A Big Scare

Since nothing much is happening in my life, I thought I would let you know about my brother's life; well, it is my brother's best friend's life. His name is Jarrett. Jarrett went down to Idaho to visit his friends that he grew up with last week and they were having a bonfire at a girl's house in her backyard. The girl hosting the party decided that she was going to pour gasoline on the fire after it was already going to get the fire bigger. Jarrett told her that was not a good idea and turned around to walk away from the fire. The girl didn't listen and poured gasoline on the fire, which travelled up the pouring gasoline to the can and exploded, blowing everyone away. Jarrett woke up a few seconds later several feet away from where he was standing and was on fire. He rolled in the dirt and put himself out and then looked for the girl and her other girlfriend, who were standing together at the fire when it exploded. They were both engulfed in flames. Jarrett and another boy got one girl to roll and put the fire out but Justine, the girl holding the can, took a little longer. They were all life flighted to Salt Lake and they don't think Justine is going to make it. Her friend, Sammy, is in critical condition. Jarrett was burned on the right side of his body from his neck down to his hand with 2nd degree burns. He is okay, but will have to have therapy on his arm and hand and go to a burn center to get rebandaged for the next couple months.

This has been really hard for my family to go through because Jarrett was like another son to my mom and a brother to Brian. It is such a sad thing to happen and a really bad accident. All of the kids are LDS and good kids. It is sad to think of the scars they will each carry with them, not only physically, but also emotionally from seeing their friends dying and hurting. However, without going into too much detail, (a plug for Boy Scouts here) Jarrett knew exactly what to do to keep Justine and Sammy in the best "condition" until emergency crews arrived. If it wasn't for his quick thinking, despite his own burns, those girls wouldn't have had a chance.

We are so thankful Jarrett turned at last minute away from the fire and was not harmed further, but it is still so sad for those girls and their families.

Our Favorite Foods!

In no particular order, here are my favorite foods, followed by Jeff's and Maddox's. I mainly did this post to get Jeff to contribute SOMETHING!

1. Deep Dish Cheese w/Extra Cheese Pizza Hut Pizza
2. Sour Gummy Worms
3. Cafe Rio Chicken Burrito Enchilada Style
4. Kneader's Cinnamon French Toast w/Caramel Butter Syrup
5. Oreo Cookie Blizzard w/Extra Oreos

1. Enchiladas-any kind from anywhere
2. Homemade Peanut Buster Bar Parfait
3. Pigs in a Blanket AKA Corn dogs
4. Kneader's Cinnamon French Toast w/Caramel Butter Syrup
5. Anything I don't have to make myself

1. Milk!
2. Nectarines/Peaches (I like to eat them whole!)
3. Plain Homemade Yogurt
4. Sweet Potatoes
5. Carrots (I love carrots, but I can't eat them cuz they plug me up!)

Funnies About Maddox

Maddox does so many funny little things and has so many things he likes or doesn't like. While they are really just little quirks, they make him, him. I thought pictures would help us to remember them best. This first one is my hair. He especially loves to pull and yank it (hard, I might add) when he is nursing to sleep. He also hits himself in the head and pulls his own hair when he is nursing to sleep. Strange?
His cousin Matthew is another favorite. They love each other so much and always smile when they see each other. The other day Matthew came over to play and Maddox copied everything he did. Matthew clapped, so Maddox clapped. Matthew drank out of a bottle, so Maddox drank out of a bottle, which I have never been able to get him to do. This particular picture is funny cuz Matthew tried to crawl between the couches and got stuck.
Maddox loves his daddy. He will be having the worst, grouchiest day ever (which is very rare for him) and then Jeff walks in the door and he is all smiles!
Maddox loves his cousins, Garrett, Amanda, Will, and while they are not in the picture, Maddox also loves his cousins in Washington, Utah, and Montana! This picture is taken at Jacobsen Park last weekend. We were there for the Japanese Festival and William, aside from chasing ducks around, found this tree trunk that he kept sticking his face into. It was actually pretty cool. It was hollow and you could see down into the water. What a silly boy!
Maddox loves this miniature disc golf frisbee. He chews on it a lot and always covers his face up when he does. Thanks Grandpa Sneck!

He loves to unravel things, throw things (anything he can grasp), and crumple things, especially Jeff's notebook papers.
Maddox loves fruit. I had the idea to let him play with the fruit in the fruit bowl one day and next thing I know he was eating the nectarine whole! He actually took bites out and sucked the juices! Then he proceeded to chuck the rest of the fruit around the room and bruise it.
This is Maddox's favorite toy when he was just a newborn. It is his face, which is just a paper plate with stickers that form a face shape. I found it and let him play with it again. He crumpled it up and ate it. Bye-bye face!
He loves to chew on his vitamin dropper. It is rubber and he is teething, so it makes sense. Oh, and he loves his acid reflux medicine. He will suck it out of the dropper in the mornings. Have you ever tried it? Zantac. It is nasty!
And last but not least, he is the king of blowing raspberries, especially with a mouth full of food! So if you ever see me with speckled food on my shirt, you will know who did it.

