Dr. Daddy

We had lots of fun being Dan's "patients" in the student clinic this semester. Even though I tell all my friends in lower tri's to make sure their husband gets enough other patients so they don't have to go all the way down to the school once a week, it was actually kind of fun. It was fun the first time we went in when Jacey saw Dan in his white jacket and his stethoscope around his neck. She giggled and said, "Daddy, you look like a doctor." Everyone in the clinic was always so nice to us. Jacey is very outgoing, and would just find another patient sitting on a table waiting to be adjusted and tell them her full name and her life story. Broden hates it when I get adjusted, mainly because I can't hold him so he would get put into the arms of some stranger and scream for the whole adjustment. It was entertaining to see different classmates of Dan's come over, sure that they had the magic touch. The funniest one though was seeing Dan's staff doctor holding and bouncing Broden while trying to do a QA on me at the same time. That was probably the quickest and easiest QA Dan's ever had! We always had fun though. Jacey loved following Dan to get signatures from his staff doctor, and Dan learned that he always got his signatures a little easier and quicker if he had Jacey hand the chart to his staff doctor for him. She loves the "Nemo table" and I think she thinks it's just for her and Broden since there weren't usually other kids in there with us.

"Just a second Dad, I have to take this call.."

Kitchen Diva

It's not Christmas without making Christmas cookies, and it's just not the same to make cookies unless you're wearing 2 aprons over your princess dress, which is over your jeans! Every once in awhile I look at these pictures and wonder what people think about some of her outfits. I figure if your judging me by how she's dressed then you've never had a very independent 4-year-old girl with great fashion sense! :) I remember reading in a book a couple years ago that every parent of preschool age children should have a badge that says "I dressed myself today". At the time I thought, "Whatever, I will ALWAYS have control over what my kids wear." We do pretty good at regulating what she wears outside of the house, but every once in awhile when we get surprise visitors I feel the need to explain myself! Luckily, many of my friends have children the same age and (hopefully) don't think twice about it!

CONGRATULATIONS DAN!

Dan's too modest to make a big deal of this, but since he never touches the blog I claim the right to brag as much as I want! In the past couple months he has taken 2 HUGE exams. In September he took Part 1 of the Chiropractic National Board Exam and right after Thanksgiving he took his Clinic Entrance Exam so he can advance to the outpatient clinic at school. We are happy (no...estatic!) to report that he passed them both on the first time! I had full confidence in him, but it's still nice to get the results that you're hoping for! He's planning on taking Part 2 & 3 for his national boards together in March. It will be a lot of work and a crazy amount of studying, but it will at least let him have a little bit of a break in August while everyone else is busy with board reviews and boards once again. Then he'll take his final set of boards in the fall before graduation and the real world set in...... It's so exciting to get closer to the end, even if it is still a year away!

Happy Birthday Dan!

Dan hit the big 31 this year! Unfortunately his birthday fell on a school night, and those nights just aren't very exciting in our house. We still had fun getting ready for it though. Jacey helped me make the perfect chocolate cake, and was thrilled when I let her lick the bowl. She also had fun with the tradition that we borrowed from the Weed's to shop for a present. After we got him his real present, I took her to the dollar store and told her she could pick out 2 things in the whole store to give to Dad. (1 from Broden, and 1 from her) We very carefully searched the whole store for the perfect gift. She finally decided on a bat and ball, and a princess bouncy ball. She contemplated getting him the Spiderman ball, but then decided that he would probably prefer princesses instead. We had fun singing to him and watching him open presents. The next night Dan and I got to go out by ourselves, which is a rare treat! Happy Birthday Dan! We love you!

Halloween

Halloween this year was a lot of fun. Jacey was a princess (of course!), Belle, to be exact. She loved her dress and acted the part. One of her favorite moments of the night was when I surprised her with the spray glitter I bought for her hair. She even wore her Belle high heels trick-or-treating. That was one of my more foolish moments as a mom. I didn't even stop to think that her feet might hurt after awhile. She was a trooper and didn't complain the whole time though. She was probably afraid we'd quit trick or treating if she did. The next day when I looked at her feet they were almost bleeding, and the only shoes she wore for the next couple days were her princess slippers. She had lots of fun trick-or-treating with her friend Nathan, and they held hands the whole night. Too cute...

