We did it again!

Last year we couldn't help ourselves, we had to elf ourselves! This year we've done it again with Landon in the mix, and they've changed things up over at Office Max's web site, which has made things all the more hilarious. Kyle really doesn't like me right now for chosing the picture I chose of him, but seriously, that's the best part of the whole thing! He has no idea how much it makes my day every time I see this. Whenever I need a good laugh I come in and watch the video with Chase, which brings me to another funny story. The first time I watched the video, I had Chase sitting on my lap. When we all started dancing and singing he pointed to Landon with his eyes as wide as melons and said, "LANDON?!?!" Like, "what the? He's never moved like that for me?!" It was hilarious, I wonder what was going through that noggin of his. After we watched the video he ran over to Landon and started pulling on his legs and singing, "Nandon, Nandon, NANNNNNNDUUUUUUUN!" He was a little dissappointed that "Nandon" doesn't quite have those moves in real life. I hope you guys all get a good laugh out of it too!

Side note: If it goes to the Jib Jab greeting card site when you click on the link just go back to our blog and click the link again. It should have this candy cane striped Office Max logo as it loads the video. Enjoy!

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/nK1BtTtYdNm2rPYXxqNU

All Hallows Eve

This has got to be a record for me as far as longest post goes. So get ready for a picture OVERLOAD! No, really.

The many faces of Landon...

Chase eating Mommy's chocolate covered strawberries, yum!

Roasting marshmallows

Riding a tractor trike with Daddy through the little farmer's maze

The pig races!

Before the Honeybee ride started

Kissing cows. The look on Kyle's face says it all.

Goat lovin' boy!

The Goat Whisperer

Chase and Mommy on the carousel

Never am I more proud of my little boy than when he wears my shoes and flings his hand in the air like a miss priss, while he prances about the house.

Yummy caramel apples

Sweet Landon pumpkin pie

Me and my cute little pumpkin. Please try not to focus on how awful I look, bleh. Kyle was a football player and I was a cheerleader for Halloween.

After a long hard day fighting fires...

Hello wee little fire fighter!

Fire Fighter Chase to the rescue!

Landon, supervising the busy pumpkin carvers

Digging in!

I hope you all had a great Halloween! Halloween is the kick off for my favorite holidays of the year, as I'm sure it is for many. I love getting into the spirit of Halloween and stuffing our unwilling children into oh so adorable costumes, making frightful yet delicious treats, chili and cornbread, trunk or treats...the list goes on. It's awesome. This past week we spent a few days celebrating Halloween. We went to the coolest pumpkin patch/farm I've ever been to on Thursday. The admission was super cheap and included everything! All the rides were free, there were corn mazes, pig races, a giant slide, petting zoo, and tons more. That's my kind of Pumpkin Festival. We had such a great time as a family. We packed a picnic dinner and had lots of fun, then wrapped up the night roasting mallows while we listened to the band play. It was great fun for all.

On Friday night we carved our pumpkins and had our ward chili dinner and trunk or treat. We got the kids all dressed up and went to get our trunk or treating on. Kyle did the rounds with Chase whilst Landon (as a pumpkin) laid on a blanket in our trunk as I passed out candy. We had a lot of requests for him as opposed to candy, but I wasn't about to part with my little pumpkin pie! Chase got a lot of "licky pops" which are his favorite, so we called it a success.

On Halloween we had the missionaries over for dinner. My mom used to sign up for the missionaries to come over for dinner on Halloween night every year when I was growing up. They can never go tracting that night and no one ever wants to sign up to have them over on Halloween, sad huh? That happened to be the case in our ward. I think the sign up email went around our relief society a good 3 times with every day being filled except Halloween, so I caved. My mom would always make the traditional chili and cornbread dinner, so I followed suit. I've never made chili before, but apparently it was a huge success. The Elders had massive amounts and I wondered if we would have to roll them out of our house. One Elder had two heaping bowls of chili and 4 huge pieces of cornbread. He literally did not come up from being hunched over his bowl unless a question was directed to him. The funniest part was that he was humming while he was eating. When he said he really liked it, I had no choice but to believe him. He was pretty convincing. We had carmel apples rolled in Heath bar and drizzled with chocolate for dessert and some "goblin goo" (green sherbet ice cream and 7-up). We had planned on taking Chase trick or treating but he had plenty of excitement with the missionaries and it was getting too late when they left. He had a lot of fun helping us pass out candy and whenever the doorbell would ring he'd run to the door and yell, "OH! DOOR? DOOR?" He thought it was delightful in every way that we had so many exciting visitors in one night.

