Why Ride a Horse when you have Jag?

Jag is my Grandma Ruth's dog. He's the nicest dog ever. He's so calm and just a sweet big dude. He has a tail that's lethal, and don't ever try to play tug-o-war w/ him b/c you'll get whiplash like I did last year. Anyway, he lets the kids ride on him like a horse, so here's a pic of Baylen sitting on him. He let Brynna ride on him like a horse earlier in the day. She loved it!

Merry Christmas!

Here's our family picture from 2008. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everyone! :)

A visit w/ the in-laws

We went over to see Dj's dad, his wife, Iris and spend some time with all of her daughters (Melody, Darcy, and Kelly) and their kids and husbands. Here is one pic of all of us sans G'ma Shirley, Iris's mom.



Front Row: Lexi, Kyle

Middle Row: Dj, Baylen, Ryan, Kennady, Dennis (Dj's Dad), Scott, Dylan, Corey

Back Row: Me, Brynna, Melody, Reagan, Iris, Luke, Darcy (who is newly pregnant w/ #2), Kelly


Here's a little bio on this side of the family:

Dj's dad and Iris were married in July of 2006.

Kelly is married to Corey and she is Iris's youngest daughter. No kids yet, but soon we think. She is a volleyball coach and math teacher at a nearby high school

Darcy is the middle girl and she is my age. She's married to Scott. They have 3 kids; Dylan and Kyle are from Scott's previous marriage and Luke is their child together, with another baby on the way.

Melody is Iris's oldest girl and she is Dj's age. She is married to Ryan. They have 3 kids as well; Lexi is Ryan's biological daugther from a previous relationship, and Reagan and Kennady both belong to Mel and Ryan. Reagan was born 25 weeks gestational and was the size of a barbie doll when she was born. She's now 3 and a pretty healthy little girl.

A new addition to the family

We have a new addition to the Fitz family. His name is Chester and he's 6 months old. He's a Yorkie and he belongs to my sister. Chester is her baby. :) he's still learning how to go potty and poo outside, but he's getting better. He enjoys chasing my parents' dog, Zoey, wearing cute size XS dog clothes, long walks on the beach, and Kibbles 'n Bits.

Fun with the cousins

Brynna and Baylen have been enjoying spending time with Parker and Calleigh. Brynn and Parker really enjoy playing w/ each other, but they also fight sometimes. We have had to resort to some time outs today, specifically w/ Brynn. It's so funny listening to parker and Brynn's conversations. And, when its' quiet, we have to go look for them, b/c that usually means they are up to no good. :0

photo session for Christmas card gone bad...

these were the photos for our Christmas card that we didn't choose this year. As you can see, our children were not the best at cooperating, particularly Mr. Baylen. He did NOt want to wear that Santa hat for ANYTHING. haha Oh well, I think the one we chose was actually quite hilarious...but you'll have to wait and see when you get it in the mail! :)

9 months old!

Baylen turned 9 months old on Dec. 13th. I am a week behind but we've been busy. He is so funny and I remember I really enjoyed this age with Brynn and the same goes for Baylen. Although, I must say, that she slept MUCh better than he does at this age.

He has been working hard to try and stand for longer periods of time, but so far, can do about 10 seconds.

He enjoys his new "walking" toy we have borrowed from Cade.

He makes car noises "pbbbbbpppbbb" when driving/rolling cars on the floor.

He is enjoying reading books and actually listening to the story.

He is always in his sister's business. She is not a fan of this.

He loves handing us things..like his paci, a toy, or whatever it is he has in his hand.

He has been saying "uh oh" when he drops something or knocks some thing over. Now he says it ALL the time. It is so cute!
This brings his total word count to: mama, dada, and uh oh.

He really enjoys clapping, pat-a-cake, and singing

He also can sign "done" or "finished" and "milk" when he wants to.

He has been doing really well drinking out of a sippy cup. So far, he only drinks water out of the cup.

He still is not a fan of people food and often gags whenever we try and give it to him. He will eat puffs, cheetos puffs, cheerios (sometimes), and the biter biscuits. Otherwise, he's a baby food kinda guy.

He loves to dance! He'll stand up on a toy and bounce and bounce when he hears music.

He gets into EVERYTHING and cries when we take him away from an area or place he can't be. (like the TV, cat food/water, drawers, cupboards, etc.)

He was doing really well sleeping at night until he got sick...like there were a few nights he slept ALL night long, but now, we're back up to 2 times a night...usually once around 11-12 and then again around 4. Maybe when he's back up to speed, he'll sleep better.

His hair is finally growing and there is enough to make a small mohawk. It's sweet!

