Finally...a lost tooth

12/18/09

Chandler (according to him) was one of the last first graders to have all of their baby teeth. He finally found a loose one, but held onto it for about 7 weeks. That sucker was dangling by a thread, but he didn't want anyone to pull it. Jared finally asked to feel how loose it was. Using his professional skills, he yanked it right out. Chandler was a little mad at first until he remembered the tooth fairy would be coming!

The empty socket (I don't know if that's the technical term or not. I'm sure Jared will correct me, eventually).

Yep, a straw fits where the tooth used to be!

Christmas 2009

Here comes the required Christmas post. This year we spent Christmas Eve with the Hemmert side of our family. We saw The Princess and the Frog mid morning and then spent the afternoon cooking and preparing for the feast. It was well worth the wait. Yum! After dinner it was program time. After the nightmare that occurred last year during the 'nativity recreation' aka Hemmert boy mayhem, I was surprised that Joyce wanted to attempt it again, but I definitely underestimated her. She was all for it again this year. However, they did try to shorten it by 'paraphrasing' Luke 2 instead of reading it.

Chandler, one of the handsome shepherds.

Preston, another studly shepherd. Yes, he has that look of mischief in his eyes.

Fortunately, we were just spectators of the show. Ashton, however, being the youngest baby had the "starring" role. Yes, that one!

Some of the shepherds, wise men, and an angel.

Joyce even got the little boys to perform a bell ringing performance. Daniel Hemmert has started piano lessons this year, and so he performed (awesomely) one of his songs for the program. When he was done, Chandler said he wanted to play a song. Everyone looked at me wondering what he was going to do. I had no idea. This kid has not ever had a lesson in his life. We don't even have a piano. I had flashed of him suddenly coming out with some huge Beethoven symphony or something, but it was about 5-6 notes long, and he couldn't have been prouder. Love that kid.

Christmas morning mess. Dad helping the boys with their Lego projects. What is Santa thinking bringing toys with so many pieces? Yes, Preston is glowing. I also love Ashton staring up at Jared. Priceless.
For some reason, I didn't take any pictures at our get together Christmas day with the Tucker side of our family other than this gem of my niece, Hailey, with Ashton. We had a yummy brunch and a rousing game of Malarky with my parents and Natalie. Lots of fun was had by all. We also took some family pictures for our "New Years" card, but I don't want to spoil it until you open yours in the mail!

Funny song about Mormons from Conan O'Brien

This is a really funny song that aired on the Tonight show this week. Enjoy!

Lumps of coal all around...

I probably mentioned last year that Santa is on speed dial this time of year. We speak often. In fact, per Santa's instructions, Chandler and Preston have had their stockings removed from the mantle. It's quite sad, really. Christmas morning, they will look longingly at baby Ashton's gifts and be filled with regret, I'm sure. With only 11 days to go, please pray for my boys (and me) that they can get their act together QUICKLY. According to Preston, lumps of coal make your hands all greasy and aren't any fun at all.

Ashton-3 months

I am a sorry excuse for a blogger as of late. But I wanted to take the chance and share these cute pictures of Ashton that my sister-in-law, Julie took over Thanksgiving. These weren't staged or anything. We were just sitting around and she just took some impromptu shots of him. Isn't he the cutest? P.S. I promise to post more often! I have a lot of catch up to do.

A double insult!

What you are about to read is a TRUE STORY. I am not exaggerating or making up any part of it. Last Saturday, while watching Chandler's soccer game, one of the other moms came up to me and started asking me how many kids we had, etc. I told her we had three boys. She looked at me and said, "Are you expecting or are you just chubby?" SERIOUSLY. I KID YOU NOT! Who says that kind of thing out loud! I was in a stunned silence before I replied that I had a newborn. Of course she wanted to know how old he was. Probably to see if he he was young enough to justify the 'chubbiness' of my appearance. "One month, lady, he's only one month old!" I was screaming in my head. Not only would it be bad enough for someone to ask if you were pregnant when you AREN'T, but for the other option to be chubby!?! I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I chose to laugh and to tell everyone I know. Jared had to step away because he was laughing so hard. Of course, after we got home, I was thinking of all the good comebacks I should have used. 'I may be fat now, but you'll be ugly forever!' and a few others. I was actually starting to feel pretty good since I was able to wear my regular jeans and everything, but I have since been put in my place. Gym, here I come!