It's been a great Halloween. We're all coming off of our sugar high and taking it nice an easy today. We hope you all had an awesome Halloween too!

Officially waiting...

Just relaxing

Not too sure about this sitting up business

Positive it's not fun anymore!

Ahhh, this is better...

Sitting in the Bebe Pod


Chase and I were playing outside with water balloons the other day (hence the wet shirt) and he was getting into the Halloween spirit and running around the corner then popping out to "scare" me. This is him mid-BOO!


Playing with Landon in his crib


Landon enjoying some of Chase's cars

I finally did it. I completed my nursing school application and got everything into the nursing director. Now I am officially on the waiting list. Yipee! I'm glad that this first step is done, but I know the road ahead will not be an easy one in many many ways. I am positive the outcome will be marvelous though.

In other news, Kyle just finished his first class with an A! Way to go honey! We are so proud of him and the hard work he puts in. He's really had his plate full lately, working from 6am to 3pm, diligently serving in his church callings, training for his races, taking classes, and still donating his liquid gold *sigh*. He ran the Nike Human Race (10k) yesterday and felt like he did pretty well. We here on the home front think he's pretty awesome.

As far as the boys go, Chase just cracks us up everyday. He says the funniest things, albeit slightly snotty at times. He has started to sleep in a big boy bed (a twin mattress on the floor of his room). Even though he's perfectly capable of getting out of bed in the morning and after naps, he calls to me when he can hear me up and about and yells,"MOMMY, I HEEEAAARRR YOOOUUU!" until I come and get him or call for him to come out. I can't complain though, because it's really nice to sleep in a bit until I hear him playing or calling out.

Chase is very into hugging and loving and showing affection lately (he gets it from Barney). We went to the WIC office a couple weeks ago and as we were getting ready to leave the worker said goodbye to Chase to which he replied, "buh bye, love you!" she said ,"awww, I love you too!" I thought it was sweet.

Let me give you a little background information before I tell you this next story that happened also at this same appointment. Chase didn't use to like wearing hats or sunglasses. So to keep him from taking them off when we'd put them on him, we made up this little song and dance to the tune of "Ice Ice Baby" that goes something like this, "Cool cool Chasers nanana nanana nana na-na, he's a cool little baby, nanana..." Whenever he sees someone wearing glasses or a hat he sings this song to them. So we were sitting in the WIC office and Chase peeks around at the computer while the worker is typing and he spots a bunch of rubber duckies on top of the monitor, all wearing various outfits and accessories. He sees one of the ducks is wearing sunglasses and yells at the top of his lungs, "COOL COOL DUCK!" We all got a good laugh out of it.

Landon is doing wonderfully. The only complaint I have for him is that he's growing up way too fast. Landon is my dream come true. He is so easy, sweet, and happy! He gives THE best smiles, he eats great, and sleeps like a dream. He'll go down for bed at about 7 or 7:30pm and doesn't wake up until about 7:30am, then he takes 2 2-3 hour long naps during the day. He's super squishy and cuddly and he melts my heart with his charming smiles. He rolls over front to back and vice versa now and is starting to sit up pretty well. He loves to talk and play with toys and look at himself in mirrors. Whenever we drive somewhere he sighs and jabbers in the backseat pretty much the entire time. So cute! We feel very lucky to have him in our family. Here are some new pictures...

Frankie Says Relax

Hot fresh cinnamon rolls! Yummm...

The finished product

Kyle whistling while he works. Painting the kitchen...
Landon, rocking out!

