The unwanted orange

Last night was a big night for Chloe. She was going to see Santa at Grandma and Grandpa Jennings ward Christmas party. All day she was very excited. Tyler could care less. Obviously he is just a little young still to know what's going on with Santa. So we go to the party, and as we wait in line with Grandma to see Santa, I am anticipating the usual screams of fright from Chloe. She told me what she was going to ask from Santa and that she wanted to ask him about Rudolph. Surprisingly, when the time came, Chloe jumped right on Santa's lap, turned to him and said:

"I want a yellow teddy bear."

That was about it. She didn't cry, scream, or even look scared. They gave her a brown paper bag with a treat inside and hopped off. Then it was Tyler's turn. Usually Tyler loves any older man. Anyone that could resemble a grandpa Tyler will run to with open arms and refuse to come back to me. So I thought, surely Ty would be fine sitting on Santa's lap long enough to get a decent picture. This is what I got...

Then this for the next twenty minutes or so....

We diagnosed him as having PTSS... Post Traumatic SANTA Syndrome. Grandma was happy to take advantage though and got some really good loving from her distressed grandson.

Chloe soon wanted to open the brown bag she got from Santa. Finally she loosened up the green tied ribbon around the top of the bag and was able to peer inside. Chloe's eyes started to well up and she turned to me with the saddest look I have ever seen.

"Aw, mom! There's no yellow teddy bear!"

She immediately started crying. I explained that Santa won't bring her a present until Christmas morning. My heart broke for my little girl. She told Santa what she wanted and all she got was a crummy orange and a candy cane. So sad. I guess we all know now what Santa is bringing Chloe for Christmas.

I'm it!!

Okay, so I got tagged. My first time. I am supposed to post the 4th picture in my 4th file and my 6th picture in my 6th file. So here goes.
This is Tyler's first balloon, and as you can tell, before his first haircut.

This is a picture of Chloe, who, while water painting, decided to paint a pretty mural on herself. Very creative. And messy.

Let's see, who should I tag next. How about Beka, Kenzi, and Sarah, and anyone else to reads this...consider yourself TAGGED!! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!

Our first monster visiter

Shortly after I finished singing the last lullaby and tucked Chloe and Tyler into bed for the night, I wasn't even done slipping on my pj's, when I hear Chloe slip not-so-subtly out of her room to find me.
"There's a monster under my bed mommy!"
I asked if it was a Cookie Monster? She shook her head no.
Is it Grover or Elmo?
Again she shook her head.
Is it the Happy Monster Band?
"No."
So we went in her room, I turned on the light and asked if she could see the Monster under her bed. She said she could. I turned off the light again and told her that if there is ever a monster under her bed she can sing "Twinkle Twinkle" and the monster will be so tired it will go home to bed. That seemed to work. We both sang together and I was soon able to leave, closing her door behind me.
Who knows if it will stick, this is my first experience in monster hunting. So, if any of you have more knowledge of my new found profession, I would be happy to learn any tips from any other monster hunters.
Sounds like Chloe and Tyler are now playing in the room, wide awake. So I better go make sure they get settled down. Discovering monsters under the bed can be very invigorating, I suppose.

Chloe the builder

While Tyler took his nap Chloe got out the big Lego's and built some towers. (This wouldn't have been possible if he was awake.) She loved seeing how tall she could get it. Then eventually she figured out it was more fun knocking it down. So she built it up and pushed it down, over, and over, and over again.

This is her showing me how tall she wants to build her tower.So proud...

She reached her height goal! YAY!

Adding just a few more Lego's....

I know this picture is blurry, but I still thought it was kinda cool. You can see how Chloe the builder ended her building career. It is just more fun destroying then creating at this age, I'm afraid.

Uncle Scott's Birthday!!

Whenever there is cake and Tyler in the same room, I can't resist taking some pictures. He just stuffs his face with cake as fast as he can before we realize what we did.