Pumpkin Patch

It just wouldn't be fall in Dallas without a visit to the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch. This is one of things we have done every year since moving here, and we will miss it when we leave. We love taking fun pictures, letting Jacey play in all the inflatable toys, going on a hay ride, and then picking the PERFECT mini-pumpkin (50 cents is perfect- we save buying the big one for our trip to Wal-Mart!) Even better is the mild Texas weather that lets us have fun doing it! We were all actually really hot in these pictures, but I insisted that we wear kind of warm clothes. The fall pictures just aren't the same if you're wearing shorts and capris!

My cute busybee!

One of Jacey's favorite things this fall has definatly been BusyBee Preschool. I had wanted to participate in a preschool co-op this year. I talked to some other moms, we played around with a few ideas, but when it came down to it my friend Lisa discovered BusyBee Preschool. I love it! It ended up just being the two of us, so our "class" is only Jacey and her friend Caleb. Lisa and I each teach once a week, and I love how actively involved I get to be. I also love that the lesson plans are all made for us, right down to the books and crafts. I love that it's so value-based. It still teaches letters and numbers and all the normal preschool stuff, but it does it in a way that teaches values at the same time. (i.e. "I can be happy", "I can be grateful", "I can be giving" etc.) She has so much fun and feels very grown up, yet mom doesn't have to let go quite yet. It's a win-win situation for everyone! I would highly recommend it to anyone with preschool-age children!

Homecoming- Texas Style

There are some things that words just don't adequately describe. We've lived here for over 2 years now, and every fall I try to describe homecoming mums to my family and friends outside of Texas. I always get a polite chuckle as I describe them, but I know that they don't fully comprehend what a big deal they are. This year I resolved to take a picture to prove it. I was very excited when I was coming home one day and saw my neighbor coming up the stairs with all the materials to make a mum. We started talking about how extravagent (and expensive!) they are. They are a HUGE status symbol for high school girls. Some of them cost hundreds of dollars. Some have lights, others have music boxes, small stuffed animals, etc. Talk about pressure for the poor guy! How much you like your date determines how extravagent her mum is, so if they really like the girl they have to fork out the big bucks! The girls wear them to school on homecoming, and then to the game. Most wear overalls or jean jackets because they are so heavy that nothing else would hold them up. My neighbor was so nice to come over after she finished the mum for her son's girlfriend (it's cheaper to make them if you're creative enough!) and let me take a picture of it. Then, we went to the homecoming game and had a blast! Amazingly enough, our kids loved the game. One of the young women in our ward won homecoming queen, so that was fun. And- the best part of all... the only empty seats we could find in the whole stadium were right next to a couple of my young women from church! I was very grateful that they weren't "too cool" to sit by their YW leader, and even more grateful that Brianna let me take a picture of her wearing her mum. It's just not the same until you see someone wearing one! Oh...and if you thought the mums were crazy, you should see what the guys wear! Think wedding garter with all kinds of crazy things hanging from it, worn around their bicep......

Aunt Courtney's Tutu

Show up at our home on any given day, and this is most likely how you'll find Jacey. Last year when we went home for Christmas, Jacey was in her 2nd year of dance and LOVED doing her ballerina moves all over Grandma's big kitchen. Grandma dug out Courtney's costume from when she was little and had the part of a pussywillow (i think?) in their recital. Aunt Courtney and Grandma said we could bring it back to Texas with us, and I thought the novelty of it would wear out after a few days. Nope! Almost a year later, she still wears it- almost daily! Most of the time she doesn't even go to the effort of taking off whatever normal clothes she's wearing. The tutu just goes over it! The funny thing is that I'm so used to it. People will knock on our door and laugh when they see Jacey, but it takes me a minute to figure out what they're laughing at. Just another example of how Jacey keeps my days fun!

