Today Gauge found a flashlight.
So what did he do?
Naturally, he stripped off all of his clothes, tore off his diaper and pointed the flashlight toward himself while running around and yelling, "HAHAHAHAHA! Wook at wee wee!!"

I'm surrounded by boys!!!

Wow... a whole year!

I had no clue that it had been a year (or more!) since my last post. I guess I will have to spend some time catching up... not sure if anyone even reads this anymore! I will be posting some pics soon and catching up on stories as time goes on, but for now I'll leave it at this:

• ELI PASSED PART 2 OF HIS BOARDS!! He is only a hop, step, and a jump away from being a licensed, practicing dentist. (1) Make it alive through the holidays with a wedding, Christmas, lots of family time and travelling with the three crazy boys, (2) Final board exam on patients in February, and (3) Graduation at the end of April (or May... not even sure which one). PHEW! We've almost made it!!
• Jax is almost halfway through his first year of elementary school and is LOVING Sunset Hills. He has made it to the "Purple Club" for his reading rainbow and is very excited because he is one out of only two people in his class that has memorized the sight words up to this level. He loves being 5, having friends over, and playing Mario Kart Wii.
• Ty is doing great in Preschool and constantly tells people it is "almost his next birthday." He's sure gonna be surprised when he actually processes what "not until June, like 7 more months!" means. He is a great big brother and good at helping around the house. I'll have to post some of the awesome pics I have of him being Batman for Halloween!
• Can you believe Gauge is already 2!? I can't. He is talking like crazy and BUSY BUSY BUSY. He stays on top of feeding the dogs, making sure Ty and Jax are doing everything they are supposed to, and loves helping Mom around the house.

We have been having a great year--minus the temperature STILL hitting the 80s the weeks before Christmas!--and are completely astounded that this is already our last Christmas Season in Arizona. Next year's location is in the hands of the U.S. Army.... :)

Til next time (hopefully sooner rather than later...)~

Don't Eat Pete!

Ever since we were little, we have loved to play Don't Eat Pete! Now that my kids are old enough to play, it has become a favorite go-to for Family Home Evenings... especially when Ty gets to choose the activity. Our game board was getting pretty tired, so I made a new one that the boys thought was pretty funny. Here's a glimpse of the new board.

My Sweet Mom

For those who haven't yet heard the news, I am back in Atlanta to support my sweet mom who was diagnosed recently with Stage IV, Metastatic Breast Cancer. She is so brave! She has tumors all through her spine and walks around with a fractured back (the continual growth of the tumors have caused micro-fractures all throughout her spine). They also found the cancer in several lymphnodes throughout her neck and sternum. She underwent her first chemo treatment last Wednesday (10 days ago-ish) and will undergo 5 more treatments over the next 16 1/2 weeks. She remains positive and happy, still the beautiful and vibrant woman I have always known. I wouldn't want to be anywhere but here by her side.

Salome Jug

Eli & I had the BEST WEEKEND! We decided we would take some time away from the kids (note to other parents- highly suggested once in a while!) and took off Friday afternoon with some of Eli's friends from dental school. We spent the night in a hotel in Punkin Center, AZ (nope, I didn't misspell that... it is PuNkin Center!) and had a great time playing shuffleboard and pool the night before our Saturday adventure. Early the next morning we got up and hiked into Salome Jug, a gorgeous canyon.
. We hiked in a couple of miles, slid down waterslides, did some awesome cliff-jumping, and broke in our new rapelling harnesses.       

IT WAS SUCH A BLAST! Hopefully the start of some great new hobbies together. THANKS, PICKENS, for some amazing memories!

There are a ton of pics on facebook--just look at Eli's albums, or you can check out pics that I'm tagged in.

Gauge is Six Months

Gauge has turned 6 months old.

