Sweet Baby

Doesn't she just look so cozy and beautiful? I love this baby.

Happy Girl

Janey usually gets to sit in her high chair while we eat as a family, so she can be a part of our family at meal time. This particular morning, she was exceptionally happy to be in the high chair, so I snapped a few quick pics of her.

Cute Smiles:




And now showcasing the long tongue that everyone who sees it comments on:

Blogger Formatting

Does anyone else have serious issues with blogger photo formats? My posts always look one way in the preview, which I was assuming would show how they'd end up, but then the pictures are in completely different places in the actual posts... so annoying.

Hamera, Mom?

So the other night, Breanne, Janey and I were in the living room watching a show, or so I thought... All of a sudden Breanne walked back into the room, requesting me to get the camera--"hamera, mom. Hamera peese!" she said. I looked over at her, and found her dressed basically how she looks in the pictures below (I adjusted the straps on my tank top to fit her more like a dress, but the rest she did completely on her own). I just thought it was hilarious that 1.) she had gotten out my clothes and put them on herself without me noticing, and 2.) that she requested (almost to a demand, even) that I take her picture in said clothes. Crazy girl.

Just Sittin'

So as Janey's been nearing her 6 month milestone, she's started wanting to sit up all the time... and she's getting pretty good at doing it all by herself. The first couple are from about 3 weeks ago, the second set last week. She's even more sturdy this week. I can't believe she's growing up so quickly, Breanne seemed so old when she started sitting up, now I realize she was just a baby.

Smiling Eyes

 I love the difference between these two photos of Janey... her eyes really do make all the difference, even when you can't see her mouth.   Oh how she loves her thumb!

50 of my favorite memories of my Mom

1. Doing cartwheels on my grandparent's lawn.
2. Skipping everywhere.
3. Buying gummy worms or other great treats out of Ream's serve yourself bins.
4. Putting together treat jars for the YW sleepover at our house that she let me attend even though I was too young.
5. Writing notes at camp.
6. Reading daily letters at any camp I attended that she wasn't at.
7. Finding sweet notes of encouragement and love on my bed after or during a hard day.
8. Going to pick up my cat Lucky (a very vague memory) and being so excited when she came out holding her.
9. Taking Lucky to the vet's for the last time and being grateful there was someone else there who was crying as much as I was.
10. Going to Panda Express in Logan when she came to visit.
11. Getting our picture taken in a booth at the mall.
12. Walking around the mall in an attempt to get me into labor with Breanne.
13. Going to see "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" together and laughing like crazy.
14. Walking around her neighborhood every night and joking about the neighborhood boys being in love with me.
15. Talking about how boys are like dogs.
16. The first time she let me drive around the neighborhood... her obviously panicky face... with good reason... but we made it... :)
17. Her swordfighting with other kids on the elevator during band tour.
18. Blowing straw wrappers.
19. Yardsailing (remember the almost dead cat?).
20. Going to lunch in Salt Lake.
21. Playing with her at the armory during recess.
22. Talking about flowers and plants.
23. Daily phone calls.
24. Sudoku races during Breanne's labor.
25. Playing Scrabble.
26. Going to get Dolly.
27. Going through the temple.
28. Shopping for baby things before my first baby shower.
29. Going shopping after my breakdown when I didn't get any presents for my 13th birthday.
30. Girls nights when the boys were all at Father and Sons.
31. Taking "engagement" pics.
32. Planning my wedding.
33. Laughing so hard we cried (now I can't even remember what made us laugh, but it's happened several times).
34. All our laundry room talks... man was I an awkward child.
35. Her graduation at SLCC.
36. My graduation at UVSC.
37. Working together on simple things, like housecleaning.
38. The way she made tedious jobs fun by making them a game, like when she put all the jobs in a hat, and let us choose what we did, or when she'd let us each choose a cd to listen to while we cleaned, and crank the music throughout the house.
39. The way she guessed when I was pregnant the second time, when I hadn't mentioned anything about it to her.
40. How she encouraged me to date Cory.
41. Shopping for my first post-marriage birthday.
42. Her constant reassurance when I was about 6, and certain that somehow someone was going to blow up our house with dynamite, or burn it down or something (or even worse, that it would be my parents that were the bad guys!).
43. Watching her interact with my girls.
44. Seeing her embrace her role as grandma.
45. Her enthusiasm when we wanted to buy a house, and willingness to help us accomplish that.
46. Realizing how much she must have sacrificed to help us do the activities we wanted to growing up.
47. Waiting for Breanne to come, just hanging out.
48. Spending time with her after both Breanne and Janey came, and all of her help.
49. Watching her love my dad.
50. Knowing that despite our differences, she really does love me.

