The Big 2!

Have you ever read the Berenstain Bears and Too Much Birthday? I have. I remember as a kid reading that and thinking, how can you have too much birthday? It just didn't make sense. This weekend I learned the true meaning of that wise children's book, and wish I had paid more attention.

Aunt Jamie drove all the way from Seattle to celebrate Jake's Happy Day. (He's been saying Happy Day for months now, every time he sees a candle of any kind). We had Jake's party on Friday the 21st even though his birthday is the 22nd, because my parents work at the temple Saturday nights. Jamie showed up around 5:00 on Friday at the same time as my parents, and that is when the hyper-ness began. Jake ran around non-stop for HOURS. The rest of the family showed up at 7:00 (there were 24 people in attendance). Jake loved the cake and ice cream. He devoured it. He also received some Toy Story fruit snacks from his thoughtful cousin Emma, of which he ate like 4 packs that very night. Jake played and played and played. He scored tons of presents, and ran around with his cousins until 11PM! What, might you ask, were we thinking? I don't think we were "thinking." We put Jake to bed at 11:30. Jamie was spending the night, and after watching the latest episode of Modern Family (thank you DVR) we both decided to call it a night and went to bed. 2:30 rolls around and Jake wakes up screaming bloody murder. He pretty much didn't stop until about 4:30, and he didn't go back to sleep until 6am. He woke up at 9:30 ready to roar.

And thus commenced Jake's actual Happy Day.

We learned our lesson.

Blowing out the candles on his Thomas the Train cake, a la Grandma. I had to help him a little. I personally think this is a super cute picture.

Yuuummmmmyyyy!

Buzz!!!!!!

Tonka trucks & airplanes

Jake scored for Christmas. The picture below is what Santa dropped off, and he got lots of gifts from Mom and Dad, grandparents, and Aunts and uncles. He was kind of a pooper on Christmas Day, but all in all it was a good day and it was nice to be with family.

I think Jake's favorite Christmas present was Duplo legos. He spends like 20 minutes laying on the floor building towers. And let me tell you, 20 minutes is a LONG time for me to have free time.

As for super exciting news...last semester of nursing school started today! Hooray!

super-monster

Honestly, this Halloween sucked. We decided to dress Jake up as Superman, but he decided he wanted to be a monster. Seriously, I think he cried the entire weekend. He's going through a phase where he screams absolute bloody murder at bedtime. As soon as we even walk through his bedroom door his body goes rigid and he tries to squirm out of my arms. It's HORRIBLE every night and drives us nuts!!!

I think you'll find his costume...obviously last-minute.

Here is my awesome Jack Skellington pumpkin. Carved it alllll by myself, while watching Hocus Pocus with my mom and sister.

Here's a sneak preview of our counter top! Britton actually installed it this weekend but we didn't take a picture of the final product yet.

And here is our CARPET! It is so nice.

We will be moving in to the duplex this coming weekend, the 13th. Finally!!!

Pants Optional

Jake was born with really weird nails on his big toes. I cut one of them too short, thinking I would fix the issue.

Instead, he got a nasty in-grown toe nail that got infected and oozed brown puss. Antibiotics, soaking it in neosporin non-stop for 2 weeks, and still no better. We won a trip to the podiatrist where Jake got his toe nail ripped off. Believe me, I have seen some nasty things. That was one of the worst.

Here he is, showing off his bandaged foot.

Pumpkee

On Saturday we squished into the car with my mom and dad and headed out to the Country Mercantile in Pasco. I was so excited for this trip to the pumpkin patch. Jake is really excited about pumpkins and goes around saying "pumpkee" whenever he sees one. It is adorable. We had a lot of fun...we went at 9:30 in the morning so there would be no chance of running into the beast that comes out around nap time, so it was rather cold. We had a great time and got ripped off paying for kiddie rides that Jake was more confused about than excited.

Mommy and Jakey in the pumpkin patch. I sure love this little guy.

This place was practically run by John Deere tractors. This was an old one they had on display and we couldn't help but put Jake on it for a photo-op. He loved it.

When we first got off the hay ride and into the pumpkin patch Jake was a little confused and scared. So Britton ran around rubbing all the pumpkins and saying "pumpkin" really loud. After a few seconds Jake got excited and started copying his Daddy.