He can throw a ball! He loves rolling, throwing and playing catch with Brynn and with Daddy and I

He and his sister will just giggle and giggle with one another. It's so funny to watch.

Teeth: he has his 2 bottom teeth and his two eye teeth!! YES! isn't that funny that those were the next 2 teeth that came in? Those were BRUTAL for him. He has had those two teeth for at least 2 weeks now. The top two are pushing their way through next...one is almost through.

This month he's had a double ear infection and then another ear infection as of Friday, for a total of 2 rounds of meds.

He's officially off of his Acid Reflux medicine. whoohoo!

He wears sizes 6-9 months, 12 months, 18 months clothing. He has seemed to have slimmed down a bit the last couple weeks. I think it's because he hasn't been eating all that much due to not feeling well. He weighed 23.2 on Friday.

I'm having a hard time finding any shoes that will fit him. I tried to get him some snow boots on Wed. but I couldn't get his feet into them. So, that was a no go.

Okay now, on to the rest of the pics! It was easier to get him w/ the date this time b/c I laid him down and we distracted him from above. ha!

more snow

I took Brynn out in the snow this morning. She only lasted about 3 minutes. I already packed her snowboots in the suitcase, so she has her rainboots on. I wish I could bring Bay out to see the snow, but he's still too sicky and I don't want to risk it. Although, I bet it is much warmer out here than it will be in IA. Anyway, this is his first snow, so I have to make sure and get some photos of it somehow.

We are getting more snow as I type. There have been flight delays and cancellations at the airport already. I am freaking out and hope to GOD we make our flight and are there b/f Christmas.

A trip to the ER

Yesterday we had to take a trip to the Emergency Room. I had been calling Baylen's Ped's office since the minute it opened trying to get a hold of one of the receptionists to see if and when I could get him in to be checked out. No on was answering. I then tried calling the 24-hour nurse's hotline and was on hold for 18 minutes straight. I hung up when my phone said 18:33. I figured if I could get a hold of the nurse, they could page the Dr. on call at his office and we could get in for an appt., but no such luck. Then I tried calling another Family Med. office here in K. But, they do not take walk-ins. So, our only option was the ER.

Baylen had been having a fever off and on for the past 4 days and I knew he had some sort of infection since the fever was not going away. When it peaked at 104 on Thurs. night, I had had enough. With the snowy roads, we continued to alternate between Infant Tylenol and Motrin every three hours to keep the fever regulated/breaking and that did work well. Anyway, when I couldn't get a hold of anyone at the Dr. office, Dj suggested we try and drive over there and see why no one was answering. HE drove us b/c we were afraid the roads were still icy and nasty from the snow the day before. When we arrived at the office, the lights were off and it looked like no one was around. I was pretty bummed but figured it was due to the weather and we were out of luck. So, off to the ER we went. We spent 2 hours in the waiting room before we were called back. By the time we were called back, we had to wait another 2 1/2 hours to be seen by a Dr.! It was ridiculous! I guess the snow injuries and other things going on back there were more important than a baby, who at the time he was checked by the first nurse, wasn't running a temp, but probably had another ear infection was the low man on the totem pole. When the Dr. came in, he literally looked at him for FIVE FREAKING MINUTES, said he had another ear infection and prescribed him with a different antibiotic than what he just finished not even 5 days ago. So, we're hoping these meds take care of business. Poor little mister has been sicky for a month! I am also hoping that being away from daycare for a couple weeks will help him recuperate a bit. he's just a sickly little dude right now. :( I feel sooooooo bad for him and all I want is for him to feel better. Dj and I agree that he wants SO badly to be back to normal so he can move and get into trouble! :) Although, I must say it IS nice to cuddle with my little guy as much as I have b/c he is normally not a cuddler these days. So it makes me happy he's all lovey and wants to be held and loved and just cuddle in and sleep on me all the time. (I get NOTHING done, however!!)

Well, we wasted our entire day in the ER but at least we have meds and I think they are working. You can see how sick he looks in my Say It Ain't Snow blog photo. His nose has been running non-stop and he's got a cough, sneezing, watery eyes, the whole nine yards.

A visit from Santa

Our Tree after Santa visited

Santa came to our house last night! Brynn made sure to leave him some cookies, Ritz crackers for each one of the reindeer and a bottle of H2O. Despite the fact that Miss B has spent more time in time outs lately than anywhere else because she thinks it's okay to hit or take toys from her brother, Santa was STILL very good to her and Baylen.