With that has come some excitement for his growth, tears over the realization that he is "getting too big," and some fun new tricks! He is now a "supported sitter" (which Uncle Chase so lovingly pointed out just means that he can "tilt" in a semi-upright position all by himself). He loves solid foods, starting with a taste of virgin pina colada in Mexico (haha) and moving on to sweet corn casserole, sweet potatoes, green beans, and more. Gauge is very in tune with his brothers and loves to make them laugh! He will often watch the funny antics going on around him, smilling, laughing, and squealing as his brothers play. Jax and Ty also love to play with Gauge. Anytime Gauge is on the floor, I can find Jax stopping to talk and play with him. The doctor said he is small for his age (only about 14 lb 10 oz) but healthy and strong, progressing in every way that he should. Dr. Pham chalked the size up to genetics.... whatever that means ;-) 

We love you Gauge! We are so glad you are in our family. Your easy-going attitude and always-smiling face has brought so much joy to our home. mmmmmWAH!

A Riddle for You

Riddle:
What is different hues of blue, smells like cinnamon, and has red spots all over?

Answer:
My most recent load of laundry.

That's right, we have been hit by the gum-in-the-laundry fairy... and it is awful! I have spent the last hour with my head stuck in my dryer, squirting GooGone and wiping out the insides. I am taking a quick break before attempting to attack the load of laundry... my plan? Still quite indecisive. For now, all I can say is that I have thrown the entire load into my deep freeze in the garage in an attempt to begin a freezing process of the gum (recommended by my grandmother--thanks Gigi!). I think I'll have to start going through it piece by piece with ice cubes, freezing and scraping and then backing it up with....??? Nail polish remover? More GooGone? I have been told a few different things.

And that's my queue to hit up Google Search.

Rock Band Beware: Jax is on the Rise!

Eli snapped this video of Jax this afternoon. How could I not share!?

I miss the South

It's amazing the things that tug on your heartstrings and make you homesick. Today it was opening my freezer and seeing the Southern Butter Pecan icecream I have waiting for me... whenever I am "allowed" to eat it again :) For a moment, I missed the boiled peanuts and the clay and the magnolias and the smell of honeysuckles. It would've been great to be able to pull up and hear the long howls coming from two old hound dawgs as sweet as can be. And, I'll admit, that moment of longing lasted the rest of the day.

tHANK YOU GRANDMA GREAT!!

We got a beautiful quilt in the mail this week from my Grandma Wilcox that she made especially for Gauge. Just wanted to say "Thank you, Grandma!" I tried to email this to her, but their mailbox was full. And so, I'm posting this on facebook and the blog in the event that she checks either one before her email is sent to her.

Dear Grandma,

We love this quilt! It is so special. I was going to send you a card, but then I remembered that you are doing all of your journaling digitally nowadays and I wanted to save you the extra step of having to scan in another card for your journal. So I made you a digital "thank you" instead. thank you for the time, effort, and love you put into quilting for each of my children. It is so special for Eli and me, and I know it grows more and more meaningful for the boys as they grow older. Love you!

Eli's one more BIG step toward becoming a dentist!

Eli and his lab partner, Jason Miller, are starting injections today.

ON EACHOTHER!!

Hopefully they've paid attention in class, and are very prepared, otherwise they are going to have VERY SORE JAWS by the end of today. I am so proud of Eli! He has worked so hard, and I can't believe he has come this far... you are getting so close to becoming a dentist, Pickens! Almost finished year 2!

Working hard in lab

Eli & Jason working on a car

Partners

Dr. Eli Stephens.... soon enough :)

Fun in the sun

I have this sneaking suspicion that it is going to get hot WAY TOO QUICKLY out here! But in the meantime, we are having a wonderful time playing in our backyard every afternoon. Ty giggles and laughs when Maxx runs through (muddy paws and all) the baby wading pool, and he and Jax both think it is awesome to slide down the slide into the pool... they go extra fast because they are wet! Unfortunately, our pool doesn't quite fit right under the slide, so they just slip into the sloppy grass and then jump right in, pretending that they are sliding into the pool.

