It's A

BABY

And that's as good as we get until March!

"BOOP"

In our family we celebrate birthday weeks. It's my fault. I love birthdays. I get excited for mine. I'm turning 30 (gasp!) in 13 days and I'm still excited for it! A couple of years ago, I got so excited for my birthday, Joe started giving me little gifts (a CD or a book or something small) daily for about a week before my actual birthday. Thus, the birthday week was born.

My birthday week starts in 6 days and apparently Jace and Joe went shopping last night while I was out with a friend. Here's the conversation I walked in on this morning as Jace was waking up:

Joe: "Shh ... it's a secret!"

Jace: "Mom's BOOP"

Joe: "Shh ... it's a secret!"

Jace: "Mom's BOOP!"

Joe: "Shh ... it's a secret! Don't tell mom"

I walk in ....

Jen: "Don't tell mom what?"

Jace: "Mom's BOOP"

Jen: "Something's broke?"

Joe: "Shh ... it's a secret! Don't tell mom!"

Jace: "Mom's BOOP"

Jen: "What's broke"

Jace: "NO Mom's BOOP"

Jen: "Book?"

Joe: "Shh ... it's a secret!"

Jace ... showing off his adorable dimples "MOM'S BOOP"

Joe: "It's a secret for mom's birthday. We can't tell her!"

He goes does downstairs and Jace walks straight to the hiding place ... "Mom's BOOP" and pulls out a rather hefty hard cover book -- still in the Barnes & Nobles sack.

Very proud of himself he hands me the book. I am laughing to the point that I may have pulled a muscle. I called Joe back up to re-hide the book. Jace wasn't super excited about this -- starts crying and wanting me to have the "boop".

I have the nicest boys ever ... and I can't wait to see what my new boop is! Apparently, Joe asked Jace what they should get me for my birthday and Jace said: "A boop" and Joe thought ... BRILLIANT ... So I guess that's what he did.

This makes THREE

I love homemade costumes. I grew up with homemade costumes. When I was a kid -- it was possible, although I'm not sure, that it was cheaper to make your own Halloween costume rather than buying it from the store. That is DEFINITELY not true now -- and it takes loads of work -- and brain power to understand the 1/2 way explained pattern instructions -- but I love the way a home made costume turns out in the end. Not only that, but I always feel a bit closer to my mama when I make them.

I am SUPER proud of how this year's costume turned out. I was a little nervous, because it is very .... gray .... but the details, like the wrinkly head and trunk, make it perfect. I love love love it!! SO without further adieu .... her are his last 3 HOMEMADE costumes!!

Tri-Athlete

Joe decided that he wanted to be a tri-athlete. After all of his running accomplishments, he was ready for another challenge. He researched different races and chose one in Saratoga Springs. This is what we got to enjoy while he was out doing his thing! Breath-taking!

Joe after his group meeting. He's ready to go!

Giving Dad a GOOD LUCK hug. We are so proud of him!

The swim was the part that Joe was the most worried about. He learned how to swim when he was little, but by no way is he a swimmer. He focused his training on the swim and kept improving. He took a swim class that helped him guide his training.

He certainly wasn't the strongest swimmer in the group of men, but he didn't come in last either! His goal was to simply finish the race and I am very proud that he did! It didn't help that the water at Utah Lake is NASTY -- he told me that he was dry heaving through the whole swim. Hopefully in the next 4-7 years the water will clear up a bit with the plans they have made for the lake.

Joe leaving the water and racing to the bikes.

Joe researched which bike he wanted to buy too! We found a really nice road bike online for only $500 or so. This will be an awesome starter bike for him and if he gets WAY into it ... we can buy him an even more stellar bike down the road. (AND he has ridden it to work several times saving us some MULAH there too!!)

100% DAD SUPPORTER ... (and look at those dimples!)

Joe coming in from the bike portion. We didn't get to view much of the bike and run. They biked/ran out into the neighborhood and then we just had to wait for him to come back

He's ready to run out for his strongest portion of the race. RUN!!

I can't believe that after all of the effort put out from the 1/2 mile swim and 15 mile bike ride ... he still was able to pull a 7 minute mile for his 5K!

Joe coming through the finish line! I was very proud of his 1:30 min time. I may have finished the swim in that time!! Way to go honey!

After the race we hung out at the lake and let Joe cool off for a bit. Jace and I walked out to the docks, pulled off our shoes and put our feet in the water. His didn't quite fit so I dropped him down to feel it. I thought he'd hate it, but the opposite was true. He splashed so hard that we were both wet to our bellies. Joe joined us out there after a bit and took over the baby dipping. We had a great time!

I can't believe we didn't get a pic of our whole family! Bummer. Ann and Wayne, Joe's parents, came out to support him too. We are very impressed with how supportive they are with everything Joe does. They came up for both of his Ragnar races and for his 1/2 marathon. Now this. What awesome parents and grandparents!! We didn't get a picture with them either. Next time!!

