Set Doggedly to It

Turkey Trot and Goal!

2010-11-07T07:50:00.000-07:00

The kids had a Turkey Trot fund raiser at school. Kaylie ran nearly 2 miles and Sam and Dallin ran nearly 3. Dallin fell and twisted his ankle during one of the first laps, but pushed on through. Sam ran and ran till he couldn't move his legs. By the end of the day, Sam's legs were really sore and Dallin's ankle was hurting enough that he couldn't walk home and Jana had to pick him up.

Sam had his last soccer game this week. He did great! He got a goal and was really getting into the game. Something clicked in him this week.

LEGO Universe and Halloween

2010-11-01T07:47:00.000-06:00

Nathan now says, "I don't want to."

One night this week, I tickled him on the neck and he started cracking up. After he settled down, he came over and said, "Again!" he kept wanting me to tickle him and he had us all laughing.

Kaylie is really thinking about things deeply. She tells Jana a lot about how we have lots of brothers and sisters, that everyone in the world is a brother or sister.

Sam wrote a book this week. It was a circle story, like "If you give a Mouse a Muffin." His was about looking at a alien.

Jana took the kids to Target the day LEGO Universe came out. They got the last box. They were so excited.

As I pulled up to the church for Cub Scouts this week, Dallin noticed a group of the young women standing on the sidewalk, in front of the car. He said, "Aw Dad! Why did you have to park in front of the hot girls?" His baby-sitters said "Hi Dallin" as we walked into the church, and he was shy, but was also pleased.

One of the sisters Jana visit-teaches talked to her for quite a while about our kids at school. She's a kindergarten teacher and Dallin is their student council representative. She said he came in the other day and was telling the kids about all of the things they were deciding on student council. She said he was really cute. She also talked to Mrs. Croghan about Sam, whom she really enjoys having in class.

Jana was getting Nathan dressed for the Google Halloween Party. She showed him the frog costume and he said, "I scared!" and covered his eyes. She convinced him that it wasn't scary and got him dressed. Kaylie was a butterfly. Sam was a mummy at school but his costume fell apart during class so he changed into his superman costume. Dallin was a ghost pirate. Jana cut the bottoms off his old jeans.

On Saturday, we carved pumpkins. After Jana carved the face on Nathan's pumpkin, he kept saying "A pumpkin, scary eyes!" and pointed at the face. Kaylie drew her own face this year and both Dallin and Sam carved their own faces. They're getting pretty good.

When Jana and I watched our movie this week, Dallin and Sam were trying to be sneaky. They kept creeping up to our door and then would run through our room into the bathroom, as if we couldn't see them because they were moving so fast. Funny.

Mommy Moon

2010-10-24T21:25:00.002-06:00

We made carmel apples for our family home evening treat. I had a brilliant idea of cutting up the apples and then putting them into the carmel and pulling them out with toothpicks. Turns out, you have to keep the carmel hot, or it doesn't coat the pieces, but keeping the carmel hot cooks the apples and makes all of the juice come out, which makes the carmel runny. At least they tasted good.

Nathan says, "I don't want to." Tonight I kissed him on the neck and he started cracking up. After he settled down, he came over and said, "Again!" he kept wanting me to tickle him and he had us all laughing.

Dallin's drawing bridges and made one with LEGOs tonight. The kids are really excited about LEGO Universe coming out this week.

Kaylie is really thinking about things deeply. She tells Jana a lot about how we have lots of brothers and sisters, that everyone in the world is a brother or sister. She also observed, "Mom, did you know the moon is the mommy or daddy of all of the stars. The moon is bigger so it's the mommy or the daddy."

Sam wrote a book tonight. It was a circle story, like "If you give a Mouse a Muffin." His was about looking at a alien from outer space.

The Terrific Twos

2010-10-17T21:37:00.002-06:00

12 October 2010, Tuesday

Dallin's been elected to the student council. What a man! He had his first meeting this morning. They discussed what kind of silly day they should do next. They decided on a "Twin Day."

Today Kaylie said something bad. Sam chastised her, "You can't say that if you want to go to the sun." Jana asked, "What?" And he said, "You know, the kingdom." I guess he was paying attention in Family Home Evening.

13 October 2010, Wednesday

Kaylie was up late coughing late last night. I got up to give her fever reducer and cough medicine at about 11:30 and then sat with her for an hour in the bathroom with the shower making steam. She got tired of it and so I told her long versions of Jack and the Beanstalk and Little Red Riding Hood. Either that did the trick, or I passed out, because I didn't wake up again until I was late for work.

17 October 2010, Sunday

When we got to Church, Sam was really pokey getting out of the car. I left him behind to reserve us a seat on a padded pew. Kaylie occupied the seat for me and set about drawing. I went back to the car, looking for Sam. I couldn't find him anywhere. He wasn't in the parking lot, he wasn't in the bathroom. I finally walked passed the primary room and glanced in the window only to see him setting up chairs by himself. He went in, without being prompted, to help set up for primary. What a kid!

When we got home, Nathan was asleep. Dallin had played with him until after lunch, even changing his clothes after the snack I made him got all over everything. He's got the makings of a awesome babysitter. Just three more years.

Nathan loves his puppy from Grandma and Grandpa Jackson. He kisses it and carries it around with him before bed time, and sleeps with it. Tonight he was pretending to be a horse, giving one of Kaylie's dolls a ride on his back. He's very good a pretending. He's starting to sing songs with me before I put him to bed. I love this age!

We Found the Glasses!

2010-05-23T22:31:00.000-06:00

13 May 2010, Thursday

The fields were wet this afternoon, so Sam's practice was canceled. It was nice to have another day free from activities. In the evening, while Jana was reading with Dallin, I played catch with Sam outside. He loved the attention. Jana came out for a few minutes to demonstrate throwing. We got the neighbors watching us from their kitchen table. Sam couldn't concentrate so I turned him around to have his back to the neighbors.

After the kids were in bed, Jana and I bought tickets for our trip to Disneyland in June and our trip to England to visit Miles and Kris in August. We were pretty lucky to get non-stop flights both ways.

14 May 2010, Friday

Tonight we took the whole family over to the church to clean the chapel and the kitchen. It was good to take the kids, because all but Nathan were able to help out a little bit. It also only took us about an hour an a half, instead of the typical three to four hours.

15 May 2010, Saturday

Dallin came in and showed me his tooth this morning. He's been working on it for quite a while and it finally came out. He's still nervous whenever I asked to feel it. He thinks I'm going to yank on it. I've really damaged his psyche.

We got a babysitter for Nathan and then went to Kaylie's dance recital. It was adorable. Kaylie performed two pieces, a ballet called "Tiger in a Tutu" and a tap called "Bunny Rabbit Blues." She obviously really enjoy dancing and she did very well following her teacher. She got distracted by her classmates only a couple of times.

Jana bought some flowers with Sam for Kaylie and Sam got to give them to her. She still thinks the flowers were from Sam and she had been loving him all day for it.

Tonight, I put together a couple of desks for the boys room. They are so excited to have some space of their own. I let the kids help with the first desk, but I did the second on my own since I was tired and my patience was running out. I got them put together before bed time and then cleaned up the mess.

16 May 2010, Sunday

Sacrament meeting was a little hard. Jana was up on the stand, while I tried to take care of four kids in the pew. I know that's probably nothing to many moms at church, but it was challenging for me. Nathan did finally need to go out and I took Kaylie with me. They boys were being really good, so I left them in the chapel alone. I was able to hear Jana's talk, which was really good from the foyer. She had a few notes written down but the whole thing sounded smooth and well thought out. She even held it together emotionally all the way through.

17 May 2010, Monday

After the babies were in bed, I played baseball outside with Sam and did his homework with him while Jana helped Dallin with his homework. Sam enjoys playing catch.

The whole family took some time tonight to look for Sam's glasses. They are no where to be found.

18 May 2010, Tuesday

Nathan is jabbering a lot lately. He is very cute. Only rarely do I actually understand anything he is saying, but he is so serious about it, I'm almost positive that he really thinks he is talking.

We still haven't found Sam's glasses.

21 May 2010, Friday

Jana took Sam to the optometrist for a checkup and to buy new glasses. We still haven't found his glasses and it has been a long time. Fortunately, we have good eye insurance and most of the glasses were covered.

22 May 2010, Saturday

Jana took all of the kids to Kaylie's dance class. Jana said that they did a lot of work at the bar and that Ms. Julie was correcting the girls and came to Kaylie, looked at Jana through the window and smiled because Kaylie was in good form, and then moved on to the next girl.

23 May 2010, Saturday

We had the missionaries over for dinner tonight. Jana and I made it together while the kids played. They are playing so nicely together lately, especially Sam and Kaylie. I'll find them in Kaylie's room playing make believe and being so nice to each other.

Nathan really loves books right now. He loves picture books and does well pointing at the pictures when you say the name. He jabbers a lot and is constantly making some conversation-like noise.

Jana found Sam's glasses today at church. Glad we bought a new pair on Friday. Jana put her Primary binder on the Lost and Found table to get a paper for someone and saw his glass just sitting there innocently. I wonder how long they have been there.

A Poke in the Eye and a Bloody Nose

2010-05-11T21:42:00.002-06:00

Saturday, May 1st

I took all of the kids with me to Kaylie's dance class. While I was helping Kaylie get a drink, she reached up to brush the hair out of her eyes and poked me in the eye. It was amazingly painful. It just got worse and worse. When I got home, I thought it would get better but the pain was unbearable. I called the some friends and dropped the kids off a their house. The husband drove me to urgent care where they gave me a drop that stopped the pain right away. Then they checked the eye and found an abrasion on the cornea. The doctor said, "Oooh, nasty, nasty." when he saw the abrasion with the ultraviolet light. He gave me a patch and a prescription for vicoden. And sent me home with an appointment to see the doctor tomorrow.

Sunday, May 2nd

My eye is feeling a lot better today. It feels like there is sand in my eye, instead of a rock.

Tuesday, May 4th

Eye is completely healed today. Tonight, I played with Kaylie and Nathan in the basement while Jana finished dinner. We played pirates and also threw bean-bags to each other. I noticed Nathan using a toy gun and making shooting noises. He picks up on stuff pretty quickly. His favorite thing to do right now when you pick him up is to touch all of the parts of your face and name them. He does ear ("eeoh"), nose, eye, teeth ("teet"), and hair ("heyoh"). Very cute.

