Feeling better

Life has been CRAZY at our house (do all my posts begin with that same sentence?). Everyone has been sick again, and I feel like I have not accomplished anything. When I post on my blog, I feel like I accomplished something so that is why I am sitting here Sunday night writing about my family life. 

The other day, Randy came home from school and told the boys that the mountain man had come to visit his class so he was going to tell them about the mountain man's visit. Mark looked at Randy and said, "How little was this mountain man?" I laughed so hard I almost cried. Maybe Mark thinks mountain men are dwarves from Lord of the Rings, but Randy explained he was a regular man who lived in the mountains and shared his experiences and stories with people. 

Dax was diagnosed with Strep Throat on Monday. This kid can't catch a break, but he is doing great after a week on antibiotics. He had some pretty scary fevers (some reaching 105.7), so I am glad Dax is finally smiling again. Tonight when I tucked him into bed, he told me I was a great mom. That made my whole day!

Oh, Seth! He had all the horrible sickness that Dax had, but no antibiotics to help. Seth has had a nasty cough, runny nose, and has been sad all week. Today was the first day he seemed like himself again. Dax put these glasses on Seth and it helped make everyone in our family smile. Seth weighs 21 pounds now. Randy and I are going to have to start seeing a chiropractor from carrying him around. I hope he learns to crawl soon. What 3rd time mom says that?

This bald eagle was in the tree next to our house yesterday morning. I took this picture out my kitchen window. Randy missed seeing it, but the boys and I watched him for about an hour. Seeing this bald eagle helped us birders make it through a long Saturday!

The "Big Church"

Dax says the funniest things right now.

Hey, this is Randy. . .

Our boys have always liked church. The only time we get the line, "I don't want to go to church!" is from Dax, and what he really means is: "I don't want to get dressed up." Once he's dressed up, he's happy to go.

We were surprised this morning, though, when Dax said, "When can we go back to the big church?"

Since we recently moved from a small ward building to a Stake Center, this puzzled us. After all, we currently go to the "big church." We tried to explain this to him, but he said, "No, the really big church."

What?

"You know, the REALLY BIG church where the Jazz play?"

Who says I don't know how to raise boys?

The "big church"

Footnote from Natalie: Just so you know, we have only ever seen Randy play basketball in a church, so that is why Dax thinks everyone plays basketball in churches. 

Mark Loses his First Tooth

After some serious wiggling, Mark's tooth finally came out! Our little boy is growing up.

Mark loved this picture, so I promised to put it on.

He pulled it right out before bed.

Christmas!

Family Christmas Picture!

I am finally going to post about Christmas--I have been working backward through my pictures. We were all a little under the weather on Christmas, but we still had a great day. Everyone slept in until 8:00 am. We really enjoy having young children!

Christmas is always broken up into three parts. Santa and mom & dad presents in the morning, Grandpa Ockey presents in the afternoon, and Grandma and Grandpa Daniels presents a day or two after Christmas. We LOVE it that way. The boys enjoy their gifts so much more because they open a few at a time.

We had a wonderful holiday and it is always special because Randy is home for two weeks with us. We love this holiday break.

Mark got some new Star Wars toys.

Dax got the big garbage truck he really wanted.

Seth got this fun dinosaur!

Seth's first Christmas and like all babies, he mostly loved eating the presents!

Randy's Birthday

I know that most of you who read this blog are family so you know that Randy's birthday falls on the day after Christmas. I have tried really hard throughout our marriage to make it a special day because I think it would be a horrible day to have a birthday, and Randy pretty much reminds me of that every year.

Well, unfortunately, all my plans went a little awry because this is what my family looked like the day after Christmas.

Everyone was sick. We later found out that Dax had double ear infections and pneumonia. Seth also got an ear infection and a yucky cough. Randy has been sick for a week when this picture was taken and he is still coughing and not sleeping well 3 weeks later (but he at least cheesed for his birthday picture). Mark fared the best with just a really runny nose which is why his nose is bright red in this picture. I didn't get too sick either, just a sore throat and exhaustion from taking care of four sick boys. We went through 8 boxes of Kleenexes--that is not an exaggeration.

