My 10 month old

Jace what can I say he's one month older and one month wiser!

He crawls and tries to stand on everything. Still has no desire to walk (thank goodness) crawling on everything is enough for me.

He's so cute I can barely handle.

He sleeps through the night when he's no sick (11-12 hours)

We just weighed him he's sitting right around 20 pounds, just over a pound away from his sister Talia

He's started to want his momma more than other people but he's still good to go with anyone.

He has a temper when he doesn't get what he wants (already I know!). He'll learn though because throwing his head back and hitting it ALL the time will get old.

He's usually really happy and VERY curious.
Dances to music.

We just love him!

Sadly we didn't get a 10 month photo today because this is how he's look for the last 24 hours. Poor Guy!

He's pretty sick with gastro. Seems to be the virus that's been going around this winter. It's funny because last year we were in Cardston for Christmas and over half the people got gastro as well. I think we did a pretty good job containing it this year only 3 people so far have got it. It's a hard one not to spread!

 He got it the morning of the 27th and we're still going strong.  



He's just so sweet. Loves to cuddle, especially when sick. He's my baby boy.

Christmas

Christmas this year was with my family in Sherwood Park. I seem to always forget to bring my camera around and in all honestly it's sometimes a hastle to carry it around. So anyways I didn't get many photos. Hopefully I'll get more from my Dad soon.

Christmas Eve we always spend with my Dad's side, the Pizzeys. And It was at my parents place this year.  We hang out, eat tons,  play games, read from Luke about the birth of Christmas while acting it out (always fun and funny), and exchange a few gifts. It's always a a fun time.

Then when everyone left we tidied up. opened some PJ's, got the kids to bed, played a game of monopoly deal then it was off to bed for Jason and I. Having kids is tiring and by 11 pm most nights we're ready for bed so 1230 am was pushing it for us.

My 3 favorite people. Two of which are in their cute Christmas PJ'S

Love Christmas PJ's. Great tradition, matching PJ's.

 I know I've talked about Talia being a crazy sleeper, well her are a few of the positions we found her in while at my parents for 2 nights. She cracks me up. Goes to bed easy but she's a mover!

 The Nativity Scene

Top: The 2 wise men (Chase, Dave, and Breton- the wise men are always a big hit)

Middle: Mary and Joseph (Crystal and Tanner soon to be parents in about 15 weeks. These two are So funny and will be great parents)

Bottom: The Shepard's (Avery, Nicolas, and Tommy- they did a great job!)

Christmas morning was a different morning because Christmas morning fell on a Sunday. Seemed as though the kids were up earlier than norma. Not because they were to excited (too young to totally understand waking up early) but because Avery came down with gastro, Jace and Marli  were up feeding and I think kept each other up, and Talia was up because she heard all of us. So we went and did stockings. Ate a small breakfast and got ready for church.

While getting ready we realized the house was backing up with sewage/ water. So something was plugged which meant showering/ dinner/ everything was put on hold. My Dad and Jordan stayed home from Church to figure this out because if they hadn't Christmas day would have be over. Breanne and Avery stayed home because they were really sick. The rest of us went but of course with all that was going on we were late. Jason and I left church slightly early because Jace was freaking out and it was well past his nap and Talia started to have a melt down because she was SO over tired. The melt down started from my Mom eating her cookie. Talia went to on to say then cry in the most sad face, "Nana ate my cookie in her mouth... I NEED presents." It was pretty funny but this melt down meant we were done. What a gong show. At least we went and tried to stay right?

This may sound a bit hmmm bad/ sacrilegious (seeings as how we were celebrating Christ's birth.) anyways I think the program was a little long. It was an hour and a half program!!! Young kids and parents up WAY to late and tired. Great to have a small sacrament program but really an hour and a half at 9 am! I was looking forward to a short and sweet sacrament that brought in the spirit but an hour and a half is what it was scheduled for which mean probably longer... little bit much. Probably such a bad thought but it's what I thought.  

Anyways the water problem was solved by 1130 am. We ate breakfast and opened presents at noon. Talia was dying to open presents. Noon is a long time to wait for a little girl. It'll be a Christmas morning to remember.

Left: Talia in her princess outfits. She loves being a princess. Great gift from Nana and Grandpa.

Right: Sweet little Marli and my mom. Marli has hip dyplasia. Both hips one worse than the other so she had a closed reduction surgery. She has to wear these casts for 2 months. She's so happy and such a trooper.

Left: Yes Talia sniffs everything even her presents before she opens them. She's had an obsession with her nose and sniffing things for a very long time. Hilarious!

Right: Waiting to open them, trying to be patient. Almost made it.

