Christmas recap

Well the girls have left and it will take some adjusting for the boys as they love their "tee tees." I thought I would wrap up the holiday with a little recap. Christmas Eve went by very fast. We had a nice dinner and then got ready for church.

We went to a Christmas Carol service so there was a lot of singing. After about 4 songs, the pastor said we could all sit down. William was excited and yelled, "yay!." Everyone in the congregation started laughing including the pastor. Then the little boys in front of him encouraged him to continue so after every song he found it necessary to yell yay. He did get in the spirit by yelling amen twice :) He also yelled poop once though too. After church we headed home for our little traditional night. We opened one present and then read "How The Grinch Stole Christmas!"
The boys went to sleep afterwards. The girls and I decorated some cookies for Santa. Then the big morning came. Santa delivered the big Radio Flyer Wagon for William and Harrison and it was a big hit. But William also liked mommy's new coat.

Even Miss Belle enjoyed the day. We had a large lunch and then the girls had to go back home. It was such a nice day and we really enjoyed having the girls out. We hope everyone else had a great day!

Happy Holidays

For those of you that did not receive our holiday letter, I thought I would post it for you. Sorry if you didn't get one as I probably didn't have your address. Please send me your address and you will be sure to be on next years list.

Dear Friends and Family,

Didn't I just write one of these? I can't believe another year has passed by. Eventful doesn't even begin to describe the year that we have had. To start off, William celebrated his first birthday in January. He is growing so fast. Ten days later, our second son was born. Harrison Prescott Archer was born at 11:54am on January 27th weighing in at 7lbs 6 oz and 19 inches long. Life with two young babies is always busy but very rewarding.

In March, I was laid off by Indymac. It was a blessing in disguise because we wanted me to stay home with the kids. In April, Scott was promoted to the University of Farmers. He had to move out to Southern California right away. The kids and I stayed behind in Utah until we could close on our new house. Two months of living apart was probably one of the hardest things we had to experience. All I know is that if we move again, we will not try that again. We became a family living together again in July. Good-bye mountains of Utah, Welcome Sunny California. Since we have been here, we have enjoyed the nice weather by visiting the beaches, piers, zoos, etc. The weather is absolutely beautiful and it is funny to not have to wear a sweater in the month of December (we have since I wrote this). We experienced our first California earthquake the first month we lived here. We also were evacuated from our house during the Sesnon wildfire. Our house was fine but the air quality was miserable. We haven't run into any rattlesnakes yet but we have seen our fair share of reptiles and black widows.

In August, Scott and I were able to take a vacation to Mexico without the boys. It was a nice getaway and the boys enjoyed spending time with the grandparents. In September, we experienced the hardest thing we have ever had to go through. William spilled a cup of hot coffee on him and suffered second and third degree burns on his face, neck and chest. There were a few weeks of visits in and out of the Grossman Burn Center (#1 burn center in the country) but he is recovering just fine.

Harrison is quite the energetic little boy. He never sleeps and he drinks very little. It is probably one of two reasons. He has to keep up with big brother Will and he has constant ear infections. Harrison is quite determined to do whatever his brother is doing hence why he started walking at 10 months. William is the dare devil of the house. He has already gotten his first set of stitches and I just know a broken bone will come soon from all of the jumping. The hospital seriously knows him by name. I have had health problems this year but am doing well now. I am your typical stay at home mom and I love it. Scott is doing well too. He is working hard as always. We wish you and your families a wonderful holiday season and a great 2009.

Love,

The Archers

Scott, Jymme-Lyn, William, Harrison and Miss Belle

Science Center

Today we went to the Los Angeles Science Center. It was really fun and a good learning experience. They had a lot of exhibits. My favorite was the earthquake simulator. The boys had fun in the discovery zones. They were learning shapes. As you can tell, William's favorite was the triangle. Harrison's was the circle. :) They make me laugh all of the time with the stuff they come up with.

 

It's Snowing!

Last night we went to the mall to see the snow fall. Ok, so it's not really snowing here in California BUT the mall has a snow fall every evening. The boys really enjoyed seeing the snow and it is fun to pretend. Afterwards we drove around to see the lights. Scott's sisters are in town. It is really nice to have family around during the holidays and the boys enjoy playing with their aunties.

Boys who play in Mommy's bathroom

This is what you get when little boys play in the bathroom. William had no idea what a headband was but he knew it would be fun to play with. He wore it like they were sunglasses. He would have to look up to be able to see. He seriously wore it all day long and kept making sure "bubby" had his on too. I did make him leave it at home when we went to the gym today. But he put it on as soon as we got home. Scott was a little thrown off when he came home and his son wore a headband all throughout dinner.

