Jeff's Troubles

Jeff has hurt his back. A week ago Saturday while playing Basketball, like he does every Saturday, he twisted his back and it was a bit sore for him. Than this past Saturday I asked him to help me replant my 'Day Lilies' to the front yard. And after a bit he was jumping down on the shovel and his back went out. He lay on the ground for like 20 mins, then we got him inside where I went to my two neighbors (one is our home teacher) and they came over to give him a blessing. Which they helped him get into the van and we went to the Doctors.

He has a pulled joint in his back, that conects to his hip. They gave him pain killer, muscle relaxer and ibprofen. We didnt make it to church yesterday , but today he needed to go to school and work. He can move, slow, and when the meds start to wear off it starts to really hurt. I am just glad it is nothing more serious.

So all in all, he is doing okay.

Sleep Update

Okay... so it has been like 2 or 3 weeks since I wrote about how Anna Belle has not been sleeping well. There was alot of advice given to me from friends and we came up with a few things to try and help her.

We are BINKIE free... I was strong and I never gave it to her. Her blanket that is her "woopie" (for those that have seen "Mr. Mom") I only let her have at nap or bedtime. I don't let her drag it around like Linus. Which saves on my washing it every week.

Not every night is perfect with her sleeping all they way through. But it has gotten better and only about every other or so is a wakeful night. And I have to force her into naps sometimes... keeping her door jammed so she can't get out. She cries and then after 10-20 minutes it stops and I find that she has crawled back into her bed and is fast asleep.

Overall things are better. I am still praying every day and night for her sleeping better. I have tried to read my scriptures more and rember that I will only receive blessings if I am doing my part of obeying and putting forth my effort in prayer and studing the scriptures.

I love my little girl and I am trying to just enjoy the time I am with up with her at 3 am!!!

my new Niece is Born - so to Utah we go!!!

This past Friday, September 19th. My babby sister Brookie (she is the youngest of us four, I am the oldest), gave birth to their first child, a little girl named Addison Evolet Bedwell. my baby sister has a baby... Jeff likes to remind me that I have 3 baby sisters.... but both of my other sisters had children before me, so this is so fun to have her join the club!!So... after they called us at 5 am, I was so excited and I really wanted to go and see her. Tietjen has been wanting to see his Utah Grandparents. Jeff let us take the day and go to Utah. By 7:30 am Tietjen, Anna Belle, & I were on the road to Utah. Jeff could not come he had school and work.

PEEK A BOO!!

We took a pit stop in Far West (Just outside of Odgen) to get some gas and let them stretch their legs. The Maverik there has this little grass area with a small slide. The kids had fun playing on the tube that went from the stairs to the slide. The liked to look out the small holes down at me!!

We surprised everyone that we were comming. We showed up at Colleen's work (Jeff's mom) and had lunch with her and her friends. Than we went to Richard's work (Jeff's dad) . Then on to Orem to see my sister and my new niece. Brookie was just as surprised to see us at their hospital door.After we left Colleen's work we walked from South Temple to North Temple where we were parked. Anna Belle was asleep before we even hit the Tabernacle.

Tietjen liked looking at the water fountain. I gave him some coins to throw in. He walked around it have a good ol'time.
We than stayed the night at Colleen's after going to see Richard & Danielle. We had lots of fun. Anne Belle was very tired of driving.


Than on Saturday morning I met up with my parents, who were down in Orem with my sis.. and my dad than rode home with us.

We are so happy to be home and missed Jeff tons and tons. But it was so fun to see everyone even if for just a short time.
Addison & her "favorite aunt" Mickie!!!

I know have 3 nieces & 3 nephews on my side of the family.

Brookie's husband Aaron is a HUGE Broncos fan.(He's from Denver) So I found this cute little Broncos Cheerleading outfit at Target. Here Addison is only wearing the Onsie this past Saturday during their game... go BRONCOS (J/K)

Tietjen the Swinging Monkey Boy

Tietjen has gotten quite good at "swinging" on the bars beneath his bunkbed. At first he would just hang on them... lifting up his legs, then he began to pull him self up.. now he can pull himself through his legs.... we are so proud of our little monkey!!

the Drama Continues!!

