Plane trip

We were able to check this plane our quite a bit but were not able to fly it out.  We were all set and ready to go meet Corey in San Antonio for our new adventure.  We were offered an opportunity in May to come out for a year. I didn't think we would ever do it but here we are.  We're here for a year, as of now, and we'll decide after that if we need to stay longer.

This is the flight we did end up taking.  We flew out of Cedar with a three hour layover in Salt Lake.  It actually went really well.  We did have a lot of help from the two guys who were with us.  They work with Corey and were very patient, especially with Shaylors fear of escalators.

  The first one was epic.  Both kids really wanted to ride so I went on with the stroller.  I forgot that Shaylor was top heavy because of his backpack and he tipped backward.  I was just behind him and caught him against the side with my leg. Forgeting that the side doesn't move with you, I realized it was pushing him down head first.  I switched hands on the stroller and was trying to lift him up behind me but was laughing so hard I could barely hold him.  The guy behind me was one with us and was willing to help lift him up.  The look on Shaylor's face was pure shock. We cheered when we all made it off safely. He stopped when.he saw the moving sidewalks.   :)

We decided to stand on the first two.  After that he started to feel more comfortable.  With each escalator after that I had the stroller in one hand a would reassure my traumatized child while holding his hand with the other.  He did really well, but was very excited when we were able to use the elevator.

On the first flight, the kids were so excited! They were calling out everything that was place.  "We're driving around. We're getting lined up...we're taking off...we're going up..."  On the second flight Shaylor was singing at the top of his lungs about taking off and how we were going to fly to San Antonio to see his daddy.  As we finally took off, I looked over and he was out.  Alison was out about the same time so it was a very quiet trip. All in all it was quite the adventure!

New Baby

We started out the year with a great new addition to our family.  Alison Malory Judd was born January 9, 2012 and has been blessing our lives ever since. She is such a happy baby. We just can't get enough of her and her sweet personality.

I broke my camera lens and ran my phone through the washer two weeks after Ali was born so My sister-n-law Chamrie came over and we did a fun little photo shoot!  

Catching up

So I've decided that if you take for-ev-er to get back to your blog there's no sense in trying to pack in everything you've skipped.  I can't even just do the highlights because there would be too many. So I'll do the monumental and then a little fill and move on to the here and now.  Hopefully it will be a much less daunting task to place before me and then I can finally become a great blogger.  One that can do cute posts that may even make one smile with the highlights of my life and family so that our distant family and friends can stay better acquainted with our family and lives.  HA HA!!

BIG...

I haven't mentioned that I'm pregnant. I also haven't posted very well since I have been.  Here's a little bit of what's going on with me. :)

 I'm now 33 weeks along this Sunday and according to strangers, I look like I'm “about to pop” I've had quite a few people tell me that lately. When I say that I'm not due until January, they always look at me in shock and ask if I'm sure there aren't twins in there. Yes, four ultrasounds have revealed only one. My new favorite stranger conversation went about like this, I was walking through the dollar store and went to pass this older looking gentlemen, he asked, as if he knew me, “Are you having a boy or a girl?” I told him it was a girl as he watched the two children following me down the isle. He then continues, gesturing to the kids, “so, it'll be two to one” I said yes. The man chuckled pointing toward Shaylor and said “that's good, so they can keep him in line... “ I laughed and replied, “I hope so!” He then paused for a second and looked at me thoughtfully, “you're doing good though?” I smiled and said yes and that was the extend of our conversation. I'll probably never see him again and if I did, I probably wouldn't even recognize him but it was a nice little moment. :)

Kids :)

Well, I usually post mainly pics and fun stories. I thought I'd post Journal style.  I wrote this in Oct.

Shaylor is learning his letter sounds. He want's to read just like his sister. I don't want to push him too hard so that he's bord when he starts school but I do think he will be reading a little bit by the time he is in kindergarten. He is also now potty trained!!!

We thought he was ready and so I put him in underwear one day. I reminded him to go every 20 minutes throughout the day and he would go for a candycorn. By the end of day two he was begging for his diapers and I realized that I was training myself not him. (We went back to diapers) A few days later I found some monster truck and race car underwear. I also found "slide on diapers" so he could switch back and forth whenever he chose. ( he doesn't like pull-ups or the potty watch he borrowed from KatieMae because it was forcing him to fo in the potty) This time I just fold him that if he wanted to wear them he needed to go in the potty, and if he went in the potty, he would get a candy corn. He basically did the rest himself. It was amazing. after two days three days, he was having dry nights. He still "likes diapers" but he doesn't go in them and rarely asks to use them. Seriously surprised me!!!