Pictures with Santa

Like I said in the last post, we met up with Santa for some pictures today. Just like last year, William was not fond of the big guy. He didn't last very long on his lap. And I wish I could read Harrison's mind as he was sitting there, "who is this guy???" It was hard to get him to look at the camera because he kept staring at Santa.

What a fun day!

We had such a great day today. This morning Scott made a big breakfast for all of us. Soon after, we headed to Santa Barbara. We packed our lunches and had a quiet picnic at the Zoo. We took so many good pictures that there are too many to post. Harrison's favorite animal was the birds and William's were the ducks. We even rode the train and the boys got a kick out of that.

Here is the Amur Leopard. He is one of the animals we sponsored this year at the zoo. He is so gorgeous.

Here are the boys playing in the play land. There is this big hill that you can slide down. Will had a blast on it (I didn't slide down at all :) )

Oh and they also rode the carousel. After the zoo, we headed to the mall to get pictures with Santa. That will be another post. After the mall, we headed home. We drove next to the beach and watched the sunset over the ocean as we drove home. It was so nice. We stopped at the Olive Garden on the way home for a nice dinner. It was such a good day!

Pictures at the Park

I thought it would be fun to take pictures in the park this morning with the boys dressed up in their new sweaters. My window of opportunity was really small to try to get the perfect picture seeing it was 80 degrees and William just wanted to run around. Once he gets sweaty, his scares from his burn start to show. So I thought I would get a picture right away but one minute into sitting the boys and Belle down, Harrison threw up all over himself (he was eating the grass and leaves)!

This was probably my favorite picture of the morning.

We ended up playing instead and we were all ok with that.

Big Brother Little Brother

I thought the boys shirts were cute so I tried to take a picture of the two of them together wearing them. This is what I get.

It is impossible to get them both to sit still at the same time. Anyway, William's shirt says Big Brother and Harrison's shirt says Little Brother. They are so cute!

On another note, Harrison has yet another double ear infection. I feel so sorry for this little guy. He has only been off of antibiotics for three weeks since September!!!! He is constantly taking another round. His doctor was always putting off tubes since he was so little but she finally changed her mind. I am pretty sure this make his 14th ear infection! Yes 14! He doesn't know what it feels like to not feel pain. I am so excited for him to get tubes just so he can be happier. And maybe, just maybe I might get to sleep some more???? I am 29 years old and I think I have the darkest circles under my eyes. None of those eye creams help me and yet I think I have purchased every one of them in an attempt to make those circles go away. He has an appointment with an ENT next Thursday so lets hope we can get this surgery scheduled soon. They would like him to go two weeks without an infection but he hasn't done that in months so I don't know how they would handle the surgery. William also has an appointment with the same ENT because his pediatrician thinks one of his tubes may have fallen out. His right ear is so clogged with wax that she couldn't see anything. Poor guy.

On another note, William mimics everything I do and say. If I cough, he does. If I put my hand on my head so does he. Now I have to worry about everything I say. A few months ago, I was concerned with his speech development and now he can't stop talking. And now he disciplines Harrison. For example: There is one cabinet in our kitchen that doesn't have a safety latch on it. Tonight Harrison grab a pan out of there and started banging it on the floor. William came up to him, grab the pan and put it back into the cabinet. It didn't end there. Then he pulled Harrison away from the cabinet and pointed to it and said, "no baby no touch ."

Cowboy up!

William loves his cowboy hat and boots. He would wear them all day every day if you let him. There have been many times I check on him while he is sleeping and those little boots are on. Well tonight Scott thought it would be fun to pull out his cowboy hat that he never wears. Will thought it was great. He is daddy's right hand man and kept comparing their hats.

This past week was really busy. Nothing really big to post about just busy with appointments and the usual stuff. This weekend was nice. One of my college roommates and friend, Julie, came up and we spent Saturday together. It was nice to catch up. I loved having a girls day out and I know the boys enjoyed spending the entire day with Scott. Thanks Scott!

I didn't take many pictures this week but this one was great. William woke up from his nap. He was clean and there was nothing in his hair but this is what it was doing.