Football season is here!

We love football season! No, we are not Dallas Cowboy fans. No, we don't follow local college football. (Although, we do check BYU scores quite often.) No, we are not die-hard Lewisville High School football fans. (But we did enjoy their homecoming game last week.) The thing we love about football season so much is Parker College Intermural Football! I always assumed that once we got to graduate school everyone would be mature and serious all of the time. I wondered what that would be like right before we moved, since I didn't think we were all that different than we were when we were first married or working on undergrad at BYU. Imagine my surprise when got here and everyone else acted just as young as we felt! (and I mean that as the highest compliment possible!) We love any excuse to go to the park on Saturday mornings and watch Daddy play football. It makes me laugh to see the inner-teenager come out in these guys as they play. Football season is serious stuff, and I'm proud of Dan for at least not getting involved to the point of trash-talking their opponents while they play. (At least as far as I know!) Jacey loves playing with the little girl of one of the other players, and I enjoy talking with her mom since we don't usually see them outside of school functions. Broden entertains himself with the simple things. Last time feeling the grass kept him busy during the whole game.

State Fair of Texas!

Jacey's new friend!
Stopping for a quick hug and kiss.
Flying high on the rides!
One of the many animals Jacey got to feed.
Happy boy, even though he sat in the stroller most of the time!

It's been awhile since last update! We had such a good time when Grandma and Grandpa Sillito came to visit. One of the fun things we did was the fair! Jacey was old enough to have fun going on the rides. She went on the little roller coaster (with mom sitting by her to make her feel a little braver). Then she went on the airplaines, the train, the swings, and ended with the "big kid" pirate ship that went way up in the air (with dad). She is still our friendly little Jacey. The train only had a couple kids on it, but instead of picking one of the empty seats she went and sat down right next to another little girl and had a new friend by the end of the ride. She also had her first (and very enjoyable!) experience with cotton candy. They had the best petting zoo I've ever seen, and Jacey enjoyed feeding all the animals. Broden was a good sport just sitting in the stroller watching his sister have a good time. It was a fun day, and made us feel a little better about missing the Puyallup fair up in Washington. We were very grateful that Grandma Sillito was such a good sport to walk around another fair just days after finishing the Puyallup!

Mom...she's in my bed again!

Tonight was a first- We went through a fairly uneventful bedtime routine with the kids. Stories, scriptures, prayers, songs, and of course just before we leave the room, "Mom, could you just tell me one story about Jesus?" (Smart girl, what Mom is going to say no to that one?) Then we left the room and heard the normal giggling for the next 30 minutes. I even commented to Dan how much I love that sound, even though they're supposed to be falling asleep. Even though he's only 8 months, it's obvious that Broden LOVES his big sister, and she loves him too. He can't get enough of being around her. Even when she's in another part of the room, I often catch him looking at her with a HUGE smile on his face. She's great with him too. Eventually, the giggling died down and it got silent. I assumed they were asleep, until Dan peeked in the room to check on them. Imagine our surprise when Jacey's bed was empty, and Broden's crib had both children and every stuffed animal they own in it! Dan took her out, put her in her bed, and managed to hold his laughter until he got out of their room. Then, a little while later we heard Broden start crying, and sure enough she was in there again! I think Broden was just on the verge of falling asleep that time, and was not very happy about the interupption (as you can tell in the pictures!) That time we were a little more serious with her, took her out, and put her in her bed again. Ten minutes later we peeked in again, and Jacey's bed was empty. We were ready to discipline her this time, and went to Broden's crib and saw them laying there cuddling with each other. How do you discipline for that? We couldn't. We took her out again, almost asleep, and I'm pretty sure she fell asleep soon after in her own bed. I'm so grateful that, at least at this young age, they love each other so much. We've been blessed that Broden has been a happy, easy, baby, and we couldn't as for a better big sister. As much as I can't wait for the days of at least 3 bedrooms, I love the cute little chatter that I get to hear every night as they put each other to sleep. I love being a mom!