This weekend we followed Frankie's advice (for the most part) and we relaxed. We took relaxing walks, barbequed, played with the kids (lots) I think we wore them out a few times! We watched conference, of course, and neither of us fell asleep during a single talk (we kept busy). We got a lot done this weekend too, surprisingly. The best part is none of it felt overwhelming. We cleaned the house top to bottom, painted the kitchen, shopped for groceries, and baked cinnamon rolls that literally took about 10 hours start to finish, but believe it or not are SO worth it!

Dear monday, look at you trying to pull a fast one on me... you may win the battle tomorrow since I just had such a great weekend, but after tomorrow I will continue my strong distate for you and all your Monday glory. Love, Jessica

Here are some pictures for everyone who's with me. Who likes Monday's?!

Build and Grow

Hi baby!

Lan the man

Chase's certificate, he's so proud of himself.

The fire truck

With daddy in front of the "fi fi truck" showing off the one he built

Reading the instructions

Hammering away

I'll SMASH IT WITH A HAMMER! (Emperor's New Groove)

Kissing Landon "good morning sunshine!"

This past Saturday we decided we were going to get out of the house and do something fun! Usually we clean or have friends over (which is still fun, the friends not the cleaning) and run errands and grocery shop. I really wanted to do something fun with the fam that Chase would enjoy also. Luckily my sister called me with some great deals. She is the queen of frugal and ALWAYS knows the best deals. It seriously is a talent when it comes to her and shopping. She hasn't paid for toothpaste, bodywash, or shampoo for many many months due to her deal finding and couponing expertise. So she called about some great deals that she'd heard about one of which was a free Build and Grow clinic that Lowes does for kids. Saturday's was building firetrucks! Chase loves"fi fi trucks", so I talked Kyle into going as a family and we all had a blast. They gave him his own apron, goggles, and tool kit and a certificate and badge when he finished. It turned out so cute and he had so much fun making it. Ever since, you won't see him without it. He loves playing with it and is proud of his creation. After building his truck, we went outside where he got to see "fighter fighters" and talk to them, and climb on a real "fi fi truck". So fun! If you have a Lowes in the area you should check them out. They are building a ball toss next week, which we'll miss:( but conference will make up for it. Then the week before Halloween they're building a "Frankenstring", not sure what it is, but it sounds spooooky. Thanks Christy!

Not too much is new around our house. Kyle's loving his job and he does really well. The weather is getting gorgeous. By mid week we'll be in the 80's lows in the 60's, lovely! Landon's growing and getting stronger everyday and Chase is a little chatterbox! He's very into hugs and kisses right now and I can't ever get enough of those. He puckers his juicy little lips so big and lays the best wet ones on all of us! He's still very tender hearted which makes us a little sad some times because other kids take advantage. Kids will take toys from him in nursery and he just lets them and says, "share? share?" with the saddest little look on his face. I tell him to kick the mean kids in the shins. Kyle doesn't think that's the best approach though.

Landon is the most smiley baby I've ever seen, and ticklish too. He started laughing a couple weeks ago and it's music to my ears, so darn cute! He even smiles and laughs when we swaddle him. He's at the stage where he's just figuring out his hands are attached. It's hilarious! I loved when Chase was going through this stage. He'd turn his hand front to back and just examine it. Landon holds his in a fist, and looks at it closely while opening and closing his fingers. He loves hearing his voice and he squawks and coos and sighs constantly. He's just so much fun, I can't get enough of his chubs.

Here are some pictures until next time...

Life happens

Arizona's newest Jr. Firefighter

The splash park/public pool

Chase playing on his new "Cars" rug from Aunt Cassandra. He adores it!

Chase giving his new bff Mason a hug goodbye after going swimming

Chase attempting to drown himself

Chase coming down the tunnel slide. The toddler slides were his favorite part.

Mommy and her two little water babies.

Chase wanted to wear one of daddy's ties to church so Kyle tied one for him and we let him. He loved it despite the fact that it was half his size!

Chase playing with his wagon out in the rain.

Sweet sweet Landon. Being his own darling little self. He is such a little treat.