Lights

This post is just for you Brad! I know you miss looking out your window in Utah and seeing our house all lit up :)

Scott decorated the house last weekend. We have so many lights left over since this house is less than half the size of our old house that Scott decorated the whole back yard too :) And it is so weird that I took this picture in a t-shirt and shorts seeing that it is December and it has been hot outside. When does winter come? Every time I think it is starting to cool down, it gets hot again.

One of those nights...

I don't know what it is but it is going to be one of those nights. Harrison has been waking up every 20-30 minutes since he went to bed and William has already woke up 3 times. I just finished rocking Harrison asleep again and went to check on William and Scott. This is what I found...
Well at-least he's sleeping :)

Gobble Gobble

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I love Thanksgiving. I am so very thankful for the wonderful blessings God has bestowed upon me each and every day. I am thankful for my husband. Scott is the most amazing man and a wonderful father. I am thankful to William Jameson. He is a funny little boy who surprises me every day with something new he is doing. I am thankful to Harrison Prescott. He is a very energetic little guy who gets excited over everything. Today he is 10 months old and started walking. He has been holding onto the furniture for some time but tonight he let go and walked like he had been doing it forever. I am thankful to my Miss Belle who let me take this picture since the boys wouldn't sit still for one. She is a very obedient pup who puts up with a lot of toys being thrown at her and her tail being pulled several times a day. She is very protective of her boys. I am thankful to our family and am sad we didn't get to spend the holiday together. You are all such wonderful individuals and we miss you so much. I am thankful to my friends for always being there for us. I am thankful to the service men and women who fight for our freedom. I am thankful to God for all that I have. Thank you and Happy Thanksgiving!

Boys will be boys

I can't stop laughing at what just happened. I was in my room getting ready for the day and I heard the boys laughing really hard from William's room. William's door was closed and when I opened it, I came across two young boys dancing naked! And I was not the one that stripped them down. I caught a 22 month old red handed with two diapers in his hand laughing and turning in circles. William turned on his CD player but I guess thought it would be more fun to dance naked. Here is the aftermath as I obviously can't post completely naked pictures.

"BOB!!!!"

Every night we read three books to the boys before bedtime. They get to chose two and then the last one we read is always "Good Night Moon" by Margaret Wise Brown. We started reading this book to William when he was in the womb and we have continued every night since. William will always chose this book as his third. Tonight we got home late so we told him he could only pick out two books since it was passed his bedtime. First we read the "ABC Book" by Dr. Seuss and then we started reading "Good Night Moon." Well William was not ready for "Good Night Moon." He got down "Good night Bob" (a Bob the Builder book) and kept saying "Bob." The longer we kept reading "Good Night Moon, " the louder "Bob!" got. He thought we couldn't hear him because he got right in Scott's face and pointed to Bob on each page of the book and would yell Bob's name. I am sure you had to be here but it was pretty funny how determined he was to get us to read that book to him. He knows all of the characters..Bob, Pilchard, Muck, Roley, Lofty, Dizzy, etc. So as we read it to him we ask him to tell us who is on each page. We will also ask him where an object is (shoes, hat, cup, etc). Well Scott gets a kick out of how Will pronounces some words especially shoe. When Will says shoe, it sounds like he is clearing his throat. So of-course every page we turned, Scott asks William where Bob's shoes are.

Break's over

This past week has been good. Harrison has actually been taking naps during the day!!! This is big for him since he doesn't like to sleep. I should have known yesterday when pulling up to the doctor's office (to get Will's stitches removed) that the break would soon be over. Of-course there was construction at the doctor's office and I had to park 3 blocks away. I had to carry both boys for 3 blocks (Will wouldn't walk) and I have a torn tendon and damaged nerve in my right arm. This should have been my sign. Anyway, it turns out that Harrison has yet ANOTHER double ear infection. I have lost count on this little guy. I feel so bad for him. No wonder he never wants to drink a bottle or sleep. He is less than 10 months old and has had back to back ear infections for the past 5 months. Last week he got a clean bill of health and he just got off of 3 back to back rounds of antibiotics and now he is back on them again. William started walking the day after he had tubes in his ears. His doctor said that because of his hearing being bad because of ear infections and his equilibrium being off, he didn't have the balance. Now I am wondering if poor little Harrison is going to be the same way. He has been walking holding on for some time now but hasn't walked on his own. He's in good spirits and a happy baby despite his ears. He can't have surgery until he can go two weeks without an ear infection. He hasn't done that. And now his doctor wants to wait until he is at-least one to get tubes. I usually am not for surgery on a baby but William has not had one ear infection since he got them so they proved to be very beneficial. I feel so bad for Harrison to have to live in pain like he does.