Happy Birthday Jacey!

4 years old!!! I can't believe it! Sometimes when I'm taking care of Broden, I feel like Jacey was JUST there. Some parts of me are kind of glad that her birthday just misses the cutoff to start kindergarten next year. We're doing a preschool co-op with some friends this year, and she is loving it. I have to say though, that on the days she's not here I miss her! It's only 3 hours 2 times a week, but I've realized how much I really enjoy having her around. She's changed from being a little baby that I have to do everything for, to being my little daytime friend! I love that she can carry on a real (and at times, very entertaining) conversation with me; I love that I can always count on Jacey to tell me how pretty I look (even if it's a day when I know I don't); and I love that she will think we are the best parents in the world if we buy her something from the dollar store! I love how much she wants to please us, and how hard she (usually) tries to do the right thing. I even enjoy (to a certain extent) the humor that her little-girl drama can add to my day. OK- on to her birthday. We had SO much fun! On her actual birthday we were driving home from San Antonio, and the next weekend Dan was at a seminar in Houston, so we didn't have her party until last weekend, 2 weeks after her birthday. One day I was putting clothes away in her closet, and she came in there crying. When I asked her what was wrong, she replied, "it was my birthday and I didn't get to blow out candles". I thought she understood that we were having her party later, but apparently not. I felt very bad, but luckily she had a couple friends coming over later that day. So made a quick batch of brownies, stuck some candles in it, and we sang when the boys got here, and problem was solved. She REALLY wanted a princess birthday party this year, even though 1/2 of the guests were going to be boys. Luckily, they are all easy-going boys, and they didn't mind dressing up in the prince clothes that we had for them at the party, and the little girls all dressed up as princesses. It was her dream come true! We had fun. The wind kept things interesting at the park, but without it, it would've been way too hot. She had a great time, and the month-long birthday celebration is finally over. She is having fun telling everyone she is 4. Several times a day she will approach someone (hopefully someone we know) and say, "Tell me I'm 3 years old." When they say it she loves saying, "Nooooo..... I'm four!"

Seaworld

We LOVED Seaworld! We're trying to find a reason to go back next summer, but for 2 days instead of 1. There was so much more to see and do, 1 day wasn't enough. Some highlights of the day.... definately the Shamu show! It was incredible! Jacey now wants to be an animal trainer when she grows up, so she can work at Seaworld and swim with Shamu. I can't say I blame her. Watching the show and seeing the trainers doing tricks and swimming with her almost made me want to do that when I grow up too! Jacey's prized possession now is her Shamu stuffed animal, and she sleeps with it every night. We haven't had the heart to tell her Shamu's a killer whale, and I don't see any reason to. I think she thinks that she's just a REALLY big dolphin. Another highlight was feeding and petting the dolphins. Jacey loved it, and was very excited when she got to touch one. We saw some other good shows, and went on some rides. Jacey surprised us all when she wanted to go on "Journey to Atlantis" which is a pretty big ride similar to Splash Mountain at Disneyland. She was barely tall enough, and Jacey's pretty tall for her age. The very last stretch of the ride is a huge drop that goes down into the water. It was her 1st ride of the day, and I was afraid she would be scared of the rest of the rides after that, but she LOVED it! She's definatly braver than I was at 4 years old! Eventually we made our way over to the water park, where we hung out in the wave pool for awhile. Jacey had fun diving into the waves and pretending to be a mermaid. Then Dan took her down a waterslide with him, and she liked it so much she told him she wanted to go again. They waited in line all the way up to the slide, and when he sat down and got ready to put her on his lap again, she refused and said she wanted to go by herself. So she did, and loved that too! It was such a fun day! I know I'm forgetting lots of other details, but those were the highlights. We played hard that day, and left the park tired, hungry, and happy!