Happy 50th Birthday, Mom. I want you to know how much we love you, and appreciate all you do for us. And I hope you don't mind that I just broadcast your age to all my readers. :) I hope you had a wonderful birthday, and that you wear your helmet when you ride your bike, because we want you around for a long time.

C'mon, Everybody's Doin' It...

100 Things About Me:

1. I have never dyed my hair, and doubt I ever will.
2. I never thought I'd have a red headed daughter, but love that I do.  I always thought that I'd have a brunette daughter, and I love that I do.

3. I love tomato sandwiches (just toasted bread, mayo and salted ripe red tomato slices... mmm)

4. I love gardening--something about being outside, working in the earth, helping things grow...it's hard to beat that.
5. I love teaching my girls silly new things, like what lizards, camels and hyenas say--it lightens my mood when they're making me a little crazy.

(telling you what a hyena says... he he he he)

6. I have found gray hairs in my hair and one in my eyebrow... sick, huh.
7. I want to go on a mission for the LDS church with my hubby someday when we're older.
8. I wish I had a treadmill. It is just so hard to get outside to exercise with two girls--my sleep is just too important to me to get up before they do.
9. I can't sleep in the car. I am a ridiculously nervous passenger.
10. I don't like fancy cars, I just want something reasonably priced and reliable. Car trouble makes me more upset than just about anything else in this world.
11. When I get angry, I can't yell. I just cry.
12. I hate crying. It gives me a headache.
13. I don't like taking medicine. I do firmly believe in doctors, and will do what they tell me, but most often, if I have an ache or pain (unless it's really severe) I'll just suck it up and wait it out, rather than taking something for it.
14. I puke a lot while I'm pregnant--this is one of the exceptions for my dislike of medicine taking--taking Unisom and B6 cuts my daily throwings-up from 7-8 times to 2-3 times. I'm pretty sure that stuff is heaven-sent.
15. I love angel-food cake, it's probably my most favorite kind of cake.
16. I make really great cheesecakes, and am feeling comfortable enough with the genre that I might branch out and try to make my own the next time I make one.
17. I haven't made a cheesecake in a few months, mostly because I'm trying really hard to cut out calories, and I definitely don't need that as a temptation.
18. I am terrible at walking away from good deals on things the girls "need" (need is in quotation marks because they rarely, if ever, need anything due to wonderful grandparents and other family members who constantly give them new and beautiful things).
19. I love getting gifts. I know it's so ridiculous, but I like it when people put time and effort into finding something they think I'd like. I cried on my 13th birthday when my parents gave me cash to spend with my friends at the mall--I just wanted presents.
20. I try really hard to not dwell in the past. What's gone is gone, and there is so much life to live, so many things before me that I don't feel like I have time to mourn over days gone by. I'm grateful they happened, but feel a need to live in the present.
21. I constantly find myself thinking in "facebook status" mode--I regularly realize I've condensed what I'm doing down into a single sentence description that I could place after a "Jessie is..." When I realize it's too complex for a status, I am troubled at first, but then usually blog about it later.
22. I wish I'd started a blog years ago when Cory first suggested I should do it--I would've been so much cooler when blogging became popular.
23. I tried really hard to reinvent myself during the summer between 9th and 10th grade--I was so tired of being the quiet girl that nobody really knew in jr high, so I made myself become outgoing, and tried really hard to be the friend to everyone that I didn't feel like I'd had.
24. I have a really good memory for names of people I've met, though that skill seems to be diminishing more and more with every child I have.
25. I am terrible at history, because I can't remember specifics. I don't know what happened to my memory, but I find myself constantly mixing up people, places and stories. It makes me really sad, because I find history so fascinating.