A New Trick!

Maddox has a new trick he learned just yesterday. Watch and find out just what it is!
He can crawl now! Well, he can almost crawl. He did this twice yesterday and once today. I am guessing it will be another week or so until he really understands the possibilities with his newfound skill!

Maddox Clapping

So Maddox can clap. He is a very talented little boy! Since our scooter was recently stolen, we have been trying to think of various ways to earn a few extra bucks to purchase another form of transportation. We were thinking of letting Maddox join the circus. What do you think?

Almost There!

Maddox is almost there! The very day we returned from our trip to Montana, Jeff set Maddox down and he went up on all fours in the bear crawl position! Since then, he has taken to several crawling positions in the effort to figure out just how to move his tank of a body!

While the first picture has nothing to do with crawling, it was just so cute that I had to throw it in! Here we are trying to teach him how to get up on his hands and knees with some support.
More teaching and Maddox up on his own!
And then down for the count. All tuckered out.
And he is up again and playing with toys now! He also can go from sitting to crawling, as you can see from his right leg that is stuck under him. We are still working on getting that leg moving a bit, but he is great at pushing himself backwards. Note that he is somehow pushing/falling and getting up again and going backwards, not crawling.
A couple days ago Maddox decided he had had it with going backwards. Here he is trying to go forward. He gets up on his tippy toes and pushes as hard and as high as he can, but doesn't go anywhere...he just looks like he is doing pushups. It is funny!And then today Maddox finally started pulling himself up onto things. Still no crawling in either direction, but lots of rocking and pushups and rolling around!

His First Bath in a Real Tub!

This past week we gave Maddox his first bath in a real tub! This is a major accomplishment for him, but mainly for me. I have an extreme paranoia with showers/bathtubs and was seriously brainstorming how I could get away with never letting Maddox bathe in our tub. Yes, we clean it, or I should say that Jeff cleans it. I have cleaned a shower maybe five times in our marriage and in my whole life. I am simply afraid of the germs. I recognize fully that it is a mental thing and I will strive not to pass this on to my children, but honestly I would rather clean toilets than set foot in a shower barefoot. Nevertheless, after much deliberation, I finally sprayed the whole bath down with bleach a couple times, rinsed it with water, and stuck him in there. I put him down on a mat, though, so he wouldn't slide around, but also so he wouldn't touch the bottom of the tub, even though the water that is touching him is also touching the bottom of the tub. See, it is all mental.

Maddox had a wonderful time! He splashed and played and would have stayed in there all night! What a sweet little boy I have. He is the happiest baby ever. It is so hard for me to stay upset around him and once I saw him playing and having fun, I forgot all about the bathtub germs!

Avalanche Lake

If you decide never to live in Montana, you should at least visit Glacier National Park. It is breathtaking. Each year we go, I try to take Jeff on a different hike and lake. This year we visited Avalanche Lake. We picniced at the base of the hike, Maddox played in the dirt some more, and then we took off. Here are Zach, Jeff, Maddox, and Brian at the trail head. The first part of the hike follows Avalanche Creek, which cut its way through some boulders. It is pretty neat.
Here is just a sample of how amazing Avalanche Creek is. Crystal blue glacial water carving its way through rocks.We all took turns carrying Maddox. Brian got him the whole way down. Jeff and I shared him the way up. What a tank! By the way, Valissa gave Maddox the nickname Tank while we were there, so I gave Jett the nickname Twigs. He has (had) the skinniest arms and legs!After an hour of hiking, here is our breathtaking reward. The water is frigid, but people were swimming in it. We stayed only a few minutes to take pictures and for me to unsuccessfully attempt to feel Maddox. That day he ate at 8:00 a.m. and not again until 5:00 p.m. What a stinker!

Facial Hair

Two weeks worth of growth. That is the longest Jeff has gone without shaving. He doesn't look so bad, does he? Still no fun to kiss though!

All Work and No Fun

While we had a good time during our trip to MT, it wasn't all play and no work. We definitely had our share of hard work. My mom and dad's house was in need of an update and paint job, so Jeff and I decided to take the challenge. We painted the whole downstairs and upstairs, minus the individual bedrooms. I wish I had pictures of the before and after, but we forgot to take the after. If I can ever get my sister to email me the pics, I will post them.

Here we all are hard at work. I couldn't resist the opportunity to show off my farmer's tan.