Brynna really enjoyed opening all of her gifts, and Baylen did for awhile. It was so funny when she opened a toy, she wanted to open the box and pull it out and start playing with it right away. She would open her clothes and just look at them and throw them aside, not really excited at all! It was cute. Baylen liked his gifts as well, and I think his favorite gift was his big blue truck and his glowworm. Brynn really loved her cleaning products (broom, mops, etc.), her Elmo Live, and of course, her tricycle. She's been playing with all three non-stop since this morning when we opened gifts. Overall, it was a really fun family Christmas.

:)

Snow Part I

here are a couple pics from Thursday's snow. We are getting more as we speak so I'll take pics of that tomorrow so you can see how much more we received between now and tomorrow. Today it started back up at 3 p.m. and it's still going strong....ugh! I hope we can still fly out on time and still fly out on MONDAY!! We couldn't get a shuttle to pick us up b/c they aren't doing residential pick-ups this year due to weather conditions and craziness/time of year. This is the first time this has EVER happened to us. It pisses me off that we can't get a shuttle, esp when we live SO close to the airport. We can't depend on a cab because of the road conditions. So now we're going to have to park near the airport and pay mega bucks. blah!

Here are two pics from today's snow...it's still falling, but you can see there is a Big difference in accumulation! Dj just took these at 9;30ish p.m.

New videos up

you can also check Sarah's Gallery--linked over on the right-hand side for additional videos. This is a video of Brynn singing "So What?" by Pink. She LOVES this song! :) And both her daddy and I also love Pink and her music. :) When she doesn't know the words, she makes them up...haha

School pics revealed!

Here are the pics that Brynn and Baylen took at their daycare. They turned out pretty cute. Brynn wouldn't smile much though. :)

Say it Ain't Snow?!

Yep that's right, we have ANOTHER snow day today. Well, actually that is NOT entirely correct. We had a 1 hour delay despite the fact that there was snow falling in buckets in the area where our school is and downtown Seattle, among a variety of areas around the Sound. I left w/ the kids about 7:30 this morning. Everything was smooth sailing driving wise until I reached the Burien area and that's when it got BAD. Seattle doesn't get snow around here very often, so when we do and it's falling in mass amounts, the roads get slick QUICK. We STILL had school. I could NOT believe this after yesterday's fiasco where school was 2 hours delayed and then CANCELLED altogether and we didn't have ANY freaking snow. Yesterday, they were anticipating the huge amounts of snow and so they cancelled thinking that we were going to get some and we didn't get any. Then, today, we get a TON of snow and we still had school an hour late. WTF??? Seriously our Superintendant is jacked up. Today, our district was the ONLY one who had school. Seriously--it was true! So, the few of us that DID make it into school were only there for a short while. We only had about 30 students actually show up to school. The kids mostly spent their time in the gym or baking cookies. I spent my time making copies and sub plans for my sub on Monday the 5th of Jan. so I got that done in case we don't have school tomorrow, which is our last day b/f holiday break. While I was busy doing that, news broke that the district was canceling all elementary schools but the middle and high schools had to remain open. Again, WTF? They said b/c they announced it so late, we had to stay open. What in the HELL? And so, as we stayed open with all of 30 freaking students, the weather became worse and worse, and more snow continued to fall. The VP told me to leave around 10:30 since I live further away than most of hte teachers who were still there. It took me about a half hour to get to the kids' daycare, which is normally 7 minutes away from school. After picking them up and gathering all of their Christmas gifts, we made our way out to the car. It was really coming down by then and I was very concerned we were going to be stranded b/c the only way to go home was down 2 big hills. EEK! :0 We did make it home but it took us almost 2 hours from start to finish. But, at least we made it safely.

School ended up being let out at 12:30 so it actually counted as a REAL day so at least we have that going for us and won't have to make it up. I am thinking I will write a letter to the Sup. telling him how difficult it was for me AFTER having to travel through it once, to have to drive back through it AGAIN, this time WORSE with two VERY young children in the car. UGH! I was pissed! Seriously, did he even think about those of us who actually had to drive home in this shit? GRRR very irritating. But, the best part? I get to be home with my babies for the rest of the day and catch up on my blogging! :) (I'll try and get pics of the snow soon!)

So our schedule this week looked like this b/c of our CRazy weather I'm totally blaming on global warming:

Monday: 2 hour delay; icy snow-packed roads esp. on the side streets: only 40% of our students showed this day.
Tuesday: 2 hour delay, again b/c of icy roads; 80-90% of our kids showed today
Wednesday: School cancelled b/c of anticipated snow storm which NEVER happened and we could have totally had school.
Thursday: 1 hour delay even though HUGE snow storm and crazy bad roads.....finally done at 12:30
Friday: who knows? it's up in the air at this point...I supposed it will depend on how much snow we continue to get. It's REALLY falling here in our neck of the woods as I type.

