no blogs?

There are lots of reasons why I haven't blogged in so long:
1. I had to do the tax receipts for the church.
2. Maddie's death affected me more than I could've imagined, and still wonder how her dear parents can make it through (please keep them in your prayers).
3. My hard-drive filled up and couldn't fit anymore pictures, I then had to back-up everything and clear the hard-drive (at least enough to fit more pics).
4. I had to get ready to go to NY and London.
5. I went to NY and London.
6. I had terrible jet-lag followed by an illness.
7. Abby and Jamie have been sick.

But really, you probably all want to see NY and London pictures. I just finished downloading them to the computer and there are more than 1000! So it surely take a few days to wade through them and pick out the best, hopefully by the end of the week. For now, you will have to live with the christmas pics and videos that I never posted, and some from the beginning of January.

The way Jamie sees it 12/14/07 - 1/9/08

Update on Jamie:
Jamie is almost completely potty-trained. Of course I've been saying that for awhile but we're just getting closer. With a bare butt he is potty-trained, but the problem is you can't go anywhere with a bare butt! (And really, you can't be around a 1-year old with a winkee stickin' out, it's just too much for her to not try and grab it!) So more and more we've been working on wearing at least underwear or boxers and not having any accidents. It used to be that he was great with #1 but not #2 and now it is pretty much the other way around. Too often I'm telling him to strip and find something new to wear, hoping that if he does the work, it will be more incentive to go in the potty. He did go to church this last Sunday without any accidents and he even told Beth when he had to go potty! I usually have to remind him, so maybe he does better with others.

For awhile, his favorite word was "what?", even when he heard you loud and clear. Now it is why? Even when we've already answered "why?", it's still why, and then why again. I don't want to be a parent that just says "because I said so" but enough is enough, I can't explain all day long about why hurting your sister is not a good idea! My mom says that I was famous for this so I guess this is payback. The other day Chad started questioning Jamie in the same way (why?why?why?) and he answered for quite some time until finally he was like "don't say why!". Although I don't think the point got across to him, he still does it.

12/14 at bedtime...
[Jamie] "where my soft bwankie?"
[me] "it's dirty, I had to wash it"
[Jamie] "in dish-watcher?"


12/16 trying to cut Jamie's hair...
[me] "put your hands down or I'll cut your fingers"
[Jamie] "cut Abby's hair"
[me] "I already cut Abby's hair, it's your turn"
[pause]
[Jamie] "cut my tingers" (as he holds his fingers out for me)
Apparently he is so afraid of getting his hair cut that me cutting his fingers seemed like a better alternative. There was no reasoning with him, I offered to use scissors or clippers, but in the end we had to hold him down to cut his hair, and then the clippers broke half-way through and I had to finish with the scissors, but with screaming and a flailing boy, one side got totally chopped up, so don't laugh the next time you see him!

Jan 5th:
It was the absence of what Jamie said today that prompted me to remember this. He was at my mom's when I turned on the stereo to my favorite station. Normally, I would have heard this:
"Only wuv bus mu-ic!"
For awhile, all I was allowed to listen to was "wheels on the bus" and other toddler songs.

Jan 8th:
"wadies(ladies) have boops (boobs), wittle boys only have tummies"

Jan 9th:
[Jamie] "I'm want some'tin eat"
[me]"What would you like to eat?"
[Jamie]"some'tin in fridge - wots of food in there"

Christmas party

Carrie had a christmas party at her house this year. Go to Sydney's webpage for more pics. I put Abby in four ponies for the event:


Santa claus (my dad) came to visit...

Jamie timidly comes to get his present...
But he's more interested in the candy cane...
Abby is very shy too...

A super big Goodnight Moon book!

My sister got a picture of Abby and I sitting on Santa's lap (she wouldn't do it alone), but Jamie refused altogether. And then someone (you know who you are) decided to tell Jamie that Santa Claus was going to come to our house in the middle of the night and he woke up one night very scared indeed: "no wike Santa Cwaus."

non-Christmas stuff

Cousins

Sydney and Abby hangin' out...

Abby's first steps

Abby learned how to walk about a month ago, here are some of her first steps...



Now Jamie tries to copy her...

Rock-a-bye baby

pre-Christmas stuff

Christmas Boats

Here's some pics of when we went to see the Christmas boats at Janet's house. The kids all had a lot of fun.

Christmas portraits

On Dec 17th, the whole family went to Tacoma to get the kids' portraits taken at The Picture People, and to visit Trader Joe's. Jamie's haircut was screwed-up, Abby had a black-eye, and neither were in a very good mood by the time we got there, but we did it anyways and got a few good ones.

All ready to go...

The only decent one of both them together...

Trimming the tree

For pictures of when we went to get the tree, go to Sydney's webpage (in our fave sites list). After a week of only having lights on our tree, we finally decorated it. Each of our ornaments is wrapped up to keep it from breaking and Jamie had such a fun time unwrapping each one. He'd hold it up after he opened it and say "look at dis!"

Abby tries to chew on the lights...

Look at dis!

Showing off her new walking skills...

Here's me putting on ornaments...


Abby did a good job of taking them back off...