Wednesday May 5th

Sam and Dallin had a concert tonight. Sam's class came out first and they sang some traditional American songs. They were heartwarming. I haven't heard some of them for a long time. Sam got a bloody nose in the middle of the concert. Jana went to meet him in the hall and they took care of it in time for him to be ready for the next song. Dallin's class came out next. They sang some traditional Native American songs. Quite a contrast. I have to admit I enjoyed the melodies and structured forms of the American songs. The Native American songs had some interesting rhythms. Dallin had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the concert. Funny that our both of our kids had to leave in the middle of their performances.

Friday, May 7th

I met Jana and the kids over at a music store in Boulder for Dallin's end-of-the-year recital. He did a great job and nearly had his pieces memorized. He made me proud. Nathan was not enjoying sitting still and quietly. We walked around the store and he played with some tubes from Mommy's purse. That worked out well until I found that both of us had lotion all over our hands. We finally had to take a walk outside.

Saturday, May 8th

Jana had decided that what she wanted for mothers' day was a clean house. I cleaned up the yard a bit and then while Jana took Sam and Kaylie to the soccer game, Dallin and I worked on cleaning the house. We started by cleaning the bathrooms, and then while Dallin cleaned up his room (found out later that all the clutter ended up behind his bed) I cleaned the kitchen and then vacuumed and swept the main floor. Jana got home and I finished up the second story. She's convinced that I love her, and I do!

Sunday, May 10th

Dallin didn't have time to use his new club penguin activation code that he bought today. He really started freaking out and sobbing and crying and accusing Jana of all sorts of untrue things. I tried to stay out of it and focused on getting Nathan and Kaylie bathed and ready for bed. I finally ventured down stairs and tried to coax Dallin up to bed to get some rest. That's when he began accusing me of being completely insensitive to his tragic plight of not getting computer time. After a little break, and a change of clothes, Dallin felt well enough to read to me and do his spelling pretest. He was happy before going to sleep, but still a little on edge.

Dog Bite and "Kissing a Lot"

2010-01-31T21:43:00.002-07:00

25 January 2010, Monday

Jana worked on laundry today. Nathan came over to help and she let him put a sock in the dryer. Then he went and found a clean sock from a different basket and came over to to the dryer and tried to open it to put the clean sock in.

When I got home, Nathan was running around with a transparent plastic box on his head and laughing. He's quite a character. Today he was playing peek-a-boo and made a sound almost like "There-he-is" all mushed together.

Dallin learned a new "special power" at school today. He presses his fingers into your shoulder. Eventually, I pretended to pass out and Jana acted worried. Sam wanted Dallin to do it to him, but he just sat there waiting for something to happen.

Kaylie said the prayer for dinner tonight. She asked that I would make it home from work safely today, but caught herself and modified it to ask for me to get home from work safely tomorrow.

26 January 2010, Tuesday

Jana did some shopping today and when I got home, she kept glancing at the things she put on the wall until I noticed them. I must have tunnel vision. I rarely notice the new things she puts up. They look nice.

30 January 2010, Saturday

I went to an Eagle Scout project this morning. We divided up and walked all over Lyons delivering flyers inviting people to come to a blood drive in a week. At one house, I was leaning on a fence and started talking to the owner of the house. His dog ran over and bit my arm. I had my coat on, but even so, I can see marks from each tooth and the bruising was pretty bad. The owner was apologetic but I was a little ticked off.

I got home in time to go over to Target with the kids to spend their allowance. It has been burning holes in their pockets. I ran in the house and Jana came in too, to get something for Dallin. When Jana got back in the car, Sam said, "What took you so long. Were you kissing a lot?" I guess they're on to us.

And Here's the Picture

2009-12-14T23:08:00.001-07:00

Here's the picture we finally got yesterday, number 37 of 41.

2009-12-13T19:54:00.002-07:00

So, I was recently chastised for not "setting doggedly to it" and continuing to write in my blog. I was flattered actually that the stories were missed. I've continued to write in the journal, so I'll try better to post some of the stories on line. Thanks everyone for reading.

7 December 2009, Monday

Jana has been feeling that life is too busy and that she isn't getting time enough to play with the kids. She's been putting specific times on the calendar to spend with the kids one on one or together. Today she baked cookies with Sam and Kaylie. She has found that making specific time to do what she wants has helped her feel closer to her family.

9 December 2009, Wednesday

On the way to scouts with Dallin, I picked up Josh for his first night. I listened to elementary school jokes in the back seat all the way to church.

11 December 2009, Friday

Kaylie had dance this afternoon and during her class, they reenacted the Nutcracker. Kaylie got to be Clara, since she was the leader for the day.

Kaylie gets a little grumpy after dance on Friday afternoons. Dallin said to Kaylie today, "You're not the boss of me." She replied, "I am the boss. I'm the boss of everything!"

12 December 2009, Saturday

Jessica was chosen to be Clara in the Nutcracker and did an excellent job. Katelyn and Lindsay also performed in cute rolls. Christy made several new costumes for the ballet, and did all of the alterations. She's been extremely busy.

Our kids did ok for the first hour and a half, but then I had to take Nathan and Kaylie out. Afterward, we got a couple of pizzas at Costco and went to Doug and Christy's for a few minutes to eat.

13 December 2009, Sunday

This morning I made breakfast with the kids while Jana was getting ready. I moved the stool Kaylie was kneeling on to get a measuring cup and she lost her balance and spilled the bowl of eggs. She was very sad even after I reassured her that it wasn't her fault. Then I said something wrong to Sam and he began wailing. Eventually, after we all had a break, I was able to pull things together and we had happy kids at breakfast.

We wanted to get a picture of the kids in front of the tree. Since we were getting them dressed nicely for church, we decided to squeeze that in to this morning too. We we pretty hurried but we got some really cute pictures.

Science Fair and Sammy Rides a Bike

2009-05-10T22:03:00.003-06:00

Monday

I left work early today, since I had worked so much on Saturday. I first went to Costco to pick up the pictures I printed for Dallin's science fair project. Then I came home to see Jana working on a very nice poster board explaining Dallin's project. I ran down to the school to pick up the boys. We hurried home for Dallin to write a little bit in his science notebook and to get things ready to set up at the school.

We got there a little after 4:30, the time when we were supposed to set them up. I had forgotten the entry sheet so I had to scrounge one of them up. We finally got everything set and then headed home. What a stressful event this has been. We had the best intentions of not putting everything off to the last minute, but for some reason it didn't happen. It is mostly my fault, since I took charge of the project. Fortunately, Jana took over today and got me out of a big bind.

Tuesday

Tonight we went to the Science Fair. Kaylie was asleep and so I pushed her and Nathan around in the double stroller. There really wasn't enough room to do that. I looked at all of Dallin's competition for an award and I thought he had a really good chance at winning an award.

We went in to the gym for the principal to give out awards. There were 150 entires this year and only the 5th graders were required to enter. Each category and each grade got first, second, and third place awards. I knew Dallin would win something. But he didn't.

He cried a little and I was a little sad too, but it was probably for the best. We didn't follow the directions exactly, (though I don't think the other kids did either) and we put it together at the last minute. We really should have been more on the ball, but we've been so busy lately. The bottom line is that we didn't really deserve to win, but my competitive nature wanted too. I encouraged Dallin to congratulate his friends that did win. He was a very good sport and went out of his way to congratulate them. He's a super kids. I know that it was hard for him not to win, but that will inspire him (and his parents) to do better next year.

Wednesday

Today was late start day for the kids school. They played at the castle park in Renaissance. This afternoon, Nathan had his 6 month checkup. He's moved up to the 10th percentile in weight and the 60th for height. Dr. Rosequist seemed very surprised he was so interactive. She loved his eyes and chubby cheeks and his crazy hair.

Dallin had piano lessons today. He has really progressed and his teacher has started him on some more advanced books. He's doing two hands together now and is reading notes on the real staffs.

Thursday

Jana's birthday. I was running a little late and didn't have a chance to make a nice breakfast for Jana. She said that I can make it up to her on Mother's Day this Sunday.

Dallin had an African Safari day at school. Jana made some peanut glazed chicken for his dinner. When I got home, we all went to Red Robin for Jana's birthday dinner. We had a little talk with the kids in the car before we went into the restaurant. I asked them what they should do once we get inside. Sam immediately said "Don't climb under the table!" Dallin added, "Don't run around!" Once we reviewed the basics, we went in to eat. They were little angels. Well, mostly angels. Sam went exploring a couple of times, but otherwise, they did great.

After we got home, I took the seats out of the car and ran over to pick up Jana's birthday bike. When I got home, she rode it up and down our street a few times. I think she likes it.

Saturday

This morning, our neighbor and I took the Dallin and Sam to breakfast and then to a fishing clinic at the rec center. There were 5 stations where the kids (and parents) learned about fishing. Then we fished for a while. Sam caught a fish, or a fish grabbed on to the line that our neighbor had cast for him. Dallin's line jammed and we spent a frustrating time trying to get it fixed. Officers from the fish and game gave each of the kids their own fishing pole. It was a great morning and made me love living in Longmont.

We went home and then got ready for Sam's game. It was the first game I had seen of his all season. I've been so busy with Dallin's games. I'm surprised how many of their games had conflicting schedules. It was fun to watch him play. Then we ran over to Dallin's game. They did pretty well. Dallin had a great assist to a teammate who kicked it right in. He was starting to be a little more aggressive.

When we got home, I took the training wheels off of Sammy's bike and pushed him until he got the feeling of riding. It only took him going up and down the street a couple of times before he figured it out. After he got it he told me to "Go away, Dad!" he wanted to do it on his own. By the end of the afternoon, he had learned to turn pretty well. It was a completely different experience than teaching Dallin to ride. Sam's only complaint was that "people made the road too hard," after he had fallen several times. He always wanted me to let him do as much as he could without help.

Jana and I took turns riding the kids around the block in the bike trailer. Kaylie enjoyed the ride especially. Finally, Jana rode around the block with Sam on his own bike. He got nervous when an oncoming car got close. He crashed into someone's stationary car that was parked on the side of the street and left a scuff mark. I went and talked to the owners and they were very nice about it. They didn't mind at all and kept asking me if Sam was OK.

I put the screen door up on the back sliding glass door that Sam knocked out last night. It wasn't a big deal at all, and I'm glad we didn't scold him. He was so upset with himself for pushing it off the runner, and he came right upstairs to us and confessed.

Sunday

Mother's day. This morning Nathan slept in to 5 minutes before 6:00. It was wonderful.

The older boys got up at 7:00 and I started making breakfast. Jana wanted the apple streusel muffins and orange julius. Definitely a tasty breakfast. Sam couldn't wait to give her his gift (one of his special cars) and took it up to her. She was already awake and didn't mind the visit. She stayed in bed until breakfast was ready, and since I had so much help from the kids it took me quite a while. We had a lot of fun making breakfast for Mommy. They each helped with one thing. Dallin helped make the streusel topping and grated apples. Kaylie helped me with the ingredients to the muffins and Sam put everything in for the orange julius.