26. I don't care much for what I call "pop lit." This includes Harry Potter (I read the first 3 over 3 days, then gave them up because they were blah...) and the Twilight series (I'm currently reading them, they're okay, and nice because they're so easy to read, but nowhere near the level I was hoping for with all the hype they've gotten).
27. My favorite book of all time is "Travels with Charley" by John Steinbeck, because it is just so real to me.
28. In elementary school and jr high I wished there was an "a" in my name, so that I could write it in the style of a times new roman a, all curvey-like. I even started spelling out Jessica (which got a few question marks by it from my teachers) just so I could make my cool a's.
29. I graduated from UVSC with a 3.9, Summa Cum Laude. I was very proud of that (despite the fact that I feel like I kind of cheated to get it... they started my gpa over when I got there (because I basically had an associates from USU, with a 3.4 gpa)). Just goes to show how much better I did in classes I loved vs. generals.
30. I once punched my chemistry teacher. I promised some of you that I'd share this story, so here goes, as quickly as I can--in high school, I got to be really good buddies with Mr. Leyva, who was known for his joking and teasing nature, and I found myself jokingly punching him on the arm regularly. Well, one day, Mr. Dunnebacke was teasing me similarly to how Mr. Leyva would've, so I punched him. Believe me, I was every bit as shocked as he was when I did it, and I quickly turned around and sat down at my desk. The worst of it, though, was later that evening at a band competition when I told Mr. Leyva what had happened, then while we were performing, he told my parents about it. My dad came up to me after the performance, and told me that he'd received a call from the school about me punching a teacher, and I was being suspended, and couldn't do any more extracurricular activities from then on. With tears in my eyes, I looked away from my dad, only to see Mr. Leyva laughing hysterically a few feet away. I was so overwhelmed, both with gratitude that my dad was making it up, and with playful anger toward Mr. Leyva for helping my dad concoct such a story that I punched them both.
31. I love laughing, especially laughing so hard that I cry.  I'm so lucky to have married someone who makes me laugh so hard on such a regular basis.
32. I have only really cried at 3 movies--Big Fish, Muppets Take Manhattan, and Juno.
33. I was just finished being pregnant when I cried at Muppets Take Manhattan, which meant that my emotions were all over the place, so stop laughing at me. Plus it has like the best love song ever during the wedding scene, so just give me a break.
34. One of my very favorite songs is Danny's Song. Not Danny Boy, but Danny's song. Even though they talk about having sons, I feel like it captures what it feels like to love one's spouse and children.
35. I started going to group guitar lessons a couple months ago, and have been pleasantly surprised at how much I've learned--I really love playing the guitar, and realizing that my favorite songs actually aren't that difficult, if I just strum them.
36. I am terrified of singing in public by myself. I know my voice probably isn't horrible, but I get SO nervous about it that I just can't make myself do it.
37. Despite my fear of singing in public, I got straight 5's on the AP music test, which has a sight-singing portion to it.
38. I rarely proof-read (and almost never revise) what I've written, because I'm too cocky about my writing skills.
39. I really miss going back to class at this time of year, even though I can't imagine being in school right now.
40. I love the feel of fall. Don't get me wrong, I love all the seasons for various reasons, but fall is by far my favorite, something about the air, I guess.
41. I am a klutz. Always have been, but especially so when I'm pregnant. Back when we were dating, the day that I fell in front of Cory and he was more concerned about me than laughing at me was one of the days that told me I would do well to marry him. :)
42. Despite all the crazy things about it, I love love love being pregnant. Both times that I've gone into labor I've balled my eyes out for fear that I would never feel a baby move inside me again.