Chandler's Poem

Chandler wrote this poem last night, and it was too cute not to share.

Me by Chandler Hemmert

No one looks the way I do

That is true.

I am special

I am me.

There is no one I 'd rather be

than me.

I think the lesson here for us all is obvious. We sure love this kid!

Here's our winner!

My sister-in-law, Natalie Hemmert, is the winner of our baby stats contest! If you want to see how close you came, click on the link on the right side bar. The game name is: Hemmertbaby (all one word). Thanks for playing, everyone!

Backyard fun and there's an app for that!

Last Friday night, we got together with all of the 'local' Hemmerts for a party at Grandma/Grandpa Hemmert's house. We had pizza, swam, and then all of the little boys changed into their new PJs (courtesy Grandma Joyce) for Monsters, Inc. on the big screen (i.e. the white, vinyl fence). There are so many little boys close to the same age in the Hemmert clan that it can be chaotic at times, but they always have a blast. P.S. I shamelessly stole these picture from Matt/Julie's blog--I hope they don't care :)

TONS of cute boys!

They even sat still for most of the movie, if you can imagine that!

About halfway into the movie, I started having contractions. Not wanting to waste brain cells calculating how far apart they were, I decided to check and see if there was an iPhone application that does that for you. Surprise, surprise...there is! I found an app that kept track of the duration and time between contractions. It even gives you an alert when you should go to the hospital. (of course, there's the obligatory, "this application is no substitute for medical care, blah blah blah"). It really did make it easier to keep track of that, so I'm glad I had it. I'll do another post with the whole labor/delivery story later. It's a good one. I'm still trying to get my act together, so try to be patient with me. I also need to calculate the winner of our baby stats game, so stay tuned...

Another 'compliment' courtesy of my child

The other day, Chandler said, "Mom, I can't wait to see you back in shape again."  I honestly didn't even know he knew what 'in shape' meant.  Me too, Chandler, me too...

Preston's first day of school

Preston had his turn for the "first day" today.  He went to preschool last year, so it's not totally new to him.  He is right on the deadline for Kindergarten next year, and we haven't decided what to do yet, so there may be one more year of preschool to come.

With his new teacher.

Outside of his classroom, anxious to get in there and play (I mean work).

First day of school 2009

My big First Grader.  He was so excited to go to school this morning.  He had a great day and made lots of new friends.

Getting on the bus.  Preston was pretty bored without his big brother around all day.

A child's perception of MJ

Preston has been getting a lot of press on the blog lately, so I guess it's Chandler's turn. Thanks to Comcast-on-demand and YouTube, Chandler is now a HUGE Michael Jackson fan. He loves Thriller, Bad, Beat it and Black and White. Out of this and the on-going TV coverage, he has come up with some pretty humorous questions.

1. "Is Michael Jackson a girl?" I'm sure it's no surprise where this question comes from. Make up, long hair, etc, but it's still caused a giggle or two from me.
2. "Did both Michael Jacksons die?" he asked. "What do you mean?" I asked him to clarify. "The one with the brown skin and the one with the white skin."
3. "It's a good thing, he named his song 'Black and White' since he used to be Black and now he's White.
4. After hearing his talking voice, he said, "Is Michael Jackson a grown up?"
   

There's probably a couple of more, but those are the ones I could think of immediately. Kids are too honest for their own good sometimes.

Another Preston funny...

I just had to record another funny thing Preston said the other day for posterity. We were on our way to Chandler's T-ball game and Preston let out one of his famous high-pitched screams that we all love. I told him that if he did that again, he would have to walk the rest of the way. (for the record, it was an idle threat). He responded by saying that, "You sure are mean to Heavenly Father's children!" I guess he effectively put me in my place. :)

The contest!