Petunia

Meet the newest member of the JJJ Boucher Family ... Petunia! Jace and I decided to take a detour today after meeting Joe for work and to look at the animals. I'm always a sucker for a cute furry face ... and so is Jace. Was it the most responsible purchase? NO. Do we love her? YES!

Jace has been hanging out by her cage all afternoon. He even cried when it was time to go to bed. We promised that she'd be around tomorrow to play with him. Uber cute :)

Jace got a little weirded out when he held her in his hands. Those little finger nails surprised him, I think. We put Petunia on the couch and she started walking towards Jace -- he started to get nervous and fell over, well this surprised the hamster and she ran across the top of his head. hehe

Welcome to the family Petunia!

A Little Closer ...

Joe and I have never been good at Family Home Evening. It seems like whenever we would decide to do a FHE, we'd work on our family budget -- so it never really was FHE. When Jace was born, we knew we needed to get serious about it -- but it still seemed awkward to do FHE with a 4 week old. So we quickly got back out of the habit. During the last General Conference, both Joe and I felt like we needed to work on this. Jace is getting to the age that he can listen, participate, and now is a great time to start getting into that habit -- while Jace is still young.

Joe bought the nursery manual today and that will be our FHE guide until further notice. Tonight we had a fun lesson on I am a Child of God, Jace and I made a picture to put in his room, and afterwards painted the pumpkins that we bought last week.

I'm grateful that we have inspired programs that we get to take part in. I want a forever family, and I never want to look back and think: "could I have done more?" We are miles away from being perfect .... but I feel like we are getting a little bit closer.

A March Surprise

Jace Boucher would like to proudly announce that he will be getting a fantastic birthday present in 2012! A new baby brother or sister! Yes, Boucher Baby #2 looks like it has finally "stuck" and we expect our lives to turn upside down yet again around March 22nd. (Jace's Birthday is March 16th ...)

Goodbye to a long lost friend ....

Copper is a wonderful dog -- 90% of the time. We have loved having him -- but since I got pregnant with Jace, he changed a bit. He likes to pee on plastic (garbage cans mostly, but also laundry baskets and toys .. ) and he LOVES to run away. The character trait that threw me over the edge though, was eating our food. We couldn't leave it anywhere he could reach it, (and yes, that means on top of the counter as well!) Jace had to be sitting at the table to eat anything, otherwise he'd sneak up and snatch it for him! I can't tell you how many organic peanut butter and honey sandwiches that dumb dog ate!

I don't know if he was any worse when I stayed home all day, but I certainly noticed it more. Because of all of the headaches he brought to our lives -- we decided to get rid of him (yes, this all took place back in June or something!). It makes me sad, because he had so many wonderful things that we just loved! I loved cuddling with him under the blanket. I loved playing tricks with him, and I really liked riling him up so he'd jump down an entire flight of stairs!

We found an awesome home for Copper. We haven't heard anything from them, so I'm assuming all is well. We miss him in our home, but have really enjoyed being a one dog family. Good-bye buddy!

The Morning After ...

So Thursday we converted Jace's crib into a "big-boy bed." He loves it. He's constantly climbing into and out of it. However, that night was not his best. He cried and cried. Jen cuddled him for half-an-hour or more, before he finally went to sleep.

Last night was a little different. Jen was gone, so Daddy got to control the situation his way. Instead of staying up with him, I decided to try the whole put-him-back routine. After putting him down the first time, I went downstairs, making my way back up about every 5 minutes, meeting Jace on a landing somewhere. After putting him back to sleep four times, he finally gave in and crashed. I think only four resets is pretty good for a first try at this approach. Unfortunately, something (maybe fireworks?) woke him back up about an hour-and-a-half later, and he came looking for us. It took another four times to get him to go back to sleep, after which he slept all the way through the night. When we got up this morning, I took a peek in his bedroom, and this is what I saw:

a Micro Miner

One major perk about working at a high school is the built in day care. Bingham's day care is incredibly hard to get into ... especially if you don't work in the building as they give top priority to their teachers. When Jace was a baby we tried to get into their program. I was on the waiting list before he was born (so probably in January or so) and I found out in May that didn't make it in.

While I was interviewing the Principal told me about their on site daycare. The dept. chair mentioned that there would be a waiting list and the principal shot back: "not for one of our own!" Last night I got a call from the daycare director and we got it all set up. I'll need to find someone to watch Jace for 5 days until it officially opens ... but we're in.

We'll be paying only $75 more than we were paying before ($475 is cheap day care!)

The center provides 2 meals and 2 snacks

Jace will have several excited girls playing with him throughout the day

Jace will get more structured learning times and more interaction with other kids (hopefully learn to SHARE ... )

... and best of all ...

He gets to come to work with me. No carting him around to one place or the other -- No leaving home 75 minutes early to be to work on time -- and if I need to work later than 4:00 ..... he can come in and watch toy story in my classroom!

Leaving Jace is the only reason that I'm sad about returning to work. He's a rock star kid and I've really enjoyed having our laid back life this year .... but if I'm going back, this is the PRIME situation! We are very excited.