We have a lot of catching up to do. So I'll just get right to it. Two Wednesday's ago we had a playdate set up to go to a really fun public pool with some friends from our old ward. The morning of was running relatively smoothly. Chase was being very cooperative, and was SO excited. Landon was being his usual self, sweet and serene. I packed our lunches, sunblock, towels, snacks, and drinks. Both kids were buckled in, when Chase decided that it would be an opportune time to request his drink. So I went to his door and tried to open it, locked. He likes to stick his feet up on the door and lock it whenever he gets in the car (drives me so nuts). So I roll my eyes and open the passenger side door and click the locks to unlock all the doors, wrong way. After I'd already closed the door panic set in. I thought to myself, "No no no no, this is not happening." I had locked both of my children, my keys, and my only form of communication in the car. I ran out to the street looking to see which of our neighbors was most likely to be home. I saw that our Chicago neighor's car was parked out in front. So I ran over and knocked on their door. Luckily he answered. Trying to pull it together, I asked if I could use his phone to call 911. They take children being locked in hot cars VERY seriously in Arizona. Kyle had our only spare key, and he was 45 minutes away. The 911 dispatcher answers and asks what the emergency is, how old the kids are, how long they've been in the car, address confirmation, and telling me to stay on the line. Finally she asks, "how are they acting?" I said, "I don't know because I had to make the call from a neighbor's home. When I left my 3 month old was crying, and my 2 year old was laughing," (he thought my reaction was pretty darn hilarious). So she said, "okay, help is on the way, go check on your kids and let us know immediately if anything changes. It felt like it took a month for the firefighters to arrive. Up until then I was pretty well composed. As soon as I heard the truck barrelling down the street I broke down and started sobbing. The firefighters were wonderful, they got right to work getting ready to duck tape the window in case they had to smash it in. Luckily, it only took him two seconds to jimmy the lock. The firefighters let Chase get on the firetruck and take a little tour and then they gave him a little plastic firefighter hat. They even took the time to console me before they left. They were all very sweet.

After the drama ended and the firemen left we went inside the house. I considered canceling swimming, but then I decided that swimming was just what we needed so we got back in the car and headed out. We were so glad that we did! Chase had such a blast with his little friends Mason and Noah and I enjoyed catching up with Shelly. Kyle was so jealous of all the fun we had, that he suggested we go back as a family that same Saturday.

As far as the kids go, they are doing wonderfully. Chase impresses us more and more everyday. He's like a little sponge! He hears and repeats everything! He loves talking and talks our ears off constantly. He knows all of his letters now, all of his numbers up to ten, and his shapes including a trapezoid!

Landon rolled over for the first time a couple weeks ago and now he's a rolling fool! He loves talking and cooing and he is such a smiley little guy. He gets delirious at night and instead of getting fussy he smiles and laughs. Chase loves playing with him so much! Especially now that Landon will smile or laugh when Chase plays with him. He's a great older brother to his precious little brother.

In other White family news, I finally took the Nurse Entrance Test yesterday and I passed!!! Yay me! I have been contemplating/studying/procrastinating taking the test for about 2 years now. I finally decided a couple months ago that once and for all I WILL be on the waiting list for the nursing program by the end of the year (or hopefully sooner). So now the only thing I have left is to get my fingerprint clearance card (on my list of to do's this week) and then it's the waiting game. The waiting list is approximately 1-2 years long, ugh, but if I had gotten this done when I first wanted to, then I would either be in the program right now or just starting it. I've put it off long enough. I needed to move forward and get it done. So, I'm one step closer to getting my nursing degree, a dream I've had since elementary school.

Kyle is starting classes for his master's degree this Tuesday. I'm afraid we won't be seeing a whole lot of him for a little while. It will be so worth it though for him to finally obtain his master's and be eligible to sit for the CPA exam. It's been a long time coming.

On top of classes, Kyle is also training for a half marathon! Yay Kyle! He's very motivated for it and has been wanting to run in some races for a long time. Races are expensive though, and I can never bring myself to shell out the dough for them. Even though it's for a good cause, I prefer to spend our money on things like um, clothes and food. UOP pays the entry fees for their employees into all of these big races, so Kyle signed up for the PF Chang's Rock n' Roll Half Marathon in January.

Well I think that about catches you up. Until next time!