And my muscles. Here is Valissa, kind of painting. Supposedly having a baby c-section makes you excused from all manual labor. I had to give her some credit, though, because she is the one who painted almost the whole downstairs while 9 months pregnant.
Here is Jeff taping away and, as always, lightening up the mood with his goofiness.
And the hardest worker of all award goes to Bubba! This is my brother, Brian, who claimed that playing Nintendo and playing baseball took it all out of him. He helped by sleeping with the babies...and he taped and washed walls. I love you Brian!Overall, the house turned out fabulous! What I loved the most was shopping for new decorations with my mom and dad's money!

A Real Montana Man

Jeff is now a real Montana Man. He had the opportunity to go fishing on Flathead Lake with Zach, our brother-in-law. I guess that fishing on Moose Lake with me wasn't good enough. Although those little six inchers can give quite a fight, Jeff was ready to catch himself a real fish.

The first time I spoke with Jeff on the phone, a few hours into their fishing adventure, he was not having the best time. Everyone had caught several fish except for him. He hadn't even had a bite. After I got off the phone with him, I prayed he would catch a fish, and he did! Secretly, I am hoping to convince Jeff that Montana isn't that bad a place to live, so him being unsuccessful at catching fish seemed like it might put a damper on that hope. My prayers were answered! I would argue it is a sign, but Jeff would argue otherwise. More convincing to come! Here is the ginormous fish Jeff caught. It was the second biggest of the day, weighing in at 5 1/2 pounds and 29 inches long. All that waiting paid off. He went on to catch several more, but this was his prize! We ate it for dinner and it was good, or so I heard. I didn't try it.
Here are the guys, Jeff on the far left and Zach on the far right.
Zach and Jeff posing with their catches! These were mostly Lake Trout.
Look at the beautiful scenery. It was an overcast day, but perfect for fishing and being out on the lake. Flathead lake is 30-something miles long and about 17 miles wide. This is from memory, so I am sure it is off, but you get the picture. It is huge! We even supposedly have a Flathead Lake Monster, which is probably nothing but an oversized pike, but scary all the same.

Moose Lake

Each year that we go to Montana, we go fishing at Moose Lake. This year was no different, except the wind was horrible! We still caught fish, but it was so windy and chilly! The fishing is great if you don't mind catching 8-12 inch trout and driving 1 1/2 hours into the middle of nowhere.

Here we all are, the whole gang. Valissa and Jett, Joel, my cousin Jonathan, Maddox and me, Jeff, Jarom, Jacob, Whitney, and Aunt Marsha. Renee is taking the picture. Zach is missing, as well as my mom. Jeff and me. Isn't it gorgeous. I love knowing that I am somewhere so remote that we could spend the whole day up there and see no one.
Jeff, Zach, and me going out fishing. I fished until I caught one that had swallowed the hook and couldn't be let go, so we had to kill it. That is no fun, although we do eat them later.
Maddox had his first experience with dirt and rocks at Moose Lake and had a blast! He was in heaven...
Until he accidently lost his balance and toppled forward, bonking his head on a couple rocks. This is his first "owey." He cried minimally...
And fell asleep after. He was so tired!

Montana Take 1

Here is the long awaited post of our Montana trip. Okay, so I am sure people aren't sitting around waiting for me to post about Montana and how great it is, so please humor me. I happily take any opportunity to talk about my beautiful state! Here is Maddox looking out the plane window on our way to Kalispell, MT, where I grew up.

Needless to say, it was a long day on the plane, with two layovers. Maddox did absolutely wonderful. I couldn't have asked for a better baby. I seem to complicate matters, though. I claim to Jeff that I just make life exciting. He says he will never fly with me again. It all started when I set the alarm clock for pm instead of am and so we woke up at 5:05 a.m. and our flight left at 5:50 a.m. Great. Thanks to Maddox for waking us up. For once I am soooo thankful he sometimes wakes up in the early morning hours for an early bird breakfast. Oh, and our luggage was also lost along the way. We didn't get it for 4-5 days (I can't remember) and we got no apology or compensation! It didn't really bother Maddox or me because I had my sister's clothes to wear and Maddox had Jett's clothes to wear, but poor Jeff was left with nothing. He did end up wearing some of his old shorts he gave to my brother about a year ago. While I didn't miss my clothes, I had left a friendship bread yeast starter in my suitcase. It exploded all over my clothes. So fun to clean up!