At church, Kaylie saw her nursery teacher on the other side of the chapel. She said "He's my woorshry [nursery] teacher. He loves me SOOO much!"

After church I made barbecued chicken with rice and sauteed asparagus. After dinner, Jana played Memory with the kids while I cleaned up and made cookies for dessert. It is exhausting to be a mom. I'm glad Mothers' Day comes only once a year.

Catching Up...

2009-05-03T21:03:00.003-06:00

15 April 2009, Wednesday

Dallin walked to school on his own for the first time. Jana watches him until he gets to the crossing guard and then on to school. There are adults at each crossing and he is has been very responsible lately.

Today Sam called me at work and read his first book to me. It was the first "Bob Book" and he did a great job. He cracks up at the pictures. He is very excited and Jana has done a great job making reading fun for him.

Tonight, Dallin brought a fish home from school. He is very excited about it and named it Goldie. I think if the teacher had asked us if we wanted a fish to sign a form we would have done it, but just sending it home with the kids I think is a little presumptuous. Note to self: never, ever, give anyone a pet they didn't explicitly ask for.

18 April 2009, Saturday

During lunch, Dallin bit down on a sandwich and it pushed his tooth nearly out. He was holding it with a tissue while it bled a little bit and he yelled, "Here's my tooth!" and he was holding it in the napkin. It had practically just fallen out. We all did a happy dance since we were so relieved it had finally fallen out.

22 April 2009, Wednesday

Tonight I worked on Dallin's science project with him. He is growing crystals from salt, sugar, and baking soda solutions. We made the solutions tonight. Now we need them to evaporate. Dallin said that he wanted to be scientist when he grows up. I told him I thought that was a good idea. He has a lot of science skills. I also suggested he could be an engineer, but he just laughed. Funny how engineers don't get any respect from scientists, even kid scientists.

26 April 2009, Sunday

We had Stake Conference this morning at 10:00. That's about an hour earlier than our usual Sunday morning so we were in a hurry getting things together. At one point, only Nathan and I were the only family members not crying. It was a fun morning.

27 April 2009, Monday

After dinner we had family home evening. We played "Categories" for the first time as our activity. Dallin liked squirting people in the face with the hair-spritzer but didn't like getting sprayed. The rest of the evening he was sneaking around with different water bottles trying to get me back.

3 May 2009, Sunday

As usual, while Jana and I were talking to my parents, the kids got on their Superman capes and began jumping from their table onto a pile of beanbag chairs. Kaylie had her cape on backwards and stood on the end of it as she jumped off the table. She landed on the bare floor and had the wind knocked out of her completely. I picked her up and encouraged her to breath and tried to help her not panic. After she got a couple of breaths she said, "I need to jump onto the beanbag, not the floor-(y)." She always puts an extra "y" at the end of her words that end in "r".

Sammy Gets Glasses

2009-04-12T21:54:00.003-06:00

Monday

Jana prepared a family home evening about Easter tonight. She gave each of the kids an easter egg filled with an item that represented some part of the week leading up to the resurrection. The last egg was empty, representing the empty tomb and the resurrected Savior. Sam was given the empty egg and didn't understand it was part of the lesson. He was pretty disappointed and said that he didn't like this game. Poor kid!

Wednesday

I woke up with Nathan at about 5:00 but put him back to bed. I'd been up a few times last night and instead of staying up to work as usual, I put in my ear plugs and went back to sleep. I woke up at 7:00 and Jana had already showered and was getting Sammy ready to go to his eye doctor's appointment. We found out that Sammy needs glasses. He has pretty severe astigmatism. His eyes were at 20/40 and 20/50 making him far sighted. He has his mother's eyes and is super excited to get his new glasses

Friday

Jana told Dallin he could walk home from school on his own. He did a great job. He hustled home without stopping to play and he walked from his teacher to the crossing guard on the school grounds to Jan, the crossing guard at the end of our street, to our house. He was very proud of himself and we were proud of him too. He is really becoming very responsible and is being very cheerful when we ask for his help. He is a great kid and it is a blessing to have him in our family. Jana and I are glad that he is the oldest because he is a bit more serious that his younger siblings and he is a good example.

Saturday

We stopped by Payless Shoes to get tennis shoes for the boys. Sam started liking some Airwalk skater shoes and when Jana told him they were "skater" shoes, he told Dallin and they both got really excited. Dallin ran over to his size and found a pair of identical shoes, then he asked "What are skater shoes?" Jana found a different pair that she liked and asked Sam to try them on. Sam again asked what kind of shoes they were, and Jana, the brilliant mother that she is, told him they were fast running shoes. Sam cried, "I want fast running shoes!" and once Sammy had a pair, Dallin wouldn't have anything else.

When we got home, we had a quick dinner and then we painted easter eggs. It is amazing to see how quickly the eggs get color these days. I have memories of waiting forever to get eggs colored when I was little, and now it seems to happen so quickly. Dallin wanted to paint his eggs with a paintbrush and after one false start, he did some interesting designs. Kaylie also decided to paint two of her eggs along with several of my fingers while I was holding them.

Kaylie's Birthday and Spring Break

2009-04-05T20:53:00.004-06:00

Monday

Kaylie's 3rd birthday today! We had waffles for breakfast and then Kaylie opened her presents before I went to work. It was also the first day of spring break. From Dallin, she got a couple of dimes, some rocks from his rock collection, and a little airplane made from popsicle sticks. And from Sam she got a little foam fish.

Tonight, after a dinner of tacos that Kaylie chose, we had a Diego, Animal Rescuer cake that Jana made. I video recorded Kaylie blowing out the candles only to find that after all the cuteness, I had forgot to press the record button. We did it a second time, and she was still really cute.

Tuesday

The kids went to a friends for lunch and to play while Jana took Kayie to the doctor's. Kaylie got two shots and was in some pain this evening when I got home. Tonight, as I was getting her ready for bed, she was very sensitive about her shot. She didn't want me to even see the band-aid that was on it. She kept it covered with her hand while I changed her diaper and put on her jammies.

Thursday

Today, I took the day off from work and we went to the Denver Zoo as a family, since we couldn't go on Kaylie's birthday. It was a great day for the zoo. We had bad weather the day before and it was a little chilly, but it was warm in the sun and there were no crowds. We saw a little giraffe that had been born last Friday after the snow storm and was named blizzard. We saw a bunch of animals that Kaylie sees in her Diego, Animal Rescuer shows and she was in heaven. We had the double stroller, but even with that Jana or I was carrying one of the kids most of the time. Dallin did great and walked the whole way himself today.

We had ice cream at the zoo for a treat, and then we stopped at Del Taco on the way home. It was a long, tiring, and fun day for the family.

The "Lizzard" of 2009

2009-03-29T12:00:00.000-06:00

Tuesday

Tonight it was a little chilly when I got home from work. Dallin did not want to got to practice. We got him bundled up and he finally made it OK. It was more fun to help out this time. I'm starting to feel like I'm actually doing something. Dallin is doing well, though he isn't nearly as aggressive as some of the other kids. I see a lot of myself in Dallin.

Wednesday

Today Jana went down to Costco after dropping Dallin off for school. She was running a little because she had to wait for some pictures to be developed. Sam complained of an upset stomach, but Jana didn't think much about it. She raced back to school to drop Sam off but when she got him in to his classroom, they had already left to get class pictures taken. Jana ran back to the car (which was in sight) to get the Nathan and Kaylie out so they could find his class. When they arrived they had already taken the pictures. Jana felt terrible that they had missed the class photo. The teachers checked and the photographers agreed to take the class picture again. Jana went home feeling slightly better.

Right as she walked in the door, the phone was ringing. The school called and Sam was sick. They had set the class up for the picture and right before they took it, he threw up on himself. Jana got the kids back in the car and picked up Sam. He threw up once more on the way home in an improvised bucket the nurse had made, and then he felt better.

Dallin had his music program tonight. I stayed home with Sam and the other kids while Jana went to the concert. Dallin has been singing Sound of Music songs the last few weeks and even went as far as to say "Mom, I want a Sound of Music birthday party next year."

Thursday

It snowed all day. I came home from work early so I wouldn't get stuck. Kaylie came down after her nap and said to me, "Mommy said there's a lizzard outside." Then she looked and said, "I don't see a lizzard!"

Saturday

I took the kids sledding for a couple of hours on the hill behind Altona Middle School. The hill was really muddy in spots, but we found a pretty good few runs and spent our time there when one other family. I didn't have to carry Sam bit and was proud of him. I had to carry Kaylie around the whole day and it was nice not to have to carry them both.

Shots and Potty Traning

2009-03-15T12:00:00.000-06:00

Tuesday

Sam had an appointment today and had four shots in his thighs. He did not like his shots which made it worse of course.

Wednesday

Sam's leg was very swollen and warm today. He even had a fever and needed some medicine. He wanted to go to practice badly so Jana let him. The rest of his team has been playing together a lot, but Sam seemed to fit in well. He sat down a lot, either from tiredness or his leg hurting or being bored, we're not sure.

Saturday

This morning, I helped some friends move. When I got home I learned that potty training hadn't gone well at all. Kaylie started getting hysterical and Jana wasn't able to calm her down while taking care of Nathan. She seems afraid of the toilet. She did really well teaching her dolly how to use the toilet, but then she would hide and wet her pants. We'll have to try again when I can take the other kids away.

After lunch, Jana, Nathan, and Kaylie napped while I took the boys out to play soccer. Dallin is getting a little better and was starting to understand not to just kick it really hard but to try and work his way past me to score. Afterward we explored the culvert a little bit. We grabbed a bunch of cattails and pulled the fluff off of them. We also captured a little grasshopper and the boys touched him before we let him go.

Sam's Birthday

2009-03-08T12:00:00.000-06:00

Sunday

I wrote in the journal and Jana and I planned out the month and the coming week. At about 9:00, Kaylie woke up and had thrown up in her bed. It was all over her sheets and blankets and the wall and clumped into her hair. We got her cleaned up and settled down in our room. We got the laundry going and wiped down the bathroom and her mattress with disinfectant. We just sat down again and she started throwing up again. This time, it was less stuff, but she needed new bedding and new jammies.

Monday

Rough night last night. Every sound Kaylie made made me think that she was sick. Dallin also started feeling bad during the night and Jana gave him a bowl. In the morning, the kids were feeling better, but we wanted to take things carefully with breakfast.