Jax is really into pirates right now because his favorite show is "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" from DisneyJunior (a cheesy spin-off from Peter Pan). He is always pretending that he is on a hunt for something. Yesterday while we were watching, he said, "Mom, I get to be Jake. You're a guwrl so you have to be Izzy. Gauge is small so he has to be Skully--the parrott. And Ty gets to be Cubby (a chubby little red head)."

He cracks me up. Gone are the days of my little baby Jax, he is all boy now.

Ty is quickly transitioning too. He does so many "big things" now that I feel like I only get glimpses now and then of him being a little one. Everytime I'm worried that he's switching from toddler to big boy (or thinks he is), I watch him run and I remember that he is still little enough. He runs so cute... his little legs always going slightly faster than his body, as if he were constantly running downhill... and his arms flail above his head like Captain Jack Sparrow.

Gauge is growing up every day. Yesterday I put him in an exersaucer for the first time. And, in an instant, he transitioned from infancy to babyhood. It made me so sad! Why does time go so quickly when you don't want it to?

More Mexico fun...

Happy baby boy

Swimming

Tuesday

Happy by the pool

Getting so great at swimming, and was practicing holding his breath under the water. He is loving it!

Sun baby!

Hello, Handsome!

Monday in Mexico

View of overlooking the resort from our balcony. We also have a killer view of the beach!

Getting ready to swim! It was super windy--pretty similiar to Destin, FL weather. Luckily the heated pool was plenty warm.

I told Jax to "smile" and he flexed in his floaties!

Jax picked right up where he left off with his swimming from last year, jumping in from the side of the pool and kicking hard to get around. He is doing great! I bet we'll have the arm floaties off by the end of Tuesday!

Handsome boys! (Ty was cold being out of the water)

Ty kicking and swimming around. He's always been our water baby, and proved to be no different. After 2 1/2 hours of swimming he still didn't want to go home for lunch.

During a quick snack break I told Ty to "smile"... he turned and posed like this and held it.I cracked up! Had to snap a pic!

I'll post the video of this later, but Ty kept trying to kick and swim between Eli and a little floating tube. Everytime he got close to Eli, Jax would come up behind him and hold on to his back. Little stinker!

After lunch and a siesta (nap time), we took our sand toys down to the beach for some digging and building of sand castles. WE HAD SUCH A BLAST!!

The tide was way out so we found all sorts of treasures stuck in the sand and coral. Here, Eli has found a live clam. He considered eating it, but I reminded him of his experience in a Chilean hospital during his mission and told him that it wouldn't be a very good idea. He agreed... so we disected it instead. The kids thought it was really cool, because we could see everything he had eaten recently. Later, Jax brought up an empty half-clamshell that had some barnacles stuck to it. He pointed to the barnacles and said "See that mom? That's what he ate recently." Smartie.

Gauge... trying to keep him out of the wind. You can see the ripples in the sand from how high the tide had been earlier that day, and how low it was while we were down there. It was such a pretty sunset.

The low tide left lots of little pools for the kids to play in, finding shells and little bunches of seaweed

The boys spotted a lot of little holds, so they decided it would be best to dig down and find what was making the air holes. A clam? A crab? What could it be? They never could find it, but they dug a heck of a hold (which Ty and Jax each fell in at one point) and had a fun time

While they dug the hole, I went and looked around some of the pools that were stuck in the coral and found a TON of little crabs. Then I shouted to Eli, "Hey Pickens, guess what? I'm holding 3 crabs in my hand right now!" He was totally shocked. It was true. I found the motherload! I totally would've rocked Man Woman Wild (a show on the Discovery Channel where husband and wife have to survive together and catch their own food)! Here's a picture of one of the little guys I caught. He was brave enough to come out and crawl around once we put him down on the sand.

The crabs we gathered up to show the kids, all hiding in their shells

So windy! But so much fun.

JAX!

We're having a blast and loving our vacation. We'll show you more tomorrow!!!