So we didn't go out to dinner, but we did open presents and have cake. The only highlight was when Randy and I left the kids sleeping with my brother-in-law and went to the Les Miserables movie. We loved it! And when we ran into our pediatrician at the movie, I didn't even ask him to make a house call.

Go Jazz Go

Doesn't Seth look like he is having fun?

Last week we went to a Jazz game. It was our family Christmas present. We all got Jazz shirts and tickets for Christmas. We had a blast. I was slightly worried about Seth since it was late and in a loud arena, but he did great. I only had to walk the halls through half of the 3rd quarter. Dax and Mark were in awe at seeing the Jazz players in real life, and Mark has all the players memorized now.

Luckily we picked a game that they would most likely win (against the Timberwolves) and they did. We stayed until the end because Randy knew they would love seeing the streamers come down, and he was right, of course. Mark said his favorite part was seeing Millsap play and Dax said his favorite part was the popcorn (if you know Dax, that answer makes complete sense). We only wish we could afford to go another time this year, but there's always next Christmas!

The popcorn!

Seth captured the heart of every girl within 5 seats of us.

Paul Millsap is number 24. He's the family favorite.

My blondest boys

We thought our seats were pretty great!

Mark the Shark

Another tooth story. . .

Last week, Randy noticed Mark had a permanent tooth half grown in behind his baby teeth while brushing his teeth. We didn't really know what to think, so I called the dentist and scheduled an appointment and Randy told Mark that he wasn't a shark and should stop growing teeth in rows.

The first thing the dentist said when he looked in Mark's mouth was, "This is the third one today." What?! I had never heard of this, but apparently it is common for children's first few permanent teeth to start growing in before the baby ones fall out. It looks so crazy because it is so far back on his gum, but the dentist also said this was normal. Teeth grow up on an angle from the jaw line so it is coming up just as it would, but it looks crazy because there are other teeth in front.

Luckily Mark's tooth is loose and so we just have to wiggle it real good every day and hopefully it will fall out in the next few weeks. If it doesn't fall out by Valentine's Day, we'll have to get a little assistance from the dentist to get that tooth out. I want it to fall out on its own for two reasons.

1. It is Mark's first loose tooth and I don't want it to come out traumatically. It's a big accomplishment to start losing teeth and I want him to be excited for it (which he currently is).

2. Mark has always been our anxious child. He gets nervous about the doctor and dentist and Mark currently doesn't cry when he goes to the dentist, so I would like to keep that a normal standard.

So here's hoping that in a few weeks you'll see a post about Mark losing his first tooth.

Mark the shark

All I Wanted for Christmas. . .

was my two front teeth!

At least that was what we said through the month of December once we discovered that Seth suddenly had two teeth. 

Mark Junior Jazz Basketball

Mark has been playing basketball throughout the month of December with Randy as coach. He has loved it. Half of the team was in Mark's kindergarten class which he thought was pretty awesome. It was neat to watch the team improve. Mark has a pretty good shot although he likes to shoot it from way  out there like his dad! Mark was also the best passer on the team. Most of the players just ran down and took a shot, but Mark was willing to pass--it probably helped that Randy and I told him to pass constantly. We don't need to raise any Kobe Bryants around here!

Sorry for the blurry pictures. It's hard to hold Seth and take pictures.

Lovin' it!

The first clip is from an early game while the other clips are from the last game of the season!

Love the defense clip.

Dax's Christmas Program

His teacher designed this shirt with a Christmas tree out of his feet!

This was probably my favorite event of the holiday season. I loved watching Dax perform with his preschool class. He was SO cute and nervous. Dax isn't my typical shy child so when he wouldn't say his name into the microphone at the practice I was a little surprised. Oh well . . . we went home and practiced with our pretend mics, but it didn't work. You'll see . . . watch the video.

Loving baby Jesus!

This was his favorite poem because they got to take a bite of the carrot at the end.
Dax's carrot was half eaten by the time they gathered them up.

The video is about 3 minutes. I clipped together some of the best moments!