43. I think that I *might* try to go natural with my next baby, just because my labor and delivery was so short and easy this time, but we'll see when that time comes. No promises.


44. I don't understand all the arguments against eating processed food. Maybe I'm just too lazy, but I have no desire to try to cut all of it out of my diet and eat only "all natural" foods.
45. I eat at least one bowl of cereal or one sandwich every day now, depending on which Breanne wants for either lunch of breakfast.
46. I eat breakfast, lunch and dinner every day, and feel like I'm starving if I don't.
47. The number one reason I get tired of being pregnant is because I get tired of trying to figure out what to eat every two hours.
48. I am not pregnant (though I seem to be talking a lot about being pregnant in this post, sorry).
49. I am very long-winded--I can say in two pages what Cory can say in a paragraph (if that).
50. I will be exactly half my mom's age and 1/3 my grandma's age after my birthday next month. Even better is that Janey will fit into the same pattern in 25 years...
51. I feel ridiculously comforted by celebrities who get married young and have families--shows me that I'm not the only one. I realize I shouldn't care, but I do.
52. I often feel like I am in a completely different stage of life than a lot of my friends, and though changing diapers and having a life that revolves around when my kids eat next isn't that exciting, I wouldn't trade it for the world.
53. I love watching my kids learn to do something new, it's one of the best feelings in the world.
54. I love snuggling up under lots of warm blankets on cold mornings and evenings.
55. I love being outside in the warmth of the sun.
56. I miss the cold crispness of the air up in Logan during the late fall and early winter.
57. My friend Mysti and I once created snow furniture, and thought we'd start our own shop someday to sell it.
58. I've been an Usborne Books consultant for nearly a year now, and I still love the products I sell, even though I haven't done a whole lot with it recently.
59. I won't buy a toy for my kids unless it has some sort of educational purpose--otherwise they're just empty noisemakers, which we have plenty of.
60. I finished my bachelors in 6 semesters, despite a school transfer.
61. I love early 20th century American Lit, and someday I hope to go back to school to get a masters then phD so I can teach it.
62. I'm sometimes excited when I realize that I probably won't live my entire life in Utah, even though the thought of moving away scares me beyond belief.
63. Being a stay at home mom has taught me that I'm capable of a lot more things than I ever realized--I have learned to do a lot of house maintenance by myself, things I always expected my husband would do, but now realize he doesn't have time for--and I find myself very gratified by the fact that I can do them.
64. I am so lucky to have a husband who loves me and our girls so much that he's willing to put in 12-14 hour days between school and work, and still gives the girls baths and puts them to bed when he gets home.