For the rest of the day kids napped. Then my moms side came over. We open gifts first then have a turkey dinner. It was fun. My Aunt has 2 girls and one of them is 5 years old and since Avery was out of commission Talia and Casey played the whole night. It was fun to watch.

Top: Casey entertaining Talia with a feather.

Bottom: Talia and Casey watching a movie in the theatre room

Towards the end of the night my brother called from his mission. He only 7 weeks left. Then again we tidied got kids to bed, and played a couple games. Then off to bed.

It was a fun Christmas and beside gastro and temporary plugged pipes everything went really good. Lots of food, family, and fun!

BUT I wish we could say we were gastro free. Everyone was being super careful with hand washing but I knew the one that would be hard to watch was our crawling Jace. Hands everywhere and in mouth. SO the morning the 27th he got sick. Now today is day 2 of gastro for him and he's still feeling sick. More posts to come on my 10 month old today!

Anyways I hope you had a good Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Hopefully more pictures to come.

Snow

Remember last year's snow? I piles were over 4 feet tall and you had to shovel almost every day? Well I'm grateful we don't have that this year. Driving in that and shovelling that is not fun. This winter had been a lot better. I love snow but not record breaking snow falls. Anyways we had like an inch of snow and had to shovel I think for the 3rd time this season. It's fun, maybe mostly for me, that Talia likes to go out and shovel with her Dad! Here's a few photos of Daddy/ Daughter time.

 

I guess in the end I did come out and help Talia shovel. She kept slipping. Great winter so I wont complain to much (well I don't usually complain about it because we live in Edmonton and I would rather be cold that super hot) BUT with it also be +2 or-2 the side walks have got very slippery. We need to get salt!

Two sleeps till Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Here's our Christmas card for this year! I wish we could have sent out more but I didn't realize how expensive 5X7s can be especially envelopes! So next year hopefully I can find a deal! Merry Christmas everyone!

"Lets go see Christmas!!!!"

So I had been prepping Talia to go see Santa for awhile. We would talk about how Santa is nice, he give treats and on Christmas brings presents. So the last few days after I would say we're going to see Santa, Talia would say, "Yay!!!!! Go see Christmas (referring to Santa) and get presents, treats, and suckers!" Ha, no idea where suckers came from. She loves suckers and ANY type of candy.

Funniest thing was the last two days she would randomly say, "I don't want Santa to take my Pjs"- ok Talia! and then today she said while wearing her favorite princess pj sets, "Christmas (referring to Santa) NO take my pants and shirt!" haha I had to reassure her, Santa is nice and wouldn't steal her things.

Anyways we went. It was fun, she did good. Got a little nervous at first but after we got closer and I put her down. She whispered hi Santa and gave a little wave. She sat well and it went fine. Jace is so easy going he could care less who we was sitting with. So not big smiles but no crying children. I would call it a success.

The Santa looked like a good Santa but I think he could have done better by getting the kids names before hand and actually addressing the kids in a Santa voice and warming up to them. There was none of that. I get it would get tiring but really he didn't he talk to Talia much. He was nice just not as Santa like as I thought he would be.

Jace looks so old in this photo. Maybe it's because I gave him his first hair cut. I usually think he looks a lot like my brother (the eyes) but in this photo he looks SO much like Jason's brother Richard as a little boy.

She's a reindeer! I guess Santa fulfilled Talia's wishes by giving her a present (this hat), candy (candy cane), and a sucker (from her parents). What more could a kid want?

First hair cut! I think it turned out pretty good! Had a to shape it all over so we ended up cutting it a lot. We haven't even needed to cut Talia's hair this much at all. Haven't even cut the hair on the top of her head. 

 Had to look good for Santa!

What a little cute little boy!

The rest of the night we did our first ginger bread house. Talia loved it. We actually bought a pre-built kit from Costco. When Talia is a little older and can sit for a while longer while we build one these kits are great! Ready to go! It was a fun. We'll make this a new tradition and do one every year.

Talia enjoyed eating A LOT of the candy.

I loved how Jason did the icing. It was kind of tradition that my Dad put the house together and did the icing. I have good memories of making Gingerbread houses.

 I wish I could say this was my idea but it was on the front of the box.

Thought it was a cute tree

 She also enjoyed eating a lot of Icing. She ate SOOOO much candy tonight.

And she was so hyper. She didn't go to bed till like 9 15 pm and it's 10 30 and finally she has stopped talking in her crib.

 Yummy...

Our first ginger bread house :)

Visit from Cousin claire and Julie!

This past weekend (Thursday night till Tuesday morning) Jason's sister and her baby (18 month old) Claire came to visit us. It was a lot fun. Talia's at the stage where she's finally plays good, given the odd "mine" comment. Anyways Claire is an easy going girls who plays great as well. They got along SO well. It was easy to have them and we could just them go and play where ever without worry. Talia still asks "where'd Claire go Mommy?"