Vacation to San Antonio

A couple weeks ago, our family took a much-needed trip to San Antonio. It was probably the funnest thing we've done since moving to Dallas! We were celebrating having Dan back as a member of our family (he took his first set of National Board Exams the week before), and Jacey's birthday. Our good friends Dallas and Abi came with us, and we had SO much fun! We just went down for a long weekend. (Well, the guys kind of made their own "unoffical" long weekend, since they had just started a new trimester) Thursday we drove down, and stopped at an AMAZING outlet mall in San Marcos on the way. It's probably a good thing that we didn't get there until 8:00 and all the stores closed at 9:00, because we could have done WAY too much shopping! Friday morning we got up and explored the city. First we went to the Alamo, then to the Spanish Market where we had great gorditas and found an AMAZING Mexican bakery. Jacey was in heaven there when she heard a band playing outside and found a empty little stage just waiting for a 4-year-old dancer. She entertained us while we sat in a little food court area and ate our lunch, but was pretty disappointed when her stage time was over. Then we went to the riverwalk, which was so pretty. I've never seen a river run right into the bottom floor of a mall before. We took a little ferry ride down the river, which was a nice way to see it after walking all day. That night we met up with a friend of Dan's from high school who is living in San Antonio with his family. We ate at a really good Mexican restaraunt right on the riverwalk, and Jacey fell in love with their little girl, Lily. It's amazing to me how she could spend a day and a half with someone she's never met, and still be praying for her every night 2 weeks later. The next day we went to Seaworld (which will be a whole other entry by itself!) with Dean and his family for the day. The next day was Jacey's birthday, and we celebrated by driving back to Dallas. Poor girl... we did let her choose 1 present to bring from home, and Dallas and Abi brought her a gift to open in the hotel that morning as well. It was such a fun trip, and made it even more fun to be with friends! We love the Makins, and they were such good sports the whole weekend. Dan and I often talk about how different life is after you have kids (and how much we love it)! Vacations are definately a little more complicated though, and they just acted like it was no big deal any time we had to stop to feed a baby, change a blow-out (thankfully that only happened once!), find something to eat for a hungry 4-year-old, etc. Hopefully they enjoyed the weekend as much as we did!

CRAWLING!

Broden is officially crawling! He actually started a couple weeks ago, I just haven't gotten around to updating my blog. Sorry, no new pictures with this post. He's harder to catch sitting still these days! Jacey didn't crawl until she was 10 months old, with no complaint from me! Babyproofing has been way harder this time. At least with Jacey I only had to make sure we didn't leave any of our stuff on the floor or where she could reach it, but now we have all of Jacey's stuff too. She's pretty good about trying to keep her stuff put away when she's not using it, but every time I turn around it seems like she's playing with her Polly Pockets, coloring, or playing some game that involves little game pieces. I thought I still had a good 3 months with Broden until I had to worry about this, but it's been a lot of fun! We had a couple of Jacey's friends over yesterday, and Broden was loving that he could crawl around following them. Keeping up with the big kids at last. (Well... kind of) I better go, I can hear him over by the bookshelf......

Future softball star

Last weekend we had a stake youth softball tournament. Our whole family went, because it was a great excuse to spend an evening at the park. I should just start by saying that Jacey LOVES the young women in our ward, and they adore her. There's 2 sisters that are especially good with her, and Jacey idolizes them. She had to come to mutual with me last week and we played games at the end. These girls were so good about choosing Jacey to be their partner, choosing her to be "it" when they played friendship tag and letting her catch them, etc. Anyways, at the softball tournament the older sister, Brittni, took Jacey way out to the back of the outfield and let her stand by her. Jacey was prepared with her hot pink baseball mitt, Brittni let her wear her sunglasses, and Jacey felt like queen for the day! I love being in young womens!

Our first circus!