DIY Magnetic Photo Frames

I got this idea from a friend, Meghan, whom I met through Megan during our days at ISU. She is VERY crafty and always posts cute things that she makes on her FB and, sometimes, on her blog. (You can access her blog off of mine...it's called: The Tall and Short of It and find her links here.) and here and here

Anyway, I saw her idea of these really CUTE DIY magnetic photo frames and knew I could try to make these too...and that I would make them for Brynn and Baylen's daycare teachers. Here are some things I learned and tips I have for those of you who might think about trying to make one. (they were REALLY EASY TO MAKE)

1. Use scrapbook paper size 12x12. Do not trim it until you have folded it over on the back so it's all covered and looks nice.

1a. Make sure the paper is not see-through and is heavy enough, but not too thin...if you buy at Jo-Ann's or Michael's in the paper aisle and pull it right out of the trays, that seems to work just fine.

1b. cover the corners and edges with some white paper BEFORE you cover with your 12x12 scrapbook paper. I just cut up several strips off a few scrap pieces and then folded them in half and covered all edges and corners.

2. Poke the holes for your brads before you glue everything down and poke them through at several different stages when covering w/ the paper and then before taping everything down. So the first time you poke them through would be when you're covering the edges/sides and corners with the white paper.

3. I used my ATG 700 scrapbooking gun by Scotch to adhere the paper to the metal and it worked out great! Double sided tape also works well.

4. I did purchase magnets that were pre-made at Staples and they were strong enough to hold photos onto the frame once covered w/ paper. They looked cute with all of the papers I picked out. They also sell quite a few different designs of these types of magnets and it would save you some time if you don't want to make the magnets yourself. These were about $4.99 for 6 pairs or 12 magnets.

5. I did also purchase some round magnets from Ace Hardware and they were called ULTRA STRONG magnets and HOLY SHIT yes they are definitely ultra strong...ridiculously so. I caution you not to put them anywhere NEAR another magnet or metal when working with them. seriously. They were about $3.99 or $4.99 for a set of 6 magnets.

5a. I bought flat, clear marbles in floral section of JoAnn's to make my own magnets. You trace the marble on paper and cut out. I had to trim mine down a bit more. Also, I used silicon glue. Glue the paper circle onto bottom of marble and let the glue dry for a good 20 min. before you glue the magnet on. Let the magnet set in glue for 20-30 min. to make sure it's good and dry.

6. The big photos are smaller than 4x6, but bigger than wallet size and the really tiny pics are smaller than wallet size. I used the customize tool on my Mac through iPhoto.

7. I bought silicon glue at Ace for like 3 bucks.

Thank you Uncle Paul...say cheese!

for the great camera!!! Brynn LOVES IT!

I ♥ baby clothes

especially when you can find cute stuff like this:

Funny Could've Been Christmas Cards and other old pics

here are a couple of old pics from 2 years ago--Brynna's first Christmas. The 2nd one is just a cute one I found in my archive. The first one...well, let's just say I had the wacky idea that we should try and get all 5 of us in the picture (2 cats, 3 people) and here's what happened!

Gettin' Ready for IA

Brynn is getting ready for the cold weather in IA. :)

Go Seacocks?!

Brynn is hilarious. And lately she's been messing up her "h" with a "k" sound...and some words with the "w" sound with an "n" sound. And, she says the funniest stuff...See below:

Yesterday she walked in and saw the TV was on and the Seahawks were playing. Here's the convo:

Brynn: "Mommy, watch football?"

Me: "Yes, your daddy wants to finish watching this game, okay?"

Brynn: "yeah!"

Brynn (all of a sudden throws her hands up in the air): "GOOOOOOO SEACOCKS!!!"

Me, LMAO: "Yes...Go Seacocks! whoohooo!"


#2

Brynn: "Mommy, I play with my neener."

Me: "No, honey, only boys have those." (long story...it involves Baylen touching his all the time, esp. in the bathtub and during diaper changes..gotta love boys)

Brynn: "Ohhhh okay. Baylen play with his neener?"

Me: "Uh...huh...."


#3
Brynn: "Mommy, I want to give Baylen a moh-cock."

Me: "What?"

Brynn: "A moh-cock...give Baylen one, mommy."

Me: "Ohhh YOu want to give Baylen a mohawk?"

Brynn: "Yes, a moh-cock, okay mommy?"

Me: "Okay, let's see if we can give him one."


#4
ME (singing): Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Had a very shiny nose. And if you ever saw it, you would even say it glows...

BRYNN (immediately following:) "LIKE A MEATBALL!"

hahaha I can't make this stuff up!! Happy Holidays everyone! :)