It was so much fun seeing Julie as well. I love Jason's siblings the problem is everyone lives SOOOO far away. I blame BYU for this, although I guess if they didn't go they wouldn't have found all my awesome in-laws! Anyways that's a whole other discussion. Julie has been travelling around for the past 4 weeks going with her husband Brian to residency interviews. We're grateful she was able to make a detour up to Edmonton. Thankfully Richard, Leslie, and their new baby Benson live a block away so us 9 (5 adults and 4 kids) spent a lot of time together those 4 days. It was a lot of fun.
Who knows when we'll see them next. She' pregnant with twins so hopefully when she has the babies we'll plan a trip to wherever they live and visit them. 

Claire and Talia playing piano! They both know Twinkle Twinkle Little Star pretty good so they sang it all weekend!

Terrible photo (from iphone and I guess I couldn't get a clear one with all 4 of them)

We went to galaxy land for the free rides for kids under 2. Yes we did tell them Talia was 2 months over 2 and maybe because she looks younger than ever 2 year old they still let her in free. Thank you Galaxy Land ha! Richard and Leslie went on the mind bender. I think Richard realized the roller coaster wasn't as smooth as he remembered he had a pretty sore back. I think Leslie and I need to go on a rides date because we like rides and the Lows feel sick. I wish I went on a couple.

Alright I've never been in this place but I actually loved it! For the most part they played in the balls and went on the kids slide. But since I am the shortest in the family and NOT pregnant I took Claire and Talia up on 2 slides. Little did I know they were the fastest slides I've ever been on. I think I scared Claire a bit but it was a lot of fun. Jace also loved the balls. I think we'll have to go back!

Loving the balls

Sitting on the bed watching TV while we got ready. Sitting was a rare occasion with these two.

Since Claire always got her hair done Talia this weekend insisted on have "piggies". I think they're SO cute!

And just thought I'd add this photo. I was busy doing something and when I went to go look at Jace apparently he found Talia's chocolate covered marshmallow and ate 80% of it. He looks in shock when I took it away. I was doing so good with not giving him tons of junk or unnecessary sugar (like I did Talia) but I guess he found it himself.

9 months already!!!

My little Jace-ee as we call him at home is 9 months today. Time goes by so fast. One second they're in you and you're dying for them to come out and the next second you're dying for them to stop growing up!

I feel like with Talia time was slower even though every month I couldn't believe she was a month older, time was still slower. I remember thinking 'oh 9 months old we still have a while to go before she's 1. But with Jace, it seems like 3 months is such a short time. Anyways here's my Jace-ee.

Jace is one of the easiest going kids. I thought Talia was easy going but Jace is even more so. What I mean is Talia was an easier "younger" baby and Jace is an easier "older" baby. He's just so happy. He cries when he's hungry and tired but other than that he's usually good have a few cuddled and pull himself around eating whatever he can find or playing with whatever toy he can find. He doesn't play shy at all. Which is WAY different from Talia. He'll cuddle or sit with anyone. I remember thinking 'why doesn't Talia just go with other people.' I liked being needed sometimes but other times wished she would branch out. Now this time around I am thinking the opposite. I think 'don't you just want your mama?' Or 'choose me!'

He finally got over croup and this nasty cough so we're finally getting back on track with sleeping. I'll probably have to do some sleep training but that's ok. He did go 11 hours last night and after a bottle he slept another 1.5 hours. I can't complain.

I think Talia understood more at this age. I probably had more time to sit and teach her or do more. I remember teaching Talia not to throw food and at this age and she knew she was in trouble if she did. Jace has no concept of that. He doesn't really throw food but he will go wild and wave his arms knocking off some food so we'll have to work on. I guess in the end by the time they're going to school, you'll never know who slept through the night first, who was potty trained first, and who walked first. Other than walking firsts just make moms lives easier- like sleeping through the night first!

He is so curious about everything. If we open the baby gate he makes a dash (army crawl dash) to the stairs and if we didn't hold onto his feet he would go right down. He's also tough. He hits his head all the time on things and he rarely cries. Last week he pulled a baby monitor on his face and he cried so I know he was hurt. And when Talia rides him like a horsey or something else he usually is laughing or just takes it. He's tough. Good combo he's tough and she's a light weight.

He's just so sweet and I am smitten by him. How can you not be? Look at his eyes! Seriously i never touch his eyes with more color. They're crazy blue. He's losing some of his strawberry blonde hair for white blonde. You can tell because all his new hair is not strawberry blonde. I think we'll always have a ting or strawberry blonde... I hope so!

