And now for October





So October was a big month. The most exciting thing that happened was that I finally decided it was time to potty train Beckett whether he liked it or not and it is done. I am calling it official. He made it through church last Sunday in his underwear without an accident, so I am calling it. We are still having a problem with poop, but that will come with time (I hope). How it happened was this - one day I was at the grocery store all by myself and I saw all this Halloween candy. I was looking at and thought that they would make great potty treats, so I bought a few bags and went home. The next day, I told the kids that if they sat on the potty for 2 whole minutes (with a timer going) they could have a potty treat. Anabelle was all over that idea. She already loved to sit on the potty, so the treats made it all the more sweeter (literally). Beckett was much more willing to sit on the potty, but he wasn't too thrilled with the rule that he had to do it sans diaper, but he got over it real fast when he saw the Nerds packages. I did that for about 4 or 5 days, with zero accidental pees or poops in the potty.  I was about to give up on my plan, when I talked with my counselor about it, and she told me that really it was me that had to be "potty trained". She said it is really the parents getting so tired of changing diaprers that they finally buckle down and get serious about potty training. I thought about what she had said and it made sense, but I was still a little affraid of the accidents that I knew would follow after I made that decision.

As it turned out, a few days after that conversation with my counselor, we were about to be completely out of diapers for Beckett and I was on the fence about going to buy more. Matt basically replied, "Nope. Let's just do this." With hesitation coming from me, we went forward and just put him in underwear after we changed his last diaper. Beckett wasn't too thrilled, but he got used it, probably because they were Thomas underwear. Matt gave him lots of juice and then promtly left to do something at a friends house (what a guy), taking Anabelle with him (thank goodness). Beckett was playing on the computer (big surprise) with a towel underneith him (I believe in being prepared for these kinds of things) and of course, he started peeing. He kind of freaked out and quickly stopped. I put him in the bath to clean him up. Of course, he thought this meant that he was free to pee as much as he liked. He did have enough smarts to try to get his feet out of the water as he did this. Oi! Naturally I promptly took him out of the tub and put him in clean underwear and sent him back to the computer with a fresh towel under him. Not too long after that he started to pee again. This time I got wise. I immediately took him to the potty and set him on there. He was okay with it, until he accidentally started peeing again, and this time he had no control of stopping it. He didn't know what he was doing and it kind of got on his foot, which really freaked him out. This experience really didn't seem encouraging to me because he seemed really upset about the whole experience. We told him we would go get a toy for peeing in the potty. After he picked out his new toy (a dinosaur train, his new favorite show) he started to see that this might actually be an okay thing to do.

We did the sticker thing for him to earn his next toy, a motorized Thomas. Unfortunately after he got his toy, he stopped going potty. That is mostly my fault because I put him in Pullups instead of underwear. So on Monday I hit the potty training hard and he has been doing ever since, with of course an accident or two. Now I need to start thinking about when I am going to potty train Anabelle. I think I will wait till next year. Give myself a little break before I start the whole process all over again.

Beckett modeling his new underwear

Now on to the rest of the month.  We had a sleepover with some cousins. My sister-in-law Marcey and her girls came over for a visit one Friday afternoon and they ended up staying the night. We had a blast. I think we should have people sleepover more often.

L-R: Julia, Jessica, Beckett, Anabelle, Josie

 My sister and I were making a red velvet cake one day and Anabelle wanted to like the bowl (she is just like her mother).  



I bet you didn't know Anabelle was a vampire



Another big thing that happened in October is Matt turned 30. We celebrating by going on a date to a murder mystery party. It was a disco themed one and it was extremely unpredictable. I was a hussy that slept with a lot of guys and would kill them when I was done with them. I was also a martial arts expert and a member of Chuck's Angels (reference to Charlie's Angels). Matt's name was hilarious - Knight Feva. He was a bar tender and a gigolo. He also turned out to be the bionic man because he had a run-in with a shark. I couldn't believe all of the twists they fit into that storyline. They all gave us some really good laughs. Thanks Shana and Sharice for putting it together. I think Matt really enjoyed his birthday. I am kind of mad I didn't take pictures. Oh well. Maybe we can recreate them and take a picture.

The next morning we went out to breakfast with my parents to the Segolily Cafe in Bountiful. The only way to describe their food is good old home cooked food, done gourmet style. They make all of their food and sauces there. We wanted to have their sweet ricotta cheese spread so that is why we went for breakfast. It is so good. I had their cashew french toast. Unbelievably good. I don't remember what Matt had, but I know he enjoyed it. I highly recommend that place. The place itself is really cool too. It is an old victorian home redone to make it a restaurant. I love it.

One present from my Dad was to come up and help Matt do some handyman stuff around the house on the 30th. I guess this gift was more for me than Matt. Matt's friend Kevin came over also and helped them work on our furnace and ducts. I really appreciated both Kevin and my dad coming and helping out. I know Matt couldn't have done all that work all by himself.

Later that day, I got the kids all ready for Trick-or-Treating that night. My little sister helped with Anabelle's makeup.