A couple weeks ago we went to the circus in Dallas. The summer reading program at our local library gave free tickets to any child that completed the program. It wasn't very hard (only a few books), so we took it a step further and told Jacey that they were giving circus tickets to kids who didn't watch too much TV, but read books instead. It was a great incentive for her to keep the TV off this summer! She looked forward to it all summer, and barnum and bailey definately didn't let her down. It was my first circus too, and I'll admit I was very impressed. Her favorite part was the elephant that did the headstand. She's very into imagination games right now. Her favorite used to be that she was a princess, and I was the prince that was going to marry her. I don't know how many times I've married Jacey. Since going to the circus she has a new favorite game. She is the circus dancer (they had dancers up on ropes way up high twirling around), and I am the elephant. I think I preferred being the prince, but I'm sure in a couple weeks she'll move on to something else equally crazy. It was a fun night. A late one for the kids, but Jacey didn't mind staying up a couple hours past her bedtime. Broden was a good sport too, and even though his first tooth broke through that day, he did great!

Girl's Camp

Last month I was able to go to Girl's Camp on Friday night to visit the young women in my ward and be there for testimony meeting. It was a great experience, and every time I hear them bear their testimonies I am blown away. Their testimonies have so much more depth than mine ever did at their age. I have been so impressed with the youth down here in Texas in the 2 different wards that I've been able to be involved with the YW. We had lots of fun. Our bishop also joined us for the evening. I think it was eye-opening for him to see how silly these mature, reverent, responsible girls (and leaders!) could be once you got them out of the church. We played silly games, sang crazy songs, soaked each other with water balloons playing human battleship, settled down for a devotional, and ended the evening with a testimony meeting. I had to laugh when I got there though. I had heard stories about "camp" down here before, but I still wasn't prepared for how good they had it. Our ward's "cabin" was actually a triple-wide mobile home, complete with bunk beds with more comfortable mattresses than my kids have and a garden tub in the bathroom. They really rough it! When I told all this to Dan, he very openly shared his opinion how the YW had it so easy and he guaranteed that they young men never did anything that cool. The next week, a couple of the YM came to collect fast offerings, so we started asking them about their upcoming high adventure. They told us that they were driving down to Galveston, camping on the beach, learning how to sail in the gulf of Mexico, then going to Schiltterbahn (supposedly one of the best water amusement parks in the country) on their way home. Dan was right- WAY rougher than the girls! :)

Messy face

Broden was a new man the day we started solid foods! For the last month, he's been doing really well with them, eating whatever we give him. He hasn't even been nearly as messy as one would expect a baby to be. Until last week when we tried prunes.... either he really didn't like them (although he was very happy) or he was just being mischevious and seeing how big of a mess he could make. They were EVERYWHERE! I think it's going to be awhile before I'm brave enough to try that one again.

Jacey's "first day of school"

A couple weeks ago, Dan was feeling like he hadn't been able to spend very much time with Jacey lately. So he got up Friday morning and decided to take Jacey to school with him since for some reason he only had class for 1 hour that day. I have to admit, I had my doubts. I packed her princess rolling backpack stuffed with coloring books, little quiet toys, puzzles, snacks, etc. Sure enough, she was the center of attention, and even the instructor stopped in the middle of class and said "Dan Sillito, who is that beautiful girl sitting by you?" Dan said she was perfectly quiet the whole time. She felt very big and important when she got home.

Stuck again!

Ok- this picture is a little old, but it makes me laugh every time I see it. Every time for about a month, every time I turned around this is where I would find Broden. He got the scooting backwards thing down long before forwards. He would be perfectly happy, then I would hear a little noise- not really a cry, just kind of a grunt. Sure enough, he would be stuck under the couch every time. Now he's getting around pretty good forwards and backwards. I'm still not really sure how to describe his forward movements. It's not really a true crawl yet, but not the scoot or army crawl that a lot of babies do either. He crawls forward a couple of steps, then lies down on his tummy to rest, then gets back up on all fours to rock back and forth for awhile to build up some more momentum, and finally it's forward a couple more steps. It's been hard to remember after 3 1/2 years what this was like the first time, so it's kind of fun to experience it all over again with Broden!