We bought a house...finally!

After a long 6 month search for a house, we finally bought a house here in Omaha, NE! We are really excited, but sad the house won't be finished and ready to move into until late June...that's right...next year. Sheesh it'll be a long wait, but will be worth it in the end. Here is a collage of photos we took of the model home. We have pretty much chosen all the same things that are in this home (like carpet, cabinets, counter tops), and plan on decorating it with the same color scheme because it is so darn cute! (Jack hasn't said those exact words...but he likes it too). I am so excited that I finally get a front porch, and grass...oh wonderful grass instead of rocks, and a nice big backyard for the kids to play in. (Jack is excited too, but at the same time not TOO excited for all the mowing to be done) We'll have a LOVELY view of....corn! Hey, we live in Nebraska, could you expect anything but corn?

Wake up!

We all took a lazy saturday afternoon nap today (okay, I tried to, but as ALWAYS Jacob woke up right when I fell asleep), and when Tyler woke up from his nap Jack was still sleeping on the couch. I told him to go wake up daddy and he went over to the couch and said "Daddy, wake up! Wake up daddy, it's 6 clock, time to play!" (No, it wasn't 6, but in Tyler's world, 6 must be his favorite number or something, because that's what he uses for everything!)

The Wonderful World of Canning

I have finally learned how to can. Yes, my mom did can a lot when I was growing up...but we weren't allowed in the kitchen. Now, before you start saying to yourself "well that wasn't very nice of her mom to keep her from learning such a great skill" think about what she had to deal with...would you want 7 little kids running around with curiousity in your kitchen? Especially with HOT stuff all around? No, probably not. So mom, I understand now why you kept me out of the kitchen. hehe

Anyway, back to my canning experience- a group here where we live gets boxes of freshly picked peaches from an orchard in Colorado each year. I decided it'd be fun to try canning them and bought a 30lb box along with Jack's brother's wife, Bekah. Neither of us had canned before but got as much info as we could and decided to give it a try. We had a lot of fun! It's a lot of waiting around for things to boil, and a lot of peeling and slicing, but we had fun. Now Jack on the other hand would have to disagree on the fun part. I dragged him over to Bekah's house and he ended up watching our 4 kids for a few hours, he didn't really enjoy that too much. Sorry hun, thanks though!!!!

Well, we had fun, the peaches came out great too! I was excited to tell our Sunday guests that I had canned the peaches that were in our peach cobbler...it made it taste even better knowing I did the peaches on my own:)

Here's an awesome canning website I found during my research: http://www.pickyourown.org/index.htm

Tyler

I realize I've been neglecting Tyler on this blog recently...so here's a video and cute picture of him.

Tyler likes to put Jack's shoes on and walk up to us saying "Hi Jack!".



We were eating lunch the other day and he discovered blowing bubbles with a straw. He got quite the kick out of it. The next day he thought he'd try it again and blow bubbles with his drinkable yogurt....I don't recommend it.

Tyler started a Gymboree class recently and loves it! He has so much fun climbing and jumping all over the place, and not being told to stop this or stop that. It's completely HIS time to be a crazy 2 1/2 yr old boy with no adults telling him what to do....for the most part. We also started a co-op preschool this week with 3 other boys his age. He seemed to love his first day yesterday. It's my turn to teach next week, wish me luck....4 almost 3 yr old boys in our tiny apartment... hmmm...wonder how that's going to go.

Catch Up post...again

Another catch-up post is needed....

My brother Jonathan and his girlfriend Christy came through here on their way back to Rapid City for school from Charlotte. It was fun to visit with them again, even if it was too quick! Tyler loves his Uncle Jonathan, and both the boys just adored Christy! Tyler still occasionally asks about them too. Here's a fun video of Tyler beating Jonathan on Wii Boxing....and Jonathan was really trying too! Thanks for stopping by guys, we have fun with you and hope to see you again soon! Good luck with school!

A week or two later Grandma and Grandpa McKaskey came for a super quick weekend visit before they moved to Switzerland (of course, they aren't any more...but that's a whole other story). We were so excited for them to come since it had been way too long since we had seen them...a year and a half since we had seen grandpa and almost 1 year since we had seen grandma. Tyler had SOO much fun playing with grandpa. As a matter of fact, after playing with my dad for quite a while they came into the living room my dad sat on the couch and fell asleep...sitting up. And he slept there for about an hour and a half, sitting up. During that time my mom fell asleep with Jacob on our bed. Tyler walked back and forth between them laughing and whispering "Mommy, shhh, they sleeping!" If anything, their trip let them forget their stresses at home and get a little extra sleep :) Jacob laughed and babbled away with my mom and had so much fun with her. We went to the Mormon Trail Museum and the LDS Winter Quarters Nebraska Temple. We had a lot of fun with them and wished they could have stayed longer.

We even had Tyler take a picture for us, not bad huh? (Hey, when there is no one else around, who can you turn to?!)

Why isn't he wearing a shirt you ask? Well, let me tell you a funny story about being prepared.... We were at church Sunday morning, Jacob was dressed quite handsome if I must say so myself, and my mom was holding him. All of a sudden we hear a rumble rumble squirt squirt...you know what I mean. So we giggle a little and then decide he can wait just a couple minutes before one of us takes him out to change him...my mom repostioned him and I notice a little spot on her dress that was not part of the dress pattern. Oh no...yuck. So my mom puts him away from her to assess the damage...eeeewww...all the way up his back, all over his blanket too. So I grabbed to diaper bag and tell her there was everything she needed in there, including a change of clothes. Wrong. She took him, because I couldn't leave since I was about to sing, got him all cleaned up and came back with him this way all wrapped up in a little toga, using my nursing wrap since the blanket was a mess. It was really quite cute, this cute chubby little baby with no shirt on. The big problem was that all the babies at church are girls, and they had spare onsies, but Jack said he'd rather his son be naked then for me to put a purple onsie that says "Little Cupcake" on him. So, lesson to learn here....BE PREPARED!

Funny thing is, the very next sunday...He had a two piece outfit on that he spit up all over. I was prepared, but with a t-shirt, not a onsie...so he was naked again, just from the diaper down, not the diaper up. Funny kid. Lesson learned. Here's a picture of the naked Little Buddha that day.

Jacob's 4 months!

Our sweet little Jacob is 4 months already! He is SOOO chubby! He weighed in at 18lbs 1oz and was 25.75" long! He is such a happy baby, rarely cries, loves to laugh at daddy and big brother Tyler, and sometimes for mommy. He loves to eat, and sadly won't take a bottle or a pacifier, but oh well, Tyler did the same thing so I guess we are sort of used to it. He loves to talk, last week he went through a phase where I called him my "Pterodactyl" because he would screach as loud as he could, when he was happy and mad. But thank goodness that didn't last long, now he just likes to goo and gah. Just yesterday he rolled over to his back for the first time...I think this picture was actually of him in the action of rolling too! (Thanks again Aunt Bekah for this awesome picture you took with your fancy new camera!) Jacob also can stay in sitting position for a few seconds before falling forward from all the extra weight. :) He loves to play with his toys and to examine his hands and feet. We love to see our two boys grow and learn more and more each day!