Anabelle is a ladybug. That costume was worn by my little sister when she was about the same age. Her nickname was Bug and so the costume was perfect. It was kind of surreal to have Anabelle wear it 15 years after my little sister did and she looks just as cute, maybe more, but don't tell Sara I said that. Here is proof:


Here is Sara in the costume

  Beckett is a Jack-O-Lantern in that picture. Right after that picture was taken, Beckett immediately stripped down to his underwear so I couldn't get a full shot of him. He wouldn't put it back on and then wanted to be a lion. I didn't get a picture of him in that because as soon as we got to my brother's house to go Trick-or-Treating with cousins, he freaked out when one of his cousins came in dressed as a clown, face painted and all. That did it for him. He refused to go out and just stayed downstairs playing with the train set. So just Matt and Anabelle went out. She didn't last long. Matt said she just stood their with her bucket and wouldn't say anything. She would say it when he practiced with her, but I guess she had stage fright when it came time to perform. Also she came back with only like 10 or 12 candies. Beckett promptly took half of it. Oi!

After the kids had been back for a while, they were all downstairs playing. They sounded like they were having tons of fun. Suddenly, Matt came upstairs with Anabelle in his arms and her head was bleeding. She had fallen off of a chair playing with one of those basketball, arcade games. She somehow gashed her head open. Luckily it stopped bleeding quickly, which surprised me, because head wounds are known for bleeding terribly. Once it was all cleaned up, you could see how wide and deep the gash was. Another lucky things was that we were at my brother's house, who is a doctor. He looked at and said it wasn't bad enough to go to the ER, thank goodness. He had some small butterfly bandages (I highly recommend you have a stash at your house) and got it on. Then we iced the goose egg. I couldn't believe how brave Belle was the whole time. She was obviously crying when Matt brought her up, she stopped while we were cleaning it up and that was it. She totally let me put the ice on her wound and didn't fight Matt pushing the wound together to put on the butterfly bandage. (That is how they work by the way. I have never used one and didn't know what they did, but they work to pull the wound back together and leave a minimal scar on deep wounds. You do have to give it some help though by squeezing the skin together and then putting the bandage on. Kind of a cool thing.) She was such a trooper.

Well, I think that about wraps it up for October. I am all caught up now and hopefully stay current on here from now on.

Wow! I am doing really good

So Beckett has been addicted to PBSkids.org lately and the only way to keep him and Anabelle, who is addicted to sesamestreet.org, off the computer is to have it off completely, which means I never am on and I never get to update on here. Sorry.

Well, here is the month of September: It was a crazy month, but let's face it, what month isn't. The first part of the month was spent (and by that I mean mostly the $$ kind of spent) getting ready for the big Jacob Family Reunion. I can't believe I spent as much money as I did. But it wasn't my fault that everybody was having sales on everything I needed so I just bought two so I would have extras for after the reunion (that and I really wanted to buy everyone's affections). Matt's mom came and stayed with us the Saturday before so she could ride with us to the family extravaganza. We were so excited for her to come. We had not seen her for more than a year and a half, due to a little thing called a mission in Australia. The kids soon fell in love her and we had a great time before we had to share her with all the other Jacobs. Beckett kept saying, " I just love you Grandma Jill." We are all doing our best to become her favorite and I think Beckett is well on his way.

The reunion was in St. Anthony, Idaho. Matt's brother actually found a place that could house all 50 of us. It was called the Three Peaks Lodge. It was awesome. There was no way anyone could be bored at that place. The 2 slides were awesome and were almost constantly being used by someone. The kids had a blast playing with all the toys and big wheels that they had their. The big boys did too. They kept riding them around the big rumpus room and then skidding it across the floor. Boys will be boys.

A lot of the family went to see Yellowstone and to some beautiful waterfalls that were near by. We weren't one of them. We liked just staying at the lodge playing games. I wish we had gone to the waterfalls, but I have grandparents that live in Idaho Falls, so it would be easy to go see the falls another time. Besides, I had to stay at the lodge to keep baking more cookies for everyone when they got back from their sightseeing.

One of the days of the reunion we attempted to take a family picture of everyone. It turned out pretty good considering the size of the group.

We also had some family olympics. The first event was a race to move an Oreo across you face. They started at the forehead and then move it to their mouth. If they did it, they were rewarded with eating the Oreo and a point for their team, if not, no point and no Oreo. Matt totally did it.

I was not able to participate because I had to watch Anabelle on the playground. Don't pay any attention to Matt's brother standing there. He had his own child to look after, so therefore he could not possibly watch Anabelle. It is a shame. I really wanted to participate in embarrassing myself. :)

There were many different games played, mostly scum and 2s & 10s, and of course it wouldn't be a Jacob gathering without playing a rousing game of Balderdash. That was one of the most silliest versions that I think has ever been played. It was hilarious.

Matt's mom came home with us from the reunion for a day and then caught the train to Colorado to be with Matt's brother. Her train left at 4am on a Sunday. So rather than risk sleeping in and missing the train, we all stayed up (well, I tried) and watched Matt's new favorite show, Rubicon, which was super intriguing. It easily kept us awake until it was time to leave.  I recommend the show if you are looking for something similar to Lost and the Bourne movies.

The next few weeks were pretty boring, honestly. We did get to have some friends that we hadn't seen in a long time visit one afternoon. It was wonderful to visit and catch up with them. Unfortunately, as they were getting into their car, Beckett was running to come inside and he tripped and fell. Usually when kids trip, they scrap up their knees, but Beckett went from his knees, to his chest, to his face and scrapped it off.

It was the worst thing to watch happen. It really went in slow motion. Luckily for Beckett, he is related to Wolverine and his face was almost all better in about a week. He still is a little red around the eye, especially when he cries, but I am so happy that it healed so quickly and well. It was so hideous to look at. Honestly it started to look worse after I took this picture.

Matt got a raise from his work in September also. That made our month.

Um, I can't remember anything else about September.