I love him to pieces and I am loving how Talia and Jace play so well (most of the time!). I love my kids and I am so blessed to be there mom!

Happy 9th Month of Life Jace!!!

It's beginning to Look a lot like Christmas

So we got our decorations up early. Well I bet some people have them up earlier than us but we beat our time from last year. It's fun having them up and it's even more fun when you luck out with a second kid that has no interest in the tree!

We're getting a pretty good start on shopping and I hope to finish soon.  Anyways here's a preview to Christmas at the Lows. I'm sure more to come throughout the month of December.

Also don't mind my blurry photos- I need a flash or some better lighting!

Seriously look at those kids they could care less about the tree- we'll see if that still happens when presents go under!

We love our little town!

Talia being such a goof! Look at the face, also check out that tiny neck. The other day I was watching her and I could see her carotid arteries pulse big time! what a crazy girl!

Seriously so cute! And really no touch ups, those are how crazy blue his eyes are. I just love love love his coloring. I am fearful we are losing some of his strawberry blonde color. Looks like a lot of the hair underneath is very blonde. But if I were a betting person I would bet Jace will always have a bit of strawberry blonde to him. (sad it's a blurry photo- SO cute!!!)

Can't wait to do more Christmas activities. That's why I want to get shopping out of the way so we can focus on the season during December!

Oh I guess just a side note. Jason and I went to Utah this past weekend for his brother Robbie's wedding WITHOUT the kids. It was fun being able to go and do what we wanted for such a short trip. I love seeing family and seeing Robbie and Cammie get married. We are most grateful to my Grandma who watched my kids. Jace isn't even sleeping his 11-12 hours because he's been sick so she really did do A TON! So thank you Grandma. You truly are a life saver and made us feel stress free. I seriously didn't worry once this weekend because she's SO good with kids. Plus I have the youngest grandma so she really is a lot of my friends' parents' age! She's still got it! Thank you and love you!

The big 3-0

I feel a bit behind and I actually almost forgot to post pictures. Jason turned 30 this year!!! That's a big birthday and I really did stress about it for months. I knew he wouldn't want a surprise party but I did want to do something.

Anyways I ended up having people send in memories of him and I put it all together in card. I think he liked it, I hope he liked it! Anyways aside from that it ended up being a great weekend because Jason's family was here that weekend for Jason's brother Richard's baby blessing. So that Saturday, Jason's parents watched out kids and Justin and Amelia's while us 4 went out to dinner to the Moose Factory! It was so much fun hanging out with them (without kids). Also the food was awesome! I love steak and so does Jason so it worked out great. Wish i got a photo of our meals- delicious!

After dinner and came home and had cake with the kids and did presents that night. It was fun and I'm glad family was here and that we got a free night out with Justin and Amelia.

Gotta love this photo- Hands everywhere ha!

And as always my family celebrate the 3 brother in laws birthdays because they all are within 10 days of each other. Jason and Jordan's on the same day and year! crazy!!!

Happy Birthday Jason we love you!!!!

My new nephew

Jason's brother Richard and his wife Leslie had their first baby boy October 24th, 2011. He weighed 7lbs 15 ozs and really is a cute newborn. He didn't have much swelling at all and had the most perfect head. He looks just like his mommy (so far and I think he might always look like her more but we all know how babies change) and he's been a pretty good baby.

It was fun taking photos. We did it right in their bedroom and it worked out for the most part. Quick reaction on my part also saved Richard from being sprayed with a good stream of pee!!!

How do they do it?

We usually check on the kids before bed and this is how we found Jace

Pretty impressive!

Not as impressive BUT whenever we put button up PJs on Talia she can resist the temptation to take them off and this is how we ALWAYS find it

And I think I posted this already but just to refresh yours minds this is how we find her



BOO.... I mean YUM!!!!

Halloween was fun this year. Talia loved it. If anyone knows her you would know she LOVES candy and chocolate and anything to do with sugar. Often we hear "I want sugar" around this house from her so Halloween was right up her alley! Talia even knew to say "Trick or Treat". Even today she's asking me if we can go "trick or treat".

My parents and the Heavenors came over which made it even that more fun! Enjoy the pictures!!!

 My kids didn't have scary costumes they went in Yummy costumes

A cupcake and a hamburger

 My mom and Jace

 (Marli, Talia, Jace, and Avery)

This was one of the only photos we got of Jace looking, he seriously wouldn't stop looking at Avery's hair funny!

 Trick or Treat!!!

 Happy starting out

 My two cousins, Casey and Kristin met up with us.

Jace ready to go home. He did good, especially since he was sick and got croup that night! Poor guy!



In Heaven!!!