You may have noticed the link on the sidebar to our online baby pool. Make sure you click on it and enter your guess for our baby's stats! The winner gets a $20 Amazon certificate. We will close the game to guesses on August 1st! Good luck!

I might as well laugh...

I just have to document Preston's latest insult so that someday I can blackmail him into something good. As we were driving to Jared's parents' house for Father's day, he asked, "Have you ever seen a really strong mother?" Giving myself a mental pat on the back for all those 6 a.m. sessions with the personal trainer when I really just wanted to sleep, I said, "I'm a really strong mother." He came back with, "No, you're fat!" There was a moment of silence in the car and then Jared and I both busted up laughing. What else do you do? Jared tried to defend my honor with the obligatory, "It's a baby in her stomach, Preston! She's not fat." But can you really convince a 3 year old? NO! Oh well, I'll go in search of my self-esteem in a couple of months...

For all you Saved by the Bell fans...

You know who you are.  Zack Morris, himself, showed up on Jimmy Fallon's Late Night show last night.  Check it out (pause the music on the sidebar):

Boy am I in trouble!

I recently watched the movie Enchanted for the first time with my kids. Even though it was a "Princess" movie, I knew they would like it for the silliness, sword-fighting and the dragon. I was right! Preston especially loved it and has watched it a few times now. Yesterday, I found out that while playing in the backyard with Chandler and a little neighborhood girl he often plays with, Preston experienced his first kiss. This little lover boy is only 3! I am doomed! I made sure that she wasn't upset and actually wanted him to kiss her. I guess they were playing "princess." We had a talk about not kissing people who aren't in our family (at this age anyway). I told him he could kiss another girl after his mission. A little extreme maybe, but it works for me!

Imitation

is supposed to be the truest form of flattery, right?

What a glorious thing!

The most exciting thing to happen in our house in awhile has finally happened! We are a diaper-free environment! Over conference weekend, I decided to really put forth the effort and try to potty train Preston. He's definitely old enough, and ready enough, I have just been too lazy to make the commitment. Knowing we weren't really going anywhere that weekend, I decided it was the perfect time. Days 1-2 were a little dicey filled with numerous accidents, but it got better and better and by about day 4 things just clicked. He is now totally on his own including #2 and nights. I will definitely be savoring the next 4 months without changing diapers and then it's back to square one with #3, I guess. Next up...sleep training...

I really am ALWAYS right.

In case you're keeping track, the final vote on my gender poll was 10-1 in favor of our baby being a girl. I think no one was willing to vote boy because it included admitting that I'm always right. Shame on you, people! I had an ultrasound this afternoon, confirming my eternal "rightness." (NOT to be confused with righteousness). We having Hemmert boy #3. Jared gave a huge sigh of relief when he saw the "boy part" on the screen. I think he was scared of having a girl. We took both of the boys with us, and they thought it was really cool.

I still believe in my theory and think sister-in-law A has some explaining to do. JUST KIDDING! I guess there's always room for a little variance in every good theory. If I'm being TOTALLY honest, part of me was hoping for a girl, but I'll quickly move on and embrace the testosterone that will soon be completely overwhelming my home. We know what to do with boys! We have all the stuff for boys! We can almost have our own basketball team! We're going to save a TON of money when it comes to wedding time! Now I need to come up with some boy names. I had a hard time coming up with the other two, and this will be even harder. Any suggestions??????

It's almost time...

This pregnancy is really flying by for me. (I guess that's what happens when you a lose a month at the beginning). I'm not mentally prepared to make the switch to maternity clothes, but that day is getting imminently closer. I thought this would be a good time to share a long held theory I've had about Hemmert babies, and how that might apply to me and this baby. First, a quick biology lesson: the father is ultimately responsible for determining the gender of the baby. (Told you it was quick). So despite all of the girls on my side of the family, it's Jared's family that counts. Having said that, we will not use his sisters as examples since they have nothing to do with determining their children's gender. That leaves 4 Hemmert brothers.