On another note, it has finally cooled down this week (mid 80s) and next week should be in the lower 80s. I am so ready for a change of season. It's hard to believe it is almost Thanksgiving with this heat.

Back to the E.R...again.

I think William is trying to get a membership at the local hospital. They know him by name there. My baby boy got his first set of stitches tonight. No good story like learning to ride a bike or anything like that. He just tripped over his own two feet and hit the corner of the wall. His back was to me so I didn't think it was bad at all when he started crying...until he turned around. He freaked me out. As soon as he turned around, blood was pouring down his little face. As a parent, it is a very scary thing to see and not control. I learned that anywhere above the neck bleeds fast. He had a pretty deep gash but he is ok. Just a couple stitches and we got to go home. Oh and we learned he is allergic to plastic medical tape tonight.

Play date at the park

I took the boys to the park this morning to play with their new friend, Ian. They are a great time. William was sweating from running so hard. It ended up being a lot hotter than I thought it would be.

When it was time to go, William and Ian hugged. I am glad he is so lovable.

I love being a mom!

Now do I love waking up at 5am every morning because Harrison wakes up at that time for the day? No. Do I like force feeding him his bottle because he hates to drink? No. Do I like fighting with him to take a nap? No. But those things are nothing compared to the sounds of him waking up, "ahhh, cooo, daddda, gully. glllll." Nothing to his constant ambition to learn something new. Nothing to his fabulous loud laugh.

I love that yesterday when Will woke up, Harrison went up to his bed and started playing peekaboo with him. Both boys were laughing hysterically. I truly believe the sound of laughter is one of the best sounds on earth. I love that when I was putting clothes away yesterday William jumped out of the closet and yelled, "raaaa!" And yes, he scared me but it was so funny. And I absolutely love that as I was tucking myself into bed last night, I found a little shoe under my covers. I have mentioned this before and I will again. William has the biggest show fetish and he is so funny about it. He has to put them away neatly and he makes sure everyone is wearing shoes from sunrise to sunset. If you aren't, he will bring you a pair and insist you wear them. He is particular about putting his shoes in the right place so to find ONE shoe, not a pair, in my bed last night made me smile.

These are just some of the little moments why I love being a mom.

Why it costs more to live in California..

Well my gadget didn't stick but it was 86 degrees and sunny today.

My favorite moment today

Harrison just woke up from his huge 20 minute nap. Will was playing in his room. I brought Harrison into Will's room and laid him down on their Thomas the Train couch that folds out into a sofa bed while I got a drink from the kitchen. When I came back they were both sitting together enjoying time together. Then, for no reason at all, Will kissed Harrison and gave him his pacifier. Moments like these are the best.

"Change has come to America"

Yes, that is right. Everyone has their opinion and I do not like discussing/debating religion or politics because they are strong diverse issues. But this is my blog and I will only say this once. I do not agree with disrespecting a president as it is a reflection upon our country. But, on the other hand, he isn't president until January 20th!

Obviously I voted for McCain. I think most of us knew what the outcome of last night was going to be but the actualization of it happening is just sickening to me. Did they play the National Anthem last night when Obama made his speech? And was his hand over his heart? I honestly didn't watch the end of his speech so I don't know. How many presidents have not served our country? 11. And of-course Obama will be number 12. Shouldn't that be a requirement for running for President? Ok, I am not going to blog all day about this because I haven't even touched any issues or what is going to come to this country. You wanted change? You will get it. I know there are readers that disagree with my opinion and I respect that. We can talk again in a year when you say, "what did I do?"

These Californians crack me up

So the weather has gone from the high 90's last week to the high 60's this week. And I guess that means it feels like winter time here. It is so funny to me because we were taking a walk this morning and we saw a woman walking her dog. She was wearing a winter coat and a scarf! Now come on, a scarf! I had a t-shirt on and was hot in the sun. We saw another woman walking two dogs and she had Uggs and a heavy sweater on. How would they handle an ice storm in Missouri or a snow storm in Utah?

I will say it is refreshing to see a different season finally. Since we have lived here, it has rained twice. The first time was just mist and not even measurable. Saturday was absolutely beautiful here. It stormed and the rain came down so heavy. There was even thunder. It made me appreciate the rain so much when you hardly ever get to experience it.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween. Meet Frankenstein and the Fat Dinosaur (he has a big belly pillow in his costume).

Frankenstein isn't supposed to smile.

Oh, evil eyes.

And we're happy again.

And we are tired