Scott and his friends. Sorry, I don't know their names...

Chloe learned that she could double dip the candles for more frosting fun!

Chloe and Uncle Scott sharing the candles. Mmmm!

The Jennings boys...and Chloe sneaking a taste of the cake.

Poor Tyler, for some reason, is terrified of Scott. I really don't know why, but he bawls every time we try to hand him over to Scott. See Sarah, you aren't the only one....:)

This picture is so cute. Chloe loves her uncles, especially Uncle Scott. The crow was decoration for Halloween and Grandma Jennings had and Chloe LOVED it. She carried it around all night talking to it, and singing to it.

The birthday boy! Happy birthday Uncle Scott!

Really good cake made by Lori.

I'm trying to catch up...

This may have a lot of pictures, but I am really trying to catch up on here. So....here we go.

The Robot Monkey

This was for Grandma Jennings Birthday in August. When we asked Chloe what she wanted to get Grandma for her birthday she said she wanted to get her a robot monkey. We asked what the robot monkey does. She said it cleans and does the laundry. You may remember a previous post about this a few months ago. This is what we got. Yes, I made it. Chloe was very excited to give it to grandma. (It just sits there though, I haven't quite figured out how to make it clean or do laundry yet...darnit);)

Tyler's First Birthday!!

Tyler opening presents.

He liked the cake. :)

Arizona/Stephen's baptism

I can't take credit for all these pictures. Beka had the camera for a while.

All the cousins...I won't tell you how hard it was to get this picture, but I'm sure you can guess.Chloe is looking down some holes in the bridge at Lee's Ferry. She was convinced that that is where the Dragon's live. She was very excited about that fact and kept pointing them out to us every time we passed one. ...my handsome boy!

Why I am a good mother...

Yes...that is the open dryer door that he is standing on, and yes...that is Clorox that he is getting, and yes...there is more harmful cleaning chemicals behind the Clorox....

But I did get him before he swallowed anything...

The newest member of the Jennings Family

We are proud to announce the newest member of our family....Molly! Or at least, that was her name last I checked. Her name is still undecided.

Dave's dad surprised his mom the other day with this adorable little girl. I think she was well received.

Chloe, ofcourse, is very excited. Whether she is excited for Grandma or herself is still unknown.

Probably both. Just one more reason why she loves visiting Grandma and Grandpa Jennings. So Molly (or Daisy, or Sadie, or Sophie) fits right in and is loved by all. But who wouldn't love that cute face?

Faries and Duckies

This year for Halloween our ward did a trunk or treat for the first time. Of course Dave and I went all out and decorated his trailer...well, I decorated it. It turn out to be the big hit of the night. Even some families were taking pictures by our trailer. It was a lot of fun. Chloe and Tyler loves dressing up. Tyler passed out all the candy, after sampling a few to make sure they were okay. Chloe filled her bucket up with our candy before even beginning to trick or treat. We then visited Grandparents and Great-grandparents and called it a night.
And ending with a random, yet very cute, picture of Tyler and Grandpa Jennings.

BUBBLES!!!!!!!!!

We got this doggy bubble blower thingy for Chloe and Tyler a while ago. Yes, I am just now getting the pictures on here. Man I'm slow...

Anyway, this was Tyler's first time playing with bubbles and it was fun watching Chloe blow them for him. And I am just now noticing something on Tyler's upper lip, don't ask me what it is...any guesses?

There is nothing like a watching a child's first experience with bubbles.

Three days of darkness.

