The Color Run

We may die from inhaling questionably toxic chalk dust, I'm still sneezing purple and Julie I'm so sorry your seatbelts are now a permanent shade of pink. Buuuuuuut....it was fun and I think it's safe to say I would do it again.  Chels, I'm sorry you got stuck with me as a running partner, I know your gazelle like legs were dying to go faster.  And sorry I made you stop with me while I peed.  Who pee's during a 5k anyways???  I'm blaming the birthing of 4 children for that one.  The point of the color run is that they throw a different colored chalk on you at each kilometer and at the end you look like a rainbow exploded on you (Oh, and it was a benefit run for the Children's hospital, which is the real reason why we were there, or so we tell people). I don't know if I should be relieved or disappointed that I came out relatively clean.  Julz, our marathon running friend, came in first place for the women, which is why she was blasted from head to toe (even her gums were dyed pink) since she was so far ahead and going through the tunnels alone.  Thanks girls for getting my butt out of bed at 6:30 on a cold Saturday morning so that I can determine just how out of shape I really am and then to spend the afternoon cleaning green chalk out of my belly button and ears. Sign me up for next year!

Mr. Vain

I used to plop him in front of "Octonauts" with Maddox while I got ready in the mornings.  Then I discovered that this little man can't seem to get enough of himself and it's much more entertaining. For the both of us. {Oh that poor, poor head}

Creatures of habit

I think every kid comes with a case of OCD.  The certain place they have to sit on the couch.  The certain songs you have to sing before bed.  The certain cup they have to drink out of.  The certain shorts they have to wear everyday.  The twelve band-aids that they have to wear at any given time.  They can be funny and quirky and drive you crazy at the same time.  They usually outgrow it, although Jayden and Maddox have both staked claims on the corner couch position and the barstool next to the wall and it gets down right dirty sometimes.  Maddox's latest OCDism is that he has to tell me, like 52 times a day, "Mom, I'm the baby and  your the mom".  It started when he was playing house with Kylie a couple of months ago and he was the baby and she was the mom, then he wanted me to be the mom and I guess the game has never ended.  He'll be outside playing and runs in to tell me he's the baby and I'm the mom.  I'll hear the pitter patter of his little footed pj's at 5am as he runs to my bedside to whisper it to me.  I'm in the shower and he comes running in to tell me.  I'm on the phone and he screams it at me until I acknowledge it.  He'll come out of bed atleast 7 times before falling asleep to tell me.  He bangs on the bathroom door to tell me. He'll scream it up the stairs while I'm putting the baby to sleep.  It is hilarious and ridiculous. One time we were messing with him and got him so excited to pretend like Kylie was his sister and Jayden and Ryder were his brothers and that dad was his dad and that this was our house and it went on and on, and he thought it sounded like such a fun life.  I remember when Jayden was his age, every night when I would put him to bed he would say, "mom, mom, mom, mom.....beeeeeee" and then repeat it every time I would try to leave.  Kylie used to have this whole list of phrases she would recite to me before going to bed and I wish so bad I would have written it down (pre-blog life, so sad), but I do remember that she used to make me cover her head with the blankets and tuck it in tight.  She would always ask me to check and make sure there were no holes.  I would come in later and she would be dripping in sweat, but she would not go to bed unless I did it.  So funny these quirky little things that make them tick. I'm going to be sad when the day comes when he's no longer the baby and he no longer reminds me that I'm his mom.  But atleast then I can go to the bathroom in peace.

Only in Arizona. In January.

Someday I'm really going to miss this

Saturday mornings when the kids pile in our bed.  As long as it's no earlier than 7:30. 

7 months

The 6 month appointment was a month late.  It's the story of my life lately, but here are the stats:
Height: 27 3/4 in (75%)
20 lb 1 oz (75%)
17 3/4 cm head (75%)

