me and britney

after a month of complaining of his ear being sore, jude's ear drum ruptured today. who knew that when a ear drum ruptured that it gushed blood? i sure didn't. great. i am a great mom. maybe i should listen to him when he says his ears hurt? . i just thought his tubes we acting up, guess not. the doctor said his ear should stop oozing and aching within the week. great.

really, i think they might take my kids away. i definitely think i should have more kids....

i am sorry judakins. let's hope it doesn't happen again.

the greg's get (more) pumpkins

because jude's 7 (thats right, 7) pumpkins that we have collected over the past month in his room aren't enough, we went to get more pumpkins as a family tonight. i wanted to do the real pumpkin patch experience so we went out to schmidts pumpkin patch in west jordan. it was really big and pretty inexpensive but the weather was a little cold for our taste. of course, jude was ecstatic and was upset when he found out the 3 pumpkins we purchased would not be going in his room but soon calmed when he was told that the 3 mini pumpkins that nannie bought him (against his parents wishes) could. the kid loves pumpkins.

i wish that you could see what is in jude's hands.... he felt the need to bring his pumpkin carving set and his frankenstein card from yaya. can you blame him? i love him.

the best part of the night was that nannie and grandpa mike joined us. my dad actually left utah county, crazy.

we ate delectable crown burger after but our evening was cut short when we heard devastating news about my uncle tim. my mom rushed down to be with my aunt holley at the hospital. he suffered a heart attack and a stroke and is currently in the ICU. not the best way to end your day..... his family is in our prayers, we love you kay family!

forts + tents

jude is turning in to a kid and i don't know how i feel about it. he is not a baby anymore (minus that damn binki....sigh) and is now 100% little boy. he is all about guns, cars, batman, halloween (of course), star wars, baseball, and more recently forts and tents.

i happen to be, as it turns out, a pretty nifty fort maker and jude has me practicing my skills daily. we have a "permenant" fort in his bedroom and you should consider yourself lucky to be invited in to it. greta is usually the only one invited in (seeing as she is his same age), jude makes me get her a pillow like his and he reads her stories, so cute.

rogey and yaya were the most recent invitees to jude's fort. they learned quick that once you get in his tent, jude will never let you out. did i mention that they are the perfect grandparents? it was a tight sqeeze but they made it.... also, pants are not necessary to enter the fort according to jude.

one day maybe you too will be invited to his "port". you can only hope....

brace yourself...

brooke took our family pictures last night and this image was produced...


...and no one can handle it.

i can't wait to see the rest. so glad that brookie is my sister, she is amazing.

thanks again b-rock!

my wish list (this week)

because the economy is so amazing and we are so rich, i am making a very frugal wish list. am i so vain? a girl's got to have dreams....

for me.....

(so much better than uggs!)

for judakins....

for grets.....

for our family.....

or this

(oh yes, its a van, and a vw no less!)

trevan can make is own wish list! not to mention his would bore us all!

yaya + momo + gardner village = good times

life has been pretty crazy busy for our little family as of late. between doctor's appointments and greta's 3 early intervention therapists we don't have a lot of play time. this week however we set aside a day after greta's well baby check and went to gardner village with yaya and moey. turns out everyone else in the valley decided to go there too. it was crazy busy but a lot of fun non the less. those witchies are too cute to pass up.

morgan is such a great aunt and she beautiful to boot. she adores my kids and jude adores her. the greg's are the greatest people in the world and you should all be jealous that you can't call them your own.

jude jas a bit of a love/hate relationship with halloween. he wants everything in his life to be halloween, as long as it doesn't scare him too much. he love LOVED this blow up but couldn't get too close for fear that she may attack him. we drive around every night looking for halloween decorations and he knows where all of his favorite houses are located. jude LOVES halloween and thanks me daily for any decoration i have put up.

i am going to have to blame the whole hate part of his relationship on his daddie. trevan thought it would be great to taunt jude with a guy similar to this at wal-mart:

needless to say jude is totally and completely terrified of this guy. the worst part is that we are TERRIBLE parents and use him as a threatening device when jude is acting out of control. the good ole "we are going to get that scary guy at wal-mart" works wonders for him. we are going to hell, but at least jude won't be acting like a devil while we are on our way.

a sweet 6 months

this girl...where do i start?

first off i cannot believe she is 6 months old today. wasn't she just born? sort of she feels a lot younger to me than 6 months and i guess that would be because developmentally in most ways she is about a 2-3 month old. i was talking to brooke yesterday and she said "but don't you feel like she has been 6 mo. for a while? we always tell people our kids are a little bit older.." and i had to say no, not with her. i always tell people she is younger, i don't want to explain why she doesn't so much hold her head up and why she is months away from sitting. she still snuggles like a newborn and you should all be jealous. greta is the honestly the sweetest baby you will ever meet, i have done research.

in 6 months this sweet girl has not done much but has done so much for me. she is pure joy. she has taught me patience and faith. her perfect disposition has made me a better person and a better mother. i am so blessed to have her as my daughter. she chose me and i know that. i will fight her battles until she is strong enough to fight them with me. we have seen a lot of doctors in her short 6 months and although not one of them has given us a diagnosis they have all confirmed what darling, sweet baby she is. (as if i needed a doctor's opinion for that!) she is perfect in all who love her's eyes.

jude is the only person that can get greta to laugh. she loves her brother so much and i am pretty sure the feeling is more than mutal.

my sweet greta,

today you are 6 months old. you are my shining star, my sweet reward. i hope you walk, i hope you dance, and most of all i hope you get to live a wonderful, long life. thank you for being mine. i love you my sweet gretsie...

xoxo,
mommie