In Sunday School last Sunday we were discussing what it would have been like to be in the Americas during the three days of darkness before Christ came. It was so dark that you could even feel the dark. You couldn't see the stars or the moon, or light a fire. You probably would grovel on the ground trying to feel your way around. Someone in class brought up that some people in traumatic circumstances have their hardest time from midnight to 4 a.m. Imagine that for three days. Trying to find food, and survive. Now think about that with little kids. That hit home for me, having Tyler and Chloe. How would I console them? Then, on top of the darkness, the whole earth was shaking. I think I would want to just hold on to my family and not move the whole three days. And by the end of the three days I would probably be about ready to give up. But that's when the light comes back, the earth stops shaking and everyone hears a voice. It takes a few times before they can understand what the voice says. They have to open their ears first. Great peace comes from hearing Christ's voice. Then everyone looks up to the heavens and Christ descends to the Earth. Of course that is a very abbreviated summary, and I'm sure you can fill in the blanks I probably missed. But a few days ago, I was thinking about this discussion and how horrible it would have been. Then I started thinking about a different three days of darkness. Everyone has their 'three days of darkness'. David and I are sure in the middle of our dark days. First, we lost virtually all our income. David is still looking for a job, but no one is hiring now a days. We have our house on the not-so-great market. We did get a buyer but last minute the buyer got scared of the said market and backed out. We thought we were expecting another baby, (bad timing, but we were happy) and found out that wasn't the case. Very dissapointing. Our earth is shaking under us as well. We have some people close to us, who you would think would be there for us, are not. They are not so happy with us right now, which probably hurts the most, for reasons that we hoped would be understood since they have and are in similar situations as us at the time, and in some cases are still. (Confused yet:) ) Some people will say anything to hurt you. We are finding out even those we care for the most will try to exclude us from functions or get-togethers. I'm not asking for a pity party, or anything like that. But for one reason or another, I feel like it is important to put this out there. It may be that someone else may need to hear it, or maybe it's just for me. (I learn better if I take notes:) ) So yes, we have our own three days of darkness. But despite that, we also have many blessings. We still have money for food. We had three different lookers on our house this weekend. We have family members who will/have helped us any way they can. And even finding out that we don't have a bun in the oven is good news. The bad timing, obviously, but among other things, I want to get in shape first...;). And just like the Nephites, the light will come and our Earth will stop shaking. I truly believe we will be stronger and more faithful at the end of this. I think when you're in the midst of darkness, things may look hopeless. But what about the Nephites that never lost faith? They knew and recognized the darkness as a sign that Christ was coming. They knew that it wouldn't last. And though it was probably still hard for them, they knew who was in control the whole time. So though we may not know what is next in store for us, good or bad, we do know who is in control. And just like the Nephites, we will cling to our families. And the Spirit will whisper to us and comfort us when times get hard. It may be hard to recognise at first if not in tune with the spirit, but when we 'open our ears' we will know what to do and be comforted. I feel like this is our refining fire. Better things are to come (it can't get much worse anyway, right?) So, David is still out looking for a job, we are still trying to sell our house, and we will surround us, and cling with family and friends that uplift and befriend us. Hopefully we do the same for them. And if there is anyone that read this who are upset at us for some reason, we are really sorry. We don't mean for anyone to be hurt if we said or did anything. I truly pray that we can learn to forgive and be forgiven. I hate all the contention. It's not worth the heartache and always get more people involved then it should. And if you actually read all of this and made it through my extra-long post today, thank you. We love you all and thank you for your prayers and all you do for us. Prayers are truly answered by the angels who love you the most, your friends and family. The road may get rough in spots, but it's still the road Heavenly Father put us on. Even rough roads can leads us to where we need to be. So long story short...too late...a lot of people have asked us how we are doing. We're okay.



Whew!!! That was a long post.

My little girl...

is not so little anymore.

I can't believe she is three and growing. Chloe is now nearly potty-trained(she has had one accident this week) and says things like, "Mommy, I want to do it all my myself" and explains that I am HER mommy and Tyler has Daddy when she wants me to herself. This year is almost over and she will be a Sunbeam in January.

Time flies so fast when you have kids. There is so much that I cannot put to words about being Chloe's mommy other than, I love it! She is her own person now and loves to practice her independence. But the first person she calls for if she can't do it on her own is her mommy, and I love it.