He is still such a happy baby, which atleast helps to offset the fact that he stopped sleeping through the night about 2 months ago.  What's up with that??  He started sitting up around 6 months, mostly because I made him practice all the time so that I could get some good Christmas pictures of him sitting in front of the tree.  He still doesn't have teeth, but that doesn't stop me from feeding him graham crackers because sometimes that's all I can do to keep him entertained so I can get dinner on the table.  He poops like crazy, like I'm jealous he has such an incredible metablolism, but I get tired of washing sheets and the carpet.  He laughs at random things like Maddox snorting or Kylie tap dancing.  He thinks the kids are way funnier than me or Jason, which they are.  He loves anything crinkly, the wipes package keeps him entertained every day while I shower.  He licks my lips when I kiss him and it makes me want to eat him up.  He stops everything and freezes whenever I tickle his back, and gives these random shudders that kill me. When he sucks in his bottom lip it makes me want to have 10 more babies (then that thought leaves as quickly as it came).  I could rub his big bald head all day long. He's rolled off the couch once and got his second head injury today when I fell in the church parking lot while holding him.  Seriously, what is wrong with me and why do I keep falling, especially at church?? It may have something to do with the 6 inch heels, I'm just saying...He is fine and no signs of brain damage yet.  He has a girlfriend.  It's the daycare worker at the gym, he gets all googly eyed whenever he sees her. He loves when Maddox and I sing him the good morning song everytime he wakes up, atleast he pretends to like it by kicking his legs and getting a huge grin on his face.  It makes my heart ache to think of the day when he's too old for me to rock him to sleep at night while he stares at me in the dark.  It's my favorite part of the day.

Happy....

We had fun saying goodbye to 2011 and hello to 2012.  First stop, Vegas where the cousins had so much fun hanging out together.  Football in the street, hiking, playing at the park, a gift exchange, movies (TinTin had the best animation ever), grubbin' Chinese food, sleepovers and games were enough to make them never want to leave. 

We miss being close to family and it was sad to say good bye, but lucky for us the vacation wasn't over yet as we headed up to Utah for a week of fun.

For the past month Maddox has been talking about the amazing snowman he is going to build when we get to Utah.  The mild Utah winter kind of put a damper on his dreams, but atleast there were a few patches of snow left for him to play in.  We got there late at night and at 6:55AM he was bright eyed and bushytailed standing at my bedside begging me to take him out to build a snowman.

It may not have the cookie eyes and carrot nose like he had envisioned, but he was still content with his cute little baby snowman.

Kylie and Jayci decided to join in the fun.  These two girls are so dang cute together, I think Jason and I went 2 days straight without seeing her at all, they would just disappear together in their own little world.

A snow fort was also on Jayden's list.  There wasn't enough snow for a fort, but atleast they had a flag.  That's the most important part anyways.  Oh my gosh, Kylie was so ticked that I put her boots on Maddox and they got thoroughly thrashed with all the mud.

The view from their back deck every night, breathtaking.

And it's not a Jolley get together without games.   And it's definately not a Jolley New Years party with out games.  Or without food.  And lots of it.  We ate until the only thing we could move was our dice rolling hand.

After mastering the game faces, we set our sites on getting our photo on the cover of the next game box.

The Aggravation victory dance is a long standing tradition carried on through out the generations...for the record, the girls did win the first game, we just didn't take a picture of our victory dance.

This is how Jayden spent New Years eve and pretty much the majority of the week (he and Brenton were so cute together, though!).  They had the old school version of Mario and if he wasn't playing, then I was.  I seriously felt like I was 9 years old again in the family room of our American Fork house wasting away an entire summer trying to save the Princess.  And I loved every minute of it.  Now I know where Jayden gets it from.  The kids not not only made it until midnight, but we were so busy having fun that we forgot to put them to bed until like 12:45, they were zombies. 

Jason also took the kids snowboarding at Brian Head with his brother and their cousin, Ian.  Kylie has really picked up toe edge and can carve down the mountain like it's nobody's business.  Jayden is still working on toe edge but he has definately picked up speed. 

The rest of the week was filled with a trip to Enterprise to visit Grandma,Grandpa, Aunt Angel and some more of our favorite relatives, an adult night out to see Sherlock Holmes, basketball and lots and lots of pickle ball (still trying to figure out exactly what that is), a failed attempt to shop at the St. George outlets which ended up being a memorable day in town, good food, great company, lots of laughter and lots of great memories. We were sad when it was time to go.  Sad to say goodbye and sad to have to spend the next 7 1/2 hours in the car with 4 kids & a baby that doesn't always like to travel.  By the time we ran out of snacks and the batteries had died on all the gadgets and we learned that Rhianna found a love in a hopeless place for the sixth time and my 248,000 score on bejeweled was untouchable....we finally made it.  Cactus has never looked so welcoming before. Home sweet, Arizona home.  (I kind of had a thing for sunsets on this trip, if you couldn't tell).  It's going to be a good year, I can tell already.