Jana told Dallin that he could stay home if he was feeling bad, but he wanted to go to school. As soon as Jana had returned home from taking him, and had put Nathan to bed, the nurse called and Dallin needed to be picked up. Not long after he got home from school, he started feeling better, but Jana wouldn't let him play. She made him rest on the couch the rest of the day.

Friday

After work, we took the kids to the dentist's office to help him with his picture for his ad in the Yellow Pages. Then we went home and while Jana decorated for Sam's party, I cleaned up and the kids watched a movie. After the kids went to bed, Jana wrapped presents for Sam. I'm not sure if you're catching a trend here, but as far as the birthday's go, Jana is the Commander-in-Chief.

Saturday

Sam's fifth birthday! When Sammy came down and saw all of the decorations, he said "Mommy! My birthday looks great!" Jana has been working hard on his party. Yesterday she made a Superman cake and decorated the house. Sam's friends started arriving at about 10:00. There were 10 kids counting Sam, Dallin, and Kaylie. While they waited for all of the kids to arrive, they colored pictures of Superman. Then they played pin the S on Superman. Afterward they went downstairs to run an obstacle course that Dallin and I put together. Once they made it all the way through, they got their very own cape that Jana's sister Christy made while she was visiting last weekend. Then they got a superman tatoo and while we got the cake ready, they played Superman-Says (like Simon Says). They had cake and ice cream and didn't get any frosting or ice cream on the carpet! And they ended opening presents. After the presents they went back downstairs to run the training course again.

Kaylie is funny right now. She stands behind the armchair when she goes potty. She tells us she is going, but doesn't like anyone to look at her. She is definitely ready for potty training.

Looking for Snakes

2009-02-22T21:39:00.002-07:00

Monday

I didn't have work today. It was Presidents Day. This morning, I washed the car, inside and out. It was filthy and it feels great to have it clean again. The boys stayed outside with me for a little while and Dallin even washed his bike, but eventually they got bored and went inside to play. Kaylie stayed outside the whole morning. She played in the car and sprayed the wheels while I wasn't using the hose.

When I was done with the car, Jana took Dallin on a little date to run errands and get lunch at McDonalds. She stopped at the party store to get Superman decorations for Sam's birthday party. Sam wants a new blue Bionicle so badly. He gets so worried that they will run out of them at the store. He wants his birthday to be tomorrow.

Tonight, in an effort to apply the family home evening message from last night about personal prayer, I knelt down with Sam to help him say his prayers. He didn't know what to say, so I helped him with the words. When he was done, he looked up and said, "Where's the light? Where are the angels?" He was expecting a visitation like Joseph Smith.

Saturday

The boys and I went on a bike ride and explore. We rode to the creek behind the school and looked for snakes. We didn't find any, but we sure found a lot of prairie dogs and rabbits. We rode our bike down the dirt path past Sliver Creek High School and on to Altona. Sammy started having pretty bad stomach aches. He was getting tired and stopped every 20 feet to take a rest. Our ride took about an hour an a half. About 45 minutes longer than I was planning.

Merry Christmas 2008

2009-02-18T21:43:00.003-07:00

Merry Christmas! We know we are late, but in the spirit of better-late-than-never we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

2008 was a very significant year for us… (drumroll please…)

Welcome Nathan Robert Jackson! Nathan was born on October 11th (the day after Dallin’s birthday). He weighed 6lbs 4oz and measured 20in long. He has a lot of blond hair and still has his blue eyes, which Mommy is hoping he keeps forever.

Dallin (age 7) lost his first two teeth and started First Grade. A new elementary school opened half a block from our house and he has had to change schools. He is a little inventor and armed with his electricity and chemistry sets he spends afternoons creating things (like bad-guy traps). He wants to be a rock star astronaut so he started piano lessons this year. He’s an excellent biggest brother and plays with and looks out for the other three kids.

Sam (age 4) began preschool this fall and loves playing with his new friends. He is progressing well during his reading time with Mommy. He loves coloring, riding his new bike, and dressing up as Superman. He got his first LEGOs this year and loves building with them or just studying the instruction manuals. He adores his big brother Dallin and never wants to see him upset. He’s a great big brother to Nathan and has the easiest time getting him to smile.

Kaylie (age 2) is our ninja princess. She can hold her own surrounded by boys but in the same minute, can be perfectly angelic. She loves taking care of her dollies and her stuffed animals. She likes playdoh, puzzles, and coloring. She has moved into a big-girl (twin-sized) bed and has given up her pacifier. If you ask her what her name is, she says, “Big Sister.” Kaylie is a very sweet girl and all the boys in the family adore her.

Nathan (age 4 mo.) is eating and growing and giving out thousands of smiles. He is a really happy baby, and since he started getting up just once a night, he has made Mommy really happy too. He rolls over and grips things to put them in his mouth. He is very ticklish and laughs when we change his clothes. He is such a precious baby and we are so happy to have him in our family.

Preston is enjoying his job at Google. They released a new version of the product he works on (SketchUp LayOut) this year. In the summer he gave the boys swimming lessons and took a class in firearm safety. He took care of the housework in order to avoid another 10-weeks of bed rest for Jana (she only had 2 weeks this pregnancy), but still managed to get out fishing with the boys. He still enjoys reading War and Peace, but vows to finish it by the next Christmas Letter.

Jana is super busy with her four little ones, but wouldn’t trade it for anything. She wouldn’t mind a little more sleep, but she hears that won’t happen for eighteen more years or so. She enjoys a monthly book club with friends and being able to go outside so much, even in the winter, especially taking Dallin and Sam ice skating.

We were grateful to receive letters from you and to hear how you are doing. We hope you have a great 2009!

With love,

Preston, Jana, Dallin, Samuel, Kaylie, and Nathan Jackson

Camping in the Loft

2009-02-15T21:28:00.002-07:00

4 February 2009, Wednesday

Recently, Kaylie has started saying "Yes you are!" at the end of things she says to Nathan. For example, "You're the cutest baby! Yes you are!"

Dallin had his first piano lesson today. He is very excited.

9 February 2009, Monday

It was extremely windy today. When Jana took Dallin to school, our recycle bin had been blown over and so had our empty (fortunately) garbage bin. Jana pulled it up to the house and brought it down only when she heard the truck coming. By the afternoon, all of the bins that were left out on the street had been blown all the way down to the school yard. There was even a recycle bin the blew up our lawn and up to the porch.

10 February 2009, Tuesday

Today Kaylie told Jana that she didn't want her to love daddy anymore. She said, "I want to hug him first!" Jana replied that she could hug me first when I got home from work.

As I put Sam to bed tonight, I just sat down for a second on the edge of his bed and looked into his eyes. He looked back and I said, "I sure love being your dad." He smiled and said, "I'm glad I picked you."

11 February 2009, Wednesday

Nathan went to the doctor today. He was just over 10 lbs 8.5 oz (3rd percentile). He was 25" tall (60th percentile) and his head measured 40.5 cm (15th percentile). They're worried a little bit about his weight. He's fallen behind his growth curve. Developmentally he is doing fine. Dr. Rosequist gave Jana a referral to have his hypospadias and circumcision done down in Denver and didn't seem worried at all about the procedure. He's a happy little boy and eager to smile and laugh. He loves his siblings, especially Sammy who is the best at getting him to calm down. He is ticklish and laughs when we change his clothes. He is sleeping pretty well, going to bed around 7:00 and usually getting up only once before 7:00 in the morning.

Tonight while I was reading with Dallin, Jana put Sammy to bed. They sang songs and laughed together. When she left the room he said, "I love you so much my heart is going to explode."

12 February 2009, Thursday

Today Jana took Kaylie to the Dentist. She wouldn't let them in her mouth. She finally let them count her teeth as she sat on Jana's lap. This afternoon, Sam had his valentines day party at school. Jana brought some flowers for Sam to give to his teachers. He was emphatic that Jana bring them after school, when the other kids had left. Jana asked why, and he said, "Because Ms. Sarah and Ms. Pam will hug me!"

13 February 2009, Friday

Dallin has been begging me to camp with him. We finally decided that we could camp up in the loft where we keep the computer. This evening, I set up an air mattress and Jana and I tied a quilt over top using the kitchen stools. The kids and I set up sleeping bags and we read stories with flashlights and then I told them the "Purple Monster" story. Then Dallin told us a really, really long story, and Kaylie's pillow kept falling off the bed. Sam needed a snack, and Dallin was going to die if he didn't get a drink. There wasn't enough room for all of us on the mattress so I moved off on to the floor and then Sam and Dallin couldn't stop playing with their flashlights. Dallin got too hot and had to sleep on top of his sleeping bag, and Kaylie kept losing her water cup. Finally I asked if they just wanted to sleep in their own beds. They all got up and said that yes, that would be a good idea. So they all went to bed and were asleep in just a few minutes. We're going to have to practice a couple of times before we really go camping.

14 February 2009, Saturday

Since Jana cleaned the whole house yesterday, we were able to spend the entire day together today. After a sausage and pancake breakfast, we went to target. The boys spent their allowances on LEGO Bionicle figures. It was a very big day for Kaylie. Jana has been working her up to it for the last two days. She got to pick out a toy that she would trade for her binky. This morning she came in to my room as I was getting ready and said that she was going to give away her binky and be "a big, huge sister." She loves being Nathan's big sister. She finally decided on a doll-sized high chair to feed her babies. When we got to the check out, she began hiding the binky in Jana's shirt. But finally she let Jana give it to the cashier. She had a hard time getting to sleep for her nap, but by bed time, she was just fine. What a big girl!

Good Brothers

2009-02-01T21:45:00.004-07:00

Jana took some great pictures of Nathan on his 3-month birthday.

25 January 2009, Sunday

Dallin had gave a nice talk in Primary about The Proclamation on the Family. He is doing a great job reading.

We had a video-chat with Bob and Tanya on the computer for the first time tonight.

26 January 2009, Monday

This morning, Kaylie came into the bathroom while I was getting ready and said, "Daddy, I have a big heart for you!" I love that little girl.

Jana and I did bills tonight. I finally moved from a paper system to a spreadsheet. One would think that someone like me, who works at Google, would have the whole thing automated, but there's something satisfying about writing down where everything goes. The thing that made me change is the miscalculations that inevitably come up and the hours spent searching for addition errors.

27 January 2009, Tuesday

I came home early so that Jana could attend the parent-teacher conference with Dallin's teacher. She said he is doing really well and is already reading at a 2nd grade level. He doesn't get in trouble (contrary to what he tells us) and is making friends with a girl named Daphne. His teacher told Jana that Daphne is shy and Dallin will ask the teacher questions for her. He a great kid and so smart. He's also been in a really good mood this week. I wonder if having a friend at school is helping out.