65. I usually don't eat dinner until 7:30, sometimes later, because Cory doesn't get home before then. This also pushes the girl's bedtime back to 10:00ish, so they get a chance to hang out with their dad before bed.
66. Spending time together as a family is more important to me than following society's or our extended family's expectations of what we should be doing.
67. I don't mind spending money on things we need, like groceries, but I have a really hard time spending money on wants, and always feel like I have to call Cory to make sure it's ok, even when I know he'd be fine with it.
68. I owned two movies when I married Cory. Now there are too many to fit on our dvd shelves, which have 3 shelves deep enough for the movies to go two deep. I guess we like to own entertainment. Several of our friends use us for our movies, I'm sure of it. :)
69. Sometimes when I'm watching movies I've seen many many times (like Toy Story 2, for example), I find myself just wishing that the characters could get things right the first time, and not go through the entire ordeal of the story (like Woody not falling off of Buster's back and getting stolen by Al. Seriously, why couldn't Buster just turn around and pick him up to take him in the house? It gets me every time!).
70. I loved having big dogs (chows and collies) growing up, but I don't think we could ever handle having such a creature around here. I'm hopeful that someday we'll get a schnauzer, or some similar smallish dog that isn't too yappy. That, I think I could handle (at least enough to convince Cory that we should get one).
71. When I was little, I wanted to be a veterinarian. Now all I want is to be a mom with an occasional excuse to get out of the house sometimes.
72. I clean when I am upset. Which usually works as good therapy, but sometimes backfires, because doing the dishes and vacuuming leaves one with quite a bit of time to brood.
73. I am getting better and better at telling people when I'm upset instead of trying to suppress my feelings. It's easier with some people than others, though.
74. I try to be a very honest person.
75. Honestly, though I usually claim our cluttery house is Cory's fault, at least part of the blame falls on me. I have a hard time throwing away old papers (even syllabi... they could be used in the future as references... sometimes I think I'm crazy!) and other sentimental items, even though i know I wouldn't miss them if they were gone.
76. I am considering (only considering, don't freak out at me!) home schooling my girls when they get old enough for school, mostly because I'm afraid of the way this world is going, and I don't want to have to expose my girls to that before I have to.
77. I hate gas prices.
78. I feel like, despite our economy right now, we live in a pretty great country--we have received so much help as poor, hard-working people, and I am so grateful for it all.
79. I can't wait for the day that Cory is FINALLY done with school, so we can move on to the next part of our lives, where hopefully we aren't quite so financially strapped. It's getting old.
80. I don't really want to grow old and have my body fall apart--even just after having 2 kids, it's so messed up (does anyone else have their hips/back popping every single time they change positions in bed? Ugh!). I hope the 2nd coming is soon. Or that medicine can progress enough to stop me from aging horribly. :)
81. I do want to see my girls grow up and learn to live lives of their own.
82. I don't want my girls to grow up, because we're having such a wonderful time with them while they're so little.
83. I remember thinking on my 9th birthday that I had already wasted so much time in my life, and didn't have very many memories of it, so I resolved to do better. While I do have a lot of memories, I hope to continue to do better at making them.
84. The day I turned 16 I was asked on 3 dates, and went on a "blind" date (it was with a friend I knew, but my brother and his girlfriend set us up, so I didn't know who I'd actually be with). It was a great day.
85. I actually thought my older brother was really cool, and wanted to be friends with him and his friends. He ended up actually being cool, too, and letting me hang out with him and all his buddies.
86. I was in the high school marching band for all four years, which is a bigger feat in West Jordan than elsewhere, because 9th grade isn't actually at the high school.
87. Had I been in one more performing ensemble my freshman year at USU, I would've tied for the person with the most performing ensembles in the entire music program. I was in marching band, wind orch, football pep band, basketball pep band, flute ensemble, and jazz orchestra. I considered majoring in music, but never actually had that on my transcript.
88. Though I'm currently learning to play guitar, I don't play much else anymore. Listening to good jazz or watching an amazing marching band makes me really miss it, though.
89. I loved basketball during jr. high, and really wanted to be on the 9th grade team, but my Dad convinced me that I shouldn't try out because girls played so crazy and mean. After that I joined the marching band, and never really looked back, though I do still love a good game of tornado.
90. Almost every single time I play pool, if I am about to win, I somehow manage to accidently knock the 8 ball in and lose the game.
91. I took swimming lessons for at least 10 years, yet I am still just a very mediocre swimmer.
92. I still to this day have a difficult time with long devision, I think because I was sick during the time they learned it in 4th grade.
93. My school mascots were a mountain man, a panther, a jaguar, a bull, and a wolverine.
94. I presented a paper I wrote at a nationwide conference in Virginia during my last weeks of school.
95. If I ever have to get a "real job" before I'm able to go back to school, I'd like to find something in the editing field. I am a very strong proof-reader.
96. I created and was the editor-in-chief of Quire, UVSC's english department's publishing for scholarly work.
97. I love the scent of used book stores.
98. I get nauseated when I smell certain scents (esp. back-to-school scent c/o office max) and hear certain songs (like Home by Michael Buble) because they're so tied in with being pregnant and so sick when I was working while pregnant with Breanne.
99. My favorite hymn is "I Know That My Redeemer Lives."
100. I love the absolute knowledge that I have that the Gospel is true, and that if I do my part, I can receive it's promised blessings.