Lauren is doing great at school. She is reading and writing beautifully. She even gets extra credit on her spelling tests. ( She gets all of the words and some of the bonus, harder words) Her math skillls are very good as well, She can do addition and subtraction and thinks it's really cool when she gets it right really quickly. :)

Her eye is improving as well, in febuary her weak eye tested at around 20/60 or 70 and this month she tested at 20/50. This ais a pretty good improvement. this is with her glasses and at the same time she tested her strong eye at 20/20 with her glasses on, which was an inprovement as well. YAY!!! The next step would be to wear her contact in the weak eye, which has been a struggle. She's been scared but I think she's getting ready. we've been practicing her "finger in ey technic". She's getting pretty good at it and pretty soon I hope she'll be ready to do the real thing. When she does strat to wear her contact, we'll see a huge improvement. She'll be able to use both eyes and her weak eye will become her dominant eye when it is in. This will force it to use those muscles that her brain is not used to using and make it stronger because of it. It's will aslo mhelp her brain to put the images together better.

Right now she has such a drastic difference between the two eyes as far as perscription that her brain has trouble putting together the two images. She has no idea because that is what she is used to but when that contact is in I think she'll start to realize the difference and really like it. 

Random Fun

Just some quick fun stories, ready set go.... :) oh, and the stories have nothing to do with the videos. ha ha!

Corey was on the roof hanging some Christmas lights, Shaylor, standing on the ground, could see him on the roof and still kept calling out, "Dad,-you-up-deh?" Corey's response repeatedly was, "yes, I'm up here."  He would even ask if shaylor could see him or even say that he wasn't up there and shaylor knowing better would tell him that he was up there and then ask again, "dad,-you-up-deh?"

We kept reminding Shaylor not to tug on the lights or strings on the tree Two days before Christmas, I heard a horrible scream followed by a loud crash. I ran to the family room expecting to see the tree laying on top of my two year old, but he had realized it soon enough and can run fast in fear so he was only knocked over by the tip of the tree leaving a scratch on the back of his head and sap on his shirt.  I had to re-wrap some presents and clean up one broken bulb not to mention hanving to re set the tree, but I was grateful that he was ok.  He didn't pull on the tree again.

Lauren has discovered coloring in the lines.  She never got into to it and would get bored. Until she found out that crayons could be sharp.  Now a whole new world has opened up.  He can write, color, and draw, and it's fun!  Shaylor loves to color with her. His new famous line is, "duss a decond, I'm tollering."

Lauren and the Tooth Fairy

About a month ago, Lauren lost her first tooth.  It was on the bottom in the front and was so loose it felt like it was about to fall out literally.   The new tooth had pushed through behind.  We decided it was time to help it along and so one day I put some orajel on it and tied floss around the base of it.  After three or four tries (and having the floss come untied) it popped out.  It actually flew a few feet after slipping out of the floss.  We had to search for it on the floor. Lauren was laughing the whole time because the orajel had done is numbing duties!

She soon found out that that her friend had lost teeth  too and that she didn't get the same thing from the tooth fai;ry.  I was concerned that she would be disappointed but instead she explained that the tooth fairy decides what to give each kid and that it can always be different.

Yesterday after quite a bit more work the second tooth was ready to come.  By now the new teeth have already grown in quite a bit behind her baby tooth and we were starting to worry.  After a lot of recent wiggling this baby tooth was finally ready.  I did the same thing as before and the knot once again came untied.  This one hurt a little and Lauren wasn't completely sure about the situation.  I showed her that it was really ready this time.  (We had tried it too soon with this one and it hurt her a while back)  I asked if she was `ready and she said very bravely "I think so."  I wrapped the string around my fingers one more time and prayed in my head that it would come out easily with out pain.... I gave it a firm tug and it flew across the room.  I heard it hit glass, not sure if it hit the window of the t.v.  We looked and looked but couldn't find it.  Lauren decided to have me write a quick note as she headed to bed and she signed it.  The note said,
 Tooth-fairy,
We lost my tooth.
Lauren
It was so cute.  She then explained that the tooth fairy can "see if we are awake or asleep but we can't see them."  I love this child.

Shaylor was in a silly mood at Grandma and 

Grandpas so I thought I'd share it.

Lauren reads!!