Oaky so, she finnaly went to sleep at about 9:30 pm , because Jeff went in and laid down by her. (She won't let me do that.. never has) So I was in bed by 10 pm YAYAYAYA! Then at 2 am she is AWAKE and finally at 5 am we went for a drive and she fell asleep at 5:30 am. I was so tired and still am. I did get a 1 1/2 hour nap, but WHY WONT MY BABY SLEEP??? I wish I knew what I could do. All I can ask is for your prayers to help her sleep. So that I can sleep and be a good mommy!! -- oh and still no BINKIE... I am holding out strong!!! Okay not so strong when I was crying last night, this morning, and when ever I think about how extremely tired I am. But I love my girl!! I am trying to enjoy our little times together as much as I can.

crying crying and more crying...NO MORE BINKIE

It is almost 9 pm tonight and I am sitting here, trying ignore Anna Belle crying. Not that I don't love my daughter with all of my heart.. but we are trying to take her off the binkie. I have cut two of her binkies and she was mad and I wont give in. We have jammed the door shut so she can't get out. I hate this part of growing up. I love my little girl and I can hear her crying out to me "mama! mama! mama!" I have to be strong. We also always seem to do this when they are no longer in a crib so they can get to the door. oh-well ... we do our best as parents. That's all we can do.!! --- Anna Belle I do love you.. I am sorry for this.

Learning & Growing

Tietjen is learning & growing so much in the the past two weeks of preschool. Yesterday was my turn to be the parent helper. I was very glad to see the my son is not the only one with so much energy. There are about 3 kids with way more than him. He did quite well listening to his teachers and doing what he needed to do. More than I thought he was going to do.

Today Tietjen was drawing on his Thomas Magna Doodle and wrote the letter "c" it was backwards but he told me it was the letter "c". Than he wrote the letter "o" which he knows quite well. I asked him if he would write the letter "t" so he ran the refigerator and came back with one of the little letter magnets... the letter "t". He began to write. Here are the pictures of him writing his letter "T". Which he continued to do over and over again.



Tietjen has never been interested in writing or learning his letters. I have tried for over a year to teach them, but he didn't care. Now he is begining to care. He is a cutie and a smart boy.

We love you Tietjen!!

Tietjen has recently become OBSESSED with Star Wars.

McDonalds' happy meal toy goes along with the new "Clone Wars" animation that has come out.

When my mom took us there, he received a Chewbaca bobble head on the AT-AT (I think that is what it is called... I am sure Jeff will correct me on it)

Jeff than told Tietjen that he had Star Wars toys.... which lead to a week of Tietjen asking to play with them. So, this past Friday night Jeff pulled them out. Tietjen has not stopped playing with them since. ALSO.... he wanted to watch the movies. He has seen all 3 of the orignal movies.. Episode 4-6. He watch them all this past weekend. And LOVES THEM!! There are some parts that are not as interesting as others for him... but he watches them.

Here is Tietjen playing with some, remind you SOME of Jeff's action figures.... there is still a BIG box of them that he can't play with. (Jeff loves that he wants to play with something that Jeff likes too)

Tietjen is also gets the Lego Magazine (it's free) and this month's came yesterday. The front cover was you guessed it STAR WARS CLONE WARS.... wow what an easy obsession... WE SPENT NOTHING!! I love it.

Tietjen also has been learning what the names of each character are... these are a few of my favorites of how HE says them...

R2D2d2

BubbleGum (Boba Fet)

Oda (Yoda)

Tietjen... may the force be with you!

Water Park Fun

This past Saturday we went to "Ross Park" in Pocatello with two of my sisters and their families. Ross Park has taken their normal swimpool and turned it into a fun family pool. There are 3 pools... the kidds pool, were it doesnt get deeper than a foot with a fun toy spraying thing... a lazy river around a "sports" pool - where you can play ball or there is this net thing that you held onto than crossed on these huge floating disks and then a deep pool for swimming... oh and a water slide (just one).

Jeff & Tietjen relaxing in the lazy river

The little kid area ( my neice is the little blonde in pink -Hi Kristie)


We of course spent the majority of our time in the kiddy pool... I did one time around the lazy river with Anna Belle, but she kept trying to jump off us on the tube into the water.. SHE LOVES THE WATER.

Annie kept trying to walk deeper in the kiddy pool, which starts at shore level and then gets deeper so she loved walking around. She would fall and be so far in that she couldn't get back up because she was underwater. She never did panic. Which is good.


Tietjen also loved the kiddy pool because if he did fall, he was still above water. So his confidence in water has increased this time.

Tietjen playing with his cousins Kristie, Blake & Brian

Jeff trying to be modest for the picture !!??!! (I did't take these, my sister did)

The kids got cold because of the wind.... but it was like 95 degrees that day.... then it has been cold and rainy yesterday and today...oh well. I am ready for Fall!!