(Doesn't this look like the garden of Eden?  Nope, just New Hampshire, Cory's old yard.)

Whew! There you have it. Probably more about me than you ever wanted to know. Took me 3 days to write because I had a lot of distractions, and I tried to make each thing about me tie into the thing before it... points to you if you can figure out how they all tie together. You really don't have to try, though. :)

Nerd Test

So I thought this was pretty fun, saw it on a couple of blogs recently, and decided to do it myself. I was a little surprised at my results, because I thought I was a bit more of a computer nerd than they think I am, definitely thought I was better at math than than... and though I love history, I'm pretty terrible at it. At least they got the lit part right. :) Anyway, my results:






So then, of course, as any good wife would do, I made Cory take the test... and thought his results were much more accurate. Cory's results:

Tragedy

So today I went out to the garden for the first time in a few days, and found many (read: 25!) tomatoes ripe and ready to be picked, which was fun (see my "today's picks" photo on the sidebar--I'll be updating it regularly, I hope).  After picking the tomatoes, I ventured over to the zucchini, where I found this:



Does anyone know what would cause this sort of thing? I noticed the other day while I was out there that the zucchini was looking a little dimpled on the end, and by today it was brown and withered... so sad. Now I have to wait for more.

On a related note, how does one tell when corn is ready to be picked? I have several ears growing, but I have no idea how to tell when they're done. I'll be doing some research on that today.

New Friends

A few weeks ago, we were able to get together with our new friends Mandi and Scott for the first time.  Janey and Scott are a day apart, so it was fun to see them interact.  Breanne really did pretty well trying to play nicely with the babies and the baby toys, which made me happy. Thanks so much to Brooke, Mandi, and Sharon for making this happen--it was so fun to play with new friends.  

Yes, this is a really interesting book, can't you tell?

Scott is almost 2 inches taller than Janey, and two or three pounds heavier, too, even though they were born almost equal.

Janey thinks Scott is super interesting.

And hilarious.

The Wrong Bed

So as most of you know, we switched Breanne over to a toddler bed about a month before Janey was born. So that would make it 6 months ago. The only time she's shown any sadness for her crib was when we were setting it back up for Janey a couple months back, but it was just for one night, and then she seemed over it.

Well, the other day, I put Breanne down for her nap, as usual. A few minutes later, I heard some serious screaming coming from her room, not so usual, so I headed in. This is what I found:



Actually, that's a lie. What I found was a very upset (and trapped! "I'n duck!" (I'm stuck!) she told me) Breanne.  So of course instead of just getting her out, I made her wait while I got my camera, snapped a few pictures, and then returned to finally get her out.  All I could think at the time was, "I need to blog this." I think I'm getting sick... :)

Don't worry, she cheered up some when she realized I was going to help her, and even more when she saw me return with the camera.

Playing with the Kids

So while Katie and Colin were here tonight, Katie took some video with her point and shoot camera, which was so great, because it's so easy to put on my computer (as opposed to my video camera, which I haven't figured out how to load up and split up and all the process that goes with that...). So here is a video to give you some idea of how Breanne talks, and what Janey is up to. The sound is pretty bad, because Cory and Colin were playing Halo in the background (about 6 feet away), but you'll get the general idea. I love Breanne's sweet voice, and Janey blows a few raspberries, if you listen closely, and just generally looks pretty cute. Enjoy!!

Breanne's Latest Achievement

New at the Kilger House: Breanne sings! She may not exactly know the words... sometimes not even close... but she sure gives it a good shot! I especially like the end of the song.



That is the ABC song, in case you aren't quite clear on that.