We are getting reeeeeeally close to moving in to the duplex. The carpet goes in November 5th and we are NOT moving that date back. Britton is so worn out from working on it non-stop and both of us are very excited to FINALLY move in to our own home! It will be so nice when it is finished. He has worked so hard on it.

Here's a sneak preview of our new kitchen cabinets...I'll be sure to post final pictures when we're all done!

Oops

I haven't blogged in a long time.

Nursing school does that to you.

Here's the update:

August.

• hung out
• went to the beach
• started school at the end (nasty)
• sister michelle visited from byu (yay)
• i can't remember anything else

September

• haven't uploaded any pictures yet, and barely taken any for that matter
• drove to provo for football game, huskies lost (bummer)
• saw the kradolfers for first time in over a year (too short of a visit--not even a day)
• sister jamie visited from seattle (yay)
• bought a new (used) car, 2009 chevy impala (don't tell dave ramsey)
• still not moved in to our duplex. britton works his tail off to get it ready.
• saw 4 babies come in to the world in OB clinical so far
• Jake has 2 in-grown infected toe nails. minor surgery in october to fix them (that's going to suck)
• i got food poisoning and barfed like there was no tomorrow

the end. maybe i'll post again at Christmas. (maybe)

duplex update and 18 months old!

We Edlers have been pretty busy! Britton goes to work every morning, getting up at 5 and getting home at 6 Monday through Thursday. He eats dinner with us and then drives over to our duplex to work on it just about every night. Fridays and Saturdays he's there from morning until late at night. He's exhausted, and I'm exhausted. It's just me and Jake and no Daddy. Not easy for anyone. Here's some pictures of our side of the duplex, for those who are curious. The other side is just about done, our renter moves in on about August 9.

This is a picture of our kitchen. It's sideways because I'm too lazy to go back and change it. The fridge is newer, we're keeping it. The floor is laminate and I think brand new, so we're keeping that too. It goes in to the little dining room. We're getting a new stove, new countertops, a new sink and adding a dishwasher and garbage disposal. The dishwasher in the picture is one of those mobile ones or whatever you call it and it's super nasty. No way we're keeping it. We're keeping the 1950's cabinets for now, they're not too bad and cabinets are expensive.

This is a picture of the common wall (wall shared with the other half of the duplex) in our living room. There was ugly paneling on it and when Britton ripped it off the original wall was in bad shape. He also put a hole in the wall to see what kind of insulation it had. There was barely any so...

He tore down the sheet rock and ripped out the thin, gross insulation that was there.

This is the other side of the living room. Britton ripped out the carpet (we're getting new carpet in a couple of weeks) and this lovely red tile was underneath it. That staircase goes down to our unfinished basement. And the little hallway goes to the 2 bedrooms and bathroom.

Our side definitely has a looooong way to go. Britton is still convinced we can be ready before I start school, but August 23 is coming up quick. Too quick. August 5 the windows we ordered are coming in, and Britton and his brother will be installing them. That's the next giant project. We'll see how quick they can do it...they need to do it really quick because our renter will be moving in 4 days later...Stress!!!!!!!

So me and Jake have been having a lot of fun together. He turned 18 months on July 22. I can't believe how fast this year and a half has gone. Here's some fun facts about my little man.

• He just started saying some "words": Woooo-ow for wow; uh-uh for uh-oh; he's finally starting to call me mama; whas is dat for what is that; and every dog he sees is a variation of the word gunther, my parents dog...usually da-da, but different then the da-da he says for daddy.
• he's going through a phase where he doesn't want to eat anything. I don't know if he's not hungry or just being super picky. But it's frustrating for both of us.
• he LOVES playing in the water, especially with his cousins.
• if someone gets out a cell phone, he squaks until you let him have it, then he pretends to talk on it
• he dances if you tell him to, or if music is playing
• he can do "wheels on the bus"
• if he kisses you on the lips you better watch out, sometimes it ends with a bite.
• his first day of nursery he walked right in and never looked back!

with Britton's cell phone. This kid is high tech.

Yogurt. One of the few things he will eat. Unfortunately when he does he demands to feed himself and things get a little messy.

He thinks it's pretty hilarious when I put 2 binkies in my mouth and give him kisses.

This has been a wonderful summer with Jake. I love being a stay at home mom and I'm dreading going back to school and having to leave him so much. I love my little guy. He's such a blast!