28 January 2009, Wednesday

I'm always impressed with Sammy and what he does when he gets a treat. He has to make sure everyone gets some of his treat. He doesn't try to hoard it or prevent other people from getting it. In fact, if one of his siblings complains that they didn't get enough of his treat, he will give them more. Especially Dallin. Sammy adores Dallin. His behavior makes me want to give him more treats. In fact, if I had to only give one kid treats, it would be Sam because I know he would share with Dallin and Kaylie. I think that Heavenly Father wants us to be like that. He want us not to hoard the gifts we've been given.

29 January 2009, Thursday

This boys got up on their own this morning. They wanted more time to play. I didn't have to wake them up or nag them to get out of the shower. Dallin even got out of the shower to get Sam's towel for him. He's really showing a lot of kindness lately.

Kaylie put her binky in her purse today. She thought it was so clever. She showed it to Sammy's preschool teachers Ms. Sarah and Ms. Pam. When I got home from work she showed me her purse too and then pulled out her binky and started laughing. I had to laugh too.

30 January 2009, Friday

Tonight Jana make a little pizza crust for each kid and let them put their own toppings on them. The kids had a good time and didn't complain a bit about not liking their pizza.

31 January 2009, Saturday

At lunch Dallin and Sam split the last piece of pizza from last night. Dallin inhaled his and then asked for Sam's. I asked Sam if he wanted his pizza, and he looked so worried and pinched his lips in thought. He kept looking between the pizza and Dallin. Dallin said, "He doesn't want to take the pizza because he knows I want it." I told Sam that Dallin already has his and that Dallin wouldn't be sad if Sam got to have his own piece. Sam asked, "Is that true Dallin?" and Dallin said he wouldn't be sad. Sammy said, "Then I want it!" He is such a thoughtful kid.

Necklaces

2008-11-23T21:45:00.002-07:00

16 November 2008, Sunday

I made pancakes and sausage for dinner and then we talked to grandma and grandpa Jackson on the computer. The kids and I had a "clean up" race. They cleaned up the loft, their bedrooms, the library, and the family room (what they had cluttered during the day) and I cleaned up the dishes. They won, but just barely. Jana helped keep them on task, but Samuel surprised both of us by straightening up the entire downstairs, without help. Then he went upstairs and helped Dallin clean their room. Dallin made and "animal slide" invention. Kind of like a zip-line for his stuffed animals between the front door and the balcony. Jana let him keep it up for another day or so.

17 November 2008, Monday

Kaylie is so sweet to Nathan. When he starts fussing, she comes up to him and says, "Calm down." "It's okay, baby." and other motherly phrases.

The other night, we had our babysitter, Emma, over to watch the kids while Jana and I went on a date. The kids were all at the counter eating dinner when she arrived. Emma smiled at the kids and Sam screamed and put his head in his hands. He started yelling, "I don't want to look." We finally got him calmed down and he said, "I don't like when people have necklaces on their teeth." Emma has braces.

And its out! SketchUp 7!

2008-11-17T08:20:00.000-07:00

I don't usually talk about myself much here, except in reaction to something my kids do, but I've had a big week so you get to hear a little about me. As most of you know, I've been working at Google for the last year and a half. I work on SketchUp, a 3D modeling tool written for designers, not CAD jockeys (no offense to CAD jockeys, ahem). SketchUp is by far my favorite Google product. @Last software, the original creators of SketchUp, was acquired by Google about a year before I got here. Fortunately, we have been able to keep the same passionate development team together (except for a few additions, like your truly). I really love working with these guys.

Today, it has finally gone public that we are releasing SketchUp 7. You can even see a video with me in it on that page, though I can't really recommend my acting. I work on the 2D presentation tool called LayOut. I helped develop the new curve tool, the editable paths, the move rotate and scale manipulators, and the in-place group edit. It has been a great year and I'm really proud of what we've come up with.

So that's it for this week. It has been a crazy few months. I think we're all looking forward to Christmas break!

The Fishing Trip

2008-11-09T21:34:00.006-07:00

3 November 2008, Monday

Jana had parent teacher coference with Sam's teacher. She said he is doing great academically. She said he can be pretty intense at times. That's our Sammy!

Tonight, Jana taught a family home evening lesson on self-discipline. Sam was SO good tonight. He sat still on the couch, listened, raised his hand to comment, and was very very well behaved. Both he and Dallin still need the little treat (tonight it was three Skittles) to focus on during the lesson to keep them under control. They don't get it until the lesson is over, but it is out in the open where they can see it, and more importantly, where I can eat it if they get crazy. I know it is just a bribe but it is worth it in my mind.

5 November 2008, Wednesday

Jana put Kaylie down to bed today and told here that she loves her "infinity squared!" Kaylie replied "I love you... rectangle!" Jana was puzzled for a couple of minutes and then she figured it out. Something to do with the "squared."

6 November 2008, Thursday

Jana took Sam, Kaylie, and Nathan shopping and survived. Sam kept asking "Am I being good, Mom?" The kids were so good, Jana bought them each a doughnut. Kaylie didn't like hers and she decided to give it to Dallin. I was surprised. I'm usually her favorite food disposal.

8 November 2008, Saturday

Our neighbor and I took the boys fishing this morning. We bundled up and drove up to Estes Park to fish at Lake Estes. It was pretty windy and cold. We stayed for about an hour. The kids got a dose of reality when our neighbor cut up the worms to put on their hooks. He caught a fish and let each of them reel it in. He finally released it, but caught another bigger one and kept it. We went on to another place to try and get out of the wind. The boys had fun playing on the rocks and I got some more practice casting. It was really my first time fishing is years and years.

When we got home, I asked our neighbor if we could watch him clean the fish. I had never seen it done before and thought it might be nice for the kids to see where meat comes from. It was too gruesome and I should have left the kids at home. Dallin really freaked out and told our neighbor that he shouldn't do that. He said, "How would you like it if a fish pulled out your guts?" We tried to explain that people eat meat, and in order for us to get it, an animal has to die. I think it was a good lesson, but probably premature. I hope Dallin doesn't decide to become a vegetarian.

Jana took Kaylie and Nathan with her shopping today. They went to Bed Bath and Beyond for some curtains and then Jana told Kaylie that they were heading over to Michael's. When they got there, Kaylie asked for Uncle Miles. She asked a couple more times and Jana finally figured out that Kaylie had thought Jana said they were going to "Miles."

Jana got a lot of complements for Kaylie and Nathan at the store. There was a mother and daughter that came over to talk to all three of them and they couldn't stop oohing and ahhing over Nathan and thought Kaylie was adorable.

9 November 2008, Sunday

Kaylie keeps asking to go to "Grandma's airport." We think she says this because she has gone with me to pick her up at the airport and she thinks Grandma lives there. Jana tells her "She's not at the airport." Then Kaylie asks, "She went to Grandpa's house? But I love her at my house."

Halloween Pictures

2008-11-02T16:43:00.005-07:00

I've been pretty lousy at keeping a journal the last two weeks. I guess having a new baby is just making me tired. However, we have been taking pictures. Here are some pictures from pumpkin carving and halloween night.

Here are the the kids and me carving pumpkins. Dallin carved his own pumpkin this year. Kaylie drew her own face this year. It was about the size of a quarter, and I enlarged it on her pumpkin. Sam drew his pumpkin face, including the ears and mustache. Dallin drew and carved his own face. I'm not exactly sure what all the holes are, but he couldn't be outdone by Sam's mustache and ears. Cute Jana and Nathan. Jana helped me clean out pumpkins this year. It was very nice. Nathan in his ghost onesie. Here are the kids on Halloween night. Sam was a knight, Dallin was Spiderman, and Kaylie was a ladybug.

The Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-19T21:56:00.003-06:00

15 October 2008, Wednesday

Kaylie wanted Mommy a lot today. She is still very nice to the baby and loves to touch his blanket and his hat and just to look at him, but she wants a little more attention from Mom.

18 October 2008, Saturday

We went to the pumpkin patch to get pumpkins for jack-o-lanterns. The pumpkin patch seemed very nice. They had rides and bounce castles but it turned out that all of these things cost a lot of money. Grandma bought all of us some cotton candy and funnel cake. Then we went to buy some pumpkins.

Dallin searched for a long time, trying to find "the perfect pumpkin." He finally found it, and indeed it was a perfectly shaped pumpkin. Sam was less picky but couldn't be done looking until Dallin was. Once he had found the "perfect" pumpkin, Dallin helped Sam find one. We encouraged Kaylie to look among the smallish pumpkins. She eventually found one that she loved, and that didn't have a stem. I found one that was almost the same shape and size, but had a stem and asked her to put it in the cart. She kept going back to the stemless pumpkin and touching it affectionately. She won and the stemless pumpkin rode home with us.

In the afternoon, while the girls slept, I worked on the lawn and Dallin built a contraption in the garage with cardboard boxes, nails, and duct tape. It began life as an airplane, but then became a rocket ship.

Two Birthdays (Welcome Nathan Robert Jackson!)

2008-10-13T21:57:00.006-06:00

10 October 2008, Friday

It was Dallin's 7th birthday today. This morning, I got ready early so I could make him crepes for breakfast. I woke the kids up at about 7:00 and I heard Sam and Dallin arguing about when, exactly, Dallin turns 7. Dallin claimed to be 7 already, but Sam insisted that he wasn't 7 until he blew out all of the candles. After some parental intervention, the matter was settled, and Dallin is officially 7.

I came home a little early to watch the kids while Jana went to the doctor. The doctor had a difficult time measuring her and she was still feeling pretty sore when she got home.

As soon as we were all together, we drove down to Superior to Chuck E Cheese's for Dallin's birthday dinner. We had a very fun time. On the way home, we got a call from Grandma Smith for Dallin and when we walked in the door, we got a call from Grandma Jackson. After he got off the phone, Dallin opened his presents and we had cake and ice cream.

Jana has been contracting all evening.

11 October 2008, Saturday

Jana had contractions all day and had other signs that she was getting close. In the morning she called a friend to ask her if she could watch the kids if we had to go to the hospital.

When we got to the hospital at about 5:00, she was at about 6 cm and a -1 station. They moved her from the triage room to a labor and delivery room. A little after 6:00, Jana got an epidural which caused a pretty severe "spinal" headache. The doctor, whom we really like, came and checked her a bit later and she hadn't progressed much so he broke her water. He then told her to take it easy and headed off to perform a C-section.

Laying down seemed to ease the headache, but that was about all she could do. The nurse checked her and found that she was "complete" and that the baby was crowning. They told the doctor, who had just started the C-section. There was no way for him to make it, so they called his partner to deliver the baby. When he arrived, the baby was ready to come. Two contractions later he was born at 9:09 PM!

