone. I'm glad that my dad is able to help her motate and get around and help her with getting her meals. Thank you for all of those who prayed for her, it means a lot. My sisters and I pitched in to get her flowers sent to her house. I believe flowers have a way of helping cheer someone up and help the recovery process. Plus, what girl does not like flowers! :)

We are getting ready for Halloween, Jordon is going as Pooh Bear, Chris is Christopher Robin, and I think I'm going as the new girl in the Hundred Acre Woods. It should be a lot of fun. This year our ward is celebrating halloween on the 30th since Stake Conference starts the night of the 31st. We will see how it will all go. Our Stake Conference is at 1 pm and right around when Jordon wants to nap and with the time change. It will be interesting.

We hope you are all doing well, and we always look forward to hearing from you and seeing you in December!

18 month checkup

Our little boy is now 18 months old! Officially in nursery, even though he's been going on and off for a couple months now. He had his checkup today and weighed in at 25 lbs and 33 inches long, making him in the 75 percentile for heighth and 50th percentile for weight. Way to go! His doctor was very happy with his progress and glad he was doing well with his walking. We did talk about the next six months which could be a bit of a challenge with his temper tantrums linked to his frustration levels of not being able to communicate with us. He also mentioned that he'll probably be a little picky with eating and with doing food jags, which we've already experienced this week. It seems like the only good meals he wants is lunch and dinner. Either it's food jags or it's the fact that he's teething 4 teeth right now. His eye teeth and last two bottom teeth. Our poor Jordon! But at least he only got 2 shots today and doing quite well. Still need to get the flu shot for him though. Here's some cute pictures of our little boy(oh wait, i can't say he's a little boy, what happened to my little baby?:()

styling in his new shoes! So far the only type he'll wear. They are soft soled shoes that help him still feel the ground while still looking like shoes. Of course we'll have to transition him out of them as soon as we can. But I love them! He actually brings them to us if he wants to go outside. He's quite the smart kiddo! He also throws away his own diapers. I love it when he thinks a chore is fun!

Isn't he the cutest Jordon bug ever?!