We will skip Brother A for a moment and come back.
Brother B: 4 boys, 0 girls
Brother C (Jared): 2 boys, 0 girls
Brother D: 1 boy, 0 girls
Brother A: 1 boy, and just had 1 girl (I said they should have named her 'Hope', but they didn't listen)

My theory was that Hemmert boys can NOT produce girls. It has effectively been disproven by Brother A, however, I still think there is some sort of bias towards "male" in the DNA. Brother D even asked an OB/GYN doctor while he was on that rotation if it were possible that there was something to my theory, and the doctor said it's still 50-50. The odds of having 8 boys in a row is .0039 if you're counting. In a week or two hopefully we'll find out if we've cracked the 'code' as well, but I'm not entirely convinced that the odds are in my favor. I'll put up the requisite 'blogger' poll for fun, but you know where my vote is!

Why didn't I think of that?

Both of my boys have been learning about Abraham Lincoln and George Washington in school lately since President's Day was just here. We were driving home from preschool and they were spouting off facts like the cherry tree story, "I can not tell a lie!", etc. etc. I asked them if they knew who our current President was. They both correctly identified President Obama (They've been coached on this for months now, of course). Preston asked, "What coin is he going to be on?" I said I didn't know, but maybe someday he would be on one. (For or Against, he's still historically significant, people). Chandler suggested that maybe he could be on the ones at Chuck E. Cheese. "The Tokens!" yelled Preston. Apparently, taking the place of an overgrown mouse on an arcade token is a MUCH bigger honor than being on a piece of currency!

Here we go again...

We are very excited to announce that our family is growing! We are expecting Hemmert baby #3 on August 29th! Normally we don't keep these things to ourselves as long as we have this time, but after experiencing a miscarriage last April, we thought we should make sure all was well before we made the news public this time. I went to the doctor today thinking I was 8 1/2 weeks and after the ultrasound, the doctor discovered I am actually 12 1/2 weeks. Nice! It's like an 8 month pregnancy without the premature birth! I have been feeling pretty good. I've been nauseous this time, but no vomitting. I think I have it pretty good considering how sick I know most people get. So that's the latest from here. I'm sure I'll have more reasons to update the blog more often now!

Preston's new friend

Preston has been mentioning his friend, Aiden, for a few weeks now. I thought it must have been someone he met when Jared had the boys somewhere. After continually asking him where he met him, where does he live, how old is he, it has become pretty clear to me that Aiden is an imaginary friend. These are the things we have learned about Aiden thus far:

• He has green hair and green skin
• He's from St. George
• He lives in a box
• He drinks alcohol (Preston loves to talk about alcohol since we told him that we don't drink alcohol)
• He got in trouble for playing in the snow too long
• He shares his drinks with Preston (hopefully not the alcoholic ones) ;)
  
• He almost died because he got a fever and had to go to the hospital
  

We have a niece that had multiple imaginary friends when she was growing up and I thought it was hilarious and adorable. Now that it has happened to one of my own children, it's a little creepy. I guess we'll just have to see how long 'Aiden' hangs around. Has anyone else had experience with this?

Change is good, right?

Well the day I'd been dreading for a long time, finally came. Our bishop called me into his office and told that I was going to be released from Young Women's and put into Primary as the CTR 5 teacher. I actually shed a few tears in the Bishop's office. It wasn't because of what I was heading toward, but what I was leaving behind. I'm sure Primary will be a great new adventure and I will love it, but I am definitely going to miss all of the girls that I've gotten to know so well the past 4 years in Young Women's. Maybe it's because mentally, I'm still 16 years old, but Young Women's has been a really great experience for me. I guess I'll try to look at the positives!

• I can plan a vacation for sometime in July instead of going to Girls Camp and getting dirty and stinky for days on end.
• My Wednesday nights have just been freed up
• There's a better chance of getting 'snacks' with the 4 year olds than the 14 year olds
• I can become reacquainted with my long lost favorite past time of coloring
• I'll get to keep an eye on my boys in sharing time and make sure they are really being as good as their teachers claim they are.

So I made it through my last Young Women's theme and didn't have a total meltdown. I guess I'll be ok. New Beginnings on Wednesday will be quite literal for me, but I guess that's what life's all about, right?