He is a healthy baby. His APGARs were 7 and 9. He has a a lot of blond hair and has two stork bites on his eyelids. He has bruises on his nose and forehead from the quick descent. He weighs 6lbs 4oz and measures 20in long.

Initially after birth, he was making a little grunting noise that indicated he was having some trouble breathing. We moved him to the nursery for observation. He and I were there about an hour and a half and he did well and had his bath. I brought him back to Jana. What an amazing woman I married!

At about 1:00 AM I went home to relieve the babysitters and to try and think of a name. The baby wasn't able to stay the whole night with Jana, since he was not keeping his temperature up, so he went back to the nursery for several hours.

12 October 2008, Sunday

After everyone had eaten and had a bath, we drove out to visit Mommy and baby. We decided to call him Nathan, but still hadn't come up with a middle name yet. Jana's headache has really been bothering her. While we were there, the anesthesiologist did a "blood patch" by taking blood from her arm and inserting it into the hole left by the epidural. This didn't have an immediate effect, but her headache got steadily better throughout the day and by evening she was just feeling tired.

The boys wanted to eat at the cafeteria downstairs, but I told them we would go to McDonalds or Taco Bell instead. They immediately chose Taco Bell, so it was decided we would go tomorrow when Grandma flew in from Pennsylvania. After saying goodbye to Mommy and Nathan, we went home to let Kaylie (and Daddy) have a nap.

We came back to the hospital in the afternoon and decided on a middle name of Robert, after Jana's dad. After a while, the kids and I went home to have a quick dinner. A friend came over later to watch them for a little while so I could spend some time at the hospital without corralling kids.

When I got to the hospital, Jana really wanted a rest so I held Nathan while she closed her eyes. No wonder she doesn't get any rest in the hospital. Even without the kids there, someone was coming in to poke and prod either Jana or Nathan every fifteen minutes.

13 October 2008, Monday

This morning, the kids and I got up and got ready at our usual time. After breakfast and cleaning up a bit, we drove down to the airport to pick up Grandma Smith who flew in to take care of her little girl. The kids were extremely excited to see her and couldn't stop talking all the way back to Longmont. As I promised yesterday, we went to Taco Bell for lunch. Kaylie surprised me by eating a whole taco (except the "celery" i.e. anything green). Then we went to see Mommy and Nathan in the hospital.

When we got there, Jana told us that she could be discharged at any time. So, after visiting for a little bit and letting Tanya hold Nathan, I drove them home. I cleaned out the baby car seat and got some clothes for Jana, and drove back to the hospital to pick them up and bring them home. We love having our Mommy back home with us!

Ok, Now Jana's on Bed Rest

2008-09-28T22:17:00.002-06:00

Jana went to the doctor a couple of weeks ago. They measure all sorts of her anatomy, and yes I know what they all are, but I'll spare you the details. The result is that she's been put on bed rest. I've taken some time off of work to take care of her and the kids. I love it, but I'm exhausted at the end of the day and I've been slacking some of my journal writing. I got back in to it today and wrote down some cute things the kids did this week.

22 September, Monday

I took Sam and Kaylie to Costco and they were incredibly cute. Sam is SO sweet to her and they just chatter back and forth. We stayed for lunch and both of them worked on a piece of pepperoni pizza and some soda. It was fun not to be in a hurry for lunch and since neither of them ate any of the oatmeal I made for breakfast, they were starving and ate very well.

26 September, Friday

While Kaylie napped, I took Sam to the store to buy a gift for his friend's birthday party tomorrow. Dallin's been working on inventing gifts from construction paper all week. He's made a paper car, a little lasso out of yarn, and two paper snow shoes.

Dallin wanted to go camping tonight, so Jana told him he could build a tent in his bed. He hung a sheet from the slats on the top bunk and a blanket over the side to enclose a small area for him and Sam to lay in. Dallin read stories to Sam, while Sam played with his flashlight. They are great brothers and it makes me so happy to see them playing nicely together.

Jana and I watched the presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama tonight. When I was putting the boys to bed, Dallin asked who I'd be voting for. He wanted to vote for both of the candidates. I talked to him a little about the war. Dallin's eyes got big and said, "We're in a war!" He was concerned that someone was going to come to our house or that I would have to leave to go fight somewhere else. I told him that I wouldn't be fighting, but that uncle Jeremy would be fighting in a year or so. He was very concerned and both he and Sam asked me if I would die. I said that yes but not for a long time. Sammy started crying that he didn't want me to die. It nearly broke my heart. It was particularly touching after struggling to get them in bed and having them ignore me for about an hour. I guess they do want me to stick around.

28 September, Sunday

Dallin had a talk in primary that was extremely cute. Here is the text he helped Jana to write:

"Once my family had a lesson in Family Home Evening about prayer. We learned that we could ask if the prophets were true. I wanted to do this. So, I prayed. At first, I didn't feel anything so I prayed again. Then I had a warm and toasty YES feeling in my heart. I knew that Heavenly Father sent the Holy Ghost to tell me that the prophets are true.

In the Friend Magazine there is a story about Misti. Misti was 8 years old and deciding if she should be baptized. She thought that if she went to General Conference Heavenly Father would tell her what to do. During the conference President Monson was prompted to talk to a little girl he could see in the Tabernacle. The little girl was Misti. Misti decided that she should be baptized because of what President Monson said during his talk. The answer to her prayer came from Heavenly Father, through someone else, President Monson.

I know that answers to my prayers come from Heavenly Father through the Holy Ghost, the scriptures, and others.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

No Bed Rest... Yet...

2008-09-14T21:44:00.000-06:00

8 September 2008, Monday

Dallin had an assembly today where they sealed a time capsule at the school for 50 years. I asked him if he would be alive when they opened it and he said he would but that I would almost be dead.

After dinner we had family home evening. We talked about the primary theme for the month, something like "I can pray and Heavenly Father will hear and answer my prayers." We talked about Joseph Smith's first vision, and Jana and I shared personal experiences about having prayers answered. Then we read a bit from Alma 34 about when we should pray. Dallin told me, "I just said a prayer in my head, because I'm not sure if the prophets are true. But I didn't get an answer." Jana and I told him that he was doing the right thing to pray about it and that sometime answers don't come right away. We encouraged him to keep praying and to think about the feeling he is getting. He said later than he was getting a little feeling. He is a great kid.

9 September 2008, Tuesday

After school, the boys went over to James' house to play. Dallin and James set up the play date, while Sam was playing on the big toys. Jana didn't know if Sammy was included. She told Sam it was time to go home, and he started to get sad that he wasn't going to play. James and Dallin ran back to get him and included him in their play. James is right between Dallin and Sam, and sometimes Sam gets left out. I'm glad they included him today.

Sam fell asleep while I was reading to him tonight, so Dallin and I postponed our "Roughhouse Night" until Sam could do it with us. Dallin read to me tonight. I got out a handful of Smarties and ate one every time he didn't correct a mistake. He gets going too fast and guesses words by their first two or three letters. After he saw me with the candy, he slowed way down, and his accuracy was close to 100%. Smarties are gross.

10 September 2008, Wednesday

Jana didn't feel well today. She asked me to pick the kids up from school. It was my first time picking them up and I didn't really know what to do and the teachers didn't really know what to do with me. I kept expecting to see Sam in his classroom, but he wasn't there. It turned out that he had a bloody nose and I had to be taken to the office to pick him up.

When I got home, Jana was still having regular painful contractions. She and I dropped the kids off at the Amber's and went to the hospital. We were there for several hours and Jana received two shots and some oral medication. Her doctor came to check everything and she was sent home unsure with a wait-and-see until the next appointment.

We picked up the kids at the Amber's. She had asked the boys what they wanted for dinner, and they told her they wanted spaghetti. When she put it in front of them, they announced that they didn't like spaghetti (what they think they don't like is tomato sauce). She suggested they take a bite and they ate it all.

12 September 2008, Friday

Dallin really didn't want to go to school today. I had to hold his hand all the way so he wouldn't run home. Jana and I think he is just worried about the baby and he doesn't want to miss the fun of having Dad at home all day. I told him he could stay home from school if he wanted to clean all of the bathrooms with me. He jumped at the chance, but when I said he had to put his hand in the toilet to clean the bowl, he decided he'd rather not.

Jana went to the doctor and everything checked out normal. He did not put her on bed rest, to our huge relief, but asked that she reduce her activity.

13 September 2008, Saturday

Today was cleaning day. Dallin helped me with my chores by mopping the kitchen floor. He did a very good job.

I took the boys on a bike ride to get out of the house and let Jana rest. We rode just south of Blue Mountain Elementary school and stopped to look at the irrigation dam. We saw a bunch of snakes sunning themselves on the rocks. They looked lazy, but when they saw us the scattered amazingly quickly. We rode on the dirt road over to Altona Middle School which still had some big puddles from the rain yesterday. I told the boys not to ride in the puddles, but Dallin did. I had to push him out. Sam wanted to next but I convinced him not to. Unfortunately, as he was riding around one of them, the ground became uneven and his training wheel hit a bump and pushed him into the puddle. He was very sad, but was able to keep riding after a little break. We rode to Altona and then back along Clover Basin DR. Along the way Dallin told be about bad people that cut down our trees and that we won't have any air if they keep doing it. How did my son become an environmentalist?

Two Lost Teeth

2008-09-09T05:13:00.001-06:00

1 September 2008, Monday

Jana made lunch for us and we all went to the park for a picnic. As we were leaving the house, Jana called Sam "Cutie Face." He replied, "Don't call me names! Just Sam-o and Handsome." Dallin wanted to lead the way and told us not to worry if we got lost because he "knows the neighborhood." He did a pretty good job; we just had to gently remind him a couple of times that he was turning right a little too early. He and Sam are both getting pretty good at looking all ways before crossing at a corner. They get a little over cautious if there's a car moving at all within sight. That makes me a lot more comfortable.

We ate the great lunch Jana had prepared. Dallin wanted some chips and I told him that he needed to eat the five grapes on his plate. He started trying to make a deal with me. "Can I have five chips when I eat my fie grapes." "Yes," I replied. "How about two chips after I eat two grapes." "No, you can have two chips after you eat five grapes." He got pretty upset and threatened to go get lost in the neighborhood. After watching both Kaylie and Sam eat 5 grapes, he was able to choke them down. After we ate, we played pirate ship on the big toys.