However, the way there wasn't nearly as exciting as the way back. We made our flight on time and had two more layovers. This time they were LONG ones. We left MT at 7:00 a.m. and arrived in Lexington, Kentucky at 10:30 p.m. With the two hour time change, we were in the airport for over 12 hours! Ahhh! Some of it was my fault. Our first layover was nearly four hours long. We took our time wandering around and finally found our gate. There wasn't any room for us to sit down, so we spent our time in the gate next to ours. Big mistake. It was my job to watch to see the flight status of our connection. Well, it was delayed over an hour and they changed the gate several times and then they did an express board, with no announcements or anything. One minute they were all there and then the next there was no one sitting at our gate anymore, the doors were closed and there wasn't anyone at the "post." We missed our flight. I don't think I have ever seen Jeff so angry. He even gave our $10 Walmart stroller a kick (Don't worry...Maddox wasn't in it.).

Anyway, we were put on another connecting flight through a different city that was at the other end of the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport and it left in just 30 minutes or so. We booked it over there and barely made it on that flight, which ended up being delayed after we were all on board, so we had to book it to our next connecting flight and seriously walked right up to the gate and were the last people to walk on before they shut the doors. It was nuts! Many thanks to Amber and Evan for picking us up and putting up with all our changing flight plans and destinations. Jeff claims he is either never travelling with me again or he is taking his going to just meet me there and I can't say that I blame him! :)

On to more important things, one of Jeff's classmates, Renee, and her husband, Joel, came to MT for about a week. It was fun to show them around. Here we are canoeing at Whitefish Lake. This is one of the many local beaches and my favorite. They have the best 4th of July celebrations here. Swimming all day, bands and bbqs in the evening and fireworks on the lake at night.

The mountains in the background are the skiing resort, Big Mountain. The whole backside is also skiing...and snowboarding, which I prefer. Sorry for the bum shot. It was the most scenic, in multiple ways. :)
It's not the best picture of us, but there is me in the middle! What a gorgeous morning it was!
We had a contest to see who could paddle better-the boys or girls. The girls definitely won! Jeff and Joel were all over the place. Sure, they were fast, but they were often just going in circles really fast and then they were tired because they were paddling so quickly and going nowhere. I shouldn't say nowhere because they did paddle most of the way, but it was silly watching them. So Renee and I took over and did a much better job. We went slow and took our time and went in a much straighter line.

Crack Baby

During the summer months, the weather here in Kentucky can sometimes be nearly unbearable! To help Maddox stay a little cooler, I finally stopped putting onsies underneath his clothing. Our little crack baby! We have had a few more blowouts recently and whenever Maddox toots baby powder will come spraying up and out. We are laughing at his expense, but baby bums are so cute!

Happy One Month Old Birthday!

So this post is way overdue, but my one and only sister had her baby July 7th via c-section. She had complete placenta previa. The doctor planned to take the baby three weeks early, on Monday, July 7th. Usually doctors expect a mother to hemorrage or bleed a little, but Valissa didn't until the Saturday night right before her scheduled c-section. She went in to the hospital and they were able to stop her bleeding. She stayed at the hospital until Monday morning and then took they baby. While there were a few unexpected "complications," everything went extremely well and they are both doing great!

Jett Zachary Pitts entered the world weighing 6 lbs. 2 oz and, if I remember right, was around 18 1/2 inches long. Following are way too many pictures of the little guy, but I couldn't choose which ones I liked better.

This first one is my sister and Jett. Must have been one of those long nights. For the first week or so at home my sister was waking Jett up to feed him every two hours throughout the night. She didn't know you don't have to do that unless a baby is having trouble gaining weight until the subject finally came up one time with her mother-in-law. Since then she has been getting at least 3-4 hours of sleep during feedings. Every bit helps!

Stretching his tiny body! Here is a perfect picture of the little dimple in his chin, just like both his parents.

Taking his first bath. He LOVED it. It was so cute. The minute we put him in, he peed, of course, but he loved the warm water being poured on his tummy.
This is one of my favorites. Uncle Brian and Jett. You can see Jett wore us all out, even Brian! I loved this picture, so I played around with it in Photoshop. Which one do you like? I am still learning a lot and have a very basic camera that doesn't take the highest quality pics, but it is still fun!

Jett all decked out in his baseball attire. My brother pitches and plays left field for the Lakers, a local baseball team. Valissa made this for Jett to support Bubba during his games. It even has his number, #13, on the back. As you can tell by his cute double chin, he is quite the eater. He loves to sleep with his mouth wide open!
My sister, Valissa, and her son, Jett. Looking good!

Hmmm...I am thinking. What do I want for lunch?
I love this close up with his eyes wide open.
From this pic you can see why we nicknamed him "Twigs." Just look at those long skinny arms!
Another stretch and a smile. You know what that means! :) This little guy is now over 9 lbs and getting longer everyday! He is a great eater, but has acid reflux, which is also what Maddox has, only Jett has projectile spit up and does it A LOT! This picture also depicts how much Jett looks like his dad...I sure didn't do a good job on taking pictures though cuz I don't have any of Jett and Zach or even Jett and me!