I took the boys down to Google to play and have a little treat while the girls rested. I played pool with Dallin while Sam played the arcade games. Dallin did a pretty good job, once I figured out how to shorten the cue. Then we went upstairs for a treat and played foosball. We came back down and I played pool with Sam while Dallin fussed around with the Xbox and the Wii. I don't know how to use them, but I got Guitar Hero working for Dallin. He didn't want to play that game, so he fussed around some more. When it was time to go, Dallin threw a major fit and told me all sorts of mean things, that he didn't love me anymore, that he was through with me, culminating with "and when I get older, I'm GOING TO SMOKE!" When we got home, Dallin apologized to me for "freaking out." He's a good kid, just going through a fit-throwing phase right now.

2 September 2008, Tuesday

Tonight at dinner, Dallin began telling me about DDT and how it affects mosquitos, which affects fish, which affects Eagles, an endangered species. I'm surprised that they are already feeding the kids this stuff so early. DDT kills mosquitos that propagate malaria, which kills people. The link to Eagles is dubious at best. Anyway, I expressed some doubt and Dallin got pretty angry at me. He told me that I don't know everything. I agreed and told him I would do some research on the subject.

Today, Jana spoke with Sam's teacher and she told her that Sam had picked out the most difficult puzzle, a turtle, and had sat and concentrated over it until he had put it all together. She was impressed that he stayed focused and that he completed it.

3 September 2008, Wednesday

When I got home from work, I heard a little voice say, "Daddy, look for me!" Kaylie was hiding in the pantry. When I opened the door she shouts, "Ta Da!" She likes to hide there lately and usually says something like, "I'm going to work now," and shuts the door. After I found her, she told me that she wanted to go potty on the toilet. I took her upstairs to sit for a while, but she didn't get anywhere.

At dinner, Dallin showed me his loose tooth. I asked him if he wanted me to pull it out and he said yes. Pulling teeth used to give me the willies. However, it wasn't nearly as bad as I had remembered. Dallin's tooth came right out! He lost his first tooth! He was very excited and to celebrate, I made strawberry milkshakes.

6 September 2008, Saturday

Last night, while Jana and I were watching a movie, we heard a cricket in the house. We looked around but couldn't find it. It stopped chirping, so we forgot about it. We were awakened at 12:30 by the sound of chirping downstairs. I went down to try and find it. It sounded like it was near the garage, but it stopped chirping. After waiting a bit it started again, but it sounded like it was coming from the screen door. Not there and then it stopped. I sat on the stairs, waiting for it to start again, but it never did.

At 3:00 we heard the chirping again. This time I went into ninja mode. I crept down the stairs an noticed a small black blob under the door in into the vacuum closet (right between the garage and the screen door). I took one more step and sure enough it moved and stopped chirping. I had it trapped and I knew I would be victorious.

I get a little freaked out by bugs, especially jumping ones. I tried a few times with a shoe, but had to resort to a fly swatter in the end. My heart was going pretty strong by the end and I ended up staring at the ceiling for about an hour. At least I heard the sprinklers come on at 4:00.

7 September 2008, Sunday

Dallin had me pull out his right front bottom tooth, the second one this week. He wrote a note to the tooth fairy that was really cute. It had a picture of him in bed sleeping and the tooth fair taking out the tooth and putting a dollar under his pillow. It said "Dear Tooth Fairy, Thank you for the money." He is an awesome kid.

"To Buys Us WHAT!"

2008-08-31T21:47:00.001-06:00

Sunday

I got up early to do some last minute work on the agendas. When I left for church, only Sam and Jana were awake. Jana was looking at baby names. She asked Sam, "How about Tobias?" Sammy replied, "To buys us what?" "No, that would be the baby's name, Tobias." Sam said again, "To buy us WHAT?"

I was sitting in the pew, waiting for the Jana and the kids to arrive. Sister Moreland and Sister Park were sitting behind me. At first, I saw Sam run in and give me a huge hug. I heard Sister Moreland say to Sister Park, "Here they come!" Then Kaylie came in and shouted "Daddy!" and ran to give me a hug. I love it!

I've been trying to teach the boys how to use the toilet without dropping their drawers to their ankles. Sam was doing a pretty good job today, but missed the toilet and peed all over his church pants. He was pretty upset and kept apologizing to me. There really wasn't a lot we could do, so Jana took him home.

Tuesday

After dinner, Jana went to the PTO meeting. Since Mommy was gone, we had a little roughhouse time tonight. Dallin didn't want me to tickle him at all, so I did my best not to. What am I supposed to do when I catch him, if I can't tickle him. He said, "You can punch or kick instead of tickle." But I told him that Dads that do that go to jail. Dallin is getting pretty hard to catch when I'm on my hands and knees.

First Week of School

2008-08-24T20:47:00.000-06:00

Sunday

We came home and had lunch and then I tried to rest for a few minutes while the boys watched a Sunday movie. Then I played "family" with them downstairs. Dallin pretended to be the dad, which meant he made breakfast for us and got to tell us what to do. Sam pretended to be the baby, which meant he crawled around on the floor. He got pretend sick and we had to take him home. Kaylie and Jana came down when they woke up.

Monday

Today was the first day of school. Dallin was up and dressed by 7:00 and was really excited. We had muffins for breakfast and then Jana walked him to school with the rest of the kids. Sam did Owls Eyes at home with Jana and they played Memory.

Tuesday

Last night, at about 12:00 our fire alarm went off for some reason. I jumped out of bed and then just stood there trying to figure out what was going on. It went off after about 10 seconds and by then I had figured out it wasn't my alarm clock, it wasn't the burglar alarm, it wasn't my iPod, it must be the fire alarm. I checked on all of the kids, they were fine, I checked the upstairs and main floor, they were fine. I searched the basement for anything, nothing. I went back to bed but had a hard time falling back to sleep. I couldn't figure out why the alarm went off, and it bothered me.

Today, Jana walked Dallin to his class, and on the way back, Sam grabbed the stroller away from her. She told him to stop, but he ran faster and accidently went over a curb spilling Kaylie on to the ground and he and the stroller landed on top. She had a bloody lip and a bloody nose and was very upset. Sam felt really sad about what he had done, but decided to throw a fit and refused to come home with Jana.

Later, Kaylie went to the Hickens' to play while Sam and Jana went to preschool orientation. Sam spelled his name with stamps and they learned about the routine.

Dallin has started taking showers at night on his own. He does a pretty good job at getting in and out. He sets the timer to 5 minutes and tries to beat it. His favorite part is using the squeegee to clean the glass door.

Wednesday

Sam woke up very happy this morning. He got a good night's rest. Today was his first day of Preschool. At lunch time, when Jana took him, he thought that she would be staying with him again today. He was a little nervous but went into his class. As Jana and Kaylie were walking away, Jana heard someone knocking on the classroom window. Sam was standing there smiling and waving at them. Jana blew a kiss to him and he returned it.

Jana went to the eye doctor with Kaylie. When she had the instrument in front of her face, Kaylie said, "Mom, you look silly Mommy." She sat very well and ate her "lello (yellow) lollypop" and played with her shoes.

When Jana picked up Sam from school, she asked him what he did at his first day of Preschool. He just replied that he was tired. They waited for Dallin and played for a little while on the big toys before coming home.

Kaylie has been pretty cute lately. She likes to hide things different places. Tonight, Jana found a bunch of LEGOs in the pantry and the other day I found all of the measuring spoons stuffed inside of an oven mitt.

Thursday

Sam called me at work today. He read some words in the Owls Eyes. He told me he read, "am at and ash." He was really excited and I'm very pleased too.

Today when I got home, Sam was so excited to show me the box that came for me. My mom sent a large collection of book binding material she got from Sister Lukens who is moving. I'm excited to get back into it. She also sent wallets for the boys and a purse for Kaylie with McDonalds and Target gift certificates. There was also a little tiny monster truck in the box for the boys and Sam was thrilled when he found it.

Before I put Kaylie to bed, she was so excited to show me her books. When I got to her room, I found that she and arranged all of the Sesame Street alphabet books in two long rows. She put her tow index fingers in the air and said "Daa-ta-da!" She was obviously very proud.

Friday

This morning Sam asked me to go down into the basement with him. He was looking something. He said he wanted the blue monster truck. We found it at last and he got to play Daddy and Son with the blue monster truck and the one my Mom sent yesterday.

Saturday

This morning I made a breakfast of crepes and sausage. Jana made pudding and it was a really nice breakfast. Afterward, it was chore time. The boys cleaned up their rooms and Dallin took out the trash. The both wanted to do chores for money, so Jana thought up some more chores for each of them. It was tricky coming up with something for Sam. It has to be pretty simple, but something with visible impact. He picked up the sheets that the boys and dumped into our room and put them in the basket for Mommy.

I took the boys with me to the store while Jana and Kaylie rested. The boys were pretty good, except for when Dallin started hiding from me at the store and Sam got in a huff and refused to look where he was going. Otherwise, we had a great time. They were really cute. I had two older women stop to talk to me about how cute they were.

When we got home, we had a quick snack and then headed to the Stake Carnival. It rained on us pretty hard for a few minutes. Dallin wandered away from us into a crowd of several hundred people, oblivious to why that would make us worried. In the end we had about as many tears and laughs, but they had a good time.

The Costco Trip

2008-08-17T21:18:00.001-06:00

Sunday

I played with Sam today, one-on-one. We did the Thomas alphabet cards and then he got out the Magnet School. He was sounding out the three-letter words pretty successfully. It is fun to see kid learning how to read and how excited they get.

After dinner, we talked to Grandma and Grandpa Jackson on the computer. The kids had fun with the video effects for a while. While we were talking, the kids worked hard at destroying the house. Kaylie's favorite way is to get out the Connect Four and then throw the pieces down the stairs. Too much fun.

Jana's had a few contractions today, so she rested while I cleaned up and put the kids to bed. Afterward, we sat and talked for a while until I almost passed out. In my defense, I reminded Jana that I didn't have a nap today. She replied, "I know, but you're the last adult I get to talk to for another week."

Tuesday

Sam and I watered the garden and picked a carrot and a beet to see how things were going. He was totally grossed out by the dirt still clinging to the bottom of the carrot and didn't want to get close until I had washed it off. Funny, since he plays in the rocks a lot. I guess dirt just looks different.

Jana took the boys to the store to get some shoes. Dallin initially picked out some gaudy shoes that he knew he had to have. Jana let him try them on, but was really grateful that he didn't like them after all. She found a nice pair of shoes that looked like hiking shoes (or trail runners) and told him, "Daddy would probably like a pair of shoes like these." That was enough for him to get them. I wonder how long Dallin will respect my idea of cool. Sam got some shoes that light up, his first requirement, and had Spiderman on them, a bonus.

When I got home, we had a nice dinner and then Jana went to the PTO meeting. I cleaned up dinner and the kids played really nicely together. They have really enjoyed playing "space" with the R2D2 and Dallin's LEGOs. When I was done, I played a game of Memory with them. I haven't played it with Sam for a long time. Dallin eventually won, but Sam got as many matches as I did (with a little help, of course). Then I got ready for my temple recommend interview and got the kids in the car. After Dallin put on his shoes he insisted that they were "too big and too weird." I told him that they were a little big because his feet are growing and they have to last all year. I also told him that I thought they were cool and that I would like to have a similar pair. For some reason that resonated with him and he calmed down.

We were pulling out into the driveway as Jana drove up. She raced upstairs, inducing a contraction, and got dressed. We made it to the stake center with 1 minute to spare.

Wednesday

After dinner, Jana and Sam went to the open house for preschoolers. Kaylie hung out with me while I cleaned up the kitchen. She likes to be close to me or Jana even if she's not hanging on to us. She took forever to eat her dessert and then she "washed the counter." While I finished up the dishes

Thursday

Sam woke up this morning at 3:00 crying. I went into his room and he threw off the covers as if escaping from something. Their nightlight had burned out and he had had a bad dream. After I got him calmed down, I noticed that he had a bloody nose too. After we took care of that, he settled back down. I went back to bed a was laying there, trying to get back to sleep when I was creeped-out by a very small sound near the door. Sam was standing there looking in at us. He was still frightened. After a hug from mom, I took him back to bed and rubbed his back for a while. Later today, he told Jana that he had a dream that he was being covered in hot lava.

Jana went to the doctor today. Everything is going well. She is 28.5 weeks and hasn't started progressing toward delivery yet.

When I got home, we had dinner and then I took the boys swimming. Dallin really impressed me tonight. He's getting the feel for heads-up crawlstroke and for backstroke and for bye-bye backstroke. Sam back-floats like a champ and can front float for a few seconds. It is still hard for him to relax with his face in the water. Still, he loves to paddle around underwater, he's just not quite experienced enough to swim in the deep-end on his own. I'm feeling pretty good about our lessons this summer.

Friday

After dinner, I walked Dallin down to the Elementary school to meet his teacher. He starts school on Monday. He was pretty excited and kept running ahead of me. Mrs. McNichols seems very nice and he has a nice new room. She had a scavenger hunt set up for us to discover the important places in the room.

Saturday

Jana was feeling well this morning and we went to Costco for our monthly shopping trip. I was pretty reluctant, but she seemed fine. It was pouring rain and I got soaked just walking everyone to the door, which was partly due to Jana's umbrella dumping water on me as I tried to hold Kaylie under it. It is interesting, in a sort of surreal sort of way, to watch the boys at the store. They walk around completely oblivious to other carts or people about to run them over. There weren't any super close calls or anything, but I got my share of stern looks, as if they wanted to say, "Please control your children." What they didn't realize was that I had already told them fifty times, just since we got into Costco, to watch out for other carts, and to stay close to our cart, and that this isn't the park, and that they need to stay close to our cart, and they should not run in to people, and that they really, really need to stay close to our cart. Finally, right before we were about to check out, the worst part of the whole trip, I pulled out my trump card. I promised them ice cream if they would walk right behind me the entire time. They were really cute. Sam even started making train sounds as we walked single file to the check out.

We drove home and had lunch, then the boys and I headed out to run a couple of errands while Jana and Kaylie napped. When we were getting our shoes on, Dallin reminded me that I needed to tie his shoes for him. I figured now was as good a time as any, so I sat down and taught him how to tie his shoes. He did a really good job, and we tied them three or four times together. We did get tears for a little bit, when he discovered that the loops weren't exactly the same size, but he choked them down and we got through it. In the car, he worked on evening out the loops and even at the church, while I was printing out the Home Teaching statistical reports, he kept practicing until he was satisfied. He is actually doing it and I am extremely proud of him.

After while, Crocogator!

2008-08-10T16:01:00.003-06:00

Sunday

We talked to Grandma and Grandpa Jackson, to Aunt Lisa and Aunt Jen, and to Aunt Lisa's boyfriend Kurt. Each of the kids like to do a little song or something. Sam was pretty cute. He would start is song, but after the first line, he would be smiling, or laughing because everyone was watching him, he couldn't get any more out. He tried a bunch of times, and got so frustrated, he ran to his room crying. We all felt sad for him, but he came back out and successfully completed the song, after he had some time to cool down.

The kids have a new game where they jump from the landing on the stairs onto the beanbag chairs they put on the ground. I'd never seen that before, but evidently it is something that they've done several times now. Looks pretty fun but a little risky. I'm surprised Jana lets them do it.

Monday

Jana and the kids went swimming over at the Hicken's pool. Sam wanted to swim without his fish floaty so Jana had to keep a special eye on him. Kaylie wanted to jump into the pool a lot but would then say, "Mommy, I need to splash," and she would lay back in the water and kick her feet as Jana towed her around the pool. Dallin is pretty independent, though I still worry about him in the deep end.

In the afternoon, Dallin and Sam went to the Drapers to play. When Jana picked them up, Dallin asked if our TV can change channels. He wants to watch TV, not just the movies we have. Jana explained that we decided not to have other TV channels at our house. Evidently that was not a satisfying answer because he asked me, when I got home from work, if we could buy a TV that changed channels. Evidently his friend "gets to watch any channel that he wants," (which probably means he can watch PBS and Nickelodeon).

Dallin has been reading 40 minutes a day, 20 in the morning to Mom and 20 in the evening with Dad. If he finishes up this week, he'll be able to get another reward from the library for the summer reading program. I'm really impressed with his ability to read. He's moving on to simple chapter books and has a very good vocabulary.

Wednesday

Jana made zucchini bread this morning (the only proper use of that vegetable, in my mind). After dinner, the tornado sirens started sounding and we went down to the basement to wait out the dangerous part of the storm. Nothing happened, but Dallin was pretty worried. I played blocks with Sam and Kaylie while Dallin read to Jana.

Thursday

On the way out the door this morning. Kaylie said, "See ya later Alligator." I responded, "After while, Crocodile." Then she said, "See ya later, Crocogator!"

Jana borrowed the next book in the "Twilight Series" from Alyson Larsen, who borrowed it from Haley Babcock. And she wonders why she is so tired. When I got home, we ate dinner and then I took the boys swimming. Sam made some progress on his front float and Dallin is starting to get his elbows out when he does the crawl stroke.

When we got home I showered the boys. Right before I handed Sam the soap, I told him not to touch his eyes. After working up a good lather, the first thing he did was wipe the water from his eyes, filling them with soap. He screamed so loud that Dallin started crying that his ears were breaking. I rinsed out Sam's eyes the best I could, but he still needed to be washed, so I had to wash him. For some reason Dallin was completely engrossed in watching Sam scream that he wouldn't wash himself either. We finally got everyone out and we all survived, though none of us can hear quite as well.

Friday

Jana told me today that Kaylie has been a little scared when she goes to bed. She asked Jana if there are any monsters, and Jana reassured her that there weren't any monsters in our house. Later that day, she heard Kaylie talking to her Dora doll, "Don't be scared, there aren't any monsters."

Saturday

I worked on carpets again this morning and finished up around 1:00 in the afternoon. Jana read the last bit with Dallin and then took all of the kids to the library for them to turn in their summer reading program charts. They each got a gift certificate to Country Buffet, at picked out a book. Sammy picked out a "Berenstein Bears Save the Planet" book, which I'm thrilled about, and Dallin picked out a knight chapter book. After the library, they went over to Walmart for the boys to spend some of their allowance. Sam bought an R2D2 and Storm Trooper action figure. Dallin bought a "Mission to Mars" LEGO set. They spent the rest of the day playing with their new toys.

Sammy and I went to the grocery store while Jana napped and Dallin played with his LEGOs. Sam was really cute at the store and is fun to take along. He likes getting the free cookie at the bakery and it keeps him occupied for a while. He likes savoring his food and nibbles around the edge to begin with. He eats his sandwiches the same way, eating the crust first (or the edges on bagels and donuts) before eating the center. Dallin on the other hand, has to be nearly starving before he eats his crusts.

This evening, Dallin and I went to the baptism of Elizabeth Brewer. The talks were short and sweet, just the way I like them, and the spirit was strong. It was a lot of fun to take Dallin. I asked him questions about baptism on the way over to the church and he knows quite a bit. He behaved himself very well the entire time.

Elitch Gardens and Chip Lips

2008-08-03T08:44:00.000-06:00

Sunday

Since I get into the chapel early, I save a seat for the rest of the family. When the kids get there, they run into my arms (Sam is usually the first one in, but Kaylie is a close second). I love it. Today after Kaylie ran into the chapel yelling "Daddy!" and getting a big squeeze, Kai Larsen said, as he was walking by, "Man, it doesn't get better than that!"

After dinner, we had family home evening. Jana presented situations to the boys asking them how they would solve the problem. She tailored the questions specifically for each kid, questions about things they might have done, or personalizing them a little. They did a really good job at answering correctly. We've been been following the advice of Uncle Miles by putting out a few Skittles for each of them at the beginning of the lesson and then consume one after the first warning. Last week we had a lot of tears, but they got the idea. This week we had fewer tears and they were really good. Sam, surprisingly, sat on the couch and participated the entire time. He's got it in him.

Wednesday

When I got home from the dentist, the family and I drove down to Elich Gardens Amusement Park. On the way down, Dallin told Sam that we were running out of gas. Every time the van stopped, for traffic or for a stoplight, he yelled out "We're out of gas!" in a worried voice. It was hard to convince him that we were just fine until I stopped to get gas in Boulder.

It was 100 degrees today and we all cooked a little. It was my work party, Google provided the tickets and the lunch. We just had to find our way to the park. We stayed on the kid rides in the morning and after lunch. Kaylie was able to go on a little more than half of them.

Thursday

After dinner we all went swimming at the Longmont Recreation Center. Dallin is really starting to get the hang of swimming. He did the bye-bye backstroke and he was staring to get the crawl stroke (without side breathing). Sam can now get onto his back and float and he seems very comfortable in the water, especially with his goggles. When we were done without lesson, I took the boys (and Kaylie once) on the water slides many times and Jana took Dallin and Kaylie on the lazy river.

Saturday

After lunch, Dallin and I headed out to the Service Project, which was to clean up alleys near Lanyon Park. We had clouds the whole time and even a little rain, which was truly an answer to prayer (probably not just my own). Dallin was pretty good and let me stay the whole three hours. Afterward, we skipped the planned barbecue and went to McDonalds for some ice cream. Even though I heard plenty of complaints, Dallin told me, over his hot fudge sunday, that this was the best date we've ever had.